The next set is a famous VGC set of Cresselia and Heatran.
Heatran @ Chople Berry
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 244 HP / 52 Def / 76 SAtk / 4 SDef / 132 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Protect
- Substitute
Meet one of the craziest Heatran sets you'll ever see. This is the WolfeTran, made famous during the VGC '12 Master's Tournament by Wolfe Glick.
The other partner is Cresselia of course.
Cresselia @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 4 SAtk / 124 SDef / 76 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Skill Swap
- Psyshock
- Sunny Day
- Icy Wind
And this is Skill Swap Cresselia with Icy Wind and Sunny Day, making it Heatran's awesome partner.
Why are the descriptions so short? Because Wolfey has
already posted the entire write up on Nuggetbridge of his team, which is something anyone interested in Doubles should probably look at, as it gives a lot of sets, ideas, strategies, etc that have been used throughout VGC and can be adapted.
I'll look up a couple more of my sets at some point, but for now, I'll leave this here as is.
Before anyone just puts these on a team, keep in mind that those EVs are meant for the VGC metagame when all Pokemon are at level 50. For example, 252 HP / 52 Def on his Cress is there to always survive Dark Gem TTar's Crunch. At lvl 100, you need less EVs to survive the same hits; you only need 40 Def with Cress. Otherwise, these sets are excellent examples of EV optimisation.
EV optimization needs to dependent on the Pokemon, its moves and items, and the team it's on. I'll talk you to through the process i go through to EV a Pokemon. I'm going to use Scrafty as an example, as I feel that he's a good example to showcase.
Generally people use a standard EV spread of 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe Adamant nature. Max HP EVs to maximise his overall bulk, especially considering he has low HP and high Def. Max Attack to deal as much damage as possible. Remainder EVs in Spe. Whilst this is basic and easy, this generally isn't the best way to EV Pokemons.
What do we want to achieve with Scrafty? It's main perks are Fake Out + Intimidate support. We'd like to capitalise on this. To make the most out of this support, we'll be switching Scrafty in and out a lot. And to do that, it needs to be durable. However, we do not want to forget its offensive prowess; we don't want it to become a sitting duck (and remember that its main STABs only have 75 and 80 base power). So ideally we'll like it to survive most attacks, especially the common ons, whilst still hitting hard; that is how many VGC players EV their Pokemon. The best way to do this is to find Attack and Def benchmarks.
Let's start with defense, and a common attack in doubles. VGC players regularly EV their Pokemon to survive this attack.
- 252 SpA Dragon Gem Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Scrafty: 306-360 (91.61 - 107.78%) -- 50% chance to OHKO.
Not very good if we want Scrafty to be durable. Especially considering that if Scarfty survives the hit, it can hit hard Latios with STAB Crunch.
Now look at this:
- 252 SpA Dragon Gem Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Scrafty: 282-333 (84.43 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
That's much better. Ideally, you'll like at least 84 SpD EVs for Scrafty to survive this hit. Given how common the attack is, it's worth the Attack drop.
What if the Latios was Modest though? It'll have a 56.25% chance to OHKO Scrafty. Latios rarely don't run a Modest nature, so usually it's not worth dropping your Attack to survive a rare attack. However, if your team would otherwise be very weak to Modest Latios, then it may well be worth the extra investment to survive this hit; you don't want most of your team to be OHKOed by Latios' Dragon Gem do you? Yeah we use Steel-types, but if you're only using one, do you want to have to switch it in every time your opponent's Latios comes out and if you know it's Modest? Or if you don't need a hard hitting Scrafty and don't care about the Attack drop, it may well be worth guaranteeing that your Scrafty cannot be OHKOed by Latios.
Now another common attack is Adamant 252 Atk Hitmontop's Close Combat.
- -1 252+ Atk Fighting Gem Hitmontop Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Scrafty: 306-362 (91.61 - 108.38%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
Another attack that is so common, you'll want to survive it. Normally Scrafty holds a Chople Berry for this, so you don't need to invest in Defense. However, if you run any other item (minus Focus Sash cause that's stupid on Scrafty), then this will become an issue.
To never be OHKOed, you need 100 Def. Assuming the Hitmontop gets hit by Intimidate; good luck surviving CC without it. This will also let you sruvive Jolly Terrakion's LO CC.
- -1 252+ Atk Fighting Gem Hitmontop Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Scrafty: 282-332 (84.43 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
So if you want a Scrafty that survives common attacks, you should use a 252 HP / 100 Def / 84 SpD / 72 Atk with an Adamant nature. Or 252 HP / 156 Atk / 100 Def with a Careful nature (you get more stat points and more SpD whilst losing 2 Atk point; I'll talk about this later). I could EV Scrafty to always survive Fighting Gem Hi Jump kick in a similar vein ala Modest Dragon Gem Latios if I really wanted insurance, but I feel that such a move is far too unlikely to consider (even though Modest Latios is rare).
So now we have a Scrafty that can survive the common attacks I want it to survive. But with all this removal of Atk EVs, we've had to pay the price of losing out on offensive proweness: Let's look at Crunch vs Leftovers Cress:
- 252+ Atk Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 40+ Def Cresselia: 168-200 (37.83 - 45.04%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
- 72+ Atk Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 40+ Def Cresselia: 144-170 (32.43 - 38.28%) -- 2.08% chance to 3HKO
And against Sitrus Cress:
- 252+ Atk Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 40+ Def Cresselia: 168-200 (30.27 - 36.03%) -- 43.58% chance to 3HKO
- 72+ Atk Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 40+ Def Cresselia: 144-170 (25.94 - 30.63%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Considering how common and powerful Cress is, that's a big deal. If I were using Chople Berry Scrafty, I would not want to deal so little damage to Cress. With Chople Berry, I can afford to not invest in Def, as Chople protects me from Top's CC. So with 172 Atk vs Leftovers Cress
172+ Atk Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 40+ Def Cresselia: 156-186 (35.13 - 41.89%) -- 83.52% chance to 3HKO.
Whilst not guaranteed, that's a good chance to 3HKO. Especially considering that Fake out may put it into 3HKO range.
If Scrafty is holding an Expert Belt instead of a Chople Berry, however, the 1.2x boost will more than compensate for the Attack lost from investing 100 EVs into Def to survive Top's Close Combat:
- 72+ Atk Expert Belt Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 40+ Def Leftovers Cresselia: 173-204 (38.96 - 45.94%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
- 72+ Atk Expert Belt Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 40+ Def Sitrus Berry Cresselia: 173-204 (31.17 - 36.75%) -- 72.68% chance to 3HKO
In fact, this Scrafty hits harder than Chople 252+ Adamant Scrafty
If I use the EV spread of 252 HP / 156 Atk / 100 Def with a Careful nature that I raised about earlier, this is how the damage calc changes against Sitrus Cress:
156 Atk Expert Belt Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 40+ Def Cresselia: 168-202 (30.27 - 36.39%) -- 51.54% chance to 3HKO
I feel that despite gaining more stat points with this EV spread, the lowered likelihood of a 3HKO on one of the most common Pokemon in the game is not worth it. So i'll stick to my seemingly-inferior-on-paper EV spread but practically superior spread of 252 HP / 72 Atk / 100 Def / 84 SpD with an Adamant nature.
You may have realised that I left Speed out of the occasion. Speed benchmarks are more clearly defined than Atk and Def. If I wanted to outrun 60 base speed Pokemon like Jellicent with no Spe investment, I'd use 20 Spe EVs, or 28 if I wanted to outrun no Spe Tyranitar. However, I don't feel it's worth it. Those EVs would have to come from Def, SpD, HP, or Atk, which are needed to survive Timid Latios' Gem Draco Meteor, Hitmontop's Fighting Gem CC, and deal acceptable damage to Cresselia, and I consider all of these more important than outspeeding the aforementioned Pokemon (especially considering when they may be running Trick Room EV spreads, meaning I don't need Speed EVs to outspeed them). However, I may take 4 or 8 Spe EVs from Attack if I wanted to beat opposing Scrafty to the Fake Out.
If I wanted to use Scrafty on a TR team, I'd change the nature according e.g. Careful to Sassy. Would I lower the Spe IVs to 0? Maybe. This would enable me to speed-tie with other 0 Spe Scrafty in TR. But if I wanted to have a faster Fake Out outside of TR (as Scrafty commonly lead a match), I'd use 3 Spe IVs to outrun them whilst still being slower than -nature 0 Spe IVs base 60s. This would especially be the case if I prefer to keep TR off the field against other TR teams, and that depends on how slow the rest of my team is compared to my opponent's.
I hope you all find this helpful. Even if it's a long field, but when you're trying to make a team as strong as possible, then it's worth the time to maximize the efficacy of your EV spread, instead of trying to reach your team's peak on the ladder when your peak could be higher with a better EV spread.