i wanna shine some light on an underappreciated tier - gsc. this tier gets clowned on a lot because of the rng, mainly from people who want ph to be chess for some reason. but if you're in the know, you know it's one of the best ph gens. this post is gonna have 2 sections: one on the top 5 mons and one on everyone else. the top 5 section will have a lot more detail per mon, mainly cause the top 5 is a lot more diverse.
---The Top 5---
big mewtwo is the reason for everything, easily best mon. its insane statline (tied for 2nd fastest mon, the best mixed offenses in the game, good mixed bulk) means it can run literally anything and be good. mewtwo can cover mus super easily cause there's no abilities and almost no good items, so if it wants to hit you super effective there isn't much you can do about it. you can run anything but im gonna showcase my fave sets. i'm also going to get the one big negative out of the way first, so bear with me for a bit.
Mewtwo @ Miracle Berry
Ability: No Ability
- Psychic
- Thunder / Blizzard / Hydro Pump / Sacred Fire / Megahorn / Cross Chop / Rock Slide / ...
- Thunder / Blizzard / Hydro Pump / Sacred Fire / Megahorn / Cross Chop / Rock Slide / ...
- Explosion
all out attacker, or boom2 as i call it. boom, especially boom2, is turbo broken and it's the only thing i don't like about gsc. the bulkiest non-resist, lugia, is gonna take 80-90% from boom2 and fat resists will take 45-50%. the fat resists do not want to scout mewtwo when it can always just run coverage for them. missy and gar also don't want to come in on boom because of psychic. even aero takes like 80%. the huge problem with boom is that this breaking power is not exclusive to boom2; anything with a decent attack stat can decide to 2hko the whole tier. the silver lining is that you CAN outplay boom with a resist or a fast sub. boom2, though, can chunk the resists and can outspeed everything trying to sub, so there's a high chance you just have to take the hit. the risk reward is so skewed in boom2's favor it's not even funny. worse, fast boom immediately ends the turn, so anything that took boom now has to immediately face another breaker after they're already weakened. it's of my belief that every team should bring a boom2, and i brought one every single game in my phpl set. i imagine the "optimal" gsc team is just spamming boom2 and trading the game down, but there's risk involved to such a team style since there's much more room to neutralize boom2 than, say, rby trode or adv slak.
Mewtwo @ Miracle Berry
Ability: No Ability
- Growth
- Psychic
- Thunder / Blizzard
- Spore / Substitute / Hydro Pump
growth2 is one of the best wincons cause +1 psychic 2hkos basically everything. thunder is to hit lugia, ho-oh, and aero, who growth2 wants dead as soon as possible. thunder's also really good for the mirror cause of the 30% para. you can run blizzard to goob grounds and celebi but you'll lose to ho-oh and do worse in the mirror. spore gives you growth turns and it's also really good for mirror. sub is generally one of the best moves on anything because it dodges spore and makes double ohko mons into setup fodder. pump hits grounds, ttar, aero, and ho-oh. it's also nice for mirror since it has more acc than thunder. there's a lot of less viable 4ths for growth2 like sacred fire, recover, and explosion but i just didn't bother mentioning them.
Mewtwo @ Miracle Berry / Leftovers
- Spider Web
- Perish Song
- Substitute
- Spore
trapsong mewtwo, or song2 as i call it. no shed shell means manual trap isn't a joke. this mon exists to neutralize other wincons. the main victims are double ohko, since you can sub on them, and growth boosters, since mewtwo is one of the best special tanks around. leftovers without sleep talk is risky, but it gives you more resilience vs double ohko if needed. the full trap sequence doesn't actually happen that often. song2 will find itself used more to get a fast psong or spore off for setup control. as setup control, song2 is pretty nice for anti-growth when you don't wanna lose to sub.
there are a lot of more sets for mewtwo. some examples are sub + horn drill, swords dance, and belly drum. but i think those sets are just worse than the ones i listed here, so i left them alone.
consistency king. this mon's just. sooo bulky and it's faster than most stuff in the game. conveniently, it also resists the stab of the best mon in the game. not counting boom, there's very few unboosted attacks that 2hko lugia and it also survives most boosted hits. this means lugia is the best setup control you will find anywhere.
Lugia @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Horn Drill
- Whirlwind / Fissure
- Rest / Recover
- Sleep Talk
like mewtwo, lugia can run a lot of stuff. in fact, all of the good mons have like 10 sets that work, so don't take anything i say as a hard set of rules about what's viable or not. but for me, there's no doubt that this is the best lugia, and it's the one i run 9/10 times. horn drill is 100% the move over fissure cause there's a lot of top flying types, but both the usable ghosts are flawed. because ghosts are easily exploitable, running whirlwind is surprisingly more consistent than double ohko. because lugia can live most boosted hits, whirlwind is the best setup stopper in the game. whatever move you think ohkoes lugia, it doesn't. nothing without sub wants to boost on lugia due to the threat of horn drill. because so little moves can threaten lugia, it makes it an incredible scout. if your team has comfortable setup control already, then double ohko is an option to use ohko moves out of sleep talk more consistently and hit ghosts. double ohko lugia is a lot more of a wincon, but you can use it all game since nothing is immune to both ohkoes.
incredible wincon with a really strong matchup vs the good mons in this tier, especially mewtwo, since lax walls growth2 for days and pressures + survives boom. due to really high bulk and attack, it can run a ton of roles well, making it really unpredictable, and just like OU it can wreck even the most prepared comps. also, don't run bonemerang + espeed lead lax because 1) it doesn't guaranteed kill trode and 2) anyone with a brain at least switches out after the bonemerang.
Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Curse
- Double-Edge / Rock Slide
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
this set doesn't see much usage, probably because it's a rip from OU, but this is THE set to watch for. edge is stronger and usually better but slide hits more mons if you need that. mewtwo is basically useless against this thing, and it tanks + sets up on every offensive threat in the book. every team needs a good answer to it. the main strats are boom, phaze, and bulky resists with curse/ohko. but none of these are enough on their own. you'll need multiple to consistently answer curse lax, and even then it can always snowball. luckily curse lax answers are pretty easy to include since they often answer the metagame at large.
Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Body Slam / Horn Drill
- Whirlwind
- Rest / Recover
- Sleep Talk
support lax is really underrated. spreading paralyze is really important, since so many games end up coming down to mewtwo / aero speed ties. similar to lugia, lax lives most boosted hits and phazes them right out. this set puts insane pressure on offense when you have spikes up, because mewtwo can't touch it and it phazes into them constantly. horn drill isn't as good as body slam but if you really hate fatty rocks and steels then you can run it.
Snorlax @ Miracle Berry
Ability: No Ability
- Belly Drum
- Extreme Speed
- Explosion
- Recover
this set SUCKS!!!
i see this lax set the most, probably because it's the most "ph" set and because ransei advocated for it. i'm really not a fan of bd lax, it never sweeps cause most mons tank +6 espeed from full in this game. +6 espeed doesn't even ohko mewtwo after spikes. usually people run a coverage move over rest but there's genuinely no point, missy and gar are hard stopping you no matter what you run. recover is way better to avoid revenge killing. not rest since you don't want to get phazed. so in the end, the point of this set is to ohko normal resists with +6 booms. in other words, you put teams without ghosts in a really bad situation. in other words, you are doing literally what curse lax does but worse.
best lead in the game, no questions asked.
Electrode @ Miracle Berry
Ability: No Ability
- Spore
- Spikes
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
it's hard to justify spin in this tier since every one of your 24 moves counts dearly, and several of your mons will probably be immune to spikes anyway. mewtwo also tends to run miracle berry over leftovers a lot. it is also obvious that offense will spam mewtwo. this means that spikes trode is one of the easiest ways to debilitate offense. but spikes are useful vs every team, even if they miss a lot of popular fliers. clicking spikes turn 1 is really easy because the only unboosted moves that ohko trode are boom and marowak eq / bonemerang. having the fastest spore and sub is also great to get momentum before the opponent, as well as for mid-game setup control. subpassing to a setup mon is a really great way to start the game off in your favor. i see some people running recover over spikes but i think spikes are too good to pass up.
Electrode @ Miracle Berry
Ability: No Ability
- Spore
- Spikes
- Thunder
- Recover / Growth / Explosion / Whirlwind / Perish Song / ...
this lead variant trades subpass for a fast and surprisingly hard hitting thunder. trode's thunder will do 40-45% to lugia and ho-oh, 75-90% to aero, and 30-35% to mewtwo which is really good for an unboosted move. it's particularly useful vs aero, whose offensive power actually goes toe-to-toe with mewtwo's, so having a revenge killer for it can give you a huge advantage. you can still click spikes turn 1 because nothing ohkoes you. there's a lot of options for the 4th but you're not clicking it most times, just use whatever you want.
aero looks kinda stupid but do NOT be fooled. i'm not kidding when i say this mon does not have a single consistent wall. it also has an annoyingly good defensive profile that lets it take any non-rock phys hit, even boom. speed tying with mewtwo and rock slide's 30% flinch chance make this one a hax legend.
Aerodactyl @ Miracle Berry
Ability: No Ability
- Swords Dance / Belly Drum
- Rock Slide
- Megahorn
- Substitute / Spore / Explosion / Earthquake
unless you run something ridiculous like donphan or poliwrath, aero is going to ohko / 2hko you. +2 megahorn ohkoes mewtwo after spikes which is one of the biggest reasons to get spikes up. mewtwo cannot ohko aero unboosted in return, though thunder and pump do tons and thunder has that nasty 30% para chance. aero is also the only good belly drum user. bd isn't really a good move in this gen cause your boosted hits just get tanked anyway, but aero is one of the rare mons that can ohko lugia at +6 with rock slide, making bd actually worth it. eq should only be used on bd, +2 eq doesn't do enough damage to beat curse lix. generally it's just really good against everything as long as you don't lose too many speed ties, you get it behind sub, or you paralyze the mewtwos beforehand.
---Other Guys Who Are Cool Too!---
ho-oh's basically like lugia from temu. you mainly use this to tank blizzard from growth2 and to use fire stab.
Ho-Oh @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Horn Drill
- Fire Blast
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
the big advantage to fire blast is destroying steels and breaking mewtwo's sub. because of sleep talk you also get a million pp on it. fire blast also lets you hit ghosts for good damage so you can afford mono ohko. ho-oh's way less consistent than lugia because of less defense + 4x weakness to maybe the best physical type in the game. but he's a crazy strong breaker so it's worth it to support him.
ttar has an amazing dual stab and can actually dodge a majority of his weaknesses, so he's surprisingly consistent. if you fight pump mewtwo it's ggs though.
Tyranitar
Ability: No Ability
- Rock Slide / Horn Drill
- Crunch / Curse
- Rest / Recover
- Sleep Talk
ttar's mixed offenses are insane for gsc so rock slide hits like a bitch if you don't resist. crunch 2hkoes mewtwo after spikes, so crunch ttar matches up great into growth2 and even boom2 as long as they don't run pump. or cross chop, but that's pretty rare. curse ttar is awesome, he's like curse hp rock lax but you get stab on it. i would not recommend horn drill and curse together, but you can mix and match everything else.
incredible physical blanket check and one of the best curse checks around. completely useless into mewtwo though.
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Horn Drill
- Fissure / Acid Armor / Hidden Power Steel
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
basically every time i run this i run double ohko and pray for no rock slide flinches vs aero, but if you run acid armor you can actually tank it when it's boosted, and you can also make sure lax and ttar don't snowball on you. i don't feel skarm is consistent enough to be relied on as setup control so i don't run ww or haze on it, but they're probably viable. hp steel beats sub aero but it's also really stupid.
the most consistent aero wall around. doubles as a great curse check and boom absorb, and is better into mewtwo than skarm since it can tank unboosted non-pump hits decently well.
Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Curse / Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
it's hard to want to run curse on this mon cause it does no damage, but if you get rid of the pump mewtwos then nothing kills you. you can keep eq if you just wanna chunk mewtwo and ttar. one time i ran hp steel because i actually hate aero so bad.
missy should suck but it's actually good. normal immunity is turbo broken, you can invalidate a lot of stuff like lax and hdrill ww resttalk lugia. the bulk is surprisingly decent because it's gsc.
Misdreavus @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Thunder / Shadow Ball
- Recover
- Haze / Encore
- Sleep Talk
this is not a mon you can slap onto a team, cause you get broken open too easily. instead you run it alongside other setup control like support lax and ww lugia, and you use those guys to bait booms for missy to absorb. sball seems better than thunder cause you 3hko mewtwo, but if you run it you can't spread para and you have to pp stall curse lax.
a neat anti-lead to trode, since it's the only mon to ohko it with unboosted bonemerang. if you run this you have to have a spiker in the back though, usually your own trode.
Marowak @ Thick Club
Ability: No Ability
IVs: 26 Atk
- Swords Dance
- Bonemerang
- Rock Slide
- Sleep Talk
you need to lower your atk iv so you don't overflow at +2. this only works as an anti-lead because nothing wants to 1v1 it. at +2 it 2hkos the whole tier, and it can tank a hit or two. in fact, its bulk is just high enough to live an unboosted pump from mewtwo. this thing is not consistent cause spore is a lottery and if sleep talk makes you boost over +2, you overflow and have to switch out.
outspeeds lugia and 2hkos with unboosted thunder, which is honestly enough of a reason to pick it.
Raikou @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Thunder
- Surf / Substitute
- Rest / Recover
- Sleep Talk
thunder / surf coverage is basically impossible to wall longterm outside of lax. considering it outspeeds everything relevant except mewtwo / aero / trode, it's a good revenge killer. it's especially good after boom2 blows up cause it can 2hko a lot of stuff and it does really well into boom absorbers. substitute is to dodge ohko and capitalize on switches.
big fan of this guy. it can sit on a lot of the curse users it walls growth2 using only thunder / pump as coverage moves, which are its best coverage moves imo. if only aero didn't run megahorn on every set, it would wall that too...
Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
- Spider Web
- Perish Song
- Recover
- Sleep Talk
celebi's stab combo is terrible for killing stuff so trapsong is the most consistent way to beat curse and growth boosters. celebi isn't fast enough to forgo sleep talk like song2, so it has to buckle down and hope that they didn't boost too much before it starts the trap. luckily, celebi is good at taking boosted hits from its targets.
this mon would be really good if it was pure ghost but gsc poison is the worst type ever. you fold to mewtwo and you can die to random eqs from aero lix and the gang. it's still decent because it's a ghost with 110 speed and you really can't be bad with that combo.
Gengar @ Miracle Berry
Ability: No Ability
- Sacred Fire
- Thunder
- Encore
- Substitute
if you're gonna use this over missy you have to take advantage of the speed and special attack increase to spread status around. the burn and para combo makes it hard to switch into, especially with encore. substitute is only really there so you can capitalize on forced encore switches. growth isn't a good idea since mewtwo sends you to hell.
don't limit yourself to the mons i posted about or the sets i showcased them with. there is room for a lot of diversity in this tier and limiting yourself is never a good idea in a tier with endless possibilities. limiting yourself is actually never a good idea, but it's an even worse idea here. so let your creative mind run free!
Primal Groudon: A+ -> S-
Slaking: A -> A+
Regigigas: A- -> A
Mewtwo-Mega-Y
Ninjask
Dugtrio
Deoxys
Banette
Wobbuffet
Tauros
Machamp
Breloom
Omastar
Starmie