Odd, no Pokébank Doubles Prefix, but since this team is 6th Gen, I hope this is in the right place. Let's kick this off, shall we?
This is my first RMT and one of my first posts on Smogon, but don't worry, I'm not a complete newbie to Doubles. If you're interested in my background, go ahead and read the profile blurb I bothered to type up (though it is pretty long, it may well be interesting). I've been testing out this team quite a bit, and while I'm new to competitive in general, having only really gotten into it a couple of months ago on PS, I'm far more familiar with Doubles as opposed to Single Battles. I'd also like to apologize in advance if this post is too long or something, but I assume effort > length, and if that's not the case, do say so. Alright, enough of that, let's get to the team.
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze -> Drought
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Protect
- Dragon Pulse
- SolarBeam
Place on the team:
This team is a sun team that revolves around Mega-Charizard Y, which is WAY better than Ninetails, even if it has to take up a Mega slot. The sun nerf is unfortunate, but since Doubles is so fast-paced and there's no Stealth Rock (usually), it's fairly easy to run a Charizard, especially with that sexy 150 base SpA and an sun boost to Heat Wave, which destroys many things, especially if there's Helping Hand or another spread attacker. Charizard is very weak to Rock, which is why I have three pokemon specifically to take out threatening Rock types. Its immunity to Ground is also invaluable with an Earthquakes on my team.
Moves/Item:
Heat Wave will be standard on any Fire-type special attacker, while Protect lets it avoid damage or status for various reasons. If predicted correctly, while one of their Pokémon does a wasted move, said threat can be KO'd or crippled with T-Wave/Icy Wind/Sleep Powder, which is very devastating and standard on any Doubles/VGC Pokémon. Air Slash is controversial; it does let me take out fighting types and things that are neutral to Heat Wave such as Volcarona, but that's about all it does. I used to run Air Slash for the Rock Slide combo for a ton of flinching and raging, but I decided to run Dragon Pulse instead to hit Dragons, which my team struggles with. SolarBeam is rather interesting; I do already have a Grass type in Venusaur which can use it, but I prefer giving it recovery, and since Sun isn't always guaranteed to go up, it gives Venusaur a rather useless move on occasion. However, I still wanted to take advantage that 120 BP (or maybe it was nerfed like some other things, but it's still pretty high), and I'm probably not going to have Venusaur out 100% of the time, so again, staying power for me to take out water types that threaten my team, even though sun already lowers their power. Grass is always great coverage with Fire types anyway.
EVs/Nature/Ability:
100 Base Speed is a bit average, so I figured it needed some help. It has enough Special Attack already in conjunction with Sunny Day, so Modest would've been a bit overkill. Should be self-explanatory.
Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Modest
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect
- Sleep Powder
Place on the team:
Chlorophyll Venusaur is a great Pokémon on a sun team. Along with that, a good amount of my team is weak to fairy, so Venusaur helps round that out with his Sludge Bomb. It's also the only Pokémon I have other than Charizard that can really take advantage of the sun, but that's perfectly fine, because the sun only lasts 5 turns and it's not very good to be completely reliant on a weather effect for sweeping. Chlorophyll is completely devastating on its own, but if you combine that with Venusaur's nice stats and access to Sleep Powder, it's game changing. Also, Krookodile and Terrakion share a lot of weaknesses, including Water, Grass, Fighting, and Fairy (which also is SE to Latios, how about that?), all of which Venusaur resists. Charizard is also weak to rock, so Venusaur's grass typing is one of three Pokemon on my team meant to remove that weakness. In many ways, Venusaur is the glue to any Sun Team, and on my team it's no exception.
Moves/Items:
Giga Drain gives it great recovery, and with a 75 BP and max Special Attack investment, it increases Venusaur's survivability by quite a lot while. It also allows it to run a Life Orb without much worry about recoil. Sludge Bomb does a considerable amount of damage to fairies, more often than not OHKO'ing them, even though they're all pretty SpDef heavy. It's also great for hitting anything that's immune to Sleep Powder. Both attacking moves are REALLY devastating with Cresselia's Helping Hand. Even though Grass/Poison is bad coverage, I don't care, because Venusaur isn't the only one that can attack at a time, and most everything that walls it can be handled by another one of my mons. Protect is standard, and a Chlorophyll + Sleep Powder combination allows me to immediately move in and cripple the biggest threats. Its accuracy isn't that reliable, but if it works, as aforementioned, it often turns the tide in my favor. If it doesn't, well, I have a GIANT hole to climb up out of, so I'm considering replacing it for coverage, but it helps keep Venusaur intact from threats.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
The EVs I'm not entirely sure about. I do know I want max SpAtk in order for venusaur to fill its job correctly, but it's also meant to be fast, and even with Chlorophyll, it can still be outsped if it doesn't have enough EVs. More HP EVs would also be nice as insurance in case Sleep Powder misses. If anyone has a suggestion for the EV spread, go ahead and share; otherwise, this has worked out pretty well for me so far. Chlorophyll is obvious, and like I said, I want max SpA, hence the modest, and it doesn't need extra speed from Timid because of Chlorophyll.
Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Earthquake
Place on the team:
A hard counter to Rock types, a VERY useful offensive typing, and being able to get +1 attack from a Dark-type move and KO Dark-types in order to support my psychic type, this Pokémon is very useful on my team. This thing literally knocks out everything Venusaur is legitimately threatened by (Fire-types, Ice-types, and Bug-types, not to mention Steel-types which wall it) in one hit, giving very good synergy to my team. I also have the proper Speed support and Helping Hand from Cresselia. It doesn't really take advantage of the sun, but its such a good Pokémon it earned a spot on my team. So good, I normally lead it with my Charizard because they can hit just about anything together.
Moves/Items:
Close Combat should be a pretty obvious choice, being as it's such a good offensive type. Rock Slide is preferred over Stone Edge for the spread + Helping Hand, and can do boatloads of damage with Charizard's Heat Wave being used at the same time, while also having pretty good coverage together. Earthquake isn't something you usually see, but SlideQuake is still pretty good, especially if I have 3 mons immune to E-quake and it's such a good move offensively, again. Very devastating sweeper right here. X-Scissor is something people use a lot to get past Cresselia, but I already have Aegislash for that, and it shouldn't be facing Cresselia anyway. I ran Life Orb before Focus Sash, and I'm finding it to be a LOT more helpful, although keeping it intact is a bit of a pain because Terrakion can't switch into anything, so it's usually my lead.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
Self-explanatory, as Justified lets it switch into Dark-types attacks that threaten my Psychics, and the EVs and Nature let it maximize its strengths. I could run Adamant over Jolly since I have speed control with Cresselia's Icy Wind, but Cresselia does also have Helping Hand, and Terrakion's Speed isn't all that amazing, so I prefer Jolly.
Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Atk / 156 Def
Nature: Adamant
- Swords Dance
- King's Shield
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword
Place on the team:
I tried this Pokémon out for a bit on singles, and damn this thing is fun to use. I noticed I had a pretty major weakness to Talonflame and Dragons, so I decided to get something that resists those things. I ran Krookodile before, but he wasn't an MVP or anything. Even if they decide to use an Earthquake or a Fire-type move (physical, such as Flare Blitz or Fire Punch), I could either use its signature to neuter them or it could use its Weakness Policy. I'm also pretty much guaranteed to get an SD up, and combine that with its priority and 150 base it's pretty darn good. Resists dragons? Check. Checks talonflame? Yep. TR insurance? Sure. Good revenge killer? Yeah. I do lose Intimidate, but Krookodile wasn't much of an asset anyway. It's also a great check to other Ghosts that threaten my Psychics, to permanently replace any Dark types. As for the Earthquake loss, I already have Earthquake on my Terrakion, so Krookodile was kind of redundant in that regard. A near-automatic +4 will definitely not be what my opponents will be expecting. See all those things on my threat list? They're much less prominent now.
Moves/Items:
SD is going to go up at least once since Aegislash has the bulk to pull it off. King's Shield is in place of Protect because it can make physical attackers such as Kangaskhan and Mawile and Talonflame and Tyranitar and (Mega) Blaziken and really anything think twice before attacking, and the mind games make Aegislash great. Shadow Sneak gave my team MUCH needed priority and is a STAB with perfect coverage alongside Sacred Sword, which is great especially if TR somehow went up and I need to hit a T-Tar or something.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
Its EVs are important. It's meant to be able to take an Earthquake or Flare Blitz assuming it hasn't already used King's Shield, and has worked well so far. It also allows it to take Sucker Punches from Kangaskhan and Mawile before moving in for the Sacred Sword, and prevents it from being KO'd by those things since they're extremely overpowered. I needed some bulk on my side anyway, and the remaining goes into Attack so it's not a complete slouch without a boost, same goes for the Nature. There's no real calculation involved in the particular EV spread, so if you think you can improve it while still filling 'slash's role, I'd love that.
Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Nature: Calm
- Thunder Wave
- Icy Wind
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room
Place on the team:
Speed control/support/immune to Earthquake/insane bulk/Helping Hand/Trick Room counter. This mon gives my team the TRUE power of the sun.
Moves/Items:
Thunder Wave and Icy Wind go on the same set. Whaaa? Usually, if I run Icy Wind, I find myself desperately wanting to cripple things a bit more, where if I run T-Wave, it's complete and utter Taunt bait and it can only cripple one Pokémon at a time. I basically choose whatever I need at the moment, but speed control is very important on a fast team like mine. Helping Hand is an AMAZING move as well on my team, since half my team has powerful spread moves or can make good use of extra power, such as Venusaur's Giga Drain. Since I only have 5 turns to make use of Drought, or more if I decide to switch it out before Charizard faints, I might as well make my attacks as powerful as possible. TR is there not to use, but to reset it, since my team completely and utterly hates it. It also has the bulk to pull it off (obviously). However, this set lacks recovery, so I tossed a Sitrus Berry on it. Before this, I used Moonlight for recovery which worked pretty well, but I almost always want to help out DPS instead of surviving.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
Since it doesn't have an attacking move other than Icy Wind, and with Latios being able to handle Psychic-type offense anyway, I put nothing in SpA and maximized its Special bulk because it NEEDS to take Shadow Balls (hehe) from Chandelure in order to be a legitimate TR counter. Levitate is useful if she wants to help out Terrakion with her hands and he needs to throw down an Earthquake.
Latios @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Dragon Pulse
- Psychic
- Protect
- Thunderbolt
Place on the team:
Another Levitating Psychic type? This has to be explained, I'm sure. I needed something that could counter the idiots that use Beat Up + Terrakion or Terrakion in general. This Latios outspeeds and KOs Terrakion with Psychic before it can do anything with its +6 Attack, and gives me another important Fighting-type counter other than Aegislash,. Since my Cresselia has a different role to fill, this mon takes the place as the offensive Levitating Psychic type while leaving me not completely vulnerable to Dragons, including other Latios. I considered Rotom-F (the Ice one) for similar coverage on dragons and DisQuake, but its Speed and typing are so bad it's not going on probably any team anytime soon. Latios also has some key resistances, since most of my team is weak to something Dragon resists.
Moves/Items:
I prefer Dragon Pulse over Draco Meteor since Doubles has 6 mons, not 4, and -2 SpA is very noticable because of that. It has helping hand support anyway, and its typing is so useful. Psychic over Psyshock, well, I don't know why. I guess I just like its higher BP and its chance to lower SpD. I also have Thunderbolt for my team to better take on Flying- and Water- types as well as having decent coverage and a chance to paralyze. You may argue I don't need Flying and Water coverage, but half my team is still weak to water, and there's no guarantee Terrakion is alive for his Rock Slides. Dragon Gem powers up the Dragon Pulse, giving it power it really needs, but I guess I could also run a LO, I just don't want to have multiple items in case I want to use this team in a tournament or something, idk.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
Max Speed to outspeed Max Speed Terrakion, max EV investment in SpA, some extra bulk, Levitate for my Equakes. Pretty self-explanatory.
Threats/Weaknesses to the Power:
Choice Scarf U-Turn Genesect
When something misses (lol)
Weak to priority and Trick Room
Certain rain teams
Klefki (considering adding to my team because it's SOOO annoying
If anyone has any suggestions for any of these threats, go ahead, I'd love to hear them. One thing I kind of want is to take advantage of the Sun a bit more, since this is a Sun Team, but as of right now the team looks pretty solid. Training this team is going to a be a pain as well, primarily with acquisition and training of the legendaries. If I made any mistake or did something I shouldn't have, go ahead and tell me and I apologize in advance. I'm new to the Smogon forums after all, but definitely not new to Pokémon or the Doubles metagame. Again, if you're interested in my background, go ahead and read my profile. So there you go, hopefully this gives you a pretty good understanding of my team. Happy rating :)
P.S.
Wow, no replies yet? I guess I should've realized how popular singles was over doubles. I'm going to start posting replays so you guys can get a gist of how it works. Also, this team is laddering fast, I just don't have much time being a freshman in high school. :(
Replays:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60579564
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60587475
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60589526
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60591642
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60599629
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60749765
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60779701
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60785605
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60789227
More soon
This is my first RMT and one of my first posts on Smogon, but don't worry, I'm not a complete newbie to Doubles. If you're interested in my background, go ahead and read the profile blurb I bothered to type up (though it is pretty long, it may well be interesting). I've been testing out this team quite a bit, and while I'm new to competitive in general, having only really gotten into it a couple of months ago on PS, I'm far more familiar with Doubles as opposed to Single Battles. I'd also like to apologize in advance if this post is too long or something, but I assume effort > length, and if that's not the case, do say so. Alright, enough of that, let's get to the team.
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze -> Drought
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Protect
- Dragon Pulse
- SolarBeam
Place on the team:
This team is a sun team that revolves around Mega-Charizard Y, which is WAY better than Ninetails, even if it has to take up a Mega slot. The sun nerf is unfortunate, but since Doubles is so fast-paced and there's no Stealth Rock (usually), it's fairly easy to run a Charizard, especially with that sexy 150 base SpA and an sun boost to Heat Wave, which destroys many things, especially if there's Helping Hand or another spread attacker. Charizard is very weak to Rock, which is why I have three pokemon specifically to take out threatening Rock types. Its immunity to Ground is also invaluable with an Earthquakes on my team.
Moves/Item:
Heat Wave will be standard on any Fire-type special attacker, while Protect lets it avoid damage or status for various reasons. If predicted correctly, while one of their Pokémon does a wasted move, said threat can be KO'd or crippled with T-Wave/Icy Wind/Sleep Powder, which is very devastating and standard on any Doubles/VGC Pokémon. Air Slash is controversial; it does let me take out fighting types and things that are neutral to Heat Wave such as Volcarona, but that's about all it does. I used to run Air Slash for the Rock Slide combo for a ton of flinching and raging, but I decided to run Dragon Pulse instead to hit Dragons, which my team struggles with. SolarBeam is rather interesting; I do already have a Grass type in Venusaur which can use it, but I prefer giving it recovery, and since Sun isn't always guaranteed to go up, it gives Venusaur a rather useless move on occasion. However, I still wanted to take advantage that 120 BP (or maybe it was nerfed like some other things, but it's still pretty high), and I'm probably not going to have Venusaur out 100% of the time, so again, staying power for me to take out water types that threaten my team, even though sun already lowers their power. Grass is always great coverage with Fire types anyway.
EVs/Nature/Ability:
100 Base Speed is a bit average, so I figured it needed some help. It has enough Special Attack already in conjunction with Sunny Day, so Modest would've been a bit overkill. Should be self-explanatory.
Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Modest
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect
- Sleep Powder
Place on the team:
Chlorophyll Venusaur is a great Pokémon on a sun team. Along with that, a good amount of my team is weak to fairy, so Venusaur helps round that out with his Sludge Bomb. It's also the only Pokémon I have other than Charizard that can really take advantage of the sun, but that's perfectly fine, because the sun only lasts 5 turns and it's not very good to be completely reliant on a weather effect for sweeping. Chlorophyll is completely devastating on its own, but if you combine that with Venusaur's nice stats and access to Sleep Powder, it's game changing. Also, Krookodile and Terrakion share a lot of weaknesses, including Water, Grass, Fighting, and Fairy (which also is SE to Latios, how about that?), all of which Venusaur resists. Charizard is also weak to rock, so Venusaur's grass typing is one of three Pokemon on my team meant to remove that weakness. In many ways, Venusaur is the glue to any Sun Team, and on my team it's no exception.
Moves/Items:
Giga Drain gives it great recovery, and with a 75 BP and max Special Attack investment, it increases Venusaur's survivability by quite a lot while. It also allows it to run a Life Orb without much worry about recoil. Sludge Bomb does a considerable amount of damage to fairies, more often than not OHKO'ing them, even though they're all pretty SpDef heavy. It's also great for hitting anything that's immune to Sleep Powder. Both attacking moves are REALLY devastating with Cresselia's Helping Hand. Even though Grass/Poison is bad coverage, I don't care, because Venusaur isn't the only one that can attack at a time, and most everything that walls it can be handled by another one of my mons. Protect is standard, and a Chlorophyll + Sleep Powder combination allows me to immediately move in and cripple the biggest threats. Its accuracy isn't that reliable, but if it works, as aforementioned, it often turns the tide in my favor. If it doesn't, well, I have a GIANT hole to climb up out of, so I'm considering replacing it for coverage, but it helps keep Venusaur intact from threats.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
The EVs I'm not entirely sure about. I do know I want max SpAtk in order for venusaur to fill its job correctly, but it's also meant to be fast, and even with Chlorophyll, it can still be outsped if it doesn't have enough EVs. More HP EVs would also be nice as insurance in case Sleep Powder misses. If anyone has a suggestion for the EV spread, go ahead and share; otherwise, this has worked out pretty well for me so far. Chlorophyll is obvious, and like I said, I want max SpA, hence the modest, and it doesn't need extra speed from Timid because of Chlorophyll.
Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Earthquake
Place on the team:
A hard counter to Rock types, a VERY useful offensive typing, and being able to get +1 attack from a Dark-type move and KO Dark-types in order to support my psychic type, this Pokémon is very useful on my team. This thing literally knocks out everything Venusaur is legitimately threatened by (Fire-types, Ice-types, and Bug-types, not to mention Steel-types which wall it) in one hit, giving very good synergy to my team. I also have the proper Speed support and Helping Hand from Cresselia. It doesn't really take advantage of the sun, but its such a good Pokémon it earned a spot on my team. So good, I normally lead it with my Charizard because they can hit just about anything together.
Moves/Items:
Close Combat should be a pretty obvious choice, being as it's such a good offensive type. Rock Slide is preferred over Stone Edge for the spread + Helping Hand, and can do boatloads of damage with Charizard's Heat Wave being used at the same time, while also having pretty good coverage together. Earthquake isn't something you usually see, but SlideQuake is still pretty good, especially if I have 3 mons immune to E-quake and it's such a good move offensively, again. Very devastating sweeper right here. X-Scissor is something people use a lot to get past Cresselia, but I already have Aegislash for that, and it shouldn't be facing Cresselia anyway. I ran Life Orb before Focus Sash, and I'm finding it to be a LOT more helpful, although keeping it intact is a bit of a pain because Terrakion can't switch into anything, so it's usually my lead.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
Self-explanatory, as Justified lets it switch into Dark-types attacks that threaten my Psychics, and the EVs and Nature let it maximize its strengths. I could run Adamant over Jolly since I have speed control with Cresselia's Icy Wind, but Cresselia does also have Helping Hand, and Terrakion's Speed isn't all that amazing, so I prefer Jolly.
Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Atk / 156 Def
Nature: Adamant
- Swords Dance
- King's Shield
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword
Place on the team:
I tried this Pokémon out for a bit on singles, and damn this thing is fun to use. I noticed I had a pretty major weakness to Talonflame and Dragons, so I decided to get something that resists those things. I ran Krookodile before, but he wasn't an MVP or anything. Even if they decide to use an Earthquake or a Fire-type move (physical, such as Flare Blitz or Fire Punch), I could either use its signature to neuter them or it could use its Weakness Policy. I'm also pretty much guaranteed to get an SD up, and combine that with its priority and 150 base it's pretty darn good. Resists dragons? Check. Checks talonflame? Yep. TR insurance? Sure. Good revenge killer? Yeah. I do lose Intimidate, but Krookodile wasn't much of an asset anyway. It's also a great check to other Ghosts that threaten my Psychics, to permanently replace any Dark types. As for the Earthquake loss, I already have Earthquake on my Terrakion, so Krookodile was kind of redundant in that regard. A near-automatic +4 will definitely not be what my opponents will be expecting. See all those things on my threat list? They're much less prominent now.
Moves/Items:
SD is going to go up at least once since Aegislash has the bulk to pull it off. King's Shield is in place of Protect because it can make physical attackers such as Kangaskhan and Mawile and Talonflame and Tyranitar and (Mega) Blaziken and really anything think twice before attacking, and the mind games make Aegislash great. Shadow Sneak gave my team MUCH needed priority and is a STAB with perfect coverage alongside Sacred Sword, which is great especially if TR somehow went up and I need to hit a T-Tar or something.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
Its EVs are important. It's meant to be able to take an Earthquake or Flare Blitz assuming it hasn't already used King's Shield, and has worked well so far. It also allows it to take Sucker Punches from Kangaskhan and Mawile before moving in for the Sacred Sword, and prevents it from being KO'd by those things since they're extremely overpowered. I needed some bulk on my side anyway, and the remaining goes into Attack so it's not a complete slouch without a boost, same goes for the Nature. There's no real calculation involved in the particular EV spread, so if you think you can improve it while still filling 'slash's role, I'd love that.
Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Nature: Calm
- Thunder Wave
- Icy Wind
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room
Place on the team:
Speed control/support/immune to Earthquake/insane bulk/Helping Hand/Trick Room counter. This mon gives my team the TRUE power of the sun.
Moves/Items:
Thunder Wave and Icy Wind go on the same set. Whaaa? Usually, if I run Icy Wind, I find myself desperately wanting to cripple things a bit more, where if I run T-Wave, it's complete and utter Taunt bait and it can only cripple one Pokémon at a time. I basically choose whatever I need at the moment, but speed control is very important on a fast team like mine. Helping Hand is an AMAZING move as well on my team, since half my team has powerful spread moves or can make good use of extra power, such as Venusaur's Giga Drain. Since I only have 5 turns to make use of Drought, or more if I decide to switch it out before Charizard faints, I might as well make my attacks as powerful as possible. TR is there not to use, but to reset it, since my team completely and utterly hates it. It also has the bulk to pull it off (obviously). However, this set lacks recovery, so I tossed a Sitrus Berry on it. Before this, I used Moonlight for recovery which worked pretty well, but I almost always want to help out DPS instead of surviving.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
Since it doesn't have an attacking move other than Icy Wind, and with Latios being able to handle Psychic-type offense anyway, I put nothing in SpA and maximized its Special bulk because it NEEDS to take Shadow Balls (hehe) from Chandelure in order to be a legitimate TR counter. Levitate is useful if she wants to help out Terrakion with her hands and he needs to throw down an Earthquake.
Latios @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Dragon Pulse
- Psychic
- Protect
- Thunderbolt
Place on the team:
Another Levitating Psychic type? This has to be explained, I'm sure. I needed something that could counter the idiots that use Beat Up + Terrakion or Terrakion in general. This Latios outspeeds and KOs Terrakion with Psychic before it can do anything with its +6 Attack, and gives me another important Fighting-type counter other than Aegislash,. Since my Cresselia has a different role to fill, this mon takes the place as the offensive Levitating Psychic type while leaving me not completely vulnerable to Dragons, including other Latios. I considered Rotom-F (the Ice one) for similar coverage on dragons and DisQuake, but its Speed and typing are so bad it's not going on probably any team anytime soon. Latios also has some key resistances, since most of my team is weak to something Dragon resists.
Moves/Items:
I prefer Dragon Pulse over Draco Meteor since Doubles has 6 mons, not 4, and -2 SpA is very noticable because of that. It has helping hand support anyway, and its typing is so useful. Psychic over Psyshock, well, I don't know why. I guess I just like its higher BP and its chance to lower SpD. I also have Thunderbolt for my team to better take on Flying- and Water- types as well as having decent coverage and a chance to paralyze. You may argue I don't need Flying and Water coverage, but half my team is still weak to water, and there's no guarantee Terrakion is alive for his Rock Slides. Dragon Gem powers up the Dragon Pulse, giving it power it really needs, but I guess I could also run a LO, I just don't want to have multiple items in case I want to use this team in a tournament or something, idk.
EVs/Ability/Nature:
Max Speed to outspeed Max Speed Terrakion, max EV investment in SpA, some extra bulk, Levitate for my Equakes. Pretty self-explanatory.
Threats/Weaknesses to the Power:
Choice Scarf U-Turn Genesect
When something misses (lol)
Weak to priority and Trick Room
Certain rain teams
Klefki (considering adding to my team because it's SOOO annoying
If anyone has any suggestions for any of these threats, go ahead, I'd love to hear them. One thing I kind of want is to take advantage of the Sun a bit more, since this is a Sun Team, but as of right now the team looks pretty solid. Training this team is going to a be a pain as well, primarily with acquisition and training of the legendaries. If I made any mistake or did something I shouldn't have, go ahead and tell me and I apologize in advance. I'm new to the Smogon forums after all, but definitely not new to Pokémon or the Doubles metagame. Again, if you're interested in my background, go ahead and read my profile. So there you go, hopefully this gives you a pretty good understanding of my team. Happy rating :)
P.S.
Wow, no replies yet? I guess I should've realized how popular singles was over doubles. I'm going to start posting replays so you guys can get a gist of how it works. Also, this team is laddering fast, I just don't have much time being a freshman in high school. :(
Replays:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60579564
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60587475
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60589526
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60591642
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60599629
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60749765
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60779701
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60785605
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-60789227
More soon
Last edited: