Got reqs, almost got a zero loss run, but then ladder decided to hax the hell out of me+give me insanely bad mus (fuck banded harcanine, shit sucks to face while using stall). Used apples removeless stall but with mandi over reun, shits busted against ladder.
Honestly, I wasn't really completely sure what I was going to vote, but after discussing with Petros on discord, looking at SCL games, and trying to theorycraft some builds, I think I'm solidly
DNB.
I'm only going to be talking about BU and SD, as all the other sets like scarf and band are completely fine, they are good sets but have tons of answers and are very hazard prone. I think the main thing that makes zarude look broken is the fact that nothing can check every set. But heres the thing, you don't need just one mon to beat it. Combos of mons are extremely effective at beating it. For example, gapdos+Latios I think is a pretty effective combo at beating a good majority of zarude sets. Gapdos can force tera, and then can pivot into Latios, who does a ton of damage to it, which can at worst, leave it low enough so it can struggle to switch in or get revenge killed by a faster mon. Does Gapdos or Latios beat it on their own? No, but together they can work just fine. Something that can force tera and then force it out combined with excadrill is another pretty effective combo. For example, encore grasspon+excadrill. This is a similar scenario to Gliscor in OU and Suicune in RU. If you try to take it on with one mon, you will lose, as aside from 1 or 2 mons, nothing does it. But combine mons, and you can easily check it. Gliscor is seen as a pretty fine presence by the vast majority of people and while suicune is a decent bit more controversial, is also pretty fine to a good majority.
Ofc, you can answer it, but speaking to Petros it wasn't "can you answer it" but rather "how much does it take to answer it" and frankly, IDT theres too much constraint on the builder to check it. A good chunk of pokemon that are already being used can help against zarude. Fez, skarm, apple, ogerpon, gapdos, tera dirge, tealpon, mandi, tink. And these are just ones that are generally good against most sets, a lot of others like latios and weavile can also punish it. I also do not buy how many things it can 1v1 in the slightest.
Leftovers bulk up tera poison zarude: now this is the set i think we all feel pushes zarude over the edge. with a moveset of bulk up, knock off, trailblaze and jungle healing, and a VERY CUSTOMIZABLE TERA, this mon patches up a lot of its weaknesses, making it so theres no clear answer. lets start with the tera: Poison, fairy, water, fire, yeah this mon has a lot of viable teras it can run. The most common is poison- this gives it a neutrality to lokix's priority (tinted lens) which is still better than a 4x weakness, resistance to conkeldurr drain punch and mach punch, secret sword from keldeo resistance, etc etc. Also, the best ways to deal with a poison type are ground and psychic types. However, these two types are weak to either grass or dark attacks, making them less reliable. next, the moveset. Bulk up helps it to boost its offense and defenses, making it an all round good move. trailblaze helps it to boost its speed so stuff like latios cant drop a draco on it, knock works us a utility and offensive move, and jungle healing deals with another issue it has: status. you can burn it, paralyze it, poison it all you like. it clicks jungle healing, healing 25% of its HP (which is more than you think it needs, considering it has likely boosted its defense) and more importantly, cleared its status. this set allows it to get past mandibuzz, hydrapple, skarmory, and if it swaps out jungle healing for taunt, it can 1v1 pex (to an extent). This mon can also come in on a lot of the mons in the tier. Excadrill, sinistcha, rotom-wash, etc etc
Like for example, tera fire is absolutely horrible, zarude commonly takes knock and you are making it a rocks weak tera? Also means it can't check the water types its commonly meant to handle like washtom and slowking after it teras, which other teras can still somewhat handle. Like sure, trailblaze helps in the speed department, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is a free move to slap on, it lacks a lot of power so it can't muscle through things like conk nearly as easily. Jungle healing is good, but it healing only 25% can mean that if you chip it enough, its going to be pretty low. BU does not get through hydrapple, what. It can take a +3 hit from full even if its offensive apple, and taunt is a very mu fishy move and usually you drop grass stab, it punishes fez teams but flops into everything else. I also don't think it comes in on nearly as easily as you say. Excadrill does a solid chunk with iron head, washtom can volt switch out on a predicted switch and I'm sorry to say, but sinistcha isn't very good. The only other pokemon I'd say it 100% comes in on apart from this list is slowking and gastrodon, but slowking can chilly into a pokemon that forces tera, and gastro can at least sludge bomb it for good chip or get up spikes to wear it down.
i think the most problematic set by far is bulk up jungle healing. you can't really out-defense it because almost nothing defensive likes taking a knock, it can set up an arbitrary amount of times in front of basically any defensive mon, it can heal from status, and none of the unaware users can face it safely unless they burn tera (and if it decides to knock them anyway and then switch, good luck). you can use idef skarm and set up alongside it, but if zarude goes tera poison it ends up outdamaging you once it's set up and you lose to constant knock pressure. you can use whirlwind skarm or haze pex but that just kicks the can down the road; eventually you're gonna have to deal with the monkey and no one likes dealing with the monkey
it's also very difficult to out-offense. its natural bulk plus bulk up gives it protection against a lot of revenge killers and priority, a trailblaze or two lets it outspeed and kill most of the revenge killers that bulk up doesn't protect against, and for the remainder (mostly lokix) it can just click the tera button and tank their one opportunity they get to kill the beast
and you have to remember, this is one zarude set. it could end up being scarf and immediately eating the revenge killer that outspeeds the bulk up set, or sd and it shatters your defensive answer, or a boots pivot that doesn't even bother contending with you directly and just goes in and out knocking everything and doing way too much damage with those knocks. and good luck trying to guess which one it is on preview, because you can slot multiple zarude sets with basically any teammates
Okay, it can't be out defensed, I'd say thats fine. It also can't really setup against multiple defensive mons unless it burns tera itself. Fez can threaten moonblast chip, skarm hurts it a lot, hydrapple it can't break through, dirge it can beat, but dirge commonly teras and now zarude is never breaking through it, mandi can u-turn into a breaker, tink can knock then encore it etc.
While it isn't the easiest thing in the world, it can be out offensed, decently well. Latios it can draco it for massive damage or trick it a scarf or smthing, weavile does solid damage pre tera with t-axel, ogerpon can encore it, reva kinda just can shift gear on it once, gapdos resists both stabs and u-turns into a punisher, gren does solid damage with ice beam/sludge wave, jugulis just gives it the middle finger, garde can trick it or moonblast etc. "But what if it teras?" Good, you forced tera and can now use something else to force it out. You got gapdos in and clicked u-turn, force it out with wwind skarm and now latios can beat the hell out of it with luster purge. It goes from an excadrill switch in to being forced out by it. Just because it teras doesn't mean its always a positive for the zarude user, it can be a detriment at times.
Nobody is staying in on zarude to the point where scarf will threaten the revenge killer, you will be scouting it. If it clicks u-turn, its probably scarf/band and you can use damage calcs to determine that. If its SD, then its not nearly as bulky and much easier to revenge kill. The only difficult thing to scout is between SD and BU, but typically most checks to one, are checks to another. Skarm can check both enough so you can pivot in teammates.
In conclusion, zarude is able to be dealt via careful teambuilding and using multiple pokemon, which is not a bad thing to do for checking mons. Futhermore, multiple pokemon which are already being used are able to check zarude, which means that teams have naturally adapted to it. DNB.
Lowkey wouldn't mind weavile getting suspected, idk if its broken but its kinda a bitch to face and build around.
meta, because of the extra threat proliferation, and currently I'd consider 
a lower priority for a ban compared to other mons that I have issues with ( latios, manaphy, greninja , thundurus , weavile, hydrapple ). 
