“FOLLOW YOUR AMBITIONS! LET ZEKROM CONTROL YOUR CLAIMS AND DESIRES IN YOUR ESSAY!” Ransei
Ladies, gentlemen, it’s finally here. The event you’ve all been waiting for. It’s going to be really, really long, so if you don’t feel like going through every single detail I’ve included a tl:dr at the bottom, but that won’t elaborate like the actual essay would. So, without further ado, here it is:
Zekrom to B+ rank
Introduction-Zekrom presents one of the best, if not the best, answer to physical walls in the entire metagame, without taking up a mega slot. With cores such as BlissTina and defensive Pokémon such as Skarmory seeing greater usage it is necessary for any competent offensive team to be able to answer resolutely and without hesitation. Zekrom is this answer. Furthermore, it allows for team versatility, as it doesn’t take up a Mega slot, it gives speed control and can revenge kill to an appreciable level.
Contents
Pro-Zekrom Arguments
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STAB coverage
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Comparative strength to B+
Anti-Zekrom Arguments
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Easily countered
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Reliance on Choice Items
Pro-Zekrom Arguments
STAB coverage-Zekrom, for the role of a physical wallbreaker, has been gifted, not cursed, with an incredible typing that allows it to hit nearly every single physical wall out there for at minimum neutral damage. To discuss this in the maximum detail possible, the top six physical walls have been elected and included below, in no particular order. Why six? Because it just seemed to get to the point where including anything else past six was getting irrelevant, needless and not really necessary, as they weren’t true walls. If you don’t agree with these, or would like to see another defensive Pokémon in here, say so and I’ll do my best to oblige you.
Relevant calcs against these six Pokémon may be seen below:
252+ Atk Teravolt Zekrom Outrage vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Giratina: 306-360 (60.8 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
I think I know what you’re thinking here-this really isn’t that great. Hold your horses. For the sake of organization, this will be addressed a little later, but to go through it quickly, Giratina is easy enough to wear down and Rest paints a big target on its back, meaning that all that’s needed here is a little intelligence and the lack of an OHKO can be easily circumnavigated.
252+ Atk Teravolt Zekrom Outrage vs. 0 HP / 248 Def Giratina-O: 380-450 (86.1 - 102%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
A highly probable OHKO. What else is there to say?
252+ Atk Teravolt Zekrom Bolt Strike vs. 248 HP / 56 Def Lugia: 396-468 (95.4 - 112.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
Another OHKO. However, this one’s a really good one to focus on. The Lugia set used here is very defensive in nature, unusually so, and still has a chance to be OHKO’ed without rocks up. Most Lugia run a degree of speed, which this set doesn’t allow for. What I’m trying to get at here it that this set stacks the odds in Lugia’s favour and still can’t stand up to Zekrom, whereas many other offensive Pokémon are completely stopped by Lugia.
252+ Atk Teravolt Zekrom Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 294-348 (88 - 104.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
You read it, guaranteed OHKO after SR. Skarmory is probably the best physical wall in the metagame, and Zekrom eats it for breakfast with the correct support.
4 SpA Teravolt Zekrom Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 200 SpD Primal Groudon: 145-172 (35.8 - 42.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
Primal Groudon, for obvious reasons, is Zekrom’s biggest weakness. However, even it can’t switch in nicely. It is critical to keep in mind here, when interpreting this calc, that Pdon, unlike all of the other Pokémon discussed, completely lacks recovery outside of Rest, which is rare and generally not considered a good choice on most teams. Pdon will be discussed in more detail later on in this argument.
252+ Atk Teravolt Zekrom Bolt Strike vs. 248 HP / 52 Def Arceus: 211-250 (47.6 - 56.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Once again, this calc doesn’t look very good. However, please keep the following in mind. First, this calc stacks the odds in favour of the Arceus. Most support Arceus, which this is, carry a large number of speed EVs, which this one can’t. Secondly, despite being as defensive as it is, it still can’t switch in on Zekrom, which is generally the point of carrying a defensive Pokémon, to switch it in on threatening attackers. Finally, if it lacks WoW, Zekrom can still come in for free, essentially, and pick up the 2HKO, knocking it out of commission. Finally, these calcs assume that it is at full health, which may not be, and often isn’t, the case with bulky stall Pokémon. As such, despite face value, due to the passiveness of this Pokémon Zekrom still has an easy time dealing with it.
Alright, as now seen, Zekrom has great offensive capabilities against physically defensive Pokémon. However, how does it stack up compared to other attackers? Well, in essence, really well. I’m too lazy to go grab the calcs for everything, sorry, but essentially most physical attackers can perform well against one threat or another, but, outside of M-Ray, always fall short, with on average about four of the six threats considered here dealing very well with them, as opposed to Zekrom’s two in Pdon and Giratina, both of which can be played around, albeit carefully.
Comparative Strength to other B+ ranks
It is of paramount importance to understand that I am not nominating Zekrom for A rank or anything like that, but rather B+ rank. The way this section is going to work is that I’ll compare Zekrom to each other current B+ rank and see how it stacks up, then throw in a little analysis at the end.
Arceus (Dragon)
Arceus-Dragon is extremely underappreciated in my opinion, but isn’t better than Zekrom is. It is a great defensive Pokémon that annoys other Pokémon , some notable examples being Ho-Oh and the rare but useful Mega-Salad. However, that’s where its usefulness comes to an end. It hates any Ice moves, which are much more commonplace than its other weaknesses, and as such falls short of being a defensive Pokémon compared to many other Pokémon .
But Zekrom hates Ice moves as well! Key difference-Zekrom doesn’t take attacks, isn’t supposed to take attacks rather. Dragonceus, as a defensive Pokémon , is supposed to, and will often be in a situation where it may be lured in and takes one by surprise. As such, Zekrom is better than Dragonceus.
Arceus (Rock)
Arceus rock, in my opinion, is perhaps the worst B+ here. What does it actually do? People like to talk about it being a be-all and end-all Ho-Oh check and counter, but this is massively overhyped. It definitely checks Ho-Oh, forcing it to switch, but into what? In case you haven’t noticed, Rock is neither the best offensive nor defensive type, as so many Pokémon can carry EQ while Rockceus simply can’t touch them, unlike Zekrom who carries a decent enough range of STAB moves to be able to at least scratch switch-ins, as long as the switch-in was predicted well. Rockceus can definitely not switch into Ho-Oh, as a predicted switch will bring on an EQ on Ho-Oh’s behalf, majorly hurting this mon. Now, I can hear what some of you are saying-
same for Zekrom! Zekrom hates EQ! The thing here is that Zekrom’s sole role isn’t to hurt Ho-Oh, whereas that’s about all Rockceus does. As such, Zekrom is generally a better pick in today’s metagame than Rockceus.
Deoxys (Attack)
Deo-A is fairly awful in today’s metagame. It can act as an effective-ish suicide lead, but there are many Pokémon out there who can deal with it, such as defensive Arceus forms, Giratina and Giratina-O and Lugia. I can hear what you’re saying again-
Zekrom doesn’t exactly love defensive Arceus either! There’s a key difference here-Zekrom performs multiple roles, such as defensive wallbreaker, speed control and revenge killer. Deoxys-Attack does one thing, and not very well at that. As such, I have to summarise that Zekrom is better than Deo-A.
Giratina (Origin)
Actually a pretty cool Pokémon , probably around the same as Zekrom or better.
Skarmory
Probably one of the least appreciated Pokémon out there, Skarmory is probably better than Zekrom. However, this isn’t by an awful lot. Zekrom can, of course, beat Skarmory 1v1, but that isn’t really the point, so I’ll continue. Skarmory deals with quite a few offensive threats, and is well-known as one of, if not the best, Ekiller counters out there. However, when it comes to Mray, V-Create has become a staple, so it can no longer perform as well against that. Many other offensive Pokémon now run lure sets for it, including Ekiller, who can take Overheat or Fire Blast to deal with it. However, even with this in mind, it still performs its role admirably, so it still outpaces Zekrom.
As should have been seen by now, Zekrom places around the same as the other B+ ranks, so would fit in quite well. Now, to put the previous section into perspective. It was pointed out that Zekrom couldn’t handle some defensive Pokémon as well as would be liked, but still competed well in comparision to other attackers. Now, think about the way that these other attackers are generally found in the A to S tiers. If Zekrom can compare to them, even beat some of them in this aspect, then surely it deserves a place in B+, where it fits in really well?
Anti-Zekrom Arguments
Easily countered-This, by and far, seems to be the most prevalent counter-argument to Zekrom out there. The way it goes is that, supposedly, because of Zekrom’s Dragon/Electric typing, it becomes next to useless in the metagame because two prevalent Pokémon, in Primal-Groudon and Xerneas, are immune to its two STAB moves. This is perhaps the biggest problem for Zekrom, I fully admit that. However, this is the reason that Zekrom can’t be ranked higher, not for Zekrom to be ranked lower. Taking into consideration the second counter-argument, a reliance on Choice Items, Zekrom has two problems that must be addressed. Without these two problems Zekrom would have no flaws, and would be very highly ranked. However, it does have these flaws, and as such B+ is where it belongs. These flaws are not a reason for it to move lower, they are simply the reasons stopping it from rising higher.
Moving on in the counter-argument, what can you do if Primal Groudon or Xerneas switches in, taking an attack with one of its respective immunities when Zekrom is trapped by a Choice Item? Is it GG? How are you supposed to deal with it?
Switch
Woah. That was a crazy idea. Nearly every Pokémon has a counter in one form or another, especially all of the B+ ranks. What do you do when one comes in? Switch. Zekrom also has the attack stats and the movepool to be able to hit these switch-ins hard if they do come in and you predict it, a notable example being Earth Power to hit Pdon. It’s still a big issue, but it’s not game over. Calm down.
Reliance on Choice Items
It’s entirely true that Zekrom loves Choice items to the point at which it relies on them to function. This does make predicting switches more difficult, because if you’re wrong you have to switch Zekrom out, as you’ve blown an opportunity to use it correctly. However, this isn’t a reason for it to go lower, it’s simply a reason to stop it from lifting. Zekrom is simply a Pokémon that requires skill to use. If you can read your opponent like a book, which isn’t too hard to do once you’ve played them for a while, Zekrom can power through, picking up all the necessary predictions and switching out when necessary. As such, the best way to play around a reliance on Choice Items is that-to play, and to play well, which many of you do.
Sorry for that wall everyone, it’s over now. If you’d like to rebut please go for it, but if you would mind doing it in a chronological order that would be much appreciated, as it makes it so much easier to reply to. If anyone did actually read the whole thing word for word, sorry for taking away twenty minutes of your life with pure nonsense gold.
Tl;dr-Zekrom’s really cool, B+.
Thanks for reading!