How's this for a searing hot take?
The fact that a mascot Legendary was screwed up this much is absolutely baffling. Realistically, I don't think Zacian in either of its formes is an inherently bad Pokémon. It takes a lot for me to give a Pokémon
that tag, believe me. Rather, I really only dislike Zacian from a competitive standpoint. Anyone who has played literally any Gen 8 format knows how oppressive Zacian is in
both Formes. Each one has its niche over the other (Zacian-Hero can notably hold an item) and both were the next Pokémon to be banned from Ubers after Mega Rayquaza's onslaught of the ORAS metagame.
You guys wanna know how many times counterpart mascot Legendaries have been in different tiers because one is just that much stronger than the other?
Only twice. It first happened with Black Kyurem in BW2 being released into OU since it was just that bad of an Uber and honestly not that great in Gen 5 OU, a streak that lasted all the way until Kyurem's buffs in the Crown Tundra DLC of Generation 8. Zamazenta, Zacian's Shield counterpart, isn't nearly as bad as pre-buff Kyurem-Black, but is still stuck in Ubers while Zacian rules over Anything Goes. Heck, Zamazenta actually got BETTER in Ubers in both of its Formes
because Zacian was banned from the format.
This whole time I've been talking about Singles, but what about Doubles Ubers? As it turns out, Zacian-Crowned is unquestionably the top Pokémon in that metagame, made even better by the fact that Dynamax remains unbanned in the format unlike in Singles Ubers, allowing Zacian's Behemoth Blade to slice through the terrifyingly strong and bulky metagame with little effort.
Here's a full list of reasons why Zacian might be the most broken individual species of Pokémon in history. Finishing up this post, I'm entirely convinced that Zacian was
purposely designed to be as overpowered as possible,
"Brawl Meta Knight" style.
-Intrepid Sword is basically an anti-Intimidate that affects its own Pokémon
-Fairy typing often merged with Steel has so, so many good matchups
-Iron Head turned Behemoth Blade is a base 100 power Steel-Type STAB with no drawbacks
-130 base Attack plus a held item, or 170 base Attack with no item
-Ridiculous 138 Speed tier in its base form, increased to an oppressive 148 when Crowned
-92/115/115 bulk spread is absolutely incredible given Zacian's supposed to be the offensive one