thanks to Memoric for the title!
Introduction
It's been a great season for Smogon Doubles, with X and Y bringing with them a ton of interesting 'mons and mechanics. However, as of late SmogDubs' teams seem to be getting a little less inspired than before, which is a real shame because there are so many interesting Pokemon to be found and used in this format. With about a month before we all restart on equal ground to explore the ORAS metagame, what better time than to put together this team archive? I hope that some of you skimming through this team archive will find a bit of inspiration in these teams to liven up your own teambuilding!
Part 1: The Rebeginning
Near the start of the year, I wasn't quite so familiar with XY Doubles and was still feeling my way around (yes, I admit it x_x). As you can probably see, this led to most of my teams being pretty weak and flimsy. I feel like I did have some nice ideas around this time, but I just wasn't quite able to to translate them into solid teams which didn't fall apart at the slightest pressure. Simply put, my teams from around this time were "pretty shit". Note that I won't elaborate much on my EV choices for this section, since most of thir uses were either unimportant or have since been clean forgotten.
Operation Slowstorm
Perhaps I should begin at the start. The very beginning of the year saw new hope for Trick Room teams in the form of a slew of new Trick Room goodies such as Mega Abomasnow and Aromatisse. I started by trying out a couple of more unorthodox (read: Level 51-styled) Trick Room teams, featuring Bulldoze Slowking + Weakness Policy Rhyperior (inspired by R Inanimate) on one and Sheer Force Steelix on the other. Eventually, I settled on the Full Trick Room team you can see here. It constituted what was probably my best ladder run ever, going 72-6 and shooting me to the top of the ACRE ladder right before the whole ACRE system broke spectacularly.
The team itself was incredibly simple yet effective, unlike most of my later teams. It aimed at getting Trick Room up, then dishing out pain with Heatran and Mega Abomasnow, and repeating as necessary. Although this team generally performs best as a ladder team, it could potentially do some work in higher-level play as well;
Cresselia (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psyshock
- Trick Room
- Protect
- Helping Hand
Besides being a cute duck, Cresselia can also easily make its presence felt through Helping Hand on its partners, especially Heatran and Abomasnow during Trick Room. I chose Cresselia over more offensive TR setters like Chandelure or Gengar [not a typo] since its bulk makes it a more reliable option, which is especially relevant given that I only have one TR setter.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Protect
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Blizzard
- Energy Ball
- Ice Shard
- Protect
Once either or both of these two are out during Trick Room, the opponent is almost always forced to go into defensive mode. The sheer power these two provide is nothing to sniff at, and that satisfying feeling you get from bringing two 100% HP Pokemon down to 0 with a single move is unparalleled. Not much else to say, to be quite honest. In terms of laddering, at least, I feel like simplicity is highly underrated.
Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Follow Me
- Protect
Togekiss is really nice, letting Cresselia get Trick Room up safely and protecting my two TR sweepers from single-target attacks. Togekiss also goes very neatly with Garchomp, forming a surprisingly solid TogeChomp combo (often a lead against frailer teams) which stomps the ladder pretty well.
Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Claw
- Protect
Garchomp has recently fallen way out of favour compared to Landorus-T, and to be fair, it's quite obvious why. While I won't expound on the details, I often wonder why I didn't just choose to use Landorus-T myself. I suppose at least Garchomp can hit Rotom-W fairly hard... anyway, LO Garchomp was a treat to use, and it worked as a pretty speedy safety net in case Trick Room ran out. A solid Pokemon overall, and a good choice for a fast Ground-type, even without a scarf.
Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Feint
- Wide Guard
Hitmontop really holds this team together. Fake Out lets it aid in setting Trick Room as well as support Garchomp for a quick lead, and Wide Guard protects my two TR sweepers from the common spread attacks they're so weak to. Feint is also pretty good for making sure opponents can't stall out Trick Room too well. And of course, Close Combat really puts a reasonable dent in most things that don't resist it.
FURRET POEWR
My next few teams were nondescript, to say the least, and most of them didn't work. The next time I made a team worth mentioning was when the Dark Horse Challenge rolled into the Doubles Forum. Inspired by TalkingLion's VGC team, I decided to give Furret a spin myself. Eventually, I got pretty high up on the ladder, beating a couple of players who were actually good — including Braverius :P! While Furret didn't do very much in most of the battles, it was nice to have a fast Super Fang + TrickScarf option. Knock Off was also very cute, just like Furret :3
Originally, since I built this team just for the heck of using Furret, I decided to dump a Kangaskhan + Terrakion combination onto the team, since I was thinking of using that at the time. You'll notice that unlike some of my later teams, my earlier teams tend not to have any particular strategy, instead just lumping random Pokemon on a team and hoping to win. This team is (unfortunately) a prime example of this 'style' of teambuilding.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 180 HP / 252 SAtk / 76 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Protect
Pretty standard SubTran, this is a slower build from a slower time when not everyone was rushing around to outspeed max speed Tyranitar. I don't think there's much to explain about this, it was really just a nice solid Pokemon to aid me in what were typically 5v6s thanks to Furret. Heatran is one of those Pokemon which has been great since the start of XY Dubs, thanks in part to the presence of Talonflame, perhaps.
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Def
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch
- Wish
- Seismic Toss
This was the first and only time I tried Bulky Seismic Mega Kangaskhan, which is why (as you can see) the EVs aren't too optimal. Overall, I really wouldn't use it again, but then again I may have been using it wrong. Who knows, though? You, dear reader, may have much more success with this set than I did!
Breloom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Force Palm
- Stone Edge
- Spore
Choice Scarf Breloom is another Pokemon that I had lots of fun with earlier on in the year, but which I don't think I would dare field in any important tournaments (not like there are any left for this year anyway...). It's really funny when you get a surprisingly fast Bullet Seed off onto an opposing Terrakion, and especially when you get an unsuspecting Togekiss with Stone Edge (which really should have been Rock Tomb here, I must have forgotten about it or something). Fast Spore spam is also great thanks to our lack of a Sleep Clause (which I must say I am very much in favour of).
Terrakion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect
A Terrakion from the earlier part of the year when not many people (such as me) recognised the true merit of Quick Guard Terrakion. Essentially, Terrakion was just here to stomp Kangaskhan and other Fighting-weak Pokemon super hard, while just being great all-around. I used Iron Head over Quick Guard mainly because I didn't realise that at the time, the only Fairy-types people used would take a pittance from Iron Head, anyway. I'm even less sure why I used Leftovers. A sillier set from a sillier time, I suppose.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Protect
A non-Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian! That's how you can tell that this team is super old. While perhaps not the most popular option, I found that Sash Landorus-T was surprisingly useful as a safety net, taking any hit thanks to its Sash and then returning a reasonably powerful hit. U-turn + Intimidate was also nice to have sometimes, making Landorus-T my favoured Ground-type over something like Mamoswine.
Furret @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Super Fang
- Trick
The FURRET itself! In a metagame where items are pretty important (especially Choice items), Frisk is a pretty powerful ability which is always nice to have around. Even though this team didn't work very well, I enjoyed using Furret quite a bit due to its use of fast U-turns to get more Intimidates off at the start of turns, as well as Super Fang to help bust through the bulky 'mons that populate the tier (such as Cresselia and Heatran, notably). TrickScarf was also useful, as it made opposing Pokemon much easier to predict, and when used in conjunction with Frisk, I was able to remove items from the Pokemon that needed them the most.
Replays:
vs Gluon (2056 ACRE) — Ladder Battle — Furret does nothing and the team still wins somehow.
The Right Hand Radicals
Another team inspired by a Nugget Bridge VGC team, this time Huy's Surfing in a Winter Wonderland. Essentially, I thought that Choice Specs Gyarados could be a funny idea, and if nothing else, would provide a little bit of entertainment on the ladder. I know I beat xpatriette with this team by Ice Beaming his Landorus-T while my Gyarados was burnt and at -3 Attack, but I appear to have lost the replay.
Gyarados @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP / 252 SAtk / 100 Spd
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Stone Edge
Gyarados was really just a fun idea that I wanted to play around with when I built this team. It hits about as hard as you'd expect (somewhere between wet paper towel and beanbag), but I liked it because of its stellar special coverage and great ability. Essentially, the rest of the team was built to support it, which is a shame because Specs Gyarados is hilariously underwhelming most of the time.
Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SAtk
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Icy Wind
- Helping Hand
- Skill Swap
One big problem that I noticed with Gyarados is that (a) it didn't hit very well on things that weren't 4x weak to its attacks, and (b) it wasn't very fast. To remedy this, I used everyone's favourite speed control + Helping Hand user, Cresselia! The only really odd option on this set was Skill Swap, which I used in order to get more mileage out of Politoed's Drizzle or Gyarados' Intimidate, or to cripple opposing Kangaskhan.
Politoed @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 28 SDef / 228 Def
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Helping Hand
- Perish Song
- Protect
Politoed was a nice simple rain setter here to get Rain up without too much trouble. Perish Song worked well with Mega Gengar on the team (~6 months ahead of you Pwnemon!), while Helping Hand was also useful for amping up Gyarados' performance on the field.
Rotom-Mow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 236 Spd / 252 SAtk / 20 SDef
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Volt Switch
Rotom-Mow had really good defensive synergy with Gyarados, and was mainly used here to get rid of the bulky Water-types that stood in the way of Gyarados' rampage, especially Rotom-W. Not really sure why I had Hidden Power Ground, was Heatran really that much of a problem on a Rain team???
Metagross @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 72 HP / 184 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Protect
Safety Goggles Metagross was essentially my way of telling Amoonguss to screw off. Since Safety Goggles [Fire-type] was unsuitable for a Rain team (and no one had thought of that at all anyway), I decided to go for the next best thing and use Metagross. However, despite how well Metagross seems to fit in with Rain teams — with its Fire weakness being neutralised and all that — Metagross usually failed to deliver for my team. In an increasingly bulkier metagame, Metagross' relatively weak attacks just don't make the cut, and its STABs just aren't as useful as they were in Gen V. Looking back now, I feel like maybe Scizor might have been a better fit.
Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Skill Swap
- Protect
Gengar has always been one of my favourite Pokemon, and given the popularity of Mega Kangaskhan, it seemed like any Ghost-type at all was a good idea. Furthermore, in my mind I could Skill Swap away nice abilities from opponents and allies alike — such as Parental Bond from opposing Kangaskhan or Intimidate and Drizzle from my own Gyarados and Politoed — and use them to my own advantage. However, this hardly ever played out the way I wanted to since my team was generally unable to take advantage of the free turns switching opponents could have provided for my team.
Replays:
vs Makiri — Doubles Circuit Minitour 1, Round 1 - The lack of Perish Song or Will-O-Wisp on my Gengar costs me.
Part 2: Recalibration
At this point, with the Spring Seasonal looming, I realised that my current teams weren't quite going to cut it. My need for more teams was made more urgent with the realisation that my previous teams were actually far worse than I thought, with one of them even causing me to drop one game in my Round 1 matchup vs. random ladder scrub. The first two teams in this section featured in my Spring and Summer Seasonal matches (and didn't do too well, as you can see from my circuit records), and I think that they honestly aren't bad. Or weren't bad, for the time at least. In this part of the year, my teams were overall much more solid than the stuff from the first part of the year. In my opinion, anyway.
Code of Conduct
So this was the first really solid team I made this year. I decided to take a more balanced approach to teambuilding, and opted to go for a mainly bulky offense team with a fast sweeper to clean up after them. Of course, this team is centred around Kangaskhan, the epitome of bulky offense. I don't really think there's anything much else to say about the team, other than the fact that it was really head and shoulders above every other team I had made in the season so far.
Bash (Scrafty) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Detect
I knew that I wanted to make a nice and bulky offensive team, so my go-to foundations for building were both Intimidate users to neuter opposing Physical forces which are all too common. Scrafty has been one of my favourite Intimidators for a while, since Fighting / Dark STAB is really pretty strong even when your base Attack stat is suboptimal. Fake Out and stellar bulk also really put it a notch above other Intimidators in the tier in my opinion.
Python (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Substitute
- Protect
The second Pokemon of my dual-Intimidate core, Gyarados was chosen as a nice way to deal with Talonflame, which I have an unjustified fear of. I think perhaps the interesting choice on this set is Substitute, so I'll explain that a bit: Substitute on a forced switch or a turn where Gyarados isn't targeted gives Gyarados a bit of breathing space, which is good since its weaknesses to a few common attacking types (Electric, Rock) don't do much favours for its longevity. Substitute also allows Gyarados to get more attacks onto its opponents more easily, lending it a larger offensive pressure on the field and sometimes even causing opponents to panic, especially when a Substitute was not expected (it usually isn't). 96 Speed EVs allowed Gyarados to outspeed Max Speed (neutral nature) Tyranitar by one point and get a Waterfall in before it is hit by Rock Slide.
JavaScript (Rotom-Heat) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 200 HP / 76 SpA / 60 SpD / 172 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Rest
ChestoRest Rotom is one set I am quite happy with. After Rotom-H has been burnt out (haha!) by an Overheat, most opponents tend to leave it alone since it can't do much on the field besides maybe a Will-O-Wisp. This, combined with Rotom-H's decent defensive typing, allows Rotom-H to get a quick Rest in to recover its HP. This lent Rotom-H added durability in dealing with Sun teams, and let me switch it in to take resisted hits much less reservedly. The Chesto Berry on Rotom-H was also helpful in letting me take Spores and Sleep Powders from opposing Pokemon who sought to cripple the microwave oven.
The given Speed EVs let Rotom-H outspeed Max Speed (neutral nature) Excadrill out of Sand, which is especially helpful if the opponent is using Mold Breaker Excadrill; the defensive EVs make Jolly Mega Kangaskhan Frustration a 2HKO, as well as Timid LO Latios Draco Meteor. The rest of the EVs are chucked into Special Attack so Rotom-H doesn't hit like a piece of soggy tissue paper.
Haskell (Gourgeist-Super) @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpD
Careful Nature
- Phantom Force
- Leech Seed
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
Gourgeist was one of those Pokemon which either did tons of work in walling the opponent's team, or was just used as fodder to grab free switches. When it worked, though, it worked amazingly, simply sitting in front of a lot of fearsome offensive powerhouses like Landorus-T, Kangaskhan, Terrakion, Keldeo and other funny stuff, eating up all the momentum on the opposing side and swinging the control of the battle in my favour. Shoutout again to Braverius for inspiring this choice by using Gourgeist in his VGC team \o/
The defensive EVs make Adamant LO Talonflame's Brave Bird a 2HKO, +1 Tyranitar's Crunch a 2HKO, and Timid LO Latios Draco Meteor a 2HKO. This pumpkin is so bulky it's not funny *-*
TeX (Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Tailwind
- Protect
Latios was the fast sweeper intended to clear up the field after the bulky core had done its work; however, Latios also plays an integral role in supporting the rest of the team with Tailwind. Overall, I think Latios was probably one of my favourite Dragon-types in the format this season. The ability to get off a huge Draco Meteor at 110 Base Speed is probably one big factor in this ruling.
On a side note, when I first exported this, it was Jolly for some reason. Maybe that's why it always does so little damage?
C++ (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch
If bulky offense were a Pokemon, it would be Kangaskhan. Well, it would probably be Giratina, but if bulky offense were a legal Pokemon in the Smogon Doubles format, it would be Kangaskhan. Since a lot of the Pokemon on this team require some free turns in order to set up to their maximum potential (Tailwind Latios, Leech Seed Gourgeist, Substitute Gyarados), Kangaskhan adds another Fake Out user to the team, allowing for greater ease in setting up optimal conditions for my team members to do what they do best. Of course, Kangaskhan is itself a huge threat, with its presence usually commanding enough attention to take focus away from Kangaskhan's allies, another form of providing free turns.
Goodstuffs Remastered
This team is essentially a hyper offensive Goodstuffs team with solid offensive prowess from almost all its members, which are each individually huge offensive presences on the field. I kind of threw the team together hastily on a whim to play with Gyarados-Mega and Victini, since it looked like they fit together pretty well offensively. As things would turn out, this became one of my better teams, encompassing a lot of typical Level 51-style sets (such as WoW Gallade and Endeavor Shaymin-S). I hope you enjoy this team, it's one of the more effective fun teams I made this year!
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
Mega Gyarados is a pretty brutal sweeper once it gets nice and set up, and can put holes in a fair number of opposing Pokemon even without having to use Dragon Dance first. After just one DD, though, Gyarados can put serious holes in things. The rest of the team is essentially built to help this beast get in a Dragon Dance and subsequently to take out whatever Gyarados can't.
Victini @ Life Orb
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Blue Flare
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
I remembered that earlier in the year, Pwnemon had made a pretty solid Mega Gyarados team with Chandelure on it for some reason or other, but I assumed it was to get through Grass-types like Ferrothorn without spiking themselves on its Iron Barbs. Victini is basically like Chandelure except faster and bulkier, though less able to hit Psychic-types. Blue Flare is extremely strong on almost everything that doesn't resist it, and Victini can easily make its way through most non-resistors fairly easily given proper support. The other moves are far lesser-used coverage options; Hidden Power Ice is rather obligatory even though Victini almost never moves before the Pokemon it wants to hit. I suppose catching them on the switch does work sometimes.
Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
With the addition of Thundurus-Therian and its base 145 Special Attack, it's easy to see which direction this team is headed in. Thundurus-T rounds out the core of Mega Gyarados / Victini, tying up opposing Water-types while outspeeding a fair chunk of the metagame with its highly convenient Speed tier. Like Victini, the only moves Thundurus-T uses are Thunderbolt and Protect, with Focus Blast almost exclusively reserved for Mega Kangaskhan and Hidden Power Ice for Dragons and Landorus forms, most of which outspeed Thundurus-Therian anyway.
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 56 HP / 200 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Specs Sylveon is another hugely unforgiving attacker in Doubles. Hyper Voice is a simple way to create holes in most teams and soften up their Pokemon so Sylveon's allies can clean up the rest of the team more easily. Sylveon also deals with the Fighting-types that give Gyarados a lot of trouble after it Mega Evolves, and stays on the field for a long time thanks to its amazing bulk. For example, the defensive EVs give Sylveon amazing Physical bulk, with Mega Kangaskhan's Frustration only 2HKOing Sylveon 1.2% of the time (the rest of the time, it's a 3HKO).
Shaymin-Sky @ Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seed Flare
- Air Slash
- Endeavor
- Protect
Shaymin-Sky is without doubt a stellar Pokemon. Serene Grace + Seed Flare / Air Slash is extremely hilarious, and its base 127 Speed makes the combination all the more fun. I feel that Endeavor is the interesting move here — in conjunction with its Focus Sash, it lets Shaymin-Sky destroy incredibly bulky things that it usually has no business dealing with.
Gallade (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Atk / 136 Def / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Helping Hand
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
Every team needs some way to mess up Kangaskhan, and Gallade works pretty well for this team. After a Steadfast Speed boost, Gallade outspeeds positive-natured base 100s (most importantly, Mega Kangaskhan). 24 Attack EVs let Gallade OHKO 4/0 Mega Kangaskhan 100% of the time, while the defensive EVs allow it to survive Mega Kangaskhan's Frustration 100% of the time. Helping Hand and Will-O-Wisp are just great support moves in general, the former for boosting the other five team members' attacks to astronomically powerful levels, the latter for ensuring that its allies get those attacks in at all.
Replays:
vs Sunny. — Summer Seasonal, Round 5
vs Electrolyte — Summer Seasonal, Round 6
Normality Reprise
I think that this was probably the most solid team I have constructed all season. It has a few of the typical tricks characteristic of my kind of teams, and included the Double Intimidate core I talked about earlier. While it might sound clichéd, it was certainly true that for this team, the battle really wasn't over until all of my Pokemon were knocked out.
Fruit Punch (Kangaskhan) (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Frustration
- Crunch
- Power-Up Punch
Standard Kangaskhan with a twist! Well, a couple of twists really. Obviously, you'll notice that this Kangaskhan has no Fake Out. I was reading about someone using Substitute Kangaskhan somewhere, and I figured I'd give it a whirl. So far, it's worked pretty well, especially since it can set up Substitute pretty easily by threatening Fake Out on the first turn. This usually sets people on panic mode, since Kangaskhan is now immune to paralysis, burns, and Intimidate. It's even funnier when Kangaskhan gets to +2 behind a Substitute :)!
Crunch is another odd move on this Kangaskhan, but I feel it helps with bulky / annoying Psychic- and Ghost-types like Cresselia, Gothitelle, Jellicent, Gengar and friends which won't necessarily be using attacking moves for Kangaskhan to Sucker Punch. Obviously, a payoff of this is that Kangaskhan now has zero priority moves, but this is simply remedied (hopefully!) with Rage Powder Amoonguss and Tailwind Latios.
Heat o/ (Heatran) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 88 HP / 252 SpA / 168 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
Somewhere between 200 Spe Heatran and 80 Spe Heatran is this mythical beast, the 168 Spe Heatran only talked about in quiet whispers in coversations. The main (only) reason for this Speed EVing is so that Heatran outspeeds ALL Landorus-T under Tailwind while maintaining as much bulk as possible. Admittedly, a 204 Speed variant may also have been better since this team doesn't have many answers for Heatran outside of Gyarados. Safety Goggles is honestly an amazing item and I think it should be used more, especially with the removal of Sleep Clause — in this case, it lets Heatran safely switch in to things like Amoonguss, Mega Venusaur, Chlorosaur, while also being a foolproof Sun counter (with the exception of Focus Blast or HP Ground Charizard Y). Safety Goggles are also funny because they let me Earth Power things which think they're safe because they're next to a Rage Powdering Amoonguss. Finally, Hidden Power Ice is another amazing option on Heatran, since no one expects it and it allows Heatran to bop opposing Landorus-T under Tailwind, as well as other Dragons which Heatran would normally do nothing to with its usual Heat Wave / Earth Power coverage.
Mushroom Cloud (Amoonguss) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Amoonguss just does what it does. There's nothing really fancy about this set, but it serves a very important purpose on this team — to direct attacks away from Mega Kangaskhan and Latios so they can get in their important sweeping work (especially so Kangaskhan can get its all-important Substitute up). All in all, I feel like Amoonguss has been a really solid choice for almost any team the whole season, and is undoubtedly one of the better redirectors in the format.
Hood Ornament (Scrafty) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Detect
This Scrafty is just about the same as the last one I described and performs virtually the same role, only here its role is more important since it's the only Fake Out user on my team. Otherwise, it's exactly the same except the shift of 4 EVs from HP to Speed for Speed creeping purposes.
Serpentine (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
I figured out that Substitute Gyarados didn't work nearly as well in practice as it did in theory, so I went for Thunder Wave, which is an infinitely more practical move. In addition to Latios' Tailwind, I now also have the option of speed control in the opposite direction through Gyarados' Thunder Wave. Since Gyarados doesn't usually have enough free turns to set up Substitute anyway, this wasn't too much of a loss.
Meteoric Rise (Latios) (M) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Tailwind
- Protect
Latios is here mainly as a speedy source of damage output. I feel that every team — with the exception of maybe full Trick Room teams — should have at least one Pokemon with a base speed of over 100 (or better, 108) so that the typical strong Megas (Kangaskhan, Charizard Y, Charizard X maybe) and Terrakion / Garchomp don't just run through a team. Anyway, Latios is a prime candidate for this position since it drops Draco Meteors really easily and also helps the team get around annoying Amoonguss with Psyshock. You might notice that this Latios carries a Colbur Berry as opposed to a more typical Life Orb — this is so that Latios doesn't get bopped by aforementioned Kangaskhan's Sucker Punch before it can do its speedy fun job.
Replays:
vs srk1214 — Doubles Ladder Tournament, Top 16 — this replay really shows what this team can do
vs McMeghan — Doubles Team Trials, Round 2
Anything Goes!
As you may or may not have guessed by now, this team was not meant for use in anything important (I did bring it to the Ladder Tournament, and boy did I regret that!), but rather as a proof-of-concept that you could build a respectably good team with a bunch of shitmons. I guess that was disproved to a certain extent, but the team was still a fun experience to build and play (especially against Arcticblast !!!!!!). Note that you probably shouldn't get any ideas from this team, it was kinda bad...........
<THE BEST OF> (Yanmega) @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
YANMEGA is an amazing Pokemon; thanks to Anty for the suggestion! Bug Buzz destroys a ton of important Pokemon like Cresselia and Latios (the latter after a Speed Boost), while Hidden Power Ice takes out Scarf Landorus-T, Garchomp, Salamence, and so forth after a Speed Boost. Air Slash is mainly for fun flinches here, but it can also play an important role in the fight against Keldeo.
<FEATURING> (Cradily) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 40 HP / 212 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Ancient Power
- Earth Power
- Protect
Cradily is also here to mess with Keldeo. switching in an unexpected Storm Drain next to Chandelure can make the latter virtually immune to Keldeo's attacks; meanwhile, Cradily's EVs ensure it gets to survive a Timid LO Keldeo Secret Sword and launch a Giga Drain in response. Rocky Helmet is also great for switching into predicted Kangaskhan attacks and watching it remove 1/3 of its own HP.
<RERELEASED> (Chandelure) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 52 Def / 252 SpA / 204 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
Safety Goggles Chandelure has always struck me as a slightly stronger and faster version of Safety Goggles Heatran — and all the better at countering Sun. In addition, Safety Goggles Chandelure can also easily get a Will-O-Wisp off onto Kangaskhan thanks to its part Ghost-typing, making it much easier for the rest of the team. The EVs do something semi-important that I have since forgotten, whatever, not like I'm going to use this team again.
<REMASTERED> (Mienshao) @ King's Rock
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 24 SpD / 232 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Fling
- Quick Guard
FLING + KING'S ROCK is pretty amazing sometimes, when it isn't expected it a turn 2 flinch can come as a nasty surprise to an unprepared opponent (and let's face it, who is prepared for FLING + KING'S ROCK anyway???). Other than that, Mienshao is pretty boring; I really just slapped it on as a way to deal with Talonflame.
<REMIXED> (Whimsicott) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect
LO Whimsicott was probably the most successful Pokemon I got out of this teambuilding experience. LO Moonblast was deadly on a lot of unprepared Pokemon, such as most Terrakion and Keldeo, negative SDef natured Kyurem-B, as well as the odd Garchomp and Salamence. Besides that, Whimsicott also managed to perform its supporting role pretty well, with Tailwind and Taunt being integral to the function of this team.
<BONUS TRACK> (Blastoise) @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 144 HP / 252 SpA / 112 Spe
Modest Nature
- Water Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Aura Sphere
- Protect
Mega Blastoise hits super hard and is definitely one of the most underrated megas in the format. There isn't really much to say here, other than the fact that I chose not to use Water Spout since I couldn't afford for Blastoise to become dead weight after taking any damage at all. 112 Speed EVs were to outspeed all Tier 1 Pokemon under Tailwind.
Previous members:
yeah, I kind of went through a lot of Pokemon trying to make it work...
Replays:
vs srk1214 — Doubles Ladder Tournament, Top 16
vs Arcticblast
Part 3: High Gear
As the Doubles Major rapidly approached, my teambuilding style was gradually reaching its peak, and I finally felt around as comfortable with the meta as I had felt near the end of BW2. This section contains some of my best teams from the season, and I hope that you might gain some interesting ideas from reading this section (as well as find out that I'm not actually terrible at teambuilding!!).
R Formula
This was one of my better teams for the year, and it nabbed me literally my only win in the Doubles Major (which you can see in the Replays section down at the bottom of the In-Depth tab) and also let TalkTakesTime go 33-4 on the ladder! While this team is heavily modelled after R Inanimate's heavy-hitter + redirection style (hence the name!), it was actually loosely based on DrFidget's VGC '12 Ft. Wayne team (I highly recommend reading this, it's a pretty cool team). When I say loosely based on, I mean that it has since been heavily modified beyond recognition, but it was that team that reinforced an earlier idea I had had to use Blastoise.
Fairy 'Nuff (Togekiss) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Tailwind
- Air Slash
- Protect
Originally a Crobat in the aforementioned team, I found Togekiss to be one of the best possible Pokemon to place alongside Blastoise. Not only could it Tailwind to allow Blastoise to outrun most of the metagame and Water Spout its way through everything, but it could also sit alongside Blastoise and use Follow Me as it was doing so. In short, I found Togekiss to be almost the optimal partner for Blastoise in this format.
re(pulse)ive (Blastoise) @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Ice Beam
- Protect
The legendary Fastoise. This time, I opted for a Water Spout Blastoise, favouring the sheer power it could provide for me. Therefore, I knew that I had to build the rest of the team carefully in order to support Blastoise very well, especially with the presence of such strong priority moves as Bisharp's Sucker Punch, Talonflame's Brave Bird, and Mega Kangaskhan's Fake Out and Sucker Punch. I also opted for Timid Blastoise this time, believing that Water Spout really had enough power to take out big chunks of HP anyway, and reasoning that the extra speed would probably come in handy sometime (and it did, especially when Tailwind wasn't up).
Mole Theory (Excadrill) @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drill Run
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect
To replace the Mamoswine in the original team, I brought in a Ground-type Pokemon which was just as hard-hitting and also benefitted tremendously from Tailwind. Furthermore, Mold Breaker Excadrill was also amazing at removing the pesky Rotom-Ws which got in the way of Blastoise's Water Spout fun. Excadrill is also just an all-around strongmon, even outside of Tailwind, so I like it a lot because of that *-*
Psilocybin (Amoonguss) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Amoonguss takes the place of a Virizion from the original team to lend some help against all the Water-types that make life hard for Blastoise and Excadrill, usually forcing them out with its mere presence. Rage Powder is another great move to be spammed while sitting next to Blastoise, and my only complaint about Amoonguss thus far is that it doesn't have a lot of offensive presence on the field most of the time.
Checkm80 (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Protect
Bisharp replaced a Houndoom from the original team, and I haven't really regretted that decision since. Bisharp is another extremely good Pokemon in the current meta, especially with Intimidate flying around everywhere. Furthermore, Sucker Punch is really strong for a priority move, and helps this team get somewhere offensively without Tailwind needing to be up all the time. Bisharp also provided much-needed Dark-type coverage to bust all the bulky Psychic-types in the tier like Gothitelle and Cresselia, and also discouraged Landorus-T from coming in to ruin Blastoise's day.
FortreeBraveBirds (Talonflame) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Brave Bird
- Overheat
- Tailwind
- Protect
Talonflame filled up a last empty slot vacated by a Cofagrigus I wasn't too keen on using and was real fun to play most of the time. Since I needed some very useful Fire STAB, I chose Overheat Talonflame to get at Ferrothorn and Scizor (especially Ferrothorn) without spiking itself to death on Iron Barbs. Brave Bird was strong as usual, and while I was sometimes disappointed at Talonflame's damage output in the absence of Life Orb or Choice Band, most of the time it was able to show its usefulness at least by setting up priority Tailwind.
Previous Members:
Replays:
vs Space Cowboy II (1400 Elo) — Ladder Battle
vs LzrGunPewPew — Doubles Major, Round 3
not Dancing in the Rain
Nearer to the end of the year, I focused more on building weather teams. From a Sun team featuring Heliolisk to a Mega Tyranitar Sand team to a Hail / Sun dual-weather team, I tried without success quite a few times to make a nice weather team that would work. I made this team near the end of my run in the Majors, but wasn't very confident in it due to lack of testing, and decided against using it. In the end, though, I feel that this has become one of my better teams for the year, which is why I'm including it in this team archive. And, of course, it has my usual fingerprints on it in the form of such sets as Choice Scarf Politoed and Expert Belt Deoxys-Speed.
Udometer (Politoed) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hypnosis
- Encore
I started by attempting to build a Rain team, since that was one weather I hadn't tried, and it looked like it might give Deoxys-Speed a chance to shine since it could threaten Amoonguss pretty well. Obviously, this would have to start with a Politoed, but I decided to not use a typical bulky set, and instead went with a Choice Scarf Politoed. While most people discount Politoed as nothing more than a Rain setter and maybe a Perish Song user, I've found that Choice Scarf Politoed can get quite a few surprise KOs on most unscarved Pokemon.
Ammeter (Thundurus) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Flying]
When I approached this slot, I knew that I wanted a fast Electric-type to get in those perfect accuracy Thunders under Rain. Therefore, I had a few choices, and I eliminated them one by one: Raikou wasn't strong enough, and Thundurus-Therian wasn't fast enough. I settled for a Choice Specs Thundurus-I, which is an interesting set I think most of my opponents weren't expecting. Base 111 Speed was enough to outspeed most important Pokemon, while Thundurus also brought with it an extra STAB option which Raikou didn't have — the Flying-type. this was quite helpful, since it let Thundurus dish out nice chunks of damage on most Fighting-type and Grass-type Pokemon (especially Amoonguss!!!!). Choice Specs Volt Switch also hits much, much harder than most people expect it to, which is nice.
Accelerometer (Deoxys-Speed) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 64 HP / 156 Def / 176 SpA / 4 SpD / 108 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psycho Boost
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
This team was actually built with the intention of using Deoxys-Speed to cover up a few holes in the team, and it comes through to do its task admirably. With the given spread, Deoxys-S can survive an Adamant CB Talonflame's Brave Bird, as well as outrun and OHKO 4/0 Mega Garchomp, Jolly Choice Scarf Landorus-T. 252/72+ Amoonguss (13/16 times), 252/0 Mega Venusaur (10/16 times), and the usual Terrakion / Keldeo / other Fighting-types not named Scrafty gang. Stealth Rock was also very helpful in fighting opposing Sun and Hail teams, and Taunt did a variety of useful things, from shutting down Trick Room to stopping Belly Drum Azumarill from getting set up. While I originally used 140 SpA and 40 Special Defence EVs, I figured that moving EVs into Special Attack to give myself a higher chance of OHKOing Amoonguss was worth the slight loss in Special Defence, since Deoxys-S isn't exactly the most bulky Pokemon ever.
Ohmmeter (Escavalier) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Drill Run
- Knock Off
Ohmmeters measure resistance... Escavalier has a great typing... get it???? okay that was bad I know moving right on Escavalier is pretty underrated in the current metagame despite having decent matchups against a lot of threats. Overcoat lets it completely ignore Rage Powder, Spore, and Sleep Powder, letting it stomp all over Amoonguss and Venusaur pretty hard. Its typing is also pretty good, giving it reasonable matchups against scary threats like opposing Kangaskhan... provided Megahorn hits, of course!
Dynamometer (Kangaskhan) (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Frustration
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch
This is literally the most basic Kangaskhan set, and it is harder to get more basic than this. Essentially, I wanted for this slot a strong Fake Out user who was able to apply offensive pressure on the opposing side as well as use an intimidating presence to take pressure off my other Pokemon. Kangaskhan played this role perfectly, and I was always grateful for the extra Fake Out support it provided.
Glucometer (Ludicolo) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SpA / 152 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
Ludicolo was a sight to behold under Rain, but I sometimes felt like it left something to be desired. Although it performed its job as a Rain sweeper quite well, I found that the use of Assault Vest over an offense-boosting item left its power a bit low, while switching to a Life Orb would have severely harmed the longevity of a key Grass-type on my team. All in all, while Ludicolo did its job quite well, it was usually Thundurus or Deoxys-S that stole the show.
Prime Time
After my Major run ended, I had a lot more time to build teams, and I eventually came up with this beauty. Originally intended for the Dark Horse Challenge, I found that this was a pretty great team in its own right, and decided to develop it. The team was essentially focused on using Primeape, though I managed to make sure that the entire team didn't revolve around it (unlike some of my other teams).
PRIME TIME (Primeape) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- U-turn
- Final Gambit
The Pokemon that started it all. One day, I was looking through a list of Defiant users when I noticed Primeape was on the list. Intrigued, I looked up its stats, and found that — quite surprisingly — it was ever so slightly faster than Landorus-T! I ran some damage calculations, and was even more intrigued by what I found.
+1 252+ Atk Primeape Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Landorus-T: 150-177 (47 - 55.4%) -- 75.8% chance to 2HKO
No Landorus-T is going to be switching in on this thing. At least not three-quarters of the time.
slow roast (Charizard) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Overheat
- Protect
I wondered what Pokemon might benefit from having a Primeape by its side. Obviously, the first Pokemon that came to mind was Mega Kangaskhan, which really doesn't like having Intimidators — especially Landorus-T — switching in on it. However, I decided to not be an unimaginative bum and went for Charizard Y, which benefits greatly from having Terrakion, Tyranitar, Landorus-T, and Garchomp removed by Primeape.
mountain facelift (Tyranitar) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 88 HP / 96 Atk / 236 Def / 64 SpA / 24 SpD
Brave Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
Tyranitar was next on the team to help primarily against opposing Talonflame and Sun teams. I wanted to try an Assault Vest set that I had learnt about from Worlds this year, but I customised it to work better in the SmogDubs environment:
_ (Latias) (F) @ Haban Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Tailwind
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Latias might seem like an odd option because Latios would do a similar offensive Tailwind job just as well. However, I feel that the surprise factor with an offensive Latias is too good to pass up. Furthermore, Latios is much more of a quick suicidal attacker, and I felt that Latias' extra bulk would help get a Tailwind up more easily. Draco Meteor is here as primary STAB, while Ice Beam and Hidden Power Ground, usually options that you wouldn't see on a Latias, helped cover this team's openings to random stuff like Shaymin-S and Heatran
free hugs (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Atk / 76 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Protect
Thanks to GiraGoomy for the nickname :P
I took this Ferrothorn set from Lolk's sample team (thanks!!). To quote him on the use of the set:
super serial solo (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 184 HP / 236 SpA / 88 Spe
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power
- Stone Edge
This Landorus-T set was lifted straight from Shaian's RMT, We Like It Here. Go give it a read if you haven't, it's a really solid RMT. Essentially, I needed something bulky to stop opposing Landorus-T from stomping all over this team, and I thought of this lovely creature, which could also use Stealth Rocks to ease my matchup against Talonflame and Charizard! I also liked the pretty neat Ground/Rock combination that came with Landorus-T, and I haven't looked back since trying out this set.
Conclusion
So yeah, there you have it: 10 of my most noteworthy teams this season. I'm not sure how you like them — whether you found them interesting or quirky or downright stupid — but I hope that you got some fun ideas from my team archive! If you have time, please leave some comments in this thread, whether they are criticism or compliments. I hope you enjoyed my team archive!
Shoutouts
Mizuhime and KyleCole: for actually delivering me compliments about my teambuilding :'> thanks for the encouragement! It made me not give up on my teams n_n
Shaian: for patiently helping to test so many of my teams, no matter how weird and/or terrible they were! \o/ and of course, for the idea of Special SR Lando-T.
Pwnemon: for being a pretty cool tier co-leader. Thanks for keeping my favourite tier together :)
srk1214, Arcticblast: for featuring in the replays in this team archive, and for being good sports about my teams and the battles :>
Braverius: for welcoming and easing my transition into VGC, which in turn helped me build cooler SmogDubs teams \o/ also for being a cool guy all around yay~~!
R Inanimate: even if you don't get this notification, you've always been one of my favourite Doubles players, right from the time I read about your 900+ win streak in the Battle Subway when I first joined Smogon. I really like your teams too :)
TalkTakesTime: for telling me how much fun my team was to play :P
Memoric: for forcing me to write this by muting me on PS! and suggesting the title for the archive :)
Introduction
It's been a great season for Smogon Doubles, with X and Y bringing with them a ton of interesting 'mons and mechanics. However, as of late SmogDubs' teams seem to be getting a little less inspired than before, which is a real shame because there are so many interesting Pokemon to be found and used in this format. With about a month before we all restart on equal ground to explore the ORAS metagame, what better time than to put together this team archive? I hope that some of you skimming through this team archive will find a bit of inspiration in these teams to liven up your own teambuilding!
Part 1: The Rebeginning
Near the start of the year, I wasn't quite so familiar with XY Doubles and was still feeling my way around (yes, I admit it x_x). As you can probably see, this led to most of my teams being pretty weak and flimsy. I feel like I did have some nice ideas around this time, but I just wasn't quite able to to translate them into solid teams which didn't fall apart at the slightest pressure. Simply put, my teams from around this time were "pretty shit". Note that I won't elaborate much on my EV choices for this section, since most of thir uses were either unimportant or have since been clean forgotten.
Operation Slowstorm
Perhaps I should begin at the start. The very beginning of the year saw new hope for Trick Room teams in the form of a slew of new Trick Room goodies such as Mega Abomasnow and Aromatisse. I started by trying out a couple of more unorthodox (read: Level 51-styled) Trick Room teams, featuring Bulldoze Slowking + Weakness Policy Rhyperior (inspired by R Inanimate) on one and Sheer Force Steelix on the other. Eventually, I settled on the Full Trick Room team you can see here. It constituted what was probably my best ladder run ever, going 72-6 and shooting me to the top of the ACRE ladder right before the whole ACRE system broke spectacularly.
The team itself was incredibly simple yet effective, unlike most of my later teams. It aimed at getting Trick Room up, then dishing out pain with Heatran and Mega Abomasnow, and repeating as necessary. Although this team generally performs best as a ladder team, it could potentially do some work in higher-level play as well;
Cresselia (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psyshock
- Trick Room
- Protect
- Helping Hand
Besides being a cute duck, Cresselia can also easily make its presence felt through Helping Hand on its partners, especially Heatran and Abomasnow during Trick Room. I chose Cresselia over more offensive TR setters like Chandelure or Gengar [not a typo] since its bulk makes it a more reliable option, which is especially relevant given that I only have one TR setter.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Protect
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Blizzard
- Energy Ball
- Ice Shard
- Protect
Once either or both of these two are out during Trick Room, the opponent is almost always forced to go into defensive mode. The sheer power these two provide is nothing to sniff at, and that satisfying feeling you get from bringing two 100% HP Pokemon down to 0 with a single move is unparalleled. Not much else to say, to be quite honest. In terms of laddering, at least, I feel like simplicity is highly underrated.
Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Follow Me
- Protect
Togekiss is really nice, letting Cresselia get Trick Room up safely and protecting my two TR sweepers from single-target attacks. Togekiss also goes very neatly with Garchomp, forming a surprisingly solid TogeChomp combo (often a lead against frailer teams) which stomps the ladder pretty well.
Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Claw
- Protect
Garchomp has recently fallen way out of favour compared to Landorus-T, and to be fair, it's quite obvious why. While I won't expound on the details, I often wonder why I didn't just choose to use Landorus-T myself. I suppose at least Garchomp can hit Rotom-W fairly hard... anyway, LO Garchomp was a treat to use, and it worked as a pretty speedy safety net in case Trick Room ran out. A solid Pokemon overall, and a good choice for a fast Ground-type, even without a scarf.
Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Feint
- Wide Guard
Hitmontop really holds this team together. Fake Out lets it aid in setting Trick Room as well as support Garchomp for a quick lead, and Wide Guard protects my two TR sweepers from the common spread attacks they're so weak to. Feint is also pretty good for making sure opponents can't stall out Trick Room too well. And of course, Close Combat really puts a reasonable dent in most things that don't resist it.
FURRET POEWR
My next few teams were nondescript, to say the least, and most of them didn't work. The next time I made a team worth mentioning was when the Dark Horse Challenge rolled into the Doubles Forum. Inspired by TalkingLion's VGC team, I decided to give Furret a spin myself. Eventually, I got pretty high up on the ladder, beating a couple of players who were actually good — including Braverius :P! While Furret didn't do very much in most of the battles, it was nice to have a fast Super Fang + TrickScarf option. Knock Off was also very cute, just like Furret :3
Originally, since I built this team just for the heck of using Furret, I decided to dump a Kangaskhan + Terrakion combination onto the team, since I was thinking of using that at the time. You'll notice that unlike some of my later teams, my earlier teams tend not to have any particular strategy, instead just lumping random Pokemon on a team and hoping to win. This team is (unfortunately) a prime example of this 'style' of teambuilding.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 180 HP / 252 SAtk / 76 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Protect
Pretty standard SubTran, this is a slower build from a slower time when not everyone was rushing around to outspeed max speed Tyranitar. I don't think there's much to explain about this, it was really just a nice solid Pokemon to aid me in what were typically 5v6s thanks to Furret. Heatran is one of those Pokemon which has been great since the start of XY Dubs, thanks in part to the presence of Talonflame, perhaps.
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Def
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch
- Wish
- Seismic Toss
This was the first and only time I tried Bulky Seismic Mega Kangaskhan, which is why (as you can see) the EVs aren't too optimal. Overall, I really wouldn't use it again, but then again I may have been using it wrong. Who knows, though? You, dear reader, may have much more success with this set than I did!
Breloom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Force Palm
- Stone Edge
- Spore
Choice Scarf Breloom is another Pokemon that I had lots of fun with earlier on in the year, but which I don't think I would dare field in any important tournaments (not like there are any left for this year anyway...). It's really funny when you get a surprisingly fast Bullet Seed off onto an opposing Terrakion, and especially when you get an unsuspecting Togekiss with Stone Edge (which really should have been Rock Tomb here, I must have forgotten about it or something). Fast Spore spam is also great thanks to our lack of a Sleep Clause (which I must say I am very much in favour of).
Terrakion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect
A Terrakion from the earlier part of the year when not many people (such as me) recognised the true merit of Quick Guard Terrakion. Essentially, Terrakion was just here to stomp Kangaskhan and other Fighting-weak Pokemon super hard, while just being great all-around. I used Iron Head over Quick Guard mainly because I didn't realise that at the time, the only Fairy-types people used would take a pittance from Iron Head, anyway. I'm even less sure why I used Leftovers. A sillier set from a sillier time, I suppose.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Protect
A non-Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian! That's how you can tell that this team is super old. While perhaps not the most popular option, I found that Sash Landorus-T was surprisingly useful as a safety net, taking any hit thanks to its Sash and then returning a reasonably powerful hit. U-turn + Intimidate was also nice to have sometimes, making Landorus-T my favoured Ground-type over something like Mamoswine.
Furret @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Super Fang
- Trick
The FURRET itself! In a metagame where items are pretty important (especially Choice items), Frisk is a pretty powerful ability which is always nice to have around. Even though this team didn't work very well, I enjoyed using Furret quite a bit due to its use of fast U-turns to get more Intimidates off at the start of turns, as well as Super Fang to help bust through the bulky 'mons that populate the tier (such as Cresselia and Heatran, notably). TrickScarf was also useful, as it made opposing Pokemon much easier to predict, and when used in conjunction with Frisk, I was able to remove items from the Pokemon that needed them the most.
Replays:
vs Gluon (2056 ACRE) — Ladder Battle — Furret does nothing and the team still wins somehow.
The Right Hand Radicals
Another team inspired by a Nugget Bridge VGC team, this time Huy's Surfing in a Winter Wonderland. Essentially, I thought that Choice Specs Gyarados could be a funny idea, and if nothing else, would provide a little bit of entertainment on the ladder. I know I beat xpatriette with this team by Ice Beaming his Landorus-T while my Gyarados was burnt and at -3 Attack, but I appear to have lost the replay.
Gyarados @ Choice Specs
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP / 252 SAtk / 100 Spd
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Stone Edge
Gyarados was really just a fun idea that I wanted to play around with when I built this team. It hits about as hard as you'd expect (somewhere between wet paper towel and beanbag), but I liked it because of its stellar special coverage and great ability. Essentially, the rest of the team was built to support it, which is a shame because Specs Gyarados is hilariously underwhelming most of the time.
Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SAtk
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Icy Wind
- Helping Hand
- Skill Swap
One big problem that I noticed with Gyarados is that (a) it didn't hit very well on things that weren't 4x weak to its attacks, and (b) it wasn't very fast. To remedy this, I used everyone's favourite speed control + Helping Hand user, Cresselia! The only really odd option on this set was Skill Swap, which I used in order to get more mileage out of Politoed's Drizzle or Gyarados' Intimidate, or to cripple opposing Kangaskhan.
Politoed @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 28 SDef / 228 Def
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Helping Hand
- Perish Song
- Protect
Politoed was a nice simple rain setter here to get Rain up without too much trouble. Perish Song worked well with Mega Gengar on the team (~6 months ahead of you Pwnemon!), while Helping Hand was also useful for amping up Gyarados' performance on the field.
Rotom-Mow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 236 Spd / 252 SAtk / 20 SDef
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Volt Switch
Rotom-Mow had really good defensive synergy with Gyarados, and was mainly used here to get rid of the bulky Water-types that stood in the way of Gyarados' rampage, especially Rotom-W. Not really sure why I had Hidden Power Ground, was Heatran really that much of a problem on a Rain team???
Metagross @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 72 HP / 184 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Protect
Safety Goggles Metagross was essentially my way of telling Amoonguss to screw off. Since Safety Goggles [Fire-type] was unsuitable for a Rain team (and no one had thought of that at all anyway), I decided to go for the next best thing and use Metagross. However, despite how well Metagross seems to fit in with Rain teams — with its Fire weakness being neutralised and all that — Metagross usually failed to deliver for my team. In an increasingly bulkier metagame, Metagross' relatively weak attacks just don't make the cut, and its STABs just aren't as useful as they were in Gen V. Looking back now, I feel like maybe Scizor might have been a better fit.
Gengar @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Skill Swap
- Protect
Gengar has always been one of my favourite Pokemon, and given the popularity of Mega Kangaskhan, it seemed like any Ghost-type at all was a good idea. Furthermore, in my mind I could Skill Swap away nice abilities from opponents and allies alike — such as Parental Bond from opposing Kangaskhan or Intimidate and Drizzle from my own Gyarados and Politoed — and use them to my own advantage. However, this hardly ever played out the way I wanted to since my team was generally unable to take advantage of the free turns switching opponents could have provided for my team.
Replays:
vs Makiri — Doubles Circuit Minitour 1, Round 1 - The lack of Perish Song or Will-O-Wisp on my Gengar costs me.
Part 2: Recalibration
At this point, with the Spring Seasonal looming, I realised that my current teams weren't quite going to cut it. My need for more teams was made more urgent with the realisation that my previous teams were actually far worse than I thought, with one of them even causing me to drop one game in my Round 1 matchup vs. random ladder scrub. The first two teams in this section featured in my Spring and Summer Seasonal matches (and didn't do too well, as you can see from my circuit records), and I think that they honestly aren't bad. Or weren't bad, for the time at least. In this part of the year, my teams were overall much more solid than the stuff from the first part of the year. In my opinion, anyway.
Code of Conduct
So this was the first really solid team I made this year. I decided to take a more balanced approach to teambuilding, and opted to go for a mainly bulky offense team with a fast sweeper to clean up after them. Of course, this team is centred around Kangaskhan, the epitome of bulky offense. I don't really think there's anything much else to say about the team, other than the fact that it was really head and shoulders above every other team I had made in the season so far.
Bash (Scrafty) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Detect
I knew that I wanted to make a nice and bulky offensive team, so my go-to foundations for building were both Intimidate users to neuter opposing Physical forces which are all too common. Scrafty has been one of my favourite Intimidators for a while, since Fighting / Dark STAB is really pretty strong even when your base Attack stat is suboptimal. Fake Out and stellar bulk also really put it a notch above other Intimidators in the tier in my opinion.
Python (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Substitute
- Protect
The second Pokemon of my dual-Intimidate core, Gyarados was chosen as a nice way to deal with Talonflame, which I have an unjustified fear of. I think perhaps the interesting choice on this set is Substitute, so I'll explain that a bit: Substitute on a forced switch or a turn where Gyarados isn't targeted gives Gyarados a bit of breathing space, which is good since its weaknesses to a few common attacking types (Electric, Rock) don't do much favours for its longevity. Substitute also allows Gyarados to get more attacks onto its opponents more easily, lending it a larger offensive pressure on the field and sometimes even causing opponents to panic, especially when a Substitute was not expected (it usually isn't). 96 Speed EVs allowed Gyarados to outspeed Max Speed (neutral nature) Tyranitar by one point and get a Waterfall in before it is hit by Rock Slide.
JavaScript (Rotom-Heat) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 200 HP / 76 SpA / 60 SpD / 172 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Rest
ChestoRest Rotom is one set I am quite happy with. After Rotom-H has been burnt out (haha!) by an Overheat, most opponents tend to leave it alone since it can't do much on the field besides maybe a Will-O-Wisp. This, combined with Rotom-H's decent defensive typing, allows Rotom-H to get a quick Rest in to recover its HP. This lent Rotom-H added durability in dealing with Sun teams, and let me switch it in to take resisted hits much less reservedly. The Chesto Berry on Rotom-H was also helpful in letting me take Spores and Sleep Powders from opposing Pokemon who sought to cripple the microwave oven.
The given Speed EVs let Rotom-H outspeed Max Speed (neutral nature) Excadrill out of Sand, which is especially helpful if the opponent is using Mold Breaker Excadrill; the defensive EVs make Jolly Mega Kangaskhan Frustration a 2HKO, as well as Timid LO Latios Draco Meteor. The rest of the EVs are chucked into Special Attack so Rotom-H doesn't hit like a piece of soggy tissue paper.
Haskell (Gourgeist-Super) @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 SpD
Careful Nature
- Phantom Force
- Leech Seed
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
Gourgeist was one of those Pokemon which either did tons of work in walling the opponent's team, or was just used as fodder to grab free switches. When it worked, though, it worked amazingly, simply sitting in front of a lot of fearsome offensive powerhouses like Landorus-T, Kangaskhan, Terrakion, Keldeo and other funny stuff, eating up all the momentum on the opposing side and swinging the control of the battle in my favour. Shoutout again to Braverius for inspiring this choice by using Gourgeist in his VGC team \o/
The defensive EVs make Adamant LO Talonflame's Brave Bird a 2HKO, +1 Tyranitar's Crunch a 2HKO, and Timid LO Latios Draco Meteor a 2HKO. This pumpkin is so bulky it's not funny *-*
TeX (Latios) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Tailwind
- Protect
Latios was the fast sweeper intended to clear up the field after the bulky core had done its work; however, Latios also plays an integral role in supporting the rest of the team with Tailwind. Overall, I think Latios was probably one of my favourite Dragon-types in the format this season. The ability to get off a huge Draco Meteor at 110 Base Speed is probably one big factor in this ruling.
On a side note, when I first exported this, it was Jolly for some reason. Maybe that's why it always does so little damage?
C++ (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch
If bulky offense were a Pokemon, it would be Kangaskhan. Well, it would probably be Giratina, but if bulky offense were a legal Pokemon in the Smogon Doubles format, it would be Kangaskhan. Since a lot of the Pokemon on this team require some free turns in order to set up to their maximum potential (Tailwind Latios, Leech Seed Gourgeist, Substitute Gyarados), Kangaskhan adds another Fake Out user to the team, allowing for greater ease in setting up optimal conditions for my team members to do what they do best. Of course, Kangaskhan is itself a huge threat, with its presence usually commanding enough attention to take focus away from Kangaskhan's allies, another form of providing free turns.
Goodstuffs Remastered
This team is essentially a hyper offensive Goodstuffs team with solid offensive prowess from almost all its members, which are each individually huge offensive presences on the field. I kind of threw the team together hastily on a whim to play with Gyarados-Mega and Victini, since it looked like they fit together pretty well offensively. As things would turn out, this became one of my better teams, encompassing a lot of typical Level 51-style sets (such as WoW Gallade and Endeavor Shaymin-S). I hope you enjoy this team, it's one of the more effective fun teams I made this year!
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
Mega Gyarados is a pretty brutal sweeper once it gets nice and set up, and can put holes in a fair number of opposing Pokemon even without having to use Dragon Dance first. After just one DD, though, Gyarados can put serious holes in things. The rest of the team is essentially built to help this beast get in a Dragon Dance and subsequently to take out whatever Gyarados can't.
Victini @ Life Orb
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Blue Flare
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
I remembered that earlier in the year, Pwnemon had made a pretty solid Mega Gyarados team with Chandelure on it for some reason or other, but I assumed it was to get through Grass-types like Ferrothorn without spiking themselves on its Iron Barbs. Victini is basically like Chandelure except faster and bulkier, though less able to hit Psychic-types. Blue Flare is extremely strong on almost everything that doesn't resist it, and Victini can easily make its way through most non-resistors fairly easily given proper support. The other moves are far lesser-used coverage options; Hidden Power Ice is rather obligatory even though Victini almost never moves before the Pokemon it wants to hit. I suppose catching them on the switch does work sometimes.
Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
With the addition of Thundurus-Therian and its base 145 Special Attack, it's easy to see which direction this team is headed in. Thundurus-T rounds out the core of Mega Gyarados / Victini, tying up opposing Water-types while outspeeding a fair chunk of the metagame with its highly convenient Speed tier. Like Victini, the only moves Thundurus-T uses are Thunderbolt and Protect, with Focus Blast almost exclusively reserved for Mega Kangaskhan and Hidden Power Ice for Dragons and Landorus forms, most of which outspeed Thundurus-Therian anyway.
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 56 HP / 200 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Specs Sylveon is another hugely unforgiving attacker in Doubles. Hyper Voice is a simple way to create holes in most teams and soften up their Pokemon so Sylveon's allies can clean up the rest of the team more easily. Sylveon also deals with the Fighting-types that give Gyarados a lot of trouble after it Mega Evolves, and stays on the field for a long time thanks to its amazing bulk. For example, the defensive EVs give Sylveon amazing Physical bulk, with Mega Kangaskhan's Frustration only 2HKOing Sylveon 1.2% of the time (the rest of the time, it's a 3HKO).
Shaymin-Sky @ Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seed Flare
- Air Slash
- Endeavor
- Protect
Shaymin-Sky is without doubt a stellar Pokemon. Serene Grace + Seed Flare / Air Slash is extremely hilarious, and its base 127 Speed makes the combination all the more fun. I feel that Endeavor is the interesting move here — in conjunction with its Focus Sash, it lets Shaymin-Sky destroy incredibly bulky things that it usually has no business dealing with.
Gallade (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Atk / 136 Def / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Helping Hand
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
Every team needs some way to mess up Kangaskhan, and Gallade works pretty well for this team. After a Steadfast Speed boost, Gallade outspeeds positive-natured base 100s (most importantly, Mega Kangaskhan). 24 Attack EVs let Gallade OHKO 4/0 Mega Kangaskhan 100% of the time, while the defensive EVs allow it to survive Mega Kangaskhan's Frustration 100% of the time. Helping Hand and Will-O-Wisp are just great support moves in general, the former for boosting the other five team members' attacks to astronomically powerful levels, the latter for ensuring that its allies get those attacks in at all.
Replays:
vs Sunny. — Summer Seasonal, Round 5
vs Electrolyte — Summer Seasonal, Round 6
Normality Reprise
I think that this was probably the most solid team I have constructed all season. It has a few of the typical tricks characteristic of my kind of teams, and included the Double Intimidate core I talked about earlier. While it might sound clichéd, it was certainly true that for this team, the battle really wasn't over until all of my Pokemon were knocked out.
Fruit Punch (Kangaskhan) (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Frustration
- Crunch
- Power-Up Punch
Standard Kangaskhan with a twist! Well, a couple of twists really. Obviously, you'll notice that this Kangaskhan has no Fake Out. I was reading about someone using Substitute Kangaskhan somewhere, and I figured I'd give it a whirl. So far, it's worked pretty well, especially since it can set up Substitute pretty easily by threatening Fake Out on the first turn. This usually sets people on panic mode, since Kangaskhan is now immune to paralysis, burns, and Intimidate. It's even funnier when Kangaskhan gets to +2 behind a Substitute :)!
Crunch is another odd move on this Kangaskhan, but I feel it helps with bulky / annoying Psychic- and Ghost-types like Cresselia, Gothitelle, Jellicent, Gengar and friends which won't necessarily be using attacking moves for Kangaskhan to Sucker Punch. Obviously, a payoff of this is that Kangaskhan now has zero priority moves, but this is simply remedied (hopefully!) with Rage Powder Amoonguss and Tailwind Latios.
Heat o/ (Heatran) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 88 HP / 252 SpA / 168 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
Somewhere between 200 Spe Heatran and 80 Spe Heatran is this mythical beast, the 168 Spe Heatran only talked about in quiet whispers in coversations. The main (only) reason for this Speed EVing is so that Heatran outspeeds ALL Landorus-T under Tailwind while maintaining as much bulk as possible. Admittedly, a 204 Speed variant may also have been better since this team doesn't have many answers for Heatran outside of Gyarados. Safety Goggles is honestly an amazing item and I think it should be used more, especially with the removal of Sleep Clause — in this case, it lets Heatran safely switch in to things like Amoonguss, Mega Venusaur, Chlorosaur, while also being a foolproof Sun counter (with the exception of Focus Blast or HP Ground Charizard Y). Safety Goggles are also funny because they let me Earth Power things which think they're safe because they're next to a Rage Powdering Amoonguss. Finally, Hidden Power Ice is another amazing option on Heatran, since no one expects it and it allows Heatran to bop opposing Landorus-T under Tailwind, as well as other Dragons which Heatran would normally do nothing to with its usual Heat Wave / Earth Power coverage.
Mushroom Cloud (Amoonguss) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Amoonguss just does what it does. There's nothing really fancy about this set, but it serves a very important purpose on this team — to direct attacks away from Mega Kangaskhan and Latios so they can get in their important sweeping work (especially so Kangaskhan can get its all-important Substitute up). All in all, I feel like Amoonguss has been a really solid choice for almost any team the whole season, and is undoubtedly one of the better redirectors in the format.
Hood Ornament (Scrafty) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Detect
This Scrafty is just about the same as the last one I described and performs virtually the same role, only here its role is more important since it's the only Fake Out user on my team. Otherwise, it's exactly the same except the shift of 4 EVs from HP to Speed for Speed creeping purposes.
Serpentine (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
I figured out that Substitute Gyarados didn't work nearly as well in practice as it did in theory, so I went for Thunder Wave, which is an infinitely more practical move. In addition to Latios' Tailwind, I now also have the option of speed control in the opposite direction through Gyarados' Thunder Wave. Since Gyarados doesn't usually have enough free turns to set up Substitute anyway, this wasn't too much of a loss.
Meteoric Rise (Latios) (M) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Tailwind
- Protect
Latios is here mainly as a speedy source of damage output. I feel that every team — with the exception of maybe full Trick Room teams — should have at least one Pokemon with a base speed of over 100 (or better, 108) so that the typical strong Megas (Kangaskhan, Charizard Y, Charizard X maybe) and Terrakion / Garchomp don't just run through a team. Anyway, Latios is a prime candidate for this position since it drops Draco Meteors really easily and also helps the team get around annoying Amoonguss with Psyshock. You might notice that this Latios carries a Colbur Berry as opposed to a more typical Life Orb — this is so that Latios doesn't get bopped by aforementioned Kangaskhan's Sucker Punch before it can do its speedy fun job.
Replays:
vs srk1214 — Doubles Ladder Tournament, Top 16 — this replay really shows what this team can do
vs McMeghan — Doubles Team Trials, Round 2
Anything Goes!
As you may or may not have guessed by now, this team was not meant for use in anything important (I did bring it to the Ladder Tournament, and boy did I regret that!), but rather as a proof-of-concept that you could build a respectably good team with a bunch of shitmons. I guess that was disproved to a certain extent, but the team was still a fun experience to build and play (especially against Arcticblast !!!!!!). Note that you probably shouldn't get any ideas from this team, it was kinda bad...........
<THE BEST OF> (Yanmega) @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
YANMEGA is an amazing Pokemon; thanks to Anty for the suggestion! Bug Buzz destroys a ton of important Pokemon like Cresselia and Latios (the latter after a Speed Boost), while Hidden Power Ice takes out Scarf Landorus-T, Garchomp, Salamence, and so forth after a Speed Boost. Air Slash is mainly for fun flinches here, but it can also play an important role in the fight against Keldeo.
<FEATURING> (Cradily) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 40 HP / 212 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Ancient Power
- Earth Power
- Protect
Cradily is also here to mess with Keldeo. switching in an unexpected Storm Drain next to Chandelure can make the latter virtually immune to Keldeo's attacks; meanwhile, Cradily's EVs ensure it gets to survive a Timid LO Keldeo Secret Sword and launch a Giga Drain in response. Rocky Helmet is also great for switching into predicted Kangaskhan attacks and watching it remove 1/3 of its own HP.
<RERELEASED> (Chandelure) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 52 Def / 252 SpA / 204 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
Safety Goggles Chandelure has always struck me as a slightly stronger and faster version of Safety Goggles Heatran — and all the better at countering Sun. In addition, Safety Goggles Chandelure can also easily get a Will-O-Wisp off onto Kangaskhan thanks to its part Ghost-typing, making it much easier for the rest of the team. The EVs do something semi-important that I have since forgotten, whatever, not like I'm going to use this team again.
<REMASTERED> (Mienshao) @ King's Rock
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 24 SpD / 232 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Fling
- Quick Guard
FLING + KING'S ROCK is pretty amazing sometimes, when it isn't expected it a turn 2 flinch can come as a nasty surprise to an unprepared opponent (and let's face it, who is prepared for FLING + KING'S ROCK anyway???). Other than that, Mienshao is pretty boring; I really just slapped it on as a way to deal with Talonflame.
<REMIXED> (Whimsicott) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect
LO Whimsicott was probably the most successful Pokemon I got out of this teambuilding experience. LO Moonblast was deadly on a lot of unprepared Pokemon, such as most Terrakion and Keldeo, negative SDef natured Kyurem-B, as well as the odd Garchomp and Salamence. Besides that, Whimsicott also managed to perform its supporting role pretty well, with Tailwind and Taunt being integral to the function of this team.
<BONUS TRACK> (Blastoise) @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 144 HP / 252 SpA / 112 Spe
Modest Nature
- Water Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Aura Sphere
- Protect
Mega Blastoise hits super hard and is definitely one of the most underrated megas in the format. There isn't really much to say here, other than the fact that I chose not to use Water Spout since I couldn't afford for Blastoise to become dead weight after taking any damage at all. 112 Speed EVs were to outspeed all Tier 1 Pokemon under Tailwind.
Previous members:
yeah, I kind of went through a lot of Pokemon trying to make it work...
Replays:
vs srk1214 — Doubles Ladder Tournament, Top 16
vs Arcticblast
Part 3: High Gear
As the Doubles Major rapidly approached, my teambuilding style was gradually reaching its peak, and I finally felt around as comfortable with the meta as I had felt near the end of BW2. This section contains some of my best teams from the season, and I hope that you might gain some interesting ideas from reading this section (as well as find out that I'm not actually terrible at teambuilding!!).
R Formula
This was one of my better teams for the year, and it nabbed me literally my only win in the Doubles Major (which you can see in the Replays section down at the bottom of the In-Depth tab) and also let TalkTakesTime go 33-4 on the ladder! While this team is heavily modelled after R Inanimate's heavy-hitter + redirection style (hence the name!), it was actually loosely based on DrFidget's VGC '12 Ft. Wayne team (I highly recommend reading this, it's a pretty cool team). When I say loosely based on, I mean that it has since been heavily modified beyond recognition, but it was that team that reinforced an earlier idea I had had to use Blastoise.
Fairy 'Nuff (Togekiss) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Tailwind
- Air Slash
- Protect
Originally a Crobat in the aforementioned team, I found Togekiss to be one of the best possible Pokemon to place alongside Blastoise. Not only could it Tailwind to allow Blastoise to outrun most of the metagame and Water Spout its way through everything, but it could also sit alongside Blastoise and use Follow Me as it was doing so. In short, I found Togekiss to be almost the optimal partner for Blastoise in this format.
re(pulse)ive (Blastoise) @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Ice Beam
- Protect
The legendary Fastoise. This time, I opted for a Water Spout Blastoise, favouring the sheer power it could provide for me. Therefore, I knew that I had to build the rest of the team carefully in order to support Blastoise very well, especially with the presence of such strong priority moves as Bisharp's Sucker Punch, Talonflame's Brave Bird, and Mega Kangaskhan's Fake Out and Sucker Punch. I also opted for Timid Blastoise this time, believing that Water Spout really had enough power to take out big chunks of HP anyway, and reasoning that the extra speed would probably come in handy sometime (and it did, especially when Tailwind wasn't up).
Mole Theory (Excadrill) @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drill Run
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect
To replace the Mamoswine in the original team, I brought in a Ground-type Pokemon which was just as hard-hitting and also benefitted tremendously from Tailwind. Furthermore, Mold Breaker Excadrill was also amazing at removing the pesky Rotom-Ws which got in the way of Blastoise's Water Spout fun. Excadrill is also just an all-around strongmon, even outside of Tailwind, so I like it a lot because of that *-*
Psilocybin (Amoonguss) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Amoonguss takes the place of a Virizion from the original team to lend some help against all the Water-types that make life hard for Blastoise and Excadrill, usually forcing them out with its mere presence. Rage Powder is another great move to be spammed while sitting next to Blastoise, and my only complaint about Amoonguss thus far is that it doesn't have a lot of offensive presence on the field most of the time.
Checkm80 (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Protect
Bisharp replaced a Houndoom from the original team, and I haven't really regretted that decision since. Bisharp is another extremely good Pokemon in the current meta, especially with Intimidate flying around everywhere. Furthermore, Sucker Punch is really strong for a priority move, and helps this team get somewhere offensively without Tailwind needing to be up all the time. Bisharp also provided much-needed Dark-type coverage to bust all the bulky Psychic-types in the tier like Gothitelle and Cresselia, and also discouraged Landorus-T from coming in to ruin Blastoise's day.
FortreeBraveBirds (Talonflame) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Brave Bird
- Overheat
- Tailwind
- Protect
Talonflame filled up a last empty slot vacated by a Cofagrigus I wasn't too keen on using and was real fun to play most of the time. Since I needed some very useful Fire STAB, I chose Overheat Talonflame to get at Ferrothorn and Scizor (especially Ferrothorn) without spiking itself to death on Iron Barbs. Brave Bird was strong as usual, and while I was sometimes disappointed at Talonflame's damage output in the absence of Life Orb or Choice Band, most of the time it was able to show its usefulness at least by setting up priority Tailwind.
Previous Members:
Replays:
vs Space Cowboy II (1400 Elo) — Ladder Battle
vs LzrGunPewPew — Doubles Major, Round 3
not Dancing in the Rain
Nearer to the end of the year, I focused more on building weather teams. From a Sun team featuring Heliolisk to a Mega Tyranitar Sand team to a Hail / Sun dual-weather team, I tried without success quite a few times to make a nice weather team that would work. I made this team near the end of my run in the Majors, but wasn't very confident in it due to lack of testing, and decided against using it. In the end, though, I feel that this has become one of my better teams for the year, which is why I'm including it in this team archive. And, of course, it has my usual fingerprints on it in the form of such sets as Choice Scarf Politoed and Expert Belt Deoxys-Speed.
Udometer (Politoed) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hypnosis
- Encore
I started by attempting to build a Rain team, since that was one weather I hadn't tried, and it looked like it might give Deoxys-Speed a chance to shine since it could threaten Amoonguss pretty well. Obviously, this would have to start with a Politoed, but I decided to not use a typical bulky set, and instead went with a Choice Scarf Politoed. While most people discount Politoed as nothing more than a Rain setter and maybe a Perish Song user, I've found that Choice Scarf Politoed can get quite a few surprise KOs on most unscarved Pokemon.
Ammeter (Thundurus) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Flying]
When I approached this slot, I knew that I wanted a fast Electric-type to get in those perfect accuracy Thunders under Rain. Therefore, I had a few choices, and I eliminated them one by one: Raikou wasn't strong enough, and Thundurus-Therian wasn't fast enough. I settled for a Choice Specs Thundurus-I, which is an interesting set I think most of my opponents weren't expecting. Base 111 Speed was enough to outspeed most important Pokemon, while Thundurus also brought with it an extra STAB option which Raikou didn't have — the Flying-type. this was quite helpful, since it let Thundurus dish out nice chunks of damage on most Fighting-type and Grass-type Pokemon (especially Amoonguss!!!!). Choice Specs Volt Switch also hits much, much harder than most people expect it to, which is nice.
Accelerometer (Deoxys-Speed) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 64 HP / 156 Def / 176 SpA / 4 SpD / 108 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psycho Boost
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
This team was actually built with the intention of using Deoxys-Speed to cover up a few holes in the team, and it comes through to do its task admirably. With the given spread, Deoxys-S can survive an Adamant CB Talonflame's Brave Bird, as well as outrun and OHKO 4/0 Mega Garchomp, Jolly Choice Scarf Landorus-T. 252/72+ Amoonguss (13/16 times), 252/0 Mega Venusaur (10/16 times), and the usual Terrakion / Keldeo / other Fighting-types not named Scrafty gang. Stealth Rock was also very helpful in fighting opposing Sun and Hail teams, and Taunt did a variety of useful things, from shutting down Trick Room to stopping Belly Drum Azumarill from getting set up. While I originally used 140 SpA and 40 Special Defence EVs, I figured that moving EVs into Special Attack to give myself a higher chance of OHKOing Amoonguss was worth the slight loss in Special Defence, since Deoxys-S isn't exactly the most bulky Pokemon ever.
Ohmmeter (Escavalier) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Drill Run
- Knock Off
Ohmmeters measure resistance... Escavalier has a great typing... get it???? okay that was bad I know moving right on Escavalier is pretty underrated in the current metagame despite having decent matchups against a lot of threats. Overcoat lets it completely ignore Rage Powder, Spore, and Sleep Powder, letting it stomp all over Amoonguss and Venusaur pretty hard. Its typing is also pretty good, giving it reasonable matchups against scary threats like opposing Kangaskhan... provided Megahorn hits, of course!
Dynamometer (Kangaskhan) (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Frustration
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch
This is literally the most basic Kangaskhan set, and it is harder to get more basic than this. Essentially, I wanted for this slot a strong Fake Out user who was able to apply offensive pressure on the opposing side as well as use an intimidating presence to take pressure off my other Pokemon. Kangaskhan played this role perfectly, and I was always grateful for the extra Fake Out support it provided.
Glucometer (Ludicolo) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SpA / 152 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
Ludicolo was a sight to behold under Rain, but I sometimes felt like it left something to be desired. Although it performed its job as a Rain sweeper quite well, I found that the use of Assault Vest over an offense-boosting item left its power a bit low, while switching to a Life Orb would have severely harmed the longevity of a key Grass-type on my team. All in all, while Ludicolo did its job quite well, it was usually Thundurus or Deoxys-S that stole the show.
Prime Time
After my Major run ended, I had a lot more time to build teams, and I eventually came up with this beauty. Originally intended for the Dark Horse Challenge, I found that this was a pretty great team in its own right, and decided to develop it. The team was essentially focused on using Primeape, though I managed to make sure that the entire team didn't revolve around it (unlike some of my other teams).
PRIME TIME (Primeape) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- U-turn
- Final Gambit
The Pokemon that started it all. One day, I was looking through a list of Defiant users when I noticed Primeape was on the list. Intrigued, I looked up its stats, and found that — quite surprisingly — it was ever so slightly faster than Landorus-T! I ran some damage calculations, and was even more intrigued by what I found.
+1 252+ Atk Primeape Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Landorus-T: 150-177 (47 - 55.4%) -- 75.8% chance to 2HKO
No Landorus-T is going to be switching in on this thing. At least not three-quarters of the time.
slow roast (Charizard) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Overheat
- Protect
I wondered what Pokemon might benefit from having a Primeape by its side. Obviously, the first Pokemon that came to mind was Mega Kangaskhan, which really doesn't like having Intimidators — especially Landorus-T — switching in on it. However, I decided to not be an unimaginative bum and went for Charizard Y, which benefits greatly from having Terrakion, Tyranitar, Landorus-T, and Garchomp removed by Primeape.
mountain facelift (Tyranitar) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 88 HP / 96 Atk / 236 Def / 64 SpA / 24 SpD
Brave Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
Tyranitar was next on the team to help primarily against opposing Talonflame and Sun teams. I wanted to try an Assault Vest set that I had learnt about from Worlds this year, but I customised it to work better in the SmogDubs environment:
- Modest Ludicolo HPump in the Rain is a 2HKO 100% of the time
- Survives Adamant Landorus-T EQ and CB Talonflame Brave Bird together 100% of the time
- Survives Max investment Adamant Landorus-T -1 Superpower (after my own Lando-T Intimidates) 87.5% of the time
- OHKOs 4/0 Landorus-T 100% of the time with Ice Beam
- OHKOs 252/0 Mega Scizor 68.8% of the time with Fire Blast
_ (Latias) (F) @ Haban BerryAbility: Levitate
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Tailwind
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Latias might seem like an odd option because Latios would do a similar offensive Tailwind job just as well. However, I feel that the surprise factor with an offensive Latias is too good to pass up. Furthermore, Latios is much more of a quick suicidal attacker, and I felt that Latias' extra bulk would help get a Tailwind up more easily. Draco Meteor is here as primary STAB, while Ice Beam and Hidden Power Ground, usually options that you wouldn't see on a Latias, helped cover this team's openings to random stuff like Shaymin-S and Heatran
free hugs (Ferrothorn) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Atk / 76 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
- Leech Seed
- Protect
Thanks to GiraGoomy for the nickname :P
I took this Ferrothorn set from Lolk's sample team (thanks!!). To quote him on the use of the set:
Lolk said:
super serial solo (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 184 HP / 236 SpA / 88 Spe
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power
- Stone Edge
This Landorus-T set was lifted straight from Shaian's RMT, We Like It Here. Go give it a read if you haven't, it's a really solid RMT. Essentially, I needed something bulky to stop opposing Landorus-T from stomping all over this team, and I thought of this lovely creature, which could also use Stealth Rocks to ease my matchup against Talonflame and Charizard! I also liked the pretty neat Ground/Rock combination that came with Landorus-T, and I haven't looked back since trying out this set.
Conclusion
So yeah, there you have it: 10 of my most noteworthy teams this season. I'm not sure how you like them — whether you found them interesting or quirky or downright stupid — but I hope that you got some fun ideas from my team archive! If you have time, please leave some comments in this thread, whether they are criticism or compliments. I hope you enjoyed my team archive!
Shoutouts
Mizuhime and KyleCole: for actually delivering me compliments about my teambuilding :'> thanks for the encouragement! It made me not give up on my teams n_n
Shaian: for patiently helping to test so many of my teams, no matter how weird and/or terrible they were! \o/ and of course, for the idea of Special SR Lando-T.
Pwnemon: for being a pretty cool tier co-leader. Thanks for keeping my favourite tier together :)
srk1214, Arcticblast: for featuring in the replays in this team archive, and for being good sports about my teams and the battles :>
Braverius: for welcoming and easing my transition into VGC, which in turn helped me build cooler SmogDubs teams \o/ also for being a cool guy all around yay~~!
R Inanimate: even if you don't get this notification, you've always been one of my favourite Doubles players, right from the time I read about your 900+ win streak in the Battle Subway when I first joined Smogon. I really like your teams too :)
TalkTakesTime: for telling me how much fun my team was to play :P
Memoric: for forcing me to write this by muting me on PS! and suggesting the title for the archive :)
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