The best Pokemon in Legends: Z-A’s Season 9 Ranked Battles

Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s ninth season of ranked battles has begun, and it completely bans Legendary and Mythical Pokemon. Order has been restored! And, more importantly, if you happen to be going for the dreaded Consummate Gamer title achievement, this is the season to do it – the power level is now much lower, and the top Pokemon all have defined checks and counters. Whether you are or aren’t going for Consummate Gamer, today we’re going over all of the top Pokemon you can use on your team to get some wins.

Garchomp

Feels like we mention Garchomp every other season, but honestly, we’re glad to see it back on top. Two seasons ago, you just had Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, and Mega Rayquaza everywhere, and it felt like they could always one-shot you but you could never one-shot them. As good as Garchomp is, it has a very glaring Ice weakness, which therefore means Glaceon is back in the conversation as a high-tier Pokemon. Garchomp pretty much always runs a Focus Sash or Yache Berry, an Adamant nature, 252 EVs in HP and Attack, and the moves Dig, Dragon Claw, Dragon Rush, and Swords Dance. You run Dig on Garchomp specifically because Gholdengo’s overworld movement speed is really fast, so trainers can actually have it move out of the way of Earthquake and take no damage. Dig forces them to switch out.

Marowak

Ground is generally a really strong type, and Marowak hits with the power of a thousand suns thanks to the Thick Club item that doubles its Attack stat. Give it Swords Dance, Bonemerang, Stone Edge, and Dig. Then, watch in fear as your opponents pointlessly run away from Marowak’s giant spinning bones and then get hit anyway. Marowak is a very simple Pokemon to use, and it’s extremely strong when it works. It’s not bulky, though, and it’s weak to Grass, Water, and Ice, so you might want to switch out when you see Pokemon that use those moves on the field. And of course Marowak can’t do much of anything to Skarmory either.

Skarmory

Speaking of which, Skarmory remains one of the best Mega Evolutions right now. It can’t do much to Garchomps that have full HP, so you might want to run Glaceon as a teammate. As always, Skarmory runs Magnet Bomb, Fly, Drill Run, and Swords Dance. Fly and Magnet Bomb are definitely its strongest moves – Fighting types are decently common, especially at lower ranks, making Fly your go-to attack in most cases. Magnet Bomb is unfortunately resisted by common opponents like Garchomp and Metagross and the projectiles move slowly, but they deal major damage against Ice and Fairy-types – most notably, Baxcalibur and Glaceon.

Gholdengo

Normally, it’s a really bad thing for a Pokemon to have a Ground weakness. After all, nearly every physical attacker runs Earthquake if it gets it. As we mentioned earlier, though, Gholdengo moves really fast – which is actually separate from its Speed stat – which means if you see an opponent about to use Earthquake, you can simply run away and in many cases Gholdengo will not be hurt by the attack. You can’t dodge Dig or Earth Power in the same way, though, so be careful. Gholdengo usually runs Nasty Plot, Steel Beam or Make It Rain, Shadow Ball, and Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is actually the best attack in the game, by the way – it tracks opponents and has infinite range, so you should always run it when you can.

Glaceon

Generally speaking, Glaceon is only good when Garchomp is good. Garchomp is currently good. Therefore, Glaceon is back on top! This is a Pokemon that isn’t very good in the main games due to its low Speed, poor defensive typing, and shallow movepool, so it’s good to see a metagame where Glaceon gets a chance. Calm Mind, Ice Shard, Ice Beam, and Freeze-Dry are your four moves. Ice Beam + Ice Shard is guaranteed to knock out Focus Sash Garchomp all in one go, and Freeze-Dry nails Gyarados and Swampert for extreme damage. Glaceon also threatens Dragonite, Salamence, and Tatsugiri with quadruple-effective damage.

Now that Pokemon Legends: Z-A is running a good season without overpowering Legendary or Mythical Pokemon, lots more Pokemon are viable that weren’t mentioned here. Excadrill, Gyarados, Metagross, Ampharos, Porygon-Z, Armarouge, Sirfetch’d, Chandelure, Golisopod, Mega Absol Z, Mega Garchomp Z, Mega Lucario Z, and Baxcalibur all continue to remain viable this season. There’s a lot of variety! Since the power level is generally much lower, it’s much easier to experiment with your favorites. If you want to use a Pokemon that isn’t mentioned anywhere on this list, I would usually recommend a Focus Sash if its defenses and HP are low, or a weakness berry if it has a 4x weakness to a move. Shuca Berry is also a great option if the Pokemon you want to use is weak to Ground.

At any rate, what Pokemon are you using this season, if any? Are you still interested in ranked battles, or have you kind of fallen off of them? Let us know in the comments down below.