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i dont think heracross fits with the other b's. it's really not that great, let's be serious right now. it's better on paper than in practice, and ultimately doesn't do much but force out skarms/zapdos; it's most prevalent role is as a "on paper threat" to keep team building honest rather than skipping coverage. it's similar to charizard in that sense.
@magicmushroom: dragonite is better. dragonite is in the same sentence as marowak/machamp; you can luck your way to victory or die really fast. i'm not sure how ib/de is a bad matchup vs electrics? and putting electrics in a rest loop makes vap and co that much better. ampharos in the same tier as dnite doesn't seem odd?
entei is d tier worthy imo. you don't get as high power fire blast, but you get solarbeam which is miles better than hp grass/de/whatever it is you run in moltres. hp grass isn't killing anything but quagsire, and de isn't killing anything at all.
and where's ursa?? tauros? doesn't matter if they're inferior snorlax/kanga; they're quite a bit more usable than some of the stuff in d.
From my experiences Quagsire deserves B because Raikou and Zapdos are big threats ( both S rank right now ) and being able to counter them is really great. Also it's biggest type weakness in grass types only and of the grass types Exeggcutor is the only really common one. It can also defeat curse users if it decides to run haze. But i am not a great old gen player so i might be wrong.
Quagsire has a problem: he has the same speed as Snorlax but he can't take hits like Snorlax. And the only way Quagsire is gonna hurt things in OU is with Belly Drum (a Curse set works in UU but not in OU, imo). So even if he only has one weakness, the damage he takes from neutral moves are enough to avoid him to pull off a Drum.
Quagsire is definitely C-Rank.
Quags Drum set is pretty pathetic in general anyway. Not only is it hard to pull of, but it cannot get past Skarm at all. Eggy also stomps on it, while being 2HKOed, can easily OHKO back if it runs Giga Drain, and can heal back the HP it potentially lost.
So yea, Quag is pretty underwhelming, but then again, not everyone runs Skarm or Egg.
Ah yes Jorgen, you're right. Quag has 35 base speed, Snorlax has 30. But still, he can't take any moderately powerful neutral hit very well so C rank fits him. Being able to wall the legendary electrics is a plus.
Well don't undersell it like that. Walling electrics and being able to actually set up on them is amazing. It's really dragged down by its dependence on Drum and the numerous walls that necessitate a ton of team support in order to be more than a lump on offense.
p2 to b, too lazy for explanations, he's just good enough for it
quag... I feel he deserves b for the great electric niche, but then again, he usually fails to drumsweep. HP rock beats sleeping skarm though. and theres sludge bomb for eggy but it leaves you either without rest or skarm being untouchable. Huhhh I will stay with B for now.
champ and wak stay B simply because they arent solid shit, you can't put it on team that easily, they need some support to work. even though marowak is kinda a symbol to gsc, if we are being strict to the rank definitions, then they definitively aren't A.
Snorlax should be the only S. I mean hey, I love Zapdos but nobody's talking about banning it. "The S stands for Snorlax." Though there was that whole Hidden Power thing...
And then A needs to be more threatening, overall useful shit. Zapdos and Raikou are the pre-eminent threats not named Snorlax. Eggy is nearly as good with its STAB combo giving it high offensive power along with the combination of offensive pressure and defensive utility of Sleep Powder + Leech Seed, not to mention Explosion. Gengar is versatility incarnate.
Nidoking... eh, maybe. It's no more resilient than any other fragile offensive presence, likewise offensively it's mostly carried by the merely acceptable power of STAB Earthquake since its mediocre stats belies its versatility. It's very borderline to me, probably on the side of A due to Lovely Kiss.
Miltank? It's just a Blissey that flees from the sight of Zapdos instead of Snorlax, should be moved down to put them together. Well... Miltank can rarely be a threatening presence herself with Curse I guess, where Blissey's boils down to getting Light Screen setup for Marowak/Machamp. If Nidoking is on the A side of my borderline, Miltank is on the B side of it.
Cloyster probably belongs with Forretress since they're basically just two sides of the same coin, fulfilling the same role in two different team styles.
Tyranitar is good but I don't think has quite the offensive punch to be the same level of threat as Zapdos co. and Marowak-level sweepers, while its versatility is not quite Gengar-level frightening. (Gengar doesn't have to kill you with damaging attacks.) Vaporeon is stronger in its niche and somewhat more threatening, however it's too one-dimensional.
The rest are mostly just defensive cockblocks to more serious threats and could all be moved down in my book. Skarmory is even less threatening than Umbreon and mostly serves as the most resilient Snorlax/Marowak cockblock. Starmie is a fuck-you to Cloyster's Spikes and Machamp wall, Suicune is anti-Tyranitar generic wall. I'd love to give Umbreon extra points for the whole trap-passing thing but unfortunately it has no way to punish the counters to that, all it can do is Ray and Pray.
Steelix could go down with those guys above, too, but I wanted to give it its own paragraph because I must say its high success in SPL5 has surprised me.
Why is Jolteon in pathetic-ass C with Ampharos? Obvious B-tier candidate where it fits nicely below Zapdos/Raikou and above who-the-fuck-uses-me Ampharos. I also very much support Porygon2 being moved here, as it's both a much better generic "wall" than other defensive picks (Recover, type neutrality, T-Wave) in addition to being an alternate Snorlax of sorts running Curse sets. The duck, along with Steelix, has probably been my most pleasant surprise in SPL5 (although I never got around to using Steelix myself). Hell, I'd almost say Porygon2 belongs in A.
The trifecta of Heracross / Machamp / Marowak is probably fine all here, maybe even move 'em up if you don't want too many things clumped here. I know Heracross is slightly inferior but I feel like even I'm more biased against it than I should be, as it's actually very threatening to almost everything except Zapdos and Skarmory (sometimes Gengar). While it gets walled harder by them than Machamp/Marowak do by their biggest threats, it's the most resilient of the three and that's still a pretty narrow set of counters.
Or, in shorter terms of how I framed Nidoking and Miltank: the above are all stacked on the A/B borderline, Machamp>Marowak>Heracross, with the line bisecting the bug. Yes, the former two at least are relatively fragile but they're also the two pokémon most likely to actually sweep an opponent. In a metagame where almost all offense has a defense that can stop it, I feel the only two offensive threats where that isn't an absolute given need more respect given.
Rhydon is butt and should go hang out with Golem in C-tier. And not to say Golem should be moved up to B instead but I really think Golem is underrated. Explosion is a lot better in GSC than it was in RBY, where people still argue about which one is better. (Hint: It's definitely Rhydon in RBY.) Steelix simply does Curse/Roar better, or Tyranitar if you really want the Rock typing, even if Rhydon has more offensive presence unboosted.
Lower tiers: C is mostly Espeon among a sea of trash, except shit I already mentioned above. Most of them are probably okay here though, except lolcharizard and Ampharos is just a big noob (although its stats are good enough I probably shouldn't dismiss it so readily, see: Dragonite). Muk and possibly Meganium are a bit out of place here as well, as I don't think Muk actually does anything useful (much as I like it) and Meganium is like ultra-niche because it doesn't get any status moves like other Grassers.
Do not sully the great Alakazam by placing him in D tier. Jynx should also move up, plus maybe Slowbro and Venusaur. Unlisted Nidoqueen deserves an honorable mention for being like 98% the same thing as Nidoking, Granbull packs a bit more punch over its Heal Belling contemporaries that it's sometimes at least worth entertaining the idea of it.
TL;DR
(in no particular order) S: Snorlax A: Zapdos, Raikou, Exeggutor, Gengar
(A-: Nidoking, Porygon2, Machamp, Marowak)
(B+: Heracross, Tyranitar) B: Miltank, Blissey, Cloyster, Forretress, Jolteon, Starmie, Vaporeon, Suicune, Skarmory, Umbreon, Misdreavus, Steelix
(C+ Nidoqueen) C: Good niche shit Espeon, Alakazam, Jynx, Jumpluff, Houndoom, Golem, Rhydon, Quagsire, Smeargle, Tentacruel, generic goodstuff nobody cares about because they have no niche like Dragonite D: Meganium, Slowbro, Venusaur, Granbull, other ultra-niche shit nobody cares about like Moltres/Scizor
The way I stacked it up, A-tier has the biggest dual threats while B-tier has all my defensive durdles and so I ranked my borderlines accordingly. Well, P2 is a huge threat on both ends so why not? Marowak/Machamp aren't, they're a defensive liability, but I'm paying them big respect due to their relative unwallability in a game otherwise dominated by defense. Heracross is more stoppable. Tyranitar and Nidoking are both offensive "durdles" in a sense, as they don't have the power to back up their versatility (or versatility to the point of power not mattering like Gengar), but Lovely Kiss gives the latter a boost.
FreeGarchomp's Sexoking used Fire Blast!
VIL-cinco-'s Zapdos lost 24% of its health!
...
FreeGarchomp's Sexoking used Counter!
VIL-cinco-'s Zapdos lost 51% of its health!
VIL-cinco-'s Zapdos fainted!
Guys, Miltank is clearly A rank. It's the best Beller, walls CurseLax like a champ (and can actually make it switch out instead of having to phaze it itself), as well as every other Curser - Roar or no Roar - with the sole exception of Machamp. And if that wasn't enough, most mixed attackers also have serious difficulties with it because its special bulk is pretty respectable and it doesn't have any special weaknesses like Skarm does (heck, it can even stall out the Electrics sometimes). It poses no offensive threat outside of spreading paralysis, but it's absolutely fantastic on defense. I mean seriously, Miltank is half the reason Misdreavus is actually a thing (the other half being mono-Lax). It's at least as powerful a wall as Suicune, which is A rank and also poses no offensive threat, so Miltank is definitely A.
Scyther to D
Scyther is straight garbage. The only thing that EndRev works for is Heracross and that's because he can actually OHKO things with STAB Reversal and gets STAB Megahorn to OHKO Psychics. You need OHKOs everywhere to make it work, and Scyther doesn't do that. Scyther stays off the list.
Scyther has Swords Dance and usually has exactly one turn to set it up before needing to Endure to 1 HP (only Thunders from the Electrics and STAB/Marowak Rock Slides OHKO). Its +2 Reversal is significantly stronger than Heracross's STAB Reversal (guaranteeing the OHKO on Steelix and doing a lot more to Suicune/Skarmory), and its +2 HP Bug is slightly stronger than Heracross' Megahorn (and more accurate). It's also significantly faster than Heracross, outspeeding Suicune (which is decent) and Miltank (which is HUGE) as well as a bunch of stuff that doesn't matter. And it's immune to Spikes, which is rather nice. I have suffered full sweeps at the hands of SD/EndRev Scyther before; it has a niche. It's not usually worth the trouble, so it should be D Rank, but it does have a tiny niche and should be on the list.
Umbreon's in B and it's pretty much the same thing as Miltank / Skarmory / Suicune as far as annoying do-nothing walls are concerned. None of them do anything but prolong games. I am not opposed to Miltank being in A (and Skarmory; Suicune should be moved down with Umbreon because they don't potentially abuse Curse as well) but I don't particularly value any of them all that highly because none of them are directly capable of winning games. At least Blissey, who itself is equally toothless, does a better job of setting up something that can pose a threat.
That also does much to explain why I put P2 and Heracross over those other guys, yes. Porygon2 is great. I mean if you want a generic wall P2 is pretty damn good at it being neutral to everything (fuck Machamp), having Recover and generally high stats. It can switch into nearly everything and its strong elemental attacks makes switch-ins limited for an opponent trying to avoid spreading PAR. And while Curse Miltank is lucky to finish one in a hundred games, Cursegon is second only to Curselax as a legitimate all-around threat with its own advantages.
I'm honestly not the biggest fan of Heracross, probably because I love Zapdos too much and it beats the shit out of the bug, but I respect the fact Heracross runs through almost everything but it and Skarmory. It's a rather limited set of counters for such an offensive presence. The Ground resist is extremely strong since so few other things do (the only reason Nidoking has any offensive presence with its garbage stats). Snorlax can't switch into it, Umbreon/Eggy/T-tar all get outsped and wrecked. It's only marginally worse than Marowak/Machamp is because it absolutely cannot break its counters on its own, where SD 'wak can't be walled period and Machamp doesn't need much help to beat Starmie (or just crit OHKOs). At least Heracross is less fragile. ST Heracross is like ST Suicune except it actually hurts things, while Curse can win games on its own.
Vaporeon, while potentially quite threatening itself, is simply too limited to be on the same level as the "big three" physical juggernauts. The Electrics ream it and Eggy hard counters in addition to being unable to break any of Starmie, Suicune or Blissey. It's also just frail enough that you don't really want to switch it into major physical threats (except Tyranitar) and it doesn't speed tie Nidoking like Suicune does. Very strong in its niche, it's just too one-dimensional to be an A-rank threat.
Umbreon's in B and it's pretty much the same thing as Miltank / Skarmory / Suicune as far as annoying do-nothing walls are concerned. None of them do anything but prolong games. I am not opposed to Miltank being in A (and Skarmory; Suicune should be moved down with Umbreon because they don't potentially abuse Curse as well) but I don't particularly value any of them all that highly because none of them are directly capable of winning games. At least Blissey, who itself is equally toothless, does a better job of setting up something that can pose a threat.
You make it sound like defensive pokemon in GSC are not only useless, but counterproductive.
Yes, they prolong games. It's their job, because otherwise games would be very short, and by that I mean you get swept by Curselax (why is this thing even allowed in standard again?), the electric legendaries or Explosion spam.
All of them are extremely important pokemon in GSC's metagame and deserve to be A-rank at the very least.
But none of what you listed are particularly "difficult" to maneuver around (unless you meant LS starmie, which you don't). Electrics fall as they tend to be in their own rest cycle; if they happen to run thunder, the odds are actually somewhat in your favor. Egg is slower and takes quite a bit of damage from growthed hits; eggs dont have recovery, spikes totally makes egg a no show. Starmie poses no threat to vap, so you're going to face a 999 spc attack starmie. CH will kill (unless you go LS, which you won't). You need 2 spc falls to neutralize the threat. Suicune loses to last poke vap if that's the case. You can roar vap too to counter suicune but that's full retard -- also full retard is mirror coat/psych up suicune which would counter. Blissey loses to surf variant even with light screen bar extreme luck.
Kingdra is a hard counter though.
@mre in no particular order:
Also, is vap/cloy/tank/friends can't be in A, gengar is certainly a step below the "big 3 + s aka electrics + egg + s aka green and yellow + s".
Heal Bell does win games. Rest/Pursuit does not.
Cursegon2 is not a legitimate threat to most teams. Yes you can run twave curse de to get around miltank more reliably than bs lax can, but having a mono porygon is a much bigger crutch than a monolax.
I agree, heracross is not that good. If he was, FB nido would be more common. But he's not. Heracross should be in Charizard tier imo.
The only reason it's not "metagame breaking" is because it's "metagame making". We're talking about something which has no checks due to setup/recovery, whose only counters are PP-stalling and phazing, and against which no Pokemon can even do those reliably against all fourth-moves (Skarmory/Steelix? Fire Blast. Tyranitar/Rhydon/Misdreavus/Gengar? Earthquake. Aerodactyl? Thunder. Miltank/Umbreon? Drum). It's "not threatening" because every single team is overprepared for it.
Mono Machamp is a pretty reliable one-stop-shop for beating all Snorlax variants, and sorta Misdreavus too, but I tire of certain people acting like standard Curselax is junk. It's not broken (the power-level type) and sometimes you don't need to "fix" it by absolutely insisting on using a variant moveset.
But none of what you listed are particularly "difficult" to maneuver around (unless you meant LS starmie, which you don't). Electrics fall as they tend to be in their own rest cycle; if they happen to run thunder, the odds are actually somewhat in your favor. Egg is slower and takes quite a bit of damage from growthed hits; eggs dont have recovery, spikes totally makes egg a no show. ...
Double-checking the calculations, looks like Vaporeon can break Starmie after all but whatever. It still can't beat Eggy. Eggy's lack of Recover/Rest isn't a problem because either Giga Drain or Leech Seed will do the job here and it's probably packing at least one of them.
I'd give it a pass if Eggy was its only counter but that's just one of a relatively large list. Vaporeon can't break Blissey with or without Light Screen; Softboiled will outlast even Surf's PP. Suicune keeps it at bay unless it's Roar against last-poke Vap; Mirror Coat straight-up wins and even Sleep Talk potentially eats all your PP. Electrics slap it around hard enough that Vaporeon shouldn't try to setup against them and is obligated to switch out. Good ol' Snorlax still beats it unless you run one particular set (Acid Armor + Rest), which just makes it all the weaker against all those other problem mons, and it has a hard time switching into most other physical powerhouses besides T-Tar... And sure, Kingdra if you wanna throw that in there.
No single thing consistently stops Snorlax, nor Marowak and arguably Gengar. The only thing that stops Zapdos is Snorlax and its grounded contemporaries. Raikou adds Steelix/Blissey while also being the biggest defensive block in the game besides Snorlax. Machamp loses to Starmie, Heracross loses to Zapdos and Skarmory. Vaporeon has trouble with at least five things depending on how you count 'em up. ;/ It's very threatening in its own right, being the only common boosting special attacker, but it's too one-dimensional as an attacker and weaker than Starmie/Suicune on defense. It has clear and numerous flaws.
@mre in no particular order:
Also, is vap/cloy/tank/friends can't be in A, gengar is certainly a step below the "big 3 + s aka electrics + egg + s aka green and yellow + s".
Heal Bell does win games. Rest/Pursuit does not.
Cursegon2 is not a legitimate threat to most teams. Yes you can run twave curse de to get around miltank more reliably than bs lax can, but having a mono porygon is a much bigger crutch than a monolax.
I agree, heracross is not that good. If he was, FB nido would be more common. But he's not. Heracross should be in Charizard tier imo.
As for Gengar, I can't even tell what the hell you're saying but its versatility is nuts. It deserves to be in A. While not as potent an attacking threat as its contemporaries it can also kill things without having to do so, so there's no 100% reliable stop (though Raikou is close). Opponents have to respect that and tread lightly until its moveset is discovered, after which it still nigh guarantees a 1-for-1 trade with its choice of suicide move. Ghost typing also gives it surprising defensive utility considering its statistical frailty.
Mono Cursegon is lame, since its major advantage over Snorlax is that it has a much better elemental move for getting around... whichever anti-Cursing threat you choose to play around, but in general it's still a potent threat to most everything. Though not as bulky, P2 is bulky enough and carries a better recovery move that it can similarly park its ass in front of almost everything and start boosting, forcing a defensive response from the opponent. Porygon2 can also play a supportive role pretty well and it deserves to be rewarded for being a dual threat, unlike say Marowak which is purely offensive or Umbreon which is purely supportive. Too bad it doesn't get Body Slam.
From my little GSC experience (which means around 30-40 matches in total) I would say Tauros is worth C ranking. It outspeeds Most of the meta (espesially Zapdos) and only has problems with Forretress, Misdreavus and Skarmory. If Im correct It is the second fastest SleepTalker after Raikou, and EQ+Double edge/Body slam is only resisted by Skarmory and Misdreavus in tier(?) and hits kinda hard from 298 atk. It needs support to take down some stuff, but it can do its job quite effective if given that support.
C-Rank (These Pokemon usually need more support to be effective. They are often inferior to the higher-ranked Pokemon but have one or two advantages that give them a niche with proper team-support.)
The point with Vap is that it does significant damage to all its common counters, so unlike something like Heracross that is always stuck against its (very) common counters, Vap is able to blow past them eventually. Sure, there's things that do hardwall Vap, but those are a lot rarer. Standard answers like Egg/Zap/Snorlax (Lax is really iffy because of AA possibilities) can't just tank it forever and need to scare it out, but 2 of those are slower and 1 of those typically runs an inaccurate SE STAB move that doesn't OHKO, and it's frequently in a ST loop to boot. There will come a point where those counters can no longer switch in or Vap can afford to tank a hit to get the KO.
Let's not forget, too, that all of Vap's counters can be Exploded on, unlike stuff like Snorlax and Marowak, whose top counter is a big fat Normal-resisting bird.
EDIT: Also Tauros doesn't feel right in C. It's interesting, especially with Berserk Gene shenanigans. Unfortunately, the descriptors for the tiers in the OP are open to interpretation, so another succinct way I think it could be viewed (albeit with usage as a guide) is:
S is for the mons that might be banned if it were up to current-gen tiering processes
A is for the top-of-the-line OUs
B is for the more limited OUs
C is where the off-beat BL threats go
D is where the outright gimmicks go.
Tauros seems more like a gimmicky attacker than a BL with a powerful niche.
The point with Vap is that it does significant damage to all its common counters, so unlike something like Heracross that is always stuck against its (very) common counters, Vap is able to blow past them eventually. Sure, there's things that do hardwall Vap, but those are a lot rarer. Standard answers like Egg/Zap/Snorlax (Lax is really iffy because of AA possibilities) can't just tank it forever and need to scare it out, but 2 of those are slower and 1 of those typically runs an inaccurate SE STAB move that doesn't OHKO, and it's frequently in a ST loop to boot. There will come a point where those counters can no longer switch in or Vap can afford to tank a hit to get the KO.
Let's not forget, too, that all of Vap's counters can be Exploded on, unlike stuff like Snorlax and Marowak, whose top counter is a big fat Normal-resisting bird.
EDIT: Also Tauros doesn't feel right in C. It's interesting, especially with Berserk Gene shenanigans. Unfortunately, the descriptors for the tiers in the OP are open to interpretation, so another succinct way I think it could be viewed (albeit with usage as a guide) is:
S is for the mons that might be banned if it were up to current-gen tiering processes
A is for the top-of-the-line OUs
B is for the more limited OUs
C is where the off-beat BL threats go
D is where the outright gimmicks go.
Tauros seems more like a gimmicky attacker than a BL with a powerful niche.
One could always arguee, but I believe its ''powerful niche'' is simply its high speed (sadly there is not a better crit chance with that in gen 2)
Tauros is not what I call gimmicky (idk your description), since I can always rely on him to do something. If you would like to call it a gimmick, then it is atleast a powerful gimmick. Beserk gene is as you said, quite fun to play around with (I am the only guy ever who plays HO in GSC).
I would give it a C- ranking if that was possible, but it is your choice since you're ultimatly the player with more experienced(?). Atleast mention it, since it can really do shit. (D ranking is better than no ranking)
Tauros is gimmicky because it is outclassed in everything it does by other mons. The Resttalk set isn't going to wall anything and Snorlax is a better attacker since it can set up and actually has something to beat physical walls. Also Kangaskhan outclasses it as a normal attacker by being able to beat common curse counters. What gives it its niche is the speed indeed, but in gsc speed isn't the most important stat at all. Marowak hits way harder and needs only one turn of setup (and can beat skarm with paralysis support or fire blast). The list here of things that are more viable could go on.
Also HO in GSC? what are you going to do for that, stack your spike and use 5 belly drum users?
@mre.
surf and most definitely pump will wear down egg. with spikes, egg has maybe 2 switches before it needs to decide on explosion target. and ice beam.
vaporeon breaks blissey with ls easily. growth has 61 pp if you want to play pp war. strategically you can wait out ls with growth, you're faster so you get 1 shot at non ls hit so fish for crit. without ls blissey is a joke to break. blissey needs to spam softboiled; more surf pp than softboiled. surf, growth, surf rinse repeat. ch is free kill.
already mentioned electrics. odds of landing thunder through sleep talk? 20%. +1 hpump 2 shots zapdos. tbolt is harder, but not impossible. vap lives 2 bolts easily.
lax is really really iffy switchin because +1 has 3hko potential. lax at 65%ish with spikes is as good as dead vs vap. and if you've played gsc, which you have, you can always... switch in a predicted rest.
gengar's versatality is nuts, his consistency is less than stellar. zapdos/raikou/snorlax, and to a less extent egg perform day in and day out. gengar also has no safe switch-in except miltank/blissey (and pgon2, but you risk twave); you can gamble vs laxes.. but you wouldn't.
@others
tauros is at least d. no mention of it is simply crazy. same with ursaring. once you get to c-d you don't really care about being "outclassed" by superior mons. what the hell does donphan do? spin and roar? with what set? toxic spin eq rest? give zap/dnite free switches? what about raichu/slowbro/venusaur if they're not just inferior pokemon than something ranked above it. hell even ampharos is nothing but a shitty raikou without phaze and he's sitting pretty in c.
the D ranking altogether is a bit odd if we're talking strictly ou play. kingdra has simply no place there, less than jumpluff. but at the same time, if we were considering uu tiers, kingdra's simply too powerful, whereas jumpluff is equally useless.
I've wanted to get rid of or severely downsize D for that reason, to be honest, I just am too hesitant/lazy to pull the trigger. The vast majority are things you would never use unless you were just gimmicking for the sake of it, which kinda suggests that they aren't really all that viable.
Also, Donphan would run Encore. Check PO, he gets it. Japan-exclusive move, so it's technically legit even though it wasn't on NBS (see this thread for more details than you ever wanted on why we more or less decided that we're cool with Japan-exclusive event mons).
encore sucks on 178 ms hero or whatever his ms is. encore is faster pokes only; toxic might actually be better in this scenario to nail cloysters. being totally worthless vs skarm isn't an issue because theoretically team should have spikes.. right? vil ran celebi, donphan, raichu, cloyster, machamp, umbreon as an alternate to rhydon, cloy, raichu, snorlax, celebi, umbreon.............. in 2004 though.
edit: i guess it's faster than snorlax though ehhhhhhhh. idk i was never a big fan of encore "countering" snorlax since every encore user gets basically 2 shotted by lax, which isn't true in this case. still.
Growth's gobs of PP? Fair mention. Zapdos always 2HKOs Vaporeon with Tbolt though; Raikou does more than 80% of the time. And nobody is packing Ice Beam or you just lose too much power elsewhere without your Sleep Talk or Acid Armor. :( Baton Pass sets don't have room for it either.
Most support mons short of Umbreon -- Cloyster, Skarm, Forretress -- are fine to bring Gengar in against, not just the clerics. And even if you're just using it as a pivot against the likes of Snorlax and friends, though mono-Lax isn't exactly uncommon and Gengar is fine staying in indefinitely against those, it's nice for your follow-up to not have to eat the STAB move (and possible PAR from Body Slam). Gengar's strength is its wildly unpredictable offense, including an angle of attack (trapping) that requires an entirely different mindset to counter than conventional attackers and suicide moves that nigh guarantee even trades at worst, but it has decent defensive utility considering that's not even its purpose. It can also induce sleep; it's sort of an overall better Nidoking.
Encore is a cool move and while you can't just park an Alakazam in front of 'Lax and not expect to eat STAB, it's at least forcing your opponent to play around the possibility (they're unlikely to boost as you switch out and less likely in general, since the Encorer automatically forces a switch if it comes in on any non-damaging move) and also stops a few other things, most notably as a good alternative to pseudohazing for countering trappers. It makes recovery more difficult and makes it fairly easy to force setup opportunities, whether you Encore a non-damaging move or an attack you can switch resistance in against. (On that note, Zam > Vaporeon too.) Too bad it's so poorly distributed but it is at least Alakazam's saving grace.
