A team player set. Set up an Agility while your opponent switches to a Zapdos counter, then Baton Pass to a threatening sweeper that could use help in the Speed department. Good examples would be Rampardos, Marowak, and Metagross. Charge Beam is an option over Thunderbolt on Baton Passing Zapdos sets because if you manage to get that Special Attack boost, you can Baton Pass that as well. This set has a defensive set-up. You can afford to cut down on Speed here because you will be outspeeding everything after Agility except things like Speed Boosted Ninjask / Yanmega, or Choice Scarf on really fast Pokémon. The 56 Speed EVs recommended allow you to beat Jolly Tyranitar before you Agility, and it makes you faster than Jolly Choice Scarf Garchomp after an Agility. The Defense is here so you can take some hits from, for example, Gyarados or Metagross, but you can shift it to Special Defense so you stand a better chance against Starmie, Suicune, or other special attackers. Roost can be used over Hidden Power for two main reasons. The first one is that getting a good Baton Pass Zapdos from XD is a pain to begin with, and one with a decent Hidden Power can drive you mad. The second is that you might want to allow Zapdos to pull off more Baton Passes. The IVs given are for Hidden Power Ice.
The same idea as above, but with Substitute: set it up while your opponent switches out, then Baton Pass to something that benefits greatly from it. For example, if your opponent brings in a Blissey that lacks Calm Mind and a bunch of Special Attack EVs, you can Baton Pass to Focus Punch Gengar. Ice Beam will not break the Substitute and you are free to Focus Punch away. Another situation could be your opponent bringing in a Swampert without Rock Slide or Stone Edge, where you can Baton Pass to Gyarados, Intimidate Swampert and get a risk-free Dragon Dance in. It obviously depends on what your opponent uses how handy this Zapdos set comes. Roost can be used over Hidden Power, for the same reasons mentioned in the Agility Baton Passing set. The EVs have been shifted to Speed to make sure you can Baton Pass out before your opponent attacks Zapdos and breaks his Substitute. Timid with 152 Speed EVs is a good option as well as it beats any Salamence without a Speed boosting nature. The other important stat to boost for this kind of Zapdos is HP, because it will make for larger Substitutes.
In the transition from Advance to Diamond / Pearl, Zapdos gained Roost as a reliable recovery move. This means it no longer has to use two slots for Rest / Sleep Talk to stay alive reliably. Good news, because Zapdos makes a pretty good tank with only two weaknesses, good stats overall and Pressure to waste opponent PP. In Advance, Zapdos would usually focus on Special Defense to counter bulky Waters, but a physical set-up would be quite logical in the DP metagame, especially considering Swampert have the tendency to go physical with Avalanche. It still has enough Special Defense to withstand Ice Beam. Besides Swampert, this set-up allows Zapdos to come in on Metagross, Gyarados, Heracross and Salamence relatively safely. All of these may pack super effective moves though (Rock Slide and Stone Edge most notably), but Zapdos will survive at least one of these at full health. Thunder Wave and Light Screen give Zapdos something to do to help out the rest of your team. One thing you should be wary of when using Roost is that you don't get Earthquaked on the very same turn. If you wish you can let Zapdos focus on Special Defense instead by shifting all Defense EVs to Special Defense and using a Calm nature. You can still counter Milotic, Suicune and special attacking Swampert sort of effectively with that, but the problem with Roost is that you are more vulnerable to Toxic as well as Swampert's Earthquake.
The old Sleep Talk Zapdos listed for good measure. As mentioned in the Roost Zapdos description, this set has some things going for it. You lose out on the support moveslot and you are of course dependent on Sleep Talk when recovering HP. On the other hand, you will not be touched by Earthquakes, you can shrug off status afflictions and you can absorb Sleep (like Milotic's Hypnosis and Breloom's Spore). Beware of Taunt Gyarados though, Taunt now lasts 3 to 5 turns and Sleep Talk won't work when you're Taunted. Discharge can be a pretty good alternative over Thunderbolt on this Zapdos. The low damage input doesn't really harm Zapdos much as he isn't sweeping anything with a set like this anyway, but the 30% paralysis rate is welcome.
While Zapdos makes a splendid tank and support partner, one should not easily forget about its good 100 Speed and extremely threatening 125 Special Attack. Unfortunately Zapdos has not much of an offensive movepool besides Thunderbolt: if you do not have access to a good Hidden Power you're pretty much stuck with Ancientpower, Hyper Beam, Extrasensory and other Electric attacks. The idea of this set is pretty simple: stay safe until late-game, kill or wear down Zapdos' counters if your opponent has them, then come in on an Earthquake or after a KO and start dishing out damage. Pretty much like any other sweeper, really. Metal Sound is here because after a Metal Sound, Thunderbolt averages about 43% damage to Blissey (if it has max HP and minimum Special Defense). That means that with some residual damage (Stealth Rock, Spikes and/or Sand Stream) Zapdos may actually manage to beat Blissey. Calm Mind and/or Ice Beam will make it a lot tougher though. Make sure to take care of Gliscor, Flygon and Garchomp beforehand if you're using Hidden Power Grass, while Swampert will get in the way if you're using Hidden Power Ice. Your last move is a filler. Substitute can help you check what your opponent is doing or wait out Poison damage. Roar can be used if you've got Stealth Rock or Spikes down on the opponent. It actually works pretty well if your opponent isn't staying in after you used Metal Sound—Roar on their switch for double pleasure. Roost is as good as ever for restoring lost HP during a failed sweep attempt if you want Zapdos to retreat to the backlines, so he can come back later to try again. Nearly anything from Other Options can be used here. Note for Competitor players: you'll want your Speed IV to be maxed out here. Use the set-up listed for Hidden Power Ice—Hidden Power Grass should cause no such confusion.
Choice Band Zapdos is a gimmick—an inferior tactic on a Pokémon that generally has better things to do, and that only really comes handy for the surprise value. From that perspective it didn't change much from Advance, however Electivire does this physical sweeping business a lot better. U-turn is new to Zapdos' movepool and is the best compensation you'll get after the loss of the possibility of using a physical Hidden Power Fighting. The main point of Choice Band Zapdos is obviously hitting the special walls that expect to be taking little damage really hard, most notably Celebi and Blissey. U-turn will do a little better against Celebi than Drill Peck does (280 versus 240 base damage after factoring in STAB and type effectiveness), but is mostly handy for scouting what your opponent is switching to while still doing some damage. Blissey takes 30% maximum from U-turn, while Celebi needs 44 Defense EVs and max HP to survive it on average. Drill Peck is Zapdos' main damaging move, the Electric attack is for Skarmory, Suicune, and Weezing that will probably show up if they catch on. Zapdos doesn't learn anything worthwhile in the physical attacking front besides these moves, not even a physical Electric move. Giga Impact is a last ditch effort on Blissey and does an overwhelming 65% at maximum. Sleep Talk can be useful for absorbing a Sleep move if you're not into Giga Impact, however beware that it fails after one use due to Choice Band. Steel Wing hits Regice and Tyranitar somewhat hard, though the former is little to worry about with the advent of Stealth Rock. Overall this set isn't recommended for any serious teams as it will quickly lose value after its first hit, but it is good for laughs and surprises if you're into that.
The obligatory Choice Specs set for any special-based Pokémon. Unfortunately Zapdos' pitiful offensive movepool again lets him bite the dust, as half of his moveset here is a filler. Thunder can be used for that little extra "oomph", and Sleep Talk is to absorb Sleep. The idea of 383 Special Attack STABed Thunderbolt boosted by Choice Specs is rather threatening if you have nothing that resists it, but that is rather unlikely as Ground is a very common type. Like with the Choice Band set, beware of Sleep Talk failing after the first use, which is why I'm offering Extrasensory for the 100% accurate OHKO on Heracross, or U-turn as a scouting option that also lets you hurt Celebi without having to resort to Hidden Power Ice. Other OptionsAs mentioned before, Zapdos' movepool is bigger than most Electrics', but nothing to write home about. Hidden Power Water hurts Steelix and Camerupt more than Hidden Power Grass and Hidden Power Ice do. Hidden Power Ground can be a decent option as it deals with enemy Electrics (mostly Magnezone) as well as hitting SE on Camerupt and Steelix. Toxic can wear down opponents, especially Garchomp, Flygon, Camerupt and Swampert, a group of Grounds with a secondary typing that leaves them less vulnerable to Hidden Power. It also works wonders against Lanturn. Extrasensory can be used to hit Grounds for some damage if you can't get a decent Hidden Power, and at least it is effective against Breloom. The only other moves worth mentioning have been put into sets, but are worth considering in others if you find yourself having some extra space. Roar turns Zapdos into a makeshift anti-Baton Passer and can turn tables sometimes with Spikes/Stealth Rock damage. Thunder can be used over Thunderbolt, most notably in defensive sets that can afford to miss once in a while. The 30% paralysis rate is welcome, but the 70% accuracy is less spectacular. It also has less PP than Thunderbolt, which is why using it on the Sleep Talk set is not a bad idea. The same 30% paralysis rate is what makes Discharge a pretty good move, especially for a Zapdos that is planning on living for a while (those with Roost or Rest/Sleep Talk). Thunder Wave is good as ever to support a slower team, and Light Screen can help in the Special Defense department. It in no way makes up for having no good counter to any special attacker, but it can help as an emergency move as well as additional coverage. Life Orb is a nice alternate Zapdos item. The mighty bird can use both of its attacking stats, and unlike many other Life Orb sweepers, he can actually restore the lost health with Roost. Sand Stream and Stealth Rock may pile up a little quickly though, so be careful what you send him at. EVsGenerally, you'll want a defensive Zapdos to have maxed out HP and a ton in either of his defenses. If you're not sweeping or Baton Passing a Substitute, you should have a minimum stat of 244 in Speed so you can finish off a worn down Tyranitar at any time (unless it has a Dragon Dance in of course). If you are sweeping, however, you should invest in Speed. 270 outspeeds Adamant Heracross, while 296 beats Jolly ones, however if you're going to invest that much Speed you may as well go for 299 to tie with Salamence and other 100 base Speed Pokémon that don't use +Speed natures. Or even use 304 (with a Timid nature) to outspeed them as well as Adamant Garchomp. Maxing out to 328 is only recommended on sweeping sets. Obviously stack Special Attack if you're using it with Modest, but you don't need that if you're going defensive or using Baton Pass. OpinionZapdos can fill quite a few roles on your team and do it well. None of his stats are bad at all and his Special Attack is monstrous. Electric/Flying is pretty good typing, although it is worn down a little in Diamond/Pearl due to the addition of Stealth Rock, which causes Zapdos to swallow 25% damage every time he comes in when it's on the field. He's also in a dilemma about which Hidden Power to use: you're going to be walled by either Garchomp or Swampert as it is, and both are painfully common. To compensate for that, Zapdos got Roost for a reliable recovery move, and U-turn helps a lot against Celebi as well as switch scouting. While Zapdos is no longer the best Gyarados counter in the game, he can still try his hand at it with a bunch of defensive investment, and in the meantime take on some other annoying physical hard-hitters as long as he bewares his weakness to Stone Edge, Rock Slide and Ice Punch. The overall verdict on Zapdos is also dependent on whether you're considering him for your Wi-Fi team or Competitor. Zapdos can be walled by any Ground really easily if you're not using a good Hidden Power on him. If you're willing to reset endlessly for that or get it via trade, he is a good comrade for your Wi-Fi team. On Competitor where you will be able to set his IVs to your liking, Zapdos is highly recommended as a Baton Passer, a special sweeper or a defensive tank. CountersBlissey stops any kind of special attacking done by Zapdos, and so do Snorlax and Regice to a lesser extent. Electivire, Lanturn and Jolteon can benefit from coming into Thunderbolt or Thunder Wave from Zapdos and get rid of him with their neutral Thunderbolts (or in Lanturn's case, Ice Beam) while Zapdos is stuck using Hidden Power against them. Other Electrics like Raikou and Ampharos work with this principle as well, but they don't benefit from being Thunderbolted. Garchomp, Flygon and Gliscor have a relatively easy time against a Zapdos without Hidden Power Ice. Swampert, Whiscash, Rhyperior, Mamoswine and Quagsire can wall a Zapdos without Hidden Power Grass. Camerupt does a fair bit of damage to Zapdos with Fire or Rock moves and only cares about Hidden Power Water. Steelix does less damage, but unlike the former type-based counters, is immune to Toxic. Grass-types can stall a Zapdos decently with Leech Seed or Toxic. If they have decent Special Defense they will usually last against Hidden Power Ice variants too, examples being Venusaur, Meganium and Celebi. Celebi needs to be wary of U-Turn though. While walling Zapdos is nice, you will usually need some decent power behind a super effective move to win the war against one with Roost or Rest, because Pressure will bite you. Better hope you're using Ice Beam against a Bold Zapdos or Ice Punch against a Calm one too. Earthquake helps against Zapdos if it's using Roost. |
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