Season 8 Special Rules Announced! It's going to be berry fun

[DragonWhale]

Rules:
- Bring 6 choose 4 Level 50 Doubles
- Held Items can only be berries

Important abilities and moves to take into account (in order of importance IMO)
- Unnerve
- Harvest
- Bug Bite
- Pluck
- Recycle
- Knock Off
- Natural Gift
- Cheek Pouch
- Incinerate
- Beltch

This special ruleset is similar to Season 5's, where there will be no mega evolutions. The main difference being of course the berries and the doubles ruleset. It's also interesting to see whether unnerve becomes the preferred ability for Tyranitar for the first time ever.

Due to the absence of choice items, life orb, megas, and prevalent damage-reducing berries, this format will probably be a lot more defensive compared to normal double battles. Also, since you can only have one pokemon with the Sitrus Berry, it's going to add another layer of challenge to the teambuilding process.

What do you guys think?

 

[Theorymon]

Unnerve Aerodactyl sounds interesting to me here. Sky Drop is a cool, disruptive move, and because its berries only, pretty much nothing outspeeds it! And of course, it gets that really fast Rock Slide. However, Unnerve Aerodactyl is rather hard to get a hold of. If for any reason my GTS fishing is successful, I'll at least give out unnerve Aerodactyl spitbacks!

Also, I wonder about the potentacy of OHKO moves in this format. Last time we had a slower paced format in battle spot special 6vs6, OHKO moves were EXTREMELY dangerous, as it was harder to KO the users. Doubles may change that a bit, but I can see something like Lapras or Walrein being dangerous (or god forbid, Suicune in the XY version of this ladder).

For somewhat similar reasons, I wonder how potent Perish Trapping could be in this metagame. Granted, losing Mega Gengar is a big blow.

Also, I'd like to note that we still have stat boosting berries as well. I wonder if we will see stuff like Sub Petya Aegislash. Substitute in general may be more common due to pinch berries. Pinch berries sound like a good way to raise the offensive threat levels on a few Pokémon, and since you can only have one sitrus berry, its not like there are many other options!

 

[ethan06]

Pokémon that already use Berries as their central strategy, i.e. Belly Drum Azumarill, will be quite popular here, especially seeing as a lot of them aren't completely reliant on the Berry to succeed. Resist berries will be everywhere so don't always expect a super-effective move to do as much as you think it will. Item Clause will be an interesting thing for teams to work around, as Lum Berry and Sitrus Berry are the only really viable and commonly seen berries in the standard Doubles format so expect some more wacky things like Natural Gift Talonflame and SubPetaya <special attacker> (as Theorymon mentioned).

 

[HydreigonIsOP]

Scizor is gonna have a fun time spamming Technician Bug Bite. I expect Status modes like WOW and T-Wave to drop in popularity, since most teams will have some sort of Lum Berry user (which makes Scizor even better cause free SD is OP

 

[DragonWhale]

Unnerve Aerodactyl sounds interesting to me here. Sky Drop is a cool, disruptive move, and because its berries only, pretty much nothing outspeeds it! And of course, it gets that really fast Rock Slide. However, Unnerve Aerodactyl is rather hard to get a hold of. If for any reason my GTS fishing is successful, I'll at least give out unnerve Aerodactyl spitbacks!

That would be awesome! I just realized how hard it actually is to get an Unnerve Aerodactyl, and it's actually a very good option for this metagame.

Natural Gift Talonflame could become a thing too, and paired with Acrobatics it could make for an interesting set.

I think bulky attackers like Sylveon would also be cherished in this ladder, since there would be a considerable decrease in the number of pokemon that can OHKO that thing, and a lot of attacks would be in range of the pinch berries. (+1 max speed Sylveon outspeeds max 115s, which means it can potentially outspeed everything in the battlefield as well)

Who knows, maybe even Dedenne can have a chance to shine with Super Fang, Nuzzle, and various support moves combined with that speed and Cheek Pouch.

 

[cant say]

I have Unnerve Aerodactyl in my *shameless self-promotion incoming* trade thread, I'll no doubt be breeding one for this so I will be adding spitbacks to my giveaway section, I will give preference to Battle Spotters when that time comes :)

As for other stuff, Unnerve Persian was quite good in the Battle of Legends double battle comp as a partner for Darkrai so it could spam Dark Void without Lum / Cherri berries curing status + a really fast Fake Out. It also gets some cool stuff like Charm, Foul Play, Icy Wind, Knock Off and Snatch. I also like the look of Talonflame here, you can forego a berry and just spam itemless Acrobatics, or have it as a backup move for if/when it consumes its berry. I'm definitely going to spam Scizor though, Bug Bite seems like a great move in this meta, maybe a max speed Jolly set would be better than the standard bulky Adamant set so you can steal as much stuff as possible before going down (probably not). I've always liked the Frisk ability which could be useful here, So Noivern could be good as a fast Frisk + Switcheroo user. I wonder if Incinerate will see use for burning those precious berries away (also probably not)

 

[ck49]

I have an unnerve aerodactyl as well, since I'm using one on my VGC team.

Obviously Scizor will be good. Hawlucha with unburden and acrobatics could have potential. Electric and fire types will be key, since I see a lot of STAB pluck and Bug Bite. Heatran likes that. Also, Slupuff is finally viable!!!

No mega pokemon makes me happier than I should be.

 

[Pyritie]

Is it time for Belch to actually be useful?

 

[Theorymon]

On the topic of Natural Gift, I didn't realize this, but it actually got buffed to 100 BP this gen!

More importantly though... I had totally forgotton that Natural Gift was a gen 4 TM move. Because of this, WAY less Pokémon are able to use Natural Gift in the ORAS version of this metagame.

Looking through the Bulbapedia list, the only interesting ORAS mon that can learn Natural Gift is Talonflame really.

 

[Skore]

A Bulky Unnerve Haxorus with DD, could be pretty deadly. No 4 x weaknesses, great coverage options.

Example; an Impish Haxorus with an EV spread of 164HP, 200 Att, 108 Def and 36 Spe will always be able to geta DD off and beat Acrobatics Talonflame, which I think will be a big threat this meta:

252+ Atk Talonflame Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 164 HP / 108+ Def Haxorus: 67-79 (38.9 - 45.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

There are I'm sure, smarter heads than me that could tweak the EVs as this was roughly thrown together and more analysis of how it matches up in speed after a DD etc is required.

This same spread is not KO'ed by: Adamant Terrakion's Close Combat, Jolly Weavile's Ice Punch OR Icicle Crash, Modest Aegislash' Shadow Ball, Adamant Salamence's Dragon Claw or Adamant Lando-T's EQ.

With Fake out and Intimidate support (Hello Hitmontop!) I think this could be a decent set to run.

 

[mhykah]

Has no one mentioned Mold Breaker? Unless I'm gravely wrong about how it works, Mold Breakers don't get unnerved.. right? Could this be a chance for SubSalac Excadrill to shine?

lolnope I stand corrected! Thanks DragonWhale for clearing that up

 

[DragonWhale]

Has no one mentioned Mold Breaker? Unless I'm gravely wrong about how it works, Mold Breakers don't get unnerved.. right? Could this be a chance for SubSalac Excadrill to shine?

Mold breaker ignores only defensive abilities. (e.g. It does not negate gale wings)

 

[lucariomaster2]

I've been tinkering with the idea of Salac + Reversal in this meta. The Doubles format is interesting, because you can Endure with the Salac mon and have its partner bring it to 1 HP. Maybe something like EQ/Dragon Claw/Swords Dance/Protect Unnerve Haxorus paired with Substitute/Endure/Reversal/Acrobatics Salac Berry Mienshao. A Quick Guard user would be an option in place of Haxorus.

I have wanted to abuse Acrobatics, Reversal, and Unburden for so long... it looks to be a pretty good playstyle.

 

[Theorymon]

Well, this metagame started recently! Unfortunately, due to the New 3DSXL's release date and gamefreak's dumb insistence on tying your ratings to your 3DS, I might not be able to play till February 13th ;_;

On a brighter note, I'm going to be breeding and cloning something I want you guys to try!

Tyranitar@Shucca Berry
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse / Rock Slide
-Fire Blast / Rock Slide
-Protect
Nature: Modest / Quiet
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Ability: Unnerve

Yeah you may be thinking "what the heck is this?!" The idea here is that this is a Tyranitar that can beat Knock Off Landorus-T! As it turns out, Thanks to Unnerve, Tyranitar scores a OHKO on Lanodrus-T! Shucca Berry means that you can take an Earthquake. Now of course, Superpower is a problem, so I'm thinking that unless you want to run Chopple, you should run this with Amoonguss. With Amoonguss, you can redirect nasty Superpowers from Landorus-T and Scizor at it, while Tyranitar smashes them with Ice Beam and Fire Blast respectively!

Dark Pulse is basically your STAB. It does allow you to 3HKO Cresselia, which while sorta sad... actually does exactly the same amount of damage as Crunch does if the Cresselia is Bold and has maximum defense and HP investment! And as mentioned before, Fire Blast roasts Scizor, and is also your best bet against Bisharp unless you wanna use Low Kick or something. I also slashed in Rock Slide in case you REALLY hate Talonflame and want it dead. That might be particulary nice if you are using this thing with Amoonguss.

I've mentioned this several times before, but this Tyranitar and Amoonguss sound like great teammates. Amoonguss can redirect stuff like Bugbite and Superpower away from Tyranitar, and in return, Tyranitar's Unnerve can let Amoonguss Spore through Lum Berries! Togekiss can also probably work, since it deals with Superpower even better, and is immune to Earthquake! However, watch out for Bullet Punch. If Scizor becomes common, Togekiss is not gonna like that thing! I guess that means Togekiss is gonna want a steel resist berry...

Any suggestions / experience for this set would be appreciated, since I'm gonna breed these and give them out for people to test out =)