Richard's Reasoning - Gengar

Welcome to the eighth installment of Richard's Reasoning where we discuss competitive Pokemon in Crystal Clear's unique metagame. This time we'll be talking about a Pokemon that took quite a hit with the latest patch and rule changes. Let's talk Gengar.

Base Stats: 60 HP / 65 Attack / 60 Defense / 130 Sp. Attack / 75 Sp. Defense / 110 Speed

With the newest rule changes banning Destiny Bond, Explosion, and Self-Destruct, Gengar has lost quite a number of tools that it appreciated having. Furthermore, the metagame has gotten better and stronger around it. I've even seen many people in the community saying that Gengar is just a worse Alakazam now.

Which is why I'm writing this article. I couldn't disagree more.

-Punished Phantom-

Gengar@ PrzCureBerry / Leftovers
Psychic
Thunderbolt / Thunder
Substitute / DynamicPunch / Shadow Ball / Confuse Ray / Perish Song
Substitute / DynamicPunch /  Shadow Ball / Confuse Ray / Perish Song

When looking at Gengar and Alakazam on a surface level, I can understand the desire to compare them. Both are fast special attackers, but Alakazam is both faster and stronger, and gets STAB Psychic as well, so it seems like no contest, right? Well sure, but Gengar isn't competing as a slower, weaker Psychic type. Gengar's Ghost/Poison typing actually presents many distinct defensive advantages, and while that may seem ridiculous on a Pokemon with base 60 HP and Defense, Stat Experience as a system combined with Gengar's 2 immunities and multiple relevant resistances mean that it does get legitimate value out of its typing. It's certainly not without its downsides - being weak to both Earthquake and Psychic is a huge bummer for Gengar, and it can't really tank physical hits well if they're not resisted. But Gengar does resist Bug, Poison, and Grass, as well as being immune to Normal, Fighting and Toxic as a status. All of these are huge in letting it find its way in, especially the resistance to Bug, which allows Gengar to switch in on attacks like Scizor's HP Bug / Twineedle and Heracross's Megahorn.

Gengar is one of the most consistent checks to Fighting types as a whole in our metagame, able to come in on a predicted Fighting type attack or setup move and threaten them out. I would argue that this is Gengar's main role in the metagame, and its existence during team selection may discourage the opponent from bringing their Fighting type. For this reason, at least in the current metagame, I don't think there's any room to replace Psychic.

Our second option is between Thunderbolt and Thunder, and this is important for a few reasons. First, it provides excellent neutral coverage alongside Psychic, but it also targets some key Pokemon in the metagame that are very much worth considering. Slowbro, Skarmory, Gyarados, and more are hit for Super-Effective damage, allowing Gengar to be a more versatile offensive threat in the metagame. Thunderbolt is much more consistent, but falls short of KOing many Pokemon. Even Gyarados survives Thunderbolt at full health 77% of the time. Something important to note is that while Thunder deals much more damage, it doesn't actually OHKO most Pokemon at full health, so the risk isn't always worth it with the shaky 70% accuracy. The 30% Paralysis is nice, though, so there are pros and cons to consider.

The third and fourth slots are much more malleable, and will really depend on what you value for your team. Substitute is really valuable, as it prevents status and allows Gengar to scout the opponent's switches.

DynamicPunch gives Gengar a way to hit Tyranitar, who otherwise Pursuit traps it. It also gives Gengar a way to deal good damage to Chansey and Porygon2, which are very common Pokemon.

Shadow Ball is a really interesting tool, and I feel like people are underestimating it. Especially alongside Substitute, Gengar can bait a Psychic type in and punish it with a STAB Shadow Ball to deal big damage. Gengar's base 65 Attack isn't great, but it deals enough damage to 2HKO Pokemon like Alakazam and deals a big chunk to Hypno and Slowking as well. It's situational, but it genuinely is helpful to specific matchups.

Confuse Ray is always a good option for Gengar, since it can force many Pokemon to switch directly into it. It's unreliable, but behind a Substitute it can give Gengar extra turns of Leftovers healing and mount more pressure passively.

Finally, Perish Song is a great option to act as a pseudo-phazing move. It can also act as a sort of auto-win if the opponent only has a single Pokemon remaining that can't defeat your remaining Pokemon in 3 turns. As such, this pairs well with Substitute.

Gengar has many other options as well, and many of them are very viable depending on what you want. Fire Punch and Ice Punch are some of Gengar's strongest coverage options. Fire Punch is a little more valuable in the metagame, as Ice Punch really only serves to target  Dragonite, since you'll already have Thunder for other Flying types, whereas Fire Punch can target down Steel types like Scizor and Steelix, while also hitting Meganium and Exeggutor harder than anything else on the moveset. Giga Drain can be used for Quagsire and Rhydon, but the power is low enough that it won't even OHKO them at full health. It's also very redundant alongside Thunderbolt/Thunder outside of those two Pokemon. Haze is a cool option for stopping some Baton Pass shenanigans and it especially makes life difficult for Scizor, but it's hard to find room on the moveset for it since usually Gengar would rather be doing other things. Pursuit is an option, but not a very good one for Gengar. Most Psychic types won't be switching out of Gengar, and usually you'd rather be hitting a switch-in hard or setting up Substitute on a switch, rather than punishing a switch-out.

-My Opinion-

I've come to really love Gengar over time. It's the only Pokemon my dad ever liked and it's one of the coolest Pokemon designs ever made. One of the most fun things about Gengar is that it can be portrayed in any way and it always works well, regardless of whether it's being goofy or scary. It's a fantastic competitive Pokemon and one of the coolest Pokemon of all time. It deserves every bit of adoration the fanbase has for it.