2vs2 Gravity Team (RMT)

The 198

I originally designed this team for competitive play in the 2009 Nintendo tournament, but considering;
A) It’s not coming to Canada
B) They won’t let me go to the US open
It looks like I’m outta luck. :(

But with all bad things there must be a shred of light. Which in this case comes to play in Netbattle’s new DP expansion.

This team doesn’t work all the time I’ve noticed but partially that is due to the lack of realistic teams to fight, as compared to what this team would normally be up against. Eg. A double battle consisting of all Arceus’ or all Ubers tends to mop the floor with me. But I’m sure once more structure comes to netbattle I’ll have a better chance of capitalizing.

Also this is my 1st RMT post (and one of my earlier posts total.) I’ve been lurking on Smogon for a while now, so I believe this should go off without a hitch.

So 1st and foremost the structure on this team is going to be a lot different than most of the others RMTs out there, it’s set up as a nintendo official level 50 cap, 2vs2, stadium mode battle. So you only get 4 pokes. Also there is no evasion clause, sleep clause, or freeze clause. Normally certainly legendaries would be banned as well but because netbattle doesn’t have that option (to the degree I’d want) I often play against many things you couldn’t fight at level 50, like mewtwo, t-tar etc. But enough about that, onto the team:



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Blissey (Bold)
31 Spd IVs, 252 Def, 100 HP, 158 SDef
/w Lum Berry
Serene Grace
- Gravity
- Sing
- Softboiled
- Blizzard/Fire Blast​

Ironically, one of my kickers is the make or break of this team, /w the gimmick move Gravity. Not a lot of people know how gravity works and tend to use that to my advantage. Among other things Gravity decreases the evasion modifiers of everything in play by 2. Which means anything /w accuracy of 60% or up will hit with the accuracy of 100%. The plan is set up gravity then fire off 92% accurate sings at anything that’s awake (which ideally is very little), healing when necessary, and using gravity again when it runs out. The last move is almost always filler and usually blizzard. With serene grace it has a 20% chance to freeze them solid if they’re awake. While its an added bonus it’s not something I rely on at all. I’ve noticed Blissey rarely gets taunted because they aren’t expecting anything besides toxic, t-wave or sr on her (moves that generally dont effect doubles stadium play as much), and smeargle is also alot more obvious option (people tend to expect spore or dark void.) So if they manage to taunt smeargle she can usually put them to sleep with sing. EVs are pretty normal spread, generally just covering your bases. You’ll notice there is no wish, because I made this a realistic team that I could in theory play in a tourny, and I’d have no way to get wish blissey irl.


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Smeargle (Adamant)
0 Speed IVs, 252 att, 252 hp, 6 def
/w focus sash
Own Tempo
- Dark Void
- Dynamic Punch
- Protect
- Explosion​

With the IVs currently given, it is eleven speed points lower than blissey, meaning dark void will hit after gravity insuring 100% acc. Sleep on both opposing pokes. EVs are pretty simple, max attack to make use of w.e you can get out of him and max hp, for a hint of survivability. Focus sash is a necessity to even consider in double battles but not as great as it is in singles, because if both pokes attack me, the focus sash only stops the 1st one. If the opponent is running a particularly offensive, taunt or other sleep oriented guys I tend to protect 1st turn instead in hopes they tried to both attack just smeargle. After everything is asleep I use dy-punch (its 84% acc in gravity) for moderate dmg plus confusing so if they wake up there is a 25% chance they just hurt themselves and can be put back to sleep. When it’s too risky to keep him in play anymore I just blow him up. Sometimes that happens much earlier than I’d like.



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Porygon-Z (Modest)
252 spd, 252 satt, 6 hp
Adaptability
/w life orb
- Tri attack
- Focus Blast
- Thunder
- Dark Pulse/Protect​

My special sweeper, pretty straight forward comes in with most things asleep, and fires off normally low accuracy moves that in gravity hit 100%. Tri attack is the main stab that does reliable dmg to everything that doesn’t resist it. Focus blast hits rocks and steels that resist the main stab. Thunder hits waters and flyers. The last one is general type coverage if gravity runs out, and its usually dark pulse to hit the ghosts. Or protect to stop my fellow pokes exploding or certain global moves, eq, etc. hitting Porygon itself. The EVs givens capitalize on its best stat SAtt with the life orb giving it just the little bit more of a kick.



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Metagross (Adamant)
252 att, 252 spd, 6 hp
Clear Body
/w life orb
- Earthquake
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Explosion​

My physical sweeper, also pretty straightforward. EQ has the added bonus of hitting flying types during gravity and tends makes short work of the rare skarmory. Zen Headbutt is also 100% accurate in gravity yet still usable without it. Bullet punch gets rid of stragglers. Explosion does massive dmg and in an official tournament (which is what this was designed for) it could result in a tie vs a loss. EVs on metagross on just like porygons but more physically inclined.

General cons /w this team
- It’s slow, not slow to set up, but generally all the pokes on my team are slow
- Taunt sometimes sends me for a whirl (though I’ve never been completely shut down by it)
- Fighting weakness, ¾ of my team is directly weak against it, and too slow to really do anything about it.
- This team is really gimmicky, without gravity this team isn’t nearly as good as it is with it in play.

Any general improvements, or replacements are gladly welcomed.
 
Your leads are fairly lacking, in that neither member attacks hard, and are not fast enough to set up what they want to before they die. While it's not so common anymore, double earthquake leads pretty much kills half your team in first turn, and then you don't have any resist for them either (which is understandable since it IS a gravity after all).

Seriously, don't even try to attack with Smeargle, lol. I mean, base 20 attack??? You're better off with maxing speed (with jolly nature), and just use confuse ray or something. I'm not saying that's even that great, but at least it's better than maxing attacking on a base 20 attack pokemon.

I said double earthquake kills, but really, your opponent can just double target smeargle while blissey sets up gravity. Now what? It's not like Gravity is SO good that it's worth just sacrificing a member of your team to set up.

About Blissey now, without any SpA investments (or even WITH), Blissey won't be attacking hard, so a lot of times she's just going to sit there while your opponent double target Metagross or Porygon Z so those will be dead before they can attack. Sing might be annoying to the opponent, I guess, but most teams will have a Lum user and possibly another Chesto, so by the time all those berries are used up, Blissey might just be left all by herself not being able to kill anything even when the opponent's sleeping.

I've tried a TR Gravity team with mediocre success, using a Follow Me + Gravity Clefable paired with a Heatproof TR Bronzong (and Rhyperior as the main attacker), but... if you are going to lead with Smeargle (which I personally don't like), it's not going to work very well. I'm thinking of suggesting a Dusknoir for your Gravity user instead. You can then even potentially set up Trick Room so your pokemon will actually be faster (assuming your opponent isn't using a Trick Room team). This also means there is less need to invest so much in speed for you pokemon, meaning they can cake on a bulkier EV spread. It will also help with your fighting weakness (and no resists). If you do go by that route, I'd suggest setting up Trick Room before setting up Gravity, unless your opponent's team seems like another Trick Room team (in which case, using Trick Room to cancel out your opponent's Trick Room isn't bad either).
 
I don't know much about double battling, but I feel like smeargle should have spore instead of Dark Void. Is there a reason you did Dark Void instead?
 
So replacing Blissey with a Bulky Dusknoir; Pain split, gravity, w-o-w, <attack move>

And Smeargle with anything else, maybe a Milotic; hypnosis, hydropump, recover, blizzard

What about my other two, any advice on making them any better??
 
The problem with your leads and the entire team for that matter, is the speed. In a doubles world where Rain Dance, Scarf, and fast Pokemon like Alakazam and Gengar are very common and very good (explosion immunity / encorer), your team just doesn't cut it. What I would do is just add a Choice Scarf onto Smeargle over Focus Sash. Fake Out is pretty common in doubles and you don't want your Smeargle just wasting his item. Scarf Dark Void at least lets you get both of their Pokemon asleep.

Porygon-Z doesnt get Focus Blast, a set of Tri-Attack, Blizzard, Thunder, Filler would probably work best.

If the Scarf Smeargle idea doesn't work for you, you can try a Scarf Jirachi lead with Gravity and still use a Lum / Focus Sash Smeargle. You definitely need Speed with Gravity or Sleep though.
 
if i were you, i'd run this on smeargle:
smeargle@focus sash
252 def/ 252 spd/ 6 def
Follow Me
Dark Void
Endeavor
Ice shard/bullet punch

This will let you get gravity down every time, and might let you put your opponent to sleep and fear them. better than your current one. No ev's in hp causes you to have low hp, so you can endeavor well even if your opponent doesn't attack you with anything. 0 ivs in hp would also be good.
 
I'm wondering how are you using this team over Netbattle? Do you use 2 extra Pokemon just as extras without taking them into account?

As for the team, it looks solid, but I believe your Blissey needs something like Counter as alot of moves will be targetted towards here IMO.
 
The 198 said:
So replacing Blissey with a Bulky Dusknoir; Pain split, gravity, w-o-w, <attack move>

And Smeargle with anything else, maybe a Milotic; hypnosis, hydropump, recover, blizzard

What about my other two, any advice on making them any better??
Click to expand...
My main complaint was that your leads were 1) pretty slow and 2)pretty lacking in attack power. I suggested Dusknoir only because Dusknoir can maybe set up Trick Room or something like that for your team (which is somewhat slow, as you mentioned), while Blissey isn't doing anything too useful other than Gravity. So if you're going to use a Dusknoir but not using TR, it's not really much better than Blissey (though being immune to fake out is kind of good). Alternatively, you can use a Follow Me + Gravity Clefable or something like that, if your other other leading partner can make use of having a free turn or two setting up.

Oh, btw, I just noticed you had life orb for both P-Z and Metagross. I know you aren't going to the tournament, but assuming you still want to follow all the rules, item clause is in effect, so you're better off with something else (like a resist berry).

And, I just noticed this too lol. Zen Headbutt isn't that great of a move. It doesn't really cover much (in terms of the most common pokemon used in double). You're better off with Meteor Mash, since both of those STAB moves have 100% accuracy in Gravity anyway, and MM has higher power base.

Definitely Protect on P-Z since Metagross's EQ or Explosion will kill.
 
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