Okay, so I've only just recently come back to pokemon being ignorant to anything B/W had to offer and after checking things out I decided I'd try to get back into double battling. I saw VGC 2011 but I was far more interested in all the things the non-Unova pokemon got this gen so I decided to try a non-VGC team out. I thought I'd go with an old standby that I'm familiar with, Trick Room, and have been running this team to not only get reaccustomed with battling but better observe all the new threats and hopefully form new strategies (currently I'd like to make another Skill Swap team but I do not know where to start). As can be expected getting a lot of good experience with this team is hard but I've had some good battles against some well-thought out dedicated doubles teams. Still, some further advice won't hurt.
Lead:
Dusknoir@Mental Herb
Pressure
Brave 252 HP/232 Def/24 Atk
-Trick Room
-Will-o-Wisp
-Shadow Sneak
-Rock Slide
Hariyama@Leftovers
Thick Fat
Brave 252 Atk/76 HP/180 DEF
-Fake Out
-Wide Guard
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
Standard TR lead, and more often than not I start out with this even with team preview since it's probably the most reliable lead I think I could muster up. I used this lead on a previous 4th Gen doubles team and it worked well so I brought it back with a few tweaks. The idea here is to have Hariyama Fake Out the most obvious threat first turn or, in the case of weather abusers going for the obvious double surf, blizzard, heatwave, or earthquake, protect with Wide Guard while Dusknoir uses TR. From there Dusknoir usually burns any serious attacker I know I can't eliminate right away or switches to Metagross or Parasect for offense or support while Hariyama destroys whatever she can.
My first pokemon, Dusknoir, is also my first Trick Roomer and a rather fine one at that. With his ghost typing I don't have to fear Fake Out, and with Mental Herb I don't have to fear priority Taunt from Erufuun or, if it switches in the turn I use TR, priority Encore. Given his decent defense and Hariyama's fake out I can get TR off first turn nearly all the time, only fearing the occasional Follow Me poke paired with a Sleep-inducer. He's also immune to Explosion but that's not as big a deal given its nerf. I originally had Cofagrigus in this slot but I found Mummy to be more of a hindrance than a help and Shadow Sneak and Rock Slide helped out more on average. WoW is there to cripple any strong physical attacker that would threaten my team or provide residual damage on some of the more defensive enemies to help my teammates take them down later although I have to be careful with it so I can still use Spore.
Now for Hariyama, I knew I wanted a strong, slow fighting type on this team. I thought first of using Roopushin for his lower speed and higher attack but I figured that Hariyama would do my team better due to the added Fire and Ice resist against Hail and Sunny Day teams and Fake Out to help set up--not to mention she got Wide Guard as well as Roopushin. Like Dusknoir, she doesn't go down easy, and I usually use her to take down some of the more annoying crap and fliers. Since Fake Out is pretty useful for getting TR set back up later game, I try to keep her alive as long as I can; I know Close Combat is counter-productive in this regard but she doesn't get Hammer Arm.
Slowking@Leftovers
Regeneration
Quiet 252 Sp. Atk, 212 HP, 44 Def
-Trick Room
-Boiling Water
-Psychic
-Healing Beam
My second Trick Roomer and one of my all-time favorites, Slowking got some awesome buffs this gen that let her do her job even better. She gives me a good switch in to Surf and Blizzard and all that jazz and is a pretty reliable user of Trick Room, but one thing that caught my eye is that she and Slowbro are the slowest users of Healing Beam. It takes some getting used to, but with some good prediction I can give my teammates a new lease on life, especially Shibirudon who racks up the recoil damage, which allows me to avoid saccing things early and gives me more leeway when outside of Trick Room. However, the only problem with this is the dreaded 4 moveslot syndrome, so I had to drop Slack Off to maintain an offensive threat which more or less requires me to run Regeneration. Regeneration in itself is great but requires a bit more thinking in order to keep Slowking healthy and is less reliable than a straight Slack Off. It also makes it harder to take on opposing Machamps.
Aside from that, she functions mainly to take down opposing fighting types and such in TR like Roopushin and Machamp so I have Psychic, although I'm wondering if a move like Flamethrower would go better in its place. Also, I have Boiling Water over Surf since nothing on my team outside of Parasect really appreciates constant Surfs and the burn chance doesn't hurt either.
Also I won't change her out for Slowbro so don't even suggest it.
Metagross@Leftovers
Clear Body
Brave 252 Atk/252 HP/4 DEF
-Bullet Punch
-Hammer Arm
-Ice Punch
-Protect
Figured I needed a steel type on the team and some way to use priority outside of TR. I tried out Macho Brace Excadrill (which sucked) and LO Scizor (which was alright) before this. Pretty standard, Hammer Arm to "boost" my speed in TR and deal with Steels and such, Bullet Punch for STAB priority, Ice Punch for Dragons and such, Protect for filler and stalling. I've been thinking of changing Protect, however, for Meteor Mash for strong STAB or Thunderpunch to help deal with water types better. This slot is still probably the one most in flux so if you have any suggestions for a better pokemon for this slot feel free.
Shibirudon@Life Orb
Levitate
Brave 252 Atk/ 252 Sp. Atk/4 HP
-Flamethrower
-Crunch
-Wild Volt
-Dragon Claw
I freaking love this thing. I was looking through the new low-speed pokemon in gen 5 and this one caught my eye. I needed a ground resist anyway and this looked like a pretty good mixed sweeper so I decided to try her out and man does she rip things apart. She lets me take down some of the more annoying waters, dragons, pretty much anything. The moveset is mostly just for coverage--I did not use Discharge for obvious reasons. She takes a lot of damage from recoil but as I said before Slowking helps take care of that. However, the only problem is that, with meh defenses and no priority, outside of TR Shibirudon can't do much anything and I have to be careful getting her in. Provided I can do that, though, the enemy is in a world of pain.
Parasect@Leftovers
Dry Skin
Sassy 252 HP/128 Def/128 Sp. Def
-Spore
-Aromatherapy
-Seed Bomb
-Synthesis
Now this may seem weird. Parasect can't do much offensively--maybe harass water and ground types with Seed Bomb but that's it--but having used Parasect before and on this team I have to say this is probably the best choice for a cleric for this team. In all my experience playing doubles I've found a good cleric to be a great asset to any team, and while my team doesn't fear Paralysis, it's become far too easy to catch a burn, sleep, freeze, etc, and Parasect helps out there. She's the slowest user of Aromatherapy so she's the obvious choice.
Aside from that, Parasect gives me an EQ resist and Dry Skin helps against RD teams. Spore is incredibly useful--virtually removing a pokemon from play always is--but it's especially useful in making sure I can set TR back up so I often use it when TR is about to run out. It also makes it easier to take on other ridiculously slow pokes on TR teams. Synthesis is simply an okay recovery move, nothing fancy. Seed Bomb because it helps against RD teams and I couldn't think of anything better to put there.
Now, like I said, extensively testing this team is hard since non-VGC double battles are hard to come by and most one encounters are with kiddies new to pokemon randomly choosing the ladder with their poorly-constructed teams, although I have had a few good battles. From those I can say that I do have problems with Shadow Tag Shandera and Erufuun combos, as even with Mental Herb they force my hand quite easily. In fact, Shanderas spamming Protect are a nightmare for my team and I do not know exactly how to deal with them. Barring that, I think I could stand to better be able to function outside of TR.
Lead:
Dusknoir@Mental Herb
Pressure
Brave 252 HP/232 Def/24 Atk
-Trick Room
-Will-o-Wisp
-Shadow Sneak
-Rock Slide
Hariyama@Leftovers
Thick Fat
Brave 252 Atk/76 HP/180 DEF
-Fake Out
-Wide Guard
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
Standard TR lead, and more often than not I start out with this even with team preview since it's probably the most reliable lead I think I could muster up. I used this lead on a previous 4th Gen doubles team and it worked well so I brought it back with a few tweaks. The idea here is to have Hariyama Fake Out the most obvious threat first turn or, in the case of weather abusers going for the obvious double surf, blizzard, heatwave, or earthquake, protect with Wide Guard while Dusknoir uses TR. From there Dusknoir usually burns any serious attacker I know I can't eliminate right away or switches to Metagross or Parasect for offense or support while Hariyama destroys whatever she can.
My first pokemon, Dusknoir, is also my first Trick Roomer and a rather fine one at that. With his ghost typing I don't have to fear Fake Out, and with Mental Herb I don't have to fear priority Taunt from Erufuun or, if it switches in the turn I use TR, priority Encore. Given his decent defense and Hariyama's fake out I can get TR off first turn nearly all the time, only fearing the occasional Follow Me poke paired with a Sleep-inducer. He's also immune to Explosion but that's not as big a deal given its nerf. I originally had Cofagrigus in this slot but I found Mummy to be more of a hindrance than a help and Shadow Sneak and Rock Slide helped out more on average. WoW is there to cripple any strong physical attacker that would threaten my team or provide residual damage on some of the more defensive enemies to help my teammates take them down later although I have to be careful with it so I can still use Spore.
Now for Hariyama, I knew I wanted a strong, slow fighting type on this team. I thought first of using Roopushin for his lower speed and higher attack but I figured that Hariyama would do my team better due to the added Fire and Ice resist against Hail and Sunny Day teams and Fake Out to help set up--not to mention she got Wide Guard as well as Roopushin. Like Dusknoir, she doesn't go down easy, and I usually use her to take down some of the more annoying crap and fliers. Since Fake Out is pretty useful for getting TR set back up later game, I try to keep her alive as long as I can; I know Close Combat is counter-productive in this regard but she doesn't get Hammer Arm.
Slowking@Leftovers
Regeneration
Quiet 252 Sp. Atk, 212 HP, 44 Def
-Trick Room
-Boiling Water
-Psychic
-Healing Beam
My second Trick Roomer and one of my all-time favorites, Slowking got some awesome buffs this gen that let her do her job even better. She gives me a good switch in to Surf and Blizzard and all that jazz and is a pretty reliable user of Trick Room, but one thing that caught my eye is that she and Slowbro are the slowest users of Healing Beam. It takes some getting used to, but with some good prediction I can give my teammates a new lease on life, especially Shibirudon who racks up the recoil damage, which allows me to avoid saccing things early and gives me more leeway when outside of Trick Room. However, the only problem with this is the dreaded 4 moveslot syndrome, so I had to drop Slack Off to maintain an offensive threat which more or less requires me to run Regeneration. Regeneration in itself is great but requires a bit more thinking in order to keep Slowking healthy and is less reliable than a straight Slack Off. It also makes it harder to take on opposing Machamps.
Aside from that, she functions mainly to take down opposing fighting types and such in TR like Roopushin and Machamp so I have Psychic, although I'm wondering if a move like Flamethrower would go better in its place. Also, I have Boiling Water over Surf since nothing on my team outside of Parasect really appreciates constant Surfs and the burn chance doesn't hurt either.
Also I won't change her out for Slowbro so don't even suggest it.
Metagross@Leftovers
Clear Body
Brave 252 Atk/252 HP/4 DEF
-Bullet Punch
-Hammer Arm
-Ice Punch
-Protect
Figured I needed a steel type on the team and some way to use priority outside of TR. I tried out Macho Brace Excadrill (which sucked) and LO Scizor (which was alright) before this. Pretty standard, Hammer Arm to "boost" my speed in TR and deal with Steels and such, Bullet Punch for STAB priority, Ice Punch for Dragons and such, Protect for filler and stalling. I've been thinking of changing Protect, however, for Meteor Mash for strong STAB or Thunderpunch to help deal with water types better. This slot is still probably the one most in flux so if you have any suggestions for a better pokemon for this slot feel free.
Shibirudon@Life Orb
Levitate
Brave 252 Atk/ 252 Sp. Atk/4 HP
-Flamethrower
-Crunch
-Wild Volt
-Dragon Claw
I freaking love this thing. I was looking through the new low-speed pokemon in gen 5 and this one caught my eye. I needed a ground resist anyway and this looked like a pretty good mixed sweeper so I decided to try her out and man does she rip things apart. She lets me take down some of the more annoying waters, dragons, pretty much anything. The moveset is mostly just for coverage--I did not use Discharge for obvious reasons. She takes a lot of damage from recoil but as I said before Slowking helps take care of that. However, the only problem is that, with meh defenses and no priority, outside of TR Shibirudon can't do much anything and I have to be careful getting her in. Provided I can do that, though, the enemy is in a world of pain.
Parasect@Leftovers
Dry Skin
Sassy 252 HP/128 Def/128 Sp. Def
-Spore
-Aromatherapy
-Seed Bomb
-Synthesis
Now this may seem weird. Parasect can't do much offensively--maybe harass water and ground types with Seed Bomb but that's it--but having used Parasect before and on this team I have to say this is probably the best choice for a cleric for this team. In all my experience playing doubles I've found a good cleric to be a great asset to any team, and while my team doesn't fear Paralysis, it's become far too easy to catch a burn, sleep, freeze, etc, and Parasect helps out there. She's the slowest user of Aromatherapy so she's the obvious choice.
Aside from that, Parasect gives me an EQ resist and Dry Skin helps against RD teams. Spore is incredibly useful--virtually removing a pokemon from play always is--but it's especially useful in making sure I can set TR back up so I often use it when TR is about to run out. It also makes it easier to take on other ridiculously slow pokes on TR teams. Synthesis is simply an okay recovery move, nothing fancy. Seed Bomb because it helps against RD teams and I couldn't think of anything better to put there.
Now, like I said, extensively testing this team is hard since non-VGC double battles are hard to come by and most one encounters are with kiddies new to pokemon randomly choosing the ladder with their poorly-constructed teams, although I have had a few good battles. From those I can say that I do have problems with Shadow Tag Shandera and Erufuun combos, as even with Mental Herb they force my hand quite easily. In fact, Shanderas spamming Protect are a nightmare for my team and I do not know exactly how to deal with them. Barring that, I think I could stand to better be able to function outside of TR.
