Misdreavus won't be Missed (alternate Ghosts in LC)

[Banryu]

Originally Posted by Fat Lord Liam

I am currently using Gastly to replace Missy and I am having great success with a moveset of Substitute / Thunderbolt / Sludge Bomb / Shadow Ball and an EV spread of Timid 36 HP 36 Defense 196 SpA and Speed. With it's outstanding base Special Attack of 100 and a decent base 80 speed it can break holes in teams and help some of my other sweepers (DRATINI). It can also use priority with Sucker Punch that with Life Orb doesn't do damage too shabby. For my team Gastly has performed better than Missy which is awesome.

I've seen this a lot after you used it... in fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see Sub-Gastly become the most common set for him. =0

@ Dub: I see... okay, fair enough. (er, and... I count four moves in the Liam Lord's set. =0)

[Testknight]

Wow that's pretty cool how MisD got banned while I was gone. Always disliked MisD, felt compelled to use her on every team. Excited to get back into LC now (I dropped out for a very long time due to loss of interest in Pokemon, nothing significant or dramatic and am back because of a regain in interest partially sparked by HG/SS).

Hope the meta game hasn't changed that much, I remember getting wrecked a few times by crabs and skunks of all kinds when I briefly came back before xd

[sunkirby]

I've just been using a simple choice scarf set with maxed out speed/spec attack and the rest into defense/hp. I run Shadow Ball/Thunderbolt/HP Ice/Sludge Bomb. I am considering getting rid of HP Ice, as it was mainly for Dratini, and Sludge Bomb nearly KO's, too, so its only use is LeftoversTini. Which i have never seen, as oran berry outclasses it.

And truth be told, immediately after Missy's leaving, I have only seen one stunky. I have seen a ton of munchlax though, and they are becoming soooo annoying. That is the main reason for sludge bomb, as with it, it is possible to beat munchlax.

[Banryu]

....allright... I've been testing Shuppet for a bit now and I regret to inform ye all that it's likely the worst of the LC Ghosts. :\ It's a total contradiction, unfortunately; it has a great Attack stat, but a nonexistent physical movepool; great support movepool, but poor defenses and speed (you gotta have one or the other to use Support stuff, and poor Shuppet has neither -.-).

I encourage others to do some testing with Shuppet too, it's entirely possible that you won't get the poor results that I have, but... that's my impression so far. :0

[|DarkSector|]

Misdreavus was good in both offensive and "balanced" teams. So it depends, but at the moment the offensive teams are just more common, so I chose Gastly... but also Drifloon is a nice one on more balanced team, due to some useful support moves and general better defences.

[TPM]

But Drifloon is a great cleaner, and can actually sweep unlike gastly

[Raseri]

Originally Posted by Fat TehPiplupMan

But Drifloon is a great cleaner, and can actually sweep unlike gastly

The gastly I use can sweep quite easily, I've tried both him and drifloon, but I find gastly getting more opportunities to get KOs

[TPM]

But it's slow and needs a sub up to attempt to sweep.
And by sweep I mean to finish on a foe's team endgame or do a serious amount of damage midgame.

[Raseri]

Drifloon has 1 real attempt to sweep, if that doesn't work he's all but dead weight. On the other hand, Gastly can switch in more often because he doesn't rely on Salac Berry

[TPM]

Drifloon doesn't rely on Salac berry either, he relies on Unburden :D

[Raseri]

My mistake :P But still, gastly's higher special attack, better movepool and ability to swtch in and out make it more reliable

[TPM]

But Gastly can't reach 28 Speed and 24 Special Attack.

[Raseri]

Haha this is going nowhere :P I think Drifloon requires more support, Gastly fits into my teams a lot easier

[Vader*]

I know it's technically "discussion," but I'd prefer that we keep one sentence posts to a minimum, particularly back-and-forths over what is essentially a moot point. If you have something to contribute to the discussion, great, but a single sentence reply is best left to IRC or pm. If you don't have something important to say, say nothing at all.

[EatYoRice]

I think Drifloon and Ghastly are most likely to take over. Drifloon has a bit of sweeping potential, and Ghastly is pretty decent from what I've seen. But who knows what turn the metagame'll take.

[Ramblin Wreck]

Originally Posted by Fat EatYoRice

I think Drifloon and Ghastly are most likely to take over. Drifloon has a bit of sweeping potential, and Ghastly is pretty decent from what I've seen. But who knows what turn the metagame'll take.

Gastly usage has increased 24.84% from February to March, but Drifloon usage has actually decreased 1.11%. Drifloon requires more team support and a little more setup (involving activating Unburden, mostly) than Gastly. Gastly is an excellent Scarfer, and it has a very big role; it's a reliable check to Dratini (outspeeds, immune to Extremespeed) and Machop (provided you stay away from a Payback). Drifloon's flying type gives it a few extra weaknesses.

[iss]

I've really been missing Missy (lol what a bad pun). Before it was banned, I couldn't think of any team where I didn't use SubSneak or Bulky Misdreavus. Now, on most of my teams I don't use a ghost at all. Gastly needs a scarf to outspeed stuff and my playstyle does not adhere to that (in fact I rarely use multiple scarfers). Duskull isn't offensive enough for my teams and Shuppet just sucks. I was hoping that Drifloon would be my lifesaver, but I find that without a petaya it is too weak and with a petaya it has too little hp. CM is incredibly hard to set up, and Drifloon either ends up with weak moves (hp fighting) or imperfect coverage (tbolt). There really is no replacement for missy. =(

[Banryu]

try Trickfloon... definitely the best Drifloon set, IMO, and very hard to stop.

Hold Choice Scarf
Modest Nature
(standard floon EVs)
- Trick
- Shadow Ball
- Tbolt / HP Fight
- Explosion / Substitute / Wisp

It doesn't get the Petaya boost, but it activates Unburden right away, which is nice-- and it hits pretty hard aside, even without Petaya. Works great as a lead. Kind of weak to Sucker Punch if you run 'splode, so the moves slashed on the last slot are possible countermeasures to that.

I think you're right, Missy's shoes are hard to fill, but hey... that's why she's Uber now. :0 As far as these Ghosts go, Gastly has the offense, Duskull has the defense, and Drifloon has the speed (kinda?), and some of them can compensate (IE, Scarf Gastly) but you can't get all three in one package. :\

There's also Sub-Gastly now, which is debatably his best set... setting up Sub on switches is just too easy.

[Dubulous]

Keep in mind, however, that using Trick with Drifloon will not automatically activate Unburden in-game like it does in Shoddy. In-game it will only activate it immediately if the foe is not holding an item.

That being said, I've always viewed using TrickFloon as "cheap," but we play to win on Smogon so it doesn't really matter. I use SubOran, which rocks against things that are faster than you but can't KO. As they attack I set up a Substitute, which means I am now faster and behind a Substitute. STAB Shadow Ball doesn't hit quite as hard as Gastly's, but it is still generally enough to do the job.

[Heysup]

Trick Floon is basically only "decent" because of a shoddy glitch.

In any event, I still don't like it even while it's glitched. The best thing it could do is trick Munchlax and still get stomped by Pursuit, unless you explode which is easier to do with a Sub set anyway.

[Banryu]

Originally Posted by Fat Dubulous

Keep in mind, however, that using Trick with Drifloon will not automatically activate Unburden in-game like it does in Shoddy. In-game it will only activate it immediately if the foe is not holding an item.

That being said, I've always viewed using TrickFloon as "cheap," but we play to win on Smogon so it doesn't really matter. I use SubOran, which rocks against things that are faster than you but can't KO. As they attack I set up a Substitute, which means I am now faster and behind a Substitute. STAB Shadow Ball doesn't hit quite as hard as Gastly's, but it is still generally enough to do the job.

:0 Huh. I was not aware of that glitch, now I feel like an ass for taking advantage of it. Dx (Like the Oran non-activation glitch in SS.) I don't suppose there's any chance of getting those glitches fixed any time soon? :\

I'm a little confused about your explanation of SubOran Floon.... I assume you're trying to say that you repeatedly set up Subs until Oran activates? :0 (Speaking of that, I think that might also affected by the passive damage Oran glitch.) But it seems like SubGastly is still better... all SubFloon really has going for it is Unburden, right?

@ Heysup: I had success with TrickFloon as a lead, actually... (stealing Focus Sash helps with Munch's Pursuit sometimes) but as I said, I wasn't aware that it was a glitch, so you can expect me not to use it anymore. x\ Too bad, I was enjoying it. Dx

[Articanus]

shoddy won't be getting fixed ever, so probably not.

[Dubulous]

What usually happens is that Drifloon will be hit by an attack and survive it, recover HP with Oran (which activates Unburden), and then use Substitute. When this happens, Drifloon will outspeed the opponent unless it is at +2 as well, and it is behind a Substitute. This also works well in conjunction with Will-o-Wisp.

[Banryu]

Originally Posted by Fat Dubulous

What usually happens is that Drifloon will be hit by an attack and survive it, recover HP with Oran (which activates Unburden), and then use Substitute. When this happens, Drifloon will outspeed the opponent unless it is at +2 as well, and it is behind a Substitute. This also works well in conjunction with Will-o-Wisp.

I don't see a strategy that requires a non-defensive or even particularly bulky LC Pokemon to survive a hit, even a STAB neutral hit, to be all that great. :0 ...although I do see the logic in Oran + Sub being able to work. But still, what happens when you get nailed by an unexpected SE attack like... um... (I dunno) Gligar's Night Slash or something?

[SunshineCat]

Drifloon looks fun but Gastly fits easily onto most teams without needing support. I do love Drifloon though <3