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I. Introduction and Proof of Peak
What's good gamers, Pengu is back with another fire doubles team. As a VGC player transitioning into Smogon Doubles, I have dove head first into the tier of Doubles Ubers and succeeded, and would like to see if the same outcome would come out of an *objectively* beautiful tier, National Dex Doubles OU. I would like to thank you guys for reading this and my prior RMT, even if it is just to check out the team. Well, enough sappy talk, let's start!
Before that, the peak:
Before that, the peak:
We should probably go where this dates back to, which is right when Stakataka was suspect tested. I had just previously gotten voting reqs for DOU and Archaludon (used sample teams for that), and decided to tackle another beast. As some of you already know, Stakataka was banned. The main Trick Room sweeper was gone. So that got me thinking, what would do well without Stakataka in the tier? What would abuse Trick Room in the same offensive way Stakataka could achieve? Well, I concluded on the primary star of this team...
Glastrier was a great start to this team, especially since I grind the shit out of Calyrex-I sometimes in VGC, so I figured they would play the same, and since I'm a Trick Room enthusiast, it would match my playstyle relatively well. With Stakataka gone, there isn't too much that can stop the "ice honse" now. I just needed some supporters, so here came along...
I'm going to lump these three together even though they tagged along in different parts of the building process.
The first ally I added was Jirachi, and for good reason. It was able to redirect many attacks for Glastrier, with many glaring weaknesses to its name thanks to its Ice typing. Jirachi also carries RNG (iron head), healing, and passive chip damage with hazards. It just had good defensive synergy with Glastrier.
Sinsitcha is a great Pokemon for any Trick Room or Semi-Trick Room team, using Redirection, healing, and good damage to help control the board state alongside its access to Trick Room. This core struggles a lot with Fire-types so far, but I'd say I have a solid answer to that.
Gouging Fire was the last "support" Pokemon chosen. To be honest, sometimes it just doesn't feel like a supportive Pokemon, but rather, an offensive powerhouse. Its main job is to boost Glastrier's power while also negating damage with Burning Bulwark burns and Breaking Swipe drops, dealing good damage with access to Heat Crash. Thing is, I couldn't actually hit Fire-types, until now...
Tapu Fini is a secondary option as a sweeper, using Calm Mind and Muddy Water to overwhelm the opposing team. It helps a lot with Fire-types, but also against strong Water-types as well as Kyurem. I realized at this point that I probably want to use a Mega, but I just couldn't find one, until...
Fake Out, consistent damage, amazing Pokemon. While it doesn't provide much defensively, it is my main line of defense against defensive stall Pokemon like Celesteela. (I fucking love this baby kanga portrait)
With that, the team was born.
Glastrier was a great start to this team, especially since I grind the shit out of Calyrex-I sometimes in VGC, so I figured they would play the same, and since I'm a Trick Room enthusiast, it would match my playstyle relatively well. With Stakataka gone, there isn't too much that can stop the "ice honse" now. I just needed some supporters, so here came along...
I'm going to lump these three together even though they tagged along in different parts of the building process.
The first ally I added was Jirachi, and for good reason. It was able to redirect many attacks for Glastrier, with many glaring weaknesses to its name thanks to its Ice typing. Jirachi also carries RNG (iron head), healing, and passive chip damage with hazards. It just had good defensive synergy with Glastrier.
Sinsitcha is a great Pokemon for any Trick Room or Semi-Trick Room team, using Redirection, healing, and good damage to help control the board state alongside its access to Trick Room. This core struggles a lot with Fire-types so far, but I'd say I have a solid answer to that.
Gouging Fire was the last "support" Pokemon chosen. To be honest, sometimes it just doesn't feel like a supportive Pokemon, but rather, an offensive powerhouse. Its main job is to boost Glastrier's power while also negating damage with Burning Bulwark burns and Breaking Swipe drops, dealing good damage with access to Heat Crash. Thing is, I couldn't actually hit Fire-types, until now...
Tapu Fini is a secondary option as a sweeper, using Calm Mind and Muddy Water to overwhelm the opposing team. It helps a lot with Fire-types, but also against strong Water-types as well as Kyurem. I realized at this point that I probably want to use a Mega, but I just couldn't find one, until...
Fake Out, consistent damage, amazing Pokemon. While it doesn't provide much defensively, it is my main line of defense against defensive stall Pokemon like Celesteela. (I fucking love this baby kanga portrait)
With that, the team was born.
Glastrier @ Clear Amulet
Ability: Chilling Neigh
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Icicle Crash
- High Horsepower
- Substitute
- Protect
The star of the show, Glastrier! This Pokemon is so underrated, so let's dig deep. Starting with the item, Clear Amulet denies all stat drops, notably Intimidate and Parting Shot. I had a few games where specifically the Parting Shot aspect comes in clutch, since it denies the switch and the drops. For the most part although, it blocks Intimidate. I went for Tera Water against Pokemon like CharY, also just has good defensive matchups into things like Tapu Fini. EVs and stuff should be relatively self explanatory, since we want to hit as hard as possible and be as slow as possible in Trick Room. Glastrier also speed ties Amoonguss and Mega Steelix.
Icicle Crash is relatively basic, as it is Glastrier's only semi-reliable STAB option. Its only other options are Avalanche (whole purpose is beaten with Trick Room) and Icicle Spear (requires Loaded Dice). High Horsepower was obvious in my opinion, hitting Steel-types and Fire-types, notably Incineroar and Jirachi. I did consider Close Combat, but I figured that the Defense drops would affect Glastrier's survivability immensely, especially since I don't want to switch with potential Chilling Neigh boosts.
I want to drop this last paragraph for Substitute, because it wasn't my first option. I first considered Heavy Slam, since I wanted to just hit super hard into Pokemon such as Flutter Makes although I noticed that Icicle Crash and/or High Horsepower do the same thing, since these trail Pokemon get OHKOed or clean 2HKOed by those moves. Substitute not only helps me since Glastrier is hella physically bulky and thus can let its Sub take a lot of hits, but also grants me an immunity to Spore as extra insurance against Amoonguss. Also at the end of Trick Room it's good to call a double Protect. Speaking of, Protect is the last move for obvious reasons.
Jirachi @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 192 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Follow Me
- Stealth Rock
- Life Dew
Jirachi is the next Pokemon! To be honest, all of these sets aside from the Glastrier are from the mini set compendium composed by Test Bots, and to that I say THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Anyways, Jirachi Iron Head+Serene Grace is hell, flinching is mad annoying. Sitrus Berry is there for good recovery, and I find it to be better than pinch berries although those could work too. Tera Water is again for those Fire-types.
Follow Me is probably one of the most broken moves in Doubles history. Being able to redirect attacks is just absurd. My team can abuse this in many ways, including setting Trick Room, using Howl, switching, setting up Substitute, Calm Mind, or just protecting a Pokemon whilst it is attacking. Stealth Rock I find myself personally clicking a bit too much, but it is really good into CharY sun as well as non-HDB Incineroar. Switching focused teams in general to be honest.
Life Dew is the final move of choice, and is probably the one I use most aside from maybe Iron Head. Healing is certainly good, and it becomes even better when used next to Protect or through Glastrier's Substitute. The self healing is also good, though not the main part.
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 176 SpA / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Protect
- Muddy Water
Tapu Fini, one of the best Calm Mind users if not the best Calm Mind user in the tier. With its obscene bulk, it becomes difficult to take down. I was seriously considering Wiki Berry, but I decided to take passive recovery instead. Tera Steel is very good for a lot of things such as Mega-Venu, Rillaboom, Jirachi, etc, etc.
Moonblast is just super consistent overall, not really anything I would choose over it. Muddy Water, although unreliable, adds onto the chip provided by Stealth Rock. Accuracy drops can also be game winning. Scald and Hydro Pump can both be used there, though Hydro Pump is almost as inaccurate and Scald sometimes doesn't do enough, especially since Moonblast does more and Muddy Water hits both foes. If it only hit one foe, then things would be different.
Gouging Fire @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 88 HP / 168 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Heat Crash
- Breaking Swipe
- Howl
- Burning Bulwark
Gouging Fire is probably the second most interesting Pokemon on this team. I mainly chose it because of Howl, boosting Glastrier's attack stat to let it snowball earlier. Heat Crash is what I chose over Flare Blitz, but for good reason. Heat Crash doesn't have recoil, but also since Gouging Fire is so heavy, it ends up having 120 BP anyways.
Breaking Swipe is kind of broken IMO. It acts as Intimidate of sorts, decreasing the attack stat on foes. It seems semi-contradicotry when being used next to Tapu Fini because of the terrain, but it isn't meant for damage. Tapu Fini also likes the attack drops because it becomes practically indestructible with that and Calm Mind. Burning Bulwark is here over Protect, only thing is that it doesn't block things like Parting Shot and Thunder Wave (but they don't know that...).
Booster Energy is honestly very standard, as it lets Gouging Fire outspeed most foes. This helps a lot in matchups such as against slow Tailwind. Tera Fairy is good into Raging Bolt and other Dragon-types, while also doing nicely into Dark and Fighting types.
Sinistcha @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Hospitality
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Def / 104 SpA / 40 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Rage Powder
- Matcha Gotcha
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room
Sinsitcha is just immensely powerful on these semi-room teams to the point where I just couldn't leave it out. Hospitality breathes life until my allies (quite literally), making the bulkiest guys like Tapu Fini with some boosts more difficult to KO. Sitrus Berry provides healing on tool of Matcha Gotcha, which is always good.
Tera Water works really well into CharY teams and into Ice-types as well. I'd say this is a pretty standard set (thanks again to Test Bots
)Kangaskhan-Mega (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Impish Nature
- Fake Out
- Seismic Toss
- Sucker Punch
- Protect
My GOAT and new favorite Pokemon (Glaceon close second), Kanga does so much. Fake Out allows for Rocks or TR or even a Sub to go up very easily, and Sucker Punch is super useful into Sash mons and frailer mons. Scrappy is also important to Fake Out Ghosts when not in Mega.
I went with a defensive set with Seismic Toss because I hate Shuckle and Chansey low ladder shenanigans. I think a Power-Up-Punch and Return set could work well here, but Seismic Toss does over 50% to most foes, which ends up just being busted. I also don't really want to drop Protect or Sucker Punch, even if I don't click the latter that much.
& This is my favorite lead combo that I use most often. This also does really well into CharY teams and overall is good to easily get Stealth Rocks up. Fake Out guarantees Rocks, and if Kanga takes too much damage, Jirachi can use Life Dew too heal it back up. Follow Me is just also really helpful. Iron Head + Seismic Toss is able to collect a few surprising KOs on frailer mons, dealing good chunks to the likes of the Tapus and pretty much anything LOL.
& Basically, I go this if I just want Trick Room up as soon as possible. I mostly run this into HO Tailwind teams, but it sometimes feel sorta odd keeping Sinistcha in front since I mostly switch it in for recovery in Hospitality.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317526637 relatively negative lead turned into a forfeit.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317602975 vs unqiue steelix sand (tf?)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317610643 vs Aggron/chomp sand
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317613593 rather tight match vs swampert rain
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...-2317617512-ijq6xdavr4klvari75au6uejg5p53ejpw Tapu Fini sweep into forfeit
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317630951 what the fuck is even that
I also got some replays from the NDDOU seasonal, will update soon!
W1
W2
W3 was losers
W4
W5 also losers
W6
W7--> Losers
I didn't bring it W8 and lost :(
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317602975 vs unqiue steelix sand (tf?)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317610643 vs Aggron/chomp sand
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317613593 rather tight match vs swampert rain
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...-2317617512-ijq6xdavr4klvari75au6uejg5p53ejpw Tapu Fini sweep into forfeit
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2317630951 what the fuck is even that
I also got some replays from the NDDOU seasonal, will update soon!
W1
W2
W3 was losers
W4
W5 also losers
W6
W7--> Losers
I didn't bring it W8 and lost :(
Just wanna give a thank you to all of you how read through this. Also i got verification from gephicka that this team is fire
This has been in my sandbox since March...
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