Psychic types may have fallen from their throne from R/B/Y, but they are still a force to be reckoned with in the NU tier. They range from supporters to tanks, from frail attackers, to full out walls. This thread is meant to illustrate the impact of psychic types in the tier, and feel free to add your opinions yourself.
Offensive
Exeggutor
With his unique psychic/grass typing, exeggutor is definately a major threat offencively. Known for his versitility, exeggutor can pull off many sets, all of which are deadly in their own respect. Able to abuse trick room, sunny day, specs leaf storm, and even a tankish harvest/lum berry set. His all around good stats make him that much better. He also has a solid attack stat and expansive physical movepool including wood hammer, zen headbutt, low kick, and explosion. Exeggutor also abuse two fantastic abilities in chlorphyl and harvest. These allow him to either outspeed most of the metagame, or last for ages with a subseed or tank set abusing lum/sitris berry with harvest. Now with pinch berries having been released, you could attempt some kind of harvest boosting set, but Its doubtful to work.
Kadabra
Although not as common, kadabra should never be underestimated. With high speed, good strength (with zard as being 1 of two NU pokes with base 100 spA and speed), and a fantastic ability in magic guard, kadabra can easily pull off a late game sash, as it will never lose it to hazards. A life orb set is also viable, as it won't take LO recoil, but one must be wary of faster threats. Kadabra works all around as a status absorber as well, as he will not take damage from burn or poison. Kadabra is a great pokemon in the clutch, as with the omnipresent focus sash, great spA, and expansive movepool, he can stand out from the crowd, dispite his miserable usage stat.
Gardevoir
Gardevoir truely is a jack of all trades. With base 80 speed and 125 spA, gardevoir is an extremely potent offensive threat. With the ability trace, gardevoir is one of the tier's top checks to weather teams, able to copy that ludicolo's swift swim or that exeggutor's chlorphyl. Also, gardevoir abuses choice items to the highest potential, able to trick it to walls and crippling them, or outspeeding common threats with a scarf set and hitting hard with a choice move from it's massive movepool. This movepool contains the likes of psychic/shock, shadow ball, thunderbolt, energy ball, trick, as well as support options like heal bell, wish, will-o-wisp, memento, screens, and healing wish. Thus pulling us into the fact you should NEVER underestimate gardevoir's defensive traits. base 68 hp and 65 def isnt fantastic, but it is enough to abuse her great base 115 spD.
Duosion
As the other major abuser of magic guard in NU, duosion is basically the polar opposite of kadabra. Able to abuse eviolite with magic guard, high HP, and solid defences, this poke has no need to rely on speed to kill things. With access to trick room and recover, duosion can tank hits and "outspeed" opponants with ease. It can also utilize calm mind for a full-on bulky sweeper. With magic guard, duosion is considered public enemy #1 to stall in the NU tier. And although his usage dropped massively last month, duosion still fills a niche that is difficult to obtain otherwise. The are only 3 things that keep it in relation with his cousin, magic guard, pure psychic typing, and a massive base spA stat. And although duosion has steeply dropped in usage due to the upbringing of musharna, it still fills a niche as being a bulky TR abuser.
Musharna
Dispite abysmal speed and a mediocre movepool, musharna is the very essance of tankish psychic in NU. I have seen a few LO sets floating around that have been fairly effective. It can also utilize calm mind and trick room with moonlight and stored power, if you like that kind of set. Oh yea, and this thing is freaking BULKY. He also has access to sleep talk, giving him an effective resttalk set. Synchronize is fairly underrated, as the ability to punish bulky opponants for toxicing him improves his abilities as a tank. Musharna is also a very fantastic counter to the tier's common fighting types (Barring scraggy), as it resists their STABs and has great hp and defense stats with reliable-ish recovery. Musharna does however, suffer from a bad movepool. Outside the options i mentioned, he doesnt have much to work with. He doesn't even get focus blast. ;_; Fortunately, BW2 move tutors were helpful for the little guy, as they gifted him with heal bell. Meaning he can now support himself while sweeping without worry of toxic. But all in all, musharna is a great pokemon and shouldn't be underestimated.
Swoobat
Formerly at the near bottom of this list, swoobat rises up due to the release of his ability simple. Swoobat sports a typing that serves as a double edged sword. It has air slash and a blistering speed stat going for it, as well as Simple giving him a nasty plot and amnesia every time he sets up a calm mind. This ability allows swoobat to boost his special stats by 2 stages in one turn, combining high speed with solid power and bulk after a boost. He must be wary of dark types however, as he is still incredibly frail on the physical side. And once PS! allows the use of stat boosting pinch berries (outside salac) a set involving simple and a leichi berry can be attempted, as swoobat can abuse It's high speed to set up subs on anything until leichi activates, giving him a free SD and able to abuse STAB acrobatics. Who knows if the set would work, but its certainly an option imo.
Girafarig
Ok, this is really where it stops. I guess it's typing is cool with normal/psychic, leaving only one weakness (dark). It also gets sap sipper and calm mind, but gimmicks are gimmicks. Girafarig, with the epic palendrome name, has absolutely nothing to offer that something else can't do, outside of sap sipper with calm mind. it can also be decent on baton pass teams with BP / screens / sub or set up move (you have agility, calm mind...) with his sap sipper so you can deal with sleep powders. And *theorymonning* but this set could be effective on BP teams. Basically, It's a gimmicky answer to amoonguss.
Lunitone
Lunitone's main draw is it's ability as a baton passer. With decent defenses, lunatone can pass a multitude of moves such as calm mind, cosmic power, and rock polish. He can also set up for himself with an impressive movepool including earth power, ice beam, shadow ball, ancientpower, psychic/shock, grass knot, and signal beam. And this can potentially put a dent in unprepared teams, but will rarely sweep, due to mediocre 95/70 spA/spe respectively. Lunatone also has a vast physical movepool, but his base 55 atk is too low to make anything of it unfortunately. Through the dream world however, Lunitone gained access to moonlight. It can help it a self-setup or bulky set, but unfortunately it is illegal with baton pass.
Solrock
Solrock basically works as a physical lunitone, but with less viable setup options. Baton pass should be left to his brother, as solrock's stats are less tailored to the job. He can, however, utilize a decent base 85 def stat to soft check the birds. Solrock is also a bit more suited to setting things up, as it can be a suicide lead, setting up both stealth rocks and sunny day before exploding. It also has trick room and acrobatics, but they are to little avail. It's interesting STABs also nab good coverage in NU, but it is still pretty weak and slow. In the dream world it obtained Morning sun, which is a blessing to the bulkier sets. And sinse solrock will rarely use BP anyways, he can be free to have a full physicallly defensive set, dispite his mediocre defenses.
Mr Mime
Mr Mime is a curious mixed bag of tricks. With three interesting abilities called filter (mr mime's version of solid rock),technition, and soundproof, the mime can do a few things and is a diamond in the rough in these last few mentions. It can baton pass, making use of either filter or soundproof to pass along subs, CMs, and charge beams. It also could attempt to be a spc Attacker with interesting moves like technition charge beam, icy wind, magical leaf, shock wave, calm mind, psychic, shadow ball... you get it, this thing's movepool is out the wazoo.
Beheeyem
Thank you, everyone who pointed out that I missed this thing. This thing is not a bad NP trick room sweeper, and can take hits. Unfortunately, there are usually better TR sweepers, including duosion and exeggutor, who's better ability and extra STAB (respectively) make them a more favorable for someone running a TR team. BUT beheeyem has access to Nasty Plot, so he still has a niche over these guys. Also, beheeyem recently obtained the ability analytic. And although it is still inferior to exeggutor in a specs set, it can do some massive damage to anything it can live a hit from.
Defensive
Psychic is a little weak on the defensive side, especially due to the prevelance of dark types and pursuit trappers in NU, but here are a few options.
Hypno
As a rare gem, this guy can be the most annoying poke ever, or a bump on a log. He is a very heavily defensive poke and won't do much offensively. He also is able to abuse the ability insomnia, able to trump common sleepers like tangela, vileplume, and amoonguss. He is also a fantastic wish passer and dual screener. He at least has siesmic toss to deal SOME damage, but his bad offenses leave it at that. Access to trick also has interesting options as a trick scarfer, but should stick to wish passing and dealing with sleepers. Also, disable can be a fun toy, but again, he is superior at wish passing.
Metang
With concensus from #neverused, we can all agree this thing sucks. However, it can take jynx's hits, and is common, so I added it anyway. It's part steel, giving it an edge on alot of common NU attacks. With eviolite he gets really bulky, but he lacks recovery. He can at least stealth rock, so he has some use. He can also put up dual screens, but then, why use this pile of crap at all? It does have powerful STAB moves and STAB priority, but his base 75 atk is too weak to make good use of them. Your best bet at doing damage is using a suicide SR lead with normal gem explosion, as dying is the one thing metang can do correctly. Although he's technically RU,(Molk) I'm leaving him on this list because he will just drop again soon.
Grumpig
Unfortunately, it's physical defence is lacking. However, access to the ability Thick Fat gives it a niche in taking on ice types and fire types. It also has access to thunder wave and confuse ray, which can be a good cause for anger management to your opponants. Unfortunately, it is easily trapped by skuntank and removed from play. But the holiday ham can be a great troll if added to a solid core, it is niche.It also supports the team with heal bell, but that is common to bulky psychics.
Gothitelle
This poke has great stats to back up a defencive poke. However, outside of toxic and Twave, it doesn't have much of a movepool to abuse these stats. It has frisk which can help in gathing information on the opponant's item, but thats about it. But however, when shadow tag is released, we may get some fun out of it before they ban the ability completely. Gothitelle also can abuse a gimmick with the moves Flatter and Psych Up, which allows gothitelle to have a psudo-nasty plot while confusing the opponant as well. However, this is very difficult to perform, as the opponant can simply switch out and ruin your strategy. With shadow tag however...
Speaking of shadow tag...
Wynaut use this pokemon?
Ok, ok, sorry, I just had to. Wynaut is a curious case of a pokemon. Shadow tag allows it to trap a pokemon and go from there. Wynaut's achilles heel is that it's movepool is absolutely atrotious, as it has to rely on freaking COUNTER and MIRROR COAT to deal damage. Luckily, it has access to encore, so it isnt set up bait by any means. However, encore got nerfed in 5th gen and doesnt last nearly as long. But nonetheless, wynaut is unreliable and not for the feint of heart.
Natu
Maaaagic booouuunce! That is the main draw of natu. As the only magic bouncer in the NU teir, natu is a decent dual screener, and he can roost to heal himself. Unfortunately, his defenses are miserable, even with eviolite. His typing is also poor. Fortunately, it has decent speed and u-turn, so he can get out in a pinch. But that's really it for the guy. He only works as a dual screener and rock blocker, so i would discourage using him otherwise.
Bronzor
It's the same thing as metang really, only with one less weakness due to the abilities heatproof and levitate. But again, dont use it.
Chimecho
As it is rare and outclassed by the majority of bulky psychics in the tier, chimecho finds itself towards the bottom of the tier. It is actually a decent trick scarfer and has quite a few support options. Healing wish completely revitalizes an ally,
and wish heals HP for anything. Levitate is an interesting ability, giving a useful immunity to an otherwise abysmal pokemon, but that is about it. It has other support stuff like heal bell and knock off, but again, not much is going in this guy's favor.
Slowpoke
It sounds good on paper, with access to scald, regenerator, eviolite, slack off, etc. But It's defences are just to low to be effective in NU.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this thread, feel free to post your reactions below, and if I forgot anything, feel free to let me know, and I may put it in. Also, a special thanks to those of you who helped me with the pictures.
Possible additions: baltoy
-UPDATED FOR THE MORE NOTABLE BW2 CHANGES-
Offensive
Exeggutor
With his unique psychic/grass typing, exeggutor is definately a major threat offencively. Known for his versitility, exeggutor can pull off many sets, all of which are deadly in their own respect. Able to abuse trick room, sunny day, specs leaf storm, and even a tankish harvest/lum berry set. His all around good stats make him that much better. He also has a solid attack stat and expansive physical movepool including wood hammer, zen headbutt, low kick, and explosion. Exeggutor also abuse two fantastic abilities in chlorphyl and harvest. These allow him to either outspeed most of the metagame, or last for ages with a subseed or tank set abusing lum/sitris berry with harvest. Now with pinch berries having been released, you could attempt some kind of harvest boosting set, but Its doubtful to work.
Kadabra
Although not as common, kadabra should never be underestimated. With high speed, good strength (with zard as being 1 of two NU pokes with base 100 spA and speed), and a fantastic ability in magic guard, kadabra can easily pull off a late game sash, as it will never lose it to hazards. A life orb set is also viable, as it won't take LO recoil, but one must be wary of faster threats. Kadabra works all around as a status absorber as well, as he will not take damage from burn or poison. Kadabra is a great pokemon in the clutch, as with the omnipresent focus sash, great spA, and expansive movepool, he can stand out from the crowd, dispite his miserable usage stat.
Gardevoir
Gardevoir truely is a jack of all trades. With base 80 speed and 125 spA, gardevoir is an extremely potent offensive threat. With the ability trace, gardevoir is one of the tier's top checks to weather teams, able to copy that ludicolo's swift swim or that exeggutor's chlorphyl. Also, gardevoir abuses choice items to the highest potential, able to trick it to walls and crippling them, or outspeeding common threats with a scarf set and hitting hard with a choice move from it's massive movepool. This movepool contains the likes of psychic/shock, shadow ball, thunderbolt, energy ball, trick, as well as support options like heal bell, wish, will-o-wisp, memento, screens, and healing wish. Thus pulling us into the fact you should NEVER underestimate gardevoir's defensive traits. base 68 hp and 65 def isnt fantastic, but it is enough to abuse her great base 115 spD.
Duosion
As the other major abuser of magic guard in NU, duosion is basically the polar opposite of kadabra. Able to abuse eviolite with magic guard, high HP, and solid defences, this poke has no need to rely on speed to kill things. With access to trick room and recover, duosion can tank hits and "outspeed" opponants with ease. It can also utilize calm mind for a full-on bulky sweeper. With magic guard, duosion is considered public enemy #1 to stall in the NU tier. And although his usage dropped massively last month, duosion still fills a niche that is difficult to obtain otherwise. The are only 3 things that keep it in relation with his cousin, magic guard, pure psychic typing, and a massive base spA stat. And although duosion has steeply dropped in usage due to the upbringing of musharna, it still fills a niche as being a bulky TR abuser.
Musharna
Dispite abysmal speed and a mediocre movepool, musharna is the very essance of tankish psychic in NU. I have seen a few LO sets floating around that have been fairly effective. It can also utilize calm mind and trick room with moonlight and stored power, if you like that kind of set. Oh yea, and this thing is freaking BULKY. He also has access to sleep talk, giving him an effective resttalk set. Synchronize is fairly underrated, as the ability to punish bulky opponants for toxicing him improves his abilities as a tank. Musharna is also a very fantastic counter to the tier's common fighting types (Barring scraggy), as it resists their STABs and has great hp and defense stats with reliable-ish recovery. Musharna does however, suffer from a bad movepool. Outside the options i mentioned, he doesnt have much to work with. He doesn't even get focus blast. ;_; Fortunately, BW2 move tutors were helpful for the little guy, as they gifted him with heal bell. Meaning he can now support himself while sweeping without worry of toxic. But all in all, musharna is a great pokemon and shouldn't be underestimated.
Swoobat
Formerly at the near bottom of this list, swoobat rises up due to the release of his ability simple. Swoobat sports a typing that serves as a double edged sword. It has air slash and a blistering speed stat going for it, as well as Simple giving him a nasty plot and amnesia every time he sets up a calm mind. This ability allows swoobat to boost his special stats by 2 stages in one turn, combining high speed with solid power and bulk after a boost. He must be wary of dark types however, as he is still incredibly frail on the physical side. And once PS! allows the use of stat boosting pinch berries (outside salac) a set involving simple and a leichi berry can be attempted, as swoobat can abuse It's high speed to set up subs on anything until leichi activates, giving him a free SD and able to abuse STAB acrobatics. Who knows if the set would work, but its certainly an option imo.
Girafarig
Ok, this is really where it stops. I guess it's typing is cool with normal/psychic, leaving only one weakness (dark). It also gets sap sipper and calm mind, but gimmicks are gimmicks. Girafarig, with the epic palendrome name, has absolutely nothing to offer that something else can't do, outside of sap sipper with calm mind. it can also be decent on baton pass teams with BP / screens / sub or set up move (you have agility, calm mind...) with his sap sipper so you can deal with sleep powders. And *theorymonning* but this set could be effective on BP teams. Basically, It's a gimmicky answer to amoonguss.
Lunitone
Lunitone's main draw is it's ability as a baton passer. With decent defenses, lunatone can pass a multitude of moves such as calm mind, cosmic power, and rock polish. He can also set up for himself with an impressive movepool including earth power, ice beam, shadow ball, ancientpower, psychic/shock, grass knot, and signal beam. And this can potentially put a dent in unprepared teams, but will rarely sweep, due to mediocre 95/70 spA/spe respectively. Lunatone also has a vast physical movepool, but his base 55 atk is too low to make anything of it unfortunately. Through the dream world however, Lunitone gained access to moonlight. It can help it a self-setup or bulky set, but unfortunately it is illegal with baton pass.
Solrock
Solrock basically works as a physical lunitone, but with less viable setup options. Baton pass should be left to his brother, as solrock's stats are less tailored to the job. He can, however, utilize a decent base 85 def stat to soft check the birds. Solrock is also a bit more suited to setting things up, as it can be a suicide lead, setting up both stealth rocks and sunny day before exploding. It also has trick room and acrobatics, but they are to little avail. It's interesting STABs also nab good coverage in NU, but it is still pretty weak and slow. In the dream world it obtained Morning sun, which is a blessing to the bulkier sets. And sinse solrock will rarely use BP anyways, he can be free to have a full physicallly defensive set, dispite his mediocre defenses.
Mr Mime
Mr Mime is a curious mixed bag of tricks. With three interesting abilities called filter (mr mime's version of solid rock),technition, and soundproof, the mime can do a few things and is a diamond in the rough in these last few mentions. It can baton pass, making use of either filter or soundproof to pass along subs, CMs, and charge beams. It also could attempt to be a spc Attacker with interesting moves like technition charge beam, icy wind, magical leaf, shock wave, calm mind, psychic, shadow ball... you get it, this thing's movepool is out the wazoo.
Beheeyem
Thank you, everyone who pointed out that I missed this thing. This thing is not a bad NP trick room sweeper, and can take hits. Unfortunately, there are usually better TR sweepers, including duosion and exeggutor, who's better ability and extra STAB (respectively) make them a more favorable for someone running a TR team. BUT beheeyem has access to Nasty Plot, so he still has a niche over these guys. Also, beheeyem recently obtained the ability analytic. And although it is still inferior to exeggutor in a specs set, it can do some massive damage to anything it can live a hit from.
Defensive
Psychic is a little weak on the defensive side, especially due to the prevelance of dark types and pursuit trappers in NU, but here are a few options.
Hypno
As a rare gem, this guy can be the most annoying poke ever, or a bump on a log. He is a very heavily defensive poke and won't do much offensively. He also is able to abuse the ability insomnia, able to trump common sleepers like tangela, vileplume, and amoonguss. He is also a fantastic wish passer and dual screener. He at least has siesmic toss to deal SOME damage, but his bad offenses leave it at that. Access to trick also has interesting options as a trick scarfer, but should stick to wish passing and dealing with sleepers. Also, disable can be a fun toy, but again, he is superior at wish passing.
Metang
With concensus from #neverused, we can all agree this thing sucks. However, it can take jynx's hits, and is common, so I added it anyway. It's part steel, giving it an edge on alot of common NU attacks. With eviolite he gets really bulky, but he lacks recovery. He can at least stealth rock, so he has some use. He can also put up dual screens, but then, why use this pile of crap at all? It does have powerful STAB moves and STAB priority, but his base 75 atk is too weak to make good use of them. Your best bet at doing damage is using a suicide SR lead with normal gem explosion, as dying is the one thing metang can do correctly. Although he's technically RU,(Molk) I'm leaving him on this list because he will just drop again soon.
Grumpig
Unfortunately, it's physical defence is lacking. However, access to the ability Thick Fat gives it a niche in taking on ice types and fire types. It also has access to thunder wave and confuse ray, which can be a good cause for anger management to your opponants. Unfortunately, it is easily trapped by skuntank and removed from play. But the holiday ham can be a great troll if added to a solid core, it is niche.It also supports the team with heal bell, but that is common to bulky psychics.
Gothitelle
This poke has great stats to back up a defencive poke. However, outside of toxic and Twave, it doesn't have much of a movepool to abuse these stats. It has frisk which can help in gathing information on the opponant's item, but thats about it. But however, when shadow tag is released, we may get some fun out of it before they ban the ability completely. Gothitelle also can abuse a gimmick with the moves Flatter and Psych Up, which allows gothitelle to have a psudo-nasty plot while confusing the opponant as well. However, this is very difficult to perform, as the opponant can simply switch out and ruin your strategy. With shadow tag however...
Speaking of shadow tag...
Wynaut use this pokemon?
Ok, ok, sorry, I just had to. Wynaut is a curious case of a pokemon. Shadow tag allows it to trap a pokemon and go from there. Wynaut's achilles heel is that it's movepool is absolutely atrotious, as it has to rely on freaking COUNTER and MIRROR COAT to deal damage. Luckily, it has access to encore, so it isnt set up bait by any means. However, encore got nerfed in 5th gen and doesnt last nearly as long. But nonetheless, wynaut is unreliable and not for the feint of heart.
Natu
Maaaagic booouuunce! That is the main draw of natu. As the only magic bouncer in the NU teir, natu is a decent dual screener, and he can roost to heal himself. Unfortunately, his defenses are miserable, even with eviolite. His typing is also poor. Fortunately, it has decent speed and u-turn, so he can get out in a pinch. But that's really it for the guy. He only works as a dual screener and rock blocker, so i would discourage using him otherwise.
Bronzor
It's the same thing as metang really, only with one less weakness due to the abilities heatproof and levitate. But again, dont use it.
Chimecho
As it is rare and outclassed by the majority of bulky psychics in the tier, chimecho finds itself towards the bottom of the tier. It is actually a decent trick scarfer and has quite a few support options. Healing wish completely revitalizes an ally,
and wish heals HP for anything. Levitate is an interesting ability, giving a useful immunity to an otherwise abysmal pokemon, but that is about it. It has other support stuff like heal bell and knock off, but again, not much is going in this guy's favor.
Slowpoke
It sounds good on paper, with access to scald, regenerator, eviolite, slack off, etc. But It's defences are just to low to be effective in NU.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this thread, feel free to post your reactions below, and if I forgot anything, feel free to let me know, and I may put it in. Also, a special thanks to those of you who helped me with the pictures.
Possible additions: baltoy
-UPDATED FOR THE MORE NOTABLE BW2 CHANGES-
