Pokémon Legends: Z-A Season 03
Season Five is officially in the books. This was the first format to include the new Z-A DLC Pokémon minus any of the Legends, Sub-Legends, or Mythicals (including the ones we already had, for better or worse). This game's lifespan is shooting by fast but I am still enjoying it in a competitive sense for the most part (see every mention of Baxcalibur in this article). I had some ups and downs this season (some I'll admit were poor play on my end and some that were not), but I think I can still be proud overall of how well I did.
Table of Contents:
Team Card
Melmetal
Virizion
Swampert
Melmetal
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 148 Def / 20 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
Held Item: Assault Vest
- Double Iron Bash
- Dynamic Punch
- Ice Punch
- Rock Tomb
This would be a great place to discuss in detail how well Virizion performed on the team and any notes I came up with.
EV Calculations
Plus Moves deal an additional 30% damage when Super Effective, and 20% when Neutral.
- When Plus-proofing, the damage ceiling should be less than 70% if Super or 80% if Neutral.
- Unless the move has a heightened chance to crit, moves are assumed to be normal hits.
252+ SpA Heatran-Mega Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Melmetal: 210-248 (86.7 - 102.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Heatran-Mega Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Melmetal: 204-240 (84.2 - 99.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Heatran-Mega Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Assault Vest Melmetal: 152-182 (62.8 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Volcanion Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Melmetal: 168-200 (69.4 - 82.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Volcanion Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 132 SpD Assault Vest Melmetal: 140-168 (57.8 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 224-266 (92.5 - 109.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
+1 252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Melmetal: 188-224 (77.6 - 92.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 148 Def Melmetal: 204-240 (84.2 - 99.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Pros
Write your pros here
Cons
Write your cons here
Virizion
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Atk / 36 SpD
Adamant Nature
Held Item: Life Orb
- Close Combat
- Leaf Blade
- Bounce
- Swords Dance
This would be a great place to discuss in detail how well Virizion performed on the team and any notes I came up with.
EV Calculations
Plus Moves deal an additional 30% damage when Super Effective, and 20% when Neutral.
- When Plus-proofing, the damage ceiling should be less than 70% if Super or 80% if Neutral.
- Unless the move has a heightened chance to crit, moves are assumed to be normal hits.
252+ SpA Heatran-Mega Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Virizion: 180-212 (90.9 - 107%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Heatran-Mega Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 108 SpD Virizion: 164-194 (82.8 - 97.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Heatran-Mega Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Virizion: 150-176 (75.7 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 0+ Atk Life Orb Virizion Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Heatran-Mega: 190-226 (95.9 - 114.1%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
0+ SpA Volcanion Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Virizion: 120-144 (60.6 - 72.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0+ SpA Volcanion Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 36 SpD Virizion: 116-138 (58.5 - 69.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 0+ Atk Life Orb Virizion Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Terrakion: 218-257 (110.1 - 129.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 0+ Atk Life Orb Virizion Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Terrakion: 218-257 (110.1 - 129.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Magearna-Mega Fleur Cannon vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Virizion: 218-260 (110.1 - 131.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Magearna-Mega Fleur Cannon vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Virizion: 182-216 (91.9 - 109%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Virizion: 276-326 (139.3 - 164.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Virizion: 204-242 (103 - 122.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Pros
Write your pros here
Cons
Write your cons here
Swampert
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
Held Item: Rindo Berry
- Liquidation
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Iron Tail
This would be a great place to discuss in detail how well Virizion performed on the team and any notes I came up with.
Pros
- Only weakness is Grass-type moves.
- Its two STAB moves are wide-range moves that can hit multiple targets.
Cons
- That one weakness is a x4 weakness...
- Swampert is sloooow and relies on its Mega status, which it doesn't have yet.
Season Breakdown
| 27 November | |||||
| Rank | Game | Me | P2 | P3 | P4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank Z | #1 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Rank U | #2 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| Rank R | #3 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| Rank P | #4 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| Rank N | #5 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Rank M | #6 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Rank L | #7 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Rank J | #8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| #9 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| Rank H | #10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| #11 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rank G | #12 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| Rank F | #13 | 4 | 4 | 8 | DC |
| #14 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 6 | |
| Rank E | #15 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| #16 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 3 | |
| #17 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | |
| Rank D | #18 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
| #19 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 3 | |
| #20 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 3 | |
| Rank C | #21 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| #22 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 4 | |
| Rank B | #23 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| #24 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 4 | |
| #25 | 3 | 6 | 5 | DC | |
| #26 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 4 | |
| #27 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 1 | |
| #28 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 3 | |
| #29 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 2 | |
A
First Place |
15 |
Second Place |
9 |
Third Place |
4 |
Fourth Place |
1 |
I have never seen so many hacked games, especially in a row. I'll be the first to admit when a team comp does not synergize as well as I think it does when planning — in this case Baxcalibur did so little for the team I think I ran two-Pokémon teams for about a third of my matches (and only winning matches) — but so many Pokémon were blatantly hacked in my matches at the end. Especially those last five games. The last one in particular had two hackers; I only managed to get a knock out because they were attacking each other in the beginning and I managed to snipe them.
It's not like I'm running basic 252/252/4 EV spreads either; both my Armarouge and Annihilape were running specialized EV spreads designed to help them survive long enough to get the combo going even without screens or moves boosting stats directly. Yet somehow in the last few matches I was continuously one-shot through the shields, through stat buffing moves, without crits and (judging by later Mega evolutions) without held items to boot.
Ignoring that, I did at least enjoy how varied the meta was. I saw a total of two players out of eighty-seven also running Armarouge + Annihilape together (though I only noticed one running Screen Armarouge). I saw a handful of Pokémon I was already familiar with and a single Glaceon, but most of the format was at the very least new cores from the DLC.
I did also have my best match yet this season, one that ironically I'm pretty sure an opponent called hacked. It might have been a Rank J match, but a 14/2/2/2 is definitely nothing to scoff at. That's when I finally started to get a groove for the timing (and mindset) for the Armarouge + Annihilape core. Those two are probably the core I've had the most fun with so far in Legends: Z-A. Should probably come up with a name for it at some point.
Let's get into what I would do differently if we had another Season Five to grind through soon.
Team Recap & Moving Forward
Go ahead and list final thoughts. Why not?