by Doc – Owner, Founder, Wrote This for Thanksgiving So You Can Have Something to Read While Mom and Dad are Fighting
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Spoilers ahead.
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Regarding Pokémon Legends Z-A and its 1v1 metagame, I’ve previously written a speculation as to how the weather trio, when introduced through the Mega Dimensions DLC, will likely warp the meta around them. Aside from the necessity of banning Mega Rayquaza, the second most important conclusion I drew when writing that post was that Kyogre will likely be unmatched in his potential. Kyogre has two type weaknesses, and Grass is a barely represented type in the existing metagame, leaving us only with the smattering of Electric types that we currently have. Looking ahead, I don’t see many possible sources of salvation on the Electric type front. Zeraora’s stat investment is primarily into speed, which is likely not going to benefit him given the uniqueness of this format, Melmetal has an abundance of Electric type attacks in the main games but does not receive STAB damage from them and is typically not an offensive Pokémon, and Toxtricity brings with him stats that are best characterized as “the little engine that couldn’t”. It would appear that Kyogre will probably go without Electric counters… except there’s still the little engine that could.
The Electric Option
Genesect, with a 600 base stat total and a pretty hefty special attack, has the ability to change the type of his signature move, Techno Blast, into the Electric type. He remains Bug and Steel type, whose only weakness is a four times weakness to Fire… But if you are fighting a Kyogre team, who typically sets up Rain Dance given the premises in my previous post, you have precious few weaknesses at all. Interesting.
Make no mistake, he’s still not a particularly bulky Pokémon. He runs less than 100 stats in all of his defensive options, so a single Fire type attack likely would still strike him out even in rain, and certainly in sun. He’s not without options though, as held items can mitigate this for him. Yes, I know he would need to use his held item slot for the drive to activate Electric type Techno Blast, but he actually has plenty of other Electric type attacks! So one could deploy Genesect with an Assault Vest or some similar held item (depends on what the DLC holds in store) to bulk him up as much as possible and use different Electric-type attacks entirely. The meta will have to determine whether that Fire-type weakness and middling frailty is important enough to warrant a Vest over a Drive, but I see both options as having potential.
With or without the Techno Blast, Genesect could be a pretty valuable asset for a Groudon-centric team. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but a BoltBeam user like Genesect, whose moveset could potentially include Electric, Ice, Grass and any number of other types of attacks functions as a very safe switch out option for Groudon. He’s not bulky enough to withstand Fire, but that’s his only type weakness, and if your opponent presents a Fire type option to beat that Genesect, well, you can just switch Groudon back in!
I know the meta will likely be full of BoltBeam users playing a complicated game of rock paper scissors, but at the end of the day it’s options like this that put up necessary walls so that the meta can centralize around the bigger options like Groudon and Kyogre.
The Grass Options
I do think Kyogre will not be completely without counters outside of Genesect. As I said in the last post, Sceptile’s Leaf Blade and Virizion might be able to pose a threat to him. Frankly, my money is on Virizion more than Sceptile. Sceptile has invested too much of his stats into his speed, allowing him to outspeed every typical opponent he would have… in a typical Pokémon game. This is not a typical Pokémon game. He is otherwise not bulky enough and not powerful enough to do much besides throw out Leaf Blade and threaten non-Kyogre Water types, as Kyogre would probably still put a dent in him even with a resisted Water-type attack. I would anticipate, as he does in Pokémon GO Ultra League PVP (the true pinnacle of all competitive Pokémon) that he’ll keep Swampert down and precious little else.
Virizion, however, has a pretty darn hefty 129 special defense. He could tank a Water type attack, even two – though not Ice Beam if Kyogre had it – and respond with his own Grass type options pretty easily. As far as Grass types go, I think Virizion will be the chief user. While he is double weak to Flying and has five other type weaknesses, given present conditions the only particularly concerning ones are his weakness to Ice and Psychic. It’s possible we see other types like Poison, Fairy, Fire become the new mainstream, especially if Steel types retain their dominance and need a Fire counter, but that’s going far enough out into the future that I find it hard to predict. Besides, the prevalence of Groudon means that Steel types have a much harder time in general.
(I’ll make a note that if Yveltal is legalized in the DLC due to power creep, Virizion will struggle immensely with that. And even without that, there’s still options like Pidgeot to hilariously threaten this legendary.)
Let’s not ignore that he conveniently counters Groudon as well. While Primal Groudon is safe from him, regular Groudon struggles unless he packs a Fire type attack (odds are he will – main game Groudon has stuff like Lava Plume, Fire Fang, Eruption, etc.). I’m not sold on Virizion being as much of a counter to Groudon as he would be to Kyogre because of that Fire-type question. If I’m correct that the legendaries meta would come down to Groudon versus Kyogre weather wars, it would be absolutely hilarious if Virizion was the new iteration of Rayquaza – mediating the dispute between both of them by smacking the crap out of both of them, though Kyogre will take the worse beating of the two.
Amiibo Doctor 