Competitive Pokémon History - Genesect Trivia Game

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. When one thinks of a Bug/Steel type with a strong U-Turn that excels at getting its team momentum, Scizor would often come to mind first, not Genesect. This was the case even in fifth generation Ubers, where Genesect was banned to. Having said that, to write Genesect off as inferior to Scizor would be a mistake so massive that it could invalidate one's chance at succeeding in Ubers. Genesect had one two key advantages that made it worth using over Scizor- one of them was its much higher Speed. What was its other key advantage?

Answer: Special Attack

Genesect's bulk was slightly inferior to Scizor's, while they shared the same exact typing. However, Genesect's 120 in Special Attack made mixed or even specially focused sets worth using, whereas Scizor's putrid 55 for Special Attack meant it could not contest this niche. Combined with its much higher Speed, and Genesect definitely made a name for itself in its debut generation.

2. Team Plasma, in the process of designing Genesect, did not actually create an exclusive or signature ability for it. What was Genesect's ability?

Answer: Download

Download grants the user a +1 to either its Attack or Special Attack, the particular stat depending on the defenses of the opposing Pokémon once being brought in. If the opponent's Defense is higher than Special Defense, Download will grant the user a Special Attack boost, and vice versa. For a Pokémon with the capability to use a mixed offensive set, Download had the potential to greatly elevate Genesect's offensive potential.

This made it out to be as good an ability as it could've asked for.

3. Team Plasma may have designed Genesect a signature move, Techno Blast, but the move made absolutely no impact on the competitive scene. What is Techno Blast's base power?

Answer: 85

An 85 for a base power isn't necessarily bad, but the main issue with Techno Blast was its typing. At base, Techno Blast is a normal type attack and this can only be changed by equipping Genesect with a Drive which changes the move's typing. An 85 isn't bad, but it isn't good enough to justify taking up both a move slot and an item slot making it good.

A Choice item or a Life Orb went much further in making Genesect threatening, and as such, Techno Blast never saw any serious usage for it on the competitive scene.

4. Most Pokémon in general have counters. Genesect in the fifth generation was no exception. Which of the following could reliably switch into it and win?

Answer: Arceus-Ghost

Arceus-Ghost was insurmountable even for a Genesect with a Download boost. Arceus-Ghost was tanky enough to avoid the 2HKO from any move Genesect could viably equip. Arceus-Ghost frequently used Recover, so it could keep itself healthy to properly counter Genesect all game long.

The best Genesect could do to punish an Arceus-Ghost switch in was to use U-Turn to bring in a more appropriate teammate as Arceus-Ghost came in. However, as a top metagame threat, there was very few Pokémon who could actually beat Arceus-Ghost one-on-one, so this wasn't as threatening as it would be to other would-be counters.

As such, a team looking to use Genesect is heavily encouraged to pair it with at least one, ideally two Pokémon who can competently fight Arceus-Ghost, such as Tyranitar, Darkrai or Arceus-Dark.

5. While Genesect did have a counter, it was also highly valued for being the best offensive check, bar none, to the king of Ubers in the fifth generation. Which tippity top level threat did Genesect matchup well with?

Answer: Mewtwo

Genesect definitely did not outright counter Mewtwo, as Mewtwo could slam it extremely hard with its high offensive stats, or straight up delete Genesect with Fire Blast. However, once a Choice Scarf Genesect hits the field against Mewtwo, Mewtwo needs to switch or get destroyed by a speedy super effective U-Turn that would get the Download boost due to Mewtwo's Special Defense being higher than Defense.

This U-Turn can also allow the Genesect user to scout the Mewtwo user's initial response to Genesect, then try to work on whittling said check away to allow Genesect more liberty to hit the field. Choice Scarf Mewtwo out speeds and would prevail against Choice Scarf Genesect, but seeing as how Mewtwo was the king of the tier and typically had at least one way to beat pretty much anything, this was still pretty good and gave Genesect a great niche for the tier.

6. Before the fifth generation concluded, a giveaway known as Movie 13 included Genesect as a gift. Here, Genesect gained access to three interesting moves it could try and use. Which of the following was one of them?

Answer: Blaze Kick

Blaze Kick was an interesting idea for a more physically offensive oriented Genesect set, giving it its first Fire type physical attack. In addition, Genesect received Extremespeed and Shift Gear as new moves during this giveaway, which were also interesting and had potential for competitive use.

7. Often, the subject of whether or not a Pokémon is shiny, has certain ribbons, or any aesthetic design in general is trivial and useless on the competitive scene, as designs do not impact a Pokémon's stats or movepool. However, in Genesect's case, we have an exception- following the fifth generation and onward, it was heavily recommended that trainers seek out shiny Genesect instead of non-shiny. What impact would being shiny have on Genesect?

Answer: Movepool

The Movie 13 Genesect came to players as a guaranteed shiny Genesect. Movie 13 was also the only way Genesect could have access to Shift Gear, Extremespeed and, until the eighth generation, Blaze Kick. As such, even if the trainer did not plan to use these moves, using a shiny Genesect was highly recommended as to not immediately give this away to their opponent and keep them guessing as to what moves the user had given their Genesect.

8. In the sixth generation, Genesect suffered some big hits that caused its status as a high tier threat to diminish. One of these major setbacks came from the omnipresence of a new threat which totally countered Genesect and was difficult for the average team to deal with. Who was this?

Answer: Primal Groudon

Primal Groudon had very good defenses and, thanks to its Fire/Ground typing, not only resisted Genesect's STAB but also was only neutral to anything else it could use. Even a Genesect with the appropriate Download boost simply ran into a brick wall trying to fight Primal Groudon.

As Primal Groudon was the best Pokémon in Ubers by a hundred miles, this was a major problem and could definitely dissuade the average trainer from using Genesect on their team.

9. Things got even worse for seventh generation Genesect, and it would now be hopelessly buried in Ubers obscurity. This mainly stemmed from the rise of two major competitors for it, the new coming seventh generation mythical Magearna being one of them. Which other Pokémon overshadowed Genesect?

Answer: Mega Scizor

Mega Scizor didn't make much noise in sixth generation Ubers, but the overall state of the meta in the seventh generation caused it to rise into a decent state of viability. Meanwhile, Genesect was left trying out Choice Band sets due to power creep causing its offenses to become uninspiring. Specially based or mixed sets were too unreliable and not typically valuable enough to be worth using. Mega Scizor and Magearna's crown advantage over Genesect was that both made for significantly stronger Xerneas answers- Genesect's unreliability at beating Xerneas for a Steel type was immensely concerning and typically forced anyone who actually wanted to use Genesect to bring along a second Steel type, stacking two weakness to Primal Groudon that would prove immensely challenging to compensate for. For what little Genesect brought to the table, very few people viewed this dilemma as a worthwhile endeavor to fitting Genesect on a team and, as such, it was now fully unviable for the tier.

10. For as bad as things were in the seventh generation, things got even worse for Genesect in the eighth generation, and its mere existence in Ubers became something of a running joke in the competitive community. Which of the following was Genesect's niche in eighth generation Ubers?

Answer: Nothing

Unless your intent was to use Genesect on a joke team or as a means of going easy on your little sibling, it simply did absolutely nothing that wasn't outclassed by a wide variety of threats. Galarian Darmanitan and Pheromosa were much, much better offensive pivots, there were roughly half a dozen Steel types that were infinitely better at checking Xerneas and, beyond that, Genesect couldn't do anything.

It's unfortunate that it got banned from standard play, as this caused it to become easily the worst Pokémon in Ubers, placing it into a state of Pokémon Purgatory; too strong to be allowed in the tier beneath it, too weak to meaningfully be a part of the metagame above it.

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 Pokémon History - Genesect Quiz

Team Plasma Systems Model 101 is up for a quiz here, as we have Genesect! See if you can get to dah right ahnswers in this quiz, lest you risk your score getting terminated!

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