Why Mega Gengar Remains a Niche Control Pick in Regulation M-B
Gengar's Mega Stone in Regulation M-B is Gengarite, and Mega Gengar's recorded ability is Shadow Tag. On the ladder snapshot from showdowntier.com dated 07/31/2026 01:01, Gengar posts a usage of 5.22% and a win rate of 49.05%.
Both figures are modest, and the win rate sits below even. Everything this page states about Mega Gengar comes from that snapshot and from the Regulation M-B manifest:
| Species usage | Gengar usage 5.22% |
| Species win rate | Gengar win rate 49.05% |
| Snapshot rating | tier D on showdowntier.com |
| Mega Stone | Gengarite |
| Mega form ability | Shadow Tag |
| Base form ability | Cursed Body |
For a broader look at where it stands, our meta analysis page lists the current ladder figures and its recorded partners.
Mega Gengar's Recorded Moves
Gengar's recorded moves, ordered by the share of its sets that run them. A win rate here belongs to the sets that included the move, not to the move alone:
| Move | Recorded figures |
|---|---|
| Protect | WR 51.2%, usage 38.2% |
| Perish Song | WR 54%, usage 24.7% |
| Shadow Ball | WR 53%, usage 23.5% |
| Sludge Bomb | WR 53.3%, usage 13.4% |
| Disable | WR 54.4%, usage 10% |
| Hypnosis | WR 48.8%, usage 1.5% |
Two things can be read off that table without going beyond it. Protect is the most-used of the recorded moves at 38.2%, and Hypnosis the least at 1.5%. The ordering by usage is also not the ordering by win rate. Disable has the highest of the six at 54.4% while sitting fifth on usage, and Protect is fifth on win rate at 51.2% while being the most-run.
That is a description of the numbers, not an explanation: a gap of a percentage point between two of them may be nothing at all.
Item and Ability
The item is Gengarite, which the regulation manifest records as a Mega Stone and as holdable. Regulation M-B applies the Item Clause — no two Pokémon on a team may hold the same item — so the stone occupies Gengar's single item slot and counts against the team like any other held item. Mega Gengar's recorded ability is Shadow Tag; the base form's is Cursed Body.
The two forms have different recorded abilities: Cursed Body on the base form, Shadow Tag on the Mega form. Leftovers is another item present in the Regulation M-B catalogue.
Recorded Partners
The meta snapshot lists the partners with the highest recorded win rates alongside Gengar as Blastoise (WR 54.9%), Sylveon (WR 54.3%), Dragonite (WR 53.6%), Archaludon (WR 52.8%), Swampert (WR 52.6%) and Milotic (WR 52.4%). These are recorded pairings and their win rates; the snapshot does not record why any pairing performs as it does.
You can browse community-submitted builds on our best VGC teams page.
Recorded Counters
The snapshot lists five Pokémon as Gengar's recorded counters:
- Kommo-o
- Primarina
- Vanilluxe
- Annihilape
- Tsareena
They are recorded as counters and nothing more: no figure, no margin, and no account of what makes any of them one.
What the Win Rate Says
At 49.05% on 5.22% usage, Gengar is a low-usage pick that wins slightly under half the games it appears in. That is the whole of what the ladder data supports about its standing, and it does not support the framing this page used to carry: an earlier version of this guide called Mega Gengar a defining and dominant pick, and the recorded figures do not bear that out.
Limits of This Data
Three limits are worth stating plainly, because they bound everything above.
- It is a ladder snapshot, taken once. Every figure here comes from showdowntier.com as of 07/31/2026 01:01. It describes online ladder play at that moment — not a season, not a trend, and not a settled metagame.
- There is no Regulation M-B competitive evidence. The corpus this project holds contains no results from inside the M-B window, so nothing on this page cites a placement, an event or a player. Where a guide would normally reach for that kind of support, there is none to reach for.
- No causal claim is demonstrated. Usage, win rate and partner figures are counts of what happened. None of them establishes why it happened, and this page does not present any of them as an explanation.
There is one further gap, and it is the reason this guide is shorter than most of its kind. This project has adopted no source for the mechanics of Pokémon Champions — what abilities, moves, items and typings actually do in a battle. The manifest establishes which stone and which abilities exist, not what they do, and nothing else in the project covers it. Rather than fill that gap with plausible-sounding description, this page leaves it open.
Building Around Mega Gengar
If you want to build a team around Mega Gengar, our VGC Team Builder will validate items, abilities and movesets against the active regulation, and score the team with AI to return archetype, threats and coaching tips. For inspiration, check the community-scored lists on our best VGC teams page, and see where Gengar sits on the broader ladder via our VGC tier list.