Top 10 BEST And Strongest Gengar Cards

What’s popping everybody SaberWolf94 and welcome to the Top 10 Best Gengar cards, the Pokemon Legacy Top 10 series. Ah, Gengar; back in the earliest days of the original Kanto pokemon I probably changed what my favourite pokemon line was numerous times but if there’s one line that stuck around for the longest while was the Gengar line. My favourite pokemon now is Salamence hands down but from the ghost types only the Dusknoir line gives Gengar competition for my favourite ghost type even now. I guess this may not be saying much as most pokemon fans bloody love Gengar too but setting that aside, Gengar has been a very cool figure in the tcg as well.

The rules will be the same as my other best card top tens. Cards will be judged by their playability but how great they are as standalone cards too, without partners. Stats, attacks and effects come into place and keep in mind cards will be judged in their respective formats and eras. Comments about the art of the cards aren’t factors to their rank. Let us begin….

Gengar from Crimson Invasion is a mixed bag but sadly more on the underwhelming side. Free retreat is a great thing to have and fitting for Gengar of course but 130 HP is underwhelming no matter how I look at it. In this 7th generation of pokemon stage 2 pokemon can hit between 150 and 160 HP on average, some even going beyond that. Since it has free retreat 140 HP would grant it a pass for me but 130 isn’t what it used to be. Unfortunately a 3 for 70 attack is very weak as well and the auto confuse is little help. Gnawing Curse is the best trick this Gengar offers putting 2 damage counters on your opponent’s pokemon when they attach an energy from the hand to them. Since it can stack and work unlimited times per turn it’s not a weak effect at all and could be a good counter against energy acceleration decks like Magnezone.

The Legend Maker Gengar’s HP isn’t the greatest either during that time but it’s still better during that time compared to Crimson Invasion Gengar. It’s also faster and easier to use and while not the hardest hitter can still put decent pressure on your foes. Cursed Reaction lets you put 2 damage counters on your opponent’s pokemon in any way you like and if you have a React Energy on put 4 instead. 2 for 40 any way you like is still good enough for a non ex and like I said at least you can start doing damage immediately and with any luck build up for Super Psy Bolt. 60 for 3 isn’t special by all means but if you consider Crimson Invasion Gengar does 70 for 3 5 generations later is still better. And if Gengar dies by an attack you can put 3 damage counters on an opponent’s pokemon which can be a handy ability to have. Definitely plenty of room for improvement but it’s certainly more reliable during that time.

Gengar from Breakthrough is similar to the one from Crimson Invasion in that is one of the newer Gengar cards and although not doing much either has some good things going for it. It shares the same stats as the Crimson Invasion Gengar but since it came in the 6th generation in Breakthrough I can be a little more forgiving for the 130 HP. Unlike Crimson Invasion Gengar this card can put in work on its own. Sinister Fog will poison the opponent and put 1 damage counter on all of your opponent’s pokemon. Not the greatest attack in the world but not useless either and the important thing is that it combos with Creep Snow, Gengar’s second attack. A pokemon that has 3 or more damage counters is knocked out. This card saw some slight hype in the beginning since combined with the Crobat line in Phantom Forces or some other cards can get cheap and easy knock outs on EX pokemon.

Dark Gengar is no doubt the ugliest or at least most disappointing card to look at when it comes to art, f**k out of all the Gengar cards not just this list. Believe it or not though this is one of the more successful Gengar cards in competitive play. Jason Klaczynski has a deck with this card in his articles about the various Wizards formats and as always I highly recommend them. The short gist is that this Gengar card can create sleep locks, disrupt the opponent and kill them slowly. Even though this card is old as f**k 70 HP still isn’t good at all for a stage 2 back then but not having a weakness is a perk that can mitigate that a little bit. Pull In does exactly what it says, pulls an opponent’s benched pokemon of your choice and puts it to sleep while doing 30 damage. With the Deep Sleep power your opponent needs to flip two heads to wake up, making this a pain in the ass pokemon with any luck.

It was a pain in the ass for me to decide between Gengar Prime and the number 4 Gengar card but ultimately I decided this card should be number 5. Now many of you might be surprised to see this card only in the middle but honestly this card received some of the biggest hype in the pokemon tcg and didn’t even live up to half of it. Now don’t get me wrong, this is still one of the better Gengars out there; it’s just the ones above it are better in my opinion. When it comes to stats this Gengar had the best of its time with 130 HP and free retreat making our recent Gengars look pathetic since this is a 4th generation card. Basically the strategy with this card is to use Hurl into Darkness and try tu put pokemon from your opponent’s hand into the Lost Zone. If you have the Lost World stadium out and 6 of your opponent’s pokemon removed that way you win.

Even so, because it relies on luck among other problems I don’t think it is one of the best Gengars out there. However it’s definitely more reliable than the other two having a workable strategy that can mess with the opponent.

Fantina’s Gengar while it didn’t succeed much in competitive play either has a lot of advantages over other Gengar cards. Since it’s a basic pokemon with 70 HP its ease of use can’t be ignored. Its stats are respectable for the time of its release and since it’s an SP pokemon it has various benefits by default. It can instantly do 10 for 1 with the auto confusion being a nice side effect to get started. With 1 more energy and an Energy Gain Attack and Hide lets you put 3 damage counters on 1 of your opponent’s pokemon which is good enough. The cool thing of this attack is you have the option to shuffle Gengar and all cards back to the deck so you don’t lose anything and can f**k with your opponent from getting a KO. It’s a fast pokemon you can use and minimize risk with the option of going back to the deck after using Attack and Hide.

I ultimately decided to put Gengar ex here instead of Gengar Prime but it wasn’t easy deciding. Because this card is a much stronger hitter and more reliable in situations I think it’s better. Even if you don’t know much about this card, it might remind you of a more infamous one when you see its first attack. That’s right, with Poltergeist Gengar ex is like the original Stormfront Gengar that’s gonna do a lot of damage for 2 energy if your opponent has a lot of non energy and non pokemon cards in hand. It will do 10 more for each supporter, trainer and stadium. That might seem weak compared to you know who, but it does a lot more base damage; 40 for 2 is a good starting point and either way even if you do 60 or 70, that’s heavy damage for its era. If you’re behind in prizes Prize Count will do 100 for 3, heavy damage for back then too.

Since you guys know that I almost always do ties I think you saw this coming and these guys make the most sense since they do the same s**t. Hit and switch, doing damage and bringing an annoying wall pokemon to mess with your opponent. They both have advantages and disadvantages over each other in their respective formats but they were both great cards. Gengar from Arceus has good stats for Gengar cards back then, can move a damage counter on your opponent’s pokemon every turn and Shadow Skip does good enough damage to get the job done in this strategy.

10. Gengar (Crimson Invasion)

9. Gengar (ex Legend Maker)

8. Dark Gengar (Neo Destiny)

7. Gengar (Breakthrough)

This card saw more competitive success during its time but Gengar EX has many tricks of its own. Its stats probably aren’t as good compared to other EX pokemon, but they’re still not bad and it’s a basic pokemon nevertheless. You can instantly start using Night Attack from the beginning putting 3 damage counters on your opponent’s pokemon and Dark Corridor will poison the opponent. There’s a billion walls Gengar EX can take advantage of locking more than just trainers and you have Mega Gengar as backup as well. Dimension Valley also helps this pokemon a lot and you can even try taking advantage of the poison you inflict more. Both Gengars have certainly been some of the most reliable and consistent ones with a strategy that has proven to be strong over the years. There are only 2 more Gengar cards that deserve a higher ranking and I know they’re too obvious; nothing I can do.

Gengar Lv. X is clearly a strong pokemon only made stronger since it’s an add on some of the best Gengar cards in 4th gen. The HP improvement is great and while compound Pain isn’t the most efficient attack in a conventional situation and won’t come up as much, at the right game state it’s an attack that wins you the game. Naturally the best part about this card is the power Level Down which let’s you shuffle an opponent’s Lv. X pokemon back in the deck. Truly powerful and it gets even more significant value if you consider this was a great counter in one of the deck’s hardest match ups, DialgaChomp. Shuffling any Lv. X though would severely f**k up your opponents in more ways than one, regardless of what Lv. X they were using. A terrific card aware of its power, Gengar’s sly and evil smile is truly fitting.

4. Gengar ex (ex Firered & Leafgreen)

2. Gengar Lv. X (Arceus)

With the Rare Candy we’ve got these days it can’t be utilized as well as it could have been. An ability like this is probably something you want on a basic pokemon or a stage 1. Sure it will be broken then but it’s certainly too slow like this to do much. A Gengar with potential but not easy to use.

If you did things right you could win very cheaply and very quickly, since if you get at least 1 pokemon removed every turn you could win in 6 turns, maybe even quicker. Sounds really good and it can end up that way too but at the same time there’s a lot of ways your opponent can f**k up your strategy. Gengar’s body will make sure any opponent’s pokemon knocked out will be put in the Lost Zone if Gengar is active so Gengar Prime really is all about the Lost Zone. Cursed Drop is its only way of doing actual damage, a 2 energy attack letting you put 4 damage counters on your opponent’s pokemon any way you like. Not bad, but if you don’t manage to use Lost World this attack won’t save you. It just relies too much on Lost World, luck and your opponent can control your strategy too by discarding their pokemon, maybe not even running many extra pokemon, stadium disruption etc. It can potentially be the deadliest Gengar card but the other ones above it are more consistent.

While it hardly did anything it’s still a fast and strong pokemon if it can get knock outs with Creep Snow. Unlike Dark Gengar from Neo Destiny you also have control of your situation and not rely on luck like that card. Minor tweaks and this card would become very viable in my opinion even in this format.

If it wasn’t an SP pokemon it wouldn’t be on this spot but because it is, it offers flexibility and ease of use the other Gengars don’t have. Not much else to say, time to get to the truly good Gengar cards!