This metagame combines Singles and Doubles into one metagame by having each Pokemon switch between "active" and "inactive" every few turns, much akin to Rotation Battles. The first and third turns of four work like regular Doubles, while every second and fourth turn banish the second or first slot Pokemon for the turn. With such a major mechanical shift, who knows what could happen!
Rules
Mechanic: Doubles-based metagame where every few turns a Pokemon is banished or unbanished to simulate flipping between Singles and Doubles.
Clauses: Standard Doubles (Species Clause, Nickname Clause, OHKO Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, Gravity Sleep Clause, Endless Battle Clause)
Bans: Annihilape, Arceus-*, Basculegion-Base, Calyrex-Ice, Calyrex-Shadow, Darkrai, Deoxys-Attack, Deoxys-Base, Dialga, Dialga-Origin, Eternatus, Flutter Mane, Giratina, Giratina-Origin, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Lunala, Koraidon, Kyogre, Kyurem-Black, Kyurem-White, Magearna, Mewtwo, Miraidon, Necrozma-Dawn-Wings, Necrozma-Dusk-Mane, Palkia, Palkia-Origin, Rayquaza, Reshiram, Tatsugiri, Terapagos, Urshifu, Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, Zacian, Zacian-Crowned, Zamazenta, Zamazenta-Crowned, Moody, Shadow Tag
Council
Clas (TL)
adpg.2007
Evie
SammyCe123
SchisterStrategy
Protect, Fake Out, and redirection are by far the most important tools in the metagame due to their control over the singles and doubles turns, despite their limiting effects on moveslot space. Abilities like Intimidate not affecting inactive Pokemon means that they cannot be weakened on the switch during a Singles turn, making it much more important to micromanage. This also extends to switched in Pokemon that are inactive, as they cannot switch. Spread moves like Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Bleakwind Storm are much more potent, as they do not target inactive Pokemon and as such have the 1x multiplier during Singles turns. Hazards and setup, similarly, are also more potent as Singles turns grant more safety into bulkier Pokemon to play around the much more chaotic Doubles turns. All of this culminates into a metagame like no other, so use your knowledge from both Singles and Doubles to great effect!
Increased Viability
Protect becomes immensely more useful here, as being able to either stall out a Singles turn or Doubles turn can turn the tides quickly.
Fake Out can quickly and easily stall out a turn, being able to force a mechanic shift reliably while also preventing the target from moving if they lack a Covert Cloak. Feint also gains a lot more viability due to it mitigating Protect.
Covert Cloak is able to ignore Fake Out and similar effects without giving up much utility, which is amazing on a wide variety of Pokemon. I expect this to be a possible staple.
Much like the above case, the ability to avoid Fake Out and Feint is incredibly notable while still retaining the ability to hit hard with mostly neutral STAB coverage.
Spread moves like Rock Slide and Earthquake receive a substantial buff, as the single-target effect comes into play during Singles turns as well as the regular one-on-one seen most commonly in endgames.
Weather is much better here, as it is very easy to switch in a weather setter like Torkoal and Pelipper on a Singles turn while reaping the rewards on a Doubles turn. Screen setting is the exact same, except the setters can do it safely without the constant threat of two attackers at once.
Decreased Viability
Tailwind is all-around nerfed badly. While some dedicated Tailwind setters like Tornadus are only affected minimally, more often than not the offensive Pokemon are setting Tailwind themselves. This means that either their partner or themself will often be the one unable to do anything the next turn, and the few times the setter is the only one active will likely be spent using Protect or inerting less passive pressure. Tailwind effectively being active for 3 turns doesn't help much, either.
Status effects and other damaging effects like Salt Cure and Fire Spin do not activate during inactive turns and so are much worse in practice. That being said, the trapping move timer does not decrease at the end of an inactive turn if the two Pokemon are simultaneously active.
Intimidate does not affect inactive Pokemon and therefore has to be played with acknowledgement of this. This is also the case for other on-entry abilities like Hospitality and even activity-reliant ones like the Ruin abilities.
Imagine Arena Trap in Singles but its reliant on trapping during the first turn, loses 99% of the time to Protect, and is completely useless otherwise. That is Arena Trap here. At least Gothitelle is real enough to make Shadow Tag broken.
Other Viability Shifts
It's hard to predict if Trick Room will gain a buff or nerf from such a mechanical change. On one hand, its much easier to set them up from the Singles-to-Doubles turn shifts, while on the other it becomes a lot easier to stall out said turns. Support setters like Sinistcha and Indeedee-F also do nothing but sit there for at least one turn, if not two.
While not at all relevant metagame-wise since 2-stage omniboost in Singles is very dumb, for coding reasons Commander Tatsugiri does not ignore the metagame's mechanics, mostly for breathing room for the three cretins who choose to free it in a challenge code.
Protect becomes immensely more useful here, as being able to either stall out a Singles turn or Doubles turn can turn the tides quickly. Fake Out can quickly and easily stall out a turn, being able to force a mechanic shift reliably while also preventing the target from moving if they lack a Covert Cloak. Feint also gains a lot more viability due to it mitigating Protect. Covert Cloak is able to ignore Fake Out and similar effects without giving up much utility, which is amazing on a wide variety of Pokemon. I expect this to be a possible staple. Much like the above case, the ability to avoid Fake Out and Feint is incredibly notable while still retaining the ability to hit hard with mostly neutral STAB coverage. Spread moves like Rock Slide and Earthquake receive a substantial buff, as the single-target effect comes into play during Singles turns as well as the regular one-on-one seen most commonly in endgames. Weather is much better here, as it is very easy to switch in a weather setter like Torkoal and Pelipper on a Singles turn while reaping the rewards on a Doubles turn. Screen setting is the exact same, except the setters can do it safely without the constant threat of two attackers at once.Decreased Viability
Tailwind is all-around nerfed badly. While some dedicated Tailwind setters like Tornadus are only affected minimally, more often than not the offensive Pokemon are setting Tailwind themselves. This means that either their partner or themself will often be the one unable to do anything the next turn, and the few times the setter is the only one active will likely be spent using Protect or inerting less passive pressure. Tailwind effectively being active for 3 turns doesn't help much, either. Status effects and other damaging effects like Salt Cure and Fire Spin do not activate during inactive turns and so are much worse in practice. That being said, the trapping move timer does not decrease at the end of an inactive turn if the two Pokemon are simultaneously active. Intimidate does not affect inactive Pokemon and therefore has to be played with acknowledgement of this. This is also the case for other on-entry abilities like Hospitality and even activity-reliant ones like the Ruin abilities. Imagine Arena Trap in Singles but its reliant on trapping during the first turn, loses 99% of the time to Protect, and is completely useless otherwise. That is Arena Trap here. At least Gothitelle is real enough to make Shadow Tag broken.Other Viability Shifts
It's hard to predict if Trick Room will gain a buff or nerf from such a mechanical change. On one hand, its much easier to set them up from the Singles-to-Doubles turn shifts, while on the other it becomes a lot easier to stall out said turns. Support setters like Sinistcha and Indeedee-F also do nothing but sit there for at least one turn, if not two. While not at all relevant metagame-wise since 2-stage omniboost in Singles is very dumb, for coding reasons Commander Tatsugiri does not ignore the metagame's mechanics, mostly for breathing room for the three cretins who choose to free it in a challenge code.
Chi-Yu is incredibly powerful already, but give it easier Sun setup and even fewer largely consistent answers than regular Singles and you have quite possibly the deadliest Pokemon in the metagame. The only reason this isn't banned is because it's legal in DOU.
Much like Chi-Yu, Chien-Pao is a crazy enabler and abuser in a much more defensively limited metagame that is already famous for many physically offensive cores like PaoPult and PaoNite, and these cores only improve in a metagame limited in effective speed control options. That being said, it's significantly more answerable than Chi-Yu.
Gravity Sleep Clause in a half-Singles metagame is incredibly threatening, and needs testing in of itself. However, the widespread use of Safety Goggles in Doubles already paired with the relevance of Tera Grass makes this less of an issue, hopefully.
Well this one doesn't need explaining. Male Basculegion is banned but the other two Last Respects users are hopefully not broken.
I hope this doesn't need an explanation.
Previously banned from DOU but stuck in UUBL, Ursaluna is a nightmare to deal with in Trick Room but just a slow attacker out of it. Whatever comes of it is hard to tell.
While limited in the moveslot department, its still Palafin. Safety Goggles, Mystic Water, or Choice Band, pick your poison. Probably the least broken watchlist Pokemon here as it's only Tier 5 in DOU.
Ally Switch is quite frankly terrifying. Unlike redirection, Ally Switch allows a Pokemon to be banished in place of a teammate, although it will fail if used again right after unbanishment.Q: How does banishment work?
A: Banishment removes a Pokemon from play entirely for one turn, but all their boosts, ability counters etc are saved. This happens every two turns, switching from right to left to right every time.
Q: How do protection moves work if a Pokemon is banished?
A: Protection moves will not reset their counter. This also includes Ally Switch, since it uses a similar counter.
Q: How do abilities work when a Pokemon is banished?
A: They will be paused. This means that Slaking's Truant will wait a turn, Regigigas's Slow Start counter will not decrease, and the Ruin abilities will turn off until the Pokemon is unbanished.
Q: How do Wish, Future Sight, and Doom Desire work with banished Pokemon?
A: They are pushed back an extra turn if they would trigger on a banished slot.
Q: How do Coaching, Decorate, and similar moves work with banished Pokemon?
A: They fail, as there is technically no target. This also includes moves that need to target the ally to affect the user, such as Ally Switch.
A: Banishment removes a Pokemon from play entirely for one turn, but all their boosts, ability counters etc are saved. This happens every two turns, switching from right to left to right every time.
Q: How do protection moves work if a Pokemon is banished?
A: Protection moves will not reset their counter. This also includes Ally Switch, since it uses a similar counter.
Q: How do abilities work when a Pokemon is banished?
A: They will be paused. This means that Slaking's Truant will wait a turn, Regigigas's Slow Start counter will not decrease, and the Ruin abilities will turn off until the Pokemon is unbanished.
Q: How do Wish, Future Sight, and Doom Desire work with banished Pokemon?
A: They are pushed back an extra turn if they would trigger on a banished slot.
Q: How do Coaching, Decorate, and similar moves work with banished Pokemon?
A: They fail, as there is technically no target. This also includes moves that need to target the ally to affect the user, such as Ally Switch.
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