I will test this up.
@Chou, your logic is too black and white and outdated.
I didn't mean to imply that the logic I outlined is absolute-- but these are strong fundamental principles of battle, and strong fundamental principles tend to turn out right more often or not. Totally ignoring them rarely turns out good except in the case of something exceptional. Moxie mence really isn't that.
Your missing:
C) do both
D) change momentum
Lucario and CB Dragonite are examples of pokemon that don't counter anything, or switch into enemy Pokemon. They CHECK certain things with priority AND have wall breaking / sweeping potential.
Gengar - Isn't a "sweeper" or "counter" to anything. But if hes on your team, he may be the link saving your team from a SD Lucario sweep that you considered in your team building.
Your examples here are pretty bad. The "A" I listed wasn't "be a counter" to something, it's "be able to counter" something, which is totally different-- you just have to be able to switch into stuff, not consistently or safely.
Gengar has 3 immunities! It's more than capable of switching into and beating crap.
Dragonite is... well it's Dragonite. Dragonite can switch into practically anything with its ability and smash shit up.
Lucario is the worst example because it's a mediocre Pokemon at best in BW, and even at its best, it's certainly capable of B, outright sweeping, thanks to Boost + Priority, so it doesn't need to do A consistently to be good. Besides, 4x resistances to Dark and Rock (amongst other resistances) mean it's certainly capable of switching in now and again.
Anyway, this isn't the place for this. But I will definitely test this up on my old Gen IV team I can revise for Gen V. I used this set extensively last gen on a very successful team so we will see how things go with both Moxie and Intimidate.
I also played Naive mence extensively last gen and know well what it's capable of. I played it back when it was barely even known, when you had to use Stone Edge because there was no Outrage, and was one of the first players to start using both Meteor and Outrage on Naive mence-- back when I ALWAYS stayed in against enemy mence because NO ONE used +Speed.
I played it from that point well into when Naive mix became standard (where you almost saw no naughty/lonely/rash at all) and until the end of the gen.
I know how this poke plays, it's destructive power, but also its ease of being forced out or revenged by faster Pokemon. Moxie boosts could certainly be useful, but generally will only take you so far against most teams-- especially in the early game (where wallbreakers like this mence like to run rampant) when most of your opponents fast offensive pokes will still be in fighting shape. Intimidate is an ability that's almost guaranteed to benefit you.
I definitely think Moxie deserves a mention, and maybe it'll be proven to have game-changing potential. However, Intimidate is undeniably more consistent with the concept of wallbreaking, which is undeniably what mixmence excels at.
After all, if you've made a kill (even if it's death fodder), you've already succeeded at "wallbreaking." Getting a moxie boost and continuing to attack-- that's already definable as "sweeping".
Sure, doing a "bit of everything" can be effective, and will be effective now and again, but sets with greater devotion and specialization towards a given role, generally perform more consistently.
edit: Either way, wtf is up with the Salamence Analysis-- why wasn't this naive mixmence included in the initial analysis? I'm pretty damn annoyed, because Moxie or Intimidate, this is undeniably one of Mence's best options. Certainly more efficient that Naughty/Rash + Roost. 9.9
