Yes, speed was part of it. But it was a lot that he just didn't have the power, which is the angle that I am trying to go for, and using to demonstrate that coverage does not mean kills. It's why his more common sets in RU (which is where it sits as of BW2, btw, and one with a significantly lower speed standard) tend to run choice bands or mixed sets now, because otherwise he doesn't stack up. Go ahead and look up electivire's set right now. It says outright that it cannot OHKO many threats, and that's in RU, with high BP attacks and 123 attack. Thus, it is a good late game sweeper; something which Delphox, with it's weakness to all forms of entry hazard and lack of priority (like talonflame or scizor) or speed boosting (like lucario and blaziken) or pure high speed (like greninja or noivern) is completely outclassed in doing. And again, that terrible terrible defensive typing. I cannot stress that enough.
Now, onto other business. 1/3 of a pokemon's life that has a 4x resist and a fair bit of bulk is hefty as hell. Once you factor in SR or spikes or minor damage, that Kingdra can only switch into V-Create twice and survive (and that's assuming that it's at full health to begin with, which it probably won't be if you're a good player and not throwing out v-creates willy-nilly). That is a big deal given that aforementioned 4x resist. Imagine if ferrothorn could only switch into a grass move twice, or if heatran could only take two bug type attacks before he died. V-Create is a great move, and you are kidding yourself if you think it's not. When used right, it is a nuclear bomb. Also, you're ignoring my other examples of bolt strike, searing shot, u-turn, thunderbolt, psyshock, the newly buffed energy ball, brick break (if you wanted), shadow ball, etc. Beats the hell out of fire move/shadow ball/psyshock/weak HP coverage move. You also mention that it failed to make much a of a splash in OU. What makes Delphox more likely to than Victini, then? the frailer build?
And man, you just showed that Mega gengar, a pokemon with 170 base Special attack and STAB on shadow ball, maybe gets a 3hko on a defensive heatran. Showing that the strongest possible attack of a given type 3hkos a pokemon doesn't really prove that Delphox is going to do much better with it's shadow ball. Yes, the nerf to steel hurts; but heatran has the stats and typing and ability to capitilize on what it does have, which is a lot. People are counting down the days for heatran to be released just so they can use him to counter the threats tearing up OU right now, like Talonflame. But even that's irrelevant, since we're not talking about Heatran's viabilty; we're talking about Delphox's.
