OU GSC Teambuilding Compendium

Extended from Borat's role section in the sixth part of his guide
Welcome to the GSC Teambuilding Compendium!


The point of this thread is to show a visual aspect of different options when trying to construct a team, so you don't have to go scrounging for a while to find one. This is for both new and experienced players alike; Newer players can see just what each Pokemon is good at and use the mon accordingly, while experienced players can use it to refresh their memory and quickly glance at for ideas.

Snorlax::Snorlax:
Electric: :Zapdos::Raikou: :Jolteon: :Ampharos:
Spikers::Cloyster: :Forretress: :Smeargle:
Spinners::Cloyster: :Forretress: :Starmie: :Golem::Tentacruel: :Donphan: :Sandslash:
Phazers::Raikou: :Zapdos: :Skarmory: :Steelix: :Tyranitar::Suicune::Misdreavus: :Rhydon::Kangaskhan:
Cursers::Snorlax: :Skarmory::Steelix::Tyranitar::Machamp::Forretress::Rhydon: :Heracross::Porygon2::Muk::Kangaskhan:
Sleepers::Snorlax: :Exeggutor: :Gengar: :Nidoking:
1578857081469.png
:Blissey: :Smeargle: :Jumpluff: :Venusaur:
Boomers::Snorlax: :Cloyster: :Exeggutor: :Gengar::Steelix::Forretress: :Muk: :Golem:
Drummers::Snorlax: :Charizard: :Clefable: :Quagsire:
Mixed Attackers::Snorlax: :Exeggutor: :Gengar: :Tyranitar::Machamp: :Nidoking::Marowak: :Rhydon::Dragonite::Porygon2: :Muk: :Clefable:
Swords Dancers: :Marowak: :Tentacruel: :Sandslash:
Heal Bellers::Miltank: :Blissey:
RestTalkers::Snorlax: :Zapdos::Raikou: :Machamp: :Suicune: :Vaporeon: :Heracross:
Growthers: :Vaporeon: :Espeon: :Jolteon:
Baton Passers: :Vaporeon::Umbreon: :Espeon: :Jolteon: :Smeargle: :Scizor:
Physical Walls::Snorlax: :Zapdos: :Skarmory::Steelix::Tyranitar::Forretress::Suicune: :Umbreon::Rhydon::Heracross::Miltank: :Dragonite: :Meganium::Slowbro:
Special Walls::Snorlax: :Zapdos::Raikou: :Tyranitar::Suicune: :Blissey: :Porygon2: :Meganium:
Mixed Walls::Snorlax: :Zapdos::Raikou: :Tyranitar::Forretress: :Suicune::Umbreon: :Heracross::Miltank: :Porygon2:
Growlers/Charmers::Umbreon::Miltank: :Blissey: :Meganium: :Slowbro:
Screeners::Zapdos::Raikou: :Cloyster: :Exeggutor: :Forretress: :Starmie: :Blissey: :Dragonite: :Porygon2: :Alakazam: :Ampharos: :Jumpluff: :Slowbro:
Trappers::Gengar::Tyranitar:
1578857089360.png
:Misdreavus::Umbreon: :Houndoom:
Paralyzers::Snorlax: :Zapdos::Raikou: :Exeggutor: :Steelix::Nidoking::Marowak: :Starmie::Miltank: :Blissey: :Dragonite: :Jolteon: :Porygon2: :Alakazam:
Toxicers::Snorlax: :Cloyster: :Skarmory::Forretress: :Suicune::Starmie: :Umbreon: :Blissey: :Porygon2::Alakazam::Muk:
Lax answers:
Earthquake::Skarmory::Forretress:(curse) :Misdreavus::Umbreon::Miltank:
Fire Blast::Gengar: :Tyranitar: :Misdreavus: :Umbreon::Rhydon::Miltank:
Lovely Kiss::Gengar::Skarmory::Steelix::Tyranitar::Forretress:(curse) :Misdreavus::Umbreon::Rhydon::Miltank:
Drum: :Skarmory::Gengar: :Misdreavus:

If I ended up missing anything (I most likely missed quite a few things), post it below. I hope this helps you in your upcoming teambuilding attempts.
 

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Just off the top of my head, Muk needs to go under boomers, Meganium doesn't learn sleep powder. If we're going to list Sandslash, might as well list it as an SDer as well. Also maybe add Skarm to DrumLax checks, EQ DrumLax is a thing

Zap is listed as both a special and physical wall, but not a mixed wall. Could maybe add Pursuit as a category? Umbreon, TTar and Houndoom all run it and are not unviable. Maybe add Champ to the list of Lax checks? I mean it hates switching in, but it beats the crap out of Lax.

Meganium needs to go on the list of physical walls, takes physical hits like a champ. Also Golem should be listed as a boomer as well
 

Bedschibaer

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A couple of the mons in the wall categories tip me off. Eggy, cloyster, golem aren't really walls, I mean yeah they are physically sturdy, but you really can't expect a team to throw one of them on and thinking you can cover physical threats in the long run now. They also have alot more of an offensive nature to be considered as walls. Same for vaporeon, muk and heracross in the special wall category.
Only the ghosts as drum answers, that's not right either. Drumlax does run more than just drum and an attack, i'd categorize it after the coverage moves with an extra category on those mons that beat curse sets specifically or even after concrete sets.
The lk lax check section doesn't feel very good to me. Most of the time you don't want your skarmory or miltank to be hit by a lovely kiss.
Golem learns explosion and is actually pretty good at that role.
You might want to add some more supportive things, screens, pursuit (as mentioned), paralysis support.
 
Add a spin blockers sections, with missy and gar, potential cureslax answer role? Can you change mixed sweepers to mixed attackers, I just feel it is the correct terminology. Also add Clefable to mixed sweepers. Add smeargle to spikers. Add missy to phazers, in general perish song in the case you don't trap it will force a switch. Jynx under sleepers. As mentioned above there should be a paralysis support section, a short list of what to put under this would be Exeggutor, p2, zapdos, blissey, miltank, snorlax, starmie,lix,dnite,raikou. Also add a screens section (zapdos, raikou, blissey forre, cloyster, starmie, egg, p2, dnite, alakazam, jumpluff, slowbro, and ampharos.) Heracross under cursers, a status absorber section would be nice, there are many mons that absorb status especially sleep talk. (If you do add it, zapdos, raikou, machamp, snorlax, vaporeon, marowak, suicune, miltank, blissey, nidoking, gengar forre (poison) ) as oretheore said , a trappers section should be added. (Tyranitar, misdreavus, houndoom, jynx, umbreon, gengar. Etc.) Lapras under rest talkers and sleepers, also the screens section I mentioned earlier.
 
You missed my jinx to sleepers role, it's kinda its main this going for it, also can you add a mean look section/trapper section in general. Pokémon that go under this category (bar the pursuiters) are Jynx, Misdreavus, Gengar and umbreon. Also on lapras, it can be used as a sleeper, but I think it can fit under a screener . (Reflect)
 
If Blissey runs Heal Bell, she can't run Thunder Wave. So you can only paralyze with Zap Cannon. Does that count as paralysis support?
 
If Blissey runs Heal Bell, she can't run Thunder Wave. So you can only paralyze with Zap Cannon. Does that count as paralysis support?
To quote Borat: "it doesn't always have to bell, y'know. twave to neutralize one of the many threats coming your way. makes tenta etc cry"
 
As trivial/stupid as it seems, Sunny Day + Solar Beam (specifically as Sunny Day sweepers) to add? I mean, there's only like two of them (Fire types), so meh.

Probably don't need to mention trappers to be added again.

Counter and Mirror Coat are other options to consider. That said, they aren't really "roles" you fill on a team, just options for the Pokemon that get them specifically. Listing them is questionable.
 

Jorgen

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Pursuiters and Ptrappers are two very different things though.

Anyway this generally isn't how I think about things; a lot of these "roles" aren't something I look at and think "dang, I really need a Trapper and a Swords Dancer!" I tend to think about teambuilding like this, although with a less strict view on Spiking than I express there. (That said, you'll want something for Spikes, be it a Spiker or a Spinner, in 90+% of cases).
 
Pursuiters and Ptrappers are two very different things though.

Anyway this generally isn't how I think about things; a lot of these "roles" aren't something I look at and think "dang, I really need a Trapper and a Swords Dancer!" I tend to think about teambuilding like this, although with a less strict view on Spiking than I express there. (That said, you'll want something for Spikes, be it a Spiker or a Spinner, in 90+% of cases).
I've read that article, and agree with pretty much everything you say there. This resource is meant mainly as a list of options for teambuilding, be it a starting point (SDers, Growthers) or an integral part (spikers, phazers). It also helps newer players in the knowledge department. For experienced palyers, it'll probably only be used as a list of possible starting points.
 
i've done something like this:

If you feel your team needs a bit more of an offensive punch, then there are a couple of different genres/roles of Pokemon to consider.







Mixed sweepers: These are the ones that can hit anything hard on the spot and require no set-up to do it. In general, they are primarily physical attackers who hit decently on the special side against skarms, forretress, and other physical walls. The notable exceptions on this list are Exeggutor/Gengar, whose physical side comes primarily from Explosion. And Marowak/Machamp, who are physical attackers that hit Skarm and friends just fine.

Nidoking (EQ, LK, and two special attacks of your choice. Counter will surprise HP legends/physical attackers)
Dragonite (plenty of variation here, special attacks of your choice, DP, DE, HP Flying, Extremespeed)
Tyranitar (again, many paths to take; FB, RS, DP, EQ, Crunch, Pursuit, Surf, Tbolt)
Rhydon (probably better as a curser, but you can run HP Bug to surprise eggs, or ZC for para on stuff)
Snorlax (unlimited possibilities, your choice of STAB, Self-D, EQ, FB, Thunder, LK, etc etc)
Exeggutor (Giga Drain, HP Fire, Psychic, Seed makes things awkward, Explosion, Sleep/Stun Spore)
Gengar (DP hits ttar switches really really hard, Explosion for others, then elemental attacks)
Muk (probably best to stick to the standard Curse, SB, Explosion, Fblast. I don't see Giga being worth it)
Porygon2 (Curse limits their offenses, then an IB freeze makes things real awkward)
Machamp (to curse or not to curse; both variations will deal massive damage to just about anything)
Marowak (Just make sure you have EQ, SD recommended, but FB can work for instant offense. HP Fly/Bug)







Set-up sweepers: As the name implies, they are pokemon whose offensive merits really begin to show after a turn or two of “set-up”, usually stat-upping. P-hazers are the usual problems with these guys, as well as how ineffective they become if the proper wall shows up. Oh, and it takes a while (Belly Drum and Marowak withstanding) to set up. Also, some require the proper timing and set up, e.g. with Curse/Roar/Substitute/Return Kangaskhan.

Machamp (With a curse and the proper supporting moves, pretty much nothing in the game matches up well)
Tyranitar (Curse version is probably stopped cold by suicune, but pretty damn good vs anything else. And it phazes!)
Rhydon (With a STAB EQ, it hits a lot harder than ttar, but on the flipside, you can't gamble vs [HP] waters at all)
Snorlax (curselax, drumlax, cursedrumlax, you know the deal)
Miltank (this is kind of a stretch, since you probably want it to bell as well. Nevertheless, it's an option to curse).
Porygon2 (curse is the standard, and for a good reason. Twave makes things real awkward for growltanks, and freeze = win)
Vaporeon (growthvap, hereby referred to as BORAT)
Kangaskhan (aforementioned curse, sub, roar kanga beats growltanks + phazers in one)
Marowak (SD wak, often combined with agi-pass. However, equally good, if not better, with some para support)
Espeon (growthespeon will be the next big thing in GSC. BP or HP Water/Grass creates matchup problems for most teams)
Muk (same set as above; just so god damn underrated how much havoc this causes. Ridiculously bulky as well)
Jolteon (growthjolt is an amazing pokemon, BP or not, it's just great. like espeon, it's just asking to break the meta)
Clefable (Drumfable was something I advocated for the longet time, and it can still win games like nobody's business)
Quagsire (Drumquag is the next big thing on the physical side of the game. It can rest for longevity, or SB to break eggs, good AGI BP target too)
Tentacruel (an old vet classic, and will wreck Vap and Thunder Electric teams. Druidcruel forgotten treasure)
Charizard (another vet favorite, it's never had any true counters that weren't dispatchable. Drumzard is a threat to every team all the time)







Exploders: Pretty straight forward stuff. Use these as a means to make the game “simpler”, take out the variables, and make it more about strategy. Some explosions tend to be better than others. Snorlax, Cloyster, Egg can all nail just about anything (albeit cloy usually explodes on starmie/other cloys). Gengar as well, but has a hard problem getting around T-tar. Steelix is a pretty one dimensional explosion, and really a last resort-bait kill thing. Muk has an EXTREMELY underrated explosion, but he’s definitely one of the better pokemon at taking care of business without the use of explosion. Forretress has a limited explosion for the most part, seeing that Gengar, Cloyster, Skarm, Ttar, other Forretress, Steelix, etc etc are all relatively safe switches depending on the set.

Snorlax (explosion on lax can nail anything. Classic mix/starterlax, or be creative with curse, LK, and/or even drum/rest)
Cloyster (can't learn spin and explosion, which is a real hit to cloy. regardless it's still damn nasty)
Forretress (somewhat limited explosion a far a targets go, but it's better than nothing. some choose to forgo it though)
Steelix (probably even more limited than Forr, since you're probably helpless vs air, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Gengar (amazing explosion from this thing. worst case scenario is Umbreon/ttar, but Dpunch will cover latter. And you can always just sleep them)
Muk (as aforementioned, absolutely underrated in every regard. Muk often doesn't have to explode to wreck havoc, but having it makes it that much better. just poison ttars)
Exeggutor (another pretty good explosion, but Skarm/Forr/Ttar often ruin your fun depending on your set. And umbreon. You can always go triple attack explosion though)
Golem (not really worth mentioning, but it's an option. And it hits a lot harder than steelix with neutral attacks, with FB for skarms)






Baton passers: Straight forward. Pass stats around. Or the occassional Mean Look.

Jolteon (pass growth or agi. or sub if you're a pansy. or both. probably a good idea to carry HP ice/water for ground phazers though)
BORAT (pass growth or the occassional aa)
Espeon (pass growth, that's all)
Umbreon (ideally, pass mean look. Rarely work vs good players. Or growth, maybe with HP fire for steel phazer. Curse is an option too, but good luck with that.)
Scizor (Pass agi and/or SD, but you'll have a hard time getting around Skarm)
Smeargle (Pass agi and/or sub and/or drum/sd. you have spore to ensure at least 1 pass; you'll probably die after that)





As far as the defensive route goes, there’s also a couple genre-types to consider.







Mixed walls:

Raikou (it's the premier special wall in GSC, with some physical bulk as well. it'll threaten any non-lax mixed sweeper, and takes any non-eqs pretty well)
Suicune (the definition of a mixed wall. takes hit from nido, ttar, dnite, and scares them off with it own attacks. applies to non-curse lax, hera, and even champ)
Miltank (with one turn recovery, you have the statistical adv. vs DP. Body Slam para might scare some of them off as well, since mixed attacker don't usually rest)
Heracross ("resists" non-stab boltbeams with ease, and EQ/fighting to boot. neutral to RS, but you scare ttars off easily. mirror match with other heras)
Snorlax (pretty good, you'll have to rest loop most of them. and you're banking on DP not hitting, and you won't do a good job walling lax/champ/hera.)
Tyranitar (not the best, but will take non-stab non-se special hits, and all non-bug/fighting/ground physical hits)
Forretress ("resisting" boltbeam is a huge help, but you better make damn sure they don't have a fire attack. FB from lax OHKOs)
Porygon2 (can take hit from non-stab special attacks pretty easily. if you twave, that's a huge help. doesn't like fighting attacks or megahorn though)
Umbreon (easily takes hits from any non-se attack, and toxic would probably deter them from pursuing things further. charm will bail you out vs fighting/bug if you have no other option)







Growlers/Charmers: Self-explanatory, but pretty good given the sheer amount of cursers in the game. One Growl/charm will generally negate/neutralize any physical attacker and give you leeway as far as switching goes.

Miltank (self-explanatory set. use bs in most case, return if you're really scared of drumlax)
Umbreon (again, easy enough. toxic/pursuit's the standard for a reason. st growl/charm if you really want to be gay)
Blissey (not the best growler, because growlers need speed and some physical bulk, but at least it doesn't give curselax free setup)
Meganium (here because i've used it personally on a BL team, and it sorta worked. it's not great, but it's an option)
Slowbro (this use to be the premier growler in gsc if there ever was one, celia loved the thing. but celia's not that good, so slowbro's better off doing other stuff)







P-hazers: Again, another self-explanatory, but almost mandatory role. You do not want missy or something getting free kills on you. P-hazer is generally plan A or plan B vs stat uppers.

Skarmory (the first standard phazer, good for all forms of non-FB/LK/thunder lax. good for hera, umbreon, scizor, quag, there's honestly too many to list)
Tyranitar (originally used as the complement to skarm for covering FB lax. pretty good as a curse roarer, or if you just need ttar to take on multiple roles)
Steelix (pretty amazing phazer if your opponent hasn't got anything to hit it from the special side; lives 999 non-stab EQ, resists twave/thunder/toxic so plenty of longevity)
Suicune (roar cune has a use again with vap being so popular; toxic shuffle was one of the dominant strats for the longest time because it was reliable. lives 999 stab return)
Raikou (premier special wall in gsc, probably the best spikes shuffler in the game because of it walling/threat combination)
Rhydon (still pretty fucking good, even with HP legends. hitting 150 STAB off 358 hurts, and curseroar is always tough to stop)
Kangaskhan (phazer mostly used offensively to protect it against other phazers, not really defensively)
Zapdos (use to be a pretty popular phaze, but has since dropped off. if you're in a pinch, this is an option)
Any other pokemon with roar
Any pokemon with Perish Song
Any pokemon with Encore








Physical walls: Probably a good idea. Eats explosions when you need to (does that make Gengar/Missy a physical wall???). Takes normal hits from lax. GSC is generally seen as a physically-offensive gen for a reason.

Skarmory (the premier physical wall in gsc, with just about everything covered here. probably the only thing that reliably walls hera. too many to list)
Suicune (328 defense and 403 HP with no physical weakness; the main kicker is that it threatens most mixed/physical sweepers to boot: ttar, nido, marowak, dragonite, machamp to an extent)
Tyranitar (not bad either, as long as the attack isn't fighting, ground, or bug. ttar is generally the swiss army knife of roles, almost snorlax-esque)
Steelix (498 def makes it shrug off even SE moves, not so much Rhydon's EQ and machamp's CC though. a curse will patch things right up though)
Forretress (not bad at all, better than most, but it lacks the ability to phaze, so it can't really do anything in return. it does reflect, and curse, if you want to go there)
Rhydon (similar to steelix but with far more offensive punch. and you're weak to ice. and will prolly ko'd by any water/grass attack)
Cloyster (400+ def is great, 300 HP not so much. lacking physical resists, only physical weaknesses, and can't phaze. but it does reflect)
Golem (usually seen as an inferior rhydon/steelix, but usable in the odd case you need physical presence + explosion)
Miltank (growl alone makes tank into a physical... tank. only weak to fighting moves, and if it's not machamp, one growl will neutralize it)
Umbreon (pretty similar to miltank, but you get -2 attack at the cost of no one turn recovery. also, speed is slower than dnite/hera, but still faster than the rest)
Slowbro (growl/reflect combined with 300+ def and almost 400 HP make it pretty good. but it is very slow. but you can always para)
Dragonite (if you played a defensive dnite, it's totally viable. reflect and haze makes for plenty of walling potential)
Zapdos (zapdos with reflect is an extremely formidable wall and immensely tough to take down)
Heracross (mostly on typing, since def stat isn't too impressive. resists fighting and eq and scares off rock/normal attackers for the most part)
Exeggutor (same as hera, but slightly less because of the lack of recovery. synthesis/moonlight is an option though, and there's still seed/drain)
Snorlax (seems almost counter-intuitive, but massive HP and a single curse patches up just about all non-Machamp CC physical attacks)







Special walls: Again, pretty damn important. Electrics are dominant in GSC, #2 and #3. Not having anything for them doesn’t make any sense at all. You’ll often find that a lone Snorlax often not enough to take the full brunt of Thunders off 348/328 spc atk, and you might want to invest into a secondary special absorber. It’s also possible to play around with finesse, using prediction to grounds to force the HP legends to HP more than Thunder on the switch, minimizing the damage Snorlax/something might have to take.

Blissey (#1 in terms of walling power, but that's all you're doing with it. passing a screen lets other, more threatening stuff wall and threaten at the same time though)
Raikou (the real #1 special wall imo, since it threatens most special attackers AND phazes. no spc weaks, only spc resists. monster threat in itself)
Snorlax (not bad, but won't take special hits forever, especially with spikes and/or toxic in play. growthers can take it down as well)
Jolteon (similar to raikou, but 333 hp, and [generally] lacks rest and roar makes it subpar)
Meganium (typing and stats make it damn good. fire attacks are rare, and ice attacks are usually non-stab, but synthesis has 8 pp)
Suicune (monster bulk makes up for sub-par special typing. takes SE hits up to the power of thunder dnite and giga drain egg, and threatens both in return)
BORAT (about 1% bulkier than suicune on the special side, so takes even SE hits well. and it usually STs. chalk another one up for BORAT)
Dragonite (
Zapdos (with light screen, becomes a real pest. no real special weaks since ice attacks are non-stab. shows off zap's versatility, and just a great set)
Muk (sort of, you survive two starmie psychics. and you're not weak to boltbeam. make something of it. muk's great)
Heracross (good spc def, not weak to boltbeam, threatens every non-zap special attacker to no end. don't want to be taking 180 base power hits from 300+ spc though)
Tyranitar (sort of, good spc def, good hp, not weak to boltbeam, but unless you have rest, don't do it too often. like hera, don't take 180 bp off 300+ spc)
Porygon2 (similar to the previous two, but less HP, but one turn recovery!!! with 32 pp! and like the previous two, don't take 180 off 300+)

Quagsire (a very unique case. it doesn't wall any of the special attackers, EXCEPT the two most common ones: zapdos and raikou. at least until they start running HP grass. this is worth mentioning, since not even Snorlax can switch into the electrics comfortably)





And of course, the misc support roles...







Sleeper: Not necessary, but it punishes teams that choose to forgo a status absorber and turns games into 5v6s instantly.

Snorlax (LK version wasn't as good as when I first used it in 2004, but still good. can sleep just about anything. LK drumlax is unstoppable)
Gengar (Hypnosis almost used defensively here, since it has few options vs umbreon/ttar. makes things awkward for most STers with its offensive threat)
Exeggutor (not bad, but once egg drops sleep, it seems to lose a lot of its power. skarms/forr come in all day if it doesn't fire, ttar if it doesn't giga)
Nidoking (pretty predictable sleep, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. hit zap a few times to make it think twice about taking LK)
Smeargle (really really predictable, but again, doesn't make it easier to deal with. good players will play aggressive vs smeargle. smeargle gets 2 shotted by everything)
Jynx (again, another staple. you threaten the most common STer in zapdos, so that's a bonus. sub lets you sleep when you want. jynx is fragile though)
Jumpluff (personally, I'm not a big fan of jumpluff, but it learns powder. so i'm listing it. and it does learn encore, which is an amazing move)
Blissey (i don't know why sing blissey isn't more common, but your opponent has control over what he wants you to sleep. you can use that to your adv as well. and sing can bail you out sometimes)






Para support: Again this is not mandatory, but probably one of the best support statuses in the game. I feel it's a great way to consistently make Marowak contribute (far more than joltwak anyway), since it's not a one-and-done thing. It also brings out the best in the likes of Drumquag, Drumfable, Drumzard, Drumlax, Growthvap, Cursechamp, Cursehera etc etc, those that just need a tiny push, where speed is the only thing stopping them.

Exeggutor (the best in the game, especially with leech seed forcing switches. combined with substitute and it's an absolute horror to play against)
Porygon2 (extremely underrated, definitely one of the best in the game at spreading any status around. twave + curse makes growltanks job pretty tough)
Zapdos (especially with twave, which probably puts it at #2 as far as para spread is concerned. a testament to zapdos' flexibility. thunder still counts too)
Dragonite (again, dragonite is plenty flexible when you need it to be. extremely good at paraing electrics, which helps out a lot of sweepers. oh, and thunder)
Snorlax (bslam snorlax spreads the love. curse + bslam has a small chance of lucking growltanks)
Starmie (might deter snorlax a bit, since a para'd lax is quite a bit less threatening. also deters electrics as well. damn good if you're not afraid of gengar spinblock)
Steelix (body slam is an old classic because steelix simply does not die. you can nail just about any flying pokemon, and growltanks too, which synergizes with other cursers)
Miltank (body slam is all it has, but all it needs. growl can forces switches to give you different looks, as long as they don't have missy/gengar)
Blissey (it doesn't always have to bell, y'know. twave to neutralize one of the many threats coming your way. makes tenta etc cry)
Raikou (thunder stuff)
Nidoking (thunder stuff again; please don't use body slam)
Marowak (Body Slam ST Marowak is underrated, more in the sleep talk section)
Slowbro (pretty versatile support pokemon if you couldn't tell)
Alakazam (works, but in the sense that it'll be an inferior starmie)






Toxic/poison: This is a great status vs teams without bellers, and still good vs bell teams. The fact that most offensive teams forgo the belling, and now even forgo resting, means this status puts them on a pretty short counter. Coupled with spikes, it has the potential to 5HKO without you throwing out a single attack. It's mostly the poison worth mentioning, since the Toxic "stacking" rarely matters (great vs last poke non-rest scenarios though!). Poison also stacks with spikes for 25% on the switch damage.

Umbreon (toxic charmbreon is the standard because it is. it does what it does.)
Suicune (toxic shuffle, the original version. if you can keep spikes, suicune can do a good job abusing it)
Skarmory (same as suicune, but slightly less so since it doens't threaten anything)
Blissey (used in conjunction with flamethrower for steels. pretty helpless vs poisons though)
Cloyster (pretty fucking good vs other cloysters, and give you a chance to keep spikes vs starmie with enough prediction)
Forretress (again, rapes cloyster and ensures you'll last longer than they do. that's probably it though, but that alone is worth it)
Porygon2 (um, it learn it. and pgon2 is surprisingly good at spreading status)
Snorlax (toxiclax, a classic set. with flamethrower for steels)
Tyranitar (put machamp on a counter if it doesn't rest, which most don't. give you a shot vs growltanks, and annoys the hell out of a couple other ttar switches)
Alakazam (honestly not that bad on him, but zam is not that good. so the two make for a very mediocore combination)
Muk (poison ttar/rhydon with sb, then your sweep is just about good to go)
Tentacruel (likewise, except not as much. your targets usually don't mind poison as much, but poison is poison)
Starmie (another status for starmie, and i've actually found toxic to be better than twave vs snorlaxes. and believe me, snorlax will switch into you)
Raichu (eh, bob/vil's encore toxic raichu is worth an honorary mention, and is the only "competitive" set raichu has)
Anything else you can think of with this universal TM






Pseudo passers: Since it's GSC, all that you're probably passing is Reflect/Light Screen. Safeguard is pretty bad. With that said, ppassing either of the screens is an almost forgotten strat that'll throw a lot of people off. An LS to Marowak means your opponent almost has to phaze it instead of hitting it with water/ice/grass attacks, and it makes the likes of Machamp really awkward to deal with. Giving reflect to Snorlax or Clefable lets them drum on just about anything they want to. And stuff like Tentacruel and Charizard are really difficult to play against when they've got screens up and you're looking down a potential sweep.

Zapdos (extremely overlooked, but a huge part of zapdos' alternative game. probably the best p-passer in the game)
Raikou (not as good as zapdos, mostly because roar is already in heavy competitive with ST as the main 4th move. reflect is not to be forgotten though)
Blissey (light screen can be used in conjunction with bell, and pretty good at setting fragile stuff up. but if you don't need bell, it easily becomes one of the best reflect passers)
Forretress (not bad, usually as a filler move. might save you an explosion vs drumlaxes overpredicting)
Cloyster (again, a filler move, and has similar usefulness as forretress')
Starmie (it's neutralizing snorlax switch-ins somewhat. also makes cloyster think twice about exploding. make's forretress's job a bit tougher as well)
Exeggutor (underrated ppasser, but only for the fact that it has so many other useful moves)
Porygon2 (again, this is an often overlooked, but very useful utility role player. it does more than just curse y'know!)
Dragonite (defensive dragonites are possible, and reflect/haze can legitimately shut down curselax, vap, among other things. oh, it screens too, for those pesky electrics)
Alakazam (pretty good way to ward off snorlax users. and if they curse, you can just encore it)
Jumpluff (see jumpluff description above)
Slowbro (growl and/or reflect makes for a pretty good defensive slowbro. good stats to boot, definitely worth a look. it was ou for a bit for a reason)
Ampharos (holder of both screens, something raikou can't attest to. pure electric, something zapdos can't attest to. too bad it's slow, but still viable as far as ppassing goes)







Sleep talker: Generic status absorber. But the idea here, is not to necessarily TAKE sleep if you don’t have to. You definitely want to be in control of your own sleep cycle, rather than banking on the randomness of Sleep Talk. Not being in control also makes you hyper-suseptible to off turn wake-ups, causing you to lose more turns than its worth. It’s extremely annoying when the sleeper is faster than you (Gengar/Nidoking?).

Zapdos (probably the universal set at this point. dp has no place except vs blissey, I'll take HP fire over DP vs hera)
Raikou (pretty common as well, but less so because roar raikou is more viable than any of zapdos' alternatives. same set as zap. crunch is nice in mirror matches)
Snorlax (iffy as a sleep talker, becuase you're losing a lot of offense on the best offensive pokemon in the game. but it becomes a monster tank)
Heracross (amazing sleep talker. s-toss for support, curse for the sweep vs non-dp teams. amazing typing and stats makes this guy last pretty damn long)
Suicune (probably a mixed sweeper's worst nightmare is a sleep talking cune. incredibly tough to take down, even with SE moves)
Machamp (cursechamp will catch a lot of teams that look to wear it down via spikes/toxic or something. similar to cursehera)
BORAT (i'm great. i made it. transitive property. it's great)
Marowak (a forgotten set, but EQ with either RS/BS gives marowak that much needed longevity, and what's really taking hits from 516 attack? not a good status absorber though)







Spiker/spinner: Self-explanatory again. Spin spikes for control. Switching is a huge part of GSC, more than any other generation. In longer matches, he who controls spikes, wins. It’s not super important in games < 40-50 turns, but still somewhat worth mentioning.

Starmie (probably the most reliable spinner of the three, at the tradeoff of not being able to set spikes. offers defensive coverage and support)
Cloyster (extremely suseptible to toxic. resting with it is definitely tough, and hard to keep spikes down vs starmie without outside support)
Forretress (the more defensive spiker, and keeps spikes vs starmie for the most part. loses it vs cloy, but you can toxic them. decent physical wall to boot)







Beller: Even more self-explanatory.

Miltank (the physical beller of the two. provide para support, and more importantly: growl. Fast too)
Blissey (the special side of the coin. it can technically growl, but that won't save you since you're slow and fragile. biggest upside are Light Screen and Sing)
 
That was actually my inspiration for making this - it's a fantastic resource, but it's somewhat annoying to both scroll down and to pick out a particular Pokemon; in other words, it's more of a teaching material than an actual teambuilding resource. This thread basically takes that and makes it much easier to discern and read, allowing people to easily select a Pokemon that could work as said aspect, with the downside that you don't actually learn nearly as much about the Pokemon.

If you want, I can give you the credit for this, since I'm essentially just reformatting + slightly adding onto what you posted.
 

wyc2333

A=X+Y+Z Y: Hard Work
phazer: roar golem, roar nido, haze dnite, and roar doom. if perish song misdreavus is a phazer, jynx and gar can be phazers, though they are generally trappers
 
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I don't want to say that using toxic isn't a role, but wouldn't you agree that the section of "toxic-ers" could be a bit misleading?
At the very least it isn't encompassing the full potential because the mons listed here are only a portion of what is viable. Toxic on the hp legends is not something that is completely unheard of, considering also that only steelix could switch in safely on raikou or Zapdos. Toxic on these two represent a great deal of potential as it can cripple an unsuspecting opponent that will switch in with snorlax, ground types or other electrics.
 

wyc2333

A=X+Y+Z Y: Hard Work
I don't want to say that using toxic isn't a role, but wouldn't you agree that the section of "toxic-ers" could be a bit misleading?
At the very least it isn't encompassing the full potential because the mons listed here are only a portion of what is viable. Toxic on the hp legends is not something that is completely unheard of, considering also that only steelix could switch in safely on raikou or Zapdos. Toxic on these two represent a great deal of potential as it can cripple an unsuspecting opponent that will switch in with snorlax, ground types or other electrics.
Toxic is a possibility to wear down Snorlax and any walls that switch in. However, Thunder is often powerful enough to render Toxic unnecessary; giving up Reflect, and thereby leaving Raikou totally and completely walled by Nidoking and Steelix, is usually not worth the trouble of adding Toxic, either.
copied from https://www.smogon.com/dex/gs/pokemon/raikou/
 

assless jorts

Banned deucer.
Cool thread, some thoughts though.

This is nitpicky, but even though Snorlax is the big don of GSC I think it's kind of misleading to put him first in every category - the one that sticks out to me is physical wall - Snorlax is not the best physical wall in GSC. I know he exudes pressure, but he falls flat against a lot more physical threats (especially in the case of spikes, or physical threat setting up on the switch) than some others. I can't exactly to what degree these lists are ordered, but if they are Snorlax shouldn't be first there, and maybe shouldn't be first for toxicer either.

Golem is a real part of modern GSC, and should be all over this list. He is a physical wall, a boomer (both as an RBY pokemon and explosion, heh), a fire blast lax check, and a phazer, could of missed a category. He's also maybe the second best spinner now?

I like how Snorlax's checks are broken out specifically. I think it might be a good idea to also break out some other top threats - the first one that comes to mind is electrics. In my opinion, you can't consistently win GSC games if you don't prepare for electrics, and Snorlax isn't really enough. A lot of GSC games can be won by wearing down the few mons capable of sponging Thunder and HP Ice (or water) from Raikou and Zapdos. While this does have a large overlap with special walls, some are not great checks and there are a couple of other mons who are decent checks (or part of your overall check electric effort) such as Steelix or Quagsire. There is probably nothing else that needs to be broken out in the same way, but some ideas could be Machamp and Nidoking.

My list for electrics would look something like this, vaguely ordered:
:Snorlax: :Raikou: :Blissey::Steelix: :Nidoking::Quagsire::Tyranitar::Zapdos::Exeggutor: :Golem: :Marowak: :Rhydon: :Jolteon: :Porygon2:
(there are kind of two groups, hard walls and stuff that comes in and threatens on thunder, idk. the general idea is you want some combination of the really good checks and the decent checks. I tried to sort of order based on somewhere in between overall viability and how good of a check the mon is.
 
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Diophantine

Banned deucer.
My list for electrics would look something like this, vaguely ordered:
:Snorlax: :Raikou: :Blissey::Steelix: :Nidoking::Quagsire::Tyranitar::Zapdos::Exeggutor: :Golem: :Marowak: :Rhydon: :Jolteon: :Porygon2:
(there are kind of two groups, hard walls and stuff that comes in and threatens on thunder, idk. the general idea is you want some combination of the really good checks and the decent checks. I tried to sort of order based on somewhere in between overall viability and how good of a check the mon is.
Good post and great idea to add switch-ins to the electrics. Not too sure about some of these though, as Marowak doesn't like being thrown in coz it wants to preserve HP; Jolteon doesn't appreciate Thunder paras; Golem and Rhydon take a chunk from HP Ice - even worse from HP Water, which is not too uncommon. Golem can't even threaten Zapdos outside of a boom. Piloswine should be here too, Meganium too (to a lesser extent).

Add a spin blockers sections, with missy and gar
Agreed with this.
 
I went AWOL from competitive Pokemon for a few years, and unfortunately forgot about the posts I was OPing in RoA (this + the GSC OU VR); I wasn't expecting to be away for so long, and I figured that GSC's updates were slow enough that I could get away with not paying attention to them, but then the length of time increased and they slipped from my mind. While I'm currently back into Pokemon, I'm primarily focusing on gens 4 and 8, and so I don't consider myself to be qualified to manage this post's OP anymore. It looks like other moderator's been updating the post in my absence, who I both apologize to and thank.

As for some of the questions that have recently cropped up:
-The Toxicers section was simply meant to portray Pokemon who could viably utilize Toxic, be it as a focal point of the set, as a lure, or anything else in-between. Some defensive teams enjoy simply having the threat of Toxic, in which case it would be more important to have a viable user, period, rather than a focal one specifically.
-The horizontal order of the Pokemon in each section was by VR placement, not necessarily by individual rankings of each section, which is why Snorlax is listed at the front of every section he's in.

I would also like to remind everyone of the contents of post #15 (which should've honestly been in the OP since the start): The compendium used a reformatted section from Borat's guides as its starting point, and the majority of the info still comes from that.
 

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