Pokémon Azelf

[Twilight]

Type: Psychic
Base Stats: 75 HP / 125 Atk / 70 Def / 125 SpA / 70 SpD / 115 Spe
Abilities: Levitate
Notable Moves:
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball
- Explosion
- Fire Blast
- Flamethrower
- Future Sight
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Nasty Plot
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
- U-turn

New Move:
Mystical Power - Power: 70 Accuracy: 90%. 100% chance to raise the user's SpA by 1

Personally, this isn't very good at least not for Azelf anyways. It is too slow for a glass cannon Pokemon that needs to hit hard or guarantee the revenge on something so I didn't bother listing or considering it.

Pros:
- Amazing movepool allowing it to run a variety of different sets or coverage options.
- Good Speed tier letting it outspeed a fair amount of the tier
- Mixed offensive stats can let it run physical and special sets
- As an offensive Psychic-type it doesn't have that much competition so NP sets can potentially serve as decent wallbreakers.

Cons:
- While it is fast, it is slower than a vast majority of threats like Valiant, Roaring Moon, Cinderace, etc. making it not as great for OU standards
- Despite having a variety of viable sets it will likely face too much competition from stronger Pokemon
- Little to no defensive value with how frail it has

Dynamax Potential:
- Tera Psychic can be used just to bolster its STAB typing otherwise I can see Tera Fairy being one of the better options to resist Sucker Punch and boost the power of Dazzling Gleam if you are running it.
- You might find some fringe cases like Tera Fire to boost Fire Blast/Flamethrower or Tera Electric to boost Thunderbolt to break Slowking etc.

Potential Sets:
Nasty Plot
Azelf @ Life Orb / Expert Belt / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fairy / Psychic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock / Psychic
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Dazzling Gleam / Thunderbolt

If I were to use Azelf I would probably gravitate to NP to take advantage of its respectable breaking power with its vast movepool. Fairly standard set with Fire coverage for Steel-types and the last slot mostly being the flexible one. Dazzling Gleam hits Dark-types like Roaring Moon and Hydreigon and Thunderbolt breaks Slowking while hitting Heatran the hardest. You could maybe drop Fire coverage to run both Tbolt and Dazzling and accept you can't OHKO other Steels like Scizor. Regardless it will probably suffer 4MSS against the multiple walls in the tier.

Rocks Lead
Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Explosion
- Fire Blast

Rocks + Taunt + Boom. Very self-explanatory what lead Azelf wants to do. Will this set be used idk, you would probably value Mew more given it can also fit Spikes but this is likely what you would run on it with the final slot being whatever you need most.

Screens
Azelf @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Taunt
- Explosion / U-turn

Seems like a viable screen setter here with access to Taunt to prevent Defog. Explosion deals big damage and safely brings in a setup sweeper though U-turn is an option as well.

Choice-locked
Azelf @ Choice Specs / Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fairy / Psychic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- U-turn / Thunderbolt / Dazzling Gleam
- Trick

I put these sets here because Trick is never a bad move and you can cripple a lot of defensive pivots. I am doubtful choiced sets will be very good though. Specs just makes the 4MSS worse and is very prediction reliant to make progress. Scarf could maybe have a minor niche but is probably done better by something else.

The only other two sets I could think of were CB and some kind of pivot set but without Knock Off it seems a lot less appealing. Azelf might find some viability in OU on offense whether it be as a lead or NP breaker. I shall be waiting for my boi in UU

 

[Cepha]

Completely agree that Azelf doesn't really have any place in OU - the speed tier is unfortunate in being slower than Meowscarada, Pult, and Sneasler among the aforementioned Val, Moon, and Ace. Nasty plot is going to be a potent option in UU for sure, though, as the meta is quite a bit slower save for rain and max speed Talonflame, which shouldn't be KOing Azelf anyways. U-turn will also be very threatening to Wo-Chien on most sets.

I don't think mystical power should be completely overlooked, though. I haven't really been able to test yet as OU is inhospitable for Azelf, but I think this could be an option when it drops:

Azelf @ Life Orb / Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk (Though not when running U-turn)
- Mystical Power
- Dazzling Gleam
- Flamethrower / Fire Blast
- Grass Knot / U-turn

Mystical power is in theory nice in the context of an Azelf focused on revenge killing. Being able to nab a KO and get a +1 SpAtk boost to boot is powerful with Azelf's speed and power, considering that setting up NP is dicey on so frail a Pokémon - best case would be to take advantage of a Mon locked into a ground move, I suppose. Nor is it exactly like the opponent can preserve their low HP Mon for free, since you'll still receive the +1 on the switch-in (Unless it's a dark type, which Azelf is plenty primed to handle).

It'll definitely be fringe, though - the BP is less of an issue than the lack of perfect accuracy.