Well, time for me to take a shot at this whole Rate My Team thing. I agree wholeheartedly with Surgo's "unifying strategy" qualifier. This has been true in double battles since Advance. Hopefully in DP it'll apply more to single battles as well.
My team's main themes are Sandstorm and Trick Room. It's a 2v2 team, and in my experience, the more common strategies you can fit into a 2v2 team, the better. There are no legendaries or Hidden Power by choice. If you want to point out a gaping weakness my team has to a legendary Pokémon, be my guest, but please don't suggest any legendaries for inclusion in my team.
You'll also notice that there are no specific EVs. This is because my EV distribution depends heavily on the IVs of each Pokémon. I'll give generalizations.
Bronzong
Gyro Ball
Trick Room
Safeguard
Heal Block
Nature: Relaxed or Sassy
Item: Macho Brace
Ability: Levitate
EVs: Max out HP, Max out AT, Last few in DF or SD, whichever is lower.
Bronzong is the primary support Pokémon for the team. I'm hoping he's durable enough to set up Trick Room for my team. Gyro Ball should do appreciable damage since I'm expecting my Speed to be no higher that 35 (after Macho Brace). Safeguard and Heal Block are situational. They're meant to mess up tanking Pokémon. These last two moves could be changed, however. Levitate is for avoiding its partners' Earthquakes.
Hippowdon
Earthquake
Crunch
Ice Fang
Slack Off
Nature: Adamant or Brave
Item: Expert Belt
Ability: Sandstream
EVs: Divided between HP, SD and AT.
Hippowdon is, of course, meant to get Sandstorm started (and restarted if I'm up against another weather team). Ice Fang is for all those powerful Dragon-types out there. Slack Off should require less prediction if Trick Room is active.
Cacturne
Needle Arm
Dark Pulse
Revenge
Destiny Bond
Nature: Brave
Item: Razor Claw
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: Almost all in HP, DF, and SD so that DF + SD = HP.
Cacturne benefits from both Trick Room and Sandstorm, but needs neither to function. If Trick Room is active, Needle Arm and Dark Pulse have a chance to flinch most Pokémon. Destiny Bond is better if Cacturne is fast, obviously. Revenge is a Fighting-type move, but also makes one Destiny Bond essentially last two rounds on a fast Cacturne.
Armaldo
Rock Slide
X-Scissor
Swords Dance
Protect
Nature: Adamant
Item: Quick Claw
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: Max out HP, some in AT, the rest in SD.
Rock Slide instead of Stone Edge for the chance to flinch both opponents. Quick Claw is there in case Trick Room is not active. Protect could be replaced with Sandstorm or something else.
Gastrodon
Muddy Water
Earthquake
Recover
Mirror Coat
Nature: Quiet
Item: Rindo Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: Max out DF, the rest between HP and AT.
Gastrodon is meant to slightly mitigate my team's Water vulnerability. Any targeted Water attacks will be drawn to it. Muddy Water is used here over Surf because I don't want to hit my partner and for the chance of lowering Accuracy. This would be especially nice with Cacturne's Sand Veil. The Rindo berry makes it more likely to survive a Grass attack. Water and Grass special moves can be returned with Mirror Coat.
Dusknoir
Shadow Punch
Disable
Pain Split
Trick Room
Nature: Impish or Careful
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: Max out HP, the rest in AT and DF or SD, whichever is lower.
My other Trick Room user. Shadow Punch is for direct damage and also for non-Normal users of Double Team (which won't be banned on Wi-Fi). Pain Split and Leftovers should ensure good health recovery, even during a sandstorm or hail. Disable is an all-purpose tool for messing with opponents' strategies.
There's no threat list here for two reasons:
1. Traditional counters don't really exist in double battles the way they do in single battles.
2. This post is long enough already.
EDIT: Well, this thread is almost off the front page, and not a response yet. I'm guessing this is because either people are too busy talking about the English move names or because they don't know or care enough about 2v2 to rate the team. Regardless, I'm choosing to declare this a win, since nobody is pointing out any weaknesses in my team at all. I beat RMT!
EDIT: Poor thread. Dead before its time. I'll miss you.
My team's main themes are Sandstorm and Trick Room. It's a 2v2 team, and in my experience, the more common strategies you can fit into a 2v2 team, the better. There are no legendaries or Hidden Power by choice. If you want to point out a gaping weakness my team has to a legendary Pokémon, be my guest, but please don't suggest any legendaries for inclusion in my team.
You'll also notice that there are no specific EVs. This is because my EV distribution depends heavily on the IVs of each Pokémon. I'll give generalizations.
Bronzong
Gyro Ball
Trick Room
Safeguard
Heal Block
Nature: Relaxed or Sassy
Item: Macho Brace
Ability: Levitate
EVs: Max out HP, Max out AT, Last few in DF or SD, whichever is lower.
Bronzong is the primary support Pokémon for the team. I'm hoping he's durable enough to set up Trick Room for my team. Gyro Ball should do appreciable damage since I'm expecting my Speed to be no higher that 35 (after Macho Brace). Safeguard and Heal Block are situational. They're meant to mess up tanking Pokémon. These last two moves could be changed, however. Levitate is for avoiding its partners' Earthquakes.
Hippowdon
Earthquake
Crunch
Ice Fang
Slack Off
Nature: Adamant or Brave
Item: Expert Belt
Ability: Sandstream
EVs: Divided between HP, SD and AT.
Hippowdon is, of course, meant to get Sandstorm started (and restarted if I'm up against another weather team). Ice Fang is for all those powerful Dragon-types out there. Slack Off should require less prediction if Trick Room is active.
Cacturne
Needle Arm
Dark Pulse
Revenge
Destiny Bond
Nature: Brave
Item: Razor Claw
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: Almost all in HP, DF, and SD so that DF + SD = HP.
Cacturne benefits from both Trick Room and Sandstorm, but needs neither to function. If Trick Room is active, Needle Arm and Dark Pulse have a chance to flinch most Pokémon. Destiny Bond is better if Cacturne is fast, obviously. Revenge is a Fighting-type move, but also makes one Destiny Bond essentially last two rounds on a fast Cacturne.
Armaldo
Rock Slide
X-Scissor
Swords Dance
Protect
Nature: Adamant
Item: Quick Claw
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: Max out HP, some in AT, the rest in SD.
Rock Slide instead of Stone Edge for the chance to flinch both opponents. Quick Claw is there in case Trick Room is not active. Protect could be replaced with Sandstorm or something else.
Gastrodon
Muddy Water
Earthquake
Recover
Mirror Coat
Nature: Quiet
Item: Rindo Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: Max out DF, the rest between HP and AT.
Gastrodon is meant to slightly mitigate my team's Water vulnerability. Any targeted Water attacks will be drawn to it. Muddy Water is used here over Surf because I don't want to hit my partner and for the chance of lowering Accuracy. This would be especially nice with Cacturne's Sand Veil. The Rindo berry makes it more likely to survive a Grass attack. Water and Grass special moves can be returned with Mirror Coat.
Dusknoir
Shadow Punch
Disable
Pain Split
Trick Room
Nature: Impish or Careful
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: Max out HP, the rest in AT and DF or SD, whichever is lower.
My other Trick Room user. Shadow Punch is for direct damage and also for non-Normal users of Double Team (which won't be banned on Wi-Fi). Pain Split and Leftovers should ensure good health recovery, even during a sandstorm or hail. Disable is an all-purpose tool for messing with opponents' strategies.
There's no threat list here for two reasons:
1. Traditional counters don't really exist in double battles the way they do in single battles.
2. This post is long enough already.
EDIT: Well, this thread is almost off the front page, and not a response yet. I'm guessing this is because either people are too busy talking about the English move names or because they don't know or care enough about 2v2 to rate the team. Regardless, I'm choosing to declare this a win, since nobody is pointing out any weaknesses in my team at all. I beat RMT!
EDIT: Poor thread. Dead before its time. I'll miss you.
