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Luxray is powerful but slow.

Alright, I was plenty busy over the weekend so now I'll talk about Electric-types in competitive play. smile


Zapdos
Zapdos has seen some surprising shifts in usage. At first glance, Zapdos would appear to be used solely as a simple sweeper... and maybe not a good one since it lacks the variety needed to stay in play. (Although being a Base-580 pokemon, its defenses would be slightly higher than run-of-the-mill sweepers.) Up through Diamond and Pearl, its only non-electric special attacks have been:

Ancient Power
Hyper Beam
Hidden Power
Extrasensory (from Pokemon XD: Gale Of Darkness)


However, Zapdos found its own niche as a Baton Passer, either of Agility or Substitute. In the 3rd gen, apparently this was "unstoppable" ; but it should be noted that this set is notoriously difficult set to put together in real life. It basically boils down to two reasons:

*Baton Pass is only available on Zapdos caught in Pokemon XD: Gale Of Darkness (the last battle)
*This set is dependent on Hidden Power for type coverage (which is hard to reliably figure out in-battle, a necessity since this is the last battle.)


Interestingly enough, Pokemon Platinum's Move Tutors have opened up additional possibilities for Zapdos, introducing much-needed additional special attacks:

Signal Beam
Air Cutter
Ominous Wind
Heat Wave
Twister


Not all of those are necessarily powerful in their own regard, but it's a good start. They've mostly allowed Zapdos to begin focusing on defensive and offensive roles, no longer relying on a good Hidden Power for non-electric coverage. In particular, Heat Wave appears to be a fairly popular choice. (It should be noted that when Zapdos focuses on being offensive, it still wants to use Hidden Power for coverage, using the above moves to increase the versatility.)


Magnezone
Magnezone's most famous usage is as a steel killer. Thanks to Magnet Pull, opposing Steel-type pokemon cannot switch out without assistance. (U-Turn, Baton Pass, Shed Skin.) Most Steel-type pokemon are defensive on the physical side, meaning Magnezone's incredibly high special attack will leave them decimated.

Magnezone's biggest fear is ground-type attacks. It has Magnet Rise to get around this, but because of its overall slow speed (even compared to other Steel-types) you generally need to out-think your opponent.


Jolteon
Jolteon boasts an incredible speed at its disposal. Because of this, it is quite common to use it as a special sweeper, but like the old Zapdos it suffers from movepool problems. Jolteon often finds itself playing around with Baton Pass ideas, but generally avoiding Baton Passing Agility since Zapdos does that better.


Electivire
Among electric-type pokemon, Electivire is quite noteworthy because of its incredible type coverage. It is also quite proficient in the physical department, allowing it to get around the anti-special pokemon Blissey much better than most electrics. It is not unusual for Electivire to sport some form of mixed attacking in order to deal with walls, both special and physical.

Electivire's primary problem is the dependence on a Motor Drive boost to remain competitive in the speed department without sacrificing versatility in type-coverage. Because of this, Electivire is often kept on the back lines of the team and other electric-weak pokemon are used to troll for electric attacks.

Sounds fine to me. No rush, pressure, desu, etc etc etc. 3nodding


I'm surprised more people haven't come to talk about their favorite electric pokemon since I only posted about the most used (that I'm aware of)...

for though?
you mean, uh, I have no Idea actually.