Megalonyx: Slow and Steady Wins the Battle

Due to a tie in the voting poll, I thought it wouldn’t be fair to those who voted Megalonyx to lose to a tie with Albertosaurus, so I decided to do both, so that’s why I’m here today with ANOTHER rare article. Despite having a rivalry with humans 11,000 years ago, Megalonyx will be teaming up with us to help battle in Jurassic World alive. Released in the latest update, this new sloth was a topic of big discussion, as it could be something terrifyingly strong. So, is Megalonyx a fearsome cunning, or will it go extinct again in the meta? Let’s find out.

Let’s start unboosted. Looking at the stats and abilities, Megalonyx looks pretty good. Cautious rampage is a move that immediately grabs the eye as it’s a rampage paired with possibly the most hated move in the game’s history. Another signature move of the sloth line is camouflage, which is a sidestep with 2 turns of dodge, more speedup, and a distraction effect while losing the cleansing ability. And with cunning strike, you can speed up and still take more hits, and this is something Megalonyx wants to do as it has a full counter-attack. So, like its common counterpart, Megalonyx is essentially a cunning tank that wants to distract as much as possible and dish out a ton of damage as well. And with deceleration immunity, the only way you can keep Megalonyx’s speed at bay is to use resilient moves to remove its speed buffs. This is a creature designed to hard-counter fierce creatures, as well as punish swappers thanks to on escape camouflage. This essentially allows Megalonyx to dodge, speed up, distract, and buff its critical hit chance.  

Like Archaeopteryx and most rares, Megalonyx will not do well in the arena. Perhaps it could do well in a lower arena dominated by fierce creatures, but it stands no chance against creatures like Testacornibus and Skoonasaurus. But again, being a rare it should come as no shock that it cannot compete with uniques.

As for tournaments, this is where you’ll see Megalonyx. When it comes to legendary tournaments, again Megalonyx won’t be doing anything in here with Mammotherium and Smilocephalosaurus roaming everywhere, but again, for a rare it shouldn’t be a shock that it cannot compete. Same goes when you throw in epic hybrids. While it will do better, creatures like Erlikogamma, Sarcorixis, and Ankylodicurus among others will keep it down. The 2 new epic hybrids will keep it down with Megalotops doing its job better in almost every way. So odds are you’ll see it in 3 events: epic/rare nonhybrid, rare nonhybrid, and rare all. So, in rare/epic nonhybrid, everyone had the opportunity to bring in Megalonyx and give it a good test run. And it did pretty well…at first. However, as fierce creatures started to be used less and less, Megalonyx also went down in usage. And with many resilients like Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus being common and Scutosaurus ruling the skill tournament meta, Megalonyx couldn’t do anything. And in fact, everything it did do well was just done better by something else. If you wanted a cunning to go along with Compsognathus, Compsognathus gen 2, Ornithomimus, and Archaeopteryx just ruined fierce better. Archaeopteryx was a better dodge tank while Ornithomimus had a better turn 2 rampage. Titanoboa punished swappers more, and Antarctopelta (and even Concavenator) were better counter-attackers. Heck, while it was supposed to deter swappers with on escape camouflage, it still would get rinsed by Woolly Rhino. Brachiosaurus could easily 2-shot it and take the hits it dished out. Megalonyx in the rare/epic nonhybrid tournament was good, but outclassed in almost every area it specialized in. It got knocked around too easily by resilients to do as well as something like Ornithomimus. So, while it may be a bit out of its league in the epic events, what about the events with only rares? THIS is where Megalonyx will be at its best. With resilients being decent, Megalonyx doesn’t have to worry about getting 2-shot by almost anything. HOWEVER, with rare events, there are 2 common swappers: Nasutoceratops and Dracorex, and Dracorex did well with the resilience change. While it cannot come in and destroy the raptors and other speedy rares with hp less than 2700, it can now deal more damage. It can 2-shot Andrewsarchus and other creatures that have lower hp and no vulnerability immunity. And one of those creatures is Megalonyx. And it can do this on the swap. And because it applies vulnerability on the swap while removing speedups and evasion, Megalonyx will get 2-shot unless it uses camouflage, and if it doesn’t kill Dracorex when it uses camouflage, it will go down. And with resilients making a possible comeback due to the 2 rare flocks entering the fray, Megalonyx will struggle. But Albertosaurus will be a common sight, so it will do quite alright if that Albertosaurus isn’t set up, otherwise it will be reduced to less than 1000 hp, and a Dracorex can walk in and take it down. It doesn’t mind the hybrids as it can deal with Purrolyth and Suchotator, but there are things those 2 hybrids can do that can really mess with Megalonyx. So again, while it is a good cunning, there are cunnings that just do better.

When it comes to using Megalonyx, it may be a good idea to try and get a setup, if possible, to get that cautious rampage active. However, the best time to throw it out is when you know your opponent doesn’t have a Dracorex hiding in the back. That way Megalonyx won’t really fear getting swapped on and also getting 2-shot. However it could still be vulnerable to someone swapping in something really tanky like Doedicurus to tank a hit and dish out massive damage in return. But you want to try and make sure that the threat of Dracorex is no more before throwing in Megalonyx. It is never a good idea to start with Megalonyx as usually there is a resilient creature or an all-rounder waiting for it at the start of the battle, like in the last nonhybrid tournament. Like Poukandactylus, save Megalonyx for fierce or towards the end.

At the end of the day, Megalonyx is a good cunning rare, but there are much better cunnings like Ornithomimus, Compsognathus gen 2, and Archaeopteryx for its rarity, but it is quite unique when it comes to moveset. And while there are other options for fierce, no one shuts them down as good as Megalonyx. While I only struggled with it once in the last event it was allowed in, others had decent success with it. So while it is still a decent option, it's much more of a niche rare. Stay tuned for next week’s featured creature. Have a great day and may you find all the Dracorex gen 2 and Carnotaurus you need.