Magnezone: Seriously Underrated

[timw06]

http://veekun.com/dex/pokemon/magnezone

I recently had a lot of success with this set on Shoddy recently and am wondering why Magnezone use seems to have declined...

Magnezone@Choice Specs
-Thunder
-Flash Cannon
-Charge Beam
-Tri Attack
Timid nature
128/0/0/128/252

The idea is that you use this Zapdos to set up a rain dance and agility and then switch to Magnezone for 100% accurate and lethal thunders - other options include Flash Cannon or (the surprisingly useful Tri Attack) - although I forgot to save a log of these in action.

Zapdos@Damp Rock
-Thunder
-Agility
-Rain Dance
-Baton Pass

Now some logs showing the amount of damage this beast can do...

[battle 1 was without the agility]

crovaxxi switched in Skarmory (lvl 100 Skarmory ?).
timw06 switched in Magnezone (lvl 100 Magnezone).
The rain continues to fall.
---
Magnezone used Thunder.
It's super effective!
Skarmory lost 262% of its health.
crovaxxi's Skarmory fainted.
The rain continues to fall.
---
crovaxxi switched in Houndoom (lvl 100 Houndoom ?).
Magnezone used Thunder.
Houndoom lost 139% of its health.
crovaxxi's Houndoom fainted.
The rain continues to fall.
---
crovaxxi switched in Salamence (lvl 100 Salamence ?).
Salamence's intimidate cut Magnezone's attack!
Salamence used Flamethrower.
It's super effective!
Magnezone lost 69% of its health.
Magnezone used Thunder.
Salamence lost 123% of its health.
crovaxxi's Salamence fainted.
The rain continues to fall.
---
crovaxxi switched in Scizor (lvl 100 Scizor ?).
Magnezone used Thunder.
Scizor lost 114% of its health.
crovaxxi's Scizor fainted.
The rain continues to fall.

See OHKOs of Skarm, Houndoom, Mence and Scizor - in another battle I also OHKOd a Breloom with Thunder and some random pkmn with Flash Cannon.

[battle 2 shows the setup working perfectly]

nantais44 sent out Dragonite (lvl 100 Dragonite ?).
timw06 sent out Swampert (lvl 100 Swampert ?).
nantais44 switched in Meganium (lvl 100 Meganium ?).
Swampert used Stealth Rock.
Pointed stones float in the air around your foe's team!
---
timw06 switched in Zapdos (lvl 100 Zapdos).
Zapdos is exerting its pressure!
Meganium used Energy Ball.
It's not very effective...
Zapdos lost 13% of its health.
---
Zapdos used Rain Dance.
Rain began to fall!
Meganium used Energy Ball.
It's not very effective...
Zapdos lost 14% of its health.
The rain continues to fall.
---
Zapdos used Agility.
Zapdos's speed was sharply raised.
Meganium used Energy Ball.
It's not very effective...
Zapdos lost 14% of its health.
The rain continues to fall.
---
Zapdos used Baton Pass.
timw06 switched in Magnezone (lvl 100 Magnezone).
Meganium used Energy Ball.
It's not very effective...
A critical hit!
Magnezone lost 33% of its health.
The rain continues to fall.

Comments please...

 

[Ulevo]

I do very much agree that Magnezone is severly underrated. Although, I feel that method of using it is taking away it's main shining pro, which is to trap and kill steel types.

 

[Shinryu]

I dunno, as your common Skarmory carries Shed Shell these days, his primary purpose of trapping and killing him is now gone. Forget trapping Metagross; Magnezone is much slower than Magneton, and Metagross can potentially outspeed and kill Magnezone with EQ now. Against Forry, if they have EQ they're also going to severly damage you unless you run HP Fire with Magnezone to OHKO it, but that then leaves you weak to Dragons without HP Ice...

So I just don't know. Personally, I just don't think Magnezone is that great, compared to Magneton in 3rd Gen.

 

[Steven718]

If the majority of Skarmorys are carrying shed shells, then Magnezone is already doing his job, even if he's not on your team.

 

[Thunderpup]

If the majority of Skarmorys are carrying shed shells, then Magnezone is already doing his job, even if he's not on your team.

That's an awesome way to look at it <3

Well yeah, of course they are already prepared for a Magnezone, but the fact is, choice specs just won't work. Blissey, you'll just be forced to switch out, which isn't bad, but...

Why not Magnet Rise, Calm Mind, Thunder, and Flash Cannon?

Granted, some scenarios will turn out worse than if you had Choice Specs, but I really doubt you'll blow through a cresselia or blissey with specs. Calm Mind lets you set up and blow through some pokemon, magnet rise because you're fast.

Also, some more calcs would be nice.

Edit: Why not timid? You're lowering Special Defense, and you have no physical attacks...

 

[Mekkah]

Personally the only kind of Magnezone I have trouble with is ones with Magnet Rise, mostly because I don't use Blissey. Also, Baton Passing to a Choice Specs Pokemon is not the brightest idea imo, especially if you also require Rain Dance beforehand (which is ruined by Sandstorm) and then you're locking yourself into an attacking type everyone has an immunity for on his/her teams.

That's just the pessimistic view of things.

 

[Hrothgar]

Magnezone is the same as Magneton in advance in that it traps and kill steels. Every other aspect of it seems to get outclassed by something. Also, passing to a choice pokemon isn't a good idea, as it will only be able to take down one pokemon at the most before it has to switch out (beaten to this point). Also, with the majority of teams being five pokemon + blissey, i'd rather pass to a mixed attacker.

Your 1st battle calcs also seem to assume that every Magnezone counter is using a fire attack. There are heaps of pokemon that are both faster and use EQ.

 

[Chozo]

...am wondering why Magnezone use seems to have declined...

Because Magnezone has a godly special attack but no real movepool for it. Electric attack/Flash Cannon/Hidden Power is ridiculously shallow, and as a straight sweeper Heatran is probably better. So for me, Magnezone basically comes down to how much I like Magnet Rise and trapping steels, and at the moment both aren't very compelling.

EDIT: That said, with the popularity of Forretress for Toxic Spikes ATM, I can see Magnezone carving itself a niche even with Skarmories everywhere taking Shed Shells now that they have Roost at their disposal.

 

[liwi]

I dunno, as your common Skarmory carries Shed Shell these days, his primary purpose of trapping and killing him is now gone. Forget trapping Metagross; Magnezone is much slower than Magneton, and Metagross can potentially outspeed and kill Magnezone with EQ now. Against Forry, if they have EQ they're also going to severly damage you unless you run HP Fire with Magnezone to OHKO it, but that then leaves you weak to Dragons without HP Ice...

So I just don't know. Personally, I just don't think Magnezone is that great, compared to Magneton in 3rd Gen.

I don't see why people seem to think this way. If his speed is all your concerned about, Magnezone can still reach 222 speed like Magneton could in Advanced. Sure it needs a +speed nature, but it still ends up having much better defenses overall than Magneton. Magneton was basically 2HKO'd by many STAB'd surfs, sort of limiting his ability to counter waters. But he gains 20 HP, 20 Def, and 20 Sp.Def in his base stats, as well as an extra punch to his Sp.Atk. Plus, as far as I know, you're standard Skarmory (or at least practically every single one I've faced on Shoddy) still caries Leftovers.

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Timid (+Spd -Atk)
EVs : 68 HP, 188 Spd, 252 SpA
-Substitute
-Thunderbolt
-HP Ice
-Thunderwave

This set is very dangerous, and does far more than just trapping Skarmory. It's very threatening to a large percentage of the OU Pokemon, excluding Blissey and Swampert. Just bring it in on something that will switch out, and Sub up. If it's Breloom/Garchomp/Salamence/Dugtrio etc. or something that you can kill with HP Ice, fire away. Others can be killed if you T-Wave the switch in and keep subbing up until they're paralyzed. Magnezones Thunderbolt does 2HKO a lot of Pokemon, like Infernape, Weavile, most Bronzong, Dusknoir, Togekiss, Spiritomb, etc., so the T-Wave and sub up method is quite useful. If you think it requires a lot of luck, you might be right some of the time. But most of the time it's successful and I have swept over half of the opponents team with this set many times, and Thunderbolt + HP Ice gives you a sort of pseudo BoltBeam. You also cannot underestimate the defensive capabilities of this set. Magnezone has THE most resistances in the game (thirteeen to be exact), and also has a nice resistance to BoltBeam. Above average defenses + most resistances in the game + sweeping capability + trapping capability + supporting role = good Pokemon IMO.

 

[Forsety]

I do agree with the mentality of Magnezone/Magneton = Skarmory counter to be abit problematic. I found great use for Magneton back in Advance outside of trapping, needless to say having a evolution thats stronger with a second STAB is a bonus.

Magneton's typing lets it switch into alot of things and I'd use to run Metal Sound due to the fun of people thinking they could force a switch and instead being sent on the run themselves.

Magnezone
-Metal Sound
-Thunderbolt/Flash Cannon
-HP whatever
-Substitute

Its not a set anything enjoys attempting walling. Not only do you risk being hit with a powerful STAB but you're basically having to guess what STAB its packing. Ground types who think they get free switch ins have a rude awakening awaiting for them. Well unless your name is Swampert but hes a fatboy.

 

[Deco]

I once got utterly raped by that same Substitute Magnezone. <_<

 

[Renkse]

Giving Magnezone a run on Shoddy I've really only found it useful for taking out Skarms...in every other situation it's been deadweight.

Then again, the team I was using it in was pretty flawed.

 

[Anti]

If the majority of Skarmorys are carrying shed shells, then Magnezone is already doing his job, even if he's not on your team.

That is a really good point.

 

[xc_hawk]

I personally have found a huge ammount of success with zone, especially in a more defensively based team. I run

thunderbolt
hp ice
substitute
explosion

edit: damanzi also had a very good point

 

[Boa1891]

Plus, as far as I know, you're standard Skarmory (or at least practically every single one I've faced on Shoddy) still caries Leftovers.

Agreed, I don't think I've faced ONE Skarmory on Shoddy without lefties (though I haven't really seen to many, a lot of people use Gliscor or another wall)

 

[Fighterman X]

why do you have charge beam & thunder on the same set?

ok, thunder in rain... and charge beam for power up, but choice specs stops it from using charge beam + thunder...

 

[StrangerDanger]

From using magnezone, it's easy to outwit those that use skarmory.

Typically, skarmory comes in to absorb an attack, so you can see right off the bat whether it's safe to bring in the zone.

Even if it isn't, a skarmory that isn't trapped is crazy NOT to run, so you get a free sub/magnet rise on the switch, making you much deadlier.

 

[cim]

Magnezone is still, unfortunately, primarily a Skarm counter. It has an offensive movepool equal to approximately nothing, There's better Steel Thundering Pokémon out there anyway (Jirachi with 47% para without RD and RD access is a good one).

 

[NinjaDuelist]

One of the main reasons Magnezone isn't used as much as he can be is the fact that his speed isn't very high. However, like stated earlier, if you up the speed of Magnezone, then he's a force to be reckoned with.

 

[Jibaku]

Magnezone is a pain to deal with. SePh ripped me apart by Magnezone on a WiFi match, and lilwartz's Magnezone won't die on the other Wifi battle (it eventually did). I can't switch in Blissey because I fear Explosion.

 

[GoldenSuicune]

Outside of skarm trapping (who isn't nearly as common this gen with so many new physical walls to compete with), Heatran outclasses him completely. He's not even a solid bronzong/forretress counter since you die to earthquake.

 

[Ulevo]

Magnezone @ Leftovers
Timid
Thunderbolt
HP Fire
Magnet Rise
Substitute

Best Magnezone ever. It is almost never dead weight for me, and it works out great. It is given enough speed EVs to outrun AgillityGross before it uses Agillity, and thus, almost every other steel type falls behind it in speed. People do not expect a Magnezone to outrun them. Most other steels carry EQ, so simply Magnet Rise right away, and follow up with Substitute. 9/10 times, they will never have an attack capable of taking out the Substitute, and they will be 1-2HKO'd by HP Fire the following turns. Forretress, Scizor, Skarmory, Registeel, you name it, this thing takes care of it.

That in turn gives you a Magnezone with a Sub up ready to wreak havoc. If they bring in something to take it out, you at least get one more shot in.
The only problem I ever have with this is when a Steel type is in, and the Pokemon that is currently out of mine is already weak or in danger of being EQ'd. Meaning I have no chance to switch my Zone in for risk of it being KO'd. But of course, my little U-Turner helps me out with that.

EDIT: I obviously made a big mistake here for one reason or another. I'm redoing the Magnezone to HP Ice.

 

[Sovereign]

I only wish that magnezone would have like 15 more base speed.

 

[Bologo]

There's a such thing as Choice Scarf you know. It can reach up to 360 speed with a Choice Scarf and can still really hurt things with 130 base special attack. Also, he's a lot better than Magneton in the way that his Explosion can actually hurt things now with 70 base attack.

Plus his defense is really good at 115 base and special defense isn't that bad either with 90 base. He has much better HP than Magneton, and he can actually use his resistances well now. Magnet Rise is awesome on a non-choiced Magnezone, just give it enough speed to outspeed a 0 speed EV Swampert, which shouldn't be too hard since they have the same base speed, and you can have an effective Swampert counter as well with something like Hidden Power Grass.

Seriously, Magnezone is way better than Magneton.

 

[Forsety]

they will never have an attack capable of taking out the Substitute

Actually Forretress learns Revenge and Scizor sometimes carries Brick Break.