Community POTW #154

[Serebii]

Time for the next Pokémon of the Week, and this week it's the original mega Pokémon

It's Yanmega (Megayanma in Japan), the Sinnoh released evolution of Yanma

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/469.shtml

Go nuts

 

[Divine Retribution]

Yanmega is an curiosity among Bug types, being specially based and having a fairly diverse movepool. A very respectable base 116 Sp. Atk and usable base 95 Speed combined with two fantastic abilities and a very colorful movepool for a Bug type gives Yanmega some interesting niches in UU. However, that's about where the good news ends. Its typing is absolutely horrid defensively, giving it weaknesses to common Flying, Fire, Electric, and Ice attacks and a crippling 4x weakness to Rock, including Stealth Rock. While Speed Boost sounds nice it lacks a way to boost its Sp. Atk, and base 116, while pretty decent, sadly doesn't make the cut for a frail sweeper in gen 6 OU. Its bulk isn't anything to write home about either, with 86/86/56 defenses, and it's sadly a rather predictable Pokemon.

That being said, it's a fun Pokemon to use in UU.

Yanmega @ Life Orb
Modest - Speed Boost
252 Speed, 252 Sp. Atk, 4 Defence
-Protect
-Bug Buzz
-Air Slash
-Hidden Power (Ground) / Giga Drain / Ancientpower

Yanmega can make a fantastic late game cleaner with its good base Sp. Atk and Speed Boost allowing it to mop up weakened teams. Protect lets you guarantee a Speed boost, after which he outspeeds the entire unboosted tier and a good swathe of Scarfers to boot. Bug Buzz is his strongest STAB and it lets him power through targets that don't resist it. Air Slash provides a secondary STAB, hitting other Bugs and Fighting types. For the last slot, you pretty much have to pick your poison. Hidden Power (Ground) offers the best overall coverage with his STABs, hitting Rock, Steel, Fire, and Poison types super-effectively, while Giga Drain lets him beat Rhyperior and Swampert, who otherwise don't really have anything to worry about from him. Ancientpower murders Fletchinder and does reasonable damage to some other Fire and Flying types too, but has a low base power and can't really be relied upon.
​

 

[Aduro]

Its kind of a shame thing thing doesn't get Baton Pass, it would be great for supporting slower setup sweepers. Not much to say about pre-evolution either this week since Yanma is too frail even with eviolite and too strong for little cup. Its does have a pretty solid attack stat though, 116 with no boosts isn't exactly a wallbreaker but it 2HKO any non mega venusuar with air slash and with specs it will 2HKO mega blastoise with giga drain.

Yanmega @ Expert Belt
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
- Hypnosis

The good news is that Yanmega just about lives a +2 adamant life orb Lucario's exteemespeed. But it usually won't live life orb damage afterwards so I'd reccomend an expert belt over life orb. Yanmega needs very specific circumstances to clean with this. Sub is used to force a switch or on something threatening paralysis or sleep. Hypnosis then deals with your opponents counter, if you're lucky. Giga Drain is essential as it keeps Yanmega alive while it makes subs and bug buzz deals most of the damage. Just don't expect the substitute to survive much, even a min attack modest nidoking's sucker punches can break them. This is the most success I've found with yanmega, but honestly it wasn't that much.

Other Options:
Ancient power: Won't do much damage and the chance of it getting boosts are remote. It hits fire types slightly harder but Air Slash is enough to 2HKO Darmanitan anyway.
Defog: Yanmega is non-threatening enough that some rock setters that aren't weak to giga drain will try to set up rocks on it, so defog can be useful
Whirlwind: if only this thing wasn't way to frail to use a low priority move, then it would stop things setting up
Struggle Bug: nice in doubles, and Yanmega is pretty fast so it might be able to use it on a special attacker, if there's nothing with discharge or heat wave waiting to take advantage of Yanmega's terrible sp.def

 

[generic villager #5]

Speed Boost may be an absolutely fantastic ability, and a rare gem for a specially-oriented attacker, but Tinted Lens is a great ability too, and doesn't get enough respect if you ask me. With it, you pretty much have perfect neutral coverage on everything because NVE moves now do regular damage, unless they're a 4x resist or an immunity. That's also a huge boon when you want to run a Choice item, because you can't just switch in any old resist and force Yanmega out.

Too Many Lenses
Yanmega @ Choice Specs
Ability: Tinted Lens
EVs/Nature: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe, Timid
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash
- Giga Drain
- HP Ground / AncientPower / U-Turn

You probably will never see this set outside of UU due to its low speed tier relative to OU attackers, but it's quite effective in lower tiers where it can outpace more threats. With this movepool and Tinted Lens, you can hit just about everything neutrally. Since 4x resists to Bug and Flying are fairly rare, you can spam your STABs most of the time for at least neutral damage. Bug Buzz does a bit more damage and breaks through subs, but Air Slash has that incredibly annoying flinch chance. Giga Drain hits a few bulky threats for 4x damage, such as Rhyperior and (Mega) Swampert, and can keep Yanmega healthy. The last slot is a toss-up; with Tinted Lens, you don't need coverage as badly as on other sets, but no one option is entirely useless or perfect to complement Yanmega's moveset. HP Ground is nice against some Steel- and Electric-types, AncientPower is nice to have for Flying-types, particularly Fletchinder, and U-Turn is nice to get out of there, although its power is low even with STAB. This set still suffers from low defenses and a 4x weakness to Stealth Rocks, and now it's slower, but it does wallbreak decently in UU, and regardless of all else it's very difficult to switch into safely.

 

[Mestorn]

Yanking Yanmega

Yanmega holds the distinction of being the second best Bug-Flying types in the game, a title only contested by Vespiquen. That would be great if it weren't the fact that the Bug-Flying type is one of the worst type combos in the game. A crippling x4 rock weakness just screams Stealth Rock, which utterly maims Yanmega whenever it comes in. Numerous weaknesses to Fire, Flying, Ice, Electric and the aforementioned quadruple Rock plus an absolute garbage special defense means there is no lack of Pokémon that can easily OHKO Yanmega. The number of Pokémon that can do it unscathed is actually much smaller. Thanks to Speed Boost, Yanmega can easily rocket ahead of opponents and whack them before they can strike back, though its lackluster power means that relies on entry Hazards and/or prior softening before attempting the sweep. So barring Paralysis, which will shutdown any Yanmega no if's ands or buts, priority users remain your best bet for taking out Yanmega before it can act. Mega Abomasnow and Mamoswine both possess the Ice Shard necessary to KO Yanmega regardless of Speed Boost, but note that neither can OHKO Yanmega w/o significant prior damage and neither can come in safely. Stopping Yanmega before it can accrue enough boosts is simple enough -base 95 is easily outsped, but after one Speed Boost, you will need an opposing Choice Scarfer/Speed Booster to outspeed Yanmega. Otherwise, the most reliable counters for Yanmega are those who can weather its assaults. Sponges like Snorelax, specially defensive Dragalge, Eviolite Porygon2, Goodra, and Florges can all take Yanmega's assaults and KO it quicker than Yanmega can KO them.

 

[Aduro]

Yanking Yanmega
Yanmega holds the distinction of being one of the best Bug-Flying types in the game, a title only contested by Vespiquen.

Mega Pinsir.

Mega Abomasnow and Mamoswine both possess the Ice Shard necessary to KO Yanmega regardless of Speed Boost, but note that neither can OHKO Yanmega w/o significant prior damage and neither can come in safely. Stopping Yanmega before it can accrue enough boosts is simple enough -base 95 is easily outsped, but after one Speed Boost, you will need an opposing Choice Scarfer/Speed Booster to outspeed Yanmega. Otherwise, the most reliable counters for Yanmega are those who can weather its assaults. Sponges like Snorelax, specially defensive Dragalge, Eviolite Porygon2, Goodra, and Florges can all take Yanmega's assaults and KO it quicker than Yanmega can KO them.

I'd actually reccomend special attackers rather than physical to deal with yanmega since it only has 56 sp.def, special attckers like chandelure and empoleon probably do better than any physical attackers without rock slide or stone edge. Its not like an ice shard will come that close to OHKOing it without prior damage. Mamgmortar is nice too since it has vital spirit and doesn't worry about hypnosis but its not exactly common in UU.

 

[Missingno. Master]

Enter The Dragonfly
Yanmega@Life Orb
Modest nature
Speed Boost
252 Sp. Atk/252 Speed/4 HP
~Detect
~Bug Buzz
~Air Slash
~Shadow Ball

Yanmega is friggin' awesome. Detect for free Speed Boost. Bug Buzz and Air Slash for STAB. Shadow Ball for extra coverage. See? Not just friggin' awesome, but pretty straightforward as well.

Item powers up Yanmega's attacks. Ability makes Yanmega faster.


Other options:
*Giga Drain is an option for dealing damage and healing off Life Orb recoil.
*Yanmega also gets Hypnosis in the Yanma stage, but... that 60% accuracy...
*An interesting idea would be Choice Scarf, allowing you to run Tinted Lens in place of Speed Boost.


Abilities:
*Speed Boost: At the end of each turn, Yanmega's Speed goes up by one stage. This. You want this one. Best possible Ability for it right here.
*Tinted Lens: Yanmega's attacks do double damage against opponents that resist them. If Yanmega had just a bit more speed, this would be my recommendation, but it doesn't, so it's not. Speed Boost. You want Speed Boost.
*Frisk: Yanmega's Hidden Ability. When Yanmega is sent out, you are informed what item the opponent is holding. Yeah... no. It can have its uses, but... Speed Boost has way more uses. Tinted Lens has way more uses, too.

Partners:
Rapid Spin support. Defog support. Whatever keeps Stealth Rock the hell away from Yanmega. Also whatever your answer might be for the special walls you fear most, that works well, too- Yanmega can't deal with special walls. A physical wall wouldn't go amiss, either, something that can handle Aerodactyl.

Counters:
Aerodactyl ruins this thing. Resists both its STABs, is naturally faster, can Mega Evolve while you Detect for a Speed Boost, and hits with a 4x super effective STAB Rock Slide or Stone Edge. Also, you're not doing crap to a Chansey or Blissey. Or most special walls, for that matter.

Opinion:
This thing is awesome. One of the cooler Pokémon to come out of Generation VI.

Prediction for next week:
Seismitoad.

 

[KillerDraco]

Shadow Ball for extra coverage.

What coverage? Shadow Ball hits literally one noteworthy foe (Chandelure) who is still 2HKO'ed by Air Slash anyway so it's not a huge deal. Giga Drain is standard, Shadow Ball is not. Yanmega gets by on Super-effective coverage due to its somewhat average base 116 special attack, so while Shadow Ball may seem appealing due to its neutral coverage, in practice Giga Drain's super-effective coverage is far superior, especially since it deals well with Rock types and bulky Waters.

 

[Swoobat]

Positives:
+ Great Special Attack stat and decent Speed.
+ 2 superb abilities which give him unpredictability. Both are very good.
+ Quite straightforward to use and dangerous.

Negatives:
- Very frail, especially on the special side!
- Awful defensive typing with many weaknesses and a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock as well which limits its capabilities.
- Incapable of breaking through Special Walls like Florges and Blissey.
- If using Speed Boost it will lack power, and if using Tinted Lens it can be more or less easily checked.
- It only fits in very offensive teams, and those have trouble in today's UU tier fitting hazard control. Even in that case, things like Tornadus, Kyurem and Hydreigon give it a lot of competition.

All in all, Yanmega is sadly an underwhelming Pokémon in UU, it is shame because I like it a lot.

 

[ampfire101]

Okay now for VGC! Ready? Here's how to use yanmega in VGC!

Don't Use This!

Moves:
-Stop
-Don't even consider this
-There are so many better options
-It can't even hurt anything significant

Ability: If you're really that desperate maybe Frisk can help against Smeargle to figure out its item

Nature: (you are too) Naive (if u think this is helpful in VGC), (you can't be) Serious (about using this)

Item: stop it already

EVs: OVER 9000 of every stat if you want it to be actually be good in VGC which unfortunately you can't do legally

Seriously, all joking aside, the two abilities it's renown for are much less useful in VGC 2016 because Speed Boost hinders Yanmega against Trick Room teams and Yanmega doesn't really make a huge dent in the restricted mons anyway, which hinders Tinted Lens. It gets Tailwind and Feint, which is a trait given only given to Flygon, Scizor (which gets Bullet Punch anyway), Skarmory, Gliscor, and the mighty Farfetch'd. Flygon can't really be touched by Primal Groudon without having to eat a heavy attack first, Scizor can really punch some holes into Xerneas, Skarmory is a good defensive wall to handle Mega Rayquaza and to use Steel moves on Xerneas, Gliscor gets nice steady recovery in Poison Heal and Roost, and can do some work to Primal Groudon and Dialga, and Farfetch'd is wonderful iconic VGC Jokémon. I guess it also gets Hypnosis, but not Gravity or a really decent offensive/support movepool like Bronzong. Too many things can one-shot it if Yanmega doesn't have a Focus Sash, and even if it does, wouldn't you rather give it to Smeargle or Liepard or Cresselia or something? Just don't use this.