I feel the need to defend Azelf, Flygon and Gyarados, as they form half of one of my best teams.
Azelf is a very versatile lead. People see it as just suicide but that's just dumb. Take that label to Aerodactyl because Azelf can set up weather, use U-turn to fake out Ghost-types (or, y'know, just double-switch out), use its more than decent SpA to dent stuff... the list goes on, really. MAYBE it is slightly overrated, but its place in the lead statistics is completely justified. Personally, I liked using Azelf as a sort of "terrorist", switching in and threatening Explosion only to keep faking the opponent out.
Ok, maybe i was too hard on azelf, but you gotta admit it has a 4 moveslot syndrom. It wants u-turn, explosion, psychic, fireblast, sr, taunt, color berry, and maybe some other stuff. It has alot of stuff it can do but any 1 set has serious flaws. Mirror matches suck, as does getting taunted by aerodactl. Unpredectability never made anything good in the past and it cant now. Yeah, it'll get you wins but if you ever play the same person again it loses effectiveness.
I should probably replace azelf with UXIE. I know its not ou but i have seen good players lead with it. Trick scarf sets are 100% countered by flygon, thunderwave versions by shaymin, and anyset lets stall get sr+spikes. Knockoff/u-turn/psychic/sr is cool with a magnezone or something but no one uses that.
Gyra stays on my list, though i admit its pretty good against stall teams.
Machamp is worth his rating, though I prefer him out of the lead position. Sub+3 Attacks is great, especially if you can get paralysis support. With Paralysis support and a free Sub by parahax, it can be gg quickly.
Electivire is bad, but not insanely terribad. Umbreon is really bad. Weavile is really bad. Smeargle is really niche. Dusknoir is, well, I haven't seen one in forever. Suicune is not overrated. If I had to say any one Pokemon was really overrated, I would say
At that point why not use breloom? He can make twice as many subs, has a second stab, SPORE, and can even use stun spore himself (not a bad move on him either, although missing sucks).
Whoever said gengar is crazy. IMO hes one of the biggest threats there is. Especially when paired with heatran+breloom+gyra.
Yeah, being faster than the majority of the metagame without a choice item or gimmick and the ability to check and trap a lot of its threats is pretty bad.
It is if you cant switch in on anything. Gengar subs, starmie hydro pumps, shaymin seed flares, etc. He is better then electavire though. And anything is better then umbreon.
My vote would be for Roserade. Hard to switch-in, and relatively helpless once sleep clause is activated (though that does mean one mon is out, so that's saying something). It does absorb and set up toxic spikes, but it's offensive presence was quite low despite that 125 special attack. Depending on hidden power, either heatran or salamence/skarm/shaymin was getting infinite free switch-ins... It provides good utility, but is hard to switch in, and is a liability after it does its job.
Agreed, but if youre good at double switching it can be helpful. Theres alot of pokes that cant do alot to it. Its not that bad, but i like the lead set better. And outside of leading i'd rather use forteress+shaymin or something.