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Old Dec 13th, 2012, 1:30:05 PM   #205
Salem1
 
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 169
Stockholm, Sweden
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Well, you said you'd get back to my post about Zoroark but you didn't :P so I'll say it again.

In the UU metagame as defined on this site, Zoroark is slower than 18 other mons which decreases to 10 counting only those in the UU tier. Zoroark's defenses are amongst the worst in the game (quick example out of many NFEs: Mienshao's pre-evo Mienfoo actually has only 15 less hp and 10 less in each defense than Zoroark). Also, thanks to those defenses Zoroark can quite reliably by KOed by a decently powerful priority user further adding to the problem of things outspeeding it which is compounded by its lack of 4x resistances and immunities.

Through its horrible defensive stats any attack made at it becomes powerful, ''boosting'' even offensively weak walls to the point of being able to at worst 2HKO it and necessitating a focus sash against remotely offensive mons.

This brings us to why its other stats and move pool aren't enough. A pokemon like Zoroark needs to go before the other mon does and OHKO it, but it's not as common as its 105 speed stat might indicate that it outspeeds things and even if it does it will hardly OHKO anything without its offensive stat being boosted in some way, and in any case when that way isn't nasty plot + focus sash but instead a life orb, expert belt, specs etc. you open Zoroark up to being OHKOed by just about anything.

Consider prominent threats such as scarfcross, signifying a bunch of mons which "should" be outsped by Zoroark but in the reality of the metagame instead outspeeds it. This brings us to my next point which is that Zoroark's STAB is super effective against two relatively uncommon types but it has great neutral coverage. Neutral coverage however is better on bulky mons because they don't rely on OHKOing to the same extent that mons like Zoroark do which need all the speed, super effective hits and power that they can get to make up for not being able to take the return blow.

One last point of Zoroark's defenses is that you basically can't bring it in on anything except a harmless wall as not only will it faint, its only trump card in illusion will be broken if it takes a damaging move, Zoroark switching in on nigh anything is practically wishful thinking. Consider that even if you do disguise Zoroark as Heracross for example, you still need your opponent to switch so you can boost. This means that you must rely on what your opponent does and what mons he has available. Should you succeed, what you get is an easily revenge killed (particularily if sash is broken by stealth rocks) special sweeper relying on focus miss for coverage that still cannot OHKO neutrally hit bulky or defensive mons reliably to make up for being easily revenged - and as we already concluded, even defensive mons have what it takes to quickly rid the field of Zoroark thanks to its truly horrendous defenses.

Which brings me to why I don't get why Mismagius is actually below Zoroark. Mismagius is a Zoroark that swaps illusion, flamethrower, focus blast (arguably not too much of an advantage anyway with the 30% miss rate) and 15 special attack for levitate, 45 special defense, a typing that completely outclasses Zoroark's and other coverage moves Zoroark doesn't get instead of flamethrower. Illusion isn't hard at all to play around imo and 15 special attack is just not enough to offset the major improvements that Mismagius gets in return. I think Zoroark should be in Mismagius's tier.
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