What is a good moveset for Galarian Zapdos?

Question

This thread is for Galarian Zapdos. For Kantonian Zapdos, please go here.

If you have a good competitive moveset for Galarian Zapdos, post an answer below and upvote the best ones.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some explanation, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Galarian Zapdos Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Zapdos-Galar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature / Lonely Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Agility
- Reversal
- Acrobatics
- Throat Chop / Thunderous Kick
Focus Sash set. Set agility and let them activate sash. Then you have 200 powered Reversal and 110 power Acrobatics at your disposal. You can run Throat Chop for coverage or Thunderous Kick just in case they don’t activate Sash or you got hurt by hazards

Comments

But, even if you are running Sash, you don't need to run 0 Ivs in bulk right? It doesn't matter if you activate the sash or not really, and secondary effects like burn or poison would benefit off of 0 Ivs in Bulk.

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Activating Sash is required as it gives a nice 200 BP Reversal.

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The whole point of the set is to activate the sash for the 200 BP reversal and 120 BP acrobatics

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An alternate solution if you are playing with item clause is endure + salac berry. Inferior choice but still viable

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As someone who loves & has used Sets like this for years, I'd recommend a Naughty or Lonely Nature just to make it more likely for the Focus Sash to activate.

Answer 2

Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Thunderous Kick
- Blaze Kick / Close combat
- Brave Bird
This is a pretty simple one, U-turn is recommended on Choice item users, Thunderous Kick is op, Blaze Kick is for coverage but you can always give up coverage if you want a better OHKO chance and replace it with Close Combat and Brave Bird is obvious.

Hope I helped!

Comments

it would be pointless to have Blaze Kick/Close Combat as well as Thunderous Kick and Brave Bird, as those 2 moves cover everything Blaze Kick would cover anyway, and get STAB, and you don't want 2 fighting moves. Maybe go Steel Wing instead since your choiced, for fairy coverage.

Answer 3

Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Thunderous Kick
- Throat Chop
- U-turn

Choice Scarf set. Brave Bird is STAB. Thunderous Kick is also STAB and lowers the opponent's defense. Throat Chop is for Ghost types. U-Turn is for pivoting.

Answer 4

Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Stomping Tantrum/Throat Chop
- Close Combat
This set saw use in the early CT OU meta. Brave Bird is powerful stab. U-turn is for pivoting. Close combat does more damage than thunderous kick. Stomping Tantrum hits Toxapex hard, something its other moves couldn't do. Throat chop for ghost types if you wanted it, I personally prefer stomping Tantrum tho

Answer 5

Role: Sweeper
Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
EVs; 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Thunderous Kick
- Brave Bird
- Throat Chop
- Steel Wing

This Pokemon is the best of the three Galarian Birds in my opinion. It has amazing stats, especially Attack and Speed. I ran Jolly Nature for extra Speed. Thunderous Kick and Brave Bird are this Pokemon's main STAB moves. Throat Chop for Psychic types and Steel Wing for Fairy types. Also for Thunderous Kick and Brave Bird they can turn into Max Knuckle and Max Airstream when in Dynamax to boost Attack and Speed.

Comments

Why is this upvoted? 10% flinch chance means it won't flinch 90% of the time. King's Rock is a pretty useless item

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It may only be 10% but even if it doesn't activate Zapdos can still live a hit.

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Galarian Zapdos is not a bulky attacker, its a fast, frail, powerful physical attacker with weaknesses to some of the most common attacks in the game, like Ice Beam, Moonblast, Thunderbolt, and Psychic. You could've chosen any item for a fast frail attacker, but you chose King's Rock? You're putting your all your hopes of winning into a terrible item with only a 10% chance to activate. Base 100 Speed was super fast generations ago, now there's Sand Rush Excadrill and Pheromosa running around everywhere. Max 328 is slower than Garchomp, which isn't exactly speedy by OU standards. Flinches only happen when you outspeed, which makes King's Rock an even more useless item

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Ignis Aqua Herba, now that I think of it, King's Rock isn't the best item for this set. Thanks for the tip!

Answer 6

National Dex Monotype (Fighting)

Zapdos-Galar @ Leftovers / Flyinium Z
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Agility
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat

Bulk Up is to boost your attack and defense. Agility is to boost your speed. Brave Bird and Close Combat are STAB moves. You can use Flyinium Z to go with Brave Bird for a powerful one time nuke.

Answer 7

Zapdos-Galar @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Brave Birb (please don't edit this lol)
- Stomping Tantrum / Steel Wing
- U-Turn

Only one of the Galarian Birbs with a decent movepool. Close Combat is STAB, Brave Birb as STAB and to assert dominance over the foolish Braviary and Talonflame who think they are braver birbs. Stomping Tantrum crushes Electric types, Steel Wing for Fairies, and U-Turn to do a solid amount of damage, hit Psychic types super-effectively, and to bring out an ally that can take care of the rest.

Comments

blaze kick is terrible coverage close combat and brave bird cover all the types blaze kick does

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Your team was rejected for the following reasons:
- "brave birb" is an invalid move.
:[

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(edits)

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It still has blaze kick in the description.

Answer 8

Zapdos-Galar @ Life Orb/Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thunderous Kick
- Brave Bird/ Steel Wing
- U-turn
- Stomping Tantrum
Using Life Orb would be good for the U-Turn set. Else, use Choice Band. Thunderous Kick is for STAB and covers Ice types. Brave Bird is also for STAB, U-Turn can quickly switch out Zapdos at low health, and also cover Psychic types. Steel Wing is an option to cover fairy type threats. Stomping Tantrum covers Electric type threats.
Recommended teammates:
Regieleki-Resists the only thing this set can't cover-Flying types. Also, being the fastest Pokemon in competitive battling, it quickly OHKO flying types.
I've hoped I've helped!

Answer 9

My personal favorite to use is:
Zapdos-Galar @ Liechi Berry (could also run salac berry if you want more speed)
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Endure
- Reversal
- Acrobatics
- Protect / U-Turn / filler

The point is to endure on a strong hit, go down to 1 health and proc your berry, clearly. This gives you a STAB 130 base power flying move on top of a STAB 200 base power fighting move. Naturally you’re weak to anything faster than you and any form of priority or weather, so it’s not ideal to go up against things like Tyranitar or hail teams, and getting Regieleki and Dragapult out of the way clears a path for this mon to get a few solid kills.

Answer 10

Zapdos-Galar @ Blunder Policy
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stomping Tantrum
- Thunderous Kick
- Blaze Kick
- Bulk Up / Brave Bird / Throat Chop / Acrobatics

Blaze Kick is inaccurate, but it's one of Zapdos's main coverage moves, so I decided to take advantage of it. If Blaze Kick misses, Blunder Policy gives you a +2 in Speed, and the next turn, Stomping Tantrum is now 150 BP. Thunderous Kick is his best move by far, and the last move choice is your personal preference. Acrobatics is the preferred move though, because it has 110 BP, and no health drawbacks at all.

Comments

Fighting/Flying covers everything that Fire does except they both have STAB, so why use Blaze Kick, any particular reason other than Blunder Policy? Good set tho :)

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That is true, I guess the only reason is for blunder policy. Unless you use bulk up over Acrobatics or Brave Bird, in which case Blaze Kick does get some coverage.

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sure, but maybe u should get rid of "it's one of Zapdos's main coverage moves", cus im not sure it is?

Answer 11

Role: Coverage sweeper
Zapdos-Galar @ Expert Belt
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature / Adamant Nature
- Thunderous Kick
- Drill Peck
- Stomping Tantrum / Steel Wing
- Throat Chop / U-turn

Most people do not know about it, but Galarian Zapdos can offer a lot of coverage. The diverse movepool makes expert belt obvious choice of item. Thunderous kick and drill peak are STAB. The combo of them plus stomping tantrum and throat chop gives it coverage against 13 of the 18 types. Steel wing and U-turn are for coverage against fairy and psychic types respectively. It would be useful lead in pretty much every battle; just look out for flying types and you're good to go.

Answer 12

Doubles OU

Zapdos-Galar @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Close Combat
- Brave Bird
- U-turn

Protect is to keep Zapdos safe for a turn while your ally attacks, sets up or switches. Backed by Life Orb, Close Combat and Brave Bird are dangerously powerful STAB attacks. U-turn is for pivoting. Defiant makes Zapdos a great counter to the tier's two intimidators, Incineroar and Landorus-T, as Zapdos recieves a +1 attack boost if either of them swap in.