With Gengar's ban everyone has been scrambling to find stuff to replace it. Perhaps the most obvious choice, yet overlooked as silly is...
Haunter has the same excellent dual STAB as Gengar coming off of 115 Special Attack, only 15 points lower than Gengar's. It has a much better ability in Levitate (RIP LeviGar) which when combined with its typing leads to it being able to hardwall Pokémon such as Hippowdon and Mudsdale that rely on Body Press + Earthquake. If it uses Taunt it also walls Chansey, allowing it to chip away at the blob.
It's not all spoopy for Haunter though, it loses out on quite a bit compared to its evolved form. The Speed tiers between 95 and 110 are notoriously crowded, including threats such as Urshifu, the Swords of Justice, Porygon-Z, and many, many more. Haunter is much less effective against offensive Pokemon than Gengar was because of this, and mostly sticks to pressuring switchins.
Haunter's movepool is also missing a couple key moves from Gengar's: Focus Blast and Nasty Plot. The lack of Focus Blast means Tyranitar is a hard counter to every Haunter set possible, although the possibility of burn exists to threaten it I guess. No Nasty Plot makes Haunter less of a potential sweeping threat in every matchup, although, as I talk about below, Acid Spray can replicate it to a degree.
Haunter @ Life Orb / Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moongeist Beam
- Acid Spray
- Sludge Wave / Sludge Bomb
- Taunt / Substitute
Moongeist Beam is mandatory; it's the best special Ghost STAB.
Acid Spray is very important for Haunter as it's primarily a Balance / BO breaker and Acid Spray lets it break down the SpD of threats such as Chansey to KO them, while also easing prediction and forcing switches. It acts as a pseudo Nasty Plot, although much worse in that it can be switched out on and does nothing to Steel types or mons immune to stat drops.
Sludge Wave / Bomb are the best available Poison STABs given that Shell Side Arm was a dud. Sludge Bomb is probably overall better unless you'd prefer not to Poison (on paraspam or if you're spreading burn or w/e) as Bulletproof is pretty much nonexistent right now.
Taunt lets you prevent defensive Pokémon from recovering or statusing you. Taunt stuff. It's especially helpful versus Chansey, which only runs Normal and Fighting non-status moves. Sub can be used to protect yourself from Status as well and to get in hits versus more offensive mons, but costs HP, mandating Black Sludge, and lets Chansey recover on you making it tough to break.
Eviolite isn't run because Haunter won't tank anything while chip damage can hurt it, especially with Sub.
Set #2! Totally unrelated :]
Porygon-Z @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Terrain Pulse
- Ice Beam / Psychic
- Teleport / Trick
This set is run with Rillaboom. It's designed to do one thing that normal specs PZ can't:
252 SpA Choice Specs Porygon-Z Terrain Pulse (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tyranitar: 210-248 (51.9 - 61.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock, Leftovers recovery, and Grassy Terrain recovery
RIP Tyranitar, formerly the best counter to Porygon-Z
The alt also needs to be a fresh one (made no earlier than 8/7/2020).
