Wall for Tensa Zangetsu (page 3)

Oh yeah, I also have been playing NatDex UU lately lol

Ohh and if you play NatDex OU, will ladder let Mega Banette drop to NDUU anytime soon? It will still be bad in NDUU and would eventually drop, but at least there it has a 70% chance to trade with a Pokemon, which is better than Mega Beedrill, who has a 100% chance of doing nothing in NDUU. I kind of wish Mega Banette had like +20 to its base speed, Tough Claws, and Play Rough so I could use Swords Dance Mega Banette in a NatDex format and feel good about it.

Usually I have 2 sweepers, and I try to position one to get rid of Banette so the other can clean. In the case of my Zardy-Gouging-DNite-Waterpon-Hat-Crown team, Iron Crown is usually the late game mon that comes in after Banette is removed because Encore messes it up. Therefore, I usually position Gouging to be exert extra pressure on the opponent, especially after Lando is removed by Zardy, Ice Spinner Dragonite, or Waterpon. This will force Banette to come in and DBond, thus allowing Crown to come in and clean up.
(this is best case scenario btw; during my tilt period I have lost to many a Banette)

Do you still play competitive Pokemon nowadays? I still play NU, and have 3 accounts a bit above 1500, one being my main. I decided to ladder on another account since my main and other alt have perfect gxes (74 and 79, which is not bad, but I don't want to make them a number with a decimal lol) Might get the 1 account that doesn't have an exact number higher if I feel like pushing to the 1600s on NU ladder, but Idk. I've been getting back into NatDex Monotype because it feels like with the NU HO team I have, NU ladder has kind of gotten a bit easy for me. :/ I made it to the 1600s on my main in NatDex Mono with mainly electric, being 6th out of the top 500 players on the NDM ladder. I also do decently in the roomtours in the NatDex Monotype as well. Could you give me a Pokemon and/or type for me to build with in NatDex Mono? I've been using a Sandy Shocks Electric lately that's quite fun, and I've been tempted to add a garbage mon for the 6th for another Electric team I want to make, but I haven't decided to do that (for now).

I usually don't, because I don't like grinding on an account that I'll never use again. Usually, if my team is based around a suspected mon, I try and grind on other teams that don't rely on that mon in case it actually gets banned.

yeah I just saw the suspect lol, honestly I'm not surprised if they ban it; I've had stupid success with Z Gouging and it is actually a great partner to Zard-Y, as Zardy easily removes many frustration Pokemon like Lando-T and Mola, potentially even baiting Tera Dragon from Mola.
the tilt is honestly pretty ass, especially since my motivation for quite literally everything has gone down. might take a hiatus after FL (if i get into FL), but i may need to chill for a while and focus on other things

They serve different roles, so you can't say Y outclasses X. But yeah, the opportunity cost of using Zard X is giving up the Mega slot for a Pokemon that gets its sweep stopped by so many mons, like Booster Val, bulky Lando, Tera Fairy mons (especially Dragons), and weak priority moves that would never kill except for the fact Rocks exist. Zard X is even worse off now because of the Dragon type competition. A team can choose from all of Raging Bolt, Gouging Fire, Dragonite, Garchomp, Kyurem, Kommo-O, the Lati twins, and Archaludon, and they generally don't want more than two Dragons if they're offensive and one Dragon if they're defensive/balance. Most of them offer something Zard X can't: the Lati twins and Garchomp are faster, Raging Bolt and Archaludon are strong with defensive utility, Kommo-O can omniboost in one turn, Kyurem can stallbreak, DNite has prio and can abuse Tera, and Gouging can abuse Tera along with Z. Critically, none of them are quad weak to Rocks, with only Gouging Fire potentially taking 50% from both Rocks and 3 layered Spikes. With how reliable hazard setting is now thanks to Tera, having to spend a turn Defogging or Rapid Spinning just isn't worth it for a sweeper, since it needs to stay a relatively full health to setup safely. By contrast, a wallbreaker can nuke a wall or two at low health since walls are generally slow. Thus, Zard Y suffers less from Rocks than Zard X.

Zard Y also has Solar Beam, meaning it can feasibly slot Roost without losing much coverage. As a breaker, it also doesn't need coverage to function, as it doesn't need to fully demolish a team. Zard X, on the other hand, is kind of make or break with its typing and moves.

Zard X is borderline unviable, especially now when its wholly outclassed by Zard Y. I'm really debating whether I like Zard X more than Zard Y now, not just because of competitive viability, but also because of Zard Y's sleek design (and Shiny Zard Y > regular Zard X). Zard X is kinda just there for old times sake, although idk Alolan Marowak may eventually take over both and imma start running hard Trick Room

imma be honest zard is just there because zard, you should read the speech I wrote on my wall (its on the second page I think after you click "more wall posts")

I've never been good at dealing with stall, but bulky Hatterene is really helpful. Hat isn't just there for hazard prevention (honestly it rarely does that) but its actually an insane stallbreaker with CM and Psyshock. The only stall mon that hardwalls it is Dondozo, which is easily removed by a mon like Ogerpon or Zard. For rain, I employ a variety of tactics such as HP Electric Zard (been running this from Gen 8) along with Ogerpon-Wellspring, the only Ogerpon form that isn't usually run with Zard.

As for Zard himself, he's truly just there for the vibes. I've started this journey back in Gen 8 and peaked at around 1500 and I wanted to try again here. I used to run a team heavily focused around supporting Zard (Zard, Iron Treads, Oger-Corner, Bolt, Hat, Tran) but after reading about HO's omega dominance I started building a HO team with HSamurott. This exact team, after changing HRott to MDiancie then Zardy, is the team that hit top 40. The team initially lacked wallbreaking power, as there were too many setup sweepers that needed some opportunities. Seeing this, I slotted in Zardy, who was capable of breaking down walls to the point where a setup sweeper can cause issues.

To be fair, I could alter the team to fit another mega/pokemon, but seeing how potential Wellspring/Gouging suspects and Tera discussion are on the horizon, I may want to let that play out and react afterwards, since Wellspring and Gouging are both great against Zardy.

What the fu-frick lmao