Magneton

Electric/Steel · Magnet Pull · B tier · base 50/60/95/120/70/70 · the Steel-trapper. Magnet Pull pins Skarmory on the field and deletes it with a Thunderbolt or Hidden Power Fire — and once Skarmory is gone, your physical sweepers have no wall left. This is the engine of the DragMag core, the single cleanest answer to the wall every aggressive team is built to break.

Typing & role

Magneton is not a sweeper, a breaker, or a pivot. It is a scalpel with one job: trap and kill a Steel-type, and on aggressive offense that Steel is almost always Skarmory. Base 120 Special Attack off Electric/Steel gives it real punch, but the stat line is otherwise unremarkable — 50/95 special bulk that lets it eat one resisted hit, base 70 Speed that loses to most of the metagame, and a physical bulk of 25/70 that folds to any neutral physical attack. None of that matters. What matters is Magnet Pull, the ability that prevents Steel-types from switching out while Magneton is on the field. You bring Magneton in on a Steel, the Steel is trapped, and you remove it. Then you cash in elsewhere.

That makes Magneton the mirror image of Dugtrio: both are trapping tools that spend themselves to delete one specific obstacle, but where Dugtrio traps the grounded anchors (Blissey, Tyranitar, the Steels — anything not Flying or Levitate), Magneton traps the Steels specifically — including the Flying Steel, Skarmory, that Dugtrio can never touch. The two are the tier’s defining trappers and they cover different lists. Knowing exactly which Pokemon Magnet Pull catches is the whole skill of piloting it.

The site embeds a TypeProfile widget above this section showing the full Electric/Steel resist/weakness spread. The headline of that spread: Electric/Steel resists a long list of types but carries a crippling 4× weakness to Ground (Ground vs Electric 2× × Ground vs Steel 2×), a 2× weakness to Fire (Fire vs Steel 2×), and a 2× weakness to Fighting (Fighting vs Steel 2×). It is immune to Poison (Steel) and resists Ice down to 0.5× (Steel resists Ice). The Ground weakness is why Dugtrio is the cleanest answer to Magneton in the entire tier — Earthquake is a guaranteed 4× kill.

Why it matters to aggressive offense

The central problem of ADV offense is breaking the SkarmBliss + bulky Water + Snorlax backbone (see building aggressive offense), and Skarmory is the keystone of the physical half. Skarmory walls nearly every physical attacker behind 140 Defense, lays the tier’s only entry hazard, and Roars your Dragon Dance / Swords Dance boosts away before you can sweep. If Skarmory is alive and healthy, your physical offense does not function. Magneton’s entire reason to exist is to make that not be true.

Here is the loop that makes Magneton a top-tier piece despite a B-tier stat line:

• Trap Skarmory and delete it. Skarmory is a Steel-type, so Magnet Pull locks it in the moment Magneton comes in. Thunderbolt hits Steel/Flying for 2× (Electric vs Flying 2×) and Hidden Power Fire hits Steel/Flying for 2× (Fire vs Steel 2×) — either one 2HKOs the standard 252 HP Skarmory, and the Substitute variant can often do it from behind a Sub that blocks Roar. Skarmory cannot run, cannot phaze Magneton off the trap through the Sub, and cannot KO back (base 40 SpA). It simply dies. This is the canonical interaction and the entire premise of the DragMag core (common cores).
• Open the physical sweep. With Skarmory off the board, a Salamence or Gyarados Dragon Dance set, or a Heracross Swords Dance set, has no physical wall left to stop it. The whole point of removing Skarmory is that there is no second copy — once it’s gone, the boosted physical sweeper runs the table. Magneton doesn’t sweep; it unlocks the sweep.
• Pin the other Steels and Spikers too. Magnet Pull isn’t Skarmory-only. It also traps Metagross, Jirachi, Forretress, and opposing Magneton — every grounded Steel pivot and every Steel Spiker. Against Forretress (Bug/Steel), Hidden Power Fire is 4× (Fire vs Bug 2× × Fire vs Steel 2×), an instant kill that simultaneously removes a Spiker and Rapid Spinner. Against Metagross and Jirachi (both Steel/Psychic), HP Fire is 2× while Thunderbolt is only neutral — so the Fire variant doubles as Steel-pivot removal, not just Skarmory removal.
• Clear opposing hazards and weather at the source. Removing the opposing Skarmory or Forretress doesn’t just open a sweep — it removes the Spiker, so the opponent can’t keep re-laying the layers your offense is racing against. Trapping a Steel is hazard control by assassination.

In every case the value is the guarantee. A normal attacker threatens Skarmory and Skarmory switches to a bulky Water or Roars and resets. Magneton threatens Skarmory and Skarmory stays in and dies. That guarantee — converting a “they pivot, you reset” stalemate into a removed wall — is what an aggressive team pays a slot for, and it’s why DragMag is one of the most reliable wall-breaking engines in the format.

Key sets

There is one canonical Magneton chassis — the max Special Attack / max Speed Trapper — and the only real choices inside it are which Hidden Power you carry and which utility fills the last slot. That Hidden Power decision is the most important set-building call Magneton has, so it gets its own section below. Both blocks here are the same canonical Trapper set; they differ only in the Hidden Power and last-slot resolution.

Trapper — HP Fire

The DragMag standard. HP Fire guarantees the 2× on Skarmory while also nailing Forretress for 4×, and Substitute keeps the trap airtight against Roar.

Magneton @ Magnet
Ability: Magnet Pull
Modest Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Fire
- Toxic
- Substitute

This is the canonical Trapper with the Hidden Power Fire and Substitute slash options taken. Thunderbolt is the primary STAB and 2× on Skarmory. Hidden Power Fire is the redundant 2× on Skarmory and the 4× on Forretress / 2× on Metagross/Jirachi — it lets Magneton break Steels that resist or shrug off Thunderbolt. Toxic punishes the bulky Waters and Grounds that wall Magneton — if a Swampert or Suicune comes in to absorb the Electric hit, Toxic puts a clock on it. Substitute is the load-bearing utility on the aggressive build: it eats Skarmory’s Roar (so the trapped bird can’t phaze Magneton off the trap before it dies), blocks status from a desperate switch-in, and scouts. Magnet boosts Thunderbolt to push the guaranteed kills further — it is by far the most-used Magneton item on the ladder. Modest over Timid is the usual call because Magneton’s job is to kill the trapped Steel, not to outspeed the field — at base 70 it loses the speed race regardless, so it maximizes the guaranteed kill instead.

Trapper — HP Grass

The anti-Swampert resolution of the same canonical chassis. Trades the Forretress/Metagross matchup for coverage on the bulky Grounds that wall the HP Fire build, with Thunder Wave for paralysis support.

Magneton @ Magnet
Ability: Magnet Pull
Modest Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Grass
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute

Same canonical Trapper, with the Hidden Power Grass and Thunder Wave slash options taken. Hidden Power Grass is the key swap. Magneton’s Thunderbolt does literally nothing to Swampert (Electric vs Ground = 0×, the immunity), and the HP Fire build is also walled cold by it — but HP Grass is 4× on Swampert (Grass vs Water 2× × Grass vs Ground 2×) and 2× on any pure-Water switch-in like Suicune or Milotic. This is the resolution you run when the opposing Ground/Water core is your bigger problem than Forretress. Thunder Wave is de-facto speed control: paralysis cuts the target’s Speed to 1/4 (see mechanics fundamentals), so even a Magneton that doesn’t trap something can cripple a faster threat for the rest of the game, smoothing the path for your slower sweepers. The trade-off is real: dropping HP Fire means you lose the clean Forretress/Metagross kill, so this resolution leans on teammates for Steel-pivot removal.

The HP Fire vs HP Grass tradeoff

This is the decision that defines the set, and it is a genuine fork — you can only run one Hidden Power.

The rule of thumb: HP Fire is the default because it maximizes the Steel-removal job (Skarmory and Forretress and the Steel pivots), which is what DragMag exists to do. HP Grass is the answer to a Swampert-heavy or bulky-Water-heavy opponent — without it, both your STAB and your Hidden Power are dead weight into Swampert, the most common defensive Ground in the tier. Most DragMag teams run HP Fire and lean on a teammate (MixMence HP Grass, a bulky Water’s Ice Beam) for the Swampert problem; the HP Grass Magneton is the specialist pick when your team is otherwise soft to the Ground/Water backbone.

How an aggressive team uses it

Magneton is a setup-enabler, not a setup sweeper — you spend it to make a teammate’s sweep inevitable. The DragMag loop:

1. Identify the wall your physical wincon loses to. If your win condition is DD Salamence, DD Gyarados, SD Heracross, or CB Tyranitar, the answer is almost always Skarmory — it walls all of their physical output and phazes the boosted ones. Magneton is the slot that removes it.
2. Bring Magneton in safely. It can’t switch into much (25/70 physical bulk dies to neutral hits), but it switches into Skarmory’s Drill Peck or Spikes turn for free, eats a resisted Electric/Normal/Ice/Flying hit, or comes in on a forced switch. The cleanest entry is right as the opponent goes to Skarmory — Magnet Pull snaps shut and the bird is trapped from that turn on.
3. Trap and kill. Substitute on the predicted Roar or switch, then Thunderbolt + HP Fire the trapped Skarmory until it’s gone. The Sub means Skarmory can’t phaze you off the trap, and base 40 SpA means it can’t meaningfully hurt you back. Two turns, dead Skarmory.
4. Cash in. With Skarmory removed and no second physical wall behind it, send in your DD/SD sweeper. It now boosts and sweeps a team that has nothing left to wall it. Sequence the trap before the sweep, not after — Magneton’s job is done the moment Skarmory dies.

The mental model is identical to Dugtrio’s: a one-time “delete this Steel” button. You don’t preserve Magneton for the late game; you spend it the instant removing Skarmory wins you the match. On the canonical DragMag HO sample team (sample teams) the lead Skarmory even runs Hidden Power Ground specifically to punish the opposing Magneton trying to do this to you — a tell of how central the interaction is to the archetype.

Counters & checks

Because Magneton is slow and frail, beating it is about denying the trap or punishing its weaknesses:

• Dugtrio. The hard answer. Magneton is Electric/Steel and Earthquake hits both halves for 2× each — 4× super effective — so a trapped, Arena-Trapped Magneton is an instant, guaranteed kill before it can act. If their DragMag relies on Magneton to delete your Skarmory, Dugtrio answers it directly and dies to nothing in return.
• Swampert and bulky Grounds. Swampert is immune to Thunderbolt (Electric vs Ground = 0×) and tanks everything else from the HP Fire set, so a Magneton without HP Grass is walled cold — Swampert switches in for free, eats the Sub turn, and Roars or Toxics it. Any Ground-type ignores the Electric STAB entirely. This is precisely why the HP Grass variant exists.
• Fire and Fighting attackers. Magneton’s 2× weaknesses to both Fire and Fighting mean a Charizard Fire Blast, MixMence Fire Blast, Heracross Brick Break, or Medicham Brick Break blows straight through its modest special bulk. It cannot trade with anything that hits it super-effectively.
• Don’t bring your Steel in low, or bring a Flyer instead. The defensive counterplay to DragMag is the same as to any trapper: keep your Skarmory above the 2HKO threshold so it isn’t sitting at a number Magneton can finish, or — better — lean on Flying/Levitate walls and bulky Waters that aren’t Steel and therefore can’t be trapped at all. Skarmory itself can run Hidden Power Ground (4× on the Electric/Steel Magneton) to threaten an incoming Magneton before it commits to the trap, the standard mind-game on the lead.
• Fast physical attackers in general. At base 70 Speed and 25/70 physical bulk, almost any faster physical Pokemon revenge-kills Magneton outright once it’s done its job — but by then it usually has, which is the point. Magneton trades itself for Skarmory and considers that a win.

For the aggressive pilot the takeaway runs both ways: Magneton is how you delete the opposing Skarmory and free your physical sweep, and the way to stop the opponent’s Magneton is to either trap it back with Dugtrio, wall it with Swampert, or simply not anchor your defense on a Steel. See building aggressive offense for how Magneton slots into a DragMag structure, common cores for the engine itself, and the viability tiers for where it sits among the B-rank pieces.

See also

• Skarmory — the wall Magneton exists to delete. The #1 reason to run a trapper on aggressive offense.
• Dugtrio — the other trapper; covers the grounded anchors Magneton can’t, and is itself the cleanest answer to Magneton (4× Earthquake).
• Salamence / Gyarados / Heracross — the physical sweepers DragMag opens up once Skarmory is gone.
• Metagross / Jirachi — the Steel pivots Magneton also pins; HP Fire is the button that breaks them.
• Building aggressive offense · Common cores · Sample teams · Mechanics & calc reference