I mean yeah special Zard and Pyroar are comparable, but I don't really think one is less viable than the other. One big plus Zard has going for it is STAB Air Slash, allowing you to actually hit (and 2hko if LO) Hariyama, while Pyroar can really only hope to potentially cripple it with WoW. Zard also isn't really as walled by Lanturn as you said because you can run EQ over Focus Blast if need be. Another thing Zard has going for it is versatility. Your opponent won't always know set you're using since it has so many sets it can run, and Pyroar basically only has the standard LO/Specs set.>
Yeah I'm pretty confused as to why Special Zard is so damn popular right now seeing as how Pyroar pretty much outclasses it. They have the same Special Attack (109), but Pyroar has better Speed (Base 106 being superior to Base 100),and isn't almost completely walled by lanturn thanks to Hyper Voice (252 SpA Life Orb Pyroar Hyper Voice vs. 40 HP / 216+ SpD Lanturn: 152-179 (37.9 - 44.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery),or at least isn't forced into a suboptimal HP Grass move just to beat it. Pyroar also doesn't force you to run a rapid spinner/defogger like Charizard does, as it can switch into rocks 5 times w/o damage, while Charizard can only switch in 3 times, assuming it doesn't take any damage, which in this tier is a big one, so you're likely to be 2HKO'd by rocks alone unless you're running Roost. The only reasons I would use special zard over pyroar is if I'm massivly Steelix weak, and even then I could go with physical Zard or Mantine, or for a sun team using solar power, which may or may not actually be good. The point is, players should at least consider using Pyroar before they're using Special Zard.
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