Zap cannon or thunder for zapdos?

Question

and NO I am NOT going to use thunderbolt so do not bring that up. my question is, which would be better on him zap cannon or thunder. They both have their pros and cons I guess.

zap cannon is only 50% accuracy with only 8pp and you cant afford to miss it with such low pp. But it has a 100% paralyze chance which is freakin dang nice. And has 120 base power, same with thunder.

Thunder also has 120 base power but only with an unreliable 30% chance paralyze which is a bit dissapointing when it has only 20% more accuracy than zap cannon. And plus, in the sun(which is used quite alot in the metagame) it decreases to 50% accuracy which makes it completely inferior to zap cannon in that situation.

So which would be more effective on my zapdos? (My team is quite offensive so paralyze is kinda mandatory for it)

Comments

To be honest by the way, both are horrible moves for Zapdos, but Thunder is good in rain. My best bet would be to put Discharge/Thunderbolt because they are by far the better options.

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Thunderbolt is the best option, why won't you use it?

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some poeple prefer selecting moves for the flash and the unpredictability, what he wants isnt too extreme. my advice is Zap Cannon. in any battle the trainer has more than one pokemon, so have Zapdos follow up a strong grass type with sweet scent, sunny day and synthesis, and have the grass type lower the evasion, while healing itself. if zapdos is carted in before sunny day ebbs, the weather effect does no harm to zap cannon's acc.

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I prefer Thunderbolt/Discharge but if is to choose one of them, go with Thunder. Rain is more popular than sun, btw. If you really want paralyz, go with Thunder Wave....

Answer 1

I think Thunder is the better choice. Zap Cannon might always inflict paralysis, but it only has 50% accuracy. It's a horrible move. You should make a rain team with Zapdos as your co-lead. Thunder abuses the rain very well, since the accuracy is improved to 100%. Also, it has better PP.

Thunder>Zap Cannon. Remember that.

Answer 2

Thunder.

You get STAB which makes its BP 180.
Zap Cannon may sound tasty with the 120 BP, but if you think, with STAB you only get 180, the same as Thunder.
The accuracy matters. Zap Cannon will not hit 50% of the time and that is sucky.
Go for reliability so go for Thunder.

If you can get rain, then definitely Thunder.

Comments

Zap Cannon has 120 BP

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WaaahhhhT? Ohkay then thanks.

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Zap cannon always paralyzes which is a plus