=====================================
                    -----Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal-----
                    ============Moveset Guide============


Last Update 6/23/2003
Guide Author: Incompetent
Version: 1.0
E-mail: [email protected]

This document is ©2003 Incompetent. This guide is posted for personal use.
Any reposting or distribution of the guide without the express written consent
of the author is strictly prohibited. Pokemon and its characters are
registered trademarks of Nintendo and Game Freak.



Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Guide Explanation
3. Reference Links
4. Moveset Guide
5. FAQ
6. Pending Updates
7. Special Thanks/Credit


 ______________________________
||_______1. Introduction________||

To my knowledge, no one has yet to attempt creating a guide of the generally
seen movesets in pokemon battling for GSC. You'll find some gigantic lists of
possible movesets, but these aren't always the most informative things to read,
especially for someone that is newer to battling competitively. With this guide
a person who is unfamiliar with any sort of "standard" or rather widely used
set can get an idea of what the set is. While there are many lists of standard
sets, this guide explores the uses of these sets and some of the counters to
these sets so that the reader can get a better idea of how these sets are used.
For reference, more than one in five pokemon end up being useful in some
respect in combat. Some of the pokemon choices I cover as being common will
definitely seem like they are; on the other hand, it may seem like I've omitted
some and should not have covered others. Bear with me as I keep updating this.
I still can't get all of the standard sets, but it's a work in progress.


 ______________________________
||_____2. Guide Explanation_____||
Instead of listing all of the movesets of a particular pokemon, this guide
lists the moves that a particular pokemon would consider to put in a moveset.
I explain why each move should be considered for the set and I make note of
which moves may form combinations with other moves, although I certainly don't
mention everything. I do not try to mention every single possible move and
strategy, but I do try and list some of the more common ones and their uses.
Note that while this guide tries to look at general strategies of the pokemon
covered, there are many ways to tweak these movesets to fit better with a
pokemon team. Oftentimes, the more standard moveset for a pokemon needs to be
tweaked to fit a team well. Another thing to remember is that these movesets
can accomplish some things not mentioned in the description. Using a moveset a
certain way in battle can bring out some different results.


 ______________________________
||______3. Reference Links______||

http://giovanni.sourcecod.com/
This is where the moveset guide was originally posted and updates will find
their way here first. The other big reason to go here is that it has my
corresponding guide, the battle mechanics and concept guide. This guide goes
into detail about particular types of strategies I explain in the moveset guide
and it explains a lot of the terms I use in this guide. It also has some
additional guides that will help you with general GSC things.

http://skill-statfinder.virtualave.net/ssf/index.html
This site is where you will want to go to check up on statistics of pokemon and
move compatibility. It also displays Gold and Silver egg moves. You should
definitely look at the stats of the pokemon that I've explained in the guide.

http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/jman/home1.html
This is a GSC research site. Here you will find all that you need to know about
moves and how they work. It will answer a lot of particular questions as well
as give information on how things function in Pokemon Stadium 2.

http://pokefor.tk
Though this site used to contain a ton of information on GSC, it has since
restructured to fit the Advance versions. Even so, it still has an excellent
GSC Hidden Power calculator and you'll definitely want to check out the
Pokedex. It's also some other good GSC data that's very useful.

http://white-cat.virtualave.net/pfiles/gscdex.txt
This is a handy pokedex in the form of a text file that gives you quick
information on moves learned, base stats, RBYGSC TM compatibility and egg
moves.


 ______________________________
||_______4. Moveset Guide_______||

Key: Moves that are almost always on or almost need to be on will just be
written regularly and separated by commas (,). A slash(/) indicates that two
moves can fit the same or a similar purpose and which you choose is optional.
A star (*) indicates that a particular move is an optional thing that you may
want in the set.

===========================
Aerodactyl
===========================
Set: Ancientpower, Earthquake, Wing Attack, *Substitute, *Mimic, *Rest.
    *Reflect

Uses: Aerodactyl has relatively high Attack and a beautiful Speed. Wing Attack
and Ancientpower get STAB, and Earthquake is good to have. These three give it
a decent combination of physical attacks, and paired with its Speed, Aerodactyl
has the potential to become something of a "sweeper". While Aerodactyl is not
quite strong enough to take on several pokemon in succession, it can defeat
several pokemon in a row later in a match when its opponents have been weakened
and are not at full strength. Ancientpower gives it the possibility of getting
a stat boost, allowing it to do some great damage. Aerodactyl's ability to
sweep depends on its superb Speed. Status effects, mainly paralyzation, can
ruin this. Substitute blocks these things. Aerodactyl's fourth slot isn't
nearly as important as you might think. Since Aerodactyl doesn't get much in
the way of good stab moves, the fourth move probably revolves around boosting
its survivability. Mimic could potentially get something like Recover, or even
Swords Dance, which can do a lot. Using Mimic, however, is very risky and it's
one less turn spent hitting hard if you do. Reflect can actually be quite
useful for Aerodactyl as its Defense is quite low and Reflect boosts it fast as
well as giving some of your other pokemon some cover.

Counters: Aerodactyl is plagued by a relatively low Defense and Special
Defense. Add to that its weakness to Rock, Electric, Ice, Water, and Steel
attacks and you've got a rather fragile pokemon. A strong shot or two from any
of these attacks is usually enough to finish it. A Speed reduction from
paralyzation can take away Aerodactyl's sweeping abilities and this is the
reason why people put berries and Substitute on it. If you increase your
Defense or have a pokemon that is especially tough against physical attacks,
you will be protected against most anything that Aerodactyl can dish out.
Probably the only special attack you'll see on Aerodactyl is Fire Blast and
this is more to use on some specific pokemon that are weak to it instead of
being an attack that it would use regularly.


==========================
Alakazam
==========================
Set: Recover, Psychic, Reflect/Barrier, Ice Punch/Thunderpunch/Fire Punch,
    *Thunder Wave, *Encore, *Disable, *Light Screen, *Hidden Power Dark,
    *Seismic Toss, *Toxic

Uses: There are a good deal of Alakazam sets out there; you can work in many of
these sets together depending on the situation. One thing that seems to be
almost a constant, however, are the moves Psychic and Recover. Alakazam's
defensive stats are such that it is dependent on Recover. Alakazam's massive
Special Attack makes its Psychic attack a great power. Reflect and/or Barrier
help Alakazam's poor Defense. Barrier can be used multiple times, but Reflect
can support teammates. The elemental punches give Alakazam some different
elemental attacks which work well with its Special. Alakazam can even be used
as a special attack sweeper. Many combinations of sets are available to
Alakazam. Thunder Wave allows Alakazam to paralyze foes which gives some good
support. Encore forces a move to be repeated which works nicely if the move
Encored is one Alakazam can take. Encore can also waste PP of setup moves like
Curse and also force a switch. Disable, when paired with Encore, can cause a
foe's Encored move to fail repeatedly. You might want to consider pairing Toxic
with Encore. A poisoned pokemon who has been forced to use a status move by
Encore will almost surely have to switch out. Encore can cause some switching
around and this will help you out a lot if you've laid something like Spikes
down. pokemon that are hit by Encore switch out most of the time and so you
ought to be ready to hit hard during the switch or at least anticipate a switch
and have some kind of strategy ready. Light Screen comes into play as
Alakazam's Special Defense is significantly lower in GSC, although it can give
support to other teammates which is a plus. Hidden Power Dark runs off
Alakazam's Special Attack and it is effective against other Psychic pokemon.
Seismic Toss allows Alakazam to do a moderate amount of set damage.

Counters: Alakazam's survivability is seriously hampered by its Hit Points and
defensive stats and it is seriously aided by its Speed and recovery ability.
Even with Light Screen and Recover, Alakazam can't go against Dark types with
much effectiveness. Alakazam's weak Defense makes it prey to some of the more
powerful physical attackers, especially with stat boosters. While Alakazam has
the potential to defend against many different kind of attacks, it hampers its
offensive abilities. An Alakazam with Barrier and Light Screen is left only
with Psychic to attack and it needs Recover, otherwise the two defensive moves
are essentially worthless. Alakazam's Encore and Disable are very crippling
moves. Encore does no good for Alakazam if you use a hard hitting move. If
you're caught using a setup or status move by Alakazam's Encore, you're best to
switch out. Take heed, because your opponent expects this. The key to taking
down Alakazam is to hit him hard with something that can withstand Psychic. You
can also cheat a bit by putting him under with sleep or paralysis which can
negate Alakazam's Speed. Alakazam's Special Defense has sustained a major
lowering since GSC which makes it very much possible to defeat Alakazam with
special attacks, provided that you have a special attacker that can stand up
to Alakazam's special attacks. If you're unpredictable, a good unexpected
Mirror Coat to one of Alakazam's special attacks is sure to take it out in one
hit given Alakazam's huge Special Attack and weak Hit Points. While many
pokemon are unable to go toe-to-toe with Alakazam, if you can get the chance to
set up a strategy in advance. Light Screen or Amnesia will definitely allow
several pokemon to survive against Alakazam and hopefully overcome it.
Increasing your physical attack in advance may also help. It won't prevent your
pokemon from taking a damaging special attack, but it can allow you to finish
Alakazam off before it can strike again.


===========================
Blastoise
===========================
Set: Haze/Mirror Coat/Roar, *Ice Beam, *Earthquake, *Surf, *Fissure, *Rest,
    *Counter

Uses: Blastoise is strong on defense and not too bad on offense. As a result of
this, it's become useful for it to Haze and even pseudo-haze in battle, with
some people even having it do both. Mirror Coat is a nice plus for Blastoise
since it deals back double damage from every special attack received, which
works as Grass and Electric type moves are the only elements that it's weak to
and those are special weaknesses. Blastoise can survive some of the most
powerful Thunderbolts and Solarbeams and emerge victorious with Mirror Coat.
Ice Beam, Earthquake, and Surf are some offensive moves Blastoise gets which it
does okay with. These two moves allow Blastoise to cover its weaknesses
decently well. Counter is a nice unexpected way for Blastoise to deal back
physical damage, though it's a shame it can't get both Counter and Mirror Coat
at the same time. Fissure is an OHKO attack that can be tossed in randomly and
Rest is for obvious recovery.

Counters: With Blastoise's defensive stats, it's extremely difficult to take
out in one turn and it can cover its Electric and Grass weakness with Mirror
Coat. If you can whittle Blastoise's health down a bit before using something
like Thunderbolt, you can take it out before it can Mirror Coat. The same is
true for a Blastoise using Counter, although Blastoise does not have any
physical weaknesses. Blastoise isn't a great offensive threat, so wearing him
down with conventional attacks isn't extraordinarily difficult, although it
does take a bit of time. As a pokemon, Blastoise doesn't have the offensive
stats to start ripping through a team. What it does have are some moves that
can be super-effective against many types of pokemon. This can be a problem.
It would be helpful if you tried to gauge your opponent's Blastoise and figured
out their moveset if it's possible. Some sets are more built around Haze and
pseudo-haze while others have more offensive attacks. If you know which kind of
attacks a particular Blastoise set has then you'll know which pokemon you ought
to send out. Just remember that a Blastoise could potentially have Counter or
Mirror Coat so either kind of move you use on it can be countered. If you've
got a huge elemental advantage over Blastoise like having an Electric pokemon
with a good Special Attack then you likely won't need to find out. Use a
physical move to soften Blastoise up and so that an Electric move will finish
it off first.


===========================
Blissey
===========================
Set: Minimize, Softboiled, Present, Heal Bell, *Ice Beam, *Thunderbolt,
    *Fire Blast, *Growl, *Sing, *Counter, *Thunder Wave, *Reflect,
    *Light Screen, *Seismic Toss

Uses: The first thing you think of when you think of Blissey is its towering
Hit Points. At 713, Blissey can take quite a pounding; add to that its Special
Defense of 368 and you've got a major pain. Add to that Softboiled, a quick
recovery move, and you've got a total menace. With Blissey's Special Defense,
any special assault becomes very impractical. Blissey's Heal Bell is, well Heal
Bell. Blissey is a fairly sturdy user of Heal Bell, with physical attacks being
its main worries. I'm not going to go into an explanation of the Present bug
here, but its effects in G/S link battles are devastating and operate
independent of Blissey's weak offensive stats. Counter allows Blissey to deal
back double damage for offensive damage it takes. This works well since Blissey
has high HP and a very poor Defense. Thunder Wave adds status support. Seismic
Toss allows Blissey to do some set damage, which works well because Blissey can
probably stay around for a while. The other major thing Blissey does is boost
evade, which makes it a total pain in the neck. With massive Hit Points and an
excellent Special Defense, the ability to boost evade and recover, and the
ability to cover its own physical weakness and exploit glitches, Blissey can
become a PP waster and a support powerhouse at the same time. Some movesets
have focused on using Curse and other special attacks sets have been tried, but
they aren't yet widespread enough to have become mainstream to my knowledge.
Some other sets have made the use of special attacks. Doing this can often add
different elemental attacks to a team's arsenal. Blissey does not have a very
high Special Attack, but its stats allow it to use special attacks multiple
times. Blissey's Special Attack is high enough to do considerable damage where
its special attacks are super-effective. I've mentioned only Growl, but another
strategy that Blissey can use is PP wasting. Using what would otherwise be
pathetic moves, Blissey, with the help of Minimize and Softboiled, can stall
out many opponents. Moves like Growl have massive amounts of PP that can allow
Blissey to stall out many opponents. I mention Growl because it lowers an
opponent's physical attack which does help Blissey out, but there are many
others. Sing is an inaccurate sleep move, but sleep is a decent status effect
and Blissey lasts long enough to use it until it connects. You might not think
Blissey needs it, and you'd probably be right, but Light Screen finds its way
onto Blissey sets to give teams protection from special attacks and guard
against those rare times when someone stubborn tries to take down Blissey with
special attacks by lowering its Special Defense.

Counters: A Machamp with a Black Belt attached can score a guaranteed KO on
Blissey if Cross Chop connects. If Machamp comes up short, Blissey could
destroy it in one Counter. Blissey is incredibly tough to kill. Other Fighting
type pokemon work well, especially ones that use the Endure/Reversal combo or
any Fighting type that boosts its Attack can pretty much take out Blissey in
one shot. Your problem is that you might not get the chance. You can try and PP
waste it, depending on what its set is. If you power up your attack with moves
such as Curse and Swords Dance, you can take out Blissey in one shot. Be
especially careful of Counter if you do decide to use physical attacks. With
Softboiled being its standard recovery move, Blissey is very susceptible to the
Mean Look and Toxic combo. If you can manage to hit it with Mean Look, you
stand a good chance of picking up a kill. You might even get Blissey to waste
Heal Bell PP if you get it to try and save itself. Mean Looking Blissey is
quite tough, as is just about any other method of trying to kill it. Repeated
physical attacks can work well, assuming the opposing Blissey does not have
Counter and that it doesn't have boost its evade. Single hit knockout moves
also work well on Blissey. Blissey sets with evade sets will require Softboiled
to come with the set and that will leave two slots for offense. Blissey really
is not much offensively. Where you have two pokemon that can learn Rest, you
can overcome the effects of Blissey's status effects and Rest off any damage
done. pokemon that have huge attacks or have set themselves up before Blissey
comes up can usually just roll right over it. If Blissey does manage to
increase its evade with Minimize, it can easily stall out or survive most any
direct offensive and so you'll need to have Haze to eliminate these boosts.
Pseudo-haze also works, but it isn't unaffected by evade like Haze is. Once you
eliminate these boosts you can try and take Blissey down by conventional
offense again. While it's possible to hit Blissey after it boosts its evade, it
becomes unlikely that you'll connect consistently enough to overcome Blissey's
recovery. If you've got a pokemon with Curse and recovery abilities, you can
power up and then keep using powerful physical attacks until one connects. You
probably won't get the chance to do that on a Blissey although you can get an
opposing Blissey to switch out and pick up a good hit on what your opponent
switches to. It is possible to defeat Blissey with special moves, it's just
very difficult. For this you're going to need moves that lower Blissey's
Special Defense and you're going to need a pokemon that has an extremely good
Special Attack. Moves like Crunch and Psychic can do the job. You'll need some
powerful special attackers like Houndoom or Alakazam and you'll also need some
recovery abilities because this process can take many turns. Weaker special
attackers will have all of their efforts Softboiled away.


===========================
Celebi
===========================
Set: Recover, *Perish Song, *Protect, *Leech Seed, *Giga Drain, *Ancientpower,
    *Double Team, *Psychic, *Baton Pass, *Toxic

Uses: Recover seems to be the main constant on Celebi for obvious reasons. Some
people have used Celebi as a major life draining pokemon. With Leech Seed, Giga
Drain, and sometimes Toxic, Celebi can suck the life out of its foes very
quickly and it can recover away damage it sustains in the process. Some people
like to have a nice special attacker with Recover and they throw some
combinations of moves together. Another use of Celebi is Baton Pass, it can
Pass something like Double Team with ease or even go for that special
Ancientpower boost and Baton Pass a boost in every skill to the next pokemon.
Celebi can also use Perish Song for what's called "Perish Trapping". To
actually finish something with Perish Song, Celebi will need to have the
pokemon trapped with Mean Look before it can be Baton Passed in to use the move
effectively. Once Celebi is in position, it can use Protect and Recover to make
it very difficult to defeat before the count on the Perish Song reaches 0.

Counters: Celebi has solid stats in every category, but it's weakness comes in
its type. Grass and Psychic make it doubly susceptible to Bug type attacks so a
Bug type Hidden Power or a Megahorn would wreak havoc. Celebi is also
vulnerable to Fire, and its Hit Point-draining moves can't stop a
Sunny Day/Fire attack combo. As far as stopping the Perish Trapping combo, your
only real hope is pseudo-haze. Celebi can be taken out with Dark or Ice type
attacks, provided the user of it has a high Special Attack, otherwise Celebi
might be able to outpace the user with Leech Seed and Recover. Sometimes taking
out Celebi can be difficult even if you have a type advantage as Celebi can
drain Hit Points extremely fast with Leech Seed and Recover in kind. You'll
need to be able to break through celebi's recovery and draining abilities.
Because of the nature of Celebi's draining moves, building up your defenses is
not going to help you. Celebi is more vulnerable to status moves itself than
you might think. Most people give Celebi Heal Bell to overcome status moves and
Safeguard is a rarity. Hitting Celebi with status moves can give you an
advantage or it can make an opponent waste Heal Bell PP.


===========================
Charizard
===========================
Set: *Swords Dance, *Earthquake, *Rock Slide, *Belly Drum, *Sunny Day,
    *Flamethrower, *Rest

Uses: Charizard is a very interesting pokemon to try and use. While it has an
exceptionally powerful Flamethrower, especially when paired with Sunny Day, it
has no other special attacks that take advantage of his new and improved
Special Attack score. This is why many continue to use Swords Dance to power up
Earthquake and Rock Slide. There's also Belly Drum, which shoots Charizard's
Attack through the roof at the great risk of destruction. If Charizard survives
the turn of Belly Drum, it can hopefully use the Minty Rest combo and start
wiping out your opponent's team due to its rather high Speed.

Counters: Due to Charizard's type, there are many Counters. His type leaves him
weak to both Water and Electric attacks and he also has a quad weakness to
Rock. A few well-placed attacks of these elements do the job quite nicely. This
coupled with the fact that 298 Speed may not be enough to make a clean sweep of
a team without taking some hits. After the turns needed to use Belly Drum or
Swords Dance, Charizard is likely not going to be able to take hits very well.


===========================
Cloyster
===========================
Set: Surf, Explosion, *Icy Wind, *Spikes, *Reflect, *Ice Beam

Uses: Cloyster took a massive drop in Special Defense since RBY and its Special
Attack is all that's left. Cloyster can do a good job using Ice Beam and Surf.
Icy Wind is a setup move which can mess up pokemon using Agility and also
pokemon trying to Baton Pass it. Cloyster can use Spikes, it's one of the few
that can, although it isn't the most reliable to do so. Cloyster can also use
reflect. Due to its Defense, Cloyster is good to go against some of the most
powerful physical attacks around for a few good rounds. Cloyster's real selling
point is Explosion. It's got a solid Attack and can use Explosion to wipe out
most anything with it. Most of the pokemon that can withstand Cloyster's
Explosion are Rock or Steel types that are usually easy prey for Surf. The only
other worries are Ghost types and Skarmory and Shuckle.

Counters: Cloyster's Special is very low as are its Hit Points. A good
Thunderbolt or Solarbeam can finish the job. With Cloyster your main concern
though is Explosion. If you see someone packing Cloyster, it's likely that it
will lay down Spikes on the first turn. Unfortunately this is really hard to
stop. It's tough to beat a pokemon in one turn and with Cloyster, it's likely
that only a special attack could. Most opponents won't let you have a chance to
hit Cloyster with a super-effective special attack anyway. After Spikes are
laid down, Cloyster is eventually going to Explode. Get around that and it's an
easy kill. Fail, and...you can guess what happens. While it's hard to stop
Cloyster on the first turn you see it, you can switch to something powerful on
the turn that it's going to Explode and take it out before you get the chance.
It's difficult to prevent Cloyster from laying down Spikes and only something
like Rapid Spin can get rid of them once they're down. Icy Wind works as a good
setup move for an Explosion from Cloyster and that's hard for you to deal with.
You either need to have super-effective physical attacks coming from good
attackers or you need special attackers to bring down Cloyster and it seems
like only strong Electric types can beat Cloyster before it can Explode. You've
either got the right stuff or you're blown sky high.


===========================
Crobat
===========================
Set: *Toxic, *Protect, *Fly, *Haze, *Mean Look, *Confuse Ray, *Rest,
    *Wing Attack

Uses: Crobat does some interesting things. One of his most noted uses is Haze.
At 358 Speed, Crobat is the unquestioned fastest Hazer in the game. Crobat can
come up and break up any Baton Passing or stat modifying before the enemy gets
to do anything useful, provided the opponent hasn't used Agility. Crobat can
also use the Toxic/Mean Look combo and he can add some flavor to it with
Confuse Ray, Rest, Fly, and Protect. Crobat operates by itself. This can be an
advantage and a disadvantage. The nice thing about it is that Crobat doesn't
really need the help of other pokemon to use its strategies. The downside is
that Crobat is lacking in durability and it would be nice if Crobat didn't have
to devote so much of its set to the Mean Look combo as it doesn't leave much
else. If you plan to be defeating multiple opponents with status effects then
you're going to need Rest in the set. You can't have opponents switching out on
you so you'll also want Mean Look. That leaves you with two slots. You'll have
to have Toxic in the set because other status effects just can't really drain
opponents life away. Now you've got one slot left to work with. You don't have
to have Rest in a set because you can just go full on at an opponent, but if
you actually want to defeat something you'll have to prevent switching with
Mean Look. Some Crobat sets with Haze just throw on Wing Attack for some
average STAB, but it doesn't have much of an effect on anything...

Counters: Crobat doesn't have strong defensive stats. It has weaknesses to
Ice, Psychic, and Electric type attacks. As far as the Toxic combos are
concerned, a pokemon with Rest can avoid falling to Toxic and stall out Crobat.
A pseudo-hazer can force Crobat to switch, breaking up the Mean Look/Toxic
combo. Some status cure berries or Safeguard can buy you enough time to wipe
out Crobat without any troubles. Not all pokemon are equipped to take out
Crobat before they are hit by status effects. What you can do is switch a
pokemon out before Crobat gets a chance to use Mean Look. pokemon without Rest
and pokemon that do not have offensive moves that will take out Crobat
relatively quickly shouldn't be facing it. Switch out to something that can
before you fight Crobat. A sturdy Rester can deal with Crobat.


===========================
Dodrio
===========================
Set: Endure, Flail, *Drill Peck, *Curse, *Agility, *Body Slam, *Tri Attack

Uses: Dodrio's Endure and Flail combo is incredibly deadly. It is capable of
crushing most of the pokemon that don't have resistance to Flail with some
exceptions. Most of the other parts of the set are things that Dodrio can do on
the side before it's time to use Endure and Flail. Everything is
self-explanatory with the exception of Curse and Agility. Curse raises Attack
and Defense one stage while dropping Speed one stage. Agility raises Speed by
two stages. By using these two together Dodrio ends up raising its Speed one
stage making it faster than any pokemon while also increasing the power of
Flail.

Counters: Dodrio is a very fragile pokemon with Ice, Electric, and Rock
weakness, not to mention low defensive stats, so getting it down isn't too
tough. Getting past the Endure/Flail combo can be difficult. The thing to
remember though is that Flail isn't really powerful until the user is almost
completely out of Hit Points. Endure also won't Protect against any status
moves so paralysis, sleep, and poison. Once these are in play, Dodrio's Flail
is no longer much of a threat. A Ghost type can foil the Endure/Flail combo
once it gets started as well.


===========================
Donphan
===========================
Set: Roar, *Rapid Spin, *Curse, *Earthquake, *Ancientpower, *Rest

Uses: This pokemon went relatively unnoticed, until it was later noticed to be
a Counter for "Nickwak" which will be covered later. Basically, most of the
Baton Passing done in pokemon passes Attack and Speed boosts, and Double Teams
and Substitutes. Donphan is able to withstand most every hit from a pokemon
that has had an Attack boost and is able to then pseudo-haze them away. Donphan
also learns Rapid Spin, which became used as a Counter for Spikes when it
became more popular. Donphan's use of Curse was more of a side thing. The
interesting thing is that Donphan can use Curse and avoid getting pseudo-hazed
away himself by using Roar. If Donphan has used Curse, it will be slower,
allowing it to switch out the pseudo-hazer while keeping its stat bonuses.

Counters: Taking down Donphan with special attacks is quite easy. The real
question is how to get rid of a Donphan that is trying to break up your stat
boosting. It's very difficult and you certainly have to go out of your way.
Baton Passing Double Team may prevent Donphan's Roar from connecting. The only
other reliable way is to use a Curse/Roar combo. Aside from those two things,
Donphan is a very reliable pseudo-hazing pokemon.


===========================
Dragonite
===========================
Set: *Haze, *Thunderbolt, *Flamethrower, *Ice Beam, *Light Screen, *Rest,
    *Wing Attack/Hidden Power Flying, *Body Slam, *Safeguard, *Outrage,
    *Extremespeed, *Curse

Uses: There is no standard Dragonite. You basically use his excellent range of
Special attacks and his pathetic range of physical attacks to fit what your
team needs. Most of this is self-explanatory offense with a few exceptions.
Except for a huge Ice weakness and Rock weakness, Dragonite is a sturdy pokemon
and he can make use of Haze. Safeguard and Outrage go together to protect
Dragonite from the confusion that comes when Outrage ends. Curse, as we know,
boosts Attack and Defense while lowering Speed. When using Extremespeed,
Curse's side effect doesn't matter, as Dragonite will always go first. Wing
Attack when used with the "Sharp Beak" attached allows Dragonite to take down
Machamp in two hits and Hidden Power Flying is more powerful than Wing Attack.
Light Screen helps Dragonite out against special attacks, but it's not an
excuse for it to take a frosty beating.

Counters: Dragonite is weak to Rock type attacks and it has a quadruple
weakness to Ice attacks. Besides this Dragonite is a fairly tough pokemon and
it can be pesky to get rid of. Fortunately none of its combos are exceptionally
powerful and Dragon type attacks run off of Dragonite's Special Attack rather
than his huge Attack.


===========================
Electabuzz
===========================
Set: Thunderbolt, *Cross Chop, *Light Screen, *Psychic, *Thunder Wave,
    *Ice Punch, *Thunderpunch, *Rest, *Counter

Uses: Thunderbolt is an obvious choice for STAB, but otherwise Electabuzz is
easy to customize. Though nowhere near enough to KO Rock/Ground types,
Electabuzz's Cross Chop can leave a decent dent before it goes down to an
Earthquake. Electabuzz can also bash Normal and Dark types with this move as it
runs off its decent Attack. Light Screen and Thunder Wave can serve as good
support. The Rest is just some elemental attacks that can be useful.
Earthquakes without STAB are not enough to kill Electabuzz and so Counter can
produce some fun results.

Counters: Even with Cross Chop, Electabuzz can't stand up to Rock/Ground types.
Ice Punch isn't enough to take down Ice types either. Due to the variety of
Electabuzz's attacks it can do some respectable damage to most any pokemon,
but the problem is it's just not quite enough to save itself. Countering
Electabuzz is not too difficult, but don't give this pokemon too many free
shots or it can do some considerable damage.


===========================
Electrode
===========================
Set: Thunder Wave, Screech, Explosion, Thunderbolt, *Mirror Coat, *Swagger

Uses: Electrode's status support isn't quite as necessary now in GSC as it was
in RBY. It's the fastest pokemon in the game and so it's easy for it to quickly
paralyze whatever your opponent sends out. After a single screech, your
opponent should be wiped out by Explosion. Thunderbolt allows Electrode to
double as a special attacker if it happens to get a type advantage. If
Electrode's strategy works, your opponent should either be wiped out or
severely hurting with paralysis. Because of things like Rest, the status cure
berries, and the widespread use of the move Heal Bell, Electrode's paralysis
support isn't as lasting as it once was. For this reason people have given it
Mirror Coat. Electrode's defensive stats are pretty average and so it would
deal back extensive damage if it were to successfully use Mirror Coat on a
special attack. Electrode could then use a move like Thunderbolt to finish off
the pokemon it hit with Mirror Coat. Swagger is put on Electrode as a Defense
against "Nickwak." In the Game Boy games, Marowak's Attack power reached a
certain limit before it reset. In other words, Marowak could only use one
Swords Dance before its Attack reset. Swagger acts as another Attack boost and
resets Marowak's Attack. Electrode is the only pokemon that is faster than a
fully setup Nickwak and so is the only one to pull this strategy off.

Counters: Electrode's paralysis can be taken away with Rest, status cure
berries, and Heal Bell. An unpredictable switch is all it takes to keep the
Screech and Explosion from taking out one of your pokemon. Electrode is
ill-equipped to deal with Ground types, so much so that people have put Hidden
Power Water on it. Even beside Ground types, Electrode's survivability is
certainly not the greatest. Your main concern is that Electrode doesn't get to
use Screech and Explosion together because that's a guaranteed kill for it.


===========================
Entei
===========================
Set: Sunny Day, Flamethrower/Fire Blast, Solarbeam, Return, *Rest, *Swagger,
    *Psych Up, *Roar

Uses: Entei has a very weird distribution of stats. It is able to use the
Sunny Day/Fire/Solarbeam combo. This combo boosts the power of Fire moves,
while allowing Entei to hit some of the Water, Rock, and Ground type pokemon
with a Solarbeam without having to charge. Sunny Day also halves the damage
dealt by Water attacks. It's a good combo. Entei's Attack is 328 and so most
people throw on the move Return to do some decent physical damage. Rest can be
put on any Entei set. With Entei having a physical weakness, the Swagger/Psych
Up combo is risky, but if it does work, Entei's Return becomes very powerful.
Entei can also use Psych Up to copy stat boosts such as Curse and then use Roar
to switch out the pokemon that used Curse, allowing it to do some major damage
with Return.

Counters: The combo with Sunny Day is good, but Entei is still vulnerable to
physical attacks. Entei has a Rock and Ground weakness in addition to its Water
weakness. While Solarbeam may take care of some of the Water types and Rock
types that will threaten Entei, it won't help Entei against pokemon that aren't
of these types that still pack moves like Earthquake and Rock Slide. Many
Normal types use Earthquake. Entei's Solarbeam isn't enough to finish off many
pure Ground pokemon or pokemon that aren't Rock/Ground type and so it will
still take powerful super-effective attacks from the pokemon before it can use
another Solarbeam. Entei is a bit vulnerable to special attacks with its
Special Defense being an average 248. Even though Entei is a legendary pokemon,
it can be taken down by conventional attacks eventually, as its defensive stats
aren't particularly good.


===========================
Exeggutor
===========================
Set: *Synthesis, *Giga Drain, *Sleep Powder, *Nightmare, *Stun Spore, *Psychic,
    *Leech Seed, *Explosion

Uses: Exeggutor is a pokemon that can do a variety of things. It has both Sleep
Powder and Stun Spore, both of which have decent accuracy and the two can be
blended into whatever set you use. The two provide some decent status effects.
Sleep Powder can serve to set up Nightmare, which takes a quarter of an
opponent's help. Synthesis can be added to the set giving Exeggutor some decent
recovery. Leech Seed and Giga Drain can give Exeggutor some life-draining
potential. Psychic works nicely with Exeggutor's great Special Attack. Another
selling point of Exeggutor is that it can use Explosion, which will kill off
most things because of Exeggutor's decent Attack rating. Exeggutor is a blend
of these moves and it can be highly tweaked.

Counters: Exeggutor's main problem is its type. Grass and Psychic give it a
quad Bug weakness. Also in the physical realm is a Ghost weakness. Exeggutor's
Special Defense has taken a big drop since RBY. This is not good as Exeggutor's
other weaknesses are Ice, Fire, and Dark type attacks. Exploiting these
weaknesses is easy enough, but a major thing to watch out for is Explosion,
especially since Exeggutor can use some status moves before it falls. Explosion
is something that's unpredictable that you'll have to watch out for.
Exeggutor's Attack is high enough to blow away most pokemon in a single hit
with it. It's definitely a tough thing to prepare for. Exeggutor's Leech Seed
can sap away quite a bit of health at a time and if it's got Synthesis, your
best bet is to switch out as Exeggutor can Leech away many pokemon this way.
Even if you've got a pokemon with an advantage over Exeggutor, it could be put
under by Exeggutor's Sleep Powder. Exeggutor's got an amazing Special Attack
and its Psychic and Giga Drain can be quite potent. Try your best to gauge the
set of your opponent's Exeggutor as you go after it. If you've got some
super-effective special attacks and a strong enough special attacker, Exeggutor
can be taken out in a couple of hits. Exeggutor has some great Hit Points and a
sturdy Defense and a weaker Special Defense with the ability to recover.
Exeggutor can't have recovery through Synthesis and Explosion at the same time.
Outside of simply using super-effective attacks, you're going to have to adapt
your counter to your opponent's Exeggutor set. A big advantage that you have is
that Exeggutor is pretty slow and so you'll get the chance to strike with an
attack or a status effect before it does and you stand a better chance of
eliminating it before it recovers this way.


===========================
Forretress
===========================
Set: Explosion, Spikes, *Rapid Spin, *Sandstorm, *Protect, *Double-Edge,
    *Hidden Power

Uses: Forretress's strategy is very limited. Its purpose is to lay down Spikes
and explode. These two things are the key role of Forretress. Anything else is
usually pretty much secondary. If the strategy works correctly, Forretress will
be able to take down an opponent's pokemon with it and Spikes will be up. Both
you and your opponent will lose a pokemon, but your opponent will have to deal
with Spikes. Forretress's Attack is considerably high and so its
Spikes/Explosion should score a kill on anything that doesn't have resistance.
If your opponent messes around and tries to switch in something to take an
Explosion, lay down Spikes and switch out. You decide when it's best for
Forretress to explode. Explosion could be a way of stopping an opponent's
strategy from getting too powerful later in the battle. Most of the other slots
in the set are pretty much just filler. Rapid Spin eliminates other Spikes.
Hidden Power and Double-Edge do average damage on the side. Sandstorm works
well in taking some okay damage away if you can get it off.

Counters: While Forretress has good Hit Points and a massive Defense, its
Special Defense is weak. It also has a glaring quadruple weakness to Fire
attacks. The Spikes/Explosion strategy worked so well for long enough that it
got to the point where people put Fire attacks on pokemon they ordinarily
wouldn't just to take Forretress out. There's really no better way to kill the
thing. Most any special attacks can do this pokemon in fast; you just have to
worry about it blowing someone up. If you're packing a Forretress, Protect may
come in handy at times where you're not sure if your opponent has a Fire move
or not.


===========================
Gengar
===========================
Set: *Mean Look, *Perish Song, *Protect, *Destiny Bond, *Confuse Ray,
    *Hypnosis, *Counter, *Explosion, *Psychic, *Thunderbolt, *Ice Punch,
    *Toxic, *Nightmare, *Dream Eater, *Haze, *Rest, *Shadow Ball, *Giga Drain,
    *still more

Uses: Gengar is a very interesting pokemon. He has tons of different things he
can do and almost all of his moveset possibilities are interchangeable. If
you're going to be using Gengar as a Perish Trapper, you'll need Mean Look,
Protect or Destiny Bond, and a recovery move in order to use the combo
effectively. The other combos mix and match. Gengar can be a special attacker
and it can also do some status effects. Hypnosis is an okay sleep move, but
pair it with some other status effects and it works well. Confuse Ray is an
excellent move on its own. Gengar also can double as a Hazer and a very quick
one at that. Destiny Bond works very well with Gengar because of its excellent
Speed. If you predict when your opponent is going to finish you off, you can
take them down with you with Destiny Bond. Explosion can also get a sacrificial
KO but you're likely going to have to wear down your opponent before you try
and take someone down with it as Gengar's Attack is below average. Shadow Ball
is about the only other physical attack that should be attempted on Gengar. Use
it only on Psychic pokemon and other Ghosts, namely Misdreavus. Counter is
sometimes used on Gengar to try and wipe out opponents that would otherwise do
major damage with physical attacks. Make sure Gengar can survive the physical
hit from the pokemon you plan on Countering.

Counters: The beauty of Gengar is that you never really know what one is going
to do. One thing does hold true: Gengar is very fragile. With a low Defense,
and a newly dropped Special Defense, it isn't going to stand a beating. Gengar
is weak to Dark and Psychic attacks on the Special side and it's weakness to
Ground type moves is another breaking point. Gengar has low HP so wearing it
down doesn't take too long. There are a lot of things it can do so just keep on
your toes.


===========================
Ho-oh
===========================
Set: Sunny Day, Solarbeam, Sacred Fire/Flamethrower/Fire Blast, Recover,
    *Thunderbolt

Uses: All of Ho-oh's stats are either solid or excellent. Ho-oh can learn the
Sunny Day/Solarbeam/Fire attack combo and it pulls it off rather well. Add
Recover to that and Ho-oh has some decent survivability. After Sunny Day is up,
Solarbeam can take care of Water and Rock types that threaten Ho-oh and Fire
attacks while Sunny Day is up can take care of most anything else. The combo is
very powerful and it deals impressive damage quickly.

Alternate: Curse, Recover, Earthquake, Ancientpower

Rationale: Ho-oh's Attack is slightly off from being the highest in the game.
It can learn Earthquake and Ancientpower, which give it some physical Ground
and Rock type moves that can make it effective. Curse also raises Ho-oh's
Defense, which is a big plus given its Rock weakness. After enough Curses,
Ho-oh is able to endure a Rock Slide and take out most of the users of it with
Earthquake. It's a good set that covers this bird's major weakness. Some people
toss in a special attack onto a Cursing set on occasion, putting in a Fire
attack can prevent Ho-oh from being pseudo-hazed by Skarmory. Some people even
blend physical attacks with the special attacking set.

Counters: Ho-oh has a type weakness to Water and Electricity. Unfortunately,
Ho-oh's Special Defense is a massive 406 meaning that unless you've got some
very powerful special attackers or Water pokemon packing Rain Dance, Ho-oh can
recover off damage and whittle you down eventually. Ho-oh's main weakness is
that it takes quadruple damage from Rock attacks. Rhydon and Tyranitar are the
two that are capable of taking down Ho-oh with one Rock move. A pokemon packing
Rock attacks or a pokemon with an Attack boosting move like Curse can two shoot
Ho-oh. The problem is that if Ho-oh has Sunny Day up before Rhydon shows up, it
can take Rhydon down with one Solarbeam. If Ho-oh gets enough Curses off, it
can take Rhydon out with Earthquake, while still withstanding a Rock Slide.
Tyranitar can potentially finish the bird off, but it would take extensive
damage from either Solarbeam or Earthquake. Status effects like paralyzation,
sleep, and confusion may buy you enough time to topple Ho-oh, but it can deal
major damage to most any pokemon that tries this. A pokemon with high Special
Defense like Blissey can stall out special attacking Ho-oh sets and
pseudo-hazing pokemon can get rid of Curses. Both sets aren't quite as
devastating if they mix and match. Using strategies like Destiny Bond and
Explosion would definitely be worth using on this thing. Ho-oh is a legendary
pokemon with the same stats as Mewtwo, but distributed differently. Because of
its power, it has been consistently deemed a super legendary pokemon. It is a
difficult threat to deal with.


===========================
Houndoom
===========================
Set: Sunny Day, Flamethrower/Fire Blast, Solarbeam, Crunch/Pursuit, *Counter,
    *Endure, *Reversal

Uses: If ever there was a standard set for a pokemon, this would be it.
Houndoom excels at Special Attack and it gets the Sunny Day/Solarbeam/Fire
combo. Houndoom is also part Dark type, making Crunch a natural choice.
Houndoom has the best Special Attack of all the Dark types. The Sunny Day combo
allows Houndoom to take down Water and Rock and Ground types with Solarbeam and
attack everything else with powerful Fire moves. Houndoom's Dark type allows it
to take down Psychic pokemon with ease. Houndoom is a quick special attacker
that really only needs one turn of setup. Oftentimes trainers pick Pursuit over
Crunch because they reason that Houndoom is mainly going to be using Crunch on
Psychic pokemon and most opponents switch their Psychic pokemon out before
Houndoom gets this chance. Pursuit allows Houndoom to hit Psychic pokemon
before they switch out for the same damage as Crunch. There are pros and cons
of both. Most people hit Houndoom with physical attacks and so Counter is a
reasonable choice for Houndoom. There are a few Houndoom sets that use Endure
and Reversal, which can be done as Houndoom's Attack and Speed are high, but
the main drawback is that Reversal, does not have STAB.

Counters: With the exception of its Defense, Houndoom's stats are pretty high.
The problem is that Houndoom's Defense comes just short of 200 points. This is
a major problem as Houndoom has a physical weakness to Rock, Ground, and
Fighting attacks. While Houndoom's combo with Sunny Day does deal out some
respectable damage, Houndoom doesn't usually knock out most of its opponents
without taking some damage. A good Earthquake, Rock Slide, or Cross Chop can
put Houndoom away. With Houndoom's Defense being so low though, even strong
physical hits can bring it down. Houndoom usually takes at least two hits to
take something down which is enough time for you to hit it hard. Houndoom can
do a lot of Special damage quickly but it lacks the survivability to make
itself devastating.


===========================
Jolteon
===========================
Set: *Thunderbolt, *Agility, *Baton Pass, *Substitute, *Thunder Wave, *Attract,
    *Roar, *Swagger, *Hidden Power Water/Ice, *Rain Dance, *Thunder, *Bite

Uses: Due to the rarity of Crobat and Electrode, and the banning of Mewtwo from
most competition, Jolteon ends up being the fastest pokemon competitive play
has to offer. On top of this, Jolteon has a strong Special Attack. Jolteon has
become more of a support and status pokemon since GSC. Jolteon makes a good
Baton Passer because of its Speed. Jolteon usually Passes an Agility and often
passes a Substitute with that also. The increased Speed and Substitute allow
for the pokemon you Pass to to power up and start dealing major damage quickly.
The most noted pokemon Jolteon Passes to is Marowak and this creates the
Joltwak combo, which I'll discuss under Marowak. Jolteon isn't limited to Baton
Passing. Jolteon can also be used to inflict some very damaging status effects.
Thunder Wave causes paralyzation, Attract can cause...attraction, which is
nearly as good as confusion, and Bite can cause flinching. Together these moves
can become very annoying. Swagger is a risky way of providing confusion and
Roar can do some risky pseudo-hazing and "status shuffling" which is a fancy
way of saying that Jolteon can bring in a new opponent to use status moves on.
Jolteon can use Hidden Power to attack some of the Rock and Ground pokemon that
threaten it. Hidden Power Water can be powered up by Rain Dance. Hidden Power
Water gets quadruple damage to Rock/Ground types. Hidden Power Ice doesn't get
quadruple damage on the Rock/Ground types, but Ice is still effective on Ground
pokemon and it is super-effective on Grass pokemon. This helps as Grass pokemon
resist Electricity. Rain Dance makes Thunder accurate allowing Jolteon to do
some powerful Electric damage and making Water Power more effective. Jolteon
sets seem to fall under Baton Passing, status effects, and attacking. The Baton
Passing usually involves Agility and Substitute, the status effects make use of
Thunder Wave, Attract, Swagger, and things like that, and the attacking sets
make use of Thunderbolt, Hidden Power, and often Rain Dance. People blend
moves, but these are the three main roles usually seen on Jolteon.

Counters: Ground type pokemon have complete immunity to Jolteon's Electric
attacks and are able to take it down in one or two Earthquakes. Unless it's a
Rock/Ground pokemon, Jolteon's Hidden Power should not be able to save itself
from an Earthquake. Jolteon gets its job done fast, be that Baton Passing or
sweeping, allowing it to avoid taking some damage. Jolteon does not have great
survivability. Its Hit Points are on the lower side. Its Defense is low, making
it susceptible to strong physical hits, especially Earthquake. Jolteon's
Special Defense has dropped since GSC making it a bit more vulnerable to
special attacks. If you can hit Jolteon with a status effect, especially one
like paralyzation, you can seriously hamper Jolteon's effectiveness. Jolteon is
often difficult to deal with because it comes in fast and fulfills its role
quickly and can leave. Getting in a clean shot on Jolteon can be difficult.


===========================
Jumpluff
===========================
Set: Encore, *Leech Seed, *Giga Drain, *Sleep Powder, *Stun Spore, *Synthesis

Uses: Jumpluff is very weak on offense and its defensive stats are mediocre.
Jumpluff redeems itself by being able to use some excellent moves. Jumpluff is
most noted for being able to use Encore. Encore forces a pokemon to repeat the
move they last used for several rounds. This works very well on Jumpluff
because it can Encore the last move most opponents used before they can use
another move. If Jumpluff Encores something like a stat boosting move, it makes
the Encored pokemon defenseless. Another good thing about Jumpluff is that it
is the fastest pokemon that has a decent sleep move. Jumpluff can put most
pokemon to sleep before taking damage. Stun Spore also works well with
Jumpluff's Speed and it gives some status support. Leech Seed is a powerful HP
draining move that works well against crippled opponents. Synthesis is for
recovery and Giga Drain can either add to HP draining or it can be used on
pokemon weak to it.

Counters: Jumpluff is not the toughest pokemon around. It has weaknesses to
Fire, Flying, and Rock type attacks and a quadruple weakness to Ice. Your main
concern is Encore and its status effects. If you're facing Encore and you use
an attacking move, Jumpluff's Encore will cause the attacking move to repeat,
giving it no protection from damage. If you're stuck Encoring a worthless move,
switch. Jumpluff may be expecting a switch so take caution. If you're playing
with sleep clause in effect, Jumpluff should be easy to wear down. Status
effects, like paralysis, work very well.


===========================
Jynx
===========================
Set: *Mean Look, *Ice Beam, *Perish Song, *Protect, *Lovely Kiss, *Dream Eater,
    *Nightmare, *Double Team

Uses: Jynx is a very quick pokemon that uses the fairly accurate Lovely Kiss
move to quickly put pokemon to sleep. After that is done, Jynx can trap
opponents with Mean Look and either hammer away with powerful special attacks
or use the Perish Trapping combo. Jynx's selling point is that it can put
opponents to sleep before using special attacks or the Perish Trapping combo,
which makes defeating opponents much easier. Dream Eater and Nightmare are good
attacks to use on sleeping opponents. Nightmare can finish off opponents with
calculated damage, while Dream Eater comes in the form of a powerful Psychic
attack that gives Jynx back HP. Perish Song, Nightmare, and Dream Eater need
Mean Look to work effectively. Double Team does a lot of things. It can give
you some evasion before you go into an offensive and it's also a way to use the
Haze-luring strategy.

Counters: While Jynx's Special Attack stat has got a major boost since RBY, its
Hit Points and Defense are still unchanged. In fact, Jynx's Defense score is a
low 168. Any kind of strong physical attack should do major damage to Jynx.
Jynx's Special Defense is decent, but it has a weakness to Fire and Dark type
attacks. The main weaknesses you can exploit are its physical weaknesses with
Ghost, Rock, Steel, and Bug attacks. A strong enough attacker can usually wipe
out Jynx with one shot. The key with Jynx is getting that shot because of
Lovely Kiss. There are a few quick pokemon that can get a shot in, but Lovely
Kiss usually puts most under before they can attack. Status cure berries can
allow you to remain awake for a turn giving you time to get a solid hit in. If
you can get off a Safeguard, Jynx will be without the use of Lovely Kiss,
allowing you to pour on the damage. Jynx's Perish Trapping strategy is a bit
tricky. If Jynx uses Lovely Kiss, you should switch out to something that can
faint it quick. If Jynx uses Mean Look first, then you'll have a chance to get
in one shot. The major problem with fighting Jynx is that you sometimes have to
sacrifice a pokemon before you can take it down. Usually sleep clause is used
in battles so Jynx doesn't go on a killing spree. One thing that works
extremely well on Jynx is Sleep Talk. When paired with a strong move you can
hit Jynx even while sleeping. A pokemon like Heracross can wipe out Jynx while
sleeping if Sleep Talk picks Megahorn. The only problem is that you may get
unlucky and choose Rest for a few rounds.


===========================
Kingdra
===========================
Set: *Dragonbreath, *Surf, *Ice Beam, *Double Team, *Rest, *Sleep Talk,
    *Rain Dance

Uses: Kingdra has fairly strong stats in every area. It can launch some
decently powerful special attacks, and it lasts long enough to deal out more
than a few. Surf and Ice Beam are some splashable special attacks while
Dragonbreath works well against Dragonite and other Kingdra and it doubles as a
paralyzing move. Rest and Sleep Talk can make Kingdra especially hard to get
rid of and Sleep Talk allows Kingdra to use its special attacks while sleeping.
Double Team can work on Kingdra because of its solid stats and decent ability
to do damage after it has finished Double Teaming. Rain Dance can power up Surf
for some stronger damage.

Counters: Kingdra is a very difficult pokemon to get rid of. Its type is
Water/Dragon, which is arguably the most resistant type in the game because it
covers Water weaknesses, gives Kingdra two quadruple resistances, and leaves it
open to uncommon Dragon type attacks. It doesn't stop there, because Kingdra's
stats are on the stronger side in every category. Put these together and
Kingdra is a real pain to get rid of. If you're planning to dispatch Kingdra
with Dragon type attacks, then the only thing that could reliably do the job
would be Dragonite's Outrage, but Dragonite could get blown apart by a Kingdra
packing Ice Beam. If Kingdra is using Rest and Sleep Talk, it's going to be
very difficult to get rid of. Unless your opponent is packing a Cursing set,
Kingdra almost exclusively packs special attacks. A pokemon with good recovery
and a strong Special Defense can stall out Kingdra. Just remember that the more
elaborate Kingdra sets get (Rest, Sleep Talk, Double Team, etc.) the less
damage they turn out. If your opponent has designed a Kingdra to do damage
while recovering and stalling then it reduces Kingdra's ability to sweep. If
you want to get rid of Kingdra quickly, then you're pretty much stuck with
either boosting your Attack to very high levels with Curse, or using moves that
KO by default.


===========================
Lanturn
===========================
Set: *Surf, *Ice Beam, *Thunderbolt, *Thunder Wave, *Confuse Ray, *Rain Dance,
    *Thunder

Uses: Lanturn is an Electric/Water type allowing it to really hurt other Water
types with Electric attacks. As a special attacker it does moderately well with
its average Special being redeemed by its high HP. Lanturn's main selling point
is that it can utilize paralysis and confusion with Thunder Wave and Confuse
Ray. These two moves severely cripple opponents and that allows Lanturn to pick
up a KO with special attacks where it normally could not. The beauty of the
Thunder Wave and Confuse Ray combo is that if your opponent switches out, you
get to hit a different pokemon with Thunder Wave. People have tried things like
Rain Dance and Thunder, which can boost the power of Lanturn's Special. Ice
Beam is usually to attack Grass types; it's not very devastating if it's not
super-effective.

Counters: Lanturn's unusual type combination makes it do well against Water
pokemon, however it does give Lanturn some other problems. Lanturn's Electric
type still affords it no protection against Grass pokemon. Another major
problem is that Lanturn loses the edge on Ground pokemon. Rock/Ground pokemon
are no problem, but Lanturn's Special Attack isn't high enough to take down
pure Ground pokemon in one hit. This means that Lanturn is going to have to
take something like Earthquake before it can strike twice. A lot of non-Ground
pokemon also have Earthquake. Lanturn has an extremely large amount of Hit
Points, but its Defense is low and its Special Defense is mediocre. One or two
super-effective attacks can put Lanturn away. Safeguard can really help against
Lanturn's status effects and status cure berries can possibly give you some
time to attack. Lanturn isn't incredibly fast so it probably won't get off a
Confuse Ray or Thunder Wave without taking damage.


===========================
Lugia
===========================
Set: Recover, *Aeroblast, *Earthquake, *Curse, *Psychic, *Thunderbolt,
    *Ice Beam, *Safeguard, *Fly, *Future Sight

Uses: Lugia, Ho-oh, and Mewtwo all have the same stats, just proportioned
differently. Lugia's stats are extremely defensive and it learns Recover,
giving it some serious longevity. Because of this, it can use Curse very
effectively. Lugia's Attack is only a bit above average, but after enough
Curses, Aeroblast and Earthquake can tear things apart. Lugia's Attack is
decent, and Aeroblast is considered the best single Flying attack. Aeroblast
also has a high critical hit rate so it's fine to use Aeroblast without Curse.
Lugia's Special Attack is high enough to warrant using special attacks and so
Thunderbolt, Psychic, and Ice Beam can be of use. Lugia is pretty fast and it
can put up a Safeguard quickly, which can help it or the rest of your team from
being hit with pesky status effects. Together, Future Sight and Fly can strike
at the same time for pitiful damage, but you can stall for quite some time.
Lugia is not the most powerful offensive pokemon, but its defensive stats are
so great that it can just keep coming and wear down the opponents that it does
not immediately defeat. It is because of this, that Lugia is considered to be a
super legendary pokemon and is thus banned from most normal person-to-person
battling.

Counters: Lugia is a very difficult pokemon to counter. Its weaknesses are to
Electric, Ice, Rock, and Dark type attacks. While Lugia has three Special
weaknesses, it can easily recover off most of the damage it takes from special
attacks. At 406 Special Defense, it's going to take an exceptionally strong
special attacker using strong super-effective moves to deal sufficient damage.
Lugia's weakness to Rocks can only really be exploited by Rhydon or Golem and
those two usually aren't able to down Lugia by themselves. Status effects can
help, but not if Lugia is packing Safeguard. Stalling Lugia sets don't attack
for much so you can waste PP of a few pokemon if it means nullifying the
effectiveness of your opponent's Lugia. As far as the Cursing sets go, your
goal is to prevent Lugia from getting Cursed up in the first place. If it does,
Destiny Bond or some tough pseudo-hazers may be all that there is to do. Combos
of physical and Special attacks aren't the most devastating, and you can
hopefully either get off some status effects or switch around pokemon and stall
out or wear down the threat. Lugia can do different things with its sets, but
it can only incorporate so many things into its set. If Lugia has Safeguard, it
probably won't be using Curse. If it has Curse, it probably won't have
Safeguard. Lugia sets usually can't defend against status effects and mount
strong offensives. Still, no matter which Lugia set you get stuck dealing with,
you're always going to have to deal with Recover and that alone makes things
difficult. That's why Selfdestruct or Explosion or Destiny Bond isn't out of
the question.


===========================
Machamp
===========================
Set: Cross Chop, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Light Screen/Rest/Fire Blast, *Rest,
    *Sleep Talk, *Curse

Uses: Machamp is one of the more straightforward pokemon. Its Attack is just a
bit off from being the highest in the game and its defensive stats are fairly
strong. Machamp unleashes the devastating Cross Chop attack, which punishes
most opponents, and it picks up critical hits frequently. Earthquake and Rock
Slide work well on pokemon that are resistant to Cross Chop. Rock Slide is more
in the way of covering Machamp's own weakness while Earthquake out damages a
regular Cross Chop if it's super-effective. Machamp can do a few different
things with the final slot. Rest with a Mint Berry can allow Machamp to go on
attacking few more rounds. Light Screen can give Machamp some protection from
special attacks, though it's tricky to use and often not enough to warrant
leaving Machamp in against Psychic pokemon in the first place. Rest and Sleep
Talk allow for Machamp to last a lot longer and it lets Machamp launch powerful
attacks in its sleep. People usually pair Rest and Sleep Talk with Earthquake
and Cross Chop or just Cross Chop. Fire Blast is to hit pokemon that have
quadruple weakness to Fire attacks, it should not be used in most any other
case. Machamp does have a weakness to Flying type attacks. With Counter,
Machamp can turn this around and deal back major damage to pokemon who use
Flying type attacks on it. Counter can also help against other types of
physical attacks against Machamp, although sometimes you might want just want
to hit an opponent hard instead of trying to guess whether or not an opponent
will use a physical attack or not.

Counters: Machamp is a powerful straight out attacker; it's usually not meant
to stay around for extended periods of time. Machamp has a Psychic and Flying
weakness. It covers its Flying weakness well with Rock Slide, but Light Screen
isn't enough to deal with Psychic types. Some people have gone to the length of
putting Hidden Power Bug on Machamp to cover Psychic pokemon, but it's not
quite enough. Machamp can be taken down by strong enough Psychic pokemon and
strong enough Flying pokemon, though it will do some damage before that
happens. Most other exchanges with Machamp are just going to be back and
forth and it will be a matter of who goes down first. If you have moves to
boost defenses, it can help. Machamp is fairly slow, so it is not likely to be
able to start sweeping. Cursing Machamp's are susceptible to special attacks,
namely Psychic, or they can be pseudo-hazed away. You almost have to do
something powerful or super-effective to take out a Sleep Talking Machamp
without taking major damage yourself. Machamp can be powerful if it has been
Baton Passed something to so take heed.


===========================
Magmar
===========================
Set: Flamethrower, Confuse Ray, Cross Chop, *Thunderpunch, *Rest, *Curse,
    *Psychic

Uses: Magmar has good offensive stats and it is fairly fast. It has a very
weird combination of moves, but they can be thrown together for some okay
damage. Confuse Ray is a good move on its own so it's tossed into most sets.
Cross Chop is a powerful Fighting move that works well with Magmar's Attack and
it does good Fighting damage to several pokemon. Thunderpunch can nail a few
Water types and Psychic may well just be on there for kicks as it has little to
do with weakness covering, but may help with sweeping later on. Curse can power
up Cross Chop, but the problem is Cross Chop is really the only thing worth
powering up that Magmar gets.

Counters: Magmar's quickness and offensive capabilities are offset by mediocre
Hit Points and a weak Defense. Physically, it's weak to Rock and Ground type
attacks and its weak to Water on the Special side. Attacks of these types are
fairly common. Again, a lot of pokemon pack Rock and Ground moves without
having either of those types. Magmar operates in similar to Electabuzz in that
it can deal good damage before being worn down by its weaker survivability.
Don't mess around though, because Magmar's Cross Chop and Flamethrower attacks
can cause significant damage.


===========================
Marowak
===========================
Set: Swords Dance, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Hidden Power Bug, *Screech, *Swagger

Uses: There seem to be two distinct types of Marowak sets. There is the
"Nickwak" set and the slight variations in it and there are also the
stand-alone Marowak sets. The Nickwak Marowak set is the set credited to
Nickwhiz1 and that is the set that I've displayed. Here is the essence of that
set in a nutshell: After you calculate in the effects of Thick Club, Marowak
has the highest Attack in the game. Marowak can learn Swords Dance, allowing it
to double its Attack and making Earthquake extraordinarily powerful to the
point of instantly knocking out many pokemon. The three remaining slots are
physical attacks to hurt pokemon that resist Earthquake. Rock Slide hits Flying
pokemon that are immune to Earthquake and Hidden Power Bug hits Grass types
resistant to Earthquake. After a Swords Dance, it becomes a question of who
Marowak can't kill in one hit. There is a problem with using Marowak by itself.
The problem is that Marowak is too slow to start plowing through an opponent's
lineup, its' going to be taking damage before it can take anything down. Baton
Passing Agility to Marowak remedies this. Marowak only needs an Agility, it can
Swords Dance for itself, though a Substitute can provide added protection.
Jolteon can get off and Baton Pass quickly so it's often the pokemon chosen to
do this. If Marowak gets Agility Baton Passed to it and it Swords Dances
successfully, its Speed becomes second only to Electrode and its Attack is high
enough to wipe out most anything. One thing to note is that in Game Boy
battles, the Game Boy's numerical calculations can only keep track of one
Swords Dance after Thick Club has been used so do not attempt a second Swords
Dance. The problem has to do with numerical overflow in the Game Boy and I'm
not going to go into a full explanation, but this problem is not present in
Stadium 2. Stand-alone Marowak sets don't offer the same power, but they do
contain a greater element of surprise. Marowaks with Screech work backwards,
dropping the opponent's Defense to ensure a knockout rather than boosting its
Attack. Marowak has a high Defense, so Swagger can work well as a confusion
move and it works even better with Screech. Swagger also works well against
special attackers that can pose a threat to Marowak. If you're particularly
concerned about being on the receiving end of pseudo-haze, you can equip
Marowak with the Rest and Sleep Talk combo. It allows Marowak to Rest up and
use powerful physical attacks repeatedly.

Counters: One of the great lessons of pokemon is that certain strategies get so
powerful that people become concerned about them and they go out of their way
to counter them. Marowak is probably the best example of this in GSC. If it
gets set up, a Nickwak can rip through most teams and this has been one of the
reasons why pseudo-haze has become a lot more widespread. Probably the best way
to counter Nickwak is by pseudo-haze. A pokemon attempting to pseudo-haze a
Nickwak must be able to take a hit, even after a Nickwak has used Swords Dance.
Skarmory, Suicune, and Donphan fit this bill nicely. The existence of Nickwak
arguably created the popularity of Skarmory. By pseudo-hazing a Nickwak out, it
loses all of its stat boosts. Another good way to mess up Marowak is the move
Icy Wind. Not only is it super-effective against Marowak, but it also lowers
its Speed, thereby ruining its sweeping abilities. Cloyster gets STAB on Icy
Wind and it has a monstrous Defense and so it fits the bill nicely. Stand-alone
Marowaks are taken care of fairly easily with special attacks. Marowaks with
these sets seldom do massive damage as their Speed keeps them from sweeping.


===========================
Mew
===========================
Set: Swords Dance, Softboiled, *Earthquake, *Rock Slide/Ancientpower,
    *Sludge Bomb, *Shadow Ball, *Explosion, *Whirlwind

Alternate: Rest, Sleep Talk, Horn Drill, Fissure, *Sweet Scent, *Softboiled

Uses: Mew is capable of using any TM offered in pokemon. As a result of this
there are a ton of different sets for him, but not all of them are very
effective. Swords Dance boosts Mew's attack by two levels, which is why it's
put on most every attacking Mew set. It's great that Mew can learn any move,
but it won't get STAB on these moves so it won't be able to KO anything unless
Swords Dance used. For Mew's three remaining slots, one of them should go to
Softboiled so that Mew can recover and the other two should go to physical
moves. I'm not going to say that there has to be two particular physical moves
for Mew, it depends on what your team needs. Explosion can be powered up by
Swords Dance and after that it should be able to wipe out most any opponent.
This should only be considered when you absolutely have to take something out
or you just feel like going kamikaze. Whirlwind allows Mew to act as a
pseudo-hazer and it can setup other combos. The alternate set can be more
fearsome than the first set. Mew attempts to OHKO opponents until it needs to
recover health. Mew then uses Rest to go to sleep and regain HP. While it's
sleeping, it uses Sleep Talk which can do one of the following: It can use Rest
another time which maxes out Mew's HP, it can attack with Horn Drill or it can
attack with Fissure. OHKO moves have the potential to rip through a team and
this set allows Mew to use them many times. Some people attempt to use Sweet
Scent to drop an opponent's evasion, giving an OHKO move greater accuracy.
Because Mew can power up its attack quickly and rip through teams while
recovering damage and devastate opponents with OHKO moves, Mew is banned under
most person to person battling conditions.

Counters: As far as offensive Mews go, there are a few viable counters. A
pokemon with Curse and a strong attack power with a decently powerful move can
mop up Mew fairly easily if it manages to Curse in time. Mew boosts its attack
with Swords Dance, but its Defense remains the same. Curse boosts both Attack
and Defense. This means that a user of Curse is likely going to be able to
withstand Mew's attacks assuming it has used Curse enough. The user of Curse
can attack Mew with powered up physical moves until Mew falls. Another more
risky counter for the physical attacking Mews would be Mean Look and Toxic.
Because almost every physical attacking Mew uses Softboiled, Toxic can
eventually take away more damage than what Softboiled can recover. Mew may have
an offensive move that will be super-effective to a user of Toxic and Mean
Look, so it may be difficult. Many of the users of Mean Look and Toxic get
Confuse Ray which can not only stall things, but cause Mew to deal additional
damage to itself if it has used Swords Dance.


===========================
Mewtwo
===========================
Set: Recover, *Psychic, *Thunderbolt, *Ice Beam, *Hidden Power Dark Type,
    *Fire Blast/Flamethrower, *Sunny Day, *Solar Beam, *Rain Dance, *Thunder,
    *Bubblebeam, *Barrier, *Amnesia, *Safeguard, *Substitute, *Shadow Ball,
    *Submission, *Selfdestruct

Uses: Mewtwo is generally considered to be the single most powerful pokemon in
the game. One on one, few pokemon can stand a chance against Mewtwo. All of
Mewtwo's stats are quite high, but the main thing to take note of is Mewtwo's
Special Attack of 406, by far the highest in the game. Pair this with Mewtwo's
Speed rating of 358 and Mewtwo does absolutely devastating damage at almost
unmatched Speed. Mewtwo's Psychic lays waste to most pokemon in the game in
2-3 turns. Recover allows Mewtwo to quickly regain half of its health. Mewtwo's
defensive stats are high enough to allow for Mewtwo to shrug off most damage
with Recover while still having time to blast opponents with special attacks.
Mewtwo's Speed makes it difficult to finish off as it can Recover before most
pokemon can attack. Mewtwo can learn a lot of different powerful special
attacks and these moves can often deal more damage to opponents than a straight
Psychic and also deal damage to pokemon resistant to Psychic moves. Sunny Day
and Solarbeam should have Recover to go with a Fire move. Rain Dance, Thunder,
and Bubblebeam should also be complemented by Recover. Mewtwo uses Shadow Ball
or Hidden Power Dark to attack other Psychic pokemon and even Ghost pokemon.
Shadow Ball works well as Mewtwo's Attack is a high 318 and most of its targets
have low Defense. Hidden Power Dark runs off Mewtwo's Special Attack and works
well as many of the Psychic pokemon have had their Special Defense ratings
dropped since RBY. A combination of special moves trumps most opponents
quickly, however many sets that use Mewtwo choose to use more defensive moves.
Since one move like Psychic is usually enough to do some major damage, many
people try and use other moves to protect Mewtwo from other strategies. Amnesia
compensates for Mewtwo's newly dropped Special Defense by raising that stat an
impressive two levels instead of creating the most unbalanced thing ever seen
in RBY. Barrier raises Mewtwo's Defense two levels which helps as physical
attacks are increasingly common. Safeguard works very well on Mewtwo, offering
it protection from status attacks. Only Jolteon, Electrode, Crobat, and
Aerodactyl can possibly launch a status effect before Safeguard can be put up
and Jolteon and Electrode are the only two that would actually try something
like that on Mewtwo. Substitute gives most of the status protection that
Safeguard does, but a Substitute takes a quarter chunk of HP. On the plus side,
Mewtwo can stretch out its Hit Points longer with a Substitute.

Counters: Good heavens. Dark types with Crunch like Tyranitar and Houndoom can
take down Mewtwo, but if Mewtwo is packing Submission, it can take them down
first. Umbreon can trap Mewtwo with Mean Look and survive Submission and then
attempt to stall it out, but it's a long struggle. The only Bug type attack
that can really put a dent in Mewtwo is Megahorn and Heracross will probably be
able to get only one off. If you've got any pokemon with a high Attack and
Explosion or Selfdestruct, you could bring down Mewtwo in one shot, however,
you'll need the element of surprise as many players will switch out their
Mewtwo to avoid getting blown up. Mewtwo has the ability to greatly increase
either of its two defensive stats and all it needs is Psychic to be able to do
incredible damage. Wearing Mewtwo down is extremely difficult because of its
Speed and Recover ability. Paralysis or sleep can help you a lot. It's unlikely
that Mewtwo will be packing Mint Berry, however you will probably see it
carrying Miracle Berry and many sets will use Safeguard. In such cases you'll
have to try using a status effect twice or deceptively using one after
Safeguard wears down. One of the best ways to defeat Mewtwo is to gradually
wear it down and get opponents to attack with Mewtwo instead of using Recover.
Other Psychic types or pokemon with extraordinarily high Special Defense can
often stall Mewtwo out. Counters to Mewtwo center more around individual
pokemon instead of on strategies. This is because few pokemon in the game can
stand up to Mewtwo's special attacks, let alone deal more damage than what
Mewtwo can quickly Recover away.


===========================
Miltank
===========================
Set: Milk Drink, Heal Bell, *Body Slam, *Earthquake, *Present, *Shadow Ball,
    *Attract, *Psych Up

Uses: Miltank seems to be the toughest of all the Heal Bellers. Its HP,
Defense, and Speed are high and its Normal type makes it weak only to Fighting
type pokemon. This means that almost nothing can stop Miltank from using heal
bell at least once. With Milk Drink for quick recovery, Miltank is likely to be
able to use Heal Bell several times. These two moves are on the vast majority
of Miltank sets and they work fairly well. The remaining two moves are more
customizable. Miltank's Attack is average and its Special Defense is a bit
below average while its Special Attack is simply low. Body Slam deals average
damage, but with Miltank's longevity in battle, it can use the move many times
until it paralyzes its opponent. Earthquake is always a good move to have, even
if Miltank's Attack isn't huge. Shadow Ball can work with Miltank because the
pokemon it would hit with it would be Psychic and Ghost types which for the
most part have a very low Defense anyway. Miltank is a Normal type so it can
take full advantage of the Present bug. Miltank's are always female so Attract
works well on the many male pokemon out there. Psych Up is very interesting on
Miltank. Miltank uses it to copy status modifications ranging from Double Team
to Curse. After stealing an opponent's stat increases most people have Body
Slam to go with Psych Up so it can take advantage of its new stats.

Counters: The biggest threat Miltank poses is its ability to Heal Bell
repeatedly. It is extraordinarily difficult to completely stop Miltank from
using Heal Bell, but you can wear it down eventually. Heal Bell has just a
small amount of PP and Milk Drink doesn't have much PP either. A sturdy
Fighting type may help, but it's likely that you won't get a shot in. If you
raise your Attack high enough with Curse, you can get past Miltank's strong
Defense, but you risk Psych Up. If you can get it off, trapping Miltank with
mean look puts you in prime position to waste its PP. Miltank does have a high
Defense, but a strong special attacker can either take it out or force it to
waste Milk Drink PP. Hitting Miltank itself with a status effect often causes
some opponents to waste Heal Bell PP in an effort to cure Miltank. Encore and
Spite can also serve to waste PP.


===========================
Misdreavus
===========================
Set: Perish Song, Mean Look, *Protect, *Pain Split, *Rest, *Destiny Bond

Uses: Misdreavus is one of the most common pokemon to use Perish Song. This is
because Misdreavus is one of the few pokemon with Mean Look and Perish Song.
Misdreavus does have some good offensive moves, but unless these moves are
super-effective, an offensive strategy doesn't usually work very well with
Misdreavus. Misdreavus is uniquely suited to use Perish Song which can faint
opponents automatically. The strategy is simple: use Mean Look and Perish Song
and do whatever you can to survive until you can safely switch out while
leaving your opponent for dead. To help you survive, you can choose a combo
among the italicized moves. Protect will makes Misdreavus impervious, however
it becomes a gamble when you use it repeatedly. Pain Split can act as a quick
recovery for Misdreavus, provided the pokemon that you use Perish Song on has
full or high health. The downside is that this won't always be the case and you
could run into pokemon which don't have too many Hit Points to begin with. As
the battle progresses, the health on your opponents bench is more and more
likely to decrease. Many people like to put Rest on Misdreavus and it does have
many benefits. The main reason is because it is a guaranteed full recovery.
This can be used either the turn before you switch or, provided you have a Mint
Berry, you can use Rest after using Protect. This completely revitalizes you
and allows you to use Protect another time with perfect accuracy. Many people
like to use Rest before switching Misdreavus out so that they can then use Heal
Bell to awaken Misdreavus without it having to be active. Rest is likely to be
the only way for Misdreavus pull off repeated uses of Perish Song. On a more
kamikaze front, another option is Destiny Bond. When Perish Song is in effect,
the trapped pokemon frantically tries to kill off the user of Perish Song. If
Destiny Bond is used, that trapped pokemon will have to faint itself in order
to defeat  Misdreavus. The nice thing about Destiny Bond is that it can be used
multiple times in a row so that only a few specific moves can possibly allow a
pokemon to escape destruction. Destiny Bond is probably best for allowing
Misdreavus to get lucky and pick up another kill after being weak from Perish
Trapping a pokemon.

Counters: The primary and ideal counter to Perish Trapping is pseudo-haze.
Pseudo-haze moves force the opponent to switch which would force the pokemon
that's doing the Perish Trapping to switch out. After that pokemon switches,
you wold be free to switch out and escape the effects of Perish Song. With a
pseudo-hazer in tow, escaping Perish Song is very easy. If you don't have one
there's still hope. While Misdreavus is often able to Perish Trap once, it
becomes very difficult for it to do it repeatedly. This is because it's on the
frailer side statwise. Its HP is on the lower side and its Defense is just
plain low. its other stats are just a bit above average. Misdreavus is open to
attack on the turn it uses Mean Look and the turn it uses Perish Song. You will
also probably be able to get another attack in somewhere during the Perish Song
count. Switching a pokemon in to fight Misdreavus will give you one less turn
to work with although it may be worth it if you prevent a different pokemon
from going down. Houndoom can be switched in and take down Misdreavus with two
Crunches. Houndoom is also faster than Misdreavus. Most of the other pokemon
that can take down Misdreavus quickly are slower than it. Without pseudo-haze,
taking out Misdreavus without losing a pokemon yourself is very difficult.


===========================
Moltres
===========================
Set: Sunny Day, Flamethrower/Fire Blast, *Wing Attack, *Hidden Power,
    *Safeguard, *Substitute, *Double-Edge, *Rest

Uses: Moltres has one primary use and everything else is just secondary.
Moltres has a Special Attack of 348 and that allows it to use incredibly
powerful Fire attacks. Add Sunny Day to the mix and you've got a wickedly
powerful attack. Moltres is on the quicker side and its a bit strong on
defense. Most pokemon will not be able to survive two Fire attacks when Sunny
Day is up. The pokemon that do still take considerable damage. That's really
all there is to it. Of course there are other things to do besides powering up
Fire attacks. Moltres has a fairly strong Attack and Wing Attack is often put
on sets although the base power of Wing Attack is so low that you should only
use it when it's going to be super-effective or when your opponent has a
terribly low Defense. Usually Fire will do more damage anyway. People put
Double-Edge on Moltres because it ends up having the same base power as a
super-effective Wing Attack although it doesn't get STAB. It's good physically
but it rarely is able to do more damage than Fire. Hidden Power is an
interesting way to cover weaknesses. People have put Water and Grass Power and
a few other powers to try and cover the fire bird's big elemental weakness.
This is mainly useful Rock/Ground pokemon that threaten Moltres. Unless the
power can rack up quad damage, it usually isn't useful. Safeguard provides some
status protection as Moltres doesn't like paralysis and other status effects
very much. Safeguard also does give some support to other pokemon in your
bench. Substitute has two uses. It serves as a way to try and stretch out your
HP by absorbing status effects and taking heavier hits. Opponents frequently
switch out when Moltres is in and with a Substitute up you can then decide how
you want to hit your newly switched-in opponent. Rest can allow Moltres to keep
on swinging for a bit longer. The longer you stay alive, the more chances you
have to unleash punishing Fire attacks.

Counters: While Moltres has very strong stats overall, its element makes it
susceptible to a lot of things. It has weaknesses to Electric and Water type
attacks and it has a quad weakness to Rock attacks. Most any strong Rock type
hit will take Moltres down in one if not two hits. Moltres can't burn through
Rock types fast enough to save itself. If you don't have that then your defense
against Moltres will have to come from just wearing it down with offensive
attacks. With Sunny Day up, most non-offensive approaches tend to get taken
down by Fire attacks before they can be very effective. Rest is the bird's only
effective way of recovery so wearing it down is possible. It's just a matter of
wearing Moltres down while trying to escape without too much damage. Of course,
super-effective attacks speed things up a lot.


===========================
Muk
===========================
Set: Sludge Bomb, *Explosion, *Curse, *Mean Look, *Fire Blast, *Screech, *Haze,
    *Acid Armor, *Hidden Power, *est, *Haze

Uses: Muk is a weird case although I mean that in a very positive way. The move
that seems to be on most sets is Sludge Bomb and this is because Muk's Attack
is high and Sludge Bomb has some good base power. It's a damaging attack that
often leaves opponent's poisoned which is an okay side effect. The rest of the
set can be a bunch of strange things. Muk's Attack is high and its Explosion
will blow most anything to bits if it doesn't have resistance. Curse boosts
Muk's Defense while increasing its already high Attack. It can fit well. Mean
Look seems out of place at first glance. Unlike pokemon like Umbreon that setup
elaborate strategies following a trapping move, Muk just uses Mean Look to trap
its prey so that it can kill it by itself. Mean Look has the chance to trap
pokemon that you want to get rid of. Muk certainly has the power to do it.
Trapping your intended target is not an exact science, but if you can do
something like trap a Heal Beller, then it's a job well done. Mean Look also
does well to trap the pokemon you want to blow up. Muk's Special Attack isn't
very high and so Fire Blast is only really useful when as a surprise move to
hit pokemon that have quadruple weakness to it. Screech greatly lowers your
opponent's Defense which may help topple some pesky pokemon with Recover or
setup another pokemon. You probably won't need Screech to successfully blow up
your opponent. Acid Armor greatly boosts Muk's Defense which works well as
Muk's main weakness is physical. Acid Armor also can allow you to stay around
and attack for a while longer. Most people who use Hidden Power on Muk use
Ground Power. Ground Power doesn't do great damage unless you pair it up with
Curse for some additional power. It then can do some good damage against
pokemon that are either resistant or invulnerable to Sludge Bomb. Rest is for
longevity, of course. Haze can be thrown on just for the sake of having Haze
although many pokemon that would be Hazed boost their Attack and use Ground
type moves.

Counters: Muk is a pretty sturdy pokemon. Its Hit Points are quite high and its
Special Defense has received a good increase in G/S. Its two weaknesses are to
Psychic and Ground type moves. Ground moves are quite common and they do more
damage to Muk as its Defense is lower than its Special Defense. Users of
Psychic should have a high Special Attack because Muk can survive even the most
powerful Psychic attacks. It can get in at least one powerful hit before it is
brought down. Standing up to Muk's Explosion is extraordinarily difficult.
You're probably not going to be able to prevent it. Most pokemon without
resistance to it won't survive it. A Steel pokemon can survive it and they are
immune to Sludge Bomb. The only remaining worries come from a Cursed up Ground
Power which usually isn't likely to be on the same set. Muk only has Rest for
recovery and so taking it down is feasible. Strong physical attacks work pretty
well. If Curse is up, switching to special attacks can wear Muk down although
you may want to Haze or pseudo-haze Muk out because its attacks get very
powerful after Curse.


===========================
Nidoking
===========================
Set: *Earthquake, *Ice Beam, *Thunderbolt, *Shadow Ball, *Rock Slide, *Surf,
    *Horn Drill, *Rest, *Fissure, *Sleep Talk, *Amnesia, *Counter

Uses: Nidoking is capable of doing a great many things. Its move compatibility
is simply amazing. With a fairly strong Attack and a decent Special, Nidoking
is able to whip out all kinds of attacks and do them with a decent amount of
effectiveness. There are a lot of different ways to go with offensive moves
with Nidoking. You can use physical or special attacks and then blend the two
together. It's hard to suggest a single definitive set of moves. The beauty of
Nidoking is that he can be tailored to fit what your team needs by deciding
which physical attacks and which special attacks are needed. I will comment on
the other moves that you can have and I don't mean to suggest that the
aforementioned moves are the only way to go. Nidoking's alternate set, which
can be mixed with any other set, is the Sleep Talking OHKO set. This strategy
is very powerful, though it operates on pure chance. It's basically suited to
launch as many single hit knockout attacks with a greater chance of a
successful hit with each try. This set works extremely well. Amnesia can be
used to boost up Special Defenses, mainly dealing with Nidoking's weaknesses to
Ice, Water, and Psychic moves. Provided you use it enough, Nidoking may be able
to take down the pokemon that use these moves on its own. Nidoking has a
physical weakness to a common attack type and so Counter can turn losing
battles into victories. A person's own tweaking of Nidoking will be what makes
it effective.

Counters: It's hard to focus on one counter as Nidoking can do a lot. Probably
the best counter will be strong Ground type moves as Nidoking is weak to it and
there aren't a lot of sets that involve boosting Nidoking's Defense. Counter
can ruin your efforts. Psychic, Water, and Ice type moves are super-effective,
although they may not be a sure thing if Amnesia has been used. Nidoking does
not have especially strong stats so taking it down by conventional attacks can
be done. Nidoking becomes difficult to deal with if it's able to set up
Amnesia. It can also come in quickly and attack when it has an advantage and
leave quickly. Just remember, while Nidoking has the potential to do a lot, a
single set can only do so much. The virtues of Nidoking: Nidoking is on the
quicker side and his Attack and Special Attack are also on the higher side.
This caters more to sets that use offensive hitting attacks. Nidoking's overall
defensive stats are lower than Nidoqueen's while his overall offensive stats
are higher. Nidoking can get Amnesia while Nidoqueen cannot.


===========================
Nidoqueen
===========================
Set: *Earthquake, *Ice Beam, *Thunderbolt, *Shadow Ball, *Rock Slide, *Surf,
    *Horn Drill, *Rest, *Fissure, *Sleep Talk, *Counter

Uses: Nidoqueen is capable of doing a great many things. Its move compatibility
is simply amazing. With a fairly strong Attack and a decent special, Nidoqueen
is able to whip out all kinds of attacks and do them with a decent amount of
effectiveness. There are a lot of different ways to go with offensive moves
with Nidoqueen. You can use physical or special attacks and then blend the two
together. It's hard to suggest a single definitive set of moves. The beauty of
Nidoqueen is that she can be tailored to fit what your team needs by deciding
which physical attacks and which special attacks are needed. I will comment on
the other moves that you can have and I don't mean to suggest that the
aforementioned moves are the only way to go. Nidoqueen's alternate set, which
can be mixed with any other set, is the Sleep Talking OHKO set. This strategy
is very powerful, though it operates on pure chance. It's basically suited to
launch as many single hit knockout attacks with a greater chance of a
successful hit with each try. This set works extremely well. Amnesia can be
used to boost up Special Defenses, mainly dealing with Nidoqueen's weaknesses
to Ice, Water, and Psychic moves. Provided you use it enough, Nidoqueen may be
able to take down the pokemon that use these moves on its own. Nidoqueen has a
physical weakness to a common attack type and so Counter can turn losing
battles into victories. A person's own tweaking of Nidoqueen will be what makes
it effective.

Counters: It's hard to focus on one counter as Nidoqueen can do a lot. Probably
the best counter will be strong Ground type moves as Nidoqueen is weak to it
and there aren't a lot of sets that involve boosting Nidoqueen's Defense.
Counter can ruin your efforts. Psychic, Water, and Ice type moves are
super-effective. you may not get the chance to use those on Nidoqueen as she
can often come in quickly and attack when she has an advantage and leave
quickly. Just remember, while Nidoqueen has the potential to do a lot, a single
set can only do so much. The virtues of Nidoqueen: Nidoqueen's HP, Defense, and
Special Defense are higher than Nidoking's. This makes Nidoqueen a sturdier
pokemon in general. While this may not allow her to deal as much damage, better
defensive stats contribute to survivability which means more chances to attack.
This added survivability usually makes Nidoqueen the preferred of the two for
the Sleep Talk OHKO set.


===========================
Poliwrath
===========================
Set: Mind Reader, Fissure, Blizzard/Ice Beam, Whirlpool, *Haze, *Surf,
    *Earthquake, *Return, *Submission, *Belly Drum, *Rest

Uses: Poliwrath has become a more common pokemon because of the Mind
Reader/Fissure combo. The basic premise is that after you use a Mind Reader,
Fissure will hit automatically, guaranteeing a knockout. If you're playing on
Stadium 2, Whirlpool will be needed in the set because switching pokemon will
negate the effects of Mind Reader. While playing on Gameboy, Mind Reader will
still ensure a hit, even if the defending pokemon is switched out for another
one. Of course, Fissure will not hit Flying type pokemon. Blizzard or Ice Beam
can score super-effective hits on these pokemon. If Poliwrath does manage to
faint these Flyers, then it can carry on with its Mind Reader/Fissure combo.
The other sets use regular offensive attacks. Poliwrath can use Belly Drum to
pull off some powerful moves, though it is held back by its slow Speed.

Counters: Poliwrath is pretty sturdy stat wise, but it can be taken down. As
far as the Mind Reader/Fissure combo goes, there are some different counters.
Switching to a Flying type pokemon will make Fissure fail automatically. In
Stadium 2, simply switching pokemon will remove the effects of Mind Reader.
Poliwrath is slow so by the time it uses Whirlpool, uses Mind Reader, and uses
Fissure, you're likely to have three good solid turns of attacking. Rest serves
as Poliwrath's only means of recovery and not a lot of Poliwrath sets have it.
If a set does have it, then that means that they either will not have a hitting
attack, making it useless against Flying pokemon, or they won't have Whirlpool,
which would mean that you can switch away and escape Mind Reader. Take heed
because Fissure without Mind Reader can still hit. In the Gameboy, you'll have
to try and take Poliwrath out as fast as possible. Quickly bring in a Flying
type or see if you can bring it down fast enough with powerful Electric, Grass,
or Psychic attacks. Just get rid of it as fast as you can, otherwise it can
cause havoc.


===========================
Porygon2
===========================
Set: Recover, *Thunderbolt/Thunder, *Thunder Wave, *Psychic, *Ice Beam, *Curse
    *Rain Dance, *Hidden Power, *Tri Attack, *Double-Edge, *Double Team

Uses: Porygon2 is a very versatile pokemon with a high Special Attack and the
capability of using its regular Attack effectively. Recover fuels almost every
Porygon2 set there is. You can tweak the special attacks you use to fit in with
what your team needs, such as Electric, Psychic, Ice, etc. Porygon2 has a
Special Attack that's high enough to use the Rain Dance/Thunder combo, although
you'll want Hidden Power Water to take full advantage of Rain Dance. Thunder
Wave compensates for Porygon2's slow Speed and this also may help a lot more if
you're going to use Curse. Porygon2's physical attack is not as high as its
Special, and so Curse ought to be used. From that point on you can let loose a
good strong physical attack. Tri Attack has okay base power, but it has a good
chance of leaving of leaving two very crippling status abnormalities and one
decent status effect. Double-Edge is a powerful move in its own right. Double
Team can be attempted as Porygon2 is fairly sturdy and it packs Recover.
Porygon2's uses will mainly come in its execution because it has many
possibilities.

Counters: Fighting types can get the job done pretty fast, but they'd have to
be fast because a Porygon2 with Psychic can do some quick damage. With Porygon2
it becomes a matter of doing damage faster than it can be Recovered away.
Boosting stats or having powerful attackers may be able to pull this off.
Porygon2 is slow and this can work to your advantage. The sets that focus on
special attacks can be stalled out or at least negated by a pokemon that has a
strong Special Defense and decent recovery. Attacks that use a boost of
physical attacks should be pseudo-hazed or Hazed away as Porygon2 can become a
dangerous physical attacker after enough boosts, especially because of Recover.
Take heed because a lot of people will add one special attack to a physical
attacking set just to trip up Hazers and pseudo-hazers. If a Porygon2 has
successfully Double Teamed then you'll need Haze or at least pseudo-haze or a
lot of stat boosts for yourself. Breaking through the Double Teams doesn't
happen often and Porygon2 can Recover when it does.


===========================
Quagsire
===========================
Set: Earthquake, Haze, Surf, Rain Dance, *Rest, *Curse

Uses: Quagsire is an interesting combination of types. Despite being a Water
type it can go toe to toe with most any Electric pokemon out there and come out
victorious. Quagsire's Attack is just a notch above average and that's good
enough for Earthquake to have a place in a set. Most people will use Quagsire
for its ability to Haze. Quagsire does not have any physical weakness and it
has great Hit Points with a good Defense, making it a solid Hazer. The rest is
up to you. Surf may be useful when it's super-effective, but Rain Dance is
probably needed to do decent damage if it's not. Curse may be thrown in to
boost up Earthquake and give some greater Defensive power. Quagsire doesn't
really have much to lose in the way of Speed anyway. The primary function of
this pokemon is to Haze and most everything else tends to be secondary.

Counters: Quagsire has one major weakness and that is to Grass type attacks.
Elementally, that's its only weakness, but it's a quadruple weakness. A Grass
type move will easily dispatch this pokemon, but it will take a lot longer if
you don't have that luxury. Preventing Quagsire from successfully Hazing away
status changes is extremely difficult. Wiping Quagsire out with physical
attacks before it can use Haze is not likely to happen although you can wear it
down.


===========================
Raichu
===========================
Set: *Thunderbolt, *Thunder, *Surf, *Rain Dance, *Thunder Wave, *Endure,
    *Reversal, *Hidden Power Ice

Uses: Raichu has some pretty good Speed on its side and its offensive stats
aren't too shabby either. Though it is an Electric type, Raichu can learn Surf
with the assistance of the original pokemon Stadium. For some decent Special
Attack power, people open up with Rain Dance and then hit opponents with either
a charged up Surf attack or a Thunder attack with increased accuracy. Thunder
Wave is for paralysis support and it can be useful depending on what your team
needs. Though Raichu is not a Fighting type, its Attack is high enough to use
Reversal effectively. Raichu is extremely fast and so it should not have too
much trouble using Endure before it is about to be finished off and then
striking back with Reversal. Hidden Power Ice works well against a few Grass
types although you wouldn't be using it on very many.

Counters: Raichu is extremely weak in the way of Defense. A few good solid
physical hits should bring it down. Try and find out what your opponent's set
is. If it has Rain Dance and Surf then it should not have Reversal so you can
go ahead and take it down with physical moves. Raichu's Thunder does do some
damage so try and take it down as fast as possible. If it's got Endure and
Reversal then you should try and wear it down to the point where it will need
to Endure and then try and switch to something that's highly resistant to
Fighting type attacks. Slowing Raichu down with a status effect will ruin the
Endure/Reversal combo.


===========================
Raikou
===========================
Set: *Thunderbolt, *Thunder, *Rain Dance, *Hidden Power Water, *Crunch, *Rest,
    *Sleep Talk, *Reflect

Uses: Raikou is simply vicious. It is amazingly fast and it has an equally
amazing Special Attack. Raikou's strategies are not very elaborate at all. It
simply strikes with powerful special attacks. All its other moves function to
either prolong its life or to strike with non-Electric attacks. Though the
fairness of the following combo is called into question, Raikou can use Rain
Dance to power up a Water type Hidden Power to defeat Ground types and then
strike any other opponent down with Thunder. Crunch does a little bit more
damage to Psychic and Ghost types and it serves another purpose. pokemon that
have an unusually high Special Defense and recovery abilities can survive
Raikou's special attacks. Crunch can be used to lower the special defense of
these pokemon so they will can be taken down by Thunderbolt. Reflect is to
compensate for Raikou's low Defense rating. Rest is of course for recovery.
Together Rest and Sleep Talk can allow Raikou to unleash devastating Thunder
attacks repeatedly. Raikou strikes fast and it strikes hard.

Counters: If Raikou is not packing Water Power, then a good solid Ground type
will be able to take it out quickly. If Raikou does have Water Power then you
might want to consider paralyzing it first before you send up a Ground type.
Raikou's Defense is average and its Special Defense is slightly above average.
Many people attach Mint Berry to Raikou and will quickly use Rest to replenish
all of the beast's health. A pokemon with a really high Special Defense may be
able to survive Raikou's onslaught because Raikou rarely packs non-special
attacks. Powering up strategies before Raikou comes out may give you an upper
hand. If you don't have the right pokemon, Raikou may be able to defeat a good
portion of your lineup before it is taken down.


===========================
Rhydon
===========================
Set: Earthquake, Rock Slide, Substitute, *Counter, *Rest

Uses: Golem and Rhydon are very similar pokemon and they play very similar
roles in combat. Back in RBY, a set was created for them and it was called the
"trapping" set. Rhydon has a lot of weaknesses, but what it is strong against,
it had a huge advantage over. When Rhydon was strong against an opponent, it
would be switched in. Instead of just hitting hard, Rhydon would set up a
Substitute. If the opponent switched out for something else, Rhydon could
choose whether it wanted to use Earthquake or Rock Slide. The opponent would
then break the Substitute and Rhydon would be switched out, having done more
damage. Many people are wondering about whether Rhydon or Golem is better.
There's a lot of debate, but it mainly boils down to a few differences. Rhydon
attack is a lot higher than Golem's, but it doesn't get Explosion. Rhydon is a
little bit slower than Golem and its Defense and Special are lower, but it does
get more HP. That's about it. Counter is just something thrown on for the times
when Rhydon takes physical hits since the only physical hits used on Rhydon
will usually be super-effective ones.

Counters: There are so many counters to Rhydon that the greatest care is taken
to make sure it comes out at the right time. Rhydon has a quadruple Water and
Grass weakness in addition to having an Ice weakness. It also has a weakness to
Ground, Fighting, and Steel attacks. With these weaknesses, your opponent is
not going to give you a clean shot against a Rhydon. They're going to switch it
in right as it can get the advantage. After you switch, it will switch away.
Getting past this is very difficult. Skarmory is one of the few pokemon that
you can bring in to deal with Substitute, Earthquake, and Rock Slide. Most of
the others take considerable damage. Just remember that the Substitutes and
switching can only be done for so long before these guys need to recover. If
you take care to minimize the damage taken from this combo then you should be
able to escape with minimal damage.


===========================
Scizor
===========================
Set: Agility, Swords Dance, Baton Pass, *Hidden Power Rock, *Hidden Power Bug,
    *Steel Wing, *Endure, *Reversal

Uses: Scizor is pretty much just a Baton Passer. It can give the pokemon you
Baton Pass to a doubled Speed and a doubled Attack and that is something that's
really great if you can pull it off. That's really the basic gist of Baton
Passing Scizors. There are some other moves that you can throw on. With Agility
and Swords Dance, Scizor can hit extremely hard with the Endure/Reversal combo.
Bug Power and Steel Wing were to pick up some STAB with the hope of doing some
additional damage. Bug Power does better against some more common types of
pokemon elementally and Steel Wing does more damage. Rock Power is used to
combat the Fire types that would roast Scizor away with one hit. Some people
put that along with the Baton Passing set.

Counters: Elementally Scizor can get fried with one good Fire attack. Aside
from that it's pretty stable elementally. You don't even need a Fire type
pokemon to deal major damage. Slap on a Fire move to just about any fully
evolved pokemon and they'll usually be able to take out Scizor in two hits.
Scizor's Defense is pretty good and its Special is average. You can wear it
down with traditional attacks, but you do have to watch out for its
resistances. Scizor is not nearly as fast as Scyther and so if it attempts to
do any kind of sweeping, it will need Agility. Switching in a good Fire pokemon
or Fire wielder stops any strategy Scizor has. If Scizor does manage to get
off powered up and Baton Pass then you will need a sturdy Hazer or pseudo-hazer
in tow.


===========================
Skarmory
===========================
Set: Whirlwind, *Toxic, *Drill Peck, *Curse, *Thief, *Steel Wing, *Rest

Uses: Skarmory is the defensive tank of tanks. Its Defense is simply massive.
That's not all, though. Skarmory's element leaves it with no physical weakness
and resistances or immunities to several common attack types. Skarmory is
without a doubt, one of the best pseudo-hazers around. It is extraordinarily
difficult for a pokemon to raise its Attack stats and avoid getting switched
out by skarmory's Whirlwind. It blows away all manner of Curses and Swords
Dances. Skarmory fulfills this role extremely well. Outside of doing that,
Skarmory is not nearly so good. Toxic can be a good status effect and it works
well since many pure attackers don't pack Rest along with them. Drill Peck is a
good Flying move that works okay. Curse is not Skarmory's main purpose although
it could be tossed in and used to build up some power after Skarmory has
dispatched powered up opponents with Whirlwind. Thief is interesting. One of
the main purposes of Skarmory is to counter Marowak. Some people do that by
switching out Marowak after it has been boosted up. Others steal its Thick
Club, permanently dropping its Attack in half. The obvious downside is that
Thick Club is one of the few things that is worth stealing. Steel Wing gets
STAB but don't even think about using it without Curse. Rest can keep Skarmory
alive for longer rounds of pseudo-hazing.

Counters: Skarmory fulfills the pseudo-hazing role extremely well. You really
have to go out of your way to stop it. Some people try and take care of this by
putting Fire or Electric moves on the pokemon they boost up physically. You're
probably not going to stop Skarmory from Whirlwinding a boosted up pokemon on
your first try around. You may get the job done the next time around. There is
another way to prevent pseudo-haze. That is to use a move like Curse to make
you slower than Skarmory and then use a pseudo-haze move on it. That will force
Skarmory to be switched out. The downside is that not too many pokemon can do
this effectively. Even so, Skarmory will usually succeed in ruining most of
your Attack-boosting plans. As a stand alone pokemon Skarmory is not so great.
The bird's special is hampered by below average Hit Points and a below average
Special rating. Both of Skarmory's weaknesses are Special weaknesses and those
are Electricity and Fire. Even if you don't have something strong against it,
Skarmory is only capable of a very limited physical assault. Your only real
concern would be if it Cursed up and used Drill Peck, but that can be prevented
very easily provided you have some Haze or pseudo-haze yourself.


===========================
Slowbro
===========================
Set: *Amnesia, *Surf, *Ice Beam, *Rest, *Fissure, *Sleep Talk, *Counter,
    *Belly Drum, *Earthquake, *Shadow Ball

Uses: Slowbro is an interesting case. His stat distribution is a bit weird.
His Hit Points are high as is his Defense. Add Amnesia to that and you've got a
pretty good tank. Slowbro's Special Attack has gone up since GSC to workable
proportions. Surf and Ice Beam function well. Fissure is an inaccurate OHKO
move, however if you use something like Amnesia, you might actually live long
enough for the move to connect. Rest and Sleep Talk make Slowbro extremely
difficult to get rid of. Counter can do a couple of different things. If you
use Amnesia enough times, the only way an opponent is really going to hurt you
will be through physical attacks and that will be covered by Counter. Another
use of Counter is to counter Marowak. A Marowak that boosts its power up with a
Swords Dance will not be able to defeat Slowbro with a single Earthquake and so
Slowbro will be able to survive and defeat it with a swift Counter. Belly Drum
can make physical attacks like Shadow Ball and Earthquake pretty powerful.
You'll need more than a bit of luck to pull it off. Amnesia may help you
survive, but it will limit your choice of moves you attack with to one because
you'll need Rest to go with Belly Drum if you want to survive.

Counters: Slowbro is pretty tough defensively. It's got a Grass, Electric,
Dark, and Bug weakness. Slowbro can boost its stats defensively, but sets the
more sets revolve around this, the more they limit Slowbro's attack power. Try
and get a feel for what kind of set your opponent's Slowbro has. It can Counter
physical moves and do that rather unexpectedly. Amnesia may pad it against
special moves and you'll be forced to try and use physical moves. If Slowbro
tries to boost both its physical and special defenses, you'll either have to
stall it out or Haze or pseudo-haze it. On the other hand, the more offensive a
Slowbro set gets, the easier it is to attack. Some good super-effective special
attacks can take Slowbro down well enough. If you've got some strong enough
physical attacks, they can also do the job. As its name implies, Slowbro is
extremely slow and most any pokemon will go first and be able to do what you
need to do.


===========================
Smeargle
===========================
Set: *Spore, *Super Fang, *Heal Bell, *Seismic Toss, *Spikes, *Agility,
    *Swords Dance, *Belly Drum, *Growth, *Baton Pass, *Mind Reader/Lock-On,
    *Horn Drill, *Fissure

Uses: Smeargle's Sketch ability allows it to Sketch almost any move in the
entire game. Your limitations are Smeargle's extremely weak stats. Smeargle can
do a lot of things but almost nothing well. Smeargle's only okay stat is its
slightly below average Speed and its below average Hit Points. It's almost
complete insanity to use some traditional physical or special attacks with
Smeargle. It's even difficult to use attacks that just hit at all irrespective
of damage as Smeargle is so fragile. If you do manage to survive, Super Fang
and two Seismic Tosses can take down most any pokemon slightly below four
hundred Hit Points. The problem is that many pokemon can take out Smeargle in
two hits, some Fighting pokemon will even take one. You'll probably be able to
sneak in a powerful Super Fang. Smeargle can pull off some good one move
tricks. Spore is a perfectly accurate sleeping move and Smeargle has some good
Speed on it. Spikes is something that you can just sneak in and lay down. Heal
Bell is also a one move thing that you can throw into a set. Using it once will
clear out all of the status effects from your party. If you're feeling a lot
more risky and bold, you could take the Baton Passing road. With Smeargle's
stats, you're likely to only be able to get off Agility and one other move,
pulling off anything more on a consistent basis is a lot more difficult and it
may take some luck. Risky things like Swords Dance, Growth and Belly Drum are a
lot more difficult to get off and you may just end up losing Smeargle entirely
in the process. I don't mean to suggest that the payoffs can't be great, but
multiple turn setups with Smeargle can be hard to pull off. Some people attempt
to use OHKOs with Smeargle. These knockout moves will need a locking on move
before they can be attempted as Smeargle is too fragile too last long enough to
use these moves repeatedly. Locking on takes a turn. Survival is the major
concern when using a strategy like this, or any other kind of strategy with
Smeargle.

Counters: Two hard hits of any kind will take down Smeargle. There's only about
one thing that you can expect from Smeargle and that's Spore. You can stop
Spore with either Safeguard or you could waste a Mint or Miracle Berry, but you
might not even want to. Smeargle is not going to last too long, but it becomes
a question of what's going to happen before he goes down. Smeargle's can have
all kinds of crazy sets, but it simply will not have survivability. You just
have to get some good shots in before it wreaks havoc.


===========================
Snorlax
===========================
Set: *Double-Edge/Return, *Curse, *Selfdestruct, *Earthquake, *Belly Drum,
    *Rest, *Rock Slide, *Shadow Ball

Uses: With a ton of Hit Points and an excellent Special Defense, Snorlax is a
hard pokemon to take down. Unlike some other strong defensive pokemon, Snorlax
is capable of dishing out massive amounts of damage. Snorlax sets that work
around raising the beast's attack are extremely powerful. Curse raises
Snorlax's Attack and its Defense. Snorlax's only low stats are its Speed and
its Defense and Curse takes care of its Defense. In addition to having a high
Attack, Snorlax gets STAB on Normal attacks. If Snorlax uses a move like
Selfdestruct, it doesn't even need to boost its Attack to be able to take down
most any pokemon with a single hit. Earthquake is a good move to have on a team
and Snorlax has the attack to make it work and it works very well with Curse.
Beyond Earthquake and Normal attacks, you may need to boost Snorlax's Attack if
you want to do significant damage. Snorlax definitely has the survivability to
use some setups and most of those are in the way of Attack boosts. Belly Drum
is extremely risky, but if it is done and you use Minty Rest the next turn,
you'll be in prime position to take down most any pokemon. Snorlax's strategies
are not extremely complex, but they can be very difficult to deal with and they
are extremely difficult to counter.

Counters: This is where it gets tricky. While many pokemon can eliminate
Snorlax's Attack boosts, they usually don't prevent Snorlax from boosting his
Attack later on in the fight and they also have a hard time getting rid of the
boosts before they themselves take major damage. A good strong Fighting type
that hits fast and hard like Hitmonlee or Machamp can bring down Snorlax with
super-effective attacks before it has a chance to bring its Defenses or its
Attack too high. Of course, if you don't have Fighting pokemon handy, a pokemon
with the Endure/Reversal combo can do a good chunk of damage to Snorlax
although only a Fighting type will likely be able to take it down in one hit
unassisted. You can Haze or pseudo-haze away Snorlax's Attack boost away, but
the pokemon you do it with must be able to take massive physical damage and
even if you eliminate one boost, that doesn't stop it from happening again
later on in battle. You can attempt to waste the PP of a move like Curse, but
that you'll probably need your Hazer or pseudo-hazer to have Rest to survive in
order to do that. If Snorlax uses Belly Drum, you'll have to take it out as
soon as possible or you'll end up suffering major damage. It is possible to
defeat Snorlax with special attacks as most people rarely boost that stat,
however you will need an extremely powerful special attacker that is also
pretty sturdy physically if you want to do that. You can try and stall Snorlax
out by boosting your own defenses, but it may take a while. Some people have
attempted to drop Snorlax's attack, but only a move like Charm really does that
job well enough. The problem with a lot of these counters is that they prevent
Snorlax from doing the damage, but they do not get rid of Snorlax. Taking
Snorlax out before it Rests another time takes a lot of power. Breaking even
with Snorlax is oftentimes the best that you can do.


===========================
Starmie
===========================
Set: Recover, *Surf, *Thunderbolt, *Ice Beam, *Thunder Wave, *Minimize,
    *Confuse Ray

"Death Star" Set: Surf, Confuse Ray, Thunder Wave, Recover

Uses: Starmie works as a special attacker and it also will use status type
attacks. Starmie is set apart by its excellent Speed and good Special Attack
and combine that with Recover to get an excellent pokemon. As a Water type,
Starmie does extremely well against other Water types with Thunderbolt. The
other special attacks like Surf and Ice Beam can give Starmie some special
attack variety and you can customize it to suit the needs of your team. Another
thing that Starmie does well comes in the form of status effects. Starmie can
learn Thunder Wave to instantly paralyze opponents and it can also get Confuse
Ray. These work well since Starmie is usually able to attack first and a
debilitating status move may prevent an opponent from attacking. Minimize can
increase evasiveness and with good Speed and Recover, you can probably pull it
off. Starmie is a quick special attacker that can also utilize crippling status
effects while Recovering away damage.

Counters: The first thing to be aware of is Recover. You've got to deal some
hefty amounts of damage and since Starmie usually goes first, it can be hard to
finish off. Starmie's got an Electric and Grass weakness as well as a Bug and
Dark weakness. Only Tyranitar and Houndoom can really exploit the Dark weakness
and Heracross is the only one that can really exploit the Bug weakness
effectively. There are a few more Grass types and Grass type moves and even
more Electric types and Electric type moves that can work. Starmie's Hit Points
are a bit below average and its Defense and Special Defense are a bit above it.
Super-effective attacks are usually enough to overwhelm even a Recovering
Starmie, but most players will not give you that chance. Even so, a strong
hitter can usually get the job done. A move that induces paralysis cuts
Starmie's Speed advantage and it makes things a lot easier. Setups that rely
more or purely on status moves can sometimes be harder to deal with. Moves like
Safeguard and Heal Bell can either protect you from these status moves or
eliminate the effects of them to your team. pokemon with good Special Defense
and recovery moves like Rest can take the special damage Starmie dishes out and
Rest away the status effects.


===========================
Steelix
===========================
Set: Earthquake, *Explosion, *Curse, *Rock Slide, *Sandstorm, *Screech,
    *Swagger

Uses: The iron snake is pure offense. Where there are no special threats, you
are best to boost its Attack with Curse and hit hard until you need to blow
yourself up with one crushing Explosion. After a single term setup, Steelix's
Explosion is able to blow most anything to pieces. This can be set up by either
Screech or Curse. If you don't face opposition, Curse can give rise to
Earthquake or Rock Slide. Sandstorm is for when you really can waste time.
Where your opponent does not have Fighting or Ground type attacks, Swagger is a
good way to cause confusion that will also do some damage to your opponent.
Where physical moves are not super-effective, Steelix uses Swagger beautifully.
In truth, the role of covering some types and Exploding is the role that
Steelix fulfills. The rest is just filler. Steelix does very well against what
it is strong against and poorly against what it's not.

Counters: Super-effective moves get the job done well. Steelix has weaknesses
to Water, Ground, Fire, and Fighting type moves. Steelix has a low Special and
so super-effective special moves should do it in in one to two turns depending
on the user. Though Steelix is weak to physical moves, it has a gargantuan
Defense and so even super-effective physical moves may take a few uses to bring
Steelix down, especially if they are unSTABbed. Where you do not have any
super-effective moves, hit Steelix through his special and you should be able
to take it down. As for stopping its Explosion, well, you had best be able to
take it out with one super-effective hit, because otherwise it's extremely
difficult.


===========================
Suicune
===========================
Set: *Surf, *Mirror Coat, *Ice Beam, *Roar, *Psych Up, *Return, *Rest,
    *Sleep Talk, *Double Team

Uses: Suicune is just about the only legendary that is not brutally offensive.
Though its offensive stats are certainly not bad, Suicune is extremely tough in
both Defense and Special Defense while also having Hit Points that are well
above average. This legendary is extremely hard to get rid of. Surf and Ice
Beam are basic special attacks that do fine with Suicune's Special. The really
interesting things that Suicune does are not directly offensive. Suicune's two
weaknesses are to Grass and Electricity and those are both Special weaknesses.
Mirror Coat deals back double the damage for whatever special attack Suicune is
hit with and Suicune's Special Defense is high enough to survive even the
strongest special assaults. If that weren't enough, Suicune serves as a
pseudo-hazer with Roar and without any physical weaknesses and its massive
Defenses, it does that quite well. Some people will use Psych Up to take all of
the boosts of the pokemon they are going to pseudo-haze before they pseudo-haze
it. They then have Suicune attack with a powered up Return. This may not seem
like a very powerful strategy, but Suicune is frequently able to hold on to its
stolen power boosts by pseudo-haze, making it more of a threat. Suicune can
stay around for a while with Rest and is usually able to survive from it. With
Rest and Sleep Talk, Suicune becomes a royal pain to get rid of as it can
recover its health extremely fast. Double Team almost demands Rest on the set
too and though this limits Suicune's options it also makes it a real pain to
get rid of. As a Mirror Coater and pseudo-hazer, Suicune is tough to beat. It's
almost as sturdy as they come. Suicune does not really specialize in doing flat
out direct damage, but its survivability allows it to pull off some good
strategies and counter strategies.

Counters: Before you go using Electric and Grass type moves on this legendary,
try and find out what its set is and determine if it has Mirror Coat or not.
Suicune only has four moves and one of those slots is usually taken up by Rest.
Sleep Talking Suicunes will usually either pseudo-haze or just use special
attacks. A pokemon that has a high Special Defense and a recovery ability has
almost nothing from Suicune to fear. Trying to take down Suicune will either
take super-effective special attacks or a highly pumped up Attack score.
Avoiding pseudo-haze from Suicune is extremely difficult as it can survive some
of the strongest physical hits. If a Suicune set gets too defensive, you can
usually try and stall it out with some recovery moves.


===========================
Tauros
===========================
Set: *Double-Edge/Return, *Earthquake, *Rest, *Rage, *Snore, *Sleep Talk,
    *Horn Drill, *Fissure, *Curse, *Mimic, *Rest

Uses: Since the dropping of its Special Attack since RBY, Tauros now sticks
almost exclusively to physical attacks. Tauros is very fast and it has a good
Attack score with a solid Defense and Hit Points to back it up. Tauros hits
hard and fast. The raging bull gets STAB on Normal attacks and so many people
give it the powerful and accurate Double-Edge. Tauros also does pretty well
with Earthquake. Those are pretty solid moves, other choices become more
interesting. Tauros does an okay job with Curse, though it really ruins its
Speed advantage. Mimic is there to try and get something good and that
something is hopefully a recovery move or even a move like Heal Bell. Some
people will throw on things like Rage or even do kamikaze things with Hyper
Beam or put Snore on it, but none of these things could reflect the terror and
cruel horror of the wild bull's OHKO abilities. Able to learn both Horn Drill
and Fissure, Tauros can quickly unload opponents with these deadly single hit
knockout moves. As his health weakens, Tauros puts itself into a deadly trance
where it continues its OHKO assault unawake. In essence, you've either got some
fast and solid physical damage or some just as speedy OHKO attacks coming from
Tauros.

Counters: While Tauros has a Fighting weakness, you'll need a fairly sturdy
Fighting type to bring it down because Tauros is pretty solid Defensively.
Tauros is more vulnerable to special attacks than it is to physical attacks
although some strong enough hits will wear it down. Build up some good defenses
or put in a pokemon that's good on Defense and can do some decent offense to
wear down Tauros. It's sometimes hard to get a good shot in because people will
often bring the bull in for some quick damage and then bring it out. If you can
induce paralysis, Tauros loses the benefit of its Speed and has a hard time
sweeping through opponents. Defending against OHKO Tauros is a little harder.
There's always the chance that you'll get wiped out immediately by a lucky hit,
but there are some things you can do. Hit hard. Hit fast. Hit frequently. Try
and setup a strong or powerful and hard hitting strategy before an OHKO Tauros
comes into play. When you do see Tauros sporting OHKO moves, take it out as
quickly as possible as it threatens to cut down a lot of your lineup if it gets
lucky enough. Whether it's Explosion, Destiny Bond, or OHKO moves of your own,
it's important to take down an opponent's OHKO tauros as fast as possible.


===========================
Tentacruel
===========================
Set: *Hydro Pump/Surf, *Ice Beam, *Mirror Coat, *Haze, *Swords Dance,
    *Sludge Bomb, *Rest

Uses: Tentacruel is pretty Speedy and it has an exceptional Special Defense.
Another asset it has is its wide variety of moves. You can use some simple
Water moves and pick up some STAB or use Rain Dance with Water moves or use a
non-STAB move like Ice Beam, or you can try boosting Tentacruel's Attack with
Swords Dance before using Sludge Bomb. Another interesting move that Tentacruel
can learn is Mirror Coat. This jellyfish has special weaknesses to Electric and
Psychic attacks. Mirror Coat allows Tentacruel to deal back double damage. This
works well with Tentacruel because its Special Defense is so high that it will
be able to survive some of the most punishing special attacks before dealing
back double damage. In the way of defense, Tentacruel can learn Barrier, a move
that raises its Defense two levels. This is good because Tentacruel has a
physical weakness to Ground type attacks and those can definitely pose a
threat, not to mention that its Defense is less than average to begin with.
Tentacruel's Speed makes it a target for paralysis-inducing moves and Safeguard
can protect against this while adding some status protection to the rest of
your team. Tentacruel can also learn Haze. Haze on Tentacruel is a mixed
blessing. On the one hand, Tentacruel's Speed often allows it to Haze opponents
who have used status boosting moves before they can strike. On the other hand,
most pokemon that Tentacruel will be Hazing will have either boosted Attack or
just have strong physical attacks to begin with and so Tentacruel will likely
take a beating in the process of Hazing.

Counters: Stat-wise, Tentacruel's Special Defense is huge. Its lower Defense
rating makes it a a target for physical attacks. Ground type attacks can take
out Tentacruel fairly quickly, however, Tentacruel's Water type allows it to
hit Ground type pokemon with super-effective Water attacks. A non-Ground
pokemon packing Earthquake can get the job done. A strong physical attacker can
also take Tentacruel out without too much effort. Though Tentacruel's Special
Defense is extremely high, if you've got special attacks that are
super-effective and you've got some decently good Special Attack power behind
them, they should be able to wear Tentacruel down. While moves like Mirror Coat
may hit back for double against special attacks, that does not mean that
Tentacruel can take a special hit any better because of it. Try and wear down
Mirror Coating Tentacruel's with physical attacks to the point where you can
finish them off with a single special attack. Tentacruel has a hard time
covering itself defensively and mounting a good offense at the same time so
you'll have to adjust your approach depending on your opponent's set.


===========================
Tyranitar
===========================
Set: *Rock Slide/Ancientpower, *Earthquake, *Crunch, *Curse, *Roar,
    *Flamethrower, *Ice Beam, *Rest

Uses: Almost pure offense. Tyranitar ties for having the highest physical
attack in the game and so naturally people give it moves like Earthquake and
Rock Slide. Those two moves make handy combinations to have as no pokemon is
resistant to both. On the special side of things, Tyranitar is a Dark type with
an above average Special and its gets Crunch. This allows Tyranitar to mount a
decent special offense, especially against Psychic and Ghost type pokemon.
Crunch is not the only special attack that people use, however. Tyranitar has
some pretty decent move compatibility and a pretty good Special and so people
have taught it moves like Flamethrower and Ice Beam. Tyranitar's moves can
certainly be tailored to the needs of your team whether that's in special
attack or physical attack. Because of its massive Attack and good array of
physical moves, people have given Tyranitar Curse. Curse helps Tyranitar with
two of its physical weaknesses by raising its Defense and it also makes its
physical attacks much more powerful. This also allows for Tyranitar to do
something sneaky against pseudo-hazers. After a Curse or two, Tyranitar is
almost guaranteed to go last. When a pseudo-hazer comes along, Tyranitar will
go last and use Roar, a pseudo-haze move of its own, and pseudo-haze the
opponent's pseudo-hazer while keeping the boosts of Curse.

Counters: Tyranitar has an incredibly hard time dealing with Fighting types.
Not only does it have a quadruple weakness to Fighting type attacks, but
Fighting pokemon have resistance to both of the moves of Tyranitar's elements.
If you happen to have a good Fighting attack handy, it can take out Tyranitar
in a couple of hits. It will take a lot of Curses to save Tyranitar from
Fighting type attacks, more probably than an opponent will ever get a chance to
use. Tyranitar also has a weakness to Ground type attacks, however its Defense
and Hit Points are both very high and so it may take a heavy hitter or a lot of
hits to bring it down this way. Tyranitar also has a weakness to Water and
Grass type attacks on the special front and these can get through any physical
defense it builds up. If you're lucky enough to have moves that Tyranitar is
weak to, taking it down is not extremely difficult. If you don't, Tyranitar can
wreak heavy damage on your team before going down. Tyranitar is held back by
its Speed, making it easier to finish off. The easiest way to stop sets that
use Curse and Roar is to never let them get setup in the first place. If that
set does get setup, you'll need either Haze or some good special attacks to
stop it.


===========================
Umbreon
===========================
Set: Moonlight/Rest, *Baton Pass, *Mean Look, *Double Team, *Screech,
    *Substitute, *Confuse Ray, *Snore, *Toxic, *Pursuit

Uses: Umbreon does virtually no offense of any kind. Instead it turns to
trapping its opponents with Mean Look before following up with some status
moves, some Baton Passing, or both. The most basic thing you can do with
Umbreon is trap an opponent with Mean Look and then try and defeat them with
status moves. If Umbreon is going for a knockout, it will use Toxic. Many
people then follow up with Confuse Ray and bide time as the trapped opponent
slowly faints from poison. Snore is likely to do more damage than confusion,
but confusion may help against Resting opponents or it may stop some unwanted
attacks from coming. More complex setups will involve Mean Look and Baton
Passing. It's up to you to decide what to do between Mean Look and Baton Pass,
but the effects of Mean Look will remain after you Baton Pass, meaning that
after you switch pokemon with Baton Pass, your opponent will still be unable to
switch because of Mean Look. You can try passing a Substitute, some Double
Teams, or even use Screech or Charm before switching out to another pokemon.
Think of Umbreon not as a stand-alone pokemon, but a pokemon that can enable
many other strategies to work. Many moves and combinations in pokemon are
extremely hard to pull off, but with some special assistance many complex
strategies can be enabled. Umbreon's Baton Passing can allow you to trap
opponents with Perish Song or it can give other pokemon a chance to build up
stats. There is one thing that Umbreon does not do and that is offense.
Umbreon's offensive stats are too weak to mount any effective offense and
another problem it has is that it only gets STAB on weak Dark type attacks.
The only attack that you might consider would be Pursuit. The benefit of this
move is that it hits for double if the defending pokemon is switched out.
Psychic pokemon who are switched out to avoid Umbreon will take a
super-effective hit before being removed from activity. That's about all there
is to it. Umbreon boasts excellent Hit Points, excellent Defense, and a giant
Special Defense. Add to this the recovery ability of Moonlight, and you've got
a pokemon that's every inch a tank.

Counters: Without the right pokemon or in the wrong situation, Umbreon is
almost impossible to deal with. With the right pokemon and in the right
situations, Umbreon is easy to take out. Umbreon has a Fighting and Bug
weakness. However, between its massive defensive stats and its ability to
recover, only some of the hardest hitters need apply. If you don't have attacks
that are super-effective, you'll need attacks that are extremely powerful if
you want to take down Umbreon. Umbreon's strategy suffers from a major weakness
and that is that it does not function as a stand alone pokemon very well. A
pseudo-haze move like Roar or Whirlwind can remove the effects of Mean Look by
switching Umbreon out as well as getting rid of anything an opposing Umbreon
wished to Baton Pass. So long as you have a pseudo-hazer in tow, Umbreon's
abilities and strategies fall apart. If you don't have such a pokemon and
you're already trapped by Mean Look, you're pretty much stuck. Umbreon's that
trap and use status effects to finish pokemon can be stalled out by using Rest.
If you don't have the right pokemon for the job, getting around Umbreon can be
extraordinarily difficult.


===========================
Ursaring
===========================
Set: *Return, *Earthquake, *Focus Energy, *Slash, *Hyper Beam, *Curse, *Rest

Uses: Ursaring has the highest Attack of any Normal pokemon in the game and
it's just a little bit off from the game's highest Attack. The biggest thing is
that Ursaring gets STAB on Normal attacks. The game has a lot of powerful
Normal attacks to offer. This grizzly bear does not have the same defensive
survivability of Snorlax. As a result, it lends itself more to pure offense.
Ursaring can learn Earthquake and its Attack is more than high enough to use it
effectively. You've got a bit of choice in selecting which Normal attack you'd
like for the bear. If you combine Slash with Focus Energy and you attach Scope
Lens to Ursaring, you'll be able to get a critical hit from Slash half the
time. This does heavy damage. Return yields solid and consistent STAB with some
good power. Hyper Beam on Ursaring is absolutely devestating to most any
opponent. A slight Attack increase or setup allows Ursaring to blow most
pokemon away with a single Hyper Beam. Curse on Ursaring serves more to
increase its Attack and deal quick damage than it does to make it more
defensive. Unlike Snorlax, Ursaring is not as much of a tank because it falls
short of Snorlax's Special Defense and it falls way short of its Hit Points.
While Curse does help Ursaring in the area of Defense, it mainly serves to
allow Ursaring to hit harder. Ursaring hits very hard with minimal setup.
Ursaring's Defense and Special Defense are equal and so it's open to both types
of attacks. Counter serves to deal back double damage for physical hits and
Ursaring has enough health to do an okay job of it. Counter should not be
paired with Curse as Curse not only reduces the damage that Counter can double,
but it also makes an opponent less likely to use physical hits. Just think of
Ursaring as a rampaging grizzly bear and you get a pretty good idea of how it
functions in combat.

Counters: Improving your own Defense works pretty well against most of
Ursaring's arsenal except for Slash. Whatever you send against Ursaring should
be able to take some heavy physical damage, especially since it's probably
going to take at least a couple turns to bring it down. Ursaring has a Fighting
weakness and most of the Fighters can handle it as long as it doesn't get too
Cursed up. Ursaring is quite slow and most pokemon with Reversal can do heavy
damage to it. Ursaring is just as open to physical and special attacks and its
only weakness is the Fighting type so you're probably just going to wear it
down with conventional attacks. If an Ursaring gets a chance to use Curse a
couple of times, you're going to need to use special attacks and if it gets
too powrful, you'll need to either Haze or pseudo-haze it and you'd better have
one that's pretty sturdy.


===========================
Vaporeon
===========================
Set: *Surf/Hydro Pump, *Ice Beam, *Acid Armor, *Substitute, *Double Team,
    *Baton Pass, *Rest

Uses: Vaporeon was the famed Hazer in the days of Red and Blue and it certainly
does a fine job of using the move now. Vaporeon has a massive amount of Hit
Points and that allows it to take a lot of punishment. This makes it an ideal
candidate for using Haze. Vaporeon's Defense and Speed are relatively low so
it's likely that it will take a hit before it has the chance to Haze. While
Vaporeon's Defense is well below average, its Hit Points are high enough to
allow it to survive strong physical hits before it uses Haze, though it might
not be able to take too many. Vaporeon can quickly compensate for its defensive
problems with Acid Armor. This allows it to raise its Defense by two stages,
although you rarely get the chance to do that when you are going to use Haze
against an opponent. Vaporeon has an excellent Special Attack and so it does
well with Surf and Ice Beam. Another role that Vaporeon can fill is that of a
Baton Passer. Vaporeon can Baton Pass things like Acid Armor, Double Team or
Substitute. Substitute works particularly well because the health of the
Substitute is equal to one quarter ot the HP of the pokemon that made it. Since
Vaporeon has a very large amount of HP, the pokemon receiving the Substitute
will get one that has a high amount of health. Vapreon's Baton Passing pretty
much serves to give defensive bonuses to other pokemon.

Counters: Vaporeon's Special Attack took a slight drop since RBY and this
certainly makes it easier to bring it down. Good Electric or Grass type attacks
are enough to bring Vaporeon down. Vaporeon's Ice Bbeam is fairly powerful
though and it poses a threat to Grass type pokemon. Physical attacks work
pretty well on Vaporeon as its Defense is so low. Any stat boost that Vaporeon
attempts to Baton Pass can be Hazed away. Haze does not eliminate Substitute.
A pseudo-hazing move will force a pokemon to switch out and thus eliminate the
stat boost and the Substitute.


===========================
Wobbuffet
===========================
Set: Counter, Mirror Coat, Safeguard, Destiny Bond

Uses: You've only got one set and there is probably only one item you'd want to
attach to Wobbuffet and that's Leftovers. It goes like this: Wobbuffet has a
colossal amount of Hit Points and a Defense and Special Defense that are below
average. This means that Wobbuffet will take a good amount of damage when
attacked. When Wobbuffet is hit with something it will attempt to use Counter
if it is hit with physical attacks and Mirror Coat if it is hit with special
attacks. Since Wobbuffet takes pretty good damage from most hits, if it
Counters or Mirror Coats an attack successfully, it will take anywhere from
around half to all of an opponent's Hit Points depending on the attack. Because
of Wobbuffet's hit points, it's able to survive multiple hits and deal back
double damage to a lot of attacks. The rest of the set is secondary. Safeguard
protects Wobbuffet from the status attacks that Wobbuffet is highly susceptible
to. Wobbuffet is to slow to use Destiny Bond before most pokemon strike a fatal
blow. Destiny Bond will be used to either prevent a finishing attack next turn,
or it can be used against pokemon who have used moves like Curse. Cursed up
pokemon will hit hard, but their Speed will have dropped significantly and this
can give Wobbuffet a chance to use Destiny Bond before it is taken out. The
best players of Wobbuffet seem to have a sixth sense about when to Counter and
when to use Mirror Coat.

Counters: Wobbuffet eats hitting attacks and deals back double damage. Your
other option is to use status effects. While all Wobbuffet sets carry Safeguard
(all Wobbuffets have the same set), Wobbuffet is to slow to put up a Safeguard
before it is hit by a status move. A poisoned Wobbuffet will have its health
hopelessly drained away. A sleeping Wobbuffet can be attacked safely while it
sleeps. Leech Seed also works very well. Do be careful as it can wake up and
strike back at any time. A pokemon with both physical and special attacks can
try and use one type of attack and get Wobbuffet to use the wrong kind of
countering move. A pokemon with an unexpected attacking move may be able to hit
when Wobbuffet is not expecting anything. Unless you hit Wobbuffet with a
status move first, it's not usually a good idea to try and stall it out because
Counter and Mirror Coat have too much PP. There is a loophole to both Counter
and Mirror Coat that you can exploit if you have the right type of pokemon.
Ghost types are immune to Counter, irrespective of whether or not they have
dealt physical damage. That means that Ghost types who use physical attacks on
Wobbuffet will be immune to Counter. Probably more significant is the next
immunity. Mirror Coat is a Psychic type attack and Dark type pokemon are immune
to its effects. Dark type pokemon can hit Wobbuffet with special attacks while
remaining immune to the effects of Mirror Coat. Dark type pokemon with Crunch
can bring down Wobbuffet pretty fast. If you don't have those pokemon or status
moves, it becomes a game of wearing down Wobbuffet without getting hit by
Counter or Mirror Coat. There comes a point where you can render Wobbuffet
unconscious before it can use Counter or Mirror Coat. If you can get to that
point without Wobbuffet using Destiny Bond then go for the finish. If you can't
then try to stall out Destiny Bond. This isn't too hard to do as Destiny Bond
has limited PP.


===========================
Zapdos
===========================
Set: Thunderbolt/Thunder, *Hidden Power Water/Ice, *Drill Peck, *Reflect,
    *Light Screen, *Rest

Uses: Probably the first thing that catches your eye about Zapdos is its
Special Attack and the next thing is its Speed. Zapdos launches some amazingly
powerful Electric attacks through its enormous Special Attack and it does these
attacks very speedily. Grass type pokemon who are resistant to these attacks
get nailed by Drill Peck. These are the basic offenses of Zapdos. Other moves
try to fulfill a slightly different role. Ground type pokemon have immunity to
Electricity and most of them are not phased by Drill Peck. This is why many
people "put" a Water or Ice type Hidden Power onto their zapdos sets. Water
Power allows Zapdos to take care of some of the Ground and Rock type pokemon
that would ordinarily pose an extreme threat. The fairness of such selections
has been called into question, but the strategic value of it has not. Light
Screen serves to protect Zapdos and potentially other teammates from special
attacks. Zapdos' Special Defense isn't as high as it once was, but Light Screen
certainly does help it last longer. Reflect serves the same function, but with
physical attacks. Zapdos can be just as threatened by physical attacks as it
can by special attacks. The longer Zapdos lasts, the more chances it gets to
let loose powerful Electric attacks. Thunder Wave provides some paralysis
support. Whirlwind fulfills a pseudo-haze role which Zapdos can do an okay job
at and it can serve to get rid of some threatening opponents that have built up
stats too high, be that offensively or defensively.

Counters: It's easy for Zapdos to hit hard with Electric attacks, but it can be
hard to stop. Assuming an opposing Zapdos does not have the assistance of
Hidden Power, a Rock or Ground or Rock/Ground combo can stand up to Electric
attacks and hopefully strike back with super-effective Rock attacks. If your
opponent's Zapdos has Hidden Power you can still take the advantage, but you'd
need to paralyze Zapdos first and wear it down to the point that it could be
finished off by a single good move. Paralysis is a good status effect to
afflict Zapdos with. Execution of this will take a great deal of skill. Another
alternative comes through special attacks. Ice attacks are super-effective. If
you can't get an Ice type pokemon with good Special Attack, ensure that you've
got a sturdy pokemon with a good Special Attack to use Ice Beam or you could
get taken down by a pair of Electric attacks before you can do much of
anything. Other Electric types can take a bit of an advantage over Zapdos.
Because of its Flying type, the electric bird loses its Electric weakness,
something that regular electric pokemon still have. If you get a strong enough
Electric attacker to paralyze Zapdos, they can proceed to use Electric attacks
on a crippled Zapdos and they can often times come out on top. Zapdos is not
especially sturdy and it can have a hard time resting without some protection.
Zapdos is the kind of pokemon that you'll want to take out as soon as you can.
Zapdos may prolong its life with Reflect or Light Screen and rest it certainly
gives you more incentive to get rid of it. Paralysis or sleep can make your
work a lot easier.


 ______________________________
||____________5. FAQ____________||

I haven't received questions concerning this guide and the nature of it, but
future questions will be posted and answered here. Let me try and answer some
questions in advance.

Q: Why is (particular pokemon) not covered in this guide?
A: I have intentionally omitted the pokemon that have not been covered. This is
not the final version of the guide and you should be sure to check the pending
updates section to see what's coming. I do take suggestions. I've chosen what
I've covered based on the pokemon that I've felt to be more common and more
widely used.

Q: You have failed to include (particular move or strategy) not covered or not
mentioned in the guide?
A: I really don't want to cover every possible strategy because that certainly
discourages thought and creativity. I'm fairly content with what's posted and
some of the strategies I haven't posted cater more to specific strategies and
situations and not general use. I am of course, open to suggestions within
reason.

Q: I don't see any moves that pokemon can get from the
New York City Pokemon Center in the guide. Why not?
A: I'm personally not particularly fond of using those moves, however that's
not something I'm going to get into. I will update this guide with those moves.
A new section will be created that will cover some of the notable new moves. I
do not wish to include them with the regular guide text because I don't want
people to think that they can obtain these moves through traditional means. I
also want to avoid confusion about possible movesets because the pokemon that
get these moves must hatch from eggs. The update will mention the pokemon and
the new moves and the uses of them.

Q: You mention the (particular word or strategy) in your moveset guide. What
does that mean?
A: If you can't understand what I'm getting at by the way I describe it in the
moveset guide then simply take a look at my battle mechanics guide. The link to
it is up top.

Q: Why are you posting a GSC guide not too soon after the Advance versions of
the game have come out?
A: Now this is a good question. I still think that GSC is still alive and I’d
like to revive whatever portion of it has died. I’d also like to give some
newer players who are new to the games a chance to really delve into some of
the amazingly deep strategies of these games. Another good reason is that this
guide took me a long time to finish.


 ______________________________
||______6. Pending Updates______||

The following are in no particular order:
Clefable, Wigglytuff, Ampharos, Magneton, Victreebel, Arcanine, Omastar,
Mr. Mime, Girafarig, Kangaskhan, Sandslash, Lapras, Espeon


 ______________________________
||__________7. Credit___________||

One of the beautiful things about pokemon is that unlike many other games, the
way we play is constantly changing and adjusting. I’d like to extend some
thanks to some of the people that have helped me along the way to proficiency
as well as extend some thanks to some of the places that have helped strategy
evolve in one way or another. I’ll mention people first.

Yay Porygon: Truly a pokemon master in the strangest sense of the word. She’s
been a great person to strategize with and I have her to thank for the majority
of the formatting work and posting that went into this guide.

Meowth346: He’s pushed the online community’s understanding of GSC forward
about as much as any other person that I can think of.

Tghost: He’s been a great strategist who’s actually helped develop a lot of the
movesets referenced in this guide.

Jman & Continue: Developing an extensive amount of nitty gritty things of GSC
is certainly no small task.

Mr. K: His tournament logs have been my inspiration.


One of the best ways to build up skill is to go to forums and interact with the
people there. I’ve learned much of that at the forums at Azure Heights a while
back and I learned things to do with GSC at the now deceased Pokemon Forever
Forums. Do be sure to dig up some of the old GSC topics at the Azure Heights
forums. Another thing that you can do is actually battle other people online.
That gives some unique type of experience that you can't get anywhere else.

The link to azure is this:
http://www.math.miami.edu/~jam/azure/

The link to a good online battling system is this:
http://www.tvsian.com/netbattle/

I’d like to extend one final bit of thanks to GameFAQs. The idea of having
guides about games written by people who simply enjoy them and know them was
pure genius. To then make it accessible to everyone is something that is really
special. I’m also definitely grateful for this hosting.

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