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Pokémon Legends: Z-A Season 01

The first season in this game. Every non-Legendary and non-Mythical Pokémon are legal. Reaching Rank K unlocked Greninjite, allowing you to use Mega Greninja (as well as any other Mega) in the format.

For the first season, I decided I wanted to build a team around Mega Gyarados.

Clefable
Clefable		 Gyarados
Gyarados		 Glaceon
Glaceon

Overall, this team was fairly consistent. While I didn't keep overall records for this season, I scored third place exactly twice and fourth place once, both in Rank B. It's a brand new format that people are still trying to adjust to, and I went with basic spreads while I accimilated into the new format. I think this team performed pretty well and, at the end, I ranked all the way up to Rank A with about four days to spare.

Without further ado, let's get to the team highlights and what I would do differently.


Table of Contents:

Clefable

Clefable
  • Clefable @ Quick Claw
  • EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
  • Modest Nature
  • - Calm Mind
  • - Moonblast
  • - Flamethrower
  • - Reflect / Light Screen

The absolute first choice I made when deciding on the team was to not lead with Gyarados. You get to pick which Pokémon you send out after a knock-out, but you're stuck with whichever Pokémon you started with to start the match. Of the three Pokémon, Clefable was the only Pokémon I ran with a set-up move that still benefitted the rest of the team.

The plan with Clefable was to start with a Reflect (though this could have easily been a Light Screen instead — I opted to prep against Physical Garchomp and Gyarados, but if you expect more Special Attackers then go with Light Screen instead). While Reflect is setting up, I should have enough time to look around the map to see which other Pokémon are on the field and plan accordingly. Either I keep Clefable and attack with my Fairy or Fire move, or I can swap to a more relevant threat.

I knew when starting the team that I did not want to run two Mega Pokémon. While this would give me more flexibility in theory, this would also mean that I'm almost always running out my Mega Gauge and won't be able to actually Mega Evolve as often. My logic with running non-Mega Clefable (beyond already building a team around Mega Gyarados) was that other players would see me leading with Clefable and might assume I would Mega Evolve my Clefable as soon as I could and they might act differently as a result. Did that work? I have absolutely no idea. I'm not psychic and I couldn't exactly ask fellow players on the ranked ladder.

Naturally, that means I had a free item slot to use on Clefable. I opted for the Quick Claw hoping that I could get through Reflect faster. This made no difference during Reflect plays, but occasionally made a difference when trying to sneak knock outs on opposing Metagrosses. What would be a better item? I'm not sure. Clefable's biggest threat on the field was the occasional Metagross, so perhaps a Babiri Berry to reduce a supereffective Iron Head. Honestly, though, Clefable is the Pokémon I'm most likely to replace either way so I probably won't end up testing this theory any time soon.

Pros

  • Only weaknesses are Poison-type (a typing I saw during one match) and Steel-type (a typing I saw fairly often but not too often).
  • Access to Flamethrower counters Clefable's Steel-type threats and most of Gyarados's threats, including the popular tech option Ice-Type Glaceon.
  • Access to great support moves such as Reflect / Light Screen & Safeguard.
  • Access to field moves such as Stealth Rock & Heal Block.

Cons

  • Lower stats compared to other Fairy-types.
  • Greater move variety options aren't as effective if the opponent can knock you out first.

Gyarados

Gyarados
  • Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
  • EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
  • Adamant Nature
  • - Waterfall
  • - Crunch
  • - Dragon Rush
  • - Earthquake

To be honest, I'm not sure why I chose to build a team around Gyarados in the first place. It was easy to go "I want to run a Mega Pokémon," but there are sixty-three legal Mega Evolution Pokémon (sixty-two if you don't count Mega Greninja, which was unlocked halfway through the Ranked ladder). With the little experience I had, I went with Pokémon I knew were already good. Gyarados ended up being the winner.

Not that I regret that choice at all. I ended up loving Gyarados on the team, and ended up facing Gyarados constantly throughout the ladder.

The plan with Gyarados is a lot simpler. All four of Gyarados's moves are offensive moves. Waterfall allows Gyarados to attack a group of Pokémon or a moving Pokémon at a wide distance. Earthquake allows Gyarados to attack within a small group of Pokémon around itself. Finally, Crunch and Dragon Rush are quick moves that help Gyarados move closer to enemy Pokémon to deal damage.

Gyarados has a massive movepool to choose from. Even if you restrict the list to Physical moves, Gyarados has access to Water [STAB], Flying [STAB, un-Mega'ed], Dark [STAB, Mega'ed], Normal, Steel, Dragon, Ice, and Dark moves. Even if you take three moves for all the moves that match Gyarados's typing, that still gives you a move slot you can dedicate to whichever typing is most prevalent or one threat in particular you're having trouble building your team around.

Gyarados's held item was easy for me to choose. They're my dedicated Mega Evolution Pokémon, that required Gyarados hold a Gyaradosite. If I were to run normal Gyarados instead, I would probably give Gyarados either an Assault Vest to help it tankability without the downside or either a Wacan Berry or a Yache Berry to counter supereffective Electric or Ice damage, respectively.

Pros

  • Massive offensive pool to choose from.
  • Great stats no matter which version of Gyarados you run.

Cons

  • Type weaknesses are common (un-Mega'ed has two, and Mega'ed has five - not counting Freeze Dry).
  • Very limited Status moves.

Glaceon

Glaceon
  • Glaceon @ King's Rock
  • EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
  • Modest Nature
  • - Ice Beam
  • - Freeze Dry
  • - Shadow Ball
  • - Roar

An easy anti-meta tech option. I immediately knew I wanted to run Glaceon in case I ran against Dragon-types or Water-types, which ended up being greatly relevant in almost every match.

My original Glaceon build was not the best. I ran a Substitute build with Leftovers. Substitutes almost immediately ran down, and I never noticed Glaceon regaining HP. Don't bother. Even if Glaceon is built to tank damage, it's not worth it.

Glaceon's moveset here is rather limited, but that's because Glaceon fills the role of a super specific niche. Ice Beam allowed Glaceon to fire at enemy Pokémon from a distance. Freeze Dry was a slower option that had a slightly larger range than Freeze Dry and also allowed Glaceon to take out Water-type Pokémon.

If I were to change anything on this Glaceon, I would consider two things:

I have absolutely no idea what I would do with Glaceon's item. You could either give Glaceon a Life Orb (Glaceon's not staying out for long anyway, that damage won't make much of a difference most of the time), an Occa Berry to reduce Fire-type damage, or a Babiri berry for Steel damage.

  1. Once we have a better idea of how this format works, running specialized EVs on Glaceon (does it need all those EVs in Sp. Atk? Even with a Life Orb, that's still a 2HKO).
  2. I did not like Roar at all as a move. I would certainly replace that with Calm Mind.

Pros

  • Ice-typing is perfect for this format.

Cons

  • Everyone either uses Glaceon or knows how to go against it.
  • That's pretty much the extent of Glaceon.

Team Recap & Moving Forward

Overall, this was a fun season. I enjoyed the format significantly more than I expected going into this game, and I'm happy with how well I performed. I'm looking forward to Season 02 in a week.

The first thing that I would change will probably be replacing Clefable. I think base Clefable just isn't able to pull its weight compared to the other Fairy-types in this game. I'm not sure which Fairy I'd probably put in its place, but I'll probably consider Base Gardevoir and Sylveon. Perhaps a certain spoiler Fairy. Who knows?

The second thing I would change would be redistributing Glaceon's EVs. It does not need all those Sp. Atk EVs, and I think giving it some bulk would be worth it in the long run. I just need to figure out which benchmarks I want to use for damage calculations.

The final change I would make, and this may depend on that Fairy type I run instead, would be to consider running an Assault Vest Gyarados instead and using a different Mega Evolution. Regular Gyarados was just as capable of dealing damage on its own, and the typing change when Mega Evolving means that opponents would have to debate whether they think Gyarados is about to Mega Evolve without realizing that's not an option. In theory the Assault Vest would improve Gyarados's survivability enough where I would not need to change their EVs too much. I don't think Gyarados would need as different an EV spread compared to Glaceon, though.