Doubles Nostalgia Thread

[Audiosurfer]

approved by Pocket

​

Ok, with XY dropping in a few days I thought this would be a cool thread to have. For those who don't know or haven't been around as long, Doubles has come a long way since it's inception. It first started out modestly, as a single thread in the Other Metagames forum 10 months ago. From there, it got its own ladder, became one of the most popular OMs, and is now only a few days away from officialization. So yeah, despite all kinds of mini crisis over the past 10 months, we've made it. The purpose of this thread is to celebrate that, so you can talk about anything Doubles here. Think thoughts on the current meta, hopes for XY, stories of how you came to Doubles, stuff like that. When I say thoughts on the current meta, I mean things like whether you've liked or disliked it and why. This thread is NOT for any super serious metagame analysis (things like "I hope X pokemon is cool in Doubles in XY" is fine, but don't go into any major meta analysis; you'll probably be able to tell the difference when you're posting tho). You can do that in the General Metagame thread. However, if you've got a story from your first Doubles game or some particularly funny time in #doubles or something that you've been dying to share, this is the place to do so :) So yeah, time for one last Gen 5 Doubles hurrah before moving on to XY! Whether you've been playing since day 1 or playing since yesterday, I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have and that you share your experiences with us in this thread.

 

[mimi]

I am doubles queen

 

[mimi]

also Bellossom is too powerful for all you to understand.

 

[nyttyn]

My crusade for Deoxys-A.

the entire history behind the logo ("Victini should totally ride Cress like a pony. Riding the queen of doubles to victory.")

the vgc people getting up on our turf was kind of hilarious, in retrospect.

the fact that, for awhile, Iron Ball Ninetales was actually a legit thing

That moody clause was off for awhile and then just kind of went back on without anyone noticing

finally, the tragic rise and fall of Slaking and skill swap

sleep well, sweet prince, we will miss you.


as for my thoughts on current meta:

Honestly, it's probably the closest thing to a 'balance' metagame that black/white 2 has had in its entire history. It isn't exactly stale, either - I think that doubles also has probably the highest pool of pokemon avalible to use, simply because of how wildly the dynamics of double battles changes things. So it has definitely been an enjoyable ride.

Going into XY though, I really hope that Mega Evolutions shake up doubles. It's going to be really exciting, seeing how much a single dynamic like it can change a game.

and as for my story:

Level-51 "hey nyttyn come check out doubs"
nyttyn "k"

that's basically the gist of it.



p.s.

fuk cress

 

[BlankZero]

I miss Voodoo Pimp. Sunny Day CM Cress was such a cool thing.

I'll miss a lot of things, mostly the newness of everything.

 

[noobcubed]

My favourite memory is of that guy who was obsessed with Mantine. I haven't battled a Mantine in ages.

 

[Punchshroom]

Makolicious's Meloetta, which scared me to hell and back with its Calm Mind and Ghost immunity. Then he/she replaced it with Darkrai which didn't do shit, why Mako? T_T

 

[Darkmalice]

My favourite memory is of that guy who was obsessed with Mantine. I haven't battled a Mantine in ages.

That guy is BlankZero

Favourite moment: realising how good Defiant Tornadus is. And that smirk you get every time an Intimidate user comes in.

Even better when I found out that this year's World VGC champion used it too.

 

[BlankZero]

That guy is BlankZero

Favourite moment: realising how good Defiant Tornadus is. And that smirk you get every time an Intimidate user comes in.

Even better when I found out that this year's World VGC champion used it too.

That is slanderous. Mantine is awful.

Edit: Habibs was the Mantine Guy.

 

[Level 51]

Mantine is awful.

DO NOT INSULT OUR GREAT GOD

rant enclosed

Mantine is like really really good ok.............
like, look at it. Its typing is wonderful.
it ignores Earthquake. IMAGINE THERE'S AN EARTHQUAKE GOING ON RIGHT NOW. While everyone is panicking, guess who's just floating about being happy? MANTINE.
oh dear but Rotom-Wash can do that too!!
sorry, not when a MOLD BREAKER EXCADRILL STEPS IN.
boom no more clean clothes!!!! guess what mantine doesnt give a shit about clean clothes. or earthquakes.
Also look at its stats man, they're great
Look at that Defense stat.... with enough investment Mantine can have the same Defense stat as a MAX DEFENSE POSITIVE NATURE THUNDURUS.
so basically Mantine is on par with Thundurus. and Tornadus, really.
MANTINE IS THE GENIE'S LONG LOST COUSIN.
you should watch out for mantine, really. you know why shitmontop is so good? because intimidate. and wide guard. i'm talking more about wide guard because intimidate is for losers who cant tank hits (but like i said mantine can).
so guess what else can learn wide guard? MANTINE. mantine is really great. watch out. mantine for s-tier.

disclaimer

[disclaimer: mantine is actually bad]

 

[Lasagne]

those hide tags...

 

[Darkmalice]

That is slanderous. Mantine is awful.

Edit: Habibs was the Mantine Guy.

My mistake. Apologies.

I will associate you with Jumpluff instead.


Going to say a bit of a story. It's more relevant if you're from Australia.

Most of the IRL Australian tournaments held are in doubles, 6v6. Before Smogon doubles was introduced, there was no smogon ruleset to use for doubles. This lead to tournie rules either copying the singles smogon rules, or making up their own rules for doubles. The latter was always the worse option due to people not making up good rules, ranging from bad banlists (including Landorus-I, and this was before Sheer Force was released) to just plain ridiculous (for example, Legendary clause, preventing you from using >1 Legendary Pokemon). The best format was to use the VGC ruleset, minus the choose 4 Pokemon rule (everyone battled via IR). And unsurprisingly, most Australian players suck.

Most opponents in tournaments who take competitive play seriously generally slap 6 'strong-looking' Pokemon on their team and call it a day, like Beartic, without considering team synergy and how good some of their Pokemon really are.. They also lack competitive skills that can be learnt from playing online. Like not turning a blind eye to your opponent's strategy; for example, every TR team will try to set up TR first turn regardless of what you're opponent is running. They are also much more likely to not be in-tune with the metagame. For example, our National Champ used a Sporeless Breloom, and many players in a 128 player tournament thought having a Flash Fire Arcanine would sufficiently counter sun teams (and ironically a sun team won that tournament).

With the formation of Smogon doubles, hopefully Australians will now turn to the Doubles format. They will use the good ruleset here for their battles (the banlist is better than VGC's) and may gain some tips to improve their battling. It will be more fun entering in tournaments in Australia, and hopefully this skill will translate to the Worlds VGC next year.

 

[Kingler]

I don't really play doubles a lot, but I played VGC 2012 for some time(needless to say, I failed horribly). I occassionally play it, and it's a really fun tier with a lot of potential. I'm probs gonna get more involved in both Doubles C&C and subforums as well, it has quite a lot of awesome people ;)

 

[tofucocoa]

i decided to grace you all with my presence one day and now here i am

 

[Nollan]

Favourite moment: realising how good Defiant Tornadus is. And that smirk you get every time an Intimidate user comes in.

Even better when I found out that this year's World VGC champion used it too.

^^^

Also, I dunno about everyone else, but winning the first Doubles Dash in a massive comeback was pretty awesome (as was beating Laga imeanwut?).

 

[BLOOD TOTEM]

Also, I dunno about everyone else, but winning the first Doubles Dash in a massive comeback was pretty awesome (as was beating Laga imeanwut?).

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/smogondoubles-36426546
After I ended his winning streak. :^)

My favorite moment had to be this:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/smogondoubles-37089220
or maybe this :3
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/smogondoubles-32731328

Also, edit to confirm Chaos is a hacker
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/smogondoubles-45463832
forcewin pls go ;________________________;

 

[noobcubed]

Makolicious's Meloetta, which scared me to hell and back with its Calm Mind and Ghost immunity. Then he/she replaced it with Darkrai which didn't do shit, why Mako? T_T

If we're going for individual Pokemon sets that scare the shit out of me, drakeyy's Gastrodon is definitely the worst. Muddy Water / Stockpile / Recover / Toxic. If you give it a free turn (and most players would be happy to do just that) it becomes an unbreakable stalling machine.