August 4, 2008 Pokemon of the Week - Gengar

Gengar

Gengar, the Gas Pokemon. Lurking in the shadowy corners of rooms, it awaits chances to steal its prey's life force. It hides in shadows. It is said that if GENGAR is hiding, it cools the area by nearly 10 degrees F. Sometimes, on a dark night, your shadow thrown by a streetlight will suddenly and startlingly overtake you. It is actually a GENGAR running past you, pretending to be your shadow.

Overview
Gengar is one of the most used ghost type pokemon even from the first generation, it diesn't matter if it's in-game or competitive gengar is still the most OU / overlooked / menacing ghost type in the game.

There's really not much difference from the Gengar of the 3rd Gen and the Gengar of the current 4th generation. Although there are new "aspects" that favoured Gengar in the 4th generation. Lets review the examples: theres new moves/attacks the favoured gengar includng ex. Energy Ball, Dark Pulse and the 4th gen favourite..Focus Blast.

The thing is Gengar was great back then and Gengar is great up until now.

In-Game Play
Type: Ghost/Poison
Ability: Levitate
Base Stats: 60 HP / 65 Atk / 60 Def / 130 SAtk / 75 SDef / 110 Spd
Pros: Amazing Sp. Attack and great Speed, incredibly diverse movepool,
3 Immunities (Normal, Fighting, Ground)
Cons: Frail defenses, weakness to Pursuit

Contrary Movesets

Gengar @Life Orb/Black Sludge
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest/Timid Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Hypnosis
-Focus Blast/Hidden Power [Ice/Fire]

Gengar has a ton of choices for moves, but Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt will
always be a constant. Hypnosis is great for disabling potential counters.
Focus Blast OHKOs Darks like Weavile/Tyranitar, HP Ice kills Dragons, and HP
Fire is for Metagross/Bronzong.

Gengar @Choice Specs/Choice Scarf
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Explosion/Hidden Power [Ice]/Energy Ball
-Focus Punch/Focus Blast/Hypnosis

Diversity is good, but Gengar can use Choice items if you have good prediction
skills. Physical moves like Explosion and Focus Punch are very effective
against Blissey.

Gengar @Black Sludge
EVs: 160 HP / 96 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
-Hypnosis
-Will-o-wisp
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt

Double status is the goal. Disable as many opponents as you can with Burn and
Sleep.

Gengar @Black Sludge
EVs: 200 Atk / 98 SAtk / 212 Spd
Mild/Hasty Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Thunderbolt
-Substitute
-Focus Punch

An old moveset from Advance can still work in D/P. Substitute makes prediction
easier and can scout your enemy's attacks.

Gengar @Focus Sash
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
-Counter
-Hypnosis
-Shadow Ball
-Explosion

A pretty fun set. Counter all those physical attackers who think they can beat
you with one hit. Then put the next enemy to sleep and explode to take out
another one. You can screw over multiple opponents with this set.

Other Attack Options
perish Song with Mean Look can get you out of tough situations, like say a Blissey. Dark Pulse takes care of your psychic friends or maybe Sucker Punch for a quick dip.
Like i said earlier energy ball wouldn`t hurt.

Countering Gengar
Gengar has some pretty decent speed and sp. attack so you might consider it as a special sweeper. But most Sweepers do not have the right amount of defense needed so an easy way to counter it is by using another sweeper but something preferrably faster.
Also consider psychic types cause gengar is poison.
Dark Types are your best bets so stick with them just avoid the Focus Blast.

Diamond and Pearl Database

Evolution Chain
-----
---------Lvl. 25-------Trade

In-Game Location

Diamond - Old Chateau - Eye Room RSEFRLG Inserted into DS
Pearl - Old Chateau - Eye Room RSEFRLG Inserted into DS

That`s Gengar everybody

ok

Hypnosis works much better than Thunderbolt on the SubPunch set. You took the movesets directly from Smogon obviously, but mixed up a few things (ie. Timid is used on the Choice sets, not Hasty, even if you run Explosion). Other attack options could mention Substitute and Taunt as good supporting moves. Also, it's nice to have specific examples listed under the Counters, or at least be more detailed. Mention his Pursuit weakness (Metagross, Spiritomb), trouble with Blissey and Snorlax (except for Explosion), and bulky Steels like Jirachi and Heatran.