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Approved by OM Leaders, special help from the best OM leader, April
Doubles OM Megathread
This is a megathread for Doubles variants of our existing permaladder OMs!
These Doubles variants are tiered independently of their singles counterparts, as the needs of a doubles metagame can vary wildly compared to a singles metagame with the same premise. Because of the more hands-on approach necessary, these metagames are going to have a somewhat stunted release. Be patient, and if you're a council member or experienced player interested in helping out, reach out to zoe, April, or a member of OM Staff!
DOUBLES OM INDEX Almost Any Ability: Playable! Balanced Hackmons: Playable! Godly Gift: Under Construction! Mix and Mega: TBA STABmons: TBA Shared Power: TBA
OHKO Clause: OHKO moves are banned (i.e. Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill, Sheer Cold)
HP Percentage Mod: HP is shown in percentages
Endless Battle Clause: Forcing endless battles is banned
Species Clause: Limit one of each Pokémon. (e.g. you cannot use both Arceus-Ghost and Arceus-Fairy on the same team)
Sleep Moves Clause: Sleep-inducing moves are banned. This excludes self-inflicted sleep.
Evasion Clause: Evasion abilities, items, and moves are banned (e.g. Sand Veil, Bright Powder, Double Team)
Species Reveal Clause: Pokemon have the correct sprites in battle and on the UI.
Terastal Clause: Pokemon cannot Terastallize
Arena Trap
Comatose
Contrary
Costar
Gorilla Tactics
Huge Power
Illusion
Innards Out
Libero
Magnet Pull
Moody
Neutralizing Gas
Orichalcum Pulse
Parental Bond
Protean
Pure Power
Rattled
Shadow Tag
Stakeout
Stamina
Steam Engine
Water Bubble
Wonder Guard
After You
Baneful Bunker
Belly Drum
Burning Bulwark
Clangorous Soul
Decorate
Dire Claw
Electro Shot
Encore
Fillet Away
Follow Me
Hyper Drill
Imprison
Last Respects
Lumina Crash
No Retreat
Photon Geyser
Quash
Quiver Dance
Rage Fist
Revival Blessing
Rising Voltage
Shed Tail
Substitute
Shell Smash
Tail Glow
(Credit to Snaquaza for the original concept, jasprose and yuki for letting me take over the thread and continuing to lead this project, and in the hills for the artwork)
Welcome to Partners in Crime. This is a doubles-based metagame with the twist that you share your ability and moves with your active partner. This means that you are able to use any of the moves available to both of your active Pokemon, i.e. up to 8 moves will appear on the move select screen. Additionally, this means both of your active Pokemon will have each others' ability in addition to their own.
I'd also like to take the time to specially mention Instruct for his continued work for us. His work is absolutely exceptional, and, without everything he's done and the amount of things he's fixed when we were live during Gen 8, none of this would have been possible without him.
Roaring Moon @ Life Orb
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Jaw Lock
- Iron Head
- Tailwind
- Protect
The idea behind these 3 is to make use of Torkoal's Drought to activate Lilligant's Chlorophyll and Roaring Moon's Protosynthesis. When in sun, Roaring Moon's Protosynthesis is active for both of your Pokemon, allowing their highest stat to gain a free 1.3x multiplier. In this case, Roaring Moon's Attack and Lilligant and, thanks to its 9 Def IVs, Torkoal's Special Attack are raised. Chlorophyll then gives your Pokemon 2x Speed, letting them dominate the board.
What happens if Gastro Acid, Skill Swap, Entrainment or any similar move is used?
Since you don't actually have your partner's ability, your normal abilities will be taken into account. This means Skill Swap and Entrainment will swap the normal abilities of the user and the target and also change the shared ability for the partner, but Gastro Acid will suppress all abilities as per the nature of the move.
What if the two Pokemon have the same ability?
The ability won't stack, and thus nothing special will happen.
What happens if both Pokemon know the same move?
It will only appear once. PP reduction works as normal, only being deducted from the user's slot.
How does Mimic work?
Mimic will fail if not used by the Pokemon that originally learns it.
What happens when abilities overlap? (eg. Refrigerate and Pixilate)
Effects are applied in a random order.
What happens when your partner switches out?
You are able to use the move of a partner that is switching out as the movesets are updated at the start of the next turn. As speed and turn order are determined dynamically, whatever abilities are active on the field at the time the move would be used will be in effect. If you start the turn with a Prankster Pokemon such as Whimsicott on the field, and switch it out while the partner uses a status move, it does not gain priority. If Whimsicott were to switch in while the partner is using a status move, it does gain priority.
What happens with abilities that work upon switching in?
When a Pokemon switches in, it first uses its native ability followed by any innate abilities obtained from the partner. Then the partner then uses its new innate ability acquired from the Pokemon switching in. In situations where there is more than 1 Pokemon switching in, then abilities will be activated in order of speed.
What happens when your partner faints?
After your partner faints, it's abilities will be nullified, but you can still use its move if you chose to use a move of your partner that particular turn. Afterwards you can't use its moves anymore.
What happens when you only have one Pokemon left?
Then you'll only have one ability in effect and only be able to use your own moves.
How do choice items and Assault Vest work?
Unlike how this used to work, Instruct has been able to fix this interaction. Now the partner will not be locked into the same move as the choice-locked user, and will still have access to status moves even if the partner has an Assault Vest. Choice-locked Pokemon that use a partner's move can effectively break the choice-lock by having the partner switch to a replacement that does not have the move you are locked in to.
Trace, Imposter and Transform used to be banned, why aren't they anymore?
Thanks to Instruct, these are now fixed. Effectively only the Pokemon that originally has this ability will use it. Logically speaking, Trace will copy the opposing Pokemon's original ability, and then that will be shared with the partner. In the same vein, Imposter and Transform cause the user to transform into the opposing Pokemon, and will only take and share the original ability. As transforming also replaces your moveset with the target's, only this new moveset will be shared meaning you will not have 12 moves.
Why is there no Sleep Clause?
We feel there is more than adequate counterplay to a lot of the sleep ideas present in the game with a lot of the top Pokemon and some of the best teams all having more than enough to handle it. More information on this decision can be found here.
Playability: Partners in Crime is available to play on Pokemon Showdown via ladder or challenges
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This is probably not the ideal pair for it, but Anger Point with a good support partner seems like it could be very good in Balanced Hackmons Doubles.
Rayquaza-Mega @ Life Orb
Ability: Anger Point
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Glacial Lance
- Extreme Speed
- Dragon Ascent
Arceus @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Follow Me
- Taunt
- Quick Guard
- Flower Trick
Also, Mean Look + Normalize Entrainment on a team of all ghosts is fun on low ladder (but unfortunately I couldn't find a good way to beat Follow Me, so it's not really a viable strategy).
https://pokepast.es/8bf9baf080583413 - This is outdated because clas quickly banned Hyper Drill (goat), makes the tier much more playable. I went for brainless Hyper Offense with double ate Extreme Speeds, double Dragon Energy, SoR Koraidon, etc.
Tier is much harder to figure out so I haven't built anymore, but I'm interested in Psyterrain Trick Room with HoopaU & Dragon Maw Ampharos (s/o ANinjaDude). I think Trick Room has a lot of options that iyt wouldnt usually have because every opposing Pokemon will be 252 Speed anyway.
I think set up has a lot of potential with Simple, maybe +4 Mega Ray with Ate Espeed, or +4 Unecro with Dragon Energy and Expanding Force. Could explore Victory Dance Clear Amulet Koraidon or something of the like.
Pixilate Espeed Diancie sounds strong considering the amount of Fairy-weaknesses a team can accumilate. Though I also think Steel Spam can be really strong with Steely Spirit and resisting stuff like Mega Ray, Caly-I, Unecro, etc. They have a lot of possibilities for sets.
Concerns: I think Prankster is still quite broken even with After You and Follow Me banned, it invites Encore and Imprison speed tie shenanigans which feel extremely toxic. Gale Wings Tailwind is fine, but having priority on all the other evil moves feels like too much. I haven't played against Imposter yet but I can't imagine it makes for very fun gameplay, I imagine it just hasn't been explored enough to get much more than being on the watchlist.
Encore, Imprison, and Steam Engine are now banned from BH Doubles!
Encore is a move that is mainly only broken because of Prankster, mainly because speed-boosting abilities are just outclassed by it. However, being able to punish a Pokemon for free without warning without proper cost is incredibly unhealthy, often allowing partner Pokemon to grab free KOs as a result while making said Encore target useless for at least two turns. Even the threat of Encore is enough to generate enough momentum to snowball a game, and this should never be the case. Psychic Terrain and Armor Tail do answer it, but this counterplay is hard to fit and generally quite mediocre in the first place.
Imprison is mainly used to prevent spread moves from being punished via Wide Guard blocking while automatically winning the Tailwind war with proper play, especially when used with Prankster (woah who wouldve guessed). This, unsurprisingly, is quite stupid, and even can extend into denying Topsy-Turvy and Protect, two moves that obviously shouldn't be prevented for free.
Steam Engine is just stupid. You can't scout it and the opponent can just outspeed everything for free with no counterplay, and that's not even considering the potential of Weakness Policy and/or Ruinous/weather abilities to pair with it. I shouldn't have to go into detail as to why this is broken, and so won't.
Calyrex-Shadow
Groudon-Primal
Mewtwo-Mega-Y
Shedinja
Rayquaza-Mega
+ 
+ 
Encore, Imprison, and Steam Engine are now banned from BH Doubles! 