Top 100 Pokemon #95: Zapdos

Okay, I'm back with #95 of my Top 100 Pokemon. If you may recall, last time, Pokemon #96, Weavile, snatched away my money, but then another Pokemon, the one we look at today, snatched it from him and took it to his lair in the thunderclouds. Well, now I am about to go in to face this Pokemon, and I have all the preparations I need: myself, a Fly user, and an Electric type.

 

That's right, in order to safely enter thunderclouds, I am using that infamous distortion of gameplay known as Thunder Armor. Flame me now.

 

Anyways, this Pokemon will be the first Legendary Pokemon on our list. And what do you know, he is also the first Legendary Pokemon you could ever meet without using a glitch!

"What is that strange electricity-producing building down there?"

 

#95: Zapdos

 

That’s right, #95 is none other than the electric bird of the original trio of legendary birds, Zapdos! And he is the earliest one you can encounter, going way back to the original Red and Blue and needing nothing more than the Soul Badge and HM03 Surf to access the Power Plant on Route 10 and find him at the end. So in many ways, Zapdos was the very first Legendary Pokemon a player could ever encounter… and sure enough, he was my first.

 

One can imagine what it must have been like to face down that beast way back in Red and Blue. You walk all the way to the end of the Power Plant, and see this little sprite of a bird, the same one that is used to represent all the other Flying-types on your team. Then you face it, press A, and then, this shriek plays, the Wild Pokemon music plays, and you go into battle to see…

...that's no Spearow, that's for sure.

That’s when you know this is not just any ol’ Pokemon. This guy looks menacing. Based on the thunderbird of Native American legend, he has in my opinion the coolest design of the three original legendary birds. Moltres’s is just too plain, Articuno’s isn’t too bad, but Zapdos’s design just screams “legendary bird”.

 

In addition, this was the only dual-typed Electric-type you’d meet (Magnemite’s family didn’t acquire their Steel-typing until the next generation), and boy, was it a doozy! Electric/Flying meant you could not even touch it with the Ground-type attacks you’ve used to hit every other Electric type so far. If you had a Geodude-family, an Onix, or a Rhyhorn-family, you would still be in shape, but if not, watch out! At level 50, this guy was probably the highest-leveled opponent you would have faced, and his powerful Drill Pecks and non-negligible Thundershocks were dangerous to anyone who did not resist them.

 

And then once you did weaken him to a sliver, it came time to try to capture him. So you’d throw an Ultra Ball… and he would pop out immediately. You’d throw another… and another… and another…

 

…and another…

I can't weaken you any further! Can't you at least shake the ball once or something?

If you did not run out of Poke Balls and had to reset your game in frustration (or worse, you’d accidentally KO him and he would disappear for good!), one of those balls would finally stop shut, and you could finally see what this guy was actually like in battle... and he was a beast! He would learn Thunder quickly, and then the destruction started, and would never stop until the game finished.

 

That was back in Gen I. What about in Gen V? Well, over the years, he has been competitively in the OverUsed (OU) tier every generation except the current one, where due to the power creep, he finally fell into the next tier down. Still, every generation he has gained new tricks to keep up with the times and he is every bit as much of a powerhouse now as he was way back in Red and Blue.

 

We start with his stats, and boy, are they good! As a Legendary Pokemon, his stats would naturally be among the best, and with a Base Stat Total of 580 where most Pokemon would be glad to break 500, there is no denying that this guy was strong. His highlights are a Base 125 Special Attack and a Base 100 Speed, and his lowest stat was a Base 85 Defense. Every other stat sits cleanly at a solid Base 90. Stat-wise, there is no obvious weak point to exploit against Zapdos.

 

Typing-wise, he was an Electric-type that did not fear Ground-type attacks and a Flying-type that is not weak to Electric-type attacks, which is cool. He does still have a weakness to Ice and Stealth Rock, though at least the latter is not a 4x weakness like his fellow legendary birds have to deal with. Pressure is pretty good on this Pokemon as his solid defensive stats mean opponents will likely spend many turns trying to take him down, sapping a lot of PP in the process. His hidden ability, Lightningrod, has yet to be released, though that will be arguably even better as it turns his Electric neutrality into an immunity that can also boost his already-high Special Attack through the roof. In fact, data from the “Dream World OU” metagame on Smogon suggests that, with Lightningrod, Zapdos could very well find his way back into OU.

 

Even now, though, Zapdos has plenty of tricks in his movepool. The one thing he does lack, though, is a good Special Flying STAB; he got left out of learning Hurricane in BW2, even though both Articuno and Moltres got it.

 

Not as bad as Flareon's still not getting Flare Blitz, but still, Zapdos is angry.

That means he only has Hidden Power Flying to work with. He does get other great moves, though, such as Heat Wave, Roost, and of course, powerful Electric attacks like Thunderbolt, Discharge, Thunder, and Volt Switch. And in-game, moves like Drill Peck and Fly are perfectly viable, thanks to Zapdos’s decent Base 90 Attack. You may even be able to transfer over one with Baton Pass , caught in Pokemon XD.

 

This means Zapdos can fulfill a variety of roles. He can go on the offensive, play defensive, possibly fit into a Baton Pass team, or be a solid Doubles partner. Yep, this thunderbird’s still as strong as ever.

 

And now the clouds are parting, which means it’s time to face the legendary beast myself.

 

Hello there. What have you done with my money?

 

“The Kanto Power Plant needed a stimulus to research green energy.”

 

…I don’t really want to go there, but… why didn’t you ask the Kanto government?

 

“What government?”

 

…good question, actually. I do need my money, though, so if you could kindly return it to me…

 

“I already gave it all out.”

 

Darn.

 

“But if you want, you can catch me and then use me to beat the Elite Four multiple times over and get more money that way!”

 

You know this isn’t Red and Blue anymore. The Elite Four and Champion are tougher than ever.

 

“That’s okay. I learned how to convert my energy into heat waves! Come on now, no one has visited me in the last two years at all!”

 

Because you have still yet to actually appear in the Gen V games… wait a second… have you been… lonely?

 

“That blasted Thundurus stole my thunder… I’m now an UU Pokemon… they won’t even let me use my cool new Lightningrod ability… now my Defense has gotten even worse…”

 

"My physical Attack did get stronger, though..."

…all right. Well, Lightningrod Zapdos, I am afraid I cannot capture you yet, since you are not yet legally available, but if you would like, we can hang out and go looking for Nuggets or something…

 

“No, it’s fine. Just promise to come for me right away if they ever do release me.”

 

Okay. Man, you have to feel for the poor guy. Hopefully GameFreak releases Lightningrod Zapdos soon. As for my money, guess I’ll go make a couple more cult classic movies at Pokestar Studios…

 

Next time: …I’ve got nothing hint-wise this time. I will say this, though: he’s a starter.