Zino

For the longest time, Zino has been thrown aside by many a-fighter due to its abysmal accuracy. However, with guaranteed critical hits on all of its attacks, Zino can be deadly if wielded correctly.
LP 	460
Attack 	70
Defence 	31
Accuracy	6
Speed 	10
Skill 	Attack	FP cost	Effect
Reaper 	  85 	  50 	                  ---
Cleaver 	  106 	  120 	                  ---
Slicer 	  139 	  230 	                  ---
Frenzy of Destruction	  105 	   150 	  (Team Skill)
Parting Blow 	   ---	    ---	Powers up when KO is imminent.
  Support effects (applied to enemy               AZ)
Attack         --
Defense          --
Accuracy   +20%
Speed   +20%
Element type: Fire
For more information on Zino, click here.
== Overview ==
Taking one look at Zino's stats, and it may look extremely underwhelming compared to most other attackers, not even counting the accuracy. However integrating a Gold Fossil into Zino will boost its LP by 100 and all other stats by 5, including its accuracy. This might not seem like much, but this boost in stats gives Zino some much needed bulk and makes its accuracy slightly easier to work with. Still though, only 75 attack might not seem like a lot, but keep in mind: All of Zino's attacks (with the exception of the team skill) have a 100% chance to deal a critical hit, meaning they do 1.5x more damage. This makes Zinos's blows sting surprisingly hard. Still though, a mere 11 accuracy isn't near enough to land consecutive hits. There are two main ways to get around this:
# Boosting Zino's accuracy and stats via SZ allies.
# Lowering enemy AZ stats (mainly speed/evasion). 
Both methods have entirely different ways of playing them. But before going into that, it is important to cover Zino's handful of strengths and weaknesses:
* Strengths:
** For an attacker, Zino's skills are all pretty cheap, meaning you can be cost effective and build considerable amounts of FP while still dishing out damage.
** When supported correctly, many of Zino's attacks are capable of dealing 200-300 damage, if not more, at a close range, meaning it can thrash any earth type that dares get too close.
** Zino is compatible with a good amount of vivosaurs, which will be elaborated on below.
** Due to its constant critical hits, Zino can deal pretty significant damage even to enemy water types.
** Zino's parting blow gives it 150% attack and accuracy, meaning if it is able to survive a near-KO, you can be more reckless and fire off a particularly strong attack before going down.
* Weaknesses:
** Low speed means it can be challenging getting the first attack at the beginning of a battle.
** Zino is very vulnerable to status, such as Super Excite, but mainly Enrage and Scare. Super Excite can throw Zino's support off balance, Enrage kills its already low accuracy, and Scare (especially Gold Scare) can lock out Zino's moves and make attacking challenging without a Rallying Cry user.
** Even with support, Zino can struggle to land hits on targets who have around 25-30 speed. While not impossible, it's suggested you don't use Slicer against faster enemies in order to not waste FP unless you're willing to play riskily.
**To make Zino work, it requires very specific vivosaurs to support it, meaning if its support goes down, it is very possible for Zino to be utter deadweight on its team.
== Method #1: Boosting Zino's accuracy ==
If you're boosting Zino's accuracy, you're going to be wanting to make sure your accuracy boosts increase its accuracy to around 24-30 points. This is crucial, as many vivosaurs average around 20-30 speed. Here is the team you're mostly going to want to use for this method:
* Zino (AZ); Blitzigon/Raptin and Buldor/Tro/Raptin (SZ)
** Blitzigon: Boosts Zino's accuracy by +80% and attack by +20%. Also comes equipped with Harden to bulk itself or its team out, and can harass water types at a mid-range.
** Raptin: Boosts Zino's attack and accuracy by +77%, is fast, and can use Super Quicken to give itself or Zino incredible longevity. It can also poison the enemy if necessary.
** Buldor: Boosts Zino's accuracy by +99%, doubling it basically. Not to mention it can also buff its team with Harden, and can snipe enemy air-types off the battlefield. Beware though! It also reduces Zino's speed by -99%.
** Tro: Boosts all of Zino's stats by +40%, and comes packed with Rallying Cry and a good speed stat. Beware its rather thin bulk (even with a Gold Fossil applied), however.
Your main strategy when using this team is going to be picking off slower targets with Zino, while letting your SZ vivosaurs take care of faster enemies Zino will struggle to land hits on. Don't worry too much about enemies being in range for Zino, as with the SZ allies it has backing it, Zino can easily hit around 100-150 damage even at suboptimal ranges. When you're finished attacking during your turn, be sure to rotate Zino out of the AZ if your enemy has a close/mid-ranged water type attackers, but keep it in AZ if their water-type is long ranged to minimize most damage. If this isn't an option, buff Zino with Harden or Super Quicken if needed to give it some survivability. If your enemy is packing a lot of status, bring Tro. This may lower some of your damage output and some accuracy, but if you pair Tro with Buldor or Blitzigon in the SZ, you should be able to be mostly fine. You can pair Tro with Raptin, but beware you sacrifice a fair bit of defensive backbone in doing so.
* Pros:
** With a more defensive team setup such as this, it allows the user to grant Zino a lot of survivability.
** By boosting Zino's accuracy, it allows it to hit nearly any slow/moderate speed-statted vivosaur, no matter where they are on the field.
** Zino is easily capable of doing around 200-300 damage at close range with this setup, and considering how cheap most of its skills are, it allows you to be cost effective when stacking buffs such as Harden and Super Quicken.
** This team can do well against more bulky and slower teams, as Zino's powerful attacks can quickly whittle them down.
* Cons/Weaknesses:
** This team is more passive, mostly relying on Zino to dish out long-lasting damage. If Zino gets compromised by status, especially enrage, it can thwart your strategy considerably.
** This team doesn't have much in terms of debuffing status outside of poison.
** Like mentioned before, Tro is rather frail, and using it to clear status can be dicey, as it is vulnerable to being picked off by long-ranged vivosaurs.
** This team is utterly helpless against hyper-offense teams, as teams of Machai, Hoplo, Andrarch, and Smilo can easily outspeed this team and cripple it with status (mainly enrage) and high amounts of damage. 
**Enemies who debuff AZ accuracy can also throw this team off some. It's recommended you try to snipe them off the field with your mid-ranged SZ whenever possible. 
== Method #2: Lowering Enemy AZ stats ==
This second option is more aggressive than the first method, as while it sacrifices some defense, it more than makes up for it by potentially crippling the enemy AZ's offense and allowing more oppressive play. Here's the team you're going to want to use for this method:
* Zino (AZ); Dynal/Cheirus and Dimorph Ace/Einio/Cheirus
** Dynal: One of the most important members for this team. Dynal is capable of crippling the enemy AZ with a -77% reduction to all stats. Dynal also can buff Zino with Super Enflame to make its attacks hit ridiculously hard. Not to mention, despite not having a ton of LP or Defense, Dynal's neutral typing means it has no type-based weakness, giving it a bit more survivability. Beware though, Dynal is very slow.
** Cheirus: A weird pick on the surface, until you realize Cheirus debuffs the enemy AZ's evasion by -99%, halving their speed. Not to mention, giving it a Gold Fossil can beef up its stats and make it pretty fast with 30 speed. On top of that, it's mid-ranged and can help pester any water types with its rather cheap attacks. Cheirus's team skill also has a 50% chance to apply Gold Enrage to the enemy team, meaning if you're willing to bank on that, you can possibly shut down most if not all of your enemy's vivosaurs. It also has Parting Blow, which might come in handy if you're desperate.
** Dimorph Ace: Extremely fast, debuffs all of enemy AZ's stats by -25%, can harass them with Enrage, and has Super Quicken, meaning it can keep itself or its teammates alive. Dimorph Ace also has some pretty average bulk for what it is, meaning it can survive a few strong hits before going down. It's also long ranged, meaning it can help in picking off enemy SZ or shutting them down with Gold Enrage.
** Einio: While not fantastic on its own, Einio can be a huge benefit to this team. It has decent bulk and pretty average speed overall, but its main calling card is Rallying Cry. Einio can help in clearing crippling status, which can be extremely useful. On top of that, it also has an 80% rotation skill that only costs 100 FP, meaning you can bring something within range of Zino and still have enough to use Reaper or Cleaver. Finally, it reduces enemy accuracy by -25% and speed by -50%, as well as also having Parting Blow to give itself a 200% attack increase while in a pinch.
Your main strategy with this team is going to be shredding enemy AZ with Zino's attacks while using your SZ support to make sure Zino stays alive, by either buffing it or debuffing problematic enemies. Dimorph Ace is one of your better support options, especially if you pair it with Dynal for an extremely offensive team (though beware, this makes dealing with status difficult). If there's a powerful water type attacker on the enemy field, don't be afraid to use Super Quicken to help keep D-Ace or Zino alive. While your SZ should mostly shut down whatever AZ offense your opponent may have, be wary of mid-ranged waters, especially ones like Tricera and Berta, in which case you should buff Zino with Super Quicken or use Dimorph Ace/Cheirus to Gold Enrage them. If you're going to be using Dimorph Ace, be sure to pair it with Cheirus or Dynal, as pairing it with Einio won't debuff enemy evasion enough to make Zino work. Bring Einio if your enemy is packing Excite or Enrage status inflictors, as those will give Zino a tough time. If you don't want Gold Scare to completely cripple Zino and you can't afford to fit Einio into your team, use D-Ace and Cheirus as the SZ vivosaurs. This gives Zino a 4th move slot in the form of its team skill, meaning Gold Scare has a chance to lock down that instead of one of its singular (and move powerful) attacks.
* Pros:
** This team is much more aggressive, allowing you to put more pressure on your opponent with more damage and status.
** Because you're focusing on debuffing enemy AZ, it means that enemy SZ debuffing your stats isn't as much of a problem as method #1 (though you shouldn't overlook it).
** Einio is a much more reliable Rallying Cry user than Tro, as it has more bulk and can contribute more than just Rallying Cry.
** This team can counter most strong earth types like Raja and Argento, as well as completely turn the tables on teams that rely on having a strong AZ attacker in the front, as Zino can and will maim them.
* Cons/Weaknesses:
** Because this team is more offensive, you lose some defensive bulk when using this playstyle.
** This team is also completely inept against hyper offense teams, as they will outspeed you and cripple you at the beginning of the game.
** By possibly having to use Einio against a status heavy team, you're pretty much forced to give up bring D-Ace to the fight, meaning your opponent can predict it coming along with Dynal or Cheirus and plan around it accordingly. 
** Long ranged attackers can prove to be difficult, as they can snipe your support if you aren't careful about it.
** While this team can utterly annihilate anything that dares step into Zino's range, debuffing the AZ makes Zino only effective at hitting the AZ, meaning your SZ is going to have to handle dealing with the enemy SZ.
== Other Strategies ==
While not having been entirely tested as of right now, it may be possible to use vivosaurs capable of inducing sleep as a way of supporting Zino, as the sleep status effect completely reduces the target's evasion to zero.
== Overall Conclusion ==
Is Zino viable? To put it short: No. Zino's very hit or miss (both figuratively and literally) style of using is too inconsistent to break into the meta, as it has a hard time against faster teams and is especially crippled by status, and requires specific teammates to make it work. In the end, Zino's problems far outweigh its benefits. This doesn't mean Zino is completely without use, however it's safe to say it is better relegated to more casual play instead of more competitive and serious battles, where it would be better to use a more reliable and flexible attacker.