Enter Sandman

[Scotti]

Whats up everyone, this is scotti, and i present to you my final rmt of the 5th gen metagame, Enter Sandman. Before i can go and talk to you about this team, i must say a little something about how i became interested into the double metagame.

It all started a few weeks ago, when i was just talking to the people of the OU room. However, i got pretty bored at the time and needed something to do, so I just said, "forget this", and went and started trying random tiers i never played. Out of all the tiers i tried, there were only 2 that caught my interest. The first one was a tier called Balanced Hackmons, which i must say was fun, and a thanks to sugarhigh for the help with my team. The second tier that caught my interest was a little something called Smogon Doubles. I really enjoyed this tier, because it reminds me of my brother who played VGC, and after seeing him play VGC for all those years and examining all of the different strategies you could use, I really loved the idea of trying a tier where there are alot of different possibilities. That is how my addiction for doubles started that day.

I wasn't really good at doubles until Oct 18, 2013 came. Before that day my team were mediocre at best only hitting 1500 on the ladder. My teams pretty much consisted of Ninetales, Explosion Shiftry, Sableye, and some fire and grass types. "ugh" i just hate remembering those days as a noob in this tier..... it wasn't pretty. Finally Oct 18 came. It was just another normal day in the OU room, and someone was asking for help in Smogon Doubles. Even though he was asking for help i had to warn him saying this is not the double room, however the greater good in my heart told me to save that young child from his inner darkness, so being the hero I am, I quickly answered his plea for help. After I answered his question, he asked can I test his team against me. I really didn't want to, but I caved in eventually. It was an extremely close battle, so you know i had to check his ranked, to see how high on the totem pole this kid is. When i checked his rank it devastated me to FIND OUT HOW SERIOUSLY low this guy was :(
After almost getting beat by this guy, I realized how bad I am and that I should make a new team and that is what I did.

After testing this team for awhile with different pokes and stuff, i found out how amazing this team is. All it needed was a few thing to make it better, so i tried challenging a amazing Smogon Doubles player name Audiosurfer. | 1 |

After the battle Audio, i asked Audio for suggestion and got some very good feedback, and i think my team improved alot from that. Now i am almost in the top 100 and i am getting closer and closer to my goal of peaking #1, though i want to make sure this team can get as great as it can get, thats why i made this rmt. Enough with all of this story telling, lets get onto the team itself.

​

Importable

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Magnet Rise
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Crunch
- Superpower

Audio (Latios) @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Draco Meteor
- Tailwind
- Psyshock

Novae (Mew) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Taunt
- Helping Hand
- Psychic
- Fire Blast

Volcarona @ Passho Berry
Ability: Flame Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 164 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP / 88 SDef
Modest Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Heat Wave
- Bug Buzz
- Protect

Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SAtk / 16 SDef
Modest Nature
- Protect
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Rest

Analysis
​

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Magnet Rise
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Protect

This is Excadrill and he is cool. Anyway the reasons i choose Excadrill was because (1) he looks cool (2) this is a sand team -_- (3) He gets work done. Magnet Rise is so i can dodge ground attack, most notably earthquake. It may seem kind of useless, but it saved my butt plenty of time for me to keep it. Earthquake is the main STAB move and it hits everything for alot of damage. Though it makes me consider running protect on all of my pokemon, it is still a great move. Rock Slide allows me to hitting flying types who are immune to Earthqauke. Though it can sometimes be underwhelming. Protect allows me to scout for move like mach punch, opposing Earthquake, and Fire moves. It actually comes in handy.

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Crunch
- Superpower

I didn't really know what to do with the EV spread for ttar, so i gave it standard ou choice band EV spread, though i should probably change that. Rock Slide is a great move on TTar thanks to STAB, and it lets me take care of Thundurus who can be pretty annoying. Protect allows me to scout for attack that can seriously harm ttar, and it allows me to be on the receiving end of excadrill's earthquakes. Crunch allows me to hit cress who can extremely annoying, and most trick room setter, in which could cause alot of problems. Superpower allows me to hit the annoyng Steel types, most notably Heatran.

Audio (Latios) @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Draco Meteor
- Tailwind
- Psyshock

This is one of the sets that Audiosurfer suggested, so i decided to name this pokemon after him. I run a dragon gem Latios, since when i play VGC it was a common set i have faced, so i thought it would work well in doubles and guess what i am right =) I run protect to scout for moves from other pokemon. Draco Meteor + Dragon Gem + STAB = Something that doesn't resist this is dying (beside Cress). Tailwind is a great move allowing me to outspeed swift swimmers and sand rusher, who can be quite deadly without tailwind on this team. Psyshock allows me to kill hitmontop, which is a threat to most teams in this metagame.

Novae (Mew) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Taunt
- Helping Hand / Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Fire Blast

I name the mew after Novae, because i liked the name :) I run taunt, so i can deal with trick room teams. Without taunt, it would be annoying to face a trick room team. The next move can be Ice Beam or Helping Hand. You can run Helping Hand if you want to help your teammates out by making them do more damage. You can also run Ice Beam to help deal with dragons, which is always a good thing. In my opinion i find Ice Beam, to be alot more helpful. Psychic + Expert Belt is great, because it lets you KO Hitmontop which is always a good thing. Fire Blast allows me to KO Genesect and Scizor. I used the run choice scarf just so i could kill Genesect lol.

Volcarona @ Passho Berry
Ability: Flame Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 164 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP / 88 SDef
Modest Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Heat Wave
- Bug Buzz
- Protect

Passho Berry Volc is the boss mon. The EV spread is something i have been using, and it allows me to take some Hydro Pumps better under rain. Passho Berry + SpDef Boost from QD, makes setting up and living water attacks alot easier. QD just makes defeating my opponents team that much easier. Heat Wave allows me to hit steel types, and its just nice to have a spread move on this team. Bug Buzz allows me to hit Tyranitar, Cress, and Latis, for SE Damage which is always a great thing to carry around on a double team. Protect just allows me to scout move, in which i stated above.

Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SAtk / 16 SDef
Modest Nature
- Protect / Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Rest

Finally we have my washing machine. I decided on a chesto rest set, because it makes this thing almost impossible to take down which is a pro of using this set. You can run protect or t-wave, though i prefer protect, because it allows me to have some speed control on this team, and help outspeed pokes that use swift swim. Thunderbolt just help take down water pokemon, which were a nuisance to this team before i brought rotom-w into the equation. Hydro Pump just does a hefty amount of damage to any pokemon that doesn't resist it. Rest just makes this thing immortal and a threat to alot of teams out there.

Conclusion

I had to rush through the rmt after the introduction, since, it was getting pretty late and didn't have time to finish it until next weekend, so sorry if there some mistakes :( Anyway I hope you enjoyed this rmt and the song, because it is one of my favorite =) I might include a shout out page, but the only one that really help me with this team was Audiosurfer, so yeah i appreciate the help you gave me after our battle. Anyway, I hope this was a interesting read for all of you.​

 

[Moonclawz]

Hi Scotti,

This looks like a really solid doubles team here. Although, Magnet Rise on Excadrill is pretty unusual, it looks like it works pretty well on your team.
Since I have to go soon I'm going to make this a relatively quick rate (I might edit some stuff in later.)

On Tyranitar, I would recommend Low Kick over Superpower since Low Kick doesn't have any attack/defense drops. Since most of the Steel types that Superpower would be used on are pretty heavy (Heatran weights 430kg and Ferrothorn weight 110), you won't need to worry about a significant drop in power.

On Mew, you should change its nature to Timid as it doesn't have any physical attacking moves. You can also move the 4 attack EVs into special defense. The defense drop from a Naught nature would hinder its ability to counter fighting-types like Hitmontop and make it less bulky in general. You can also consider running Icy Wind over Ice beam to give you some speed control while also hitting Dragon-types for a decent chunk of damage.

Hope this helps!

 

[Nollan]

Pretty good team, overall. There is definitely room for improvement, though (then again, there almost always is). I'll just cover each set in turn.

Excadrill
This set looks pretty good (not a fan of Excadrill, though it is definitely a legitimate set), but X-scissor is a nice option to hit Cresselia (and Latios/Hydreigon), who you would otherwise do little to bar flinches (30% is hardly reliable). Focus Sash is also a nice option so you don't have to worry about Mach Punch as much, which is certainly worth considering. This set is perfectly fine as it is, those are really just some ideas to consider.

Tyranitar
The spread is definitely not an ideal one, as the loss of bulk is considerable (for example, Metagross Meteor Mash has a chance to OHKO). A good spread is 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe. This allows you to always survive the aforementioned attack while the extra speed lets you move before opposing Tyranitar (you could also try 0 Spe IVs w/ Brave and a simple 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def spread for underspeeding a lot of threats on Trick Room teams, though). It's pretty simple, but it gets the job done. The moveset is perfectly fine, though I agree with Moonclawz that a good idea would be Low Kick > Superpower, because most of the threats Low Kick would be used on weigh a lot (Low Kick hits 100bp on Hydreigon and 120bp on Heatran, for example) and it will not have the annoying stat drops that come with Superpower.

Latios
I didn't really like this set so I actually discussed the concept with Audiosurfer. I agree it is nice for opposing Kingdra, which can be a large nuisance. However, I feel the dual Psychic-typing can be a bit redundant alongside Mew, who performs a similar offensive role. I also thought Excadrill and Tyranitar would like a partner who didn't have to worry about Sucker Punches from the likes of Hitmontop. A set I prefer here is Defiant Tornadus, who can especially help against annoying Hitmontops in particular, among other Fighting-types. It also means opponents will suffer if they bring Intimidate in (Defiant means Intimidate essentially gives you a +1 attack boost). This is great alongside Excadrill since it discourages Intimidate, allowing Excadrill to continue its sweep unfazed. The set for Tornadus I had in mind was:

Tornadus

Tornadus @ Flying Gem
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Superpower
- Taunt / Tailwind / U-turn
- Protect

This exact set (Defiant Attacker) can actually be found here (for the sake of me not having to explain anything :>).

Mew
This is probably the set I most disagree with. Don't get me wrong, offensive Mew can be a great set, but I'm not so keen on this team's trouble vs Trick Room teams. Mental Herb will refute Taunt used by Mew, and if Trick Room gets up you won't be in a very fun situation at all. A more preferable set is a full-out support Mew, running a moveset like Psyshock / Taunt / Will-O-Wisp / Helping Hand (or Fake Out) with a spread of 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe. Another option is a Sunny Day Cresselia (who has Levitate which is nice for Excadrill) with Icy Wind, Psyshock, and Helping Hand. This helps a lot against Rain, while it may seem redundant given this is a sand team, you don't have to use it in battle unless its needed, so that is hardly an issue (generally you only use it vs rain to beat up Politoed by forcing it to switch in and out assuming they want to retain rain as the weather, then you bring in Tyranitar & Exca after weakening the team for a sweep). Either of these sets work out, but in general you needa more bulky supporting set (there is plenty of offense on the team already :]).

Volcarona
My opinion is that this set is better off being a simple Timid Volc with 252 EVs and a Lum Berry (to avoid nasty Thunder Waves and Spores, making setting up and sweeping easier). I highly recommend going with this spread if you opt for Sunny Day Cresselia, as it would be able to abuse Sunny Day better with more speed. If you don't opt for Sunny Day support, this set is completely fine (it still is w/ Sunny Day support, as Passho Berry + Sunny Day weather actually makes it a wall to a large number of rain teams; tbh I just like the speed personally, there is no shame in using bulky Volc as it is a great set).

Rotom-W
This set should use something more supportive over Protect imo. I think a more defensive Rotom-W would fit very nicely here; I'll present a (fairly) standard bulky Rotom-W that I think would fit nicely on this team:

Rotom

Rotom-W @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 156 SpA / 100 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Light Screen

This set is great against rain (courtesy of Light Screen), so I'd highly recommend you use it. The SpA EVs let you OHKO Tornadus 100% of the time with Thunderbolt, though in general they just make sure Rotom-W can do damage to threats rather than being a sitting duck if Light Screen is up. The remaining EVs go into Special Defense so you can tank multiple hits before going down (Defense is not so much of an issue as common threats like Ttar and Hitmontop will be burned before they can attack). Note this set will only live Dragon Gem Draco Meteor off of Latios 75% of the time (when Light Screen isn't up), so unless absolutely necessary it is best to keep it away from those and avoid the risk. If you use support Mew, Will O' Wisp is a bit redundant, so you might want to replace WoW with a different support option on one either this set or the Mew set if you use both.

Hope I was helpful. :)

 

[Audiosurfer]

hi scotti :) this is a cool team as I said when we battled but there are some things you could do to make it better.

First, as you noted, the EV spread used for Tyranitar is less than ideal since it was meant for OU. A spread of 252 HP / 220 Atk / 36 Def @ Brave Nature (w/ 0 Speed IVs) would work much better than your current spread. The EVs let you live through an unboosted Meteor Mash from Metagross, which can be helpful in a pinch. In addition, a Brave nature is used instead of Adamant for two reasons. One, it allows Tyranitar to function better under Trick Room, which can be useful if your opponent manages to set it up. Two, it lets you get sand up if you lead with Tyranitar against an opposing weather inducer, since you'll underspeed them. This can be critical for when you need to deny your opponent of their own weather or have Sand up for your plans to succeed. Superpower is nice to hit Steel-types, but the Attack and Defence drops are undesirable and can really harm your plans. Thus, a change to Low Kick would be a good idea. Low Kick comes without the stat drops and does good damage to anything you need to hit anyways (opposing ttar, ferrothorn, heatran, etc)

Right now your team is pretty weak to Trick Room, as if Mew goes down (not hard to do since you lack any bulk investment) it's not hard to run through the rest of the team under Trick Room. Also, your team has plenty of offensive power but lacks much support. Thus, switching Mew to a support set would definitely help you. It allows Mew to stick around longer and better support the team, while shoring you up against Trick Room. Mew can also cripple physical attackers like Scizor and Tyranitar due to Will-O-Wisp. The EV spread lets you outspeed Jolly Breloom icand strike with Psych, with the rest put into Special Defence to make Mew bulkier. Volcarona looks good for the team, but the EV spread could be optimized to better accomplish your goals. A spread of 240 HP / 128 SAtk / 32 SDef / 108 Spd @ Modest accomplishes a lot. First, the Speed allows you to outpace Jolly Breloom before a QD and Shaymin-S after a QD, which is great to nail both of them with a Heat Wave. The EVs in HP and Special Defence let you live through a Life Orb-boosted Hydro Pump from Modest Kingdra in Rain (factoring in Passho Berry). The remaining EVs are put into Special Attack to grant Volcarona as much power as possible. On Rotom-W I'd say Thunder Wave is a better option than Protect, since it eases up your matchup against dangerous threats such as Kingdra and opposing Latios. Also you already have Rest for when you take damage, so Protect isn't as necessary compared to the utility Thunder Wave can provide.

Change Summary:
Low Kick <---- Superpower on Tyranitar + improved EV spread
Support Mew <----- Offensive Mew
Improved spread on Volcarona
Thunder Wave <---- Protect on Rotom-W

sets

Tyranitar @ Chople Berry | Sand Stream
Brave Nature | 252 HP / 220 Atk / 32 Def | 0 Spe IVs
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Protect

Mew @ Sitrus Berry | Synchronize
Calm Nature | 252 HP / 148 SDef / 108 Spd
- Psychic
- Taunt
- Helping Hand
- Will-O-Wisp

 

[Pen Ink]

It seems Nollan and Audiosurfer beat me to the punch, haha.

Anyways, this is a solid team, Scotti. I actually have a lot of similar ideas that Nollan and Audiosurfer have and some others. First and foremost, the biggest problems I see the team having trouble with are: Trick Room and Intimidate users (Hitmontop and Landorus-T). I'm not really a fan of Tailwind Latios, and while I see the utility in Tailwind, I don't like Latios using it. While Latios checks Hitmontop and Kingdra well, I agree with Nollan in that Defiant Tornadus would be a much better fit. Tornadus allows you to force the opponent to play Hitmontop and Landorus-T a lot more cautiously and now have the utility of Prankster Tailwind and Taunt. I'm going to suggest the same set that Nollan suggested.

Hide

Tornados @ Flying Gem
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Superpower
- Taunt / Tailwind / U-turn
- Protect / Taunt

I'm also going to second the switch from Offensive to Defensive Mew. This team lacks a strong supporter and Mew fits well just because of its wide movepool. I'd basically just repeat what Audiosurfer said, so I'm just going to repost the set.

Hide

Mew @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 148 SDef / 108 Spd
Calm Nature
- Psychic
- Taunt
- Helping Hand
- Will-O-Wisp / Fake Out

My last suggestion, which is a bit unorthodox, is to replace Volcarona with a Rain check. I'm not really a fan of non-Rage Powder Volc, but besides from my own bias, I don't feel like Volcarona meshes well with this team. I don't really like stacking Water weaknesses on Sand teams, so I think that something else besides Rotom-W that helps check Rain would work well in this slot. I think that Haban Kyurem would actually fit nicely on the team, since it checks opposing Dragons like Kingdra and Landorus-T, checks Rain nicely, and adds some speed control to this team.

Hide

Kyurem @ Haban Berry
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 184 SpA / 32 SpD / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
- Glaciate
- Draco Meteor
- Earth Power
- Protect

The EV spread does a couple of things:
· Always survives Gem- or Specs-boosted Draco Meteor from Latios, even taking Sandstorm into account.
· It can survive any physical Dragon-type move after Sandstorm, bar Choice Banded Outrage from Kyurem-B, which it has actually has a chance to survive.
· After using Glaciate, it outspeeds max Speed Thundurus / Tornadus, Modest Shaymin and everything below.
· Rest gets dumped into Special Attack, including the nature to kill more things.

tl;dr

1. Tailwind Latios -> Defiant Tornadus
2. Offensive Mew -> Defensive Mew
3. Volcarona -> Haban Kyurem
4. Any other suggestions by Nollan and Audio that I don't feel like repeating just for the sake of repeating

 

[BlankZero]

Something you could try out is Fire Blast on TTar. It nerfs Scizor hard (and Gene and Ferro) who are all usual checks to TTar. With the Defensive investment, you'll live the Bullet Punch, Power Whip, and maybe even the unboosted Iron Head.

Just food for thought.

Edit to add:

Volcarona and Latios get Tailwind btw, which can really help you out if you lose the weather war or if you don't want to worry about opposing Excadrill winning the Speed Tie in your face. Since I don't really see any form of speed control anywhere, it might be a good idea to have a backup plan.

Also, Mew learns it as well and would function best on this team as a support pivot. Think Safeguard, Fake Out, Taunt, Wide Guard (nothing here likes taking EQ or Surf), Tailwind, Swagger, etc.