|
-
Pressure
- Enemy attacks lose 1 extra PP. Increases wild encounter rate.
|
Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
90
|
- |
321 |
384 |
- |
| Atk |
90
|
194 |
216 |
279 |
306 |
| Def |
85
|
185 |
206 |
269 |
295 |
| SpA |
125
|
257 |
286 |
349 |
383 |
| SpD |
90
|
194 |
216 |
279 |
306 |
| Spe |
100
|
212 |
236 |
299 |
328 |
Zapdos is one of the most unstoppable Baton Passers in the game. Thunderbolt hits Skarmory, Weezing and Suicune hard so they can't hinder you, and Donphan eats a Hidden Power. This Zapdos is great in tandem with Marowak and Metagross, who resists both Ice and Rock, Zapdos's only weaknesses, while making great use of Agility and Substitute. If you think you can get away with only Thunderbolt as an attacking move, you can Baton Pass both Agility and Substitute.
If you're using Agility, drop your Speed down to 244 (requires 32 EVs) and use a Modest nature, as Agility will make you faster than anything you would ever need to be faster than.
This version of Zapdos is the most durable and can take hits and status from Weezing, Metagross, any Water and many more. With Rest and Sleep Talk it can keep on going and out-stall Blissey one on one. With some smart prediction you can take Gengar's Hypnosis with this without effectively losing a Pokémon as well, and thanks to the great Special Defense investment you can afford switching into an Ice Punch. Zapdos can still pack a punch with this set and scare off what it's supposed to.
Quite a devastating sweeper. You can try to Thunder Wave Snorlax, wear it down with Thunderbolts on the switches, and when its health goes below 50%, Substitute repeatedly to try for a full paralysis. An offensive option.
This is good if you need some special support, and it lasts longer than the other versions. It walls Swampert and Tyraniboah (Tyranitar with Crunch, Thunderbolt, Focus Punch and Substitute) better.
It is actually very, very hard to find a safe switch in for this, even though it looks like a joke on paper. Drill Peck hits Celebi, Snorlax and Blissey extremely hard, and if your opponent catches on, you can still Thunderbolt Suicune and Skarmory to their graves. Hidden Power Fighting hits these Special walls (and also Regice) even harder, but if you're afraid of Grounds like Swampert and Donphan, feel free to use Hidden Power Grass. You probably won't use the last move slot, but just in case you put Hidden Power Grass in the second slot, Steel Wing is there to hit Regice hard. Other options for that slot are Toxic, Double-Edge and Return. Hidden Power Ground is another option to hit Electrics (other than enemy Zapdos), who otherwise come in easily.
A mixed attacking Zapdos. It gets the job done pretty well. It has enough attack to 2HKO a Celebi with max HP and less than 261 Def and hurt Blissey a little with Drill Peck, and enough Special Attack to 3HKO a Snorlax with Thunder if it has 500~ HP and 300 Special Defense. This is why Thunder is a decent option over Thunderbolt. Substitute is the main option for a filler as it allows you to see what the opponent does. Rest works if you have Heal Bell / Aromatherapy support.
Pokémon XD gave Zapdos two handy moves, and Metal Sound is one of them. This Zapdos works excellently with Spikes. Bring in Zapdos against something that will switch out and Metal Sound. If your opponent is using Snorlax as his/her Zapdos counter, you're in the money, as you 3HKO it after the Special Defense drop. Now, after using Metal Sound, predict your opponent's next move. If you predict a switch, then either use Metal Sound if the opposing Pokémon won't be weak to either of your moves, or attack with whatever move will do the most damage. If you think it will stay in to face you, hit it with Thunderbolt or Hidden Power for a large amount of damage. Substitute eases prediction while Thunder Wave helps support the team. Most other filler options work fine in the last slot, as well.
Other Options
Thunder has a 30% paralysis chance and helps to wear down Snorlax quickly; it's mostly useful in Uber teams against or paired with Kyogre, or on the Sleep Talk set. Extrasensory can hit Gengar harder than Thunderbolt, as well as doing decent damage to Heracross / Breloom and friends, something Hidden Power Grass cannot, but Thunderbolt does nearly as much to all of those (except Breloom). It is also Zapdos's best special attack to pair with Thunderbolt if you do not have access to Hidden Power.
Protect can work for Pressure stalling. Roar makes Zapdos a pseudo-hazer, though it's usually better at straight-up hitting the things you would try to pseudo-haze (Salamence, Suicune, etc) or just staying out of their way (Snorlax). If you want Roar, use it on the Sleep Talk set over Hidden Power and pair it up with Spikes to deal some crazy damage.
EVs
Defensive Zapdos sets should have max HP, and mostly focus on one defense. Defense EVs help to defend against Salamence and Metagross, as Zapdos can survive a Choice Band Rock Slide from either of them. Special Defense helps against Waters and Tyraniboah. 244 Speed is a minimum to outspeed Jolly Tyranitar. If you have any leftover EVs, pour them into Special Attack.
Other, more offensively oriented Zapdos should run one of the following Speeds: 244 (outspeeds Tyranitar, as said above; requires 32 EVs), 274 (outspeeds Adamant max Speed Heracross and Smeargle; requires 152 EVs), 285 (outspeeds Jolly Medicham; requires 196 EVs), 299 (outspeeds Jolly Heracross, ties at worst with Adamant Salamence; requires 252 EVs), 300 (outspeeds all 100 base Pokémon without a +Speed nature; requires 148 EVs and a +Speed nature) or 328 (beats anything Zapdos can possibly beat, including Modest Gengar, and ties at the worst with Salamence, Zapdos, and any other base 100 Speed Pokémon; requires 252 EVs and a +Speed nature). Usually, you'll want max or nearly max Special Attack, except for the Choice Bander, which is in need of a lot of Attack EVs—all other EVs go into HP.
Opinion
One of the most prominent Pokémon in competitive play, Zapdos has an extremely good stat distribution—it doesn't have any bad points there and packs a great 125 base Special Attack. Its Thunderbolt can dent even Snorlax and Regice after a while, and with Rest / Sleep Talk it can out-stall Blissey most of the time. The Choice Band set requires prediction and some sacrifices in versatility, but hurts anything in the game. The Sleep Talk set is a great counter to Waters, especially Milotic, as it can absorb Toxic and Hypnosis. It's also one of the greatest Baton Passers of all time, thanks to being able to shut down the main phazers and hazers. This makes Zapdos a major help in a Baton Pass chain. A great aid to about any team.
Counters
Venusaur can take on Zapdos nicely with its Thunderbolt resistance, unless Zapdos has Drill Peck or Hidden Power Ice. Still, without a Choice Banded Drill Peck, a Synthesis Venusaur can shrug off the hits. This becomes problematic if Sand Stream is up though. Celebi does the same but to a better extent with Recover and more HP, as well as Calm Mind. Cradily does this too, but has a super effective Rock Slide to work with instead of Calm Mind.
Blissey, Snorlax and Regice do not take much damage from Thunderbolt, but Zapdos can out-stall Blissey if it has Rest. The Choice Band set can hit them hard if they switch into an unexpected Drill Peck, Steel Wing or Hidden Power Fighting.
Jolteon and Lanturn can switch into Thunderbolts easily and abuse their Volt Absorb to stay at high health. Hidden Powers will hurt them though, especially Hidden Power Grass on Lanturn. A swift Thunder Wave on the Jolteon switch will make it useless, unless it is cured by Aromatherapy / Heal Bell. Lanturn cannot really hurt Zapdos, it just stops him from sweeping. Raikou doesn't have Volt Absorb, but switches in easily with its excellent base 100 Special Defense, sets up a Substitute, Calm Minds to block Thunderbolts (which does more damage than Hidden Power to it), and hits Zapdos with a neutral Thunderbolt.
Ludicolo needs Ice Beam to bring down Zapdos effectively. Rain Dance with Swift Swim helps that a lot, but usually such sets have little room for HP and Special Defense EVs. A staller set with Leech Seed / Toxic is a better idea, but then you won't be hurting Zapdos much, and you might get out-stalled by Rest and Pressure. Swampert, Whiscash and Quagsire can counter Zapdos that do not have Hidden Power Grass. They have some trouble actually killing Resting Zapdos, though, unless they have a Rock move that they boost with Curse (Whiscash lacks this option, however, and Quagsire would have to use Hidden Power Rock instead of Rock Slide). Seeing as how most Zapdos have Hidden Power Grass, Flygon is a safe switch in. It can then damage the thundering bird seriously with Rock Slide. Do remember, though, that some Zapdos carry Hidden Power Ice.