RBY Cup

[Keiran]

This tier in played in 5th gen

RBY Cup

Banlist: Mewtwo

In RBY cup, the only usable Pokemon are the original 151. The tier features many prominent threats, such as Dragonite, Zapdos and Moltres. Upon closer inspection however, you'll notice how the update to 5th gen greatly affected the original 151. Once dedicated to being an anti-sleep lead in gen 1, Ninetales returns as being the only weather starter in RBY cup, backed up by friends such as Venusaur, Charizard and Arcanine. Magneton gained its Steel typing, making it the only Dragon-type resist in the tier, however Dragonite will often come with Earthquake to thwart the magnet Pokemon. Omastar gained Shell Smash, making it a frightening sweeper indeed, able to outspeed and decimate most of the tier. Our favourite bugs, Venomoth and Butterfree both gained Bug Buzz and Sleep Powder, making them both terrific, hard to wall sweepers. However Stealth Rock greatly neuters them.

Speaking of Stealth Rock, hazards are extremely prominent in the tier. There are a total of 16 Stealth Rock users, 2 Spikes users, and 6 Toxic Spike users. However, there is only 1 Ghost-type in the entire tier - Gengar. While there are a total of 8 Rapid Spinners, meaning it's relatively easy to spin, as Gengar is not renowned for its defences. Although Gengar's excellent movepool means it can take on a lot of the spinners one on one, between both Thunderbolt and Giga Drain. Additionally, many of the spinners in RBY are of the Water-type; meaning that their STABs are neutered by Sun.

Rapid Spin: Blastoise, Sandslash, Tentacruel, Cloyster, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Starmie, Kabutops.

Stealth Rock: Sandslash, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Clefable, Wigglytuff, Dugtrio, Golem, Onix, Marowak, Rhydon, Chansey, Pinsir, Omastar, Kabutops, Aerodactyl, Mew.

Spikes: Cloyster, Omastar.

Toxic Spikes: Beedrill, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Venomoth, Tentacruel, Omastar.

Wish: Raichu, Clefable, Wigglytuff, Chansey, Jynx, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon

Heal Bell: Clefable, Wigglytuff, Chansey, Jynx, Lapras, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Mew

~This may not be completely accurate ~


Here's the Gengar set I've been using in an attempt to try and beat spinners such as Kabutops, Blastoise and Tentacruel.

...

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Gengar @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature

• Shadow Ball
• Sludge Bomb
• Thunderbolt
• Giga Drain

[Raseri]

god that Gengar set really caught me off guard :( I didn't expect it to kill my Rhydon so quickly. Anyways Dragonite obviously seems good, I completely destroyed Keiran with it. Also Hitmonlee looks like an interesting Pokemon. Hi Jump Kick, Sucker Punch, Unburden all make for a great sweeper. I've only got to play one match so far and it didnt do anything then but it still seems good.

Also Slowbro looks like our best bet to beat Dragonite, it can use Ice Beam to weaken it, while surviving a hit from the DD set. The lack of any steel types other than lolmagneton kind of sucks!

[Zacchaeus]

List of RBY Pokémon by BW tier (rounding up from borderline tiers, excluding Pokémon tiered as NFE or LC in RBY or BW):

Ubers

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Mewtwo

OU

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Alakazam
Chansey
Cloyster
Dragonite
Dugtrio
Gengar
Gyarados
Jolteon
Mew
Ninetales
Starmie
Tentacruel
Vaporeon
Venusaur

UU

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Arcanine
Machamp
Nidoking
Slowbro
Snorlax
Venomoth
Zapdos

RU

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Aerodactyl
Clefable
Hitmonchan
Hitmonlee
Jynx
Kabutops
Magneton
Moltres
Nidoqueen
Omastar
Poliwrath
Primeape
Rhydon
Sandslash
Scyther

NU

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Arbok
Articuno
Beedrill
Blastoise
Butterfree
Charizard
Dewgong
Ditto
Dodrio
Electabuzz
Electrode
Exeggutor
Farfetch'd
Fearow
Flareon
Golbat
Golduck
Golem
Hypno
Kangaskhan
Kingler
Lapras
Marowak
Mr. Mime
Muk
Parasect
Persian
Pidgeot
Pinsir
Raichu
Rapidash
Raticate
Seadra
Seaking
Tangela
Tauros
Victreebel
Vileplume
Weezing
Wigglytuff

[Raseri]

From what I've seen Psychics completely dominate this tier. Between Mew, Alakazam, Exeggutor and Starmie make it really hard for Hitmonlee to function. Which kind of sucks since his powerful fighting moves would be much appreciated to hit things like Snorlax. Maybe a set taking advantage of Reckless would be good? Hitmonlee would be very difficult to switch into with with Reckless. OHKOing Alakazam, and even Starmie after SR and a layer of Spikes.

Also earlier today in #Pokemon we were trying to come up with Dragonite stops, since it is very difficult to actually beat. Cloyster, Slowbro and Rhydon appear to be the best ways to defeat Dragonite in RBY Cup, so unless you have a perfect plan to not let it set up you'll need one of those!

[Keiran]

Yeah, Psychic-types and Dragonite are shaping up be the tiers biggest threats. I can definitely see triple, perhaps even quadruple Psychic being a legitimate and even deadly strategy. There are so many good Psychic-types in the tier, such as Alakazam, Mew, Slowbro, Starmie and Exeggutor. The amount of Psychic-types makes Machamp unviable, which is a shame because its Dynamic Punches hit really hard, when there isn't some Slowbro there to take it.

Some Pokemon I've enjoyed using include specially defensive Dragonite, while it doesn't have the sheer power that DD Dragonite packs, it's great for taking on sun thanks to its resistances to both Grass and Fire. The set I've been using is Dragon Claw / Dragon Tail / Roost / Thunder Wave, while this probably isn't the most effective moveset, it gets the job done. It's very effective alongside hazards. Some hazard setters that synergise well with Dragonite include Cloyster, it can take Ice-type attacks, while also taking on Dragonite.

Speaking of Dragonite, it can easily afford to run a mono-attacking set, although this easily gets walled by Slowbro and Cloyster. I was thinking in one of its spare moveslots it could run Thunder/Thunderbolt to take them both out, although I'm not sure how effective this would be in practice.

[Relados]

I'd love to see the old generation pokemon come back once again to fight, but Dragonite with Earthquake and Outrage seems a little powerful. However, I guess there are good walls in 1st generation to stop it.

I can imagine there will be a disparity in strength as well with psychics like Alakazam (as you have already said), what with no dark types taking the switch.

I'll have to try this out sometime.

[Keiran]

RBY Cup Pokemon Of The Week

Tauros!

Once known as king of the RBY metagame, Tauros returns to RBY Cup as a powerful physical attacker. With an excellent base 110 Speed stat, Tauros outspeeds many Pokemon, such as Dragonite, Charizard and Electabuzz. It even speed ties with Gengar! It also packs a decent 100 base Attack stat. The main draw to Tauros, however is its new-found Dream World ability - Sheer Force. With it, Rock Climb becomes a powerful, viable STAB move. Unfortunately, Tauros will struggle to break through the tiers top physical walls, namely Slowbro and Cloyster.

What sets can Tauros run effectively? What gives it trouble? What advantages does it have over other Pokemon? How well do they work in the metagame? If you have anything to say about Tauros, please post about it! If you wish to test Tauros in a battle, I recommend hopping over to #othermetas on synIRC

[Zarco]

Would eviolite be usable on things like Rhydon, Magneton, Scyther, etc?

[DEMo_Gorgon47]

What about Evoilite Tangela? That has the ability to be a Top Tier wall, packing bulk exceeding it evolution. (Which has greater bulk than Skarmory mind you). And it isnt set up bait either, with a respectable base Special Attack.

[Hemp Man]

Would Pinsir and Scyther make for good Psychic counters?

Water types will struggle with Drought Ninetails, SolarBeams everywhere.

Dragonite will probably be the toughest. Either Stealth Rock to break Multiscale, or status it. Besides the ones that you mentioned, would Defensive Gyarados be a good check? It can Intimidate, Thunder Wave, and phase with SE Dragon tail. Although much like Slowbro and Cloyster, Gyarados does not like Thunderbolt.

[Zacchaeus]

Originally Posted by Fat Zarco

Would eviolite be usable on things like Rhydon, Magneton, Scyther, etc?

Eviolite is usable if not the best item on Rhydon and Magneton outside of RBY cup so it's still good within it

Originally Posted by Fat Hemp Man

Water types will struggle with Drought Ninetails, SolarBeams everywhere.

Golduck could be a good Water-type to use because of its ability to check Ninetales and block SolarBeams

[Rayquaza_]

You forgot to add Cloyster to the list of Toxic Spikes users.

[Zarco]

Ok, just checking b/c they were fully evolved in RBY. I could see sun (9tales, Charizard, Venusaur) being ridiculous, so rain dance Omastar or Kabutops could see decent use. I want to try this out... Also, Gengar might go the LO/EB 4 attacks route with all of the spinners here.

Dragonite will be a monster, but I guess Cloyster checks it, and Vaporeon can take a hit...

[CooltrainerAlan]

Where is this played? Is it a PS server or on PO...

[DTC]

Originally Posted by Fat CooltrainerAlan

Where is this played? Is it a PS server or on PO...

There is no tier for it but you can still battle people. Just make a team and ask for a RBY cup battle on Pokemon Showdown / some IRC channel and there might be a person with an RBY cup legal team. You could also try this thread

Eviolite Rhydon is pretty cool because it can tank hits from Pokemon like Dragonite. Unfortunately, there isn't much else that it can tank hits from, but it's one of the few good Stealth Rock setters. It's unfortunate that there are very few non Rock/Ground-types with Stealth Rock because there really isn't much of a selection of good Rock/Ground-types. I'd probably only use Nidoking / Mew / Omastar / Rhydon / Dugtrio / Kabutops for Stealth Rock.

Also, @Hemp Man, Water-types don't struggle in RBY Cup. Ninetales is annoying but there are so many good Water-types in Gen 1 such as Gyarados, Slowbro, Starmie, etc.