"You have a tendency to give one sided arguments"
The amount of irony here is enough to show up on seismographs.
Sorry, but that's just what you were doing (for this and Rain). I didn't to mean to sound pissy.
"Do you not realize how valuable those defenses are for taking priority attacks and switching in?"
Do you realize how little that matters when you lose 50% of your health when you switch in? And Roost is basically giving up a turn so you can not die the next time you switch in. Magmortar can just start firing off attacks.
It can switch in, take a hit from whatever it switches into (otherwise KO it if it isn't Chansey or Azumarill) and 9/10 times beat that Pokemon.
Magmortar can switch in 3 times at best. Moltres lasts the whole match with Roost. This all boils down to the main point: Moltres can switch into things and Magmortar simply
cannot switch in. It has no EQ immunity, shitty defenses, and shitty defensive typing.
You are also clearly ignoring the full effectiveness and utility of Roost. Roost allows Moltres to:
1. Switch in and indefinite amount of times
2. Beat Pokemon such as Absol with Sucker Punch
3. Beat Pokemon such as Arcanine who cannot 2HKO Moltres (A surprising amount of Pokemon fall into this catagory)
4. Remove its weaknesses to Thunderbolt. It also resists Ice, and only takes x2 from Rock-type attacks
These are ALL important aspects of Roost. Magmortar gets forced out 3 times and it is useless. Moltres can keep switching in and often lasts until the match is over.
FlareBlitz said:
Second, Moltres' flying type comes with a nice weakness to Thunderbolt (the second most common attack in the game), the aforementioned quad weakness to SR, and a loss of resistance to Ice (a very common attacking type). Resiting priority is nice, but resisting ice beam and actually being able to switch in on electric attacks is nicer. Note that Raikou can't set up on Magmortar; Magmortar doesn't instantly die to Thunderbolt, and does massive damage back with Fire Blast. Moltres can't claim that.
Good luck with Fire Blast against Raikou. It has this ability called Pressure which will make you wish you used Flamethrower except not really because you will let it set up unbreakable subs. Neither Pokemon can actually beat Raikou reliably, however Moltres can at least Fire Blast it the full amount of times. So yea, this is a flimsy argument at best.
Additionally, I would trade immunity to ground and resistance to Fighting over anything you just listed any day.
Flare Blitz said:
Air Slash is only ever good for taking out Hariyama (Fire Blast does nearly as much damage to Hitmontop). And instead of being walled by Hariyama, you're walled by Altaria, which isn't much better at all.
See this is what I was saying before: one sided arguments; Altaria is going to do what to Moltres? Hit it with Dragon Claw? OUCH! Roost and win, simple as that.
Also:
Fire Blast vs Hitmontop: 82.2% - 97%
Air Slash vs Hitmontop: 103.3% - 122.4%
This matters whether you say so or not. This is what I was saying about Moltres stopping Rapid Spin earlier. Even with 1 layer of Spikes, you're not going to be taking Hitmontop out often with Fire Blast.
FlareBlitz said:
Pressure beats Cresselia? On an OFFENSIVE set? Really? You know that Cresselia is just going to CM -> Moonlight stall you, yes? It still gets 4 Moonlights even with Pressure, which is enough to set up to +2 or +3, at which point Moltres is taking so much damage from Life Orb and Psychic that it'll die. Unless Moltres is a subtoxic variant, it is going to lose. Granted, Magmortar isn't getting past Cresselia any time soon either, but don't count that as an advantage for Moltres. Flame Body is just much better. It gives you a 30% chance of completely crippling a physical attacker or greatly inconviniencing a mixed attacker. Much better than making things lose PP, as anything willing to get into a protracted war with Moltres is going to win, PP loss or no.
I actually didn't know that, so Cress is a bad example.
While I won't argue that Flame Body is bad, because it isn't, but Magmortar simply cannot take advantage of it the same way Moltres can take advantage of Pressure against various Pokemon who can't 2HKO Moltres. Magmortar is absolutely going to be OHKOed by any physical attack.
While Flame Body is a better ability, Moltres will be more useful with Pressure almost every time.
FlareBlitz said:
And I like how you completely ignored Focus Blast and Cross Chop, i.e. the ability to get past Chansey. Because that's not important at all.
Focus Blast is really not worth it but Cross Chop is good but it still does not make up for the main reason Magmortar is not as good as Moltres:
Magmortar
cannot switch into anything. This is why Blaziken is used less than Moltres even though it outright 2HKOes the whole metagame with one set. This is why Houndoom is used less then Moltres despite the ability to rape Cresselia.
Oh right, I can't believe I forgot this: Dugtrio. Magmortar is clearly not going to run Shed Shell and lose KOes, and Dugtrio is definitely common enough to make someone nervous using Magmortar.
At the end of the day, what really matters is shown by the numbers, people realize that Moltres is better than Magmortar even if they don't know why. This is why Moltres is borderline suspect status and Magmortar is NU. Theorymon can only do so much for Magmortar when you actually legitimately test them both.
I just want to reiterate: I do not think Moltres is broken, I just believe it is far better (and different) than Magmortar and that it wasn't a fair comparison.