I always love messing around with gimmicks in doubles, but the excision of mostly anything after Gen 4 limits this a lot. Not everything, though! Weezing still has its new Neutralizing Gas ability, which is thankfully not limited to the Galarian forme. This had some minor use in SS to negate Regigigas's stupid ability, who is also still in this game. I've always really liked the Regis, so it's a huge shame that their supposed boss was absolute trash. Until now! I mean, it still wasn't good, but at least usable. Granted, that was in a dynamax game, which is a very beneficial mechanic when you have one supermon. So let's see how it goes in this game...
Not terribly impressive, but honestly, a digit more than expected.
The frontline, obviously, is Regigigas and Weezing. Regigigas itself is simple; Crush Grip/Knock Off/Drain Punch are obvious choices with only the last slot being up for debate. I decided on Facade initially as an anti-burn option. Weezing is much harder to work with, though. It's not even good in singles, and it's especially poor in doubles. Its support movepool is severely lacking, and would-be good options like Will-o-wisp and Screech are too inaccurate for the tower. The only genuinely good move it gets is Taunt, which is useful for neutralizing defensive mons and preventing Protects, among other things. I initially skipped Protect in favor of Substitute (bad idea, spoilers) to take attacks from slower mons, or potentially get a sub in the rather common event that Regigigas would KO something and the remaining mon would also target it. It also combined well with Pain Split, a potentially clutch option that could simultaneously damage enemies and heal Weezing. The larger idea for these two moves was to support Regigigas the best way (after Taunt) that Weezing could - not dying. Not exciting, but that's Weezing's doubles prospects in a nutshell. Finally, I chose Flamethrower as an attacking move that hits some things like Scizor that Regigigas doesn't OHKO.
The backline is much more flexible, and should be tailored to switch into threats they have trouble with as well as pressure those mons offensively. That is the basic premise of teambuilding in doubles, anyways, but I had a far dumber idea - going all in on the gimmick. Slaking also benefits from Neutralizing Gas, and then to really go all-in I also added a second Neutralizing Gas user. "But there is no other Neutralizing Gas user!", you proclaim. You call yourself a
smogoner? That's right, I also ran Koffing. Its movepool prospects are equally disappointing, but I took advantage of its frailer nature and ran an Endure/Destiny Bond+Custap Berry set. Slaking is similar to Regigigas, but its movepool options are much worse. Body Slam is a far cry from Crush Grip, and ditto for Night Slash versus Knock Off and Brick Break versus Drain Punch. So I ran a bit more of a defensive set with Slack Off, hoping to take advantage of Slaking's monstrous physical bulk to potentially win endgames even after the gas disappeared. With such an excellently designed backline, how could I lose?
I lost by battle 3, to the Lionel/Abbey combo, one of two obnoxious Drought+Chlorophyll Sleep Powder leaders. And that was with Drought negated! I focused too much on the Bellossom, while Torkoal shred through the leads with an uninhibited Eruption and later Heat Waves. Cresselia and Lapras in the back were too much for my amazing backline to handle. I didn't let that stop me, though, and went back in until winning battle 21. The team had some promise - Regigigas was genuinely monstrous and could often win games with just it and Weezing. Life Orb Crush Grip was strong enough to OHKO uninvested Zapdos, as a point of reference. Regigigas's merely good speed caused some issues, but overall, these two were peas in a pod. Or more literally, they formed a Gas Giant, aka Jupiter. Somehow, though, Koffing and Slaking proved far less effective. Pretty much any battle that got down to them was a nailbiter. Slaking was just so much less threatening than Regigigas, and considering how little its frailer partner added, that just didn't work. Destiny Bond was all it could really do, and such a reckless option was a bit silly considering how reliant the team was on its Neutralizing Gas. If Weezing and Regigigas formed Jupiter, then I'm sorry to say Koffing and Slaking formed Uranus.
So to actually teambuild, I looked ahead to Rank 10 Palmer/Barry. I knew one of their teams had a Scarf Heracross in the lead, which totally negated Regigigas. That's simple enough to switch into, but when the other lead is Choice Band Dragonite that can potentially use Outrage? That basically forced a Fairy. Thankfully, Togekiss has the perfect typing for this, with a 4x Fighting resist and also being immune to EQ which both leads can use. Specs Dazzling Gleam could KO Dragonite with a little help from Weezing as it switched, and Heracross at the same time. After that I knew speed was a bit of an issue with this team which Togekiss was not helping with, so I plopped on a Scizor with its standard strong priority. It's a bit more ability-reliant than ideal, but I thought it was worth a shot. I also finally put Protect on Weezing over Pain Split, which had proven too situational. Mira and Cheryl were really scary with the dual Latios/Scarf Gardevoir leads, and it was really aggravating knowing how little of an issue this would be if I just had Protect. I'm not even entirely sure how I won exactly, I just remember switching out Weezing and Knock Offing Gardevoir's scarf. I also realized I almost never used Facade on Regigigas and taught it Protect as well. Not as useful as on Weezing since it's far and away the main damage dealer, but Protect always find its uses.
This new iteration went fairly well until I, once again, lost to a sun team with a team that negates sun, this time Myron/Jane. Scizor was honestly really useless here, and combined with how mediocre Togekiss was offensively versus Fires made them very problematic in the end. I didn't help my case here by forgetting Ninetales had Protect and wasted Regigigas's one move before it got slept. I could definitely tell the team needed changes, but I kept at it for a bit before losing to Buck and Bertha at Rank 7. Honestly, this was just a total brainfart on my part; I wrongly assumed Trick Room was inevitable against their Mental Herb TR Cresselia, but realized after that Knock Off into Taunt could prevent it. Trick Room shouldn't necessarily be a failstate, but their physically defensive team was hard to remove anything from quickly, particularly Steelix. So Scizor didn't help at all here, either. That's not to say it didn't have its uses, but for the kinds of battles I'd hated the most it just wasn't helping. Physically defensive Pokemon are overwhelmingly Rock or Ground in this game, and combined with the previous issues with Fires I decided a Water type was the clear choice. I still wanted something fast, so I decided on Starmie with an Expert Belt set.
This went well until I shortly got absolutely obliterated by Flint and Volkner in the next rank. An Infernape lead pinned down Regigigas, but Volkner made it risky to switch in either of my backline, which now shared an Electric weakness. I basically had to hope Luxray wouldn't Thunderbolt the Regigigas slot, but it proved to be for nothing as I didn't realize I selected Regigigas's move and switched out Weezing instead. Still, an almost sure loss regardless. I reassessed my team for the last time, so here's the final result:
Regigigas @ Life Orb
Jolly/Slow Start
252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Crush Grip/Knock Off/Drain Punch/Protect
Weezing @ Focus Sash
Bold/Neutralizing Gas
252 HP/44 SpD/212 Spe (107 Speed > 4 Spe EV base 85, i.e. Articuno/Cresselia/Suicune)
Sludge Bomb/Flamethrower/Taunt/Protect
Togekiss @ Choice Scarf
Modest/Serene Grace
4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Dazzling Gleam/Air Slash/Aura Sphere/Grass Knot
Starmie @ Expert Belt
Timid/Natural Cure
252 SpA/4 SpD/252 Spe
Scald/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Protect
The biggest change was changing Togekiss to scarf instead of specs. I "needed" specs to KO Palmer's eventual Dragonite with Dazzling Gleam, but that's not really necessary, and in fact, kind of detrimental given the Thunder Wave Cresselia lurking behind. Scarf gave the team some much needed speed, and particularly versus Flint and Volkner made Togekiss less of a liability. I also ditched Substitute on Weezing; Protect was largely better at keeping it alive, and most cases I could keep a sub I wasn't really in that much danger anyways. There isn't really a particularly good 4th move though, so I just went for Sludge Bomb so Weezing could deal a bit more damage. Lastly, I had Psychic on Starmie originally, but I replaced it with Ice Beam since Zapdos scared me a lot.
While I still had a shitty match-up versus the Infernape team, I at least felt like I might be able to beat it now. I didn't even face it though, and instead fought a Rotom-H lead that quickly Overheated itself into uselessness. The same thing actually happened versus Cyrus and Mars, though the Choice Band Crobat it was paired with meant any double targeting was likely an instant loss. Thankfully, that didn't happen and I got Crobat out of the way ASAP and let Rotom-H Overheat. A badly timed Overheat crit later gave me some issue in this fight still, but not enough for a loss. I finally reached rank 10, and despite all my planning for the Dragonite/Heracross team, I got the Rhyperior/Empoleon lead, which is fairly easy given that physical Empoleon is, frankly, a weenie. Initially I planned to stop there since it seemed clear Regigigas wasn't going anywhere given how many losses I'd already had, but I figured I'd ride out the streak. Obviously, it went further than expected. I think not having looping bosses REALLY helped this - I believe Candice/Maylene were rough, and Volkner/Flint plus Cyrus/Mars would all be terrible to have to repeatedly fight. But having only the one boss that I'd already prepared for simplified things considerably. Well, sort of - I'd underestimated how annoying the Milotic/Torterra lead combo is. I spent a lot of time theorycrafting this fight, and even in the end I don't think I'm that much bad luck away from losing it (main culprit - Body Slam paralysis from Snorlax). But even then, it's far preferable to many of the other boss teams.
While the previous (now irrelevant) bosses were the biggest threat, the team definitely wasn't that prepared for many teams I came across. I didn't really need
that much bad luck for a loss, so it was clear that this was still not going to be a large streak. Knock Off, Taunt, and Aura Sphere alleviated things a little bit, but just on a fundamental level, having the lead's damage output so incredibly tied to one Pokemon makes those paras, burns, etc much more damaging. Perhaps the biggest demonstration of this was Gengar-3, who outsped Regigigas and could instantly incapacitate it with Hypnosis, all the while dodging attacks with Bright Powder. I ran into it twice versus Nadia/Dalvin, and both times it went for Weezing instead. I did miss it with Knock Off the second time, but it went for Dream Eater on the second turn thankfully.
Unsurprisingly though, it did end up being my undoing, but on Johanna/Blair instead. Here it's partnered with a Double Team/Fissure Mamoswine, which, truthfully, I'd say is generally better than the Crobat, but certainly not this time! Gengar missed its Hypnosis, but Regigigas missed the first Knock Off too, and I made the arguable mistake of using Flamethrower on Gengar instead of Taunting Mamoswine. This is pointless damage if Regigigas can hit, but neither of my backline can OHKO Gengar so I wanted the chip. Next turn Gengar hit Hypnosis, but on Weezing, and Regigigas got rid of it. Mamoswine Double Teamed again. In comes Regirock, a difficult Pokemon to deal with, though at least not frustratingly random. I wanted to swap out the sleeping Weezing, but I didn't really have a safe switch since it could get Stone Edged, plus doing so would nerf Regigigas. I hit Regirock with Drain Punch and got back up to full, but it was for naught as Mamoswine OHKOd with Fissure and Regirock set up Sandstorm. With sand up, the Drain Punch wasn't even enough to let either of my other attackers finish it off. I chose Starmie (not weak to rock) and had it Protect, I think (this doesn't sound like a great play but I believe it's what I did?), and Weezing was able to wake up and Flamethrower Mamoswine for a bit - but then it also got Fissured. I sent in Togekiss who could thankfully be locked into Aura Sphere safely, and doubled up on Regirock to finish it off. Mamoswine Avalanched (not boosted) Togekiss for half its health. Here, I would be fine if Starmie didn't miss, but it did and Togekiss fainted. Even then, I could win if I didn't miss a second time, but I did again. The EQ took Starmie down to critical HP, leaving it unable to take the succeeding Tauros's Facade. While this was fairly unlucky, it does need to be emphasized that even a t1 Hypnosis hit on Regigigas alone was likely to severely complicate the game.
That battle definitely made me reconsider Psychic on Starmie over Ice Beam, which was mainly a hasty response to Volkner's Zapdos. I even wonder if Lum might be good to provide a safe-ish switch to that Gengar. Honestly though, I probably won't pick up this team again, but just food for thought if anyone else is interested. Anyways, I feel a little silly writing this many words for the prestigious honor of the bottom of the doubles leaderboard, but I really did put a lot of thought into this. Hopefully someone else can bring more honor to the great Regigigas!
