Guess I have to make my own rules out of magic stars and ice crystals.
There are other ways of obtaining a free switch, whether it be a slow U-turn, Baton Pass, or Volt Switch or through coming in after a teammate has fainted. Obviously getting Jynx into play isn't the easiest, but again, it's not impossible.
-snip-
There's almost no way to bring in Jynx without losing a Pokemon.
I would say that a slow Volt Switch/U-Turn is just about the greatest way there is, and deserves some notice. I haven't finished the run-through of my Bulky Offense team that uses this method to bring in Jynx, but so far it is going fantastically and I highly recommend it. If, say, Probopass can't beat something but can take a hit from it, you have yourself a free switch. It's one of my new favorite ways to grab momentum in an instant.
On to the meat of this post, I'm about halfway through a test I'm running where I'm doing 30 or so battles with four separate teams. On other ladder teams I've had quite a bit of experience with Jynx anyhow, but I wanted to focus specifically on Jynx's effect on teambuilding. Here are the team styles:
Speed Offense, utilizing Jynx
Speed Offense, without Jynx
Bulky Offense/Balance, utilizing Jynx
Bulky Offense/Balance, without Jynx
I haven't been testing Jynx at all on defensive teams because I almost never use them and I therefore doubt that the results would mean anything at all. Here's what I've found so far, having only fully completed my trial runs of Speed Offense with and without Jynx. Of course, the sample sizes are relatively small, but there's only so much I can do in a few days. ;) I haven't broken up the styles of offense of opposing teams because it's hard to tell sometimes when I'm not the one making the team.
At the risk of rambling, here are my mostly unabridged thoughts.
With Jynx, Against Offense:
On this particular team, Jynx was one of my two primary sweepers, utilizing a Scarfed set with Lovely Kiss and three attacks. (Psychic, Ice Beam, and Energy Ball, for the curious.) What I found is that while Jynx will outrun many offensive Pokemon such as Sawk, Scolipede, Swellow, and others with a scarf, practically every offensive team I faced had at
least
one 'mon that could outrun the Psy-chick. Most had two methods of outrunning her, whether through priority (mach punch Gurdurr, bullet punch Metang, etc) or in one case Prankster Tailwind Murkrow slamming a scarfed Sawk through the sound barrier.
With some assistance from the rest of my team, including a scarfed Zebstrika (scarf Charizard in earlier editions, before I decided I needed more speed), I was almost always able to disable one or both of the 'mons that the opponent had to check Jynx. To be clear, base 95 is fast, but there is an entire niche for
anything
that can outrun it, and another for any scarfer that can beat out scarfed Jynx. On my own team, I made sure to have something that could beat the speed tier. I knew there would be opposing Jynx out there, so I prepared for them. This is not something I oppose at all. I think it's fantastic that 'mons like Zebstrika and Rapidash and whatnot are seeing usage because of their ability to absolutely
own
Jynx if they get a free switch. On the other hand, I don't recall there being any battles that Jynx didn't KO at least two, sometimes three or four foes. It might be the team's style of preparing everything for a Jynx sweep, but in any case Jynx can sweep like almost nothing else I've used in this tier. About the closest thing I can compare it to is Sawk before Jynx dropped down. If you can arrange the battle state so that Jynx outruns everything left on the field, it can usually hit hard enough to blow away the rest. If it can't, well, that brings me to the final section of this test writeup.
Lovely Kiss is really, really, really, good for this playstyle. There are ways of getting around it, of course, but not
every
Pokemon has a way. Oftentimes, if there is only one or two bulky Pokemon left that Jynx can't brush aside, they are slow enough that a lucky trainer can just put them to sleep and walk on through.
However
, there is a large degree of luck involved. If you miss, Jynx can't take a hit from even some defensive Pokemon. I mean, its physical bulk is absolutely atrocious. If the foe wakes up early, or, worse, has a Lum Berry on hand, Jynx is also completely screwed. Offensive teams that I fought tended to have at least one Lum berry. Lum berry is the best Jynx check in the game. Seriously, if you go for a Lovely Kiss and the opposing 'mon just recovers from it instantly, Jynx is
boned.
Nothing good can come of giving the foe a free move when you have such a ridiculously frail sweeper in. Against an offensive team where most everything can hit at least decently hard, you will be lucky to keep your Jynx alive at all if you screw up and waste that turn.
With Jynx, Against Defense:
Against defensive teams, Jynx took on a somewhat different role. She didn't quite hit hard enough to break through some of what the rest of my team could, and there were an irritatingly large number of Metangs that my set could not deal with. However, Metang is not difficult to deal with by using the power of teamwork. Golurk in particular stood out on this team for accomplishing this task, as did its precursor, Seismitoad. I would posit that this is a very important aspect of using Jynx; Jynx is very good, but requires some support like everything else.
Jynx is not an army of one.
It is hard to wall, but so is Charizard. It cannot win against defensive teams on its own. For every Metang or Grumpig that has risen up in usage to face Jynx, there is something that has a new niche of beating up those checks for Jynx.
Unlike against offensive teams, Jynx could not clean up entire defensive teams by herself once one or two threats were disabled. She could sometimes disable one with Lovely Kiss, and she certainly made life hell for opposing Alomomola and whatnot that are generally more physically oriented, but she was not always the MVP in such matches. She would get one KO, occasionally two, and possibly a landed Lovely Kiss atop that. This is very good, but I've run other teams where my Golurk has gotten similar results, or my Sawk, or my Swellow. Although none of them have put an enemy to sleep, which is incredibly handy.
Lovely Kiss is about as good against defense as offense, but with some notable differences. Very few defensive 'mons I faced carried a Lum berry. When a team is fighting Jynx, it's important to waste as little time as possible in getting it away. (Though a well placed Toxic can turn that right around.) Wasting a few turns on getting your cleric in, clearing up the Lovely Kiss, and working your Jynx resist back in can be effective, but woe betide ye if Jynx puts your cleric to sleep. I have not played nearly as much defense myself, so I am less sure of the strategies used by defensive teams to counter her.
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These next two sections will be mercifully short because I don't feel that the lack of Jynx is quite so relevant to the thread as its presence.
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Without Jynx, Against Offense:
To make something clear, most of my speedy offensive teams do not utilize Jynx. While I have found her to be very useful, she is also very well known at this point and most teams carry checks. As with my other offensive team, this one had several important roles to be filled. It needed wallbreakers, just like the Jynx team, it needed something reasonably fast with decent killing power, and it also needed something that could go blazing fast as a revenge killer or endgame cleaner. Jynx filled the role of the fairly-fast-and-fairly-powerful 'mon on the other team, but this one made use of a pretty wide variety over time. While the 'role' is not something carved in stone, it is a niche that Swellow, Primeape, Charizard, and even Sawk could be said to have filled during this team's development. In short, Jynx is a 'mon that provides an important fusion of combination of power and speed, but often fails to provide enough power against defensive teams or speed against offensive teams. Her versatility is perhaps her greatest strength. Not every team needs Jynx to fill this role.
Without Jynx, Against Defense:
This team actually didn't find as many defensive teams as the other. From what I saw, however, Jynx can be easily replaced in such a situation. While she has her uses, in particular that fast Lovely Kiss, I didn't miss her at all after replacing her for this team. There are other ways of breaking stall. In fact, there were times with the other team where I really wish I had brought SD Samurott instead! I didn't have much success with Nasty Plot Jynx; perhaps it would have been useful to try more. It was difficult to find setup turns against the more popular (to my eyes) offensive teams.
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General Notes on Switching In with Jynx:
I think that the key to dealing with spikes and stealth rocks is to not bring in Jynx until you really mean it. Constant switching will wear her down very quickly, especially since she can be forced out again very easily with strong priority or a faster revenge killer. On these offensive teams, the first time I brought in Jynx was generally the last. On occasion, I found it handy to scare out an enemy with Jynx coming in for a revenge kill, but Jynx needs to retain all the bulk she can to survive a priority attack or two. Not to mention that switching in and out leaves you open to a Pursuit, which will just crush Jynx if she can't KO the 'mon threatening Pursuit first.
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Do I think Jynx should be banned?
No, or at least not entirely. Her stats aren't too off-kilter for NU, and her coverage is great but not dominating. The metagame is adapting to her, but I don't feel that it's needlessly warped. Offensive teams always needed to have a fast finisher anyhow, it's just that now they need to be a tad faster. If anything needs to be banned, it's only Lovely Kiss. That is what sets her apart; that fairly accurate sleep move. And even that I'm not sure of. I was leaning towards a ban before, but after intensively utilizing her this past week or so, I don't see her as being a bad influence on the metagame. (Except, possibly, Lovely Kiss' ability to utterly shut down slower checks.) If Gen 5's sleep mechanics were less ducks-on-wheels retarded, Jynx would fit in pretty well.
Apologies again for the wall of text.
