Hello everyone, welcome to another Smogon Doubles Player of the Week! This project is for newer people to be more acquainted with some of the most knowledgeable players of Doubles.
Featured Player: Darkmalice
Most Known For: Doubles posting, Doubles battling, rarely going onto IRC
Signature Pokemon: TrickScarf Rotom, Sub Terrakion. I have specifically mentioned not-so-standard Pokemon sets - nothing signature about using sets that everyone uses.
For the sixth week, I've interviewed Darkmailce. Despite only semi-recently getting the CC badge for his work in Doubles, Darkmalice has been around since before Doubles became an official tier. He is known for his well-thought out posts throughout the subforum.
Tell me a little about yourself:
I am a 22 year old man living in South Australia. I study Medicine. Most of my free time is spent studying and hanging out with irl friends. Pokemon is a hobby on the side. I am currently preparing for VGC. In fact, I specifically learnt Doubles because I wanted to enter a Nintendo hosted Pokemon video game championship in South Australia, which wasn't part of VGC that year. This was in 2011 and my first ever seriously Doubles playing. I extended that playing to Doubles as a whole later in the year (instead of just VGC) for another Pokemon tournament held at an Anime and Video Game Conference.
Why did you join the doubles community, and what was the first team you made?
Most video game tournaments in Australia are Doubles rules, not VGC. So naturally, when a metagame on Smogon was released that is most relevant to the Australian metagame, I had to join it. The first team I made was my Wreck-it-Ralph team that landed in the 5th Gen RMT archive. It was a full TR team based on a lot of VGC teams and tactics that I saw on Nugget Bridge (Cress + Heatran + Gastro combo, Wolfe's sets) as well as some Pokemon that I really wanted to try out (Intimidate Scrafty, Defiant Tornadus). It worked out far better than expected, despite my prior Doubles experience, however, there were a few small differences. My Gastrodon started off with Earth Power + Ice Beam, and Exeggutor started off with Power Swap over TR (bad idea on a full TR team).
What major contributions to the progression of the doubles tier have you made?
I was an early 5th gen poster and battler, but never found the time to become very involved. Contributions then were primarily good quality posts in the forums. In 6th gen, many more posts. Nowhere near as much as users like Pocket. Also some C&C posts, including the 5th Gen Exeggutor Doubles Analysis.
What are some of your favorite elements of the Doubles metagame?
I agree with Pwnemon that it is very balanced, much more than singles. That relates to the nature of Doubles - with two Pokemon out at a time, it is much easier to check opposing Pokemon. Compare our banlist to singles, where the fire chicken, Super Lucario and the bug with the big gun is banned.
It's a fast metagame. Which is good as it keeps it interesting. Single games are much more likely to drag on with constant stalling and more switching than attacking. Mind you, good doubles matches do commonly have a lot of switching, but I hate turns in games where it's like 3+ turns of double switching with no attacks - just make up your mind about what Pokemon you want on the field!
What is one thing about the current rules (banlist, metagame structure) that you would want to change?
Not a rule change list, but a mechanics change: Protect use after one successful use. People complain about luck based strategies like sleep counter, but the failure rate of Protect is easily the most prominent luck based factor. Most Pokemon carry Protect, and a 2nd turn or 3rd turn Protect can win games. I rather have Protect always fail if used immediately after a successful Protect. No luck involved. I have nearly lost an irl competition because someone went for 3 Protects in a row, failing the 3rd, and earlier in the competition against the same opponent, he won the swiss match against me due to a 3 turn Protect. Same goes for Detect, King's Shield etc.
If I did want to change something that could be changed, it would be level 50 instead of 100. This is what people play irl, and the differences are minimum. I'm not opposed to making it so that lower level Pokemon don't autolevel up, it's more that most people can't be bothered levelling Pokemon all the way up to 100 for tournaments, so everyone uses level 50. This is something that affects every Smogon metagame and that every metagame leader chose to use (there's a PR thread on this), and I disagree with all of them. A level 50 ruleset would make smoother transition from Smogon play to irl play and saves people the burden of either leveling up Pokemon and all agreeing with each other to play with level 100 (I know no one who does this) or recalculating EVs. Plus Wifi will never be level 100.
What are some Doubles players you think are good examples for newer users to look up to?
Players who have contributed greatly to the Doubles forum. Pocket has contributed more for Doubles than anyone else. Audiosurfer, Level 51, Pwnemon, Arcticblast are others. This lsit is not exhaustive.
Good Doubles battlers too - looking up to good battlers makes you try to be more like them so you become better at battling. The list is too long to describe. So instead I'll post the BOTW OP and SPL replays OP so you can see many replays by many good players and decides which ones you should look up to. I personally looked up to Braverius (Zach) as a battler. He knows his shit.
What do you think is the most successful Pokemon, core, and strategy in the current meta?
The 4 most successful Pokemon are Mega Kang, Cresselia, Landorus-T, and Heatran. They are very effective at what they do, and they are reliable in carrying out their tasks, provided they are used with some skill of course.
The best strategy depends on each battle. And that is why the best team strategy is to have a flexible team that can be used against all the team archetypes and fair well against as many teams as possible. For example, this is why semi-TR teams work well, as they can work inside TR and against TR. They set up TR against faster teams, and they keep it off the field against slower teams. Of course, teams absolutely do not need to be semi-TR to be flexible.
Can you give some advice to new doubles players?
I'll explain how I learnt how to play doubles (I started with VGC, but the exact same principles).
I read in full every Smogon VGC 2011 analyses onsite and incompleted ones on the forums - sets, comments etc. From doing so, I learnt good movesets for Pokemon, which Pokemon are commonly used, what movesets Pokemon commonly used, and gained a general idea of how good certain Pokemon are. I used other websites to look up analyses for Pokemon that Smogon did not have. This worked well for me.
Sadly there aren't many 6th gen Doubles analyses for Pokemon atm. There are some. However, we do have other sources - we have the viability ranking list. The comments are invaluable too - they tell you things the viability list by itself cannot like what sets the discussed Pokemon normally run. Other threads in Doubles give useful information too. Knowledge is power.
So learn as much as you can about the metagame and learn the standard sets. 99% of Pokemon sets that aren't standard are worse than standard - they are standard for a reason. To be a good player, you need to know the standard sets, and then you'll have a good understanding of the metagame. If you think that you are part of the 1% that can make better than non-standard sets, you are wrong and your sets will be worse. You will know when you can make better sets, and that only happens when you become a very good battler and understand individual Pokemon and the metagame very well - this is a difference between a very good battler and a good battler; you can excel beyond the standard metagame. And when you reach this stage, you will not need to be reading this advice. Good battlers, don't worry, you are still much better than the majority of players who can't even master and understand the basic (standard) Pokemon sets and the metagame.
And of course, test test test. You never truly know something will work unless you try it out. The online ladder is useful for that once you get a high enough ranking to avoid noobs. If you can't wait, go on IRC and challenge someone there. You will have almost certainly challenged a good or very good player.
What strategies do you dislike playing against?
Gimmick strategies that are usually ineffective in high-level play but can work because they catch your opponent off guard. PerishTrap is the most prominent example of this. GuardSplit Shuckle with Chansey is the best example, because if it is pulled off successfully, many teams will be unable to stop it, but people who know about it can stop it before it ever happens, or stop it as it happens (or after depending on the team).
Can you provide a sample team with explanation on how to use for new players?:
I'll list the team I used to gain reqs for the Sleep Clause vote. Note that I strongly recommend against using this team for tournament play - it has some weaknesses that can be patched with Aegislash on the ladder with decent prediction, but that very good players can utilise to break through this team. This team is designed to quickly get reqs and be well-prepared against sleep (except Mega Zard Y + Venusaur, it is ironically weak to that combo). Despite its flaws, I got 38-5 on that ladder - mentioning this to let you know that it works well.
Aegislash was my answer to the team's triple Ice-weakness and Fire-type weaknesses. They usually take the form of Heat Wave and Blizzard, so Wide Guard agains them whilst your teammate takes them out. 32 SDef gives it only a 6.3% chance of being OHKOed by Modest Mega Zard Y's Heat Wave.
Shaymin-S as a fast Pokemon to switch into Spore and Sleep Powder, and Amoonguss as a slow Pokemon for that. Hydro Pump for Heatran primarly but also Landorus-T. It was originally Tailwind, but I found it to be a waste of a slot. Plus being meant for the sleep clauseless ladder, I needed to try to abuse it myself. Salamence for Intimidate, coverage, offense, and resists with the Dragon-type. Terrakion and Mega Kang for raw offense. Quick Guard was there to protect my teammates from Ice Shard. Mega Kang's EVs are to outrun Smeargle (which I never saw) and give Genesect a +1 Atk boost. Also, with Mega Kang, Aegislash, and Amoonguss, you are well prepared against TR teams.
Editor's Note: So, that was our 6th featured player, Darkmalice! Feel free to PM me who you think should be the next featured player, and thanks for tuning into another Smogon Doubles Player of the Week!
Featured Player: Darkmalice
Most Known For: Doubles posting, Doubles battling, rarely going onto IRC
Signature Pokemon: TrickScarf Rotom, Sub Terrakion. I have specifically mentioned not-so-standard Pokemon sets - nothing signature about using sets that everyone uses.
Tell me a little about yourself:
I am a 22 year old man living in South Australia. I study Medicine. Most of my free time is spent studying and hanging out with irl friends. Pokemon is a hobby on the side. I am currently preparing for VGC. In fact, I specifically learnt Doubles because I wanted to enter a Nintendo hosted Pokemon video game championship in South Australia, which wasn't part of VGC that year. This was in 2011 and my first ever seriously Doubles playing. I extended that playing to Doubles as a whole later in the year (instead of just VGC) for another Pokemon tournament held at an Anime and Video Game Conference.
Why did you join the doubles community, and what was the first team you made?
Most video game tournaments in Australia are Doubles rules, not VGC. So naturally, when a metagame on Smogon was released that is most relevant to the Australian metagame, I had to join it. The first team I made was my Wreck-it-Ralph team that landed in the 5th Gen RMT archive. It was a full TR team based on a lot of VGC teams and tactics that I saw on Nugget Bridge (Cress + Heatran + Gastro combo, Wolfe's sets) as well as some Pokemon that I really wanted to try out (Intimidate Scrafty, Defiant Tornadus). It worked out far better than expected, despite my prior Doubles experience, however, there were a few small differences. My Gastrodon started off with Earth Power + Ice Beam, and Exeggutor started off with Power Swap over TR (bad idea on a full TR team).
What major contributions to the progression of the doubles tier have you made?
I was an early 5th gen poster and battler, but never found the time to become very involved. Contributions then were primarily good quality posts in the forums. In 6th gen, many more posts. Nowhere near as much as users like Pocket. Also some C&C posts, including the 5th Gen Exeggutor Doubles Analysis.
What are some of your favorite elements of the Doubles metagame?
I agree with Pwnemon that it is very balanced, much more than singles. That relates to the nature of Doubles - with two Pokemon out at a time, it is much easier to check opposing Pokemon. Compare our banlist to singles, where the fire chicken, Super Lucario and the bug with the big gun is banned.
It's a fast metagame. Which is good as it keeps it interesting. Single games are much more likely to drag on with constant stalling and more switching than attacking. Mind you, good doubles matches do commonly have a lot of switching, but I hate turns in games where it's like 3+ turns of double switching with no attacks - just make up your mind about what Pokemon you want on the field!
What is one thing about the current rules (banlist, metagame structure) that you would want to change?
Not a rule change list, but a mechanics change: Protect use after one successful use. People complain about luck based strategies like sleep counter, but the failure rate of Protect is easily the most prominent luck based factor. Most Pokemon carry Protect, and a 2nd turn or 3rd turn Protect can win games. I rather have Protect always fail if used immediately after a successful Protect. No luck involved. I have nearly lost an irl competition because someone went for 3 Protects in a row, failing the 3rd, and earlier in the competition against the same opponent, he won the swiss match against me due to a 3 turn Protect. Same goes for Detect, King's Shield etc.
If I did want to change something that could be changed, it would be level 50 instead of 100. This is what people play irl, and the differences are minimum. I'm not opposed to making it so that lower level Pokemon don't autolevel up, it's more that most people can't be bothered levelling Pokemon all the way up to 100 for tournaments, so everyone uses level 50. This is something that affects every Smogon metagame and that every metagame leader chose to use (there's a PR thread on this), and I disagree with all of them. A level 50 ruleset would make smoother transition from Smogon play to irl play and saves people the burden of either leveling up Pokemon and all agreeing with each other to play with level 100 (I know no one who does this) or recalculating EVs. Plus Wifi will never be level 100.
What are some Doubles players you think are good examples for newer users to look up to?
Players who have contributed greatly to the Doubles forum. Pocket has contributed more for Doubles than anyone else. Audiosurfer, Level 51, Pwnemon, Arcticblast are others. This lsit is not exhaustive.
Good Doubles battlers too - looking up to good battlers makes you try to be more like them so you become better at battling. The list is too long to describe. So instead I'll post the BOTW OP and SPL replays OP so you can see many replays by many good players and decides which ones you should look up to. I personally looked up to Braverius (Zach) as a battler. He knows his shit.
What do you think is the most successful Pokemon, core, and strategy in the current meta?
The 4 most successful Pokemon are Mega Kang, Cresselia, Landorus-T, and Heatran. They are very effective at what they do, and they are reliable in carrying out their tasks, provided they are used with some skill of course.
The best strategy depends on each battle. And that is why the best team strategy is to have a flexible team that can be used against all the team archetypes and fair well against as many teams as possible. For example, this is why semi-TR teams work well, as they can work inside TR and against TR. They set up TR against faster teams, and they keep it off the field against slower teams. Of course, teams absolutely do not need to be semi-TR to be flexible.
Can you give some advice to new doubles players?
I'll explain how I learnt how to play doubles (I started with VGC, but the exact same principles).
I read in full every Smogon VGC 2011 analyses onsite and incompleted ones on the forums - sets, comments etc. From doing so, I learnt good movesets for Pokemon, which Pokemon are commonly used, what movesets Pokemon commonly used, and gained a general idea of how good certain Pokemon are. I used other websites to look up analyses for Pokemon that Smogon did not have. This worked well for me.
Sadly there aren't many 6th gen Doubles analyses for Pokemon atm. There are some. However, we do have other sources - we have the viability ranking list. The comments are invaluable too - they tell you things the viability list by itself cannot like what sets the discussed Pokemon normally run. Other threads in Doubles give useful information too. Knowledge is power.
So learn as much as you can about the metagame and learn the standard sets. 99% of Pokemon sets that aren't standard are worse than standard - they are standard for a reason. To be a good player, you need to know the standard sets, and then you'll have a good understanding of the metagame. If you think that you are part of the 1% that can make better than non-standard sets, you are wrong and your sets will be worse. You will know when you can make better sets, and that only happens when you become a very good battler and understand individual Pokemon and the metagame very well - this is a difference between a very good battler and a good battler; you can excel beyond the standard metagame. And when you reach this stage, you will not need to be reading this advice. Good battlers, don't worry, you are still much better than the majority of players who can't even master and understand the basic (standard) Pokemon sets and the metagame.
And of course, test test test. You never truly know something will work unless you try it out. The online ladder is useful for that once you get a high enough ranking to avoid noobs. If you can't wait, go on IRC and challenge someone there. You will have almost certainly challenged a good or very good player.
What strategies do you dislike playing against?
Gimmick strategies that are usually ineffective in high-level play but can work because they catch your opponent off guard. PerishTrap is the most prominent example of this. GuardSplit Shuckle with Chansey is the best example, because if it is pulled off successfully, many teams will be unable to stop it, but people who know about it can stop it before it ever happens, or stop it as it happens (or after depending on the team).
Can you provide a sample team with explanation on how to use for new players?:
I'll list the team I used to gain reqs for the Sleep Clause vote. Note that I strongly recommend against using this team for tournament play - it has some weaknesses that can be patched with Aegislash on the ladder with decent prediction, but that very good players can utilise to break through this team. This team is designed to quickly get reqs and be well-prepared against sleep (except Mega Zard Y + Venusaur, it is ironically weak to that combo). Despite its flaws, I got 38-5 on that ladder - mentioning this to let you know that it works well.
Aegislash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SAtk / 32 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 1 Spd
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 4 Spd
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Terrakion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Quick Guard
- Protect
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 152 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
Salamence (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Heat Wave
- Hydro Pump
- Protect
Shaymin-Sky @ Life Orb
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Seed Flare
- Air Slash
- Earth Power
- Protect-
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SAtk / 32 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 1 Spd
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 4 Spd
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Terrakion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Quick Guard
- Protect
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 152 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
Salamence (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Heat Wave
- Hydro Pump
- Protect
Shaymin-Sky @ Life Orb
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Seed Flare
- Air Slash
- Earth Power
- Protect-
Aegislash was my answer to the team's triple Ice-weakness and Fire-type weaknesses. They usually take the form of Heat Wave and Blizzard, so Wide Guard agains them whilst your teammate takes them out. 32 SDef gives it only a 6.3% chance of being OHKOed by Modest Mega Zard Y's Heat Wave.
Shaymin-S as a fast Pokemon to switch into Spore and Sleep Powder, and Amoonguss as a slow Pokemon for that. Hydro Pump for Heatran primarly but also Landorus-T. It was originally Tailwind, but I found it to be a waste of a slot. Plus being meant for the sleep clauseless ladder, I needed to try to abuse it myself. Salamence for Intimidate, coverage, offense, and resists with the Dragon-type. Terrakion and Mega Kang for raw offense. Quick Guard was there to protect my teammates from Ice Shard. Mega Kang's EVs are to outrun Smeargle (which I never saw) and give Genesect a +1 Atk boost. Also, with Mega Kang, Aegislash, and Amoonguss, you are well prepared against TR teams.
Editor's Note: So, that was our 6th featured player, Darkmalice! Feel free to PM me who you think should be the next featured player, and thanks for tuning into another Smogon Doubles Player of the Week!
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