Persian is like a terrible mon, it has ass coverage, and cant hit ghost (Again, In A Vacuum.
[OVERVIEW]
The nerf to Sleep in Stadium OU hinders Gengar immensely, as one of its best tools is now largely obsolete. However, Gengar's incredible Ghost typing is able to give it a niche in the tier. Several metagame trends make Earthquake a less common move in Stadium. Tauros now runs Substitute often since it blocks status, and it sometimes drops Earthquake to fit it. Snorlax mainly ran Earthquake to hit Gengar and Counter Chansey. Now that Gengar is less common, and Counter was also nerfed, Snorlax has less reason to run it. In addition, Persian is much more viable in Stadium, which Gengar is a fantastic check to. The aforementioned buff to Substitute adds a new move to Gengar's toolkit, as it can freely click Substitute on the Pokemon it walls, easing prediction against whatever switches in, while also letting Gengar use Confuse Ray more effectively.
Gengar still suffers from a multitude of issues that relegates it to a specific role. With the nerf to sleep, Gengar is much less threatening to Chansey and Exeggutor, allowing them to switch into Gengar and threaten it with paralysis. Exeggutor, Starmie, and Alakazam all have STAB Psychic to force Gengar out. Gengar also has no reliable recovery outside of Rest, allowing moves such as Tauros's Blizzard and Persian's Thunderbolt to wear it down over the course of a game. Additionally, Tauros and Snorlax can still run Earthquake to make Gengar much easier to KO, and Gengar has trouble against Amnesia Snorlax sets.
[SET]
name: Offensive
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Night Shade / Seismic Toss
move 3: Psychic / Substitute / Rest
move 4: Explosion
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Thunderbolt is Gengar's main attack, hitting most of the tier for neutral damage and hitting Starmie and Slowbro super-effectively, 2HKOing the former and having a 92.8% chance to 2HKO the latter unboosted. Night Shade lets Gengar 4HKO the omnipresent Exeggutor, forcing it into a Rest loop. It is essential to this set since otherwise Gengar has no way to threaten Exeggutor outside of Explosion. Night Shade is not affected by Counter, but if Gengar is running Rest, it should use Seismic Toss instead as the extra PP may be relavant. Psychic hits Rhydon, which can otherwise take Gengar's hits fairly well, opposing Gengar, and can force out a Snorlax trying to use rest thanks to its Special drop chance. Gengar can also use Substitute, which cannot be broken in one hit by Tauros and Snorlax lacking Earthquake, as well as Persian and Chansey lacking Seismic Toss. Alternatively, Gengar can use Rest for longevity, preventing it from getting worn down from the aforementioned Normal-types. Gengar's last move is Explosion, allowing it to sacrifice itself to deal massive damage on a foe, giving it value even against bad matchups such as Alakazam, Exeggutor, and Normal-types with Earthquake.
Gengar appreciates the help of defensive Pokemon that can cover its weak matchups. Cloyster is a fantastic teammate since it is able to check Earthquake and non-Thunderbolt variants of Tauros and Snorlax. Cloyster also struggles against Persian due to Thunderbolt, which Gengar has no problem walling. Their shared access to Explosion means that can be used together to quickly make progress against poosing teams. Chansey, Starmie, Slowbro, Alakazam, and Exeggutor can switch into opposing Psychic-type attacks and threaten them with paralysis.
[SET]
name: Substitute + Confuse Ray
move 1: Confuse Ray
move 2: Substitute
move 3: Thunderbolt / Seismic Toss / Night Shade
move 4: Rest / Explosion
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
This set aims to use Confuse ray to allow Gengar to make progress against opposing Pokemon. Gengar is able to click Confuse Ray freely on Persian, as well as Tauros and Snorlax sets lacking Earthquake. If they switch out into a slower Pokemon, such as Exeggutor or Chansey, Gengar use Substitue to fish for Confusion self-hits. Gengar's Substitute also cannot be broken in one hit by Thunderbolt + Ice Beam Chansey, and is rarely broken by Blizzard + Thunderbolt Starmie. The biggest downside to tihis set is lack of coverage; it typically only runs one attacking move. Thunderbolt hits Starmie and Slowbro super-effectively, while Seismic Toss has more PP and hits Exeggutor, Rhydon and Jolteon harder. Gengar's last move can be either Rest or Explosion. Rest gives Gengar the ability to heal off stray hits and Substitute damage, letting it stick around throuhg a game, while Explosion trades longevity for one final burst of power.
This set appreciates paralysis support heavily, as Confuse Ray is much more effective if Gengar is faster. Additionally, Confusion combined with the chance for full paralysis means the foe only has a 37.5% chance to act each turn its confused. This means that teammates that can spread paralysis such as Chansey, Starmie, Exeggutor, Alakazam, Zapdos, and Slowbro are all good teammates. Zapdos deserves a special mention since it is able to force paralysis onto more Pokemon by forcing out common Paralysis absorbers, such as Starmie and Chansey. Chansey and the Psychic-types can also switch into Special attackers that force Gengar out. Since this set is very weak to Rhydon, Exeggutor can also help with that matchup.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Gengar can run one of Substitute and Confuse Ray with two attacks which helps mitigate the coverage issue of the Substitute + Confuse Ray set. However, Substitute and Confuse Ray complement each other very well, so it is usually worth it to run both. Hypnosis was heavily nerfed in the transition to Stadium, making the move much harder to justify. However, incapacitating a foe for up to three turns is still valuable, and Gengar can fairly safely click the move on the Normal-types it walls. Mega Drain is an alternative to Psychic on offensive Gengar as a better move to hit Rhydon with, but Psychic is better in every other scenario. Gengar can use Submission to deal more damage to Chansey, doing up to 40.6%. However, the move's accuracy and recoil makes it a much more fringe pick compared to more consistent options, and it has little use outside of the Chansey matchup. In Stadium, if Submission KOes Chansey, Gengar will not take recoil damage, though. Gengar can use Body Slam to fish for paralysis, which is especially useful on Confuse Ray sets, but the move is extremely weak, cannot paralyze Normal-types, and fishing for a 30% paralysis chance is very unreliable.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Paralysis**: Gengar relies heavily on its Speed to be an offensive threat, so it hates getting paralyzed. This is especially true for Confuse Ray sets, as Gengar being faster than the foe is extremely important to use Confuse Ray effectively.
**Earthquake**: Gengar only walls Tauros and Snorlax if they don't have Earthquake. If they have Earthquake, they can easily 2HKO Gengar and it is no longer an effective check to them. Rhydon is immune to Thunderbolt, has a Substitute that survives' Gengar's Seismic Toss, and OHKOes Gengar with Earthquake.
**Amnesia Snorlax**: Although Gengar is a great check to unboosted Amnesia Snorlax, it is not an effective answer once it is boosted. A +4 Ice Beam 2HKOes Gengar, while a +6 Ice Beam 2HKOes. Gengar's Thuderbolt also does very little in return.
**Chansey**: Chansey takes very little from Gengar's common attacks and threatens paralysis with Thunder Wave. However, Chansey cannot break Gengar's Substitute without Seismic Toss, must watch out for Explosion, and Gengar can deny Soft-Boiled with good Confuse Ray luck.
**Psychic-types**: Alakazam, Starmie, and Exeggutor all 2HKO Gengar with Psychic and threaten paralysis. Alakazam and Exeggutor are only 4HKOed by Seismic Toss, while Starmie is 2HKOed by Thunderbolt.
[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/gastlies.540559/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/notverycake.625260/
Grammar checked by:
Last edited:
