Metagame Doubles Little Cup

jcbc · Jan 6, 2020

WhatsApp Image 2021-06-10 at 01.01.35.jpeg

(approved by Coconut)

What is Doubles LC?

Exactly what it sounds like! It's Little Cup in the doubles format, only with a different banlist than in singles LC. It's an unexplored metagame that plays pretty differently to normal LC and DOU.

Where can I play it?

The best place to play Doubles LC is on Pokemon Showdown, using the challenge tier Doubles LC, since it already include all the Clauses and restrictions of the tier. We also have a Discord Server for finding matches and metagame discussion. Or alternatively you can pla the daily roomtours of the Littlecup Pokemon Showdown room (01:00pm gmt-7 / 04:00pm gmt-4 / 08:00pm gmt+2 /02:00am gmt+8).

What's banned?

- The move Ally Switch is banned in Doubles LC.
- Cutiefly, Ponyta, Scyther, Sneasel, Swirlix, Tangela, Vulpix-Kanto and Corsola-Galar are banned.
- Dynamax is banned.
- Sleep Clause is ON.

Some topics for discussion:

What currently shapes the metagame? Are there any big threats that need to be addressed?
What kind of teams are fun and effective? What playstyles have potential (Trick Room, weather) and what playstyles don't (stall)

Current Council:
jcbc (Tier Leader)
Acehunter1 (Tier Co-Leader)
Actuarily
Voltix
Nurul
GasaiYunoSan
Paraplegic
Toadow

jcbc · Jan 6, 2020

Art by Gummy

May everyone be welcomed to the Official Doubles LC Viability Ranking!

- Post intelligently. One-liners saying things like "X should be Y rank" without context or supporting evidence are likely to be disregarded or deleted.
- Be civil when debating other users. Any flaming will not be tolerated.
- Be aware of the global forum rules — they all apply here, too.

The VR Council

The VR Council is a group of experienced players selected to assess any new nominations from the community and vote on them before they become accepted into the rankings. This same council has the same jurisdiction over the Sample Teams thread. The VR Council also can internally nominate changes to the thread — it then votes on these, just as an individual user would in a post in this thread. We will document all changes to the Viability Rankings in the form of update posts, where votes and associated reasoning are collected in a spreadsheet. Be on the lookout for these.

The current VR Council is:

jcbc

Voltix

Acehunter1 :riolu:

Nurul

Toadow

GasaiYunoSan :Sylveon:

Paraplegic :treecko:

Actuarily

>> TIER 1 <<

Pokemon that dominate a large portion of the metagame. They are either quite powerful or offer great team support, and can fit on almost any team. You can't really go wrong by using these Pokemon.

Mienfoo

Gastly

>> TIER 2 <<

Pokemon that are generally strong and can easily be placed on a variety of teams, but don't have the same level of prowess as the threats in Tier 1.

Vullaby

Litten

Pawniard

Foongus

Rufflet

Abra

Mudbray

Grookey

Porygon

Koffing

Frillish

Spritzee

Squirtle

Elekid

>> TIER 3 <<

Pokemon that are generally strong, but less powerful than those in Tier 2 or Pokemon that require a decent amount of support or a specific team style to function well, but are defining pieces to said archetypes.

Magnemite

Wingull

Cottonee

Scraggy

Chinchou

Snover

Archen

Gothita

Omanyte

Riolu

Lileep

Ponyta-Galar
:Salandit:

Salandit

Solosis

>> TIER 4 <<

This tier contains either Pokemon that have broad applications on a variety of teams, but are simply less effective than those in higher tiers, or are only particularly useful for certain team styles.

Woobat

Dewpider

Drifloon

Staryu

Tyrunt

Cubchoo

Dwebble

Vulpix-Alola
:Togepi:

Togepi

Sandshrew-Alola
:zigzagoon:

Zigzagoon

Onix

Timburr

Torchic

Skrelp

Meowth

Magby

Morelull

>> TIER 5 <<

Pokemon that, while they have a niche in the metagame, often struggle to find situations where they thrive, either because of the support required or their poor matchups.

Bulbasaur

Mantyke

Ferroseed

Drilbur

Anorith

Croagunk

Farfetch'd-Galar
:Growlithe:

Growlithe

Charmander
:hippopotas:

Hippopotas
:goldeen:

Goldeen

Mareanie

Elgyem

Shellos

Munchlax

Venipede

Horsea

Oddish

Updates Log

02/04/2021 - Another VR slate happened. Tiers from 1 to 3 got ordered in order from best to worst for each tier, tiers 4 and 5 are in alphabetical order.
07/05/2021 - Implemented the VR slate voting ran in may over the already ranked pokemons and some more nominations.
11/05/2021 - Added Samples Sets.
22/06/2021 - Implemented the VR slate voting ran in june over the already ranked pokemons and some more nominations aswell as reordering via voting all the tiers from best to worse internally.
11/08/2021 - Another VR slate happened. Tiers got reordered to reflect better the metagame.
04/04/2022 - Another VR slate happened. Tiers got reordered to reflect better the metagame.

jcbc · Jan 6, 2020

art by Kiwi

Hello! This post serves to be a place for successful Doubles LC teams intended to help new players get acclimated to the metagame and different playstyles. Sample Teams are exemplary teams that have proven themselves to be good and are basic enough for beginners to use, allowing them to pick up the fundamentals of teambuilding and doubles play. Sample Teams will be hosted in this post.

Posting Guidelines

Give a short explanation of the role that each member of your team plays, and how the team works.
Provide an importable.
You must have some experience with your team before posting. Don’t post a team you just made on the team builder and thought looked good. Providing replays is a good way to prove that you have used your team a fair bit and that it’s viable; it will also give us an idea of how to play with the team.
Your team must represent the current metagame.

Sample teams will be selected at the discrection of the Doubles LC Council.

Current Sample Teams

Below are the current sample teams! Click the minisprites for the importables of the teams.

- DD scraggy by Actuarily

- Psychic Terrain by Acehunter1

- Snover + Porygon Semi-Room by Actuarily

- Koffing + Archen + Meowth by Paraplegic

- Sandshrew-Alola Hail by jcbc

- Gastbray by JRL

- Pancham TR by GasaiYunoSan

- Ferro Full-Room by jcbc

- Omanyte + Cottonee by Acehunter1

- Double bird by Nurul

jcbc · Jan 18, 2020

art by EeveeGirl1380

The purpose of this thread is to provide a visual list organized by roles to see what Pokémon do what. This will help new and experienced players alike in finding Pokémon that fit their teams when looking for specific roles. Each Pokemon that is here is viable in the SS Doubles LC metagame, and as such, it will change as the viability rankings get updated. If you feel there is a Pokemon viable for the roles mentioned below and it hasn't been added to the group, then recommend it in your post with solid explanations.
Under each role will be an array of Pokemon that could satisfy it, sorted into solid and shaky performers of the listed role. In the case that a role is split into sub-roles, the solid vs shaky categories will refer to how well the given Pokemon performs the larger role - not the sub-role. If there is a Pokemon that is not listed in a role it should be or vice versa, make a post about it and this post may be edited to fit your recommendation. Although the lists will roughly be in viability order, this is not meant to be used as anything relevant towards the Viability Rankings if you want to make a statement or start a discussion over the VR pls state it as so and viceversa. Exceptions can, however, be made for the case where you believe a Pokemon is listed in the incorrect category. Having this visual cue will hopefully aid people in building better and also more diverse teams, and allow anyone to find that one last filler they need for a team.

The order of roles will be organized in the following way:

Speed control (Utility Moves, Attacking Moves)
Utility (hazard setters and removers and diverse forms of utility)
Offensive roles (wallbreakers, choice item users, and setup sweepers)
Defensive roles (walls and pivots)
Weather (rain, sand, and sun)

1. Speed Control

Utility Moves:

Tailwind:
Solid - :vullaby:

Shaky -

Trick Room:
Solid - :spritzee:

Shaky -

Attacking Moves:

Icy Wind:
Solid - :squirtle:

Shaky -

Electroweb:
Solid - :elekid:

Shaky -

2. Utility

Redirection Support:

Rage Powder:
Solid - :foongus:

Shaky - X
Follow Me:
Solid - :riolu:

Shaky -

Entry Hazards:

Stealth Rocks:
Solid - :mudbray:

Shaky -

Sticky Webs:
Solid - :dewpider:

Shaky -

Spikes:
Solid - :dwebble:

Shaky -

Toxic Spikes:
Solid - :koffing:

Shaky -

Other:

Knock Off:
Solid - :vullaby:

Shaky -

Taunt:
Solid - :cottonee:

Shaky -

Coaching:
Solid - :mienfoo:

Shaky -

Helping Hand:
Solid - :mienfoo:

Shaky -

Intimidate:
Solid - :scraggy:

Shaky -

Trappers:
Solid - :gothita:

Shaky -

Other:

Heal Pulse:
Solid - :ponyta-galar:

Shaky - X

Pollen Puff:
Solid - :foongus:

Shaky - X

3. Offensive Roles

Choice Item Users:

Choice Specs:
Solid - :abra:

Shaky -

Choice Scarf:
Solid - :magnemite:

Shaky -

Spread Moves Users:

Muddy Water:
Solid - :omanyte:

Shaky -

Heat Wave:
Solid - :vullaby:

Shaky -

Rock Slide:
Solid - :mudbray:

Shaky -

Sludge Wave:
Solid - :gastly:

Shaky -

Dazzling Gleam:
Solid - :spritzee:

Shaky -

Earthquake:
Solid - :mudbray:

Shaky -

Surf:
Solid - :dewpider:

Shaky -

Expanding Force:
Solid - :solosis:

Shaky -

Blizzard:
Solid - :amaura:

Shaky -

Water Spout:
Solid - :frillish:

Shaky -

Setup Sweepers:

Swords Dance:
Solid - :mienfoo:

Shaky -

Nasty Plot:
Solid - :vullaby:

Shaky -

Calm Mind:
Solid - :ponyta-galar:

Shaky -

Shell Smash:
Solid - :omanyte:

Shaky -

Dragon Dance:
Solid - :tyrunt:

Shaky -

Growth:
Solid - :bulbasaur:

Shaky -

Belly Drum:
Solid - :zigzagoon:

Shaky -

Priority:

Fake Out:
Solid - :mienfoo:

Shaky -

Feint:
Solid - :mienfoo:

Shaky -

Grassy Glide:
Solid - :grookey:

Shaky -

Prankster:
Solid - :riolu:

Shaky -

Sucker Punch:
Solid - :pawniard:

Shaky -

Mach Punch:
Solid - :timburr:

Shaky -

Ice Shard:
Solid - :snover:

Shaky -

Vacuum Wave:
Solid - :croagunk:

Shaky -

Pivots:

Offensive:
Solid - :mienfoo:

Shaky -

Defensive:
Solid - :foongus:

Shaky -

5. Weather

Hail:

Snow Warning:
Solid - :amaura:

Shaky - X
Slush Rush:
Solid - :cubchoo:

Shaky - X

Sand:

Sand Stream:
Solid - :hippopotas:

Shaky - X
Sand Rush:
Solid - :drilbur:

Shaky - X
Sand Force:
Solid - :drilbur:

Shaky -

Rain:

Rain Dance (setter):
Solid - :riolu:

Shaky -

Swift Swim:
Solid - :omanyte:

Shaky -

Rain Dish:
Solid - :wingull:

Shaky -

Sun:

Sunny Day (setter):
Solid - :cottonee:

Shaky -

Chlorophyll:
Solid - :bulbasaur:

Shaky -

Solar Power:
Solid - :charmander:

Shaky -

If you disagree with the placement of any pokemon or think some pokemon is not placed where it belongs let us know!

Acehunter1 · Feb 22, 2020

Art by smokeyinferno

This thread will serve as a visual reference for how fast Pokemon are in SS Doubles LC (Post-DLC)
If you have any suggestions please post in the thread and I will try to respond/update accordingly.

Tier 1: Fastest to 21

Speed	Pokemon	Base	Nature	IVs	EVs	Boosts	Speed under Tailwind
52	Omanyte	35	Neutral	31	236	+2 (+rain)	104
34	Drilbur	68	Positive	31	212	+2	68
32	Drilbur	68	Neutral	31	212	+2	64
30	Drifloon	70	Neutral	31	116	+2	60
30	Vullaby	60	Neutral	31	196	+2	60
30	Bulbasaur	45	Positive	31	236	+2	60
30	Squirtle	43	Positive	31	252	+2	60
28	Mantyke	50	Neutral	31	196	+2	56
28	Bulbasaur	45	Neutral	31	196	+2	56
28	Squirtle	43	Neutral	31	252	+2	56
28	Cubchoo	40	Positive	31	196	+2	56
28	Sandshrew-A	40	Positive	31	196	+2	56
28	Omanyte	35	Positive	31	236	+2	56
26	Cubchoo	40	Neutral	31	196	+2	52
26	Porygon	40	Neutral	31	196	+2	52
26	Sandshrew-A	40	Neutral	31	196	+2	52
26	Omanyte	35	Neutral	31	236	+2	52
26	Oddish	30	Positive	31	196	+2	52
26	Lileep	23	Positive	31	252	+2	52
25	Onix	70	Positive	31	196	+1	50
25	Charmander	65	Positive	31	236	+1	50
25	Mienfoo	65	Positive	31	236	+1	50
24	Pawniard	60	Positive	31	196	+1	48
24	Rufflet	60	Positive	31	196	+1	48
24	Vullaby	60	Positive	31	196	+1	48
24	Oddish	30	Neutral	31	196	+2	48
22	Rufflet	60	Neutral	31	196	+1	44
22	Scraggy	48	Positive	31	212	+1	44
22	Tyrunt	48	Positive	31	212	+1	44
22	Amaura	46	Positive	31	228	+1	44
22	Magnemite	45	Positive	31	236	+1	44
22	Mudbray	45	Positive	31	236	+1	44
21	Scraggy	48	Neutral	31	212	+1	42
21	Tyrunt	48	Neutral	31	212	+1	42
21	Magnemite	45	Neutral	31	236	+1	42
21	Mudbray	45	Neutral	31	236	+1	42
21	Frillish	40	Positive	31	196	+1	42
21	Porygon	40	Positive	31	196	+1	42
21	Snover	40	Positive	31	196	+1	42

Tier 2: 20 to 16

Speed	Pokemon	Base	Nature	IVs	EVs	Boosts	Speed under Tailwind
20	Elekid	95	Positive	31	236	-	40
19	Abra	90	Positive	31	196	-	38
19	Meowth	90	Positive	31	196	-	38
19	Ponyta-galar	90	Positive	31	196	-	38
19	Staryu	85	Positive	31	236	-	38
19	Wingull	85	Positive	31	236	-	38
19	Magby	83	Positive	31	252	-	38
19	Elgyem	30	Positive	31	196	+1	38
18	Meowth	90	Neutral	31	196	-	36
18	Gastly	80	Positive	31	196	-	36
18	Salandit	77	Positive	31	220	-	36
18	Stunky	74	Positive	31	244	-	36
17	Woobat	72	Positive	31	180	-	34
17	Archen	70	Positive	31	196	-	34
17	Drifloon	70	Positive	31	196	-	34
17	Helioptile	70	Positive	31	196	-	34
17	Litten	70	Positive	31	196	-	34
17	Onix	70	Positive	31	196	-	34
17	Drilbur	68	Positive	31	212	-	34
17	Chinchou	67	Positive	31	220	-	34
17	Cottonee	66	Positive	31	228	-	34
17	Purrloin	66	Positive	31	228	-	34
17	Charmander	65	Positive	31	236	-	34
17	Grookey	65	Positive	31	236	-	34
17	Mienfoo	65	Positive	31	236	-	34
17	Goldeen	63	Positive	31	252	-	34
16	Drilbur	68	Neutral	31	212	-	32
16	Charmander	65	Neutral	31	236	-	32
16	Grookey	65	Neutral	31	236	-	32
16	Goldeen	63	Neutral	31	252	-	32
16	Growlithe	60	Positive	31	196	-	32
16	Pawniard	60	Positive	31	196	-	32
16	Rufflet	60	Positive	31	196	-	32
16	Vullaby	60	Positive	31	196	-	32
16	Bunnelby	57	Positive	31	220	-	32
16	Dwebble	55	Positive	31	236	-	32

Tier 3: 15 to 11

Speed	Pokemon	Base	Nature	IVs	EVs	Boosts	Speed under Tailwind
15	Drifloon	70	Neutral	31	116	-	30
15	Goldeen	63	Neutral	31	172	-	30
15	Pawniard	60	Neutral	31	196	-	30
15	Rufflet	60	Neutral	31	196	-	30
15	Vullaby	60	Neutral	31	196	-	30
15	Bunnelby	57	Neutral	31	220	-	30
15	Croagunk	50	Positive	31	196	-	30
15	Scraggy	48	Positive	31	212	-	30
15	Tyrunt	48	Positive	31	212	-	30
15	Amaura	46	Positive	31	228	-	30
15	Bulbasaur	45	Positive	31	236	-	30
15	Gothita	45	Positive	31	236	-	30
15	Magnemite	45	Positive	31	236	-	30
15	Mudbray	45	Positive	31	236	-	30
15	Squirtle	43	Positive	31	252	-	30
14	Pawniard	60	Neutral	31	116	-	28
14	Vullaby	60	Neutral	31	116	-	28
14	Croagunk	50	Neutral	31	196	-	28
14	Mantyke	50	Neutral	31	196	-	28
14	Scraggy	48	Neutral	31	212	-	28
14	Tyrunt	48	Neutral	31	212	-	28
14	Bulbasaur	45	Neutral	31	236	-	28
14	Magnemite	45	Neutral	31	236	-	28
14	Mudbray	45	Neutral	31	236	-	28
14	Squirtle	43	Neutral	31	236	-	28
14	Cubchoo	40	Positive	31	196	-	28
14	Sandshrew-Alola	40	Positive	31	196	-	28
14	Snover	40	Positive	31	196	-	28
14	Koffing	35	Positive	31	236	-	28
14	Omanyte	35	Positive	31	236	-	28
13	Chinchou	67	Neutral	31	0	-	26
13	Cottonee	66	Neutral	31	0	-	26
13	Purrloin	66	Neutral	31	0	-	26
13	Grookey	65	Neutral	31	0	-	26
13	Mienfoo	65	Neutral	31	0	-	26
13	Zigzagoon	60	Neutral	31	0	-	26
13	Amaura	46	Neutral	31	148	-	26
13	Gothita	45	Neutral	31	156	-	26
13	Squirtle	43	Neutral	31	172	-	26
13	Cubchoo	40	Neutral	31	196	-	26
13	Porygon	40	Neutral	31	196	-	26
13	Sandshrew-Alola	40	Neutral	31	196	-	26
13	Koffing	35	Neutral	31	236	-	26
13	Omanyte	35	Neutral	31	236	-	26
13	Oddish	30	Positive	31	196	-	26
13	Dewpider	27	Positive	31	220	-	26
13	Lileep	23	Positive	31	252	-	26
12	Growlithe	60	Neutral	31	0	-	24
12	Riolu	60	Neutral	31	0	-	24
12	Vullaby	60	Neutral	31	0	-	24
12	Mudbray	45	Neutral	31	76	-	24
12	Frillish	40	Neutral	31	116	-	24
12	Oddish	30	Neutral	31	196	-	24
12	Dewpider	27	Neutral	31	220	-	24
11	Croagunk	50	Neutral	31	0	-	22
11	Scraggy	48	Neutral	31	0	-	22
11	Mareanie	45	Neutral	31	0	-	22
11	Mudbray	45	Neutral	31	0	-	22
11	Squirtle	43	Neutral	31	12	-	22

Tier 4: 10 to Slowest

Speed	Pokemon	Base	Nature	IVs	EVs	Boosts	Speed under Tailwind
10	Frillish	40	Neutral	31	0	-	20
10	Porygon	40	Neutral	31	0	-	20
10	Snover	40	Neutral	31	0	-	20
10	Koffing	35	Neutral	31	0	-	20
10	Timburr	35	Neutral	31	0	-	20
10	Shellos	34	Neutral	31	4	-	20
9	Pawniard	60	Negative	0	0	-	18
9	Dewpider	27	Neutral	31	0	-	18
9	Lileep	23	Neutral	31	12	-	18
9	Spritzee	23	Neutral	31	12	-	18
9	Foongus	15	Neutral	31	76	-	18
8	Scraggy	48	Negative	0	0	-	16
8	Amaura	46	Negative	0	0	-	16
8	Gothita	45	Negative	0	0	-	16
8	Mudbray	45	Negative	0	0	-	16
8	Frillish	40	Negative	0	0	-	16
8	Porygon	40	Negative	0	0	-	16
8	Snover	40	Negative	0	0	-	16
8	Togepi	20	Neutral	31	0	-	16
7	Timburr	35	Negative	0	0	-	14
7	Elgyem	30	Negative	0	0	-	14
7	Skrelp	30	Negative	0	0	-	14
6	Dewpider	27	Negative	0	0	-	12
6	Duskull	25	Negative	0	0	-	12
6	Lileep	23	Negative	0	0	-	12
6	Spritzee	23	Negative	0	0	-	12
6	Solosis	20	Negative	0	0	-	12
5	Foongus	15	Negative	0	0	-	10
5	Morelull	15	Negative	0	0	-	10
4	Munchlax	5	Negative	0	0	-	8

jcbc · Jun 25, 2020

art by Lemingue

The purpose of this post is to serve as a visual guide for structuring teams while not forgetting any part of the metagame unchecked. It is useful to have all potential candidates for a particular role laid out so that things aren't overlooked and alternatives can be quickly considered. Please suggest additions, removals, or new categories to be added. Lists should lean more toward inclusivity, categories should be limited to essential and highly desirable techs.

:rufflet:

Rufflet :rufflet:

Solid:

Shaky:

Foongus :foongus:

Solid:

Shaky:

Mienfoo :mienfoo:

Solid:

Shaky:

Scraggy :scraggy:

Solid:

Shaky:

Porygon :porygon:

Solid:

Shaky:

Mudbray :mudbray:

Solid:

Shaky:

Gastly :gastly:

Solid:

Shaky:

Pawniard :pawniard:

Solid:

Shaky:

Abra

Solid:

Shaky:

Grookey :Grookey:

Solid:

Shaky:

Koffing :koffing:

Solid:

Shaky:

Vullaby :vullaby:

Solid:

Shaky:

Spritzee :spritzee:

Solid:

Shaky:

Staryu :staryu:

Solid:

Shaky:

Archen :archen:

Solid:

Shaky:

Magnemite :magnemite:

Solid:

Shaky:

Chinchou :chinchou:

Solid:

Shaky:

Elekid :elekid:

Solid:

Shaky:

Cottonee :cottonee:

Solid:

Shaky:

Tyrunt :tyrunt:

Solid:

Shaky:

Gothita :gothita:

Solid:

Shaky:

Acehunter1 · Jun 25, 2020

art by risi

A strong core is one of the single most valuable things to form when creating a new team. Cores are typically made up of a pair or a group of Pokémon that, when used together, have good synergy with each other or work excellently toward accomplishing a specific goal. Almost every player uses them, intentionally or not. The majority of cores have varying characteristics that allow them to triumph in different areas, and depending on your team, cores can be built to succeed offensively or defensively. An offensive core is a group of Pokémon that are both focused towards and designed to enable the team to break through most other team styles while being balanced for general play. A defensive core is a group of Pokémon chosen to give a team a solid set of resistances and the ability to switch into many of the common and threatening attacks in the metagame, allowing it to stick around long enough to win the match. Overall, cores function as a fantastic base or starting point for a wide range of teams and they are commonly used while teambuilding to achieve a specific goal. Below will be a list of some of the most solid cores in the current Doubles LC metagame. Of course, this is only a short list, and there are many more good cores out there, so do not let this list limit your creativity!

Mienfoo + Pawniard
:ss/mienfoo:

Mienfoo @ Eviolite
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Taunt

Pawniard @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 156 Atk / 36 Def / 116 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

Mienfoo and Pawniard are two strong physical attackers, both immune to Intimidate thanks to their ability. Pawniard covers a lot of Mienfoo's weaknesses, being able to threaten opposing Fairy and Psychic types like Spritzee and Abra that are annoying for Mienfoo, while also being a good counter to Vullaby. Pawniard can also OHKO Gastly with Sucker Punch, which would otherwise also threaten Mienfoo. In return, Mienfoo can protect Pawniard with Fake Out, as well as by forcing out opposing Scraggy.

Mienfoo + Gastly/Abra
:ss/mienfoo:

Mienfoo @ Eviolite
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Taunt

Gastly @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 5
EVs: 196 SpA / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Protect

Abra @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Def / 236 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Substitute
- Protect

Mienfoo is a solid physical attacker with a good speedtier, good bulk, two good abilities to choose from, and support options like Fake Out. However, Mienfoo, with his fighting type, has some difficulties against opposing Fairy and Poison type Pokemon. Abra and Gastly are two very strong special attackers that can deal with those Pokemon, such as Spritzee, Foongus and Koffing. Gastly has an excellent coverage and a really good type, Abra has a better speed tier and a pretty good coverage too so both are good with Mienfoo but you need to choose the best for your team. In return, Mienfoo can threaten out Pawniard, which is the best check for both Abra and Gastly, to allow them to fire off their strong attacks safely.

Gastly + Scarf Mudbray
:ss/gastly:

Gastly @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 5
EVs: 196 SpA / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Protect

Mudbray @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Horsepower
- Close Combat
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake

This offensive core is based on two very strong wallbreakers that are both immune to Fake Out, one via its typing and one via its ability. Gastly is a very powerful Pokemon that, while packing good immunities in Fake Out and Ground, has very little defensive utility and has trouble breaking OHKOing Pokemon it can't hit for super-effective damage. As such, it is walled by Pawniard, and it is threatened by both faster threats like Elekid and Pokemon it cannot OHKO such as Foongus. Mudbray is equipped with a Choice Scarf to patch up its middling speed and hit hard with its very high Attack stat that can't be lowered by Intimidate. Mudbray threatens out the aforementioned Pawniard and Elekid for Gastly, while Gastly hits Grookey for Mudbray. Aside from that, both have access to strong spread attacks: Gastly has Sludge Wave and Dazzling Gleam, and Mudbray Earthquake and Rock Slide. Gastly is immune to Earthquake and Mudbray takes little from Sludge Wave. The combined attacks can allow the pair to muscle through Pokemon that they wouldn't be able to break through individually, such as Mienfoo and Scraggy. Gastly is also a great counter to Spritzee, making it harder for Trick Room to go up. Since both are immune to Fake Out, they are a good option to start with as a lead. However, they must be wary of Staryu, which beats both Pokemon, as well as Pokemon that could tank both's attacks, such as Porygon.

Rufflet + Pawniard
:ss/rufflet:

Rufflet @ Berry Juice
Ability: Hustle
Level: 5
EVs: 252 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Tailwind
- Protect

Pawniard @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Level: 5
EVs: 156 Atk / 36 Def / 116 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

Rufflet and Pawniard are two really strong physicals attackers. Rufflet can either set Tailwind, which can be useful for Pawniard, or can also use a Choice Scarf and OHKO opposing Fighting types, especially Mienfoo, which is the biggest threat to Pawniard. Pawniard can protect Rufflet from fast special attackers that tend to prey on Rufflet's poor bulk, such as Gastly, Abra and Elekid, and can also use a Choice Scarf to do so. Rufflet doesn't have a lot of checks, but really dislikes Intimidate, so Pawniard, with its ability Defiant, can make opposing Intimidate users like Scraggy think twice before coming in, since it would give Pawniard an Attack boost. Pawniard also does a good job at preventing Spritzee from setting Trick Room, which would otherwise greatly reduce Rufflet's effectiveness. This core excels at breaking down Trick Room cores, but might have a tougher matchup against faster, offensive cores.

Archen + Koffing
:ss/archen:

Archen @ Berry Juice
Ability: Defeatist
Level: 5
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Dual Wingbeat
- Tailwind
- Protect

Koffing @ Eviolite
Ability: Neutralizing Gas
Level: 5
EVs: 156 Def / 36 SpA / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Protect

Archen and Koffing's synergy is pretty self-explanatory: Archen has a deleterious ability, and Koffing's Neutralizing Gas removes it as well as all other abilities on the field, essentially allowing Archen to hit hard even when it is below half health. Aside from that, Koffing can also support Archen by protecting it from Intimidate and shutting down Trick Room setters like Spritzee and Porygon with Taunt. Archen then has more opportunity to take advantage of its sky-high Attack stat, and can also set up Tailwind for its teammates. This core has to be aware of opposing special attackers like Staryu and Abra, which can deal heavy damage to both. This core should thus be used more situationally rather than always being on the field together, for example by switching in Koffing when Archen is in Defeatist range to allow it to deal regular damage.

Scraggy + Spritzee
:ss/scraggy:

Scraggy @ Eviolite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 5
EVs: 196 HP / 156 Atk / 36 Def / 116 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
- Protect

Spritzee @ Eviolite
Ability: Aroma Veil
Level: 5
EVs: 212 HP / 196 Def / 12 SpA / 76 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Protect

Scraggy is a great partner for Spritzee, since it allows it to set up Trick Room much more easily thanks to Fake Out and Intimidate softening hits on Spritzee. Scraggy can threaten to OHKO Pawniard and Gastly, which are both big threats for Spritzee, altho it has to be wary of potentially giving Pawniard an Attack boost with Intimidate into Defiant. On the other hand, Spritzee's presence on the field helps keep Scraggy safe from opposing Mienfoo and Vullaby by threatening them out offensively. This core is often good to use as a lead, since it's one of the most reliable ways to ensure Trick Room goes up early in the game. The core must be wary of opposing Foongus and Koffing, however, which have a good matchup against both Pokemon.

Spritzee + Foongus + Porygon
:ss/spritzee:

Spritzee @ Eviolite
Ability: Aroma Veil
Level: 5
EVs: 52 HP / 116 Def / 252 SpA / 76 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Protect

Foongus @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 44 HP / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Pollen Puff
- Spore
- Rage Powder

Porygon @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 196 Def / 236 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Tri Attack
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Trick Room

This is the classic Trick Room core, with some of the best Trick Room Pokemon together. Spritzee and Porygon are arguably the two best Trick Room setters in the tier. Spritzee has Aroma Veil, which shields it and its teammates from annoying Taunts, that could prevent Trick Room or Spore from Foongus. Both Spritzee and Porygon are very slow and bulky, making them ideal Trick Room setters. Foongus is the best support Pokemon for Trick Room, since it can redirect attacks with Rage Powder to help Trick Room go up, such as opposing Pawniard's Iron Head for Spritzee or opposing Mienfoo's Close Combat for Porygon. Foongus can also fire off fast Spores in Trick Room, and use Pollen Puff to restore its bulky teammates' HP, especially Spritzee, which lacks immediate recovery. This core is a very classic core, and the main Pokemon it needs to worry about are Gastly, which can OHKO Spritzee and has access to spread moves, Koffing, whose Taunt can bypass Aroma Veil, and Roar users like Mudbray, which can all prevent Trick Room from going up.

Solosis + Elgyem
:ss/solosis:

Solosis @ Focus Sash
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 116 Def / 236 SpA / 36 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Expanding Force
- Thunder
- Psychic Terrain
- Protect

Elgyem @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Def / 236 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Expanding Force
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Trick

Solosis is both a Trick Room setter and abuser that has the advantage of being immune to Spore thanks to Overcoat, thus allowing it to beat Foongus, arguably the best Trick Room counter in the metagame. Solosis has another tool at its disposal, Psychic Terrain, which enables Expanding Force to hit both opposing Pokemon in Doubles, making it a very strong spread move. The Solosis-Elgyem pair is exactly to abuse this as much as possible. While Solosis is slow and can outpace opposing Pokemon in Trick Room, Elgyem can either do the same, or can run a Choice Scarf set to get the jump on opposing Pokemon after Trick Room runs out. This core can deal heavy damage to unprepared teams, or when its main checks are removed. The main checks to this team are Grookey, which can cancels out Psychic Terrain, and Dark types like Pawniard and Vullaby, which are immune to Expanding Force and can deal heavy damage to both Solosis and Elgyem. Nevertheless, Solosis and Elgyem together can act as a good win condition once its checks are removed.

Dragon Dance Scraggy + Foongus
:ss/scraggy:

Scraggy @ Eviolite
Ability: Moxie
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 156 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Protect

Foongus @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 44 HP / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Spore
- Rage Powder

Scraggy can use a Dragon Dance set to boost its Attack and Speed and become a dangerous sweeper thanks to its ability Moxie. Foongus is one of the best support options for this set. Access to Rage Powder allows it to protect Scraggy from opposing Fighting- and Fairy-type attacks from the likes of Mienfoo and Spritzee. Furthermore, Spore allows it to shut down almost any opposing Pokemon, while being especially useful to deny opposing Trick Room setters, such as Spritzee and Porygon, from setting Trick Room, which Dragon Dance Scraggy hates. In return, after Scraggy sets up, it can hit very hard and protect Foongus from super-effective attacks from the likes of Abra and Gastly. However, both must be wary of opposing Flying types : Rufflet can threaten to OHKO both Pokemon with Brave Bird, and Vullaby is immune to Foongus' Rage Powder and Spore thanks to its ability Overcoat.

Wingull + Omanyte
:ss/wingull:

Wingull @ Life Orb
Ability: Rain Dish
Level: 5
EVs: 236 SpA / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Rain Dance
- Protect

Omanyte @ Eviolite
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Ice Beam
- Shell Smash
- Protect

While not being the most common archetype, rain is still an option to consider for its sheer power. Wingull is a frail Pokemon, but is very fast at 19 speed and can hit extremely hard with STAB Hurricanes. Thanks to its great speed, it will often be able to use Rain Dance or Tailwind first. Due to new speed mechanics in Gen 8, Omanyte can immediately take the speed boost from Swift Swim mid-turn and deal heavy damage to the opposing Pokemon. Omanyte can use Shell Smash to be even stronger and still outspeed the opposing Pokemon outside of rain. An Eviolite gives Omanyte more bulk and setup opportunities, but a Life Orb can also be used for more immediate power. Wingull also brings the advantage of being able to deal with opposing Foongus and Fighting types, which could be problematic for Omanyte. This core needs to be wary of Grookey, which it will need another teammate to check. The core also has trouble with opposing speed control, especially Trick Room, so a solid Trick Room check like Foongus might be an option for the rest of the team.

Voltix · Jul 12, 2020

Cutiefly has been Banned from Gen 8 Doubles LC

Following the first 2 weeks of LPL, council has found Cutiefly to be broken. This is due largely in part to the combination of Quiver Dance and Baton pass, allowing for virtually any special attacker to sweep with just one passed boost. Cutiefly's fairy typing is also very strong in the current meta, with there being very few fairy resists. Niche sets such as screens and the inclusion of stun spore have also been used to much success. Cutiefly was deemed as broken by council and is banned.

Anime Sans - Ban
lalden - Ban
voltix31 - Ban
jcbc - Ban

Vulpix Alola has been Banned from Gen 8 Doubles LC

Coming back thanks to Pokemon Home, Vulpix Alola reintroduced the Veilwind Archetype to Doubles LC, this archetype was extremely prevalent in Gen 7 Doubles LC and proved to be equally as oppressive in Gen 8.

Anime Sans Ban
LightScreener Ban
jcbc Ban
lalden Ban

Scyther and Tangela have been banned from SS Doubles LC

Scyther's BST total is the same as its evolution. This, combined with access to what is essentially a 120bp STAB move with Dual Wingbeat, makes Scyther too much for Doubles LC. Tangela has access to a combination of incredible physical bulk, high special attack, and sweeper capabilities thanks to Chlorophyll.

anime sans Ban Both
jcbc Ban Both
lalden Ban Both
Luisin Ban Both
voltix31 Ban Both

voltix31 Is now Doubles LC Tier Leader!

I am stepping down because I was unable to give Doubles LC the time and attention it deserves as a Tier Leader. Voltix has been one of the most dedicated members of council and active players of the metagame. Under their guidance it is sure to grow.

Drought has been banned from SS Doubles LC & Sleep Clause has been activated

Our latest council vote has been completed. But before announcing the results I would like to welcome Nurul as the latest addition to the council. Drought, and Sleep Clause were on the spotlight for this voting. A 4/6 majority is required for a council ban, and any of the following stuff banned in this voting is subject to be retested in the future.
Here are the results!

Sleep spam was a real problem with pokemons like Foongus and Bulbasaur under sun being able to spread the status easily, leaving Vullaby as the only effective sleep check.
On the other hand, Sun has always been a strong part of the metagame, but with the addition of pokemon like Bulbasaur, which puts to sleep the best sun counters and the lack of solid answers to such a strong fire spam, Sun has become an unhealthy force. Being the only weather has not help either, as they don´t face a weather war against Hail and Aurora Veil anymore.
The council will be seeing how the metagame develops, and what new pokemon we get in the second DLC, in order to determinate if we can unban Drought in a future, but for now the ability Drought is banned from the SS Doubles LC tier.

elleapple · Jul 24, 2020

@voltix31 Is now Doubles LC Tier Leader!

I am stepping down because I was unable to give Doubles LC the time and attention it deserves as a Tier Leader. Voltix has been one of the most dedicated members of council and active players of the metagame. Under their guidance it is sure to grow.

Drought has been banned from SS Doubles LC & Sleep Clause has been activated

Our latest council vote has been completed. But before announcing the results I would like to welcome Nurul as the latest addition to the council. Drought, and Sleep Clause were on the spotlight for this voting. A 4/6 majority is required for a council ban, and any of the following stuff banned in this voting is subject to be retested in the future.
Here are the results!

Sleep spam was a real problem with pokemons like Foongus and Bulbasaur under sun being able to spread the status easily, leaving Vullaby as the only effective sleep check.
On the other hand, Sun has always been a strong part of the metagame, but with the addition of pokemon like Bulbasaur, which puts to sleep the best sun counters and the lack of solid answers to such a strong fire spam, Sun has become an unhealthy force. Being the only weather has not help either, as they don´t face a weather war against Hail and Aurora Veil anymore.
The council will be seeing how the metagame develops, and what new pokemon we get in the second DLC, in order to determinate if we can unban Drought in a future, but for now the ability Drought is banned from the SS Doubles LC tier.

jcbc · Jan 11, 2021

Hey everyone! I know it's been a long time since we moved this tier but it's been a hell of a year with all the DLC's going, but now that all that is done we are back to working!

We want to announce a couple of things.

First of all we have our VR finally released! We encourage everyone to come discuss about any possible changes they think could be done.

Second we would like to welcome Z Strats to the council, i'm sure he will bring great things to the tier.

And third and last, we currently have a tour were doubles LC is being featured, come join if you're interested!

Little reminder that we have our own doubles LC discord and stay tuned for more incoming future resources and news!

jcbc · Jan 31, 2021

COUNCIL MINUTES

Hey everyone, welcome to the first edition of council minutes lc doubles version. This time i'll be the one informing of the state of the tier and whatever is going on with it.

Votes & Metagame Discussion

We've been talking a lot about Corsola-Galar, being one of the best pokemon if not the best one on the tier rn, we spotted some broken points on it and therefore, we're going to conduct a voting on him. But let's do some explaining on what it can do; this pokemon has huge bulk (65 100 100) and high SpA (65), this summed to the vast coverage it has (mainly earth power and icy wind/ice beam) makes it really hard to deal with it. It has access to strength sap which allows it to 1v1 almost any physical thread. It can also be used as a rocker or a Calm Mind sweeper in addition to Weak Armor. But not everything is good, a very lackluster speed makes it hard to kill things without having to take a hit or two. And being weak to the most spammed move in LC (Knock Off) is a thing you must have into account. We will hear anyone that wants to point out anything on why this pokemon should or shouldn't be banned.

Some quick topics related to what happened during week 1 of LPL

:omanyte:

Omanyte is the only pokemon added in the last DLC which got usage during the w1 of LPL and with fairly good results, grabbing 2 wins out of 2 with some clean Muddy watter sweeps after the shell smash.

:pawniard:

This two are as expected still ruling over the tier and are featured in every team. Not using them is very hard to justify. They compress to many roles rn.

:cottonee:

Could be called the surprise of the week, as cott only got 2 uses one of them ending in a lose. May this mean cottonee isnt as good or valued anymore?

:ponyta:

These 2 fire types have had some cooĺ looking games which gets reflected on the 100% win rate both of them have and while growlithe only has 1 game, ponyta has 3, and that shows is a solid pick rn.

Tournaments

LPL is currently on week 2.

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon | Use | Usage % | Win % |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1 | Mienfoo | 7 | 87.50% | 57.14% |
| 2 | Pawniard | 5 | 62.50% | 60.00% |
| 2 | Foongus | 5 | 62.50% | 60.00% |
| 4 | Corsola-Galar | 4 | 50.00% | 75.00% |
| 4 | Vullaby | 4 | 50.00% | 50.00% |
| 6 | Ponyta | 3 | 37.50% | 100.00% |
| 6 | Rufflet | 3 | 37.50% | 66.67% |
| 8 | Omanyte | 2 | 25.00% | 100.00% |
| 8 | Cottonee | 2 | 25.00% | 50.00% |
| 8 | Spritzee | 2 | 25.00% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Growlithe | 1 | 12.50% | 100.00% |
| 11 | Koffing | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Shellos | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Gothita | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Woobat | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Grookey | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Scraggy | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Chinchou | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Porygon | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Litten | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |
| 11 | Onix | 1 | 12.50% | 0.00% |

That's all! Have a good week everyone. Feel free to make a post about your stance on Corsola-Galar too! Expect more news mid week about Corsola-Galar and hopefully some sample teams by the end of the week.

Voltix · Feb 6, 2021

Corsola-Galar has been banned from Doubles Little Cup.

Here you can check every vote and reasoning from every council member.

jcbc · Feb 24, 2021

COUNCIL MINUTES

Hey everyone, we are back with the second edition. It's me again coming to inform of the state of the tier and whatever is going on with it. Let's get into it!

Metagame Discussion

To understand what has been going on we need to go back a couple weeks. We started to get the meta moving now that there's no more DLC's left to be. And as we thought corsolaG :corsola-galar:

was still too much for the tier. So from the council we decided to conduct a voting on him which resulted in corsolaG being banned from the tier.

The meta shifted a lot since then and the playerbase has been experimenting with a vast of things during the ongoing LPL.

To put some more detailed info here's some usage.

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokémon | Use | Usage % | Win % |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1 | Mienfoo | 27 | 84.38% | 51.85% |
| 2 | Pawniard | 22 | 68.75% | 50.00% |
| 3 | Vullaby | 14 | 43.75% | 42.86% |
| 4 | Foongus | 12 | 37.50% | 75.00% |
| 5 | Ponyta | 11 | 34.38% | 81.82% |
| 5 | Rufflet | 11 | 34.38% | 45.45% |
| 5 | Cottonee | 11 | 34.38% | 45.45% |
| 8 | Omanyte | 9 | 28.12% | 55.56% |
| 8 | Corsola-Galar | 9 | 28.12% | 44.44% |
| 10 | Gastly | 7 | 21.88% | 42.86% |
| 11 | Spritzee | 6 | 18.75% | 33.33% |
| 12 | Onix | 5 | 15.62% | 60.00% |
| 13 | Mareanie | 4 | 12.50% | 50.00% |
| 13 | Gothita | 4 | 12.50% | 25.00% |
| 13 | Grookey | 4 | 12.50% | 25.00% |
| 16 | Togepi | 3 | 9.38% | 66.67% |
| 16 | Magnemite | 3 | 9.38% | 66.67% |
| 16 | Woobat | 3 | 9.38% | 33.33% |
| 16 | Riolu | 3 | 9.38% | 33.33% |
| 16 | Koffing | 3 | 9.38% | 0.00% |
| 21 | Chinchou | 2 | 6.25% | 50.00% |
| 21 | Porygon | 2 | 6.25% | 50.00% |
| 21 | Scraggy | 2 | 6.25% | 50.00% |
| 21 | Squirtle | 2 | 6.25% | 0.00% |
| 21 | Abra | 2 | 6.25% | 0.00% |
| 21 | Litten | 2 | 6.25% | 0.00% |
| 27 | Impidimp | 1 | 3.12% | 100.00% |
| 27 | Staryu | 1 | 3.12% | 100.00% |
| 27 | Drilbur | 1 | 3.12% | 100.00% |
| 27 | Hippopotas | 1 | 3.12% | 100.00% |
| 27 | Mudbray | 1 | 3.12% | 100.00% |
| 27 | Amaura | 1 | 3.12% | 100.00% |
| 27 | Growlithe | 1 | 3.12% | 100.00% |
| 27 | Diglett | 1 | 3.12% | 0.00% |
| 27 | Shellos | 1 | 3.12% | 0.00% |

We can accurately see if we take a closer look at them, there was a vast cast og different pokemons used so far different to previously where you expected the same 4-5 mons and then 2 fillers which also repeated a lot. But let's talk a bit about some specific mons.

:Ponyta:

Ponyta was showed to be the most benefited from this meta shift. An already phenomenal pokemon previous to the ban got one of its best check banned and it reflects on that huge winrate. The amazing speed tier, an amazing stab and coverage to bypass any of its possible threats.

:Omanyte:

The best newcomer from the DLC byfar. Omanyte has a very good typing added to shell smash and muddy water makes of it a very threatsome pokemon to account while building.

:Foongus:

You can ban the sleep spam but that wont stop the little fake pokeball mon to be good. It can be a very annoying wall with the redirection, bulk and resistances.

:pawniard:

One of the most "perjudicated" ones from the ban. Pawniard isn't a must on every team anymore. Despite this is still a very good pokemon that can take advantage of some of the moves that drop stqts/intimidate making it a much threatning one. Sadly pony and foo are still just so good is hard to excel with it.

:gastly:

The other spooky ghost tries to take the job from where corsola left it. But even if its a very good mon, it lacks bulk and attacking with it can get fearsome at times due to it not being to hit multiple objectives.

Some quick topics that we also talked of

:Onix:

The rocky snake looked to be promising getting some big wins by itself. But people either don't feel confident on using it. Or just not using in behalf of testing new stuff.

:hippopotas:

Sand got showcased with a solid win while we are yet to see hail to be used; :amaura:

got used but it was more as a breaker than a setter.

:riolu:

was looking to be on the eye of some of the playerbase as a possible good mon thanks to having access to prankster coaching, follow me and helping hand alongside other things. But felt flat by some losses and the hype seems to have died for now.

Tournaments

LPL is currently on week 5.

That's all the info for this time, sorry if it felt long since the last council minutes but we felt it was fine to wait a bit before doing a new one.

Expect some samples to finally be freed at some point this week and of course we invite anyone who wants to discuss about the metagame to make a post. See you on next council minutes hopefully this time in a week.

Voltix · Mar 1, 2021

Hey guys we are here to bring you an update to the VR! S/o jcbc for the help and comments.

Rises

Ponyta (from t2>t1) - New prominence top threat of the metagame finds itself a spot next to king mienfoo. This pokemon is just so splashable. Access to great bulk nice recovery for longetivity and a powerful stab is amazing but it also has coverage to get past a lot of what would be common checks.

:omanyte:

Omanyte (from t5>t2) - Originally low ranked, the lord helix proved itself to be a notorius threat in the metagame with little to no switch-ins and a very threatning stab in Muddy Water.

:magnemite:

Magnemite (from t4>t3) - Pretty much no switchins to both its stabs, access to electroweb and its able to trap pawniard and opposing magnemite so things like cottonee gastly or abra have a better life.

:staryu:

Staryu (from t4>t3) - Possibly the best answer to Ponyta rn. With recover and icy wind it provides so many great tools to teams. Not to mention the amazing speed tier it has access to and the great special attack.

:chinchou:

Chinchou (from t5>t4) - Good Rufflet check, provides good utility and also checks Omanyte.

:riolu:

Riolu (from t5>t4) - Prankster Coaching? Fill me in. Riolu got an amazing tool to its kit on Coaching, having priority +1 on atk and def when the tier is so filled with top threat physical attackers is just phenomenal.

:croagunk:

Croagunk (from t5>t4) - Mienfoo? check, Omanyte? check, Pawniard? check, cottonee? check. The croak is in love with this metagame that provides it so much utility and allows it to check and counter so many of the top tier mons. Fake Out and access to a vast movepool like icy wind, vaccum wave, Knock Off or even Sludge Wave makes it worth the rise.

Drops

Abra (from t2>t3) - Abra is still a very good pokemon, but it just doesn't match the other tier 2 pokemons. They are just one step above of it because they either provide more utility or are more threatning.

:mareanie:

Mareanie (from t3>t4) -Mareanie is on paper very good and has many ways to check top tier mons but in reality it falls flat on it. The pasivity it has sucks for it and it doesn't overall fit on many teams anymore.

:scraggy:

Scraggy (from t3>t4) - Intimidate is not that good of an ability and Mienfoo exists and can hurt you.

:squirtle:

Squirtle (from t4>t5) - The turtle has saw better times. Pretty much every mon that you would like to get with follow me does a million to it or kills it. And there are simply better water types.

:frillish:

Frillish (from t4>t5) - With the prominence of other water type pokemon such as Staryu or Chinchou and of course the newly t2 omanyte. Frillish doesn't have much room to be more than a niche mon. Access to water spout is nice but the games are usually so fast phazed it hardly will stay at full.

:bulbasaur:

Bulbasaur (from t5>UR) - Manual sun is close to unviable therefore bulbasaur gets thrown under the bus.

:litten:

Litten (from t5>UR) - Fake Out+Intimidate doesn't give litten enough niche for it to be worth ranking. Ponyta, Growlithe and Scraggy all exist and do far better what litten fails trying to do.

:skrelp:

Skrelp (from t5>UR) - The little seahorse sadly doesn't have any role for itself. As a bulky water it gets outclassed by a long list of other ones, as a poison type foongus, mareanie and even the newly added koffing are better. And as a hard special hitter it has to much competition for the slot for it to be worth using.

New Additions

Koffing (placed in t4) - Neutralizing Gas goes vroom.. Koffing has a superb ability that makes it be such a good pokemon vs things like pawniard, regen mons, ruflett... It also has some decent coverage and great bulk.

:archen:

Archen (placed in t5) - While Archen is not the best bird you can use, it has a niche given how hard the stabs it has hit. Not to mention it can bypass the new flying checks that are raising in popularity like chinchou or magnemite.

:impidimp:

Impidimp (placed in t5) - Similar to cott, impidimp abuses the prankster ability super well; having the difference be on stats and impidimp getting fake out, thus it can be a really great pick on certain teams.

:shellos:

Shellos (placed in t5) - With the rise in use of Ponyta and Omanyte Shellos gets a niche since it can wall both of them any day. It also gets Muddy Water so that's nice to have.

:drifloon:

Drifloon (placed in t5) - The air baloon got talked a lot by the council and people outside of it; it has some obviously flaws in being walled by some of the best pokemons in the tier like pawniard or vullaby. But it also give some phenomenal techs, from cheesy lead BP strategies to a fearsome sweeper with both flare boost and unburden.

:salandit:

Salandit (placed in t5) - Salandit, unranked in the past, finds itself back to the vr. Having CorsolaG was such a pain and there was no room on teams for the little lizard but now it is back to be useful with the fake out great speed and powerful stabs.

:drilbur:

Drilbur (placed in t5) - The best sand abuser we have. But it also can be used out of it as an anti-cheese tech.

:hippopotas:

Hippopotas (placed in t5) - This is pretty one dimensional, just ranked over the fact it gives sand.

:anorith:

Anorith (placed in t5) - Anorith gets ranked after finding itself with a really useful niche. Being a faster than mienfoo and pawniard rock type sweeper with access to priority and a really powerful stab in rock slide makes this buggy fossil really threatning to face. In addition to swift swim which allows it to be used in rain teams.

We also voted on :lileep:

and

who didn't made the cut. And this would be it for this slate!

Here's some topics to discuss that came across in the council while we were voting to update the vr and discussing about the metagame:

Is :vullaby:

better in giving utility than :cottonee:

in the current metagame?

Does :vullaby:

deserve to be tier 1?

Is :croagunk:

better than tier 4?

What is everyone opinion on these changes? Do you think they were good changes? Do you think we missed on any good pokemon? Would you change anything? Let us know!

jcbc · Mar 5, 2021

Back at it with some more council minutes (this time will be shorter).

Metagame Discussion

I'll kick off saying how happy we are with the direction the tier is going towards. Right now it feels much enjoyable to build, play and watch. Even with some obvius defining pokemons like mienfoo or ponyta being in almost every team there's huge room for creativity. There's much to explore but let me point some things out.

:ss/mienfoo:

I'm not here to talk about how good this pokemon is because to anyone who has been following the tier, that's something that should be known by now. I'm here to talk about how many options foo has. The other day i was having a 1 on 1 talk with voltix about it and it's just amazing. People might tunnel vision on the classic fake out stab knock filler but in reality, there's a lot of other good options such as Bulk Up, Swords Dance, Baton Pass strategies, Coaching, Ally Switch... to name a few, and the playerbase on LPL seem to be opening themselves more into these options. This only makes Mienfoo to be more the king of the tier if anything.

:ss/rufflet:

the bird has been going under the radar for a while but we spotted how crazy this pokemon hits and how hard it can be to kill it at some times, by the mean time we think it's not close to being worth taking any kind of action. It still has counterplay and it's also having to deal with faster pokemons than him such as Mienfoo or Ponyta or the newly prominent staryu aswell as some common checks to it like Pawniard or Chinchou.

:ss/Vullaby:

and

When we were voting and discussing for the VR update, it seemed like half the council thought vullaby was the premiere utility mon (even being prompt to rank it into tier 1) while the other half were not sold on this topic. Both have such an amazing role compression and while they are far from being the same, they do very similar things sincw at the very end they want to allow their teammates with Tailwind. For Vullaby you can argue it's better because it gives another way to get past mienfoo and it gives Knock utility which is super good while also is one of the best answers to Foongus thx to overcoat; on the other hand Cottonee goes far from threatning pokemons but puts much more into the enabling teammates department. Priority Tailwind is priceless, but it doesnt stop there, it also has other cool tools like Charm, Stun Spore, Encore or Sunny Day to name some. The problem comes when we talk about the adversities as both mons struggle with different things. Vullaby has some hard times being added into teams due to it having to fight for the spot with rufflet but you could say the same about Cottonee with Foongus, furthermore none of this pokemon have free times to setup a TW because the reality falls into 80% of the times one or more of its checks and/or counter will be on the field. But this doesn't take merit from any of the 2, and we are open to listen other users opinion.

Some little topics we went over.

:croagunk:

Massive movepool, access to inmunity to water moves which is supreme with omanyte around, good foongus check, priority which hits for super effective damage abra, pawniard, gastly, omanyte and porygon which are all very good offensive pressences and access to both the best moves in the tier in fake out and knock off made us discuss a bit about if tier 4 was really the place for the frog but we didnt come to an agreement.

:onix:

We discussed a bit if the rocky snake was at the same level than the other tier 3, and while the discussion felt short. There were some loud voices putting it one tier below; only time will say but as for now Onix remains in tier 3 as it's still a threatning DD sweeper.

:chinchou:

and

There were people in and outside of the council that were putting these two up to discussion saying both should be ranked in the same tier as they do very similar things.

News

- We updated the Viability Ranking to check out reasoning about the changes check the post above.

- We also freed Sample Teams. We think this 4 teams reflect quite well the metagame but we are open to receive new submissions, we'll gladly check them out and if they are good they might get featured in!

- In order to reflect better the metagame changes the tier has been going throught and to have the info as accurate as possible we also updated the Role Compendium. We also hope this serve for people who aims to try out the tier to get an easier time doing so.

Tournaments

LPL is currently on week 6.

That's all the info for this time, hope everyone had a good read.

Now that we updated mostly everything, we feel like now is the time to see how the tier develops, and altho we are pretty happy with the state of the meta right now; we are in alert for anything that could get out of hands and take action on it if needed. We are also working on some more little things that will be announced in the future so stay tunned. See you on next council minutes in a week.

Voltix · Mar 12, 2021

Hey everyone, back here to make another edition of council minutes happen, but this time is not jc, it is me the tier leader because before getting into what we came here for i have some announcements to do.

First of all Acehunter1 has joined the council! He has proven himself to have much knowledge on the metagame and is high on our stands, so we are sure he will bring up very good things to the council.

And now... he has been doing massive job for the tier and it's just deserved to give it to him... i'm talking about jcbc who is our new co-leader of the tier! I'm pretty sure this will change nothing but him having a higher status, he will still put in a big amount of hours for the tier. Congrats!

Sadly not everything are good news and due to personal reason Z Strats is leaving the council for the mean time. Hope everything goes well for you and hope to see you around in the future!

And now yes, with this out of the way let's start with the council minutes!

Metagame Discussion

This is edition is going to be rather short since we didnt had much more to talk that it wasnt already said in the past edition.

The biggest discussion we had was mostly about :vullaby:

and

having to face each other for a slot and while they don't exactly do the same the roles they tend to take on teams are really similar. This topic ended us on agreeing on it being categorized as Vullaby being the most offensive utility, cottonee the annoying utility and foongus the defensive utility.

People seem to not be using :pawniard:

1/4 than it was used on corsola meta which is reasonable but this allow pokemond such as :gastly:

to become much more better offensively, but not this also means cottonee has an easier time dealing with stuff since it doesnt have to worry about those iron heads anymore.

:chinchou:

This little lighty dude seems to be getting more and more attention from the players due its phenomenal qualities. Having the natural bulk is phenomenal and thd typing helps a lot.

Tournaments

LPL is currently on week 7.

That's all we have for you all this time, hope everyone had a good read. Come back in the future weeks for more council minutes it may not happen in an exact week but we'll for sure come back with more info. And of course we invite everyone who wants to make a post to bring in discussion.

zoe · Mar 12, 2021

My two minutes on Doubles Little Cup, enjoy.

So I first found out about Doubles LC via the ongoing LPL tournament when Z-Strats encouraged me to sign up after I helped him commit voter fraud. I had nothing else better to do so I signed up for Double LC because I main DOU. I wasn't expecting to get drafted because I was still relatively new to competitive pokemon (like 7 months-ish).....but the skitties didn't know that sooooo.

Anyway, at this time I have a excellent record of 1-4 with 3 of those 5 games I played like I was a chicken with it's head cut off.
Self-deprecation aside, I had fun for all 5 of those games! (well not the last one....) The metagame does fell pretty balanced right now, and nothing really felt oppressive (after the gorsala ban at least). If I had one comment on it it would be that Chinchou feels underrated, like voltix said, it has great natural bulk and a wonderful typing that allows it to handle many dangerous threats like Rufflet (not 100% sure if it deserves tier 3 because this is really all on paper for me, I haven't used it yet lol)

Because I've got nothing else to say, I'll just put the two teams I used post-gorsala here and call it a day.

Vs Crashy: https://pokepast.es/c53b6856edffb7ff (built by nineage)
Vs Voltix + Toadow: https://pokepast.es/df416d3706c61cb3 (built by Plas)

in hindsight, this was more of a 20 minutes.

jcbc · Mar 28, 2021

Heya all! Coming here with a bunch of news.

It's been some very hard working months as off late but it's showing its results. And we are so happy of it.

But let's get down to business and reveal this news.

Let's first welcome the newly added users to the council.

They love bread, but not any kind of it, baguettes are delicious... They are Toadow and Nailec!!! They come to prove themselves in the recent lpl as both a player and a builder respectively with great success; but they always have been big users and two big faces of the LC representants. Welcome, we expect big from you two and we are sure you both will bring awesome things to the tier!

But this is not everything, as i mentioned, hard work brings to catch great things and we are getting officially added into the daily room tours!!! Anyone seeking to play Doubles LC, can do it now DAILY at 06:00 pm GMT in the Littlecup room of showdown starting TOMORROW.

But this is not all, i would like to make a brief spoiler of what's to come and what we been working on.

1- We are currently holding another slate of the VR. We are revoting on every pokemon filled in the actual VR and we are also voting on 3 new pokemons.

:carvanha:

This pokemon has such the sweeping potential, having speed boost and an amazing coverage added to great raw power leads the fish to be a threatning sweeper that can sweep entire teams on dedicated ocasions.

:bronzor:

Sees itself on the slate for its multiple utility options. Thus being a screens setter, a trick room setter or even just a annoying utility mon with ally switch and rocks.

:natu:

last but not least, the green alienated looking bird gets voted for its great coverage and the good utility it has in magic bounce, making status be useless. It can also be a good screens setter for a more offensive style.

2- We will soon add more sample teams going up to 8, so people have a lot of different options to choose.

3- We are going to hold our first public suspect, stay tunned for more info about it.

4- At some point early May (there isn't an exact date to be given) we will have a forum tour! Hope to see a lot of you on it.

And this its all, hope everyone liked the news. And we of course would love to hear feedback or any kind of commentary to improve the tier, as we will keep working for it to keep growing and be great.

jcbc · Apr 2, 2021

VR update time woohoo! We wantes to do another update before we begin with the suspect and future projects. And to also reflect better the metagame now that LPL ended.

As always if you would like to check out how we voted you can do it via the sheet which is hyperlinked in the VR thread. Let's not take any more time and get down to business. Also to mention that we are going to order tier 1 to 3 in an order from what we consider its best to worse from each tier, tier 4 and 5 are going to be alphabetical for now.

Rises

Chinchou (moved up into t3) - One of the most slept pokemon perhaps at the start of the LPL started getting gassed up in usage and grabbing wins to a great 83% at the end of it. The qualities this pokemon has makes it so good. Being able to threaten the flying types, omanyte and ponyta without falling passive or not being to properly check them is phenomenal.

:scraggy:

Scraggy (moved up into t3) - It was put in t4 in our latest vote due go intimidate not being much useful and mienfoo supposedly being better as a fighting type, but with the drop in usage of cottonee and more physical threats such as archen, ponyta and rufflet getting more usage makes us put scraggy back in t3.

:koffing:

Koffing (moved up into t3) - Neutralizing Gas is soooo annoying to deal with when played correctly; this pokemon not only has the coverage to hit pretty much every pokemon in the tier but also has silly amount of utility with just its ability.

:archen:

Archen (moved up into t4) - Sleeper pick honestly. While rufflet and vullaby exist, archen has big merit aswell since to differ with the other 2 it cant be revenge killed by ponyta and the usual flying checks don't want to come in on a rock slide as powerful as the ones archen has; it also doesnt have to give recoil with brave bird while it still hits as hard the objectives it wants to.

:drifloon:

Drifloon (moved up into t4) - I personally think this pokemon is still far unexplored. But on actual unbiased opinions, drifloon has shown that it can be a huge problem for some teams. Be it as a support with WoW+Tw or as a sweeper or any kind, drifloon has good stats and power for it to just win matchups in preview.

:mudbray:

Mudbray (moved up into t4) - Bray deals massive damage and it provides a nice check to top mons such as ponyta, pawniard or vullaby with its great bulk, not much else to say tbh.

:shellos-east:

Shellos (moved up into t4) - Shellos gets some recognision as its a really good pick if you want to have a bulky muddy water user with acces to recovery. Great utility in icy wind, can get annoying with stockpile and is the best blocker for opposing water types thx to storm drain.

:squirtle:

Squirtle (moved up into t4) - another pokemon that was dropped in the last slate and we honestly regret doing so now. the turtle has showed to be so good and that it doesnt fear competition as a redirection user with foongus, it has good bulk to stomach incoming hits while still dealing a decent amount of damage with muddy water and Shell Smash sets now that cottonee is going low in usage can get so scary. Some of the council think squirtle deserve to be tier 3 but it ended in tier 4 for now.

Drops

Amaura (Dropped into t4) - Yeah... Amaura wish he was Vulpix Alola... The meta is just not pleasant for the icy dino, mienfoo on basically every team, the raise of water type pokemon and ponyta being the next most spammed pokemon makes it so hard to success. Aurora Veil doesnt push it hard enough into the viability sadly.

:mareanie:

Mareanie (Dropped into t5) - This pokemon just is so passive, it doesn't have much to give that other pokemon doesn't do, offensively it's not the best since chinchou, staryu and squirtle exist, as a stockpile annoyer shellos does the job better and defensively it doesnt add anything that any of the already mention doesnt.

New Additions

Carvanha (gets ranked into t5) - Carvanha appears to bite the competition! This pokemon has such an amazing raw power it can just storm through teams with the help of speed boost if you play careless around it. Great coverage and options to be threatning in both the physical and special sets is pre good.

:natu:

Natu (gets ranked into t5) - Ally switch and magic bounce utility in addition with a useful typing. It also has good coverage and access to screens in case you want to make some offensive team.

Hope you all had a good read! We won't be updating VR any time soon as we don't expect the meta to change that drastically, but of course feel free to drop any nomination you feel like or if you think any pokemon deserves a different rank go ahead and post about it.

I'll leave some discussion topics here for the time being:

:ss/vullaby:

Is vullaby worth to be tier 1?

:ss/onix:

The Snake rock pokemon good enough for tier 2?

:ss/grookey:

Is the grass monke to low ranked?

:ss/squirtle:

The turtle perhaps deserves to keep rising in ranks?

jcbc · Apr 5, 2021

Doubles LC is re-suspecting the ability Drought!

The meta has developed a lot lately and we decided to take a look at the pokemons we have currently in the banlist. And we noticed how Drought was there and it was the only thing that really looked out of place. So we started discussing about it in the council and ended up deciding on a suspect.
So why was Drought originally banned? Back when it was enabled, the meta was far less explored and there was another huge factor on it which was sleep clause not being activated, this meant bulbasaur which is one of the best abusers sun have, had the possibility to put your whole team to sleep. So we ended up banning both things together, and this from a tiering point of view wasn't the best for several reasons. We should have first looked into sleep clause and then look again into sun if needed; and not do it this way, the ban should have been directed towards Vulpix.
[Talking about Vulpix :vulpix:

, in the case that the suspect ends on sun staying banned, drought will be unbanned and Vulpix will be Banned instead]
So coming into pros and cons of sun teams one thing someone directly think of is Bulbasaur, amazing stabs in combination with weather ball is super threatning for the metagame and one could argue it doesn't have switch-ins and while this last part isnt necessarily false, the pokemon is kinda frail since you are forced to run LO or Sash to actually abuse sun and any priority will get you killed instantly unless you are running protect which will just leech you out of sun turns faster. The next most benefited pokemon is Ponyta, with access of Solar Blade this already phenomenal pokemon gets really scary to deal with and this time there's not real drawback to it, besides that, growlithe would be the only solid answer to pony. But enough of highlighting only the pros of sun; sun unlike back when it was in the tier now has to deal with a lot lore pokemons that wont make the life of sun easy. Trick Room being actually good this time around is such a threatning thing to deal with, bulky waters like Shellos, Squirtle or Staryu will make clicking fire stab attacks not easy to be spammed, onix being in better shape than ever could make sun teams need to click hard X turn 2 from the dragon dance set. Alongside other pokemons like Koffing denying sun or Porygon tracing flash fire (which would be the prefered ability from ponyta with sun around) or chlorophyl from bulbasaur. Sand and hail being usable is also something that sun won't like altho is not something sun autoloses to. To resume, Sun archetypes teams are powerful and there's no doubt about that, but on paper there is counterplay to it.

The suspect process works as follows:
The roomtours on Saturday 10 of April, Sunday 11 of April, Saturday 17 of April and Sunday 18 of April at 14:00 GMT-4/18:00 GMT+0/20:00 GMT+2 will be suspect tours. The winners of these tours will be getting a vote on Drought alongside council members who have reqs inmediatly aswell as everyone who got atleast 1 win during this past LPL. But you will be able to play with sun teams starting from the roomtour of Tuesday 6 of April to gather your own thoughts about it.

dnagerbadger
Joltage
Ampha
Z Strats
Quairo
Surfy

Remainder again that in case that Drought doesn't get enough votes to get unbanned Vulpixwill be the one banned instead and drought will be unbanned.

You can also join our discord to have discussion about it!

Hope to see you there and of course pass by to leave your thoughts if you have any!

Nurul · Apr 13, 2021

We got another week of council minutes, this time written by me, another council member and this is my first post on this thread looks at notes "make fake out joke", follow me as I talk about some mons you definitely haven't seen talked about before.

Metagame Discussion

- The rock snake with a HUGE 45 base attack is a big threat in the doubles metagame with 2 great abilities in Rock Head and Sturdy allowing it to have variations in it's attack choices. Rock Head being used to run Head Smash for a powerful single target attack with it's ability to set up Dragon Dances with the support of it's partners. Or being able to use Sturdy with Berry Juice to give it an extra life while setting up. With it's main stabs being hard to switch in to, its also a good choice for checking common threats at the moment such as Ponyta, Vullaby or Rufflet. Onix's huge 160 base defense allows it to take attacks really well with the addition of Eviolite to help it set up and with the drop in usage of cottonee it won't need to worry about encore or taunt as much.

:ss/cottonee:

- Cottonee has been a common Tailwind user in this meta and carrying a vast amount of support moves such as Helping Hand, Encore, Taunt and Stun Spore with the Prankster ability. However, there have been a rise in pokemons trying to take it's spot on the team as a tailwind user. Vullaby already known as one but others include Rufflet and Archen. Cottonee's typing means it is being threatened by common threats like these flying types, Ponyta and Pawniard. It can be argued that it might not even be worth Tier 2 anymore.

:ss/Squirtle:

- Squirtle is having a recent rise in use with it's support options such as Fake Out, Follow Me and Helping Hand, as well as Icy Wind for speed control or Muddy Water for spread damage and accuracy drops making it a huge annoyance in the meta. It also doesn't have many common weaknesses as there aren't many electric or grass type moves being used. However, utility isn't the only thing it can be used for as it can also carry Shell Smash to become an offensive threat. As Squirtle is pure water type it won't have the same weaknesses that Omanyte does, the common one being Fighting, as well as being able to resist steel type hits and having more bulk. This set also uses Ice Beam as coverage for the grass or flying types in the tier.

:ss/Koffing:

- Koffing has had a rise in usage with it's Neutralizing Gas ability allowing it to stop important abilities such as Intimidate. Koffing also has uses in supporting your own mons with it's ability through switching out to reactivate the abilities of mons on the field such as Download. It has a nice amount of coverage moves on top of it's stab Sludge Bomb, such as Thunderbolt and Flamethrower/Fire blast allowing it to be offensive but it can also be used defensively with Will-o-wisp being a huge annoyance to the common physical threats and resisting the stab of the common fighting types such as Mienfoo.

:ss/archen:

- Archen had a huge increase in usage with it's great speed tier and threatening dual stab combo added to a menacing base 112 ATK. Acrobatics being used on it's berry juice sets while the new gen8 tutor move Dual Wingbeat being an option on other sets. And as mentioned earlier, it's been having use as a Tailwind user!

Some little topics we went over.

:grookey:

- This very good monke is very versatile with utility sets which can support with Fake Out, pivot or Knock Off items. Or offensive set up in Swords Dance. Grassy Surge as it's ability allows it to run priority Grassy Glide a very strong move when boosted by terrain and it's stab. A good option for those common water or ground types.

Trick Room - TR is also growing in usage as teams are using Tailwind as their main speed control, this speed boost can be used against them. With it's main set up on teams being Spritzee who can switch the room while being immune to certain status moves such as Encore or Taunt while also making it's allies immune to these, mons like Mudbray shine more in this space, while other support mons like Togepi or Foongus can be annoying to teams with their status effects.

Rain - Rain goes under the radar with weather not being too common and no Drizzle pokemons in lc. However, when the rain is set up, water moves become harder to switch into and some mons such as Omanyte get a swift swim boost and muddy water weather boost along with being able to set up. Other threats in rain include Wingull with Stab Scald and Hurricane, Staryu and Frillish with Water Spout. Foongus becoming especially annoying with rage powder, spore support against weakened fire type attacks. Rain setters include Riolu with prankster rain dance + follow me support, Wingull and Staryu with their high speed to do so. As a rain user, it's been really fun to use.

Forum Happenings

We're in the middle of a suspect test on Drought! This was previously banned in early metas for having little counters but as DLCs added more mons to the meta, it is being retested in LC room tours. Feel free to discuss your thoughts in the LC Doubles discord.

We also got art for the samples now!

The VR has been updated and we plan to implement sample sets for each ranked mon, and are currently in the process of making these.

That is all for this week of council minutes!

jcbc · Apr 14, 2021

Time to give my personal opinion in sun and what do i think so far after having experienced it for a week.

At first when we were going to suspect it there were some fears around it of course; ponyta which already is a top mon for the tier getting even more options was scary because it was given the ability to bypass water and rock types easier. But after playing with and against it, doesnt really change from its state without sun, is a really good offensive pokemon that needs attention on him or else you lose to it.
While the pokemon (bulbasaur) that without sun is useless, is pretty average so far. Yes, it kills and threatens pokemons but it lacks free turns to do so, so getting a couple kills to progress with bulbasaur is getting hard. There's also a 4MSS on it, as it wants protect, both stabs, sleep powder, a secondary grass stab and weather ball and it cant fit all. Not only that the sleep clause also sucks for it, as it cnat be the annoyance it used to be putting everything to sleep (75 accuracy move LuL).
Let's talk about the main guest now, vulpix would obviusly be the main benefiter in the case drought got freed. Does Vulpix add anything other than sun? Well yes, by its own is a very good breaker with potent stab moves and coverage for the water types and Onix, but when talking about full sun it doesnt put any big difference as a lot of the times i saw sun so far, it was the non sun abusers winning at the end most of the time.

Now most of you may be wondering what checks sun if you didn't play a lot lately, well let me mention some options for y'all (there may be more but i didnt tried them/saw them).

Tailwind- Yes i know it's tailwind thats doubles in a nutshell right how does a move check sun. Well so, most of the pokemons still outspeed the sun abusers with sun up so breaking is harder.

Onix- A well played DD onix on a team with support for it 6-0 sun on preview, not even the x4 weakness to grass changes this. Onix by its own is a prominent and very threatning pokemon but with redirection and fake out it has little to not counterplay from the sun side.

Archen- Another Rock type pokemon, this one excels vs sun for several reasons; it can setup tailwind for its own, it sponges hits decently enough to not die and most importantly, those rock slides hit so hard.

Koffing- Neutralizing Gas goes brrr. Not only it can solely deny the activation of sun which is huge, but it can also be used to deny chlorophyl in clutch moments, not to mention it has the coverage and bulk to annoy a lot this type of team.

Rain & Sand- While this two play themselves different, i wanted to put them togheter as they would fall into the weather war vs sun. But imo sun is the losers in this case; sand has checks for fire types for days and as long as bulbasaur only runs solar beam which is what i have been seeing so far) it can't do nothing to them. About Rain, this is a hard X from the sun side, all the rain abusers destroy sun common pokemons upside down and sun pokemons cant really do much back to them other than keep sacking pokemons to get vulpix in for free which is a bit useless as far as riolu, wingull or any other of the rain setters which are naturally faster than vulpix or have priority are alive.

Trick Room- This is another dire matchup for sun, it has nightmares going throught all this bulk without dropping half the pokemons every time tr goes up, all of porygon, mudbray and munchlax are phenomenal vs sun.

Anyways i think this should be enough, time to resume my thoughts now. Indoubtfully sun is very good and i would be lying if i were to say the opposite, but realisticlly any team with proper meassures in terms ofl building or playing vs it even if its not any of the above mentioned (i may have forgot about some or just not got to them just yet) makes sun nothing more than a matchup picky option that can instantly win or instantly lose in preview 7/10 of the times. I would love to hear other people thoughts but so far and coming from all of the above reasons i'm gonna vote to free drought.

jcbc · Apr 21, 2021

The Drought Suspect test finished and all the votes were submitted leaving the following results.

Therefore as it didn't get the 60% needed to be unbanned Drought will stay banned. Furthermore and as stated in the suspect announcement to make better tiering, we are unbanning the ability drought and baning Vulpix instead (this changes nothing it's still the same result as there's no other drought pokemon but comes off better from a tiering perspective).

Tagging Kris to implement the Vulpix ban.

Thanks everyone who participated trying to get the reqs and those who voted.

I'll also use this post to announce that Nailec sadly dropped the council. Farewell man and thanks for all the help you offered on your brief time in the council hope to see you around in any future tour we may have.

jcbc · May 6, 2021

Hi hi hi!!! Here's your Tier Leader jcbc bringing some more news once again. As some may already know we are currently having signups for our first ever tournament here on this site open rn (go signup if you didn't already! ^^) And in the council we wanted to give the most updated look of the tier to newcomers but also to some people that despite having played the tier in the past may not be up to the latest trends. So here we are to bring another update to the VR!

Rises

Vullaby (from t2 to t1) -The bird inside a cracked egg does it again.Vullaby finds itself rising to tier 1 after getting for itself the spot as the premiere tailwind user. Additionally the rise of the more bulky set made Vullaby be way more useful as it doesn't need protect anymore, allowing it to fill Roost on its moveset which made it such a bulky and annoying pokemon with a lot of utility to provide.

:onix:

Onix (from t3 to t2) -Onix has been finding more and more success thanks to how opressive the Dragon Dance set can be for certain teams. It was always a really good pokemon but there was a time after the corsola-galar ban where it got seen as a bit worse compared to other pokemon; but this lasted only a couple of weeks. Meta developed in a way where onix finds itself very comfortable; the drop on usage of Cottonee and the birds being as prominent as ever makes Onix very comfortable.

:koffing:

Koffing (from t3 to t2) - Koffing has earned its rank more than enough with how annoying it has been in the last month. Neutralizing Gas is such a huge ability that makes it provide so much for almost any team, denying Regenerators, Intimidates, Defiant's but also giving your team a boost cancelling Defeatist and resetting abilities such as Intimidate or Download is phenomenal. This alongside a phenomenal coverage gives this poisonous cloud pokemon the tier 2 reward.

:grookey:

Grookey (from t4 to t3) - With the changes on the metagame; Onix getting the higher usage it ever had, Foongus and Cottonee not being that much around and Water types being more and more used Grookey is very happy to pose itself around. Between all the priority it has and how well it can sweep/pivot Grookey can be a pretty good add to some teams.

:squirtle:

Squirtle (from t4 to t3) - Squirtle has been keeping the snowball it had rolling and it kept having as much success as it was having on our last update, so reasoning is pretty much the same as last time but to fit on a more real tier for itself.

:frillish:

Frillish (from t5 to t4) - Frillish, despite not having a ton of usage, the times it has been used in, it was a major menace. Similar to what Cyndaquil used to do last gen with Eruption, Frillish abuses the lack of solid water resists among the top tier pokemons to get as much kills as it can with Water Spout even if it's not under rain it will hit very hard.

Drops

Cottonee (from t2 to t3) - This is going to be one that some may disagree with but the truth is, the metagame has been so punishing for cott. Having the priority utility isn't that much important when you're going to get blown up the second after most of the time. Very top pokemons such as gastly, ponyta, pawniard, Rufflet that all hit it for a lot of damage if not for a ko; the rise of Koffing which is a double knockout for Cottonee since it disables Pranksters and hits for the quad effective. Upon all these the lack of reliable recovery makes Cottonee very easy to chip down even for teams without these pokemons. But let's stop shooting Cottonee as not everything is bad all of a sudden, the metagame is just not appealing for it to shine right now and all these is what makes tier 3 more appealing for it.

:magnemite:

Magnemite (from t3 to t4) - Magnemite still doesn't have switchins but SturdyJuice ehich is its best set suffers a lot from a 4MSS as it basically needs protect but with it, it can't have endure/recycle to be the annoying pokemon it can be. Adding it to your team is also complicated at times without getting weaker to some of the tip threats. Steel- + Electric- type coverage is still phenomenal tho and the only reason it's dropping is because it can't have many free times to attack due to it's typing which push backwards magnemite as that's the strongest point of it and the reason to use it over other options such as Chinchou and Pawniard.

:spritzee:

Spritzee (from t3 to t4) - Spritzee has been dodging the drop for quite the time already but it has finally come, the only niche it pretty much has right now is being a Trick Room setter and while it's a key for that exact playstyle, it tends to fall passive for what is a pretty offensive playstyle itself. Outside of Trick Room Spritzee is an okey support but is very passive and it usually ends up doing close to anything. Even with what may be, harsh words, that i just said about it Spritzee its still a pretty decent pokemon that you can use in some teams but it usually needs other pokemons to fullfill the roles it can't fullfill itself.

:amaura:

Amaura (from t4 to t5) - Amaura has a unique role in the metagame as it's the only snow warning user with access to Aurora Veil but despite this, the mediocre speed tier combined to an awful typing defensively talking makes it hard to pull off. Adittionally, hail team aren't much more than a niche and while it can pick a surprise at times, with pokemons such as Ponyta, Mienfoo, Squirtle and Pawniard around it doesn't have much room to click Aurora Veil or Blizzard.

:growlithe:

Growlithe (from t4 to t5) - Growlithe isn't bad as per se, but the tier is developing in a way where a defensive fire type is precisely not what one would need. The raise on bulky waters and scraggy existance as the main intimidate user makes growlithe much more of a niche than an actual usable pokemon.

:ponyta-galar:

Ponyta Galar (from t4 to t5) - Ponyta Galar would be much more happy if it's Kanto form didn't exist. 19/20 of the times when you would use one of the pony would direct into Kanto form. Abra is also a huge reason as to why PonyG isnt that much used either since it has better stats overall and abra is way more offensive where PonyG is much more of an offensive utility pokemon with ally switch.

:munchlax:

Munchlax (from t5 to UR) - This is very simple, chlax is super passive even with some offensive set under trick room and the bulk it has doesn't provide it enough reasons to stay ranked.

New Additions

Tyrunt (from UR to t4) - Tyrunt has been popping off lately, it has such a huge sweeping potential. After one Dragon Dance almost anything can switch into it's rock stab (except things like Mienfoo, Koffing, Foongus) and those get murdered by +1 psychic fangs so it's looking like the only real switchin to it is Pawniard. But don't freak out, despite all this, Tyrunt has an average speed tier and while yes it's such a monster offensively talking, it has very common weakness such as Ground-, Fighting-, Ice- and Steel-. We'll see how the dino ends up playing but hery promising sweeper.

:Farfetch

Farfetch'd Galar (from UR to t5) - Offensive fighting type with that high of an attack stat, that can hit for super effective damage Foongus and Cottonee aswell as being inmune to intimidate thanls to Scrappy? Yea i'm in. The fetch'd comes to play with a very offensive set than can punch holes vs more defensive teams. For now tho, due to it having an average speed tier it will only be ranked tier 5 tho.

:lileep:

Lileep (from UR to t5) - Another fossil woohoo! And people may say, hey it's lileep this has to be a defensive one. Well, it can be don't get me wrong but where lileep excells is to abuse those precise defensive stats to be an almost unkillable slow sweeper thanks to Swords Dance, Stockpile and Recover.

Hope you all enjoyed my little ted talk on the changes the VR is having. Of course if anyone disagrees with this changes or things any other change should be done feel free to make a post leaving us your thoughts. We read everybody's opinion and are trying to make sure the tier has its resources matching the meta the most equal to reality as we can.

But before i go, i'll leave some points of discussion here that got thrown in the council while voting.

:scraggy:

There was a big debate around this little boy regarding if it deserves tier 2 or tier 3 is just fine for it. Meta has been developing more towards physical attackers and intimidate is very helpful against those. Additionaly the drop on usage of Cottonee made it much easier to be put into more teams.

:tyrunt:

New fossil on the rise? There were voices claiming tier 4 not being enough for the t rex looking mon. We'll see if it shows up results in the tournament but we're having a look at it.

Actuarily · May 24, 2021

Some nominations from what I’ve seen thus far in the tour.

:spritzee:

tier 4 -> 2. Spritzee is the most reliable trick room setter, one of the best TR attackers, and the only relevant fairy type in the tier all wrapped up in one.

Its ability means it can’t be taunted or encored (unless neutralizing gas is present), and its 78/60/65 bulk allows Spritzee to always get off at least one trick room.

Some calcs, it can take hits from eviolite Pawniard, Mudbray, and Magnemite, but not reliably from LO Gastly:
156 Atk Pawniard Iron Head vs. 52 HP / 116 Def Eviolite Spritzee: 14-20 (56 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ Atk Mudbray Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 52 HP / 116 Def Eviolite Spritzee: 18-22 (72 - 88%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
236+ SpA Magnemite Flash Cannon vs. 52 HP / 76 SpD Eviolite Spritzee: 18-24 (72 - 96%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196 SpA Life Orb Gastly Sludge Bomb vs. 52 HP / 76 SpD Eviolite Spritzee: 23-31 (92 - 124%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO

As an attacker, spritzee’s decent 63 spa combined with good coverage in moonblast & psychic lets it do big damage to a lot of the top threats. While steels do wall it, the best two Pokémon in the tier (mienfoo and ponyta) can easily remove these obstacles. Spritzee is really the only fairy attacker in a meta where two of the three Pokémon in tier 1 are fairy-weak.

252+ SpA Spritzee Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 36 SpD Eviolite Mienfoo: 20-26 (95.2 - 123.8%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Spritzee Moonblast vs. 36 HP / 236 SpD Eviolite Vullaby: 14-20 (58.3 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

A replay showing how much damage it can do, and how it can set TR twice:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doubleslc-1339088395

:Mudbray:

Tier 4 -> 2. Mudbray’s combination of high overall base stats, good movepool, and great offensive typing in ground makes it one of the most threatening Pokémon in the meta. It has two useful abilities, one aiding its offensive presence making sure it can never be intimated or flinched by fake out (inner focus) and the other increasing its physical bulk in a meta where most attackers are physical (stamina). It’s also at a convenient speed tier where it can function both on TR teams, or can outspeed the meta in tailwind.

100 base attack combined with high base power moves means that mudbray can hit even some of the bulkiest mons for big damage:
196+ Atk Mudbray High Horsepower vs. 0 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Ponyta: 20-26 (95.2 - 123.8%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
196+ Atk Mudbray High Horsepower vs. 0 HP / 132 Def Eviolite Chinchou: 24-30 (100 - 125%) -- guaranteed OHKO
196+ Atk Mudbray High Horsepower vs. 36 HP / 236+ Def Eviolite Koffing: 14-20 (66.6 - 95.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ Atk Mudbray Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Porygon: 18-22 (78.2 - 95.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
196+ Atk Mudbray Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 76 HP / 236+ Def Eviolite Togepi: 14-18 (66.6 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

While Mudbray’s great bulk lets it take most hits:
236+ Atk Grookey Grassy Glide vs. 36 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Mudbray in Grassy Terrain: 14-20 (58.3 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
196+ SpA Omanyte Muddy Water vs. 36 HP / 156 SpD Eviolite Mudbray: 14-18 (58.3 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Replay (just pretend it hit the high horse power to win the match): https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doubleslc-1344175985

Metagame Doubles Little Cup

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Tragic Decision

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