Gourgeist, The Pumpkin Pokémon. Eerie cries emanate from its body in the dead of night. The sounds are said to be the wails of spirits who are suffering in the afterlife. In the darkness of a new-moon night, Gourgeist will come knocking. Whoever answers the door will be swept off to the afterlife.
Overview
Gourgeist’s Halloween came early when the Isle of Armor dropped giving it incredible new STAB options in Poltergeist and Grassy Glide, the former complimenting its signature move. Unfortunately, old problems and new continue to plague it. Its myriad of resistances is let down by its wide pool of weaknesses and thanks to Poltergeist is extremely vulnerable to Knock Off from its own team as well as the opponents. Its niche as a support Ghost type is an extremely crowded field with its best tricks all being performed by better Pokémon.
Gourgeist’s size gimmick is interesting but let down by poor stats. Its smallest (and fastest) form is still easily outsped by many popular threats and has nothing else going for it. Its Supersize (and strongest) form has average attack and no way to boost it, but at least has good bulk to fall back on. And the in between forms suffer the worst of both worlds, removing them from consideration.
Positives
Grass/Ghost typing has 4 extremely common resistances and 2 immunities along with natively ignoring trapping and Sleep Powder/Spore
Good Base 85 HP and Great Base 122 Defense ensures Gourgeist can take a few hits
Ghost Support movepool can make Gourgeist an aggravating opponent able to shutdown many Pokémon.
Negatives
Equally common weaknesses makes it difficult for Gourgeist to wall effectively.
Base 54 Speed is still easy to outspeed both in and out of Trick Room
Decent Attack, but unreliable STAB and no way to boost it leave Gourgeist usually wanting for power.
Abilities are situational at best.
Movesets
Trick Room or Treat
-Trick Room
-Leech Seed
-Will-O-Wisp
-Poltergeist/Foul Play
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 252 DEF / 4 SDEF
Relaxed Nature
Trick Room Gourgeist aims to leverage its impressive resistances and physical bulk to pivot in and setup Trick Room to disrupt the opposing team and enable Gourgeist’s teammates to sweep. Leech Seed keeps Gourgeist healthy, provides chip damage and can mitigate a teammate’s damage taken when switching out after setting up Trick Room. Will-O-Wisp makes Gourgeist very difficult to break on the physical side, and like Leech Seed provides chip damage and reducing the damage of attacks on the switch. Poltergeist and Foul Play are there to prevent Gourgeist from being completely passive. Poltergeist is a strong STAB, but can be unreliable, especially with Knock Off using teammates. Foul Play is a more reliable option that uses the target’s often higher attack while ignoring if the Target got burned.
DYNAMAX:
Dynamaxing this set is not recommended. Gourgeist is meant to enable a teammate’s sweep, not perform one itself.
EVs and Items:
Synthesis -somewhat reliable recovery that does have Gourgeist stand out from other defensive Ghost types. Can be used on a Trick Room set to enable Gourgeist to setup Trick Room multiple times or replace Trick Room entirely and turn Gourgeist into a dedicated wall.
Destiny Bond -Can be used to sack Gourgeist after Trick Room setup, taking advantage of its increased “speed” to get a surprise Destiny Bond up and safely switch in your Trick Room sweeper. However, this does burn a turn of Trick Room, fails against people switching out in response to Trick Room.
Trick Or Treat -purely gimmick. While it does make Poltergeist and Foul Play extremely spammable, it is easily removed by switching out and there is no Pursuit in this generation to truly take advantage of the new weakness. It definitely works better in Doubles
Other Options:
Gourgeist can use a more offensive set with Trick Room and Life Orb with Earthquake, Shadow Claw and Body Press. This set would be more suitable for Dynamaxing since it can use the All Out Pummeling boosts to raise its Attack, but with base 95 Attack, Gourgeist is not really hurting a lot of Pokemon without a boost.
Body Press is an alternative option that can hurt Ferrothorn thanks to its high Defense stat, but Gourgeist struggles to fit this move.
Partners:
Slow teammates that can take advantage of Trick Room are greatly preferred. Snorlax, Incineroar, Scrafty all have very complimentary typings that can easily pivot in on Gourgeist’s weaknesses after a Trick Room setup. Rhyperior, Aggron, Tyranitar and Lapras have less complimentary typings but can also abuse Trick Room to an extent.
Blaziken and Heatran, while being a bit fast for Trick Room, form part of a Fire/Grass core with both parties able to pivot into the other’s weaknesses, with Blaziken and Heatran greatly enjoying the extra recovery from Leech Seed as well.
Blissey makes an impressive Special Wall to Gourgeist’s physical and enjoys Gourgeist’s ability to answer opposing Fighting types.
Countering Gourgeist
Common special weaknesses ensures that there is not a lack of Pokémon that can easily setup on it while ignoring Will-o-Wisp. Torkoal incinerates Gourgeist while ignoring most of its moves and outslowing it in Trick Room. Hydreigon, and Galarian Moltres, both outright ignore Gourgeist’s STABs and can easily use it as setup or OHKO it, though they don’t like Trick Room. Dragapult, Gengar, Spectrier Kyurem, and Volcarona may not be as reliable defensively, but can easily OHKO Gourgeist out of Trick Room.
Porygon-Z is faster than Gourgeist out of Trick Room, but is a well known abuser of it and is unbothered by most of Gourgeist’s moves while striking it down with Ice Beam.
Blaziken and Cinderace stand out among physical sweepers for not fearing Will-o-Wisp and being able to strike down with their STABs. Urshifu-Single, Dragonite, Weavile and Salamence don’t like Will-o-Wisp or Trick Room but otherwise can revenge KO Gourgeist with ease.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game
Colosseum/XD:
Not in game
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Not in game
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Not in game
Black/White:
Not in game
Black 2/White 2:
Not in game
X/Y:
Evolve Pumpkaboo
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Trade from X/Y
Sun/Moon:
Transfer from X/Y
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Transfer from X/Y
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game
Sword/Shield:
Hammerlocke Hills
Max Raid Battles: Dappled Grove, Giant's Mirror, Stony Wilderness, Watchtower Ruins, Challenge Beach, Courageous Cavern, Stepping-Stone Sea
Dynamax Adventures
Anime Appearences
