Zapdos's Fourth Move
Jul 18, 2011 18:24:14 GMT -8
Post by t3h Icy on Jul 18, 2011 18:24:14 GMT -8
Zapdos is the most common Electric in OU due to being one of the few with a good non-Electric attack, massive Special and great stats across. One common question that doesn't seem to have a concrete answer is about deciding what Zapdos's last move should be.
For starters, Zapdos's usual role is hybrid sweeping, and Zapdos is one of the absolute best at it. Drill Peck hits Chansey, Alakakzam, Exeggutor and anything else Physically weak really well and Thunderbolt covers Waters, Physicals and does a lot more than Drill Peck against most Pokemon. These two moves are absolute staples unless your Zapdos is extremely weird and probably not useful. The only reason not to have both is if you replace Thunderbolt with Thunder.
The third move is almost always Thunder Wave. Paralysis only adds to Zapdos's offensive abilities and supports his sweeping by slowing down opponents. It's a great move in general that helps other Pokemon too. Sometimes people drop Thunder Wave to fit in two of the following moves, but it's much more common to have Thunder Wave.
And then the last move is always debatable, mostly because it should be based on the rest of your entire team and what your whole gameplan is with Zapdos. The moves are Light Screen, Reflect, Agility, Thunder and less commonly, Rest. So what are all these moves good for?
Light Screen halves Special attacks taken and with Zapdos's already massive Special and HP, he becomes really hard to beat with them. Alakazam's Psychic, Chansey's Ice Beam and Starmie's Blizzard among many others are much weaker and have to hope for CHs or secondary effects. Light Screen is great for using Zapdos that focuses on anti-Specialists.
Reflect is the same but covers the other category of attacks and handles Snorlax, Tauros and others much better. While Zapdos is a great Pokemon for taking out the big Physicals, Specialists are much more common and have an easier time switching into Zapdos. When Alakazam is out and the opponent goes to Tauros, Tauros takes Drill Peck, but vice versa, Alakazam takes Thunderbolt, which is much easier for the opponent to handle. The main thing though is Zapdos can take his time on stallers and most Specialists, while Zapdos should be offensive against Physicals. Tauros and Snorlax can easily Paralyze Zapdos with Body Slam, taking away a lot of his power if Zapdos is more for anti-Physicals, and with their unrecoverable HP and carnage they can cause beyond Zapdos, you want to get those Thunderbolts in as soon as possible. If you use Reflect you have to use another turn for Thunder Wave or go without Paralysis, which hurts either way. Reflect works better with Zapdos if you can setup with Reflect and then face a Physical later on, but the opponent will likely want to avoid that due to all the threats Zapdos has towards Physicals, and seeing that their moves will be weaker. This is why Reflect, while good on paper, isn't used as often because it's much more difficult to setup properly and plays a lot more on chance due to more fatal CHs.
Agility is another common move for Zapdos and is the offensive support move. Agility lets Zapdos become the fastest Pokemon, even after Paralysis, which is great for sweeping and getting set for the next opponent. It can be a little tricky to use though since Zapdos doesn't want to take too much damage, so setting up can be hard, as most Pokemon can hit Zapdos for some good damage, and Agility after being Paralyzed is an unnecessary risk, as you spend an extra turn, but don't gain an extra edge on the current opponent and would only help for the following opponent. Agility is nice for late game sweeping to ensure Zapdos can take everything out, but it's useless unless you face more than one Pokemon with Zapdos.
Thunder is gimmicky. Thunder gives Zapdos an even more damaging move than Thunderbolt, but the accuracy is atrocious. There are a few key Pokemon that Thunder is good for though. Against Slowbro, Thunder has a 13/39 (1 in 3) chance of OHKOing Slowbro, which Thunderbolt can't do, and has a 26/39 (2 in 3) chance to OHKO Starmie which Thunderbolt also can't do.
vs Starmie
Thunderbolt OHKO - 19.5% (CH)
Thunderbolt 2HKO - 80.5%
Thunder OHKO - 51.3%
Thunder 2HKO - 28.47%
Thunder 3HKO or more - 20.25%
So Thunder gives you a 31.8% higher chance to OHKO, but you have a 20.25% chance to take more than two turns, which Thunderbolt guarantees at worst. Thunder is high risk, high reward and sometimes it will pay off, other times it will cost you.
vs Slowbro
Thunderbolt OHKO - 19.5% (CH)
Thunderbolt 2HKO - 80.5%
Thunder OHKO - 32.5%
Thunder 2HKO - 36.0%
Thunder 3HKO or more - 31.5%
Very quickly, Thunder's useful drops with the difference in chance to OHKO. Thunder also gets much less useful in situations where it would 2HKO while Thunderbolt would 3HKO. So long as the number of turns to KO aren't huge, Thunder will always give the best chance to KO in the fewest turns, but Thunderbolt is significantly more consistent. Thunder is a nice finishing move though, but again, you need to be hitting.
Rest is quirky and harder to pull off effectively. Generally, this is when you drop Thunder Wave for one of the screens (probably Light Screen since stallers KO a lot slower, but this may be more tempting for Physicals to jump in). The idea is to use a screen and make sure to heal before Zapdos faints and repeat, but one untimely CH or a useful switch, and Zapdos wasted a turn using Rest and never had the option to use Thunder Wave. This Zapdos is best used late game, but could make a brief appearance earlier for a quick KO if you're able to switch him back out safely. If you leave the opponent with the Pokemon that Zapdos can handle and have Paralysis support, this Zapdos can become tricky to take out, but requires a lot of setup and skill to pull off. I'd suggest talking with WaterWizard if you want to know more about it, as I'm not a fan of Rest Zapdos personally.
The other weird quirky Zapdos is the anti-Golem/Rhydon Zapdos, having Thunderbolt, Drill Peck, Toxic and Fly. The idea is to Poison the Rock and spam Fly until they faint. It's really tricky, will cost most of your Zapdos anyway, and eats two moveslots, but it does work.
Toxic (hopefully) hits on the first turn and badly Poisons. This will do 1/16, 2/16, 3/16, etc and will KO by turn 6, but spamming Fly will cover the remaining 1/16th, taking out the Rock on turn 5.
Fly vs Golem - 35-30 (10%-8%)
Fly vs Rhydon - 37-32 (9%-8%)
Fly won't be doing much damage, but the main purpose is to keep Zapdos alive and undamaged. Flash and Substitute both work too, but are risky and you'll lose a lot of HP anyway. You could fit in Reflect, but then your Zapdos is basically a Rock slayer and there are much better Pokemon for that. The idea is that Golem will either Body Slam or Earthquake on the expected switch turn, while you hit with Toxic, and then use Fly. When you come down, Fly will have hit and the Rock will have lost 3/16ths from Poison, then you Fly up and come back down for 7 more 16ths. After that, you Fly again. However, to avoid being KO'd, Golem has to be lacking Rock Slide as it's sometimes done to fit in Substitute, or miss with it, which isn't too uncommon.
Ultimately, I don't recommend Toxic/Fly combo.
So there isn't much to discuss about Zapdos; he's a simple Pokemon with a lot of sweeping abilities, but the fourth move is always asked about. I recommend Light Screen to both beginners and experts as it's easy to use and will almost always be useful opposed to the others, but depending on how your team is, the other moves may appeal to you. I strongly suggest if not Light Screen, you use Reflect or Agility as anything else is too gimmicky. What do you think?
