Zapdos
How relevant will Zapdos be for future raiding? During the first appearance of Zapdos, the best I caught was 84% with 13ATK. He is currently powered up to level 31. Last night, I got a 100% from the research rewards. Currently have 32 Zap candies. That'll be 44 after the next couple of weekly rewards. I have 125 RC and 1MM dust. Is a level 15/100% Zapdos worth investing in, and if so, how far?
I also have two 93% Raikous, one at level 31 and one at level 30.
Answers
Zapdos has absolutely no benefit anymore in the Meta for raids. None. Do NOT put any candy or dust into it.
Looking at the rest of Gen III & Gen IV:
(III) RegIce, RegiSteel - Weak to Fighting, Fire
(III) RegiRock - Weak to Fighting, Water, Ground, Steel
(IV) Dialga - Weak to Fighting, Ground
(IV) Palika - Weak to Dragon, Fairy
(IV) Giratina - Weak to Dragon, Fairy, Dark, Ghost, Ice
(IV) Cresselia, Azelf, Mesprit & Uxie - Weak to Dark, Ghost, Bug
(IV) Heatran - Weak to Fighting, Ground (x2), Water
(IV) Regigigas - Weak to Fighting
So, through the rest of Gen III and all of Gen IV, if you've got non-legendary Fighting (Machamp), Dragon (Dragonite) & Dark (Tyranitar) you can counter everything to come until Gen V.
If you want thin-man optimal raid counters then work on things like Moltres (vs RegIce, RegiSteel), Groudon (vs Heatran, Dialga), Kyogre (vs Regirock) and Rayquaza (vs. Palika, Giratina).
But really, Machamp and Tyrantiar are your MVPs for the next year or more covering you for 11 of the next 12 Legendary to come. Palika is the only one that doesn't have a weakness to either Fighting or Dark.
Further, in all of Gen V's 9 Legendary pokemon, only 1 has a Lightning vulnerability... Tornadus. The entire usefulness of Zapdos & even Raikou has passed now that Kyogre has come and gone because Gen V also brings with it Zekrom, the Dragon / Electric Legendary that should get Volt Switch and quite possibly an even better "Bolt Strike" move.
And are completely unpredictable.
There's only 1 non-legendary that Zapdos excels against that could be a Tier-4 Raid of worth and that's Gyarados. Any Water-Type that also has an Ice Typing / Ice Move negates Zapdos' effectiveness because of Zapdos' Flying Typing. It's just not good synergy except against a water+flying opponent w/o an Ice attack.
And if Vapes come back, I think we all know a good squad of L35 Jolts can accomplish that solo raid - so why waste Rare Candy into a Zap?
Seriously - save the candy for Gen V and Zekrom as the premiere Electric attacker. That's the one that's going to be a beast - and if you need more Electric types in the meantime, use your Jolteon, or upgrade your Magneton to Magnezone in Gen IV. Those are actually really nice as well and may have an attack stat about on par with Raikou w/ the Steel-Typing resistances.