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Charizard is my main sweeper, as Yzard is an amazing wallbreaker and can OHKO or 2HKO most threats to my team. The rest of my team works to support Charizard, mainly through paralyzing anything that would outspeed it and KO it.
The Tyrant (Tyranitar) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Next, I put an AV Tyranitar on my team, mainly to sponge special hits. Between the AV and sand, he can take even super-effective special hits with ease. Ttar is also my pursuit trapper, for annoying psychic types such as the Lati twins.
Loki (Thundurus) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Thundurus is generally my lead, unless the enemy appears they're going to lead with a ground type. The only exception to this is enemy Landorus-Therian that do not appear to be scarved. As my secondary sweeper, I tend to keep this 'mon rather safe. If the enemy has no ground types I never hesitate to spam Volt Switch, which racks up huge damage on many common Pokemon.
Rachi! (Jirachi) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 224 HP / 252 Atk / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Thunder Wave
- Heart Stamp
- Iron Head
Jirachi is around to status stuff and be annoying. I often use it as a lure for ground attacks to switch in Charizard safely, or to hax otherwise annoying Pokemon like Mega-Venu. Possibly the most expendable member of my team, this slot has been occupied by many other more defensive mons, such as Skarmory, Clefable, Tran, and Klefki.
Starmie is my hazard control, but mainly because I couldn't find a better one for my team. I experimented with both Latias and Excadrill, but both of them seemed to die a bit quicker than I would have liked. Considering that this team relies heavily on Yzard, keeping Starmie alive longer than the enemy Stealth Rock setter is essential.
Bad Chewtoy (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
Ferrothorn, arguably the most popular defensive 'mon for an offensive team. More status-spreading, setting up rocks, and trolling physical attackers. Not really much to say about Ferorthorn, except that I wish I had room for Power Whip.
yo dude. i think you have a solid idea & understanding of how zardy teams function on a fundamental level, but there are definitely a few issues that have been overlooked threat wise, a few redundancies, as well as small set issues that can easily be addressed. starting with a few threats, strong darks like sd bisharp & weavile both have a lot of fun with the team as they find opportunities to come in on a few members & in bisharp's case, setup to potentially sweep. cm mega alakazam / lo alakazam also look pretty menacing to the team granted focus blast hits, but your ways of managing them are extremely slim. sand offenses (sand drill in this case) are also extremely hard to manage, partially because the build doesn't have a sturdy ground type to consistently also check threats like mega lopunny which can also run through the team. not only this, but there is no real goal in mind aside from zardy finding as many opportunities to break as possible, but this isn't necessarily reliable. just to tell you beforehand, this will be a double-sided rate & i'll be including two versions of the team that are both solid.
i'll be running through the small optimizations first as my changes will make much more sense later on. alright, gonna be blunt: assault vest tyranitar is pretty bad. it may have extra spdef bulk which is cool & all but, av loses either A. utility in rocks or B. straight up speed / force respectively with scarf or band equipped. on this build in particular, scarf tyranitar is definitely much more optimal than spdef. it does a much better job revenge killing stuff like bisharp (a threat mentioned above), mega pinsir, gengar, mega metagross, & the list goes on, while still functioning as a solid pursuit trapper for the lati twins & other various pkmn; zardy + scarf tyranitar is a solid foundation / core to go off of. now, as bisharp can find setup opportunities on more than one member of the build with only scarf tyranitar to revenge kill it, reflect type starmie as opposed to toxic sounds much more appealing on this build specifically. other than helping with the bisharp weakness, it spins freely on stuff like ferrothorn which can be a nuisance to this team, as well as the fact that zardy builds need to keep rocks off the field throughout the entire course of a match. also, a spread of 248 hp / 8 spdef / 252 speed with a timid nature should be used to outspeed crucial threats, & the extra bulk will not be relevant after a change down the line. there's no real reliable way of managing cm mega alakazam & lo alakazam outside of hax, i'd recommend chople berry > leftovers to improve your matchup against it, as well as a few other pkmn (luring in keldeo for example). also, power whip should be ran over thunder wave to help manage mega gyarados & a few other threats to the team, while putting keldeo in range of scarf tyranitar as it will get lured through chople. furthermore, alter the spread to252 hp / 88 def / 168 defwith a relaxed nature to help take on some special attackers better. to add an end game in mind & a more realistic goal to the team, i'd use nasty plot > volt switch on thundurus to clean up a game once its checks have been weakened, which this team does well may i add. examples of this include starmie fishing for burns on ferrothorn & just pressuring it throughout the match, hazard stack (a future change) to put pressure on a wide range of things, tyranitar's sand stream to prevent some forms of recovery, etc. you can try np + 3 attacks with focus blast, but i think the utility thunder wave has here is too nice to pass up in case you make a misplay.
ok the only major change here would be phys. def landorus-t as opposed to jirachi. it's pretty expendable on this team & doesn't serve an important role, just leaves you more vulnerable to a bunch of stuff. landorus-t strengthens the backbone & the team in general by blanket checking a large amount of physical attackers, including but not limited to mega lopunny & excadrill. also, it provides you a stealth rock user, thus freeing up the slot on ferrothorn to run spikes which the team benefits from heavily on multiple levels. as you have both scarf tyranitar & thundurus to ease the matchup against birds, you have two free filler slots in the set to try; toxic lures in some bulky waters & grounds, but i think the combination of zardy, hp ice thundurus & spikes, you should be fine. knock is cool to remove lefties & other items, thus wearing down teams much quicker for one of your late game pkmn. swords dance is the last option here to apply pressure on bulkier pkmn that the team can struggle to break through, & i honestly believe its the best option in this case because cm clefable can certainly get out of hand. swords dance + knock would be a fine option to support this team's main wincon as well. overall, its just a solid bulky ground on this type of team to provide immense role compression.
despite that first version proving to be fairly solid with ways of breaking down bulkier teams, a few secure goals, there is a secondary alternative that you can test out as you may prefer the way it plays. getting straight into it, the basis of zardy | scarftar | spikes chople thorn | rocks sd lando-t is kept exactly the same for the most part, with only the last two slots are altered.
ok, the main change in this version is subcm keldeo instead of np thundurus as a wincon. it eases some pressure off weavile which is a major threat to the build, while benefiting from all of the team's tools; pursuit, spikes, strong breaker in zardy that shares checks, & sd lando-t to keep some stuff low for late game. there's not much else to say about it other than its a pretty strong win condition on the team, granted bulky waters can get a bit more annoying despite zardy's solar beam & hazards. as you gain a secondary way of beating bisharp & weavile, reflect type on starmie is just not needed anymore, nor is the bulky variant. i'm gonna recommend you run an offensive lo variant for surprise factor on this build specifcally, with hydro | psychic | tbolt | spin being the optimal coverage. it functions as a secondary breaker to annoy bulkier teams with analytic & creates a water spam core with keldeo to break down checks together. psychic is used in that slot to bash on stuff like rotom-w, amoonguss, m-venu, & tangrowth, while thunderbolt helps break down some problematic bulky waters. offensive lo mie can be extremely hard to switch into but keeping rocks off the field consistently would be more reliant on offensive pressure. this version would be better off with knock off as the last filler as opposed to swords dance due to the main end games in mind, while uturn is still appreciated here. you can keep zardy as it does work here, but you can even test dd zardx if you'd like as it benefits from the team support as well.
version 2: zardy | scarftar | spikes chople ferrothorn | rocks lando-t | offensive lo mie | subcm keldeo
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off
Ferrothorn @ Chople Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
gl with the teams. i provided two solid versions that you can test to see which you prefer based on your own style of play. if you have any question about either one, feel free to ask away! n_n
