Pokémon Legends: Z-A Season 03

Another season. This one was fun, and introduced quite a number of new Pokémon (more than just Mega Zygarde). This format ended up being better balanced than I thought, and I think I overall did better despite taking more games to Rank A.

This season introduced three new Pokémon: Mega Chesnaught, Mega Mewtwo (X and Y), and Mega Zygarde. When the season started, I assumed the most common Pokémon would be Mega Zygarde and build the team with that in mind. Which meant literally nothing would change; Xerneas would still counter Zygarde at x2 and Glaceon would still counter any Dragon-type at x4 damage. As such, the only change I made in the end was that I slightly min-maxed Glaceon's EV spread.

Xerneas

Gyarados

Glaceon

(See A Tale of Two Ranked Runs for why I regretted that midway through the season.)

This team still performed pretty well. Still extremely consistent, though I had more ties and close calls compared to last season. I'm almost certainly going to play a new team for Season 04 (I can't even picture playing the same exact team three seasons in a row like that), but I wouldn't say this team was "bad." If I was better prepared for how this meta would shift, then I would have done even better (and maybe have hit Rank A with one less match and more than 70% First Place runs).

Let's get to the team breakdown.

Mewtwo was the real threat this season. In a technical sense, I had two options for facing Mewtwo in Mega Gyarados and Glaceon. There were two big issues, though:

• Mega Gyarados was capable of OHKOing Mewtwo with a single Crunch, but you had to be Mega Evolved to do it and you had to hit Mewtwo first. Otherwise, Mewtwo with or without a Nasty Plot could OHKO Mega Gyarados before you can hit.
• Glaceon with a Plus Shadow Ball was a guaranteed 3HKO (presuming you for some reason waited around for the Shadow Balls instead of using a different move, but you get the point). This "counter" was completely ineffective.

I think I did well against everything else. Like I said above, the only major change at the beginning of the season was another Dragon-type. Mewtwo was a massive threat, but not exactly meta-breaking.

Xerneas

• Xerneas @ Quick Claw
• EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
• Modest Nature
• - Geomancy
• - Moonblast
• - Thunderbolt
• - Focus Blast

Xerneas with Geomancy was legalized right after a dragon-filled meta. Easy choice to center the team around.

The plan with Clefable was to immediately bolt towards either the left or right (whichever was least likely to knock Xerneas out) and activate a Geomancy as fast as possible. Ten percent of the time, the beautiful Quick Claw would instantly trigger the move and let Xerneas instantly attack. 90% of the time, Xerneas had enough bulk to probably survive whatever attack that Pokémon used before activating those stat increases. Then, nine times out of ten, Xerneas got an easy three knock-outs right to start.

Xerneas's biggest strength is its explosiveness. If Xerneas can set up then it's going to wreck havoc on the field. It has the bulk to easily survive until its stat increases go away unless every single opponent targets you, even if you go up against enemies with better type effectiveness. Once Xerneas's stat boosts fade away, normally Xerneas's health has depleted anyway. Time to swap out.

Xerneas has an interesting movepool. Beyond the set-up Geomancy, you have access to Fairy-type Special Attack moves, Psychic, Normal, Electric, Steel, and Fighting. That was a pretty wide range. I ultimately decided on Fairy-Type for the STAB bonus, Electric-Type to counter the Flying and Water Pokémon, and Fighting to counter the Metagrosses (and surprisingly common Lucarios).

I instantly knew I wanted Quick Claw on Xerneas. Quick Claw didn't do much on Clefairy, but that was because Clefairy wasn't bringing much to the table. If the Pokémon you're working on is great at setting up and clearing the field, Quick Claw should be much more effective. Honestly, I'm not sure what other held item I'd give it. I saw one player ran a Shell Bell Xerneas. I guess it worked. It was facing my Glaceon.

Pros

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• Interesting movepool.
• Great stat-boosting abilities.
• Access to Screens as well if that's your style.

Cons

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• Absolutely every match had at least two Xerneases, including mine. Most of the time, there were three.

Gyarados

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

I made no changes whatsoever to my Gyarados. I stand by all those earlier points.

People seemed to be better prepared for Gyarados this season, but the actual changes to the format didn't impact Gyarados much. Mega Gyarados is weak to Xerneas, but I rarely had Gyarados out and Mega Evolved when Xerneas came on the field.

If I were to change anything, I would look at Gyarados's EVs. A Xerneas with 252 Sp. Atk EVs, a +Sp. Atk Nature, and no boosts from Geomancy has a 50% chance to knock out this Gyarados; you would need the 252 HP EVs Gyarados already has and 148 Sp. Def EVs to guarantee a two-hit knockout. That would leave you with 108 EVs left for Ph. Atk, bringing Gyarados's new Ph. Atk is 207. Replacing one of Gyarados's coverage moves for a Swords Dance would further make up for the loss of stats. To be honest, though, I think it is worth being knocked out faster if you can get more knock outs in yourself.

Pros

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

Cons

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• Everyone is used to Gyarados from last season and knows how to counter. Xerneas in particular is quite common. You can always put Gyarados away, though, when Xerneas in particular comes out.
• Very limited Status moves.

Glaceon

• Glaceon @ Occa Berry
• EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
• Modest Nature
• - Ice Beam
• - Freeze Dry
• - Shadow Ball
• - Roar

Glaceon did a lot less for the team this formal compared to last format.

I did change Glaceon's held item this season to an Occa Berry to counter Fire-type attacks. Did that ever come up? I saw a few Emboars, but Glaceon mostly took hits from stray Thunder Bolts. I did see someone running a Focus Sash Glaceon to make sure Glaceon could take out whatever it was threatening, something I might consider running next season.

If I were to redo this season, I would probably swap Glaceon out for something else. However, considering next season introduces Mega Zygarde, a Pokémon that's x4 weak to Ice, I'm going to try to figure out how to maximize Glaceon's EV spread to make it as effective as possible.

I already have some damage calcs prepared for Glaceon versus Mega Zygarde next season. Presuming Mega Zygarde has 252 HP, 252 Sp. Atk, and 4 Sp. Def EVs, a Modest Glaceon needs a total of four Sp. Atk EVs for a guaranteed knockout. If Mega Zygarde has a beneficial nature, that becomes one-hundred twenty-four Sp. Atk EVs on Glaceon. Both of those numbers presume you are not using a Plus move. I haven't done any calculations for any other Dragon-types, or against any common counters, but I will almost certainly redo Glaceon's EVs to give it more bulk so it can take out more Dragons. Those will be pretty relevant.

Pros

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• Ice-typing is perfect for this format.

Cons

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• Everyone either uses Glaceon or knows how to go against it.
• That's pretty much the extent of Glaceon.
• Glaceon's niche last season has been outshined by Xerneas.

Team Recap & Moving Forward

Overall, I greatly enjoyed playing this season. I am also very burned out. Playing an entire ranked ladder in one day was mentally exhausting. Don't do it, kids.

Seriously, though, I had a lot of fun this season. The team worked out much better than I expected it to, I already have plans and notes prepared for next season, and we can only improve from here. Part of me wants to change my team significantly for next season so I don't get completely burned out, but I do love playing a not-Dragon-type in a sea of Dragons. I'll sleep on the idea, but it's not something I'm expecting to do. Who knows, maybe I'll try maining a different Mega in a tournament somewhere.