Pokémon Porygon-Z

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Is a Bug or ice Porygon Z viable? While using download over adaptabilty
Bug no.

Ice not really. You could try to use it on a Hail team to abuse boosted Blizzards but pairing a one time use sweeper with a timed field effect (hail) but that's crappy. You could use Ice Porygon without hail but then you're basically just running an electric porygon z but with the same coverage but shittier typing.

Download is utter crap. Download has to find something with worse Sp Def than Defense for it to work. This greatly reduces the number of things you can set up on. Setup bait like Mantine or whatever now sabotage you with an Attack boost. Pokemon with tied defenses even work against you as many of them run 4 sp Def EVs just to get the edge on Porygon and Genesect.

Or you can run Adaptability and fuck shit up no matter what.
 
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You can even run Conversation in the first slot to stay normal type if you want.
Is this really viable ? I saw one good use of it in a game where someone actually managed to use it well, but 1 game is hardly evidence to call it viable. So instead of squishy Life Orb one you go with more bulk, but really strong neutral Adaptability STAB in Tri Attack ? Or I shouldn't even bother to go with this one as an option and just stick to standard Conversion sets ?
 
Is this really viable ? I saw one good use of it in a game where someone actually managed to use it well, but 1 game is hardly evidence to call it viable. So instead of squishy Life Orb one you go with more bulk, but really strong neutral Adaptability STAB in Tri Attack ? Or I shouldn't even bother to go with this one as an option and just stick to standard Conversion sets ?
Not viable at all lol.

As far as I can see Ghost and Electric are the best right now. That said Porygon Z's Double Edge hits harder than Tri-Attack so you could run a hilarious mixed set to tear Specially defensive counters to shreds.
 
Not viable at all lol.

As far as I can see Ghost and Electric are the best right now. That said Porygon Z's Double Edge hits harder than Tri-Attack so you could run a hilarious mixed set to tear Specially defensive counters to shreds.
Ahh yeah I remember those Double-Edge gimmicks in earlier generations. They were fun to play, although really bulky resists towards Normal type attacks still walled it or at least properly checked it. I wonder what kind of EVs would be best to run this kind of gimmick with Conversion... :D

I asked, because I couldn't help but not truly call it viable and your answer proved me right :P.
 
So like, this isn't competitive input or anything, but I just had this thought and this is the best place to share it.

Porygon-Z. Has 'Z' in the name, as opposed to a number. Was made for extra-dimensional travel. Started acting haywire.

Ultra Dimension. New thing, alternate dimension that has really weird rules in comparison to ours.

Z-Moves. They have some sort of connection to the energy from the Ultra Dimension.

......Z.....dimensional travel...Z-Moves......what if this isn't a coincidence.

GOD DAMN IT GAMEFREAK!!!
 
^In Sun and Moon, you receive the Dubious Disc from Faba. Makes me wonder if the Aether Foundation had anything to do with this Mon's creation after all...

Ahem, anyway, I think you're able to actually change the order of moves mid-battle on cartridge, but not in Showdown. If this ever gets fixed, conversion mind games could probably come in handy. Doesn't sound that useful for BoltBeam sets, but you might be able to take advantage of it every now and then on a Shadow Ball set.

Speaking of Shadow Ball sets, has anyone else considered running Psyshock/Signal Beam instead of BoltBeam for coverage? Psyshock takes care of Chansey, and also makes easy work of Mega Loppuny, the most common normal types in OU. Signal Beam hits dark types, although it does less damage to mons it hits neutrally like Bisharp, it takes care of Hoopa-Unbound and Greninjas not running Shadow Sneak(though even with Shadow Sneak it's still a 50/50 situation).

Edit: I don't know why I thought moves could be swapped around in-game, but it looks like you actually can't.
 
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If changing moves mid-battle is a thing on the cartridge, I am not familiar with the means. I even went into a match with my Glitch just to test it; doesn't work so far as I can tell.

I myself have considered running Psyshock and Signal Beam before. The main issue with it is that, for all the threats it does hit, BoltBeam simply hits much, MUCH more. I believe the objective with Porygon is to hit as many things as possible in order to sweep effectively, rather than just being able to target it's counters. Although, depending on team composition, I suppose it could be viable. But in my experience, I've found BoltBeam infinitely more useful.
 
How viable in the current OU metagame is Z?

My friend keeps saying it's too weak to compete due to its low defenses.
 
How viable in the current OU metagame is Z?

My friend keeps saying it's too weak to compete due to its low defenses.
With Z-Conversion boosting its Speed AND defenses, Porygon-Z is actually viable now in OU. Not too much outspeeds it after the boost, and things that do generally can't punch through it (assuming you aren't sending this guy in willy-nilly...). Porygon-Z actually does a decent job of cleaning up matches with a +1 in all stats.
 
How viable in the current OU metagame is Z?

My friend keeps saying it's too weak to compete due to its low defenses.
Does your friend realize that the majority of threatening sweepers in the metagame also have low defences? If being frail were grounds for not using a mon entirely, Pokemon like Greninja, Excadrill, Infernape, etc. would never see the light of day, and Pheromosa wouldn't be considered the cancer that it currently is.

The thing is that, regardless of how good it may be, using Porygon-Z isn't an end-all win condition. If it were, it'd be broken. Pory is a set-up sweeper - a very good one in that it has an absolutely amazing payoff after one turn, but a set-up sweeper nonetheless - and like all set-up sweepers it requires that you be smart about when you send it in. If you just toss Pory into the fight willy-nilly without any regard for the opposing mon, then yeah, you'll realize pretty quickly that Pory can't take many hits before it goes down. And if the opponent has a faster Pokemon than Pory currently out who also has a Fighting move on it, then you DEFINITELY don't want to send Pory out on that.... HOWEVER, if the opposing mon is slower than Pory at base speed, and has a Fighting move, you can send in a Ghost-Conversion variant to setup before the opponent can attack, and if the play works right, then the Fighting move they had aimed at Normal-Type Porygon will do no damage to Ghost-Porygon. And you can do similar plays with other types too; send Pory in on something slower than it, set up with (x-type) Conversion, absorb a resisted hit at +1 defences, and then go to town with +1 offenses. The key is strategy, and part of what makes Pory so good now is how versatile it is with Z-Conversion. It's Moderate Risk, High Reward.
 
So I did some doubles pokebank OU testing, and so far i'm finding that porygon there behaves much like he does in singles with protect as the third move, working well with both electric and ghost conversions, benefiting a lot from support moves like stealth rocks, aurora veil, sticky web. The only big difference is that blizzard is preferable to ice beam. I Note that porygon Z does not work well at all in trick room though.

As for using discharge in electric porygons, you really need teammates that won't take damage and can attack while you use discharge, because being a multi hit attack it doesn't do as much damage individually as the regular thunderbolt, and the damage you can do to your teammates in both hp and paralysis status is as impressive as it is embarrassing. So no discharge for you if you plan on having porygon 2 as a bash brother.

As for porygon 2 sets that go well with porygon z in doubles,you could go with something like

Psychic/tri attack
ice wind/toxic
recover
psych up/trick room

psychic is there to deal with porygon 2's biggest threats, which are fighting types and toxic users, and is strong enough after getting boosted by psychic field, but tri-attack is also a solid choice due to to STAB and the status effects it can induce.

Ice wind is there for support; it's good to deal chip damage, but being able to slow down both foes is just good enough to give Porygon Z the opportunity to set up with z conversion, or for other strong attackers to be able to make the first move. If you have a teammate with sticky web you can use toxic instead though.

Recover is obvious, and psych up is good to take advantage of Z-Conversion stat boosts and eviolite at the same time, but it's also good be able to fight back dangerous stat boosters like zygarde, oricorio's dance etc. However being able to cancel a trick room on comand, or set up a trick room if you have a team for it can also be immensely useful.
 
Is toxic really an issue in doubles? I thought it was kind of more fast-paced so poison isn't as much of an issue... but granted I don't play a lot of doubles so perhaps I wouldn't know.
 
If you look at the vgc that's happening now, you'll se quite a few porygon 2's, and they all carry toxic. Doubles is fast paced, but on the other hand it's much harder to keep pokemon from waiting out and not suffer from poison damage, and in the end of the matches a poisoned pokemon may have just enough damage to be taken down by weaker attackers, not to mention the pressure that comes from having a time limit. It's not as decisive as it is in singles though.
 
Mega Sceptile would be a pretty good doubles Discharge partner for obvious reasons, or a Thundurus-T with a Yache Berry. Thundy can easily boost while getting healed from Discharge and can carry Knock Off for Eviolite or Superpower/Focus Blast. Being immune to EQ helps a lot too so that'd be a pretty good partner.
 
Or maybe a volt absorb pachirisu with follow me, or a lightning rod togedemaru with fake out to keep porygon z alive. Would that be the return of the meme vgc final?
 
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Mega Sceptile would be a pretty good doubles Discharge partner for obvious reasons, or a Thundurus-T with a Yache Berry. Thundy can easily boost while getting healed from Discharge and can carry Knock Off for Eviolite or Superpower/Focus Blast. Being immune to EQ helps a lot too so that'd be a pretty good partner.
Mega Sceptile would be terrible actually, as Lightning Rod completely absorbs Discharge if I'm not mistaken. "Completely absorbs" in the sense "it won't even hit your enemies, just give a +1 to Sceptile while you do no damage at all". Even a Thunderbolt directed at an opponent would retarget to Sceptile. Bad idea.
 
actually no, thunderbolt and thunder are redirected but discharge still hits everyone, so not even an A-marowak switch in from the opponent would stop porygon z, and unlike tapu koko and xurkitree, porygon has acess to shadow ball to OHKO it or other ghost types immune to fake out.
 
what are the viable porygon-z types? from what i heard, only the ghost and eletric are worth it
You gotta resist priority attacks.

Electric resists Bullet Punch (aka: Scizor and Metagross) and Flying (Talonflame and Mega-Pinsir). Ghost resists Fighting (Mach Punch) and ExtremeSpeed.

You also have to have spammable attacks. Electric benefits from the Bolt/Beam pairing, Ghost benefits from only being resisted by Dark. Ghost spam is quite easy. Ice and Dark are considerations from an attacking perspective, but being weak to Bullet punch and/or Mach Punch doesn't seem like a good position to be in.
 
You gotta resist priority attacks.

Electric resists Bullet Punch (aka: Scizor and Metagross) and Flying (Talonflame and Mega-Pinsir). Ghost resists Fighting (Mach Punch) and ExtremeSpeed.

You also have to have spammable attacks. Electric benefits from the Bolt/Beam pairing, Ghost benefits from only being resisted by Dark. Ghost spam is quite easy. Ice and Dark are considerations from an attacking perspective, but being weak to Bullet punch and/or Mach Punch doesn't seem like a good position to be in.
Psychic could also be worth considering if running alongside Tapu Lele. Psychic Terrain patches up almost all issues the Psychic typing has, while boosting Porygon-Z's power even further. It can also let Porygon-Z run Psyshock as the STAB move (can 2HKO Chansey after rocks). Problem is, you are forced to run three attacking moves thanks to Psychic's bad offensive coverage.

Not as good as Tapu Lele + Mega Gardevoir/Alakazam/Metagross, though.
 
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