Doubles Overview, Benchmarks, and Q&A Thread—Read before asking!

Stratos

Banned deucer.
Do you guys plan to do another suspect test in the foreseeable future? If so, who will the suspect(s) be?
nope

we could retry mence in a couple months. if something comes out of left field as way better than expected we could suspect it. otherwise i think we'll probably be fine with this meta till new pokemon come out.

i still wanna test kyurem-b but nobody else does so
 
Hey guys, can i get a little help? I need a Follow Me support pokemon for my team and i'm having a little trouble picking one. Here are the 3 i'm thinking about. They all have bulky EVs and natures, and would hold leftovers.

Blastoise
Rain Dish

Fake Out
Follow Me
Rapid Spin / Icy Wind / Water Spout
Aqua Ring / Rest

The main issue with blastoise is the lack of a good recovery move, and the fact that i can't pick which attack to give him. Rapid Spin gets rid of spikes, icy wind lowers the other teams speed which give my other pokemon a better chance to KO, and Water Spout can deal some big damage eve though he doesn't have any EVs invested in SA.

Togekiss
Serene Grace

Follow Me
Tailwind
Soft-Boiled
Dazzling Gleam

I like Tailwind because it almost guarantees my other pokemon to go first, but all of it's weaknesses are kinda countering it's bulky stats. If the opponent doesn't have an attack that is good against it it almost always survives.

Clefable
Magic Guard

Follow Me
Soft-Boiled
Knock-Off / Dazzling Gleam
Heal Bell

It can get knocked out easily but Magic Guard can be a saving grace against Toxic/Burn stall teams, Heal Bell can be used to get rid of Burn on my attacker, and the always helpful damage from Dazzling Gleam can help finish off a mon that my sweeper didn't OHKO
 
Togekiss
Serene Grace

Follow Me
Tailwind
Soft-Boiled
Dazzling Gleam

I like Tailwind because it almost guarantees my other pokemon to go first, but all of it's weaknesses are kinda countering it's bulky stats. If the opponent doesn't have an attack that is good against it it almost always survives.
On most teams, Togekiss is the best. What is the rest of the team though? Blastoice can have it's niches.
 

13ulbasaur

* It seems to be nervous about fighting.
is an Artist Alumnus
Rapid Spin gets rid of spikes,
Hazards are pretty useless in Doubles, so you don't have to worry about Rapid Spin and hazards.

Also I noticed a big lack of Protect. protect is an important move in Doubles, make sure you remember that. ^_^

But yes usually Togekiss is best, also Jirachi is far better option than Clefable. Just depends on which resistances are more important.
 

Arcticblast

Trans rights are human rights
is a Forum Moderatoris a Tiering Contributoris a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
Also notable is that Fake Out + Follow Me Blastoise is illegal. Fake Out is an egg move while Follow Me was exclusive to an event.
 
Thanks for the help guys.

I didn't know that about Blastoise, i just saw them on the stratedgy movepool and assumed i could breed one with both lol. Thanks for the help guys ill get to work on the Togekiss. And i know about protect, almost all the other pokemon on my team have it.

Also my friends i play with don't use ubers or legendaries/event pokemon so that's why i'm not running Cresselia or Jirachi or something of that nature.
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
of note is that i'd recommend using air slash and roost over softboiled and razzle dazzle in most cases; roost removes ur pesky rock/elec/ice weaks and doesnt remove any useful resistances, while air slash has a 60% flinch chance
 
Silly pedantry, but Soul Dew clause just means Soul Dew is banned, right? If so, wouldn't it make more sense to just list it as a banned item, now that it's not alone in that category?
 

Anty

let's drop
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Silly pedantry, but Soul Dew clause just means Soul Dew is banned, right? If so, wouldn't it make more sense to just list it as a banned item, now that it's not alone in that category?
It's effectively the same thing. The banning of it is also a rule, which Smogon just call clauses (compared to banning of other items like salamencite which is also banning a Pokemon).
 
Hey folks. What did I miss? Looking at coming back to Doubles to try my hand at ORAS and new stuff. Where should I start?
Mega Salamence is banned for the new tiering. Rain and Tail Wind are both really strong play styles and base 110 speed is the new fast. Other than that, it's not much different. I'd recommend using mega Swampert, Mega Gallade and Mega Diancie if you want to build around a new mega. Good luck.
 
Sorry for the double post (it's been over a week) but is anyone making a new thread for the Threatlist or are we continuing using the same thread? ORAS came out brought many new threats that probably should be listed somewhere.
 

xzern

for sure
is a Tiering Contributoris a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Sorry for the double post (it's been over a week) but is anyone making a new thread for the Threatlist or are we continuing using the same thread? ORAS came out brought many new threats that probably should be listed somewhere.
You can always get approval from the forum mods to run your own ORAS threatlist thread, but I don't think that it's a main concern at the moment.
 
I recently started using a MLatias in Smogon Doubles with the following set:

Latias @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Dragon Pulse
- Recover

To support it I need a bulky Pokemon with access to the move Follow Me so I can set up the first two/three Calm Minds without getting Latias killed but I have failed in fiding one so I have come here in order to see if you guys have any suggestions for me. And maybe discussing the viability of this set.

(Sorry for the bad English I am Brazilian)
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
hey rewp234 i moved your thread here because this thread was for questions like that.

You might have luck using Togekiss or Clefable as your follow me partner, since they're fairy type they don't have to worry about redirecting Dragon or Dark or Bug-type moves at all. However, both of these are pretty ruined by Steels.
 
hey rewp234 i moved your thread here because this thread was for questions like that.

You might have luck using Togekiss or Clefable as your follow me partner, since they're fairy type they don't have to worry about redirecting Dragon or Dark or Bug-type moves at all. However, both of these are pretty ruined by Steels.
Thank you for moving the thread. I actually did not know this place here existed.
I have been using a Togekiss but I did not think of Clefable until now. I think I will try it (mainly because it's not banned in Doubles UU like Togekiss and I am going to use these moveset there) and that bulk is amazingly bulky lol.
 
what is the best item and ev spread on Rotom-Heat? right now i'm using safety goggles as the item and special attack and speed spread on a tailwind/sand team.
 

13ulbasaur

* It seems to be nervous about fighting.
is an Artist Alumnus
what is the best item and ev spread on Rotom-Heat? right now i'm using safety goggles as the item and special attack and speed spread on a tailwind/sand team.
I'd say Goggles or Sitrus are good items. Not sure about EV spread though, I just use the one off the Analysis.
 

finally

how can you swallow so much sleep?
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
what even beats kanga offense reliably as in a playstyle?
faster teams like keldeo, shaymin-sky, talonflame often have a regular matchup against kanga bc it has answers to kanga, but it cant really switch them in
rain teams have a regular matchup
sun teams have a regular matchup
trick room probably has a slight advantage because it has ghosts and usually a slow beat em up fighting type
semi trick room can do ^ or run a fast fighting type like a musketeer, so also probably slight advantage
 
Sand is really hard to get right when rain and sun just shit on it all day long. Tyranitar by itself works well as a bulky attacker as long as the opponent isn't a fighting type. But having Tyranitar on your team means you almost have to build around it, rather than us it to fill a gap.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top