ORAS Doubles OU Help fix-up my DOU team!

[lost heros]

Hello RMT! I've been playing around with this Doubles OU team for a while now, and while it has been doing pretty alright, I think there's definitely room for improvement. I currently have 1373 Elo, only using this team. Now before I get in to describing the team, I want to preface by saying I am not the most innovative teambuilder. I heavily rely on the suggested spreads as well as the smogon strategy pokedex. Anywho, without further prolonging on to the team!

Charizard-Y
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 64 Def / 88 SpA / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Overheat
- Heat Wave

Looking at the first two pokemon, it should be fairly obvious where I started. I wanted to utilize as best I could the powerhouse that is the Charizard-Y Venusaur-Chlorophyll Core.
The EV spread comes from the strategy-dex. It survives kanghaskan's return and outspeeds max-speeed breloom. It's moves hit hard and are fairly standard. It's pretty much what to expect from a Charizard-Y, and it has definitely done well.

Venusaur
Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Sleep Powder

This is the other half of the core I wanted to build around, and the biggest difference from most Venusaurs is the presence of solar beam. What I wanted to do here was hit fast and hit strong, and venusaur would only ever be able to hit fast when the sun's up, so I figured instead of giving him giga drain or leaf storm, the best it could hit would be with solar beam. It's worked pretty well so far, as most games don't last too long and neither does Venusaur, but I'm not 100% sold on it.

Landorus-T
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

Landorus-T is a great pokemon. Adhering very well to the hit hard and fast as well as countering a great many things in the DOU meta. Its intimidate hurts physical attackers, and it has just so much offensive pressure.

Rotom-H
Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 24 SpA / 76 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

My idea with Rotom-H was to partner it alongside Landorus-T, as well as take advantage of the remaining sunlight if it still exists. But it's been thoroughly disappointing. It could be that I'm just not playing with it well, but it just doesn't perform as well as everyone else. This really seems to be the weakest member of my team, and I'm really trying to get a good replacement for him.

Gastrodon
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Earth Power
- Surf
- Toxic

Now this is an interesting one, and not too common I believe. The (probably bad) idea was to shield Landorus-T and Charizard-Y from potentially dangerous water type users, and then use toxic to hurt those water types. It worked pretty well on the low ladder, but I think it might have to be dropped, or at least refined.

Aegislash
Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

Aegislash has been a pretty greak pokemon on my team as well. Weakness Policy alongside Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon make it a great offensive sword, and Wide Guard and King's Shield works miraculously defending. Usually it's the last pokemon of mine and finishes off my opponents very well.

Conclusion
This team works pretty well, and honestly, I'm a pretty well kinda player. I can usually outplay rain teams, as well as some good stuffs and other sun teams. However, the real issue is trick room teams. They're incredibly bulky and all my ideas of hitting fast and hard completely backfire, as I become the slowest very easily. Cresselia's usually run safety goggles meaning I can't stop it with sleep powder from venusaur, and god-forbid M-camerupt is just too strong against me, especially when it takes advantage of MY SUN. The nerve.

Anywho, any suggestions on edits as well as really anything on how to improve this team, playing DOU, beating those dang trick room users.

​

importable

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 64 Def / 88 SpA / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Overheat
- Heat Wave

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Sleep Powder

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 24 SpA / 76 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Earth Power
- Surf
- Toxic

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

 

[Test Bot #]

Hi, lost heros!

Well, I personally don’t like using the spread given in the Strategy Pokedex (as I like my Mega Charizard-Y to be a speedy sweeper). However, if you plan to use that spread, then you really need a Mon that can set up TW (I suggest this) or TR. Thus, I suggest that you use a “Bulky” Zapdos and remove Rotom-H. That way, you can also create an opportunity to either eliminate Landorus-T (HP Ice) or spam Heat Wave. For the matter of Aegislash and Landorus-T, they’re fine as they are.

Next, the reason why Venusaur shouldn’t use Solar Beam is because it needs to charge if there is no sun. Although this may not be a problem against Good Stuffs team, this is certainly a crisis in weather wars. Instead, Venusaur is more viable with Giga Drain, an effective move against typical Sand and Rain Mons. And the reason why your Venusaur “doesn’t last too long” is because you’ve spent useless EVs on Speed. Since it is a Chlorophyll user, I suggest that you only put enough speed to out-speed Choice Landorus-T.

Now, you really don’t need Gastrodon. Mega Charizard-Y’s Drought causes all water type moves to be half (50%) as effective. Plus, Toxic is not a viable move in Doubles. (You have enough counters to Water types.) Instead, use Latios over Gastrodon; it has an 81.3% chance to OHKO Amoonguss w/ Life Orb boosted Psychic, a powerful STAB move (Draco Meteor), and tailwind (just in case when Zapdos is unavailable or vulnerable for play).

Hope I helped out!

importable

Red (Charizard-Mega-Y) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 64 Def / 88 SpA / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Protect
- Overheat

Orange (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- U-turn
- Rock Slide

Yellow (Zapdos) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
- Tailwind

Green (Venusaur) @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 192 HP / 252 SpA / 64 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect
- Sludge Bomb

Blue (Latios) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
- Tailwind

Purple (Aegislash) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

 

[Idyll]

yo,

So this team looks like a basic sun team with Lando-T + Zard + Venu as its obvious offensive core with the other half serving in some way to back them up. While Aegi does its job fine to support the team with Wide Guard and its nifty typing, Gastrodon and Rotom-H don't actually do much and just feel tacked on, and you have said yourself that they're dropping off. Your team also lacks any speed control whatsoever aside from ChloroSaur and Scarf Lando-T; while you might not notice it at in games much due to being lower-ladder, higher up you'll find yourself getting denied and without the Speed advantage if either (or worse, both) getting paralyzed or KOd, leaving you easily pummeled by faster threats. Lacking any speed control also prevents YZard from reaching its full potential as an attacker. aI hope that my following suggestions will be able to fix the problems identified.

First suggestion: switch Gastrodon for Latios. Gastrodon's Storm Drain isn't actually needed much, as sun already weakens any Water-type attacks you might be afraid of and against rain teams it's still a bit of a pushover due to not being able to deal much back (and it's KOed by Ludicolo lol). Latios, on the other hand, not only also helps with your matchups against Water-types (esp. Keldeo) but also provides Tailwind, a form of speed control that will surely help an offensive team like yours keep and maintain the pace up more. It also helps deal with Volcanion and Amoonguss, which is also always nice.

My second suggestion: switch Rotom-H for Rotom-W. Rotom-H doesn't help with your defensive backbone much and offensively it just falls off due to being redundant with YZard and generally being a bit too slow to be an actual threat. Rotom-W, on the other hand, helps with dealing with Fire-types more and lasts longer due to have more useful resists and less weaknesses. Its Water-typing is also noticeably more useful overall and can also help with dealing with stuff like Heatran and Lando; while its Water STAB being weakened is a possible concern, Rotom-W will only use Hydro for when needed and is more useful for its defensive utility anyway, sun won't always be up, and its Hydro is still respectable enough in the sun for use against Heatran and Landorus-T if need be. Rotom-W also has access to Thunder Wave, another nifty speed control tool that also drastically helps the Dragons matchup, and its presence also helps against Camels which you don't like lol.

The following are some more smaller scale changes but are useful nevertheless. First, you could now change your Aegislash spread to a faster 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe spread; this lets it outrun offensive Thundurus, Latios, Mega Diancie, and Mega Metagross when under Tailwind and coincidentially outruns no investment Volcanion outside of it. Another change I recommend is changing Venusaur's spread to 112 HP / 252 SpA / 144 Spe and switching Solar Beam to Giga Drain. The given spread takes out some unnecessary Speed EVs, allowing you some bulk while still outrunning Jolly Choice Scarf Landorus-T; while Jolly is rare, it's still a big enough threat to you that you'd rather not risk a worst-case scenario thing and just straight up beat it. Meanwhile, Giga Drain is a better option as it allows Venusaur to be still useful in cases when sun isn't up, such as when against Rain or YZard has no chance to Mega Evolve yet; it also allows you some recovery on the side. Lastly, I recommend changing Overheat on YZard to Hidden Power Ground; this infinitely helps your Heatran matchup as otherwise your team has trouble against it due to a) Zard Y, Venu, and Latios (if you followed my or the above guy's rate) being walled, b) Lando-T taking a lot if it switches in esp if in sun, and c) Aegi being outrun.

your team with my suggestions

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 64 Def / 88 SpA / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Heat Wave

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 112 HP / 252 SpA / 144 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Sleep Powder

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 116 SpA / 40 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Tailwind
- Protect

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

ganbatte

 

[lost heros]

Thanks a lot to the both of you! I didn't even realize I had excessive EVs in Venusaur. I feel like these suggestions really are going to make my team a lot stronger as well. I'll be changing solar beam to giga drain and gastrodon to Latios. I'll also be rotating out Zapdos and Rotom-W to see which really fits best with my play style. Thanks again, this was exactly the kind of input I was looking for!