So I was chillin with the homeys in Discord not too long after doing the team building for Dunsparce and we started joking about making other obscure Pokemon teams and laughing at the different sub optimal options that some of the really unfortunate Pokemon have (Delibird, Farfetch’d, Corsola) and even though we all love these Pokemon they’re unusable because there’s no niche they fulfill.
But then one of them said “what about Gourgeist?”. I was immediately snapped back to XY and to all the theory crafting I did for my hands down favorite pokemon of gen 6. Gourgeist the Pumpkin Pokemon.
I loved this pokemon since I saw it’s pre-evo Pumpkaboo, and shortly after getting them in game I messed around with some movesets but I wasn’t very creative, and it seemed like she was just very overshadowed by her counterpart Trevenant. However you know we never give up, and with the diversity of doubles with some pokemon who seem unusable can become niche picks/counters I decided to get back to the lab on it.
The Breakdown
So to start this breakdown Gourgeist has four “sizes” that effect not only it’s physical size but it’s stats.
Normal:
| HP: 65 | Attack: 90 | Defense: 122 | Sp.Attack: 58 | Sp.Defense: 75 | Speed: 69 |
Small:
| HP: 55 | Attack: 85 | Defense: 122 | Sp.Attack: 58 | Sp.Defense: 75 | Speed: 99 |
Large:
| HP: 75 | Attack: 95 | Defense: 122 | Sp.Attack: 58 | Sp.Defense: 75 | Speed: 69 |
Super:
| HP: 85 | Attack: 100 | Defense: 122 | Sp.Attack: 58 | Sp.Defense: 75 | Speed: 54 |
I always choose super for it’s good bulk I really don’t feel like you should have this Pokemon in on anything that heavily threatens it so it being slightly faster but still slower than things that threaten it doesn’t seem worth it to me.
So with stats like these, one unfamiliar with these Pokemon may think, “huh if she’s got bulk this good then why is she inferior to Trevenant?”. WELL LET ME TELL YOU.
So unfortunately for this lovely pumpkin friend it doesn’t really have good abilities in Pick Up, Frisk, and Insomnia. Being a Grass type Gourgeist doesn’t worry about things like Sleep Powder/Spore so Insomnia is pretty meh. Pick Up is also super meh because you can only pick up an item an adjacent Pokemon has already used. I think Pick Up is bad but something to consider. Then there’s Frisk and it’s only nice because you can accurately scout the opponents items, which is pretty good so for something reliable you’d take this.
Now maybe your thinking “Well I guess that’s unfortunate since Trevenant gets Harvest, but its not the end of the world”. And you might be right, but again so unfortunately while Trevenant gets the stab coverage of both Wood Hammer AND Shadow Claw, sweet Gourgeist was given the short end of the stick with the lackluster Seed Bomb and Phantom Force. Seed Bomb is a far cry for a stab at 80 damage compared to Wood Hammer at 120. Shadow Force take a whole 2 turns to even land at 90 damage. Even though it also has the option of Shadow Sneak, Gourgeist doesn’t benefit much from the priority nor would I consider her a revenge killer. Gourgeist also has explosion to consider but I never think its worth it.
However what Gourgeist lacks in offensive moves it makes up for in some tricky and potentially niche fulfilling support/status moves. She gets the standard Will-O-Wisp that Ghost types normally get, Pain-Split, Trick, Destiny Bond, Ally Swap, Scary Face, just recently Curse and its crown jewel and signature move Trick-Or-Treat.
Theory Crafting
So since I couldn’t think of any kind of team Gourgeist could fill a slot on at first I decided to look at what’s being played on VGC 2018 teams through some statistic websites and see if it would have a chance with any of them and if it did, build a set that let her hand them. Luckily plenty of the pokemon in the meta (Zapdos, Tapu Fini, Tapu Lele, Cresselia, Khangaskhan) were walled or potentially hindered by Gourgeist. I did some calcing and some theory crafting and this is what I came up with.
Gourgeist-Super @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Frisk
Level: 50
EVs: 144 HP / 76 Atk / 244 Def / 44 SpD
Impish Nature
– Trick-or-Treat
– Curse
– Phantom Force
– Seed Bomb
With all it’s supportive moves and particularly Trick-Or-Treat I wanted to put this thing next to something with Ghost type moves, and luckily one of the team cores I like uses the strongest Ghost; Parish/Trap. The idea behind this set is an offensive support for a Parish/Trap team with the potential to clean up a game if left unchecked. Being able to make targets very vulnerable to Gengar, while having the potential to makes things vulnerable to itself. With the added pressure of a perish song timer.
HOWEVER it seemed that upon trying to put it into Pokemon Showdown Curse on Gourgeist is banned for technical reason. I was told it has a tendency to crash the game so unfortunately even though on further thought this set might not be very good, it will have to wait for testing.
Team Building
So after a bit of messing around with movesets and really thinking about what Gourgeists function would actually be I cam to terms with a set I liked quite a bit. I put it next to the other core pokemon of a Parish/Trap team and started to build around it.
Gengar-Mega (M) @ Gengarite
Ability: Shadow Tag
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 188 HP / 44 Def / 4 SpA / 20 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Perish Song
– Protect
– Shadow Ball
– Sludge Bomb
Mega Gengar is the core pokemon of this team with not only Perish Song killing anything in 3 turns but Shadow Tag as an ability locking your opponent in and sealing the deal. Also the ability to snipe anything that gets Trick-Or-Treated by Gourgeist with Shadow Ball the highest legal Special Attacks in the game. Gengar doesn’t need much Special Attack investment because its stat is so big, so this one is invested in Speed and bulk. The bulk lets it live stuff like Landorus-T Earthquake with support from Intimidate.
Gothitelle (F) @Iapapa Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 4 SpA / 220 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Trick Room
– Psychic
– Protect
– Heal Pulse
This was a set that’s been used as staple. Trick Room is for being able to Heal Pulse your partner first which is good because being a stall-ish team you need to be able to survive. The EV spread lets her tank all the turns she can’t protect. Choosing the berry here was the hardest part a bunch of people were taking Sitrus berry over the 1/2 hp berries with the reason “she’ll almost never get to the 25% hp range”, but in my experience she always did so I changed it to Iapapa berry after a few hours of testing.
Gourgeist-Super @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Pickup
Level: 50
EVs: 152 HP / 76 Atk / 46 Def / 236 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Trick-or-Treat
– Protect
– Phantom Force
– Foul Play
After a number of test games and some playing around with what Gourgeist had available to it this was the set I felt did the most for it and the team. Trick-Or-Treat puts almost all pokemon within yours or mainly Gengars reach for KO. Phantom Force is your Ghost stab for taking advantage of Trick-Or-Treat. Foul Play was actually a move taken after testing, because it hits set up physical attackers like Snorlax, Kartana, Kangaskhan, and Metagross. The EV spread on this Gourgeist is for Living a Tapu Lele Psychic in Psychic terrain, as Metagross/Tapu Lele is a popular lead.
Hitmontop @ Mago Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Atk / 76 Def / 44 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Fake Out
– Protect
– Close Combat
– Wide Guard
This core all suffer from a weakness to Dark and I lacked a fake out user for setting up Perish songs, as well as Intimidate for Gengar so I chose between Hitmontop and Scrafty and felt like Hitmontop is a better choice. I’ve always liked this pokemon and it seemed perfect for the team. Fake Out and Protect support the goal of this team in stalling while Wide Guard stops incoming spread moves and Close Combat checks Dark types, Kangaskhan and Ferrothorn. This pokemon has been really solid the entire time I’ve used it.
Politoed @ Wiki Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 132 Def / 76 SpA / 76 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Protect
– Scald
– Encore
– Perish Song
So I saw this pokemon on plenty of Parish/Trap teams and I didn’t understand it and more so than that didn’t like it on the team and tried to look for another Perish Song pokemon. After calcing for all my pokemon though I realized how important weather control is on this team, especially because of the ever prevalent Charizard Y. This had a defensive EV spread and lives a lot but still nearly kills anything weak to its water stab Scald. Encore and protect are standard for stalling.
Kingdra @ Waterium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 80 HP / 4 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 226 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Hydro Pump
– Draco Meteor
– Protect
– Ice Beam
I decided to take a Swift Swim pokemon to take advantage of rain and Kingdra is a loaded gun in a lot of these match ups especially the Charizard Y and sand match ups I took rain for in the first place. Adding Waterium Z makes this thing deadly to so many threats its almost never a waste to use given the Pokemon in rotation right now. I can’t stress enough that this thing can carry a game if Perish Song fails. The EV investment in Speed let it outspeed any non weather boosted Pokemon in the rain, while giving it some extra bulk.
Here’s some battles i did with the team:
The Hard But Fair Truth
I felt pretty good about this team after testing and tuning EV spreads and movesets but before we wrap this up I really have to level with ya’ll on this one…
I really don’t like Gourgeist on this team.
Picking up Parish/Trap was specifically to try and bring out the good in this Pokemon while its surrounded by things that can emphasize on the few things it does get and honestly it’s just not enough and as someone who isn’t willing to give up an edge just to play something I personally find interesting, I can admit that the number of games I’ve won with this are low and need specific niche things to happen. Obviously going into this knowing what she was up against I wasn’t expecting to have the easiest time but more than any other off meta Pokemon I’ve built for; so many times I though “wow there are so many other options that would do so much more” and it’s not the idea that another Pokemon can do better that gets to me. It’s the number of Pokemon there are that can do better. Clefairy, Stackataka, Celesteela, Alolan Muk, Landorous-T, or any of the Tapus.
I found myself racked with heart ache when I switched out Gourgeist with an Alolan Muk and the team was dramatically better and consistent. However it felt so good to see something I worked on do well. I even made a Muk set that I hadn’t seen on any Parish/Trap team.
Muk-Alola @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Power of Alchemy
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 188 Def / 124 SpD
Impish Nature
– Protect
– Poison Jab
– Knock Off
– Disable
This set isn’t very different to some other Muk sets you might see but the kicker here is it’s ability is Power Of Alchemy. Power Of Alchemy lets Muk copy the ability of the ally that faints next to it. So I potentially have 3 Shadow Tagers, or even 2 Intimidaters. I can switch this in for Gengar on incoming Psychic moves and use Disable to control and stall. It’s Poison stab Poison Jab threatens all fairy types (Tapu’s included) and Knock off is strong support for switch ins.
This is the first game I played after the roster change and it was such an instant improvement:
Looking Back
Honestly even though I had to put down the idea of using another Pokemon I really like, I really only like Gourgeists aesthetic design. After playing it non stop for a few days I realized with its current moves and stats, what it does isn’t really that fun or viable even though it looks so cool. It helped me fine tune the team though; and helped understand the playstyle enough to make the decision I needed to make something that’s actually fun with balance to play and for that I’m thankful.
I hope you guys feel the same way when you give it your all because at the end of the day it’s not always gonna go the way you intend but what you get out of it might not be what you wanted but what you needed.
I hope you can find as much comfort in that idea as I do. Remember these ideas will always be here for you, by the light of a moonlit monitor.
P.S. I’ll drop some more replays down here as i play the team more:
Moonlit Monitor 