Gen 1 Gastly (NU Mini) [QC 2/2]

[Sabelette]

[OVERVIEW]

Gastly is a niche but unique Pokemon that brings valuable role compression and pivoting ability to a team. As the only usable Ghost-type in NU, its immunity to the plethora of Normal-type attacks, such as Body Slam, Slash, and Hyper Beam, gives it many opportunities for entry. Its base 80 Speed and Hypnosis let it exploit this further, as it can pivot into Pokemon like Clefable, Raticate, Blastoise, Kingler, and Kabutops to threaten them with sleep. Notably, it pivots into Clefable's Body Slam much more safely than Venomoth does, potentially allowing it to find an easier entry point than Venomoth, the tier's premier sleeper. It also has Thunderbolt, letting it duel Water-types effectively, and solid coverage to make entry against it difficult. Notably, it flat-out beats Blastoise, Kingler, and Kabutops one-on-one, also stopping the latter two from sweeping after setting up, a unique role that usually requires sacrificing a Pokemon to chip them down for Mr. Mime or another teammate to finish off. It also walls Raticate; Super Fang can hit it, but Blizzard and Thunderbolt only 5HKO and 6HKO, respectively.

Gastly's flaws include an awful secondary Poison typing that exacerbates its absurdly poor physical bulk and gives it a Psychic weakness, mediocre damage output due to a lack of STAB, and a Speed tier that leaves it a step behind many Pokemon that threaten it, like Charizard, Nidoking, Mr. Mime, and Venomoth. Venomoth is a faster and more consistent sleep inducer, so Gastly suffers some disadvantages in the sleep war. These flaws make it generally difficult to justify, but it can be used to fit more offense onto a team by aggressively pivoting it in to land sleep and check Water-types.

[SET]
name: Sleeper
move 1: Hypnosis
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Psychic / Night Shade
move 4: Explosion / Mega Drain

[SET COMMENTS]

Gastly's main appeal is Hypnosis, allowing it to threaten sleep against many foes, including Clefable, Blastoise, and Kingler. Thunderbolt 2HKOes Kingler and Kabutops and 3HKOes bulkier targets like Blastoise and Charizard, making it difficult to switch into. Psychic allows Gastly to duel Clefable, as it's relegated to special attacks and vulnerable to Special drops, and also allows it to prevent entry from Venomoth and Nidoking. Night Shade instead deals superior up-front damage to most targets, including Mr. Mime. Explosion is the usual last move, allowing Gastly to heavily damage frail targets like Mr. Mime or create a perfect entry point for an allied setup sweeper, such as Charizard or Kingler. Rarely, Gastly may wish to instead run Mega Drain, giving it an excellent coverage move for Golem and Kabutops. Mega Drain has a moderate chance to 2HKO Golem, allowing Gastly to soften it or even remove it with good prediction, and it can be used to leech as much as 33% HP off of Kabutops, since Thunderbolt + Mega Drain KOes it cleanly.

Gastly is an effective check to most Water-types, so it partners well with Pokemon that struggle against them, like Charizard, Moltres, Golem, and Seadra. If running Mega Drain, it can also weaken Golem into +2 Earthquake range for Charizard, helping it to sweep. Gastly's massive weaknesses to Earthquake necessitates support from Pokemon that can check Charizard, Golem, and Nidoking; Seadra does the best in this role, but Pokemon like Blastoise, Clefable, and Mr. Mime can help to control these foes. Gastly also needs help against Mr. Mime, but Exeggcute is a wasteful ally since it means doubling up on sleep but still losing to Venomoth; rather, allies that can finish Mr. Mime off, like Charizard and Golem, make more sense.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sabelette.583793/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/mrsoup.375193/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/juoean.486979/
Grammar checked by:

 

[MrSoup]

GO WEST

Gastly is a niche but unique Pokemon that brings valuable role compression and pivoting ability to a team. As the only usable Ghost-type in NU, its immunity to the plethora of Normal-type attacks, such as Body Slam, Slash, and Hyper Beam, gives it many opportunities for entry. Its base 80 Speed and Hypnosis let it exploit this further, as it can pivot into Pokemon like Clefable, Raticate, Blastoise, Kingler, and Kabutops to threaten them with sleep. It also has Thunderbolt, letting it duel Water-types effectively, and solid coverage to make entry against it difficult. Notably, it flat-out beats Blastoise, Kingler, and Kabutops one-on-one, also stopping the latter two from sweeping after setting up, a unique role that usually requires sacrificing a Pokemon to chip them down for Mr. Mime or another teammate to finish off. It also walls Raticate; Super Fang can hit it, but Raticate's Thunderbolt is only a 6HKO, so Raticate can at best 4HKO Gastly and often does not carry both moves.

Gastly's flaws include an awful secondary Poison typing that exacerbates its absurdly poor physical bulk and gives it a Psychic weakness, mediocre damage output due to a lack of usable STAB, and a Speed tier that leaves it a step behind many Pokemon that threaten it, like Charizard, Nidoking, Mr. Mime, and Venomoth. Venomoth is a faster and more consistent sleep inducer, so Gastly suffers a disadvantage in the sleep war. These flaws make it generally difficult to justify, but it can be used to fit more offense onto a team by aggressively pivoting it in to land sleep and check Water-types.

This could maybe go in any of the paragraphs: the biggest thing about gastly imo is that it gets sleep on clef, not stoise. moth can come in on stoise everyday and put something to sleep -- everyone knows that, so people play around this interaction accordingly with doubles or keeping stoise in the back as long as possible. gastly, on the other hand, flips this dynamic on its head and leads to interesting knowledge advantages. You can still come in on stoise and sleep it, so that doesn't change the way either player plays much. However, an opponent who doesn't know your sleeper is gastly is much more likely to bring clef in and slam a parad or weakened target, giving gastly its opportunity. This can allow you to get your sleep off earlier than a moth, who may struggle to find an opposing stoise. tldr: ur opp isn't gonna think that slamming w a normal could get them slept as its usually extremely safe.

[SET]
name: Sleeper
move 1: Hypnosis
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Psychic / Night Shade
move 4: Explosion / Mega Drain

[SET COMMENTS]

Gastly's main appeal is Hypnosis, allowing it to threaten sleep against many foes, including Clefable, Blastoise, and Kingler. Thunderbolt 2HKOes Kingler and Kabutops and 3HKOes bulkier targets like Blastoise and Charizard, making it difficult to switch into. Psychic allows Gastly to duel Clefable, as it's relegated to special attacks and vulnerable to Special drops, and also allows it to prevent entry from Venomoth and Nidoking. Night Shade instead deals superior up-front damage to most targets, including Mr. Mime. Explosion is the usual last move, allowing Gastly to heavily damage frail targets like Mr. Mime or create a perfect entry point for an allied setup sweeper, such as Charizard or Kingler. Rarely, Gastly may wish to instead run Mega Drain, giving it an excellent coverage move for Golem and Kabutops. Mega Drain has a moderate chance to 2HKO Golem, allowing Gastly to soften it or even remove it with good prediction, and it can be used to leech as much as 33% HP off of Kabutops, since Thunderbolt + Mega Drain KOes it cleanly.

Gastly is an effective check to most Water-types, so it partners well with Pokemon that struggle against them, like Charizard, Moltres, Golem, and Seadra. If running Mega Drain,idk if id mention drain again bc i would really steer people away from using drain on this instead of explosion it can also weaken Golem into +2 Earthquake range for Charizard, helping it to sweep. Gastly's massive weaknesses to Earthquake necessitates support from Pokemon that can check Charizard, Golem, and Nidoking; Seadra does the best in this role, but Pokemon like Blastoise, Clefable, and Mr. Mime can help to control these foes. Gastly also needs help against Mr. Mime, but Exeggcute is a wasteful ally since it means doubling up on sleep but still losing to Venomoth; rather, allies that can finish Mr. Mime off, like Charizard and Golem, make more sense.

 

[Sabelette]

Bet u regret this one a bit now :P

Implemented ready for next

 

[MrSoup]

i literally wrote about exactly what happened to me

 

[juoean]

[OVERVIEW]

Gastly is a niche but unique Pokemon that brings valuable role compression and pivoting ability to a team. As the only usable Ghost-type in NU, its immunity to the plethora of Normal-type attacks, such as Body Slam, Slash, and Hyper Beam, gives it many opportunities for entry. Its base 80 Speed and Hypnosis let it exploit this further, as it can pivot into Pokemon like Clefable, Raticate, Blastoise, Kingler, and Kabutops to threaten them with sleep. It also has Thunderbolt, letting it duel Water-types effectively, and solid coverage to make entry against it difficult. Notably, it flat-out beats Blastoise, Kingler, and Kabutops one-on-one, also stopping the latter two from sweeping after setting up, a unique role that usually requires sacrificing a Pokemon to chip them down for Mr. Mime or another teammate to finish off. It also walls Raticate; Super Fang can hit it, but Thunderbolt is only a 6HKO, so Raticate can at best 4HKO Gastly and often does not carry both moves (Blizzard being a 5HKO should be mentioned since sfang-less raticate is very likely to have Blizzard).

Gastly's flaws include an awful secondary Poison typing that exacerbates its absurdly poor physical bulk and gives it a Psychic weakness, mediocre damage output due to a lack of STAB, and a Speed tier that leaves it a step behind many Pokemon that threaten it, like Charizard, Nidoking, Mr. Mime, and Venomoth. Venomoth is a faster and more consistent sleep inducer, so Gastly suffers a disadvantage in the sleep war. These flaws make it generally difficult to justify, but it can be used to fit more offense onto a team by aggressively pivoting it in to land sleep and check Water-types.

[SET]
name: Sleeper
move 1: Hypnosis
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Psychic / Night Shade
move 4: Explosion / Mega Drain

[SET COMMENTS]

Gastly's main appeal is Hypnosis, allowing it to threaten sleep against many foes, including Clefable, Blastoise, and Kingler. Thunderbolt 2HKOes Kingler and Kabutops and 3HKOes bulkier targets like Blastoise and Charizard, making it difficult to switch into. Psychic allows Gastly to duel Clefable, as it's relegated to special attacks and vulnerable to Special drops, and also allows it to prevent entry from Venomoth and Nidoking. Night Shade instead deals superior up-front damage to most targets, including Mr. Mime. Explosion is the usual last move, allowing Gastly to heavily damage frail targets like Mr. Mime or create a perfect entry point for an allied setup sweeper, such as Charizard or Kingler. Rarely, Gastly may wish to instead run Mega Drain, giving it an excellent coverage move for Golem and Kabutops. Mega Drain has a moderate chance to 2HKO Golem, allowing Gastly to soften it or even remove it with good prediction, and it can be used to leech as much as 33% HP off of Kabutops, since Thunderbolt + Mega Drain KOes it cleanly.

Gastly is an effective check to most Water-types, so it partners well with Pokemon that struggle against them, like Charizard, Moltres, Golem, and Seadra. If running Mega Drain, it can also weaken Golem into +2 Earthquake range for Charizard, helping it to sweep. Gastly's massive weaknesses to Earthquake necessitates support from Pokemon that can check Charizard, Golem, and Nidoking; Seadra does the best in this role, but Pokemon like Blastoise, Clefable, and Mr. Mime can help to control these foes. Gastly also needs help against Mr. Mime, but Exeggcute is a wasteful ally since it means doubling up on sleep but still losing to Venomoth; rather, allies that can finish Mr. Mime off, like Charizard and Golem, make more sense.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sabelette.583793/
Quality checked by:

Grammar checked by:

unfortunately due to my lack of experience/knowledge with Gastly i just have the one comment lol but everything you wrote makes sense to me, & you are the most experienced w this mon anyway.

qc 2/2 as long as u mention raticate blizzard calc in some way.

 

[Sabelette]

Implemented, GP Team