Recent Competitive zapdos sets in VGC:


Philadelphia Top Cut Report

Zapdos @ Power Belt (Tempest)
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpA
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Roost
– Protect

Zapdos is simultaneously the Pokémon I used the least and the one I have the most to say about.  First off, I know the Power Belt makes no sense, but I’ll get to that later.  Second, I have to thank Alex (Stempe) for suggesting Zapdos as, even if I didn’t use it all that well at Philly, it was a good fit for my team.  Also, Tempest is an anagram of Stempe, which is how I got the nickname (Yes, I know Tempest has one too many T’s.  It was the best I could do).  Anyways, the moves were my attempt to function as bulky offense and speed control at the same time.  The EV spread. . . really, I have no idea where it came from or what it does.  I just ended up with it on Showdown one day and it was what I ended up using.  In its favor, it was able to take a Brave Bird and a Rock Slide from a Mega-Aerodactyl, so that’s something.


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A 3rd Place Worlds Report

Zapdos @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 220 HP / 144 Def / 28 SpA / 76 SpD / 36 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 4 Atk / 30 Def
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Thunder Wave
– Roost

I love speed control. I need it on almost every team. For Worlds, I chose to go with Thunder Wave Zapdos. Thunder Wave also helped against enemy Mawile, Hydreigon, and Rain teams. In my opinion, Zapdos is the best non-Mega Pokémon in Kalos.  Zapdos has two weaknesses that are easily covered and Zapdos is a very difficult Pokémon to KO. I ran a standard moveset on Zapdos because it was the best set I could run for what I needed it to do. I ran Thunderbolt for a strong Electric-type STAB move. Although I cannot actually KO any Dragon-types with Hidden Power Ice, I still ran it so I had the option to hit them. Thunder Wave was my form of speed control. Roost was for recovery so Zapdos could hang around and Paralyze more Pokémon. I treated this Zapdos as I would a Thundurus from 2013. I have been using Zapdos since early spring after seeing Keewan Bae use it on his rain team. I ran Safety Goggles as I was afraid of facing Azumaril and Amoonguss. Safety Goggles also allowed my Zapdos to avoid Sandstorm damage that my Tyranitar provided.

My HP allowed me to survive Staraptor Final Gambits. I ran 76 EVs in Special Defense to survive Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteors with my Calm Nature. My defense allowed Zapdos to be 3HKOed by Life Orb Garchomp Rock Slides. My speed allowed me to outspeed max Speed Tyranitars. The rest of my EVs were dumped into Special Attack. Zapdos was a key component to my team as it allowed me to control the battle with Thunder Wave. Zapdos was also a great defensive pivot. Not many teams have a Pokémon that can OHKO Zapdos and are forced to double up on him. Zapdos provided offensive pressure because it hits a lot of Pokémon in the metagame for neutral damage and the Pokémon that is getting hit cannot deal enough damage back to Zapdos.


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7th Place Worlds Report

Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Modest
Pressure
EVs: 132 HP / 44 Def / 172 SpAtk / 20 SpDef / 140 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/30/30/30
– Thunder
– Discharge
– Volt Switch
– Hidden Power Flying

The IV Spread I ended up having to use: 31/31/31/24/0/26
The Actual EV Spread: 140 HP / 12 Def / 184 SpAtk / 8 SpDef / 160Spd
As the actual IV spread I ended up using was pretty terrible, I think it definitely needs at least a little explanation. I started soft resetting for my Hidden Power Flying Zapdos about three weeks before Worlds, at the time I thought this would give me plenty of time to hit the spread I wanted or at least get something as close to perfect as possible. Oh my friends, how I was wrong! So wrong! I was spending around 4 hours per day on my commute to work and back soft resetting plus some additional hours on evenings when I could. Now, I was either incredibly unlucky or this is what I think to be probably one of the hardest Hidden Powers to get. Over what turned out to be a pretty horrible and tenuous three week period I managed to only get two (out of probably thousands) Hidden Power Flying spreads. The first one was a Quiet nature with a 0 Speed IV (great for trick room right?!??) which was useless for what I needed and the second one was what I settled on and can be seen above. The reason I really had no option but to settle on such poor IVs was because I caught the above Zapdos in the hotel room on the Thursday morning before Worlds started. It was Modest and I worked out I could move EVs around to compensate for the lower Speed and Special attack IVs to hit the numbers I needed as they were probably the key stats for how I wanted Zapdos to operate. The Special Defence literally couldn’t have been any worse but when I thought about continuing on for a better spread I thought doing this would mean I realistically wouldn’t be running it at Worlds. So with that in mind, I promptly saved and that was that. I definitely think having such a low Special Defence IV hurt in a few matches but over the course of the tournament it didn’t make as big an impact as I thought it may have. I really was quite lucky to actually get the Hidden Power when I did. This whole process meant I had very little time to play or get comfortable with the team; I think I had about 5 practice matches before Worlds started which wasn’t ideal. I am currently trying to soft reset for a better spread but at a much more casual pace, so if and when I do get one as near to perfect as possible I may do a giveaway if anyone would be interested.

In any case, I constructed this Zapdos with the main intention to operate it as the team’s main pivot point — helping support both weather modes with fast damage and giving good options for gaining board control, keeping momentum and overall allowing for easier team maneuverability.

The 140 Speed EVs ensured I would get the jump on Scarfed max Speed Politoeds, neutral natured up to 100 Speed ev invested Ludicolos in the rain and all max Speed base 135s and below. I wasn’t too concerned about outspeeding Scarfed Smeargles as I had other methods to deal with it, hence the reason for not investing any further.

The Special Attack investment guaranteed a 1HKO on standard Scarfed Politoeds and 252HP / 4SpDef Azumarills with Thunder.

The Defence EVs allowed me to always survive an adamant Mega Kangaskhan’s Return and with Intimidate support helped boost its longevity in general.

I opted to run Thunder over Thunderbolt mainly for the increase in base power which helped turn a lot of close or near 1hkos with Thunderbolt into guaranteed ones and gave me a stronger option against opposing Rain teams. Thunder’s accuracy outside of rain was a lot less desirable than I would normally be comfortable running but I had my own rain mode to support and complement this as well as other electric attacks I could rely on in other field conditions.

Volt Switch was chosen for a number of reasons. Zapdos was holding a Choice Scarf so it now had the Speed stat to actually make real use of the attack to move relatively freely on the field, getting the jump on a majority of the metagame and avoiding super effective attacks whilst picking up at worst some chip damage along the way. I also liked the options it gave me when facing trapping teams, allowing me to quickly change momentum when I otherwise wouldn’t be able to. My favourite and primary use for Volt Switch though was to be used in conjunction with my Tyranitar and Politoed and using the fast switch to manipulate and disrupt the weather in my favour.

Although Discharge is the third Electric type attack I have elected to use on Zapdos, it again is here for a good reason. I knew from experience I would sooner or later come across one or more of those cute teams carrying a Lightningrod, Rage Powder or Follow Me user to protect their Electric-weak partner setting up and as simple as it is, Discharge was there to combat that. Its other advantages are it has a pretty decent 30% secondary effect to paralyze the opponent and as I was also running Garchomp, I had the option to really overwhelm the opponent with the old ‘DisQuake’ combo if the opportunity presented itself — although the latter was an afterthought.

Why Hidden Power Flying? I originally had Hidden Power Ice on Zapdos as a way of hitting many of the metagame’s Ice-weak threats but when reviewing the team I noticed I had a huge problem in particular with my matchup against Mega Venusaur. This really put a ‘spanner in the works’ as I thought a lot of players would be inclined to bring it to Worlds because of how good a match up it has against Rain. I was also uncomfortable that Mawile was currently my only real way of hitting Venusaur hard as it was almost guaranteed to have a nasty Fire type partner that Mawile would prefer to avoid. So when looking at all of my options to resolve this problem (of which I didn’t have many throughout the team), I realised that Zapdos was realistically one of the only Pokémon that I could alter to turn this matchup into a more favourable one. I decided I didn’t necessarily need Hidden Power Ice as I had Ludicolo and Politoed to deal with the threats I would be hitting with it anyway so Hidden Power Flying just made perfect sense. It also added another STAB move to my arsenal giving additional ways to surprise my opponents and hit many other common threats I previously had no reliable answer for.

I also took full advantage of the fact that in most battles my opponents would be assuming I was running HP Ice. In some games it was nice to reveal the scarf early and not the hidden power type, especially when I was facing off against opposing Garchomp and Salamence where I could almost force switching late game due to their thoughts of ‘not wanting to take an easy KO’ which really helped gain momentum at times. In the same respect, HP Flying was also very effective especially against Mega Venusaur. I found players would happily leave it on the field to eat up the expected HP Ice with the help of its Thick Fat Ability only to take up to, and sometimes over, 50% damage from the incoming HP Flying attack.

Overall I felt my decision to run HP Flying over HP Ice was the right one and it turned out to be extremely effective. Zapdos was definitely my MVP of the tournament and was brought to every game I played.

Damage Calculations

252+ Atk Adamant Parental Bond Kangaskhan-Mega Return vs. 132 HP / 44 Def Zapdos: 153-180 (84 – 98.9%)
172+ SpA Modest Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 132 HP / 20 SpD Zapdos: 90-106 (49.4 – 58.2%)
252+ SpA Life Orb Modest Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 132 HP / 20 SpD Zapdos: 125-148 (68.6 – 81.3%)
252 Atk Jolly Garchomp Rock Slide vs. 132 HP / 44 Def Zapdos: 70-84 (38.4 – 46.1%) 3HKO
252+ Atk Adamant Life Orb Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 132 HP / 44 Def Zapdos: 151-179 (82.9 – 98.3%)
172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Thunder vs. 4 HP / 4 SpD Politoed: 186-222 (112 – 133.7%) 1HKO
172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Thunder vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Azumarill: 224-266 (108.2 – 128.5%) 1HKO
172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Hidden Power (Flying) vs. 4 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Ludicolo: 68-84 (43.5 – 53.8%)
172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Hidden Power (Flying) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Ludicolo: 104-126 (66.6 – 80.7%)
172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Hidden Power (Flying) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Venusaur-Mega: 90-108 (48.1 – 57.7%)
172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Volt Switch vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Talonflame: 162-192 (105.1 – 124.6%)


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US Nationals 17th Place Report

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 220 HP / 120 Def / 44 SpA / 96 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def / 29 SpD
– Roost
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Thunder Wave

Zapdos was one of the best Pokemon on the team. While I kind of regret running Thunder Wave since I had other answers to Kangaskhan and didn’t like using it that much, the three-move combination of Roost-Thunderbolt-Hidden Power Ice worked wonders in terms of coverage and defensive capability. Zapdos’ bulk and its Life Orb turned it into an all-terrain vehicle that could roll over anything and worked pretty universally in any match-up. I think at this point it’s solidified in my mind that Zapdos could easily turn out to be one of the best Pokemon in the meta game. After all,  it has great defenses and defensive typing coupled with the ability to answer both Garchomp and Salamence with the right EV spread. Electric is a fantastic type to receive STAB on due to it only being resisted by Dragon, Electric, and Ground, two of which are weak to Hidden Power Ice. Lists of the most common Dragon and Ground types both include Garchomp, so Hidden Power Ice works wonders. However, Zapdos was another one of the Pokemon that compounded my weakness to Rotom-H.

Roost in particular had some applications that saved me in several situations. While I was vulnerable to critical hits when doing this, I could position matches with a decent amount of time left into situations where Zapdos could Roost off damage and then win a battle solo against two opponents quite comfortably because of its bulk. This was a big deal in my game against Mancuso, where I had to set myself up for a 1v2 with Zapdos against Azumarill and -2 Sp. Atk Rotom-Heat to win the game. Without the Roost option I would have been unable to win that game due to the sheer amount of damage. Zapdos is a great candidate for Roost because of its excellent typing, leaving it with only two weaknesses to abuse. Therefore, it often took at least two turns to knock out; each Roost could extend the turns wasted significantly by the opponent significantly or push the opponent into a situation where they had to knock out Zapdos without actually having anything to knock it out, since I took out the thing that severely damaged Zapdos in the first place.

This EV spread was made to survive both Mega Mawile’s maximum Attack Adamant Play Rough and a single hit of Life Orb damage. It could also survive a Modest Choice Specs Salamence Draco Meteor, albeit not taking the Life Orb damage afterwards should I choose to get the KO on Salamence with Hidden Power Ice. The Special Attack EVs allow it to both one-hit KO Garchomp and two-hit KO Mega Kangaskhan, proving that Zapdos’ damage holding Life Orb was still relatively high despite its significant defensive investment. The Speed allowed me to outpace max Speed Bisharp by two points, since 4 EVs would always be wasted due to the Special Defense IV and Defense IV of the Zapdos I had (the extra 4 are in Special Defense on this spread) where if I was using a flawless Zapdos I would have been able to outpace Jolly max Speed Tyranitar all of the time as well. Fortunately, that wasn’t an issue.


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5th Place Senior Division Worlds Report

Eric1999 (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 196 Def / 36 SpA / 56 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Thunder Wave
– Roost
– Swagger
– Thunderbolt

Shout out to Eric1999 for giving me this EV spread.

Survives Play Rough from max Attack Mawile 100% of the time.
Survives Rock Slide from Banded Garchomp 100% of the time.
This was by far the hardest slot on my team to fill. I felt as though I needed something that resisted Steel and that could work outside of Trick Room. I tried several Pokemon in this slot, including but not limited to Mega Gyarados, Mega Blastoise, Clawlitzer, Rotom-Heat, and Mawile. I finally decided on Zapdos after using a team given to me by Eric1999. I found Zapdos to be a great support Pokémon that helped against Azumarill and Aegislash, both of which caused my team problems. Zapdos’s ability to resist weaknesses in my team such as Steel and Fighting made it a great switch in.

For the last move, I chose Swagger over other options such as Light Screen purely because I could Swagger my own Scrafty to get a +2 Attack boost. However, I didn’t get to use this combination in the tournament. I also considered having Hidden Power Ice on this Zapdos, but I found Abomasnow already dealt with Dragons well enough. In hindsight, I feel as though I should have chosen Mega Blastoise instead of Zapdos, as it would have done more work during Swiss and especially against Mark in Top Cut.


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Scar’s Double Switch Trick Room: A Japanese Worlds 2014 Team

Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 76 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
– Thunderbolt
– Volt Switch
– Discharge
– Hidden Power [Ice]

10/16 chance to OHKO 252 HP Smeargle with Thunderbolt
9/16 chance to OHKO 0 HP 0 SDef Garchomp with Hidden Power Ice
Outspeeds Adamant Lucario by 1 (without Choice Scarf)
Zapdos is the strongest Electric type in Kalos Doubles in my opinion. Excelling in each aspect of bulk, firepower and speed, it also happens to be a big favourite of mine. To deal with Aerodactyl (Mega included) and determine whether Salamences were Scarfed, I had Choice Scarf as the item. Spamming Discharge alongside Garchomp or Gardevoir alone was ridiculously strong. Another option available was having Zapdos and Gengar on the field with Zapdos Volt Switching out as Gengar Trick Roomed. By spending lots of EVs in Special Attack, I increased the chances of OHKOing Garchomp and since opposing Scarfed Smeargles were quite problematic, I also aimed to be able to fell them in one hit with a faster Thunderbolt. Using its Scarf to determine the held item of opposing Salamence gave Garchomp much more breathing room when it was alongside it. No matter what set Zapdos runs in National Dex Doubles, it tends to get overshadowed by the similar Thundurus, but in this case it again proved its excellence to me.


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Pennsylvania Regional Senior Division 1st Place Report

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 220 HP / 120 Def / 44 SpA / 96 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Roost
– Protect

Recently, Zapdos has been one of my favorite Pokémon to use competitively. It’s got just about everything—bulk, power, and speed. Zapdos functioned as a strong attacker that could double up on opposing Pokémon with its allies to achieve easy KOs, as well as being able to stick around on the battlefield for long periods of time using Roost.

Using Life Orb on this set made up for the loss of power due to the defensive spread; although using Life Orb on a defensively built Zapdos seems counterproductive, Roost more than made up for it. I decided not to use Thunder Wave: I already had so many answers to Mega Kangaskhan, and in many situations Protect was better than a rather situational move. Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Ice actually make for extremely solid coverage—only a handful of common Pokémon can comfortably wall them, especially coming from Zapdos’s high Special Attack. Roost enhanced Zapdos’s staying power immensely, and in some cases could even win games. In situations where I was forced into a 1v1 with an enemy that couldn’t be knocked out quickly but was doing less than 50% damage per turn, I would be able to alternate Roost and an attack until I had won the game. The EV spread is built to always withstand an Adamant max investment Mega Mawile’s Play Rough and one tick of Life Orb damage, while outspeeding max Speed Bisharp and Tyranitar.

Damage Calculations:

252+ Atk Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 220 HP / 120 Def Zapdos: 145-172 (75.1 – 89.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 220 HP / 96 SpD Zapdos: 160-190 (82.9 – 98.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Rock Slide vs. 220 HP / 120 Def Zapdos: 66-78 (34.1 – 40.4%) — guaranteed 3HKO
44+ SpA Life Orb Zapdos Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Salamence: 198-234 (115.7 – 136.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
44+ SpA Life Orb Zapdos Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 187-224 (101.6 – 121.7%) — guaranteed OHKO
44+ SpA Life Orb Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 188 HP / 4 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 164-195 (92.6 – 110.1%) — 56.3% chance to OHKO


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Third Place Mexico City’s Premier Challenge Report

Zapdos @ Leftovers (Woodstock)
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 84 HP / 108 Def / 252 SAtk / 60 SDef
Modest Nature
IV’s: 31/x/31/31/31/28
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Substitute
– Protect

I really couldn’t get a nicknamable Zapdos, but if I could Woodstock would have been its name. I think that Zapdos is the grown up form of Woodstock, from Peanuts. I used to hate Zapdos’ design, as I prefer Articuno, but my love for him grew and it’s OK.

Zapdos was the last member I picked for my team, as it was a very though decision. This legendary bird came to my mind on a very bad day in which I was very sick and I couldn’t attend college, so I had a lot of time to think and came to the conclusion that the things that I needed were something that could resist Talonflame’s Brave Bird and another option to face the popular Double Dragon.

The set I had planned was a Sitrus Berry one, it gave me nice results on Showdown but testing it in Battle Spot said otherwise so I changed the set for a Substitute one. As its Speed IVs are 28 I couldn’t even afford a speed tie with other base 100s. I also thought of a Choice Scarf set, which would’ve helped me more in the long run but I didn’t have the time to test it before the tournament.

The spread is a bulky and Leftovers optimized one, so it can take a Rock Slide or a Draco Meteor and retaliate with Hidden Power Ice or hide behind a Substitute after that. It is really a niche Pokémon to help me under very specific situations.


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A Top 8 Philadelphia Report

zapdos@Safety Goggles

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 76 SpA / 156 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
– Thunder Wave
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Roost

Zapdos, in my opinion, is the best Electric type Pokemon you can have on a rain team. It is very bulky but also has a decent amount of offense. The EV Spread is really old. I was struggling to think of a Zapdos spread and I didn’t like using a Bold one. In the end, I decided to go with Human’s spread from his rain team from long ago which can be found here. It pretty much accomplished the only goal I wanted it to do, survive a Draco Meteor from a Choice Specs Modest Hydreigon, so I went with it. The moveset is also very basic. Thunderbolt for STAB, Thunder Wave for speed control, and Roost in order for it to survive for a longer time. I chose Hidden Power Ice over another attack such as Swagger because I was worried about not being able to hit Garchomp if a scenario were to end up like that.


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Top 8 Philadelphia Regionals and Holmes Premier Challenge 1st Place Report

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Bold Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpD
IVs: 30 Atk, 30 Def
– Thunderbolt
– Roost
– Swagger
– Thunder Wave

I wanted to change the EVs so that the HP would be divisible by 16 for maximum Leftovers recovery. However, I never got around to adjusting my spread. The HP and Defense EVs give Zapdos a 97.6% chance of surviving a Life Orb Garchomp’s Dragon Claw, and also makes Rock Slide from said Garchomp a 3HKO. The HP and Special Defense EVs allow Zapdos to survive a Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor, letting me Thunder Wave it and Roost the next turn to be at a good enough amount of health to still do work against my opponent’s team. I considered whether or not I wanted Hidden Power Ice or Swagger, and went with the latter. Just in case I decided to switch Swagger out at the last minute, I made sure that my Zapdos had the correct IVs to use Hidden Power Ice.