Hi. Not a meta that gets posted on very often but I think this warrants it. LGPE OU is a very competitive meta, and I reckon most people who've played it would agree. It's needed very little in the way of tiering action to Kinda Just Work. We've seen loads of viable teamstyles, new threats, and adaptations to old standbys over the past few years since the Mega Gengar ban, but there's been one especially potent force looming over the tier for the entirety of this timeframe, and it only grows stronger. It's quite an awkward time to talk about action on a mon as there's no circuit this year, but I've been getting more and more demands so here we go, something.
Mega Alakazam is a threat in LGPE OU matches. This much is known. It's undeniably the best Mega Evolution, punishing the game's limited answers to a nuclear STAB Psychic fired off from the highest possible Speed stat, which it only shares with Mega Aerodactyl and Electrode. Zam's ridiculous Speed means that in the vast majority of cases, you're exclusively limited to defensive counterplay. This is a problem, because said defensive counterplay is rather limited and can often be messed up by Zam's teammates quite easily, especially Starmie. Melmetal often gets worn down handling [insert like every other Pokemon] and takes quite a lot from Shadow Ball, Snorlax gets worn down super fast unless it's running Rest which has loads of its own issues, Chansey doesn't exert any real pressure outright and is ruined by basically any status AND is threatened by anything with a physical move due to the lack of EVs, Mega Gyarados is restrictive on your teamstyle and can still be bruised beyond repair by Dazzling Gleam, Alolan Dugtrio is a decent check but isn't a switchin in the slightest... You get it. If you want to feel genuinely decent versus Zam it's often Alolan Muk or bust, as the combo of AMuk + Melmetal + ADug can handle Zam and its teammates with good play. The repeated mention of ADug brings up another issue with Zam though- while Zapdos makes most players want to run a Ground-type, Alakazam heavily punishes any Ground other than Alolan Dugtrio for existing, resulting in ADug's constantly increasing value in the meta and all other Ground-types basically falling off a cliff. While this isn't a big deal in terms of competitive balance, as ADug is definitely the best Ground regardless of Zam's existence, it's one of a few ways that Zam puts a stranglehold on the teambuilder. You can't really afford to slack on the Zam matchup when it just outspeeds and murders basically everything that isn't a check.
With that said, players can and do defeat Zam teams when their counterplay to the mon itself is really only Melmetal and Alolan Dugtrio (and Mew taking a hit and U-turning, I guess). It takes some very careful aggressive play, especially as neither of those two want to face down a Starmie very much and Starmie is becoming more and more of a staple on Zam teams, but it can be done. Specific Zam teams also have specific weaknesses- most of them are filled with fast, frail Pokemon (and Zapdos (and obligatory Mew+Melm)), which can be rather vulnerable to Mega Aerodactyl, who even provides the out of a Speed tie versus Zam in a pinch. Mega Blastoise and Mega Gyarados can also both be rather offensively threatening as per usual, and can be used to accelerate the game state to a point where the Zam team lacks the resources to take down Melmetal quickly enough. Mega Venusaur teams are substantially worse off, and generally rely on either careful Chansey usage or rather aggressive Snorlax usage to make it out alive. The Zam mirror is the Zam mirror, idk what to really say. Zam teams with AMuk tend to do better into the mirror I guess. I'd also note that the Zam Starmie builds that really accelerated the "ban Zam" discussion are relatively new and ways to play vs them could potentially still be developed further. Overall though I think it's very obvious that Zam builds are the strongest builds with the least volatile matchups, they kinda always have decent odds against anything except super unreasonable builds that fold to anything else. Is it strong to the point of bad for the tier? idk, but a lot of people think so. That's what the thread is for.
At the moment this is more of a discussion thread than anything. Do you think Zam is too much for LGPE OU? Do you think it's ok? If this develops into a vote on Zam we can discuss an appropriate voter list here based on semi-recent tours and possibly a few live tours. I heavily encourage anyone with any kind of investment in LGPE OU to take part in this thread. If you don't have posting access, you can request it here.
Tagging some noteworthy LGPE tour players this may be of interest to, feel free to post even if not tagged and feel free to ignore if you've left the tier:
Mega Alakazam is a threat in LGPE OU matches. This much is known. It's undeniably the best Mega Evolution, punishing the game's limited answers to a nuclear STAB Psychic fired off from the highest possible Speed stat, which it only shares with Mega Aerodactyl and Electrode. Zam's ridiculous Speed means that in the vast majority of cases, you're exclusively limited to defensive counterplay. This is a problem, because said defensive counterplay is rather limited and can often be messed up by Zam's teammates quite easily, especially Starmie. Melmetal often gets worn down handling [insert like every other Pokemon] and takes quite a lot from Shadow Ball, Snorlax gets worn down super fast unless it's running Rest which has loads of its own issues, Chansey doesn't exert any real pressure outright and is ruined by basically any status AND is threatened by anything with a physical move due to the lack of EVs, Mega Gyarados is restrictive on your teamstyle and can still be bruised beyond repair by Dazzling Gleam, Alolan Dugtrio is a decent check but isn't a switchin in the slightest... You get it. If you want to feel genuinely decent versus Zam it's often Alolan Muk or bust, as the combo of AMuk + Melmetal + ADug can handle Zam and its teammates with good play. The repeated mention of ADug brings up another issue with Zam though- while Zapdos makes most players want to run a Ground-type, Alakazam heavily punishes any Ground other than Alolan Dugtrio for existing, resulting in ADug's constantly increasing value in the meta and all other Ground-types basically falling off a cliff. While this isn't a big deal in terms of competitive balance, as ADug is definitely the best Ground regardless of Zam's existence, it's one of a few ways that Zam puts a stranglehold on the teambuilder. You can't really afford to slack on the Zam matchup when it just outspeeds and murders basically everything that isn't a check.
With that said, players can and do defeat Zam teams when their counterplay to the mon itself is really only Melmetal and Alolan Dugtrio (and Mew taking a hit and U-turning, I guess). It takes some very careful aggressive play, especially as neither of those two want to face down a Starmie very much and Starmie is becoming more and more of a staple on Zam teams, but it can be done. Specific Zam teams also have specific weaknesses- most of them are filled with fast, frail Pokemon (and Zapdos (and obligatory Mew+Melm)), which can be rather vulnerable to Mega Aerodactyl, who even provides the out of a Speed tie versus Zam in a pinch. Mega Blastoise and Mega Gyarados can also both be rather offensively threatening as per usual, and can be used to accelerate the game state to a point where the Zam team lacks the resources to take down Melmetal quickly enough. Mega Venusaur teams are substantially worse off, and generally rely on either careful Chansey usage or rather aggressive Snorlax usage to make it out alive. The Zam mirror is the Zam mirror, idk what to really say. Zam teams with AMuk tend to do better into the mirror I guess. I'd also note that the Zam Starmie builds that really accelerated the "ban Zam" discussion are relatively new and ways to play vs them could potentially still be developed further. Overall though I think it's very obvious that Zam builds are the strongest builds with the least volatile matchups, they kinda always have decent odds against anything except super unreasonable builds that fold to anything else. Is it strong to the point of bad for the tier? idk, but a lot of people think so. That's what the thread is for.
At the moment this is more of a discussion thread than anything. Do you think Zam is too much for LGPE OU? Do you think it's ok? If this develops into a vote on Zam we can discuss an appropriate voter list here based on semi-recent tours and possibly a few live tours. I heavily encourage anyone with any kind of investment in LGPE OU to take part in this thread. If you don't have posting access, you can request it here.
Tagging some noteworthy LGPE tour players this may be of interest to, feel free to post even if not tagged and feel free to ignore if you've left the tier:
