After playing with and against Zamazenta quite a lot now..
honestly I’m happy with its place in the meta.
its clearly broken in any stable meta, but the current one is ridiculous. It really needs to be in the meta to regulate the ridiculous physical attacker roster, and the fact that so many just break past your options.
zamazenta feels “super OP” but..
.. eleki and magearna were different. You couldn’t plan for eleki at all, it just spams volt switch and it’s always a chance they won’t actually ice beam when you think they will. Magearna was just the most ridiculous thing OU could ask for, just impossible to prepare for.
then you have zam-crowned and chien pao. Chien pao was very clearly broken in Chi Yu meta lol, and added no good value. Meanwhile zam crowned was the stronger of the two Zam, and it just NUKED teams, I think if both zamazentas stayed it’s too much to plan around, but with only hero, it’s not so bad…
next..
the Volcarona ban was completely unexpected, whilst I think it’s a strong threat, it’s not in the league of the others. And finally urshifu was unique in that, it was comfortably checked by toxapex and amoonguss, and maybe some other fringe options, but it really really really drove holes into teams that tried to get creative. It reduced creative team design and was just strong as all hell.
meanwhile zamazenta is interesting. it’s crucially adding diversity and creative team design is being rewarded. You can’t just easily spam physical attackers with some mild support.
If it’s existing simultaneously in a meta with blind Tera, kingambit (PS: for those who saw the last replay, I learned to ID in front of an end game gambit,
but how does it do this much damage with low kick against a +5 Zamazenta… this is seriously ridiculous!), and the miscellaneous other things that just rotate throughout the meta fluctuations, whether that’s peak dragonite meta when meowscarada teams were king , peak Volcarona meta when magearna dominated the meta, etc, then I’m all for it.
I would vote DNB, so if the DNB crew need another voter to get it over the line, happy to go for reqs on the vote thread. Admittedly, the DNB vote is a bit of a protest vote at how silly the meta is getting.
it’s also cool to see the increased diversity and ghost become such a common Tera type wincon. I guess this is mostly thanks to ursaluna and zamazenta. Here’s replays that demonstrate ghost type Tera importance RN. It includes a win and a loss
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1886413638-n2y868ko14vfv1q58knkd33pjq57kj5pw
ran away with the game after a Tera ghost on a fake put + future sight wombcombo
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1886557931-h1gbj5bfhgmxqth7bf9v4dgdh40y7napw
lost a game, however delayed the opponents win with a Tera ghost. Unfortunately the dragapult crit meant zam couldn’t pull down 2-3 Pokémon with it.
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the meta is in a crazy place right now. I really don’t think things like kingambit can coexist with blind Tera, it’ll be 100% manageable and maybe even balanced in a Tera disclosure meta. Stability and predictability (although very strong pressure) from zamazenta, is very welcome.
very early on in the Tera gen, we were saying it’ll reach the point where we choose between banning more Pokémon, but keeping Tera, or, alternatively banning less Pokémon, thanks to getting rid of Tera. I think in the current blind Tera meta zamazenta is high value.
in a restricted Tera meta, such as Tera disclosure at preview, we won’t need zamazentas presence to stabilise the meta as much.
I don’t need to explain how easy it is to check Zamazenta, others have done that before.
TL:DR In short, it’s too good, but predictable and possible to plan for. It also helps regulate all the crazy options people have to spam physical attackers. (And helps regulate kingambit lol)
There are SO many games that are coming down to one crucial turn, one crucial miss, etc.
Thanks for reading, and for those who didn’t read, I hope the replays are worth watching.