Yanmega (Analysis)

Yanmega

[Overview]

<p>On paper, Yanmega seems like a top-tier sweeper. 116 base Special Attack is excellent, and base 95 Speed outspeeds many important threats in UU. Yanmega is also blessed with two of the best abilities in the game: Tinted Lens and Speed Boost. Tinted Lens allows Yanmega to act as a ferocious wallbreaker, spitting in the face of the resistors of Bug that most slower teams carry. Speed Boost, on the other hand, allows Yanmega to tear through offensive teams, outspeeding Choice Scarf users and acting as one of the best late game sweepers.</p>

<p>Sadly, Yanmega suffers from some major flaws. Bug / Flying typing means the dragonfly is 4x weak to Stealth Rock, a terrible thing for any Pokemon to have. Yanmega is also weak to Fire-, Ice-, and Electric-type moves, which doesn't help when these types are very popular in UU. While Yanmega might have good Defense, he takes special attacks with the same survival rate of fruit thrown into a blender. While these are noticeable flaws, it would be foolish to dismiss Yanmega as a threat, because he can sweep at the drop of a hat.</p>

[Set]
name: Choice Specs
move 1: Bug Buzz
move 2: Air Slash
move 3: U-turn
move 4: Giga Drain
item: Choice Specs
ability: Tinted Lens
nature: Timid / Modest
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[Set Comments]

<p>Typically, Choice Specs users are handled by predicting what move they'll use and switching in a resist to either force the Pokemon out or KO it. Yanmega, however, completely disregards this with Tinted Lens, which turns a 2x resist into a neutral hit, and a 4x resist into a 2x one. This, when combined with a great 116 base Special Attack and Choice Specs, makes Yanmega a terrifyingly powerful attacker, able to break through many special walls and tanks.</p>

<p>Often times, Bug Buzz will be the only move Yanmega uses during a match, and for good reason. Very few things can stomach two Choice Specs-boosted Bug Buzzes and live to tell the tale. Air Slash is Yanmega's other STAB, and takes care of everything that can take Bug Buzz sans Chansey and Registeel. With the prefect neutral coverage provided by Bug Buzz and Air Slash, the last two moveslots are more filler than anything, but they have their niches. U-turn, while not able to serve its main purpose of scouting, is useful for bouncing off any Chansey or Registeel that switch in so the momentum is kept on your side. Giga Drain is the closest thing to filler on this set, but it can help recover any damage taken, and hits Water-types harder than Bug Buzz.</p>

[Additional Comments]

<p>The EVs are quite simple: max EVs in Special Attack and Speed and the rest in Defense because putting them in HP will leave Yanmega with an even amount of HP, letting him only switch in on Stealth Rock once. Timid or Modest is the classic power vs Speed conundrum. Timid outspeeds Jolly Heracross, Nidoking, Rotom-H, and Moltres, but Modest offers more power. For example, Emploeon takes 39.2% - 46.2% from a Timid Bug Buzz, a low chance of a 2HKO with a layer of Spikes and Stealth Rock. Modest, on the other hand, dishes out 43% - 50.8% to the same Empoleon, which is a much higher chance of a 2HKO. Yanmega really doesn't need to use any other moves over what's listed, but there are a couple of other options he can run. Strange as it is, Hidden Power Flying can be used over Air Slash if you really desire prefect accuracy, but the difference is negligible, and Air Slash has a nifty 30% of a flinch. At first, Hidden Power Fire or Ground seems like good options to hit Registeel, but a neutral Bug Buzz has only 5 less base power compared to a 2x effective Hidden Power, and Air Slash already handles what Bug Buzz doesn't handily.</p>

<p>Rapid Spin is key to making Yanmega work, otherwise, Yanmega will only be able to switch in to Stealth Rock two times at best. Hitmontop or Donphan are the main choices, and the decision between the two is entirely team dependent. Yanmega also finds entry hazards to be extremely vital, because with just a simple layer of Spikes and Stealth Rock, he can literally 2HKO the entire metagame outside of Chansey and Registeel! Emploeon and the aforementioned Donphan can set up Stealth Rock, and also switch in on Ice- and Electric-type attacks aimed at Yanmega, respectively. Froslass or Deoxys-D can set up Spikes. Froslass's typing protects the Spikes she lays down, and she can help wear down Chansey with Taunt + Pain Split. Deoxys-D is also able to take down Chansey and, while it may not resist any of Yanmega's weaknesses, it can still take hits well with its natural bulk. If Deoxys-D is chosen as a Spiker, a spinblocker is necessary to keep the hazards safe. Mismagius is a good choice, as she is able to completely ruin Chansey with Taunt and burn opposing Pokemon with Will-O-Wisp.</p>

<p>Trying to counter Yanmega is really difficult due to the immense power that he brings to the table, but there are a few things that can handle him. Chansey is a full stop to any Specs Yanmega, absorbing Bug Buzz and crippling Yanmega with Toxic or hitting back with Seismic Toss. Registeel can also switch in on Yanmega and cripple the bug with Thunder Wave, but the lack of recovery and constant entry hazard damage will wear down Registeel. Heracross makes for a great partner with Yanmega, destroying Chansey and Registeel, and they form a wall-breaking duo, that wears down the opposing team. Raikou is a good check to Yanmega, being able to take a Bug Buzz, outspeed, and KO with Thunderbolt. Yanmega is also quite prone to being revenge killed by a large amount of Pokemon, including Cobalion, Choice Scarf Heracross, Rotom-H, Aerodactyl, and powerful priority users such as Weavile and Mamoswine.</p>

[Set]
name: Life Orb
move 1: Bug Buzz
move 2: Air Slash
move 3: Protect
move 4: Hidden Power Ground / Giga Drain
item: Life Orb
ability: Speed Boost
nature: Timid
evs: 68 Def / 252 SpA / 184 Spe

[Set Comments]

<p>The usual way that offensive teams handle fast sweepers is through the use of Choice Scarf, boosting a Pokemon's Speed to outpace and KO the threat. However, Yanmega can circumvent this with Speed Boost, allowing him to tear through a majority of frail offensive teams. Speed Boost also turns Yanmega into one of the best late-game sweepers in UU, easily cleaning up the remains of a bruised and battered team.</p>

<p>Bug Buzz is Yanmega's primary STAB move, hitting the large amount of Dark-, Psychic-, and Grass-types roaming UU super effectively. Air Slash is Yanmega's other STAB, and hits many of the Pokemon that Bug Buzz cannot. Protect serves multiple purposes: it allows Yanmega to safely get boosts from Speed Boost, scout for choice sets—Choice Scarf in particular—and block Fake Out. The last move is what will determine what your team will have to get rid of before a Yanmega sweep is possible. Hidden Power Ground hits Empoleon, Cobalion, Magneton, and Fire-types. Giga Drain hits Rhyperior harder than Hidden Power Ground, and covers Golurk and Water-types in general.</p>

[Additional Comments]

<p>The Speed EVs outspeed Choice Scarf Rotom-A and Heracross after one Speed boost, while the leftovers are thrown into Defense to add some more bulk. Modest can be used instead of Timid if more power is desired, but Yanmega then loses the ability to outspeed many important Choice Scarf users with only one Speed boost. There are many moves that can go in the last slot, and they all serve different purposes. Hidden Power Rock hits Rotom-H and Moltres, Psychic hits Posion-types such as Crobat and Nidoking, and Shadow Ball can deal with Ghost-types. Oddly enough, Hidden Power Flying can be used over Air Slash (if Hidden Power Ground isn't used) if you desire prefect accuracy, but the difference is tiny, and Air Slash has the nice 30% chance of a flinch. It's also possible to use any of the mentioned moves over Protect, but losing the security of an assured Speed boost is huge.</p>

<p>Obviously, Yanmega needs Rapid Spin support, otherwise he will just crash and burn. Hitmontop, Donphan, and Blastoise are the main candidates for this role, and choosing from the three is all based on what your team needs most. Entry hazards are also very important for allowing Yanmega an easier time with sweeping. One such example is Rotom-H, who takes 71.4% - 84.6% from Hidden Power Rock, an almost guaranteed OHKO with Stealth Rock. Empoleon or Gligar can easily set up Stealth Rock, and both can switch in on some of Yanmega's weaknesses. Deoxys-D, Froslass, or Roserade can set up Spikes. Deoxys-D, while not actually resisting any of Yanmega's weaknesses, can still take those hits quite well, and mess up Chansey and Registeel. Froslass protects the Spikes she lays down by virtue of her typing, and still wear down Yanmega's main counters with Taunt + Pain Split. Roserade can hit back harder than either Froslass or Deoxys-D thanks to her base 125 Special Attack, and she can abuse Natural Cure + Rest to stay healthy. Carrying powerful wallbreakers who can also abuse the entry hazards such as Choice Band Heracross, Escavalier, Mamoswine, Honchkrow, Choice Specs Rotom-H, and Nasty Plot Azelf, will help weaken the opposing team enough that Yanmega can play janitor on the remains.</p>

<p>While Yanmega is able to power through most frail offensive teams, a large amount of Pokemon trouble him. Chansey can just park herself right in front of Yanmega, not caring about anything the dragonfly can do. Registeel is similar, but has trouble with getting worn down with entry hazards. Perhaps the biggest problem with Yanmega is type coverage, which means he is countered by different Pokemon depending on what he runs as coverage. Giga Drain means Empoleon, Magneton, and specially bulky Fire-types can switch in freely. Hidden Power Ground means that bulky Water-types laugh at Yanmega. Hidden Power Rock combines the problems of Giga Drain and Hidden Power Ground with the exception of hitting Fire-types, while Shadow Ball means that everything previously mentioned takes on Yanmega. Priority can also be troublesome, especially Ice Shard, considering that Mamoswine and Weavile have access to it.</p>

[Other Options]

<p>Hypnosis can be used to incapacitate a counter, but is unreliable with its terrible accuracy. Roost can be used on the Life Orb set to heal off Life Orb recoil, but then Yanmega either loses valuable coverage, or the safety of an ensured Speed boost. Leftovers is an option to allow Yanmega to live longer, but Yanmega is surprisingly weak without any kind of power boost. Substitute is viable for predicted switches, but cutting into the health of a Pokemon that's 4x weak to Stealth Rock isn't the smartest of plans. Using Choice Specs with Speed Boost or Life Orb with Tinted Lens can work, but Specs is much easier to wall without Tinted Lens, and Life Orb loses the blistering Speed that lets it clean up teams.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Depending on which set Yanmega is running, his counters will be different. However, all Yanmega sets are hard countered by Chansey, who can absorb Bug Buzzes all day long, cripple Yanmega with Toxic, or attack with Seismic Toss. The Speed Boost set's counters are dependent entirely on what coverage move is run. With Giga Drain, Yanmega can't get by Empoleon. Without Giga Drain, Water-types and Rhyperior give Yanmega trouble. Tinted Lens is harder to counter, but is much more prone to being revenge killed by many Pokemon. In the end, the biggest thing holding Yanmega back is Stealth Rock, so keeping this makeshift bug zapper up will stop Yanmega from doing much.</p>

[Dream World]

<p>Yanmega gets Frisk from Dream World. When you consider that Yanmega gets Speed Boost and Tinted Lens, two of the greatest abilities in the game, Frisk is as good as Superman 64.</p>

maybe a sub set could work?

no choice specs speed boost or scarf tinted lens?

mention leftovers in OO? pairs well with speed boost since you already have protect, I'd assume.

Very tempted to say that you shouldn't be running rash on the first set; frankly, u-turn is more of a utility move than an attack. there is no sense in running rash, especially when you're using a 70 BP move off of uninvested 76 base attack.

modest seems like a bad idea on speed boost sets since you don't outspeed scarfcross after one speed boost, which is extremely awkward. same goes for the first set, which is outsped by nidoking and rotom-h without timid (how many nidokings run timid I am unsure, but I'd assume more since they are common enough that a speed tie can be crucial... but w/e) as well as base 90s. if you really want, you can lower the speed to enough to outspeed just the two of them.

Base 90s are outsped by 32 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 216 Timid.
Base 86s are outsped by 64 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 184 Timid.

Well, The whole problem with Choice Specs Speed Boost is that Yanmega's moves without Tinted Lens are much easier to take, and Scraf Tinted Lens just doesn't have the power to work. I don't see the problem with Rash considering how terrible Yanmega's Special Defence already is, and there's no point in not giving U-turn just a little extra power. I'll change the nature to Timid on Spped Boost, but Choice Specs really does need all the power it can get. I'll mention Leftovers though.

On the Choice Specs set i'd change the nature selection to Timid / Modest. No need to unnecessarily lower your defenses to slightly power U-turn, since you're hitting for peanuts with it anyway.

QC APPROVED (1/3)

I think Life Orb should be te first set, it's much more common than specs, and a lot better too. I think Modest should be the nature of the Life Orb set because it won't need the extra Speed due to Speed Boost and Protect.

I really don't see how Life Orb is better then Specs. They both play a completely different way, but Specs has the advantage of absolutley destroying teams after Chansey is gone and being much harder to wall. I also don't think that Modest is the best of ideas on the Speed Boost set because then you are outsped by Scarf Heracross and Rotom-H even with 1 Speed Boost.

Perhaps a mention of alternate ev spreads investing in Def or something to take random sucker punches and ice shards? For example, something like 104 Def / 252 SpA / 152 Spe. THis spread allows you to take physical priority better and still outruns positive natured base 130 Speed mons after a speed boost. People often underestimate Yanmega's physical bulk.

This may seem strange, but I think you should mention using Hidden Power Flying over Air Slash when you aren't using another Hidden Power, maybe even slash it. I doubt the power difference matters, especially since most of Air Slash's targets are weak to Flying, but that 95% accuracy can bite you in the ass. I just played a match against a BP Venomoth team and Air Slash missed. Luckily his Sleep Powder missed as well so it worked out, but I'd much rather have HP Flying's perfect accuracy in that situation next time.

I'll mewntion it in OO, but unless others want it in AC, that's where it'll stay. Air Slash also has the 30% flinch chance, which can be huge in a game.

QC 3/3

mention HP Flying in AC, /me <3 perfect accuracy

Ready for GP.

The first thing that caught my eye was "Superman 64" so needless to say I'm looking forward to checking this lol. Doing now.

There were a ton of spelling errors that could have been prevented by simply running this through a spell checker. Otherwise...



[GP 1/2]

PS If the next grammar checker deletes the Superman 64 heads will roll.

I was just thinking. Electrode is immune to bug buzz and resists air slash, and has STAB electric moves to zap yanmega. Mabye mention it in checks/counters?

Cherub Agent said:

I was just thinking. Electrode is immune to bug buzz and resists air slash, and has STAB electric moves to zap yanmega. Mabye mention it in checks/counters?

Click to expand...

It can only switch into Specs Bug Buzz. Modest Air Slash has an 87% chance of OHKOing it on the Tinted Specs set, while the Speed Boost set has a similar chance of OHKOing the troll ball with HP Ground.

still, being able to switch into the most common move of the most common set is great

Berserker Lord said:

I really don't see how Life Orb is better then Specs. They both play a completely different way, but Specs has the advantage of absolutley destroying teams after Chansey is gone and being much harder to wall. I also don't think that Modest is the best of ideas on the Speed Boost set because then you are outsped by Scarf Heracross and Rotom-H even with 1 Speed Boost.

Click to expand...

Specs isn't better than Life Orb, because you don't have the freedom to switch attacks, so you can easily be stopped, forced out, and then (very likely) lose half of your health due to Stealth Rock. A Choice Specs Pokemon locked into one attack with 289/317 Speed is a lot less threatening than one with a couple of Speed Boosts under its belt with Life Orb boosted attacks and freedom to switch.

Also, the only time that Choice Scarf Heracross and Rotom-h will outspeed you is if you switch into them, or they double switch, because if they switch into you, then you will have at least 1 speed boost and you can protect, so Timid really isn't that important

Sorry for late reply

Finally added Nixhex's check.

add
remou
a comment or 2

-sorry, dismiss any he->it changes. I realized that you were being consistent after I was mostly done

Implamented VOx's changes. This is done.