Legendary Pokémon

Pokemon of the Week DP: Gengar

Sets

Special Sweeper

Item Held

Life Orb / Choice Specs / Choice Scarf / Expert Belt

Nature

Timid(+Speed, -Attack) / Modest(+Sp.Attack, -Attack)

Effort Points

252 Sp.Attack - 252 Speed - 6 HP

• Shadow Ball
• Thunderbolt
• Energy Ball
• Destiny Bond / Hypnosis / Hidden Power Ice / Focus Blast

Gengar has an excellent movepool and great stats to support it. Shadow ball provides a great STAB,while Thunderbolt kills Gyarados and hurts lots of other Pokemon. Energy Ball is a powerfull grass move that hurts Swampert and Rhyperior. The last slot depends on your choice.If you are using Choice Specs / Scarf you should use an offesive move. Focus Blast hits Tyranitar,Weavile and Blissey but has low accuracy while Hidden Power Ice hits the Dragons but it's very difficult to find the right Hidden Power with the right nature and IVs. Hypnosis is a good choice especially now that it has better accuracy. Destiny bond is the best choice in my oppinion if you are using the Life Orb/Expert Belt set.

Focus Sash

Item Held

Focus Sash

Nature

Timid(+Speed, -Attack) /Hasty(+Speed, -Defense)

Effort Points

252 Sp.Attack - 252 Speed - 6 Attack

• Counter
• Destiny Bond / Explosion
• Hypnosis
• Shadow Ball / Hidden Power Ice / Focus Blast

This set can destroy a lot of people because it is a surprise set. Switch in a hard Physical Sweeper wich you predict that is going to use a Ground / Fighting / Normal move. Your Enemy will try to hit you with a super effective or STABed physical move that will surely kill you. Focus Sash will save you and your opponent will start crying because he is going to take HUGE damage from counter. After that, you can either sweep something with a super effective special move,or take something with you using Destiny Bond or Explosion. Explosion is not good on Gengar but it is useful only if you want to destroy Blissey. Like every Focus Sash set,the big problem here is Stealth rock and Sandstorm wich will destroy the whole concept of this moveset.

Mixed Sweeper

Item Held

Life Orb

Nature

Hasty(+Speed, -Defense) / Naive(+Speed, -Sp.Defense)

Effort Points

128 Attack. - 128 Sp.Attack-252 Speed

• Thunderbolt / Hidden Power Ice
• Shadow Ball
• Focus Punch / Focus Blast
• Explosion

This is simillar to the very popular McIceGar of the Third Generation. Focus Punch OHKOs Tyranitar and does 60-70% Damage to Blissey while Explosion can OHKO Blissey (you can put more EP in Attack to ensure this) . The other Special moves are there for Super Effective hits.

Other Possible Options

Hypnosis + Will-o-Wisp is good for double status but Gengar doesn't have the right defenses to use them well. Mean look + Perish Song for Perish Trap is another possible option but it is useful only against Blissey. If you don't like Mean Look on Gengar you can use Dugtrio or Mean Look + Batton Pass Umbreon to support it. Sludge Bomb is another STAB that became Special but it has a very bad type coverage. Substitute is always an option with Focus Punch sets. Psychic is there for Fighting Pokemon like Heracross and Infernape.

Counters

There is NO Pokemon that can trully counter every single Gengar moveset. The main weapon against Gengar is Sucker Punch and Pursuit but they are both bad against the Focus Sash set.

Steel Pokemon like Registeel, Metagross,Bronzong and Jirachi are good counters providing that the enemy Gengar doesn't use HP fire.

Spiritomb can switch in easilly and beat Gengar with Pursuit or Sucker Punch and Jolly Weavile wich is faster than Timid Gengar can destroy it with Night Slash/Pursuit but it will be destroyed if Gengar uses the Focus Sash set.

Blissey is always a good Counter for Gengar but she fears Focus Punch,Focus Blast and Explosion.

Stealth Rock, Sandstorm and Hail completely destroy the Focus Sash set and they are a big problem to Gengars that use Life Orb.

Opinion & Notes

Gengar is my favorite Pokemon.It has excellent Speed and one of the best Speciall Attack stats in the game.As I said, NO Pokemon can be sure that it will not be defeated by Gengar because Gengar has LOTS of choices. You can change any special attack in the Special Sweeper set with another (Psychic for example) that fits better in your team. I would suggest Timid over Modest and Life Orb over Choice Specs / Scarf because you are going to use Gengar against a Pokemon that is weak against one of its moves. Choice Specs can make Gengar more Powerful than Life Orb but they stop it from using all of its moves at its favor. Gengar can switch easilly into play due to its Type and Ability.It can also use its horrible defenses to take something with it using Destiny Bond or the Focus Sash set.

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