OU Zygarde-50%

Zygarde is a fairly dominant Pokemon in the OU tier due to the variety of sets that it can effectively run, its impressive defenses, and, most importantly, its access to Thousand Arrows. Thousand Arrows is a 90-Base Power Ground-type attack exclusive to Zygarde that allows it to deal damage to Flying-types and Pokemon with the ability Levitate, such as Skarmory and Rotom-W. As such, Thousand Arrows is incredibly spammable and is the main reason why Zygarde's Dragon Dance set skyrocketed to popularity in the beginning stages of the OU metagame. As the metagame has developed, however, Choice Band and mono-attacking Coil sets have proven to be Zygarde's most effective and reliable options. Zygarde's solid defenses in conjunction with its decent Dragon / Ground typing also allow it to act as a good offensive switch in to threatening Pokemon such as Heatran and Mega Charizard Y lacking Hidden Power Ice.

Zygarde @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic / Superpower

Zygarde's most prominent set in the current metagame, a Choice Band alongside maximum Attack investment and an Adamant nature allows it to hit like a truck right off the bat. Thousand Arrows is Zygarde's best move and is what it will be using most of the time. Outrage should be used sparingly, but it is Zygarde's most powerful attack and can be helpful for breaking down incredibly bulky walls like Tangrowth. Similarly, Extreme Speed is not frequently used but aids Zygarde in revenge killing faster offensive threats such as Tapu Koko and Ash-Greninja. Although Zygarde will usually be using Thousand Arrows, if the opposing team is packing sturdy Ground-resistant Pokemon such as Tangrowth, Tapu Bulu, and Mega Heracross, firing off a Toxic to chip away at these foes is often beneficial. Superpower can also be used to deal super effective damage to Ferrothorn and Chansey, but this is fairly niche in comparison to the utility of Toxic. Iron Tail is a niche option to to eliminate Tapu Bulu and Magic Guard Clefable, who otherwise check Zygarde.

However, despite its numerous positive traits, Zygarde is not without its flaws as well. A 4x weakness to Ice-type attacks makes it very vulnerable to being revenge killed when not behind a Substitute. Zygarde's less-than-stellar Speed stat makes this even more exploitable, as faster Pokemon such as Tapu Koko and Protean Greninja can easily outspeed and do massive damage with Hidden Power Ice and Ice Beam respectively. Finally, Zygarde sports an only average Attack stat, so without a boost from Choice Band, Zygarde will often struggle to make huge dents in an opposing team. Even when equipped with a Choice Band, incredibly bulky Pokemon such as Alomomola and Rocky Helmet Tangrowth can still avoid a 2HKO from any attack that Zygarde can dish out.

What alternate sets have you tried with Zygarde? Give the Order Pokemon a shot!
 
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Colonel M

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De-slash Iron Tail from the first set and mention Superpower instead. Superpower lets Zygarde bypass Ferrothorn (and to some extension Chansey) a lot better while Iron Tail is only for Clefable and Tapu Bulu - two threatening Pokemon for sure, but much rarer than the former two mentioned for Superpower. I'm more than fine with listing Iron Tail within the comments of the set though, so don't feel that you have to remove every mention of it. As a final con you mention its mediocre Speed, but its Attack stat is also rather mediocre as well - meaning that while it still is very threatening, it still is held back offensively by its Attack stat as it needs something like Choice Band to reliably 2HKO some threats and still can fail to 2HKO bulkier threats like Alomomola. Don't harp too hard on the low Attack being a con, though, just mention that without a boost Zygarde doesn't hit very hard - especially on Coil sets where it usually takes a couple Coils to be an offensive presence.

1/2

EDIT: With Zard Y in the first paragraph mention if Hidden Power Ice is absent as Zard Y + Dugtrio is a pretty common core and some Zard Ys will run HP Ice instead of Focus Blast.
 

PK Gaming

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Do you think you could also talk about the history behind Zygarde's sets? Initially, Dragon Dance was all the rage, but it's more or less fallen out of favor. Talking about how players shifted towards Choice Band would make for an interesting bit of SM OU history. Otherwise this is great.

QC 2/2
 
Just wanted to say that Iron Tail is not released on Zygarde-50% yet, this is a glitch that PS! hasn't fixed yet.
 

antemortem

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When you insert some history about the history of Zygarde's sets, please remove the second set (as I assume CB is the most notable set).

It's a bit on the lengthy side, and the history bit is more creative/unique IMO than adding a second set in this case. We'll have a link to the on-site analysis anyway for people that want to see more sets.
 

dhelmise

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Zygarde is a fairly dominant Pokemon in the OU tier due to the variety of sets that it can effectively run, its impressive defenses, and, (AC) most importantly, its access to Thousand Arrows. Thousand Arrows is a 90-Base (AH) Power Ground-type attack exclusive to Zygarde that allows it to deal damage to Flying-types and Pokemon with the ability Levitate, such as Skarmory and Rotom-W. As such, Thousand Arrows is incredibly spammable and is the main reason why Zygarde's Dragon Dance set skyrocketed to popularity in the beginning stages of the OU metagame. As the metagame has developed, however, Choice Band and mono-attacking (AH) Coil sets have proven to be Zygarde's most effective and reliable options. Zygarde's solid defenses in conjunction with its decent Dragon / Ground typing also allow for it to also act as a good offensive switch in to threatening Pokemon such as Heatran and Mega Charizard Y lacking Hidden Power Ice.

Zygarde @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic / Superpower

Zygarde's most prominent set in the current metagame, a Choice Band alongside maximum Attack investment and an Adamant nature allow for allows ("a choice band [...] allows it to") it to hit like a truck right off the bat. Thousand Arrows is Zygarde's best move, (RC) and is what you it will be using most of the time. Outrage should be used sparingly, but it is Zygarde's most powerful attack and can be helpful for breaking down incredibly bulky walls like Tangrowth. Similarly, Extreme Speed is not frequently used, (RC) but aids Zygarde in revenge killing faster offensive threats such as Tapu Koko and Ash-Greninja. Although Zygarde will usually be using Thousand Arrows, if the opposing team is packing sturdy Ground-resists Ground-resistant Pokemon such as Tangrowth, Tapu Bulu, or and Mega Heracross, firing off a Toxic to chip away at these foes is often beneficial. Superpower can also be used to deal super effective damage to Ferrothorn and Chansey, but this is fairly niche in comparison to the utility of Toxic.

However, despite (better connects the paragraphs) its numerous positive traits, Zygarde is not without its flaws as well. A 4x weakness to Ice-type attacks makes it very vulnerable to being revenge killed when not behind a Substitute. Zygarde's less-than-stellar (AHx2) Speed stat makes this even more exploitable, as faster Pokemon such as Tapu Koko and Protean Greninja can easily outspeed and do massive damage with Hidden Power Ice and Ice Beam respectively. Finally, Zygarde sports an only average Attack stat, so without a boost from Choice Band, Zygarde will often struggle to do immediate damage to make huge dents in (more fitting) an opposing team. Even when equipped with a Choice Band, incredibly bulky Pokemon such as Alomomola and Rocky Helmet Tangrowth can still avoid a 2HKO from any attack that Zygarde can dish out.

What alternate sets have you tried with Zygarde? Give the Order Pokemon a shot!
GP 1/1
 

P Squared

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Scheduled for August 6. If we don't get art by then, I'll reuse this:



AJB let me know if this needs any updates!
 

Colonel M

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AJB if you could please re-mention (but dont need to slash) Iron Tail on the set as Tapu Bulu and Magic Guard Clefable have risen more in usage and it bops both. Mention that Toxic still limits Tapu Bulu and Clefable has to be very healthy to "check" Zygarde still.

CelticEdit: implemented

p^2Edit: published!
 
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