Zamazenta
Fighting
The wolves are here! Zamazenta Hero of Many Battles form is a pure Fighting type legendary Pokémon that has marked its shocking debut in Pokémon Go along with its sibling Hero, the pure Fairy type Zacian.
Zacian and Zamazenta are the game mascots of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield respectively and are infamous for their Crowned forms wherein each of them adopts a Steel sub-typing along with their original types in the Hero form.
On that note, it is worth noting that Zacian Crowned Sword is slated to be a meta monster. But as this article’s about Zamazenta, let me give you a dekko on the Zamazenta Crowned Shield form:
Zamazenta (Crowned Shield)
FightingSteel
|
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| Max CP at Level 40 4172 | Max CP at Level 50 4717 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATK 250 | DEF 292 | HP 192 | |||
| Weak to | Strong Against | ||||
| Fighting Fire Ground | Dark Normal Rock Ice Steel Fairy | ||||
Note: You can check out Zacian and its infamous Crowned Sword form from my good friend Kratos’ detailed and comprehensive Zacian Meta Analysis article.
Zamazenta Crowned Shield form does look. But all that’s for the (near?) future. For now, we will stick to Zamazenta Hero of Many Battles and see just how much of a hero it is in Pokémon Go.
Stats
|
Zamazenta (Hero)
Fighting
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| Max CP at Level 40 3829 | Max CP at Level 50 4329 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATK 254 | DEF 236 | HP 192 | |||
| Weak to | Strong Against | ||||
| Fairy Psychic | Dark Normal Rock Ice Steel | ||||
No, you aren’t seeing things. Zamazenta Hero does have a higher ATK stat than its Crowned Shield form. But that’s how it is supposed to be! Shield… Defense… whopping 292 DEF stat… you see it?
Anyway, it goes without saying that Zamazenta does have a good stat distribution, putting it in immediate contention for the Master League as well as PvE. But the reality of that would be decided by the moveset after all!
Moveset
Zamazenta Hero can learn the following moves in Pokémon Go:
| Fast Moves | Charged Moves |
|---|---|
|
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Okay, you don’t have to flinch on Zamazenta not having any Fighting type fast moves in Pokémon Go. In the Main Series Games, Zamazenta doesn’t learn any of the current Fighting type fast moves in the game!
The only Fighting moves in general from Zam’s movepool that could reflect in Go are Close Combat and Focus Blast and indeed… Zam does learn Close Combat.
It gets Ice Fang, which is nice against and Ground types but it isn’t the most viable fast move for Zam. Although it’s worth noting that Zam with Ice Fang and Iron Head can go up against Dragon types and even beat Togekiss in (0-0). Otherwise, it isn’t good against the meta in general.
Snarl offers good energy gains and can actually help its cause.
Quick Attack? DELETE
Metal Claw and Iron Head are what… supposed to deal with Fairy types, eh? But this set is so meh on Zam that it doesn’t even beat Togekiss in either (0-0) or (1-1). Yikes!
Close Combat is its only STAB move but not reliable by any means. In PvE, it lacks a supporting STAB move to make any difference. In PvP, it debuffs your DEF by 2 stages. Urgh!
Moonblast doesn’t do it much favours. Iron Head might, but just to an extent.
So what is Zamazenta’s ideal moveset?
For PvP, Snarl paired with Crunch and Close Combat gives it viability.
Zamazenta Hero isn’t really going to be of note in PvE. So you can stick to its PvP moveset.
Performance in the Master League
A pure Fighting type without good STAB moves to back it up is bound to have it rough. Be it Mewtwo, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Togekiss or Sylveon… our doggo with a fighting spirit won’t touch them. However, it does win against Yveltal… and Dialga. As such, it is worth going over Zam’s outing in both ML formats.
Master League Classic
Zamazenta gains the following wins in the ML Classic:
- Beats Dialga in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Yveltal in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Groudon in (0-0)
- Beats Mud Shot Garchomp in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Goodra in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Metagross in (0-0)
- Beats Melmetal in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Excadrill in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Swampert in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Machamp in (0-0)
- Beats Snorlax in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Giratina (Origin) in (0-0)
- Beats Giratina (Altered) in (1-1) and (0-0)
Open Master League
Zamazenta gains the following wins in the ML Classic:
- Beats Dialga in (1-1) but loses in (0-0)
- Beats Yveltal in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Groudon in (0-0)
- Beats Mud Shot Garchomp in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Goodra in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Metagross in (0-0)
- Beats Melmetal in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Excadrill in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Swampert in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Machamp in (0-0)
- Beats Snorlax in (1-1) and (0-0)
- Beats Giratina (Origin) in (1-1) and loses in (0-0)
- Beats Giratina (Altered) in (1-1) but loses in (0-0)
Conclusion
Zamazenta (Hero) has an almost similar performance in both ML Classic and Open. But to be more precise, it actually gets worse in Open ML, losing match-ups that it won before.
Zacian (Hero) is pretty good in both ML formats but alas Zamazenta (Hero) couldn’t deliver the goods like its Fairy type sibling did.
So is Zamazenta (Hero) worth XLing? NO.
Worth catching a good IV? YES!
Zamazenta (Crowned Shield) will be good. Obviously, Zacian (Crowned Sword) would still be the better doggo but Zam in its Crowned form will gain a better place in the meta courtesy of its huge bulk and good ATK. And Steel typing is always a blessing anyway.
You can check out the Zamazenta raid counters guide to help you pick the best counters for an easy raid experience and hopefully get a good IV Zamazenta for yourself!
Happy raids, trainers!
