Electric / Flying
Base Stats: 90 HP / 90 ATK / 85 DEF / 125 SPA / 90 SPD / 100 SPE
Abilities: Pressure | Static (Hidden)
Notable Moves:
Thunderbolt
Discharge
Hurricane
Volt Switch
U-Turn
Heat Wave
Ancient Power
Thunder
Roost
Thunder Wave
Tailwind
New Moves:
Acrobatics
Helping Hand
Tera Blast
Pros:
- Great defensive typing, with a great defensive ability in Static
- Excellent 125 SPA stat
- Amazing STAB options with Discharge, Thunderbolt, and Hurricane, as well as decent coverage with Heat Wave and potentially Tera Blast
- Useful utility with Volt Switch and many ways to inflict paralysis, as well as Roost giving it longevity
- Benefits from reduced Knock Off distribution, letting it preserve its HDB better
- Lost a lot of moves in Gen 9, most notably Defog and Toxic, which hinders its utility a lot
- Roost PP being cut in half limits its longevity
- Can still be prone to its item being removed via Knock Off from Pokemon it can reasonably check otherwise
- Ground types like Ting-Lu and Clodsire can prevent it from pivoting into other mons with Volt Switch
- Tera Flying is likely the best offensive Tera, boosting the power of Zapdos’ already powerful Hurricane
- Tera Steel seems like an appropriate defensive Tera, turning its weaknesses to Ice and Rock into resistances
- Alternitavely, Tera Fire only gives you an Ice resist, but it boosts the power of Heat Wave
Physically Defensive
Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Steel / Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Def / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch / Discharge
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
- Roost
This set lets Zapdos make good use of its ability and typing to check most physical threats that don’t threaten it super effectively. 152 Speed and Timid Nature lets it outspeed Great Tusk, which lets it also outspeed other threats like H-Samm, which it threatens to OHKO both even without Special Attack investment. The remaining EVs goes into its HP and physical defense
Rain Sweeper
Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Hurricane
- Roost
- Volt Switch
This is a very similar set to one that was used in SS. In fact, the only reason its different at all is because Zapdos lost Weather Ball in Gen 9
Verdict:
Yeah, its pretty good. Despite the loss of some important moves its still able to do its job fantastically, even if its role may be more limited than before. How do you think Zapdos will perform in Gen 9? Will it preform better than ever, or will power-creep finally catch up to it?
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