Hello and welcome to the third National Dex suspect test of Generation 9 Scarlet and Violet!
[Zamazenta Pro-Ban]
Zamazenta has established its role as one of the strongest and fastest STAB Tera wallbreakers in the tier. In addition to its incredible power with a choice band, Zama is a capable body press sweeper with iron defense bolstering its natural bulk to monumental levels.
- With its premier choice band set, Zamazenta can activate Tera fighting and plow through some of the tier's bulkiest defensive walls like Skarmory and Great Tusk. Many soft fighting-resists utilized by offense teams like Tornadus-Therian, Tapu Koko, bulky Volcarona, and rain Zapdos can be 2HKO'd by close combat on switch in.
- Bulkier answers that are not taken down by close combat still have to be wary of Zama's many coverage options. Banded wild charge can 2HKO Toxapex or Slowbro, ice fang smashes Landorus-Therian or tank Garchomp, and crunch rounds out coverage against ghost types who are all 2HKO'd with the exception of Annihilape.
- Zamazenta boasts the second highest speed tier in National Dex's VR behind Dragapult. This notably outpaces Mega-Lopunny, an extremely relevant revenge killer choice, that falls flat against Zama's speed and bulk. The Top Dawg ™ also conveniently resists Kingambit's sucker punch which is the strongest form of priority in the tier.
- While already being one of the best choiced breakers available, Zamazenta can alternatively opt for an iron defense + body press sweeper set. These often use crunch for coverage against ghost types, substitute to avoid status, and pack one of several defensive Tera types such as fairy or water to make revenge killing more difficult. Tera steel can drop a move in favor of iron head to hit fairy types hard and break down unaware Clefable.
- Dauntless Shield gives Zamazenta an immediate defense boost the first time it enters the field, and many teams struggle to find counterplay after one iron defense. Team support options like toxic spikes and pursuit trapping can help Zama defeat some of its would-be counters.
[Zamazenta Anti-Ban]
- Choice band sets suffer from minor 4 moveslot syndrome as Zamazenta would often like to run iron head for fairy types and even stone edge to hit bulky Zapdos. Fitting any of these into Zama's build requires accepting weaker coverage against other defensive answers.
- Choice band sets can also be heavily prediction reliant in certain matchups. Zama loses significant momentum when it attacks into a defensive answer with the wrong move. Teams with certain ghost types like dragon dance Dragapult and nasty plot Gholdengo are especially capable of abusing incorrect prediction, or they can sack another mon to close combat for a setup opportunity.
- Iron defense Zamazenta is typically less reliable than the raw power of choice band, especially against stall/fat, and it has more notable bad matchups. It lacks immediate power and can be stonewalled by haze Toxapex, iron defense Corviknight/Skarm/Tera fairy Garganacl, and certain unaware mons.
- Pure fighting type has a relatively poor defensive profile aside from the dark resistance leaving Zamazenta weak to certain revenge killers like scarf Tapu Lele or Iron Valiant. Iron defense sets are forced to use up the Tera slot in most matchups.
Suspect Test Information:
- Reading this is mandatory for participating in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 80 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 80 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 84. Also, needing more than 50 games to reach 80 GXE will suffice.
- The table for this can be found below:
| GXE | Minimum games |
| 84 | 30 |
| 83.8 | 31 |
| 83.6 | 32 |
| 83.4 | 33 |
| 83.2 | 34 |
| 83 | 35 |
| 82.8 | 36 |
| 82.6 | 37 |
| 82.4 | 38 |
| 82.2 | 39 |
| 82 | 40 |
| 81.8 | 41 |
| 81.6 | 42 |
| 81.4 | 43 |
| 81.2 | 44 |
| 81 | 45 |
| 80.8 | 46 |
| 80.6 | 47 |
| 80.4 | 48 |
| 80.2 | 49 |
| 80 | 50 |
- You must signup with a newly registered account on Pokemon Showdown! that begins with the appropriate prefix for the suspect test. For this suspect test, the prefix will be ND9ZM. For example, I could sign up as ND9ZM Kyo.
- Laddering with an account that impersonates, mocks, or insults another Smogon user or breaks Pokemon Showdown! rules may be disqualified from voting and infracted. Moderator discretion will be applied here. If there is any doubt or hesitance when making the alt, just pick another name. There are infinite possibilities and we have had trouble for this repeatedly. If you wish to participate in the suspect, you should be able to exhibit decent enough judgement here. We will not be lenient.
- We will be using the regular National Dex ladder for this suspect test, and Zamazenta will be legal throughout the entire suspect test.
- Any form of voting manipulation will result in swift and severe punishment. You are more than welcome to state your argument to as many people as you so please, but do not use any kind of underhanded tactics to get a result you desire. Bribery, blackmail, or any other type of tactic used to sway votes will be handled and sanctioned.
- Do not attempt to cheat the ladder. We will know if you did not actually achieve voting requisites, so don't do it. Harsh sanctions will be applied.
- The suspect test will run for approximately two weeks, lasting until April 5th at 11:59 pm (GMT-4), and then we will put up the voting thread in the Blind Voting subforum.
- No unhelpful one liners nor uninformed posts;
- No discussion on other potential suspects;
- You are required to make respectful posts;
- Failure to follow these simple guidelines will result in your post being deleted and infracted without any prior warning.
- Please also take a moment to read over some suggestions from the National Dex Council and the National Dex Moderation team for posting in this thread; adhering these will help out our time moderating the thread and present your arguments better and more educated.
- Do not argue because it's your favorite Pokemon. This should be common sense, but please don't do this, because we will delete posts like this.
- You do not need a boatload of experience to have an informed opinion, but please try to minimize the theorymon aspect and use your experiences watching and playing. Playing some on the ladder before posting is plenty if you're concerned about this.
- Do not flame, belittle, or be disrespectful to users in this thread. While not everyone will read this post in its entirety nor will everyone have informed opinion, please be sure not to be disrespectful. If there's an issue, bring it up to a moderator.
- Do not use the argument of broken checking broken. Should your argument rest on your opinion that banning the Pokemon or mechanic being tested in this suspect test will make a Pokemon or mechanic broken, overpowered, and/or uncompetitive; don't. If something needs to be banned because of the result of this suspect, then so be it.
- This is not the place to complain about the suspect process. Please PM me, Jho, or Kaede if you have any questions regarding this, and any broader questions about this test.
