RBY OU Raichu [GP Ready]

Raichu
Type: Electric
Stats: 60 | 90 | 55 | 90 | 100

Introduction

Raichu struggles a lot to exist in 1U and for a simple reason: it has a real hard time getting past Chansey and Exeggutor, two main pokemon of the tier. It lacks tools to beat them. It also tends to be a bit frail, underpowered, and it's slow for a sweeper. However, Raichu has things to offer of its own : it has access to Surf, meaning it’s not walled by rocks compared to other Electrics, and it can also check its fellows (without doing much more than trading unfortunately). If you want to use Raichu efficiently, it’s all going to be about getting past Exeggutor and Chansey before being able to actually hurt the opposite team. It’s a difficult pokemon to use who's usually going to have to wait the late stages of a game to have a clearer path to express itself.

Standard

- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Surf
- Seismic Toss / Hyper Beam

Set Details

Thunderbolt is your main STAB move, and Thunder Wave spreads paralysis through the opposite team. Surf OHKOs Golem, and Rhydon a decent amount of the time. Seismic Toss is your best move against Exeggutor. It's also the best one against Jolteon and Victreebel, though both of them are severely crippled by paralysis anyway. Hyper Beam is the move move to finish off crippled Chansey, and eventually both Alakazam and Jynx but you have to be careful with it since it can be predictable and punishable.

Other Options

Agility is an option so that you can get past paralysis. Body Slam can be a move to chip at Exeggutor while still having chances to score a critical hit and to paralyse it so that you won’t have to take a hit or a Stun Spore to do it with Thunder Wave, but the damage output is a bit pathetic. It’s also an okay-ish move against Alakazam, but it’s a pokemon usually destroying Raichu anyway. It can also paralyse a rock switching into your paralysed Raichu so that you can win afterwards. Submission 2HKOs Chansey a good amount of the time after it switched into a Thunderbolt, but the recoil can be very problematic. Finally, Thunder 2HKOs Lapras but is a very risky move.

Checks and Counters

Chansey and Exeggutor will always be a pain for Raichu, they can paralyse it and hurt it while walling it. Paralysis virtually kills Raichu’s potential, since it can now be punished by a lot of pokemon without checking much itself. Alakazam is also a good check. It doesn’t take a lot of damage from Raichu, can paralyse it and hits it hard with Psychics. Jolteon and Zapdos are okay as checks if you really don’t have anything else, since they can both paralyse and put Raichu in the range of physical attackers, but they pretty much trade in the process. Victreebel can be used as a check but hates paralysis. Finally, if Raichu is paralysed, Rocks can OHKO it by switching into an Electric move or going up against it. If you already have revealed them you have to be very careful about switching in though. Once Raichu is paralysed, a pokemon such as Snorlax destroys it while not eating too much damage from Thunderbolt and not being too crippled by paralysis. Even Lapras and Cloyster can finish off at times.

 

ur set is wrong

 

do u even use this

 

also the first line is wrong

 

I theorised like I always do, if you have some experience with it you're obv free to correct me. My analyses are a starting point

 

Peasounay

Personally, I wouldn't tag the analysis as "GP Ready" straight after posting it. It would be better to tag it as "Ready for Discussion / Feedback" or something of that sort and then receive feedback; after a couple of days, you can then post it in the queue and change the tag to GP Ready.

 

Alright mb

EDIT: made some changes

 

I hit #2 on ladder (went from 1400 to 1600+) using Raichu with Thunderwave, Submission, Surf, Thunderbolt.

Submission can 2hitko a slightly damaged chansey or finish off one with under 50% hp.

Not my finest replay but:

[Gen 1] OU replay: TuffHunter vs. EB0LANIQ_Q - Pokémon Showdown

 

You had actually already revealed Submission and had it NOPEd by Gengar. Your opponent was an idiot who let you walk all over him, letting two Pokemon die like chumps to really-obvious moves and then making the wrong move choice with Tauros (Hyper Beam had a decent shot at the KO, and even for Body Slam + Earthquake the Body Slam should be first to get the para chance).

Submission's still way, way better than the Body Slam Smogon's nubshit set recommends, but this game is a shitty demonstrator of anything.

 

Raichu, the walking 4MSS. It needs at least 6 slots to really work in OU, and Body Slam isn't even one of those to be honest.

 

Lot of hate on this forum. Im am so sorry to get you worked up with a shitty replay and a bad explanation.

 

He's not getting angry at you, just pointing out that your replay doesn't demonstrate anything.

 

People still think Body Slam is the best move? lol, that really is a Smogon conception. I remember always being the one to argue against it back on GameFAQs. Only Smogons like Hipmonlee thought it was Raichu's best option.

Submission and Hyper Beam are the best 4th moves. The former does almost 50% to Chansey, and honestly, who cares about recoil when you have the opportunity to at least trade Raichu for Chansey? Hyper Beam is handy for denting the high Specials (Alakazam, Exeggutor, etc). S-Toss is good for Exeggutor and OK for Gengar, but you'll be totally walled by Chansey otherwise. Whereas, at least you can paralyze Exeggutor and take off HP that it can't recover, no matter how small that may be.

 

DA's right. I'm rather blunt when correcting people, and sometimes that can come across as being more hostile than I intended. My current avatar probably doesn't help, lol.

People being wrong doesn't make me angry. Deliberate lies, personal insults and power abuse are the sorts of things that annoy me, and you haven't done any of those; you've nothing to apologise for.

GGFan: I don't think anyone's supported Body Slam in this thread.

 

I personally used Raichu enough to say something here.
Given the damage on Chansey, I think that Submission is by far the best option (the set used by TuffHunter is the same one I used recently in the MT). It is true that you will be walled by Exeggutor, but the advantage of beating Chansey is greater than a 25% damage on Egg, also because after you have revealed Seismic Toss, Egg will no longer enter in any case, for 2 reasons: 1) Chansey will take virtually no damage from a Raichu without Submission, so there is no reason to enter Egg 2) after two Raichu's seismics, Egg will be in Tauros' HB range (Tauros Hyper Beam vs. Exeggutor: 179-211 (45.5 - 53.6%) -- 41.5% chance to 2HKO), so unless your opponent is stupid , he will not use the plant to stop your Pokemon.
Having said that, I think Submission deserves AT LEAST a mention in the set being, in my opinion, probably the best fourth move of this 'mon. I believe that Body Slam can be removed completely tbh, as it is not even the fifth or sixth best option since Seismic Toss and Hyper Beam are better choices. Even Agility could be more useful than Body Slam in some circumstances.
Overall Raichu is not as disastrous as Elctabuzz or Magneton, but it certainly struggles to find a role: Surf is what really makes it usable on rare occasions.
I have used worse Pokemon than Raichu, but this certainly does not make it solid, especially since it is slower than Tauros and it is not immune, like Zapdos, to earthquake, just to mention one of the few reasons.

 

Hmm so Submission is basically only good for Chansey, and even then (from personal experience battling against Submission Raichu) it isn't all that great - 80% accuracy, nasty recoil, and you're still fishing for crits and/or parahaxes when up against Reflect variants. Even so, with a 19.5% crit rate, you have >50% chance to land a crit Submission within 3 turns, and if that times well with a parahax or two then the entire tide of battle can be shifted.

Bslam is obvious garbo imo; Raichu already has twave, and a combination of Seismic Toss + Thunderbolt + Surf hits all of OU barring Chansey for more damage, with Chansey itself only having an 8% chance to be 4HKO'd (barring crits).

None of the 4th moveslot options seem that appealing, honestly...Raichu's main niche is basically just "an electric type which can learn Surf". Hbeam is only really good for cleaning up, and SToss doesn't do enough damage to make up for Raichu's overall frailty; it still loses pretty badly to most special attackers 1-on-1. At least it's pretty decent in 2U (even with the lack of rocks).

 

This is not a thing you should be doing deliberately. It's a random clutch save. If you think a Rock is switching in you use Surf, because it has a 75.1% chance of winning instead of 18.1% (NoFP vs. NoFP AND paraslam AND NOT (FP AND Rock NoFP)).