Haunter (Update) (QC 0/3)

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Swamp-Rocket

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Getting this up a lot quicker than Aggron.

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look at all of that DEFENSE (error: defense dne)

[Overview]
  • Immensley frail, no hiding that.
  • Most offensive Ghost in the tier - its the strongest special attack wise and the fastest
  • Good typing both offensively and, surprisingly, defensively as it gets a lot of 4x resistances and immunities (including all but 3 of the priority moves) with a pretty solid movepool.
  • If you can't power through the foe or outspeed it Haunter is in a tight spot typically without a Substitute due to fraility.
  • It's not spinblocking anytime soon, at least not reliably.
[SET]
name: Life Orb
move 1: Shadow Ball
move 2: Sludge Bomb
move 3: Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Ground
move 4: Substitute / Destiny Bond
item: Life Orb
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
  • You're fast, you're frail, you're strong, you might as well use a Life Orb.
  • Haunter finds it pretty difficult to switch in, but thanks to immunties or heavy resistances to some key types such as Bug, Fighting, and Ground.
  • Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb are the best STAB moves, and the combination hits some important Pokemon like Uxie, Slowking, and Tangrowth
  • Hidden Power Fire is strong enough to OHKO any non-specially defensive Escavalier so then it doesn't just Pursuit you. It also does well against other Steel-types.
  • Hidden Power Ground is better for Aggron, Magneton, and Drapion.
  • Substitute allows you to avoid Sucker Punches and allows you to not just get automatically demolished by any attack.
  • Destiny Bond is a cool move, as most people attack Haunter head on and its immune to Toxic, meaning you can lure in and kill something that threatens it.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
  • Thunderbolt for Water-types.
  • Pain Split
  • Fire-types make good partners as they are generally pretty good against the major Pursuit users (Escavalier, Spiritomb, to an extent Absol), most of which can potentially cause issues either all the time or depending on your move choice. Emboar is the best at taking them on due to its additional Fighting-typing, but Entei can easily power through the three of them. A majority of Pokemon faster than Haunter are dealt with by Scarf Emboar.
  • Haunter is tough to switch in outside of revenge killing. As a result, Aggron makes a cool partner, as it lures in Fighting, Ground, and to an extent Grass moves (it can at least threaten Grass-types even if their STABs still hurt) for Haunter to switch into. In return, Aggron easily OHKOs Spiritomb and Cinccino while both have no chance of threatening it.
  • With Destiny Bond, Haunter can lure in and kill Pursuit users (Haunter is so frail it will die even if it doesn't switch out most of the time), meaning Psychic-type walls like Slowking or Uxie become much more difficult to eliminate from the match.
[SET]
name: SubDisable
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Disable
move 3: Shadow Ball
move 4: Sludge Bomb / Hidden Power Fire
item: Black Sludge
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
  • With a really freaking annoying typing, Haunter can make use of SubDisable, almost shutting down anything with too limited of a movepool to damage Haunter and possibly preventing it from being hit by Pursuits.
  • As always a Substitute also gives you a barrier from instant death. You can set up another Substitute after you lose the other one and you disable the attack.
  • Shadow Ball should be used as it gets good one move coverage.
  • Sludge Bomb particularly hurts Normal-types like Afrobull which you can actually wall.
  • Hidden Power Fire is a good general alternative to get good coverage with Shadow Ball and smack Escavalier/Ferroseed, but its a lot less powerful.
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
  • Black Sludge to be more annoying with the subs
  • Hidden Power Ground for stuff like Drapion and Aggron, but since Drapion is meh and Aggron is usually Choiced, its not needed as much.
  • The good new is this set doesn't need very much support.
  • Shadow Ball + Sludge Bomb is totally walled by Steel-types, so Magneton can be a good partner if you fear that these Pokemon will set up on you easily.
  • Toxic Spikes is very helpful in order to let Haunter wear down the opponent more as it is doing the Substiute + Disable game. Qwilfish can set up Toxic Spikes on the dangerous Escavalier and Spiritomb due to its typing and high physical defense, and the latter in particular is crippled immensely by Toxic Spikes.
  • Hazards in general are useful as well for a similar purpose, meaning entry hazard setters like Crustle, Qwilfish, etc. are all cool guys.
  • Poison-types ruin the above, usually wall Haunter fairly well, and typically have more than one move to attack it with. Psychic types such as Mesprit or Sigilyph are good options unless they are also a Dark-type... in this case, Poliwrath can wall most Poison-types and phaze them out, possibly shuffling into a Pokemon that Haunter is capable of switching into.
[Other Options]
  • Choice Scarf
  • Taunt
  • Giga Drain
  • Hypnosis
  • Clear Smog / Haze
  • Will-O-Wisp
  • Choice Specs
[Checks and Counters]
  • Spiritomb
  • Amoonguss
  • Mandibuzz
  • Escavalier, watch out for Fire though... Unless you have Occa then its ok.
  • Klinklang
  • Cryogonal
  • Clefable if you actually have something to hit Haunter with
  • Cinccino
  • Drapion
  • Absol is risky due to Sludge Bomb but it causes a dangerous guessing game.
  • Anything faster easily OHKOs it if their STAB hits it neutrally Aerodactyl, Durant, Galvantula, Sigilyph, or Scarf anything (ie Boar or Rotom-C)
  • Anything with a priority move that can hit it like Kabutops or Gallade.
 
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I know Toxic Spikes are always mentioned in the AC for subdisable, but i really think hazards in general should be stressed for how damn well they work with subdisable haunter. Because of the combination of Haunter's typing and subdisable, it'll be forcing quite a few switches, and entry hazards maximize how much you can take advantage of that, as a lot of the time you can keep repeatedly subdisabling and wearing the opponent down until they're all in KO range for either haunter or a teammate, definitely worth the mention imo.

Despite the fact that both sets have the option to run Hidden Power Fire, i'd still say Escavalier is a great check to haunter, and should definitely be mentioned in checks and counters. It pretty much 100% beats any haunter lacking hidden power Fire, and Occa Berry Escavalier can even check that iirc, it can even pursuit trap the non subdisable haunter to stop it from escaping and just coming in later.

I think Choice Scarf *might* deserve a set of its own since it seems like quite a solid revenge killer on paper, good typing and great Special Attack and Speed to work with. Its rather similar to Choice Scarf Rotom-N, except with more Special Attack and Speed along with a fast destiny bond it can use just in case, in exchange for volt switch, anyone have any experience with it?
 
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Implemented the above, thanks.

Molk said:
I think Choice Scarf *might* deserve a set of its own since it seems like quite a solid revenge killer on paper, good typing and great Special Attack and Speed to work with. Its rather similar to Choice Scarf Rotom-N, except with more Special Attack and Speed along with a fast destiny bond it can use just in case, anyone have any experience with it?
Click to expand...

I've never used Scarf in RU, so I'm just assuming that you mean a set similar to the NU one. I can honestly see it working in RU tbh, it gets a really cool speed stat and Destiny Bond and Trick are really disruptive as well, and it has enough speed to outspeed +1 Lilligant and other Scarfed mons. I need to test it out first though, since admittedly no bulk can make it an iffy revenge killer since its not the strongest thing around...

Another thing Rotom-N can do is Volt Switch, but Destiny Bond really is a cool niche. If anyone has ever used it that would be great if you could share about it!
 
dis an official, bona fide qc chek tho, for realssss

but yeah, hi, Haunter user here! this looks p.solid, and ik u'll do a solid job, so I'm gonna be nitpicky. stress losing a perfect speed if is a huge boon of HP ground > fire, since it's a moderately pertinent sped tier to hit (ape, Jynx, uxie, and i'd say even drap is worth mentioning here). AC boom on the LO set, it takes a reasonable chunk outta cryo / clef, and it lets Haunter keep up momentum once it becomes a liability while not being play-around able like DBond. I don't like how you mention Psychic-types in a defensive sense as partners; Haunters ability to bait and dispatch Pursuit 'moms should be utilized offensively, rather than defensively. I'd rephrase that as something to the effect of "Haunters ability to lure and take out common pursuit using can pave the way for dangerous psychic-type sweepers, such as SubCM uxie or Otr Slowking, to sweep".

I don't like that poison-types are being considered checks for sub disable Haunter. Aside from rose (who sorta stalemates, since it can't hit back very well, as Haunter can fish for SpDef drops), most either get 2hkoed or can't do much back, with the exception of drap, which you go on to describe as an exception to the prior teammate suggestion anyway. Instead, maybe mention some 'mons that appreciate Haunters ability to chip away at SpDef walls?

I'd definitely support a set for scarf Haunter, it isn't bad at all. I'd lean towards something along the lines of shadow ball / sludge bomb / DBond / (trick / HP ground), though it can be discussed later. Anyway, after that's done I'll stamp n_n
 
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