What does the 248 over 252 hp on sirfetch’d do? Does it just give us a little more stats to spread elsewhere?Hit A rank in S4! Let me share my team.
Sirfetch’d @ Leek
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Assault
- Sky Attack
- Leaf Blade/Night Slash
- Swords Dance
Don't sleep on this guy! After an SD Meteor Assault obliterates anything in it's path, as does Sky Attack, especially because it is guaranteed to crit while you're holding the Leek. Leaf Blade or Night Slash comes down to if your team has answers to pert/dozo and ghold respectively. Recommended to get this as an Alpha if you want to try it.
Gholdengo @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Steel Beam
- Make It Rain
- Thunderbolt
- Nasty Plot
Fairies and Psychics are kinda scary for Sirfetch'd, so Gholdengo is there to help. This guys is an uber nasty sniper, as Steel Beam is a nuclear warhead of a move, and it doesn't even kill you since it works differently in ZA, being that it does recoil based on damage rather than just shaving off 50% of your HP! Tbolt to cover flyers that threaten Sirfetch'd and Gyarados in particular. Make it Rain is still very good as a "fuck off me" sorta move.
Swampert @ Focus Sash
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Bulk Up
Swampert is a generally good glue mon, so good in fact, that everyone is now starting to run +Solar Beam... Thankfully, sash helps you secure those KOs on fire types that want Ghold to go away, Garchomps aren't safe either, as your Ice Punch really stings after a Bulk Up. Highly recommend getting an Alpha for this one too.
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Pokemon Legends: Z-A Combat/PVP Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Count Bleck
- Start date
Alrighty, played this season more and I gotta say that people should use Clefable more.
Clefable @ Life Orb / Expert Belt
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Meteor Beam
Meteor Beam is an amazing addition to Clefable's kit (and everything else that got it but just roll with it), as it gives it a method to hit Fire-types while also boosting its Sp Atk. The biggest boon of it is being able to win the 1v1 against armarouge, whos a menace in this meta, while also just having a giant beam to fire into a skirmish to pick off other stuff. The other coverage also pairs quite well with Meteor Beam, giving it great super effective coverage into a lot of the common stuff. The only thing you really miss out on is Gholdengo, but theres plenty of teammates that can help in that regard.
(Mega) (Alpha)
Skarmory-Mega @ Skarmorite
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sky Attack
- Drill Run
- Swords Dance
(Alpha)
Marowak @ Thick Club
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Bonemerang
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
These were the teammates ive been opting for clef, as they both provide a lot of physical offense to beat up anything thats fat on the special side. Both also back ground moves for the steels that annoy clef. Skarm is pretty standard, but I do gotta say that Marowak has pleasantly surprised me. Bonemerang has crazy tracking so people cant just run away which is a problem marowak's other moves can have, while also hitting twice to dodge Shuca Berries and Sashes. Id say the only requirements on it are SD and Bonemerang, the other moves can lean more into coverage with options like Thunder Punch or Brick Break.
The Team I have is a tad weak to Dozo but ive found that the best way to fight dozo is to just... not. Its super fat but its also not that scary so you. can mainly just focus on picking off the stuff it fights. You could also change the team around a lot, Id say as long as you have a ground with clef you should be pretty set which leaves the 3rd slot pretty flexible. Overall this metas felt a lot more shaky with the larger amount of sniper options but its still fun.
Clefable @ Life Orb / Expert Belt
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Meteor Beam
Meteor Beam is an amazing addition to Clefable's kit (and everything else that got it but just roll with it), as it gives it a method to hit Fire-types while also boosting its Sp Atk. The biggest boon of it is being able to win the 1v1 against armarouge, whos a menace in this meta, while also just having a giant beam to fire into a skirmish to pick off other stuff. The other coverage also pairs quite well with Meteor Beam, giving it great super effective coverage into a lot of the common stuff. The only thing you really miss out on is Gholdengo, but theres plenty of teammates that can help in that regard.
(Mega) (Alpha)Skarmory-Mega @ Skarmorite
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sky Attack
- Drill Run
- Swords Dance
(Alpha)Marowak @ Thick Club
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Bonemerang
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
These were the teammates ive been opting for clef, as they both provide a lot of physical offense to beat up anything thats fat on the special side. Both also back ground moves for the steels that annoy clef. Skarm is pretty standard, but I do gotta say that Marowak has pleasantly surprised me. Bonemerang has crazy tracking so people cant just run away which is a problem marowak's other moves can have, while also hitting twice to dodge Shuca Berries and Sashes. Id say the only requirements on it are SD and Bonemerang, the other moves can lean more into coverage with options like Thunder Punch or Brick Break.
The Team I have is a tad weak to Dozo but ive found that the best way to fight dozo is to just... not. Its super fat but its also not that scary so you. can mainly just focus on picking off the stuff it fights. You could also change the team around a lot, Id say as long as you have a ground with clef you should be pretty set which leaves the 3rd slot pretty flexible. Overall this metas felt a lot more shaky with the larger amount of sniper options but its still fun.
Finally feel confident in a tier list:
I wanted to super briefly and informally talk about a few mons and what I like about them. Not going to do this for all of them, but if you have questions about something (or the lack thereof), feel free to shoot me a message and ask!
These guys go crazy. I've been very high on positioning and sniping from a distance since the game's inception, and we've finally actualized that power. I know these guys were not on my radar when the game was first released, but the secret of how good Porygon-Z was came out very quickly, and I think if you play with Armarouge for just a little bit, you'll understand what it's doing up here too. If you're able to position well and stay out of scraps, these guys can single-handily carry a game. Stop running Ice Beam on PZ, just kill Garchomp with Tri Attack instead.
If there was a pokemon I was least confident in, it's this one. I feel like it could go extremely high, and when I first started playing with it, I was ready to rank it in the top 2. Then I began to hit a wall with my play and kind of came to the conclusion that it's probably not that great. I would not be surprised if Meteor Beam alone is enough to carry this to top of the meta, but I just don't think its quite there yet. I think time will either shoot Glimmora up or down, and I'm not quite sure which yet, so it'll stay at the top of A for now.
I hate spelling this thing's name. Gholdengo is extremely funny to play with. It's very quick and avoids Earthquake incredibly easily, simply outrunning the cast time. I initially ran Make It Rain as a spread move, but determined that I almost never pressed it, opting instead to either reposition or press Steel Beam. I now run the incredibly awful, terrible, no good Shadow Ball, just so I can at least pretend to click it if I need to. I find myself scoring kills with either Steel Beam or Tbolt all of the time.
Extremely funny but for the opposite reason as the former. Watching the bones slowing float towards someone before deleting them is hilarious and I very much enjoy picking up a kill from someone who's trying to get behind a bench. Marowak's so incredibly slow, but I like it and think it could move up. My biggest surprise of the current meta, just try to stay off the lake, it's too big for him.
The megas are only good because they have massive stat totals. I rank these guys lower than their base forms for a reason, and its mainly that I don't need extra kill power when they both have swords dance as an option. Just invest another item into them, use plus moves, please just stop using them.
These guys are the polar opposite of how I like to play but they are great in their own respect. Diving right into fights and just erasing whatever is in front of you works surprisingly well. Sirfetch'd is slow, but I still think it's better than the speedy Flamigo, hitting Brave Bird is such a chore and Sirfetch'd having amazing options gives it a significant edge over its bird brethren.
I thought when Rotom-Fan was coming out initally, it was going to be amazing. Screens? Nasty Plot? Charge Tbolts? And it doesn't have to run Shuca like Amphy? Sign me up! When you finally get to using this thing, you realize that losing to Ampharos is devestatingly bad, and the lack of Xern means that Chomp has room for Stone Edge, which rips you apart even behind a Reflect. Rotom-S becomes Mr. Role Compression, if you specifically want a screen user that is also a ground immunity. I wouldn't be surprised if there's potential in an NP Set with Hyper Beam and Ominous Wind out there that pushes this up a bit.
I'm confident in saying these guys suck. Swampert probably has the most potential of the three, and I was initally skeptical but very excited for one of my favorite Pokemon. But getting nuked by a cross map Solar Beam will hurt me no-more. Even with a Rindo Berry I seem to just get deleted, and as for scoring kills? Everything just barely misses out. Waterfall is like Brave Bird but somehow worse. Earthquake can't hit Monopoly man because he just surfs away, and now there's a brand new elite Dragon type who doesn't die to Ice Punch. Annihilape had a ton of potential when we figured out how Rage Fist worked. Turns out it takes forever to cast and its range is poor and the rest of his moves just aren't good enough to maximize it. Metagross is the same as it ever was, was never a fan and your best bet is likely as a screen setter with it.
There's a TON of things I wanted to include in the potential mons, but I ended up just picking the things I tried out or the things I ran into that I thought were kind of cool. If you have questions about what I think of a certain mon, feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, I'll probably just play with it a bit until I do know.
My philosophy is to rank more things than less, I would prefer a longer VR with a bunch of unviable mons than a shorter VR. Inclusion generally is my core belief over exclusion. If you really care about the lettering system that I use and don't believe anything is really S tier; I totally get that but you're wrong. If that bothers you, just mentally replace S with A, A with B, and so forth.
I am not particularly high on Megas in general. I think running a mon that's typically not very comprehensive right off the bat is bad because it limits options. I would prefer to have an immediate presence, over the ability to dodge an attack with a mega evolution. The ability to only run one per team viably is also a factor, as they limit the amount of splashability and options they have together. If the mon isn't really viable without mega, it's probably enough to drop it down a spot or two.
Tiers are mostly ordered, but I could be convinced to move things around within tiers and I am certain there are developments and things I am missing.
I am not particularly high on Megas in general. I think running a mon that's typically not very comprehensive right off the bat is bad because it limits options. I would prefer to have an immediate presence, over the ability to dodge an attack with a mega evolution. The ability to only run one per team viably is also a factor, as they limit the amount of splashability and options they have together. If the mon isn't really viable without mega, it's probably enough to drop it down a spot or two.
Tiers are mostly ordered, but I could be convinced to move things around within tiers and I am certain there are developments and things I am missing.
I wanted to super briefly and informally talk about a few mons and what I like about them. Not going to do this for all of them, but if you have questions about something (or the lack thereof), feel free to shoot me a message and ask!
These guys go crazy. I've been very high on positioning and sniping from a distance since the game's inception, and we've finally actualized that power. I know these guys were not on my radar when the game was first released, but the secret of how good Porygon-Z was came out very quickly, and I think if you play with Armarouge for just a little bit, you'll understand what it's doing up here too. If you're able to position well and stay out of scraps, these guys can single-handily carry a game. Stop running Ice Beam on PZ, just kill Garchomp with Tri Attack instead.
If there was a pokemon I was least confident in, it's this one. I feel like it could go extremely high, and when I first started playing with it, I was ready to rank it in the top 2. Then I began to hit a wall with my play and kind of came to the conclusion that it's probably not that great. I would not be surprised if Meteor Beam alone is enough to carry this to top of the meta, but I just don't think its quite there yet. I think time will either shoot Glimmora up or down, and I'm not quite sure which yet, so it'll stay at the top of A for now.
I hate spelling this thing's name. Gholdengo is extremely funny to play with. It's very quick and avoids Earthquake incredibly easily, simply outrunning the cast time. I initially ran Make It Rain as a spread move, but determined that I almost never pressed it, opting instead to either reposition or press Steel Beam. I now run the incredibly awful, terrible, no good Shadow Ball, just so I can at least pretend to click it if I need to. I find myself scoring kills with either Steel Beam or Tbolt all of the time.
Extremely funny but for the opposite reason as the former. Watching the bones slowing float towards someone before deleting them is hilarious and I very much enjoy picking up a kill from someone who's trying to get behind a bench. Marowak's so incredibly slow, but I like it and think it could move up. My biggest surprise of the current meta, just try to stay off the lake, it's too big for him.
The megas are only good because they have massive stat totals. I rank these guys lower than their base forms for a reason, and its mainly that I don't need extra kill power when they both have swords dance as an option. Just invest another item into them, use plus moves, please just stop using them.
These guys are the polar opposite of how I like to play but they are great in their own respect. Diving right into fights and just erasing whatever is in front of you works surprisingly well. Sirfetch'd is slow, but I still think it's better than the speedy Flamigo, hitting Brave Bird is such a chore and Sirfetch'd having amazing options gives it a significant edge over its bird brethren.
I thought when Rotom-Fan was coming out initally, it was going to be amazing. Screens? Nasty Plot? Charge Tbolts? And it doesn't have to run Shuca like Amphy? Sign me up! When you finally get to using this thing, you realize that losing to Ampharos is devestatingly bad, and the lack of Xern means that Chomp has room for Stone Edge, which rips you apart even behind a Reflect. Rotom-S becomes Mr. Role Compression, if you specifically want a screen user that is also a ground immunity. I wouldn't be surprised if there's potential in an NP Set with Hyper Beam and Ominous Wind out there that pushes this up a bit.
I'm confident in saying these guys suck. Swampert probably has the most potential of the three, and I was initally skeptical but very excited for one of my favorite Pokemon. But getting nuked by a cross map Solar Beam will hurt me no-more. Even with a Rindo Berry I seem to just get deleted, and as for scoring kills? Everything just barely misses out. Waterfall is like Brave Bird but somehow worse. Earthquake can't hit Monopoly man because he just surfs away, and now there's a brand new elite Dragon type who doesn't die to Ice Punch. Annihilape had a ton of potential when we figured out how Rage Fist worked. Turns out it takes forever to cast and its range is poor and the rest of his moves just aren't good enough to maximize it. Metagross is the same as it ever was, was never a fan and your best bet is likely as a screen setter with it.
There's a TON of things I wanted to include in the potential mons, but I ended up just picking the things I tried out or the things I ran into that I thought were kind of cool. If you have questions about what I think of a certain mon, feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, I'll probably just play with it a bit until I do know.
Gardevoir having potential has me curious. Care to share your thoughts?Finally feel confident in a tier list:
View attachment 795471
My philosophy is to rank more things than less, I would prefer a longer VR with a bunch of unviable mons than a shorter VR. Inclusion generally is my core belief over exclusion. If you really care about the lettering system that I use and don't believe anything is really S tier; I totally get that but you're wrong. If that bothers you, just mentally replace S with A, A with B, and so forth.
I am not particularly high on Megas in general. I think running a mon that's typically not very comprehensive right off the bat is bad because it limits options. I would prefer to have an immediate presence, over the ability to dodge an attack with a mega evolution. The ability to only run one per team viably is also a factor, as they limit the amount of splashability and options they have together. If the mon isn't really viable without mega, it's probably enough to drop it down a spot or two.
Tiers are mostly ordered, but I could be convinced to move things around within tiers and I am certain there are developments and things I am missing.
I wanted to super briefly and informally talk about a few mons and what I like about them. Not going to do this for all of them, but if you have questions about something (or the lack thereof), feel free to shoot me a message and ask!
These guys go crazy. I've been very high on positioning and sniping from a distance since the game's inception, and we've finally actualized that power. I know these guys were not on my radar when the game was first released, but the secret of how good Porygon-Z was came out very quickly, and I think if you play with Armarouge for just a little bit, you'll understand what it's doing up here too. If you're able to position well and stay out of scraps, these guys can single-handily carry a game. Stop running Ice Beam on PZ, just kill Garchomp with Tri Attack instead.
If there was a pokemon I was least confident in, it's this one. I feel like it could go extremely high, and when I first started playing with it, I was ready to rank it in the top 2. Then I began to hit a wall with my play and kind of came to the conclusion that it's probably not that great. I would not be surprised if Meteor Beam alone is enough to carry this to top of the meta, but I just don't think its quite there yet. I think time will either shoot Glimmora up or down, and I'm not quite sure which yet, so it'll stay at the top of A for now.
I hate spelling this thing's name. Gholdengo is extremely funny to play with. It's very quick and avoids Earthquake incredibly easily, simply outrunning the cast time. I initially ran Make It Rain as a spread move, but determined that I almost never pressed it, opting instead to either reposition or press Steel Beam. I now run the incredibly awful, terrible, no good Shadow Ball, just so I can at least pretend to click it if I need to. I find myself scoring kills with either Steel Beam or Tbolt all of the time.
Extremely funny but for the opposite reason as the former. Watching the bones slowing float towards someone before deleting them is hilarious and I very much enjoy picking up a kill from someone who's trying to get behind a bench. Marowak's so incredibly slow, but I like it and think it could move up. My biggest surprise of the current meta, just try to stay off the lake, it's too big for him.
The megas are only good because they have massive stat totals. I rank these guys lower than their base forms for a reason, and its mainly that I don't need extra kill power when they both have swords dance as an option. Just invest another item into them, use plus moves, please just stop using them.
These guys are the polar opposite of how I like to play but they are great in their own respect. Diving right into fights and just erasing whatever is in front of you works surprisingly well. Sirfetch'd is slow, but I still think it's better than the speedy Flamigo, hitting Brave Bird is such a chore and Sirfetch'd having amazing options gives it a significant edge over its bird brethren.
I thought when Rotom-Fan was coming out initally, it was going to be amazing. Screens? Nasty Plot? Charge Tbolts? And it doesn't have to run Shuca like Amphy? Sign me up! When you finally get to using this thing, you realize that losing to Ampharos is devestatingly bad, and the lack of Xern means that Chomp has room for Stone Edge, which rips you apart even behind a Reflect. Rotom-S becomes Mr. Role Compression, if you specifically want a screen user that is also a ground immunity. I wouldn't be surprised if there's potential in an NP Set with Hyper Beam and Ominous Wind out there that pushes this up a bit.
I'm confident in saying these guys suck. Swampert probably has the most potential of the three, and I was initally skeptical but very excited for one of my favorite Pokemon. But getting nuked by a cross map Solar Beam will hurt me no-more. Even with a Rindo Berry I seem to just get deleted, and as for scoring kills? Everything just barely misses out. Waterfall is like Brave Bird but somehow worse. Earthquake can't hit Monopoly man because he just surfs away, and now there's a brand new elite Dragon type who doesn't die to Ice Punch. Annihilape had a ton of potential when we figured out how Rage Fist worked. Turns out it takes forever to cast and its range is poor and the rest of his moves just aren't good enough to maximize it. Metagross is the same as it ever was, was never a fan and your best bet is likely as a screen setter with it.
There's a TON of things I wanted to include in the potential mons, but I ended up just picking the things I tried out or the things I ran into that I thought were kind of cool. If you have questions about what I think of a certain mon, feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, I'll probably just play with it a bit until I do know.
Armarouge and porygon seem very good, I was gonna try a team with both of them on it but they both want the life orb as their item. Maybe one can get an expert belt…Finally feel confident in a tier list:
View attachment 795471
My philosophy is to rank more things than less, I would prefer a longer VR with a bunch of unviable mons than a shorter VR. Inclusion generally is my core belief over exclusion. If you really care about the lettering system that I use and don't believe anything is really S tier; I totally get that but you're wrong. If that bothers you, just mentally replace S with A, A with B, and so forth.
I am not particularly high on Megas in general. I think running a mon that's typically not very comprehensive right off the bat is bad because it limits options. I would prefer to have an immediate presence, over the ability to dodge an attack with a mega evolution. The ability to only run one per team viably is also a factor, as they limit the amount of splashability and options they have together. If the mon isn't really viable without mega, it's probably enough to drop it down a spot or two.
Tiers are mostly ordered, but I could be convinced to move things around within tiers and I am certain there are developments and things I am missing.
I wanted to super briefly and informally talk about a few mons and what I like about them. Not going to do this for all of them, but if you have questions about something (or the lack thereof), feel free to shoot me a message and ask!
These guys go crazy. I've been very high on positioning and sniping from a distance since the game's inception, and we've finally actualized that power. I know these guys were not on my radar when the game was first released, but the secret of how good Porygon-Z was came out very quickly, and I think if you play with Armarouge for just a little bit, you'll understand what it's doing up here too. If you're able to position well and stay out of scraps, these guys can single-handily carry a game. Stop running Ice Beam on PZ, just kill Garchomp with Tri Attack instead.
If there was a pokemon I was least confident in, it's this one. I feel like it could go extremely high, and when I first started playing with it, I was ready to rank it in the top 2. Then I began to hit a wall with my play and kind of came to the conclusion that it's probably not that great. I would not be surprised if Meteor Beam alone is enough to carry this to top of the meta, but I just don't think its quite there yet. I think time will either shoot Glimmora up or down, and I'm not quite sure which yet, so it'll stay at the top of A for now.
I hate spelling this thing's name. Gholdengo is extremely funny to play with. It's very quick and avoids Earthquake incredibly easily, simply outrunning the cast time. I initially ran Make It Rain as a spread move, but determined that I almost never pressed it, opting instead to either reposition or press Steel Beam. I now run the incredibly awful, terrible, no good Shadow Ball, just so I can at least pretend to click it if I need to. I find myself scoring kills with either Steel Beam or Tbolt all of the time.
Extremely funny but for the opposite reason as the former. Watching the bones slowing float towards someone before deleting them is hilarious and I very much enjoy picking up a kill from someone who's trying to get behind a bench. Marowak's so incredibly slow, but I like it and think it could move up. My biggest surprise of the current meta, just try to stay off the lake, it's too big for him.
The megas are only good because they have massive stat totals. I rank these guys lower than their base forms for a reason, and its mainly that I don't need extra kill power when they both have swords dance as an option. Just invest another item into them, use plus moves, please just stop using them.
These guys are the polar opposite of how I like to play but they are great in their own respect. Diving right into fights and just erasing whatever is in front of you works surprisingly well. Sirfetch'd is slow, but I still think it's better than the speedy Flamigo, hitting Brave Bird is such a chore and Sirfetch'd having amazing options gives it a significant edge over its bird brethren.
I thought when Rotom-Fan was coming out initally, it was going to be amazing. Screens? Nasty Plot? Charge Tbolts? And it doesn't have to run Shuca like Amphy? Sign me up! When you finally get to using this thing, you realize that losing to Ampharos is devestatingly bad, and the lack of Xern means that Chomp has room for Stone Edge, which rips you apart even behind a Reflect. Rotom-S becomes Mr. Role Compression, if you specifically want a screen user that is also a ground immunity. I wouldn't be surprised if there's potential in an NP Set with Hyper Beam and Ominous Wind out there that pushes this up a bit.
I'm confident in saying these guys suck. Swampert probably has the most potential of the three, and I was initally skeptical but very excited for one of my favorite Pokemon. But getting nuked by a cross map Solar Beam will hurt me no-more. Even with a Rindo Berry I seem to just get deleted, and as for scoring kills? Everything just barely misses out. Waterfall is like Brave Bird but somehow worse. Earthquake can't hit Monopoly man because he just surfs away, and now there's a brand new elite Dragon type who doesn't die to Ice Punch. Annihilape had a ton of potential when we figured out how Rage Fist worked. Turns out it takes forever to cast and its range is poor and the rest of his moves just aren't good enough to maximize it. Metagross is the same as it ever was, was never a fan and your best bet is likely as a screen setter with it.
There's a TON of things I wanted to include in the potential mons, but I ended up just picking the things I tried out or the things I ran into that I thought were kind of cool. If you have questions about what I think of a certain mon, feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, I'll probably just play with it a bit until I do know.
I'm not very high on it whatsoever but as an offensive Fairy type it has so many solid matchups. Going down my VR I think it could win against a solid half of the cast. Calm Mind and Moonblast might just be enough to push it into the viable zone, but I don't quite know if that's enough for it to be an actual metagame threat. It's mainly thrown into Potential because there are certainly team comps who lose to a Fairy/Psychic type, I just don't think it's been optimized to the point where it would be able to carve a niche around Clefable.
If you were going to run it, I would suggest running a Calm Mind Babiri Berry set, try to force things like Garchomp and ZAbsol to switch out, and try to nail ZLuke and Gholdengo with MFire before they kill you first.
I want to discuss Meteor Beam.
This is genuinely the most broken move in the game and it's not even close. The fact your SpA is boosted before your attack goes off is ludicrous. It was balanced in standard Pokemon by being a two-turn move that required Power Herb to use effectively. However, that doesn't apply in PLZA. It simply has a longer-than-average charge-up time, but that's hardly a weakness when the optimal playstyle right now is to snipe from afar and to not bring too much attention to yourself. Meteor Beam is the primary reason why Season 4 has shifted the metagame into sniper hell. To make matters worse, nothing in the game is immune to it, so your move WILL go off no matter what, and even if you miss, you still get +1 SpA anyway, so dealing ridiculously-high damage ends up just being a bonus, because your set up is always successful.
Anything that got Meteor Beam in the DLC benefited greatly. The tried-and-true Ampharos got even better with it, dropping Light Screen as Charge boosts SpDef anyway, and Charged +1 Thunderbolt is beyond broken. Other pre-DLC mons like Clefable and Aurorus got better with it, too, especially Aurorus as it was originally outclassed by Glaceon as a Freeze Dry Ice-type, but not anymore. It has a legitimate use-case now that Armarouge is dominating the meta. As for the DLC mons, Glimmora's Meteor Beam is currently the most powerful in the game (Mega Diancie's is stronger, technically, but it's not legal). Armarouge is probably the best user of the move currently with its strong coverage options and massive SpA.
When I said anything that got Meteor Beam benefited, I honestly mean anything.
Allow me to introduce to you...my abomination. An affront to nature, mankind, and God. A mechanical being that should not be able to bring the meteoric destruction it does, but somehow can anyway. Behold.
The Tank (Aggron) @ Life Orb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Meteor Beam
- Steel Beam
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
If Mega Aggron is The Wall, then PLZA Special Aggron is The Tank. Meteor Beam is so broken that it can make Special Aggron of all things put in work online. Aggron is the only Pokemon in PLZA that has STAB on both Meteor Beam and Steel Beam. It's also an honorary Gen 1 Pokemon because it has a stupid-wide Special movepool for no reason other than "fuck it,
?" Solar Beam shadow realms Water and Ground types. As for the last move, I went through Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Earth Power until I landed on Fire Blast, which torches Steel-types like Mega Golisopod, Mega Skarmory, and Gholdengo all in one slot. I'm happy and upset a stupid set like this works lmfao.
Man, I even saw this:
TLDR: Meteor Beam is a problem.
This is genuinely the most broken move in the game and it's not even close. The fact your SpA is boosted before your attack goes off is ludicrous. It was balanced in standard Pokemon by being a two-turn move that required Power Herb to use effectively. However, that doesn't apply in PLZA. It simply has a longer-than-average charge-up time, but that's hardly a weakness when the optimal playstyle right now is to snipe from afar and to not bring too much attention to yourself. Meteor Beam is the primary reason why Season 4 has shifted the metagame into sniper hell. To make matters worse, nothing in the game is immune to it, so your move WILL go off no matter what, and even if you miss, you still get +1 SpA anyway, so dealing ridiculously-high damage ends up just being a bonus, because your set up is always successful.
Anything that got Meteor Beam in the DLC benefited greatly. The tried-and-true Ampharos got even better with it, dropping Light Screen as Charge boosts SpDef anyway, and Charged +1 Thunderbolt is beyond broken. Other pre-DLC mons like Clefable and Aurorus got better with it, too, especially Aurorus as it was originally outclassed by Glaceon as a Freeze Dry Ice-type, but not anymore. It has a legitimate use-case now that Armarouge is dominating the meta. As for the DLC mons, Glimmora's Meteor Beam is currently the most powerful in the game (Mega Diancie's is stronger, technically, but it's not legal). Armarouge is probably the best user of the move currently with its strong coverage options and massive SpA.
When I said anything that got Meteor Beam benefited, I honestly mean anything.
Allow me to introduce to you...my abomination. An affront to nature, mankind, and God. A mechanical being that should not be able to bring the meteoric destruction it does, but somehow can anyway. Behold.
The Tank (Aggron) @ Life Orb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Meteor Beam
- Steel Beam
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
If Mega Aggron is The Wall, then PLZA Special Aggron is The Tank. Meteor Beam is so broken that it can make Special Aggron of all things put in work online. Aggron is the only Pokemon in PLZA that has STAB on both Meteor Beam and Steel Beam. It's also an honorary Gen 1 Pokemon because it has a stupid-wide Special movepool for no reason other than "fuck it,
?" Solar Beam shadow realms Water and Ground types. As for the last move, I went through Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Earth Power until I landed on Fire Blast, which torches Steel-types like Mega Golisopod, Mega Skarmory, and Gholdengo all in one slot. I'm happy and upset a stupid set like this works lmfao.Man, I even saw this:
TLDR: Meteor Beam is a problem.
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I don't know if I'm more shocked by special aggron or learning vengeance has been a successful Halo youtuber this entire ass time.
I can vouch for Special Aggron. It really does work as a sniper option.
Salutations, I have revealed my double life situation lmfao. Using Aggron has kinda been like using the Scarab Gun from Halo 2 so the comparison is there :p
Golisopod @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Waterfall
- Close Combat / Drill Run
- Leech Life / Protect
On the topic of ridiculous moves, let's talk about First Impression.
At a glance, the move doesn't appear all that impressive - 90 BP, only usable when it is the first move that Golisopod uses every time it comes out. However, what may not be the most well documented aspect of First Impression is that it is guaranteed to critical hit if you + it. Combined with its near-instantaneous cast (as with just about every priority move in the game), Golisopod can deal massive, nearly unreactable burst damage. It is the king of kill steals and nothing in the game comes close.
252+ Atk Life Orb Golisopod First Impression+ vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Absol-Mega-Z on a critical hit: 202-240 (117.4 - 139.5%)
252+ Atk Life Orb Golisopod First Impression+ vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Porygon-Z on a critical hit: 177-210 (92.1 - 109.3%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
These two Pokemon are your two primary meta targets with First Impression+. Absol Z is slippery and can rapidly clean up the entire field, and Golisopod is one of the most reliable ways of removing it as First Impression can hit before Absol can Phantom Force away. Be careful though, as First Impression can still be dodged if Absol gets off a successful pre-emptive Phantom Force, so it's generally best to wait until you see that it's been used. You may also want to wait for a round of Life Orb chip on Porygon-Z before attempting to delete it. Since First Impression is a guaranteed crit, it will also ignore Screens, so these Pokemon don't really have a chance of withstanding it.
Golisopod's fun UNLOCKS if you can pick up a Red Buff - its burst damage becomes truly heinous. Even bulky Pokemon and semi-fragile resists can be OHKOed
Red Item 252+ Atk Life Orb Golisopod First Impression+ vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Metagross-Mega on a critical hit: 186-221 (99.4 - 118.1%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
Red Item 252+ Atk Life Orb Golisopod First Impression+ vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rotom-Fan on a critical hit: 151-179 (96.1 - 114%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
Red Item 252+ Atk Life Orb Golisopod First Impression+ vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Sirfetch’d on a critical hit: 165-196 (97.6 - 115.9%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
Red Item 252+ Atk Life Orb Golisopod First Impression+ vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo on a critical hit: 236-279 (91.8 - 108.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
Golisopod is perhaps one of the best ways to bully randoms online, frequently picking off common-but-bad Pokemon such as Greninja, Umbreon, Mega Gyarados, and Gardevoir. Additionally, unlike the other common assassin, Absol Z, Golisopod comes with both a low investment cost (just needs 1 bar of the mega meter!), and comes with a wonderful defensive profile courtesy of its useful resistances and solid overall bulk. It can still certainly be a respectable presence on the field even when it cannot select First Impression, though it must be careful to run away from Meteor Beams and Thunderbolts aimed its way.