| Lightning Rod | |
|---|---|
| Smogon rating | 3 |
| Pokémon running it in Reg M-B | 5 |
Mega Sceptile
0.85%
100%
Raichu
0.33%
98.4%
Rhyperior
0.12%
35%
Pikachu
0.04%
89.7%
Manectric
0.02%
83%
This Pokemon is immune to Electric-type moves and raises its Special Attack by 1 stage when hit by an Electric-type move. If this Pokemon is not the target of a single-target Electric-type move used by another Pokemon, this Pokemon redirects that move to itself if it is within the range of that move. If multiple Pokemon could redirect with this Ability, it goes to the one with the highest Speed, or in the case of a tie to the one that has had this Ability active longer.
Smogon rates it 3 on their competitive scale, where 5 is format-defining and 0 is actively unhelpful.
5 of the 282 Pokémon measured on the Regulation M-B ladder run Lightning Rod. The one that matters most is Mega Sceptile, which is on 0.85% of teams and runs it on 100% of its sets. The full list is above, ordered by how much of the format each one is.
4 of the Pokémon legal in Regulation M-B have Lightning Rod in their ability list, and 5 of those are played often enough to measure. An ability is not a choice the way a move or an item is — most Pokémon that have it have no alternative worth taking — so the gap here is about what sees play, not about what is preferred.
Across the ladder, Lightning Rod accounts for an expected 0.01 of the six slots on an average team, which makes it the 17th most-brought of the 19 abilities this format runs. 67% of that comes from Mega Sceptile alone, so it is really one Pokémon’s ability rather than the format’s. Its users are mostly Electric (3).
Usage is Smogon's published statistics for the Regulation M-B VGC ladder, and the description is the one shipped in the Pokémon Showdown data set. Both are regenerated on every build rather than written by hand, so this page follows the format instead of trailing it. Take any of it to the team builder or the damage calculator.