Chill Drive Genesect in PvP: Cold As Steel

A year and a half ago, on January 5th of 2021, Genesect finally received its first of four elemental “Drives” that grant Genesect its signature move Techno Blast. On the very last day of 2020, I released an article detailing what Techno Blast does for Genesect in all three leagues, hopeful at the time that they’d all be coming in the relatively near-term future, and possibly be able to be Elite TMed onto Genesect in multiple flavors, even in Great League.

Now here we are, nineteen months later, and we have finally come to the last of those four Drives. And if you recall that original writeup from long ago, Chill Drive was one to look forward to.

So let’s go back and drag up that old analysis, but update it with the meta as it stands all this time later. Is Chill Techno Blast still worth it? Let’s see, after we briefly break down Genesect itself.

But before even THAT, a brief Bottom Line Up Front to set the table.

B.L.U.F.

  • Chill Drive Genesect is by far the best Genesect in Master League, thanks to some handy resistances, but primarily to the awesome effectiveness of a good Ice move in the current (and likely future) Open Master League meta.
  • In both Open and Classic Master League, Chill Drive Genesect has just the one party trick of Chill Techno Blast, but it’s an incredibly good trick that often doesn’t even require any outside help from baits. Just straight Techno Blast is remarkably effective in many surprising scenarios, making Chill Genesect’s impressive results more consistent than you probably think.

Now let’s get into the deep dive!

GENESECT STATS & MOVES

Genesect (Chill) BugSteel

Great League Stats

Attack Defense HP
140 (140 High Stat Product) 114 (114 High Stat Product) 98 (100 High Stat Product)

(Highest Stat Product IVs {Raid Level}: 10-15-14, 1500 CP, Level 16)

Ultra League Stats

Attack Defense HP
180 (182 High Stat Product) 146 (146 High Stat Product) 129 (129 High Stat Product)

(Highest Stat Product IVs {Raid Level}: 10-12-12, 2500 CP, Level 27)

Master League Stats

Attack Defense HP
211 (224 at Level 50) 169 (180 at Level 50) 149 (158 at Level 50)

(Assuming 15-15-15 IVs)

Steely Bugs are rather commonplace now, with things like Scizor, Escavalier, Trash Cloak Wormadam, and even the occasional Forretress popping up through the various GBL Leagues and The Silph Arena and elsewhere. But there’s only that’s not just Legendary, but downright Mythical, and that’s Genesect.

Generally those Steely Bugs are somewhat bulky, with the exception of Scizor. Well uh… Genesect is even a bit flimsier than Scizor. So it’s good that the typing combination itself is pretty good defensively, with Genesect resisting Dragon, Fairy, Ice, Psychic, Normal, Bug, and Steel damage, double resisting Poison and Grass, and — similar to the infamous Mud Boys — having but one single weakness, albeit a doubled-up weakness, to Fire damage.

Thankfully, Fire isn’t one of the more prevalent typings in PvP, thanks largely to the presence of many competitive Water and Ground types across the various Leagues. In Master League in particular, the only Pokémon of note that really spew out Fire damage are Ho-Oh and Groudon with its Fire Punches. And while others like Mewtwo and Garchomp and Zacian can run Fire moves, they really don’t, so beyond Ho-Oh and Groudon (and maybe a rare Reshiram here or there), that’s it. (Sit down, Heatran… I’ll give you a participation trophy later but that’s all you’ll get from me.)

I’m getting a LITTLE ahead of myself, but that’s all just a little teaser for now. Before we go any further down the Master League rabbit hole, let’s bring the full suite of moves into the discussion.

Genesect Special Research

Fast Moves

  • Fury CutterBug type, 2.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 0.5 CD
  • Metal ClawSteel type, 2.5 DPT, 3.0 EPT, 1.0 CD

Yeah, there’s nothing to analyze or debate here… clearly, Fury Cutter is the way to go. Sometimes it really is that simple!

Okay, to expand that out a tiny bit… Metal Claw is just a below average move in pretty much every regard. Cutter is low on direct damage output, but great for building up energy for Techno Blast and other charge moves. Like these!

– Exclusive Move

Charge Moves

  • X-ScissorBug type, 45 damage, 35 energy
  • Magnet BombSteel type, 70 damage, 45 energy
  • Ice BeamIce type, 90 damage, 55 energy
  • Techno Blast (Chill)Ice type, 120 damage, 55 energy

X-Scissor and Magnet Bomb are pretty standard… all Genesects have those two moves, whether equipped with a specific Drive or not. What changes, other than Techno Blast, are the third move option. That said, they all pale in comparison to the awesome might of Techno Blast. Douse Drive Genesect is the most intriguing, with the odd coverage provided by Gunk Shot, but Shock Drive gets Zap Cannon (obviously an awesome move these days — just ask Registeel! — but subpar compared to the Shock version of Techno Blast), and Burn Drive and now Chill Drive getting moves (Flamethrower and Ice Beam) that are strictly inferior to Techno Blast, costing the same energy but dealing 30 less damage than Blast. In other words… there is literally no reason to run Ice Beam on Chill Drive Genesect when Techno Blast just blows it away.

But there’s really no shame in that. The best Damage Per Energy (DPE) Ice charge move is Avalanche, with its 45 energy for 90 damage and 2.0 DPE. (Again, better than poor Ice Beam.) And the only Ice moves that deal greater than 90 damage are Blizzard (140 damage, but for 75 energy, putting it at 1.87 DPE) and now Ice-type Techno Blast (with its insane 2.18 DPE). There are several metrics you could measure by here to determine that Chill Techno Blast is the best overall Ice charge move.

And that matters in PvP, because while Ice is a terrible defensive typing (resisting literally only other Ice, and being weak to four types of damage), it is a very, very good offensive typing, nailing potent Grass, Ground, Flying, and Dragon types for super effective damage. And even better for the League where Chill Drive Genesect matters most — Master League — things that resist Ice (Fire, Water, Ice, and Steel) are suppressed as well, with Fire and Ice types relatively rare, Water represented only by Swampert, Gyarados, Palkia, and Kyogre (and only the last of those actually ends up resisting Ice damage), and really only Steels to worry about.

In fact, of the twenty eight Pokémon that make up the current, established Master League meta — Dialga, Dragonite, Excadrill, Garchomp, Giratina (Altered), Giratina (Origin), Groudon, Gyarados, Ho-Oh, Kyogre, Landorus (Incarnate), Landorus (Therian), Lugia, Machamp, Magnezone, Mamoswine, Melmetal, Metagross, Mewtwo, Palkia, Snorlax, Swampert, Sylveon, Togekiss, Yveltal, Zacian, Zarude, and Zekrom — there are only five Steel types, four Water types, one major Ice type, and but a single Fire type. And even out of those, only three Steels (Metagross, Magnezone, and Melmetal) and the one Water type we already discussed (Kyogre) actually end up resisting Ice damage. Dialga (half-Dragon), Excadrill (half-Ground), Palkia (half-Dragon), Gyarados (half-Flying), Swampert (half-Ground), Mamoswine (half-Ground), and Ho-Oh (half-Flying) all end up taking neutral damage from Ice moves. As do Machamp, Mewtwo, Snorlax, Sylveon, and Zacian. Of those 28 Pokémon, twelve of them (Dragon, Grass, Ground, and/or Flying types not already mentioned above) take super effective damage from Ice, and four of those — Dragonite, Garchomp, and both versions of Landorus — take double super effective damage. If you’ve been doing the math, you’ve probably already come to a few realizations:

  • There are more things that take super effective damage from Ice (twelve) than things that take neutral damage (only eight),
  • There are just as many things that resist Ice damage (four) as there are that take DOUBLE super effective damage (also four).

All that to say: Ice is really, REALLY good offensively in Master League. It hits nearly half (about 43%) of the current ML core meta for super effective damage, and is resisted by only four total Pokémon. For those keeping track at home, that means that Ice damage hits 86% of the Open Master League meta with at least neutral damage. That’s kinda nuts. Not even Mewtwo with its awesome Psystrike hits anywhere close to THAT percentage of neutral or better targets.

And all THAT to then tie it back to our new, chilly Genesect friend.

Way back in that first Genesect article I wrote, I noted that Chill Drive was the best of the four Drives in Master League. I think I’ve now thoroughly beaten to death the reasons why. While BurnDouse, and even the awesome-in-Ultra-League Shock Drives all pull mere .500 (or often worse) winrates in Master League, only Chill Drive Genesect eclipses that. It’s still not a wholly awe-inspiring winrate, but it’s by far the best of the Genesects.

In that 1v1 shielding scenario:

  • Chill Genesect beats all Dragons except Dialga and the Giratinas. Dialga is left with less than 20 HP and typically only about 10 energy in the bank.
  • Chill Genesect beats all Flyers but Ho-Oh and Gyarados. Gary is left with 0 energy and under 20 HP.
  • Chill Genesect beats all Grounds except Groudon, Swampert, and Excadrill, and those last two escape with well under 10 HP.
  • And while these things are not unique to Chill Drive Genesect specifically, note that Mewtwo cannot reach any second charge move except a second, useless Psystrike (oh, how nice it feels for that blasted Psystrike to be legit called “useless”, right?) and it crumbles, all the major Fairies falter (Fairy damage is all resisted, Togekiss specifically is annihilated by Chill Techno Blast, and even Zacian cannot knock out Genesect in time despite resisting Genesect’s Bug moves), and the list goes on!

It’s easy to look at these sort of results and assume that most of it must be because of X-Scissor (or even Magnet Bomb) baiting a shield and only then can Techno Blast crash in and finish the job, right? Amazingly, that’t not as true as you might think. Here is what Genesect can do using only Chill Techno Blast. Yes, that’s a slide backwards of only four wins, specifically Palkia, Snorlax, Lugia, and Mewtwo with Focus Blast. It retains ALL of its other wins by just going double Techno Blast. That’s rather insane, don’t you think?

As you might imagine, Techno Blast is all Genesect really needs with shields down too, though here its win percentage slides a bit further backwards as its lack of bulk really hampers it. On the flipside, though, at least assuming it DOES gets some good baits with X-Scissor/Magnet Bomb, Genesect sees a TON of success in 2v2 shielding. Not only does it manage to still beat everything it can in 1v1 shielding except Palkia, but it adds on Swampert, Gyarados, Excadrill, Dialga, and even fully-Ice-resistant Metagross. That’s over a 70% win total, folks. There aren’t many Pokémon I would endorse regularly burning both shields on in Master League, but Chill Drive Genesect might make that very short list.

So yeah… I think Chill Drive Genesect may actually, legitimately be worth building for Master League if you’re able to do so. (And yes, it’s just as good — and in fact better — in Master League Classic, should that ever return to GBL.) It’s a bit of a one trick pony, both in terms of moves (with Techno Blast doing the vast majority of the work) and in terms of viable League (Ultra League Chill Genesect isn’t all that… that’s still primarily Shock Genesect turf), it’s quite a good trick!

Alright, that’s it for now! For more PvP tidbits, you can usually find me on Twitter, or Patreon if you’re into that sort of thing. And please, feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I’ll try to get back to you!

Stay safe out there, Pokéfriends, and happy raiding. Catch you next time!

Author & tags

JRE47
JRE47
PoGO/PvP Investigative Journalist, GO Hub and Silph Arena/Road Contributor, amateur cook, author of 'Nifty Or Thrifty' and 'Under The Lights' article series and #PvPfacts!

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