That's why I put Shadow Claw in, to both play to my hypothetical Zangoose's strengths, and so I'd stand a chance against the Fighting Type...

I could replace ThunderPunch with FirePunch, but then I'd be prone to Salamence and Dragonite, and chances are I'd meet those two somewhere down the line!

Who died and made you the judge of a Pokemon's value? What kind of trainer are you to your Pokemon, anyway?

Let me give you a list of problems with your sweepers:

• Garchomp: Ice type moves do quad damage
• Tyranitar: Fighting type moves do quad damage
• Snorlax: Just Zangoose with more health and a healing move that makes him fall asleep
• Infernape: A borderline ridiculous number of glaring weaknesses...

Any other comments? I'd sure like to hear them...

wad if you were to battle
hitmontop w intimidate
salamence w intimidate
staraptor w intimidate+close combat
Mawile w intimidate(if you do not have fire punch)

Zangoose's base stats are:

HP: 73

Attack: 115

Defense: 60

Special Atk: 60

Special Def.: 60

Speed: 90

as compared to, let's say, Infernape's

HP: 76

Attack: 104

Defense: 71

Special Atk: 104

Special Def: 71

Speed: 108

Infernape is much faster, and has better defenses and HP at the cost of a little health, which isn't going to mean as much in this scenario.

You can probably do it with Zangoose assuming what you're talking about is offline since Pokemon AI isn't very smart, but you'd really be better off with someone faster and bulkier. Anyone here would probably get the job done: http://www.smogon.com/dp/tiers/ou

I wasn't talking about using a freshly caught Zangoose, that would just get me laughed off the Stage... I was thinking along the lines of a Lv. 100 Zangoose with maxed out values for all stats with a Nature beneficial to Attack and detrimental to Special Attack... And like I said, I'm more worried about Salamence than the Steel-type, although in retrospect, I may pay for that viewpoint... And about Infernape, he has too many glaring weaknesses; shall I tick them off for you? Ground, Water, Psychic, Ghost, et cetera....

Infernape's better defenses don't really matter, it's still going to be OHKO'd by anything that has a strong STAB attack. But then again, so is Zangoose - and Infernape is quite a bit faster and has a better movepool IIRC, so it has a better chance to sweep the opposition before it takes that one hit.

As for your particular Zangoose: As people have already said, ANY steel type will completely shut you down, as will Shedninja (even though you're unlikely to meet one). Any sweeper/tank Pokemon that can take a hit will also murder you, since your Zangoose most likely can't.

Try something like this:

Switch out Crush Claw for Return - it's a much better move, and you'll never benefit from the potential defense drop anyway.

Also try to get Brick Break or Close Combat in there - you'll need something to take out those Fighting and Steel types. Fire Punch is also something to consider, if you run into a pesky Grass type.

Ghost doesn't beat fighting, he'd take out ghost fine =P

but I digress, as the guy above me said, a strong fighting type attack would help your movepool.