Scourge of the Ancient Skies: Yanmega

 

 Yanmega, a dragonfly big and strong enough to lift a human and carry them away. A terrifying prehistoric force unlocked by having Yanma tap into primordial energies. Time and power-creep have not been kind to this beast, but we're going to restore its spot in the upper echelon of Bug types. You'll remember that when discussing Spidops, I was on the fence about giving it a move that used the word garrote, a wire or cloth used to strangle someone to death. Meanwhile, the Pokedex doesn't mince any words when it says Yanmega likes to capture its prey, fly away at breakneck speeds and then crush the prey's head into bits with its massive jaws. And the Pokedex makes sure you know that Yanmega can fly away with you too. Geeze, Game Freak. 

1. Stats and Typing

To begin, while Bug/Flying is of course appropriate to describe a dragonfly I think we can do something more interesting. Yanmega would have been absolutely uncontested in its prime, an apex predator. Something this colossal and powerful deserves a typing to match. In Bugmerald, Yanmega will be one of only two families to utilize the Bug/Dragon typing along with Flygon. While there may not have been classic European dragons in the Pokemon caveman days, they still had to worry about this Dragonfly swooping down to bite apart their skulls and carry them away to its lair.

Yanmega is already in a pretty good place stats-wise, so we'll just be buffing up some weak points to keep it competitive with the field. Speed is getting boosted to 101 to give it the jump on the classic base 100 tier without any Speed Boost procs. Sp. Defense is getting a little love to bring it up to 65, hopefully letting it avoiding an immediate one-shot KO by a powerful Special spread move. Defense is actually dropping slightly to 82 to give room to an Attack boost up to 89. All these changes move Yanmega up to a solid 539 base stat total. To compensate, Ancient Power will be moving to a higher level in Yanma's learnset so it evolves a bit later in the game.

2. Abilities

Yanmega already has two incredible abilities with Speed Boost and Tinted Lens. While decently fast, Yanmega is still outsped by a lot of threats and Speed Boost quickly eliminates that problem. Otherwise, Tinted Lens can make it incredibly difficult for any foe to defend itself by doubling the power of resisted moves. I'll definitely be keeping these incredible options, but for the third I'm going to mix it up a bit. Instead of the underwhelming Frisk, Yanmega will now have access to Strong Jaw, which along with the boost we gave to its Attack stat will allow it to live up to those legendary Pokedex entries. Yanmega biting your head off is not just a metaphorical threat anymore.

3. Movepool

Yanmega has traditionally suffered from a limited movepool that forced it to rely on Tinted Lens to do much damage. I don't want to give it the keys to the kingdom here, but I do want to offer some more options for players that are looking to use Yanmega in-game. An easy add is the elemental fang trio, working nicely with the new Strong Jaw ability. Yanmega also has access to several Psychic moves so I feel fine adding Psychic Fangs to the mix. Ancient Power is getting a buff so Yanmega can actually utilize it as an offensive option.

For status moves, Yanmega is pretty lacking and only really gets access to Swords Dance. I'm adding two extra options for players to use: Work Up and Clangorous Soul. Work Up is relatively slow as it only boosts offenses by one stage, but with Yanmega's improved physical Attack options it can now choose to threaten foes on both defensive sides very effectively if it gets the opportunity to boost. Clangorous Soul of course is more of a clanging-scales reference, but as a dragon type that also is known for its incredible noise-producing wings I still think it is appropriate to give Yanmega access to the move. While it requires an HP investment to pull off, it lets Yanmega boost across the board and immediately become much more threatening offensively and defensively. If you can set up your team to provide Yanmega the necessary support, it can pay off spectacularly.

Conclusion

I like the balance that we've arrived at as everything seems to come with a cost. The player can amplify speed or offense with the available abilities, but not both. Yanmega has much more coverage now, but a lot of those moves rely on its weaker Attack stat which may force a player to run Strong Jaw or a physical boosting move. It can boost both stats repeatedly with Work Up, but the process is slow and could leave Yanmega vulnerable. Clangourous Soul provides a huge up-front power boost, but the HP sacrifice could leave Yanmega in danger even with its improved defenses. It will be up to the player to properly utilize Yanmega's strengths and utility to solve the problem at hand.

In any case, Yanmega is now a true offensive threat once more and has even lost its 4x weakness to Rock as a bonus. While the player may need to raise Yanma longer to see this ancient threat come to life, the payoff should now be well worth the wait.