How GOOD Was Gengar ACTUALLY? - History of Gengar in Competitive Pokemon (Gens 1-6)
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- Опубликовано: 2 фев 2025
- Gengar! The original Ghost type! Its one of the most iconic Pokemon! How good was Gengar actually in Competitive Pokemon during Gens 1-6? Find out with False Swipe Gaming!
DISCLAIMERS ON FORMATS COVERED:
Notice I said POPULAR formats, meaning a format where there is a significant amount of people who compete in it for tournaments and so on and so forth. Now Popular does not mean official even though two of the formats I will be covering were official formats being Japan Nintendo Cup and VGC, but it is an indicator of what a good portion of competitive players thought was “optimal” at the time.
To the people asking why I don't cover Smogon Singles for Gens 1 and 2: It wouldn't really be a history video if I covered those because online Smogon gen 1 meta to my knowledge wasn't actually played until late 2000s. I wanted to cover tournaments/competitive battling that was actually played during the early years of Pokemon (late 90s).
To the people asking why I cover Smogon at all for singles: To my knowledge, Smogon was the most popular format for Gens 3-5 and held a number of tournaments throughout the years. As for Gen 6, I am not covering Battle Spot Singles because there is more information and explanations about sets being used relative to their own meta on Smogon. In other words, there are few written analyses about Battle Spot Pokemon besides the Top tiers and I would like to avoid theorycrafting because it may have a hint of bias (though I theorycraft if I REALLY couldn't find information on a certain Pokemon). The keyword here is explanations. Though I did find statistics of most Pokemon used and most moves used, there wasn't really any explanations on why. Also the few Pokemon I did find analysis of for Top Tier Battle Spot Singles had very similar move sets to the Smogon OU sets anyway.
For the record, I do not care what rules or formats people play their battles by nor am I saying these formats are the only formats that should be played. The way you play Pokemon is between you and your opponent and I will not fault you for using evasion or whatever, I just like examining popular tournament formats.
Song Used:
Dark Utopia - Niklas Johansson
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From The Shadows 3 - Johan Hynynen
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Machine Inc 5 - Gunnar Johnsen
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My Twitter:
/ kellen_fsg
Resources and Historical References
History of Rule Variants: bulbapedia.bulb...
Smogon University:
www.smogon.com/
Maikiri
/ nbmakiri
Aaron Cybertron Zheng:
/ cybertronvgc
Pokemon Battle Historia:
pokemon.s20.xre...
Nintendo Cup 1997 Tier List:
pokemon.s20.xre...
Nintendo Cup 1999 Tier List:
pokemon.s20.xre...
Nintendo Cup 2000 Team Construction:
pokemon.s20.xre...
Nintendo Cup 2000 Tier List:
pokemon.s20.xre...
Gen 1 Nintendo Cup Gengar Analysis:
pokemon.s20.xre...
Gen 2 Nintendo Cup Gengar Analysis:
pokemon.s20.xre...
Gengar Bulbapedia:
bulbapedia.bulb...)
Smogen Dex Gengar:
www.smogon.com/...
Record of VGC 2009 with Gengar Being used by Finalists:
www.smogon.com/...
www.smogon.com/...
• Pokemon VGC 2009 Phila...
• Video
Nugget Bridge Blog: History of Competitive Pokemon 1996-7:
nuggetbridge.co...
Nugget Bridge Blog: History of Competitive Pokemon 1998:
nuggetbridge.co...
^ Nuggetbridge links got taken down for some reason :( But they were essentially summaries in english of this japanese website:
pokemon.s20.xre... which covers official competitive 1st and 2nd Gen in Japan during 1996-2000
Pokemon Japanese Battle Wiki:
wiki.xn--rckteq...
Sprites From:
www.spriters-r...
pldh.net/dex/s...
Rofl, I watched this video over like 7 times and made corrections and I still didn't catch them all. 5:25 I meant to say "as well as Dusknoir" but I ended up saying "psychic types like cresselia and dusknoir" i know dusknoir is a ghost type not psychic but either way, still weak to shadow ball. Also I have to pin this since theres no annotations anymore :/ my b
False Swipe Gaming Awesome video man 👌
False Swipe Gaming great vid man but Gengar died in gen 7
Also something I've wondered for awhile, is this series limited to only gen 1 Pokémon? If not than could I request Tyranitar?
i go by most comments, i will do a non gen 1 pokemon if it gets a lot of comments. less work for me anyway lmao
False Swipe Gaming ok thx. Just have been wondering about that for awhile
Press F for our fallen OU friend. He no longer levitates on the field, but he levitates in our hearts.
Yukicraft He is still OU
true
Yukicraft The good New is, the removal of Levitate hasn’t really phased Gengar at all. Down but not out.
Yukicraft I wish they had gone with the lore and given it Prankster instead; that would help the Status-oriented sets. :3
F.
Gen 1-2: Weak to Ground
Gen 3-6: Immune to Ground
Gen 7: Weak to Ground
Why is this a thing?
they devolved gengar :(
it was too strong thats why. they nerfed it
Cursed body is op wut r u saying
TBH, they should just have added Cursed Body as an Hidden Ability.
Gengar should be buried like the ghost he is
Last time i was this early, Gengar still had levitate.
Rest in Peace
gastrodon new meta
Snowy Inferno riperoni in pepperoni
Gengar still OP though
RIP Levitate
I don't care if it's weak or strong, all I see is a good, good boy
Me too.
@20Jad Yazbeck
perhaps. but consider the following: spoopy round boi
@20Jad Yazbeck *GOOD BOY*
He is
*E X T R A*
*T H I C C*
You have great taste in Pokémon
ah the pokemon that i could never get because of trades
Using an Android device?
@@ShadowtheRUclipsr523 or he could just not have another device to trade with
@@ShadowtheRUclipsr523 what i meant was ACTUAL hardware. Like maybe he actually has a device but can't trade because of no link cable or internet
Yeah but still
@@ShadowtheRUclipsr523 still what?
Gengar: Yeah, that's right. Come at m-
*Tyranitar shows up*
Gengar: You're still here!!?
Lucario: *laughs*
Focus miss: Don't worry, I'll MISS
@@babblingbook7027 that's why i bring dazzling gleam instead.
@@gregorymirabella1423 It sometimes doesn't OHKO which leaves me to be obliterated
@@gregorymirabella1423Gleam does diddly squat to Ttar though lol
0:16 “This intro is short because I’ve got a lot to cover and I want this to take a reasonable amount of time”
That did not age well.
Laughs in Chansey and Blissy
i am from the future and cresselia’s will be 2 hours long
@@aquaneutral I will fact check your statement in whenever fsg decides to
His older videos are so weird
@Nish The Great *Laughs in Chansey/Blissey*
I legitimately cannot see this monster ever truly dropping out of OU. Gengar now is probably one of the best-designed mons for Smogon rulesets considering how incredible its movepool is. Although losing Levitate kinda hurt.
EDIT: Well, that aged about as well as these early FSG videos did lmao
it's uu right now iirc.
Dreadfury cursed body can hamper some STAB moves.
I can clearly see him drop during gen 7, we got some great glass canon and a lot of faster mons
the marshal I ran into a gengar with d - bond with celesteela, guess what happened.
MECHASWORLD2020 You fell for the bait, which got nerfed af in gen 7
Gengar probably needs a redo video. It's crazy in retrospect that this video is 11 minutes long for this huge player in the competitive game
Absolutely. We need "How GREAT was Gengar actually?" For the only (maybe Zapdos too?) Pokemon to be OU in the first 6 generations.
this video's 5 years old
his old long videos are like 10 minutes
@@comatthew6 Starmie was OU in the first 6 gens as well
Zapdos fell to UU in gen 5
I just peeped...you know a pokemon's evolutionary line is good when the pokemon isn't full evolved but still usable in a smogon tier. Like Haunter, Golbat etc.
Chansey gligar?
Gligar leaves much to be desired at times, and Chansey is good as a tank especially whit evolite
Porygon2
@@gojirarex5138 blissey is better because of heavy duty boots
@@XxDannySniperZXxGOB I didn't say it's better I said chansey was good
Can you make a remake of how good was Gengar actually?
6:26
Scizor with the dance moves
lol
@@prussomc ohh yeah doing the faky
Lol
4:14 - Focus Miss. Awesome
scrolled way too far to find you
75% is terrible accuracy.
@@victorsandeen2694 70%*
@Lourd
Ye
70% chance to hit, 80% chance to miss
I love being able to see the improvements you've made over time
Gengar in gen 1: I'm too weak
Gengar gen 4 onward: UNLIMITER POWER
It lost levitate so it isn’t that good anymore. It’s currently in UU. Mega Gengar is still phenomenal though
I LOVED the Painsplit Substitute strat, its how I imagine real life gengar would fight, not just with big special attacks, but clever ones too.
Gengar remake soon please!!!!!!! Not that this video is bad 😅 I just love the long form stuff you’ve been doing as of late. Great videos as always FSG crew; keep up the great and insightful work!
Guess which trainer from Pallet Town just caught his first Gengar/Ghost type...
Ash Ketchup
@Darthy Mr. Mime's son Clown Jr.
Didnt he had Haunter at one point?
Bryan C but he never caught it in a pokeball it just sorta went with him
Random Ukrainian yes
Watching HP drop in Battle Revolution is so satisfying.
Lol 0:09
Check captions.
"Gengar the original girl type"
???
Hell yeah
Hail yeah
@Nish The Great bro I didn't know that Lmao
Wait what. I thought that was gardevoir thing
Gengar in gen 1: Oh call an ambulance, call an ambulance!
gengar in gen 4+: But not for me!
gen 7
Well if there's one thing this video shows, it's that Gengar doesn't need levitate to be a threat. Even without that ability, you'd still be doing more good praying for whoever a Gengar is facing.
no fuck you
@@noncanadian Seconded
"This video will be short because we have a lot to talk about."
I don't think that's how that works.
He’s not evil he just wants friends because he’s lonely
Someone didn't read Gengar's pokedex entry...
@@Mechagodzilla128 It won't hurt it's trainer tough
@@exequielbreton4393 apparently you didn't read his entry either lol.
@@exequielbreton4393 so its good to hurt other people?????,
You're thinking of Caspermon, the friendly ghost-type pokemon.
Normal Gengar has actually been bumped back up to "OU" in Smogon's tierlist despite the fact it has lost Levitate. Turns out it still can kick ass with a Choice Specs set because almost nothing in OU resists it's ghost stab attacks. Of the three Dark types in the meta two have a second typing that removes their resistance to the attack. There is only one normal type, Chansey, in the Meta, and Chansey hates either getting by Force Miss or getting her Eviloite tricked away.
Chansey tanks gengar ez tbh
It's very nice to see these old videos and see how they have improved a lot, even if gengar is a "midterm" between the old format and the new. I would reccomend your channel to anyone that plays the metagame!
I would love to see something that has drastically dropped from OU to UU/RU. Jolteon, Golem or Exeggutor being the big ones.
Benjamin Wheeler
Yeah, poor Jolteon
Benjamin Wheeler yeah, I used to use it
Gengar only dropped due to losing Levitate in Sun and Moon. Honestly, I still don't think the games have been out enough to determine how good Gengar is without Levitate. He still hits hard, has an amazing move pool, and fits a variety of roles. I personally think people have overreacted to the loss of Levitate. Gengar is still awesome, and his Uber form is still busted.
BonJoviFanboy and now he gains something from the fields released by the tapus
Gengar is incredibily hard to beat in battle spot
Back when 10 minutes was long for gen 1, instead of the 20+ minutes for gen 4 pokémon nowadays.
Yeah, they really improved
update: 40 minutes lol
@@vibra7 chancey + blissey, 1 hour long
Almost 30 for a gen 5
@@eythra1873 I really hated how dragged on gen 4 became. Gen 3 was my favorite because you can spam battles
Gengar before using explosion on Blissey:
"Zapdos, Magneton, I do this for you... and yes, even you, Celebi."
I hope yall remake this video, there is no reason why the HAUNTER video is longer than this one other than it being old, outdated, and lacking of info.
Marowak's had a pretty interesting time throughout the years, hopefully a video on him soon. Great work! :)
2:13
Gengar laughing at the Zapdos that didn't see Destiny bond coming XD
I would sooner sell myself on the deep web then use any other Pokémon than Gengar. No matter the tier. No matter the meta. He is my boy, forever true. Gang-gar rise up.
BOOO, BAD JOKE
Im here
a like minded individual.
Were part of the Gang-ar
They took away his levitate and I will never forgive them for that
Dexter: "Gengar. No information available."
Ash:"is that all?!"
Casandra Medrano bock lol i can quote that entire episode. I watched that episode an unhealthy amount of times.
Amazing video! next time do Gyarados!
agreed
A pokemon that has a double weakness to electric attacks? I don't think he did that good....
Marco Demanni Gyara actually did very good especially post gen2.
"especially post gen2." Doesn't sound like he did that good...
SonofRiggnarok Could you elaborate?
I think a Chansey history would be interesting.
lrexpower yeah. That would be fun.
Always a fat blob for pussies
lrexpower ruclips.net/video/QuinMKenCy4/видео.html
Tank,tank,tank and did I say tank
curse.
I wish we could get a recent gengar video with your current production, gengar was so good in so many gens it would have such a long list of sets
The thing I've been hoping for ever is a remake of this video you are probably very busy but i really hope for a goongar remake :)
Gengar my fav pokemon:). Its gen 5 sprite is a happy happy boy.
You know, watching this in 2020, I can see how much your voice over improved. You have more energy and speak more clearly now.
"Players most often had Focus Miss, oh, I mean Focus Blast." Good times.
God I would love to see this video remade as Gengar is my favorite Pokémon
Remember when this guy wanted to keep his videos short, yeah, he really has evolved
Love these vids! Do Arcanine or Lapras next
Let's see how useful Nidoking was before receiving Sheer Force.
I'm still picking Gen 4 over everything else. Things were simple, yet made sense back then.
Yeah right, I remember finally realizing maxing out a Pokemon by gen 3 being so difficult and with egg moves too... I had the player's guide and it still was hard.
Gen 1 and 2, I was competitive.
Gen 3 - 5, I was a causal
Gen 6+, I just bought the games to collect them, never finished Y or Sun.
omg the research will be so slow well i guess ur give him a break
Blade1301 physical special split made the games make sense competitively to me
Gen 4 was the most balanced, even if Outrage and Draco Meteor were starting to become problems. Though since those problems were largely confined to OU, gen 4 UU is pretty much the perfect Pokemon metagame.
petrie911 ummmmm............Gen 4 Garchomp
Great video man! I loved the gen 1 and gen 2 flashbacks. I would say Arcanine... its intresting how he has come a long way to be a very important player in VGC, also gen 5 and 6 were good gens for him
this actual content. You are better than half of poketube. I appreciate your efforts
Great video dude. I feel like you missed a little bit of info on Mega Gengar in Ubers. If I'm remembering this correctly, they were suspect testing Mega Gengar to ban it to Anything Goes because of the Shadow Tag/Perish Song combination. I know you mentioned it in the VGC part, but I feel like this is worth mentioning, considering Mega Rayquaza was the only pokemon banned to Anything Goes
You know, I'm surprised you even felt the need to make this one, considering Gengar is mentioned in nearly all your other videos as a top meta pick in every generation... XD
U are a top meta pick :]
@@dirkauditore8413 OwO
@@RetirededKat Yusss :33 hello!
@@dirkauditore8413 ;3
@@RetirededKat >:3 emoji war!
"A Niche Pick thanks to Shadow Tag"
Total Lie. He's like, top 10 mons in Ubers.
But like the 9 mons above ot are used in EVERY team, so Gengar is kinda obsolete
thank arceus haunter still has levitate, i've been using him a lot more than gengar recently.
but then gen 7 it loses Levitate and the mega is uber cause of it's ability.
I really like Gengar because of its moveset and power. I just wish Gengar had a more menacing look similar to Haunter.
do golem. because golem.
Well, after about a year, there is finally a Golem video
Mmm oh yea yea
This video absolutely deserves a remake for Halloween
It's really awesome how much you evolved your narration skils!
I'm gonna request Jolteon or Lapras. Love this content, thanks for making these!
Do Machamp next please :)
All gen1 trade evolutions are interesting tbh.
Gengar, Alakazam, Machamp, Golem.
This video really needs a remake
Can you do a competitive history video on Scyther or Scizor?
3 Years Ago: "I will keep the intro short because we have a lot to cover and I don't want to stretch out the video."
Now: Heres 45 minutes of Scizor. Enjoy!
And I love every second. SA C: Keep it coming brother I love your content!
I think its about time gengar got a new video.
Ah focus blast Gengar, I still have the nightmares.
great video plz do tauros next
I feel like the ubers part wasn't very good. Mega Gengar was (and still is) one of the best ubers in the meta, if not outright the best one. It was very versatile, having very good coverage, as well as really good supporting moves such as Taunt, Wisp, Disable, Sub, Destiny Bond, etc. Its presence alone made Chansey borderline unviable back then and pressured stall immensly, all while still doing well both offense and balance teams. Because of the way Mega Gengar is used, there's no direct counters to him, Gengar could simply mix up its moves to throw off common Pursuit trappers, and he was even suspect tested at some point... in ubers. Also, back then, Hypnosis was still legal on Mega Gengar (it's not anymore), meaning that any bad player could easily win battles against far superior players just by hitting a couple of Hypnosises. I can understand you trying to do your explanations short and clear, but I don't think you conveyed Mega Gengar's dominence in the ubers tier well enough.
he says in the video itself he wasn't able to cover everything but still pointed out how good Uber Gengar was.
Even you pointed out that he said this and you still decided to make your post anyways. egotistical much?
Mega Gengar gets pwned by a full health water spout from kyogre
See 9:50
It's an overview. Anyone interested in finding out more can look into it. Really you could totally have phrased this as helpfully providing supplemental information the video couldn't cover, but you really needed to be insufferable about it.
Gengar is one of my Favorite pokemon and I run it with the following team. Swampert, Typhlosion, Sceptile, Raichu, Dragonite and Gengar. But Gengars defences are very frail :( . Luckily its very fast and a great special sweeper. Its movepool is vastly diverse too. Shadow Claw, Hypnosis, Dream eater, others. Gengar is still pretty good
@@xyzzy-dv6te only if Kyogre has an item that lets it move first.
This is what I live more. Keep it up man!
I'm waiting for the day you start covering gen 2 pokemon.
You're doin a great job.
Alakazam next?
Yes!
spoon man-pokemon thing
Although Levitate not being there anymore _really_ hurts, I had to take into account that he’s been there before. This isn’t his first time not having Levitate, Earthquakes hurt him in Gen 1 & 2 so he’s still good.
Tbh him w/o Levitate is like having our OG Gen 1 & 2 Gengar
Yeah, really goes to show how even a flawed Gengar is really good and can still cling to OU, even if it's been a struggle the past 2 gens. It'll be a sad day when the inevitable gen 9 power creep is the final nail in the coffin, though.
Hitr me with that CLEAAAAAAAAAAAN Chansey coverage
5:39 my brother loved the party lights so much he is dancing on the floor
“In order to have the best coverage players would often have focus miss- I mean focus blast to accompany shadow ball as well as substitute.”
Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well.
2:55 snorlax has a period
Lmaooo
Guess male Snorlaxes(Snorli?) get periods
😂
Jolteon or Vaporeon? I'd say Flareon, but everyone knows that story.
Isaac 10 lol
Isaac 10 Flareon: sucked until Gen 6 when it learned Flare Blitz
That's the entire video.
I know it's not Gen 1, but of all the eeveelutions, I kinda wanna know about Umbreon.
I mean, my Umbreon did me complete wonders during my times of playing Pokemon White, and I weirdly made my Umbreon less of a complete special wall and more of a general tank (At level 100, Defense is only 7 points from Special Defense, and HP is completely maxed out). What if it's any better in previous generations, or worse perhaps? And has anyone in actual competitive formats had any use for Umbreon?
HWL Hellbent it still sucked in gen 6
Green Lizard I wouldn't say so. Adamant, max attack, guts Flare Blitz does a shit ton of damage.
It’s insane that Gengar needed to lose levitate and have Pokémon designed to be better than it for it too fall off.
this needs to be updated, we got his no-levitate gen 7, and gigantamax
p.s. I came from the haunter video
can't wait for the gengar redo. You better do a gengar redo. I am awaiting the redo.
I still don't know why decided to get rid of Gengar's Levitate.
Sure, none of his sprites show him floating or anything of the sort, but at the Mimikyu trial (in the exact same game he got Cursed Body, mind you) he was walking through the air like it's another Tuesday.
At least he got Nasty Plot and one of the best Gigantamax forms.
Why was there literally nothing about Gengar's utility as a spinblocker (gen 2 - 3) and spikes synergy in adv?
Give him a break. It’s one of his first videos.
Hello from the future, Gengar is gone from OU.
I am from the future tol.
*too
mega and gmax gengar are in ubers and regular is now in uubl at gen 8 showdown
@@ralphmarges2965 gengar is now replaced by dragapult, better typing and much faster. But you can use gengar if you want to check clefable
@@qwteb what the hack are you talking about dude both are different mons with different abilitys,movepools,typing gengar has nasty plot with draga has dd
your narration is so much better today
This is definitely a video worth remaking hope they do this one next
Do Chansey next !!
SkullKidman yea
SkullKidman chansey is the same in every gen but gen 1
SkullKidman gen 1 and gen 5. crazy special and eviolite
Chansey and Blissey aka The No-Fun Allowed Pokemon
definitely chansey and blissey
Do Alakazam!
0:37 Gengar groovin to the beat...
fine work, sir! It was great dude.
love looking back at these videos
Id very much like to see an analysis of Pikachu or Raichu :P
To summarise...
Use this pokemon to revive your strongest
Can you remake the Gengar video, think it could be done better today
Arcanine. Please!
Shiny Noob This!
Shiny Noob I second this.
ARCANINE! ARCANINE!
Fun fact, until gen 7 when it was moved to UU, gengar was one of only 2 Pokémon to consistently remain in OU throughout all generations (the other was starmie, which also dropped to underused in gen 7). Removing levitate from gengar is something I don’t agree with at all. 1, because it was completely unnecessary (gengar was powerful, but never ridiculously overpowered to begin with), and its only way of defending itself against one of its check has been taken away.
great video man! keep up the good work!
gengar has always been one of my favorites
+False Swipe Gaming Can you do Exeggutor next
You should try doing a gen 2 Pokemon. I would really like to see a video on Scizor
dood wouldnt it be shorter
When someone drops a disstrack on you not by much, it's only one gen it's gotta cut
Kellen: “ I wanna keep this intro short cuz we have a lot to get through”
Me: *sees chansy/ blissey video an hour long*
😳
I love how gengar always has this dark smile which makes me love this pokemon and be my favorite.