Legendary Pokémon

Pokemon of the Week DP: Azelf

Sets

Nasty Plot

Item Held

Life Orb / Expert Belt

Nature

Timid (+Speed, -Attack)

Effort Points

252 Special Attack - 252 Speed - 6 HP

• Psychic
• Flamethrower
• Hidden Power Fighting / Grass Knot
• Nasty Plot

Azelf's sweeping skills are certainly undeniable, to begin with. Coming from a Special Attack stat of 349, any hit this little creature throws will deal some good amounts of damage to Pokémon that don't resist it. Add the fantastic move that D/P brought, Nasty Plot, and you've got a real killer. Just think about it. Nasty Plot, Life Orb, a base stat of 125 and STABed Psychic can take down many Pokémon. Flamethrower covers Steel-type Pokémon as well as Celebi. Hidden Power Fighting is a great move as it covers Dark-type Pokémon, immune to Psychic, plus the three Pokémon resisting/being immune to both Psychic and Flamethrower - Tyranitar, Heatran and Houndoom. It also hits Weavile really hard. Grass Knot is an alternative if Hidden Power Fighting isn't accessible but that doesn't mean it's a bad move as it prevents Tyranitar from walling you.

Since boosting your hits as much as possible is a must, the best item choice is definitely Life Orb. Expert Belt is just a replacement if you hate the recoil damage, but its boost applies only to super-effective moves.

Regarding Azelf's EP spread, the one listed above is just the generic one. The Speed stat you must hit is 352 (requiring 216 EPs with a Speed IV of 31) so that Gengar and other +Speed, base 110 Speed Pokémon cannot outrun you. Of course, maxing Speed is suggested so that you can outrun some other base 115 Speed Pokémon who just stop at 352, like Starmie or Raikou.

Suicide Lead

Item Held

Focus Sash

Nature

Timid (+Speed, -Attack)

Effort Points

252 Special Attack - 252 Speed - 6 HP

• Taunt
• Stealth Rock
• Psychic
• Fire Blast / Explosion

This Azelf set (as well as many other suicidal leading sets) are becoming more and more common day by day and there must be a reason for it. It's one of the few Pokémon that can mess up so easily with all those usual leads, while almost always setting Stealth Rock without failing due to Focus Sash. Setting those rocks is obviously your first priority, however, should a troublesome leading Pokémon appear, you can act accordingly. Gengar is OHKOed by Psychic, same goes for Roserade. Bronzong will fall to Fire Blast as will Yanmega, Abomasnow and Weavile. Non-offensive leads (such as Bronzong, Hippowdon and maybe even Gliscor) can be met with a fast Taunt, making them lose the first turn as well as the second since they'll have to either switch or get locked in an attack that won't knock Azelf out, giving you all the necessary time to set Stealth Rock. In the final slot, Explosion can replace Fire Blast since it is Azelf's only way of badly hurting leads like Gyarados and Zapdos after Stealth Rock has been set. Of course, you can keep both moves if coverage is what you desire, by giving up Taunt, although it's not really recommended.

As far as the Effort Point distribution goes, should you choose Explosion over Fire Blast, the nature should be Naive and probably you should add some Attack EPs. After all, since it's a suicidal lead set and not a sweeper, 252 EPs in Special Attack aren't so important.

Non Nasty Plot Sweeper

Item Held

Life Orb

Nature

Naive (+Speed, -Special Defense)

Effort Points

252 Special Attack - 216 Speed - 42 Attack

• Psychic
• Flamethrower
• Grass Knot
• Explosion

Same sweeping set as above, but without the Nasty Plot boost this time. Azelf's hits are already powerful enough to score some KOs and with Explosion, Blissey won't stop you. Hidden Power Fighting isn't really needed in this set, unless you are really scared of Heatran.

CS Azelf

Item Held

Choice Specs

Nature

Naive (+Speed, -Special Defense)

Effort Points

252 Special Attack - 216 Speed - 42 Attack

• Psychic
• Flamethrower
• Grass Knot
• Explosion / U-Turn

If you think Azelf is too frail to pull off a Nasty Plot, a set with Choice Specs is ideal. Once again, the same moves are here for maximum type coverage. U-Turn becomes and option in this set for scouting opponents' moves while switching a counter in. However, Explosion will be the superior option most of the time, mainly for dealing with Blissey.

Other Possible Options

As most of the Psychic-type legendary Pokémon, Azelf's movepool is quite vast. Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt are its other noteable choices as far as sweeping goes, for covering Pokémon like Dusknoir and Gyarados respectively.

Unfortunately, even though it has a respectable base stat of 125 in Attack, Azelf's only Physical options are Return, U-Turn and Iron Tail. As one can easily guess, a Physical moveset for Azelf isn't a great idea.

A moveset using Choice Scarf is certainly an option, mainly for dealing with Weavile and Choice Scarf Garchomp. Finally, Azelf can have a Focus Sash for surviving a Night Slash/Pursuit by Weavile and use Explosion.

Counters

Azelf is a Special Sweeper so send in your Blissey, Snorlax, Togekiss or Cresselia and either knock it out with Crunch/Pursuit or render it useless with Thunder Wave or Yawn. Nevertheless, a Life Orb boosted Explosion will definitely hurt.

Dark-type Pokémon, immune to Psychic, are quite good counters to Azelf. Houndoom is obviously the best one as it is immune to Flamethrower and resistant to Grass Knot as well. It should look out for Hidden Power Fighting and Explosion though. Weavile hates Flamethrower but if it switches in, it can knock out Azelf with Pursuit/Night Slash. Spiritomb with its immunity to both Psychic and Explosion can beat Azelf with Sucker Punch or Pursuit. Other Sucker Punch users like Absol and Banette can get a revenge kill if Azelf chooses to attack them. Dusknoir can also bring Azelf down with its Shadow Sneak.

Of course, Heatran is one of the best counters to any Azelf lacking Hidden Power Fighting. It resists all of its other moves and can easily take Azelf down with its STABed moves or the occasional Dark Pulse.

Opinion & Notes

This little fairy looking thing proves that, sometimes, looks are deceiving. This innocent creature will rip through whole teams with its Nasty Plot, Life Orb boosted hits. Try to stop it with a Special Wall, and then you get an Explosion coming from its quite high Attack stat. It looks like Game Freak loves those powerful Psychic-type legendaries. Of course, Azelf isn't an unstoppable sweeping machine. Its below average HP, Defense and Special Defense won't help it switch in easily and combined with Sandstorm, Stealth Rock and Life Orb recoil damage, it won't last long. However, in this short time of its reign in the field, it can easily take down a team, making it one of the most powerful Sweepers that D/P introduced to competitive battling.

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