Happy Z–A Season, everyone!

When this season was announced, there weren't any Pokémon that stood out to me as someone I wanted to build around. I've built around Annihilape, Keldeo, Melmetal, but nothing at this point was calling out to me. I briefly considered one of the Marowoaks, but looking at their stats and typings quickly changed that plan. So, I decided to build a standard competitive team for this seasonal run.

With no Pokémon to work around, what about a strategy? I've had good success with stat builders to start, should I do that again?

Nah. I decided to just make everything explode with three Pokémon designed to hit as many Pokémon at once as they could.

Did it work? Let's find out.

Metagross is a Pokémon a friend has been telling me to play since Season 01. Something something "once you go Metagross, you'll never go back." Good news, Piff: I finally tried Metagross out.

Metagross and the next Pokémon on our list (two if you count Mega forms here – you shouldn't for once) build a nice Steel/Dragon core that can tackle the more complete Fairy/Dragon/Steel core fairly (Fairy-ly) well. That, and Metagross's great typing, worked pretty well. Nothing a Shuca Berry can't cover, at least. I hope.

In the middle is our Mega Pokémon, Mega Garchomp Z. I wanted something simple this season, something I was already used to, and Garchomp was already built. I quite enjoyed how fast Garchomp flew around the field, so I thought it'd make a great option this run around.

Finally, a Gyarados... without it's Mega form! I never thought I'd see the day I run Base Gyarados on a team after those first three seasons. Gyarados filled the perfect hole for this team, though: It kept all the same strengths as the original Gyarados without adding a Dragon-type weakness (imagine a 3× Dragon Weakness team) and can dodge the ever-so-common Ground-type without worry. The only change from my earlier Gyarados was a Wacan Berry.

	Game	Me	P2	P3	P4
Rank Z	#1	8	4	5	3
Rank U	#2	11	2	1	4
Rank P	#3	8	1	6	DQ
Rank N	#4	13	0	4	DQ
Rank K	#5	9	2	2	0
Rank J	#6	15	2	5	1
Rank H	#7	7	3	3	4
Rank G	#8	8	9	3	1
	#9	7	2	9	5
Rank F	#10	8	3	4	3
Rank E	#11	10	2	5	2
	#12	6	1	4	DQ
Rank D	#13	8	3	2	4
Rank C	#14	10	2	2	3
	#15	8	2	5	7
	#16	3	2	9	2
Rank B	#17	4	3	5	3
	#18	3	3	5	0
	#19	6	8	0	6
	#20	10	4	1	5

I would like to formally reconsider my opinion on the three arenas in this game. Quasartico, Inc., is the best arena.

Something I never considered in earlier seasons is that there has been an untapped market in terms of grinding the ladder. For context, how you perform in each match provides you with a certain number of points depending on if you meet certain criteria. First Place, Second Place, Number of Knock Outs, Mega Evolving, etc. earn you additional points. What I didn't consider was that leading a Pokémon designed to set field conditions might be good in terms of strategy, but it meant that every game I would miss an extra 10 points per match for not getting the first hit.

For context, I played in twenty matches this run. I don't think I got this bonus for every match, but that's a potential 200 bonus points just for hitting the opponent first. That's half the points needed to complete B Rank right there.

I've also turned a little on this map's strategy (it's easy to just blow up the center of the field – where presumably most players will try to control at some point – if the field is rather narrow), but this map's also the easiest for getting the first hit bonus. The moment you see that this is your arena, turn the camera either left or right. If you guess correctly, you're probably good. If you're wrong, you have about a second to adjust before the match begins. You'll also gain the momentum for an easy knock out if either you luck out with a Super Effective opponent or if your opponent just isn't prepared for your defensive Steel-type lead.

Besides that? I'd argue this team was my best yet. Mathematically, my Season 02 team featuring Xerneas was more successful by about seven percent, but this team did not have any third or fourth place runs, which the Xerneas team had both times I ran it. I think that team might have been better if entered into tournaments (that theory would require testing), but this one's the winner in terms of ladder-based events.

This team completed a few of my goals I've had since the beginning of the game:

• My first 70% win-rate since Season 02
• My first twenty-game run ever
• Figure out a consistent battle plan for the Quasartico, Inc., arena

I really can't complain. This team worked. Next season opens up access to Mythicals and Non-Restricted Legendaries again, but I think I'd rather just run this team again. I earnestly don't think anything else in the roster would top this.

In fact, I think I'll test that theory next season. Does this team still hold up without any Mythics on the team?