Doubles Overview, Benchmarks, and Q&A Thread—Read before asking!

I'm theorymonning a dual-core team of Mega Gardevoir, SubTran, LO Hydreigon, and Aegislash (Weakness Policy three-attack from analysis). What would be good complements? I'm eyeing Suicune for slot 5, but slot 6 eludes me.
 

Arcticblast

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When in doubt, Amoonguss is a great add to almost any team (including yours!). It provides redirection through Rage Powder, Spore to cripple pretty much anything, and has a great habit of not dying. That leaves your team entirely special though and vulnerable to Light Screen or Snarl, so you can also consider support Gyarados over Suicune.
 

finally

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how do spread moves like earthquake reduce in damage in the following situations?
1) hit your partner and both enemies= 75% reduction
2) hit your partner and one enemy (other enemy is dead)= ?
3) do not hit your partner because it is flying and hit one enemy (other enemy is dead)= ?
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
how do spread moves like earthquake reduce in damage in the following situations?
1) hit your partner and both enemies= 75% reduction
2) hit your partner and one enemy (other enemy is dead)= ?
3) do not hit your partner because it is flying and hit one enemy (other enemy is dead)= ?
75 in all cases

Edit: to be perfectly clear: rock slide does 100% if one enemy is dead
 

Bughouse

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Same for full-spread moves like EQ if it becomes a single target move when the other two mons on the field have already fainted prior to EQ being used, afaik

stratos edit: this is true
 
Why is clefable considered unviable in smogon doubles when it's been pretty succesful in vgc? I don't really see what smogon doubles adds that makes it that more unviable.
 

shaian

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It's not considered unviable, it's currently C rank on the viability rankings (personally I think it could be a bit higher but w/e), and definitely has a niche thanks to Unaware.
 

Karxrida

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Similar to the previous question, why is Arcanine D in OU Doubles when it's pretty high in VGC viability?
 
Similar to the previous question, why is Arcanine D in OU Doubles when it's pretty high in VGC viability?
here are a couple problems with Arcanine in doubles

1) you waste your fire type slot on a pokemon that cant switch into bisharp
2) you waste your intimidate on a Pokemon that cant switch into Lando T
3) it is edgequake weak, most viable fires (Char/heatran/talon/rotom h) are immune or at least not weak to both
4) its damage output is pretty poor no matter which offence you choose to invest in (this is probably the most important point)

In VGC you can just not bring Arcanine when your opponent has something to beat you, because the things that beat it are specific but common. In VGC you just dont always use Arcanine, but in Doubles it consistently has a pretty poor match up.

There are also relevant Pokemon in Doubles like Keldeo, Diancie, and Kyurem B that give Arcanine trouble, but aren't legal in VGC.
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
yes and no respectively

all attacks whose effects last the end of the turn do so even if the pokemon that used it dies (wide guard etc as well). all speeds are calculated before a turn begins and remain the same for the duration of the turn.
 
And the second question is that when you Mega-Evolve, do you immediately get the speed boost? For example, Mega-Diancie gets 110 speed, normal Diancie gets 50 speed. When it's your first turn out, do you get 110 speed or 50 speed?
All speeds are calculated before a turn begins and remain the same for the duration of the turn.
This also includes using priority tail wind, mega evolving Swampert in the rain, switching in polioed / using rain dance with a swift swimmer already out and paralysis (although full paras can happen turn 1). For instancce, regular Venusaur next to a mega evolving Charizard will not get the chlorophyll boost turn one, but the boost will apply turn two.


This should be added to the OP IMO because it gets asked reasonably often.
 
Idk about Melotta, but there are niches that exist to counter Landorous T. Lando has great bulk, Intimidate, and base 145 physical attack. It can be run with a choice scarf as a strong bulky pivot, or as a bulky attacker. Landot is arguably the best Pokemon in the metagame. I've never used Melotta, but it could be a strong, fast Fighting-Type or a strong fast special attacker. Talonflame craps on the first set idea though, and the second is probably outclassed by Deoxys A as a psychic type attacker or Cresselis as a bulky psychic type support pokemon.
 
i've run assault vest meloetta a few times and its actually a pretty nifty set. it acts as a fantastic switchin to aegislash and as a pivot to get some chip damage on stuff. it's weak but it's an alright mon.

Meloetta @ Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 160 HP / 252 SpA / 96 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

outspeeds bisharp so you can nail it with fblast. shadow ball allows you to actually hit aegi lol.
 
Now I have an unrelated question to the meloetta one (IDK how much synergy the two would have) How good would a Breloom with Poison Heal and Toxic Orb be if after it was poisoned its item would be swapped with leftovers, and what would be an ideal partner for switching the two items?
 

ryo yamada2001

ryo yamada2001
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Now I have an unrelated question to the meloetta one (IDK how much synergy the two would have) How good would a Breloom with Poison Heal and Toxic Orb be if after it was poisoned its item would be swapped with leftovers, and what would be an ideal partner for switching the two items?
why exactly would you want to do this, there is no real point in it? :/
If you really want to you could use a bulky Steel Pokemon such as Jirachi as it wouldn't get poisoned from the Toxic Orb and is able to carry Leftovers the first few turns. Again, this is a strategy that I heavily unrecommend.
 
why exactly would you want to do this, there is no real point in it? :/
If you really want to you could use a bulky Steel Pokemon such as Jirachi as it wouldn't get poisoned from the Toxic Orb and is able to carry Leftovers the first few turns. Again, this is a strategy that I heavily unrecommend.
I'm just curious to see if a Breloom that could heal twice per turn would be viable
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
18% healing per turn is really cool but would be a lot cooler if the pokemon doing it didn't have worse defenses than meinshao (dont do that)
 

Idyll

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Now I have an unrelated question to the meloetta one (IDK how much synergy the two would have) How good would a Breloom with Poison Heal and Toxic Orb be if after it was poisoned its item would be swapped with leftovers, and what would be an ideal partner for switching the two items?
Such a combination of Breloom with Poison Heal and Toxic Orb along with a partner to switch items with wouldn't really work as it's basically too much trouble than it's worth. You waste a turn on a partner for a setup that isn't that good in the first place. There's also the fact that Poison Heal on Breloom isn't that good to begin with due to its frailty and typing (that lets it get beat by common foes such as Mega Charizard Y, Latios, Shaymin-Sky, etc.) holding back any recovery you can get.
 
The biggest issue with Poison Heal on Breloom is that it can't be run with Technitian for an extremely powerful Bullet Seed and Mach Punch. Technician also allows you to get the OHKO on 252 HP Rotom wash. (No Technician) 252+ Atk Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rotom-W: 258-312 (84.8 - 102.6%) -- approx. 6.3% chance to OHKO
(Technician)
252 Atk Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rotom-W: 348-414 (114.4 - 136.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Adamant isn't even needed to have a significantly higher chance to OHKO, so you can run jolly and speed creep the things that run 240 speed to be Loom and put those to sleep. Technician also boosts the power of Mach Punch, which allows Breloom to hit like an absolute truck. It's not an awful idea in itself IMO, but breloom has better options, so it's very outclassed. Would be viable in Gen 4 DOU though.
 
Okay now I have a question about Aegislash. What would be a good Nature for Wide Guard Aegislash? (I felt like Sassy was a good bet since between King's Shield, Shadow Sneak and the fact that the tiers are more varied in Doubles, I think that the speed was not that importaint)
 

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