MMX

Awesome. I'll just get back to work until you get it. :3 *is slacking off*

I have a father, but I don't have a Barboach. Oddly, I have everything BUT that...

I'm checking to see if I have one, and a father that can pass that 30 IV. I don't generally keep Pokes that aren't flawless.

Got a mother with the DW ability/nature?

That 30 required? Or can it be 31?

Those are really bitchin'. Especially that Lileep...great job!

Mmkay. How did the Lileep/Igglybuff turn out?

Bisharp is your best bet resistance-wise; it 4x resists both Ghost and Dark. It doesn't have such a hot movepool, though, and basically only fills the "Dark-type assassin" niche occupied in Singles by things with Pursuit, Sucker Punch, etc. I can't think of any others right now.

You're a little Ghost weak, but depending on how well you handle it you may be able to KO them first with your own.

Slow, and horrid. I can't find anything. I'm searching for 31/HP_E/30/31/31/31 which is HP Ice, with Timid, but nothing in Jan, Feb, or Nov have come up with a shiny frame of 1,500. I'll keep searching.

After some thought I think Rotom-W would work well in your team if you can find some way to work with its relatively good speed. It doesn't look like your team right now has an effective way of dealing with Fire-type Pokemon, and Rotom-W does that pretty well. Jellicent is a slower option that can also be used in-or-out of TR (thus making your team's TR function less obvious when viewing the roster pre-battle).

They are almost nonexistent.

Chandelure would be another good member. I don't know whether or not you should make them all slow, though; my latest experience with TR was over three years ago.

Other things will come to mind afterwards, and I'll inform you of them. The best thing to do is play different teams and learn from them.

A Trick Room + Hail team would certainly work. I don't think it's considered standard; I've only seen it about three times, and among JP players all of them. Some Pokemon that seem to work well with setting up TR are Jellicent and Reuniclus, while some that work well on the Hail side, besides Abomasnow of course, are Glaceon and Rotom-F.

To answer your question: That's a tough one. If an equally good Rain and Sun team face one another, ultimately the Rain will win out just by the fact that Ninetales is weak to Water and Politoed isn't weak to Fire. However, Rain has an indirect disadvantage in that many people will disconnect as soon as they see Politoed in your roster. I've gotten my ass kicked by many Sand teams that run Tyranitar + Excadrill as leads, but unfortunately I've made little observations on them besides that. Hail teams have a natural advantage in Abomasnow's slowness, both in the form of his ability to make his weather stick first turn AND through his viability in Trick Room. I rarely see Hail outside of the highest-wincount players' teams, so I'm sort of biased towards it, although I'm inclined to think they run it second to Rain because Rain is banned-in-spirit by many players.

It's hard to think of a good example for this, but let's say that in a battle against a foe using a Thundurus and a 4x fire-weak Pokemon, the wise player will switch out his STAB Flamethrower user for a Ground-type, because he knows that the 4x fire-weak Pokemon will Protect while Thundurus T-Waves the Flamethrower-user.

You'll find, from battling opponents all across the spectrum, that switching is like a starkly-colored litmus test. Good players do it, bad players don't. That doesn't necessarily mean "When in doubt, switch" or "If I beat a person without switching, it was a bad/easy battle," only you will find, in general, that the opponents with a high battle count who have played for a while tend to switch out. Of course, it's easy enough to switch when you're facing something that's obviously faster and has a move that will OHKO one of your Pokemon. It takes more skill to switch out when the opponent is going to make a move or set something in motion that will give him momentum if you don't switch. (continued above for lack of space)

what about weather teams, which one is best?

...and if your opponent suspects you of switching X Pokemon out for Y, he'll get the upper hand very quickly.

This part is a hard thing to elaborate because I can't understand how exactly to translate it exactly into Singles terms. In Singles, switching is "narrow," a linear corridor in which you are only looking one way. In Doubles, if you are playing a flat battle (the most common format to see Double Battles of any sort in, I imagine), you have half your part out in the beginning, and a smart opponent with a decent memory can guess pretty quickly what you have in the back from the two Pokemon in front, especially if the ones in the front have a glaring weakness that another Pokemon on your 6-man roster can cover. (continued above)

You have to consider too how you will set it up. In Gen IV it was easy: Smeargle stopped Taunt and frustrated wide-hit spam (like double-Surf) with Fake Out, Taunt'd Imprison, and stopped everything else with Follow Me. In Gen V, with Fake Out and Follow Me having the same priority, with new moves like Quick Guard and Wide Guard, and with priority Taunt and Encore, it all gets muddled together. Also, while it's easy enough to just pack a Fake Out user or a Follow Me user or something in tandem with the Gravity/whatever-user, you have to consider whether that Pokemon will be of any use after the effect is in place. A turn of switching is very, very crucial in Doubles, and if your opponent suspects you of switching X Pokemon out for Y, he'll get the upper hand very quickly. (continued above)

Trick Room is a comparable effect that gets by because of several reasons: Its sheer number of users makes it possible to disguise; the existence of speed-lowering items means many, many Pokemon are viable in it; sweeping Pokemon can put up to 252 EVs in somewhere else than Spe, making them especially bulky; Pokemon that have low base Spe often have that stat "compensated" elsewhere, and, in TR conditions, that makes them often both super-fast AND bulky/strong. I'm not trying to convince you not to run Gravity, only giving you an example of what it takes for an effect to be viable. (continued above)

Gravity is sort of limited in Doubles. It may seem that, since only one Pokemon has to set it up yet both teammates can enjoy its benefits, it would be much more potent than in Singles, but Gravity is not the best of effects in Doubles. One reason is that, if I am not mistaken about its mechanics in Doubles, Earthquake will necessarily hit your ally if it is one of your moves of choice just as it will hit both of your foes. Mostly, though, it just doesn't pay off after the time has been spent setting it up. Doubles is very fast-paced, and anything that takes a whole turn of investment to set up will need to be very potent to be worth it (continued above)

Sure. Before I dive in to it comprehensively, are there any specific questions you have about teambuilding/battle tactics? It's easier to explain different things if you have specific questions (but not necessary) so if you have any impressions or starting ideas for a team or whatnot, it would be very helpful for me to hear them. If not, it's fine, I can start from the beginning.

Sorry I wasn't able to explain things today, I was actually helping someone else with the same question. Please remind me tomorrow if you will and I'll be happy to discuss Doubles.