Mightyena Movesets & Competitive Sets

Moves Crunch is Mightyena's main STAB move, hitting most offensive Pokemon that don't resist it hard. Sucker Punch is a powerful priority move that can pick off weakened or faster Pokemon. Play Rough complements Crunch very nicely, hitting Dark-types such as Cacturne and Vullaby super effectively as well as hitting Monferno and Combusken for neutral damage. Iron Tail allows Mightyena to break through Avalugg, Golem, and Clefairy. Set Details Maximum Attack and Speed investment with an Adamant nature makes Mightyena as powerful and fast as possible. A Jolly nature can be used to outspeed most Misdreavus variants but has little use otherwise and severely weakens Mightyena. Life Orb helps power up all of Mightyena's moves, helping it sweep much more easily. Moxie is a great ability that helps Mightyena to clean, making it stronger and harder to stop after each KO. Usage Tips Mightyena should be saved for late-game in order to clean through the opponent's weakened team and accumulate Moxie boosts. Don't try to sweep if one of Mightyena's checks or counters is healthy enough to reliably beat it, or else the sweep will be cut short. If an opposing Pokemon is faster and has a non-attacking move, the opponent might use this to try to stall out Sucker Punch's low PP. As such, be careful about wasting all of Mightyena's Sucker Punch PP, and don't be afraid to use Crunch if it seems your opponent is continually stalling. Team Options Entry hazard support is an absolute must, as it helps wear down opposing Pokemon to the point where Mightyena can KO them. Good Stealth Rock setters include Golem, Relicanth, and Stunfisk, while good Spikes and Toxic Spikes setters include Roselia and Venipede. Mightyena hates physical walls such as Avalugg, and Tangela, making special attackers such as Rotom-F, Ninetales, and Simipour good teammates. Bulky Dark resists such as Vullaby can survive a Play Rough, making Flying-types such as Swanna and Dodrio good teammates to help deal with them. As Mightyena isn't very strong, powerful wallbreakers such as Stoutland and Leafeon make for good partners to deal with opposing stall teams.

This set is pretty much the best Mightyena can pull off in NU. Sucker Punch is mandatory, allowing Mightyena to overcome its middling Speed and to have a chance against faster opponents, which can make it quite scary after some Moxie boosts. Crunch is a more reliable STAB, mostly used against slower Pokemon or a faster opponent trying to set up on Mightyena or status it. Substitute is here so Mightyena can avoid status moves from slower Pokemon or by forcing out Psychic- and Ghost-types such as Musharna, Misdreavus, Gardevoir, and Jynx. Finally, Taunt or Toxic can be used in the fourth moveslot. Taunt helps to prevent entry hazards and phazing moves, while Toxic helps Mightyena a lot against walls it can't do much against, such as Regirock and Alomomola. An Adamant nature is chosen over Jolly because Mightyena needs the extra power due to its low offenses, but Jolly allows Mightyena to outspeed faster Ghost- and Psychic-type such as Adamant or Modest Drifblim and Modest Gardevoir. Black Glasses is the preferred item as it gives Mightyena the power to guarantee a 2HKO against Musharna after Stealth Rock and to OHKO against Muk after two boost and Stealth Rock. Lum Berry also has some good uses, as it helps Mightyena against Jynx and lets it switch in on status moves from Pokemon such as Musharna and Misdreavus. Howl can also be used over Taunt or Toxic, allowing Mightyena to get a boost behind a Substitute or from a forced switch and OHKO Pokemon such as Roselia and Misdreavus, but Taunt and Toxic's support from Mightyena is more useful most of the time. Life Orb can also be used over Black Glasses or Lum Berry, as it gives Mightyena more power, but Mightyena will faint quickly with the Life Orb recoil and Substitute. Since Mightyena can remove Psychic- and Ghost-types, Fighting-types such as Gurdurr, Sawk, and Primeape are all great partners to it, as they can easily KO Steel-types and wear down bulkier Pokemon so Mightyena can pick them off later in the game. Garbodor pairs well with Mightyena, as it can take any Bug- or Fighting-type move for Mightyena and set up entry hazards to wear down physical walls for it, while Mightyena can take on Psychic-types for Garbodor. Golurk is also an amazing partner for Mightyena as Golurk is immune to Fighting-type moves, able to take on the Steel-types that wall Mightyena with its STAB Earthquake, and can set up Stealth Rock to support the team. Meanwhile, Mightyena can deal with the Ghost-types that force Golurk out.

After Toxic Orb activates Quick Feet, Mightyena reaches a blistering Speed stat of 393, enough to outspeed the entire unboosted UU metagame bar Electrode while keeping the ability to switch between moves. This would make Mightyena the quintessential revenge killer if it weren't for Mightyena's lack of offensive power. With a status condition inflicted, Facade becomes Mightyena's strongest attack, which is highly disappointing as it doesn't even get STAB. Fortunately, Mightyena is still powerful enough to KO many frail UU threats with Stealth Rock support being necessary for several of these KOs. The main idea when using Mightyena mid-game is to bring it in on a Pokemon it can revenge kill with Sucker Punch, such as Rotom, Mismagius, and Alakazam, and eliminate them. After this, Mightyena's Toxic Orb will activate, firing its Speed stat up to the heavens and beyond. Crunch is used primarily so that Mightyena doesn't have to rely on the oftentimes unreliable Sucker Punch for STAB, although Mightyena's movepool is so poor there isn't really any other option anyway. The last slot comes down to personal preference. As Mightyena's Attack stat is quite lackluster, Howl can be used to raise it, which will allow Mightyena to 2HKO bulkier threats, such as Venusaur and Uxie. Taunt can be used in its place to shut down walls that will inevitably switch into Mightyena, like Registeel, and it can also prevent specific threats from setting up on Mightyena as it switches out, such as Rhyperior and Aggron. Some other options that can be used in the last slot include Protect, Super Fang, and Yawn. Protect allows Mightyena to activate its Toxic Orb scot-free while scouting your opponent's switch-in; however, Howl and Taunt are hard to replace, and so are Mightyena's attacking moves. Super Fang strips bulky walls, such as Weezing and Rhyperior, of half their health, allowing Mightyena's teammates to eliminate them more easily. Yawn can cause switches to help Mightyena activate its Toxic Orb and may even put something to sleep heaven forbid. Toxic Orb is the chosen item for this set as it activates Quick Feet with no drawbacks other than inflicting poison on Mightyena. Flame Orb cannot be used as, unlike the ability Guts, Quick Feet will not cancel out the Attack drop caused by the burn condition. Finally, Mightyena can switch into Thunder Wave safely, as Quick Feet will still activate and Mightyena will receive the Speed boost as normal. Unfortunately, there is a chance that full paralysis will occur, so don't play too loosely with Mightyena in that regard. In order for Mightyena to be successful, it needs some heavy duty team support. U-turn users are amazing partners, particularly slow users such as Uxie, as they can get Mightyena in safely and activate its Toxic Orb without the need for Protect or utilizing the Sucker Punch strategy described above. Mightyena is easily walled by Registeel, Milotic, Rhyperior, and Weezing, so including a powerful special sweeper on your team will allow Mightyena to bypass these threats. Life Orb Milotic and Physical Sweeper Venusaur make great teammates as they can handle the aforementioned Pokemon quite nicely, and they appreciate Mightyena's ability to pick off faster sweepers, such as Swellow, Sceptile, and Rotom.

Mightyena has just enough Speed, a satisfactory movepool, and the Intimidate-enhanced bulk to function as a usable stallbreaker. Super Fang and Taunt form the crux of the set, and when combined completely shut down many of the common walls found on stall teams, such as Chansey and Registeel. The idea when using this Mightyena is to switch in on a wall as it uses a harmless move, such as Soft-Boiled, and Taunt them. Mightyena is then free to use Super Fang to immediately strip the wall of half of their health, and because of Taunt, they are unable to recover HP. Crunch is recommended for a reliable STAB move, although Rest can be used in its place to ensure stall teams can't wear down Mightyena with status or repeated attacks. Sucker Punch is used in the last slot to pick off faster threats and Choice Scarf users like Rotom, a common sight on stall teams. Finally, Toxic can be used in place of Sucker Punch to bring down Milotic and Spiritomb when combined with Rest and Taunt. Intimidate is used as it allows Mightyena to soften the hard-hitters of UU, and allow another teammate, such as Rhyperior, to switch in and set up with greater ease. This usually comes into play when facing more offensive teams, against which Mightyena is more of a liability. However, Mightyena is still able to pick off faster threats with Sucker Punch, notably Mismagius and Alakazam, so don't throw Mightyena under the bus too soon. The EV spread is designed to allow Mightyena to outpace Adamant Torterra before a Rock Polish, OHKO Rotom, Mismagius, and Alakazam with Sucker Punch, and give Mightyena the most bulk it can get out of the remaining EVs. Without Quick Feet, Mightyena is not immune to status, so including a partner who can absorb or heal them is highly recommended. Clefable makes the perfect teammate in this regard, as it is able to absorb all forms of status and cure Mightyena of any status trouble with Heal Bell. Be aware, though, that they both share a weakness to Fighting-type attacks, so include a Ghost-type on your team to remedy this problem. An amazing partner to stallbreaker Mightyena is SubSplit Rotom, as they are able to cover each other's weaknesses almost perfectly and can beat each other's counters reasonably well. Finally, bulky Psychic-types, such as Uxie and Claydol, make good teammates due to their ability to set up Stealth Rock and absorb any Fighting-type attacks sent at Mightyena.

Mightyena has access to the coveted move Heal Bell, which allows it to function as a cleric for bulkier teams. Roar allows Mightyena to shuffle around opposing Pokemon and rack up damage from Spikes. Crunch prevents Mightyena from being overly passive even if uninvested, letting it nab several important KOs such as 3HKOing Huntail when combined with repeated Spikes damage. Toxic nails Pokemon such as Hitmonchan and Sableye as they switch in and, in tandem with Spikes support, further drains opposing Pokemon's health. It's dangerous to rely on Mightyena to check multiple threats throughout the match unless you have Wish support. All of NU's viable Wish users have an unfavorable matchup against Hitmonchan, unlike Chimecho, which can sufficiently heal itself. Thus, unless phazing is an absolute necessity for your team, it's probably better to use Chimecho. Mightyena needs to be paired with a Spiker to function properly; Roselia is an optimal choice, thanks to not only having no overlapping type weaknesses, unlike Glalie and Cacturne, but also having access to reliable recovery using Synthesis. Furthermore, Roselia sports the best bulk out of all three of NU's Spikers, fitting best on the defensively oriented teams Mightyena enjoys being used on. Mightyena also needs a bulky spinblocker to keep Spikes in play and check the most prominent Rapid Spin user, Hitmonchan. Sableye is ideal for this. Possessing Fighting- and Normal-type immunities and reliable recovery, Sableye can switch into Hitmonchan time and time again fearing nothing but Toxic, which Mightyena can alleviate with Heal Bell.