ORAS UU: A Last Look (Currently on break for SUMO)

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I'm just returning to the game so can't give any hard gameplay yet, but I can give what I hope to be good theory based on my past experience combined with analysis of current UU. I'll talk about what I think are the key points of this pokemon.

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Problems
60/60/60 defenses makes it one of the frailest pokes period, let alone in the tier, leaving it highly vulnerable to strong priority from the likes of Arcanine, Entei, Conkeldurr, etc. as it relies on its speed. It is also not so quick that it outpaces certain pokemon like Infernape, Cobalion, Galvantula, etc. All in all it is very easy to stop Zoroark from sweeping and its complete lack of bulk makes it hard to bring into play even if you're not trying to use Illusion in that instance. Offensively driven metagames are unfriendly to Zoroark because it constricts its window of opportunity - the more likely an opponent is to use an attacking move, especially from hard-hitting and/or fast mons, the more likely it is that Zoroark will be both found out and KO'ed without the opponent having to "play" your mind game at all.

Offensively, Zoroark wants a couple of things: a meta with as many mons that have 4x weaknesses as possible to its coverage moves and its STAB. The problem is that UU lacks both of those things. Without a clean KO Zoroark is both unlikely to survive the opponent's retaliation and has not actually removed the opposing mon even if Zoroark doesn't get fainted, and any time Zoroark does not achieve such effective surprise is when any number of pokes would probably have given much more to your team no matter what kind of Zoroark you're running. The reason why it needs that surprise is because if it doesn't OHKO, the opponent can switch out to something that has no problem with Zoroark's attacks and gain momentum, and then know from an hp check whether you switch in Zoroark again. To make matters worse, some of the mons that are weak to its coverage moves outspeed it (Cobalion, Infernape, Crobat, etc.) and others have priority (Conkeldurr, Mamoswine, Lucario, etc.) while some mons from either category resist Sucker Punch as well.

UU is simply too full of pokemon that would be overpowered for the tier if they weren't kept in check by other mons which aren't quite OU, just compare UU now to two generations ago, and Zoroark has neither the hard stats that they do to contend with them nor any substantial metagame particularities it can exploit. You also have to remember that for anything Zoroark can do other than get free turns with Illusion there is a better, more solid pokemon for it. Even Illusion can be mimicked in some way by simply running an unorthodox move set on another mon like going MetaMix instead of Zoroark. But of course, Zoroark can work, and this post does not mean to claim that it's completely useless, just that it's definitely not a solid pokemon.

Remedy Alternatives
1) - Have at least one slow U-switch on your team, this point is practically a foundation for using Zoroark. You don't want to rely on sacrificing mons to bring others in but without U-switch that's pretty much the only way you're gonna get Zoroark in reliably without getting statused, KO'ed or a broken illusion.

2) Use inconspicuous illusions. You don't need to pose as another sweeper all the time - posing as a Sableye, Tentacruel, Forretress and such is also effective, especially because your opponent will likely expect you to not pose as these mons.

3) - Use a set that doesn't depend on an "Illusion bomb". This means something involving Taunt, Knock Off, Sucker Punch, Pursuit or U-turn which gives Zoroark a bunch of utility from start to finish and lets you surprise the enemy in smaller ways that are still meaningful and can still set up a sweep by another mon.

4) - Maximize the possibility to Illusion bomb. This means a Choice, Nasty Plot or Swords Dance set, as without a boost Zoroark is just not going to accomplish anything before fainting against mons that aren't 4x weak to it. An SD set will have more utility between its options of Sucker Punch, Knock Off, Pursuit and U-turn but adds burn to the list of things that stop it. NP will get more coverage from the special moves but as said, that is of limited use in the meta so it'll probably be more generally useful on NP sets to make the last move something like U-turn to gain utility.

5) - This is to run imo the weakest set which is an unboosted attacker with maximized coverage, the problems of which I've already gone through but the most fundamental of which is a lack of Dark and 4x weaknesses to Zoroark's attacks in the meta. If you insist on using this anyway U-turn is imo a must to at least prevent switches from halting your momentum after you hit them with an attack. Which brings me to...

6) U-turn. Thinking about it while I'm writing this post, this move is probably a must on any set, as Zoroark is susceptible to momentum loss no matter what it does and U-turn helps take care of that.

Zoroark Counterplay
- Pay attention to hp values
- Don't take big risks with mons that Zoroark can OHKO before you've scouted it
- Lay hazards to remove Focus Sash
- Recover from surprises with a Wish passer
- Minimize free switches given by keeping up offensive pressure so Zoroark can only come in by U-switch or revenge
- Carry mons with priority or more speed than +105
- Carry bulky mons that are unlikely to be OHKO'ed in general and ideally can afford to attack or Twave before switching out against threats

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Hope I helped.
 
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I love finding hidden gems, so in. LL2 Chrystal

I've been using the Specs set so far.

Zoroark @ Choice Specs
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Bomb
- Trick

It hits very hard, although it's extremely frail so I have to be careful bringing it in. It's performed quite well so far - I normally use it to clear the way for a sweeper by luring its checks. I've also had Baton Pass Sylveon and Volt Switch Forretress to help get it in safely.

Here's a replay where it lures in a Whimsicott so that Suicune can sweep:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-467264084
 
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Yo, I just got above 1600 on the ladder with my LL2 account so I thought I'd share my thoughts.

First of all, here's the team I made and have been laddering with:



Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Roar

Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch

Beedrill @ Beedrillite
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Protect
- Poison Jab
- Drill Run

Zoroark @ Choice Band
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

Celebi @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Psychic
- Nasty Plot
- Recover

Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz


Alright, this is a really fun team I made with BAND ZOROARK. :D The reason I chose band Zoroark w/ flamethrower in slot 4 is because it lures a lot of common counters and checks for the three potential sweepers (standard, powerful Celebi / Entei / Suicune.) It also lets you slam spin blockers on hazard stack if you choose to disguise it as Forretress.

Impressions:

Zoroark put in a TON of work for me on the ladder so far. Band is great because you can carry Pursuit and trap Celebi which often opens the way for Suicune to win. Flamethrower lets you slam Forretress and Escavalier to let Celebi sweep. Knock takes items and deals big damage. If you disguise as Celebi you can slam AV Metagross, if you disguise as Entei you can slam Cress. Band U-Turn actually has spectacular damage output and can also lure stuff like Krookodile and also helps you keep momentum.

I actually think that Zoroark (specifically the fun band set I'm using) is significantly better than it used to be. With Celebi and Krook being part of the cookie cutter Celebi / Krook / Sylv core that is on every other team U-Turn and Pursuit can easily devastate Celebi / Krook and open the way for any number of things to sweep.

"Zoroark is hard to bring in because it's so frail" (a criticism leveled by Salem1 above) has not been true at all in my experience. Yes, you can't switch in Zoroark on pretty much any attack but I nonetheless brought in Zoroark frequently in most battles on double switches and such. Zoroark is a mon that very much rewards aggressive play and predictions, which I like.

However, Zoroark is still pretty much a gimmick. Depending on what your opponent brings it may be dead weight. If the mon you disguise it as takes damage (which may be inevitable) the illusion is immediately over. While I've been amazed at how much work it's done for me on the ladder I'd be very hesitant to bring it to a tournament game. Still, fun mon that definitely deserved another look. :D Like I said, I think metagame changes have been kind to it and gimmick or not it's definitely a threat.

Replays (I remembered to save some this week!):

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-467473945
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-467325054
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-467312683
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-467152617
 

Pearl

Romance は風のまま
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Hey there guys! I've been doing some (read: a lot) of laddering with Zoroark and feel like I'm finally in a comfortable position to share my experience with all of you. For reference, here's the result (probably final unless someone ends up surpassing me) of all the laddering I did:



And here are the three Zoroark teams I came up with for this project alongside some short descriptions:


Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 88 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Psywave
- Toxic
- Protect

Crobat
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Def / 144 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Roost
- Defog
- Haze

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Roar / Sleep Talk
- Rest

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Hyper Voice
- Heal Bell

Zoroark @ Choice Band
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- U-turn
This is a pretty straightforward team which makes use of Zoroark's unique niche to aid Suicune and Sceptile, since the common checks and counters to these Pokemon don't really enjoy tanking Zoroark's Dark-type moves, and some of them are even prone to getting Pursuit trapped. Similarly to Finding True Love and Hogg, I've opted for Choice Band Zoroark on this team, but I'll explain this choice thoroughly later on in this post. Note that Choice Band Krookodile would probably work nicely in Zoroark's place on this team, but I actually feel like Zoroark is an interesting alternative with many options that help it differentiating itself from its fellow Dark-type Pokemon, such as the higher base Speed (which is huge when you consider that Celebi is a prominent Pursuit target), access to U-turn and Illusion. The rest of the squad is pretty straightforward for the most part, with Bronzong, Crobat and Sylveon holding it together.


Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Toxic / Roar

Crobat
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Def / 144 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Roost
- Defog
- Haze

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Hyper Voice
- Heal Bell

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Haze
- Recover

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Nasty Plot
- Psychic
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Zoroark @ Choice Band
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- U-turn
Pretty much the same framework as the last team, with Milotic being chosen to accommodate for Mega Steelix's usage on the team and Celebi replacing Mega Sceptile as the squad's Grass-type Pokemon and primary win condition. Once again, there's not really much to explain. The original version of this team had Swords Dance + U-turn Zoroark over Choice Band, but after messing around with it, I came to the conclusion that the latter is more useful and less reliant on the Illusion gimmick overall.

Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Roar

Togetic @ Eviolite
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Roost
- Defog
- Heal Bell / Thunder Wave

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Def / 152 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Toxic

Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance / Bulk Up
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Moonblast / Thunder Wave
- Moonlight

Zoroark @ Choice Band
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- U-turn
The most interesting team of the bunch and probably the one I've used the most as well. Aside from the fact that it gets obliterated by Bulk Up Conkeldurr and other Fighting-types even though it has both a Togetic and a Cresselia, it is successful mostly for the usage of Togetic as its Defog user, Fairy-type Pokmon and cleric for role compression in order to accommodate for both Cresselia and Toxicroak's slots on the team. Zoroark holds the team together by, once again, trapping and removing Celebi from the equation, luring and weakening most of the common answers to Toxicroak and Cresselia, making some sick Illusion plays thanks to Alomomola's Regenerator ability and so on. Definitely one of the coolest builds I've been able to come up with, especially considering how stale UU has been lately.

Now that I've presented you my teams (feel free to give them a shot, by the way!), here are my general thoughts on this Pokemon. Unfortunately, I won't be able to provide you with replays that showcase the points I'm about to get across, as I don't have the habit of saving stuff when I ladder, but instead, you can have the worst UU game of all time feat. Pillow Wisp, in which Zoroark is utterly useless :D

As crazy as this might sound, especially when considering Zoroark's crazy array of options, I think that it is a very one dimensional Pokemon in the current metagame. This is mostly because there are many Dark-type Pokemon in UU that perform Zoroark's supposed roles better and more efficiently without having to resort to Illusion's high risk, medium-high reward nature. Here's a practical example: Choice Specs or even Nasty Plot Zoroark can be fun to mess around with, but they shouldn't really be considered as serious options when Hydreigon exists in the tier and does the whole special Dark-type nuke thing a lot better. This also holds true for physical variants of Zoroark to an extent, except that those sets have an unique set of traits that actually make them worth using. Plus, the possible competitors are a lot less dominant. Like I was saying before, Choice Band Krookodile could be used over Zoroark on one of the teams, but it would make it a lot weaker to Celebi and it would give me less options to close the game with too, since luring stuff with Illusion is almost always a tech that can be relied upon. Aside from that, I guess it's pretty hard to justify using Swords Dance Zoroark when both Mega Absol and Crawdaunt exist, but it's still an option for teams that already have a different mega evolution and don't really benefit from the wallbreaking potential and would rather have the extra speed and utility Zoroark provides.

As for the kind of teams Zoroark works better on, I've come to the conclusion that, as a Pokemon that is pretty hard to slap onto squads overall, it works better as a glue to slower bulky offensive teams that are particularly weak to Celebi and other Pokemon that are vulnerable to its STAB moves, which is actually pretty similar to how Krookodile works, with Zoroark's two main selling points being its access to U-turn and its speed tier. Illusion is cool to have an all, but relying on it excessively usually brings inconsistent results. Zoroark can be used on hyper offense too, as I've seen some people who are also laddering for this doing, but I don't think that is the optimal way of using this Pokemon, considering that there are infinitely better Dark-type Pokemon to use on those kind of teams, such as (Mega) Sharpedo, Crawdaunt and even Absol.

Last and most importantly, learning how to make use of Zoroark's ability is probably overrated, because even if you suck at doing so, you still have a Pokemon with two of the most spammable moves in the game in Knock Off and U-turn, Pursuit and strong priority. However, mastering Illusion opens up so many new options that it would be a waste not to make use of it. For starters, leading with Zoroark isn't going to work against any remotely competent human being, as people always try to account for it and lead with Pokemon that have ways of counteracting any of Zoroark's attempts at doing something useful, so don't do that unless the opposing team is extremely weak to it. What I usually like to do is to hold onto Zoroark as much as possible in order to keep the opponent in permanent fear of getting caught off guard, while constantly rotating the Pokemon that's in my last slot so that the opponent can't figure out what Zoroark is going to be disguised as. This is a lot harder to pull off in practice than it is on paper because I'm assuming you're able to keep hazards off your side of the field and your last Pokemon slot in a healthy state, but even if that's not feasible, you can still work around it by disguising Zoroark as Pokemon that take the same damage as it does from entry hazards or even Pokemon with the Regenerator ability (for real, slamming people with Choice Band Knock Off "Alomomola" is the most hilarious feeling I've experienced in a while). Also, keep in mind that using Illusion to lure the answers to your win conditions is cool, but it's extremely predictable as well, so try disguising Zoroark as a defensive Pokemon every now and then.

I'll refrain from making this post any longer for the reader's sake. I hope that I was able to help the people who are giving this Pokemon a shot too! Many thanks to Tony for hosting this and for giving me some inspiration to build fresh teams. Also, For the weebs out there, here's the reference behind my alt.
 
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Hogg

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I'm hanging out at 1661 at the moment and I don't know how much time I'll have to keep laddering, so I figured I'd post about Zoroark now.

I've actually used Zoroark before, including in tour games (my Zoroark team had a 100% win rate in UU Open, baby), so this was kind of an easy one for me. Like Pearl and Finding True Love, by far the most effective Zoroark set for me has been Choice Band. A strong STAB Pursuit on something faster than Celebi, coupled with access to U-Turn and Sucker Punch, differentiate Zoro from more common (and generally effective) 'mons like Krookodile for me. I actually found the best set for me to be one that completely disregarded Zoro's impressive coverage options for almost nothing but STAB moves:

Zoroark @ Choice Band
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn

I actually ran something close to full stall, with a support core of Blissey/Sylveon/Steelix/Crobat, and offensive pushes by speedy CM Roar Suicune and CB Zoroark. This is actually a variation on a similar team I built for UU Open, which went undefeated before it became obsolete following Salamence's ban. Zoroark actually worked really well on this style of team, able to checkmate or punish a lot of common Pokemon that stall often struggles with such as Celebi and Reuniclus, and using its fast U-Turn to pivot in one of my walls. Illusion is a cute gimmick and something I definitely took advantage of, but largely I tried to build and play in such a way that it was mostly irrelevant. (That said, so many Beedrills died at the hands of this Zoroark thinking that they had a safe U-Turn out of Sylveon or Blissey, only to get OHKO'd by Sucker Punch).

Anyhow, the team I used isn't perfect, in particular struggling against some strong Fire attackers, as fast Suicune is my only reliable answer. It also has some issues with CB Conk (though Bulk Up Conk, often the bane of stall and semi-stall teams, is almost never an issue with this team). It was a lot more reliable when Salamence was in the tier, as Blissey/Sylveon/Salamence/Steelix/Suicune were able to provide so much defensive support between themselves that the team didn't mind adding something with almost zero defensive utility in order to provide strong and fast Pursuit/Knock support to eliminate common stallbreakers.

Also, apparently I'm complete and utter shit at saving replays while laddering (I generally ladder under pretty distracting circumstances, either at work or when I'm also watching an increasingly rowdy toddler), but I did manage to nab one replay last night that does a decent job of showing the team in action, controlling the game despite the opposing team packing several 'mons that tend to punish more passive teams, such as Entei, NP Celebi and BU Conk: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-467737594

TL;DR version: Zoroark actually has a lot of potential as a fast Pursuit trapper on bulky teams, especially with CB, where niches such as U-Turn, strong priority and a much better Speed tier give it potential niches over the otherwise superior Krookodile.

However, Zoroark is still pretty much a gimmick. Depending on what your opponent brings it may be dead weight. If the mon you disguise it as takes damage (which may be inevitable) the illusion is immediately over. While I've been amazed at how much work it's done for me on the ladder I'd be very hesitant to bring it to a tournament game. Still, fun mon that definitely deserved another look. :D Like I said, I think metagame changes have been kind to it and gimmick or not it's definitely a threat.
I built a Zoroark team that I believe went 4-0 or 5-0 in UU Open before the Salamence ban made it obsolete, so it definitely can do work in tours. Having trouble finding replays because so many people used stupid emoticons in their names or spammed nine million monotype random battles (looking at you, ABR), but here are a couple of replays I was able to pull up from that:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-uu-176389
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-uu-177895
 
Unless I missed something, both of these replays (the only ones I've watched in this thread) are terrible examples. Zoroark did literally nothing in either game, except for an insignificant U-turn in the first. The wins were coincidental to Zoroark's presence, it had nothing to do with them. I certainly won't speak for all games, but these do support the view point I have which is that Zoroark wants a team that can play without it anyway and you may as well simply have used an unpredicted set on a non-Illusion mon to recreate the surprise factor and/or gone with just a stronger pokemon.
 

Hogg

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Yeah, I didn't post them to show off Zoroark but rather to respond to FTL's post about not using it in a tour game. Those were both replays from UU Open. I do believe that in some of the other replays such as Zamrock v ABR, which I'm struggling to find at the moment, it did see a bit more actual use. The main goal of Zoroark on that team is to help beat common stallbreakers such as Reuniclus, Jellicent and Celebi (the latter of whom beats the tier's primary Pursuit trapper, Krookodile, and the former of which both beat the tier's other main Pursuit trapper, Mega-Aerodactyl), and so it didn't have much to do in the above games where none of those 'mons popped up.

For a replay where it actually does something useful, look at the game I posted above those two, where it pivots around a fair bit and takes out Celebi.
 
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First time posting stuff about a mon..
I laddered to about 1600+ with a HOish balance team i made with it.
The team
Zorodank Force (Zoroark) @ Life Orb
Ability: Illusion
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Suicune Counter (Toxicroak) @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch

Lead (Aerodactyl) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 48 Atk / 208 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Stone Edge
- Fire Blast

Snorlax Counter (Doublade) @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Iron Head
- Sacred Sword

SetUp Sweeper (Gyarados) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Bounce
- Waterfall
- Earthquake

Opportunist (Whimsicott) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Moonblast
- Memento
- Giga Drain

I figured that zoroark's niche was illusion and the high speed. Its speed is at base 105 (Like Mienshao, able to outspeed common mons like Entei,Krookodile and Celebi) and have a nice psychic resistance.Illusion is an amazing ability which could throw your opponent off guard if their not careful. This team build was to set up rocks without any hazards on my side so Zoroark could safely not be revealed by the damage by hazards and keep my team kinda healthy cos i run LO on almost all of them to get the maximum damage output(No lefties on whimsi).Zoroark might not always be useful in the battle, but just having is in the team preview might be enough to play mind games with the opponent.

Zoroark's best disguise imo is Toxicroak and Doublade. Both being to sd and force out mons keep the speed of zoroark hidden and zoroark counters the counters of toxicroak and outspeeds unscarfed doublade counters. Zoroark's Common counters are fairies which both Doublade and Toxicroak counter.
Zoroark could be quite versatile being able to learn both Nasty plot and Swords dance and having access to sucker punch makes it an overall good pokemon.

TL;DR Zoroark has a good speed tier,play mind games,good move pool.

Replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-469775469 Zoroark's Sucker punch cleaning late game
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-469745653 Zoroark putting in work (In another alt)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-469764741 Zoroark getting an early kill with Krook
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-468549637 Zoroark's Ok typing and high attack cleaning.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-467231883 Tricking people on low ladder
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-467265739 Opponent tricked and lose entei

Special thanks to Hey I'm Pikachu, my real life friend that helps me kill myself and mess up every game.
 
Excuse the late post, I've been busy today. D: I'll also address all of your posts on Zoroark tomorrow. For now, though, let's get going with our next subject...



This thing is actually very scary if there's no Grass-type attacks at your disposal to hit it with. I've loved using it myself and I look forward to seeing your results with Gastrodon. I'll update the OP tomorrow, as well as adding Pearl to the hall of fame; he absolutely crushed the UU ladder with Zoroark.
 
Eh what the hell LL3 Blade

I don't have any replays unfortunately, but so far Gastrodon is a decent wall. Its Water immunity and reliable recovery give it a niche over Swampert, but it's just so passive - unless it gets a Storm Drain boost it does crap for damage, and Scald rarely ever burned for me. Also, due to how weak Clear Smog is it's set up fodder for anything with Substitute. It can be good in the right circumstances, but I just couldn't in good faith recommend using it over Swampert, Suicune or Jellicent.
 
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Hmm alright, so I've been going through your posts and while there's definitely some diversity and difference in your sets of choice, Choice Band seems to be the most popular option. Pursuit, Knock Off, Sucker Punch and U-turn all on the same set already sets it apart, let alone having Illusion as its ability. It being faster than Celebi and having exclusively amazing options to hit helps a ton, too. This is one of the (few) downsides to Krookodile, in my opinion. As Hogg also rightfully mentioned, Krookodile mostly outclasses it, but for certain builds it might be worth considering Zoroark instead, as it does very much have a niche, and it's a niche that might prove crucial in practice.

Thanks again for participating this week, and I hope you'll try out Gastrodon as well. Especially the Curse set I can highly recommend myself! I'm updating the OP and Hall of Fame right now so that should be set for this week. Good luck experimenting!
 
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