Non-VGC Doubles Metagame

Smogon's PO server has been revamped, but I don't know how it's going to turn out for doubles. There isn't ANY ranking yet for Nintendo Doubles BW (Which I assume is the flat battle styled metagame) as of the last time I checked a couple hours ago. Often on the previous server I would sit for 45 minutes without getting a battle.

Yeah I haven't gotten a chance to test it out much really but it still has the same problem as before in that getting a battle is exceedingly difficult. Plus there is no ranking (can we even make BW doubles tournaments on the server?). I think it may be flat battle but I'm not sure as I couldn't get a battle (I would assume so given the name). I've pretty much given up hope that we'll actually get our own ladder that isn't VGC or Nintendo rules, even if we do make up the entire metagame (someone told me on IRC the other day that Smogon wouldn't support a doubles ladder even if we established a metagame for it for reasons I don't quite remember). Ah, well, don't bother none I suppose.

Anyway, onto other things. The recent suspect tests both on the Doubles Forum and Smogon have lead me to wonder, what exactly are the criteria we're using to determine if something is broken or not? Take the recently banned Blaziken; would you think that it would be broken in doubles? I mean I don't have enough experience to actually determine if it would or not although I have to wonder if the circumstances between doubles and standard differ enough to not take such a ban on faith alone. I mean, the problem with Blaziken is that once it switches in it kills half your team and you can't revenge it, but would it be able to do the same in doubles with a lack of spread moves, increased use of the move protect, Fake Out and TR everywhere, getting ganged up on, etc etc? I'm not sure if any of those things would even matter in the grand scheme of things but my point still stands.

StarmanXL said:

Anyway, onto other things. The recent suspect tests both on the Doubles Forum and Smogon have lead me to wonder, what exactly are the criteria we're using to determine if something is broken or not? Take the recently banned Blaziken; would you think that it would be broken in doubles? I mean I don't have enough experience to actually determine if it would or not although I have to wonder if the circumstances between doubles and standard differ enough to not take such a ban on faith alone. I mean, the problem with Blaziken is that once it switches in it kills half your team and you can't revenge it, but would it be able to do the same in doubles with a lack of spread moves, increased use of the move protect, Fake Out and TR everywhere, getting ganged up on, etc etc? I'm not sure if any of those things would even matter in the grand scheme of things but my point still stands.

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Well, we certainly shouldn't go by OU singles bans anyway - doubles is balanced completely differently. Blaz is still probably a big threat, but spread attacks and such may well make it manageable. As another example, Wobb last gen would never have been considered broken in Doubles. We're doing the right thing in trying to test things for ourselves, but we lack the manpower to.

Yes, I suppose lack of manpower is the main concern. I can't think of any legitimate way to spread interest though, as every effort so far has been rather...lackluster.

I hate to bump threads, but this one seems to merit it. What's going on? How come nobody's posted on the proboards forum since April? Is this thread rotting because Smogon is in the process of transitioning away from Pokémon Online to Pokémon Showdown which has no support for doubles at all? Has everyone just stopped bothering with a self-regulated doubles metagame because the VGC '12 ruleset is so good?

I'm surprised Smogon doesn't give more official support to doubles play; however good the ruleset is for VGC '12, very few people will be interested once VGC '12 is over because the rules will change again for VGC '13 (most likely limiting people to only Pokémon in the revised Unovadex in BW2).

This thread's very dead because nobody seems to play non-VGC doubles, which is a shame given that the doubles metagame could be a rich one.

Agreed that it doesn't help that PS! doubles don't exist, though.

For the record, this is being discussed by Smogon staff members at the moment. Supporting some sort of doubles metagame is certainly intriguing, so keep on the lookout for the potential future of this topic and metagame. Unfortunately, PS! does not yet have doubles implemented, so this dream is quite far away, especially since we're shifting away from PO. I'm going to lock this topic due to the necrobump and the basically unplayable state of this metagame. If you have a legitimate post to make or have further questions, hit me up with a PM.