Ghost blog part 2 - Froslass and Gengar

 Now that I've bawwed about Giratina-O, lets talk about my quest to try and find replacements. Spoiler alert - there still aren't really that are that good, but really, sometimes if you really need something for a specific job, then maybe one of these could work better. Unfortunately I don't have time go through all of them, so lets just do Froslass and Gengar for now.

Froslass

I think Froslass is easily the most established non-Giratina Ghost. Therefore - I'll try not to spend too much time on it. The second set I'm pretty proud of because I've tweaked with it for a good amount.

Froslass @ Focus Sash

Ability: Snow Cloak

EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Naive nature

- Taunt

- Spikes

- Shadow Ball

- Ice Shard / Icy Wind

This set is pretty well established so I'll be quick about it. Standard suicide lead Froslass - I think it gets very unfairly bashed at times, you get the fraud accusation thrown at it every so often. It's really unique though, no other lead can beat lead Ray, Deo-A, Tentacruel, Forry so utterly as Froslass can. I think the main choice to make these days is whether you run Icy Wind/Sball or Ice Shard/Sball. Unfortunately there's no good answer to this - Icy Wind/Sball has a chance to 2HKO Focus Sash Deo-S lead which Ice Shard/Sball is just better in general if you take into account that you'd probably Sball Deo-S with TrickScarf Deo-S running around anyway. Unfortunately there's no way to know which one until you click outside of scouting your opponent I guess (even then not reliable).

Froslass @ Kasib Berry

Ability: Snow Cloak

EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid nature

- Taunt

- Spikes

- Thunder Wave

- Destiny Bond / Icy Wind / Ice Shard

I know Zayele has used something pretty similar in Farceus and this set really started its roots in Farceus so I'll talk about it in both that metagame and regular. I'm not sure if she used the same set, but this is what I've come up with for my teams.

This set is more to be used as a midgame set - it came out of being a Fightceus/Ekiller soft check. Kasib Berry (which is still probably its best item in regular). With it, you are immune/resist both of Fightceus's main attacks, can Taunt to stop Toxic or further setup and Kasib blocks Shadow Ball, although Dark Pulse and Stone Edge are still possible. While they struggle to do any damage to you, you can set up some Spikes and/or spread some paralysis. Ekiller you have to mindgame a bit but Kasib Berry will give you a bit of security as you can tank a +2 Shadow Claw. They can Espeed to try and bypass Destiny Bond if you Taunt them. Otherwise, the least you can do is Twave and Spike on it.

Icy Wind and Ice Shard are options for regular DPP, and it lets you check the other things that Froslass soft-checks much better - Mewtwo and Rayquaza. You check generic CM/Ice Beam/Aura Sphere/Recover already because you can just Twave them. Icy Wind lets you beat Stalltwo - you can slow it down if it try to Taunt you, and then you can switch out and come back in to Taunt/Twave them from there. Ice Shard is weak, but I have found it helps against runaway DD Ray if you've chipped it already.

Gengar

I think Gengar is very much unexplored and I really kind of want have a bit of a brainstorming session later about what we explore different options. That being said, apart from SubSplit, I've tried the other options and they have their uses so I'll include all of them.

One thing to note about Gengar is that it's probably much better in Farceus than regular DPP. The fact that you naturally outspeed Ekiller and can smack it for like 70% with Focus Blast (assuming you hit) or about 65 with boom comes with automatic value. You can also smack Ghostceus which is increasingly annoying these days and at worst blow up on weakened Fightceus.

Gengar @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Levitate 

EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  

Naive nature

- Hidden Power Ice

- Thunder / Focus Blast

- Explosion

- Trick

I've written a paragraph about this previously. Mainly, Scarf Gengar can revenge a lot of things at once while spinblocking, which is pretty cool. The list of things you can stop are: both DD and SD Ray, Lucario, DD Mence, Scarf/SubSalac Chomp, 250-260 Spe RP Groudons, Adamant Kabutops in rain, Victreebel in sun. I don't think anything else in the game can revenge all of these (something like ScarfRai can, but not against SD Ray or even +1 DD Ray after minimal chip and not locked into Outrage if they have Espeed, on top of Lucario).

The main issues with this Gengar is that it's kind of weak and outside of revenge killing and maybe Tricking some random shmuck it doesn't do very much. It's also pretty susceptible to being Pursuited, which is starting to become more common with CB Tyranitar Trick Room teams on the rise.

HP Ice and choice of Steel-hitting move are your two main moves. Keep in mind Thunder without STAB and boosting item is not that strong - If Lucario doesn't have -1 SpD you're not killing it. Focus Blast will always OHKO Lucario, as long as you hit.

Gengar @ Life Orb

Ability: Levitate 

EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  

Hasty / Naive nature

- Shadow Ball

- Explosion

- Hidden Power Fire / Thunder

- Focus Blast / Taunt

This set I think is okay, although it's a bit high risk and slightly prediction heavy. With Payback becoming less common on Forretress (opting to just set up hazards or catch Gira-O on the switch with Toxic), Gengar is a bit more free to switch into Forretress to block spin. From there, you can just click buttons to try to deal as much damage as possible. This set is probably a bit more effective in Farceus because you can potentially revenge kill a few of them like Ekiller and Ghostceus (with some chip) as well as blow up stuff like Fightceus.

Shadow Ball and Explosion are pretty much non-negotiable - Sball 2HKOs Cresselia and Lugia, while hitting Bronzong and things for neutral. It's pretty important to note that Gengar can live a +1 Ice Beam from Mewtwo if you're using Hasty nature, so you can either Shadow Ball it for massive damage or just blow up on it. HP Fire and Thunder depends on your weather effect. Focus Blast lets you hit Dialga and Tyranitar that you otherwise can't do anything to (and also hits Ekiller and Steelceus in Farceus), but Taunt is also useful, especially if you have Thunder and you're facing a healthy Forretress that you don't more layers up (since Thunder 2HKOs only). The nature is an interesting toss-up. You can live +1 Ice Beam from fat CM Mewtwo with Hasty and 1 SR switch-in and not always with Naive, but you can live a 64 Atk Gira-O Shadow Sneak after rocks and smash it back with Shadow Ball to punish that stupid turd snake a lesson for being so damn weak.

Gengar is decently powerful, but it's a bit like Darkrai, unfortunately - 80 BP STAB is a bit underwhelming. If it's not hitting super effectively, you're probably never OHKOing things unless it's Deoxys or something. That being said, its access to Explosion is great, and coverage moves like Thunder are more powerful than Gira-O, your other supposedly hard hitting spinblocker. At least you can 2HKO Forry with Thunder with this thing, unlike Gira-O.

Gengar @ Iron Ball  

Ability: Levitate  

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe  

Hasty Nature  

- Trick  

- Explosion  

- Hidden Power Fire / Taunt

- Destiny Bond / Curse / Sucker Punch

So this set is actually way funnier than I initially thought it would be. I mentioned back in my Tspikes absorber blog that this is the only way you can absorb Toxic Spikes and spinblock at the same time in DPP (unless you want to use Haunter or Gastly too).

So the idea is to absorb Tspikes and die, hopefully salvaging as much of the Gengar and trade up if possible. The idea is basically to see if you can absorb the Tspikes, Trick the Iron Ball onto some schmuck and then try to blow up on something.

Now, the Iron Ball actually has some decent utility that I didn't think about until I started building with it. The main one is with the rise in Trick Room teams, the massive speed drop with Iron Ball comes in very handy as you can now emergency check a Trick Room attacker (like Dbond a Dialga or a Gira-O or something) which is actually funny as hell. The great thing is that those teams are unlikely to run Tspikes so the only way for them to be clued into Iron Ball is if they have Spikes up too. The other thing which is actually awesome, is the fact that you'd probably be fitting this onto something like sun offense, which absolutely hates CM Mewtwo - you can tank a +1 Ice Beam with ease and Trick them the Iron Ball and then blow up on it.

The moves on this thing are super flexible. I think Trick and Explosion are absolutely required. HP Fire lets you still stop Forry being a menace if you spinblock it. Dbond lets you take out things like Dialga and Gira-O if TR is up, but you can do whatever with this, really. Even Sucker Punching some 1HP schmuck can increase the value of this from like -10 to +0.1 lol.

Other options that may work which I haven't tried yet:

Gengar @ Life Orb 

Ability: Levitate  

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  

Timid nature

- Substitute

- Pain Split 

- Shadow Ball  

- Focus Blast

I can see this set being pretty annoying against stally teams simply because you have pretty good entry points (eg vs Blissey, Forry) and you hit most things decently hard. The problem is that you probably still don't hit them hard enough, and Focus Blast sucks. Still, I think if you have Spikes and Toxic Spikes to pressure Blissey you can threaten them into Focus Blast range with Pain Split, and nothing else on sun stall particularly likes taking this I think.

This is already kind of long, so apologies for peeps who wanted to see Rotom-A sets, but those + the REALLY stupid shit Ghosts will have to come next time, sorry :(