Have either of the Darmanitan forms ever had an instance where Zen Mode was used over their normal abilities?

Question

Title explains it well. Has Zen Mode ever had a niche over Sheer Force/Gorilla Tactics at any point in competitive? This includes battle facilities and in-game VGC and ranked battles.

Comments

Unovan Zen Mode is literally always worse than Unovan Sheer Force. I'm pretty sure Galar Zen Mode is actually decent, and Smogon even gives it a sample set in Gen 8 Ubers.

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Zen Galarian Darmanitan is pretty useful in BH, but that uses fur coat instead of zen mode. Also you'll probably get a better answer if you ask here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/smogon-simple-questions-suggestions-thread.3582200/

Answer 1

Unovan Darmanitan is always using sheer force in every single smogon recommended set.

These are:

Gen 5 UU
Gen 5 OU
VGC12
VGC11
DW OU
Gen 6 UU
Gen 6 Monotype
Gen 7 UU
Gen 7 1v1
Gen 8 RU
Gen 8 1v1

So, unovan zen mode darmanitan...kinda sucks.

Galarian Zen mode Darmanitan actually has SOMETHING.

These are the formats where it is actually used

Gen 8 Ubers
Gen 8 1v1
Gen 8 BH

So, overall, the zen mode gang is not very good, however, galarian zen mode darm has a smol niche in two formats, and unovan in one.

Comments

Well, it appears zen mode totally sucks. Thanks!

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Are you going to count gen 8 BH?

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Shame, I've enjoyed the concept of the ability but in practice it just sucks.

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But I think galarian zen mode is much better than its other abilities

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Gorilla tactics is a free choice band, which is pretty great, especially considering that it can hold another item.

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@sumwun, I didn't see a recommended set for BH, so I didn't add that, but it is B- on the VR, so I'll make sure to add that.