Happy Z–A Season, everyone!
Like I promised at the end of the last season's recap, I decided to rerun the exact same team for the sake of science. Will the exact same team of Metagross, Mega Garchomp Z, and Gyarados perform just as well in the following season alongside Mythicals and Non-Restricted Legendaries? Nothing about the team changed, and neither did any other context surrounding the season. Let's see how it did.
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Like I said, it's the exact same team. I literally didn't change anything.
Metagross has the advantage of being a Steel-type Pokémon with great defensive capabilities and a nice move pool to boot. All I had to do was give it a Shuca Berry to give it just enough life to last a few more seconds and blow up the field a little bit more. Metagross is also the perfect Pokémon to lead this team for a potential first hit bonus. Those are fun. I don't mind an extra ten points per game.
In the middle is our Mega Pokémon, Mega Garchomp Z. Garchomp Z is fast, it can either tackle a wide area or dig underneath the arena to target an enemy (or dodge an enemy). Garchomp tended to also be the Pokémon I faced the most, which turned mirror matches into a game of whom can hit a move and knock the other out first, but I think that mirror match is fine.
For a now sixth time, Gyarados can fly above the field to ignore inconvenient moves on the field, can completely ignore common Ground-type moves, and still take out Dragon-type threats with its own Dragon-type moves. It's kinda funny how Gyarados turned into an anti-meta tech after the first few seasons, isn't it?
First Place |
14 70.0% |
Second Place |
6 30.0% |
Third Place |
0 00.0% |
Fourth Place |
0 00.0% |
| Game | Me | P2 | P3 | P4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank Z | #1 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Rank T | #2 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Rank P | #3 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Rank N | #4 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Rank K | #5 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Rank J | #6 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| Rank I | #7 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Rank H | #8 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Rank F | #9 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 3 |
| #10 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 5 | |
| Rank E | #11 | 13 | 3 | 2 | DQ |
| Rank D | #12 | 10 | 1 | 8 | 2 |
| #13 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Rank C | #14 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| #15 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 2 | |
| #16 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 4 | |
| Rank B | #17 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| #18 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
This was officially my best run in any sense of the word "best."
This goes without saying with the small number of matches, but I only needed to win two more of those matches to furher break 90% win rate overall (which is not something I expected going in), and both of those second place matches were really close.
I genuinely don't know what specific detail I could give to improve. This team did exceptionally well.
The only question I can think of for this team specifically would be if any of the Mythicals or Non-Restricteds would have been better. I don't think any of the returning Pokémon would have filled the same role any of these three filled, perhaps Melmetal for Metagross, but I'm not too sure (Metlmetal is great, but it's slow; it wouldn't have been nearly as effective in getting those First Hit bonuses or attacking a wide area on the field).
Next season gives us access to all of the Restricted Pokémon again. Would any be a better slot for this role?
Let's be honest, there's another Mega Pokémon in the Restricted group that has the exact same typing as Mega Garchomp Z. Plus, minus its Signature Dragon-type move, its other three moves make the exact same moveset as Garchomp. Zygarde is significantly slower, but Zygarde will potentially work as a better nuke on the field compared to Garchomp (and I mean that literally with that cannon Mega Zygarde seems to grow). I'll probably let you know next season if Zygarde fills that roll just as well.