With the start of the Luminous Legends Y event, Pokémon Go players are finally going to be able to find and capture the Legendary Pokémon Yveltal.
Just like with most other Legendary Pokémon, Yveltal is making its debut in five-star raids during the event and will not be appearing as a Shiny at this time.
With its Dark/Flying-type pairing and a decent movepool that has good coverage and powerful STAB options, Yveltal might become a staple in many of the high-tier Go Battle League compositions, specifically in Master League. There are other Pokémon that are better, but until more players actually start using it, we won’t know where it falls on the usage list.
In general, Yveltal is weak to Electric, Fairy, Ice, and Rock-types, which are pretty common types to see in normal team composition both competitively and for raids. With that and PvE elements in mind, here are some easy ways to counter the Destruction Pokémon in both instances.
Raid counters
Since you will likely be dealing with Yveltal in raids more often than in a competitive setting, you should be able to easily counter it by bringing a solid squad that resists its main offensive options.
In this case, you should be fine bringing in the usual raid busters like Rhyperior or Togekiss, mainly because they each wall off one of Yveltal’s main typings. Rhyperior can tank a Hurricane and not flinch too heavily at a few Dark-type attacks, while Togekiss flips that and will wall off its Dark Pulse and most of the Fast Attack options.
Mamoswine is probably your best bet for an Ice-type counter unless you want to dig deep and use Aurorus. Tyrantrum and Landorus are also good choices since they can hit hard with Rock-type attacks.
Alternatively, you can also just shock it really hard using any Legendary Electric-type Pokémon. Zekrom and Thundurus, in either of its forms, stick out as great options in this regard.
PvP or Go Battle League counters
Once you break into Battle League you will see less of Yveltal and have more options to counter it since the top-tier Pokémon don’t really fear it at all.
Focusing on the legend-driven Master League, just at the top of the usage stats, you can use Dialga, Melmetal, Zekrom, and Magnezone among others that were mentioned earlier on to wall out or out-damage the Dark-type. All you really need to do is have an option to avoid using your stronger Psychic-types against Yveltal and you should be golden. Especially since Sylveon will likely jump to the top of the tier list once it releases later this month in the second half of the Luminous Legends Y event.