A decent-ish I suppose VGC 2012 team.

[StreetSmartPanda]

Gametraders at Highpoint is holding a Pokemon tournament using VGC rules, and I've been making a team for it. I've rarely played competitive doubles, so this team is heavily ripped-off from a YouTube video, but I want to alter it so that it works better for my own playstyle. I have had some moderate success with this team so far; most of the losses were rather close.

The team:

Yanmega (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Detect

Yanmega is more often than not paired with Terrakion to lead. A Detect to start with gets Yanmega's Speed up enough so that it outspeeds more or less everything else outside of Trick Room. Max Speed and SpA for obvious reasons, with a Life Orb to maximise damage output, Bug Buzz and Air Slash for dual STAB, and HP Ground for coverage.

Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect

Terrakion has pretty great offensive synergy with Yanmega. Max Attack and Speed with a Jolly nature to hit hard and fast. Focus Sash as Terrakion is rather fragile. Close Combat and Rock Slide for dual STAB, Earthquake for extra coverage, and Protect to make it easier to see what the opponent will do.

Gastrodon (F) @ Rindo Berry
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Muddy Water
- Earth Power
- Icy Wind
- Recover

My main counter to Rain teams, and it's not too shabby if Trick Room is up. Rindo Berry is so that Gastrodon can take a Grass move better than what it normally would. Max HP is for bulk, and I chose max Defence over SpD due to Gastrodon being immune to the 2 major Special spread moves (Surf and Discharge). I chose Muddy Water over Surf because a) Muddy Water doesn't harm my partner, and b) the chance for an accuracy drop. Earth Power is a powerful STAB, Icy Wind is to slow down the opponent, although Ice Beam would probably be just as good, and Recover is to regain health, which Gastrodon can do due to it's great bulk.

Metagross @ Occa Berry
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Protect

A powerhouse that can work both in and out of Trick Room. With an Occa Berry, max HP Metagross is impossible to OHKO, barring critical hits. Max Attack with Adamant for maximum damage output, Meteor Mash is a powerful STAB which can increase Attack, Bullet Punch is for STAB priority, Earthquake for coverage, and Protect for scouting.

Rotom-W @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 136 HP / 252 SAtk / 120 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect

Rotom-W pairs extremely well with Metagross, both offensively and defensively. Thunderbolt and Hydro Pump are powerful STAB attacks, with HP Fire giving extra coverage. The 136 HP EVs are for extra bulk, max SpA with a Modest nature for maximum power, and 120 Speed to let Rotom-W outspeed opponents.

Dragonite (M) @ Yache Berry
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Punch
- ExtremeSpeed
- Roar

Dragonite is my main counter to Trick Room teams. Max HP and Attack EVs are for power and bulk. I went with Inner Focus over Multiscale so that at the beginning of the battle, Dragonite can't be flinched, and can safely use Roar against the Trick Roomer. Due to the lack of Multiscale, I've used a Yache Berry so that Dragonite has a better chance of surviving an Ice attack. Dragon Claw and Fire Punch give perfect coverage, barring Heatran, with Extremespeed giving powerful priority.




So that's the team. I know the team could use some fixing up here and there, but I'm not to sure where. Thank you for reading and helping me out.

 

[morningsun]

You have a pretty good team here. Personally, I think you should've gone with Multiscale on your Dragonite. Also, I don't know how often your Gastrodon will be able to use Recover in the fast-paced and hard-hitting VGC environment. Protect is generally a better option (Trust me, I'd love to run Roost on my Zapdos). Also, I think you should go with Ice Beam on your Gastrodon as it'll give you a 80% chance to OHKO 0 HP/0 SpD Neutral Landorus and a 50% chance to OHKO 252 HP/ 0 SpD Neutral Gliscor and an almost definite OHKO on opposing Dragonite after breaking their Multiscale. This team seems like it may face trouble against Swampert, Gastrodon, and Quagsire. To fix this problem, try running Hidden Power [Grass] on Yanmega instead of Hidden Power [Ground]. The loss in coverage will most probably not be missed as 3 other members of your team know a Ground Type move (Gastrodon, Terrakion, Metagross). Your team has almost perfect Defensive Synergy. However a Grass, Rock and Ice weakness protrudes. Fortunately, you only use 4 Pokemon in VGC at a time so don't use Rotom-W, Terrakion, and Gastrodon at the same time, and try to avoid using Yanmega with Dragonite. Otherwise you should be fine.

 

[StreetSmartPanda]

You have a pretty good team here. Personally, I think you should've gone with Multiscale on your Dragonite. Also, I don't know how often your Gastrodon will be able to use Recover in the fast-paced and hard-hitting VGC environment. Protect is generally a better option (Trust me, I'd love to run Roost on my Zapdos). Also, I think you should go with Ice Beam on your Gastrodon as it'll give you a 80% chance to OHKO 0 HP/0 SpD Neutral Landorus and a 50% chance to OHKO 252 HP/ 0 SpD Neutral Gliscor and an almost definite OHKO on opposing Dragonite after breaking their Multiscale. This team seems like it may face trouble against Swampert, Gastrodon, and Quagsire. To fix this problem, try running Hidden Power [Grass] on Yanmega instead of Hidden Power [Ground]. The loss in coverage will most probably not be missed as 3 other members of your team know a Ground Type move (Gastrodon, Terrakion, Metagross). Your team has almost perfect Defensive Synergy. However a Grass, Rock and Ice weakness protrudes. Fortunately, you only use 4 Pokemon in VGC at a time so don't use Rotom-W, Terrakion, and Gastrodon at the same time, and try to avoid using Yanmega with Dragonite. Otherwise you should be fine.

Thanks for your advice. Multiscale is a great ability for Dragonite, but Inner Focus guarantees I can Roar out opposing Trick Room setters, as most Trick Room leads are a Trick Room user coupled with a Fake Out user.
Recover on Gastrodon works surprisingly well, especially when I have 2 Pokemon out on the field, and all Protect does is slow down the battle. And I've changed Icy Wind to Ice Beam.
With Yanmega, I changed HP Ground to Giga Drain rather than HP Grass as Giga Drain has a higher base power, and restores health.
Thanks a lot for your advice, I appreciate it.

 

[Drifblim]

Interesting enough team here, I wish we had more local VGC tournaments in NY.

Yanmega: HP Ice provides far more relevant coverage then HP Ground in the metagame. I guess Heatran walls you if you don't have HP Ground, but he isn't super common. HP Ice allows you to OHKO Salamence and not get walled by Zapdos.

Terrakion: Don't forget you still have 6 EVs left, it probably wouldn't matter but they should be put into HP. Quick attack can be good on Terrakion, I would say replace EQ but your team has a good number of avoids to it.

Gastrodon: Your team doesn't take particularly good advantage of the speed drop from Icy Wind, as some members are already pretty fast and the others not quite fast enough. Ice Beam can actually do damage, but not all that much. I would just use Ice Beam.

Metagross: looks fine

Rotom-W: Sitrus is a great item for Rotom, but to really take advantage of it you should have 252 HP. I would take EVs out of Speed, they only let you outrun base 70-90's invested in speed, which are a bit scarce.

Dragonite: Roar is a good TR counter, but little else. A move like Taunt can stop both TR and something like a status, and move before them provided you are faster and they don't have Mental Herb. Dragon Tail would be better, it can do good damage with Dragonite's high attack and still force them out.

The team seems to have some synergy issues, like certain Pokemon could be big problems if you don't have your counter out. Latios rips your guys up unless Yanmega has a speed boost against him.

 

[Golden Piloswine]

May I suggest Rotom-H. When I stuck Rotom, and Gastrodon together, I used Rotom-H to give me some fire coverage, as well as electric so Rotom-H is better in this case. Then you could replace Dragonite's Fire Punch for a more useful move.

 

[StreetSmartPanda]

Interesting enough team here, I wish we had more local VGC tournaments in NY.

Yanmega: HP Ice provides far more relevant coverage then HP Ground in the metagame. I guess Heatran walls you if you don't have HP Ground, but he isn't super common. HP Ice allows you to OHKO Salamence and not get walled by Zapdos.

Terrakion: Don't forget you still have 6 EVs left, it probably wouldn't matter but they should be put into HP. Quick attack can be good on Terrakion, I would say replace EQ but your team has a good number of avoids to it.

Gastrodon: Your team doesn't take particularly good advantage of the speed drop from Icy Wind, as some members are already pretty fast and the others not quite fast enough. Ice Beam can actually do damage, but not all that much. I would just use Ice Beam.

Metagross: looks fine

Rotom-W: Sitrus is a great item for Rotom, but to really take advantage of it you should have 252 HP. I would take EVs out of Speed, they only let you outrun base 70-90's invested in speed, which are a bit scarce.

Dragonite: Roar is a good TR counter, but little else. A move like Taunt can stop both TR and something like a status, and move before them provided you are faster and they don't have Mental Herb. Dragon Tail would be better, it can do good damage with Dragonite's high attack and still force them out.

The team seems to have some synergy issues, like certain Pokemon could be big problems if you don't have your counter out. Latios rips your guys up unless Yanmega has a speed boost against him.

Thanks for the Dragon Tail suggestion, I don't know how I missed it. I've made the changes to Rotom-W. And thank you for pointing out the Latios weakness, I'll try to preserve Yanmega if I see the opponent has a Latios.

May I suggest Rotom-H. When I stuck Rotom, and Gastrodon together, I used Rotom-H to give me some fire coverage, as well as electric so Rotom-H is better in this case. Then you could replace Dragonite's Fire Punch for a more useful move.

I'm not a huge fan of Rotom-H because it's Fire STAB more or less cripples it until I switch it out, and it's weak to Rock Slide, which is fairly common in VGC.

 

[TheMantyke]

I've rarely played competitive doubles, so this team is heavily ripped-off from a YouTube video, but I want to alter it so that it works better for my own playstyle.

I thought this team looked familiar! Rest assured, if you're following Muffinhead's vgc advice, you're well on your way to VGC battling with at least decent success.

Overall, you have a solid team on your hands. My biggest suggestion comes with the slot Dragonite's occupying. To be honest, I'm not too big a fan of Dragonite as everyone's packing Super-Effective Ice and Dragon-type moves for Latios and Garchomp and Dragonite's stuck getting outrun by a ton of stuff. Additionally, using Dragonite as a hard counter to Trick Room with Roar is something I feel like your team doesn't need. Yes, you have two blazingly fast Pokemon, but the rest of your team doesn't mind Trick Room nearly as much. Instead of Dragonite I would recommend this (sadly pretty bog standard) Pokemon as a replacement.

Cresselia @ Chesto Berry / Sitrus Berry
Calm
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpDef
-Psychic
-Icy Wind
-Trick Room
-Rest / Helping Hand

Cresselia can stop Trick Room by inverting it. Admittedly, it's not as effective as Roaring the Trick Room user out with Dragonite, but Cresselia lends your team a lot more than just anti Trick Room support. For one, it resists Psychic and can tank a Draco Meteor making your Latios match up quiet a bit easier. Additionally, it synergizes pretty well with Metagross and Terrakion, slowing down some troublesome opponents so that they can land the hits they need without getting decimated in the process. In the last slot, I have Rest as the primary option simply because you already have a Sitrus Berry on your Rotom-W. If you want, try swapping out Rotom-W's Sitrus Berry for another item (Electric Gem I suppose) and you can free up the last slot for Helping Hand. With Helping Hand, you can give Yanmega the extra bit of power it needs to OHKO and 2HKO a few key targets and boost Terrakion's Rock Slides for some devastating damage. I guess that two Icy Wind users seems pretty repetitive, so I guess you could give Gastrodon Ice Beam or Protect to play with instead.

Beyond that, I only have a few suggestions. As people have already mentioned, you'll want to ignore speed on Rotom-W almost entirely as there are hardly any targets you'll catch with any sort of investment. On Yanmega, consider changing your Hidden Power to Hidden Power Ice. The only target I'd imagine you'd be hitting with HP Ground would be Heatran and miscellaneous Steel-types. With an Earthquaking Metagross and Terrakion at your side, I think you're prepared for them well enough already. I've heard people praise defensive Gastrodon, although it's never seemed to work for me. You could consider running a Modest or Quiet Max Special Attack variant to give it a bit of extra killing power.

Hope this helped!