ORAS Doubles OU Rate my ORAS Rain Team

[PaladinMuffin]

Hello, everyone. I had started playing Pokemon towards the end of third gen, but had only started digging into competitive play less than a year ago. The following team was a team I had put and tested. I have based it around the idea of trying to take down my friend's Greninja and Mega ZardY with a Mega Swampert. With that said, I think I should introduce you to my team.

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Ice Punch
-Protect

Swampert, along with Blaziken, is one of my all-time favorites and was able to lead me into believing that it could sponge some hits. I also noticed that it gains Swift Swim upon Mega Evolution and this team is my attempt at taking advantage of that. I chose this as the physical tank/rain sweeper on my team as its hp, attack, and defense base stats are what I consider high. Waterfall and EQ, both packing somewhat high power, are its STAB attacks. Ice punch is for dealing with grass- and flying- types which it may otherwise be unable to touch. Protect is there to make sure that Swampert does not get KO'd by a grass-type attack before Swift Swim kicks in.


Vaporeon @ Damp Rock
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 204 HP / 248 Def / 56 SpD
Calm Nature
- Rain Dance
- Scald
- Roar
- Rest

Vaporeon is what I looked towards when I was looking for another team member that could potentially take advantage of rain. Vaporeon is the Rain Dancer of the team, having both the bulk and a somewhat reliable mean of recovery. Its ability Hydration is there to allow it to hold Damp Rock rather than holding the Chesto Berry. Rest is for recovery. Scald is for the potential burn on any physical attackers or some really bulky Pokes.



Yanmega @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash
- Ancient Power
- Protect

I saw potential for this dragonfly-looking-thing in special sweeping, something that was missing from my team. Yanmega is there to deal with grass-types that threaten Mega Swampert or Vaporeon and is the offensive lead. Bug Buzz and Air Slash are its STAB moves as these are the most powerful special STAB it has. Ancient Power is for taking down Mega ZardY who could override rain with Drought. Protect is to allow Speed Boost to kick in when needed.


Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
- Defog

When I thought of a specially defensive Pokemon that could take neutral hits from the threats I had in mind when building this team, Empoleon popped up in my mind. This penguin plays as the pseudo-hazer, entry hazard lead, and entry hazard remover. Leftovers is for passive recovery. Scald is to give burn to physical threats. Roar for pseudo-hazing or bringing in Pokemon that are 4 times weak to rock to give them a punishment. Defog is to remove any entry hazards on my side of the field and comes with a handy drop in evasion on the opponent.


Metagross @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake

Metagross crossed my mind when it comes to finding a balanced mix between offense and defense. This metal arachnid serves as a secondary physical tank and a priority user. Clear Body is included to make sure that its attack does not drop from Intimidate or Attack-cutting moves. Assault Vest allows it to *barely* live a Dark Pulse from Greninja or a Shadow Ball from Gengar and hit really hard in return. Bullet Punch is to net a KO on a Poke that could kill it if it gets outsped. 252 Atk EVs is given to maximize its damage.


Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Garchomp is a fierce physical attacker, and is just what I need to take out both Mega Zard X and Y if everything else on the team fails to do so. Its role is to dish out as much damage as possible while staying alive. For that reason, the Rocky Helmet was included. 252 Spe and Jolly is to make sure it outspeeds unboosted Mega ZardX. EQ is an obvious stab choice for the land shark. Dragon Claw is preferred over Outrage or Dragon Rush due to the inability to choose a target or the bad accuracy respectively. Rock slide is included to hit multiple targets at once. Protect is to scout for any moves the opponent may have that could potentially shut Garchomp down in one blow.

Thank you in advance for any response

 

[SpaceBass]

Hello PaladinMuffin and welcome to Smogon! I recommend you visit the Doubles subforum, as well as the Doubles OU room on Pokemon Showdown to learn some more about the meta. Myself and the other users there would be more than willing to help you out a little and get you on track to learning the meta.

I changed the EV spread on mega Swampert a little bit, as it had more speed than was needed. 88 Speed allows you to outspeed max base 130s while rain is up, which is all that is really required, and this means you can run max attack and run some HP for the best overall attack power and bulk.

Vaporeon isn't really viable in doubles OU, and manually set rain is, alot of the time, detrimental to the function of the team. I swapped Vaporeon over to Politoed. This Poli is quite bulky, and is a good support Pokemon for rain. Damp Rock gives you max rain turns to take advantage of, and Helping Hand is very effective as it adds quite abut of power to your attacks which can be handy. Icy Wind helps lower enemy speed in-case your rain runs out and you are left open.

Yanmega is also not ideal in doubles. A much more effective choice would be Talonflame. Its Gale Wings ability gives it 120 base power priority, which can soften up almost any non resist so that team mates can handle them better. A great partner for Swampert as it can EQ freely while Talonflame eliminates any grass types that would resist swamp's STAB moves.

Empoleon / hazards / Defog do not work so well in doubles as the meta is alot more fast paced. I removed Empoleon in favour of Ferrothorn. Ferro makes a solid switch-in for Water / Grass moves that annoy Talon / Swampert. Leech Seed is great at forcing switches and recovering health, aswell as giving a great matchup vs opposing rain teams.

You lack a strong electric type to handle opposing water types, and things like Charizard-Y. Non mega Metagross isn't a great pick, so I dropped it for Thundurus-T. A scarf makes Thundy-T very threatening, beating notably scarf Lando-T. Thunder in rain is very scary, and won't miss while rain is up. Volt switch allows you to get Politoed or any other pokemon in while taking a chip out of the target.

Lasty I changed the Garchomp to a Latios. This keeps the handy Dragon type resists to water / grass / fire, aswell as giving some extra to speed and power. Lati will help against opposing amoonguss' and Draco Meteor is a nuke to anything that doesn't resist it.

Below is an importable of the changes I made to the team so you can dump it right in the teambuilder and try them for yourself. I will take another look at this rate and see if there is anything else I can suggest / anything I've missed when I get home from work tonight. Once again, welcome to smogon, and I hope you stick around the doubles tier :)

Importable of changes

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Protect

Politoed @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Helping Hand
- Icy Wind
- Protect

Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Taunt
- Protect

Thundurus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunder
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Atk / 84 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Protect

 

[shaian]

On rain teams Hydreigon is a better choice for a dragon type than Latios is, and would probably be a better fit. The main advantages that Hydreigon has is that it isn't dead weight versus steel types, namely Aegislash and Ferrothorn, who look to have a decent matchup versus common rain builds. If you opt to try out Spacebass's changes (which are for the most part quite good) than you'll have 1 answer to Ferrothorn, which is Talonflame, and even that is shaky since in the rain it only has a 1/16 chance to OHKO 252 HP / 84 Def Ferrothorn, and at the cost of a huge chunk of it's HP. As for Aegislash, you can try and EQ it, but the Wide Guard set has you playing constant mindgames, and even non-WG has you stuck in 50/50's since your only answers are physical attackers who don't wanna risk attacking into KS. I recommend either the standard 3-attacks Hydreigon set or the Roost set for your team, with the 3 attacks being able to run Fire-type coverage, though since you are using a rain team it would still be a 2HKO at best, though Dark Pulse is only a 2HKO on rolls. The Roost set gives you the flexibility of using Hydreigon to dismantle FWG cores, and extends Hydreigons ability to remain a powerful presence throughout the battle.

SETS

Roost Set (Hydreigon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 216 HP / 152 SpA / 16 SpD / 124 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
- Roost

3 Attacks (Hydreigon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 56 HP / 248 SpA / 204 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
- Fire Blast

 

[SpaceBass]

Shout out to Shaian for clocking onto the Ferro thing, I was originally going to put a Hydreigon in there over Lati, was late for work so my brain tweaked onto the fighting weakness rather than the Ferro issue.