Zebstrika is today’s Pokemon for our competitive history series! Join False Swipe Gaming in this overview of Zebstrika in competitive Pokemon!
PATREON!
FULL RESEARCH SOURCES HERE
The Official False Swipe Gaming Twitter:
0:00 – Intro
0:52 – BW/Gen 5
4:17 – XY/Gen 6
6:32 – SM/Gen 7
7:11 – Outro
Directed by Kellen
Follow Me On Twitch!:
Written By
Kevin aka BKC
His Channel:
This Bread Needs More Jam:
Edited By
Connor Nguyen aka CDK
Follow Him:
VFX Intro By
Ryan Gonzales
Sound Designed by
Ryan Gonzales
Game Capture Artist:
DarkMusician
Follow Him:
DISCLAIMERS ON FORMATS COVERED:
Notice I said POPULAR formats, meaning a format where there is a significant amount of people who compete in it for tournaments and so on and so forth.
For the record, I do not care what rules or formats people play their battles by nor am I saying these formats are the only formats that should be played. The way you play Pokemon is between you and your opponent. I just like examining popular tournament formats.
Songs Used (List of ALL Songs used for this series. Some may or may not make it into the video):
My Twitter:
Resources and Historical References
History of Rule Variants:
Smogon University:
Maikiri
Aaron Cybertron Zheng:
Pokeaim
Pokemon Battle Historia:
Nintendo Cup 2000 Team Construction:
Nintendo Cup 2000 Tier List:
Pokemon Japanese Battle Wiki:
Sprites From:
Watch more new videos about Game | Synthesized by Mindovermetal English
What if it was Electric/Fire with Reckless and Flare Blitz though
Imagine being worse than Rotom-Fan. That's when you know life is tough.
Zebstrika is the reason we need more physical eletric moves, there are…like…5 in existence, and 1 of them is Volt Tackle…
Humm, a electric physical attacker that kind of suck … Remind me of an electric cat one gen before.
At least, Zebstrika isn't made down right unusable with a 70 speed.
I can't wait for the rotom appliances to get their video. Shits gonna be an hr long haha
Do Swalot
I genuinely dont understand why Zebstrika doesnt get blaze kick, itd be perfect for it
To fix, just expand its learnset to include better physical moves.
In gen5 I did come up with a set for Zebstrika that could outrun and 2HKO Excadrill, Thunderous and Tyranitar all in one. It was pretty fun to use at the time, as nobody knew what on earth it was going to do.
Please do Ursaring.
How good was Delphox actually.
Physical Electric types in general are bad right now. They have little to work with.
give Zebstrika the move Zing Zap
Floatzel
Zebstrika is one of my childhood favorites.
It was my first electric type.
Give my boy volt tackle
I would say go it a 5 base points to its HP, 23 points to its def and sp.def and bring its sp.atk up 5 points. Make it just a bit better than what it is
Elesa
E-lE-sa
More on the e
Gamefreak made TWO physical electric physical types in a row with Luxray before in gen 4, 3 if you count Electrive.
lol
My favourite part of Zebstrika is it's cry.
that loud ass SKREEEOOOOOOWWWW was sick
I was waiting for this for so long.
Give it more physical coverage! High Horsepower (duh), Blaze Kick, Zen Headbutt, heck I don’t think Superpower would be too out of place! Zebras have huge muscles !
Oh, right, I remember this movie. This is the new physical attacking pokemon with all special moves after they finally gave Flareon Flare Blitz.
Plz, I wanna a Tropius video so bad
I'd buff Zebstrika by giving it Erie Impulse, Flare Blitz, Iron Head, and High Horsepower. And maybe throwing 3 points toward its Attack stat.
One of those Pokémon that barely gets love… ❤️
that elesa pronunciation was physically painful
Gonna be real Zebstrika is such a weird looking Pokémon. It’s spiky parts and tail look ew.
MandJ TV will have to react to this..
Physically-inclined Electric attacker?
To the bin you go.
tle classic case of a pokémon with the shallow movepool that can barely use it's best offensive stat
Zebstrika really just needs a few good physical moves. I think if it had something like the three fang moves plus CC it could run a Choice Band set and be really threatening
give it volt tackle and jump kick it would be at least viable in pu
I wish Zebstrika could have the Reckless ability and some more varied recoil moves. As it stands, all it gets are wild charge, double edge and takedown. Wild charge and double edge would be good with reckless, especially if there were more, varied recoil moves it could learn. Either that or if recoil damage from wild charge activated volt absorb/motor drive, that could be an interesting combo at least.
I love Zebstrika, it's so underated
is it not in sword and shield or legends arceus?
If only more mons got volt tackle
If only an electric flare blitz wasn’t given to a electric rat.
Ways you could fix Zebstrika (besides the obvious of adding more useful physical Electric moves and without making it a special attacker):
1) Volt Absorb: It has issue with bulk, so instead of boosting its already good speed or underwhelming Sp. Atk, why not have it regain health instead, especially since its most powerful physical STAB is a recoil move.
Heck you could combine that with the move Ion Deluge to turn opposing Normal moves into free recovery or Ally Switch in Double Battles to juke out opponents.
2) Galvanize: Take inspiration from Stephan's Zebstrika and allow it to turn Quick Attack into decently powerful Electric priority, Stomp into a semi-powerful Electric flinching move, Feint into a powerful Protect-buster, as well as making Double Edge, Thrash, and Facade deadly nukes.
All of which are further boosted by Electric Terrain.
3) Lean into its inspiration of the Steeds of Helios and make it part Fire type, and give it access to powerful physical Fire STAB like Blaze Kick and Flare Blitz, while giving it decent special STAB like Mystical Fire to lower the opponent's Sp. Atk, Heat Wave for Doubles, or Burn Up for a powerful nuke that gets rid of the new quadruple weakness to Ground types.
Since it doesn't need a scarf it could easily hold Heavy Duty Boots or Air Balloon to deal with its new weaknesses.
4) Lean into the zebra aspect and how they use their stripes to confuse predators and blend into their surrounds and make it part Psychic type, which gives it a unique role since Alolan Raichu is a Special Attacker. Just give it access to Zen Headbutt, Psycho Cut, or Heart Stamp and it would have great Psychic STAB.
Plus you could really lean into the zebra aspect since their presence alone apparently confuses predators by giving it Psychic Surge ("The battlefield got weird", makes sense), giving it a unique role as a Terrain setter, allowing it to use Expanding Force in doubles, and preventing all priority from moving before it does.
I’m once again asking how GOOD was Lanturn ACTUALLY? He’s one of my favorite Pokémon that needs some love.
Zebstrika Needs a Mega that may make it part Steel type; and certainly needs a bunch of coverage moves, Bounce, Flame Charge, Pursuit, Signal Beam and Rock Smash are not gonna cut it.
Give it better physical electric and coverage moves, maybe +10 base attack, and we're talking
Zebstrika is one of my favorite gen 5 pokemon and probably the number one pokemon I want to get buffed competitively. My choices for buffs would be: buff wild charge to base 120 power (so he has useful physical stab), give him high horse power (he's basically a horse and Snorlax gets it despite being a bear), give him flare blitz (he already learns several other fire moves, so why not give him a good physical fire move), give him high jump kick (Sawsbuck gets it so why not Zebstrika) and give him mega horn (he has horns, so yeah). Probably wouldn't make him OU or anything, but having useable physical stab and good coverage options would make him way better for both in game and competitive.
Thunder tail – base 100 power, physical attack, 10% chance to paralyze (similar to Iron tail)
Shock spikes – 30 power, physical attack, can hit 2-3 times
Thunder spheres – entry hazard, electric version of stealth rock (watch out flying and water types), no effect on ground types
Thunder whip – 95 power, physical attack, 10% chance to flinch
White Hot Bolt – 80 power, special attack, super effective against grass and steel types, 10% chance to burn
I don't really care about Zebstrika because in my opinion, it's forgettable
Waits for angry comments to appear