Zacian, the Warrior Pokémon. Known as a legendary hero, this Pokémon absorbs metal particles, transforming them into a weapon it uses to battle. This Pokémon has slumbered for many years. Some say it's Zamazenta's elder sister—others say the two Pokémon are rivals. Now armed with a weapon it used in ancient times, this Pokémon needs only a single strike to fell even Gigantamax Pokémon. Able to cut down anything with a single strike, it became known as the Fairy King's Sword, and it inspired awe in friend and foe alike.
Overview
One of the most overwhelming Pokémon to ever exist, Crowned Sword Zacian was brutally defanged in the generational shift. Having a whopping 20 points shaved off its base Attack greatly cuts down on the pressure Crowned Sword Zacian provides, now missing knockouts it otherwise enjoyed. Even more damaging is Intrepid Sword being nerfed to once per battle, meaning Crowned Sword Zacian must pick its fights carefully, lest it be walled and forced out with little to show for its efforts. This once per battle clause also makes it difficult to run utility moves, lest Crowned Sword Zacian lose vital coverage that allows it to be easily forced out. This also greatly limits what defensive utility Crowned Sword Zacian would provide as defensive pivoting with it is a great waste of its offensive talents. The addition of sublime Unaware physical walls in Skeledirge and Dondozo have made it easier to force Zacian out then ever, as they can handle Zacian regardless of its boosts and threaten it out with a permanent crippling or just straight damage. The drop in power makes Crowned Sword Zacian’s other flaws more apparent; being item locked to the Intrepid Sword also deprives it of any other item that could bolster its bulk, speed or power, especially noticeable in its matchup against other Choice Scarf users.
Yet despite all this, Crowned Sword Zacian is still one of the deadliest attackers in the game. With Intrepid Sword active, Crowned Sword Zacian hits with the immediate power of a Choice Banded Pokémon with none of the drawbacks. Add a single Swords Dance on top of that, and very few Pokémon can avoid being outright eviscerated, especially with the wide coverage Crowned Sword Zacian brings to bear. Add in a truly absurd base 148 Speed that qualifies as fourth fastest in the game and Crowned Sword Zacian is more than capable of cutting entire teams down before they can even act. Crowned Sword Zacian doesn’t even falter on defense, boasting one of the best typings in the game with Fairy Steel providing numerous resistances, and solid base 115 defense means unlike everything naturally faster, Crowned Sword Zacian can take a hit or two, greatly easing setup and not mandating that it gets the OHKOs it so easily gets. While Crowned Sword Zacian has fallen far from the dominance it once boasted, this regal swordsman still proudly holds a throne amidst other legends.
Positives
Base 150 Attack is amazing, the legendary standard, and Crowned Sword Zacian can easily go higher with Swords Dance.
Base 148 is the fourth fastest in the game, with scant few able to naturally outspeed it
Fairy Steel typing is arguably the best in the game, granting Crowned Sword Zacian an incredible defensive profile and brutal STABs.
Intrepid Sword is an absurd ability, effectively giving Zacian a free Choice Band boost with no drawbacks upon switching in.
Negatives
Intrepid Sword activates only once per battle, greatly limiting the opportunities Zacian can come in and limiting defensive utility.
Item being locked to Rusted Sword prevents Crowned Sword Zacian from running defensive items or Choice Scarf, limiting its durability and speed.
Fairy Steel STAB having mutual resists in Fire and Steel means Crowned Sword Zacian struggles to fit both STABs and all the coverage it needs in a single set.
Movesets
Wolf Fang Sword
-Swords Dance
-Trailblaze
-Behemoth Blade
-Play Rough
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Item: Rusted Sword
EVs and Nature:
172 HP / 152 Atk / 16 SDef / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
Trailblaze Swords Dance Crowned Sword Zacian forms a vicious Double Dance set that answers Crowned Sword Zacian’s normal vulnerability into Choice Scarf attackers, while maintaining its role as a fierce attacker and cleaner. Swords Dance is for pure KOing power, especially important given the limited coverage of this set, so Crowned Sword Zacian’s insane power must be used to compensate. Trailblaze gives Crowned Sword Zacian a way to boost its speed while providing a way to directly check the Water types that resist its Steel STAB such as Kyogre, Alomomola, Suicune, etc. Behemoth Blade is reliable STAB and at base 100 power it is not wanting for power while cleaving Ice, Fairy and Tera Fairy types like Calyrex-Ice Rider, Chien-Pao, Flutter Mane, Grimmsnarl, and Arceus-Fairy. Play Rough is secondary STAB, being a touch more unreliable but boasting far superior coverage against the many Dragons, Ting-Lu, Urshifu and more.
Tera Type:
While Crowned Sword Zacian’s Steel-Fairy typing is truly phenomenal and it can excel with just that, Crowned Sword Zacian often makes excellent use of Terastalization to muscle through obstinate targets and continue its rampage. Between its amazing typing and wide coverage, Tera Stellar is popular on Crowned Sword Zacian bolstering its STABs and coverage while maintaining its fantastic coverage. Tera Steel and Fairy are also consistent standby options, giving persistent buffs to Crowned Sword Zacian’s STABs with the latter altering Crowned Sword Zacian’s weaknesses drastically. Tera Fighting is a niche option that boosts Close Combat to STAB status. Other Tera types can be used to expanding Crowned Sword Zacian’s coverage, especially against Fire types that threaten Crowned Sword Zacian offensively and resist both STABs. Tera Ground is by far the most popular of these types given the near perfect coverage that Fairy-Ground boasts but misses out on Ho-oh, a notable check into Crowned Sword Zacian. Tera Water grants Crowned Sword Zacian a Fire resistance on top of threatening both Ground and Fire types looking to exploit its base typing, but loses some luster against Koraidon and Groudon, popular Tera Fire users that come with their own Sun. Tera Electric can work with Wild Charge or Tera Blast and pulls double duty in threatening Ho-oh and Kyogre.
EVs and Items:
:
While the standard 252 Speed and 252 Attack EV spread can and will work, this EV spread aims to balance speed, power and bulk with Trailblaze and Swords Dance making up for the lesser investment in Speed and Attack. 156 Speed with Jolly nature is recommended as low as one can go to outspeed Base 135 Pokémon in level 50 formats. 168 Speed allows Crowned Sword Zacian to speed creep other Crowned Sword Zacian going for the minimum required speed. 172 HP and 16 SDef all but ensures that Specs Calyrex Shadow Rider can’t OHKO with Astral Barrage, as well as Scarf’d/Assault Vest Miraidon’s Electro Drift. The remainder goes into Attack for as much power as possible. Item is locked to Rusted Sword to transform Crowned Sword Zacian, but the extra Attack, Speed and Steel typing are well worth the downsides.
Partners:
:
Given Crowned Sword Zacian’s role as a pre-eminent physical attacker, special attackers to complement it and strike down the physical walls that give Crowned Sword Zacian trouble. Calyrex-Shadow Rider is a classic example, its Ghost STAB obliterating Skeledirge, while it draws in Dark types whose STABs Crowned Sword Zacian can easily absorb. Lunala also works well for their very similar traits, though it lacks the superb speed that makes Calyrex-Shadow Rider so effective in checking the faster threats that can threaten Crowned Sword Zacian.
As with any Fairy typed attacker, Crowned Sword Zacian having a complementary Ground typed attacker gives absurd coverage and covers all of Fairy’s resists, especially valuable for Crowned Sword Zacian given its poor matchup against Fire types. Arceus-Ground and Ursaluna-Bloodmoon fill these niches quite nicely and love Crowned Sword Zacian’s ability to pivot into Ice and Grass attacks for them with its Steel typing.
Other Options:
Close Combat is potent coverage against Steel types, smashing Necrozma-Dusk Mane, Kingambit, Archaludon, and Iron Treads, while being able to threaten Arceus is an effective boon.
Quick Attack is Zacian’s only priority attack, but with the power Crowned Sword Zacian wields, it is an effective clean up tool.
Wild Charge is Zacian’s best option for Ho-oh and Kyogre that isn’t Tera reliant, though the recoil is far from ideal.
Doubles and VGC Options
Crowned Sword Zacian’s nerfs have hit it hard in VGC, a far cry from the format warping super threat that it once was. Intrepid Sword’s once per battle clause is back breaking with the prevalence of Incineroar being everywhere and being able to wipe Zacian’s Intrepid Sword boosts if not sink its attack into nothing. Without that Intrepid Sword boost Zacian’s power is quite underwhelming, and due to the Rusted Sword item lock, Crowned Sword Zacian is quite limited in what it can do to prevent Incineroar from ruining it. That isn’t to say that Crowned Sword Zacian isn’t worth running. Given how most of the popular restricted picks are spread special attackers, Crowned Sword Zacian compliments them nicely with its single target physical offense, bypassing both Wide Guard users and sponges, while threatening many opposing restricted picks with just its STABs alone, especially the dominant Miraidon and popular picks in Flutter Mane, Koraidon and Chien-Pao, who Crowned Sword Zacian easily outspeeds and threatens to OHKO, a feat the otherwise far more popular Zamazenta cannot directly replicate. Crowned Sword Zacian has the tools to go the distance, provided one can properly manage the once per battle aspect of Intrepid Sword.
Allied Blade
-Swords Dance
-Behemoth Blade
-Play Rough
-Substitute
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Item: Rusted Sword
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs and Nature:
244 HP / 92 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 164 Spe
Jolly Nature
Crowned Sword Zacian's power is so great that it can get away with STABs alone. Behemoth Blade is Crowned Sword Zacian's more reliable STAB, with perfect accuracy and incredible power, it makes quick work of frail targets as well as outright annihilating Grimmsnarl, Flutter Mane, Calyrex-Ice Rider, Ogerpon-Cornerstone, the many Tera Fairy users and more, all the while throwing around Pokémon not weak to Crowned Sword Zacian's secondary STAB Play Rough. Play Rough is fantastic all around. While its less than perfect accuracy is unfortunate, the wide range of coverage boasted by Play Rough more than makes up for it, allowing Zacian to directly threaten the Raidons, Raging Bolt, Urshifu, Brute Bonnet, Roaring Moon, Ting-Lu, Iron Jugulus and more. Swords Dance helps Crowned Sword Zacian stand its ground, boosting to levels irresistible by all but the bulkiest Pokémon and Fire types who are still solidly 2HKO'd. Substitute rounds out the set, warding off disruptive options like Incineroar’s Intimidate, Will-O-Wisp, Fake Out as well as others like Amoonguss’ and Brute Bonnet’s Spore, Volcarona’s Flame Body and more, though this requires either Incineroar already being out as Crowned Sword Zacian comes in, or having very good incentive to not come in to Intimidate Crowned Sword Zacian.
EVs are to maximize bulk to help get that Swords Dance off, while maintaining as much speed and offense as possible. With 164 Speed and a Jolly Nature, Crowned Sword Zacian outruns the base 135 Crowd including the Raidons, Flutter Mane, and Chien-Pao. Tera Fairy allows Crowned Sword Zacian to pivot out of its exploitable Fire and Ground weaknesses while super charging Play Rough to the point of being able to OHKO Ting-Lu with just the Intrepid Sword boost (albeit unlikely).
Preferred Partners & Options:
Kyogre is a natural partner for Crowned Sword Zacian, forming the famous "SwordFish" combination, with Kyogre's Rain negating Zacian's Fire weakness and naturally threatening Fire and Ground type attackers that would threaten Crowned Sword Zacian. In return, Crowned Sword Zacian readily absorbs Grass attacks and cleaves through Water resistant Dragon types. Pelipper can also perform in this role to a lesser extent, though being able to directly switch into Ground attacks is a boon. Tornadus also slots naturally on such teams thanks to its speed control ensuring Zacian and Kyogre gets the jump on everything. Tornadus being able to pivot in Ground attacks aimed at Crowned Sword Zacian is a bonus.
Given Zacian struggles against Fire types, any ally that can directly answer them are greatly appreciated. Landorus-Incarnate directly threatens most Fire types with its brutal Earth Powers, on top of boasting incredible coverage in general, while Crowned Sword Zacian eats opposing Ice types alive. Urshifu-Rapid is very much akin to Kyogre in obliterating Fire types, but benefits in being a physical attacker not hindered by Intimidate and can break Protects.
Secret Sword and Close Combat offer important Fighting coverage, wrecking Ursaluna, Terapagos, Iron Treads, Tera Steel types and offering a strong neutral option to most Fire types. Close Combat is generally preferred for the power, though Secret Sword is great for breaking through Zamazenta and Stamina Archaludon and their Defense Boosts.
Protect is the best move in Doubles for good reason, stalling for allied setup, scouting for Terastalizations,
Countering Zacian
Crowned Sword Zacian’s power is a sight to behold as after a single Swords Dance one to two shots almost everything, but is still a far cry from the peerless offense it boasted in generation 8. Skeledirge and Dondozo are two of the hardest stops to Crowned Sword Zacian both resisting Behemoth Blade and their Unaware rendering Intrepid Sword and any Swords Dances moot, while their sheer physical bulk means even super effective coverage in Crunch and Wild Charge respectively merely 3HKO and 4HKOs respectively, more than enough time for the two to outlast Crowned Sword Zacian, with Crowned Sword Zacian requiring super effective Teras to properly handle them. Quagsire also works but lacks the inevitability of Dondozo or the instant crippling of Skeledirge. Other physical walls can stave off Crowned Sword Zacian. Landorus-Therian negates the boost from Intrepid Sword, making its offense far easier to handle on top of the Scarf Landorus-Therian threatening a OHKO with Earthquake. Necrozma Dusk Mane can stomach anything except Crunch or Close Combat and OHKO back with a boosted Earthquake or outlast with Morning Sun, though even at +1 it can’t outspeed Crowned Sword Zacian. If lacking Wild Charge Ho-oh is also a hard stop and with Sacred Fire threatening either a OHKO or ruinous burn. A more expedient option would be to crush Crowned Sword Zacian with its own medicine of overwhelming offense, though its absurd Speed, good typing and decent bulk make this easier said than done. Specs Calyrex-Shadow Rider directly OHKO bulkless Crowned Sword Zacian, Scarf Kyogre, Scarf Chi-Yu, and Sand Rush Excadrill all outspeed and naturally OHKO Crowned Sword Zacian. Max HP and Defense Groudon can pivot in after a KO and eat a +3 attack before OHKOing back with Precipice Blades.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game
Colosseum/XD:
Not in game
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Not in game
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Not in game
Black/White:
Not in game
Black 2/White 2:
Not in game
X/Y:
Not in game
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Not in game
Sun/Moon:
Not in game
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Not in game
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game.
Sword/Shield:
Energy Plant (Sword)
Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl:
Not in game
Legends: Arceus:
Not in game
Scarlet/Violet:
Transfer from Pokémon HOME
Anime Appearences
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Zacian has made a few appearances in the anime. In it, one appeared in front of Ash and then came to help Ash stop Eternamax Eternatus. |
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