Is Magneton a good counter to Lapras?
I see that Magneton's ranking is an 8 for its high attack stats and steel type resistances. im curious as to its uses as an attacker. given Ice is weak to steel and water is weak to electric. Would my spark? Flash Cannon Magneton counter Lapras well? are there better options besides my standard Flareon?
Answers
arcanine, snorlax, omastar, jolteon (this one only if ur an excellent dodger) and if/when zapdos comes out will all be good lapras counters. and of course as you mentioned above, flareon. though i personally prefer arcanine due to flareons low stamina (same with jolteon). vaporeon is also an option since it resists ice, though that would be a painfully slow fight as they both resist eachother.
lapras, remember does not yield any extra damage to steel attacks, just electric (this due to the fact that water resists steel, shoring up one of those two weaknesses). i believe any one of these mon listed above are better lapras counters than magneton, but its still a fun variant to try.
Please test it, i would be glad to read how magneton does here as i maybe want to build one.
My theoretical view tells, that magnetons steal typing comes with a low effective defense, so damage reduction is somehow already concidered.
I see two possible partial type counters to Lapras: Electric (Jolteon) for super effective damage or Fire (Flareon, Arcanine) for reduced damage taken.
You can use what besser matches with your style.
The other option i see are generalist attackers as alakazam, gyarados or snorlax.
About two days ago I attempted to prestige against two 2k Lapras with my two 1.2k Magnetons. Granted my Magnetons did not have great movesets, TS/FC and TS/MB, but I was very unimpressed with their performance.
Those charge moves are either lengthy (FC) or just don't do enough to justify taking a hit (MB). Magneton doesn't really have the stamina to be able to afford the hits.
If I ever get my hands on a Spark/Discharge one I may try it again. Until then I'll probably use other mons against Lapras.
Edit: Seriously though... in that same training session, I brought 2 1.1k CP double dragon Seadras as backup who ended up cleaning up the Laprases and they felt nicer to use than the Magnetons.
There is a decent chance of that. However Discharge is almost certainly a better option against Lapras because it is super effective and the attack durations line up so you can usually fit Discharge between Frost Breaths and can absolutely fit it between Ice Shards.
Then you'd actually be able to use your charge move without taking full damage quick moves to the face.
As of now, there is no hard counter of Lapras, which makes Lapras the actual best defender in the game.
Magneton has perfect typing against Lapras, but is crippled with low CP (low STM, to be specific) and mediocre move set.
If he had STM over 150 and he could learn Thunderbolt or Thunder as Charge Move, he would then be a true counter of Lapras.
Now he serves as a trainer against Lapras when training a gym up. Normally it takes two Magnetons to beat one Lapras twice the CP.
Tyranitar (Bite + Stone Edge) in Gen2, and Blaziken (Low kick + Cross Chop) in Gen3 would be true counters of Lapras as well.
I have a 2035 Thunder Shock/Discharge Magneton that I find to be an indispensable part of my attack lineup. (I decided a while back to save Eeveelutions so I don't have many Jolteons.) Of course, his primary role is crushing Gyarados, but he also rolls right into Vaporeon. And yes, he rules Lapras too. As an aside I really prefer TS over S - just quicker enough to work a lot better against the AI.
