Martin
A monoid in the category of endofunctors
I've spent a lot of time playing around with Azelf recently and I think that it is deserving of a rise. It's the only viable suicide lead in the current metagame (aside from maybe like Omastar (the only good suicide spiker imo 'cause it doesn't face any difficulties vs. either of MSab/MDiancie due to Shell Smash+special orientation) but it's much more niche and honestly if you ask someone to name a suicide lead they will say Azelf 90% of the time. Azelf is benefitting a lot from current meta trends and it is just really consistent at laying Stealth Rock in general. Hyper offense has shown to be reasonably dominant in the OLT qualifiers alongside a couple of other teams like that Double Defog squad that everyone's got a boner for atm, and it also showed dominance with Xtra Chirpz, which a lot of people are labelling as one of the best teams every made. I have just found it to be very consistent and don't feel that it is on the same level as the stuff in C is (barring maybe Jellicent, but idk maybe that might just be my fondness for Jellicent as a glue 'mon).
Realistically speaking you are never going to build a team that needs this dogshit 'mon. The arguments of it being better than Scarf Magnezone are both meaningless (you're saying it's better than a bad set, which doesn't really hold any weight at all) and partially flawed (in the role of trapping Magnezone is slightly better for it's ability to net the Volt Switch KO vs. SpD Skarm with very slightly less chip damage--large emphasis on very*--and it allows Magnezone to be more threatening in the long term vs. any team without Weavile/Torn-T/anything else Magneton is a shitty check to over Zone due the small damage increase racking up over multiple uses of Volt Switch) to the point that you can't realistically say it's any better or worse than Scarf Zone is. At the end of the day if you need Magneton to fill a role that Magnezone or another Electric- or Steel-type (e.g. Mega Man, ScarfRachi etc.) can't there are probably much bigger issues with your team that need fixing. Magneton's only niche comes from it's ability to outpace a tiny number of Pokémon alongside it's ability to trap, but it suffers from being painfully frail, irritatingly weak and not even good at trapping stuff due to it being easy to abuse combined with the fact that Skarmory just Roosts if it clicks Volt Switch when it's at more than about 70% (assuming Magneton gets a high roll in the first place) and because it allows it to be taken advantage of by a teammate due to how sinfully bad Electric-type locks are.
VS. SpD Careful
252 SpA Magnezone Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Skarmory: 206-246 (61.6 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Magneton Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Skarmory: 198-234 (59.2 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
VS. SpD Impish (for reference, this variant is designed to beat max atk Mega Diancie while attaining more points in both defenses than a calm spread tailored for the Diancie hit)
252 SpA Magnezone Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Skarmory: 228-270 (68.2 - 80.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Magneton Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Skarmory: 216-254 (64.6 - 76%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Magnezone Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Skarmory: 206-246 (61.6 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Magneton Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Skarmory: 198-234 (59.2 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
VS. SpD Impish (for reference, this variant is designed to beat max atk Mega Diancie while attaining more points in both defenses than a calm spread tailored for the Diancie hit)
252 SpA Magnezone Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Skarmory: 228-270 (68.2 - 80.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Magneton Volt Switch vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Skarmory: 216-254 (64.6 - 76%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
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