Gothitelle

[Roxer]

Gothitelle is a mon that has been getting some hype nowadays due to Sejun, even though it looks bad at a first glance, it is actually pretty good from my experience! There are many sets that you can run, but this one is by far my fav:

Gothitelle @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Calm Nature
- Rest
- Thunder Wave / Tickle
- Taunt
- Protect
This set is simple, can eat up a Return from Adamant Kanga and stuff, use TWave or Tickle to cripple stuff (Tickle can be used with a strong attacker like kanga to guarantee some kills) Rest for recovery and protect is fucking protect.

I'd like to know what sets you run and with what teams you use team, that's all :3


This is the team that I'm using as of now, uses a combo of Gothitelle + Bulky Talonflame to heavily cripple physical attackers and sweep with Scizor or Kanga, with Lando-T and Kube there to clean stuff up after the job is done, very nice and no, bulky talon is not complete shit, Spacebass can confirm.

Gothiswag

Taylor Swift (Gothitelle) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Calm Nature
- Rest
- Taunt
- Tickle
- Helping Hand

Smogon Burd (Talonflame) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 184 HP / 108 Def / 168 SpD / 48 Spe
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Tailwind
- Brave Bird
- Will-O-Wisp

cut u up (Scizor) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 64 Atk / 116 Def / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Tailwind
- Bug Bite
- Bullet Punch
- Protect

fukn caring (Kangaskhan) (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch
- Double-Edge

rawr (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Superpower

Circle (Kyurem-Black) @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 140 Atk / 168 SpA / 200 Spe
Rash Nature
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt
- Ice Beam
- Protect
[hide/]

 

[Electrolyte]

The availability of Mega Gengar really does hamper Gothitelle a lot; the benefits that Mega Gengar have are at times enough to make it worth more despite its occupation of the Mega slot. The reason for this is that Mega Gengar is much more reliable at trapping and killing things, be it by just attacking or using Perish Song. If I need a trapper, I much more often than not need it to take down threats to my team, which MGengar excels at doing, and Gothitelle not so much.

Gothitelle lacks in the offensive apartment, so it has to rely on support moves like Tickle and Thunder Wave in order to cripple threats. Unfortunately, this doesn't work on a lot of powerful Pokemon in the metagame, and because of Gothitelle's low Speed, it will often take serious damage beforehand (unlike Mega Gengar in a support role, which can outspeed nearly everything relevant and burn with Will-O-Wisp.) Many threats are either immune to TWave, don't mind it, or can deal enough damage before getting crippled. Unlike in real life, in battle you can't kill something by tickling it to death, and because you can't, Gothitelle often uses up valuable turns and field spots in this way. It simply doesn't remove threats like Mega Gengar can.

However, despite all of this, one could argue that Gothitelle has a larger niche in creating or re-establishing momentum because of its greater ability to punish matchups. Against the right opponents, it can create openings and opportunities for setup for its partner (as shown in the finals match by Se Jun Park.) However, this can also be risky to pull off, because ultimately you still rely on your partner to actually take down the opponents, which takes up even more time. Unfortunately, it is also not the best at doing this, either; Mega Gengar can accomplish this to some degree as well, as can Spore abusing Pokemon.


In my opinion the best set that takes advantage of all of Gothitelle's abilities is one of a dual attacker / supporter role. It can buy time quite well even with just one of Taunt / TWave / Tickle; its list of targets will just be shortened. With Psyshock and Shadow Ball, however, it can begin to actively remove threats, allowing it to do a little bit of threat-killing and a little bit of momentum-creating.

The set would look like this:

Gothitelle @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 176 SpD
Calm nature
- Psyshock / Psychic
- Tickle / Taunt / Thunder Wave
- Shadow Ball / Thunder Wave
- Protect

Rest is honestly less useful because you're not fighting a stall war--come in, do what you need to do, and then switch to a more optimal formation. Sitrus is enough, since you shouldn't be tanking too many heavy hits anyway. Gothitelle really needs to be able to actually kill things, hence the addition of a STAB attack. I've added Shadow Ball as well and mixed up support move placement based on a personal utility weighing. The benefits that this Gothitelle has over the previous one is efficiency. Instead of beating around the bush with Tickle, you can switch into that annoying Hitmontop and 2HKO it without worrying about dying of old age or worse getting hit by Hitmontop's partner. Instead of going into a Taunt - Giga Drain stallwar, you can just take down that darn Amoonguss. (If you want you can run more SpA investment but 0 SpA can still 2HKO most Psychic-weak Pokemon, including Amoonguss)

Unfortunately this set is still not distinguishably better than MGengar, but it is definitely at least less (and maybe sometimes even not!) outclassed.



Did I just rant for 5 paragraphs and change two things hell yes I did

 

[Mizuhime]

I would argue that comparing Gothitelle and MGar is actually very silly. The only real similarities they have is the fact they both have the ability to trap their opponent with Shadow tag. Gothitelle is much more of a support Pokemon than MGar ever will be. She's also much more bulky and doesn't attempt to hit nearly as hard. With that said I find Gothitelle to be one of the most underrated Pokemon in the game. She doesn't take up your Mega slot, she's extremely bulky, and she has a bunch of little interesting moves to utilize. In my opinion, Gothitelle is the best Trick Room setter this gen outside of Cresselia. Something I picked up in VGC was using TR Charm Goth paired with Spdef Mawile. Charm lowers the opopnents attack by 2 stages while Mawile has enough spdef to live nearly any special hit, outside of something like Charizard-y. Gothitelle also has the perk of running a bunch of moves like Heal Pulse, Screens, Tickle, Rest + Chesto and so on. Generally I would say Gothitelle is a very very good Pokemon that should be used more than it is.

sets

Gothitelle @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psyshock
- Charm
- Protect

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Atk / 4 Def / 196 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 18 Spe
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

 

[Electrolyte]

The problem is is that bulk just doesn't work with Shadow Tag as well as offense does. It's all about taking advantage of opportunity and punishing matchups--something Gothitelle can't do as well, even if it does run offensive moves. This is especially true in Doubles, because against more experienced opponents you will rarely find yourself in a situation where both opponents are weak enough that you have enough time to significantly cripple them, or at least enough to the point where using a few more turns to switch Gothi out and clear the playing field with the boosted partner will be feasable. The Gothitelle / Mawile core really is not very much different in concept than a faster, just as offensive MGar (with WoW) / powerful partner core that works outside of Trick Room; the real upside is just that the slower core has more bulk but the MGar core has more offense and less of a need to set up. Support can really only go so far, and despite Gothitelle's movepool, it isn't enough to make it worth more than offense imo.

Either way my main point was more so that you should use offensive moves on Gothitelle, which your set does, so I won't argue against that.

 

[Lolk]

Just sayin Gothitelle's shadow tag activates turn 1 (unlike Mega Gengar who has to Mega Evolve turn 1), so with Gothitelle's partner brings a great lead matchup against the opposing Pokemon, you already have a crapton of momentum (which Mega Gengar doesn't offer).

 

[Roxer]

What is the team archetype that you guys have been using for Goth? I just plopped the Goth + Bulky Talon core and started building with TWind mons.