These are the 5 highest total base stat values in UU:
5. Crobat: 535 (take note of this guy, too)
4. Milotic/Magmortar: 540
3. Arcanine: 555
2. Mesprit/Uxie/Registeel/Regirock/Moltres: 580
1. Shaymin: 600
These are approximate average values for each individual base stat in UU:
Hit Points: 81
Attack: 85
Defense: 86
Special Attack: 83
Special Defense: 89
Speed: 80.5
These are Shaymin's base stats:
Everything: 100
Obviously, you will notice that Shaymin is well above average in not just one or two stats, but every single one of them. Now, I am not saying that base stats are everything, or else Slaking would be the #1 UU Pokemon, but I am saying that high base stats are important when there are no significant mitigating factors, as is the case with Shaymin. Registeel is offensively weak; Moltres has a double weakness to Stealth Rock; Arcanine has a poor movepool and Stealth Rock weakness; Shaymin has no such significant disadvantages, and higher base stats than any of those Pokemon.
Shaymin's primary abilities fall within the Offensive Characteristic, though with 100/100/100 defenses the Defensive Characteristic should not be overlooked, either. Let's start with Shaymin's greatest offensive asset, its signature move Seed Flare, which has 120 base power, 85 accuracy, and a 40% chance to lower the target's Special Defense two stages. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Then you compare it to other 120 base power moves. All other 120 BP moves with greater accuracy than Seed Flare have negative side effects (recoil, lowering stats, etc.) as opposed to Seed Flare's strongly beneficial side effect, and the other 120 BP move with the same accuracy (Fire Blast) has a side effect with only a 10% chance of occurring as opposed to Seed Flare's 40%. All other 120 BP moves have less accuracy than Seed Flare. Thus, Seed Flare is arguably the best move for sweeping in the game, and Shaymin gets STAB on it.
Combine this move with good base Special Attack and, more importantly, excellent Speed by UU standards; Shaymin cleanly outruns 45 Pokemon in UU, while only 8 Pokemon are able to cleanly outrun Shaymin. Consider the extent to which Seed Flare is an immediate threat to most UU Pokemon. All UU Pokemon which do not resist Grass (except Chansey) are killed in 1 or 2 hits by Seed Flare unless they have abnormal investment in their special defenses, without exception. Keep in mind that Seed Flare breaks the usual rules of countering with its side effect; a Pokemon which could normally switch in and avoid a 2HKO has a chance to either get hit by the SpD drop or a critical hit, meaning that it's screwed anyway, and this chance falls dangerously close to 50% (40% chance of SpD drop + 6.25% chance of critical hit). Again, combine this kind of power with the fact that Shaymin outruns over 75% of the tier. This should be enough to send up warning signals all by itself.
However, the fun doesn't stop there. You look at all this and notice that Seed Flare is a Grass attack. What the hell, Grass is a terrible attacking type! 7 other types resist it! No way that's BL. I would agree if Seed Flare were Shaymin's only move, but sadly, it is not. Observe: Seed Flare / Earth Power / Air Slash / Hidden Power Ice. These 4 moves achieve either a neutral hit from Seed Flare, or a super-effective hit from one of the other moves, on every single type. Every Grass resist is covered. Earth Power takes down Steel, Fire and Poison. Air Slash hits Grass and Bug. Hidden Power Ice knocks out Flying and Dragon. This means that, at the very worst, you are hitting an opposing Pokemon with super-effective damage from Hidden Power. That's the worst-case scenario.
This leaves just a couple very specific Pokemon with unique or nearly-unique type combinations as the only Pokemon which can actually wall Shaymin's set (and by "wall" I mean resist Seed Flare while not being destroyed by one of the other moves). Namely, Moltres, defensive Roserade/Venusaur (weak to HP Ice but sturdy enough to take it and hit back twice as hard with STAB Sludge Bomb) and Crobat (Crobat still takes super-effective damage from HP Ice, but it can atleast use Roost to fix that before Shaymin moves again, the only Flying-type besides Swellow able to do so). But it gets even better. Shaymin has more options to help it cover even these specific threats. Psychic deals the big numbers on Crobat and Roserade/Venusaur while HP Rock instantly destroys Moltres. Well, atleast we've still got Chansey, right? Wrong. Shaymin's Attack stat is just as high as its Special Attack, allowing it to run a Swords Dance set which walks all over Chansey. Not that you have to run Swords Dance to beat Chansey, though--if Seed Flare gets that Special Defense drop Chansey can still lose. Shaymin has the unique honor of being the only UU Pokemon able to beat Chansey with non-boosted special attacks, I believe (other than perhaps Specs Blaziken).
Shaymin outspeeds the majority of the tier and is able to hit the majority of the tier for severe damage with the reliable power of Seed Flare backed up by incredible supporting coverage. It is able to beat any of its counters, even Chansey. There is no guaranteed answer to Shaymin, only a better chance to beat it with certain Pokemon. You have to play a constant guessing game against it, unless you have Chansey, and even then you have to pray that Seed Flare doesn't get the SpD drop.
This sounds like enough to qualify under the Offensive Characteristic to me. However, Shaymin's still not done. Let's not forget that Shaymin is not Espeon or Swellow: It's not a "frail, fast" sweeper. It's a sweeper that isn't frail. With 100/100/100 defenses Shaymin has no problems taking a hit or two, and is actually more durable than the majority of the tier (remember how its stats are above average in every single category, not just the offensive ones?). On top of those solid defenses, it even has reliable recovery available to it, with the lack of perma-weather Pokemon in UU Synthesis is pretty much Recover with less PP. With Synthesis Shaymin is actually to "wall and out stall" some UU Pokemon, especially more defensive ones such as Slowbro, Claydol, Registeel, etc., which means that, by the standards of powerful sweepers, its durability is nothing short of top-tier. No other offensive threat in UU can match Shaymin's durability (Moltres would come close, except that it has a double SR weakness), except arguably Crobat, who is also arguably the only Pokemon in UU which deserves Supect status moreso than Shaymin itself. As if that weren't enough, Shaymin even has Natural Cure, which means that you can't even slow it down with status, and that it can utilize Rest for recovery aswell should you wish to do so.
The combination of high Speed, excellent type coverage and Seed Flare's sheer power makes Shaymin a frightening sweeper. When you combine this with the fact that Shaymin is actually more durable than the majority of the tier and even has reliable recovery to take advantage of that durability, aswell as an ability that allows it to shrug off status, it becomes clear that Shaymin deserves to be a Suspect.
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These are UU's top 5 speed tiers:
5. Ambipom: 115
4. Sceptile: 120
3. Swellow: 125
2. Crobat: 130
1. Electrode: 140
Despite that blitzing speed Electrode's base stats total to a mere 480, unimpressive even by UU standards, and its movepool is a barren wasteland decorated only by the very occasional diamond in the rough (STAB T-bolt, Explosion), meaning that it is not fit for use outside of a few specific purposes (mostly leading on rain teams, which Crobat even gives it a run for its money at, since people will see Electrode and immediately think "Rain" whereas Crobat will never be initially suspected as a Rain lead). With Electrode almost entirely absent from general use in UU, Crobat is left as effectively the fastest Pokemon in the tier. You will notice from my above nomination of Shaymin that Crobat also sports a high base stat total by UU standards, its total base stat tier comes in at #5 in fact, out of a tier of 58. Sounding like a good Pokemon to you yet? Cause this sounds too good to me.
Once again I'm not arguing that base stats are everything, but once again, their significance cannot be denied in the absence of significant mitigating factors. In this case, Crobat has one notable disadvantage and one notable disadvantage only: he is weak to Stealth Rock. There is no other reason to not use him. He doesn't make you weak to any sort of set-up sweepers, unless your team can be torn apart by something like Swords Dance Armaldo I suppose. He is not frail or easily revenge killed, indeed he destroys the concept of a revenge kill entirely by outspeeding the whole tier. He is not offensively incapable. He is not slow. If you look at UU Pokemon, almost every one of them has one of these weaknesses. Blaziken has incredible power, but is fragile and only has average Speed. Chansey walls the entire special spectrum, but provides a set-up opportunity for SubCM Mismagius, is somewhat weak when it comes to physical defenses, is slow, and is reduced to Seismic Toss for dealing direct damage. Azumarill is powerful without being fragile, but is very slow.
I repeat, Crobat has none of these weaknesses. Some might argue that Crobat is easy to wall, oh it's no problem, any Rock or Steel type will do. But you have to keep in mind that the worth of all traits is relative to the metagame which surrounds them. Crobat has to be compared against all the other UU Pokemon, and when you do that it's obvious that Crobat is not offensively weak. Yes, he can be walled, but the majority of UU Pokemon can be walled by something, meanwhile there are also Pokemon which Crobat deals significant damage to and Pokemon which Crobat can OHKO, meaning that he clearly has offensive power to some degree. Meanwhile he has no disadvantages at all. He is only weak to Stealth Rock, which, while unfortunate, is not enough to hold him back.
To anyone who says SR weakness should prevent Crobat from going up, I have only thing to say: This same person should be lobbying for Ho-oh to be OU even as I type this. If he's not, he's a hypocrite. And even if he actually does lobby for Ho-oh to move down to OU, I'd say that he must then go and lobby for Lugia to move down, too. After all, Crobat has only a single SR weakness, not a double weakness. If SR weakness is enough, all on its own, to prevent Crobat from being a UU Uber, then why doesn't it stop Lugia from being an OU Uber? I'm not saying that SR weakness doesn't affect Crobat, but I am saying that clearly SR weakness on its own is not significant enough to hold back an otherwise superior Pokemon.
Keeping in mind the fact that Crobat, along with Shaymin, is quite possibly the most flawless Pokemon in the tier, let's examine the positive aspects which it is blessed with. As already stated Crobat has 130 base Speed, meaning that in 95% of the situations it encounters it will be moving first. To compliment that Speed it has Brave Bird and STAB on it. Physical Flying is a great attacking type in UU; there are only 8 Flying resists in UU (one of which is Electrode) but 15 Flying weaks, including prominent threats such as Roserade, Shaymin, Yanmega, etc., and nothing is immune or double-resistant to Flying, meaning that overall the type gets very strong coverage. Comparing it to some other attack types:
12 Pokemon in UU resist Rock, and 12 also resist Ghost and Electric
14 Pokemon in UU resist Water, Psychic and Dark
16 Pokemon resist Poison
18 Pokemon resist Ice and Ground
No fewer than 20 resist Fire in some way
Steel is also resisted by 20 Pokemon
A whopping 23 resist Fighting
A staggering 24 Pokemon resist Grass
27 Pokemon resist Bug--nearly half the tier
Keep in mind that Flying has a mere 8 resists by comparison. The only type which finds fewer resists than Flying here is Dragon, which also only hits 1 Pokemon in UU for super-effective damage as opposed to Flying's 15. Clearly Flying is a superior attacking type in this environment, and Crobat gets a 120 base power 100 accuracy STAB attack of this type combined with 130 base speed and decent, if not powerful, base attack (90 base). Nothing more needs to be said about Crobat's offensive capabilities. They are not overwhelming, but they are certainly significant.
Crobat is blessed not only with a superior offensive typing, but also a superior defensive typing. Poison/Flying is quite possibly the best defensive typing in all of UU. It is weak to Electric, Ice, Rock and Psychic. Here are the number of UU Pokemon who get STAB on these types:
Psychic: 6
Electric: 3 (remember one of these guys is Electrode)
Rock: 3 (Omastar's best Rock STAB however is Hidden Power)
Ice: 0
A total of 12 Pokemon and one typing is left out completely. The lack of weaknesses to common attacking types such as Fire (9 UU Pokemon get Fire STAB), Water (10 UU Pokemon get Water STAB), Fighting (7 Pokemon get Fighting STAB) and Grass (6 Pokemon get Grass STAB but the typing is overrepresented in general because of Shaymin) means that Pokemon who can seriously hurt Crobat are difficult to come by and sometimes must go out of their way to use moves that can dent him (Uxie and Mesprit don't want to waste a slot on Psychic but because of Crobat they generally have to).
Now compare this to Crobat's resistances. He has three double resistances and an immunity, compared to 4 single weaknesses, three of which are painfully underrepresented (the number of Fighting and Grass STABs in UU alone outnumber the total number of Electric, Ice, Rock and Psychic STABs combined). As if this weren't enough fun already, Crobat gets the move Roost which changes his typing, removing 3 weaknesses while adding a new one and allowing him to recover against Pokemon which he otherwise could not. Crobat's defensive stats are only average, but when combined with his typing, Roost, and the ability to Roost before almost any attacker is able to hit him, his defenses are transformed into something more.
It doesn't stop there. Crobat has support options available in the form of U-Turn and Taunt. With the fastest viable Taunt available in UU Crobat screws over all kinds of Pokemon, Taunting stall Pokemon out of their recovery, Taunting set-up, even supporting himself by Taunting SR users and dominating UU's lead game, thus making SR leads almost totally non-viable (when Registeel is reduced to running Zap Cannon you know you have a problem). U-Turn is a great move with Crobat if only because he's so fast. He can U-Turn before he is hit against the overwhelming majority of UU Pokemon, which equates to free damage. Crobat's U-Turn is like an entry hazard which applies whenever he is out, providing free residual damage for his team. It also allows his team to make strategic counter-maneuvers; by simply scouting a Regirock switch-in with U-Turn Crobat's team is able to bring in Shaymin for free, keeping the momentum on their side, and thus even Crobat's "counters" can find themselves in an unsavory position when attempting to switch in on him. Sound good to you? Again, this sounds too good to me.
The really amazing thing is that Crobat does this all with just one set. These aren't different things Crobat can do with various specially tailored sets, these positive aspects all occur on the single, standard Brave Bat set. How many Pokemon can realistically say that they pack all their best options into just one set? Such an ability is a separate advantage in and of itself, allowing Crobat to function as an incredibly versatile jack-of-all-trades. Crobat's array of varied and powerful tools combined with the fact that he has only one notable weak point (SR weakness) makes him into a Pokemon which is unmatched by any other in UU.
So why is Crobat a Suspect, then? After all, it sounds like he doesn't fully fulfill any one characteristic. I argue that the sum of Crobat's proficiency at all 3 characteristics is a total unmatched by any other Pokemon. No other Pokemon has even nearly the same overall combination of offense, defense and support. Blaziken is an offensive force but defensively frail and absolutely lacking in support options. Uxie has tons of support options but no recovery and no offense. Etc. Suppose that a score of 10 is required in any one of the three characteristics in order to be considered BL. Suppose that Pokemon A scores a 12 in offense, a 5 in defense, and a 1 in support. Pokemon A is BL. Suppose that Crobat scores a 6 in offense, a 7 in defense and a 7 in support. Pokemon A's total score across all three categories is 18, while Crobat's total score is 20. Thus, is Crobat not also BL? In such a unique case as Crobat's one must examine all three characteristics combined. The characteristics cannot be examined individually when the Pokemon possesses significant ability in each of the three characteristics, as obviously the sum of the three defines the overall worth of the Pokemon.
Again, when asked "Why not use this Pokemon?", Crobat's answer is better than that of any other UU Pokemon save maybe Shaymin. When asking this of any other Pokemon, one can always answer that the Pokemon is weak in at least one of the three BL characteristics, offense, defense or support. Nidoking is a good wall-breaker, and even has some support options available with SR and T-spikes (even though Nidoqueen is better at that), but with no recovery, weakness to common typings (most notably Water, which about 1 in 6 UU Pokemon get STAB on) and slightly below average defenses, he is lacking in the defensive characteristic. Lanturn makes a good special sponge, but is lacking at everything else. And so forth and so on. Crobat is the only UU Pokemon which can truthfully say that it is capable in all three characteristics using only one set.
In April Crobat jumped to the #2 lead and #8 most used Pokemon, while only being available for about half the month. Difficulty in countering it with standard UU Pokemon has led to the rise of specifically tailored Pokemon (such as the aforementioned Zap Cannon Registeel) and even entire teams (Team Die In A Fire Crobat was posted in RMT) designed to deal with Crobat. Clearly it is an overcentralizing force, and thus deserves investigation for that reason alone, as nothing gets the kind of attention Crobat has without good reason. If not for this reason, then for the ones I have outlined above, Crobat deserves Suspect status.
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When naming the top 5 speed tiers in UU I forgot something, allow me to re-write it:
5. Sceptile: 120
4. Swellow: 125
3. Crobat: 130
2. Electrode: 140
1. Yanmega: Special Case
Obviously I am nominating this under the offensive characteristic. Yanmega plays very similarly to Shaymin. It is a powerful special sweeper with impressive coverage who is very difficult to wall. Thus, if Shaymin deserves nomination, I feel that Yanmega should also receive it.
Yanmega has a few obvious disadvantages compared to Shaymin, namely it has no 120 base power attack, and it is double weak to Stealth Rock, though the SR weakness is not as crushing as it sounds in the UU environment, where SR is less prevalent due to the absence of stuff like suicide SR leads and the ultimate spin blocker, Rotom-A. On the other hand, Yanmega has some pretty obvious advantages over Shaymin, aswell--it is able to outspeed Crobat after 1 turn, and indeed, outruns everything in the entire tier with no exceptions after 2 turns (99% of the tier after 1 turn). And while it has no 120 base power move, it gets STAB on two types instead of only one.
No offense to Tinted Lens, it's a really neat ability, but Speed Boost is what makes Yanmega really too much. When you introduce a sweeper with the ability to boost its speed into the heavens and beyond by doing nothing but sitting there, something is wrong already. This breaks one of the core concepts of the metagame, the concept of revenge killing. Many offensive teams rely on revenge killing certain threats to minimize their impact. However, if Crobat merely shatters this concept with 130 base speed, then Yanmega takes this concept, chews it up, shits it out and then spits on it. The absolute only way to revenge Yanmega is via priority, and this is too difficult to be reliable with the lack of viable Ice Shard users in UU (remember how exactly 0 UU Pokemon get Ice STAB?). This destruction of a basic metagame mechanic is excusable if the Pokemon is otherwise non-threatening, but with Yanmega nothing could be farther from the truth.
The only way to beat Yanmega is to wall him, but this can only be reliably done by Chansey. Registeel also takes a good shot at it, though with no recovery and the inability to pose an offensive threat to most things, it can be easily worn down earlier in the match to the point that Yanmega is able to KO with HP Ground, thus it is not always a reliable counter. Other than that it is very difficult to wall Yanmega with anything, many of the other UU Pokemon with high SpD are conveniently weak to his STABs (Umbreon, Uxie, Gardevoir, etc.). Like Shaymin, he has other moves available to take care of anything which resists his STAB attacks. Shadow Ball kills Rotom. Psychic takes care of Crobat. HP Ground hits Steels. Yanmega can even run a SubReversal set with a greatly improved chance to beat Chansey and Registeel. Best of all, Yanmega has Hypnosis, which gives him a realistic chance to disable and subsequently beat absolutely any of his counters except a healthy Chansey, thus sealing the deal on any notions that Yanmega can be reliably walled (again, except by Chansey, just watch out for Reversal).
Like Shaymin, Yanmega is able to beat any of his counters, and more importantly the list of counters to him is shockingly small to begin with. If Chansey is the only reliable counter, something is not right. And unlike Shaymin, you can't revenge kill him. Shaymin is difficult to revenge, Yanmega is near-impossible. All you can do in that department is use priority, but again, if such is the only method available then something is wrong, especially when there are no viable Ice Sharders. A Pokemon that is not only very difficult to reliably counter but is also able to literally outspeed everything in the entire tier is simply too much. Just for fun, behold, these are the Pokemon that, with one of his special attacking options, Yanmega is able to OHKO with SR up and a Petaya boost:
Bug Buzz:
Absol
Ambipom
Claydol
Espeon
Feraligatr (Bug Buzz vs a 4/0 spread, the most common: 83.97--99.04%, approximately 75% chance of OHKO)
Gardevoir
Honchkrow
Houndoom
Ludicolo
Mesprit
Kabutops
Omastar
Sceptile
Shaymin
Slowbro
Torterra
Uxie (if he invests in maximum Special Defense he can survive, but looking at the April stats most don't)
Air Slash:
Blaziken
Charizard
Hariyama
Hitmonlee
Hitmontop
Moltres
Poliwrath
Primeape
Roserade
Scyther
Swellow
Toxicroak
Venusaur
Other Yanmega
HP Ground:
Arcanine
Drapion
Magmortar
Electrode
Nidoking
Ninetales
Typhlosion
Psychic:
Crobat
Nidoqueen
Weezing
Shadow Ball:
Mismagius
Rotom
I count 43, out of a tier of 58. Approximately 75% of the tier, can be potentially OHKO'd and obviously outsped with one turn of setup from the SubPetaya set (if SR isn't up you don't get your Petaya Boost right away, but either they attack you and let you sub down to it anyway, or they don't and you sit behind a sub and get to spam attacks at them for free, either way the results are the same or better). Cool, huh? I think that safely qualifies as a majority of the tier that can be OHKO'd with their standard EV spreads, and I don't need to remind you that Yanmega will be outspeeding them all. Keep in mind that of the stuff which isn't OHKO'd by any of these moves, most of it is dangerously close to being so, like Blastoise and Umbreon, and Yanmega can always carry Hypnosis as a general tool. So I'd say this definitely fulfills the offensive characteristic.
WJC3688:
Shaymin: Accept, I didn't get the stat discussion but the rest made up for it. This applies to all of your nominations btw.
Crobat: Accept
Yanmega: Accept.
