What it does on the ladder
Zoroark appears on 0.03% of Regulation M-B teams, which
is 249th of the 282 Pokémon with enough games to measure.
The move it almost always carries is Protect, on 63.9% of sets.
The item is usually Life Orb at 28.1%.
Every one of them runs Illusion.
Those are Smogon's published usage figures, not anything measured here, and they describe what
the ladder plays rather than what is strongest. The full set is in the panel above.
The Pokémon itself
Zoroark is number 571 in the National Dex, a Unova Pokémon, Dark
with a base stat total of 510 — 100th of the 234 Pokémon
legal in this regulation. Its best stat is Sp. Atk at 120, 24th
in the format; its weakest is Sp. Def at 60, 213th.
Its only ability is Illusion.
The Champions module tiers it UU.
It sits in a 2-stage line: Zorua → Zoroark.
Not all of that line is legal in this regulation — Zorua is not.
What gets through
As Dark, 3 of the eighteen attacking types do extra damage to it. It
resists 2 and is immune to 1. The board above
has all of it. 3 other legal Pokémon share the same typing and the same board: Umbreon, Liepard, Absol.
What threatens it
Smogon publishes no head-to-head checks-and-counters data for doubles formats, so this list is
computed, not measured: the most-played Regulation M-B Pokémon carrying a damaging
move of a type Zoroark takes extra damage from.
- Whimsicott — Moonblast (Fairy, ×2), on 93.9% of its sets
- Sneasler — Close Combat (Fighting, ×2), on 99.7% of its sets
- Floette-Mega — Dazzling Gleam (Fairy, ×2), on 95.9% of its sets
- Staraptor-Mega — Close Combat (Fighting, ×2), on 100% of its sets
- Grimmsnarl — Spirit Break (Fairy, ×2), on 59.3% of its sets
- Blastoise-Mega — Aura Sphere (Fighting, ×2), on 34.2% of its sets
Against its own formes
Zoroark has 2 legal formes in this regulation and they share a
typing, so the only thing separating them is the stat line.
This one has the highest HP at 60 and Attack at 105 of the 2.
It has the lowest Sp. Atk at 120 and Speed at 105.
The others are Zoroark-Hisui.
Speed and weight
At level 50 with a boosting nature and full investment, Zoroark reaches
172 Speed; left uninvested with a neutral nature it sits at
125. Invested, it outruns 15 of the 20
most-used Pokémon in the regulation when they are invested too — which is the comparison that
decides who moves first.
It weighs 81.1 kg, so Grass Knot and Low Kick hit it for 80 base
power. That is a real consideration in a format where both are common.
Its move pool
Zoroark learns 98 moves in the Champions data.
54 of them do damage, across 10 of the eighteen
types, and 15 share a type with it and so get the same-type bonus.
Its hardest-hitting same-type move is Foul Play at 95 base power, though the biggest number in the pool is Giga Impact at 150.
It also has priority: Sucker Punch at +1.
That pool is what the team builder reads from when you seat it, and the
damage calculator will take it as the attacker with
the form already chosen.
