Best Pokemon in Legends Z-A’s Season 7 Ranked Battles

We’re back again with another list of the best Pokemon in the current season of Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s ranked battles, this time for season 7. Unfortunately, this season is almost certainly the worst one yet.

This time around, you can use two restricted Legendary Pokemon on your team of three, and you can use as many Mythical Pokemon as you want. In previous seasons, there was a triangle of top Pokemon – you had Garchomp at the very top, Glaceon to counter it, and Steel-types to dispatch Glaceon as well as Fairy-types. In season 7, though, it’s all legendary spam. Every team is using two Legendary Pokemon, which means the power charts are through the roof. If you’re trying to go for the Consummate Gamer title, this season is nigh unviable because almost everything is going to KO you in a single hit.

Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza

As you might expect, these three are absolutely everywhere. You will often see all three in the same match, and no match I played from Rank Z to Rank A did not have at least one of the three. Rayquaza is the best one here, because it can Mega Evolve and hold a Focus Sash at the same time – the only Pokemon in the game that can do so. It gets great moves, with Swords Dance, Dragon Rush, Dragon Ascent, and Earthquake – that’s really all you need. Invest 252 EVs in HP and Attack and you’re good to go. Kyogre is the second best – it can run a Blue Orb to transform into Primal Kyogre, but it doesn’t really need to. Primal Kyogre is not a Mega Evolution, which means it manually has to use Plus Moves. You can just as easily run normal Kyogre with a Life Orb or Focus Sash and do just fine. It gets good moves like Calm Mind, Origin Pulse, Muddy Water, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam. Groudon is the least best of three, but it’s not bad by any means – in fact, it’s still a major pain to deal with. Most people run Primal Groudon, which is now 4x weak to Water because it doesn’t have its Desolate Land ability. That said, the number of times I’ve seen Primal Groudon survive Water-type moves is absolutely crazy. It usually runs Swords Dance, Precipice Blades, Heat Crash, and then something like Heavy Slam or Earthquake as a secondary Ground-type STAB.

All three of these Pokemon are absolutely excellent, and you will see them very often. The problem is, though, there isn’t one Pokemon that counters all three of them at once. They kind of form a triangle too, and their strength prevents your average Pokemon from being able to take them on. For example, Glaceon doesn’t really cut it against Primal Kyogre, Rayquaza can live its Ice Beam with Focus Sash and then KO back, and it can’t do a thing to Primal Groudon. These three Legendary Pokemon shut out a ton of Pokemon from being viable here, unfortunately.

Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde

Xerneas is still a strong pick in Legends Z-A ranked, and it nearly always runs Geomancy, Moonblast, and Thunderbolt. Reflect and Light Screen are an option as well, though that does eat up two of your move slots. Xerneas appreciates having Groudon as a teammate, as it makes short work of the Steel-types that normally completely counter it. Yveltal, however, is pretty bad. Its stats are fantastic – but it’s weak to Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Moonblast, and Stone Edge, which are all fairly common attacks – especially the first three. Not to mention, its movepool is seriously lacking. It gets moves like Dragon Rush and Fly that are good, but it has no viable physical Dark-type move, which forces it to run mixed. Normally, Pokemon in Legends Z-A run 252 EVs in HP and then 252 in whatever their preferred attacking stat is. This means Yveltal either must run 252 points in both attacking stats, which harshly reduces its bulk, or ignore one of its attacking stats and run a weaker move. Yveltal is heavily outclassed by Xerneas, Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza. Despite having an 100% form and a Mega Evolution, even Mega Zygarde is kind of outclassed – it’s threatened by Xerneas, Kyogre, and Rayquaza, and it can’t do very much to Primal Groudon. Fairy and Ice-type moves are everywhere, and Zygarde will often wind up going down before it can transform into its 100% mode and then Mega Evolve. Even then, Nihil Light has a long startup.

Mewtwo

This is the last Pokemon we’ll be covering today – as mentioned earlier, the pool of super-viable Pokemon is very small in season 7 because the power of the newly-allowed Legendary Pokemon is pretty much unmatched. Mewtwo has great stats, and even though it isn’t the bulkiest in its base form, it makes up for it with its excellent Sp. Attack and incredible coverage. It can run Psystrike as a STAB move, as well as Solar Beam and Thunderbolt to hit Kyogre, Ice Beam to hit Zygarde and other dragons, and Calm Mind to boost its stats. Physical Mewtwo with Mewtwonite X isn’t bad either – it gets Earthquake, Bulk Up, Drain Punch, Ice Punch, Psycho Cut, and Thunder Punch. Rayquaza is generally the best Mega Evolution because it can hold an item, but if you really insist on using a Mega Mewtwo form, it can work too.

Needless to say, we’re hoping that season 8 of Legends Z-A ranked bans Legendary Pokemon once again. Having one on your team was already enough, because it was easier to counter popular ones – but now, every team is just legendary after legendary and it’s all become very centralizing and quite frankly boring.

At any rate, have any of your team compositions worked well this season? If so, feel free to let us know down below. Season 7 goes until March 11.