魔法防守

Magic Guard

This Pokémon is immune to damage not directly caused by a move. For example, this Pokémon takes no damage from from weather, recoil, status ailments, or Spikes, but it still suffers from the Attack cut when burned, and a Life Orb will still power up this Pokémon's moves without damaging it. Anything that directly depends on such damage will also not happen; for example, Leech Seed will neither hurt this Pokémon nor heal the opponent, and Pokémon with a Jaboca Berry or Rowap Berry will not consume the berry when hit by this Pokémon. The following are unaffected: Struggle, Pain Split (whether used by or against this Pokémon), Belly Drum, Substitute, Curse, moves that knock the user out, and damage from confusion. This Pokémon will neither lose nor regain HP if it drains HP from a Pokémon with Liquid Ooze. If this Pokémon is badly poisoned, the poison counter is still increased each turn; if the Pokémon loses this ability, it will begin taking as much damage as it would be if it had been taking increasing damage each turn.

Pokemon that can have this ability

⚔️ Competitive Guide

What it does

Magic Guard means the holder takes damage only from direct attacks — moves that directly hit it. Every other source of HP reduction is blocked.

Exactly what it stops:

Weather chip (sand, hail each turn)
Burn and Poison / toxic residual damage per turn
Life Orb HP deduction after using a move
Entry hazard damage (Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes) on switch-in
Leech Seed, Curse ghost HP loss, Bind / Wrap trapping damage

Two things it does not stop:

Burn still halves the damage of physical moves — Magic Guard blocks the HP chip, but the physical damage penalty remains.
Struggle recoil is also not blocked.

The headline application is Life Orb. Life Orb gives every attacking move +30% damage in exchange for 10% HP each use. With Magic Guard, the holder gets the 30% damage boost and pays zero HP. It is the cleanest damage amplifier in the format on a Magic Guard user.

Who runs it

Reuniclus at 27% adoption. Extremely low Speed (30) — purpose-built for Trick Room where that flips to fastest. 125 Special Attack with STAB Psychic and coverage in Shadow Ball and Energy Ball, all hitting harder with Life Orb and no recoil cost. High HP (110) means it can absorb direct hits while being completely immune to weather and status chip — in sandstorm matchups, opponents cannot passively chip it down.

Clefable (24%) runs a more varied toolkit — Moonblast for offense, Follow Me for partner support, Encore for disruption. Magic Guard plus Life Orb gives it real damage output while the immunity to indirect damage makes it very durable. Against teams that rely on status or weather to soften targets, Clefable simply ignores the chip.

Alakazam (8%) has 120 Speed and 135 Special Attack — Life Orb plus Magic Guard produces enormous offensive output. The tradeoff is poor defenses (45/55/65), meaning a single direct hit from most attackers ends its run. It is a glass cannon that lives or dies on its offensive turns.

How to use it

The default setup is Magic Guard plus Life Orb. No other item makes as much use of the ability. You get a 30% boost on every move and pay nothing for it over the course of the game. Every direct attacker without Magic Guard eventually gets chipped down by Life Orb; yours does not.

For Reuniclus: get Trick Room active before bringing it in. With Trick Room up, its Speed 30 becomes the fastest on the field. From there it fires Life Orb-boosted Psychic-type moves freely and ignores all the weather chip or status pressure the opponent applies.

For Clefable: the combination of Follow Me support and genuine offensive output through Moonblast with Life Orb is harder to handle than a purely passive support Pokémon. Opponents have to choose between targeting Clefable (which is tanky without passive chip) or accepting the Moonblast damage.

Tips & strategy

If a Pokémon has Magic Guard, pair it with Life Orb. That is the single most impactful choice available. The only reason to deviate is if Choice Specs would produce higher single-turn damage in a specific team build — but the loss of move flexibility usually outweighs that.

Burn still halves the damage of physical moves even through Magic Guard. This matters for physical Magic Guard users theoretically, though the current common carriers (Reuniclus, Clefable, Alakazam) are all special attackers, so burn's damage block is the main value and the physical damage penalty is irrelevant.

Reuniclus's primary vulnerability is fast direct attackers before Trick Room goes up. It needs Fake Out support or a partner that can create a safe opening for it to enter and survive the first turn. Once Trick Room is active and Reuniclus is in, the life drain tax on the opponent scales up quickly.