This is a Skill and this is how you Swap it! (2v2)

[StarmanXL]

I'm getting kind of tired of all the field effects in doubles, so I figured this would be a nice change of pace. My goal is to efficiently use Skill Swap to provide benefit to the team on its own, and to use Skill Swap to disrupt opposing teams reliant upon abilities, such as Sunny Day teams with Chlorophyll. It's, of course, only in the planning stages. I've never run a team like this before so I wanted to test it out some before making the RMT, but that ended up not going so well...anyway,

EDIT: Okay, after playing with this team for awhile, I've found that it's okay but still has some crippling flaws, namely my vulnerability to status and my weakness to Sunny Day teams. I've changed Jirachi's moveset and replaced Yanmega and Mismagius with Electivire and Dragonite, respectively, to help deal with this. I'm also considering replacing Gyarados with Poliwrath for Hypnosis, a nice STAB fighting move, and a more interesting ability to Swap (and, of course, just because Poliwrath is cool), but I don't know if the drop in speed, power, and loss of Intimidate will make such a switch detrimental. I still feel like I'm underusing Skill Swap as well, especially since I just got rid of one of my three Skill Swappers, so I don't know what to do about that.

Jirachi@Leftovers
Serene Grace
Timid-252 Sp. Atk, 176 Spd, 80 HP
-Skill Swap
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt
-Light Screen

Electivire@Expert Belt
Motor Drive
Lonely-252 Atk, 80 Sp. Atk, 176 Spd
-Discharge
-Cross Chop
-Ice Punch
-Taunt

As much as I liked my old lead of Yanmega + Jirachi, I found out that there was just too much stuff I couldn't really take down between the two--specifically that bloody Porygon2 + Electivire lead that tore me to pieces every time--so I took TheMaskedNitpicker's advice and tried out Electivire over Yanmega and the results thusfar have been favorable, despite being relatively slow.

The set-up's simple: Skill Swap Electivire so Jirachi can gain Motor Drive while Electivire fires off a Serene Grace-boosted Discharge, boosting Jirachi's speed while having a good chance of paralyzing both opponents. Taunt is insurance that I don't have TR set up on me (not that I'm really afraid of it, as I've found that I can still play through it) while Cross Chop is there to take down Porygon2 which I previously couldn't touch. I had to change Reflect on Jirachi to Light Screen as I found I my team benefited more from a special boost than a physical one (whether that will change if I ditch Gyarados I do not know).

Gardevoir@Leftovers
Trace
Timid-252 Sp. Atk, 200 Spd, 56 HP
-Skill Swap
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt
-Shadow Ball

My second Skill Swapper, Gardevoir's Trace ability is really fun to play around with. If I steal a good ability, I can Skill Swap it to my team mate, and even so, I still have a chance of getting something like Flash Fire, Water Absorb, or Dry Skin. Since I dropped Mismagius, I figured I'd add Shadow Ball over Focus Blast as I now have Electivire--and maybe Poliwrath later--for a more reliable fighting type move.

Dragonite@Leftovers
Inner Focus
Adamant-252 Atk, 196 Spd, 60 HP
-Dragon Claw
-Fire Punch
-Heal Bell
-Roost

This one's a little weird. I originally had Mismagius in this place but I've decided to try out Dragonite here instead as Missy didn't do much in the way of Skill Swapping--really Gardevoir and Jirachi are the only ones who do--I already have Scizor and Jirachi for Explosion, and, most of all, I needed a way to get rid of status since it totally wrecked my team and a way to take a CS Typhlosion's Eruption since it's pretty dangerous for my team.

Okay, so...I know she doesn't do much for me Skill Swap wise (why couldn't they have given Dragonite something cool like, I dunno, Thick Fat or something?) but I couldn't think of another good Cleric to fit my needs. I really haven't gotten a chance to use her out quite yet, so I'll get back to you when I do and may just add Mismagius back on here, I dunno.

Gyarados@Leftovers
Intimidate
Adamant-252 Atk, 184 Spd, 72 HP
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang
-Stone Edge

Indimidate will help my team's lower defense, but the kicker is is that if my partner skill swaps it, the opponent is intimidated again. In addition, Serene Grace would boost the flinch rate on Waterfall and Ice Fang (dunno if Stone Edge's CH-Ratio is boosted as well), and Speed Boost, if I could ever manage to get it on here, would also allow Gyara to somewhat make up for Dragon Dance (which I may put back on there, I dunno). Since I plan on having Reflect up, have only one weak with two immunities, I don't plan on EQ being too much of a problem.

EDIT: By the way, I'm considering dropping this for a Water Absorb Poliwrath, probably with the moveset Hypnosis/Brick Break/Waterfall/Ice Punch or something like that, but I don't know if it'll be worth it at the moment.

Scizor@Life Orb
Technician
Adamant-252 Atk, 232 HP, 24 Def
-Bullet Punch
-X-Scissor
-Brick Break
-Roost

Scizor's a pretty neat pokemon, and the addition of Bullet Punch to her movepool makes her even more useful: it's priority helps with her average speed, outside of TR and in, so I switched out Iron Head for it. Admittedly, most of my team doesn't benefit too much from Technician, but a Flash Fire swapped to Scizor nulls her only weakness, and she helps out against Weavile who threaten Gardevoir.


Okay, so after testing this thing out for months, I've found that I'm quite vulnerable to status and it can totally wreck me. I've also found myself, as I kind of feared, vulnerable to Sunny Day teams as my team does not like taking repeated spread fire moves. It's still far from perfect, but it's getting there...maybe.

 

[Vhind]

I really wish I could help improve but from what I see, it's brilliant.
An excellent usage of Skill Swap AND no Gastro Aciding Slaking.

Amazing.

 

[Gymdude]

I think that Scizor there might a good choice, since otherwise your team may have trouble with Weavile (excluding Gyarados). I guess Hariyama can do the same thing, but not as effeciently, so maybe that would be a good choice as well.

Just a thought, but if you wanted Scizor to fit in more or to make his ability more useful, you could give it Technician instead and pair it up with Gardevoir. That way if it gets something like Flash Fire, it can benefit from the ability, otherwise I'm not really seeing how Swarm benefits any of the other members of the team. Maybe something like

Gardevoir @ Leftovers
Trace

Skill Swap
Charge Beam (chargebeam gets 75 power with Technician, which is less power than Thunderbolt, but has a high SpA raising rate)
Psychic
Focus Blast (or HP[Fighting]-60 for better accuracy)

Also I see no Taunt on this team which may be a problem, otherwise it looks great, nice idea.

 

[Articanus]

Try fitting Light Screen if you can, possibly on Scizor over roost.

I see this team having problems with Sunny Day teams, but I guess it's less troublesome if their ability is gone, no?

Try a Lum Berry on Jirachi, as Leftovers will probably make little difference in the long run. Also try a Focus Sash on Yanmega.

 

[StarmanXL]

Haha, this thing is fun to use. Speed boost Jirachi really is nuts.

That Gardevoir's interesting, although I wouldn't want it to get screwed if I'm not paired with Scizor exclusively. Hm...I'll have to look into this more.

As for Taunt, I really didn't think about it. I suppose I could just throw it on Gyarados or something at the expense of one of her moves, maybe Ice Fang, although I'm not sure if I'll need it entirely. Perhaps you've a good TR team I could test this against?

Never thought of Lum on Jirachi; I'll try it out, as well as Focus Sash on Yanmega.

 

[StarmanXL]

Hm...I just realized that my lead gets kinda owned by Magnezone, and that Skill Swapping Serene Grace to it just to get Jirachi out is a pretty risky move. Should I add HP Ground on Yanmega over Detect (seems the most expendable if I go Focus Sash, and I've other easy answers to Explosion)? I don't want to put it on Jirachi since I don't want to lose Reflect.

And on a side note, I just realized that I don't really have a counter to opposing Skill Swap teams. I've never faced one before, though...any ideas on how I should go about taking them down, or do you think my team is fine as is, or perhaps that sort of thing can only be discovered through experience?

 

[Mormino3]

This is a pretty cool team Starman. The absence of Taunt really hurts though. Try working that into your lead.

Also, you have a 3x weakness to fire, whether it matters or not. I guess you might have some trouble against Sunny Day teams.

 

[StarmanXL]

Eh, the taunt thing...truth be told, I just really didn't care this time around and was tired of putting it on every single lead I've ever made, and I figured Hypnosis could work somewhat. Not to mention neither Jirachi or Yanmega learn it. I haven't been able to use this team a lot, though, so I don't know how much that could screw me over, so how would you suggest I run a similar or better lead than the one I have now that uses Taunt should it become necessary?

 

[Mormino3]

If Hypnosis works just as good, thats fine. Otherwise you would need to get a (somewhat) fast taunter into that lead position.

Moving Mismagius into the lead spot wouldn't be a bad idea. It gets Taunt, can pass Levitate to Jirachi and can make use of Serene Grace.

Azelf would do a better job at this though, and unless you don't want to get rid of Mismagius, you should use it instead.

Edit: I'm not really good with commas. Sorry if that doesn't make sense. :x

 

[StarmanXL]

If Hypnosis works just as good, thats fine. Otherwise you would need to get a (somewhat) fast taunter into that lead position.

Moving Mismagius into the lead spot wouldn't be a bad idea. It gets Taunt, can pass Levitate to Jirachi and can make use of Serene Grace.

Azelf would do a better job at this though, and unless you don't want to get rid of Mismagius, you should use it instead.

Edit: I'm not really good with commas. Sorry if that doesn't make sense. :x

No, it's okay. I'm actually considering trying that out since I've recently confirmed my fears that, yes, Porygon-2 leads do hand my leads their asses on platters. I'm gonna try that out, and I doubt I'm really gonna miss another Explosion resist (although Mismagius is still so cool...oh, well, I've still got my RD team to work with).

Oh, and on a side note, I'm changing Scizor's set to Technician with Bullet Punch over Iron Head. I think the priority would probably do better than trying to flinch with a relatively slow pokemon, and, like Gymdude said, Swarm doesn't do much for my team anyway.

 

[Gymdude]

Haha, this thing is fun to use. Speed boost Jirachi really is nuts.

That Gardevoir's interesting, although I wouldn't want it to get screwed if I'm not paired with Scizor exclusively. Hm...I'll have to look into this more.

Good to see it's working out well so far. It completely slipped my mind for some reason that Gardevoir might be paired with someone else. However, unless you really need thunderbolt, it's not too big of change.

As for Taunt, I really didn't think about it. I suppose I could just throw it on Gyarados or something at the expense of one of her moves, maybe Ice Fang, although I'm not sure if I'll need it entirely. Perhaps you've a good TR team I could test this against?

Yeah if it's been working out without taunt then there's no need for it. Perhaps you could try testing the team out with Taunt and then without taunt and see what the results are?
Also I do have team that meets two of your requirements actually, it's a TR Skill Swap Sandstorm team that you faced before with your previous team. I also have a RD TR team, but I don't think it's as good if you wanted to try those out some time.

 

[BlueCookies]

I just wanted to say that if you are using Bullet Punch Scizor(Playing in the Platinum metagame) you may want to considder dropping Hypnosis from Yanmega in favor of a more reliable move(I see you were considdering HP Ground). It looks like a really solid team on paper, and seems like it would be a lot of fun to play around with.

 

[StarmanXL]

Eh, even though Hypnosis's accuracy is shit now, I'd rather get rid of Detect since I've Focus Sash and add in HP Ground in it's place, as incapacitating a pokemon gives you a tremendous advantage (I recall a battle I had the other day...I ended up with Jirachi and Yanmega paralyzed and Gardevoir frozen. Ugh...).

 

[TheMaskedNitpicker]

I was thinking that your team could really use an Electivire or Jolteon with Discharge. Alternatively you could go with a (shudder) Flareon or (shudder shudder) Heatran with Lava Plume. All these Pokémon would appreciate Jirachi's Serene Grace for a 60% paralysis/burn rate against opponents while their partners enjoy immunity. They're also weak to Ground, so Mismagius's Levitate would also be a bonus.

I really wish I could help improve but from what I see, it's brilliant.
An excellent usage of Skill Swap AND no Gastro Aciding Slaking.

Amazing.

Hey, what's wrong with Gastro Acid Slaking? I get good use out of that strategy. :)

 

[Articanus]

I still say Light Screen on Scizor, since you should usually not have enough time to Roost back your HP. Intimidate + Light Screen is awesome also

 

[StarmanXL]

Sorry to bump an old thread but it still needs some work and did not want to make a new thread for it. I've changed Jirachi's and Gardevoir's movesets, replaced Yanmega for Electivire and Mismagius for Dragonite and am considering changing Gyarados for Poliwrath, and some of the descriptions. I still have problems with Sunny Day teams and status in general.

 

[Komodo]

Did i battle this team ?

 

[StarmanXL]

Yes you did, but I've made a few changes since then. Have you any feedback on it since you've fought it?