Latias returns from the Advance generation into the treacherous grounds of the 4th generation uber battling. In the faces of Kyogre and Palkia, she stands in their way from completely ripping apart an uber team. With her incredible hold item, Soul Dew, Palkia’s Life Orbed Spacial Rend also fails to OHKO. Using her speed, she can threaten an OHKO on Palkia with Dragon Pulse before Palkia delivers a finishing blow (Watch out for Choice Scarf versions). As for Kyogre, she stands without fear as its Ice Beam only does approximately 48% maximum, allowing Latias to Calm Mind and then Grass Knot or Thunder Kyogre into oblivion. With the help of Recover or Roost, Latias restores her health back into usability, and thus shines again in the battlefield, ready to take something else down. If the user is satisfied with only one offensive move, Refresh deprives it of annoying status conditions like Toxic that malevolent beasts such as Fighting Arceus and Blissey enjoy inflicting on Latias, and the paralysis she might face when trying to switch into Kyogre's or Palkia's Thunder. Thunderbolt is not mentioned anywhere in this set for a reason: Thunder does better. Yes, sunlight can appear to ruin Thunder’s accuracy, but one should know that the main reason Thunder is used is for Kyogre, Metagross and the 30% paralysis chance. All Thunderbolt does is 2HKO Metagross after a Calm Mind, which isn't enough to prevent a Choice Banded Meteor Mash from crashing down on Latias.
A set exclusive to Latias. One may prefer this set over the previous set if his/her team is loaded with Pokémon that pack no recovery moves. Wish allows them to be healed. Protect allows Wish to heal Latias and scout for Choice Banded moves, but Recover’s instant recovery will be handy if you are facing a slow Pokémon with low health. Toxic works nicely in conjunction with Protect and Wish, while Grass Knot or Thunder gives more diversity in attacking. Calm Mind ensures that Latias is not defeated by Calm Minders such as Kyogre. Other OptionsRoar allows Latias to phaze other Calm Minders trying to set up on her, such as Blissey and Arceus. Psycho Shift allows Latias to transfer status inflicted on her to the opponent, but as an anti-status move, it pales in comparison to Refresh and Safeguard. Speaking of Safeguard, it is an option over Refresh since it protects Latias and the entire team from all status for five turns. However, it should be noted that an Icy Wind/Toxic Blissey can run over Safeguard, as Icy Wind will chill Latias’ Speed into pieces and then proceed to Toxic Latias before a Safeguard is set up. Hidden Power Fire and Dragon Pulse is unresisted by anything but Heatran, and will help Latias fend those nasty steels such as Metagross and Forretress. Psychic allows Latias to hurt Fighting Arceus. Finally, Draco Meteor is always available as an option if one wants to score some KOs where Dragon Pulse cannot, but it should generally be left to Latios, where he can use his higher Special Attack to score an instant OHKO on Mewtwo. Don’t bother with Ice Beam—it fails to OHKO Groudon so one might as well use Dragon Pulse for the better coverage in the Uber metagame. Latias is fairly adept at setting up a Light Screen with her massive Special Defense, allowing her to take special attacks like they’re banana peels flung at her. Reflect is also an option, but her significantly lower defense does not help with that. Lugia sets up Reflect better thanks to its much higher defense. Healing Wish is quite gimmicky. Most of the time sacrificing Latias is not worth it. Finally, Latias learns Charm, but Reflect is generally superior to it because the opponent could switch out of Charm, and the fact that Charm fails to touch Metagross thanks to Clear Body. EVsThere really is no Latias that should be used with lower than 307 speed. In fact, Latias generally shouldn’t be used with lower than 330 speed. However, if the user feels that Palkia is no threat at all, and would like to conserve Latias' EVs and nature for something else, he/she may want to go with 307 speed, which requires 204 EVs if Latias has a neutral Speed nature. Next is max Speed with a neutral nature (319 speed, 252 EVs). This allows Latias to outrun maximum Speed Jolly Rayquaza and tie with other max speed neutral speed natured Latios and Latias. After that, one might as well go to 330 speed, which requires 176 Speed EVs with Timid nature to outspeed a max speed Hasty or Timid Palkia. 320 Speed does absolutely nothing but outspeed an opposing neutral nature Latias and Latios. Next is 334 speed, which requires 192 speed, if one is paranoid of Garchomp in ubers. Due to the recent Garchomp popularity in ubers, this Speed setting is highly recommended to anyone using Latias. Furthermore, it allows Latias to outrun a max speed Adamant Choice Scarf Tyranitar. Latias can outspeed a neutral max speed Arceus with 216 EVs in speed, putting her at 341 Speed in the stat. Finally, there’s max speed as an option. With absolute max Speed, Latias can outspeed every single aforementioned threat and a neutral max Speed Darkrai, who tops at 349 as opposed to Latias’ 350. When Latias’ speed is built to outspeed Palkia, she must carry at least 307 Special Attack (204 EVs with a non boosting nature) to guarantee an OHKO against Palkia with Dragon Pulse. 307 special attack means that Dragon Pulse does 324 damage minimum against Palkia. After that, the other main special attack stat that might be worth mentioning is 338 (208 EVs with Modest nature) to guarantee an OHKO on a max HP, no Special Defense Groudon with Grass Knot. With no Defense EVs at all, Latias needs at least 120 EVs in HP to guarantee survival against a Choice Banded Meteor Mash from a Metagross with 375 Attack. OpinionLatias is an amazing Pokémon. Unlike her brother, Latios, Latias is capable of countering Palkia and Kyogre without being threatened too much. This alone makes Latias superior to Latios for many players, as even with Latios’ boosted special attack, he can’t even touch Blissey, something that both twins often note as their nemesis. One thing Latios has over Latias is the ability to 2HKO Metagross with Thunder without any Calm Minds, but at the same time Latias is capable of surviving a Choice Banded Meteor Mash, making that advantage look neutralized. Latios' only undefeated advantages are OHKOing Mewtwo with Draco Meteor and 2HKOing Tyranitar with an unboosted Grass knot, which might actually mean something, so do not immediately think that Latios is plain outclassed. Let’s not forget that Latias packs handy resistances and an Earthquake immunity, allowing her to switch in on many moves in the Uber metagame. Her job in the metagame is done through the item Soul Dew, boosting her already massive special stats even higher. CountersIf Blissey has Toxic, it will always beat those without Safeguard, Refresh, or Psycho Shift. Even if it has Safeguard, Icy Wind can allow Blissey to get in a Toxic before Latias can refresh the Safeguard after it expires the first time. Thunder Wave Blissey can be annoying, as a being fully paralyzed can spell your doom if they also have Seismic Toss. Psych Up / Calm Mind Blissey with Ice Beam have a high probability of beating Latias, as well. Snorlax is a risky counter, because it needs HP EVs on top of 252 Special Defense with a Careful nature to not get 2HKOed by a Calm Mind Dragon Pulse, but it can 2HKO Latias at best, unless it uses a lot of Attack with a Choice Band and Crunch. Tyranitar and its massive special defense will easily swap into Latias and beat her down with a Choice Banded Crunch. Even a Soul Dew boosted Grass Knot is incapable of 2HKOing Tyranitar (assuming that he is carrying Special Defense EVs). Metagross is a great counter thanks to resistance to Dragon Pulse, Grass Knot, and Ice Beam, meaning it really only has to worry about Thunder and Hidden Power Fire. It can sometimes OHKO Latias with a Choice Band Meteor Mash, and a Choice Band Pursuit will OHKO even more on the switch. Dark / Bug Arceus can Calm Mind alongside Latias and eventually beat her down with a super effective Judgment. Ghost Arceus takes less than 50% from an unboosted Dragon Pulse and 2HKOs back with Shadow Claw. Steel Arceus will resist a lot of Latias's attacks, much in the same way Metagross does. Registeel’s massive special defense allows it to take anything but Thunder and Hidden Power Fire (unless the weather is favorable for Registeel), and beat Latias with Ice Punch. As for the revenge killing, Deoxys-A and its high attack will OHKO Latias with a Choice Banded Ice Punch. A Choice Scarfed Heracross can Megahorn Latias before she does anything. The move Knock Off really hurts Latias, as Soul Dew is her key to success. |
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