Just because you have the option doesn't mean it's a good option. This applies to both Poison Point on a defensive Pokemon with no real recovery options and Poison Fang. I mean, no one runs Toxic on a Scizor, they run attacks, Defog, Roost and Swords Dance. Those are Scizor's strengths, not playing to them for a move with a small hax chance makes no sense.
Poison Fang is a 50% chance of Toxic. That's not small. You might be thinking of its pre-Gen VI behavior, where it was 30%.
The fact that no one runs Toxic on Scizor in OU is a specious comparison I can't begin to figure out a good answer to because it's obviously nonsense. Follow The Leader involves non-standard builds, some of which are less-than-optimal compared to what you'd
like to do but that are the best you can get for that leader.
So a less exploitable typing is worth using a Pokemon with lower speed, fewer moves to take advantage of its ability, lower power, and a still exploitable typing thanks to 4x Fire Weakness? I mean, Mega Metagross is bulky enough that it can usually take a physical Fire/Ghost/Dark/Ground hit. There are other leaders that play into Mega Scizor's strengths and other Megas that play into the Nido's strengths. Mega Scizor just isn't viable on a Nido set.
You'll note that I pointed out a bigger problem for Mega Scizor is the lack of recovery on the Nidos. I'm
agreeing that Mega Scizor is probably not optimal on the Nidos.
It definitely is if you don't have a speed boost.
You're going to have to walk me through how a lack of a Speed boost in any way matters to the discussion of Thrash vs Head Smash, because the point is baffling to me.
And the average Mega Salamence set would disagree with you there since Double Edge is very common while Thrash is almost nonexistent.
This is, again, a specious comparison and ignoring that I laid out
exactly when Thrash is the superior choice -when you're
cleaning. Mega Salamence runs Double Edge because it's expectation is that it will -ate, Earthquake, or Fire Blast as appropriate to potentially crush an underprepared team. Thrash is the better choice if your plan is to move aside the Rock, Steel, and Electric walls and
then bring out your -ate abuser to clean up.
No, it is relevant to the point. You can bring it to the table, I am arguing that it is not a good idea. Like I said, Thrash/Outrage/Petal Dance do not work on a Mega that can't DDance.
Personal experience disagrees.
More importantly:
it's irrelevant to the point. Follow The Leader involves making choices that are, from an OU perspective, sub-optimal because they're the best choice you can make with your Leader, who is worth using because of their strengths in other realms. If Head Smash or Thrash is a poor-but-functional way to perform certain forms of hole-punching and the like, then they're still worth keeping in mind as a positive for existing on the Leader.
A Choice Band Archeops Head Smash does not OHKO max Def Chansey even after SR damage but will take off around 70% of its health. I don't use SF for Chansey, I use a Fighting type. And I'm not saying to NOT use it if you have Nidoking, I'm saying there's too many drawbacks as opposed to Crunch and Pursuit. And yes, it will do ungodly damage to them, but also ungodly damage to Archeops. What I've been saying is play to their strengths. If both had Head Smash, I would have considered a HS Archeops. But given the option between that and Crunch, Crunch is, as a whole, the better option.
Actually, a female Archeops running Rivalry will more or less always OHKO it.
252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Archeops Head Smash vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 616-726 (95.9 - 113%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
(For some reason, Rivalry isn't in the calculator. Rivalry is a 25% boost instead of Reckless' 20% boost, so this is a lowball)
That would be a somewhat silly thing to do since it would hurt Archeops' performance against male-only Pokemon (eg Landorus-Therian) and randomly hurt or help against the majority of most Pokemon's teams, but it's still something one could do if one
really hated Chansey, or if one wanted to break a specific Physical wall. Cresselia, for instance, is always female, and works pretty well as a Physical wall. (Though even Poison Heal is 2HKOed by Choice Band Archeops Head Smash 98.8% of the time, so Rivalry would really have to be about securing the OHKO on Physically Defensive Florges or something to be particularly justified)
Regardless, part of my point is that Head Smash lets Physical attackers just ruin the staple Physical wall of so many metas, this one included: Skarmory.
252 Atk Choice Band Archeops Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 220-261 (65.8 - 78.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Heck, Life Orb is a 2HKO if you want your Archeops able to attack with other moves. (And don't mind it dying even faster)
Nidoqueen's capacity to point a Physical attacker at the enemy and just
ruin a lot of teams is less.
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Kyurem-B Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 160-188 (47.9 - 56.2%) -- 34.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Now, Kyurem-Black can of course go mixed or smack Skarmory with Fire Punch, but it says something that I'm having to look at Kyurem-Black to give Nidoqueen a comparable option to Nidoking's Head Smash Archeops, and frankly I'm surprised Kyurem-Black hasn't been suspected at any point. I'm not willing to assume it will remain in the tier indefinitely.
You seem to just be going on "These options exist, so consider them" logic when some of these are less viable than Nasty Plot Weavile and others are more niche compared to other offerings. Maybe Head Smash is a better option than Crunch on a few teams, but as a whole I think Crunch and Pursuit will get more mileage.
No, the issue is that you're using
backwards logic. The fact that a follower would prefer a different leader does not mean you should not use that follower with that leader. The fact that some other leader gives that follower better results in doing the same core idea does not mean you should not run that follower with that leader. What
matters is what the overall performance of a team is/can be, given the leader's options.
Nidoking does things Nidoqueen just plain cannot imitate, and they're not
irrelevant things. Arguments like "If you want a Head Smasher, go to Aggron or something" ignore that Aggron doesn't provide Sheer Force, doesn't provide Toxic Spikes, lacks Shadow Ball (eg for Gengar), lacks Sucker Punch, etc etc.
I agree, as I've
explicitly said, that Nidoqueen is probably the more generally effective option, just because Pursuit trapping has amazing utility and Crunch providing competent Dark STAB opens follower options Nidoking would never consider where Megahorn is honestly the main thing Nidoking has that might get you considering a follower like Heracross that Nidoqueen would probably ignore, but the logics you use to dismiss Nidoking's value
make no sense. It
doesn't matter that other leaders provide better Head Smashers, because Head Smash isn't the only thing Nidoking brings to the table -the biggest thing it brings to the table over Nidoqueen? Possibly, sure. But since Follow The Leader doesn't involve splicing
two leader's movepools together,
who cares? If I want Sheer Force Gengar on the same team as Head Smash Archeops -or Terrakion, or whoever- then Nidoking is the leader I take. The end. No "Well, take Nidoqueen instead, because it's better." No "Well, take Aggron instead."
You've also repeatedly simplified my statements and ignored that they have nuance and also you've been just plain wrong. My commentary that Poison Fang is only slightly weaker than Poison Jab on Mega Scizor was not "Poison Fang Mega Scizor is a viable and relevant threat to keep in mind." It was a
secondary commentary ("If a Nido team is considering running Mega Scizor for whatever reason, Poison Fang is practically a free upgrade over Poison Jab"), with my primary point being that Poison Fang is a way to force Toxic through Magic Bounce without being forced to commit your Mega slot to one of the two Mold Breakers -which is not only relevant to stuff like Xatu teams, where everything is Magic Bounce, but is also relevant against
any team that has Mega Sableye. I've got a Mothim team that carries Mega Sableye, and most teams really struggle to actually break it after a Quiver Dance or two, Nido teams included. Being able to fish for Toxic against it via Poison Fang would turn a matchup that is often a one-sided slaughter in favor of Mothim Mega Sableye into permanently ruining Mega Sableye, as it
needs the several turns of build up to really do its job. Normally that's not a concern for me because most teams just can't get a Toxic on it. At best they can Burn it with Scald, which is annoying but usually manageable.
So
yes, Poison Fang is a worthwhile move to keep in mind.