Competitive Pokemon History - Spiritomb Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Spiritomb was the talk of the town in its debut generation of standard play. At least, it was initially. With the release of "Pok�mon Platinum" came a new threat into the fourth generation metagame that took away a lot of reason to use Spiritomb. Which threat was this?

Answer: Rotom appliances

The Rotom Appliances generally boasted more power, similar bulk, and had bigger movepools to make them less predictable than Spiritomb. Spiritomb wasn't completely outclassed, as unlike the Rotom appliances, Spiritomb was not Pursuit bait, making it more resilient against trappers such as Tyranitar and Scizor, who were key metagame threats.

Unfortunately, Spiritomb could not actually reliably beat Scizor one-on-one and generally lost to most Tyranitar variants anyway, which weakened this advantage significantly. Thus, Spiritomb did indeed drop to UnderUsed after the release of the Rotom appliances.

2. It should be noted that, once Spiritomb dropped to fourth generation UnderUsed, it essentially picked up right where it left off before the release of "Pok�mon Platinum". That is to say that it was a stellar Pok�mon in fourth generation UU. Much of the reason for this can be attributed to its stellar defensive Ghost/Dark typing. How many weaknesses did this typing have in the fourth generation?

Answer: Zero

Being weak to absolutely nothing and having decent bulk made Spiritomb remarkably consistent at beating what it was supposed to beat. It could generally blanket check much of the meta, having good all around stats and a movepool that, while rather small, was precise and efficient at doing whatever the trainer needed it to do. Spiritomb was doubtlessly a top five Pok�mon in the fourth generation UU meta as a result.

3. Fittingly, Spiritomb's great defensive typing has been complemented by good Defense and Special Defense stats. These are unfortunately held back a lot by its poor HP stat, but they're just high enough to make Spiritomb decently bulky. What is Spiritomb's Defense and Special Defense stat?

Answer: 108

The Pok�mon said to have been formed by 108 spirits has also had its viability bolstered by 108 points of both Defense and Special Defense. This leaves its bulk at an above-average state. When paired with its excellent defensive typing, this made Spiritomb able to check much of the meta.

4. Spiritomb could contribute to offensive teams, despite its slightly underwhelming offensive stats, in a couple different ways. The most common method was simple Pursuit trapping, but another common and lethally efficient method saw Spiritomb take a page out of Suicune's book and opt for a tried and true Calm Mind, bulky boosting set. What was frequently the damaging move of choice on this set in the fourth generation and onward?

Answer: Dark Pulse

Boasting acceptable power, good PP, having nothing immune to it and being devoid of any drawbacks, Dark Pulse made for a good mono-attacking Spiritomb to sweep with after slowly amplifying its offenses with Calm Mind.

5. Spiritomb received access to an intriguing Hidden Ability in the fifth generation. What ability was this?

Answer: Infiltrator

Infiltrator allows the user to ignore opposing Substitutes, Reflects and Light Screens. This ability has generally been rather gimmicky and situational over the course of franchise history, but it actually fits Spiritomb rather well. Specifically, Spiritomb's Pursuit trapping sets were aided very well by the fact that opposing Psychic types could not put up a Substitute before safely switching out of Spiritomb as it switched in to play.

This gave it great, consistent and pretty unique utility as a Pursuit trapper.

6. As fifth generation power creep kicked in, one of the Spiritomb's nagging flaws began to more seriously hinder its defensive capabilities - its terrible Speed stat. What is Spiritomb's Speed stat?

Answer: 35

Base 35 is truly putrid for a Pok�mon of any kind. Having good bulk and access to two priority moves helps to try and offset this, but it is still a big deficiency Spiritomb has had to cope with over its competitive history.

7. Spiritomb's defensive typing took a bit of a hit in the sixth generation, when a new typing appeared that could hit it super effectively. What typing was this?

Answer: Fairy

Fairies could both hit Spiritomb hard and resist its Dark type attacks, making them generally good answers to it. This hindered its viability quite badly.

8. As Spiritomb descended to sixth generation RarelyUsed, it unfortunately fell into a tier where a big time hard counter to it was a prominent face, which cut into Spiritomb's viability significantly. Which Pok�mon of the following could switch into Spiritomb and defeat it quite reliably here?

Answer: Houndoom

Houndoom is the picture perfect Spiritomb counter. It resists both Ghost and Dark, receives a power boost if it switches in as Spiritomb uses Will-o-Wisp, and can threaten Spiritomb and its team by freely boosting with Nasty Plot as Spiritomb is forced to flee the field. Thus, Houndoom was a dangerous threat that could exploit its great matchup against Spiritomb to turn the tide of a game very quickly.

9. Spiritomb fell down a few notches in the seventh generation, with another major dosage of power creep. Which usage based tier was it in here?

Answer: PartiallyUsed

Being a generally bulky Pok�mon with no reliable instant recovery makes Spiritomb a prime target for acts of brute force, Z-Moves in particular. Its inability to handle this new mechanic led to a swift demotion all the way down to PU, the lowest tier in the game. Here, Spiritomb was at least a good Pok�mon due to having above average stats and a good typing to work with.

10. While it was definitely negatively impacted overall by the introduction of Z-Moves, Spiritomb itself could at least be an effective wielder of this mechanic in its new competitive tier. Which Z-Crystal did it often make use of here?

Answer: Darkinium-Z

Spiritomb's classic CroCune clone of Calm Mind/Dark Pulse/Rest/Sleep Talk definitely benefitted from the use of Darkinium-Z in a few ways. For one, after a few Calm Mind boosts, Black Hole Eclipse would do great damage even to Pok�mon who resisted the move. Additionally, holding a Z-Crystal made Spiritomb immune to getting crippled by a timely Trick or Switcheroo, while also lowering the power of an incoming Knock Off, giving the arrangement good defensive use as well.

Source: Author cavalier87

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Competitive Pokemon History - Spiritomb Quiz

There won't be 108 questions in this quiz as you might say that is "forbidden". Nevertheless, venture into this entry on Spiritomb's competitive history, from generations 4-7!

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