National Dex The Ghost [1k Post]

[Jho]

The Ghost



​

Introduction
Hey there,
So this is a team I built for the ongoing National Dex Spring Seasonal. I unfortunately lost the game I used it in but I still feel that it captures a lot of what makes this metagame different and really plays into the current metagame trends that the Metagross suspect test is causing. Notably, this team is very well-prepped to face all of the Stall that has cropped up, as well as all of the Manaphy Rain teams which have come about to cheese the ladder.

The Team


Gengar @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Gengar is an incredibly potent threat in the current National Dex metagame and one of the best picks available if you're looking for a wall breaker that can dismantle all of the common Stall variations. Sub + Nasty Plot allows Gengar to set up on Pokemon such as Chansey and Alomomola very safely giving Gengar ample opportunities to sweep. Originally, this was Black Sludge in order to augment Gengar's longevity, however, Fightinium Z proved far too useful versus Pokemon such as Mega Tyranitar, Ferrothorn, and Melmetal where missing a Focus Blast could easily prove fatal.

Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Energy Ball
- Recover

Mega Alakazam was chosen here as I was wary of a potential Rain matchup, and thanks to Mega Alakazam's ability to Trace Swift Swim, it is able to easily deal with most versions of Rain, especially when using Energy Ball. On top of this, Mega Alakazam gives the team some natural speed control for the likes of non-Sucker Punch Dragapult, Mega Lopunny, and Tornadus-T. Mega Alakazam also greatly appreciates Gengar's ability to deal with the bulkier walls in the metagame, as Mega Alakazam itself can often struggle to overwhelm Pokemon such as Chansey, Reuniclus, and Aegislash. Conversely, Mega Alakazam can easily take advantage of Pokemon such as Toxapex and Tapu Fini, which Gengar can struggle to breakthrough by itself. Shadow Ball could be used here over Energy Ball in order to ease the team's matchup vs Pokemon such as Aegislash and Mega Metagross, but with the current meta trends favoring Rain, having a solid matchup versus it felt incredibly important.

​

Hippowdon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Hippowdon acts as the teams Mega Metagross check, which has pretty much become pretty much mandatory on all teams in the current metagame where Metagross dominates. The given EV spread allows Hippowdown to always take 2 Meteor Mashes from Mega Metagross, as well as 2 Hurricane's from defensive Tornadus-T. The latter, when paired with Toxic, allows Hippowdon to win the hazard war vs the most common removal option in the metagame, making it a fantastic option for a Stealth Rock setter. Rocky Helmet is used over Leftovers here as it allows us to wear down Mega Metagross far more effectively, which is important for our teammates as Mega Alakazam needs it worn down a lot, and Hydreigon's Dark Pulse needs a little bit of chip damage before it can safely revenge kill it. Whirlwind is an option over Toxic here to prevent Gliscor from getting a free set-up opportunity on us, as it can be quite difficult for the team to deal with effectively. However, I believe the ability to beat out Tornadus-T, as well as being able to Toxic common Pokemon such as Tangrowth, Slowbro, and Rotom-H, is more important. Hippowdon is Sand Force here as I felt that Sand Stream would be too much of a detriment to Substitute Gengar's survivability (this actually lost me the tournament game I used this team in as a Darmanitan-G ended up living with 3% HP and sweeping my team but I digress, I think Sand Force is better still).

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Baneful Bunker
- Recover

I'm pretty sure everyone knows what Toxapex does at this point, though this set is very catered towards allowing it to check Ash Greninja much more comfortably thanks to Baneful Bunker ensuring some extra Black Sludge recovery. Toxapex also offers this team some counterplay to Darmanitan-G, as it can pivot into any attack and then act accordingly the following turn; a trait that is extremely necessary for teams that utilize Hippowdon. It also gives the team one of the best and most consistent answers to Tornadus-T, which is currently gaining a massive upsurge in usage thanks to its ability to shine on Rain teams, as well as act as a soft check to a lot of common threats such as Kartana and Mega Lopunny. Whilst uncommon and massively outclassed in the metagame, Dracovish still makes an appearance every once in a while and Baneful Bunker Toxapex paired with Mega Alakazam allows me to not lose to it on preview.​

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Defog

Tornadus is one of, if not the best hazard removal options due to its incredible defensive utility allowing it to soft check an incredibly large portion of the metagame. I picked it here for its ability to easily force Knock-Offs onto so many important targets, such as Rotom-H, Heatran, Toxapex, and Ferrothorn, as our breakers greatly appreciate the consistent chip damage and reduced longevity that Tornadus-T can inflict thanks to luring them in, and its Knock Offs respectively. Tornadus-T also grants our team a soft check to Kartana, which has a pretty good matchup against us otherwise, especially Choice Scarf variants, though they can be dealt with with a combination of Tornadus-T, Toxapex, and Hippowdon. U-turn also gives us many opportunities to bring in Gengar and Mega Alakazam safely which they appreciate greatly. Originally, I had Tornadus-T holding a Flynium-Z whilst Gengar was Black Sludge and think that is still probably a perfectly fine way to take this team if more longevity on Gengar is desired, however, losing out on Rocky Helmet chip damage versus Pokemon like the aforementioned Kartana can make them very difficult to deal with. On the other hand, Flyinium Z would make the Garchomp matchups much easier, but overall I believe the Z move is best suited for Gengar on this team.

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

Scarf Hydreigon rounds out the team by offering an excellent form of Speed Control, notably giving us a way to revenge kill Darmanitan-G, the other common Choice Scarf user in the metagame. It also gives us a way to revenge kill other common Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Ash Greninja, Mega Alakazam, and non-Dragon Dance Dragapult. Whilst it can revenge kill Ash Greninja, it also gives the team another check to it, just in case Toxapex is flinched down, which of course, tends to happen. Being able to lure in and U-turn on Pokemon such as Tapu Fini and Toxapex is also a massive benefit to the rest of our team, as it allows us to safely bring in Mega Alakazam extremely easily very often.​

Comments & Threats
After using the team a lot, it's clear that the team is overly reliant on Gengar to break through any sort of Stall and will typically fall flat if Gengar dies in these matchups. Outside of the Stall matchup, other threats include Z Move Hydreigon, as my check to it is typically my own Hydreigon, which is fine for the common variant which only runs Earth Power and Dark Pulse, however, rarer variants which run Dragonium Z are incredibly difficult to deal with. Mega Metagross can also be an issue if it manages to get an Attack Raise with Meteor Mash, as that gives it the ability to overwhelm Hippowdon which makes it much more difficult for me to play around. Z Psychic Volcarona also poses a potent threat to the team as I have no way of revenge killing it and am reliant on being able to wear it down with Toxic damage. Although it is much rarer then Heavy Duty Boots variants these days, so it is not overly concerning. Dragon Dance Dragapult can quite easily sweep through the team if it is able to keep its Z-Move for Hippowdon, so careful play is required in order to bait it out and outplay from there.

Import
https://pokepast.es/b3391e6b5d7891df


Shoutouts
It wouldn't be a proper 1k post without some shoutouts, right? I've been on Smogon a long ass time and a whole lot of people have made the experience fun for me and essentially kept me coming back to keep contributing and enjoying mons. So even if I don't mention you here, thanks for making Smogon and Mon's enjoyable for me, here's to another 1000 posts, hopefully, it doesn't take me 7 years this time.

CAP People

snake_rattler cbrevan Mx Wulfanator72 Dogfish44 DHR-107 Rat With Wings againa Birkal DetroitLolcat Rage.Spam.Quit.
CAP was the first place I really settled on Smogon and it really propelled me into contributing all across the site, so I thank everyone in CAP for giving me such a great experience, sorry If I missed u from the tags here but there's are the people I feel have really impacted my stay in CAP and I hope we can all continue to contribute to CAP because honestly, it can be so much fun there. I highly encourage anyone to try it out and come join in if you haven't, I know our stigma is pretty poor but the community and process can be extremely welcoming and enjoyable!

Natdex People

Funbot28 Guardsweeper SputnikGT faded love Kris Solaros & Lunaris Chazm Zneon sweet heat
What a fucking year oml, when I joined natdex early on I never expected to be here with so many people I consider good friends now, working on making an incredibly fun metagame. We got our own PS room, we got a C&C section, we got a PR thread throwing shade at us. We really made it lmao. All of you guys and everyone else in NatDex have actually been so great, from just spending hours chatting shit, to talking about the metagame with, to helping the tier grow competitively. Thanks for making it such a fire experience and I hope it carries on for a whole lot longer.

Crew

Holy fuck there are too many of u tag I'm def gonna forget someone and have them get high key mad but I'm sorry in advance and here we go
lyd quziel TPP maroon Splash Conflux Lilburr martha Estarossa Stoward Ashley Decem Chloe Rage Panther-T Estronic Gross Sweep nui Diophantine Rekeri Yuichi Twilight Juuno curiosity
Thanks for giving me literally one of the best places to talk and rant about literally everything from mons to lyd 's innocence and how funny it is and just have an incredible group of people to share Smogon with

old PS people

Some of these are gonna go way back but this is really where I started on Smogon: doing Trades in the WIfi sub during XY and talking and staffing the Wifi room all the way back in 2014. Jesus.
xzern Zodiax Darnell The Immortal ant Spy Transmuter Cam Blitzamirin Raven panpawn HT (I went to check what Dark and Sop's smogons were these days and saw that sop hasn't been online since 2016 Jesus christ that makes me feel old) Brandon Vacate and a whole bunch more that I cant quite remember since it was 6-7 fucking years ago.
Shoutouts you guys for somehow putting up with young me all the way back, I know some of you are still around after all this time aswell which is amazing to see and I hope those of you that arent are doing well with having a life now (as long as you come back to like this post smdh)

misc people

SectoniaServant Djokra watermess vooper Felucia ScalchopFren blarghlfarghl @Moose50? what the fuck why has jet changed his name
Cool people I've met and spoken to around the site that don't really fit into any other areas.

Todd

These right here are some of the people I've talked to and spent the most time interacting with over the past 7 years and I consider every single one of them some of my closest friends.

xavgb

SHSP
Jesus christ its been a long ass run huh we've both come quite a long way from chatting random shit in the CAP room in like 2016. We've helped each other through a whole load of IRL problems and talking about Hearthstone, League, Smash, and mons with you has lead to some of the highlights of my time on smogon. Fuck the crazies, bump paak, and be the best Greninja in CT godbless.

GMars
What a legend, from helping me with the research plug to chatting shit about neopets in VC all the way to shouting at me for using British grammar in posts. Fuck you dude count the number whilst's in this RMT ahahahahahaahaha

Mellow
Chatting random shit about uni life, to playing card games is always fun w you. You should get back on smogon more ur not even at uni anymore wheres your excuse. Stop trying to get Legend and write an analysis oml

Lasen
Ur kinda cool i like watching u argue with SW and chatting the most absolute random shit constantly. Hope the army isn't too bad in these covid times, stay safe, play more ubers.

ScarfWynaut
Good lord we have played far too much league that I think my brain has melted, do u see the amount of effort I put into a fucking smogon post. This is what Gold has done to me. I miss high plat low diamond games let us get back there asap. Also i like watching u argue with Lasen it is hilarious.

Jordy
Actually consider you one of my closest friends and just have fun scrolling through the god awful insta posts in the chat, streaming say so, hating Demi, talking about your one Polish friend and sharing music. One day you will like grime and drill, but I will never bump Nav, Thug, or Uzi I am sorry. Hopefully, one of these days you can teach me how to actually play mons, god knows what I've been doing for the last 7 years I still suck. Laten we zeggen we haten Doja Cat.... You may also need to teach me better dutch at some point.

Alright I'm done being incredibly cringe good lord that was painful to write, sorry you have to read that lmao. Thanks for reading this whole thing if you made it this far, and thanks for dropping that like that you better be dropping. Stay safe in the isolation times, godbless.