ORAS Doubles OU Pulses

Arcticblast

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-----------------------------------------Pulses-----------------------------------------

Hey guys, I'm back! (And potentially addicted to showing off cool teams!) I wanted to post a team that's been working incredibly well both on the ladder and in tournaments, currently standing at 3-1 in Summer Seasonal (lost week 1 against finally and my own terrible plays). I built this several months ago, and it hasn't changed much since it was created, but it hasn't exactly stopped working, meaning I've been able to play with it a ton and learn the team inside out. Figuring out how each Pokemon works with each other Pokemon on the team is something I always enjoy, but due to the volume of teams I build I rarely get the opportunity to do so.

I actually have a teambuilding process for you guys this time! ...it's rather short and probably not that helpful.


The team started when I wanted to use support Raikou, one of my favorite sets (for reasons I’ll explain later), for the first time since early XY. I believe it was Nido-Rus who told me that Raikou worked well with Mega Diancie, and I jumped at the opportunity.


A natural next choice was Heatran. It provided a great check to bulky Grasses and Steels like Amoonguss and Aegislash, which the duo hates.


WHOOPS TRIPLE GROUND WEAK. At this point the team isn’t much of a fan of bulky Water-types either. Rather than go for something like Rotom-W, I chose to use Breloom. While not the bulkiest choice, Breloom technically handles both the bulky Water issue and resists Ground, so it’s cool in my book.


At this stage I realized I had no Ground immunities, making it very difficult to switch into Landorus-T. I think I added both Cresselia and Gyarados here as two solid Pokemon that take no damage from Earthquake. Gyarados even has the benefits of Intimidate and resisting Water.

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Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

It’s only natural for me to start with Breloom because it’s easily the most frequent lead. Not only does it have a good matchup against common leads like Kangaskhan, Landorus-T, and Bisharp, but the threat of an early Spore puts huge pressure on the opponent. Of course, that isn’t all it’s useful for - Breloom’s strong Bullet Seed makes the removal of bulky Water-types like Suicune and Rotom-W much easier, and Mach Punch lets Breloom operate a little more freely in the face of opposing Speed control. Focus Sash lets me make some risky plays like Sporing a Talonflame or downing an opposing Diancie with Bullet Seed. Unfortunately, Breloom’s defensive stats leave a lot to be desired, and despite having some useful resistances it’s hard to play them up; Breloom often ends up being the first thing I lose in a match.


Gyarados @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Crunch

Combine the defensive attributes of a Gyarados with base 125 Attack and you get something like this. After picking it up from Mizuhime way back when, Choice Band Gyarados has been one of my most used sets. Intimidate is incredibly useful on any team, allowing the user to soften blows from the metagame’s threatening physical attackers, and having an Intimidate user with some bite to it gives you an effective pivot that can force some switches of its own. Because I added Gyarados, the moves that aren’t Waterfall were based on things that I didn’t have much of - Earthquake is a substitute for a lack of Ground STAB, Ice Fang supplements Cresselia’s Ice Beam, and Crunch lets me hit Cresselia harder than anything else. I used to run Facade over Crunch before CM Cress got big (what a hilarious Talonflame lure that was though). The Speed EVs outrun max Adamant Bisharp by two points.


Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 56 SpA / 80 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Sunny Day

It’s hard to find a team that isn’t improved without Cresselia. Ridiculous bulk, a wide support movepool, and a couple interesting types of attacks allow it to be molded to fit its team’s specific needs. For this, I needed something that could take hits for days, beat Landorus-T, and help me check Trick Room. Ice Beam and my own Trick Room did just that, and Psyshock was used to hit things just a little harder. Sunny Day was an afterthought - I found myself weak to Rain by the time I added Cress - but it turned out to be much more important than I expected. I forget what this EV spread does; I’ve been using it since XY...


Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 180 HP / 252 SpA / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Substitute
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power

And here we start getting into the members of the team with the biggest impact on individual matches. Enter Heatran. The Substitute set, feared since late BW, is as good as it’s always been. Not only does it check Amoonguss like nothing else, but it can win almost any attrition war (even coming out on top against CM Cress with a burn) and is amazing at drawing fire away from partners. When Heatran uses Substitute, it’s either sticking around forever or it’s drawn attacks from something else and died. It’s hard to fully explain - it just puts immense pressure on the field.

What I didn’t anticipate when I built the team was the way Cresselia influences Heatran. I learned that Trick Room was an incredibly useful tool against faster, frailer teams, and when Sunny Day is thrown into the mix Heatran becomes absolutely deadly against the fast and frail Pokemon normally seen on such teams. Even against balance, it’s useful - Heat Wave now 2HKOs Mega Kangaskhan, bringing Heatran from “Kangaskhan bait” to “Kangaskhan check” in the blink of an eye, and Kyurem-B is no longer so willing to switch in. The two Pokemon give my team an effective TR mode against faster offense that serves as an excellent win condition.


Raikou @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Thunder Wave
- Snarl
- Volt Switch

About a year and a half ago, I played a friendly match against Laga with a team consisting of 50% cat Pokemon. Laga got an early advantage by tricking a Choice Scarf onto my Raikou, or so he thought. That Raikou proceeded to paralyze and debuff everything he had on the team and never stayed in long enough for him to beat it. The match was a decisive victory for me, and so the legend of Laga’s Bane began.

This Raikou is an incredibly annoying support take on a normally offensive Pokemon. Thunder Wave slows down opposing Pokemon to put them in firing range for my slower attackers. Snarl makes everything on my team tougher to break and really messes with Substitute users like Kyurem-B and Heatran. Volt Switch, while quite weak, ensures that I don’t lose my opportunity to paralyze something by getting out of battle. The chip damage caused by Snarl and Volt Switch makes it easier for my team, which is powerful but lacks outright killing power, to pick up vital KOs. While it doesn’t always fit on teams, support Raikou is an amazing set that, simply by crippling the opponent, is able to gain a lot of momentum for the user. Give it a try.


Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 208 Atk / 48 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Protect
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Earth Power

Perhaps the star of the show. Mega Diancie is without a doubt one of the top Mega Evolutions in Doubles OU, and arguably second only to Kangaskhan. 160/160/110 offenses let me do things like cut down Keldeo, blow past bulky Thundurus, obliterate the many things with wings flying around, and generally just do big damage before the opponent can. Diamond Storm’s boost chance means I can even stay in against Scarf Landorus-T sometimes and throw a Moonblast at it. Its typing gives me an easy out against most Dragons, letting the rest of the team deal with other things. Its frailty is a bit of a letdown, especially against bulkier variants of Kyurem-B, but nothing its offenses can’t make up for. I find that Diancie is often used more midgame and rarely becomes a win condition, as opposed to Heatran. A midgame Diancie is great at pressuring some important things and removing Fighting-types later for Heatran.

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Threats:


Aegislash is perhaps the biggest threat to this team. Since I don’t have Charizard Y or Landorus, I can’t OHKO it. I fear hitting it with Earth Power because of the potential Weakness Policy, and Wide Guard blocks my attempts to Heat Wave it. But I can’t just assume it’s WP and Spore it, because it could be Safety Goggles and kill my Breloom. Playing against an Aegislash requires a lot of guesswork (and it has nothing to do with King’s Shield), but it becomes much easier to handle when I figure out the set.


Sylveon and Mega Gardevoir suck to play against because of my lack of Fairy resists, but Heatran, Breloom, and Cresselia work together to take them down. Snarl helps too! I guess Mega Altaria would technically fit here too, but Altaria's terrible in Doubles rofl

???
???
NOT Kangaskhan. You might be thinking “but your only Fighting-type is Breloom, you have no Ghosts, and your Intimidate user is slower!” And that’s true. However, pretty much everything on the team can work together to neutralize a Kangaskhan. Diancie resists Return and Sucker Punch. Gyarados softens its blows for other Pokemon. Breloom can Mach Punch it for good damage or Spore on a proper prediction. Raikou paralyzes it. Cresselia can’t do much to it, but TR and Sunny Day together make Heatran quite capable of checking it. It helps that I’ve been playing Doubles for long enough to know how Kangaskhan works, too.

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I guess that about sums it up. Thanks for reading, guys!
Laga's Bane (Raikou) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Volt Switch
- Snarl
- Thunder Wave

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 208 Atk / 48 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Protect
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Earth Power

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 180 HP / 252 SpA / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Substitute
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 56 SpA / 80 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Sunny Day
- Trick Room

Gyarados @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Crunch
shoutout to atomicllamas for getting mad about the team only having one nickname
 

Arcticblast

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. Here are some changes, team looks p cool tho
  • Bump raikou's speed up to 354 (224 EVs) to outspeed fast thundy
  • Give Heatran Overheat > sub to OHKO aegis in shield form
  • It's also the minorest of minor details but 52 HP 32 Def on Gyarados guarantees you live fake out + return from Kang using the same 84 EVs you have in HP
good idea on Raikou, I was going to do that but forgot

no to Overheat, it totally changes how Heatran (and the entire team tbh) plays and is a lot less threatening in general

cool garydos idea
 

Yoda2798

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Hi there Arctic! This team looks very good, while Raikou is a nice tech.

184 HP 68 Defence (using the 252 in HP) on Raikou lives an Adamant Kang Return, but idk if you need that lol
 

Arcticblast

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is a Forum Moderatoris a Tiering Contributoris a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
I'm not really a fan of that for a couple reasons:
- it takes away a bit from Raikou's special bulk, which is more important when using Snarl
- I'm very unlikely to let Raikou take a Return from Kangaskhan. Gyarados on the other hand is far more likely to be blindly switched in against Kangaskhan (I sometimes need Gyarados for Kang and only Kang...).
 

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