Gengar
Shadow Pokémon
The leer that floats in darkness belongs to a Gengar delighting in casting curses on people.
Base Stats
Type Effectiveness
Abilities
Held Items
Evolution Chain
Moves
Details
Sprites
Competitive
Strategy Overview
Gengar is a decent Pokemon on sand teams with multiple Psychic-types since it wears down Psychic-type checks, mainly Tyranitar, as well as Ferrothorn and Jirachi thanks to its coverage and ability to burn them with Will-O-Wisp. It is an excellent spinblocker, switching into Sand Force Excadrill and OHKOing it with Focus Blast; the same is true against Starmie, as it can take one Hydro Pump from full health and OHKO with Shadow Ball. Gengar is quite fast, outspeeding Pokemon like Keldeo, Garchomp, Terrakion, and Thundurus-T and Speed tying Latios, letting it threaten many common offensive Pokemon. It also has some defensive utility in countering Landorus-T and Gliscor since they can't hit Gengar hard and it threatens them offensively. However, Gengar is uncommon because of its lack of self-sufficiency outside of crippling checks for Psychic-types. It lacks defensive utility, leaving it unable to switch into many Pokemon, notably failing to spinblock Tentacruel. It's also easily revenge killed by faster Pokemon like Alakazam, Starmie, and Choice Scarf users, especially Choice Scarf Tyranitar and Scizor since they can Pursuit trap it. It also isn't a great wallbreaker due to its inability to do much against bulkier targets that it can't hit super effectively like Gastrodon, specially defensive Skarmory, and Politoed outside of burning them. It also faces stiff competition as a spinblocker that cripples Psychic-type checks from Jellicent, which has much better defensive utility thanks to its better defensive profile letting it spinblock Tentacruel more effectively and more comfortably doing so against Excadrill.
Most Used Moves
Common Teammates
Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc