Since I've been messing around a bit with the new format and slowly trying to see where the many restricted legendaries we now have access to belong (such as top tier, niche/gimmick or in the trash) I felt that I may as well open the discussion here for people to see and, you know, discuss. I'll start out with my own experiences so far.
Lugia
As always, I like to start testing with one of my favorites. Lugia has fantastic bulk, offset by very unfantastic offense, which is unfortunate considering it's strong Base 110 Speed. While Lugia in Singles can effectively wall pretty much anything, in Doubles things aren't so great to the big bird. Though Lugia may be able to take nearly any single hit thrown at it, it simply can't hold up to being double targetted which is made worse by the fact that it can't deal significant damage in return if it does survive. Due to this, Lugia ends up being set-up bait to the immensely dangerous Xerneas and any Mega Kangaskhan that has the balls to still be running Power-Up Punch.
Lugia can run a Calm Mind set to try to attempt a sweep, but it still doesn't do good enough damage to pose a threat. For the sake of testing I also tried to use a Scope Lens Calm Mind build to try to maximize Aeroblast's damage, but it never got enough critical hits to matter despite the Lens giving Aeroblast a 50% crit rate.
A sad day for Lugia indeed.
Yveltal
Oh look, another cool bird.
Yveltal is a very interesting Pokemon. It lacks the presence of it's counterpart, Xerneas, but has much more variation in builds. Most commonly, it can support it's team with Tailwind and use it's ability, Dark Aura to boost damage with Dark attacks. This allows it to effectively utilize either Physical or Special sets.
Generally the one seen the most is Foul Play, which deals considerable damage to most of the restriced legendaries and Mega Evolutions. Becoming stronger depending on the opponent's Attack stat rather than that of the user while still benefiting from Dark Aura, many 'Mons in the format fear the move. This is made only worse when the Yveltal player uses Swagger, which boosts the Attack of several Pokemon to the point where they simply can't survive Foul Play. This is very cool considering Yveltal doesn't need to invest in offense to deal this damage and can instead EV fully into it's defenses.
At the moment I'm feeling a bit of a headache, so naturally I've forgotten half the stuff I wanted to put here, but I'll finish off with the build I use.
Yveltal @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Dark Aura
Bold Nature
252 HP/124 Def/132 SpD
-Foul Play
-Oblivion Wing
-Dark Pulse (formerly Tailwind)
-Protect
With Sitrus Berry, Jolly 252 Atk Mega Khan has a measly 1% chance to 2HKO with Double-Edge, a 13% chance to 2HKO from Modest max Special Attack Primal Kyogre Ice Beam and although it's role on the team has changed from it's initial build, while it carried Tailwind the spread allowed Yveltal to survive Timid max Special Attack Xerneas Moonblast and set the wind up successfully, and I never felt like a change in the EV spread was needed after replacing it with Dark Pulse.
As for Dark Pulse, it was meant to hit Pokemon who aren't 2HKO'd by Foul Play such as Modest Primal Groudon and Cresselia for more tolerable damage, and because there never felt like there was a time I wanted to use Tailwind over Protect or an attack. The applications for Dark Pulse are limited but unfortunately so are Yveltal's moveset outside of Dark-type attacks, which is it's true downfall.
To finish up, here's a ORAS battle video you can see by typing the code into your VS Recorder in game, that shows very briefly what you can expect Yveltal to live.
YVCW-WWWW-WW3G-2ZHS
Looking forward to what others have to say about their own experiences, and thanks for reading.
Lugia
As always, I like to start testing with one of my favorites. Lugia has fantastic bulk, offset by very unfantastic offense, which is unfortunate considering it's strong Base 110 Speed. While Lugia in Singles can effectively wall pretty much anything, in Doubles things aren't so great to the big bird. Though Lugia may be able to take nearly any single hit thrown at it, it simply can't hold up to being double targetted which is made worse by the fact that it can't deal significant damage in return if it does survive. Due to this, Lugia ends up being set-up bait to the immensely dangerous Xerneas and any Mega Kangaskhan that has the balls to still be running Power-Up Punch.
Lugia can run a Calm Mind set to try to attempt a sweep, but it still doesn't do good enough damage to pose a threat. For the sake of testing I also tried to use a Scope Lens Calm Mind build to try to maximize Aeroblast's damage, but it never got enough critical hits to matter despite the Lens giving Aeroblast a 50% crit rate.
A sad day for Lugia indeed.
Yveltal
Oh look, another cool bird.
Yveltal is a very interesting Pokemon. It lacks the presence of it's counterpart, Xerneas, but has much more variation in builds. Most commonly, it can support it's team with Tailwind and use it's ability, Dark Aura to boost damage with Dark attacks. This allows it to effectively utilize either Physical or Special sets.
Generally the one seen the most is Foul Play, which deals considerable damage to most of the restriced legendaries and Mega Evolutions. Becoming stronger depending on the opponent's Attack stat rather than that of the user while still benefiting from Dark Aura, many 'Mons in the format fear the move. This is made only worse when the Yveltal player uses Swagger, which boosts the Attack of several Pokemon to the point where they simply can't survive Foul Play. This is very cool considering Yveltal doesn't need to invest in offense to deal this damage and can instead EV fully into it's defenses.
At the moment I'm feeling a bit of a headache, so naturally I've forgotten half the stuff I wanted to put here, but I'll finish off with the build I use.
Yveltal @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Dark Aura
Bold Nature
252 HP/124 Def/132 SpD
-Foul Play
-Oblivion Wing
-Dark Pulse (formerly Tailwind)
-Protect
With Sitrus Berry, Jolly 252 Atk Mega Khan has a measly 1% chance to 2HKO with Double-Edge, a 13% chance to 2HKO from Modest max Special Attack Primal Kyogre Ice Beam and although it's role on the team has changed from it's initial build, while it carried Tailwind the spread allowed Yveltal to survive Timid max Special Attack Xerneas Moonblast and set the wind up successfully, and I never felt like a change in the EV spread was needed after replacing it with Dark Pulse.
As for Dark Pulse, it was meant to hit Pokemon who aren't 2HKO'd by Foul Play such as Modest Primal Groudon and Cresselia for more tolerable damage, and because there never felt like there was a time I wanted to use Tailwind over Protect or an attack. The applications for Dark Pulse are limited but unfortunately so are Yveltal's moveset outside of Dark-type attacks, which is it's true downfall.
To finish up, here's a ORAS battle video you can see by typing the code into your VS Recorder in game, that shows very briefly what you can expect Yveltal to live.
YVCW-WWWW-WW3G-2ZHS
Looking forward to what others have to say about their own experiences, and thanks for reading.
