Old Gens GSC Zapdos

Estarossa

Estarossa

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:zapdos:

Zapdos @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Zapdos is one of the most dominant Pokemon in GSC OU. High Special Attack and good Speed make it a great offensive presence. Due to the Spikes immunity coupled with solid bulk, this set is also a great status sponge, checking and threatening a vast amount of foes in the metagame such as Cloyster, Exeggutor, and Vaporeon. Hidden Power Ice is generally preferred, providing more chances to roll a super effective move with Sleep Talk against opposing Zapdos while avoiding the slight loss of bulk with Hidden Power Water and hitting Exeggutor super effectively. Cloyster can provide valuable Spikes support, wearing down switch-ins like Snorlax and Raikou, which pairs greatly with the many switches Zapdos forces, and threaten Snorlax with Explosion. Checks to Snorlax are essential, as even with Spikes up, Thunder is only a 4HKO. Phazers like Golem and Tyranitar can switch into Double-Edge and phaze it after a Curse boost, but they must be wary of Earthquake (or the rare Surf), while Machamp can offensively pressure Snorlax and appreciates Zapdos being able to force it to Rest. Teammates like Gengar, Nidoking, and Jynx can help pressure Snorlax with Sleep or Thief; Nidoking can help check switch-ins like Raikou and Tyranitar, while Gengar can lure in Snorlax and Raikou with Explosion.
 
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Estarossa said:
Zapdos is one of the most dominant Pokemon within GSC UU
Click to expand...
OU and not UU

The description is okay, although I would make some changes to it.
I would point out its selling points (good speed and great special attack, decent bulk, Spikes immunity, great status absorber thanks to the Rest+SleepTalk combo) and then combine the pokemon it can check, prephrasing it with something like "check and threaten a vast majority of the metagame" followed by a few examples.
Although the existence of Eggy is a good reason for using HP Ice, having two good attacks that can be rolled with Sleep Talk against opposing Zapdos is more important in my opinion. The bulk loss when using HpWater is also noticible, as that makes a few potential 3HKOs against it more likely (TBolt Raikou, Nidoking, HpIce from opposing Zapdos, Exeggutor to give some examples although they probably don't need to be mentioned in the analysis to not make it too long).

Golem and Tyranitar should not be intended as the sole Lax counters (EQ is common). In general it is important on offensive teams to be able to pressure opposing Snorlax. The phazers are used as a (very important!) backbone against Lax to buy you some time to get your own offensive going.
To me "negate any attempts to set up against it with Curse" makes them sound more reliable at handling Lax long term as they really are.

Estarossa said:
Cloyster is also a fantastic switch-in that can provide Spikes support to wear down Zapdos's switch-ins like Snorlax and Raikou, and threaten them with Explosion
Click to expand...
I think mentioning Cloyster as a "switch in" against Lax is not necessary. I would put more focus on it as a Spiker and really emphasize how valuable Spikes support is for Zapdos.

The last part about Nido, Gar and Jynx is good. Maybe briefly mention Explosion users and Machamp as possible ways to pressure opposing Snorlax.
Estarossa said:
Gengar can lure in Snorlax and Raikou with Explosion for Snorlax
Click to expand...
I assume the last "Snorlax" should be "Zapdos".

Feel free to tag me immediately by the way when posting RBY/GSC analysis, otherwise I never check the Facebook Spotlight subforum. I assume the others wouldn't mind it either.
 
zapdos-gsc.png
 
I am struggling to shorten it to 1000 characters. I edited some things (some for actual quality checking, some I just rephrased to make it shorter). I put it here in the spoiler. It still has 1135 characters.
Zapdos is one of the most dominant Pokemon in GSC OU. High special attack and good speed make it a great offensive presence. Due to the Spikes immunity coupled with solid bulk, the Rest + Sleep Talk set is also a great status sponge, checking and threatening a vast amount of the metagame such as Cloyster, Exeggutor, and Vaporeon. Hidden Power Ice is generally preferred, providing more chances to roll a super-effective move with Sleep Talk against an opposing Zapdos while not incurring the slight bulk loss of Hidden Power Water as well as being able to hit Exeggutor super effectively. Cloyster can provide Zapdos with valuable Spikes support, wearing down switch-ins like Snorlax and Raikou, which pairs greatly with the many switches Zapdos forces, and threaten Snorlax with Explosion. Teammates that can check Snorlax are essential, as even with Spikes up Thunder is only a 4HKO. Phazers like Golem and Tyranitar can switch into Double-Edge and phaze it after a Curse boost but must be wary of Earthquake (or the rare Surf), while Machamp can offensively pressure Snorlax and appreciates Zapdos being able to force it to Rest. Teammates like Gengar, Nidoking, and Jynx can help pressure Snorlax with Sleep or Thief; Nidoking can help to check switch-ins like Raikou and Tyranitar for Zapdos, while Gengar can lure in Snorlax and Raikou with Explosion.
Here are the main changes:
- replaced Hera with Eggy to emphasize the ability to act as a status absorber
- removed Nido as an example for a matchup in which the HpWater DV drop matters (I also asked Earthworm for his opinion and he thinks the mention of the bulk loss could probably be removed entirely, although I personally think it is worth pointing out but we need to cut some parts)
- changed the phrasing in the explanation of the matchup vs Eggy since even without HpIce, Zapdos can attempt to paralyse it with Thunder and wear it down slowly while pretty much always surviving 3 Psychics without crits/special drops
- fixed an incorrect mention of Machamp when it was supposed to be Lax
- rewrote the explanation of the matchup of the phazers vs Lax a bit
 
Add (AC=Add comma)
Remove
GP 1/1 :blobthumbsup:
:zapdos:
Zapdos @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Zapdos is one of the most dominant Pokemon in GSC OU. High special attack Special Attack and good speed Speed make it a great offensive presence. Due to the Spikes immunity coupled with solid bulk, the Rest + Sleep Talk this set is also a great status sponge, checking and threatening a vast amount of foes in the metagame such as Cloyster, Exeggutor, and Vaporeon. Hidden Power Ice is generally preferred, providing more chances to roll a super-effective super effective move with Sleep Talk against an opposing Zapdos while not incurring avoiding the slight loss of bulk loss of with Hidden Power Water and hitting Exeggutor super effectively. Cloyster can provide Zapdos with valuable Spikes support, wearing down switch-ins like Snorlax and Raikou, which pairs greatly with the many switches Zapdos forces, and threaten Snorlax with Explosion. Teammates that can check Checks to Snorlax are essential, as even with Spikes up,(AC) Thunder is only a 4HKO. Phazers like Golem and Tyranitar can switch into Double-Edge and phaze it after a Curse boost,(AC) but they must be wary of Earthquake (or the rare Surf), while Machamp can offensively pressure Snorlax and appreciates Zapdos being able to force it to Rest. Teammates like Gengar, Nidoking, and Jynx can help pressure Snorlax with Sleep or Thief; Nidoking can help to check switch-ins like Raikou and Tyranitar for Zapdos, while Gengar can lure in Snorlax and Raikou with Explosion.
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