Zapdos (Mixed Sweeper)

http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/zapdos

Zapdos @ Life Orb / Leftovers
Naughty
252 Atk / 176 Speed / 80 Special Attack
-Thunderbolt
-Drill Peck
-U-Turn / Hidden Power (Grass)
-Roost

Why this set deserves to be on site:
-Can be an effective Mixed Sweeper
-Between Roost, Pressure, and its strong STAB attacks, it can defeat many Pokemon
-Still remains very physically bulky to counter Pokemon such as Scizor
-Can U-Turn out on a predicted switch to gain momentum, or to escape a threat
-Can heal off damage taken from life orb
-Can hit Pokemon such as Celebi, Shaymin, and Machamp much harder.

Additional Comments:
-EVs give Zapdos 306 Attack and Special Attack, while also having enough speed to outrun any neutral natured base 90 Pokemon, such as Adamant Lucario
-Hidden Power (Grass) can be used over U-Turn if you want to hit bulky Ground types harder such as Swampert and Hippowdon
-Many RestTalk Machamps i've seen run specially defensive sets. While the normal sets cant damage it much, Drill Peck OHKO's Max HP / 0 Defense Adamant Machamp 77% of the time after switching into Stealth Rock.
-Leftovers help its survivability, but Life Orb is recommended for adding a lot extra needed power.
Counters and teammates:
-Bulky Ground types such as Hippowdon and Swampert can counter sets that dont have Hidden Power (Grass).
-A popular switch in to Zapdos is Tyranitar. With this set, you can U-Turn out to a Scizor or something to kill Tyranitar.
-A Rapid Spinner pairs pairs well with any Zapdos due to its weakness to Stealth Rock


Damage Calculations:

Drill Peck vs. Max HP / Min Defense Machamp: 306 Atk vs 196 Def & 384 HP (80 Base Power): 348 - 410 (90.63% - 106.77%)
Drill Peck vs. Max HP / Min Defense Roserade: 306 Atk vs 126 Def & 324 HP (80 Base Power): 542 - 642 (167.28% - 198.15%)
Drill Peck vs. 4 HP / Min Defense Shaymin: 306 Atk vs 236 Def & 342 HP (80 Base Power): 290 - 344 (84.80% - 100.58%)
Thunderbolt vs. 188 HP / Min Sp. Def Vaporeon: 306 Atk vs 226 Def & 448 HP (95 Base Power): 362 - 428 (80.80% - 95.54%)

If we were talking preplat, I'd be all over this. However, with the addition of Heat Wave to Zapdos' arsenal, this just isn't interesting any more.

Physically Defensive variants of Celebi and Shaymin take significantly more damage from Heat Wave than Drill Peck, and for offensive ones there's a 3-4% damage difference. Against Machamp, LO TBolt is an easy 2HKO, and LO Drill Peck isn't even a guaranteed OHKO, let alone the Leftovers version. This set also can't damage Rotom-A in any way, which is fairly important. It's even a vague 3HKO against Blissey with Drill Peck, and while yes, it can poke away at Blissey, it's also prone to getting Paralyzed or Toxiced or simply Ice Beam / Seismic Tossed down to irrelevancy, plus without a CH you're not killing it anyway.

It's slower than Timid Suicune, which means Zapdos gets Ice Beamed before it can do *any* damage against Fastcune. It's slower than Jolly Gyara, Jolly Dragonite (which it has issues hitting), Jolly Lucario, Timid Rotom-A, Jolly Gliscor, Jolly Mamoswine and a WHOOOOOOLE lot of other things that I really CBA to mention.

You're trading reliable damage output from your special attacks and the ability to outspeed a whole bunch of shit... for what? Marginally more damage on offensive Grass-types that already take it in the ass from Heat Wave? A chance at an OHKO on Machamp? It's just not worth it.

Drill Peck does max 43% to Blissey with this spread, so it still walls you considerably. The opposing Pokémon in your calculations are hit hard enough by an offensive set anyway (OHKO'd after a couple of switch-ins to Stealth Rock) and generally a more powerful special Zapdos is more worthwhile than a weaker Zapdos that only seems to hit three targets slightly harder.

My two cents.

EDIT: Ninja'd by SDS yet again...

I would list Heat Wave as a / to drill peck, as Quick attack Scizor will make you kill yourself with life orb recoil before you kill them. (Although it would need a alt spread.)
Also, I don't know the exact reasons for this EV spread, but I think 252 Spd is a must, to outspeed natural bade 100's.

See, here's the funny thing. Without maxed Attack, this doesn't even do its job of OHKOing stuff like Machamp and potentially offensive Shaymin / Celebi. Without 80 SpA, its Thunderbolt has way too little bite to actually be worth it. That means it literally cannot go higher than the 280 Speed listed here on the analysis, which just doesn't cut it.

Also, slashing Heat Wave over Drill Peck? When the set is only even being considered because of STAB Drill Peck? At that point, you're better off just using a flat out special set.

SDS you are pretty elegant at this job, I like reading your rationality for rejecting things. Just wanted to say (so everyone could read it) that you're doing a great job- I learn a ton from just reading threads you reject, nevermind ones you approve or participate in. Good work.

Looks like an interesting set but SDS made a lot of very good points. The selling point for me is having an offensive zapdos that doesnt abuse its 100 base speed.

"can't"

It needs a +Attack nature to do anything notable, and it needs a Special Attack investment to still have a relevant Thunderbolt.

yea i have to agree with SDS on this, with Heat wave in Zapdos's movepool drill peck doesn't have much use. your essentially trading of the ability to OHKO Machamp and a (semi) strong Uturn for: less speed, a weaker stab as well as other special moves, less damage on physically defensive grass types, less damage done to steels such as scizor, metagross, Jirachi etc. Not only that zapdos's defense becomes marginally weaker with a naughty nature and is forced to run LO in order to make up for the lack of spec attack evs as well as reach necessary KO's with drillpeck.
Ive used drill peck zapdos in adv and its great, but tbh its just not worth it in DPP

Seven Deadly Sins summed up my thoughts very well. Although this set looks fairly interesting, I can't just obviate the facts and allow this set of Zapdos to gain its place on the site. So yeah, i'm sorry but i have to reject this.

-Can be an effective Mixed Sweeper

Click to expand...

Not really...Zapdos is pretty much hitting everything harder with tbolt on a special set except like blissey and maybe snorlax so considering drill peck has use on what, 2 or so pokemon? (tbolt on machamp and heatwave the grasses)
So you are running 252 Atks in conjunction with a +atk nature just to kill blissey really...snorlax does not enjoy LO tbolts. LO tbolt would do a ton to machamp anyway so I'm not really going to consider machamp here.
No thanks from me.

Sorry, it appears we all feel the same way about this set. Locking.