National Dex Suspect Coverage: Zamazenta
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Art by Swiffix.
Introduction
During the early stages of National Dex, multiple Pokémon previously in Ubers—such as Naganadel, Deoxys-S, Cinderace, and Magearna—were voted to be brought down into the OU tier. One of the most notable of these is Zamazenta; in Generation 8, there was little to no discussion on bringing it down into the OU tier, but in Generation 9, Zamazenta received heavy nerfs that made it appealing as to whether or not it could be tested into the tier. These nerfs included a change in its ability, Dauntless Shield, which now only activates once every battle, as opposed to it activating every time Zamazenta was on the field. The other nerfs were more indirect if anything; the environment around it was simply incredibly hostile, giving it behemoths like Flutter Mane to deal with. Once the metagame settled and Pokémon like Naganadel were banned, Zamazenta rose to the top as one of the premier wallbreakers of the tier. Following the attention it garnered, Zamazenta was chosen to be suspect tested on March 22nd, 2023.
An Overview on Zamazenta
Right off the bat, it's clear as to how Zamazenta could be seen as overbearing. It boasts an incredible spread of offensive stats, with base 138 Speed and 120 Attack to boot. Zamazenta's claim to fame, however, was its excellent use of Terastallization on its flagship Choice Band set. With Tera Fighting, Zamazenta was able to 2HKO or at least significantly dent the majority of the metagame, including Fighting-resistant Pokémon like Tornadus-T, Landorus-T, and Toxapex. Zamazenta's Speed tier was also a huge factor in what made it so offensively threatening; it naturally outsped the majority of offensive threats considered fast by OU's standards, including the likes of Mega Lopunny, Tapu Koko, and Iron Valiant. With Terastallization, it could 2HKO or even OHKO the latter two after slight chip damage as well. Zamazenta wasn't always going to be using Close Combat either; if need be, it could always predict against would be checks like Landorus-T and Gholdengo with coverage like Ice Fang and Crunch. This made switching around it incredibly difficult without the proper means to scout against it, which mandated walls like Toxapex and Buzzwole on most teams to beat it adequately. As for offensive counterplay goes, this was made equally as difficult thanks to its ability Dauntless Shield. The Defense boost granted means that physically oriented revenge killers like Choice Scarf Kartana and Dragonite would have much more trouble trying to do their job, making counterplay all the more difficult. Choice Band was far from Zamazenta's only set, though; it could easily make use of an Attack-boosting set consisting of Howl, Close Combat, Wild Charge, and Ice Fang or a bulky IronPress set that could take advantage of physical attackers and simultaneously boost its Defense and the power of Body Press.
Choice Band
- Zamazenta @ Choice Band
- Ability: Dauntless Shield
- Tera Type: Fighting
- EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Close Combat
- - Crunch
- - Wild Charge
- - Ice Fang
Choice Band Zamazenta is an excellent wallbreaker, utilizing its amazing Speed tier combined with its colorful coverage and Tera Fighting to decimate the majority of the metagame. Crunch hits otherwise-troublesome Ghost-types in Dragapult and Gholdengo, Wild Charge hits Fighting-resistant foes like Toxapex and Tornadus-T, and Ice Fang hits non-Wild Charge weak foes like Landorus-T and Zapdos. Tera Fighting makes Close Combat much stronger, 2HKOing the aforementioned Fighting-resistant Pokémon and easing the prediction factor immensely.
Teammates
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Zamazenta appreciates Future Sight support heavily, as this dissuades common checks—especially Toxapex and Buzzwole—from switching in freely. Slowbro is an especially effective partner for this reason; it also provides further support in Teleport pivoting, giving Zamazenta free entry. Assault Vest Galarian Slowking can be used instead for its much more specially-oriented defensive presence, staving off foes like Walking Wake, Choice Scarf Tapu Lele, and Mega Charizard Y; Slowking is in a similar vein, but it can instead provide the pivoting support that Slowbro does while also providing a way to counteract weather teams with Chilly Reception. Pursuit support is also very much appreciated in further reducing prediction factor, as getting rid of Ghost-types lets Zamazenta use Close Combat with impunity. Kingambit is preferred over Weavile since it has much more defensive utility as a Pursuit user, being able to more directly switch into Dragapult and Gholdengo. Mega Tyranitar is also an option, similarly providing defensive utility, though it is weaker to Gholdengo than Kingambit.
Howl
- Zamazenta @ Electrium Z
- Ability: Dauntless Shield
- EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Close Combat
- - Wild Charge
- - Ice Fang / Crunch
- - Howl
Zamazenta can forgo Choice Band entirely and utilize an Attack-boosting set with Howl, becoming a dangerous sweeper. This set trades immediate power for much more sweeping potential and flexibility in-game; the ability to switch moves is especially important against would-be checks like Toxapex and Tornadus-T. Crunch can be used over Ice Fang to hit Dragapult and Gholdengo, but this sacrifices Zamazenta's matchup against Landorus-T. Electrium Z allows Zamazenta to dispose of physical walls like Skarmory and Toxapex more easily, making it more difficult to play around safely. The mere presence of this set is part of what made Zamazenta so overbearing in the first place; you could be safe versus Choice Band through scouting and similar means, but all that is thrown out the window once Howl is in the picture, as it can brute force walls with ease.
Teammates
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Based on which coverage move Zamazenta opts for in its customizable moveslot, different partners will be needed to cover for it. If you're using Ice Fang, Kingambit is an incredibly effective partner, as it appreciates Great Tusk being worn down and Pursuit traps Gholdengo for Zamazenta as well. It also threatens Skeledirge with Tera Fire, avoiding Will-O-Wisp and forcing Skeledirge to Terastallize for Zamazenta's benefit. If you're using Crunch, Assault Vest Tornadus-T is a solid partner in that it can deal with Landorus-T and can wear down Gholdengo into range of +1 Crunch.
A notable trend with Zamazenta sets so far is that they all appreciate Pursuit trapping in one way or another; this is because most variations of the Pokémon are weak to Ghost-types in particular, mandating some kind of support to take care of them.
Iron Defense
- Zamazenta @ Leftovers
- Ability: Dauntless Shield
- Tera Type: Water
- EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Body Press
- - Crunch / Protect
- - Rest / Substitute
- - Iron Defense
Taking a much more defensive approach, Zamazenta can utilize the potent IronPress combination to become simultaneously bulkier and stronger. Crunch hits Ghost-types in Gholdengo and Dragapult, and Rest + Leftovers allows it to retain longevity by staving off status from Pokémon like Toxapex and Rotom-W. Alternatively, Protect + Substitute can be used to rack up more Leftovers recovery. Substitute also still avoids status and also protects Zamazenta against revenge killers like Iron Valiant. With Tera Water, Zamazenta can improve its matchup against foes with super effective coverage like Tornadus-T, as they can no longer significantly damage it as it boosts with Iron Defense.
Teammates
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As far as teammates go, Heatran is an excellent partner in that it takes care of Toxapex through Magma Storm trapping, which can prove to be bothersome for Zamazenta. Heatran also checks Will-O-Wisp Dragapult and Gholdengo, the former of which is especially problematic no matter what variation of moves Zamazenta uses, since Infiltrator bypasses Substitute and its Hex is powered up by Rest. Kingambit can be used instead of Heatran for a much sturdier switch-in to the two Ghost-types while also removing them with Pursuit; it also wears down Tornadus-T and appreciates Zamazenta taking out opposing Kingambit.
The Arguments
Pro-ban
Zamazenta was an incredibly easy and versatile wallbreaker and setup sweeper to use; Tera Fighting Close Combat eliminated any sort of prediction factor, which was an unhealthy and unfun element of play in many matches it was in. To go along with this, Future Sight support from any valid user was an incredibly simple and effective way of denying bulkier checks like Buzzwole and Toxapex from switching in reliably. This created an unhealthy dynamic in the builder and in-game; you had to make sure your team wasn't weak to the combination of Choice Band Zamazenta + Future Sight while also covering every other threat in the tier, which often shoehorned teams into using walls like Gholdengo and Landorus-T, reducing the amount of creativity and options players had available to them. This wasn't all, either; Howl and Iron Defense were nearly as effective at breaking their checks and were not to be forgotten about in the builder. Howl sets were more effective at breaking their checks since there was flexibility in being able to switch moves during wallbreaking, while Iron Defense sets were bulky enough to take on their checks and potentially even PP stall them if using Rest, which was, again, unfun to play against. The threat of all these sets combined was enough to convince the pro-ban side that it was far too much for the tier.
Anti-ban
Now, while Zamazenta was arguably a dangerous wallbreaker, if not one of the most dangerous in the tier, Choice Band sets limited Terastallization among other candidates and narrowed down flexibility in-game. This is important because there's significant opportunity cost to not Terastallizing another wallbreaker or defensive teammate, opening a team up to another opposing threat. Zamazenta was also really not that hard to stop in the face of bulkier non-Future Sight-weak checks; Gholdengo isn't a bad Pokémon in its own right and easily takes Close Combat, Slowbro is a solid wall that takes both Future Sight and Tera Fighting-boosted Close Combat and switches out scot-free, and Zapdos threatens it with Static paralysis and doesn't mind Wild Charge or Crunch all that much. These are just a few of the many examples of Zamazenta checks that some people neglected in the builder. Choice Band sets became very prediction-reliant as a result, needing almost perfect play to dispose of checks that would stonewall it for days otherwise. Zamazenta's versatility was also overstated; Howl sets couldn't really get rid of its checks as easily as people would say it did, as opponents could still predict around the Z-Move and switch into a check like Skarmory or Toxapex to boost alongside it or use Haze to get rid of its boosts, respectively. Iron Defense sets were also incredibly fishy, needing a near-perfect matchup and moveset in order to sweep, and it does absolutely nothing against Unaware walls in Clodsire and Skeledirge, as well as against Tera Fairy Garganacl and Toxapex if it lacks those same correct moves. Getting rid of Zamazenta was also detrimental in that the tier would lose one of its most reliable checks to Kingambit and offense teams in general. It matched up well against setup sweepers like Mega Gyarados, Dragonite, and Mega Scizor, giving teams a good check to fall back against in emergency situations. Kingambit was already considered to be slightly annoying to check by the playerbase as time went on and new sets were developed, so removing one of its most reliable offensive checks was a mistake.
Result and Conclusion
On April 6th, 2023, Zamazenta was voted to stay in the National Dex OU tier with 32 DNB votes. There was very little outcry among the playerbase, and most pro-ban people were already starting to think it was more than fine. You can go discuss what you think about Zamazenta in the current National Dex metagame in the metagame discussion thread or you can play on the National Dex ladder and discuss in the National Dex room on PS!.
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