Bug Bite is a good secondary STAB option that is also boosted by Technician, and has a great added bonus of removing any berries your opponent is holding. Technician is a fantastic ability that will raise the power of any attacks with a BP of 60 or less, making it perfect to use with the normally worthless Aerial Ace. Anyway, in order to use Scyther you’ll want to have it equip a Choice Band, and raise your Speed and Attack via EV Training. Bug / Flying is an atrocious type defensively, while Bug / Steel is fantastic. Scyther is awful compared to Scizor though.
Technician is a fine ability, and Bug / Flying STABS are definitely better than Bug / Steel STAB. On top of that you have a respectable speed in 105, and a nice 110 Attack stat. 70 HP isn’t amazing, but 80/80 Defenses are pretty decent for Scyther. Why’s that? Well, it really just goes to show how certain aspects of an otherwise solid Pokemon can ruin it. You’d think that Scyther and Scizor having the same stat total would make them pretty similar in battle, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. Another mildly fun fact is that Scyther’s base stat total of 500 means that it has the highest of any Pokemon that can evolve. Scyther and Scizor both have a 500 combined stat total! So once, and only once, they created an evolution that doesn’t have a higher stat total than its predecessor. All lower-tier legendaries have a base stat total of 600, along with a Pokemon per generation that is usually called a “Pseudo Legendary” and has the same stat total.Īnyway, when giving something an evolution you have to add some more stats, but with 500 there’s not much more you can add and still be safe with Scyther. For reference, the generally considered hard cap on Pokemon that aren’t box legendaries is a cap of 600. For a single stage Pokemon Scyther has a pretty high stat total of 500.