Resource Battle Stadium Singles Viability Rankings (Reg I)

Keep in mind that while VR council members do keep an eye on metagame trends we aren’t omniscient and mainly end up making changes as a result of discussion in this thread or in our discord server. If you want to see something added, moved or whatever, talk about it. What does it do? How useful is what it does? How generally applicable is it?

Zapdos was brought up during discussion and after discussing what it does (good defensive piece with paralysis support via twave/discharge and static) we decided to rank it at C, given that is a unique and potentially valuable niche
 
As Derpy said, if you're actually wondering about other niche unranked threats, talk about it and make a nomination. That's the purpose of this thread, so you should absolutely participate and use it accordingly.
But comparing the Pokémon in question with other that are unranked, do not have as many high place finishes or are placed higher in usage stats in comparison isn't always the best way to determine whether something should be included or not, but seeing the way your nomination interacts with the metagame and what unique value it provides is. For reference, I'll link this post from Derpy and this one from Theorymon which were quite insightful for helping me determine if it was worth nominating something in C rank in the first place.

To clear things up, I wasn't able to convey everything I wanted to say due to schedule constraints, but I'll complement some points of my nomination here. Everything is based on my own laddering experience and observations of these last 2 months while playing extensively with Zacian, so this perspective mainly comes from the Zacian player's side of the matchup. While I briefly mentioned Zapdos on the Discord back in January, over the weeks it became more apparent why people were secretely picking it over other Rocky Helmet users in certain structures.

One of its main advantages is how poorly Zacian's movepool interacts with it. For a Pokémon whose role is to maintain speed control and constant offensive pressure, this is extremely inefficient. And unlike Landorus-T, it doesn't have to commit terastallization to resist any attack because it already resists naturally most of them.
  • Behemoth Blade (makes contact)
  • Play Rough (makes contact, some Zacian won't bother running this due to shaky accuracy)
  • Sacred Sword (makes contact, for Stamina Archaludon)
  • Close Combat (makes contact, more reliable against Ting-Lu)
  • Trailblaze (contact, for speed boosting)
  • Thunder Fang (contact, less accurate, for Ho-Oh or Dondozo)
  • Wild Charge (contact, recoil, for Ho-Oh or Dondozo)
  • Ice Fang (contact, very niche, less accurate, might be for Gliscor, Clodsire or the bikes)
  • Tera Blast (doesn't make contact, Ground for Miraidon, etc. Water is more niche due to Koraidon's sun)
With the exception of Tera Blast, every move listed makes contact, meaning it'll be consistently punished. This creates a significant issue for a restricted Pokémon who likes to maintain momentum.

But generally speaking, which is what matters the most:
  1. It can reliably spread paralysis through several avenues:
    • Through contact from opposing Pokémon;
    • Through offense (Discharge);
    • Through status (Thunder Wave).
  2. Has an astonishing number of 3 pivoting options:
    • Volt Switch;
    • U-turn;
    • Baton Pass (this one is especially interesting, as it provides brand-new positioning lines if you're creative enough).
  3. Has the ability to remove Pokémon that are problematic for its physically offensive partners (Dondozo, Archaludon, Alomomola, etc.);
  4. Roost also provides an unique form of recovery which removes the flying type until the end of the turn. With careful play, it can dodge ground-type moves and benefit from terrain effects at the end of the turn.
This is not a Pokémon you'll always be preparing for. However, these tools gift Zapdos with an impressive form of role compression. While Pokémon like Landorus-T, Dondozo, or Skeledirge may be more common, they perform different roles and do not offer the same combination of pivoting, status spreading, and interaction patterns.

And having the ability to paralyse doesn't just make revenge killing easier in general, but also has important implications for Ditto, as it no longer has to risk a speed tie from Choice Scarf, Protosynthesis and Quark Drive users. It no longer needs to "patch" this problem with terastallization to tank an incoming attack if it doesn't want to get OHKOd due to a speed tie loss.

Since this is not a broadably splashable Pokémon, it aligns very well within the definition of a C rank Pokémon: "fairly niche, though not unviable (...) make sure your team needs their specific selling point, and isn't a job better done by more relevant Pokemon".
 
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I agree c is fairly niche...noches important though, so why was C removed for restricted? I mean you don't want your big ticket items to only be there once in a blue moon...usually...but isn't that when kyu b is used,? Time was it WAS C. B is fine if that's the lowest but....why is it the lowest?

Edit: there isn't even b- anymore. Maybe there should be, unsure.
 
Well, this is your guys' project and ultimate prerogative as to what goes on but I reviewed the kinks posted by deepseazapdos and I just don't see how the reasoning laid out in those posts justifies the inclusion of zapdos without justifuying the inclusion of a bunch of other pokemon into rank C. It's a cool pokemon that can do unique and valuable things (two of the popular Japanese BSS YouTubers put out videos featuring it) but that applies to a bunch of things.

Examples:

Whimsicott, Azumarill, Gholdengo, Ceruledge, Gothitelle, Hisuian-Goodra, a whole host of paradox pokemon, etc.

These are all Pokemon that see some sporadic usage, surely as much if not more than Zapdos, but all offer something useful and not completely replicable by something higher up.

But my understanding was that these rankings aimed to capture the metagame landscape (or provide a snapshot as it was put in the second link) and I don't see Zapdos as being part of the metagame landscape such that you have to consider it particularly even if it can screw over more conventional pokemon.

For example, the Zacian match-up was cited as one of its main selling points but if someone were building around Zacian, I don't think Zapdos is one of the Pokemon that I would particularly urge taking into consideration.

When making a Zacian build and choosing its teammates I think in terms of defensive answers you have to consider Landorus, Ho-oh, Dondozo, Skeledirge, Archaludon, and maybe Scizor and Alomomola above all and as offensive checks you have to consider Calyrex-SR, faster Miraidon, Koraidon, and Iron Treads, and Ditto above all.

Zapdos can be a pain in its side but so can unranked Arcanine while having better match-ups into other important physical threats (but worse into others of course).

deepseazapdos said:
But generally speaking, which is what matters the most:
  1. It can reliably spread paralysis through several avenues:
    • Through contact from opposing Pokémon;
    • Through offense (Discharge);
    • Through status (Thunder Wave).
  2. Has an astonishing number of 3 pivoting options:
    • Volt Switch;
    • U-turn;
    • Baton Pass (this one is especially interesting, as it provides brand-new positioning lines if you're creative enough).
  3. Has the ability to remove Pokémon that are problematic for its physically offensive partners (Dondozo, Archaludon, Alomomola, etc.);
  4. Roost also provides an unique form of recovery which removes the flying type until the end of the turn. With careful play, it can dodge ground-type moves and benefit from terrain effects at the end of the turn.
Click to expand...
Well, unless using Thunder Wave I wouldn't call its ability to spread paralysis reliable and I wouldn't take its ability to take out Archaludon for granted especially since it's not taking it out quickly. Also Roost leaving it vulnerable to ground moves is a drawback I feel especially since the main ones bar Iron Treads are all slower.

The fact that Breloom is not ranked while Zapdos was was what was surprising to me. Breloom was ranked in reg G and J and I don't know what's special about I among the restricted formats to not have it on the list and since it was ranked for those formats I figured you guys had deliberated and had some insight already. It also stood out as the only regular Pokemon practically consistently sub 50 in usage to not be ranked.

It still completely shits on almost all the main defensive Pokemon and is a headache for slower mons which generally includes a good chunk of the restricteds. It has some unpredictably since it can run either the normal sash technician sets as well the poison heal sets the latter of which are pretty effective at taking control of a game.

Yes, Miraidon nullifies its main and most potent tool but if you're not running Miraidon then it's worth having some counterplay for it or it will fuck you over. Plus compelling Miraidon's participation especially as a lead and just the general selection screen pressure can be very useful.
 
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