Other Tiers Monotype

Conflict

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Original post by Lavos; taken over by Conflict in June 2021
There's been a lot of competitive discussion surrounding GSC lately, so I thought I'd bring up a more lighthearted metagame which has caught my interest. I was complaining in another thread about how mono Electric sucks in OU when I started to consider how it would fare against other monotype rosters, and the idea has snowballed into this thread.

Monotype in Gen 2 seems like it would be a fun and decently competitive metagame in that many types have one or two standout threats but none are overwhelmingly powerful against others. While some types like Ghost and Dragon don't have enough Pokemon to field a team of 6, the rest are generally comprehensive enough to stay competitive, and many types like Flying and Water are extremely diverse. I think this could be a good way to not only take the pressure off GSC players for a little bit, but also to expand interest in Gen 2 metagames and find whimsical enjoyment in what is often deemed the most serious of metagames.

Below are some types and respective Pokemon that I think would perform rather well in a GSC monotype format. Standard format would mean all 6 Pokemon must share one type, standard OU banlist applies along with all competitive clauses. Snorlax is banned, it's unkillable without a rare Explosion.

Normal

Blissey - Special tank, as if Lax wasn't enough. Soaks Electrics and Waters pretty well.
Clefable - One Drum makes it an instant thread. Alternatively, a mixed attacker could hit multiple types.
Kangaskhan - Similar to Snorlax, but faster and less bulky. Dangerous setup sweeper and phazer.
Miltank - Cleric, tank, checks other Cursers.
Porygon2 - Curse sweeper, or support with status.
Tauros - Mixed sweeper.

Electric

Zapdos - Powerful and versatile. RestTalk, screens, even Rain Dance are all potentially viable.
Ampharos - Tanky with screens. Dynamicpunch for Normal coverage.
Electabuzz - Mixed sweeper.
Electrode - It Explodes...
Jolteon - Most Electrics are already fast, but this one can Growth pass.
Lanturn - Surprisingly tanky, can RestTalk with ease. Convenient Water typing unless vs Electrics.
Pikachu - Strongest Thunder in the game. Can Sing for sleep. Mixed coverage.
Raikou - Ultimate special wall. Screens, phazing, lots of offensive options too.

Water

Suicune - Extremely tanky with good coverage. Can spread status and phaze.
Cloyster - Provides the rare Spikes. Can take hits and Explode.
Lanturn - Can RestTalk and doesn't instantly die to Thunders.
Lapras - Jack of all trades. Ice Beam hurts.
Omastar - Screens and Haze are niche options.
Poliwrath - Lovely Kiss and Belly Drum for the price of one.
Quagsire - Immune to Electric moves. Could force HP Grass tech from Electric monos.
Slowbro - Extremely tanky. Can spread status and Growl stuff.
Tentacruel - SD sweeper on a team swamped with special attackers and tanks.
Vaporeon - Growth sweeper or passer. Good RestTalker.

Psychic

Exeggutor - Status, Leech Seed, Explosion. Powerful STAB attacks.
Alakazam - Very strong Psychics. Good coverage. Encore and Recover are both nice.
Espeon - Growth passer. Morning Sun for recovery.
Girafarig - Agility passer with decent coverage.
Hypno - Spreads status and sets screens. Decent tank.
Jynx - Relatively fast with Sleep. Ice Beam in particular hurts.
Slowbro - Extremely tanky. Can spread status and Growl stuff.
Starmie - Fast with good coverage and Recover. Rapid Spin is possible though not always needed.

Ground

Marowak - Terrifying SD sweeper. Can punch holes in any team.
Donphan - Spins, phazes, does damage.
Golem - Strong Earthquakes and Rock Slides. Fire Blast for coverage. Explodes.
Nidoking - Powerful mixed sweeper. Lovely Kiss for sleep. Counter can be a nasty surprise.
Nidoqueen - Defensively stronger and offensively weaker than its male counterpart.
Piloswine - Can Curse and phaze or RestTalk. Ice coverage is good to have.
Quagsire - Completely walls non-HP Grass Electrics. Not that this team has a problem with them.
Rhydon - Curses and phazes with strong attack and defense. Rock type walls Normals.
Steelix - Curses, phazes, and Explodes.

Other types that I think could be threatening include Fighting, Fire, Flying, Grass, Ice, and Poison. I won't write them all out because this is partially about being creative with a new ruleset. Feel free to use this thread as a place to discuss the metagame, find battles, and post replays! I hope you all find it to be fresh and interesting.

edit #1: SNORLAX IS BANNED
 
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Isa

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i'd be down for some of these although i suggest a snorlax ban, i think very few teams have a way to break STalkcurselax beyond exploding on it. many types don't get a normal resist/immunity and neither ghost nor steel can field 6 fully evolved mons.
 

Lavos

Banned deucer.
Yeah I definitely considered a Snorlax ban while drafting this. Normal seems to have enough threats. I'll wait for some more people to weigh in before changing anything, but the point is well received.

edit: SNORLAX IS BANNED (just tested it, nothing kills it, curse stalk 6-0s non fighting monos)
 
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Jorgen

World's Strongest Fairy
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I'm concerned that Normal is just too strong, even with the Lax ban. Fighting doesn't entirely work as a counterpick; Normal has play with all the Twaves/Growls/Reflects/Counters at its disposal. Not to mention the Dodrio/Girafarig side-deck. And the shitty accuracy of Cross Chop, the only Fighting move really strong enough to muscle past most Normal-types' massive bulk. We'll let the games speak for themselves though.
 

Mr.E

unban me from Discord
is a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
I'm concerned that Normal is just too strong, even with the Lax ban.
Electric runs train on everything except Snorlax, Blissey, and fellow grounded Electrics. But nobody has the latter except itself, and Blissey can't kill anything like Snorlax kills everything. Blissey isn't even that unbreakable since Electabuzz and Drill Peck Zapdos can both 1v1 it and Pikachu/Raichu can screw with it using Encore.

I think mono-Ground will still beat mono-Electric but even that's probably kinda close with judicious use of Reflect and Hidden Power.
 
Okay so I am gonna try to revive this thread so I think that in particular electric offense is pretty good I think that it would mostly consist of something like this.

Ampharos-Good lead and good scouter can force switches a decent amount of times probably mandatory because it is the second best way to break normal teams.
Zapdos- One of the best mons and can sweep a lot of teams once their dedicated special wall is gone due to its high attack.
Jolteon-Helps with a sweep and is the only thing that can pass out of the electrics.
Raikou-Pretty sure he is close to mandatory too because he prevents you from getting swept by shit like a growth pass mon and is probably one of the best damn special walls in the metagame.
Electabuzz/Pikachu-Electabuzz is a fearsome sweeper when its checks are gone or if it has a boost from jolt. Pikachu is also pretty scary too and it can sleep something with sing and thunder does a shitload of damage to a good chunk of things.
Electrode-I personally like electrode in this spot as its fast and can provide fast twave/ls support or be a "I screwed up button" with explosion to stop a sweep or severely damage a wall or something. Lantunr doesn't have much power behind it.

Throw in some type coverage moves in with these mons and you should be fine.

I am gonna give some of what I think are the best mons on other, lesser types in no paticular order.

Flying-Doesn't have that many good sweepers but has a good variety of mixed attackers with coverage and some strong overall attackers too. Also has arguably the best physical wall in the game. Also have a good amount of thief mons.
Zapdos- Powerful and versatile. RestTalk, screens.
Charizard-Can be BD but I think that a mixed set would be viable with sun too.
Aerodactyl-A very fast mon that is decently versatile, can run a phazer set (which is outclassed by skarmory) or just run a curse set as he is the fastest curser around. Can also run a mixed set too which is pretty decent as well.
Dragonite-Extremely versatile with its moveset can run a support or a mixed set, one of the better flying mons.
Articuno-Can be a pretty decent support mon I guess.
Fearow-Against the right team this thing could be good but seems to be mediocre for the most part.
Gyarados-Unique mixed attacker.
Jumpluff-Annoying in many ways, its fast and is a good support mon.
Moltres-Very threatening, it can act as a sun spam core with zard and dragonite.
Skarmory-Its a great phys wall and phazer.
Scyther-Is a baton passer maybe you can get it to work.
Dodrio-Decent rest-talker but very frail.
Xatu-Only psychic mon and may be viable.
Delibird-Only flying mon that can spike.

Fire-SUN SPAM
Arcanine-May be outclassed by somethings but can take some hits I guess.
Charizard-Take your pick, bd or sun.
Entei-Sunnybeam is viable due to sun being prominent in the fire types wall breaking power.
Flareon-Can pass subs or something.
Houndoom-Sunnybeam is again viable, it is also the only viable pursuit user on this type of team.
Magmar-Excelling mixed attacker is also very viable.
Moltres-Sun spam
Ninetales-Can be an annoyer
Typhlosion-Mixed attacker is pretty nice I guess.

Fighting- Limited options, is still okay. It is very sweeper heavy.
Machamp-Can run mixed or a curse set up to you.
Heracross-Can run a curse +3atks or can run standard rest-talk
Hitmonlee-Can run a meditate set and act as a sweeper second fastest fighting pokemon.
Hitmontop-Better hitmonchan, can use an rs set if you want but it might be a waste, curse counter set is what makes it viable, decent coverage
Poliwrath-Probably a late game sweeper as BD could be threatening to the right team.
Primeape-3rd best mon, it can run meditate or sub up to you.


Grass

Exeggutor - Status, Leech Seed, Explosion. Powerful STAB attacks.
Jumpluff-An annoyer, and can status mons.
Meganium-Screens support, can also acts as an SD sweeper.
Sunflora-Pretty decent sweeper, Can abuse sun if needed.
Tangela-Decent counter to some of the grounds
Venusaur-Can be a decent wall or an SD sweeper.
Victreebell-Great sweeper.
Vileplume-Stat inducer with good sludge bombs.

Ice
Articuno-Good support mon.
Cloyster- Tanks hits and is a good pokemon overall.
Dewgong-Unique mon as it can switch into a lot of things and it has encore.
Jynx-Needs to run psychic, only thing that makes ice not get straight out beat by fighting.
Lapras-Another pretty cool mon kinda like dewgong except bulkier has some good versatility.
Piloswine-He is great, can setup curses to sweep and can phaze or be a rest talker
Sneasel-Odd man out, can run a physical attacker set but thats it, very frail.
Delibird-Can be a spiker or a curse option but is another odd man out.


Poison
Arbok-Decent coverage and has access to glare too.
Ariados-Can be used as a trapper for certain mons then baton pass into a sweeper.
Gengar-So good as a mixed sweeper and trapper.
Haunter-May be viable in conjunction with its evolution, aside from that it is outclassed however.
Muk-Nice Mixed attacker, can be a curser too, great boom.
Nidoking-Very good mixed sweeper, again.
Qwilfish-Only poison spiker has curse too.
Tentacruel-Nice SD sweeper can run RS if needed.
Venemoth-Pretty decent curse sweeper.
Venuasaur-Same as in grass
Vileplume-Same as in grass
Victreebell-Same as in grass

Rock
Tyranitar-Jack of all trades mon, pretty good.
Aerodactyl-Okay, it can acts the same way as it did in flying.
Golem-Nice boom and can run mixed if needed.
Kabutops-SD sweeper should save for a lategame sweep.
Rhydon-Can run curse or mixed attacker zap cannon can slow things down for the other rock types.
Sudowoodo-Nice Curse sweeper.
Omastar-Nice tank for this team.

Bug
Ariados-He traps and passes
Butterfree-Is a double powder mon its okay.
Forretress-Good mon sets up spikes and rapid spins.
Scizor-Passes sd and could lead to something sweeping
Heracross-Good sweeper and mixed wall.
Ledian-Another Baton pass mon.
Parasect-Dual Powder and is a sd sweeper or a mixed attacker too.
Pinsir-Can be very threatening but is an okay sweeper, very frail.
Scyther-Another passer, can be used over zor if you don't want the steel typing or something faster.
Venemoth-Still a curse sweeper.


Semi-Viable Types:
Steel- 6 mons and only one of them is bad.
Dark-Has 6 mons 3 are good, 1 is ok, 2 are bad.

Unviable Types:
Dragon- 4 mons and 3 of them are bad.
Ghost- 4 mons and 1 is bad and another is just ok.


Final thoughts: Fun tier, will post more later and as kind of a type viability ranking:

1. Normal
2. Electric
3. Water
4. Psychic
5. Ground
6. Flying
7. Fire
8. Fighting
9. Grass
10. Ice
11. Poison
12. Rock
13. Bug
14. Steel
15. Dark
16. Ghost
17. Dragon
 
This thread has been dead for almost two years. If people are losing to mono ice using standard teams, I assume they are playing wrong or they just don't have a full grasp of GSC yet.
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
Hey there, just wanted to drop some opinions on all of this.

So you're probably wondering why few people are participating. Well, I'm sorry, but I gotta be blunt here: This looks extremely unfun and boring. The problem with old generation monotype metas, in my opinion, is that there are simply too few mons to make monotype teams that don't all look identical. As such, most teams end up looking the exact same: there is simply too little variety in each type, some of them even just barely get enough mons to fill up a full team (and a select few can't even fill up a full party).

If you want to start up an old gen monotype meta, you should try doing Gen 3 or 4. Those already have lots more creative possibilities and flexibility with teambuilding. As in, roles that aren't just spamming dual screens/Curse.
 
I've been toying for a while with the idea of "extended monotype (X-Mono)" in which you can either match the team type or alternatively have a corresponding type-damage move, allowing a meta that is a lot closer to OU while still maintaining the type theme and preventing meta mons from just getting slapped on(Toxic, Seismic Toss, Dragon Rage, Spikes etc do not qualify a mon for an X-Mono team as they don't deal type-damage).

For instance, if you were fighting a team with Forretress lead which switched out to Gengar you could assume you were fighting a Normal team and that they had rapid spin and explosion, respectively. Therefore all boom teams end up being normal teams.

If it was a Zapdos lead that switched to Cloyster turn 1, Zap is probably running HP Ice and the majority of the remaining team members must have an ice move. It could just be HP Electric on the Cloyster, or the rarer HP Water on the Zapdos, or something far more obscure. Much like standard you don't really know the archetype for sure until at least 2-3 mons have been revealed.

A problem that manifests is you can actually run any 4 moves on a mon and as long as you use only use (or randomly trigger with ST) 3 of them each game there's no evidence that you have no type-damage move as your 4th. This isn't really a problem though since even though it can't be proven, you're going to have a major disadvantage to people who run 4 moves, so these grimy mons probably wouldn't end up being that significant in a meta like GSC's. If discovered thought it'd be an instant loss/DQ.

Any thoughts?
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
I've been toying for a while with the idea of "extended monotype (X-Mono)" in which you can either match the team type or alternatively have a corresponding type-damage move, allowing a meta that is a lot closer to OU while still maintaining the type theme and preventing meta mons from just getting slapped on(Toxic, Seismic Toss, Dragon Rage, Spikes etc do not qualify a mon for an X-Mono team as they don't deal type-damage).

For instance, if you were fighting a team with Forretress lead which switched out to Gengar you could assume you were fighting a Normal team and that they had rapid spin and explosion, respectively. Therefore all boom teams end up being normal teams.

If it was a Zapdos lead that switched to Cloyster turn 1, Zap is probably running HP Ice and the majority of the remaining team members must have an ice move. It could just be HP Electric on the Cloyster, or the rarer HP Water on the Zapdos, or something far more obscure. Much like standard you don't really know the archetype for sure until at least 2-3 mons have been revealed.

A problem that manifests is you can actually run any 4 moves on a mon and as long as you use only use (or randomly trigger with ST) 3 of them each game there's no evidence that you have no type-damage move as your 4th. This isn't really a problem though since even though it can't be proven, you're going to have a major disadvantage to people who run 4 moves, so these grimy mons probably wouldn't end up being that significant in a meta like GSC's. If discovered thought it'd be an instant loss/DQ.

Any thoughts?
Sounds... bad. At that point, every team will just be standard GSC teams with useless coverage hidden powers replacing good moves. In order to make it work, you would have to place a restriction on how many mons you can add with this clause. And even then, it still goes against the "spirit" of monotype.
 
GSC Monotype Roles Compendium
The roles will have subdivisions by type so that players can see what options they have available to them. In the future I might try and tailor this compendium to a sort of 'OU' kind of teambuilding style, for example, I might try to have roles like "Normal resist" and "Electric/Ground Resist Immunity" as these are usually very viable options in different metagames. I won't include all NFE pokemon. Open to suggestions either way.

Spikes
Normal :smeargle:
Flying :Delibird:
Ice :Delibird: :Cloyster:
Water :Cloyster: :Qwilfish:
Poison :Qwilfish:
Steel :Forretress:
Bug :Forretress: :Pineco:

You can always use Metronome and hope for Spikes LOL


Spinners
Normal :Smeargle: (why would you do this)

Ice :Delibird: :Cloyster:
Water :Starmie: :Tentacruel: :Blastoise: :Cloyster: :Kabutops: (All of their prevos)
Steel :Forretress:
Bug :Forretress: :Pineco:
Ground :Golem: :Donphan: :Sandslash: :Graveler:
Rock :Kabutops: :Golem:
Fighting :Hitmonchan: :Hitmonlee: :Hitmontop:


Heal Bell
Normal:Blissey: :Chansey: :Miltank: :Granbull:


Sleep Inducers
Normal :Smeargle: :Blissey: :Chansey: :Clefable: :Wigglytuff: :Granbull: :Noctowl: :Persian: :Stantler:
Flying :Noctowl: :Jumpluff: :Butterfree:
Ice :Jynx: :Lapras:
Water :Lapras: :Politoed: :Poliwrath: :Poliwhirl: :Golduck:
Poison: :Gengar: :Nidoking: :Haunter: :Nidoqueen: :Vileplume: :Victreebel: :Venusaur: :Venomoth:
Ghost: :Gengar: :Haunter: :Misdreavus: :Gastly:
Psychic :Jynx: :Exeggutor: :Hypno: :mr mime:
Fire :Ninetales: :Rapidash:
Grass :Exeggutor: :Venusaur: :meganium: :Bellossom: :jumpluff: :victreebel: :Vileplume: :tangela: :Parasect: (All of their prevos)
Bug :Butterfree: :Venomoth: :Venonat:


Boomers
Normal :Smeargle: (Lax is banned)
Electric :Electrode: :Voltorb:
Water :Cloyster: :Shellder:
Poison :Gengar: :Haunter: :Muk: :Weezing: :Gastly:
Steel :Steelix: :Forretress:
Rock :Golem: :Graveler: :Sudowoodo: :Geodude: :Onix:
Grass :Exeggutor: :Exeggcute:
Bug :Forretress: :Pineco:


Phazers
Normal :Ursaring: :Kangaskhan: :Granbull: :Raticate: :Stantler: :Persian:
Flying :Zapdos: :Skarmory: :aerodactyl: :Articuno: :Charizard: :Moltres: :Gyarados: :crobat: :Dodrio: :Butterfree: :Noctowl: :Pidgeot: :Murkrow: :Fearow:
Ice :Articuno: :Piloswine:
Water :Suicune: :vaporeon: :blastoise: :Gyarados: :feraligatr:
Poison :Nidoking: :Venusaur: :Nidoqueen: :Crobat: :Venomoth: :Golbat:
Steel :Steelix: :Skarmory:
Rock :Golem: :Rhydon: :Tyranitar: :Aerodactyl: :Onix:
Ground :Golem: :Rhydon: :Onix: :Piloswine:
Fire :Charizard: :Entei: :Houndoom: :Moltres: :Typhlosion: :Arcanine: :Flareon: :Ninetales:
Grass :Venusaur:
Bug :Butterfree: :Venomoth: :Yanma:
Electric :Zapdos: :Raikou: :Jolteon:
Dark :Houndoom: :Murkrow: :Houndour: :Tyranitar:


Swords Dance
Normal :Farfetchd: :Lickitung:
Flying :Charizard: :Scyther: :Farfetchd:
Water :Tentacruel: :Kabutops: :Kingler: :Seaking:
Poisons :Tentacruel: :Venusaur: :Victreebel: :Vileplume: (All the prevos) +:Beedrill:
Steel :Scizor:
Rock :Kabutops:
Ground :Marowak: :Sandslash: (all the prevos)
Fire :Charizard: (All the prevos)
Grass :Venusaur: :Meganium: :Bellossom: :Vileplume: :Victreebel: :Parasect: :tangela: (All the prevos)
Bug :Scizor: :Scyther: :Pinsir: :Beedrill: :Parasect:


Belly Drum
Normal :Smeargle: :Clefable: :Lickitung:
Water :Politoed: :Quagsire: :Poliwrath: :Poliwhirl: :Slowbro: :Slowking: :Azumarill:
Ground :Marowak: :Quagsire:
Fire :Charizard:

Growth
Normal :smeargle: :Eevee:
Water :poliwrath: :poliwhirl: :politoed: :Vaporeon:
Poison :Ariados: :Venusaur: :Victreebel:
Grass :Tangela: :Sunflore: :Venusaur: :victreebel: :parasect:
Bug :Ariados: :Parasect:
Psychic :Espeon:
Electric :Jolteon:
Fire :Flareon:
Dark :Umbreon:
Fighting :Poliwrath:

Agility
Normal :Aipom: :Dodrio: :Farfetchd: :Fearow: :Girafarig: :Pidgeot: :Porygon2: :Smeargle:
Flying :Aerodactyl: :Articuno: :Dodrio: :Dragonite: :Farfetchd: :Fearow: :Jumpluff: :Ledian: :Mantine: :Moltres: :Pidgeot: :Scyther: :Skarmory: :Zapdos:
Ice :articuno: :sneasel:
Water :Kingdra: :seadra: :seaking: :mantine:
Poison :ariados: :beedrill:

Steel :Magneton: :scizor: :skarmory: :magnemite:
Bug :ariados: :beedrill: :scizor: :scyther: :ledian:
Grass :Jumpluff: (all the prevos)
Psychic :girafarig:
Electric :Electrode: :Jolteon: :Magneton: :Magnemite: :Raichu: :Pikachu: :voltorb: :Zapdos:
Fire :arcanine: :moltres: :rapidash: (all the prevos)
Dark :sneasel:
Fighting :hitmonchan: :hitmontop:
Rock :aerodactyl:
Dragon :Dragonite: :Dragonair: :Dratini: :Kingdra:

Baton Pass
Normal :Smeargle: :Girafarig: :Aipom: :Farfetchd: :Eevee:
Flying :Scyther: :Farfetchd: :Ledian:
Water :Vaporeon:
Poison :Venomoth: :Ariados: (All the prevos)
Steel :Scizor:
Psychic :Espeon: :mr mime: :Girafarig:
Electric :Jolteon:
Dark :Umbreon:
Bug :Scyther: :Scizor: :Ledian:
Fire :Flareon:
 
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I decided to make some BAD Sample teams which you can take here. I did one for every type besides Dragon and Ghost which only have a handful of pokemon and can't even reach 6 slots.

Forgive the fact that the movesets are kind of cringey. Some might even be bad, but every tier has to start somewhere. I don't expect this tier to ever reach a point where it is balanced but I was bored, so I figured I'd try.

You can look at them here https://pokepast.es/b83ba24441ce9e4e

The teams in GSC Monotype aren't all going to have the same levels of success.
The strongest types in the tier are most likely the ones that can have multiple team combinations and aren't one dimensional offensively and defensively. These most likely are Electric, Water, Normal and Flying. However I would like to talk about two types that prove to have high potential in GSC Monotype, at least on paper, but are diametrically opposed as one type proves very malleable and probably has the toolkit to be successful versus all but one type, and the other one is an absolute powerhouse offensively and has great support but possibly is unreliable defensively these are Poison and Psychic respectively.

Poison has lots of tools to be successful agains types that aren't super effective against it, namely setup sweepers (Muk, Tentacruel, Venusaur, Vileplume, VIctreebl), boom offense (Muk, Weezing, Gengar, Haunter, Gastly), spikes control (Qwilfish, Gengar, Haunter, Tentacruel), speed control (Gengar), phazers (Venusuar, Nidoking, Nidoqueen and the haze users Crobat, Qwilfish, Gengar and Haunter) and even status spreaders (Nidoking, Gengar, Nidoqueen, Venusaur, Victreebel, Vileplume). It has everything one could possibly need to make a balanced team and could prove to win at least some matches against its weaker matchups (Psychic and even Ground, which isn't very good but still powerful).

:gs/Qwilfish: :gs/Venusaur: :gs/Gengar: :gs/Nidoqueen: :gs/Muk: :gs/tentacruel:

For example in this team I present (above) there is is a plethora of toolsets this team can use. Aside from a good spikes core, this team has two setup sweepers in Venusaur and Tencruel two explosion users, Gengar and Muk and a decent electric switch in in Nidoqueen. It could be a bit weak to ground as already mentioned.


Psychic on the other hand has lots of support moves but lacks certain fundamental ones that can make it a truly defensive typing (in my opinion). As such I can see them losing lots of matches against Electrics who tend to be faster and can overwhelm them with the added effect of paralysis or they can lose to Water types, all of which are pretty bulky. The other thing I noticed is that psychics are one of the few types out there with no phazer, meaning they can't rely on traditional GSC methods for beating setup sweepers. A jolteon could easily give them a lot of trouble as could a porygon 2 or Ursaring maybe.

:gs/jynx: :gs/Slowbro: :gs/starmie: :gs/alakazam: :gs/exeggutor: :gs/Wobbuffet:

In this second team there is a way to handle status, through safeguard Wobbuffet, Sleep Talk Jynx and Slowbro. They more or less serve the purpose of walling the opponent. Slowbro is formidable because it can dish out lots of damage and take lots. Exeggutor is your one sleeper and exploder and hopefully you can blow a hole in the opponents team to go absolutely ham with Starmie and Alakazam (who I made female).
 
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My own personal VR with a little write up on each of the tier, what their strengths are and their weaknesses.
Unfortunately for other meta enthusiasts, Gen2 Monotype has a skewed matchup making it very difficult for most types to have any semblance of success. The problem with the metagame that either certain types don't have enough viable pokemon (Fighting, Steel, Dark, Ghost, Dragon) or they lack the dual type variety you might see in later generations causing certain types to feel one dimensional (Electric, Ground, Fire for example). However, this hasn't necessarily been a hindrance to every type and the whole reason I'm even doing this write up in the first place is because I hope to answer a certain question: Is it possible for battles between a Super Effective and Neutral, (or Neutral and Resisted, or Super Effective and Resisted) to be competitive in this tier?

Based on what I think is this answer I will try to make a VR and hope to make updates once more empirical evidence is available.

S tier
Normal
: If you put electric above Normal, I wouldn't disagree entirely. However, despite even the ban of Snorlax, my intuition tells me Normal types are very difficult to prepare against and also don't appear to have many poor matchups. Rock type could be its worst matchup, Normal has so many tools to work with that they could likely overcome even that. Compared to Electric, Normals have more coverage options to complement their offenses with (Ursaring with Earthquake, Porygon2's elemental moves), they have excellent utility pokemon (Miltank, Blissey, Clefable, Smeargle), and a decent balance between special and physical walls, between mixed attackers, tanks and setup sweepers. Normal types are a bit spikes weak and actually don't have a lot of type variety.
Electric: Electrics have one strength and try to capitalize off only this. Since they can pretty much only rely on special offense, it should seem so easy to counter electrics in GSC. But the truth is that they can have a very competitive match even at a type disadvantage, making it very fun to play against Ground and Grass types. Zapdos is pretty much obligatory to have on all electric teams and is testament just to how one pokemon can (sort of) account for one huge weakness. Raikou offers the team with defensive utility vs other electrics and Jolteon enables the special offense even further with Growth sweeping potential. Lanturn and Pikachu are also very good at complementing an otherwise very predictable offense choice with Hidden power as the sole coverage for most Electrics. Electrode and Magneton are also viable options. What I believe to be their biggest strength is their ability to control the speed using paralysis, making it extremely tough to handle for many types.
A tier
Water: Water is one of my favorite types to play. It's easily the most malleable type and the one with the most variety along with Flying type. What's so good about it is that there are a sufficient number of Water types that allow you to build teams to beat specific types and have a decent odds of winning. You could build a team that beats Normal types or one that is consistent against all the other types. Cloyster offers the very coveted spikes while Suicune, Vaporeon and Starmie are excellent offense-defense hybrids. Quagsire, Lanturn and Kingdra are good options to include against the plethora of electrics pokemn making the matchup a little bit less skewed. Tentacruel, Politoed and Kabutops are valid options for hyper offense, and Omastar, Lapras, Octillery, Blastoise and Gyarados are strong walls.
Psychic: One look at the builder and you'll notice that Psychics have excellent movepools and options on the offensive end, but lack many common defensive options. Exeggutor, Starmie, Jynx, Espeon and Alakazam are all godsends but none are all that good at defending. There are no phazers on the team and your best walls are probably Slowbro, Slowking and Hypno. Your best option is to run some sort of screens setter as a contingency plan and have a status spreader or Encore user to tip off any form of setup. Still they are extremely powerful and if they can get their gameplan going, they can easily power through many teams.
B tier
Flying
: Flying shares with Water that fact that they could be rated higher if Electric weren't so successful. Flying type has a greater amount of dual type combinations so they don't have the issues of running out of options. The only down side is that they quite predictably have a rough time against some of the most frequent coverage moves on some of the most frequent offensive types in the game: Rock, Electric, Ice. Gligar lets you check Electrics but only temporarily, causing you to have to get creative in order to have any chance at winning against them. Skarmory is a great normal resist and Aerodactyl is fast. Jumpluff, Dragonite and Zapdos can spread paralysis and prove very threatening. Dodrio, Charizard, Moltres are powerful attackers and scyther is a potential setup sweeper.
Poison: I think Poison is among the best in this rank with so many options. Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Tentacruel, Venusaur, Victreebel and Meganium are good middle grounds between defensive utility and offensive sweepers/wallbreakers. Gengar is an amazing spin blocker, normal resist and offensive tool. Qwilfish is a spiker. Crobat can help deter setup attempts using haze. Hell, you even have Growth, Agility and Curse Baton passing potential in Ariados and Venomoth. Overall I like the variety this typing has, granting it the possibility to faceoff against certain types and prove pretty strong.
Ice: it's like a beta version of Water and of Psychic. Offensively strong and could even be kind of sound vs certain defensive threats but unfortunately it looks like it struggles vs Normal types and looks outclassed by Water. Spamming Ice moves in the hopes of a freeze looks like the best way to win. Jynx, Piloswine and Lapras are good offensive threats and sadly your only options if you don't intend to go lower than UU. Articuno is neither a great special nor physical wall but it can offer reflect and whirlwind support at least. Cloyster and Delibird can offer spikes. Sneasel can't even pursuit and its special attack sucks.
Ground: Filled with solid pokemon (literally) but the problem is that they can be fairly one dimensional. They are mostly included on the list for having a solid matchup vs electrics and decentish chance of being able to face off against Normals and perhaps Flying. When I say one dimensional, I mean that most of these Ground types are physical attackers and don't have ways of getting past physical walls. They are also extremely slow and somewhat frail on the special side. Nidoking and Nidoqueen are good utility pokemon. Piloswine and Quagsire can threaten special attackers and come in on hp ice users. Dugtrio can annoy fast pokemon. Donphan is a spinner and Marowak Rhydon are good offensive threats. Steelix and Golem have Explosion support.

C tier
Rock: Rock types have good offenses and okayish defenses. They can offer some nice tools to slowdown and beat certain teams (possibly) but they lack any way of handling water types. Therefore I believe you either set yourself on building a super tanky team or a high paced offense with the objective of steamrolling through a team before they can do anything back. That's easier said than done. Tyranitar is an amazing tank and wall breaker and can use ancient power to become the boogie man. Shuckle and Aerodactly can function as walls which annoy the crap out of opposing teams. Rhydon and Golem are also quite tank and the latter can be good boom support alongside Sudowoodo. Kabutops is a swords dance sweeper with good mixed coverage and decent speed tier.
Fire: I believe the only way to play with Fire is by building a Sunny Day Hyper offensive team. Sunny Day not only boosts the power of fire moves but lowers the accuracy of Thunder spammers, weakens the power of Water moves and Hidden power water coverage, and negates Freeze chances, making the matchup against Electrics, Water and Ice slightly better. Entei is the physical tank and likeliest of options if you ever want to have a curse sweeper. Flareon, Charizard and to a lesser extent Typhlosion can offer physical offense to go along that Fire power. Houndoom and Moltres can overload special walls and Ninetales and Rapidash can offer speed control and a very coveted option in Hypnosis. Their matchups seem pretty average across the board but could prove fun to play against Normals and Electrics.
D tier
Grass: Deserving to be at the top of this rank, which stands for "Dukey". Okayish move pools and not great amount of options. Venusaur and Meganium are tanky. Bellossom, Vileplume and Jumpluff can offer support. Exeggutor can be a wall breaker. Victreebel can sweep. Parasect can die.
Fighting: Slow, frail pokemon with poor defenses and not many coverage options. Run Machamp, Primeape, Heracross and a few others and hope for the best.
Bug: lots of weird options but don't necessarily have high highs. They have spikes in Forry, some setup sweepers in Scizor, Scyther, Pinsir, Heracross and Beedrill, a wall in Shuckle and some baton passers (Ariados, Ledian, Venomoth, Scyther, Scizor) as well as status spreaders (Butterfree, Venomoth, Parasect). Go wild, and make sure to catch as many bugs as you can.
Steel: This has 6 pokemon but they aren't bad. Steelix is a wall/physical sweeper, Magneton and Magnemite are special sweepers and status spreaders. Forry is a spikes setter. Skarmory walls normals. Scizor is a wallbreaker???
Dark: Tar, Houndoom, Umbreon, Murkrow, Houndour, Sneasel. Just enough variety to give different roles.
F tier
Ghost Despite having 4 nice pokemon options, this is not going to do well for obvious reasons. If we had to go by rankings of individual pokemon, Gengar would be a massive threat and Haunter would also be dangerous, but there simply are not enough pokemon to go by. Even if we forced a 4v4 battle, it would be too disadvantageous for the ghost team because their 4 slots would always be known. It's a real shame considering how potent Ghost types prove to be in Gen2 despite not getting any valuable STAB.
Dragon Same as above yet somehow even worse. Dragon is not a good typing in a Hidden power reliant generation and there is nothing to be gained from Outrage which is an abomination of a move. Movepool is nice but there simply is no variety and no defensive measures for certain types.
 
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https://pokepast.es/b1bf89469e141c40

I've enjoyed playing GSC Monotype quite a bit. I've mostly used cherryb0ng's samples team, but I built this team and found success with it. I wanted to run mono Flying because it has an immunity to spikes, and has a lot of unique mons. It still has a terrible matchup vs electric, and has a harder time against Ground and Rock, but it has options to finesse them.

Building Process


I wanted to run lead Delibird because it's the only Flying type with Spikes. Spikes helps this team with softening up other teams and makes the Normal, Ground, and Rock matchup more playable. I also put Icy Wind to slow down my opponent, Toxic to put a mon on a timer, and Thief to steal items.


Aerodactyl is the fastest Flying type. I wanted to use it to patch up mono Flying's weakness to Electric teams. While it can't switch into and Electric hits like Gligar, it doesn't instantly lose when your opponent runs Ice or Water coverage. It's EQ can force 2HKOs with Spikes down and is the only reason this team isn't completely swept by mono Electric.


Skarmory's role on this team is to wall mono Normal. Its one of the most dangerous types and without it, it's a much tougher matchup. It also completely walls mono Fighting, Bug, and Grass.


I needed a defensive backbone for this team and Dragonite fits the bill. It's one of the few mons not weak to Electric, has great bulk, and has access to Haze to stop setup sweepers. I gave it RestTalk to have give it longevity, and Dragon Breath to spread paralysis.


Drum Zard is an excellent wincon when you soften your opponents team. It can sweep entire teams with Spikes and paralysis support if gets a free turn. It isn't very useful into mono Water, Electric, or Rock, but it can win games if given a free turn.


Zapdos is team's main paralysis spreader, and the team's best mons against mono Water. It also gave it HP Water to make mono Ground and Rock a much easier matchup, and Whirlwind for phazing.

Relevant Matchups:

Normal: Skarmory can wall most Curse users, while Drum Zard and find setup opportunities against Blissey and Miltank. BoltBeam Porygon2 and be very disruptive against the team though.

Electric: Terrible matchup. The only mon that stands a chance is Aero but it gets 2HKOed by any Electric attack.

Water: Zapdos beats most mons on mono Water. Skarmory can easily wall Quagsire, and Dragonite can prevent Tentacruel from getting Sword Dance.

Psychic: Need more experience vs Psychic, but it seems like an even matchup. Zapdos can go to town if Exegutor and Hypno are removed, but they aren't easily removed.

Poison: Aero and Dragonite and very disruptive to mono Poison. They can easily soften up the team for Zard of Zapdos to clean up.

Ground: Zapdos and Aero can threaten most mons on mono Ground. If you can successfully remove Nidoking and Nidoqueen, Skarmory can wall the rest of the team.
 

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