Now that Zacian and Zamazenta are nerfed in S/V, which is better for competitive use?

Question

The nerf is a lot more noticeable to Zacian than Zamazenta taking away 20 base points from its attack stat.
so I was wondering if that would change anything competitively

Comments

Intrepid Sword & Dauntless Shield also got nerfed too, only occurring once per battle as opposed to every time they switch in.

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Crowned or hero of many battles?

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Both forms have the same respective abilities.

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What format/rules are you asking about?

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The different forms have different base stats and crowned learn behemoth blade/bash but homb learn iron Head.

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Homb = hero of many battles

Answer 1

Though neither is currently usable in Scarlet/Violet, the Smogon community has been using them for quite a while in its National Dex Ubers Tier. While it is not a 1 to 1 substitute for the normal metagame, the outcome won't be too different in terms of how good they are comparatively.

According to the National Dex Ubers Viability Rankings, Zacian-Crowned is in A+. While not nearly as good as its former self, it still has base 150 attack and 148 speed coupled with the best typing in the game, plus a fantastic offensive movepool that can cover most things. In Gen 9, it will likely be ranked higher without Primal Groudon dominating the tier.

Meanwhile, Zamazenta-Crowned is stuck in D rank, meaning that it is completely unviable. Whatever niche it used to have in Sword/Shield is gone. The top 4 Pokemon in National Dex Ubers are Primal Groudon (kills it) Arceus-Ground (kills it) Koraidon (kills it) Necrozma-Dusk-Mane (walls it), which should tell you how bad it is currently. The absence of Primal Groudon in Gen 9 helps, but not by a whole lot.

Both Hero of Many Battles forms are unviable, Zamazenta more so than Zacian. Their stats just aren't that great for Ubers. Zamazenta is actually in National Dex OU, serving as a powerful wallbreaker there.

In VGC, there isn't as clear a guideline as in singles, but we can reasonably assume that the rough rankings are still Zacian-Crowned > Zamazenta-Crowned > Zacian-HoMB > Zamazanta-HoMB, as they were in Gen 8. The nerf to their abilities should hurt them less since switching is less common in VGC, but it is still too early to tell.

Answer 2

Right now, I'm sure Zacian would be just a tad bit less good then it was back in SWSH. Items can be used to increase it's attack stat during battle. But competitively, I think maybe looking up some good Zacian builds and movesets would be best so you can at least try them in SWSH and then try them when they come out in SV.

Zamazenta I would say would be worse than Zacian. Zacian already has Behemoth Blade which is already pretty strong by itself. Zamazenta would be good if you could utilize its attack stat or make use of its defense stat. But again I'd try looking up some good builds for either Zacian or Zamazenta. They might not be what you want, but maybe try them on Pokemon Showdown to see if they're good or not and to see what works best for you.

Hopefully this has helped you in some way.

Comments

*Flashbacks commence*

Answer 3

Obviously Zacian-C, none of the other forms are viable outside of maybe niche Zacian-HOMB.

Zamazenta went through the whole process of OU, getting Crowned form banned to Ubers, while the HOMB stayed, showing how badly the shield doggo would get obliterated by actual Ubers threats; Kyogre, Arceus-Ground, Koraidon, etc. Right now, Zacian-C is sitting at #3 in usage, just above 46%. Its main threats are Skeledirge, which can be handled with a switch-in Crunch, and Dondozo, which it should just switch out of, and Ditto. It takes great care of threats such as Miraidon, Koraidon, Ting-Lu, etc. with its STAB Play Rough, or in low ladder, Moonblast.

The viability rankings put Zacian-C in S Rank as the top three of Ubers with Mirai and Korai, thanks to that Tera abomination of Calyrex-S being banned to AG. At the same time, Zamazenta-C is put in D Rank, the lowest possible rank while still being banned from OU.

All in all, Zacian-C, even if it isn't as dominant as it was in SS that helped it to be banished to AG, it is still a premier force in the metagame.

Answer 4

Zacian is still superior unfortunately. The nerfs that it recieved on its attack stat (from 170 to 150) is not much of a difference, since its still a very overpowered mon even with the powercreep that Gen 9 brought to us (at least it won't be in the AG tier anymore). Sure, the ability got nerfed as well, but like I said, it's still a good mon even without Intrepid Sword activating.

Zamazenta on the other hand got a nerf on it's attack stat (from 130 to 120) which was unnecessary due to how bad the mon did in gen 8. Gamefreak basically dug a bigger hole to bury this underpowered good boy. At least the new generation was kind enough to give it Body Press (a blessing from Lord Arceus indeed), a move that was a missed opportunity for it in Gen 8.