SS Doubles OU 1574 Rated Sylveon Squad

My top rating with this team was 1574. I have played more than 100 battles with this team.
It revolves around making it very hard for other teams to predict my leads because of the number of hype-offensive threats on this team.
Because almost nobody uses Sylveon, my Sylveon just steamrolls most of the teams I play against. It also helps Gengar is pretty much nonexistent this gen.
My team does struggle against against a lot of the ultra beasts.
It has only a total of 15 weaknesses.
It does very well against tailwind teams. It struggles a tiny bit against trick room.
It is good against rain, sand, drought. It is okay against all-electric teams.
It does struggle against teams with poison type Pokémon.
I feel like my team has a lot of type synergy. Meaning if my mon has a weakness most of the time I can switch it out to a Pokémon that resists what causes the weakness.
Because tailwind and trickroom are so popular, I feel like putting evs into bulk is more important than putting them into speed.
Yes. this team has nothing to deal with level 1 fear Pokemon.
I am wondering if it is possible to get this team over 1600 or do I have to redo my whole team?

Cinderace (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Libero
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Low Sweep

I find Cinderace to be vastly underrated. I've seen very few of it. It's sucker punch makes it a great revenge killer because trick room this gen is very annoying.
I put U-turn on my team instead of iron-head because I almost never have to use it. U-turn is necessary in case psychic surge is up because p.s. makes sucker punch unusable.



Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 136 HP / 120 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Scald
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot

Not having to deal with status is great!
Grass knot is needed to deal with another finis, gastradons, and swamperts.
I find that I almost never use icy wind.
I also love fini because it shits on sand.



Dracovish @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Strong Jaw
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Psychic Fangs
- Fishious Rend
- Leech Life

Dracovish can easily 1 hit metagross and heatran(2 common pokemon that give Sylveon trouble).
I almost always lead off Inceniroar and Dracrovish or Inceniroar and Sylveon.
I can't figure out a good move for the fourth move, so I just picked leech life because I don't think any of the other choice have any use whatsoever.


Sylveon (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball
- Mystical Fire
- Moonblast

The star of my team because nobody expects it.
It has moonblast because of wide guard.
I find that I pretty never use psyshock, so I threw it out.
A lot of the steel types that give Sylveon trouble are taken care by my team.


Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Knock Off

No need to explain the moveset. Pretty sure everybody knows why this moveset exists.
It is weak to fire, which is why my team has Dracovish and Fini.
It is weak to fighting, which is why team has Fini and Sylveon.



Incineroar (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Darkest Lariat
- Flare Blitz
- Drain Punch

Combo of Intimidate and Fake out is self explan. because this is doubles.
I find it very easy to take out my Incineroar and put it back into to spread even more intimidate because of the type synergy in my team.
Just like Cinderace, I feel like Incineroar is a very easy fire type to use in this gen, which is very helpful because Rilabooms and Ammongusses are everywhere.
 

emma

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EatAllLivingNewbornEevees

Hi! I see you built your team around Choice Specs Sylveon. It's not a very common Pokemon at all (unranked on the Doubles Viability Rankings) but has seen some usage in Doubles Seasonals Tournament (1, 2, 3) and it's my favorite Pokemon so I'm quite interested.

:sylveon:
Sylveon (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 88 HP / 252 SpA / 168 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Sleep Talk

I suggest we start with slightly tweaking the set. I bumped up the Speed to hit 198, which outspeeds Max Speed Spectrier in Tailwind. Typically, you want to invest in HP before Defenses so thats why the leftover EVs are in HP. Besides Hyper Voice, Sylveon is rarely going to be clicking anything so the other three moves don't matter very much. I suggest just going Hyper Voice and Sleep Talk so Sylveon can safely switch into Spores and keep clicking Hyper Voice. If you prefer, you can keep your original moveset (consider Toxic over Shadow Ball to hit threats like Porygon2) but it’s not significant. Another option could be going Minimum Speed with a Quiet Nature to help against Trick Room.

:incineroar:
Incineroar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 68 Atk / 32 Def / 160 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Parting Shot

Incineroar is a really good Pokemon in DOU because of Fake Out, Intimidate, and Pivoting like you mentioned, so it usually runs a support set to maximize these traits, not Life Orb. There are better offensive Fire-type such as Heatran or Volcanion, but I think Incineroar can work here with its best set. Knock Off is used over Darkiest Lariat to remove items such as Eviolite on Porygon2, Assault Vest on Kyurem-Black, or the large assortment of berries in the Tier. Parting Shot is used as a pivot move to help recycle Fake Out + Intimidate, and with Heavy-Duty Boots you don't have to worry about Stealth Rocks (which is actually quite common). Sitrus Berry is also an option if you prefer. The EVs are standard and an explanation can be found on the Smogon Dex.

:tapu-fini:
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Muddy Water
- Moonblast
- Protect

Similar to Incineroar, Tapu Fini is best utilized in a non offensive-manner. Offensive sets have merit typically as a surprise factor on certain teams, but once again I think the standard set would be better. Calm Mind Tapu Fini is a very strong win condition win condition in the current metagame that can boost up and win once its checks have been taken care of. Incineroar helps a lot against Grass-types such as Rillaboom and Kartana for example. The EVs are standard and an explanation can be found on the Smogon Dex.

:kartana:
Kartana @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Tailwind
- Protect

Once again, Kartana is a good Pokemon but you're using a supbar set. Kartana should always be running an EV Spread of 4 Atk / 252 SpD / 252 Spe. Kartana has a Base Attack of 181 and a Base Special Defense of 31, which means that investing in SpD is mathematically the best option and will produce the best returns. Investing in a massive base attack will result in little gain, while investing in the minuscule SpD will have massive gain. For example, you now survive Standard Kyurem-Black Ice Beam quite comfortably. I'll leave some damage calcs below to further prove my point.

112 SpA Teravolt Kyurem-Black Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kartana: 300-354 (115.8 - 136.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
112 SpA Teravolt Kyurem-Black Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Kartana: 183-216 (70.6 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Kartana Sacred Sword vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Kyurem-Black: 218-258 (48.1 - 56.9%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Kartana Sacred Sword vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Kyurem-Black: 252-298 (55.6 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

As you can see, investing in Special Defense produces way more value, and thats why every Kartana is running Max Special Defense. Life Orb is also never used because it wears Kartana down a lot (especially because it's very frail) and doesn't let it switch in as much. Miracle Seed still gives a 1.2x boost to Leaf Blade and has zero downside. Tailwind and Protect are chosen over Smart Strike and Knock Off because Leaf Blade + Sacred Sword already provide great coverage, while Protect is the best move in Doubles (dodge attacks, stall out field conditions, etc.) while Speed Control is one of the most important aspect of Doubles. Controlling who moves first is extremely important, and Kartana is a great Tailwind setter because of its high speed and the new dynamic Speed mechanics. Typically, most teams will either feature Tailwind, Trick Room, Icy Wind, etc. and sometimes teams might even have multiple because Speed Control is just that important.

:cinderace: :dracovish:
Your last two Pokemon I would personally change. Cinderace, while recently banned in Singles, isn’t as prominent in Doubles because of the prevalence of Speed Control and Protect to go along with it being quite frail. If Cinderace isn't outspeeding threats -- it's easy to get hit by a Kyurem-Black Icy Wind or see an opposing Mew set Tailwind -- then it's probably not helping your team win Pokemon games. Furthermore, it's easy to attack into Protect (most Pokemon either run Protect or Fake out; Fake out is also a problem) and then die to the other opposing Pokemon. It also won't get many switch in opportunities because of Stealth Rock and 80 / 75 / 75 bulk. I would also never run Choice Band because you want to be able to switch moves and abuse Libero.

Dracovish is typically only used on Sand teams as a Sand Rush user. It's useless if it's not attacking first (which, again, is common because of Speed Control) and loses the Fishious Rend boost. It also doesn't fare well against the two best Poekmon in the tier, Tapu Fini and Kyurem-Black, and struggles in a Doubles Environment where Fake Out and Protect are everywhere. Both Cinderace and Dracovish I would not use in Doubles (sometimes Dracovish on Sand but Sand isn't great) and I would replace them on your current team. Not only are they subpar Pokemon, they also share types which Incineroar and Tapu Fini which isn't great since it stacks weaknesses and checks.

:zygarde:
Zygarde @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Superpower
- Toxic

Zygarde truthfully isn't my favorite Pokemon, but I can think it can work here as our Ground-type (over Landorus-Therian) as we already have Sylveon and Incineroar. Zygarde works well to check Pokemon that beat Sylveon such as Nihilego (Nihilego rips through Sylveon / Tapu Fini / Incineroar so having another strong check to go with Kartana is mandatory) and Volcanion, and in return Sylveon can spam Hyper Voice against Kyurem-Black. Ground-types are staples in the current DOU metagame and I chose Zygarde over the aforementioned Landorus-Therian because its role overlaps with Incineroar (Intimidate Pivot) while the team could use some extra offensive power. Choice Band Zygarde also works well with Tailwind which Kartana provides. Toxic and Superpower are used to help against Porygon2 and Kyurem-Black. An option could be to change Zygarde to Landorus-T (set found here), Incineroar to Heatran (set found here) and potentially change Kartana to Rillaboom (set found here). If you want me to go more in-depth about those potential changes, just let me know.

:kyurem-black:
Kyurem-Black @ Assault Vest
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 248 HP / 112 SpA / 88 SpD / 60 Spe
Serious Nature
- Ice Beam
- Fusion Bolt
- Earth Power
- Icy Wind

Kyurem-Black is the best Pokemon in the metagame and you can never go wrong by adding it. On this team specifically, it really helps the Volcanion matchup which resists Sylveon's Hyper Voice and can OHKO Incineroar and Kartana. Furthermore, it provides another way chunk Tapu Fini, which is always an extremely dangerous Pokemon, as well as a reliable Landorus-Therian and Rillaboom killer. It also switches into Spectrier reliably with Assault Vest and can slow it down with Icy Wind and hit Blastoise hard with Fusion Bolt if it's using Follow Me. Having another form of reliable Sped Control in Icy Wind is also very important, especially for the slow Sylveon. The EVs are standard and an explanation can be found on the Smogon Dex. Furthermore, a Social Media Spotlight was just written about Kyurem-Black, so if if you want to learn more about its Assault Vest set you can find that here. Another option here is Mew to support Zygarde (and Sylveon) with Fake Out and Tailwind, as well as setting Stealth Rocks. A sample set can be found here and if you add Mew I would change Tailwind to Substitute and Miracle Seed to White Herb on Kartana.

:sylveon: :incineroar: :tapu-fini: :kartana: :zygarde: :kyurem-black: (click on the sprites for the team)

Against typical Mew + CB Zygarde builds, we have our own Tailwind, Kyurem-Black, Tapu Fini, and Sylveon, with Incineroar to Intimidate as well. Against DD Dragapult / Blastoise / Rillaboom / Kartana teams, we have Incineroar, Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain, Sylveon, and Kyurem-Black. Against Spectrier + Blastoise teams we have strong spread moves in Choice Band Thousand Arrows and Choice Specs Hyper Voice, as well as Kyurem-Black and Kartana to punish Blastoise, and multiple forms of Speed Control. Incineroar also switches in nicely to the Ghost Horse. Against Porygon2 SemiRoom builds, we have Knock Off Incineroar and Toxic Zygarde for Porygon2, multiple Heatran / Volcanion switch-ins, Kartana and Kyurem-Black to chunk Tapu Fini as well as our own Tapu Fini, Diancie can only check one of Kartana and Zygarde (they never run Body Press + Fairy STAB), and Zygarde and Kyurem-Black block out Zeraora. Genesect could be annoying, but it can only lock into one move (can't threatening to OHKO Zygarde with Ice Beam and Sylveon with Iron Head at the same time for example), plus we have Incineroar and Tapu Fini that don't mind it. Overall, the team shouldn't have any absolutely terrible matchups against common team concepts going around at the moment.

I'm sure there are other ways to fill in the last two members. I am a very big fan of using Ground-types (a lot of my teams usually have either Zygarde + Incineroar or Landorus-Therian + Heatran / Volcanion / Volcarona) so that is where my mind went first. If you want to theorymon other combinations, feel free to reach out to me. If you're not liking Zygarde + Kyurem-Black rounding out the team, I can try a different approach.

If you have any questions, you can message me on Discord at emma ❤#4133. Hope this helps!
 
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