Akyuu

[SG-Sanae]

Akyuu


Heart/Reason

HP: 35
Atk: 20
Def: 40
SpA: 20
SpD: 100
Spe: 65

Ability 1: Trace (Copies the opponent's ability.)
Ability 2: Focus (Increases Accuracy by 30%.)

Overview

At first glance, it sounds insanely useful that she can learn every move in the game via Sketch - but that quickly wears off after seeing how atrocious her stats are. Nevertheless, she'll love to ruin the day of those who think she can't do anything.

Baton Pass
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid / Jolly
Item: Salac Berry
Ability: Focus
-Sleep Powder / Sakuya's World
-Substitute / Sakuya's World
-Belly Drum
-Baton Pass

If you get in on something that's slower than you and isn't statused, use your 97,5% accurate Sleep Powder against it. If you feel lucky and have already put something to sleep, you can use Sakuya's World instead (careful, only 71,5% accuracy). Mamizou is much faster with this Baton Passing, but Akyuu has a more accurate sleep-inducing move; 97,5% chance versus 78%. Also, if you feel really ballsy, you can run Sleep Powder and Sakuya's World on the same set. Then use Substitute, Belly Drum and Baton Pass in that order and watch your recipient tear apart the opponent. With the given EVs, Substitute and Belly Drum will bring Akyuu into Salac Berry range, which will work even after two layers of Spikes. After three layers of Spikes, skip using Substitute for the same result.

Support
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid / Jolly
Item: Salac Berry / Lum Berry
Ability: Focus
-Sleep Powder
-Substitute
-Ingrain / Spikes / Jamming / Prank / Seismic Toss / Toxic
-Baton Pass

This set highlights some other support option Akyuu has - like many things, she can use Spikes to support your team, although you'll have trouble firing them off. Ingrain is best for dedicated Baton Pass teams, as pseudo-hazer won't ruin your day anymore. Jamming can be really helpful for either other set-up sweepers or other Baton Passers - it can also help getting rid of certain threats. Prank, Seismic Toss and Toxic are the only ways you can do actual damage to your enemies, so you could use one of these.

Other Options

Even though her movepool is every single move in the game, including a few moves that only come up during Metronome, there's very little she could do effectively. Wish is an option to heal your Baton Pass reciever, but the 4 moveslot syndrome is bad enough as it is. Burn Powder is an option if you want to cripple priority users trying to pick you off, but again, Akyu has trouble to fit it on a moveslot. While gimmicky, Imprison can shut down specific movesets, which works well with Akyuu learning every move in the game - you will likely have a weak movepool, though. Even more gimmicky is her role in an Assist team by running Sleep Powder, Assist, Agility and Spikes in order to phaze the opponent without negative priority, but this requires so much team support that it's not worth using. Attacking is out of question, because she lacks the stats to do any notable amount of damage.

Checks and Counters

Since she relies on status to protect herself, Lum Berry will negate her efforts to stop your switch-in from punching her out, leaving her to run or die. Also, she'll be helpless if hit by Taunt.

[Naï]

Mamizou can do Belly Drum passing way better than Akyuu. Just saying.

Rather, running something like Focus Sleep Powder/Sakuya's World/Substitute/Wish or Prank might be better. Sleep/freeze is scary since you can have two enemies disabled at the same time, and Akyuu's the only one who can do it by herself.



Also, with that EV spread, nothing will really be accomplished unless you come in against a tank that has no means of harming you... rather, most tanks will just one-shot you. Instead, something like 252 HP/252 Sp.def should be used IMHO.

65 base speed isn't going to outrun much, even with full investment, honestly. You're better off trying to make her kind of survivable than betting on not being hit at all.

[SG-Sanae]

35/40 bulk is too low to survive any physical hit, so your only chance is to bring her in on something slow - in fact, the speed is high enough to outrun uninvested base 105 Speed. You could easily start your set-up on a bulky booster, who rarely invest in their speed.

[Naï]

Yes, any physical hit would probably OHKO her, which is why you'd be switching her in against special attackers... on the other hand, without the SpDef investment, any slightly strong special STAB would probably OHKO her as well, especially if Spikes are around.

That and just relying on bulky boosters is way too risky, because there's no guarantee they won't simply attack instead of just trying to boost on their first turn. Unless you manage to set her up with something like Memento, but... that'd be setting up a set up... could work, but still sounds gimmicky.



Mamizou can still do Belly Drum passing way better than Akyuu; in fact, she can run pretty much the exact same set (and she runs Focus too), except she exchanges Sleep Powder for Hypnosis. That and she has a much faster Speed stat, making it so that you're a lot less likely to be KOed before BPassing. You could mix things up by using Jamming instead of subs, too.

[SG-Sanae]

True, I mentioned her having other options she could Baton Pass.

[DoctorShanks]

While Mamizou has better stats all around, she's unofficial. Akyuu could probably run a 252HP/252SpDef and take advantage of her no-weaknesses to take one or two hits; I'd run some common special threats through a damage calculator first before trying to switch in on anything at all.

[Naï]

Mamizou is unofficial, but she's still in Shoddy anyway :<.



Eh, I wouldn't really use Akyuu as a baton passer, to be honest... there are just too many good passers in Touhoumon already, Akyuu shouldn't be used like that. I mean, what can you use her for? If you want to bpass Agility, someone can do that better. If you want to bpass Belly Drum, someone can do that better.

In short, if she runs bpass, she's always be outclassed by other mons. Hence, there'd be no point in running her at all.



However, a set with sleep/freeze in the form of Focus Sleep Powder/Sakuya's World (and maybe something like Subs and Toxic to fill in the other two) can't be reproduced by ANYTHING. That's the point.

She can learn ANY set of four moves. Why should I settle with something other mons can do? If I want to use her, then I want to use her in setups that only she could ever accomplish.

[DoctorShanks]

Mamizou is unofficial, but she's still in Shoddy anyway :<.



Eh, I wouldn't really use Akyuu as a baton passer, to be honest... there are just too many good passers in Touhoumon already, Akyuu shouldn't be used like that. I mean, what can you use her for? If you want to bpass Agility, someone can do that better. If you want to bpass Belly Drum, someone can do that better.

In short, if she runs bpass, she's always be outclassed by other mons. Hence, there'd be no point in running her at all.



However, a set with sleep/freeze in the form of Focus Sleep Powder/Sakuya's World (and maybe something like Subs and Toxic to fill in the other two) can't be reproduced by ANYTHING. That's the point.

She can learn ANY set of four moves. Why should I settle with something other mons can do? If I want to use her, then I want to use her in setups that only she could ever accomplish.

This is actually a really good point. Double incapacitate isn't something seen ever. Double Powder is one thing, but this is pretty next level on paper.

[Naï]

There are other good double statusers, even triple ones: for example, both Koakuma forms and Kurumi can run a combination of Lovely Kiss (70% sleep) and either of T-Wave or Wisp. Despite that, those three mons work differently, so there isn't a "better" statuser between them.

However, there isn't a mon that can really run both sleep and freeze on the same set.
With it, you can always have two of your enemies incapacitated at a time by activating both the sleep and the freeze clause at once.



And yet...

on paper.

Probably the main problem here.