What is a good moveset for Gengar?

Question

Share your best competitive movesets for Gengar on this thread! Movesets for Mega Gengar can also be posted here, as well as for Gastly and Haunter.

Check the submission guidelines before posting! Only competitive movesets with all relevant details (item, nature, exact EVs, ability, moves) and a solid explanation will be accepted.

Gengar Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Gen 9 NU Nasty Plot

Haunter @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Sludge Bomb / Substitute
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

A Nasty Plot set for Haunter in Gen 9 NU. Haunter gets Nasty Plot and Focus Blast in Gen 9, which allows Haunter to act as a mini Gengar. Nasty Plot is used to boost Haunter's Special Attack to make its attacks scarier to switch into. Sludge Bomb is used for a Poison STAB. Shadow Ball is used for a Ghost STAB. Focus Blast provides coverage against Dark-, Steel-, and Normal-types such as Chansey, Mabosstiff, Umbreon, and Copperajah. Substitute can be used over Sludge Bomb since nothing is immune to Shadow Ball and Focus Blast in the tier. Substitue + Nasty Plot variants work well since Chansey being in the tier gives it the opportunity to setup, as well as there being lots of opportunities for Haunter to setup in general. Life Orb is used to give your attacks more power. Tera Fighting is used to give Focus Blast more power, and it turns Haunter's Dark weakness into a resistance.

Answer 2

Gen 9 Monotype Toxic Spikes Lead (Ghost)

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
- Sludge Bomb

This is a Toxic Spikes Lead set Gengar can use on Ghost teams in Gen 9 Monotype. Toxic Spikes spreads poison against grounded Pokemon, allowing bulky Pokemon to get worn down by the poison. Taunt allows Gengar to stop opposing leads from setting up hazards or using status moves. Destiny Bond lets Gengar potentially take out a Pokemon should Gengar no longer be needed. Sludge Bomb is used for a Poison STAB to prevent Gengar from being Taunt bait. The 30% poison chance can be nice for opposing leads. Focus Sash is used since this set should be used as the lead so it can set Toxic Spikes more easily.

Answer 3

Gengar @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 200 Spe / 58 Spd/ 252 SpA

Trick
Hex
Venoshock
Thunderbolt

Just something I have been toying with throughout radical red. This gengar needs another poke for toxic spikes setup, I use greninja with u-turn for setup and scout.

Trick for item boost and annoy the funk out of opponent, eapecially if they try earthquaking your levitate beast. Toxic spikes boosts venoshock and hex, who already have great STAB, and flying pokes that dont get caught in them you koll off with thunderbolt.

It isnt perfect but boy its pretty fun!

Comments

gengar can't have levitate just letting you know.

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Gengar can't have Levitate? In competition then? This comment section is full of Levitate gengars as well so thought i would upload the one i am using currently

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his ability was changed to cursed body after gen 6, in gen 3-6 he had levitate.

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Thx for the update, should have included which gen I'm playing in. Not a competitive player.. sorry bout that!

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totally fine - you should've seen me when I was new!

Answer 4

This is what I use:

Gengar (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Toxic
- Venoshock
- Destiny Bond

Venoshock: One of the most underrated moves in the entire game with over 180 base power when the opponent is poisoned and with STAB)

The basic strategy here is Toxic something, Venoshock it, Shadow Ball it if it survives, rinse and repeat until you're on low HP, then Destiny Bond. If you have a dedicated toxic spiker on your team then set those up and sub toxic out for something like Thunderbolt, Ice Beam or Psychic for better coverage. The bonus to this set is if it looks like you're gonna be OHKO'd first turn, straight away use destiny bond. either you'll outspeed which is the best case scenario, or you'll get knocked down to your focus sash and then use destiny bond which means they can't hit next turn without sacrificing their sweeper.

Comments

If you start the battle with toxic, why not switch shadow ball to hex? Much better base power with the stab.

Answer 5

Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Psychic

Basically, this thing will become a trapper the entire metagame will fear. Hidden Power [Fire] is to nail Forretress, Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Skarmory. With a just plain scary SpA stat of 170, backed with a speed of 130, the best word I can use to describe it is ouch.

Answer 6

Gengar (M) @ Big Root
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hypnosis
- Hex
- Dream Eater
- Smog

Hypnosis (I have no idea, this is certainly not for sleeping)
Hex (STAB and good for after hypnosis and covers weakness to psychic, ghost and dark)
Dream Eater (Heals and good pair w/ hypnosis)
Smog (STAB and good for use before Hex)

Comments

Hex does not cover Dark :|

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SMOG??? use sludge bomb, it still has a great 30% chance of poisoning and at least deals a good damage and has good accuracy

Answer 7

Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Confuse Ray
- Hypnosis

Shadow Ball- Most powerful special Ghost move Gengar gets.
Focus Blast- Coverage on Dark.
Confuse Ray- Chance of opponent damaging itself. Works good with Shadow Tag.
Hypnosis- Puts the opponent to sleep. Works well with Shadow Tag.

Answer 8

Hex (Gengar) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Sludge Wave / Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

A lot of Gengar use Substitute + Disable, so this will catch some people off guard. Substitute to soak up statuses and if you predict a switchout, and the rest are just attacking moves. Shadow Ball + Sludge Wave (or Sludge Bomb) for powerful STABs, and Focus Blast deals with anything that resists it's STAB moves.

Answer 9

Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Dazzling Gleam / Taunt / Thunderbolt
- Destiny Bond

This set uses Shadow Ball as Primary STAB. Focus Blast hits Dark Types hard. Dazzling Gleam is for Dragons. But if you're fine without Dragon coverage Thunderbolt is the better option as your SE coverage increases and it has more power. Taunt is to cripple those nasty hazard setters. When you're at low health you'll outspeed almost everything at 0 Speed increase. Use Destiny Bond and you've taken down one more of your opponents Pokes. This set is really successful. Please test it out.

Answer 10

"Nightmare" Gengar moveset

(Gengar-Mega) (M) @ Gengarite
Ability: Shadow Tag
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hypnosis
- Hex
- Sludge Bomb
- Dream Eater/Dazzling Gleam/Focus Blast

(This is my first moveset I created ever) This set heavily revolves around hypnosis. I realize that Hypnosis, with its 60% accuracy is unreliable at times, but when you do put your opponent to sleep, this set for Gengar proves to be an effective sweeper.

Hypnosis-Put the opponent to sleep and let the magic happen.

Hex- STAB Base power is doubled when the opponent has a status condition. (Asleep from Hypnosis and poisoned from Sludge Bomb

Sludge Bomb- STAB For pure special attack power and a 30% of poisoning enemies

Dream Eater- Recover HP and deal a good amount of damage to those opponents who are Normal typed.

I really appreciate feedback on this moveset. I have been testing it out, and when it works it proves to be very effective :)

Answer 11

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Dazzling Gleam
- Destiny Bond

Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb provide Gengar with great STAB and effective moves. Dazzling Gleam is good coverage, and Destiny Bond with Focus Sash is a good combination.

Answer 12

Gengar (F) @ Wise Glasses
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Thunderbolt
- Sludge Bomb

• Shadow Ball (STAB)
• Dazzling Gleam (Coverage and good move overall)
• Thunderbolt (Common for Gengar, but useful against things like Starmie)
• Sludge Bomb (STAB and coverage against Grass)

Basic sweeper set, but still useful.

Answer 13

I have one and it SWEEPS. This is its set:

Gengar-Mega @ Gengarite
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam

• Shadow ball: Used to deal with psychic and ghost types.
• Sludge bomb: Why not? This move has fairy killing machine written all over it!
• Thunderbolt: Used to deal with greninjas and other water types.
• Dazzling gleam: Kills dark, Fighting, (Although its not needed because fighting doesn't affect ghost,) and Dragon types.

Comments

That is impressive Mega+Sweeper very interesting moveset

Answer 14

Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate / Cursed Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball

• Shadow Ball (STAB)
• Sludge Bomb (STAB)
• Dazzling Gleam (Dark Coverage)
• Energy Ball (Ground types? Gone!)

Weeeeeell... Switch in, hit hard, switch out. 'Nuff said.

Answer 15

Gengar (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hypnosis
- Nightmare
- Dream Eater
- Destiny Bond

This is obviously a Hypnosis combo. Put the opponent to sleep, Nightmare him, then spam Dream Eater. If Hypnosis misses and the opponent one-shots you, there the Focus Sash and Destiny Bond come in handy. A perfect combo in my opinion. It has 1 weakness: Hypnosis doesn't affect Dark-Types. But Destiny Bond covers that. A pretty neat combo. Can be used both for sweeping and taking out one problematic target.

Answer 16

I have a level 100 Gengar with these traits:

Gengar (M) @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Mean Look
- Perish Song

The idea is to Mean Look your opponents so they can't switch out. Then, you Perish Song and beat them up with Shadow Ball while the Perish Song counts down. On the final turn, you switch out Gengar for another party member while your opponent falls to the Perish Song. If you're fighting a Dark Type, Focus Blast covers nicely, even if it is inaccurate and isn't STAB. I've found this set to work nicely for my Gengar!

Comments

If you're using Mega Gengar, mean look is useless since its ability (shadow tag) already prevents the opponent from switching. You could do either sludge wave if you want more STAB, or protect to add on to the misery.

Answer 17

If you don't care of fighting with annoying people using OP legends, you might use this:

Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast

Will-O-Wisp (burns the foe, taking care of it's physical attack. gengar special defense is nice anyways, so it may make it a bit bulkier)

Hex (482 SpA. + 130 BP STAB move = OHKO. don't need to say anything more, eh?)

Thunderbolt (coverage, nice power, almost always hits, plus it can paralize, making it such as even faster)

Focus Blast (Excellent power, not the best accuracy, but shadow tag traps the opponent making it unable to flee even if you miss. and if it avoids shadow tag by being a ghost type, why in the world would you use focus blast?)

Answer 18

I guess nobldy will come this far down for a good move set but I found one that dominates in the Battle Maison!

Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 142 Def / 116 Spe
Bold Nature
- Snatch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Giga Drain
- Shadow Ball

Snatch is criminally underrated in competitive battles, you can steal a foes stat boosts and healing moves (RIP Vespiquen). Once you've memorised the AI's moves you can predict a stat boost and steal it. Plus since they're boost or heal failed, they'll use it again and again. Boost up Gengar with stolen Calm Mind, Stockpile or Double Team, then sweep with shadow ball and giga drain (which cover all types except Sap Sipper Miltank/Bouffalant). Will-O-Wisp is in case they're purely physical.

Answer 19

Gengar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hex
- Confuse Ray
- Brick Break / Mega Drain
- Toxic

Using Toxic and Confuse ray means that your opponent are getting hurt every turn with a chance of you being untouched as well as doubling the power of Hex from 60 to 120, through brick break or Mega Drain to deal with Gengar's Dark or Ground weakness.

Answer 20

Gengar can actually be really good for a team because of it's fantastic sp atk. This is my best set for it

Koszmar (Gengar) (F) @ Gengarite
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Toxic
- Venoshock
- Destiny Bond
- Dark Pulse

• Toxic (Poison)
• Venoshock (STAB, does amazing dmg after the Toxic)
• Destiny Bond (You know why)
• Dark pulse (Coverage, Psychic types can be annoying. For instance, Gardevoir with Hypnosis and Dream Eater)