 hi everyone and welcome back to another pokemon vgc 2019 moon series guide we are going to be back today with another non-restricted pokemon if you've missed any of the other guides that we've done in the moon series you can go back up here i'll link a card for you lovely people you can go back and check those out there's restricted pokemon and non-restricted pokemon just coming into this moon series to give you an idea of how to go forward with these pokemon and also what to expect from them when you see them played on the field these guides are kind of condensed down making them very short giving you a quick overview of the pokemon giving you that beginner intermediate and some advanced level stuff to how to play this pokemon and hopefully inspire some ideas for you guys at home taking our way and playing in your own teams and getting a lot of success with them but this pokemon that we're talking about and going to cover today has had a lot of success up to now in the moon series and i wouldn't expect it to change going into the ultra series it's gonna have even more success so without further ado let's get into it as always if you enjoy this sort of content please remember to leave a like on the video make sure you do subscribe so you don't miss when these videos are dropped and also leave your comments in the comment section below because i love hearing from you all about these guides and just in general how you're getting on in the moon series without further ado let's hop into it so today we're going to look at Gengar so we'll start with a pokemon overview as always Gengar is a ghost and poison type it has the ability cursed body for those of you that are there that don't know what cursed body does anytime Gengar is hit by an attack it has a secondary effect 20% of disabling that said attack common attacks you're going to see on Gengar because of its typing you're going to see shadow ball sludge bomb there it's same type attack bonus attacks you're going to see other options like taunt a very common option to shut down status set up pokemon and things that are disrupting and supporting the opposing side you're going to see destiny bond as well it's another option that Gengar has with it commonly used with the focus sash and commonly with that z move now that you can see people taking advantage of that z destiny bond to take down attacking option and pull all attacks away from it so it's got some really nice options it's got other options as well these are probably the more common ones we'll get into a few more as we go through the guide you can see that it's got a base that total of 500 distribution of 60 hp 65 attack 60 defense 130 special attacks 75 special defense and 110 speed so you can see what this pokemon is all about it's very fragile can't take too many attacks but it has a brilliant speed stat and a really nice special attack stat as well so it's going to be a pokemon that's hitting fast hitting hard and that's what players are going to be taking advantage of going into this format type strength and weaknesses the ghost typing and the poison typing give it weaknesses to ground ghost psychic and dark unfortunately some big weaknesses there that needs to be careful of some nice immunities though with the normal and fighting and then resists to poison bug grass and fairy so some really nice resists some really nice immunities but it has got those big weaknesses especially to ground ghost dark are the big ones that you're going to see a lot of in this format that you need to be very wary of and then hit normally by everything else so that's a quick overview of Gengar it's very fast and it can hit very hard but it is at the same time very fragile we'll start off with an example set of the ghost inium z so the ghost inium z is the first sample set that we're going to look at here going off that shutter ball it's ghost type attack we went for a timid nature zero attack ivy and we'll get to that in a minute why that is quite important with an effort value spread of 252 special attack full special defense and 252 speed so like we're seeing in the overview of its base stats we're really taking advantage of those base stat totals making sure that we are as fast as possible to get the jump on as many things in the format as we can and also hit as hard as possible with that big special attack stat you can see from the attacking calculation examples here you can see it 252 special attack Gengar never ending nightmare versus a 4 HP no special defense shadow shield intact lunala is a guaranteed one hit curl which is incredible so you will out speed lunala and you will be able to knock it out through its shadow shield which is incredible removing one of the biggest threats in this format with a lot of ease and you think for a non-restricted pokemon to be able to do that that's a big deal so Gengar has that and it's locker that it can do if you run the destiny bond with that as well you've got the option to use the never ending nightmare or you can use the z destiny bond to support something next to Gengar pulling all those attacks and if Gengar gets knocked out by said pokemon attacking it then it will take that pokemon down with it so a lot of versatility there with the z move and some nice options to just chunk things and do some big damage now defensive calculation example here i've got and this ties into that zero attack IV is a 252 attack dark aura boosted evaltile file player versus this particular Gengar is always going to be a two hit curl so with that zero attack IV coming off the file play dark aura boosted from the evaltile you'll always survive that just pretty nice just having that in the locker knowing that you'll be able to take that attack from evaltile common partners that you're going to see with this sort of Gengar are going to be things like incinero groudon zernius all things that really benefit from Gengar's ability to support chuck out big attacks and help them maneuver around the field going to see common checks of things going to be like evaltile toxic rock commonly carries sucker punch so you've got to be very careful with that and also kayoga because commonly in this format you're still seeing kayoga hold that choice scarf it is going to be able to throw big big water type attacks and because it's so defensively bulky it will be able to take those attacks from Gengar with a bit of ease and then pick up the knockout the next turn so you've got to be aware of that have checks in your team to help support Gengar against those particular pokemon right that is the ghostium set kind of overview we'll move on to the next one which is going to be the focus sash another very popular item that you see played on Gengar for good reason because as we've already said a couple of times in this guide so far Gengar is a bit of a glass cannon that a classic glass cannon pokemon it is fast it hits so hard but it has got very little in defenses so that focus sash giving you that little bit of security that you need in matches knowing that you're able to take at least one attack and get an attack back off on an opposing pokemon or maybe help set the team up with something really does help Gengar just perform its role a lot better with that security of the focus sash and he can take at least one attack going to see common move slots on Gengar things like shadowball sludge bomb again taunt again and destiny bond destiny bond works really nicely with the focus sash because you can actually attack something or taunt something and then that next turn as long as you are at speeding the opposing pokemon you can destiny bond and then taking a pokemon down with you for free for that one hp that Gengar has remaining attacking calculation here you can see a 252 special attack Gengar sludge bomb versus a 4hp no special defense tapulele has a 68% chance to warn hickare so again something like tapulele you're going to be faster than it has a humongous special defense that anyway that sludge bomb has a really good chance to pick up the knockout against that pokemon and stop that from performing in support inside of the field so any little bit of chip onto tapulele and Gengar can clean up quite nicely defensive calculation can see obviously they're not really going to come into consideration too much with that focus sash but just to give you an idea of what kind of attacks you can take that are super effective so a no special attack invested in scenario snarl versus this particular Gengar it is a three hit kill so it's got a pretty good chance to just stick around get a taunt off get a destiny bond off and take something down with it or just fire off the sludge bomb shadowballs just to kind of help support the rest of your side of the field common partners we're going to see with this Gengar are going to be things like tornadoes katana kialga all things that really benefit as well from the Gengar's ability just to disrupt the opposing side of the field maybe use that destiny bond to pull in support the kialga pokemon checks are going to be things like groudon it is going to be able to take at least a shadow ball from this Gengar sludge bomb is not going to be very effective and those ground type attacks are going to be super threatening and be able to just take Gengar out pretty easily singles with lander aetherian commonly scarfed so will outspeed Gengar and be able to do big damage with those ground type attacks and then incinero which is something a Gengar doesn't really enjoy sitting in front of if Gengar hasn't got something like the phytinium z and focus blast to take advantage of then sinoro is going to have a really easy time against it and it's an easy switch in for Gengar so if you are playing Gengar because of how popular incinero is just keep that in mind for what your opponent's going to be doing if they've got incinero on the back it's always going to be an easy switch in especially if you haven't got something like Kyogre sitting next to the Gengar you're making it easy for your opponent to switch that incinero in so these are the things you've got to think of and have things in the back for yourself that can switch in easily on incinero and so on and so on so that is the focus slash set we'll look at our next sample set which is going to be the life hope set this is a little bit of a favorite set of mine i really do enjoy the life hope on Gengar you do lose a lot of the security that you have with the focus slash but at the same time Gengar has such a large special attack stat you really want to be taken advantage of that as much as possible and with the life orb with a 30 boost on all attacks it really does make Gengar very very threatening and turns a lot of those near one hit kills into guaranteed one hit kills and you can see from an attacking calculation example here a 252 special attack a life orb Gengar sludge bomb versus a 4 hp no special defense only it's a guaranteed one hit kill and this is again something that you'll be out speeding naturally out speeding and you can just snipe it with a sludge bomb and make sure you're getting rid of it so it can't really affect the rest of your team so it's a really nice way around dealing with zonius which is such a popular pokemon it's such a really threatening pokemon in this format you can see a defensive calculation 108 attack toxic croc sucker punch against this particular Gengar it's always going to be a two hit kill so you can always guarantee even if you've not got a serena supporting you from those prior attacks or a tapolele with its psychic terrain out and toxic crocs in front of you you can always guarantee that you'll be able to take at least one sucker punch from that standard assault vest toxic croc that does carry sucker punch you can see common partners with this sort of Gengar again we're just listing off things that you do commonly see with Gengar things like tornadoes, cartana, eval toll as well eval toll is particularly good because it's a nice switching for Gengar with those psychic type threats that will be coming out to it ground type attacks that are coming out to it eval toll is just naturally a nice pokemon to bring in and have as a switching for Gengar a lot of the time and Gengar gives eval toll a lot of support with those sludge bombs against those threatening fairy types that you do commonly see used to deal with eval toll going to see common checks again more dark and ghost types in persian, mandibas and lunala all things that are able to take Gengar's attacks and really return with one hit chaos so that is a life upset it's very strong and it's got a lot of nice utility with it as well final set that we're going to look at today is a little bit different because all of these spreads so far have been pretty same either been 252 252 and for the majority of the time that's all you can really do with Gengar there are little tweaks here and there but when you're not using mega Gengar you're quite limited to what you can do with Gengar but i did want to have a little variation in this guide so i've put together a misty seed set now the misty seed with Gengar it activates under the misty terrain from tapu lele it gives you a special defense boost of one and we've seen in past formats Gengar carry trick room is an option of speed control really throw your opponent because your opponent is expecting Gengar to be fast and offensive throwing out big attacks it's not expecting it to trick room so if you've got trick room potion to your team then Gengar with trick room can be catch your opponent off guard and really throw the tables and give you that advantage that real unexpected turn to give you the edge in a match so we've went for a modest nature here boosting that special attack we don't need as much speed because we're not relying on that speed stat you've got 228 hp 220 defense four special attack and 52 special defense now an attack and calculation example here is a four plus special attack Gengar sludge bomb versus the tapu koko it's always going to be a one hit kill so if you're getting that trick room up and tapu koko is out in front of you you know the next turn if Gengar can get that sludge bomb off you can always pick up a kill on two tapu koko which does threaten that tapu finny that you need for the misty train to help also the special defenses and just to give you an idea of what the misty seed can do to this Gengar and how bulky Gengar can get a 252 special attack kaiyago water spout versus this Gengar once the misty seed is activated is a guarantee to hit kill so you can always survive that scarfed water spout from a poison kaiyago and set the trick room up and that's such a popular attack in this format so just being able to take that set the trick room up and really start putting momentum and pressure on from your side of the field is a big deal so just giving you an idea the 220 defense there allows you to always take a precipice blades from a minus one groudon which is pretty nice as well as a flurry of the dark type threatening attacks from incineroi velta lunala is something that you have to be still careful of because of that z move but amun guys beam you'll be able to at least take one of those as well with this investment common part is you're going to see for this sort of gengar i would suggest things like smegel is going to be very good it does help with that follow me pulling those ghost type attacks that it is immune to with its normal typing so it's got fake out support there to help set up the trick room and then obviously once the trick room is set up you can start doing stuff with smegel whatever you want it learns any moves so your options are open you've got a moongus as well it's going to be another nice option with gengar and really thrives in a trick room environment with those fast spores obviously it will conflict with the misty terrain but it can also be used in different ways you don't need to just run a moongus generally as it always is you can give it hidden power fire you can give it sludge bomb it's got a lot of options to take advantage of and cover what areas you need it to in your team you're going to have tapafini obviously it's going to be the one that you need for that misty seed to activate but common checks you're going to see things like a posing gengar mimikyu as well and aga slash aga slash isn't commonly seen in this series but if you do come up again so you've got to be careful because you're going to need checks and support for gengar things that's in a row are going to be an obvious one to have with gengar you just need to make sure that you're kind of covering that ground weakness that both of those bring but like we've mentioned before ivelta is a perfect partner for gengar in most situations so we will round up with a counter options and summary of gengar as we've already mentioned in this guide gengar has that unique typing of ghost and it's poison type poison being very good for the common fairies that you're going to see in this format help support those dark types that you're going to pair with gengar that has really nice synergy for switching in stuff like ivelta and the ghost typing as well just gives extra support against things like lunala opposing gengars and other ghost weak pokemon you're going to see common attacks on gengar you can always guarantee that it's going to have sludge bomb shadowball both of them are either at least one of those taunt is another thing that you need to expect on gengar destiny bond as we've mentioned other options like focus blast but it does have a lot of options even icy wind for speed control and willow wasp as well to burn a poison pokemon so gengar has a lot of options if you are looking at it and i'm putting in your team have a look through the moves that can learn because it has real unique niche options that you can use and really take advantage of to throw your opponent off i'm going to say common partners i would say the most common partners that you're going to see with gengar are things like zernius kayaga and incinero for good reason i'll also tag in there ivelta as well for the synergy options that you've got there you're going to have its speed stats are obviously going to be the max speed that gengar can hit is going to be 178 with that 110 base speed so it's raw start of 178 if you're going to counter gengar and need things to out speed it you're going to have to hit faster than that its minimum speed with a minus nature and zero speed i v's is 103 so going into a trick room if you want to deal with it that way making sure that you've got a pokemon slower than that raw speed stat you'll always be out speeding it and being able to pick up and knock out most of the time against this sort of build and then the common speeds that you're going to see on gengar is that timid max speed 178 stats so just keep those in mind for how gengar can be ran and build around them items you're going to see on gengar i'd say the most common one you're going to probably see is going to be the focus sash gossium zeal probably be a close second and then the life orbs going to be a bit more of a niche option depending on the team and what support it needs to go around helping hands a nice option to always play alongside gengar as well because of that fake out that your opponent normally carries to like disrupt your strategies and help them set up if you've got helping hand and then gengar fake out's really not viable in those situations so you can help in hand sludge bombs here a zernius and take it down before it can do anything so there's some nice options you can do with gengar best format checks you're going to see are things like groudon landeris incinero, evalto, lunala and gengar all good things that are going to be able to hit for super effective damage and for the most part take those attacks from gengar and dish out big attacks and knockouts in return so things that you need to build your team around to support it against and be aware of if you are facing down against them in battle best format walls things like taranatards not so popular but taranatar just walls gengar all day long especially if you haven't got access to focus flash which is a nice way to deal with taranatar but not really a common option so much in the moon series and mandibus is going to be another one as well as hydragin and alolan muck but these aren't so common options that you see played in the format right now but just be aware that these could be things that you would need answers for if you do not have them and you are playing gengar on your team but that rounds up the gengar guide it's been a little bit of a shorter one today but i hope you have enjoyed it guys gengar is a really fun pokemon it's got a lot of versatility it's got a really big move pool and it can do a lot of different things so just keep your opponent guessing and really take advantage of those niche picks that it has access to but the gossium z is incredibly strong the life orb is incredibly strong the focusash is incredibly annoying to deal with just because of how fast it is and your opponent has to make sure that there are speed in it to deal with it because those attacks are always going to be doing big damage no matter what gengar is throwing out onto unless you've got something that really completely wolds it which is not massively likely in this format anyway but i'm going to wrap things up there guys i'm just going to say thank you so much for tuning in hope you've enjoyed today's guide we'll be back with another one very soon so until then guys take care of yourselves have a great day morning afternoon and i'll see you for the next one so until then take care and buh-bye