Mega Venusaur is one of the first Mega Evolved Pokémon to make an appearance in Pokémon Go, and with it comes a bulky Grass/Poison-type that can still hit like a truck in pretty much any scenario.
Like with its Fire and Water-type counterparts, Mega Venusaur is going to be tough to take down without the right team composition heading into a Mega Raid. You can easily bring a few counters, however, that will help swing things in your favor regardless of who your teammates are.
Because of its specific dual-typing, bringing strong Psychic and Fire-type Pokémon is the safest strategy, but you should make sure to have at least one backup plan with a bulky Pokémon in case you need to stall for some time.
So here is how to beat and capture Mega Venusaur through Mega Raids in Pokémon Go.
Mega Venusaur counters
Your best bet here is to hit it hard and fast with strong Pokémon, like Mewtwo. The Psychic-type doesn’t have the greatest defenses, but it hits harder than basically any other Pokémon in the game and can quickly help you shave some time off of the raid.
You will want to make sure to bring one with moves like Confusion, Psystrike, or Psychic in order to do the most damage before you get taken out.
Another Legendary option is Heatran, who might actually be the best all-around choice to combat the Mega Evolved Grass-starter.
Heatran is a Fire/Steel-type, meaning it quad-resists Grass-type attacks and is completely immune to Poison-type damage, at least in most instances. Any combination of Fire-type attacks combined with the fantastic stats of the Lava Dome Pokémon will make dealing with Venusaur much easier.
After those two, you can basically take your pick between a combination of Reshiram, Moltres, Victini, Metagross, Entei, Ho-Oh, Charizard, Rayquaza, and basically any other Fire-type starter. All of them have significant advantages over Mega Venusaur, especially Reshiram and Ho-Oh, making it the easiest to counter out of the three starter Megas in the game.
Once you complete your Mega Raid, you will have a chance to capture Mega Venusaur, along with gaining some Mega Energy to use for yourself later.