It also has 4 very nasty weaknesses,
And yet survives the majority of super effective hits, being OHKO'd only by item boosted, fully invested STAB attacks from the strongest attackers. (you need at least LO Mamoswine or Excadrill to one-shot this thing)
Meanwhile, it has the offensive power and options to threaten basically everything.
a severe case of 4MSS since it can rarely afford to run both STABs and Sacred Sword,
And yet Ghost coverage and its excellent offensive/defensive stats (for pivoting) mean that it's always a big threat, and relevant to almost every game regardless of set. Aegislash + Shadow Ball is a huge asset in every game, and if you manage to get extra mileage off its other attacks and item, that's just icing on the cake imo.
its mindgames with Stance Change can horribly backfire,
Shouldn't you be questioning that it's ridiculous that Stance Change/King's Shield gives it that "extra chance" to bs its way through whatever situation, when any other Pokemon would have to consider fleeing or sac'ing itself when faced against an enemy with a natural advantage?
In fact, Aegislash handles that situation perfectly fine as a Pokemon even without stance change-- it can throw a wrench in just about any set-up sweeper's game just by attacking, or switch out (and back into its defensive form). Being able to pull off BS antics with King's Shield is just MORE icing on the cake.
-@ Burn: Most Spammable/best attack is Shadow Ballit's extremely vulnerable to WoW and status moves in general,
-@ Paralysis: Wants to be slower often to abuse Stance Change
-@ Poison: Immune to Poison
-@ Sleep: Well, it's sleep...
Just how is this thing more vulnerable to status than the average? Sure burning it means you now know you can throw Chansey in front of it now (if you have a Chansey at hand) and that it'll be losing more health every time it King's Shields, but Aegi's still not nearly as screwed as most physical attackers would be.
Hey, I almost always lol when I smash Rotom with an extra Shadow Ball as it burns my Shadow Ball / Flash Cannon / HP Ice / King's Shield Aegi (who is one of my absolute favorite sets with Shuca Berry to one-shot Lando-I/T/Glisc/Garchomp/etc.).
Because there are so many of those, and because it does SO much damage to the shield forme. What are you talking about?anything with Foul Play walks all over,
Called air balloon... Besides, you say Aegi is shaky as a spin-blocker against Excadrill, but you're failing to mention that Exca has a good match up against literally EVERY spin blocker relevant to OU besides Sableye (and Sableye won't like an EQ to the face on the switch-in either!)as a spinblocker it's shaky since LO Excadrill OHKO's with EQ while in Shield Forme and it's really really slow.
It's a good pokemon, but "perfect" is an exaggeration.
Many players have learned to play around Aegislash by now and it can no longer considered as threatening as the other S-rank pokemon if you ask me.
Perhaps it's time to admit it's A+ rank material at best.
Tell me the last time where you were using Aegislash and it was NOT relevant.
Tell me the last time where Aegislash did not AT LEAST cover the value of its move slot
When was the last time you had a battle where Aegislash performed POORLY
Did you ever have a battle where Aegislash was NOT a good pick?
When were you ever in a battle situation where Aegislash could NOT contribute?
Unless you're trying to baton pass to Aegislash (idiocy...) I've never seen Aegislash ranked poorly in my mind addressing any of these questions in any battle.
If that's not being as pretty damn close to perfect, I don't know what is.