Doubles Team- Trick Room

[AbsoluteShdw]

/Introduction/

Hello everyone, and thank you for any advice you can give. This will be my first official post, so I apologize in advance for any formating hiccups.

I'd like any advice as to who to change for better coverage and/or general ability to cope with the current metagame. Thanks again.

/The Team/
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / SDef
Nature: Quiet (+SAtk, -Spe)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

I choose Reuniclus due to its relative bulk and impressive base Special Attack. Its speed is terrible, but quiet natured within Trick Room should let him outspeed most. His bulk is such that he rarely gets OHKO'd, and following the first turn will get first attack with his decimating Special Attack. Protect allows him to absorb a couple hits and allow his partner to eliminate any major threats to him.

Conkeldurr @ Burn Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brace Nature: (+Atk, -Spe).
- Mach Punch
- Hammer Arm
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Mach Punch makes for a very nice priority, Drain Punch keeps him alive for far too long, and with his partner having protect, he can throw out massive EQs without fear of friendly fire. Rock Slide hits hard, and with Trick Room up, Conkeldurr can take advantage of that nice flinch chance. All in all a nice partner for Reuniclus.

Eelektross @ Wise Glasses
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+Satk, - Spe)
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Grass Knot
- Protect

Eelecktross with Levitate, aside from Mold Breaker Haxorous, has no weaknesses. Pure Electric typing with ground immunity and a fairly nice bulk let him take quite a few hits before going down. Thunderbolt and Flamethrower give great coverage, and Grass Knot fills in for any pesky ground/rock types. Protect is just useful period.
Gigalith @ Normal Gem
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spe)
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Explosion

Gigalith has amazing base atk, and in Trick Room just hits like a truck. Rock Slide for obvious multi-target STAB damage, Earthquake for a psuedo-QuakeEdge combo, and protect for aforementioned reasons. Explosion is a beautiful final attack, dealing massive gem-boosted multitarget damage. Whenever he's on the way out, he goes out with a bang.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spe)
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leach Seed
- Protect

Let me just start with a little explanation of EVs and nature, Ferrothorn's base Defense is higher than its base Special Defense, thus Sassy brings the two to similar levels (actually putting SDef a tad higher). With EVs invested in both, Ferrothorn can eat a hit from anything not called Fire-type(Even Earthquakes). Also, with a relatively low HP, Leach Seed brings in more of a percent than an HP EV'd Ferrothorn would. Leftovers simply compliment Leach Seed, and make for a very hard to kill Ferrothorn.

Gyro Ball and Powerwhip fill in nicely for good STAB-ed hits, hitting surprisingly hard, give defensive EV and Nature. Sassy also makes Gyro quiet the threat.

Chandelure @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spe)
- Trick Room
- Heat Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

Chandelure wraps up the team, adding another Trick Room user, given that Trick Room only lasts 5 turns, and a nice teammate for Ferrothorn. Flash Fire absorbs those nasty fire attacks and hits back with a Heat Wave, potentially boosted from Flash Fire. Focus Sash guarantees it can set up Trick Room, as its not quite as bulky as Reuniclus. Inside of Trick Room, it can abuse that nasty base SAtk to its hearts content, wreaking havoc on the opponent. Heat Wave is choosen over Flamethrower/Fire Blast simple for the ability to hit two targets.

/Conclusion/
Thats the team in a nutshell so far. I haven't actually gotten to debut the team in any competitive forum and I'm worried that I have a bit too much redundant coverage. I'm considering switching in Jellicent, simply for the reliable Ice Beam it would bring the team, compensating for my lack of coverage on Dragons. This team is planned for a Unova-only subset of battling, so the only real dragon uncovered here is Haxorous, as Hydreigon is covered well by Conkeldurr.

 

[Rishidafishi]

use life orb on reuniclus over wise glasses, because you don't take any life orb recoil anyway thanks to magic guard

 

[AbsoluteShdw]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you only have 1 of each unique item on a team? Isn't two Pokemon each having Life Orb illegal?

 

[steven27738]

So swap them / find a better item. But Life Orb on Reuniclus is much more useful, as Reuniclus doesn't take the recoil damage and his massive Special Attack loves the boost.

 

[mattj]

If you're going to boost both Elektross's and Reuniclus's attacks, it makes far more sense to give Reuniclus the Life Orb, since he won't take any recoil damage, and point for point he will get a larger boost than Elektross.

If you're going to use a Guts Conkeldurr, I would sincerely suggest trying Flame Orb and Hammer Arm instead of Leftovers and Drain Punch. If you want to use Drain Punch and especially Rock Slide on Conkeldurr, you should really try to get a hold of an Sheer Force Conkeldurr. Guts on a Leftovers / Drainpunch / Rockslide Conkeldurr is a real waste. I understand that sometime's it's hard to get the exact mons you need or want, but it would be a shame to waste a good ability / item / move combination like that. It can really make the difference when you get to the final rounds of VGC.

I would strongly dispute Acid Spray's usefulness. It's definitely not an inverted Nasty Plot. In VGC, 1HKOing your opponent's mons tends to be far more important than any kind of secondary effects such as Burn, or any stat boosts or drops because the matches are so short. Acid Spray cannot 1HKO anything. It can't even 2HKO most VGC 11 mons. Two moves that would definitely be of much more use to you would be Protect, or even Hidden Power Ice 70. Protect is useful in many situations. HP I 70 will hit most of the "top used" VGC '11 mons (Thundurus, Tornadus, Landorus, Haxorus, Hydreigon, Amoongus etc...) for Super Effective. While, if you use Wise Glasses, it obviously will not 1HKO any of those (except for some non RNG'd Landorus), if you would try Choice Specs, it could 1HKO most of those if they're not RNG'd, or bring them very, very low.

 

[AbsoluteShdw]

I actually wrote that wrong. I'm using Burn Orb, not leftovers on Conkledurr. Also agree with item on Reuniculus, as his ability just makes sense. I should have phrased that sentence a little better, I actually ment something along the lines of: After an Acid Spray, without a switch, the debuffed mon will die from the following special attack, due to half SpD. Experience agrees with you though; Protect is superior to Acid Spray.

 

[Nightmare13]

f you're going to use a Guts Conkeldurr, I would sincerely suggest trying Flame Orb and Hammer Arm instead of Leftovers and Drain Punch. If you want to use Drain Punch and especially Rock Slide on Conkeldurr, you should really try to get a hold of an Sheer Force Conkeldurr. Guts on a Leftovers / Drainpunch / Rockslide Conkeldurr is a real waste. I understand that sometime's it's hard to get the exact mons you need or want, but it would be a shame to waste a good ability / item / move combination like that. It can really make the difference when you get to the final rounds of VGC.

What the heck are you talking about? Guts boosted Drain Punch does a LOT of damage. And the interesting thing about fighting in this meta is that most pokemon are either weak to it or resist it, and hammer arm doesn't really pick up many important KOs.

The only notable pokemon that take neutral damage from fighting are Conkeldurr, Haxorus, Mienshao, Whimsicott, Eelektross, and maybe Druddigon and Archeops if you want to consider them notable. Of those, Hammer Arm only picks up a potential (not even guaranteed) KO against standard Eelektross, non-bulky Haxorus, and 252 HP Whimsicott if it's not packing focus sash. On the other hand, it's only 90% accurate instead of Drain Punch's 100%, which will result in some critical misses, and doesn't help you recover the damage that you're taking from your burn.

Use Drain Punch.