Gengar

Ghost/Poison · Levitate · A tier · base 60/65/60/130/75/110 · the format’s premier spinblocker and special disruptor — a Levitate Ghost that keeps your Spikes on the field, cripples physical attackers with Will-O-Wisp, lures and KOs Dugtrio with Ice Punch, and explodes for a momentum trade when the time comes.

Format role

Gengar is the glue that makes Spikes-stacking aggressive offense function. Two type-line properties stack to make it the tier’s best hazard guardian. First, Ghost typing blocks Rapid Spin — a Ghost is on the field, the spin fails, your Spikes stay down. Second, Levitate makes it immune to Ground, so it never eats an Earthquake and, just as importantly, it cannot be trapped by Dugtrio’s Arena Trap. Put those together and Gengar is a spinblocker the opponent cannot simply Dugtrio away — it sits in the back, denies removal, and keeps the chip flowing onto every recovery-spamming wall offense is trying to grind down (see mechanics fundamentals on Spikes and removal).

On top of that utility it is a genuine offensive threat. Base 130 Special Attack and base 110 Speed mean it outpaces and pressures a huge slice of the metagame — only Aerodactyl (130), Jolteon (130), Dugtrio (120), and Starmie (115) clear it among the relevant unboosted attackers. Its coverage is the point: Thunderbolt and Ice Punch are both special-typed in Gen 3 (Electric and Ice run off Gengar’s monstrous SpA), and together they hit nearly the whole tier for neutral or better. Will-O-Wisp is the disruption button — a burn halves an incoming physical attacker’s damage output and ticks 1/8 a turn, neutering Tyranitar, Metagross, Snorlax, and the DD sweepers offense fears most. And Explosion — Normal-typed, so physical — turns Gengar into a momentum grenade when its job is done.

One mechanical note you must keep straight: Gengar’s STAB Shadow Ball is physical in Gen 3 (Ghost is a physical type), running off its mediocre base 65 Attack. So the aggressive Gengar almost never clicks Shadow Ball for damage — its damage output is the special Thunderbolt/Ice Punch, while its Ghost typing earns its keep purely as a spinblock and as Explosion fodder. The site embeds a TypeProfile widget above this section showing the full Ghost/Poison resist/weakness spread. For where it sits in the order, see the viability tiers.

Sets

Gengar runs two jobs from one frail 60/60/75 chassis: a bulk-leaning Spikes-team utility/spinblock build, and a max-Speed all-out special breaker. Levitate is the only ability you ever want.

Will-O-Wisp utility — the Spikes-team spinblocker

Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Def / 8 SpA / 112 SpD / 96 Spe
- Will-O-Wisp
- Explosion
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch

This is the canonical Defensive Gengar — the set that earns its A ranking on aggressive Spikes offense. The bulk-leaning spread (248 HP / 112 SpD with a dash of Def, only 8 SpA, and 96 Spe to creep the passive walls) lets it come in repeatedly, block a Starmie or Claydol spin, and pick its moment; the Speed is enough to outrun the defensive crowd it burns rather than to race the metagame’s fast attackers. Will-O-Wisp is the load-bearing move: a burn cuts the opposing physical attacker’s damage in half and chips 1/8 each turn, so Gengar single-handedly blunts the Tyranitar/Metagross/DD-sweeper plans that would otherwise punch through your offense. Thunderbolt and Ice Punch give it teeth even off the minimal SpA investment — the famous trick is that Ice Punch lures and OHKOs Dugtrio (Ice is 2× on Ground). The opponent expects to revenge-trap something with Dugtrio, sends it in, and instead loses it to a Levitate Ghost they can’t even trap back. Explosion is the exit (the slash option here is Taunt for shutting down setup and recovery, but the aggressive build takes the boom): once Gengar’s utility is spent, it trades its frail body for a near-OHKO on most neutral targets and hands a teammate a free turn (Explosion halves the target’s Defense in Gen 3, making it brutal — see mechanics & calc reference).

Offensive — the all-out special breaker

Gengar @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Hidden Power Grass
- Explosion

The all-out aggressive build. Max Speed + max SpA turns Gengar into a fast disruptor that abuses every switch it forces. Thunderbolt and Ice Punch are the spam buttons that cover most of the tier between them: Thunderbolt roasts Skarmory, Gyarados (4×), and the bulky Waters, while Ice Punch handles the Dragons, the Flyers, and the Grounds — and still lures and OHKOs Dugtrio (Ice 2× on Ground) exactly like the utility build does. Hidden Power Grass is the coverage move that plugs Gengar’s biggest hole — it nails the Swampert and bulky Waters that shrug off Thunderbolt’s Ground immunity, and chunks Tyranitar on the switch. Explosion closes the deal: when the special spam has done its overloading, Gengar booms on the wall standing between your cleaner and the win (the slash here is Hypnosis or Fire Punch, but the aggressive read takes the momentum grenade). This is the set that single-handedly threatens Blissey-light cores — if the opponent’s only special sponge is chipped, fast Gengar overloads it.

What it does for aggressive offense

Gengar’s aggressive job is to keep the hazard war one-sided and disrupt the enemy’s wincons. On a Spikes special-offense build it is the spinblock that lets your Skarmory/Cloyster/Forretress layers do their work — every turn the opponent can’t spin is a turn their walls take Spikes chip on the switch, which is exactly how aggressive offense grinds down a recovery backbone it cannot brute-force. Because Gengar is Levitate, the standard counter-play (Dugtrio traps the spinblocker, then spin freely) simply doesn’t exist against it.

The Ice Punch lure on Dugtrio deserves its own callout, because Dugtrio is the single biggest enabler of opposing offense (it traps and removes weakened Tyranitar, Snorlax, Blissey, Metagross, Jirachi, Heracross). Carrying Gengar means the opponent’s Dugtrio cannot safely revenge your own threats — if it comes in on Gengar expecting an easy trap-kill, it eats Ice Punch and dies, and even when it targets something else it can never trap Gengar itself. That protects your whole back half from the trapper aggressive teams hate most.

Will-O-Wisp is speed control’s ugly cousin in a tier with no Choice Scarf. A burn doesn’t slow anything, but halving a Tyranitar or Metagross’s physical output buys your fragile sweepers the survivability they need, and the 1/8 chip stacks with Spikes and Sand to push 3HKOs into 2HKOs. Explosion then converts Gengar’s spent body into immediate value — the canonical late-game line is to block one last spin, then Explode on the wall standing between your cleaner and the win, handing a teammate the free setup turn.

When you are building around Gengar: pair it with a Spiker and fast special sweepers (Jolteon, Starmie, Suicune, Zapdos) so its spinblock keeps the hazards that make their 2HKOs into OHKOs, and lean on phazing (Skarmory/Zapdos Roar) to grind Blissey through the chip Gengar protects. See the Special Spikes Offense sample team and common cores.

Load-bearing type matchups

Gengar’s special coverage is what makes it more than a spinblock. Every prediction you make with it runs through these numbers.

Two of these are common misconceptions worth burning in. Thunderbolt does nothing to Swampert — Ground grants the Electric immunity, so don’t waste a turn clicking it; this is precisely why the Offensive set carries Hidden Power Grass, which hits Swampert for a clean 4× instead. And Explosion is resisted by Skarmory — Steel resists Normal in Gen 3, so Gengar’s Boom does not cleanly remove the bird the way Metagross’s does; it’s a payload best aimed at the bulky neutral targets (Snorlax, Blissey, Waters), not at Steels.

What threatens Gengar

Gengar’s frailty (60/60/75) is the cost of its speed and utility — it dies to almost anything that hits it before it acts, and its defensive type leaves clean openings. With Levitate up, Ghost/Poison is immune to Ground (Earthquake whiffs entirely, hence Dugtrio can’t trap it), but it is 2× weak to Dark (Pursuit/Crunch), 2× weak to Psychic, and 2× weak to Ghost — and one chip-heavy aside, Sand chips its non-Rock/Ground/Steel body for 1/16 a turn.

• Tyranitar — the cleanest answer. Pursuit traps fleeing Gengar for 2× (Dark vs Ghost/Poison): if Gengar tries to switch out, it gets caught and KO’d, and even staying in it eats a 2× Crunch off Tyranitar’s solid SpA while Sand grinds it down. This is the reason aggressive teams pack Pursuit support to clear opposing Gengar before spinning.
• Pursuit users generally — Aerodactyl, Metagross, Snorlax — anything with Pursuit punishes the Ghost’s need to flee, hitting it 2× whether it stays or runs. The mind-game (stay and eat the attack, or flee and eat Pursuit) is unwinnable when the trap move is the one resolving.
• Blissey — the special sponge that walls Gengar’s Thunderbolt/Ice Punch/Hidden Power Grass all day and pressures back with Toxic/Seismic Toss; nothing in Gengar’s kit dents it short of a one-time Explosion trade, and Blissey’s Natural Cure shrugs off a Will-O-Wisp on the switch.
• Snorlax — enormous special bulk tanks the coverage, and it’s immune to nothing but doesn’t care; Body Slam (Normal) is blanked by Gengar’s Ghost typing (Normal is 0× into Ghost), but Snorlax can Pursuit it out (Dark hits 2×) — Self-Destruct, being Normal-typed, is blanked by that same Ghost typing and does nothing to it.
• Faster attackers — Aerodactyl and Jolteon (both 130) and Starmie (115) outspeed and revenge its frail body outright. Dugtrio notably cannot trap it (Levitate), so it can never be Arena-Trapped — its only ground-based answer is to be outsped or Pursuit-trapped.

The throughline: you don’t wall Gengar, you trap or revenge it — and the trap that works is Pursuit, not Arena Trap. On the flip side, when you’re piloting Gengar, respect the Pursuit user: don’t flee into a Tyranitar/Aerodactyl, Explode or fire a coverage move instead, and never let it get caught on a free switch.

See also

• Dugtrio — the trapper Gengar lures and KOs with Ice Punch, and the one it can never be trapped by.
• Skarmory — the Spiker whose layers Gengar’s spinblock protects; note Gengar’s Explosion is resisted by it.
• Starmie — the spinner Gengar blocks, and a fast special partner on Spikes offense.
• Tyranitar — the Pursuit-trapper that is Gengar’s cleanest answer.
• Building aggressive offense · Common cores · Sample teams · Mechanics & calc reference