Should I teach my Gengar Thunderbolt or Dream Eater?

Question

I’m playing Pokémon Yellow and the moveset I want for my Gengar is Psychic, Mega Drain, Hypnosis, and then I’m torn between teaching it Thunderbolt or Dream Eater. My Pikachu has Thunderbolt, and I’m not taking it off my team (don’t ask), so I don’t know if teaching it to Gengar as well is too redundant or not. On the other hand, Dream Eater gives siphon and pairs with Hypnosis, but I already have Psychic and don’t want to remove it. Which do I choose?

Comments

I don’t think coverage is as much of a big deal in-game.

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For the purpose of discussion (hence why I'm posting this as a comment and not an answer):

- What is the rest of your team currently like? Thunderbolt is a pretty prized TM, and while Gengar could use it quite well with that 130 Special, perhaps another team member would get more mileage out of it for coverage purposes?

- Would you consider other moves instead? Say, Night Shade for guaranteed chip damage, or Double Team to set up on a particular trainer's 1st Pokemon and be nigh unkillable? (Guess it's prob to late for Night Shade, no move tutor in Gen 1 ...)

Answer 1

I would choose Thunderbolt. It's a great move, high accuracy and power. As well, it's good for coverage, you want a wide variety of typed moves on your team. So even though Pikachu already has it, Gengar has far superior stats and could also benefit from being able to deal with water and flying threats. Dream Eater, while fairly powerful, only works if the opponent if asleep. It's very situational and would require an extra turn to set up. TL;DR: Choose TBolt, Dream Eater to situational, coverage is great. Ghost moves in general just are not very useful in Generation I, as the only 3 Ghost types in the game are also weak to Psychic, in which your Gengar already knows one of the best Psychic moves in the game.

Comments

Yeah, I guess so.
Plus, I’m already getting siphon from Mega Draim