SS OU Gengar Balance

✨ spook town ✨

gengar.gif
conkeldurr.gif
rotom-heat.gif
clefable.gif
toxapex.gif
ferrothorn.gif


I sorta just wanted to use Gengar so I tried my hand at building a team around it. I made it from 1400-ish to around 1650 upon using this team, although it's kind of hard to tell if that's just cause of Duggy ban or not.








600px-094Gengar.png


Gengar @ Choice Specs
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Trick



The boy I built the team around. This thing is nothing but a demon, having little safe switch-ins in the whole tier with Specs behind it. With good prediction and pivoting, it can eat entire teams on its own.


252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Shadow Ball vs. -1 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 228-268 (57.8 - 68%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 360-426 (91.3 - 108.1%) -- 50% chance to OHKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Sylveon: 278-330 (70.5 - 83.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 144-171 (47.3 - 56.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 216-256 (71 - 84.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Mandibuzz: 220-260 (51.8 - 61.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Corviknight: 236-278 (59 - 69.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 208+ SpD Corviknight: 163-193 (40.7 - 48.2%) -- 68% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock (Leftovers was knocked off/the rare Rocky Helmet)

252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Bisharp: 131-155 (48.3 - 57.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Kommo-o: 223-264 (62.9 - 74.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Conkeldurr: 330-388 (94 - 110.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock and burn damage

252 SpA Choice Specs Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hydreigon: 253-298 (77.8 - 91.6%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock


Shadow Ball and Sludge Wave form the core of its STAB coverage. Considering I have a Conkeldurr, Focus Blast isn't really neccessary and it's unreliable anyway, so Thunderbolt is there for mons like Toxapex and Mandibuzz. Trick cripples defensive switch-ins like Kommo-o, Mandibuzz, and Corviknight. Sludge Bomb is certainly an option to help get even more of an edge on defensive mons that loathe the pressure of the poison chance, but in my experience the extra damage is just better most of the time.




600px-534Conkeldurr.png

Conkeldurr @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Facade
- Mach Punch



Another strong wallbreaker. Conkeldurr deals with threats that Gengar has a hard time with, like Corviknight, weakened Zeraora, and Mandibuzz. Mach Punch picks off weakened foes and can even OHKO a lot of stuff that this team appreciates, like Excadrill and Bisharp. The coverage here is pretty standard, Knock Off hits ghosts and Facade is for fat like Pex, with Drain Punch being used over Close Combat because the extra damage output is much less helpful than health recovery on a balance team.





600px-479Rotom-Heat.png


Rotom-H @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Defog


Rotom-H is a good offensive pivot capable of switching in to things like Togekiss. threatening them, and getting an attacker back in with Volt Switch. Gengar, Conkeldurr, and Toxapex all equally hate taking hazard chip, so it's also here for Defog support. While Defog support has benefits on a team like this, with Gengar and Conkeldurr appreciating the momentum it can keep up, compressing that support into an offensive pivot means that Rotom is going to have a harder time breaking the things it checks like Togekiss, being locked out of running Discharge or Thunderbolt. So Corviknight is certainly an option, forming the known bulky water / Corv / fairy core, with Ferrothorn being forgone for a more offensive rocker like Kommo-o, but I honestly think I just need this mon for the Zera matchup.






600px-036Clefable.png


Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Teleport


Coming in on attackers like Kyurem, Dragapult, and non-NP Hydreigon, Clefable can force them out and stay healthy with Wish and Protect, which is also nice for scouting stuff like Aegislash. Plus, if the opposing side doesn't have a strong physical attacker that can immediately threaten it like Excadrill, Bisharp, or the fish, it's extremely easy to spam Teleport, which everything else on my team appreciates greatly. Originally, I had a utility move, Thunder Wave or Knock Off, but I found that this cleric support was way more helpful in keeping up with the other team.





250px-748Toxapex.png

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Haze
- Recover
- Knock Off


Anti-fish material no. 1. Scald and Knock Off are ways of preventing it from being a complete sitting bunker, and the burn chance is incredibly nice against physical attackers too. Haze deals with setup sweepers like Aegislash, Kommo-o, and shell smash king. Recover keeps Pex healthy alongside its ability. Together with Ferrothorn and Clefable, we have a defensive backbone that can allow Gengar and Conkeldurr to pivot back in, handling a variety of metagame threats. Toxic was used originally here, but Knock Off ends up being much more useful to cripple sweepers and breakers that come in and try to take advantage of it like Bisharp and Conkeldurr; three of the biggest walls right now are immune to it anyway.



250px-598Ferrothorn.png

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip


Anti-fish material no. 2. As shown in the calcs above, Stealth Rock is indispensable for Gengar to get the kills it wants, so Ferro is here to do the job. Ferrothorn and Rotom together play pretty good mind games on the opponent for a lead and have good coverage. (for instance, Rotom deals with a predicted Cinderace lead, while Ferrothorn deals with a predicted Seismitoad lead) Being able to break through Seismitoad is also quite useful for Conkeldurr. Since Ferrothorn has a tendency to lure out fast attackers that will threaten it with its coverage like Hydreigon, Dragapult, and Cinderace, Thunder Wave is quite nice for catching them on the switch, and its utility ends up being pretty incredible for Gengar to clean later on. Leech Seed is nice since it has no reliable recovery and improves matchups against Zeraora, Excadrill, and more, and Power Whip is there for STAB. Unfortunately, I've found that it's pretty bad at doing anything except coming in on the specific things it counters like Vish and its aforementioned utility roles; for a physically defensive mon, one could opt for Hippowdon, but I think its typing doesn't synergize quite as well with Pex and Rotom. Plus even if Slack Off is nice, sandstorm damage gets annoying pretty quickly and it doesn't beat Toad as well, and it also doesn't have Thunder Wave.





A few things this team struggles with:

Zeraora
Even with Ferrothorn, LO 2HKOs with Close Combat, as it does to an even slightly weakened Rotom. (and it can't retaliate well anyway) But I still need both of these Pokemon to really have a chance of taking it down.

Togekiss
This probably seems odd seeing as I have a Rotom in tow, but the Sub+NP set can be very dangerous because I don't have a reliable Electric STAB, only Volt, so I just have to hope I can predict and win a NP war.

Opposing Conkeldurr
Facade 2HKOs Clef and Pex, Gengar gets predicted and bonked with Knock Off.

Hyper offense tends to overwhelm my team, even with Toxapex. I've noticed that Ferro is particularly useless in these situations seeing as it has no reliable recovery, but again, Zera is synonymous with OU right now. Sun is particularly egregious. I could put a hippo on the team instead of Ferro for defensive matchups and generally just being more reliable against must offensive threats, but again, Sandstorm damage.

I also have no ghost resist to speak of, so dealing with opposing Gengar is fun. A lot of times I just end up bluffing the scarf on my own because chances are the ghost is way more useful for them than for me.



One of the main issues with this team is speed control. I thought about including Zeraora, but unfortunately, removing either Ferrothorn or Rotom-Wash would either take out part of my defensive backbone or require hazard removal to be squeezed somewhere else.

Basically, I feel that with opposing defense, this team with its combination of Gengar and Conkeldurr can really shine, but opposing offense, more often than not I have a bad matchup.

The returns with Gengar himself have been great, it's been awesome forcing much shorter games. I'm so sick of playing like 70 turns every game in this silly meta


gengar.gif
conkeldurr.gif
rotom-heat.gif
clefable.gif
toxapex.gif
ferrothorn.gif



✨Thank you for reading! ✨
 
Last edited:
okay i saw the team and there's a few changes you could make. Instead of haze how about you add in baneful bunker instead of knock off on apex. Second, I don't see any ghost resists. Specs Chand is also another threat. I would recommend instead of gengar, trying out scarf hydreigon with modest nature. That way u don't have to worry about both speed control and ghost types and even if opposing chand chip it, u can always wish teleport back into it for hp. Other than that, nice team. I liked the idea of specs gengar, if u ever wanna build just hmu
 
okay i saw the team and there's a few changes you could make. Instead of haze how about you add in baneful bunker instead of knock off on apex. Second, I don't see any ghost resists. Specs Chand is also another threat. I would recommend instead of gengar, trying out scarf hydreigon with modest nature. That way u don't have to worry about both speed control and ghost types and even if opposing chand chip it, u can always wish teleport back into it for hp. Other than that, nice team. I liked the idea of specs gengar, if u ever wanna build just hmu
specs gar is the entire point of the team. i might as well be building something else if i switch it out

would you mind explaining your reason behind the bunker switch? i really don't see how something that attempts to stall is more useful here than something that gives utility. your wording is also bizarre, am I supposed to replace haze or knock

yeah, this team is pretty chandy-weak, but it's also weak to other ghosts, that's just a central problem of the team and yeah, hydra might alleviate that, but that doesn't mean predictions won't be forced
 
Last edited:
Heyyos nice team you've got there! It looks like your generic ssou team but with a few twists here and there and I am all down for it. Specs Gengar is a huge threat when played properly (because of how incredible ghost typing is currently) and I will try to build my rates around that wheee [:

534.png
>>>
635.png

Your team seems to want to act as a balance breaker style of team which focuses on pivoting around the fat defensive mons and then making use of the potential holes in your opponent's teams, you would just in with threats like Conk / Specs Gar to just obliterate teams. However, notably the top threats to your team (i.e aegi / dragapult) can easily capitalize on your potential gengar switches and force you out. Therefore, I think it is good that we have a Scarfer on your team that can beat Kyurem after you Clefport out. Running Scarf Hydreigon seems to be the option since Hydrei + Gar is one of the more premier choices of offensive pressures to apply onto opposing teams. Of course this rate doesn't intend to take Melmetal into mind since it's not a set in stone addition into OU. Scarf Hydreigon is interesting too because it gives you additional mons you can pivot with (i.e - via U-Turn)

Now here is a personal change that I made (I ran a similar team but used LO Hydrei + Scarf Gar but conceptually its similar). I'm gonna put it in spoilers because it is a huge change up of team members and you might not feel to comfortable about it but I'll just put it in as food for thought for you!
748.png
598.png
>>>
823-gi.png
784.png

this change is what I feel will make you feel a bit uncomfortable because you swap out two of your solid vish checks for one semi vish check. On top of that SpDef Corvi gives you more stability since you can now run defog on this and swap out defog for discharge / thunderbolt on your heattom. physdef kommo-o retains your accessibility to rocks as well as gives you a solid switch in to sun. You can give this change up a try because it gives you another u-turner on the team to retain pivot as well as momentum and give you just a generally good check to things like dragapult and aegi and friends as well. you will need to run enough speed for bisharp which is to run 136 speed, then invest the rest into def. here are the sets for this suggestions!
Kommo-o @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Def / 136 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Defense / Taunt / Toxic

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 176 SpD / 80 Spe
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

036.png

I've been so badly crushed by losing the teleport ties in recent history that honestly I'm kinda annoyed by it. I took a set that a lot of the higher tier players have been using and I feel a notable difference (granted there are times when we "win" a 50-50 tie but its better than just getting "outslowed" by opposing Clefports). I think your team will find more comfort in running Sassy 0 Spe Clefable. This lets you outslow opposing teleporters (notable ones in the tier that see some usage are Arcanine and Xatu and both those are seeing some niche usage recently) and 5050 min speed clefs. Just a small change here.

this team is a generally well crafted balance team but I feel that running mons like tox + ferro drains a lot of momentum so personally as a player I don't really like that combination. specs gar however is truly a bomb to be dropped on unprepared teams. hope you enjoy the changes and suggestions i have provided and stay safe amidst the pandemic and chaos! /cheers/
Hydreigon (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Flash Cannon
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Teleport
 
Heyyos nice team you've got there! It looks like your generic ssou team but with a few twists here and there and I am all down for it. Specs Gengar is a huge threat when played properly (because of how incredible ghost typing is currently) and I will try to build my rates around that wheee [:

534.png
>>>
635.png

Your team seems to want to act as a balance breaker style of team which focuses on pivoting around the fat defensive mons and then making use of the potential holes in your opponent's teams, you would just in with threats like Conk / Specs Gar to just obliterate teams. However, notably the top threats to your team (i.e aegi / dragapult) can easily capitalize on your potential gengar switches and force you out. Therefore, I think it is good that we have a Scarfer on your team that can beat Kyurem after you Clefport out. Running Scarf Hydreigon seems to be the option since Hydrei + Gar is one of the more premier choices of offensive pressures to apply onto opposing teams. Of course this rate doesn't intend to take Melmetal into mind since it's not a set in stone addition into OU. Scarf Hydreigon is interesting too because it gives you additional mons you can pivot with (i.e - via U-Turn)

Now here is a personal change that I made (I ran a similar team but used LO Hydrei + Scarf Gar but conceptually its similar). I'm gonna put it in spoilers because it is a huge change up of team members and you might not feel to comfortable about it but I'll just put it in as food for thought for you!
748.png
598.png
>>>
823-gi.png
784.png

this change is what I feel will make you feel a bit uncomfortable because you swap out two of your solid vish checks for one semi vish check. On top of that SpDef Corvi gives you more stability since you can now run defog on this and swap out defog for discharge / thunderbolt on your heattom. physdef kommo-o retains your accessibility to rocks as well as gives you a solid switch in to sun. You can give this change up a try because it gives you another u-turner on the team to retain pivot as well as momentum and give you just a generally good check to things like dragapult and aegi and friends as well. you will need to run enough speed for bisharp which is to run 136 speed, then invest the rest into def. here are the sets for this suggestions!
Kommo-o @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Def / 136 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Defense / Taunt / Toxic

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 176 SpD / 80 Spe
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn

036.png

I've been so badly crushed by losing the teleport ties in recent history that honestly I'm kinda annoyed by it. I took a set that a lot of the higher tier players have been using and I feel a notable difference (granted there are times when we "win" a 50-50 tie but its better than just getting "outslowed" by opposing Clefports). I think your team will find more comfort in running Sassy 0 Spe Clefable. This lets you outslow opposing teleporters (notable ones in the tier that see some usage are Arcanine and Xatu and both those are seeing some niche usage recently) and 5050 min speed clefs. Just a small change here.

this team is a generally well crafted balance team but I feel that running mons like tox + ferro drains a lot of momentum so personally as a player I don't really like that combination. specs gar however is truly a bomb to be dropped on unprepared teams. hope you enjoy the changes and suggestions i have provided and stay safe amidst the pandemic and chaos! /cheers/
Hydreigon (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Flash Cannon
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Teleport
I love all of these suggestions!!! voltturn sounds super awesome and fun, tysm, i'll try them out asap! it does seem vish weak but the better matchup against ghosts sounds amazing

(as an added bonus, hydra punishes trickscarf spam pretty well, so i love that)
 
Last edited:
Would like to hear about the limitations you find in this team moving forward!
Do you find it hard to break through many teams if Gengar is fainted?
 
Would like to hear about the limitations you find in this team moving forward!
Do you find it hard to break through many teams if Gengar is fainted?
oh absolutely yes, that's why stuff like teleport and voltturn is super good so you don't have to bring it in recklessly
 
Back
Top