02. Zamazenta

Fighting · Dauntless Shield · VR S · 2026-04 Usage 19.67% (#3) · base 92 / 120 / 115 / 80 / 115 / 138 (HP/Atk/Def/SpA/SpD/Spe) · the format’s premier physical breaker-pivot: a 412-Speed body that breaks with Choice Band or snowballs through walls with Iron Defense + Body Press, all behind a one-turn +1 Def from Dauntless Shield.

Base Zamazenta only (mono-Fighting). Zamazenta-Crowned is Uber/banned — do not confuse the two. Dauntless Shield is its only ability (100%) and fires once on switch-in for an automatic +1 Def.

Format role

Zamazenta is one of two S-rank pillars and the single most important offensive Fighting-type in the format. Its job splits cleanly into two archetypes off the same chassis: a Choice Band wallbreaker/cleaner that spams 412-Speed Crunch / Close Combat / Stone Edge and immediately threatens half the tier, and an Iron Defense + Body Press setup sweeper that converts its 115 base Def (and the free Dauntless Shield boost) into a snowballing Fighting nuke that flips would-be physical walls into setup fodder. Both want the same 412 Speed, which is the benchmark of the metagame (the “412 wall” — anything slower than max Jolly Zama is in revenge range, see speed tiers). On offense, you build Zama to break and pivot, not to wall.

Sets

The spreads below are verbatim from the 2026-04 block. Note the bimodal item split — Leftovers 30.6% + Light Clay 7.2% (the bulky Iron Defense / dual-screens body) vs Choice Band 22.0% + Life Orb 7.4% (the offensive breaker). All sets are Jolly (the block’s only natures); Dauntless Shield is universal.

A — Choice Band (offensive breaker) · Item Choice Band (21.99%)

Zamazenta @ Choice Band
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 0 HP / 252 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe   (49.5% spread)
- Crunch            (86.71%)
- Close Combat      (66.29%)
- Stone Edge        (60.59%)
- Ice Fang          (33.51%)

The most-used spread (0/252/0/0/4/252, 49.5%) is the Band/Life-Orb offensive build. Crunch is the near-universal move (86.7%) precisely because it hits the Ghosts that block Close Combat; Stone Edge (60.6%) is for Flyers; Ice Fang (33.5%) is the fourth slot for Lando-T / Garchomp / Dragonite / Gliscor.

B — Iron Defense + Body Press (setup pivot/sweeper) · Item Leftovers (30.61%)

Zamazenta @ Leftovers
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 0 HP / 132 Atk / 124 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD / 252 Spe   (5.25% spread)
- Body Press        (33.50%)
- Iron Defense      (32.24%)
- Crunch            (86.71%)
- Substitute        (27.39%)

Iron Defense (32.2%) + Body Press (33.5%) move as a pair; Substitute (27.4%) is the most common third utility move, blocking status/Encore from the walls Zama sets up on. Crunch over Close Combat keeps it from being walled by Ghosts even on the setup set.

C — Bulky pivot / Heavy Slam variant · Item Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots (17.53%)

Zamazenta @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 248 HP / 0 Atk / 28 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD / 232 Spe   (13.88% spread)
- Body Press        (33.50%)
- Iron Defense      (32.24%)
- Heavy Slam        (31.16%)
- Crunch / Substitute

The 248/0/28 bulky spread (13.9%, the #2 spread overall) trades the Attack EVs for HP and runs Boots to come in repeatedly on hazards. Heavy Slam (31.2%) is the Fairy-killer (OHKOs Diancie-Mega, see calcs) the pure ID/Press set otherwise can’t touch. Roar (7.7%) and Reflect (7.2%, the Light-Clay dual-screen lead) round out the “Other” tail.

Legality: Zama-Crowned is banned and Dauntless Shield is its only legal ability, so there is nothing to flag. Fightinium Z (5.0%) exists in the data (a one-time All-Out Pummeling nuke) but competes for your single Z-slot; on aggressive offense your Z is almost always better spent elsewhere (Gholdengo’s Corkscrew Crash, a Z-breaker), so treat the Band and ID sets as your defaults.

What it does

Choice Band (Set A) is point-and-click pressure at 412 Speed. Lead or pivot it in, and the opponent has to respect Crunch (the Ghost/Psychic answer), Close Combat (the everything-else answer), and Stone Edge (the Flyer answer) — three moves that between them hit almost the whole tier neutral-or-better, with Ice Fang patching the Ground/Dragon/Flying quad. The cost is the standard Choice lock: you commit, and a smart opponent pivots the immune/resist mon in (a Ghost on Close Combat, a Fairy on Crunch). The art is using your speed to fish the right click and your team’s hazards + pivots to deny the free switch.

Iron Defense + Body Press (Sets B/C) is the scarier long-game plan. Dauntless Shield gives an automatic +1 Def on entry; one Iron Defense (+2) then stacks to +3 stages, and Body Press reads off that defense stat as its attack — so every Iron Defense simultaneously makes Zama harder to break and hits harder. Against the format’s physical walls (Corviknight, Garganacl, Skarmory, Great Tusk) it can set up safely if they lack immediate phazing/status pressure, Substitute blocks many of those attempts, and it grinds them into the ground. The two hard stops are (1) Unaware (Dondozo, Clodsire, Clefable — they ignore the Def boosts when calculating Body Press damage) and (2) special attackers / Haze (Toxapex, Slowking-Galar, Tapu Fini), which is why the offensive Band set and the setup set cover for each other’s checks.

Crucially, both sets are not bulky-offense pieces — Zama on aggressive offense is a fast, immediate, snowball-or-break threat, never a passive pivot. The non-obvious interaction every pilot must internalize: Zama’s typing means it dies to Flying/Psychic/Fairy, so it must be paired with offensive answers to those (Kingambit for the Psychics/Fairies via Sucker Punch; Gholdengo/Scizor for the Fairies). Treat Zama as a 412-Speed lever you pull after the opposing check is weakened or removed — that’s the offense thesis in miniature.

Load-bearing calcs

All Jolly. Band = ×1.5 Atk → 508. Body Press calcs below are computed at +2 Def stages (×2.0 → Def 532) from the 115 base/0-EV Def stat — i.e. the conservative “one effective doubling” case. A real in-game Zama also carries the free Dauntless Shield +1, so after one Iron Defense it sits at +3 stages (×2.5) and hits harder than these floors; the OHKO/2HKO conclusions only improve.

• +1 Iron Defense Body Press vs 0/0 Kingambit (Fighting 4×): 664–784 (194.7–229.9%) — guaranteed OHKO. Body Press cleaves Dark/Steel. A set-up Zama removes Kingambit outright — its job as a hard answer to the opposing late-game cleaner.
• Choice Band Crunch vs 0/0 Gholdengo (Dark 2×): 260–306 (82.5–97.1%) — clean 2HKO (no OHKO at full). This is the calc that matters: Close Combat is Ghost-immune, so Crunch is Band Zama’s answer to Gholdengo. It doesn’t OHKO from full — but meaningful chip such as Stealth Rock + Spikes flips it to a guaranteed OHKO, which is exactly why Band Zama wants hazards down.
• Choice Band Stone Edge vs 0/0 Moltres (Rock 4×): 676–796 (210.6–248.0%) — guaranteed OHKO. The Boots-Moltres pivot that walls Close Combat is one-shot by the Edge.
• Choice Band Heavy Slam (120) vs 0/0 Diancie-Mega (Steel 4×): 684–808 (283.8–335.3%) — guaranteed OHKO. The Fairy that’s supposed to bounce hazards and check Fighting evaporates to the Heavy-Slam variant (Set C). Note Heavy Slam gets no STAB here — it’s a Steel move and Zama is mono-Fighting — so this is the raw 4× super-effective figure, not a STAB-boosted one. HS only on the Heavy-Slam set, not Set A.
• Choice Band Close Combat vs 252+/252+ Terapagos-Terastal (Fighting 2×): 374–444 (94.9–112.7%) — 11/16 OHKO. Even the maximally-bulkied Terapagos is a coinflip-OHKO from Band CC; with any chip it’s dead. Note this is the attacking Zama matchup against a common teammate-overlap wall.
• Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs 0 HP Zama (1×): 175–207 (53.8–63.7%) — clean 2HKO, no OHKO. The mirror that defines its risk profile: offensive (0 HP) Zama is not OHKO’d by Great Tusk (it lives and threatens back), and the bulky 248/28 spread (Set C) takes only 44.2–52.2%. Zama out-bulks the Tusk mirror more than people expect.
• +1 Iron Defense Body Press vs 252+/252+ Corviknight (1×): 135–160 (33.8–40.0%) — 3HKO. The caveat on the setup set: against the bulkiest neutral physical walls, one Iron Defense isn’t enough to 2HKO — you need a second ID (or hazards) to break Corviknight, which is the window Defog/phazing/Pressure-stall exploits.

Checks & counters

Hard (true counters / reliable walls):

• Unaware physical walls — Dondozo, Clodsire, Clefable. They ignore Iron Defense for Body Press math; +1 Body Press vs max Dondozo is only 127–151 (25.2–30.0%), and they outlast it. The single cleanest answer to the setup set.
• Toxapex (page) — eats +1 Body Press for 51–61 (16.8–20.1%) and CB Close Combat for 74–87 (24.3–28.6%) (both Poison/Water 0.5×), Hazes the boosts, Regenerates the chip. A genuine wall to both sets unless it’s already deep in chip or you have Stone Edge/Ice Fang pressure.
• Garganacl / Skarmory-class neutral walls — but only short-term. +1 Body Press vs 252+/252+ Garganacl is 234–276 (57.9–68.3%) — a 2HKO, so Garganacl needs Recover/Salt-Cure tempo and Substitute denies it; the wall war is real but Zama is favored once it’s at +2.

Soft (checks / revenge):

• Faster offense (the primary answer to the frail Band set). 0-HP Zama is OHKO’d outright by Fairy STAB: Iron Valiant Specs Moonblast does 428–506 (131.7–155.7%). Booster-SpA is lower than Specs because Quark Drive’s offensive boost is ×1.3, not ×1.5, while Booster-Speed Valiant sits at 546 Speed (vs Zama’s 412) and still threatens the revenge with Moonblast. Tapu Lele Specs Moonblast is 456–536 (140.3–164.9%) — a clean OHKO if it gets in safe. Scarfers above 412 (Scarf base-110s hit 525) outrun and revenge with any neutral hit.
• Great Tusk — the offensive mirror; it does not OHKO Zama (Headlong Rush is only 53.8–63.7% into 0-HP Zama, less into the bulky spread), so this is a genuine trade, not a hard revenge — and the ID/Press set actively beats a passive Tusk.
• Slowking-Galar (page) — checks the setup set with Future Sight + special pressure, but CB Crunch is 226–266 (57.4–67.5%) into max phys-def Slowking, a 2HKO, so it is not a free Band switch-in.
• Flying / Psychic / Fairy attackers in general — Moltres-pre-Edge, Zapdos, Tornadus-T, Tapu Lele all threaten the frail offensive variant. Zama’s answer is its team: Kingambit’s Sucker Punch and Gholdengo cover the Fairies/Psychics it can’t.

★ Offense angle

Zamazenta is a premier aggressive-offense piece, not a bulky-offense one — run it as a 412-Speed breaker/cleaner, never a passive pivot. Two concrete build patterns:

1. Choice Band lead/mid-game breaker. Pair it with a hazard setter (Spikes/Rocks): the Gholdengo Crunch calc (82.5–97.1%, a 2HKO at full) tips into a guaranteed OHKO the moment SR + a layer of Spikes is down, and Band Terapagos/CC goes from 11/16 to certain. Zama’s job: come in on something it forces out, fire the move that breaks the relevant wall, and let your other breaker (one that shares no checks — a Fairy-weak special breaker, say) clean. Because Zama lures and dents Gholdengo, the physical walls, and the Fairies (via Heavy Slam on Set C), it directly enables a frail special wincon behind it.
2. Iron Defense + Body Press + Substitute snowball. This is your answer to fat balance — but respect the math: one Iron Defense only 3HKOs max Corviknight (33.8–40.0%), so you set up twice (or rely on chip) against the bulkiest neutral walls. The payoff is decisive against Dark/Steel — +1 Press OHKOs Kingambit (194.7–229.9%) — so the set doubles as a hard answer to the opposing late-game cleaner. Cover its two real weaknesses — Unaware bodies (Dondozo no-sells Press at 25–30%) and special/Haze pivots (Toxapex) — with a teammate that breaks them (a strong special breaker or a Taunt user).

When Zama is on the other side, your offense beats it three ways: (a) revenge the frail Band variant with anything above 412 — Booster-Speed Iron Valiant (546) or a Scarfer — since 0-HP Zama is OHKO’d by Fairy STAB (Moonblast is 131%+); (b) bring an Unaware body to no-sell the ID set (Dondozo eats +1 Press for ~25–30%); (c) don’t give it free Iron Defense turns — a fast Taunt or simply attacking it (it’s frail) denies the snowball. Note the ID set out-bulks a passive Great Tusk (Headlong Rush only ~54–64%), so don’t rely on a defensive Tusk to wall it — bring real special pressure. Never let an ID Zama get to +2 against a passive team.

Top teammates & cores

From the 2026-04 block (top-10 teammates):

Named cores:

• Zamazenta + Kingambit (the Fighting/Dark double-break). The canonical aggressive-offense backbone (24.25% co-usage). Zama breaks the physical walls and Steels; Kingambit’s Sucker Punch + Supreme Overlord clean what’s left and patch Zama’s Fairy/Psychic weakness. They pressure opposite halves of nearly every wall core — exactly the “two breakers sharing no checks” pattern in common cores.
• Zamazenta + Landorus-Therian (breaker + hazard-pivot glue). Lando’s Stealth Rock/U-turn safely deploys the frail Band Zama and supplies the chip that converts the Gholdengo/Corviknight 2HKOs into kills; Intimidate also covers the physical threats Zama’s offensive spread fears. The standard hazard-stack opener for an offense built around Band Zama.