Smogon Community - View Single Post - Platinum/HG/SS Battle Frontier and DP Battle Tower Records

Groombridge · Aug 3rd, 2009, 7:24:38 AM

DP Doubles: 200 wins.

(Apologies for the crappy picture)

You disrespect - you get the Tech.

This team was planned as a way to let off steam and have fun more than anything. I tried a dual-Fake Out team a while back for fun, but I never went back to it. After doing decently well with a Rain Dance team, I thought 'why not'?, and decided to see how far I could ride an Ambipom in the BT. This team hasn't been theorymonned at all - I wasn't expecting it to work past about 70.

That said, it certainly worked for me. This team works well with my fairly impatient playing style: I never did well with a Trickscarf teams in singles, and Rain offence worked way better than Trick Room for me in doubles. Here, there's no setup or real 'strategy' to speak of, which means my strategy can't be countered. I don't have to get TR down at all costs, or worry about the weather being changed. The team has a total of one support move - Gyarados' Dragon Dance. Otherwise, it's all attacks.

Like with any run, there were close calls (Ghost leads, Trick Room users), but I think this shows that dual-Fake Out can be a decent strategy in BT doubles (in DP at least), and Last Resort Ambipom makes a surprisingly effective sweeper there.

- Team -

Infernape @ Focus Sash ** Wylie
Lonely, Blaze
132 Atk, 128 SpA, 252 Spe.

Fake Out
Thunderpunch
Close Combat
Overheat

Crushes Rock and Steel pokes - things Ambi can't deal with. Its Overheat does a number on Ghosts too.

Its Sash lets it take out things like Starmie, and Thunderpunch lets it take out Gyarados, when combined with Ambi's Fake Out.

Overheat is its best bet against Ghosts, as STAB 210 BP outdamages SE 140 BP of Shadow Claw.

- -
Ambipom @ Life Orb ** Wernicke
Naughty, Technician
6HP, 252 Atk, 252 Spe.

Fake Out
Last Resort

You know his steez. The whole point of the team, it inflicts ridiculous damage at high speed: 90 BP Fake Out + 195 BP Last Resort = 285 BP, boosted by Life Orb. Has tremendous wall-breaking power, taking out some of the bulkiest pokes one-on-one. High speed means it can hit first in most cases. Stuff like Espeon dies to LR in one hit.

- -
Gyarados @ Wacan Berry ** Kepler
Adamant, Intimidate
146 HP, 164 Atk, 80 Def, 120 Spe.

Dragon Dance
Ice Fang
Waterfall
Earthquake

Switches into Ambi in case of dual Rock/Steels; Intimidate rules. Wacan allows it to DD through an Electric attack, then counter with EQ. After 1DD, it's the fastest thing on the team, and it outspeeds most Electric types (with the exception of Jolteon).

- -
Latios @ Choice Specs ** Kite
Timid, Levitate
6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe.

Draco Meteor
Psychic
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt

No spread moves, but awesome firepower. Provides speed and coverage. After the monkey onslaught, this and Gyara just mop up. Its DM kills practically everything.

It can also switches into Ambi in case of Ghosts - they won't use STAB on a Normal.

It can come in as soon as a monkey dies. Generally, I bring in Latios before Gyarados. Subsequently switching in Gyarados brings Intimidate, and then Latios can change moves and lose any SpA drop.

- -
Ideally, the plan is to double Fake Out first, then hit with CC/Overheat and Last Resort, hopefully killing both leads before they even move. From there, sweep. Generally, one foe always dies, and we can take it from there. That's the key advantage of this team - dual Fake Out gives me a 'headstart' on the AI.

The AI tends to attack Infernape more than Ambipom; possibly since Ape has more type weaknesses. Priority attacks aimed at Ambipom are met with a Gyarados switch.

-Team building-

Fake Out/Last Resort Ambipom always seemed like a tremendously fun thing to use, and it 2HKOs such a ridiculous amount of the BT - things as bulky as Swampert included. But in singles, the BT will just put Rocks, Steels and Ghosts in front of it. Doubles is more my game anyway, and Fake Out is so handy there, so I decided to ride the monkey in 2v2. Here, it becomes truly rude.

Ambipom's frailty led me to take a partner for it that also uses Fake Out, so that they cover each other. The obvious choice was Infernape: it deals with Rocks and Steels with its STABs, plus its Overheat inflicts big damage on Ghosts since none of them resist it (possibly OHKOing Gengar, definitely killing Froslass apart from Focus Band hax or just missing). High speed is critical - both leads have to be fast in order to kill off the foes before they move.

I kept Gyarados on the team, as Intimidate is so useful in doubles. It switches easily into any Mach Punch users trying to pick off Ambipom, and if it gets a DD, then most of the time it's game over. It provides bulk and additional type coverage.

This team has no stalliciousness at all. The previous version of this team used a Curselax in the fourth slot. It's gone - in doubles, it can't really resist being gangbanged as it Curses, and critical hits came far too often.

I'd say there are 'no walls' in doubles - very little is so bulky that it can't be taken out in one turn by focus fire. This team in particular is geared to able to take out pretty much anything in one turn, hence the abundance of high-power attacks - Draco Meteor, Last Resort, Close Combat, Overheat. The only thing without a huge STAB attack is Gyarados, but Gyara can boost its attack.

So now there's Specs Latios: high speed, tremendous hitting power. It can switch into Psychic, Ground or Water attacks aimed at Infernape and strike back hard. It uses the 'Peterko set', with Ice Beam over Surf, as Surf is obviously bad news for the monkeys. This is pretty much the best pinch hitter this team could ask for - it's the fastest thing here, and its Specs DM is simply staggering.

-Problems-

- Ghosts. Obviously, Ghosts screw up Fake Out. In the event of double Ghost leads, Infernape uses Overheat on one, while Ambipom switches to Gyarados. If only there's one Ghost, Fake Out the other foe and Overheat the Ghost. No Ghosts resist Fire, luckily.

- Inner Focus/Steadfast.

Lucario dies to CC/Overheat.
Gallade falls to LR; if leading, Gyara switch and go from there.
Crobat - Brave Bird recoil leads to Last Resort death for sure. Ambipom's Fake Out and Thunderpunch combined usually kill it.
Dragonite is a problem - switch to Gyarados. Nite will probably use AquaT/EQ/DM or Thunder/AA or Waterfall - probably at Infernape. Gyara should be okay to come in and DD. Or let Ape take the hit and use Ambi to hit it and go for the 2HKO regardless.
Alakazam - double Fake Out for the kill, or risk the 50/50 that it has Synchronise.
Glalie - Close Combat right away. One has Quick Claw, but it can't do much to Infernape. Blizzard is bad news for Ambipom, knocking off up to 75% or so. The threat of a freeze is present too.

Venomoth/Dustox - lol Overheat.

- -
Endings and problems

The 200 streak ended due to a bit of hax, but mostly me not paying sufficient attention. I was in bed with a cold, but still. After losing both monkeys, I was down to Latios and Gyarados. The AI had Bronzong and Exeggutor remaining. I aimed Latios' Ice Beam at Exeggutor, while DDing with Gyara. The idea was to kill Eggs while Latios took a Shadow Ball or whatever, then letting Gyara deal with Zong.

Latios used Ice Beam!
Exeggcutor held on with its Focus Sash! (I'd forgotten that one of them has a Sash)
Gyarados used Dragon Dance!
Exeggcutor used Wood Hammer!
A critical hit!
Gyarados and Exeggcutor fainted!
Bronzong used Shadow Ball!

So Latios was locked into Ice Beam against a Bronzong. My only hope was freezehax, which never came. Zong killed Latios with two more Shadow Balls.

So if it wasn't for that Wood Hammer crit, Gyara would have survived to smack Zong around for the win. Also, if Eggs hadn't been the Focus Sash variant, I would have won. Whatever - I should have focus fired on Eggs. I didn't know if Zong was Heatproof or a Levitator, so I should have gone straight to Earthquake to finish Eggs and possibly hurt Zong.

I've played several runs since with this team, all of which have been stopped by hax, which showed me how lucky I was to get to 200. The next run got to 157, before revealing a serious weakness in the team: Brightpowder hax. This bastard in particular:

Medicham 3 @ Brightpowder
Attract/Focus Punch/Drain Punch/Ice Punch - Atk/Speed

I think Jump has mentioned this thing as being a huge pain in the past. Ambipom's Fake Out missed on turn 1, and it OHKO'd right back with Drain Punch. It dodged two other 100% accurate attacks, leading to a loss. I hate this thing, but I don't really have a moveslot spare for Aerial Ace unless Infernape loses Thunderpunch.

Also, this bastard:

Alakazam 4 @ Brightpowder
Psychic/Shadow Ball/Energy Ball/Focus Blast - Sp. Atk/Speed

It potentially outspeeds my whole team, it has a 50/50 chance of being flinchproof and it has SE attacks on three of my guys. Brightpowder really is the icing on the cake. Against Alakazam, I frequently use focus fired Fake Outs to try and kill it right away, although Ambi's Fake Out is usually enough to kill it outright. If it isn't a lead, I'll pull Ambi out so I can reuse its Fake Out.

Gallade can be problematic, but only as a lead - obviously, I don't want to flinch it as Steadfast would make it faster than my leads. The fact that two of them have Fighting attacks and three have Psychic (including one with both) means I can't be sure which of my leads it will attack, so I normally pull Ambi for Gyara and Intimidate. The problem then is that this creates an opening for it to use Trick Room, and my only way around that is by careful switching and use of Fake Out. Flinching it in Trick Room is a good plan, though - it loses a turn and then gets 'outsped' the turn after.

However, if Gallade comes in after Ambi has used Fake Out, it usually dies to a single Last Resort.

Two have 255 Def EVs: Last Resort inflicts 85-101% damage with positive Def nature, 94-122% without.
Two have no Def EVs: they die.

Dugtrio, coversely, is no trouble at all if it's leading, but causes problems if it comes in later. One has Brightpowder, which is the only thing that saves it from being OHKO'd by Ambi's Fake Out.

This team is fast and fun, and it just rips through the BT at lower levels, meaning that restarting after a loss isn't so bad. Obviously, it would have been nice to reach 203 to tie third on the leaderboard, but 200 is a nice record all the same (199 would have been so much more annoying!). The fact the team got to 157 right after shows that it wasn't a fluke. I'd like to surpass 200, but I'm well aware of the 'insanity' of this...

Thanks for reading!

Aug 3rd, 2009, 7:24:38 AM	#921
Groombridge Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 113	DP Doubles: 200 wins. (Apologies for the crappy picture) You disrespect - you get the Tech. This team was planned as a way to let off steam and have fun more than anything. I tried a dual-Fake Out team a while back for fun, but I never went back to it. After doing decently well with a Rain Dance team, I thought 'why not'?, and decided to see how far I could ride an Ambipom in the BT. This team hasn't been theorymonned at all - I wasn't expecting it to work past about 70. That said, it certainly worked for me. This team works well with my fairly impatient playing style: I never did well with a Trickscarf teams in singles, and Rain offence worked way better than Trick Room for me in doubles. Here, there's no setup or real 'strategy' to speak of, which means my strategy can't be countered. I don't have to get TR down at all costs, or worry about the weather being changed. The team has a total of one support move - Gyarados' Dragon Dance. Otherwise, it's all attacks. Like with any run, there were close calls (Ghost leads, Trick Room users), but I think this shows that dual-Fake Out can be a decent strategy in BT doubles (in DP at least), and Last Resort Ambipom makes a surprisingly effective sweeper there. - Team - Infernape @ Focus Sash Wylie Lonely, Blaze 132 Atk, 128 SpA, 252 Spe. Fake Out Thunderpunch Close Combat Overheat Crushes Rock and Steel pokes - things Ambi can't deal with. Its Overheat does a number on Ghosts too. Its Sash lets it take out things like Starmie, and Thunderpunch lets it take out Gyarados, when combined with Ambi's Fake Out. Overheat is its best bet against Ghosts, as STAB 210 BP outdamages SE 140 BP of Shadow Claw. - - Ambipom @ Life Orb Wernicke Naughty, Technician 6HP, 252 Atk, 252 Spe. Fake Out Last Resort You know his steez. The whole point of the team, it inflicts ridiculous damage at high speed: 90 BP Fake Out + 195 BP Last Resort = 285 BP, boosted by Life Orb. Has tremendous wall-breaking power, taking out some of the bulkiest pokes one-on-one. High speed means it can hit first in most cases. Stuff like Espeon dies to LR in one hit. - - Gyarados @ Wacan Berry Kepler Adamant, Intimidate 146 HP, 164 Atk, 80 Def, 120 Spe. Dragon Dance Ice Fang Waterfall Earthquake Switches into Ambi in case of dual Rock/Steels; Intimidate rules. Wacan allows it to DD through an Electric attack, then counter with EQ. After 1DD, it's the fastest thing on the team, and it outspeeds most Electric types (with the exception of Jolteon). - - Latios @ Choice Specs Kite Timid, Levitate 6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe. Draco Meteor Psychic Ice Beam Thunderbolt No spread moves, but awesome firepower. Provides speed and coverage. After the monkey onslaught, this and Gyara just mop up. Its DM kills practically everything. It can also switches into Ambi in case of Ghosts - they won't use STAB on a Normal. It can come in as soon as a monkey dies. Generally, I bring in Latios before Gyarados. Subsequently switching in Gyarados brings Intimidate, and then Latios can change moves and lose any SpA drop. - - Ideally, the plan is to double Fake Out first, then hit with CC/Overheat and Last Resort, hopefully killing both leads before they even move. From there, sweep. Generally, one foe always dies, and we can take it from there. That's the key advantage of this team - dual Fake Out gives me a 'headstart' on the AI. The AI tends to attack Infernape more than Ambipom; possibly since Ape has more type weaknesses. Priority attacks aimed at Ambipom are met with a Gyarados switch. -Team building- Fake Out/Last Resort Ambipom always seemed like a tremendously fun thing to use, and it 2HKOs such a ridiculous amount of the BT - things as bulky as Swampert included. But in singles, the BT will just put Rocks, Steels and Ghosts in front of it. Doubles is more my game anyway, and Fake Out is so handy there, so I decided to ride the monkey in 2v2. Here, it becomes truly rude. Ambipom's frailty led me to take a partner for it that also uses Fake Out, so that they cover each other. The obvious choice was Infernape: it deals with Rocks and Steels with its STABs, plus its Overheat inflicts big damage on Ghosts since none of them resist it (possibly OHKOing Gengar, definitely killing Froslass apart from Focus Band hax or just missing). High speed is critical - both leads have to be fast in order to kill off the foes before they move. I kept Gyarados on the team, as Intimidate is so useful in doubles. It switches easily into any Mach Punch users trying to pick off Ambipom, and if it gets a DD, then most of the time it's game over. It provides bulk and additional type coverage. This team has no stalliciousness at all. The previous version of this team used a Curselax in the fourth slot. It's gone - in doubles, it can't really resist being gangbanged as it Curses, and critical hits came far too often. I'd say there are 'no walls' in doubles - very little is so bulky that it can't be taken out in one turn by focus fire. This team in particular is geared to able to take out pretty much anything in one turn, hence the abundance of high-power attacks - Draco Meteor, Last Resort, Close Combat, Overheat. The only thing without a huge STAB attack is Gyarados, but Gyara can boost its attack. So now there's Specs Latios: high speed, tremendous hitting power. It can switch into Psychic, Ground or Water attacks aimed at Infernape and strike back hard. It uses the 'Peterko set', with Ice Beam over Surf, as Surf is obviously bad news for the monkeys. This is pretty much the best pinch hitter this team could ask for - it's the fastest thing here, and its Specs DM is simply staggering. -Problems- - Ghosts. Obviously, Ghosts screw up Fake Out. In the event of double Ghost leads, Infernape uses Overheat on one, while Ambipom switches to Gyarados. If only there's one Ghost, Fake Out the other foe and Overheat the Ghost. No Ghosts resist Fire, luckily. - Inner Focus/Steadfast. Lucario dies to CC/Overheat. Gallade falls to LR; if leading, Gyara switch and go from there. Crobat - Brave Bird recoil leads to Last Resort death for sure. Ambipom's Fake Out and Thunderpunch combined usually kill it. Dragonite is a problem - switch to Gyarados. Nite will probably use AquaT/EQ/DM or Thunder/AA or Waterfall - probably at Infernape. Gyara should be okay to come in and DD. Or let Ape take the hit and use Ambi to hit it and go for the 2HKO regardless. Alakazam - double Fake Out for the kill, or risk the 50/50 that it has Synchronise. Glalie - Close Combat right away. One has Quick Claw, but it can't do much to Infernape. Blizzard is bad news for Ambipom, knocking off up to 75% or so. The threat of a freeze is present too. Venomoth/Dustox - lol Overheat. - - Endings and problems The 200 streak ended due to a bit of hax, but mostly me not paying sufficient attention. I was in bed with a cold, but still. After losing both monkeys, I was down to Latios and Gyarados. The AI had Bronzong and Exeggutor remaining. I aimed Latios' Ice Beam at Exeggutor, while DDing with Gyara. The idea was to kill Eggs while Latios took a Shadow Ball or whatever, then letting Gyara deal with Zong. Latios used Ice Beam! Exeggcutor held on with its Focus Sash! (I'd forgotten that one of them has a Sash) Gyarados used Dragon Dance! Exeggcutor used Wood Hammer! A critical hit! Gyarados and Exeggcutor fainted! Bronzong used Shadow Ball! So Latios was locked into Ice Beam against a Bronzong. My only hope was freezehax, which never came. Zong killed Latios with two more Shadow Balls. So if it wasn't for that Wood Hammer crit, Gyara would have survived to smack Zong around for the win. Also, if Eggs hadn't been the Focus Sash variant, I would have won. Whatever - I should have focus fired on Eggs. I didn't know if Zong was Heatproof or a Levitator, so I should have gone straight to Earthquake to finish Eggs and possibly hurt Zong. I've played several runs since with this team, all of which have been stopped by hax, which showed me how lucky I was to get to 200. The next run got to 157, before revealing a serious weakness in the team: Brightpowder hax. This bastard in particular: Medicham 3 @ Brightpowder Attract/Focus Punch/Drain Punch/Ice Punch - Atk/Speed I think Jump has mentioned this thing as being a huge pain in the past. Ambipom's Fake Out missed on turn 1, and it OHKO'd right back with Drain Punch. It dodged two other 100% accurate attacks, leading to a loss. I hate this thing, but I don't really have a moveslot spare for Aerial Ace unless Infernape loses Thunderpunch. Also, this bastard: Alakazam 4 @ Brightpowder Psychic/Shadow Ball/Energy Ball/Focus Blast - Sp. Atk/Speed It potentially outspeeds my whole team, it has a 50/50 chance of being flinchproof and it has SE attacks on three of my guys. Brightpowder really is the icing on the cake. Against Alakazam, I frequently use focus fired Fake Outs to try and kill it right away, although Ambi's Fake Out is usually enough to kill it outright. If it isn't a lead, I'll pull Ambi out so I can reuse its Fake Out. Gallade can be problematic, but only as a lead - obviously, I don't want to flinch it as Steadfast would make it faster than my leads. The fact that two of them have Fighting attacks and three have Psychic (including one with both) means I can't be sure which of my leads it will attack, so I normally pull Ambi for Gyara and Intimidate. The problem then is that this creates an opening for it to use Trick Room, and my only way around that is by careful switching and use of Fake Out. Flinching it in Trick Room is a good plan, though - it loses a turn and then gets 'outsped' the turn after. However, if Gallade comes in after Ambi has used Fake Out, it usually dies to a single Last Resort. Two have 255 Def EVs: Last Resort inflicts 85-101% damage with positive Def nature, 94-122% without. Two have no Def EVs: they die. Dugtrio, coversely, is no trouble at all if it's leading, but causes problems if it comes in later. One has Brightpowder, which is the only thing that saves it from being OHKO'd by Ambi's Fake Out. This team is fast and fun, and it just rips through the BT at lower levels, meaning that restarting after a loss isn't so bad. Obviously, it would have been nice to reach 203 to tie third on the leaderboard, but 200 is a nice record all the same (199 would have been so much more annoying!). The fact the team got to 157 right after shows that it wasn't a fluke. I'd like to surpass 200, but I'm well aware of the 'insanity' of this... Thanks for reading! __________________ Formerly d e u t e r o n o p i a UQM FTW