Zebstrika [QC 0/3]

[Disjunction]

Overview
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• Great speed tier. Outspeeds Tauros, Archeops, and Sneasel.
• Overheat complements Zebstrika's Electric-type STAB moves well.
• Volt Switch is great for momentum.
• Abilities give it two useful immunities.
• Weak.
• Kinda frail.

Fast Special Attacker
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name: Fast Special Attacker
move 1: Volt Switch
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Overheat
move 4: Hidden Power Grass
ability: Lightning Rod / Sap Sipper
item: Life Orb / Magnet
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
nature: Timid

Moves
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• Volt Switch gives you momentum. Hard to prevent because of the difficulty of switching into Zebstrika.
• Thunderbolt is the most reliable Electric-type STAB you have because of its high power and perfect accuracy.
• Overheat destroys Grass-types looking to resist your Electric-type STABs, such as Vileplume, Tangela, and Lilligant, with the added bonus of roasting Ice- and Steel-types, such as Sneasel, Klinklang, and Ferroseed, that would take neutral damage from Zebraiken's other attacks.
• Hidden Power Grass hits Ground-types such as Rhydon, Seismitoad, and Sandslash for a lot of damage if they try to block your Volt Switch.

Set Details
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• Zestrika benefits from maximum Speed investment because otherwise it gets outsped and beaten by offensive threats such as Archeops and Tauros.
• Full Special Attack investment is necessary to maximize Zebstrika's damage output.
• Life Orb boosts all of your attacks at the cost of your HP. Magnet still boosts your Electric-type STAB moves, but without losing HP.
• Lightningrod gives you an Electric-type immunity and a +1 Special Attack boost when you take an Electric-type attack.
• Sap Sipper grants you the ability to absorb Sleep Powders and Giga Drains from the likes of Vivillon and Lilligant.

Usage Tips
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• Due to Zebstrika's impressive Speed stat, it can generate momentum for your team with Volt Switch during the early- to mid-game. The best targets for this are offensive Pokemon that are weakened or threatened by Volt Switch.
• If your opponent has an Electric-type immune Pokemon, it is sometimes better to just hard switch out to ensure Zebstrika doesn't waste a turn.
• Zebstrika is, unfortunately, very weak. Because of this, Zebstrika will pair poorly against bulkier teams as it will miss a lot of critical OHKOes. Make sure you know how much damage Zebstrika will be dealing because sometimes super effective will not be enough.

Team Options
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• Zebstrika fits best on offensive teams that appreciate the momentum it provides with Volt Switch.
• Offensive Grass-types, such as Lilligant and Servine, are great partners for Zebstrika as they beat a lot of the Electric-type immune Pokemon, such as Claydol, Lanturn, and Sandslash.
• Other Pokemon that can create VoltTurn cores, such as Mesprit, Rotom, and Scyther, fit well with Zebstrika to pressure the opposing team with your teammates' coverage moves and momentum.

Other Options
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• Hidden Power Water hits Mega Camerupt and other Ground-types at the cost of being walled by Seismitoad.
• Wild Charge benefits from a Sap Sipper boost, isn't affected by Overheat Special Attack drops, and hits specially bulky targets, such as Assault Vest Hariyama and Cryogonal, for more damage.

Checks & Counters
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**Bulky Ground-types**: Mega Camerupt, Claydol, and Piloswine among others can switch into Zebstrika comfortably as they are immune to its primary Electric-type STABs and are bulky enough to take its coverage moves.

**Specially Bulky Pokemon**: Zebstrika's weak Special Attack makes it a free switch in for Pokemon with great special bulk, such as Mega Audino, Malamar, and Musharna.

**Dragon-types**: Fraxure, Zweilous, and Sliggoo can all switch into Zebstrika, as they resist all of his attacks, and either set up on it or throw out powerful attacks.

 

[boltsandbombers]

Disjunction Please finish the skeleton up soon, Zebstrika is a pretty straightforward mon.

 

[Disjunction]

Disjunction Please finish the skeleton up soon, Zebstrika is a pretty straightforward mon.

ik sorry been busy I had planned to finish the skeleton tomorrow.

 

[Disjunction]

k we're QC ready

 

[boltsandbombers]

• Great speed tier. Outspeeds Tauros, Archeops, and Jumpluff.

Also outspeeds Sneasel which is a pretty big target.

• Great Electric / Fire / Grass coverage makes it hard to switch into.

Its realistically Electric / Fire since any Pokemon can have HP Grass, if anything just note that Overheat complements Zebstrika's STAB moves pretty well.

• Overheat destroys Grass-types looking to resist your Electric-type STABs with the added bonus of roasting Bug-, Ice-, and Steel-types that would take neutral damage from Zebraiken's other attacks.

Add a few examples of the pokemon overheat hits here.

Put Magnet in Set Details or OO, either is fine but its a good item to feign a choice item (if your opponent is too lazy to calc lol) while not having recoil. I know hollywood used Magnet Zebstrika so if he has anything to say on that matter chime in.

• If your opponent has an Electric-type immune Pokemon, it is sometimes better to just hard switch out to ensure Zebstrika doesn't waste a turn.

I mean this isnt necessarily true since most bulky grounds are hit really hard by HP Grass (or overheat in torterra's case), so I guess its moreso just for lanturn / camerupt to an extent since zebstrika can 2HKO at worst all of the other bulky grounds. Getting damage off or eliminating these Pokemon can be really helpful for a teammate, so try and reword this.

Add in usage tips that you should be wary of using Overheat since at -2 (especially if choice-locked), zebstrika can be setup bait / fodder for various bulky setup sweepers.

Bump up HP Water to a moves mention (for now), camel is a pretty important target atm but this change isnt a huge deal since it's either getting banned or leaving in tier shift so w/e. After it leaves get rid of it.

**Bulky Ground-types**: Mega Camerupt, Claydol, and Piloswine among others can switch into Zebstrika comfortably as they are immune to its primary Electric-type STABs and are bulky enough to take its coverage moves.

Note that camel takes a solid chunk from a stray HP Water.

I'm not too sure on having Dragon-types in C&C since while they do resist the elec / fire / grass / water coverage, they're just so uncommon, I think zweilous was the most used and it was only around 1%, and even that is fairly low on the viability rankings. Not sure if they should be removed, jut wanted to bring that point up.

Make section for revenge killers, being swellow / ninjask (if you want to mention it) as for the mons that outspeed zebstrika and then list choice scarf users afterwards. Priority needs a mention somewhere in C&C, you can either lump it into the revenge killers section or make a new one for it.

Try and beef up C&C a bit, its kinda bare bones atm; just flesh out some of the points and it should be fine.

Let me know when this is done and I'll stamp.

edit: totally agreeing with holly, but when you mention life orb note that the advantage it has is 2HKOing rhydon while magnet zebra cannot; it still 2hkoes even max sdpef toad

 

[ryan]

magnet is the best item for it imo. zebstrika's niche is being good against common offensive pokemon in the tier, which it doesnt need specs to beat. life orb makes it too easy to wear down because it comes in and out a lot.

 

[boltsandbombers]

Disjunction Progress?

 

[Blast]

dropped, locking