Magcargo Report

Magcargo (the Lava Pokémon) is a relatively rare Fire/Rock-type Pokémon found among volcanic terrain within the Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Kalos and Kitakami regions as well as Mt. Ember of the Sevii Islands. While they certainly might not win any speed contests, Magcargo are fascinating beasts that can more than make life difficult for other Fire-types in battle with their powerful Rock Slide attack and potent Earth Power strikes. The might not be the best of fighters when it comes to dealing damage or taking much in the way of special damage, but at the very least, it's interesting enough just to have around a creature that literally is not biologically different in the slightest from its pre-evolved form!

Slugma and Magcargo represent perhaps one of the strangest cases of natural evolution in the Pokémon world because no actual evolution takes place at all; the two are truly nothing more than two separate life stages within the same general species. The bacteria that actually form the consciousness of Slugma usually spend their days in blissful peace for most of their life, but eventually they reach a point where their colony is too large and an expansion of sorts is required. When this point is reached, Slugma physically force their bodies to rest in place for a short period of time and rearrange their internal composition just slightly in order to provide greater accommodation space for the growing colony. In doing so, however, Slugma allow the topmost part of their bodies to grow and harden, forming a dense but brittle shell of hardened material that squishes their body down and malforms their head, effectively turning them into Magcargo. In reality, these creatures are still Slugma; however, this radical change helps to not only allow the colony to slightly increase its overall control over the lava body it is situated in (thus increasing most of the species' stats as intense, fiery energy circulates within the shell) but also results in a massive boost within the bodies' base Defense stat and grants them the same properties of a Rock-type Pokémon, hence their definition as Magcargo and not Slugma. This technical definition has been debated for many decades and fought over on numerous occasions, but considering how much of a difference occurs between these two life stages, it is unlikely that the definition of Magcargo as an 'evolved form' will ever be broken under conventional standards.

Although their physical defenses are helped tremendously by the addition of a dense shell, the outer portions of the shell are actually quite brittle and can be easily broken off simply by touching it. As such, Magcargo must constantly dip their bodies into pools of lava in order to replenish any portion of their shell that is lost. On the bright side, though, this also allows Magcargo to learn the bizarre but powerful Shell Smash technique immediately after 'evolving', making them a fairly decent threat in any battle. Moreover, the lava bodies that the bacteria exist within have increased substantially in temperature as a result of this change (the real reason is unclear, but this does seem to explain why Magcargo are surprisingly faster than Slugma) and can reach temperatures of about 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit easily, in turn incinerating any organic form that dares to come into contact with them and often times charring anything that gets even relatively close to their bodies without protection (the effects of this heat should be more extensive, but it is currently unknown why this is not the case). The ability for them to withstand such incredible heat might explain why they have a tendency to swarm around volcanoes in large numbers when they can sense an imminent eruption. Furthermore, as result of this high body temperature, Magcargo can effectively rest and keep their body temperatures high enough to prevent hardening fairly easy and can even wander around in the middle of rainstorms without much worry; such a feat is relatively dangerous to other life-forms, however, as anything but a direct blast of water to their bodies will simply be vaporized upon contact, in turn meaning that these creatures will generate a thick veil of mist around their bodies when in the middle of rain. This can be a powerful defensive tactic against opponents that like to rely on the Rain Dance technique to increase the strength of their Water-type moves and can thus at least allow Magcargo to survive for somewhat-decent periods of time before succumbing to their quadruple-weakness to Water-type attacks.

Though they certainly might not be able to compete offensively with other Fire or Rock-types in battle, Magcargo are still fascinating beasts that can more than make the average trainer scratch their head in confusion. With access to odd attacks like Rock Slide and Earth Power and a Shell Smash technique guaranteed to at least give them a slight edge in battle, it can certainly be said that Magcargo can be quite useful in the right circumstances if nothing else is available. If you can help it, though, try not to bring them out on a roast or barbeque; they might want to be helpful, but it probably isn't going to do the party any good after all of your food has been accidentally reduced to a pile of ashes!

Professor Wormwood