Absolute rat bastard[OVERVIEW]
Spikes are a powerful force in Ubers, and Gengar is here to ensure they stay that way. Thanks to its incredible typing + ability combination and decent offensive presence, Gengar is the premier spinblocker in Ubers, utterly dominating the most common Rapid Spin user, Forretress, in any one-on-one situation. Its great Speed tier and capacious movepool also ensures it’s a threat outside of that matchup, with excellent tools like Will-O-Wisp, Taunt, Explosion, and STAB Shadow Ball all available to it; the former two also make it a potent stallbreaker, capable of beating down common bulky Pokemon such as Blissey, Snorlax, Lugia, and Deoxys-D for the benefit of its team. While Gengar can’t beat many other Pokemon one-on-one, its versatile set of tools ensure it can at least annoy most foes it comes across, and its immunities to three common attacking types as well as Spikes and Toxic mean it gets plenty of switch-in opportunities despite its frailty. However, Gengar remains one of the frailest Pokemon in the metagame, to the point that a single missed Will-O-Wisp or overly aggressive switch is often a death sentence. Additionally, its low Attack stat and lack of STAB for its far higher Special Attack stat means it relies on super effective hits to deal any major damage, and even then it can frequently come up short. Gengar’s presence can also be taken advantage of by some of the metagame’s top offensive threats, such as Kyogre, Ho-Oh, and revenge killers like Deoxys-A.
[SET]
Name: Offensive Utility
Move 1: Shadow Ball
Move 2: Will-O-Wisp
Move 3: Thunder / Fire Punch / Hidden Power Rock
Move 4: Taunt / Explosion
Item: Leftovers / Spell Tag
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 252 Atk / 16 Def / 100 SpA / 140 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
At first glance, Shadow Ball is an unappealing choice for Gengar due to its poor Attack stat, but when backed by STAB it hits a solid portion of the tier for strong super effective damage, notably 2HKOing Latios and most Latias and solidly chunking Mew, Mewtwo, and Deoxys-D. One layer of Spikes lets Shadow Ball consistently 2HKO Dusclops and Swords Dance Mew. Will-O-Wisp is an incredibly rare and useful utility move, crippling common physical attackers like Groudon, Metagross, Snorlax, and Rayquaza with burn; Gengar is an especially great user of the move thanks to its immunities to Earthquake, Body Slam, and Extreme Speed, giving it easy entry points against these threats. Gengar's choice of coverage move is usually based on its team: Thunder is an excellent option alongside Kyogre that can score a big hit on Lugia, Ho-Oh, Skarmory, and opposing Kyogre, as well as smacking other Steel-types like Metagross with a strong neutral hit. Fire Punch, by contrast, is great alongside Groudon, with Drought helping Gengar rip through Metagross, Skarmory, Jirachi, and Magneton more effectively; Fire Punch also helps Gengar soft-check Heracross, although it shouldn't be a team's sole form of counterplay against it. Hidden Power Rock is a more specific option that allows Gengar to lure Ho-Oh, which is otherwise an ironclad check to it; this can be useful for a variety of other threats that Ho-Oh annoys, such as Mewtwo and Metagross. Taunt is the default choice in the last slot thanks to its synergy with Will-O-Wisp, turning Gengar into a stallbreaker that can block recovery attempts from the likes of Blissey, Lugia, Jirachi, and Celebi, whittling them down for the benefit of its team. However, Explosion is another great choice thanks to its ability to remove bulky answers like Kyogre and Ho-Oh after minimal chip damage.
The given EV spread attempts to maximize Gengar's offensive presence, as investing in bulk is only situationally useful due to its reliance on immunities to hit the field. Maximum Attack EVs guarantee that Shadow Ball will 2HKO Latias with maximum HP investment and that Explosion will OHKO Blissey. 140 Speed EVs with a Hasty nature let Gengar outspeed Modest Latios and Latias. 16 Defense EVs let Gengar survive a +1 Meteor Mash from burned Metagross. The remaining EVs are dumped into Special Attack to power up Gengar's coverage, but they can also be allocated elsewhere to meet certain benchmarks; for instance, 36 additional Speed EVs let Gengar outspeed Slaking and maximum Speed Mew, and maximum Speed allows for a Speed tie with Timid Latios. 32 HP EVs in conjunction with Leftovers can ensure that Gengar isn't 3HKOed by Deoxys-D's Night Shade.
Another way for Gengar to meet its damage benchmarks with Shadow Ball is by using Spell Tag, which can free up Gengar's EVs significantly. An EV spread of 28 HP / 156 Atk / 32 SpA / 152 SpD / 140 Spe with Spell Tag and a Hasty nature retains the same Shadow Ball damage as the default spread while also letting Gengar survive a Thunder or Dragon Claw from Modest Latios, letting it win the one-on-one interaction. In simple terms, the default EV spread with Leftovers is best for healing off smaller hits from burned foes, while the Spell Tag variant is better for surviving one big hit from a key target in Latios.
Team Options
========
As a spinblocker, Gengar naturally finds its home on Spikes-based teams; however, its excellent natural longevity and wide-ranging utility means it requires little to no specific support. Different Spikes users can all provide a variety of services for Gengar and its team: Skarmory is perhaps the best choice thanks to its ability to check Deoxys-A, most Groudon, and Shadow Ball Snorlax, as well as trap Deoxys-A with Pursuit. However, Deoxys-D is also a great choice thanks to its great longevity with Recover and its access to Knock Off, which can compound the passive damage of Gengar's Will-O-Wisp. Omastar is a solid choice of Spiker on rain-based teams, and Forretress is also a safe choice despite Gengar not benefiting from Rapid Spin support. Gengar should be used to help facilitate powerful attackers that enjoy Spikes, since Gengar itself is easily checked by healthy teams: Deoxys-A is a premier offensive threat that enjoys Spikes wearing down checks like Groudon, Metagross, and defensive Kyogre. Deoxys-A is also commonly revenge killed by Rayuqaza's Extreme Speed, which Gengar can switch into with impunity. Physical attackers like Rayquaxa, Heracross, Swords Dance Mew, and the aforementioned Groudon and Metagross enjoy Gengar's ability to harass Lugia with Taunt and Will-O-Wisp, and special sweeping threats like Calm Mind Latios, Latias, and Kyogre similarly enjoy the help against Blissey, although Gengar's team will need a backup plan for Calm Mind variants if it lacks Explosion. Since Gengar usually can't beat a healthy Groudon or Kyogre one-on-one, Latios and Latias are also great for checking them. In return for Gengar's stallbreaking services, Groudon and Kyogre can power up Gengar's coverage moves, and they appreciates Gengar's ability to heavily damage Latios and Latias. Thunder Wave variants of those Pokemon are especially useful since they force the eon twins to use Refresh, allowing Gengar free entry. Snorlax is a great teammate that gives Gengar a fallback against powerful special threats like Kyogre, Mewtwo, and healthy Latios and Latias; it can also pivot into Shadow Balls aimed at Gengar by threats like Deoxys-A, Ho-Oh, and Bulk Up Mewtwo.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Destiny Bond is a situational alternative to Explosion that lets Gengar remove bulkier threats like Groudon, Metagross, and Choice Band Lugia, but it's usually sufficient to cripple these foes with Will-O-Wisp and save an Explosion for other targets. Ice Punch is an interesting coverage option that hits threats like Groudon, Rayquaza, and Salamence quite hard; however, its coverage in combination with Shadow Ball is poor, especially against Steel-types and Ho-Oh. A special attacking set with Thunder, Ice Punch, Will-O-Wisp, and either Taunt or Explosion significantly improves Gengar's chances against checks like Ho-Oh and Kyogre, but the set's ineffectiveness against most Psychic-types limits its use cases. Protect lets Gengar maximize Leftovers recovery, rack up more burn damage against foes, and scout Choice Band revenge killers like Deoxys-A and Aerodactyl, but finding a moveslot for it is difficult. Hypnosis may seem interesting due to the dearth of viable sleep-inflicting options in Ubers, but its horrible accuracy means other moves are almost always preferable. In the item slot, Lum Berry can be useful to absorb a surprise Thunder Wave from Groudon or Blissey, or a Thunder paralysis from Latios or Latias.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Ho-Oh**: Ho-Oh's massive bulk and Will-O-Wisp immunity make it an incredible check to most Gengar variants, with Calm Mind sets being able to turn it into setup fodder. However, Hidden Power Rock Gengar can lure Ho-Oh and heavily damage it if not remove it outright, and Explosion will OHKO variants without heavy bulk investment.
**Kyogre**: Kyogre is bulky enough to shrug off most of Gengar's attacks and wash it away with its own rain-boosted assault; Drizzle also ruins the damage output of Fire-type attacks, essentially forcing Gengar to play with three moves if it's using Fire Punch. In addition, defensive sets carrying Rest are also among the best Will-O-Wisp absorbers in the metagame. However, it can eventually struggle to switch into Thunder with Spikes in play, and Explosion also poses a threat to most sets.
**Jirachi**: Despite lacking a resistance to Shadow Ball, Jirachi is a great switch-in to Gengar that can set up Calm Mind against it fairly easily; even sun-boosted Fire Punch starts bouncing off of it after enough boosts, and access to Wish makes it a decent Will-O-Wisp absorber as well. Gengar can potentially shut Jirachi down with Taunt, but it won't want to stay in due to fear of Thunder paralysis.
**Magneton**: Magneton doesn't care much about burns, and it is the only Pokemon in the game that resists all of Thunder, Shadow Ball, and Hidden Power Rock, making it a great switch-in to most of Gengar's attacks; even Fire Punch Gengar is beaten one-on-one if rain is active.
**Kabutops**: Unlike Forretress, Gengar cannot safely block Rapid Spin from Kabutops, at least while rain is active, due to the threat of Choice Band-boosted Rock Slide or Hidden Power Ghost.
**Revenge killers**: Due to its lacking bulk, Gengar usually relies on its Speed to avoid major damage from other Pokemon, so anything that outspeeds it is a major threat. Deoxys-A can reliably revenge kill Gengar with Shadow Ball, Aerodactyl can do the same with Hidden Power Ghost, and every Chlorophyll and Swift Swim user is capable of OHKOing Gengar in their respective weather aside from Victreebel. Mewtwo is similarly threatening to Gengar if it's within KO range, but Gengar can heavily chunk it back with Shadow Ball if not.
**Paralysis**: Gengar is crippled by paralysis to an extreme degree, so it must be careful to avoid surprise Thunder Waves from Pokemon like Groudon, Kyogre, and Blissey. Gengar should also avoid trying to duel with healthy Latios, Latias, and Mewtwo most of the time due to the threat of paralysis from Thunder. It's worth noting that Lum Berry can give Gengar an insurance policy against these Pokemon, although the opportunity cost of losing another item is major.
**Pursuit**: While most of the Pursuit users in Ubers are ineffective at trapping Gengar, Deoxys-A, Metagross, and Tyranitar are all strong enough to KO or heavily chip it as it switches out, making them more difficult to play around.
[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/stupidflandrs48.633500/
Quality checked by:
Grammar checked by:
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