Gen 1 Clefable-user Noob Team

[Allen "Bottles" Graham]

Hey yall, fairly new to Showdown & Smogon (been playing VGC since around June this year) but been a Pokémon fan since Indigo League. I finally 100%d Pokémon Yellow and was inspired to pick up RBY OU, I've been having a blast so far but coming from SV Doubles, I'm not really sure what I'm doing. Singles is so different! Anyway...

Clefable - Special Wall + Mixed Attacker
Clefable is my mf boy. He's here basically for that reason alone but he's actually surprisingly shut down Alakazam leads with Thunder Wave into Mega Kick. I'm still deciding on which special move to run, but Fire Blast has been most effective so far since I'm running into a lot of Jynx and Egg. Still testing between FB and Blizzard, I think which one I choose will be dependent on meta and who I'm up against the most. Mega Kick has been a fun STAB move to click behind Substitute, and Thunder Wave ties the kit together with all the benefits of para being horrendously busted.
Gengar - Evil Clefable tbh
Confuse Ray + Toxic combo has been fantastic vs Chansey and other bulk switch ins. Psychic and Night Shade provide good damage output but I am not sure if the coverage is good enough. I don't find myself clicking Psychic much but haven't decided on any moves that would suit him better. His main purpose was as a switch in vs Hyper Beam spam, but with everyone running their own coverage options it isn't super consistent.
Starmie - Fast Special Spammer
Not much reason for this pick other than Starmie just being absurdly GOATed. Thunderbolt on the kit for the Starmie vs Starmie matchup but finds use in a lot of situations. I've used Surf instead of Hydro Pump for accuracy's sake. So far, I plan to keep this kit the same but I'm always open to better options when I see them.
Rhydon - Dedicated Big Beefy Boy
Obligatory Earthquake clicker. Ice Beam for Rhy vs Rhy & Flying types, Toxic for suspected Chansey switch in. I honestly don't find myself clicking Hyper Beam as often - might swap this for Rock Slide or another support move? My team had a lot of special bulk but lacked in physical defense and attack, so Rhydon is here to fill that gap (Tauros as well).
Zapdos - Paralyzer + Mixed Attacker
Does this need an explanation? Lmao Zap is so fire.
Tauros - Physical Attacker
Running only attacks for maximum coverage - not sure if I picked the right moves for the bull though. I was hesitant to bring Tauros as well as Clefable, but I've been enjoying it a lot. Running two Normals hasn't really specifically caused any problems, either.

I don't really have too much else to add right now. Not a ton of calculation went into this team, I just picked Mons that I like and that I thought will synergize well. I'm aiming for an effective team but prioritizing having fun. I'm currently at a 50/50 win rate which I was not anticipating lol. Loving this format so far!

 

[fiish]

Have you looked at the sample teams? There are a lot of questionable decisions here, like not having a sleeper, running Toxic (after your opponent switches, it'll revert to normal poison which does only 6%, making defensive mons pretty difficult to kill as they can no longer be paralyzed), and using Ice Beam on Rhydon (Earthquake does more to opposing Rhydon, and you can use Rock Slide for Zapdos). The team also looks like has no good way of dealing with Reflect + Earthquake Snorlax. I think that Exeggutor and Snorlax over Gengar and Rhydon might work better.
also reminder that https://www.smogon.com/dex/rb/pokemon/ has good sets for most pokemon

 

[Allen "Bottles" Graham]

Not for RBY lol, as far as Old Gen goes I mostly have played Gen 3. Actually ran into Reflect Snorlax like 30 minutes ago and learned the hard way xD

I just enjoy playing sort of unconventional builds, I didn't realize these were just straight up worse picks though. Preciate the direction!

Did not know that about Toxic though, definitely good to know lol.

 

[Ortheore]

I'm not gonna comment much on the overall team structure because I think the movesets need pretty substantial change and are really the main thing to be polishing with the team

Clefable- the 2 moves that jump out to me are Fire Blast and Substitute.

Fire Blast isn't really a great choice because of the risk of burn. If something like Chansey/Zam/Starmie get burnt it actually (usually) benefits them, because it means they can't get paralysed, making them much harder to break. I understand wanting to hit Jynx super effectively, but you can just use Mega Kick, since Jynx's physical defense is terrible. Basically, I would suggest Blizzard>FB.

As for Substitute, it's not a very good choice a lot of the time because it doesn't block any relevant status effects (TWave and sleep moves pass straight through). Not blocking sleep makes it an especially poor choice on a lead, because it's actually quite realistic for you to spend a turn and 25% HP, only to still get incapacitated by sleep. I think more attacking options would be valuable here- Tbolt for Starmie is my first thought

Gengar- this set really misses the mark by running CRay/Toxic. As Fiish mentioned, that combo backfires as soon as the opponent switches. It also misses out on Gengar's best tools- Hypnosis and Explosion. Basically sleep in RBY is really good, so much so that basically every RBY team should have a way to inflict sleep. As for Explosion, it's a really nice wallbreaking tool, as well as potentially a defensive option against slower offensive threats

Starmie- you've picked a solid set. Having said that, you may struggle with Exeggutor, as you don't have a lot of responses to it. If you find it's an issue, you may want to look at Blizzard

Rhydon- everything except Earthquake should be replaced. Hyper Beam is bad because it's a high risk option that doesn't perform any better than EQ against neutral targets thanks to STAB. Rhydon's Ice Beam is super weak, and you're better off with Rock Slide or EQ for the targets you mention. As for Toxic, using it against Chansey actively makes it a worse matchup- Rhydon really needs Chansey paralysed, otherwise it loses to Ice Beam 1v1.

I'd recommend the standard set of EQ/Rock Slide/Body Slam/Substitute. It maximises coverage, Body Slam can fish for paralysis, and Rhydon is one of the few pokemon to get substantial value out of Substitute, most notably exploiting Seismic Toss Chansey (its Subs have more than 100 HP, so it takes 2 Seismic Tosses to break them)

Zapdos- Rest Zap is viable, but you may want to consider Agility which is usually preferred over Rest- it allows Zapdos to perform much better if it gets paralysed, as well as generally in endgames with faster foes. Up to you though, depends on what you prefer based on testing

Tauros- this set is viable, but for newer players I strongly recommend sticking to the standard set, which uses Earthquake over Fire Blast. Earthquake provides valuable Gengar coverage, and can also be used to scout for Counter, whereas Fire Blast is considerably more niche (the only reason people run it is specifically to maybe burn opposing Tauros).

Also side note- running 2 Normals in RBY is somewhat uncommon, but not for the reason you might assume. The reason is that Tauros, Snorlax and Chansey are generally regarded as the best pokemon in competitive play, to the point where most teams run all 3 (it's not a "requirement" like sleep, but it's a very good idea). Stacking all these Normals might seem dubious, but there's actually no significant downside. Fighting types are basically irrelevant (and easy to deal with if they do appear), whereas everything that resists Normal attacks has substantial defensive flaws (also Chansey doesn't use Normal attacks anyway). Running more than 3 is also viable if you want lol

Anyway, those are my suggestions, the main things are the sets for Clefable, Gengar and Rhydon that I think would need to be adjusted. There are probably other changes to be made, but if you're new I think it's best to test a bunch of different things and figure out what works. I also think Fiish's suggestion of replacing Gengar/Rhydon w Egg/Lax is solid and an overall improvement, but if you want to stick to your original team, I'd at least recommend those moveset changes. Anyway, hope you keep having fun w rby :)

 

[Allen "Bottles" Graham]

Wow this is crazy helpful, thanks Ortheore (& fiish). I've clearly got a lot to learn about the quirks of Gen 1 - but that's why I've been having so much fun! Such a unique experience.

Anyways, that moveset breakdown helps a lot to understand things better. I'm gonna redo Gengar as my sleeper now that I know more about sleep mechanics, and probably swap Rhydon for Egg or Lax. If that doesn't work well I think replacing Gen and Rhy with both of them would be a really fun team. Thanks yall!