Tauros could be EQing to fish for Counter on Snorlax or Chansey, or use EQ on Jynx or Zam if it knows they carry Counter already. EQ can also be a safer bet than BSlam for Tauros if you suspect they'll switch to their rock and match circumstances make EQ the best safe bet.
-
Check out the relaunch of our general collection, with classic designs and new ones by our very own Pissog!
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
OU Personal Viability-Based Tier List(Wrap)
- Thread starter Dre89
- Start date
- Status
Counter Chansey, too.
EDIT: And yeah, full-health Jynx. Forgot about Jynx because I don't use Tauros much and with Snorlax it's usually better to just YOLO with Hyper Beam.
lolwut
Badness doesn't add linearly, Gengar has incredible synergy with Flying-types.
Last edited:
No it doesn't.
You show your flying type once, and you lose the certainty that they will always earthquake on gengar. Likewise, you also lose the certainty that they won't earthquake on your flying type once you've shown gengar.
This is magnified if gengar is asleep (you seem to think gengar is a good sleep absorber) because no smart player is going to earthquake a sleeping gengar, especially when you've already shown a flying type.
You show your flying type once, and you lose the certainty that they will always earthquake on gengar. Likewise, you also lose the certainty that they won't earthquake on your flying type once you've shown gengar.
This is magnified if gengar is asleep (you seem to think gengar is a good sleep absorber) because no smart player is going to earthquake a sleeping gengar, especially when you've already shown a flying type.
Prediction has multiple layers, Dre. If I think your Tauros is going to EQ my flying-type, predicting a Gar switch, I can leave it in and hit you with an Articuno Blizzard or Gyarados Hydro Pump. And if I think your Rhydon's going to Rock Slide my Gar, predicting a flying-type switch, I can leave that in too and kill you with Mega Drain.
The point isn't having 100% safe switches, that only works against noobs. The point is having the advantage.
I mean, I've made three-layer predictions before (predicting that Tauros will Blizzard predicting my switch to Rhydon predicting a Tauros Hyper Beam, and staying in with Chansey for the Thunder Wave, for instance). There's no limit to how far mindgames can go. The objective of having Gar, and having Flying-types, is to make your opponent play those mindgames instead of being able to mindlessly Body Slam with Tauros or mindlessly Earthquake with Rhydon or mindlessly Thunderbolt with Zapdos or whatever.
The point isn't having 100% safe switches, that only works against noobs. The point is having the advantage.
I mean, I've made three-layer predictions before (predicting that Tauros will Blizzard predicting my switch to Rhydon predicting a Tauros Hyper Beam, and staying in with Chansey for the Thunder Wave, for instance). There's no limit to how far mindgames can go. The objective of having Gar, and having Flying-types, is to make your opponent play those mindgames instead of being able to mindlessly Body Slam with Tauros or mindlessly Earthquake with Rhydon or mindlessly Thunderbolt with Zapdos or whatever.
Last edited:
Nobody claims that Gengar+Flying type will give free switches forever and ever, but they will make you guess wrong every once in a while (say 50% of the time), creating opportunities. Rhydon won't always Earthquake due to the existence of Exeggutor, so staying in with your paralyzed Chansey/Snorlax/anything becomes a better option. It won't always prevent you from tanking that Earthquake with said Chansey/Snorlax/etc. but it will make you guess wrong and as such, make your situation more favorable than it'd otherwise be. Same thing with Gengar+Flying type.
And as such, you stay in and soak Body Slam for 0% damage (potentially waking up), since nobody EQ's a sleeping Gengar. It works both ways.
I think I can get on board with Gengar hate based on the notion that Gengar depends on these sorts of mindgames (or the existence of Wrap) to do work, which isn't a very reliable way of playing since you can easily be wrong in those 50-50s. But he definitely does create dilemmas for your opponent, it's never as straightforward as "Gengar will always do X so I shouldn't EQ". In fact Gengar will often do exactly what you don't expect it to do in that situation because he kind of has to be a bit crazy to fully abuse his Ghost typing.
Well, don't get me wrong. I'm not exactly a Gengar fan - it's on the border of "decent" and "usable" on my list for a reason. But I know it's painful as hell to play against an intelligent opponent with both Gengar (or even a Rock-type) and Articuno (or, to a lesser extent, Lapras).
I think the difference between the stuff like rhydon and gengar is that rhydon still has the stats and typing to do damage regardless of mindgames. As Jorgen said, gengar is almost entirely dependent on mindgames as it lacks the ability to damage a good portion of the meta without exploding.
The only things Gengar can't significantly damage without booming are Snorlax and Chansey; Snorlax loses to Gengar anyway if it's not running EQ or Amnesia/Rest, and luring Chansey for a boom is awesome. Everything else is 4HKOed or better by at least one of Gengar's moves.
Rhydon tends to die in a hurry if you make bad predictions.
Rhydon tends to die in a hurry if you make bad predictions.
- Status