Creative / Underrated Movesets thread - Doubles edition

Drakeyy said:
CB Ferrothorn anybody?

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Ferrothorn @ Choice Band
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Bulldoze
- Explosion

I know it probably seems gimmicky but it works wonderfully against rain teams and creates a wonderful tandem with scarf Landorus-T. If you use it in a trio with a TR setter its phenomenal. The idea is that most teams focus their energy on Lando who U-turns away while a setter (Mew in my case) sets up TR. Ferro comes in and tanks whatever water/ice attacks they sent Landos way and no he is the slowest poke on the field. Many people dont expect such power from Ferro and with a band can OHKO all variants of Politoed.

It can OHKO so many unsuspecting pokes who think he will just take the time to set up
Calcs:
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (150 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 337-397 (94.13 - 110.89%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Kingdra: 270-318 (92.46 - 108.9%) -- 56.25% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Politoed: 446-528 (116.14 - 137.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (150 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 388-457 (148.09 - 174.42%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tyranitar: 474-560 (117.32 - 138.61%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (150 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 168-198 (51.85 - 61.11%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Bulldoze vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Heatran: 328-388 (85.19 - 100.77%) -- 6.25% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 84 Def Gastrodon: 1260-1488 (295.77 - 349.29%) -- guaranteed OHKO (lol)
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Bulldoze vs. 252 HP / 120 Def Ninetales: 190-224 (54.28 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (128 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Cresselia: 175-207 (39.5 - 46.72%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

It can OHKO 3 of the top 4 most used pokes and will always 2HKO the top 7 bar cress who it has a chance at 2hkoing if its not running Defensive EVs. Now obviously the downside is being locked into 1 move and without the band you just sacrifice too much power. Obviously the biggest drawback is its speed making TR support a must but even without defensive EVs it can still tank quite a lot, and paired with a Slowbro/king who can give it TR support and eliminate the pesky fighting and fire types that plague Ferro it can be hugely effective.
Click to expand...

Why you steal my set? :<

CB Ferro also OHKOs Excadrill with PWhip and does a good 80% or so with Bulldoze.
 
Unfortunately, Choice Band Ferrothorn is susceptible to a lot of common attacks... and it has very little to hit Steels with, Bulldoze is about it. Also completely despises Hitmontop... and Landorus-T. However, If your team has an unsatisfied grudge against rain, CBThorn is certainly an option to consider (just don't recklessly hit Explosion :p).

Anyways, presenting a set from the General Thread that I have never seen apart from when I used it, but works really well:

excadrill.gif

Drills of Steel (Excadrill) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Mold Breaker
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance / Iron Head / A Filler Move of Some Sort
- Protect

A very underrated Tailwind sweeper. Thanks to Mold Breaker, Excadrill can ignore abilities, most notably Levitate, which allows it to destroy old checks like Bronzong and Rotom effortlessly (and put a stop to Skill Swap Cress + Heatran shenanigans). Rock Slide hits Flying-types which still possess immunities to its Earthquake. We have the obvious Protect and slot 3 is very filler. I opted for Iron Head originally, but it didn't do much, so I switched to Swords Dance to use alongside Follow Me (which I usually don't end up doing, but whatevs). There are plenty of options for that slot though, such as X-scissor or Magnet Rise.

Note that working with this Excadrill set is a bit complicated, since a Flying-type tends to be required in order to have something immune to Excadrill's Earthquake (I stole an Excadrill + Togekiss core from VGC).
 
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Not been active for a while but w/e


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Ludicolo @ Life Orb / Water Gem / Absorb Bulb (lel)
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 180 HP / 252 SAtk / 76 Spd
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Giga Drain / Ice Beam
- Teeter Dance
- Protect

Teeter dance is so infuriating to face and for good reason. This set works especially well with good paralysis support as it further slims the opponents chance of hitting you. Just ensure your partner has protect then start dancing. Swift Swim means you'll be going first most of the time and just makes ludi a general pain in the arse to face.
Obviously it's pretty situational and relies on luck more than you want often but it's pulled me out of some tight spots and I don't really notice the attack it has to drop as generally ludi is either being walled or is happy spamming surf.

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Crobat @ Flying Gem
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Super Fang
- Sunny Day
- Taunt / U-turn

Admitedly I've never used this in Doubles, only VGC. 130 Base speed is blazing fast meaning it's the perfect Pokemon to throw a spanner in the works, Sunny Day and Taunt are great for disrupting the opponents team and can even help you if you stick a goodstuffs heatran somewhere on your team. Inner Focus and aCROBATics can often catch out some Hitmontops and is a generally strong, easy to spam attack though brave bird may be preferred. I love Super Fang as it helps take / wear down stuff that Crobat can't touch like Heatran and Cress it can help put you in a really strong position and take down stuff you might otherwise struggle with.
 
here's something that i've been toying with on gbu

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Lum Berry / Bug Gem
Timid Nature
EVs vary- enough to outspeed jolly Landorus-T at the very least

Rage Powder
Quiver Dance
Bug Buzz
Heat Wave

rage powder and qd on the same set is like semi-trick room; you use either one when the situation demands it. eg, if you think you can get away with dancing, you do so but if you're against an ice type or something and your dragon needs to kill something then you rage powder. needless to say i am in love with semi tr so something that plays like it is a-ok in my book. the loss of protect means that you're more reliant on hitmontop or similar mons to protect it from rock slide, but the utility of having both of these wonderful moves is just outstanding.

e: lol i just pinged a random member
 
xD

Yeah, that Volcarona set has been seeing a lot of VGC usage recently, though I have yet to test it out in Smogon Doubles. As for EVs, the 4th-placed team at Worlds used this set, here's what it looked like:
volcarona.png

Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Trait: Flame Body
IVs: 0 Atk
EVs: 240 HP / 4 Def / 8 SAtk / 44 SDef / 212 Spd
Modest Nature
- Rage Powder
- Heat Wave
- Bug Buzz
- Quiver Dance

This is a level 50 spread, so I wouldn't copy it directly, but rather try to recreate a lv100 spread that accomplishes the same benchmarks (which are A: not provided in his team analysis and B: too difficult for my lazy self to figure out :p).
 
A few sets of varying gimmickiness:

Scarf Victini:

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
- V-create
- Fusion Bolt
- U-turn
- Trick / Brick Break
144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature

Very simply, kill stuff. If you can't kill something, bail out with U-turn or cripple it with Trick. That is all. EVs outrun everything up to and including Crobat.

Power Swap Ninetales:

Ninetales @ Fire Gem
Ability: Drought
- Overheat
- Will-o-Wisp / Energy Ball
- Power Swap
- Protect
252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe (or whatever spread really)
Modest Nature

Fire Gem Overheat in the sun hurts, OHKOing most neutral targets. Afterwards, you can use Power Swap to cripple a special attacker and go again. Will-o-Wisp does the same to Physical attackers. Possibly Ninetales' best set, which isn't saying much because Ninetales is Ninetales.

Sub SD Bisharp:

Bisharp @ Dark Gem / Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant / Inner Focus
- Sucker Punch
- Low Kick / Iron Head / Night Slash
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def (or whatever)
Adamant Nature

Straight outta UU. Opponents often attempt to play around Sucker Punch by switching or status. This gives Bisharp time to set up a Substitute, and then start boosting. At this point the opponent will be FORCED to attack Bisharp (unless he is carrying Taunt I guess), lest Bisharp work his way up to +6. Obviously Intimidate can't help the situation. This works better in Trick room where Bisharp can use a somewhat fast Substitute to block burns and sleep. Inner Focus will take a lot of opponents by surprise, and as Intimidate has no effect on stuff behind a Substitute, is actually quite useful.

Finally, if a set is being used a lot in VGC, it is NOT underrated. Just a small nitpick.
 
noobcubed said:
A few sets of varying gimmickiness:

Scarf Victini:

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
- V-create
- Fusion Bolt
- U-turn
- Trick / Brick Break
144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature

Very simply, kill stuff. If you can't kill something, bail out with U-turn or cripple it with Trick. That is all. EVs outrun everything up to and including Crobat.
Click to expand...

You should probably EV it for Deoxys-A, just to be safe, given that Deoxys will hate a U-turn to the face. :u
 
BlankZero said:
Ladder players might run max speed, but if you play IRC matches, we usually run enough to outrun 130's, so like 220 Spe neutral nature.
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Ladder players might sometimes be using the official analysis that outspeeds 130s by 1. There's always going to be people that speed creep that mark though, so you could speed creep the speed creepers, but I feel like that's not how set analyses are done.
 
noobcubed said:
Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
- V-create
- Fusion Bolt
- U-turn
- Trick / Brick Break
144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature
Click to expand...

no final gambit? that's like one of the coolest things about scarf victini too :(

and yeah i guess you're right about vgc stuff though sometimes i use stuff i think is clever but i turn around and it's actually p standard >_>
 
Here's something I've been using on a not-particularly-good Hail offense team. It's a Pokemon nobody ever uses in doubles but it does have a niche:

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Nidoking @ Life Orb
- Blizzard
- Earth Power
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid / Modest

This provides great synergy both offensively and defensively with other Blizzard spammers. Defensively, it has key resistances to Fighting and Rock, and together with a Water-type that covers up all of Ice's weaknesses. Offensively, Earth Power ploughs through Fire- and Steel-types that shrug off Blizzard (and its Earth Power is far stronger than Kyurem's), and Thunderbolt does the same to Water-types. Sheer Force is the icing on the cake. Suicune is a great partner, resisting Fire and Steel which also trouble Ice-types, and setting Tailwind, which Nidoking can take maximum advantage of due to its Thunder Wave immunity.
 
Yeah I faced (and was haxed by) this team of yours (no worries though, I was just testing some ideas on a fairly redundant team). The thing I've always wondered when it comes to hail teams is how much Blizzspam you can get away with. The more you use it, the more redundant team coverage tends to become. Anyway, one of my favorite hail teams 'mons is actually Nidoqueen, who is slower and doesn't hit as hard but in return gets higher bulk for tanking attacks. The set would basically be the same except with HP EVs > Speed EVs, so I'm not going to post it. Anyways, I might as well present my feature set (for my current team), which many of you may recognize from VGC:

cloyster.gif

Cloyster @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Skill Link
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature (Jolly is also fine)
- Icicle Spear
- Razor Shell
- Rock Blast
- Explosion

A lot of players really laugh at Cloyster in Smogon Doubles, since people are always using it for lame Shell Smash shenanigans. However, if you use it right, it can be a deadly threat that I believe the Smogon Doubles community really underlooks. Similar to Mamoswine, Cloyster has an ability to counter the genies. However, it also can counter common Rage Powder/Follow Me abusers not named Jirachi and almost any Dragon-type, thanks to Skill Link. Explosion is most filler (it only payed off in one battle so far, but whatevs), and Razor Shell can help against things like Heatran. In terms of synergy, Cloyster enjoys some Defiant support to avoid Intimidate. It also needs a teammate for Excadrill & bulky Water-types as I have found that those give it trouble (other notable things that give it trouble include Rock Blast missing too much, allowing noobcubed's Abomasnow to KO rather than be KOd).
 
Nollan said:
cloyster.gif

Cloyster @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Skill Link
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature (Jolly is also fine)
- Icicle Spear
- Razor Shell
- Rock Blast
- Explosion
Click to expand...

Personally, I would run Jolly to outrun Shaymin-S, since that's a mutual OHKO either way and Shaymin-S is really annoying. Since Explosion is mostly filler, you can actually run Adamant and then have Ice Shard in the last slot to achieve the same thing as long as Shaymin isn't holding a Yache Berry. Ice Shard also does 74-88% to Deoxys-A and can kill it once its Sash has been broken by anything else.

Nollan said:
(other notable things that give it trouble include Rock Blast missing too much, allowing noobcubed's Abomasnow to KO rather than be KOd).
Click to expand...

Do I sense a trace of bitterness? :p
 
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Arcticblast I demand you add some of these to OP. In the interest of this not dying figure ill show off a mon i've tested that's actually been p good (no not torn-t that thing was garb)

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Shaymin @ Grass Gem
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seed Flare
- Earth Power
- Tailwind
- Protect

For a while I've been like "I want a Rain check for this team, lemme use a grass type" and I kept running into the same problems. Breloom and Skymin aren't bulky enough, Virizion is kinda weak, Amoonguss is too defensive, others like Roserade are just bad. Then I thought "Why not use normal Shaymin?" This thing has better bulk than its Sky forme letting it switch around a lot easier while still packing a great offensive presence. With this set it has no trouble checking many common threats like ttar and such. Seed Flare + Earth Power have good coverage and Tailwind allows it to support the team very well and make things like Kingdra in rain less threatening (alot of people don't expect this to get Tailwind either making it that much better). With a Grass Gem, 120 BP and a high chance to drop Special Defense (even without serene grace 40% is still sweet), Seed Flare can really pacsk a punch. Natural Cure is also really nice to let you shrug off paras and stuff like that. EV spread might seem simple but 4 SDef is actually needed to live through Dragon Gem Latios' Draco Meteor guaranteed, and the extra 4 Speed just let you speed creep other min speed 100s. So yeah Shaymin is a baller and is super cute so try it out!
 
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