Surely this doesn't count as double posting? 'S not my fault this is a dead thread :)
Anyway, I have a change to the standard Substitute Steel Trapper set for Magnezone which I'd like to test out on you guys before I try and get it mentioned on site.
The normal Magnezone runs: Naive, Leftovers, 40 Atk / 252 SpAtk / 216 Speed, with Thunderbolt, Hidden Power (Grass), Substitute and Explosion.
However as a great improvement I'd like to suggest:
Magnezone @
Life Orb
Timid nature (40 HP / 252 SpAtk / 216 Speed)
-Substitute
-Thunderbolt
-
Hidden Power (Ice)
-Explosion
Life Orb is obviously the biggest change. Why use it over Leftovers? Because Magnezone can beat most of the steel types it traps with a Substitute up, it so often has the chance to nail its counter with its huge SpAtk. The point is, Life Orb fits so well on Magnezone over Leftovers because it ensures a number of OHKO's and 2HKO's on important pokemon.
These are some of the things Magnezone can do with Life Orb
which it can't do with Leftovers:
-2HKO max HP Tyranitar with Thunderbolt
-OHKO most Azelf after SR.
-OHKO Breloom with HP Ice
-2HKO standard Tank Bronzong
-2HKO standard defensive Celebi with Leftovers and SR, and straight 2HKO non-defensive sets.
-2HKO all common Shaymin sets with HP Ice.
-OHKO 252 HP Dragonite with HP Ice (252 HP is used for the DD set)
-2HKO Tank Dusknoir
-OHKO Gengar (98.1% - 116.1%, so guaranteed with SR)
-2HKO on most
bulky Heatran sets (bar TormenTran and SpDef Tran).
-2HKO physical Hippowdon with Leftovers and after SR.
-OHKO Infernape
-2HKO Jirachi (except defensive sets with Leftovers)
-OHKO SD Lucario after SR almost guaranteed (96.4% - 113.5%) + SR.
-2HKO Machamp with Leftovers recovery
-OHKO offensive Suicune, have a decent chance to OHKO CroCune after SR.
-OHKO Defensive NP Togekiss (most popular set)
-2HKO Specially defensive Zapdos after SR, 2HKO all other sets, good chance to OHKO offensive Zapdos after SR.
That's a pretty impressive resume right? You lose a bit of HP and survivability from Leftovers, but those calc's would IMO make up for it. A fair number of them, such as Tyranitar and Zapdos, are pokemon which are commonly switched into Magnezone to get rid of it.
Other benefits of running LO are that you no longer need Naive and Atk EV's to OHKO Blissey with Explosion, so you can run Timid and 40 HP EV's for some extra bulk.
HP Ice gives vastly better coverage than HP Grass, which is useful solely for taking down Swampert, but for some reason is the HP of choice on most Magnezone sets. HP Ice is helpful against Dragonite, Flygon, Celebi, Swampert, and others.
This set is walled by a couple of pokemon, basically Rotom-A, Swampert, Jolteon, other Magnezone, and Electivire. All of these usually wall the basic set too, and when your opponent brings in one of these pokemon are the only times you would prefer Leftovers over LO.
Anyway, comments and different EV spreads etc would be great. Thanks :)