So..Ghost types are in a bit of an odd place,aren't they?

For those who don't play competitively,Ghost types are in a state of which i can only (And ironically) describe as,purgatory.At least for the non legendary ghost types that is.Sure,Gengar and Mega Gengar are still at the top,but the others appear to be faltering.

The only other Ghost type in the Overused tier of competitive play is Sableye.And even he is slowly starting to go away.


And do to these guys,Dark types now have a new weakness.Which now leaves Eelektross the only Pokemon,with no weaknesses.(And it is still mediocre.)


Other than that,yeah,there not doing so well.But hey,thats just Pokemon in the higher tiers of play,how are Ghost types doing in lower tiers.Well..Not to bad.

Banette is fairy useful in the Rarelyused tier,do to its decent support viability.Golurk is very fun to use with a choice band.And the other forms are Rotom are SO fun to use.

And this week,we are going to go down into the lower tiers,and take a look at what alot of people say is basically the Rarelyused tier version of Gengar.That's right,this guy.



Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to Pokemon Reviews,and this week: Spiritomb.Lets get started.

Moveset And Leveling Experiences.
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(Disclaimer: This review was done by playing through Pokemon Omega Ruby,while using a level 5 Spiritomb as a substitute starter.)
You know,Spiritomb is surprisingly easy to level.Even though you now have a weakness,you don't encounter fairy types to often early on.Well,besides ralts of course.

And lets not forget,psychic attacks are not super effective against you.And as long as you use a wide arrange of moves,not much is going to be a major threat to you.As lets not forget,there is no fairy type gym in Omega Ruby.But lets just get onto the moveset.

Once your little Ghost demon thing is born,it can have any number of these random moves,so lets just go over them very briefly.

Curse: You sacrifice half your health,and your opponents current Pokemon takes 1/4 of there health in damage.It's a fun little gimmick,but not very effective.I do not recommend it.

Pursuit: This one is rather interesting.Pursuit is a dark type move,and deals 40 damage to the target.However,if they switch out to another Pokemon,it deals 80 damage instead.This can be useful for competitive play,and its a decent dark type move early on.I recommend it.

Confuse Ray: Do i really need to tell you what this does...? Its very self explanatory.It confuses the opponent.Done.I don't exactly recommend it,but it can be useful sometimes.Neutral.

Spite: This deducts 4 PP from the opponents Pokemon's last used move.Eh..I think it sucks.Moving on.
Shadow Sneak: This is basically the Ghost type version of quick attack.It deals 40 damage,and has +1 Priority.Its pretty decent early on.And may be the best move out of the others.I highly recommend it.But i guess that really does not matter,as everything you get is random anyway.Which means the chances of you getting this move are 1 out of 4.Good luck!

The first move you gain by leveling is feint attack,at level 7.Its a dark type move,that is uneffected by accuracy modifications.In other words,it will never miss.Unless the opponent is using something like fly,or dive.It also deals a pretty decent 60 damage.I recommend it.

The next move is you get is hypnosis,at level 13.It puts the target to sleep,and has 60% accuracy.This move is pretty effective in competitive play.And is decent in game for trying to stall.I say keep it for now,as it will be essential for the next move you gain in your set.

At level 19,you get dream eater.Which is a 100% damage psychic type move,with 100% accuracy.Perfect right? Nope.Because in order for this move to work,the target must be asleep.So if you can get that hypnosis to hit,this will most likely 1 hit K.O,or at least deal a good bit of damage to your target.If you kept hypnosis,might as well take this one.

Level 25 gives you Ominous Wind.A 60% damage ghost type move,that has a 10% chance of raising all stats are once.Besides accuracy and evasion of course.This move is pretty decent.And looking back at the previous moves we have gotten..We don't have much of a choice.So i would get this move.

At level 31 you get a move that is actually pretty good,Sucker Punch.It deals 80 damage,has 100% accuracy,and has +1 priority.There just one wittle catch.If your opponent does not use a damaging type move,the attack will fail.This is one of the moves that work great with competitive play,and requires great skill at prediction.If you think you have those skills,go ahead and take it.

At level 37,you get some very "Nasty" if you catch my drift..You don't? Fine then,i suppose i should elaborate.Level 37 gives you Nasty Plot.A move that raises your special attack stat,by 2 stages.This is something very,very powerful.I suggest you take it.As you can easily sweep a team.

Level 43 gives you suicide-I mean Memento! This move causes the users Pokemon to faint,but lowers the targets special attack,and attack stat by two stages.This move is honestly not worth it.I do not recommend it,at all.Explosion is much better.Although,i do not believe Spiritomb can learn it.

And finally at level 49,you get dark pulse,another pretty good move.This deals 80 base damage,and has 100% accuracy,and has a 20% chance to cause your opponent to flinch.This move is very good,please take it.
Well that was rather..Underwhelming.Onto the stats.

Stats Weaknesses And Abilites.
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HP: 50
Attack: 92
Defense: 108
Sp. Atk: 92
Sp. Def: 108
Speed: 35

You could argue that Spiritomb is meant to be built as a slow,sturdy,and somewhat offensive tank.
It has a rather oddly low amount of health,and is a bit annoying.It has a decent attack stat,even though you little to no attack move in the entire set..But whatever i suppose.

Its defense and defense are incredible,and make it very hard to take down in one hit.Its special attack is excellent.And its speed is mediocre.

As for weaknesses,you will only have to worry about 1.Fairy.A type that is a bit hard to counter in your case,at least on your own.You see,Spiritomb has no damaging poison type move.And when you switch out,there is a fare chance you can be predicted by your opponent,and take alot of damage.So yeah,this is going to be a bit of a problem.Perhaps a Hidden Power Poison will help.

Spiritomb comes with 2 avalible abilities.

Pressure:  Every time your opponent hits you with an attack,the move they attacked you with will lose one additional PP.This is not that good,i do not recommend it.

Infiltrator: Infiltrator however,is pretty good.This attack allows Spiritomb to ignore moves such as,Reflect,Light Screen,Safeguard,and Mist.This move is situational,but effective when it pays off.it is much better than pressure.

Competitive Play
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So,anyone know this little tactic called Resttalk? Well if you don't,you will soon enough.

1-Calm Mind
2-Dark Pulse
3-Rest
4-Sleep Talk

Item:Leftovers

Ability: Infiltrator

Nature:Bold

Evs
Hp: 252
Def: 252
SpD: 4

This is the traditional Resttalk set.This move focuses on gaining power through calm mind,then when you are extremely damaged,go to sleep.Afterwards,Sleep talk can activate Dark Pulse.Which will most likely 1 hit K.O any pokemon,if you have gotten about 2-3 calm minds in.Even if the Pokemon is not very effected by it.

The reason Leftovers is here is obvious,are goal is to stay alive as long as possible.This is essential.
Infiltrator is without a doubt Spiritombs best ability.Even if it is not useful all the time,its the best we got.
Our nature is bold.As it increases defense,but lowers attack.And it just so happens there is no physical attack move here.Everything to gain,and nothing to lose.

The reason we put our EV's into these specific areas is obvious,we want to stay alive.So its only natural that we focus in defensive stats.And be sure to put a minimum of 4 points into special defense,trust me,you will need it.

Final Thoughts
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...Really? This is the Rarelyused version of Gengar? I don't think so.The best way to describe Spiritomb in my opinion,is by calling it a Ghost type version of Snorlax.

It has a decent leveling moveset.Low,but very focused stats.It knows what its supposed to do,and the stats compliment its purpose perfectly.It has very little to worry about in the weaknesses department.And has a decent little ability.

It is alright in competitive play,and has a few fun little sets you can use.

All in all,Spiritomb is a bit dissapoiting,but still fun to use.The main problem lies in its moveset.It does not have to many Tms and Hms you can use either.But it is still pretty effective.And is a decent little support.

And lets not forget,only one weakness.This gives it the ability to counter alot of threats.The only thing you have to worry about is fairy.And i would suggest getting a poison type to counter that,immediatly.

If you're looking for a pretty unique Pokemon,with a fair bit of bulk,and not much to worry about,Spiritomb should do the trick for ya.

Spiritomb gets a final rating of-3.3/5

Pros
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.Very focused stats.Spiritomb is a pokemon that knows its roll.And will do its best to serve that roll,until it dies..Well,i suppose its already dead.

.Only one weakness.

.Bulky,you can bet that it wont die in one hit,if the target has not increased its stats in some way.Not even a super effective move will take it down in one go.

Cons
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.While it may not have to worry about its one weakness to often,it has no way of countering that weakness on its own.Practically forcing you to switch out,if you have not used calm mind.

.Not very flexible.It cannot learn a wide variety of moves.

For alternate Pokemon recommendations,i would like to point you towards-

1-Banette: Banette is another Pokemon in the RU tier.And is just about as good as Spiritomb in similar areas.And is possibly better,due to its mega evolution.

2-Jellicent: Jellicent is once again a Pokemon in the RU tier,and is very defensive.I would actually use that over Spiritomb.

3-Snorlax: Yep.Snorlax practically invented the Resttalk set up.So why not put the original guy in here!

Well,that's all i have to say this time.Thanks for getting this far.And apologies for any grammar mistakes.As i am writing this on my new computer,and i don't have much keyboard instinct with it yet,so i may have missed a few keys.

Anyhow,if you liked what i had to say here,please consider stroking my ego,by leaving a comment about what you think about the Pokemon,or the review in general.You can even request a Pokemon if you like,i'll get to it eventually.Other than that,see yah next time!
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Now if you excuse me,i'll be heading back to Heroes Of The Storm!

Before you even got into the actual review, I noticed one thing you mentioned that's not true, and that's when you said that ghost types have a new weakness. That's false, the reason spiritomb now has a weakness is because it's part DARK, which is weak to fairy. ghost is actually neutral against fairy. Anyways, as far as the review itself goes, I think you did a good job explaining what you think about spiritomb. I pretty much agree with most of what you said about it's stats and it's moveset. However, I completely disagree with what you said about Jellicent being better than spiritomb. Jellicent has very pathetic stats, far worse than spiritomb and it has a ton of weaknesses, making it a terrible choice for someone's team. Other than that though, you did a good job.

gamerforlifeforever2 : Thanks for the reply! I really should have noticed that flaw in the review.Giving false information is one of the stupidest things you can do in these things.Thanks for giving me a heads up!