Gen 3 Magneton [DONE]

[mikmer]

[OVERVIEW]

Magnet Pull Magneton plays a unique role in ADV OU by trapping prominent Steel-type Pokemon like Skarmory, Forretress, Metagross, Jirachi, and opposing Magneton. Skarmory and Forretress are Magneton's primary targets, as they are potentially OHKOed by Thunderbolt or Hidden Power Fire and they give Magneton a free switch in when they are setting Spikes.

Magneton can do much more in a battle than trap Steel-types. For example, it can defensively check some threats, including Choice Band Salamence locked into Hidden Power Flying; Choice Band Metagross locked into Meteor Mash; Snorlax in sand lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast; and Choice Band Aerodactyl, Zapdos, and non-Fire Punch Gengar, albeit only once, with its many resistances. Additionally, Magneton can pressure some defensive teams with its sheer power combined with the threat of status: Thunderbolt threatens Suicune and Milotic, while Toxic forces out Blissey and Celebi, and the switch-in either takes a chunk from Thunderbolt or gets hit by a nasty status ailment.

Magneton's overall good defensive typing often gets overshadowed by its 4x weakness to one of the most common attacks in ADV OU: Earthquake. This weakness means that it will be OHKOed by most physical attackers, including Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Swampert, Snorlax, Flygon, and Claydol. The weakness is especially exploited by Arena Trap Dugtrio, which can switch into Magneton's Thunderbolt and trap Magneton; to make things worse, Dugtrio is commonly used alongside Magneton's primary trap target, Skarmory, turning the trap into a one-for-one trade at best. Furthermore, offensive Skarmory can potentially outspeed and OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground, while Forretress can sometimes survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake, which makes trapping these foes more difficult. Metagross and Jirachi at full health also generally win one-on-one against Magneton, meaning Magneton can't trap them without prior chip damage. Magneton's Fire- and Fighting-type weaknesses are also very relevant drawbacks, as they turn Moltres, mixed Salamence, and mixed Tyranitar into effective revenge killers.

[SET]
name: Trapper
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Toxic / Thunder Wave
move 4: Protect / Substitute
item: Magnet / Leftovers
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 4HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Magneton's offensive movepool consists mainly of Thunderbolt, which hits everything in the metagame except for Ground-types and dedicated special walls like Blissey and Celebi for solid damage. Thunderbolt can OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, 2HKO maximum HP Metagross, and 4HKO Snorlax in sand. Hidden Power Fire covers Forretress and opposing Magneton, but Hidden Power Grass is very common to cover Ground-types such as Swampert and Claydol as well as catch Dugtrio on the switch. With Hidden Power Grass, Magneton can run 31 Speed EVs, guaranteeing at least a Speed tie with Jolly offensive Skarmory.

Magneton is often packing a status move, either Thunder Wave or Toxic; the former is very effective at crippling Jirachi as well as annoying Metagross and opposing Magneton, while the latter cripples Ground-types like Swampert, Claydol, and Flygon on the switch. Toxic also forces out Blissey and Celebi so that the incoming Pokemon has to take a powerful Thunderbolt. Since Hidden Power Grass covers Ground-types, it gets usually paired with Thunder Wave, while Hidden Power Fire is most often paired with Toxic.

Protect is commonly paired with Toxic to increase the rate of poison damage, and it scouts foes' attacks, especially Choice Band users such as Salamence and Aerodactyl. Substitute can pair with both Toxic and Thunder Wave; the former helps in forcing out Blissey and Celebi, while the latter can generate a free turn with a timely full paralysis, allowing Magneton to safely stay behind the Substitute. Substitute also has nice synergy with Leech Seed, allowing Magneton to wall slower threats like Suicune and Snorlax as well as guaranteeing Metagross traps by weakening it into KO range.

Magnet critically gives Magneton a much better chance to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. The difference between OHKOing and 2HKOing Skarmory is huge, as it often translates to an extra layer of Spikes for your team to deal with but could also translate to Skarmory phazing Magneton, giving it a chance to make a comeback in later stages of the game, especially if paired with Dugtrio or a Wish user such as Blissey. Magneton can alternatively use Leftovers considering it's immune to sand, and when paired with Protect or Substitute, it can become much more annoying to deal with via repeated chip damage. Leftovers makes Magneton a lot more robust against Aerodactyl, Blissey, and Electric-types.

Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed maximizes Magneton's offensive potential and guarantees Speed tying with opposing Magneton with the same Hidden Power type. A Modest nature maximizes the odds of OHKOing Skarmory and is sufficient for outspeeding most Metagross, but it leaves Magneton slower than or Speed tying with Adamant offensive Skarmory, which can OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground. A Timid nature allows Magneton to trap Adamant Skarmory and opposing Modest Magneton but gives up the favorable roll to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. Timid is frequently used when the team has a spinner such as Claydol and thus does not mind Skarmory sticking around for a little longer or when it is beneficial for Magneton to trap opposing Magneton, most notably with Skarmory as a partner. For the latter purpose, a good benchmark is having 32 Special Defense EVs to survive opposing Magneton's Hidden Power Fire. An alternative bulky spread is 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe with a Modest nature; this is designed to always survive Adamant Skarmory's Hidden Power Ground while retaining the Speed for standard specially defensive Skarmory. However, if Magneton seeks to survive Forretress's Earthquake, it needs to use 252 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 16 Spe with a Modest nature.

Team Options
========

Magneton is a key component in physical offense teams by virtue of removing Skarmory, which is the premier physical wall in ADV OU. Physical attackers like Gyarados, Salamence, Aerodactyl, and Flygon greatly benefit from the absence of Skarmory, while other threats like Metagross, Heracross, and Snorlax also appreciate the removal of Skarmory as a Spiker and phazer. On physical offense squads, Gyarados and Salamence often run a sweeper set with Dragon Dance, while Metagross can run a cleaner set with Agility, a luring set for Swampert with Hidden Power Grass, or a physically defensive set with Protect. Heracross uses Substitute + Salac Berry to sweep late-game, while Snorlax can run a lure set with Self-Destruct to get rid of a key wall or be a late-game sweeper with Curse + Rest. Physical offense tends to be weak against Gengar, so Pursuit Tyranitar, or sometimes Houndoom, is a nice fit; Pursuit support also enables Curse + Earthquake Snorlax as well as a niche Pokemon like Steelix. A bulky Water-type like Swampert or Suicune often rounds out the team by giving it a check to physical attackers.

Magneton is also a cornerstone on defensive teams that aim to get rid of Skarmory and Forretress to contain Spikes. Since these teams are generally weak to Spikes, they always pack a spinner with Magneton to make sure the entry hazard pressure is totally negated. The most common spinners paired with Magneton are Claydol and Starmie; a less common one but still seen in OU is Donphan. A defensive Celebi with Leech Seed is a common sight on these teams, since it's a set that struggles with both Skarmory and Forretress, and Leech Seed synergizes well with Substitute Magneton. Milotic and Suicune are also very common on these teams, most often paired with Claydol to form a defensive core that is resilient to offensive pressure as well as entry hazards. A bulky Metagross with Protect can be an alternative defensive backbone for the team, especially when paired with a bulky Rapid Spin Starmie. These teams often rely on a bulky setup sweeper like Curse + Rest Snorlax or Calm Mind + Rest Suicune as the late-game sweeper; since they really hate Spikes and getting phazed by Skarmory when they go through Rest cycles, Magneton is a clear necessity on these teams. Pursuit support from Tyranitar and the rare Umbreon can facilitate the use of Rapid Spin, (comma) enable Donphan, and support CurseLax sets without Shadow Ball. A Ground-immune or Fighting-resistant Pokemon like Choice Band Salamence, Zapdos, or Moltres often rounds out the team.

Magneton is also commonly seen paired with Skarmory, forming the popular Skarm-Mag core. Magneton not only can trap opposing Skarmory and Forretress, ensuring your Skarmory will win the Spikes war, but it can also trap opposing Magneton, saving your Skarmory from getting trapped. These teams often feature a sturdy special wall, like Blissey or Celebi, in combination with a powerful wallbreaker like Choice Band Salamence to provide offensive pressure paired with Spikes. Alternatively, a fast sweeper like Aerodactyl is used in combination with a soft Zapdos check like Venusaur or Jirachi to keep up offensive momentum. A physical wall like Swampert, Metagross, or Flygon rounds out the team, together with the ever present Tyranitar for sand support. Tyranitar can also provide Pursuit support for Flygon and Skarmory, which really hate Gengar. Additionally, Pursuit can be used to chip Forretress into Magneton's Hidden Power Fire KO range.

Magneton is also featured on Baton Pass teams, since they are weak to being phazed by Skarmory's Whirlwind. Physical Baton Pass teams feature either Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi or Swords Dance + Baton Pass Ninjask, rarely both. The most common recipients of the boosts are Dragon Dance users like Salamence, Gyarados, and, less frequently, Tyranitar, as well as Agility Metagross and Substitute + Liechi Berry Aerodactyl; paired with Ninjask, slow sweepers like Marowak and Medicham are also common. Alternatively, specially based Baton Pass teams featuring Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi are sometimes seen with Magneton, as Skarmory would be able to safely switch on Celebi and phaze it, thus ruining the chain; additionally, these teams don't generally pack a spinner and therefore don't appreciate Skarmory setting multiple layers of Spikes.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Magneton only needs Thunderbolt + Hidden Power to function, which leaves it two free slots for some interesting options; Endure allows Magneton to activate Salac Berry. After the boost, Timid Magneton can outrun the entire OU metagame barring Jolteon and Aerodactyl, and it critically becomes faster than Dugtrio, meaning it cannot be successfully trapped. Additionally, it becomes faster than offensive Starmie and can check it in a pinch, and it can be used as a surprise weapon to check Flygon and Salamence with Hidden Power Ice. Alternatively, or in conjunction with Endure, Magneton can be an effective weather clearer with Rain Dance or Sunny Day; removing sand is used to great advantage when it is partnered with sand-weak Pokemon like Suicune, Snorlax, and Celebi. Metal Sound allows Magneton to scare off special walls like Blissey and Celebi and can potentially enable it to trap specially defensive Wish Jirachi from full HP; Metal Sound can also prevent last Pokemon Snorlax from sweeping your team. Swagger is an effective alternative when paired with Thunder Wave to generate key free turns for setup sweepers, Substitute users, and stat passers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Substitute Heracross, Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi, and Ninjask. Charcoal is an alternative to Magnet, as it drastically increases the chances to OHKO Forretress and opposing Magneton with Hidden Power Fire; for this reason, it is sometimes seen on Skarm-Mag builds. Magneton can run the admittedly unreliable Thunder to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory when using a set without Magnet.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio is a very effective counter to Magneton, trapping and OHKOing it. Dugtrio can also switch in on Thunderbolt and revenge kill Magneton after it has successfully trapped Skarmory. It is frequently possible to infer the presence of Magneton on a team and double switch Dugtrio in as Magneton tries to trap Skarmory; this is often a game-winning play. The only things Dugtrio has to fear from Magneton are potential Hidden Power Grass on the switch and the Endure + Salac Berry set.

**Blissey and Celebi**: Blissey and Celebi can switch into Magneton and negate the Thunderbolt damage with their recovery moves, but they are forced out by Toxic, especially when it's paired with Protect or Substitute; for this reason, teams that rely on Blissey or Celebi to sponge Magneton are often troubled by the combination of Thunderbolt + Toxic. The occasional Metal Sound or Screech might also give Blissey and Celebi issues.

**Claydol**: Claydol is a decent check to Magneton because it can switch into Thunderbolt and threaten an OHKO with Earthquake, although it doesn't enjoy switching into Toxic or Hidden Power Grass.

**Flygon**: Flygon is effective at punishing Magneton, as it can switch in on Thunderbolt or for a revenge kill after Skarmory was trapped to get a free Substitute as Magneton switches out or stays in to use Toxic; since Magneton rarely runs Hidden Power Ice, Flygon only has to fear for Toxic on the switch.

**Revenge Killers**: While not many Pokemon can take Magneton's powerful Thunderbolt, many are just fast enough to OHKO it before it can do anything, including Salamence, Aerodactyl, Moltres, Charizard, and Brick Break Heracross.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [M Dragon, 21345]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Rabia, 336073], [CryoGyro, 331519]]

 

[mikmer]

i put bulletpoints down, apreciate any feedback (:

 

[BKC]

not really sure magnet and lefties need separate sets, especially because a bulky spread and protect are perfectly viable on magnet as well.

I think twave should be the last slot on salac, weather clearing is fairly niche (especially because pursuit tar is on a lot of mag offense) and you get a lot of use out of twaving stuff after the speed boost (superachi, mixmence)

 

[mikmer]

Ready for QC

 

[pasy_g]

[OVERVIEW]

Magneton plays a unique role in ADV OU thanks to its ability Magnet Pull that enables the trapping of prominent Steel-type Pokemon like Skarmory, Forretress, Metagross, Jirachi, and opposing Magneton. Skarmory and Forretress give free opportunities for the trap when they are laying Spikes, however they are dangerous, as offensive Skarmory can speed tie Magneton and OHKO it with Hidden Power Ground, If Magneton has HP Fire Skarmory can outspeed it and Forretress can survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake. Metagross and Jirachi tend to beat Magneton if trapped from full health, so it's essential that they are weakened before they can be trapped succesfully. Paralyzing them (especially Jirachi) can be a big deal without straight up killing it Opposing Magneton can be trapped succesfully only if it is slower or if it isn't packing Hidden Power Fire. There's a lot more to that, Timid vs Modest, chipdamage, paralysis, HP Fire/Grass (influences Speedstat), maybe just say that trapping other Magnetons is bound to some conditions (not that important to go into too much details, but i guess you could add them)

Magneton is not just a trapper, it is also a decent utility Pokemon that can check some threats with its good defensive typing and decent bulk. It's Steel-Electric typing has a quadruple resistance to the Flying and Steel-type which is effective at checking Choice Band Salamence locked on Hidden Power Flying and Choice Band Metagross locked on Meteor Mash. Additionally, in sand it can be a good check to Snorlax lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast, and can also perform a one time switch into Choice Band Aerodactyl and offensive Zapdos.

However, Magneton's good defensive typing often gets overshadowed by its quadruple weakness to one of the most common attacks in ADV OU: Earthquake. This weakness means that it will be OHKOed by most physical attackers including Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Swampert, Snorlax, Flygon, Claydol and Dugtrio. The latter especially is the biggest bane in Magneton's existence, as Dugtrio can switch into Magneton's Thunderbolt and use its ability Arena Trap to ensure the kill. The Fire and Fighting weakness are very relevant too and deserve to be mentioned here


[SET]

name: Trapper
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Toxic / Thunder-Wave
move 4: Protect / Substitute
item: Magnet / Leftovers
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description

=========

Magneton's offensive movepool consists mainly of Thunderbolt, which hits everything hard except for Ground types and dedicated special walls like Blissey and Celebi. Worth noting that Thunderbolt can OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, 2HKO Metagross, and 4HKO Snorlax in sand.
Hidden Power Fire is the main coverage move that allows Magneton to cover Forretress and opposing Magneton, but very common is also Hidden Power Grass that allows Magneton to cover Ground types such as Swampert and Claydol, as well as catching Dugtrio on the switch.
Magneton is often packing a status move, either Thunder-Wave or Toxic, the former is very effective at crippling Jirachi, as well as annoying Metagross and opposing Magneton, the latter is effective at crippling Ground types like Swampert, Claydol, and Flygon on the switch. Since Hidden Power Grass already covers Ground types, it is usually paired with Thunder-Wave, while Hidden Power Fire is most often paired with Toxic.
Protect is commonly paired with Toxic to increase the rate of poison damage, it is also effective at scouting attacks from the opponent, especially when facing Choice Band users such as Salamence and Aerodactyl.
Substitute can pair with both Toxic and Thunder-Wave, the former helps in forcing out Blissey and Celebi, while the latter can help in generating a free turn with a timely full paralysis allowing Magneton to safely stay behind the Substitute. Substitute has also a nice sinergy with Leech Seed allowing Magneton to wall slower seeded threats like Suicune and Snorlax. Also helps to get Metagross into Thunderbolt range without dying to earthquake first

Magneton can use the default ADV item Leftovers to increase its longevity throughout the game; Leftovers works well on Magneton considering it's immune to sand, and paired
with Protect or Substitute it can become much more annoying to deal with via repeated chip damage.
However, in recent times the most popular item on Magneton has been Magnet, which increases Thunderbolt's power by 10%, and critically gives it a much better chance to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. The difference between an OHKO and a 2HKO on Skarmory often translates in an extra layer of Spikes for your entire team to deal with, but could also translate in Skarmory phazing out Magneton, and giving it a chance to make a comeback in later stages of the games, especially if paired with a Wish user such as Blissey. Becomes also important when there's a dug with the Skarm

Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed are self-explanatory to maximaze Magneton's offensive potential as well as guaranteeing the speed tie with opposing Magneton and offensive Skarmory. Not with HP Fire A Modest nature outspeeds most Metagross but falls short at outspeeding Jolly Tyranitar and Timid Swampert; a Timid nature outspeeds all variants of Tyranitar, Swampert, and Metagross, but gives up the good roll to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. Metagross and Magneton have the same speedstat, while +speed Metagross is realistically never seen you don't have to change anything here, just trynna be a smartass XD Unless you wanna add like "all realistic variants" so no ones gonna be a smartass about it
An alternative bulky spread is Modest 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe; this is designed to always survive Adamant Skarmory Hidden Power Ground, while retaining the speed to creep on standard specially defensive Skarmory. However, if Magneton seeks to survive Forretress Earthquake, it needs to use Modest 252 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 16 Spe.


Team Options

========

Magneton is great at supporting physical attackers like Gyarados, Salamence, Metagross, Heracross, Snorlax, Aerodactyl and Flygon by getting rid of Skarmory, therefore it's a cornerstone of physical offense. Gyarados and Salamence can run a Dragon Dance sweeper set, while Metagross can run a physical four attacks set, or alternatively with Hidden Power Grass it can lure and weaken Swampert, allowing Salamence to sweep. Heracross can be an additional sweeper with Substitute + Salac Berry, or can use a Choice Band set for a more immidiate impact; Snorlax can run a lure set with Self-Destruct to get rid of a key wall on the opposing team, alternatively it can be a late game sweeper with Curse + Rest. Physical offense tends to be soft against Gengar, reason why Pursuit Tyranitar is very common, but Lum Berry + Dragon Dance Tyranitar can also be effective at overwhelming the opponent with physical pressure. A bulky Water-type like Swampert or Suicune often rounds up the team by giving it a check to opposing physical attackers.

Magneton can also support defensive cores featuring Celebi, Milotic, Blissey, Umbreon, which all tend to struggle against opposing Spikers, often letting them setup all three layers. Magneton can remove the Spiker if it's Skarmory or Forretress, giving the team more air to breathe; most often these teams carry a spinner, like Starmie, Claydol, or Donphan, to ensure that the Spikes pressure is diminished even more. Pursuit support from Tyranitar, Metagross, or Umbreon, goes a long way in ensuring that the Rapid Spin is succesfull and all the Spikes are gone. These teams often rely on a bulky sweeper like Curse + Rest Snorlax, or Calm Mind + Rest Suicune, as the late game win condition. A Ground immune and Fighting resisting Pokemon like Choice Band Salamence, Zapdos, or Moltres rounds up the team. Maybe put a bit more emphasize on Spikes hurting Lax and Cune beause they try to stay alive and healthy for a long time until eventually breaking through and can get quite owned by Spikes when they have to walk through them repeatedly while resting

Magneton is commonly seen paired with Skarmory, forming the popular SkarmMag core. Magneton not only can trap opposing Skarmory and Forretress, therefore ensuring your Skarmory will always when successfully trapped win the Spikes war, but it can also trap opposing Magneton, allowing your Skarmory to be safe from being trapped. A specially defensive wall, like Blissey or Celebi, and a physical check, like Swampert or Metagross, round up the team, toghether with the everpresent Tyranitar, that provides sand support which works so well paired with Skarmory's Spikes in order to chip the opposing checks into range of a sweep. Speaking of, the most popular sweepers used in this archetype are Aerodactyl and Dragon Dance Salamence, both of them benefit greatly from Spikes support as well as the removal of opposing Skarmory that your Magneton provides.

Magneton is also a cornerstone of Baton Pass teams, since they are weak to being phazed by Skarmory. Physical Baton Pass teams feature either Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi or Swords Dance + Baton Pass Ninjask, rarely both. The most common recipients of the boosts are Dragon Dance users like Tyranitar, Salamence, and Gyarados, Agility Metagross, and Substitute + Liechi Berry Aerodactyl; paired with Ninjask slow sweepers like Marowak and Medicham are also common. Alternatively, specially based Baton Pass teams featuring Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi are sometimes seen with Magneton in order to diminish the pressure that Skarmory puts on them. Here the most common recipients are Calm Mind Suicune and Calm Mind Jirachi. That doesn't have much to do with Magneton itself, i would rather see you specifically mention the problem that Skarmory is usually a very solid Celebi switchin and can ruin the pass with phazing and can set up Spikes which such teams don't appreciate at all.


-phys offense
-stall
-skarm-mag
-baton pass cm/sd bp cele, ninjask



[SET]

name: Endure+Salac
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Grass / Hidden Power Fire
move 3: Endure
move 4: Thunder-Wave / Screech
item: Salac Berry
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description

=========

Endure allows Magneton to survive any one hit at 1 HP, and be in range to activate the speed boost of Salac Berry. After the boost, Magneton can outrun the entire OU metagame barring Jolteon and Aerodactyl, critically it is faster than Dugtrio meaning it cannot be trapped succesfully by it.
Hidden Power Grass is the standard choice, and it has a 50% roll to OHKO standard Dugtrio; however, since most players know about this and won't risk their Dugtrio, Hidden Power Fire can be a legitimate alternative. Using Fire is more about if you really need to hit Forretress for your team or not that much.
Thunder-Wave is ever useful as it can cripple Jirachi, and Magneton will be in Salac Berry range after a Fire Punch, so that it can outspeed and cripple even fast sweeping variants. Additionally, with Thuder-Wave, Magneton can be a one time check to Mixed Salamence, as long as it doesn't switch into Fire Blast, note that it survives Brick Break from full health and gets put into Salac Berry range.
Screech is an alternative that only works when Magneton is paired with Dugtrio, since most of the times Blissey, Celebi, or Snorlax, are sent in to sponge Magneton's attacks, Screech allows for a Dugtrio follow up revenge kill after the defense drop.


Team Options

========

Either fuse the two TO together to one block here as both Sets realistically have the same big purpose of trapping Skarmory or at least mention it here that those points from above apply here too.

Endure + Salac Berry Magneton with Screech as the last move is found only on dual trappers teams featuring Dugtrio. The MagTrio combination is very effective at punching through special walls like Blissey, Celebi, and Snorlax, clearing the way for special sweepers like Calm Mind Suicune and Calm Mind Jirachi. Alternatively, the MagTrio combo can work sinergystically to get rid of Steel-types like Skarmory, Fortress, and especially Metagross, and Jirachi, clearing the way for a Curse Snorlax sweep.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options

=============

Magneton doesn't overly need moves to fuction besides Thunderbolt + Hidden Power, which leaves it two free slots for some interesting options.
Magneton can serve as an effective weather clearer with Rain Dance or Sunny Day, removing sand is used to great advantage when it is partnered with sand weak Pokemon like Suicune, Snorlax, and Celebi.
Dual status of Toxic + Thunder-Wave is a rare but potentially devastating combination if it catches the opponent by surprise.
Thunder is an option to OHKO Skarmory when using a Magneton set without Magnet, albeit it's unreliable with only 70% accuracy.
Metal Sound is an interesting option that allows Magneton to scare off special walls like Blissey, Celebi, and can also prevent last Pokemon Snorlax from sweeping your team.
Swagger is very effective when paired with Thunder-Wave to generate key free turns for sweepers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar or Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi.
Charcoal does to Forretress what Magnet does to Skarmory, it increases drastically the roll to OHKO, however, it is not worth it as Forretress has very sporadical usage.


Checks and Counters

===================

**Dugtrio** is increadibly effective at countering Magneton, it can come in to revenge kill a Skarmory trap, it can switch into Magneton only fearing for Hidden Power Grass, and potentially a good player can bait Magneton to switch into their Skarmory, only to double switch into their Dugtrio as Magneton comes in.

**Flygon** is also very effective at punishing Magneton, it can come in to revenge kill Skarmory and get a free Substitute as Magneton switches out, since Magneton never runs Hidden Power Ice, Flygon only has to fear for Toxic on the switch-in.

**Claydol** works similarly to Flygon in punishing Magneton, albeit it is often slower and doesn't run Substitute which makes it more vulnerable to get hit by Toxic, also it takes decent damage from Hidden Power Grass.

**Blissey & Celebi** can both wall Magneton forever, although they are vulnerable to stats dropping moves like Screech or Metal Sound, and they are forced out by Toxic. That's actually a big point since Magneton can actually put a lot of pressure on the opposing team while either beating Bliss down or forcing something else to take a hit and nothing really switches easily into the combination of Thunderbolt/Toxic/(Grass)



[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer,511989]]

- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ], [, ]]

- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]

 

[vapicuno]

I edited up till where you have made the changes. Green = comment, blue = make the exact edit as stated

[OVERVIEW]

Magneton plays a unique role in ADV OU thanks to its ability Magnet Pull that enables the trapping of prominent Steel-type Pokemon like Skarmory, Forretress, Metagross, Jirachi, and opposing Magneton. Skarmory and Forretress give free opportunities for the trap when they are laying Spikes, however, there are risks involved, as offensive Skarmory can potentially outspeed Magneton and OHKO it with Hidden Power Ground, and Forretress can survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake. Metagross and Jirachi tend to beat Magneton if trapped from full health, so it's essential that they are weakened before they can be eliminated succesfully; paralyzing them, especially in the case of Jirachi, can be a good compromise to severely cripple them.
The trap on opposing Magneton can be a bit tricky and dependes on some conditions, whether it packs Hidden Power Fire, if it is paralized or crippled, and whether it is Modest or Timid and packs some bulk or maximum speed.

However, Magneton is not just a trapper, it is also a decent utility Pokemon that can check some threats with its good defensive typing and decent bulk. It's Steel-Electric typing has a quadruple resistance to the Flying and Steel-type which is effective at checking Choice Band Salamence locked on Hidden Power Flying and Choice Band Metagross locked on Meteor Mash. Additionally, in sand it can be a good check to Snorlax lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast, and can also perform a one time switch into Choice Band Aerodactyl and Zapdos.
paragraph break
Despite Magneton's good defensive typing, it often gets overshadowed by its quadruple weakness to one of the most common attacks in ADV OU: Earthquake. This weakness means that it will be OHKOed by most physical attackers including Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Swampert, Snorlax, Flygon, Claydol and Dugtrio. The latter especially is the biggest bane in Magneton's existence, as Dugtrio can switch into Magneton's Thunderbolt and use its ability Arena Trap to ensure the kill, and Dugtrio is commonly used alongside Magneton's primary trap target, Skarmory. The Fire and Fighting-type weaknesses are also very relevant as they turn Moltres, mixed Salamence and mixed Tyranitar into effective revenge killers.


[SET]

name: Trapper
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Toxic / Thunder-Wave
move 4: Protect / Substitute
item: Magnet / Leftovers
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description

=========

Magneton's offensive movepool consists mainly of Thunderbolt, which hits everything hard except for Ground types and dedicated special walls like Blissey and Celebi. Worth noting that Thunderbolt can OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, 2HKO maximum HP Metagross, and 4HKO Snorlax in sand.
Hidden Power Fire is the main coverage move that allows Magneton to cover Forretress and opposing Magneton, but very common is also Hidden Power Grass that allows Magneton to cover Ground types such as Swampert and Claydol, as well as catching Dugtrio on the switch. Worth noting that with Hidden Power Grass Magneton can run 31 Speed EVs guaranteeing at least a speed tie with Jolly offensive Skarmory.
Magneton is often packing a status move, either Thunder-Wave or Toxic, the former is very effective at crippling Jirachi, as well as annoying Metagross and opposing Magneton, the latter is effective at crippling Ground types like Swampert, Claydol, and Flygon on the switch. Toxic also has the surprisingly useful utility of forcing out Blissey without Thunder Wave or a Fire-type move so that the incoming Pokemon eats a chunk from Thunderbolt. Since Hidden Power Grass already covers Ground types, it is usually paired with Thunder-Wave, while Hidden Power Fire is most often paired with Toxic.
Protect is commonly paired with Toxic to increase the rate of poison damage, it is also effective at scouting attacks from the opponent, especially when facing Choice Band users such as Salamence and Aerodactyl.
Substitute can pair with both Toxic and Thunder-Wave, the former helps in forcing out Blissey and Celebi, while the latter can help in generating a free turn with a timely full paralysis allowing Magneton to safely stay behind the Substitute. Substitute has also a nice sinergy with Leech Seed allowing Magneton to wall slower seeded threats like Suicune and Snorlax, as well as guaranteeing the Metagross trap by weakening it into Thunderbolt range.

If Magnet is the main item, then it should be mentioned first, so I am moving the leftovers portion to the back.

However, in recent times the most popular item on Magneton has been Magnet, which increases Thunderbolt's power by 10%, and critically gives it a much better chance to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. The difference between an OHKO and a 2HKO on Skarmory often translates in an extra layer of Spikes for your entire team to deal with, but could also translate in Skarmory phazing out Magneton, and giving it a chance to make a comeback in later stages of the games, especially if paired with a Wish user such as Blissey, or if paired with Dugtrio which can trap Magneton.

Magneton can alternatively use the default ADV item Leftovers to increase its longevity throughout the game; Leftovers works well on Magneton considering it's immune to sand, and paired with Protect or Substitute it can become much more annoying to deal with via repeated chip damage. Leftovers makes Magneton a lot more robust against Aerodactyl and Electric-types, and also makes it much harder for Blissey to take down.

Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed are self-explanatory to maximaze Magneton's offensive potential as well as guaranteeing the speed tie with opposing Magneton with the same Hidden Power type.
Tyranitar and Swampert are not the focus of Magneton's speed when it comes to the decision of Modest vs Timid. The considerations are yoloskarm and other mag. Talking about tar and pert is quite misleading. Keep the mention of Metagross but remove mention of tar and pert.
A Modest nature maximizes the odds of OHKOing Skarmory and is sufficient for outspeeding most Metagross but is outsped by or at best tied with Adamant offensive Skarmory which can OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground. but falls short at outspeeding Jolly Tyranitar and Timid Swampert; a Timid nature allows Magneton to outspeed Adamant offensive Skarmory and also to outspeed most other Magneton, outspeeds all variants of Tyranitar, Swampert, and all viable variants of Metagross, but gives up the good roll to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. Timid is frequently used when the team has a spinner such as Claydol and thus does not mind Skarmory sticking around for a little longer, or when it is beneficial for Magneton to trap opposing Magneton, most notably with Skarmory as a partner. For the latter purpose, a good benchmark is moving 32 EVs into SpD to survive opposing Magneton's Hidden Power Fire.
An alternative bulky spread is Modest 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe; this is designed to always survive Adamant Skarmory Hidden Power Ground, while retaining the speed to creep on standard specially defensive Skarmory. However, if Magneton seeks to survive Forretress Earthquake, it needs to use Modest 252 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 16 Spe.


Team Options

========

Magneton is great at supporting physical attackers like Gyarados, Salamence, Metagross, Heracross, Snorlax, Aerodactyl and Flygon by getting rid of Skarmory, therefore it's a cornerstone of physical offense. Gyarados and Salamence can run a Dragon Dance sweeper set, while Metagross can run a physical four attacks set, or alternatively with Hidden Power Grass it can lure and weaken Swampert, allowing Salamence to sweep. Heracross can be an additional sweeper with Substitute + Salac Berry, or can use a Choice Band set for a more immidiate impact; Snorlax can run a lure set with Self-Destruct to get rid of a key wall on the opposing team, alternatively it can be a late game sweeper with Curse + Rest. Physical offense tends to be soft against Gengar, reason why Pursuit Tyranitar is very common, but Lum Berry + Dragon Dance Tyranitar can also be effective at overwhelming the opponent with physical pressure. A bulky Water-type like Swampert or Suicune often rounds up the team by giving it a check to opposing physical attackers.

Magneton can also support defensive cores featuring Celebi, Milotic, Blissey, and occasionally Umbreon, which all tend to struggle against opposing Spikers, often letting them setup all three layers. Magneton can remove the Spiker if it's Skarmory or Forretress, giving the team more air to breathe; most often these teams carry a spinner, like Claydol, Starmie, and occasionally Donphan, (reorder for emphasis on the most to least common) to ensure that the Spikes pressure is diminished even more. Pursuit support from Tyranitar, Metagross, or Umbreon, goes a long way in ensuring that the Rapid Spin is succesfull and all the Spikes are gone.
These teams often rely on a bulky sweeper like Curse + Rest Snorlax, or Calm Mind + Rest Suicune, as the late game win condition. A Ground immune and Fighting resisting Pokemon like Choice Band Salamence, Zapdos, or Moltres rounds up the team.
Maybe put a bit more emphasize on Spikes hurting Lax and Cune beause they try to stay alive and healthy for a long time until eventually breaking through and can get quite owned by Spikes when they have to walk through them repeatedly while resting

Magneton is commonly seen paired with Skarmory, forming the popular SkarmMag core. Magneton not only can trap opposing Skarmory and Forretress, therefore ensuring your Skarmory will always when successfully trapped win the Spikes war, but it can also trap opposing Magneton, allowing your Skarmory to be safe from being trapped. A specially defensive wall, like Blissey or Celebi, and a physical check, like Swampert or Metagross, round up the team, toghether with the everpresent Tyranitar, that provides sand support which works so well paired with Skarmory's Spikes in order to chip the opposing checks into range of a sweep. Speaking of, the most popular sweepers used in this archetype are Aerodactyl and Dragon Dance Salamence, both of them benefit greatly from Spikes support as well as the removal of opposing Skarmory that your Magneton provides.

 

[mikmer]

I got back now to this analysis(sry i was a bit busy this summer).
Still i'm not sure how to organize the team options for the Salac set, i'm open to suggestions.
Ready for QC

 

[vapicuno]

Did half of it, will do the other half soon.
Green = comment
blue = make the exact change

[OVERVIEW]

Magneton plays a unique role in ADV OU thanks to its ability Magnet Pull that enables the trapping of prominent Steel-type Pokemon like Skarmory, Forretress, Metagross, Jirachi, and opposing Magneton. Skarmory and Forretress are the primary targets of this ability as they are potentially OHKOed by Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Fire respectively, and they also give Magneton a free switch-in when they are laying Spikes. However, there are risks involved, as offensive Skarmory can potentially outspeed Magneton and OHKO it with Hidden Power Ground, and Forretress can sometimes survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake. Metagross and Jirachi are harder to trap remove successfully as they tend to beat Magneton one on one if trapped from full health, so it's essential that they are weakened before they can be eliminated successfully; alternatively, Magneton can chip Metagross heavily with Thunderbolt or paralyze them, especially in the case of Jirachi, can be a good compromise to severely cripple them at the cost of its life in matchups where Magneton isn't useful. (removed line break)Timid Magneton can also be used to trap opposing Magneton, but it is not entirely reliable as it depends on opposing Magneton's speed and avoiding full paralysis from Thunder Wave. , and Finally, the trap on opposing Magneton can be a bit tricky and depends on some conditions, whether it packs Hidden Power Fire, whether it is paralized or crippled, and whether it is Modest or Timid and packs some bulk or maximum speed.

Despite its main use is being a trapper for Steel-types, Magneton can do much more in a battle, for example it can defensively check some threats in the metagame with its good typing and many resistances, and it can offensively pressure some teams with the sheer power of its Thunderbolt combined with the threat of status (moving this to the back). It's Steel-Electric typing has a quadruple resistance to Flying and Steel-type attacks which is handy at checking Choice Band Salamence locked on Hidden Power Flying and Choice Band Metagross locked on Meteor Mash; in sand it can also be a good check to Snorlax lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast, and can perform a one time pivot into Choice Band Aerodactyl, Zapdos and even Gengar lacking Fire Punch. Magneton can offensively pressure some teams with its sheer power combined with the threat of status. Thunderbolt threatens Suicune and Milotic, while Toxic forces out Blissey and Celebi, and the switch-in either eats a chunk from Thunderbolt or gets hit by a nasty status move. Offensively it can threaten Water-types like Suicune and Milotic with its powerful Thunderbolt, and it can also pressure its most common checks like Blissey and Celebi with Toxic.

Despite Magneton's good defensive typing, it often gets overshadowed by its quadruple weakness to one of the most common attacks in ADV OU: Earthquake. This weakness means that it will be OHKOed by most physical attackers in the tier including Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Swampert, Snorlax, Flygon, and Claydol. The weakness to Earthquake is especially exploited by Dugtrio, who can switch into Magneton's Thunderbolt and use its ability Arena Trap to ensure the kill; to make things worse Dugtrio is commonly used alongside Magneton's primary trap target, Skarmory, turning the trap into a one for one trade at best. Magneton's Fire and Fighting-type weaknesses are also very relevant drawbacks as they turn Moltres, mixed Salamence and mixed Tyranitar into effective revenge killers.

[SET]

name: Trapper
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Toxic / Thunder-Wave
move 4: Protect / Substitute
item: Magnet / Leftovers
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 4HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description

=========

Magneton's offensive movepool consists mainly of Thunderbolt, which hits hard everything in the metagame except for Ground types and dedicated special walls like Blissey and Celebi. Worth noting that Thunderbolt can OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, 2HKO maximum HP Metagross, and 4HKO Snorlax in sand. (removed line break)Hidden Power Fire is the main coverage move that allows Magneton to cover Forretress and opposing Magneton, but very common is also Hidden Power Grass that allows Magneton to cover Ground types such as Swampert and Claydol, as well as catching Dugtrio on the switch. Worth noting that with Hidden Power Grass Magneton can run 31 Speed EVs guaranteeing at least a speed tie with Jolly offensive Skarmory.

Magneton is often packing a status move, either Thunder-Wave or Toxic, the former is very effective at crippling Jirachi, as well as annoying Metagross and opposing Magneton, the latter is effective at crippling Ground types like Swampert, Claydol, and Flygon on the switch. Toxic also has the surprisingly useful ability of forcing out Blissey and Celebi so that the incoming Pokemon has to take a powerful Thunderbolt. Since Hidden Power Grass already covers Ground types, it gets usually paired with Thunder-Wave, while Hidden Power Fire is most often paired with Toxic.
Protect is commonly paired with Toxic to increase the rate of poison damage, it is also effective at scouting attacks from the opposing Pokemon, especially when facing Choice Band users such as Salamence and Aerodactyl. (removed line break)Substitute can pair with both Toxic and Thunder-Wave, the former helps in forcing out Blissey and Celebi, while the latter can help in generating a free turn with a timely full paralysis allowing Magneton to safely stay behind the Substitute. Substitute has also a nice sinergy with Leech Seed allowing Magneton to wall slower seeded threats like Suicune and Snorlax, as well as guaranteeing the Metagross trap by weakening it into Thunderbolt range.

Magnet increases Thunderbolt's power by 10%, and critically gives it a much better chance to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. The difference between an OHKO and a 2HKO on Skarmory is huge, as it often translates in an extra layer of Spikes for your entire team to deal with, but could also translate in Skarmory phazing out Magneton, and giving it a chance to make a comeback in later stages of the games, especially if paired with a Wish user such as Blissey, or if paired with Dugtrio which can trap Magneton. (removed line break)Magneton can alternatively use the default ADV item Leftovers to increase its longevity throughout the game; Leftovers works well on Magneton considering it's immune to sand, and paired with Protect or Substitute it can become much more annoying to deal with via repeated chip damage. Leftovers makes Magneton a lot more robust against Aerodactyl and Electric-types, and also makes it much harder for Blissey to take down with repeated Seismic Tosses while it is poisoned by Toxic.

Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed are self-explanatory to maximaze Magneton's offensive potential as well as guaranteeing the speed tie with opposing Magneton with the same Hidden Power type. (removed line break)A Modest nature maximizes the odds of OHKOing Skarmory and is sufficient for outspeeding most Metagross but is outsped by or at best tied with Adamant offensive Skarmory which can OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground. A Timid nature allows Magneton to outspeed Adamant offensive Skarmory and also to outspeed most other Magneton, but gives up the good roll to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. Timid is frequently used when the team has a spinner such as Claydol and thus does not mind Skarmory sticking around for a little longer, or when it is beneficial for Magneton to trap opposing Magneton, most notably with Skarmory as a partner. For the latter purpose, a good benchmark is moving 32 EVs into SpD to survive opposing Magneton's Hidden Power Fire. (removed line break)An alternative bulky spread is: Modest 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe; this is designed to always survive Adamant Skarmory Hidden Power Ground, while retaining the speed to creep on standard specially defensive Skarmory. However, if Magneton seeks to survive Forretress Earthquake, it needs to use this spread: Modest 252 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 16 Spe.

Team Options

========

Magneton is a key component in physical offense by virtue of its ability to get rid of Skarmory, which is the premier physical wall in ADV OU. Physical attackers like Gyarados, Salamence, Aerodactyl and Flygon greatly benefit from the absence of Skarmory as a physical wall, while other threats like Metagross, Heracross, Snorlax also appreciate the removal of Skarmory as a Spiker and a phazer. (removed line break)On physical offense squads, Gyarados and Salamence often run a sweeper set with Dragon Dance, while Metagross can run either a cleaner set with Agility or alternatively it can act as a lure for Swampert with Hidden Power Grass (add Protect meta in here, sometimes it does the defensive work on Mag offense). Heracross can be an additional sweeper with Substitute + Salac Berry, but can also make use of a Choice Band to threaten more immidiate power (this phrasing makes it sound like CB Hera is used with Mag offense, it feels more like a balanced mon to me, appearing with Milotic for example. Yet at the same time, I don't think it really deserves an extra paragraph. Maybe you can just say something like on balanced teams without Spikes, Magneton pairs well with CB Hera); Snorlax can either run a lure set with Self-Destruct to get rid of a key wall on the opposing team or it can be a late game sweeper with Curse + Rest. Physical offense tends to be soft against Gengar, and for this reason Pursuit Tyranitar, or sometimes Houndoom, is a nice fit. A bulky Water-type like Swampert or Suicune often rounds up the team by giving it a check to opposing physical attackers.

Magneton is also a cornerstone on defensive teams that aim to get rid of Skarmory and Forretress to contain the hazards on the field. Since these teams are generally weak to Spikes, they always pack a spinner together with Magneton to make sure the hazard pressure is totally negated. The most common spinners paired with Magneton are Claydol and Starmie, a less common one but still seen in OU is Donphan. (removed line break)
A defensive Celebi with Leech Seed is a common sight on these teams since it's a set that struggles with both Skarmory and Forretress, and Leech Seed sinergizes well with Magneton packing Substitute. Milotic or Suicune are also very common in these teams, most often paired with Claydol to form a defensive core that is resilient to both offensive pressure as well as hazards. A bulky Metagross with Protect can be an alternative defensive backbone for the team, especially when paired with a bulky Starmie with Rapid Spin. (removed line break)Pursuit support from Tyranitar, and less commonly Umbreon, can facilitate the spin while also enableing the niche of Donphan. (removed line break)These teams often rely on a bulky setup sweeper like Curse + Rest Snorlax or Calm Mind + Rest Suicune as the late game win condition; these Pokemon really hate Spikes as they will go through Rest cycles and become weak to getting phazed around with Spikes up. A Ground immune and Fighting resisting Pokemon like Choice Band Salamence, Zapdos, or Moltres often rounds up the team.

Magneton is also commonly seen paired with Skarmory, forming the popular Skarm-Mag core. Magneton not only can trap opposing Skarmory and Forretress, therefore ensuring your Skarmory will win the Spikes war, but it can also trap opposing Magneton, allowing your Skarmory to be safe from getting trapped. A specially defensive wall, like Blissey or Celebi (sometimes teams with Aero don't use super sturdy special walls, like linear's venusaur skarmmag aero team, or a recent jynx aero rachi team linear used vs hclat, because tar + aero + a weak check like venu or rachi provide a lot of pressure on zap. maybe you can include venu rachi and talk about this reasoning), and a physical check, like Swampert, Metagross, or Flygon, round up the team, together with the everpresent Tyranitar, that provides sand support which works so well paired with Skarmory's Spikes in order to chip the opposing checks into range of a sweep. Speaking of, the most popular sweepers used in this archetype are Aerodactyl and Dragon Dance Salamence, because both of them benefit greatly from the Spikes support as well as the removal of opposing Skarmory that your Magneton provides. (BKC will rip you apart for not mentioning CBMence on skarmmag lol. Probably more important as a partner than Aerodactyl, so mention before that. You see aero used with skarm without mag, but when cbmence is used with skarm, it almost always comes with mag)

Magneton is also featured on Baton Pass teams, since they are weak to being phazed by Skarmory's Whirlwind. Physical Baton Pass teams feature either Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi or Swords Dance + Baton Pass Ninjask, rarely both. The most common recipients of the boosts are Dragon Dance users like Tyranitar (I don't think DDTar is that frequently used on sd pass, because it frequently wants Pursuit since Celebi won't have Psychic), Salamence, and Gyarados, as well as Agility Metagross, and Substitute + Liechi Berry Aerodactyl; paired with Ninjask slow sweepers like Marowak and Medicham are also common. Alternatively, specially based Baton Pass teams featuring Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi are sometimes seen with Magneton, as Skarmory otherwise would be able to safely switch on Celebi and phaze it out, thus runing the chain; additionally these teams don't generally pack a spinner and therefore don't appreciate Skarmory setting multiple layers of Spikes.

 

[vapicuno]

The only comment I have about your team options section now is that there isn't much mention of what Mag + Pursuit offers, when it is a common double trap strategy. I know you mention it here and there wrt Donphan and physical offense being weak to Gengar, but maybe emphasize it a bit more, since MagSuit also enables stuff like Flygon, Curse EQ lax, and maybe even Steelix. Pursuit chip also allows Forre to be reliably trapped by Fire Mag.

Part 2 of the QC check:

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options

=============

Magneton doesn't overly need moves to fuction besides Thunderbolt + Hidden Power, which leaves it two free slots for some interesting options.
Endure allows Magneton to survive any one hit at 1 HP, and therefore succesfully be in range to activate the speed boost of Salac Berry. After the boost, Timid Magneton can outrun the entire OU metagame barring Jolteon and Aerodactyl, critically it becomes faster than Dugtrio meaning it cannot be trapped succesfully by it, making this set very appealing. (I don't agree with this. Sure, outspeeding Dugtrio is one way to use it, but Endure Magneton doesn't even KO Dugtrio for sure. I think it's even reasonable to use HP Fire with Endure if for a reason like weather change. Therefore, I feel like the following reasons are more valid) Endure + Salac Berry Magneton can also be used to mitigate the Starmie weakness on offensive teams. One can also consider using Hidden Power Ice to OHKO Salamence and Flygon. (removed line break)Alternatively, or in conjunction with Endure, Magneton can be an effective weather clearer with Rain Dance or Sunny Day: removing sand is used to great advantage when it is partnered with sand weak Pokemon like Suicune, Snorlax, or Celebi. (removed line break)Magneton can run Thunder as an option to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory when using a set without Magnet, albeit it's unreliable with only 70% accuracy. (imo this goes to the back, Thunder is just wack.) Metal Sound is another interesting move that allows Magneton to scare off special walls like Blissey, Celebi, and can potentially enable it to trap specially defensive Wish Jirachi from full, and can also prevent last Pokemon Snorlax from sweeping your team. (removed line break)Swagger is an effective alternative when paired with Thunder-Wave to generate key free turns for setup sweepers, Substitute users, or stat passers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Substitute Heracross, Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi, or even Ninjask. (removed line break)Charcoal is an alternative to Magnet as it increases drastically the chances to OHKO Forretress and opposing Magneton with Hidden Power Fire, for this reason is sometimes seen on Skarm-Mag builds. Magneton can run Thunder as an option to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory when using a set without Magnet, albeit it's unreliable with only 70% accuracy.

Checks and Counters

===================

I think the format is like this
**Check**: Sentence
not
**Check*** is etc.

**Dugtrio** is very effective at trapping Magneton, as it can switch on Thunderbolt as well as revenge killing it after Magneton has succefully trapped Skarmory. It is also frequently possible to infer the presence of Magneton on a team and double-switch it in on Skarmory. The only thing Dugtrio has to fear is a potential Hidden Power Grass on the switch or the Endure+Salac set.

(Moved this up, Blissey and Celebi are way more important than Flygon or Claydol)
**Blissey & Celebi** can both switch into Magneton and wall its attacks, although they are vulnerable to stats dropping moves like Screech or Metal Sound, and (these are not common moves, so don't mention them first) but they are forced out by Toxic especially when it's paired with Protect or Substitute; for this very reason teams that rely on Blissey or Celebi to sponge Magneton are often troubled by the combination of Thunderbolt + Toxic + Hidden Power Grass and have no good switches to it. The occasional Metal Sound or Screech might also give Blissey and Celebi issues.

(Moved this up, Claydol is more important than Flygon)
**Claydol** works similarly to Flygon in punishing Magneton going for Thunderbolt, albeit it is often slower and doesn't run Substitute which makes it more vulnerable to get hit by Toxic, also it takes decent damage from Hidden Power Grass. (Rewrite, since Claydol comes before Flygon now)

**Flygon** is also effective at punishing Magneton as it can switch on Thunderbolt or come in to revenge kill after Skarmory was trapped and get a free Substitute as Magneton switches out; since Magneton never rarely runs Hidden Power Ice, Flygon only has to fear for Toxic on the switch.

Maybe add something about revenge killers, because while not many things can take a big Thunderbolt, many things are fast enough to KO Mag before it can do anything.

Once edits are made I will stamp it.

 

[mikmer]

ready for second QC

 

[vapicuno]

qc 1/2

 

[M Dragon]

Really good analysis

QC 2/2

 

[Light Sanctity]

Please now this is an AmCheck

ADD REMOVE COMMENT

Amateur Check: Magneton

[OVERVIEW]

Magneton plays a unique role in ADV OU thanks to its ability Magnet Pull that enables the trapping of prominent Steel-type Pokemon like Skarmory, Forretress, Metagross, Jirachi, and opposing Magneton. Skarmory and Forretress are the primary targets of this ability as they are potentially OHKOed by Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Fire respectively, and they also give Magneton a free switch-in when they are laying Spikes. However, there are risks involved, as offensive Skarmory can potentially outspeed Magneton and OHKO it with Hidden Power Ground, and Forretress can sometimes survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake. Metagross and Jirachi are harder to remove as they tend to beat Magneton one on one if trapped from full health, so it's essential that they are weakened before they can be eliminated successfully; alternatively, Magneton can chip Metagross heavily with Thunderbolt or paralyze Jirachi to severely cripple it at the cost of its life in matchups where Magneton isn't useful. Timid Magneton can also be used to trap opposing Magneton, but it is not entirely reliable as it depends on opposing Magneton's Speed (Capitalize) and avoiding full paralysis from Thunder Wave.

Despite its main use is being a trapper for Steel-types, Magneton can do much more in a battle, for example it can defensively check some threats with its good typing and many resistances. For example, it's Steel-Electric its Steel / Electric typing has a quadruple 4x resistance to Flying-(AH) and Steel-type attacks which is handy at checking Choice Band Salamence locked on Hidden Power Flying and Choice Band Metagross locked on Meteor Mash; in sand it can also be a good check to Snorlax lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast, and can perform a one time pivot into Choice Band Aerodactyl, Zapdos and even Gengar lacking Fire Punch. Additionally, Magneton can effectively pressure some defensive teams with its sheer power combined with the threat of status: Thunderbolt threatens Suicune and Milotic, while Toxic forces out Blissey and Celebi, and the switch-in either eats a chunk from Thunderbolt or gets hit by a nasty status move.

Despite Magneton's good defensive typing, it often gets overshadowed by its quadruple 4x weakness to one of the most common attacks in ADV OU: Earthquake. This weakness means that it will be OHKOed by most physical attackers in the tier including Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Swampert, Snorlax, Flygon, and Claydol. The weakness to Earthquake is especially exploited by Dugtrio, who can switch into Magneton's Thunderbolt and use its ability Arena Trap to ensure the kill; to make things worse Dugtrio is commonly used alongside Magneton's primary trap target, Skarmory, turning the trap into a one for one trade at best. Magneton's Fire-(AH) and Fighting-type weaknesses are also very relevant drawbacks as they turn Moltres, mixed Salamence and mixed Tyranitar into effective revenge killers.

[SET]
name: Trapper
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Toxic / Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave
move 4: Protect / Substitute
item: Magnet / Leftovers
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 4HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description
=========

Magneton's offensive movepool consists mainly of Thunderbolt, which hits hard everything in the metagame except for Ground types Ground-types and dedicated special walls like Blissey and Celebi. Worth noting that Thunderbolt can OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, 2HKO maximum HP Metagross, and 4HKO Snorlax in sand. Hidden Power Fire is the main coverage move that allows Magneton to cover Forretress and opposing Magneton, but very common is also Hidden Power Grass that allows Magneton to cover Ground types Ground-types such as Swampert and Claydol, as well as catching Dugtrio on the switch. Worth noting that with Hidden Power Grass Magneton can run 31 Speed EVs guaranteeing at least a Speed tie with Jolly offensive Skarmory.

Magneton is often packing a status move, either Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave or Toxic, the former is very effective at crippling Jirachi, as well as annoying Metagross and opposing Magneton, the latter is effective at crippling Ground types Ground-types like Swampert, Claydol, and Flygon on the switch. Toxic also has the surprisingly useful ability of forcing out Blissey and Celebi so that the incoming Pokemon has to take a powerful Thunderbolt. Since Hidden Power Grass already covers Ground types Ground-types, it gets usually paired with Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave, while Hidden Power Fire is most often paired with Toxic.
Protect is commonly paired with Toxic to increase the rate of poison damage, it is also effective at scouting attacks from the opposing Pokemon, especially when facing Choice Band users such as Salamence and Aerodactyl. Substitute can pair with both Toxic and Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave, the former helps in forcing out Blissey and Celebi, while the latter can help in generating a free turn with a timely full paralysis allowing Magneton to safely stay behind the Substitute. Substitute has also a nice sinergy synergy with Leech Seed allowing Magneton to wall slower seeded threats like Suicune and Snorlax, as well as guaranteeing the Metagross trap by weakening it into Thunderbolt KO (this is subjective but I feel this is more appopriate) range.

Magnet increases Thunderbolt's power by 10%, and critically gives it a much better chance to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. The difference between an OHKO and a 2HKO on Skarmory is huge, as it often translates in an extra layer of Spikes for your entire team to deal with, but could also translate in Skarmory phazing out Magneton, and giving it a chance to make a comeback in later stages of the games, especially if paired with a Wish user such as Blissey, or if paired with Dugtrio which can trap Magneton. Magneton can alternatively use the default ADV item Leftovers to increase its longevity throughout the game; Leftovers works well on Magneton considering it's immune to sand, and paired with Protect or Substitute it can become much more annoying to deal with via repeated chip damage. Leftovers makes Magneton a lot more robust against Aerodactyl and Electric-types, and also makes it much harder for Blissey to take down with repeated Seismic Tosses while it is poisoned by Toxic.

Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed are self-explanatory to maximaze maximize Magneton's offensive potential as well as guaranteeing the Speed tie with opposing Magneton with the same Hidden Power type. A Modest nature maximizes the odds of OHKOing Skarmory and is sufficient for outspeeding most Metagross but is outsped by or at best tied with Adamant offensive Skarmory which can OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground. A Timid nature allows Magneton to outspeed Adamant offensive Skarmory and also to outspeed most other Magneton, but gives up the good roll to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. Timid is frequently used when the team has a spinner such as Claydol and thus does not mind Skarmory sticking around for a little longer, or when it is beneficial for Magneton to trap opposing Magneton, most notably with Skarmory as a partner. For the latter purpose, a good benchmark is moving 32 EVs into SpD (I believe it is more appopriate to list out Special Defense here as you are not listing an Ev spread) to survive opposing Magneton's Hidden Power Fire. An alternative bulky spread is: (Remove Colon) Modest 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe; this is designed to always survive Adamant Skarmory Hidden Power Ground, while retaining the Speed to creep on standard specially defensive Skarmory. However, if Magneton seeks to survive Forretress's Earthquake, it needs to use this spread: Modest 252 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 16 Spe.

Team Options
========

Magneton is a key component in physical offense by virtue of its ability to get rid of Skarmory, which is the premier physical wall in ADV OU. Physical attackers like Gyarados, Salamence, Aerodactyl and Flygon greatly benefit from the absence of Skarmory as a physical wall, while other threats like Metagross, Heracross, Snorlax also appreciate the removal of Skarmory as a Spiker and a phazer. On physical offense squads, Gyarados and Salamence often run a sweeper set with Dragon Dance, while Metagross can run either a cleaner set with Agility, a luring set for Swampert with Hidden Power Grass, or alternatively it can be a physical tank with a defensive set with Protect. Heracross runs a set with Substitute + Salac Berry to sweep in the late game late-game, while Snorlax can either run a lure set with Self-Destruct to get rid of a key wall on the opposing team or it can be a late game late-game sweeper with Curse + Rest. Physical offense tends to be soft (soft what?) against Gengar, so, (RC) for this reason, Pursuit Tyranitar, or sometimes Houndoom, is a nice fit; Pursuit support also enables Curse + Earthquake Snorlax as well as a niche Pokemon like Steelix. A bulky Water-type like Swampert or Suicune often rounds up the team by giving it a check to opposing physical attackers.

Magneton is also a cornerstone on defensive teams that aim to get rid of Skarmory and Forretress to contain the hazards on the field. Since these teams are generally weak to Spikes, they always pack a spinner together with Magneton to make sure the hazard pressure is totally negated. The most common spinners paired with Magneton are Claydol and Starmie, a less common one but still seen in OU is Donphan. A defensive Celebi with Leech Seed is a common sight on these teams, (AC) since it's a set that struggles with both Skarmory and Forretress, and Leech Seed sinergizes synergize well with Magneton packing Substitute. Milotic or Suicune are also very common in these teams, most often paired with Claydol to form a defensive core that is resilient to both offensive pressure as well as hazards. A bulky Metagross with Protect can be an alternative defensive backbone for the team, especially when paired with a bulky Starmie with Rapid Spin. These teams often rely on a bulky setup sweeper like Curse + Rest Snorlax or Calm Mind + Rest Suicune as the late game late-game win condition; since they really hate Spikes as well as hating getting phazed around by Skarmory when they go through Rest cycles it is clear that Magneton is a neccessity on these teams. Pursuit support from Tyranitar and less commonly Umbreon can facilitate the spin while also enableing enabling the niche of Donphan, as well as supporting a Curselax set without Shadow-ball Shadow Ball. A Ground immune and Fighting resisting Ground-immune or Fighting-resistant Pokemon like Choice Band Salamence, Zapdos, or Moltres often rounds up the team.

Magneton is also commonly seen paired with Skarmory, forming the popular Skarm-Mag core. Magneton not only can trap opposing Skarmory and Forretress, therefore ensuring your Skarmory will win the Spikes war, but it can also trap opposing Magneton, allowing your Skarmory to be safe from getting trapped. These teams oftern often feature a sturdy special wall, like Blissey or Celebi, in combination with a powerful breaker like Choice Band Salamence to provide offensive pressure paired with Spikes. Alternatively, a fast sweeper like Aerodactyl is used in combination with a soft Zapdos check like Venusaur or Jirachi to keep up offensive momentum. A physically defensive wall, like Swampert, Metagross, or Flygon, round up the team, together with the everpresent ever present (spacing) Tyranitar, that provides sand support which works so well paired with Skarmory's Spikes in order to chip the opposing checks into range of a sweep; Tyranitar can also provide Pursuit support for Flygon and Skarmory,(RC) who really hate Gengar,.(RC)(AP) Additionally,(AC) Pursuit can be used to chip opposing Forretress into Magneton's Hidden Power Fire range.

Magneton is also featured on Baton Pass teams, since they are weak to being phazed by Skarmory's Whirlwind. Physical Baton Pass teams feature either Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi or Swords Dance + Baton Pass Ninjask, rarely both. The most common recipients of the boosts are Dragon Dance users like Salamence, Gyarados, and less frequently Tyranitar, as well as Agility Metagross, and Substitute + Liechi Berry Aerodactyl; paired with Ninjask slow sweepers like Marowak and Medicham are also common. Alternatively, specially based Baton Pass teams featuring Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi are sometimes seen with Magneton, as Skarmory otherwise would be able to safely switch on Celebi and phaze it out, thus runing the chain; additionally these teams don't generally pack a spinner and therefore don't appreciate Skarmory setting multiple layers of Spikes.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
=============

Magneton doesn't overly need moves to fuction function besides Thunderbolt + Hidden Power, which leaves it two free slots for some interesting options.
Endure allows Magneton to survive any one hit at 1 HP, and therefore succesfully successfully be in range to activate the Speed boost of Salac Berry. After the boost, Timid Magneton can outrun the entire OU metagame barring Jolteon and Aerodactyl, critically it becomes faster than Dugtrio meaning it cannot be trapped succesfully by it, additionally it becomes faster than offensive Starmie and can check it in a pinch, finally it can be used as a surprise weapon to check Flygon and Salamence with Hidden Power Ice. Alternatively, or in conjunction with Endure, Magneton can be an effective weather clearer with Rain Dance or Sunny Day: removing sand is used to great advantage when it is partnered with sand weak Pokemon like Suicune, Snorlax, or Celebi. Metal Sound is another interesting move that allows Magneton to scare off special walls like Blissey, Celebi, and can potentially enable it to trap specially defensive Wish Jirachi from full, and can also prevent last Pokemon Snorlax from sweeping your team. Swagger is an effective alternative when paired with Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave to generate key free turns for setup sweepers, Substitute users, or stat passers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Substitute Heracross, Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi, or even Ninjask. Charcoal is an alternative to Magnet as it increases drastically the chances to OHKO Forretress and opposing Magneton with Hidden Power Fire, for this reason is sometimes seen on Skarm-Mag builds. Magneton can run Thunder as an option to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory when using a set without Magnet, albeit it's unreliable with only 70% accuracy.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio is a very effective counter to Magneton as it can trap it with its ability Arena Trap and OHKO it with Earthquake, it can also switch in on Thunderbolt as well as revenge-killing revenge killing it after Magneton has succefully trapped Skarmory. It is frequently possible to infer the presence of Magneton on a team and double-switch it in on Skarmory: this is often a game winning play. On the other hand the only thing Dugtrio has to fear from Magneton is a potential Hidden Power Grass on the switch or the Endure+Salac (spacing) set.

**Blissey & Celebi**: Both of these special walls can switch into Magneton and negate the Thunderbolt damage with their recovery moves, but they are forced out by Toxic especially when it's paired with Protect or Substitute; for this very reason teams that rely on Blissey or Celebi to sponge Magneton are often troubled by the combination of Thunderbolt + Toxic and have no good switches to it. The occasional Metal Sound or Screech might also give Blissey and Celebi issues.

**Claydol**: Claydol is a decent check to Magneton as it can pivot in on Thunderbolt and threaten the OHKO with Earthquake, although it doesn't enjoy switching into Toxic or Hidden Power Grass.

**Flygon**: Flygon is also effective at punishing Magneton as it can switch on Thunderbolt or come in for a revenge-kill revenge kill after Skarmory was trapped, consequently it can get a free Substitute as Magneton switches out or stays in to Toxic,(remove semi colon add comma) since Magneton rarely runs Hidden Power Ice Flygon only has to fear for Toxic on the switch.

**Revenge-killers Revenge killers**: While not many Pokemon can take Magneton's powerful Thunderbolt, many are just fast enough to OHKO Magneton (please spell out a Pokemon's full name) before it can do anything, including Salamence, Aerodactyl, Moltres, Charizard, and Heracross packing Brick Break.

[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [M Dragon, 21345]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]

 

[mikmer]

Please now this is an AmCheck

ADD REMOVE COMMENT

Amateur Check: Magneton

[OVERVIEW]

Magneton plays a unique role in ADV OU thanks to its ability Magnet Pull that enables the trapping of prominent Steel-type Pokemon like Skarmory, Forretress, Metagross, Jirachi, and opposing Magneton. Skarmory and Forretress are the primary targets of this ability as they are potentially OHKOed by Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Fire respectively, and they also give Magneton a free switch-in when they are laying Spikes. However, there are risks involved, as offensive Skarmory can potentially outspeed Magneton and OHKO it with Hidden Power Ground, and Forretress can sometimes survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake. Metagross and Jirachi are harder to remove as they tend to beat Magneton one on one if trapped from full health, so it's essential that they are weakened before they can be eliminated successfully; alternatively, Magneton can chip Metagross heavily with Thunderbolt or paralyze Jirachi to severely cripple it at the cost of its life in matchups where Magneton isn't useful. Timid Magneton can also be used to trap opposing Magneton, but it is not entirely reliable as it depends on opposing Magneton's Speed (Capitalize) and avoiding full paralysis from Thunder Wave.

Despite its main use is being a trapper for Steel-types, Magneton can do much more in a battle, for example it can defensively check some threats with its good typing and many resistances. For example, it's Steel-Electric its Steel / Electric typing has a quadruple 4x resistance to Flying-(AH) and Steel-type attacks which is handy at checking Choice Band Salamence locked on Hidden Power Flying and Choice Band Metagross locked on Meteor Mash; in sand it can also be a good check to Snorlax lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast, and can perform a one time pivot into Choice Band Aerodactyl, Zapdos and even Gengar lacking Fire Punch. Additionally, Magneton can effectively pressure some defensive teams with its sheer power combined with the threat of status: Thunderbolt threatens Suicune and Milotic, while Toxic forces out Blissey and Celebi, and the switch-in either eats a chunk from Thunderbolt or gets hit by a nasty status move.

Despite Magneton's good defensive typing, it often gets overshadowed by its quadruple 4x weakness to one of the most common attacks in ADV OU: Earthquake. This weakness means that it will be OHKOed by most physical attackers in the tier including Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Swampert, Snorlax, Flygon, and Claydol. The weakness to Earthquake is especially exploited by Dugtrio, who can switch into Magneton's Thunderbolt and use its ability Arena Trap to ensure the kill; to make things worse Dugtrio is commonly used alongside Magneton's primary trap target, Skarmory, turning the trap into a one for one trade at best. Magneton's Fire-(AH) and Fighting-type weaknesses are also very relevant drawbacks as they turn Moltres, mixed Salamence and mixed Tyranitar into effective revenge killers.

[SET]
name: Trapper
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Toxic / Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave
move 4: Protect / Substitute
item: Magnet / Leftovers
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 4HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description
=========

Magneton's offensive movepool consists mainly of Thunderbolt, which hits hard everything in the metagame except for Ground types Ground-types and dedicated special walls like Blissey and Celebi. Worth noting that Thunderbolt can OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, 2HKO maximum HP Metagross, and 4HKO Snorlax in sand. Hidden Power Fire is the main coverage move that allows Magneton to cover Forretress and opposing Magneton, but very common is also Hidden Power Grass that allows Magneton to cover Ground types Ground-types such as Swampert and Claydol, as well as catching Dugtrio on the switch. Worth noting that with Hidden Power Grass Magneton can run 31 Speed EVs guaranteeing at least a Speed tie with Jolly offensive Skarmory.

Magneton is often packing a status move, either Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave or Toxic, the former is very effective at crippling Jirachi, as well as annoying Metagross and opposing Magneton, the latter is effective at crippling Ground types Ground-types like Swampert, Claydol, and Flygon on the switch. Toxic also has the surprisingly useful ability of forcing out Blissey and Celebi so that the incoming Pokemon has to take a powerful Thunderbolt. Since Hidden Power Grass already covers Ground types Ground-types, it gets usually paired with Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave, while Hidden Power Fire is most often paired with Toxic.
Protect is commonly paired with Toxic to increase the rate of poison damage, it is also effective at scouting attacks from the opposing Pokemon, especially when facing Choice Band users such as Salamence and Aerodactyl. Substitute can pair with both Toxic and Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave, the former helps in forcing out Blissey and Celebi, while the latter can help in generating a free turn with a timely full paralysis allowing Magneton to safely stay behind the Substitute. Substitute has also a nice sinergy synergy with Leech Seed allowing Magneton to wall slower seeded threats like Suicune and Snorlax, as well as guaranteeing the Metagross trap by weakening it into Thunderbolt KO (this is subjective but I feel this is more appopriate) range.

Magnet increases Thunderbolt's power by 10%, and critically gives it a much better chance to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. The difference between an OHKO and a 2HKO on Skarmory is huge, as it often translates in an extra layer of Spikes for your entire team to deal with, but could also translate in Skarmory phazing out Magneton, and giving it a chance to make a comeback in later stages of the games, especially if paired with a Wish user such as Blissey, or if paired with Dugtrio which can trap Magneton. Magneton can alternatively use the default ADV item Leftovers to increase its longevity throughout the game; Leftovers works well on Magneton considering it's immune to sand, and paired with Protect or Substitute it can become much more annoying to deal with via repeated chip damage. Leftovers makes Magneton a lot more robust against Aerodactyl and Electric-types, and also makes it much harder for Blissey to take down with repeated Seismic Tosses while it is poisoned by Toxic.

Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed are self-explanatory to maximaze maximize Magneton's offensive potential as well as guaranteeing the Speed tie with opposing Magneton with the same Hidden Power type. A Modest nature maximizes the odds of OHKOing Skarmory and is sufficient for outspeeding most Metagross but is outsped by or at best tied with Adamant offensive Skarmory which can OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground. A Timid nature allows Magneton to outspeed Adamant offensive Skarmory and also to outspeed most other Magneton, but gives up the good roll to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. Timid is frequently used when the team has a spinner such as Claydol and thus does not mind Skarmory sticking around for a little longer, or when it is beneficial for Magneton to trap opposing Magneton, most notably with Skarmory as a partner. For the latter purpose, a good benchmark is moving 32 EVs into SpD (I believe it is more appopriate to list out Special Defense here as you are not listing an Ev spread) to survive opposing Magneton's Hidden Power Fire. An alternative bulky spread is: (Remove Colon) Modest 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe; this is designed to always survive Adamant Skarmory Hidden Power Ground, while retaining the Speed to creep on standard specially defensive Skarmory. However, if Magneton seeks to survive Forretress's Earthquake, it needs to use this spread: Modest 252 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 16 Spe.

Team Options
========

Magneton is a key component in physical offense by virtue of its ability to get rid of Skarmory, which is the premier physical wall in ADV OU. Physical attackers like Gyarados, Salamence, Aerodactyl and Flygon greatly benefit from the absence of Skarmory as a physical wall, while other threats like Metagross, Heracross, Snorlax also appreciate the removal of Skarmory as a Spiker and a phazer. On physical offense squads, Gyarados and Salamence often run a sweeper set with Dragon Dance, while Metagross can run either a cleaner set with Agility, a luring set for Swampert with Hidden Power Grass, or alternatively it can be a physical tank with a defensive set with Protect. Heracross runs a set with Substitute + Salac Berry to sweep in the late game late-game, while Snorlax can either run a lure set with Self-Destruct to get rid of a key wall on the opposing team or it can be a late game late-game sweeper with Curse + Rest. Physical offense tends to be soft (soft what?) against Gengar, so, (RC) for this reason, Pursuit Tyranitar, or sometimes Houndoom, is a nice fit; Pursuit support also enables Curse + Earthquake Snorlax as well as a niche Pokemon like Steelix. A bulky Water-type like Swampert or Suicune often rounds up the team by giving it a check to opposing physical attackers.

Magneton is also a cornerstone on defensive teams that aim to get rid of Skarmory and Forretress to contain the hazards on the field. Since these teams are generally weak to Spikes, they always pack a spinner together with Magneton to make sure the hazard pressure is totally negated. The most common spinners paired with Magneton are Claydol and Starmie, a less common one but still seen in OU is Donphan. A defensive Celebi with Leech Seed is a common sight on these teams, (AC) since it's a set that struggles with both Skarmory and Forretress, and Leech Seed sinergizes synergize well with Magneton packing Substitute. Milotic or Suicune are also very common in these teams, most often paired with Claydol to form a defensive core that is resilient to both offensive pressure as well as hazards. A bulky Metagross with Protect can be an alternative defensive backbone for the team, especially when paired with a bulky Starmie with Rapid Spin. These teams often rely on a bulky setup sweeper like Curse + Rest Snorlax or Calm Mind + Rest Suicune as the late game late-game win condition; since they really hate Spikes as well as hating getting phazed around by Skarmory when they go through Rest cycles it is clear that Magneton is a neccessity on these teams. Pursuit support from Tyranitar and less commonly Umbreon can facilitate the spin while also enableing enabling the niche of Donphan, as well as supporting a Curselax set without Shadow-ball Shadow Ball. A Ground immune and Fighting resisting Ground-immune or Fighting-resistant Pokemon like Choice Band Salamence, Zapdos, or Moltres often rounds up the team.

Magneton is also commonly seen paired with Skarmory, forming the popular Skarm-Mag core. Magneton not only can trap opposing Skarmory and Forretress, therefore ensuring your Skarmory will win the Spikes war, but it can also trap opposing Magneton, allowing your Skarmory to be safe from getting trapped. These teams oftern often feature a sturdy special wall, like Blissey or Celebi, in combination with a powerful breaker like Choice Band Salamence to provide offensive pressure paired with Spikes. Alternatively, a fast sweeper like Aerodactyl is used in combination with a soft Zapdos check like Venusaur or Jirachi to keep up offensive momentum. A physically defensive wall, like Swampert, Metagross, or Flygon, round up the team, together with the everpresent ever present (spacing) Tyranitar, that provides sand support which works so well paired with Skarmory's Spikes in order to chip the opposing checks into range of a sweep; Tyranitar can also provide Pursuit support for Flygon and Skarmory,(RC) who really hate Gengar,.(RC)(AP) Additionally,(AC) Pursuit can be used to chip opposing Forretress into Magneton's Hidden Power Fire range.

Magneton is also featured on Baton Pass teams, since they are weak to being phazed by Skarmory's Whirlwind. Physical Baton Pass teams feature either Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi or Swords Dance + Baton Pass Ninjask, rarely both. The most common recipients of the boosts are Dragon Dance users like Salamence, Gyarados, and less frequently Tyranitar, as well as Agility Metagross, and Substitute + Liechi Berry Aerodactyl; paired with Ninjask slow sweepers like Marowak and Medicham are also common. Alternatively, specially based Baton Pass teams featuring Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi are sometimes seen with Magneton, as Skarmory otherwise would be able to safely switch on Celebi and phaze it out, thus runing the chain; additionally these teams don't generally pack a spinner and therefore don't appreciate Skarmory setting multiple layers of Spikes.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
=============

Magneton doesn't overly need moves to fuction function besides Thunderbolt + Hidden Power, which leaves it two free slots for some interesting options.
Endure allows Magneton to survive any one hit at 1 HP, and therefore succesfully successfully be in range to activate the Speed boost of Salac Berry. After the boost, Timid Magneton can outrun the entire OU metagame barring Jolteon and Aerodactyl, critically it becomes faster than Dugtrio meaning it cannot be trapped succesfully by it, additionally it becomes faster than offensive Starmie and can check it in a pinch, finally it can be used as a surprise weapon to check Flygon and Salamence with Hidden Power Ice. Alternatively, or in conjunction with Endure, Magneton can be an effective weather clearer with Rain Dance or Sunny Day: removing sand is used to great advantage when it is partnered with sand weak Pokemon like Suicune, Snorlax, or Celebi. Metal Sound is another interesting move that allows Magneton to scare off special walls like Blissey, Celebi, and can potentially enable it to trap specially defensive Wish Jirachi from full, and can also prevent last Pokemon Snorlax from sweeping your team. Swagger is an effective alternative when paired with Thunder-Wave Thunder Wave to generate key free turns for setup sweepers, Substitute users, or stat passers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Substitute Heracross, Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi, or even Ninjask. Charcoal is an alternative to Magnet as it increases drastically the chances to OHKO Forretress and opposing Magneton with Hidden Power Fire, for this reason is sometimes seen on Skarm-Mag builds. Magneton can run Thunder as an option to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory when using a set without Magnet, albeit it's unreliable with only 70% accuracy.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio is a very effective counter to Magneton as it can trap it with its ability Arena Trap and OHKO it with Earthquake, it can also switch in on Thunderbolt as well as revenge-killing revenge killing it after Magneton has succefully trapped Skarmory. It is frequently possible to infer the presence of Magneton on a team and double-switch it in on Skarmory: this is often a game winning play. On the other hand the only thing Dugtrio has to fear from Magneton is a potential Hidden Power Grass on the switch or the Endure+Salac (spacing) set.

**Blissey & Celebi**: Both of these special walls can switch into Magneton and negate the Thunderbolt damage with their recovery moves, but they are forced out by Toxic especially when it's paired with Protect or Substitute; for this very reason teams that rely on Blissey or Celebi to sponge Magneton are often troubled by the combination of Thunderbolt + Toxic and have no good switches to it. The occasional Metal Sound or Screech might also give Blissey and Celebi issues.

**Claydol**: Claydol is a decent check to Magneton as it can pivot in on Thunderbolt and threaten the OHKO with Earthquake, although it doesn't enjoy switching into Toxic or Hidden Power Grass.

**Flygon**: Flygon is also effective at punishing Magneton as it can switch on Thunderbolt or come in for a revenge-kill revenge kill after Skarmory was trapped, consequently it can get a free Substitute as Magneton switches out or stays in to Toxic,(remove semi colon add comma) since Magneton rarely runs Hidden Power Ice Flygon only has to fear for Toxic on the switch.

**Revenge-killers Revenge killers**: While not many Pokemon can take Magneton's powerful Thunderbolt, many are just fast enough to OHKO Magneton (please spell out a Pokemon's full name) before it can do anything, including Salamence, Aerodactyl, Moltres, Charizard, and Heracross packing Brick Break.

[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [M Dragon, 21345]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]

Thx for the AM check Light Sanctity , looks good to me, implemented!

 

[Rabia]

add remove comments

gp

[OVERVIEW]

Magneton plays a unique role in ADV OU thanks to its ability Magnet Pull that enables the trapping of prominent Steel-type Pokemon like Skarmory, Forretress, Metagross, Jirachi, and opposing Magneton. Skarmory and Forretress are the primary targets of this ability,(AC) as they are potentially OHKOed by Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Fire,(AC) respectively, and they also give Magneton a free switch in(RH) when they are laying Spikes. However, there are risks involved, as offensive Skarmory can potentially outspeed Magneton and OHKO it with Hidden Power Ground, and Forretress can sometimes survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake. Metagross and Jirachi are harder to remove as they tend to beat Magneton one on one if trapped from full health, so it's essential that they are weakened before they can be eliminated successfully; alternatively, Magneton can chip Metagross heavily with Thunderbolt or paralyze Jirachi to severely cripple it at the cost of its life in matchups where Magneton isn't useful. Timid Magneton can also be used to trap opposing Magneton, but it is not entirely reliable as it depends on opposing Magneton's Speed and avoiding full paralysis from Thunder Wave. (Right, so it doesn't make sense to have the overview go positives -> negatives -> positives -> negatives, so I tried to reorganize relevant information to avoid that. Additionally, some of the material here doesn't really read like overview material, i.e. it'd be better suited in another section. The sentence about chipping Metagross w/ Thunderbolt is an example of this; it reads more like something I'd put in usage tips. Similarly, the sentence about Timid Magneton would be better suited in Set Description because it talks about benefits of an alternatively nature. As far as I can tell, these two ideas that I didn't reintegrate elsewhere were already adequately conveyed in the piece.)

Despite its main use is being a trapper for Steel-types, Magneton can do much more in a battle.(comma -> period) For example,(AC) it can defensively check some threats, including Choice Band Salamence locked into Hidden Power Flying; Choice Band Metagross locked into Meteor Mash; Snorlax lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast when under sand; and Choice Band Aerodactyl, Zapdos, and non-Fire Punch Gengar, albeit only once, with its good typing and many resistances. For example, its Steel / Electric typing has a 4x resistance to Flying and Steel-type attacks which is handy at checking Choice Band Salamence locked on Hidden Power Flying and Choice Band Metagross locked on Meteor Mash; in sand it can also be a good check to Snorlax lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast, and can perform a one time pivot into Choice Band Aerodactyl, Zapdos and even Gengar lacking Fire Punch. Additionally, Magneton can effectively pressure some defensive teams with its sheer power combined with the threat of status: Thunderbolt threatens Suicune and Milotic, while Toxic forces out Blissey and Celebi, and the switch-in either eats a chunk from Thunderbolt or gets hit by a nasty status move.

Despite Magneton's good defensive typing, it often gets overshadowed by its 4x weakness to one of the most common attacks in ADV OU: Earthquake. This weakness means that it will be OHKOed by most physical attackers in the tier including Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Swampert, Snorlax, Flygon, and Claydol. The weakness to Earthquake is especially exploited by Dugtrio, who which can switch into Magneton's Thunderbolt and use its ability Arena Trap to ensure the kill KO; to make things worse,(AC) Dugtrio is commonly used alongside Magneton's primary trap target, Skarmory, turning the trap into a one-for-one(hyphens) trade at best. Furthermore, offensive Skarmory can potentially outspeed and OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground, while Forretress can sometimes survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake, which makes trapping these foes more difficult. Similarly, Metagross and Jirachi generally win one-on-one against Magneton if they're at full health, meaning Magneton can't trap them without prior chip damage. Magneton's Fire-(AH) and Fighting-type weaknesses are also very relevant drawbacks,(AC) as they turn Moltres, mixed Salamence,(AC) and mixed Tyranitar into effective revenge killers.

[SET]
name: Trapper
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Toxic / Thunder Wave
move 4: Protect / Substitute
item: Magnet / Leftovers
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 4HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Magneton's offensive movepool consists mainly of Thunderbolt, which hits everything in the metagame except for Ground-types and dedicated special walls like Blissey and Celebi for solid damage (Thunderbolt hits Blissey and Celebi, so you need some qualifier here). It's worth noting that Thunderbolt can OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, 2HKO maximum HP Metagross, and 4HKO Snorlax in sand. Hidden Power Fire is the main coverage move that allows Magneton to cover Forretress and opposing Magneton, but Hidden Power Grass is very common is also Hidden Power Grass that allows Magneton to cover Ground-types such as Swampert and Claydol, as well as catching Dugtrio on the switch. Worth noting that With Hidden Power Grass,(AC) Magneton can run 31 Speed EVs,(AC) guaranteeing at least a Speed tie with Jolly offensive Skarmory.

Magneton is often packing a status move, either Thunder Wave or Toxic;(comma -> semicolon) the former is very effective at crippling Jirachi, as well as annoying Metagross and opposing Magneton, while the latter is effective at crippling Ground-types like Swampert, Claydol, and Flygon on the switch. Toxic also has the surprisingly useful ability of forcing out Blissey and Celebi so that the incoming Pokemon has to take a powerful Thunderbolt. Since Hidden Power Grass already covers Ground-types, it gets usually paired with Thunder Wave, while Hidden Power Fire is most often paired with Toxic.

Protect is commonly paired with Toxic to increase the rate of poison damage, and it is also effective at scouting attacks from the opposing Pokemon, especially when facing Choice Band users such as Salamence and Aerodactyl. Substitute can pair with both Toxic and Thunder Wave;(comma -> semicolon) the former helps in forcing out Blissey and Celebi, while the latter can help in generating a free turn with a timely full paralysis,(AC) allowing Magneton to safely stay behind the Substitute. Substitute has also a has nice synergy with Leech Seed,(AC) allowing Magneton to wall slower threats like Suicune and Snorlax, as well as guaranteeing the Metagross trap by weakening it into KO range.

Magnet increases Thunderbolt's power by 10%, and critically gives it Magneton a much better chance to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. The difference between an OHKO and a 2HKO on Skarmory is huge, as it often translates in an extra layer of Spikes for your entire team to deal with (RC) but could also translate in to Skarmory phazing out Magneton, and giving it a chance to make a comeback in later stages of the games, especially if paired with a Wish user such as Blissey (RC) or if paired with Dugtrio,(AC) which can trap Magneton. Magneton can alternatively use the default ADV item Leftovers to increase its longevity throughout the game; Leftovers works well on Magneton considering it's immune to sand, and when paired with Protect or Substitute,(AC) it can become much more annoying to deal with via repeated chip damage. Leftovers makes Magneton a lot more robust against Aerodactyl and Electric-types (RC) and also makes it much harder for Blissey to take Magneton down with repeated Seismic Tosses while it is poisoned by Toxic.

Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed are self-explanatory to maximize Magneton's offensive potential as well as guaranteeing and guarantee the Speed tie with opposing Magneton with the same Hidden Power type. A Modest nature maximizes the odds of OHKOing Skarmory and is sufficient for outspeeding most Metagross,(AC) but is it leaves Magneton outsped by or at best Speed tied with Adamant offensive Skarmory,(AC) which can OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground. A Timid nature allows Magneton to outspeed Adamant offensive Skarmory and also to outspeed most other Magneton (RC) but gives up the good roll to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. Timid is frequently used when the team has a spinner such as Claydol and thus does not mind Skarmory sticking around for a little longer (RC) or when it is beneficial for Magneton to trap opposing Magneton, most notably with Skarmory as a partner. For the latter purpose, a good benchmark is having 32 Special Defense EVs into SpD to survive opposing Magneton's Hidden Power Fire. An alternative bulky spread is (remove colon) Modest 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe with a Modest nature; this is designed to always survive Adamant Skarmory's Hidden Power Ground (RC) while retaining the Speed to creep on for standard specially defensive Skarmory. However, if Magneton seeks to survive Forretress's Earthquake, it needs to use this spread: Modest 252 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 16 Spe with a Modest nature.

Team Options
========

Magneton is a key component in physical offense teams by virtue of its ability to get rid of Skarmory, which is the premier physical wall in ADV OU. Physical attackers like Gyarados, Salamence, Aerodactyl,(AC) and Flygon greatly benefit from the absence of Skarmory as a physical wall, while other threats like Metagross, Heracross, and Snorlax also appreciate the removal of Skarmory as a Spiker and a phazer. On physical offense squads, Gyarados and Salamence often run a sweeper set with Dragon Dance, while Metagross can run either a cleaner set with Agility, a luring set for Swampert with Hidden Power Grass, or alternatively it can be a physical tank with a physically defensive set with Protect. Heracross runs a set with Substitute + Salac Berry to sweep in the late-game, while Snorlax can either run a lure set with Self-Destruct to get rid of a key wall on the opposing team or it can be a late-game sweeper with Curse + Rest. Physical offense tends to be weak against Gengar, so for this reason,(RC) Pursuit Tyranitar, or sometimes Houndoom, is a nice fit; Pursuit support also enables Curse + Earthquake Snorlax as well as a niche Pokemon like Steelix. A bulky Water-type like Swampert or Suicune often rounds up out the team by giving it a check to opposing physical attackers.

Magneton is also a cornerstone on defensive teams that aim to get rid of Skarmory and Forretress to contain the hazards on the field. Since these teams are generally weak to Spikes, they always pack a spinner together with Magneton to make sure the hazard pressure is totally negated. The most common spinners paired with Magneton are Claydol and Starmie;(comma -> semicolon) a less common one but still seen in OU is Donphan. A defensive Celebi with Leech Seed is a common sight on these teams, since it's a set that struggles with both Skarmory and Forretress, and Leech Seed synergizes well with Magneton packing Substitute. Milotic or and Suicune are also very common in these teams, most often paired with Claydol to form a defensive core that is resilient to both offensive pressure as well as entry hazards. A bulky Metagross with Protect can be an alternative defensive backbone for the team, especially when paired with a bulky Starmie with Rapid Spin. These teams often rely on a bulky setup sweeper like Curse + Rest Snorlax or Calm Mind + Rest Suicune as the late-game win condition sweeper; since they really hate Spikes as well as hating and getting phazed by Skarmory when they go through Rest cycles,(AC) it is clear that Magneton is a neccessity necessity on these teams. Pursuit support from Tyranitar and less commonly Umbreon can facilitate the spin use of Rapid Spin while also enabling the niche of Donphan, as well as supporting a CurseLax set without Shadow Ball. A Ground-immune or Fighting-resistant Pokemon like Choice Band Salamence, Zapdos, or Moltres often rounds up out the team.

Magneton is also commonly seen paired with Skarmory, forming the popular Skarm-Mag core. Magneton not only can trap opposing Skarmory and Forretress, therefore ensuring your Skarmory will win the Spikes war, but it can also trap opposing Magneton, allowing your Skarmory to be safe from getting trapped. These teams often feature a sturdy special wall, like Blissey or Celebi, in combination with a powerful breaker like Choice Band Salamence to provide offensive pressure paired with Spikes. Alternatively, a fast sweeper like Aerodactyl is used in combination with a soft Zapdos check like Venusaur or Jirachi to keep up offensive momentum. A physically defensive physical wall (RC) like Swampert, Metagross, or Flygon (RC) rounds up out the team, together with the ever present Tyranitar (RC) that provides for sand support,(AC) which works so well paired with Skarmory's Spikes in order to chip the opposing checks into range of a sweep.(semicolon -> period) Tyranitar can also provide Pursuit support for Flygon and Skarmory,(AC) who which really hate Gengar. Additionally, Pursuit can be used to chip opposing Forretress into Magneton's Hidden Power Fire range.

Magneton is also featured on Baton Pass teams, since they are weak to being phazed by Skarmory's Whirlwind. Physical Baton Pass teams feature either Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi or Swords Dance + Baton Pass Ninjask, rarely both. The most common recipients of the boosts are Dragon Dance users like Salamence, Gyarados, and,(AC) less frequently,(AC) Tyranitar, as well as Agility Metagross (RC) and Substitute + Liechi Berry Aerodactyl; paired with Ninjask,(AC) slow sweepers like Marowak and Medicham are also common. Alternatively, specially based Baton Pass teams featuring Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi are sometimes seen with Magneton, as Skarmory otherwise would be able to safely switch on Celebi and phaze it out, thus ruining the chain; additionally,(AC) these teams don't generally pack a spinner and therefore don't appreciate Skarmory setting multiple layers of Spikes.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Magneton doesn't overly need moves to function besides Thunderbolt + Hidden Power, which leaves it two free slots for some interesting options.
Endure allows Magneton to survive any one hit at 1 HP (RC) and therefore successfully be in range to activate the Speed boost of Salac Berry. After the boost, Timid Magneton can outrun the entire OU metagame barring Jolteon and Aerodactyl, critically and it crtically becomes faster than Dugtrio,(AC) meaning it cannot be successfully trapped succesfully by it.(comma -> period) Additionally,(AC) it becomes faster than offensive Starmie and can check it in a pinch, finally and it can be used as a surprise weapon to check Flygon and Salamence with Hidden Power Ice. Alternatively, or in conjunction with Endure, Magneton can be an effective weather clearer with Rain Dance or Sunny Day;(colon -> semicolon) removing sand is used to great advantage when it is partnered with sand-weak(AH) Pokemon like Suicune, Snorlax, or and Celebi. Metal Sound is another interesting move that allows Magneton to scare off special walls like Blissey (RC) and Celebi (RC) and can potentially enable it to trap specially defensive Wish Jirachi from full;(comma -> semicolon) and Metal Sound can also prevent last Pokemon Snorlax from sweeping your team. Swagger is an effective alternative when paired with Thunder Wave to generate key free turns for setup sweepers, Substitute users, or and stat passers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Substitute Heracross, Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi, or even and Ninjask. Charcoal is an alternative to Magnet,(AC) as it increases drastically the chances to OHKO Forretress and opposing Magneton with Hidden Power Fire;(comma -> semicolon) for this reason,(AC) it is sometimes seen on Skarm-Mag builds. Magneton can run Thunder as an option to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory when using a set without Magnet, albeit it's unreliable with only 70% accuracy.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio is a very effective counter to Magneton,(AC) as it can trap it Magneton with its ability Arena Trap and OHKO it with Earthquake.(comma -> period) It can also switch in on Thunderbolt as well as and revenge killing it kill Magneton after Magneton it has successfully trapped Skarmory. It is frequently possible to infer the presence of Magneton on a team and double switch(RH) it Dugtrio in on as Magneton tries to trap (I think this is what you mean here? Otherwise, I'm unsure why you'd include a point about trapping Skarmory with Magneton being so impactful in a section about Dugtrio) Skarmory;(colon -> semicolon) this is often a game-winning(AH) play. On the other hand,(AC) the only thing Dugtrio has to fear from Magneton is a potential Hidden Power Grass on the switch or the Endure + Salac Berry set.

**Blissey & and Celebi**: Both of these special walls can switch into Magneton and negate the Thunderbolt damage with their recovery moves, but they are forced out by Toxic,(AC) especially when it's paired with Protect or Substitute; for this very reason,(AC) teams that rely on Blissey or Celebi to sponge Magneton are often troubled by the combination of Thunderbolt + Toxic and have no good switches to it. The occasional Metal Sound or Screech might also give Blissey and Celebi issues.

**Claydol**: Claydol is a decent check to Magneton as because it can pivot in on Thunderbolt and threaten the OHKO with Earthquake, although it doesn't enjoy switching into Toxic or Hidden Power Grass.

**Flygon**: Flygon is also effective at punishing Magneton,(AC) as it can switch in on Thunderbolt or come in for a revenge kill after Skarmory was trapped (RC) consequently it can to get a free Substitute as Magneton switches out or stays in to use Toxic;(comma -> semicolon) since Magneton rarely runs Hidden Power Ice,(AC) Flygon only has to fear for Toxic on the switch.

**Revenge Killers**: While not many Pokemon can take Magneton's powerful Thunderbolt, many are just fast enough to OHKO Magneton it before it can do anything, including Salamence, Aerodactyl, Moltres, Charizard, and Heracross packing Brick Break.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [M Dragon, 21345]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]

as stated, I did a large text removal/reorganization in the overview; let me know if something was lost along the way via Discord (@MewBby#0926), and we can work it out. gp 1/2 when done

 

[mikmer]

ready for 2nd GP check

 

[CryoGyro]

GP 2/2

Hide

[OVERVIEW]

Magnet Pull Magneton plays a unique role in ADV OU thanks to its ability Magnet Pull that enables the by trapping of prominent Steel-type Pokemon like Skarmory, Forretress, Metagross, Jirachi, and opposing Magneton. Skarmory and Forretress are the Magneton's primary targets of this ability, as they are potentially OHKOed by Thunderbolt and or Hidden Power Fire, (comma) respectively, and they also give Magneton a free switch in when they are laying setting Spikes.

Despite its main use being a trapper for Steel-types, Magneton can do much more in a battle than trap Steel-types. For example, it can defensively check some threats, including Choice Band Salamence locked into Hidden Power Flying; Choice Band Metagross locked into Meteor Mash; Snorlax in sand lacking Earthquake or Fire Blast when under sand; and Choice Band Aerodactyl, Zapdos, and non-Fire Punch Gengar, albeit only once, with its good typing and many resistances. Additionally, Magneton can effectively pressure some defensive teams with its sheer power combined with the threat of status: Thunderbolt threatens Suicune and Milotic, while Toxic forces out Blissey and Celebi, and the switch-in either eats takes a chunk from Thunderbolt or gets hit by a nasty status move ailment.

Even though Magneton has a good defensive typing, it Magneton's overall good defensive typing often gets overshadowed by its 4x weakness to one of the most common attacks in ADV OU: Earthquake. This weakness means that it will be OHKOed by most physical attackers, (comma) in the tier including Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Swampert, Snorlax, Flygon, and Claydol. The weakness to Earthquake is especially exploited by Arena Trap Dugtrio, which can switch into Magneton's Thunderbolt and use its ability Arena Trap to ensure the KO trap Magneton; to make things worse, Dugtrio is commonly used alongside Magneton's primary trap target, Skarmory, turning the trap into a one-for-one trade at best. Furthermore, offensive Skarmory can potentially outspeed and OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground, while Forretress can sometimes survive Hidden Power Fire and OHKO back with Earthquake, which makes trapping these foes more difficult. Metagross and Jirachi at full health also generally win one-on-one against Magneton if they're at full health, meaning Magneton can't trap them without prior chip damage. Magneton's Fire- and Fighting-type weaknesses are also very relevant drawbacks, as they turn Moltres, mixed Salamence, and mixed Tyranitar into effective revenge killers.

[SET]
name: Trapper
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Grass
move 3: Toxic / Thunder Wave
move 4: Protect / Substitute
item: Magnet / Leftovers
ability: Magnet Pull
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 4HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Magneton's offensive movepool consists mainly of Thunderbolt, which hits everything in the metagame except for Ground-types and dedicated special walls like Blissey and Celebi for solid damage. It's worth noting that Thunderbolt can OHKO specially defensive Skarmory, 2HKO maximum HP Metagross, and 4HKO Snorlax in sand. Hidden Power Fire allows Magneton to covers Forretress and opposing Magneton, but Hidden Power Grass is very common to cover Ground-types such as Swampert and Claydol, (comma) as well as catching Dugtrio on the switch. With Hidden Power Grass, Magneton can run 31 Speed EVs, guaranteeing at least a Speed tie with Jolly offensive Skarmory.

Magneton is often packing a status move, either Thunder Wave or Toxic; the former is very effective at crippling Jirachi, (comma) as well as annoying Metagross and opposing Magneton, while the latter is effective at crippling cripples Ground-types like Swampert, Claydol, and Flygon on the switch. Toxic also has the surprisingly useful ability of forcing forces out Blissey and Celebi so that the incoming Pokemon has to take a powerful Thunderbolt. Since Hidden Power Grass already covers Ground-types, it gets usually paired with Thunder Wave, while Hidden Power Fire is most often paired with Toxic.

Protect is commonly paired with Toxic to increase the rate of poison damage, and it is also effective at scouting attacks from the opposing Pokemon, scouts foes' attacks, especially when facing Choice Band users such as Salamence and Aerodactyl. Substitute can pair with both Toxic and Thunder Wave; the former helps in forcing out Blissey and Celebi, while the latter can help in generating generate a free turn with a timely full paralysis, allowing Magneton to safely stay behind the Substitute. Substitute also has nice synergy with Leech Seed, allowing Magneton to wall slower threats like Suicune and Snorlax, (comma) as well as guaranteeing the Metagross traps by weakening it into KO range.

Magnet critically gives Magneton a much better chance to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. The difference between an OHKO and a 2HKO on OHKOing and 2HKOing Skarmory is huge, as it often translates in to an extra layer of Spikes for your entire team to deal with but could also translate to Skarmory phazing Magneton, giving it a chance to make a comeback in later stages of the game, especially if paired with Dugtrio or a Wish user such as Blissey or if paired with Dugtrio, which can trap Magneton. Magneton can alternatively use Leftovers to increase its longevity throughout the game; Leftovers works well on Magneton considering it's immune to sand, and when paired with Protect or Substitute, it can become much more annoying to deal with via repeated chip damage. Leftovers makes Magneton a lot more robust against Aerodactyl, (comma) Blissey, and Electric-types and also makes it much harder for Blissey to take Magneton down with repeated Seismic Tosses while it is poisoned by Toxic.

Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed maximizes Magneton's offensive potential and guarantee the Speed tie guarantees Speed tying with opposing Magneton with the same Hidden Power type. A Modest nature maximizes the odds of OHKOing Skarmory and is sufficient for outspeeding most Metagross, but it leaves Magneton outsped by or at best Speed tied slower than or Speed tying with Adamant offensive Skarmory, which can OHKO Magneton with Hidden Power Ground. A Timid nature allows Magneton to outspeed and trap Adamant Skarmory and opposing Modest Magneton but gives up the favorable roll to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory. Timid is frequently used when the team has a spinner such as Claydol and thus does not mind Skarmory sticking around for a little longer or when it is beneficial for Magneton to trap opposing Magneton, most notably with Skarmory as a partner. For the latter purpose, a good benchmark is having 32 Special Defense EVs to survive opposing Magneton's Hidden Power Fire. An alternative bulky spread is 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe with a Modest nature; this is designed to always survive Adamant Skarmory's Hidden Power Ground while retaining the Speed for standard specially defensive Skarmory. However, if Magneton seeks to survive Forretress's Earthquake, it needs to use this spread: 252 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 16 Spe with a Modest nature.

Team Options
========

Magneton is a key component in physical offense teams by virtue of its ability to get rid of removing Skarmory, which is the premier physical wall in ADV OU. Physical attackers like Gyarados, Salamence, Aerodactyl, and Flygon greatly benefit from the absence of Skarmory, while other threats like Metagross, Heracross, and Snorlax also appreciate the removal of Skarmory as a Spiker and phazer. On physical offense squads, Gyarados and Salamence often run a sweeper set with Dragon Dance, while Metagross can run a cleaner set with Agility, a luring set for Swampert with Hidden Power Grass, or a physically defensive set with Protect. Heracross runs a set with uses Substitute + Salac Berry to sweep late-game, while Snorlax can run a lure set with Self-Destruct to get rid of a key wall on the opposing team or be a late-game sweeper with Curse + Rest. Physical offense tends to be weak against Gengar, so Pursuit Tyranitar, or sometimes Houndoom, is a nice fit; Pursuit support also enables Curse + Earthquake Snorlax as well as a niche Pokemon like Steelix. A bulky Water-type like Swampert or Suicune often rounds out the team by giving it a check to opposing physical attackers.

Magneton is also a cornerstone on defensive teams that aim to get rid of Skarmory and Forretress to contain the hazards on the field Spikes. Since these teams are generally weak to Spikes, they always pack a spinner together with Magneton to make sure the entry hazard pressure is totally negated. The most common spinners paired with Magneton are Claydol and Starmie; a less common one but still seen in OU is Donphan. A defensive Celebi with Leech Seed is a common sight on these teams, since it's a set that struggles with both Skarmory and Forretress, and Leech Seed synergizes well with Substitute Magneton packing Substitute. Milotic and Suicune are also very common in on these teams, most often paired with Claydol to form a defensive core that is resilient to both offensive pressure as well as entry hazards. A bulky Metagross with Protect can be an alternative defensive backbone for the team, especially when paired with a bulky Rapid Spin Starmie with Rapid Spin. These teams often rely on a bulky setup sweeper like Curse + Rest Snorlax or Calm Mind + Rest Suicune as the late-game sweeper; since they really hate Spikes and getting phazed by Skarmory when they go through Rest cycles, it is clear that Magneton is a clear necessity on these teams. Pursuit support from Tyranitar and less commonly the rare Umbreon can facilitate the use of Rapid Spin, (comma) enable Donphan, and support while also enabling the niche of Donphan, as well as supporting a CurseLax sets without Shadow Ball. A Ground-immune or Fighting-resistant Pokemon like Choice Band Salamence, Zapdos, or Moltres often rounds out the team.

Magneton is also commonly seen paired with Skarmory, forming the popular Skarm-Mag core. Magneton not only can trap opposing Skarmory and Forretress, therefore ensuring your Skarmory will win the Spikes war, but it can also trap opposing Magneton, allowing saving your Skarmory to be safe from getting trapped. These teams often feature a sturdy special wall, like Blissey or Celebi, in combination with a powerful wallbreaker like Choice Band Salamence to provide offensive pressure paired with Spikes. Alternatively, a fast sweeper like Aerodactyl is used in combination with a soft Zapdos check like Venusaur or Jirachi to keep up offensive momentum. A physical wall like Swampert, Metagross, or Flygon rounds out the team, together with the ever present Tyranitar for sand support, which works so well paired with Skarmory's Spikes to chip the opposing checks into range of a sweep. Tyranitar can also provide Pursuit support for Flygon and Skarmory, which really hate Gengar. Additionally, Pursuit can be used to chip opposing Forretress into Magneton's Hidden Power Fire KO range.

Magneton is also featured on Baton Pass teams, since they are weak to being phazed by Skarmory's Whirlwind. Physical Baton Pass teams feature either Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi or Swords Dance + Baton Pass Ninjask, rarely both. The most common recipients of the boosts are Dragon Dance users like Salamence, Gyarados, and, less frequently, Tyranitar, as well as Agility Metagross and Substitute + Liechi Berry Aerodactyl; paired with Ninjask, slow sweepers like Marowak and Medicham are also common. Alternatively, specially based Baton Pass teams featuring Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi are sometimes seen with Magneton, as Skarmory otherwise would be able to safely switch on Celebi and phaze it, thus ruining the chain; additionally, these teams don't generally pack a spinner and therefore don't appreciate Skarmory setting multiple layers of Spikes.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Magneton doesn't overly need moves to function besides only needs Thunderbolt + Hidden Power to function, which leaves it two free slots for some interesting options.
Endure allows Magneton to survive any one hit at 1 HP to activate Salac Berry. After the boost, Timid Magneton can outrun the entire OU metagame barring Jolteon and Aerodactyl, and it critically becomes faster than Dugtrio, meaning it cannot be successfully trapped. Additionally, it becomes faster than offensive Starmie and can check it in a pinch, and it can be used as a surprise weapon to check Flygon and Salamence with Hidden Power Ice. Alternatively, or in conjunction with Endure, Magneton can be an effective weather clearer with Rain Dance or Sunny Day; removing sand is used to great advantage when it is partnered with sand-weak Pokemon like Suicune, Snorlax, and Celebi. Metal Sound is another interesting move that allows Magneton to scare off special walls like Blissey and Celebi and can potentially enable it to trap specially defensive Wish Jirachi from full HP; Metal Sound can also prevent last Pokemon Snorlax from sweeping your team. Swagger is an effective alternative when paired with Thunder Wave to generate key free turns for setup sweepers, Substitute users, and stat passers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Substitute Heracross, Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi, and Ninjask. Charcoal is an alternative to Magnet, as it increases drastically increases the chances to OHKO Forretress and opposing Magneton with Hidden Power Fire; for this reason, it is sometimes seen on Skarm-Mag builds. Magneton can run the admittedly unreliable Thunder to OHKO specially defensive Skarmory when using a set without Magnet, albeit it's unreliable with only 70% accuracy.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio is a very effective counter to Magneton, as it can trap Magneton with its ability Arena Trap and OHKO with Earthquake trapping and OHKOing it. It Dugtrio can also switch in on Thunderbolt and revenge kill Magneton after it has successfully trapped Skarmory. It is frequently possible to infer the presence of Magneton on a team and double switch Dugtrio in as Magneton tries to trap Skarmory; this is often a game-winning play. On the other hand, The only things Dugtrio has to fear from Magneton is a are potential Hidden Power Grass on the switch or and the Endure + Salac Berry set.

**Blissey and Celebi**: Both of these special walls Blissey and Celebi can switch into Magneton and negate the Thunderbolt damage with their recovery moves, but they are forced out by Toxic, especially when it's paired with Protect or Substitute; for this very reason, teams that rely on Blissey or Celebi to sponge Magneton are often troubled by the combination of Thunderbolt + Toxic and have no good switches to it. The occasional Metal Sound or Screech might also give Blissey and Celebi issues.

**Claydol**: Claydol is a decent check to Magneton because it can pivot in on switch into Thunderbolt and threaten the an OHKO with Earthquake, although it doesn't enjoy switching into Toxic or Hidden Power Grass.

**Flygon**: Flygon is also effective at punishing Magneton, as it can switch in on Thunderbolt or come in for a revenge kill after Skarmory was trapped to get a free Substitute as Magneton switches out or stays in to use Toxic; since Magneton rarely runs Hidden Power Ice, Flygon only has to fear for Toxic on the switch.

**Revenge Killers**: While not many Pokemon can take Magneton's powerful Thunderbolt, many are just fast enough to OHKO it before it can do anything, including Salamence, Aerodactyl, Moltres, Charizard, and Brick Break Heracross packing Brick Break.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [M Dragon, 21345]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]

 

[mikmer]

done

 

[vapicuno]

awesome. cleaned up a minor linebreak and will upload now.