This week, in honor of our last week with X and Y, we're discussing the other half of their version mascots. This week we discuss Yveltal.

When Yveltal's life comes to an end, its wings and tail glow red and it absorbs the life force of every living creature.

Base Stats: 126 HP / 131 Attack / 95 Defense / 131 Sp. Attack / 98 Sp. Defense / 99 Speed

Yveltal is an interesting case. I don't think anyone quite expected that it would pale in comparison to Xerneas's terror when they were first shown, but don't mistake my words - Yveltal is absolutely a force to be reckoned with, and has many options open to it. While the life Pokemon may be more of an immediate threat, death is permanent.

Choice Scarf remedies Yveltal's frustrating base 99 Speed, and allows it to function as a threatening revenge-killer or late game sweeper. Dark Pulse is the main STAB here, backed by Dark Aura. It provides good coverage in the Uber tier, hitting most things for at least neutral damage. Hurricane is a risky move, but it's also Yveltal's strongest attack. Kyogre is also common in Ubers, and there will be times when you can take advantage of opposing Kyogre's rain, or even your own, to utilize this move without fear. Foul Play is an excellent move for revenge-killing many Swords Dance sweepers, but not ExtremeKiller Arceus, as it will OHKO Yveltal with Extremespeed after a boost. It also OHKOs Mega Mewtwo-Y 100% of the time while Dark Pulse can only promise that around 64% of the time if it's at full health, so that's something to remember. Oblivion Wing can be used here instead to regain some health and as a safer Flying STAB if Hurricane's massive power isn't necessary, but be careful about locking yourself into this move, as the power really is underwhelming, and can leave you open to setup sweepers, especially Calm Mind users. Finally, U-Turn is your best choice for scouting switches, particularly Fairy types, and can allow you to immediately bring in something to handle them. While it is exceedingly weak on this set, the scouting potential is valuable for maintaining momentum. Focus Blast can be used, however, to OHKO Darkrai and Tyranitar, and gain a bit of extra coverage.

As this is a choice set, bringing it in at the right time is essential, and prediction is crucial. You should be brining it in on something that it threatens, attempt to predict what the opponent's next move will be, and act accordingly. This is why U-Turn is so important to this set, and why it's recommended over Focus Blast.

Yveltal is a very powerful mixed attacker when given a Life Orb. Dark Pulse is your most powerful STAB attack, while Oblivion Wing allows Yveltal a secondary STAB with good power and great healing, mitigating some of the damage taken from Life Orb attacks. Sucker Punch is an important move here, as it can allow Yveltal to hit faster Pokemon with Dark Pulse or Oblivion Wing as they switch in, then follow it up with a very powerful Sucker Punch backed by .

Taunt is an excellent choice for the last slot; between Taunt stopping any status moves and healing moves and Oblivion Wing dealing good damage and providing healing, Yveltal can be incredibly difficult to take down. U-Turn, however, allows for scouting, dealing chip damage to opposing counters and escaping to a counter-counter. Your decision should be based on what kind of team you've built, and what you prefer in general. I'd advise testing both of them out, as their uses are both situationally very helpful.

The EVs maximize Sp. Attack, outspeed neutral natured base 90 Speed Pokemon, and minimize Life Orb recoil and damage from Stealth Rock, while maximizing healing from Oblivion Wing, with the rest shoved into Attack to buff Sucker Punch.

Yveltal can make an impressive physical defender with many options available to it that aren't common for Ubers. Foul Play is backed by Dark Aura and STAB, and uses the opponent's Attack stat to deal damage, meaning that you can hit surprisingly hard even without investment in Attack. Roost will keep Yveltal alive, which is important for any defensive Pokemon. Taunt helps put a stop to defensive plays, preventing status and healing. The last slot gives a couple interesting choices. Bold nature with Toxic allows you to steadily wear opponents down while being able to heal and keep Taunting when necessary. Sucker Punch with an Impish nature, however, allows Yveltal to OHKO Mega Mewtwo-Y without investment, and allows Yveltal to act as a somewhat reliable revenge-killer if necessary.

Yveltal's physical bulk is better than Skarmory, to put that in perspective, but it comes with more weaknesses, most of which are predominantly special, which is why Yveltal makes a better physical tank than a special tank. Leftovers is generally preferred for the extra healing, which makes you less reliant on Roost, but Rocky Helmet can be useful for dealing chip damage to physical attackers, especially switching into them. The HP EVs give an odd number of HP, ideal for switching into Stealth Rock.

This kind of Yveltal is a good check to many common Ubers threats, but it also has pitfalls. If you don't run Toxic, Xerneas gets a nearly free switch-in, and can immediately threaten and force you out. Other threats, such as Kyurem-White and various Arceus forms can force Yveltal out easily, so be sure to have a method of hazard removal on your team, as well as answers for common heavy hitters that deal super-effective damage to Yveltal. For this reason, Ferrothorn makes an exceptional defensive partner for Yveltal, resistant to Fairy, Electric, Rock, and neutral to Ice, while able to stack its own hazards and cripple opponents with Thunder Wave if you choose. Forretress is also a decent partner, though it doesn't have as many useful resistances in terms of pairing with Yveltal. What it can provide is Rapid Spin support, which can be helpful. It's also blockable with opposing Ghost types, so Defog is still more useful in general. Scizor can make a good user of Defog, whether it's a defensive Mega Scizor, or an offensive Scizor that also has Defog for utility.

Yveltal is obtainable in Pokemon Y, and I'm pretty sure you have to catch it in order to progress through the game, so you probably have one if you have Y version. Unless you haven't gotten that far. Whatever, use this:

Dark Pulse and Oblivion Wing make up your STAB attacks, with Focus Blast hitting Steel types. Roost allows an instant 50% healing if that's appealing. Hurricane provides a more powerful, though less accurate Flying STAB. Steel Wing is an okay option for hitting Fairy types, but it's pretty weak. There aren't really many good options for this slot, to be honest, it's kind of filler. Psychic can be used if you really hate... Poison types, I guess. I dunno.

Yveltal is pretty wicked, I dig his design and concept a lot. It's pretty terrifying, and kind of shocking that Pokemon would introduce a legendary Pokemon that is essentially Death itself, capable of killing all living things on the planet just to stop its own death. Kinda makes you wonder how the Pokedex even knows that, though... seriously, go back up to the top of the page and read the dex entries. How do they know that?! In any case, Yveltal is a pretty awesome Pokemon, definitely my favorite of the two versions mascots. It's too bad they pushed Fairy types so hard this generation and made Xerneas so much better. At least Y's plot makes sense. Death for everyone that isn't in Team Flare is a lot more threatening than eternal life for everyone, especially since Team Flare hates things that aren't beautiful. Why would they want to look at Infernape forever?

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