Welcome to Pokemon of the Week! This week, as per request, I will be focusing on a man-made Pokemon gone wrong. This week, we discuss Porygon-Z.

Porygon-Z is an oddball, to say the least. It's not nearly as polarizing a Pokemon as many others, but it has fans. It's one of few Pokemon that competes with the evolutionary stage before it in usefulness (sharing this with Blissey, as well as others I'm forgetting, I'm sure), but it has a role completely different to Porygon2 (unlike Chansey and Blissey, which basically do the same things). This man-made Pokemon is far from a virus that will plague your team, however, as it can certainly prove itself a valuable Pokemon on the right teams.

Since introduction, Porygon-Z was sort of... there. It has fantastic base 135 Sp. Attack and an okay base 90 Speed, and even has access to Nasty Plot and Agility to boost both of those stats. Porygon-Z has what it needs to be a fierce competitor in UU, but in OU, it's more of a victim of it's typing than anything. Pure Normal isn't fantastic defensive typing, providing only one immunity and one common weakness, while every other type of Pokemon can hit it with STAB attacks neutrally. Offensively, Normal is Super Effective against nothing, and that's part of what keeps Porygon-Z down. But more than anything, Base 90 Speed is not fantastic in OU when Terrakion, Conkeldurr, and Keldeo are running around OU, to name a few. Despite all this, Porygon-Z is fantastic in UU, and is usable in OU with the right set of team-mates and support.

Porygon-Z@ Life Orb Download Timid nature (+Speed, -Attack) EVs: 252 Sp. Attack / 160 Speed / 96 HP Agility Tri-Attack Dark Pulse Hidden Power Fighting

Porygon-Z finds a wonderful boosting move in Agility, doubling it's Speed into something that allows it to outrun the rest of the unboosted UU metagame. Tri-Attack gives Porygon-Z his best STAB attack, while also offering a nice 20% chance of either Paralysis, Burn or Freeze, all of which are welcomed in most circumstances. Dark Pulse and Hidden Power Fighting provide perfect neutral coverage along with your Normal STAB attack, giving you a move to hurt Ghost, Steel and Rock types that would otherwise hinder your strategy of just mashing Tri-Attack.

Most users of Agility have trouble with needing a turn of setup and then finding themselves not powerful enough to pull off a sweep. Porygon-Z outperforms most of the UU Agility users by grace of Download, an ability that will give you a one-stage boost to Sp. Attack if the opponent's Defense stat is higher than their Sp. Defense (though if their Sp. Defense is higher, you get a useless Attack boost). With the Sp. Attack boost acquired, Porygon-Z has Choice Specs level of power without even taking the Life Orb into account. When accounting for the Life Orb, you're looking at destructive amounts of power.

Fighting types are good team-mates for Porygon-Z, to remove the bulky Normal type walls of UU, such as Snorlax, and yes, even young brother Porygon2, who are both capable of taking your Hidden Power Fighting and cripple you with Body Slam or Thunder Wave respectively, ending your chances at sweeping. Mienshao or Heracross make good partners, as Meinshao's Regenerator allows it to keep healing after it leaves the field via U-Turn, while Heracross can take status attacks if needed and fire back more powerful moves courtesy of Guts.

I'll say it here, but it applies to every single set: Porygon-Z loves entry hazard support. Stealth Rock and Spikes are wonderful for turning 2HKOs into 1HKOs and even some bulkier walls in UU will be 2HKOd after having to take 37% from Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes. Toxic Spikes are also incredibly useful to Porygon-Z, as they cripple the special walls that would otherwise come in and laugh Porygon-Z away. While they'll still do that initially, they'll be forced to recover their health often and not stay in play for too long, giving you more opportunities to smack them around as they struggle against the Poison.

Porygon-Z@ Choice Scarf Adaptability Timid nature (+Speed, -Attack) / Modest nature (+Sp. Attack, -Attack) EVs: 252 Speed / 252 Sp. Attack / 4 HP Tri-Attack Dark Pulse Hidden Power Fighting Trick / Thunderbolt

Equipping Porygon-Z with a Choice Scarf turns it into an immediately fast and powerful revenge killer, capable of sweeping weakened teams that lack some of Porygon-Z's counters. Tri-Attack returns as the STAB of choice, providing incredible power equivalent to using a base 160 power move, due to Adaptability, which is used as this type of set doesn't have the luxury of switching between moves, and needs Tri-Attack to be consistently powerful no matter the situation. Dark Pulse and Hidden Power Fighting are back for coverage, and expect this to be a running theme on all of Porygon-Z's sets, as they're invaluable for hitting the types that resist your STAB. Using them here requires more prediction sometimes, so think carefully about what your opponent may do, and what you stand to risk by any given move selection.

Trick is a nice tool for crippling Porygon-Z's usual counters, such as Snorlax, Porygon2, and Umbreon, removing them of their ability to effectively wall you, and in the case of Porygon2, robbing it of Eviolite, making any attacks against it even more powerful, a welcome change from how bulky it would be otherwise. Thunderbolt can be used, however, for hitting bulky Water types and Flying types. While this extra coverage may sound appealing, it's only doing slightly more than your boosted Tri-Attack, so think carefully about why you're using it, and if it these types can't be better covered by another Pokemon on your team.

Porygon-Z@ Choice Specs Adaptability Modest nature (+Sp. Attack, -Attack) EVs: 252 Sp. Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP Tri-Attack Dark Pulse Hidden Power Fighting Trick

Say hello to one of the most powerful special attackers in the game. Porygon-Z's immediate power granted by Choice Specs is so incredible that it is capable of 2HKOing every single special wall in UU (though Umbreon requires you to have Stealth Rock on the field to get the 2HKO) with Tri-Attack boosted by Adaptability. This is especially frightening if you've also got Toxic Spikes setup on the opponent's side of the field, as they may be temped to immediately switch their special wall back out when realizing you're running a Specs set, and Poisoning their special wall will either ruin it entirely and make it not worth saving, or force it to heal with a status-removing move the next time it switches in, giving you another opportunity to hammer away at it. Dark Pulse and Hidden Power Fighting give Porygon-Z a real opportunity of eliminating the Ghost, Steel or Rock types that switch in hoping to take Tri-Attack, comfortably 1-2HKOing the most common Pokemon of these types in UU.

Trick again makes a wonderful move for crippling special walls if you'd rather play it safe late into the game, or for just cripple their special wall right away if you're not too keen on prediction and the opponent's team has many Pokemon that resist or are immune to Tri-Attack. Thunderbolt isn't a viable option on this set, as Tri-Attack already smashes the hell out of everything that isn't immune or resistant to it. Modest nature is chosen to give Porygon-Z the power to 2HKO the special walls in the tier, which Timid fails to accomplish. Timid can be used if you plan on being able to reliably setup Stealth Rock and 2-3 layers of Spikes, but this is a pretty difficult feat to accomplish in 100% of your matches, especially if the opponent packs Xatu to troll your entry hazards back at you.

Porygon-Z@ Life Orb Adaptability Timid nature (+Speed, -Attack) EVs: 252 Speed / 252 Sp. Attack / 4 HP Nasty Plot Tri-Attack Dark Pulse Hidden Power Fighting

Nasty Plot Porygon-Z has power that frightens every single Pokemon in the game. After the boost, you're at 738 Sp. Attack. Add in Adaptability Tri-Attack, and you're disintigrating the entire tier. Dark Pulse and Hidden Power return for Ghost, Rock and Steel coverage, mowing these Pokemon down with your boosted attacks.

The real issue here is Porygon-Z's speed. It's not as much of an issue on previous sets, as Agility outspeeds the tier after use, Choice Scarf has immediate Speed and Choice Specs is mostly used for wall-breaking and would switch out of faster threats. But with this set attempting a boost that isn't Speed, you absolutely have to make sure the faster threats on your opponent's team are removed before attemping to boost up. Such Pokemon as Mienshao and Choice Scarf Heracross will immediately end your sweep and make Porygon-Z very sad, so know your opponent's Speed, know their threats, and use Porygon-Z's partners to eliminate them before it attempts to level the opponent completely with power that is nearly unrivaled.

Being a member of the Porygon family, Porygon-Z is somewhat hard to obtain in-game, especially in casual runs, and therefore isn't a commonly used Pokemon. Take into consideration that by the time you can get it, you usually have a full party already, and you have to trade twice with specific items to evolve up to this form... it's usually more of a hassle than it's worth.

In Black2 and White2, Porygon is not available at all, and will require a trade from White Version's White Forest, provided you have Backpacker Herman in your White Forest. This is one instance where I would not recommend Dream World to aid you in obtaining a Pokemon for in-game, as Porygon-Z does not usually benefit at all from Analytic, and would rather have either of it's other abilities. I'd suggest finding someone online who has one, sending one from White, or sending one up from a previous generation. However, once you have one, here is the set I'd recommend:

Porygon-Z Tri-Attack Shadow Ball Thunderbolt Ice Beam

Yep, we've got colorful moves this time, but it's honestly only because breeding for Hidden Power Fighting with a power of 70 is unreasonable for an in-game Porygon-Z. Anyway, Tri-Attack makes up the STAB of choice, hitting hard while having a 20% chance of status, which is nice when it happens. Shadow Ball is chosen for hitting Ghost types simply because it's easier to obtain than Dark Pulse, which is a move tutor in Black2/White2. The difference in-game is very insignificant, as you won't have opponent's switching out a lot, but if you're curious about why Dark Pulse is used in competitive, here's the reason: Nothing is immune to it. While Fighting types resist it, unlike Shadow Ball, Normal types are completely immune to Ghost attacks, and in competitive battling, you'd rather deal out some damage, even if it's resisting, than none at all. Anyway, Thunderbolt and Ice Beam provide nearly un-resisted coverage that hits many Pokemon Super-Effectively.

I don't usually discuss abilities for in-game Pokemon, but this time I feel it's slightly more important to do so, so that people know which is better. Download is always better than Adaptability ONLY if you get the Sp. Attack boost. When you don't (when the opponent's Defense stat is lower than their Sp. Defense, you get an ATTACK boost, and vise-versa), you have a completely useless ability. It is for this reason that I fully recommend Adaptability, as it turns Tri-Attack into a base 160 power move, and hits harder than basically all of your other moves unless the opponent is immune to Tri-Attack, or has a weakness to Thunderbolt or Ice Beam.

Whew... that was a lot of text to write. Anyway, I really don't know how I feel about Porygon-Z. It's a powerhouse, for sure, but I... don't really care for the design too much. I am much more partial to Porygon2 in terms of looks, as it's just so darn adorable. I don't hate Porygon-Z, I just feel it lingers in the shadows of it's younger evolutionary brother in overall terms of usefulness. It would be a mistake to forget about it completely, though, as it has developed the human emotion of bitterness, and it might just have a Nasty Plot to get rid of you... and with a boost to Special Attack that high, there won't be much you can do to stop it.

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