SV DOU Misinformation

[Mizuhime]

art by the lovely NinjaSnapple

Once upon a time I said I would never do another RMT, then I started playing again and made a team that did fairly well in DPL so here we are again. Before we get started however, I need to share how the team came to be and how the name 'Misinformation' came to fruition. During DPL I was really just meant to be a 'support' player, meaning I would be there to lend a hand to who ever wanted it in a tier I was familiar with. Then my old, rusty self was given the chance to started in week 3 in current gen DOU, which is something that hasn't happened in years. While we were doing our initial scouts we realized Paraplegic had an affinity for using teams really weak to any Trick Room team and any form of Rock-Type Pokemon. At first this team had a Lycanrock on it but that was quickly scrapped and optimized for a Trick Room team featuring Tyranitar, something that wasn't done up to that point. Later on in the tournament, every time we realized our opponents were weak to Trick Room we ending up bringing this team and just altering the sets a tiny bit while also giving people in the Doubles Discord wrong calcs to spread as much misinformation about the team as possible. Throughout it's history Tyanitar has held 3 different items while Armarouge has held 2 different items while also changing moves.

Given that home is coming imminently and bringing a plethora of new threats to the table this team is going to be retired as an undefeated DPL team, clocking in at a whopping 4-0 on route to leading the Sp_ndas to an undefeated regular season with the best SV record collectively in the tournament. Now, lets get to the team.



Armarouge is essentially the main attacker on the team and the Pokemon that puts the most imminent pressure on the opposing teams. Despite there being 8 Billion Dark-Type Pokemon in the tier Armarouge finds a way to blast through teams with the help of Indedee and Psychic Terrain, Expanding Force, to put it simply, is just kinda busted. With the help of some good coverage and the ability to Tera into a Grass-Type to avoid Spores from Amoonguss (which is really the only Tera you'll find yourself using on this team) this Pokemon should be a staple on nearly any Trick Room team for a long time and I think that it will do just fine post home as well. Armarouge was one of the Pokemon that had a couple different sets on this team, the first one we used was a Weakness Policy set with Trick Room and no Protect, but we lied about a calc in the Doubles Discord after our second game with this team and said it was Assault Vest given that it had never revealed that it wasn't, and we just ended up switching the item to Assault Vest because it fit the team better in the long run.

Set(s)

Armarouge (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Aura Sphere
- Armor Cannon
- Tera Blast
- Expanding Force

or

Armarouge (F) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Aura Sphere
- Armor Cannon
- Expanding Force
- Trick Room

Doubling back to the aforementioned 8 billion Dark-Type Pokemon in the tier, Sylveon is the only good Fairy-Type attacker outside of the questionable at best Hatterene, and this team already had enough Trick Room setters. Not Much needs to be said about Sylveon, Click Hyper Voice (or Tera Blast if you predict a rogue Wide Guard). Sylveon does wonders for this team, being able to break all the walls that Armarouge can't without expanding much thought behind doing so. Hyper Voice is just a good move, there isn't much else to be said about it.

Set

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Hyper Voice
- Tera Blast
- Sleep Talk

The first of my two Trick Room setters on this team, and the one I believe to be the far more reliable Pokemon in doing so. Scream Tail, at the start of generation was something that I thought wouldn't be relevant at all. However, I was very wrong. I am what the doubles community calls, a Scream Tail believer. The ability to set both Trick room and Stealth Rocks was already an amazing asset to this team, but the stellar bulk, Fairy-Typing, and extra utility with Fake Tears and the ability to pick up sneaky KO's on Pokemon like Roaring Moon with Play Rough is a nice bonus. Scream Tail is arguably one of the best support Pokemon in the pre-home meta if used correctly but can also turn into somewhat of a 'do nothing mon' if you let it stay out for too long. While looking for a setter I wanted a Fairy-Type Pokemon that wasn't going to fall over and die, Hatterne does have natural bulk but I found Scream Tail to be a much better fit for the team, given that it also gave me access to Stealth Rock without Tyranitar having to use it

Set

Scream Tail @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Fake Tears
- Play Rough

Ol' Reliable. The menace to Pokemon since 1999. Tyranitar is just so damn good. Even in a meta dominated by Iron hands it finds a way to survive and be a Pokemon that can find success under the right circumstances. Like I mentioned before, my opponent when making this team was generally weak to Rock-Type Pokemon. Generally using a combination of Roaring Moon, Iron Bundle, and Chi-yu on every single team meant that he was always going to be weak to Tyranitar. Trick Room teams inherently also have a fun thing where they can potentially just fold to a Torkoal spamming Eruption in your face, so Tyranitar also helps the team greatly in that aspect.

Tyrnaitar is the other Pokemon on this team that has had multiple different sets, but always maintained the same moves throughout. If you notice we opted for no Crunch. Given that is really only hitting Gholdengo and Stomping Tantrum does that well enough anyways, we decided that Crunch wasn't needed and we could run Heavy Slam which actually turned out to matter a lot in the game, letting Tyranitar essentially 1v1 my opponents Calm Mind Sylveon. Sitrus Berry was the main item used but in the last couple games we switched it up to Passho Berry which does much better against Iron Bundle who had risen in usage by that point, or Iron Ball which makes you the slowest Pokemon on the field and gets you good chip against any Pokemon you want. The current version of the team uses Passho, but Iron Ball is for infinite style points, up to you really.

Set(s)

Tyranitar (F) @ Passho Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Heavy Slam
- Stomping Tantrum
- Low Kick

or

Tyranitar (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Heavy Slam
- Stomping Tantrum
- Low Kick

or

Tyranitar (F) @ Iron Ball
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Heavy Slam
- Stomping Tantrum
- Fling

Well he avoided a ban, and rightfully so. My hot take on the state of pre-home doubles is that people build teams weak to Iron Hands and then wonder why they lose to Iron Hands. That being said, Iron Hands is a very good Pokemon. This team doesn't need the SD variant, however it does need Tera Grass with Ice Punch because it's a Trick Room team and something needs to be able to deal with Amoonguss. (Remember Tera Grass is the thing you'll Tera most.) Assault vest just lets it live even more than it already does and duel stab moves are just a given, the main goal with Iron Hands on this team is to assist in getting Trick Room up early and often while also dealing damage early and often. Break holes in your opponent so you have an easier time doing things with Sylveon or Armarouge.

Set

Iron Hands @ Assault Vest
Ability: Quark Drive
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 76 Def / 180 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- Ice Punch

The final member, and second Trick Room setter of this team is Indeedee because of course it is, we need Psychic Terrain for our friend Armarouge. Not much to be said about Indeedee, really. It's the best Pokemon at what it does. Trick Room, Helping hand, Follow Me with Goggles to again help with that pesky little bastard Amoonguss, and Psychic Terrain to block all the priority much better than that stupid Giraffe people use for no reason (looking at you Fangame10). The evs are designed in a way because there's a benchmark with relaxed nature that gives you 2 extra points defence at the cost of 4 evs. Other than that nothing really to be said, Tera Fairy is nice as a defensive option against Chi-Yu to help you get up Trick room as a last resort but in general you wont really be using it ever.

Set

Indeedee-F @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Psychic Surge
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Psychic
- Trick Room

All in all, this team is in my opinion, one of the best Trick Room teams in the pre-home format and really showed the potential that a lot of these Pokemon had when people were overlooking them as options. No one was really using Tyranitar or Scram Tail until this team, and though I don't really think they're great Pokemon for ladder play, they definitely have a place as options in tournaments. My favourite statistic to come from DPL is simply this

24 | Tyranitar | 10 | 5.38% | 90.00% |

90% winrate for the boy.

Clean paste

Armarouge (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Aura Sphere
- Armor Cannon
- Tera Blast
- Expanding Force

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Hyper Voice
- Moonblast
- Tera Blast
- Sleep Talk

Scream Tail @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Fake Tears
- Play Rough

Tyranitar (F) @ Passho Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Heavy Slam
- Stomping Tantrum
- Low Kick

Iron Hands @ Assault Vest
Ability: Quark Drive
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 76 Def / 180 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- Ice Punch

Indeedee-F @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Psychic Surge
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Psychic
- Trick Room

Obligatory Shoutouts

Z Strats - Thanks for drafting me and given the opportunity many managers would have never done with putting me in SV, it's all I wanted from dpl and im forever grateful that you gave me the chance. Thanks for making sp_ndas so awesome and a great environment that helped even my old ass grow as a player, you rule dude lets kick ass with Canada next wcop.

umbry - You constantly put up with my dumb ideas and give me the tweaks needed to make the team infinitely better. Your eye for team building is actually unmatched and I look up to you as a builder and player even if we don't use a similar style of team. You're genuinely the most impressive builder I have ever seen throughout my 15 years of competitive Pokemon play. Im not sure what else to say but you're awesome and it was amazing really getting to team with you.

Lunar. - One day you'll escape BW, I promise. You're such a sweetie and I loved being on a team with someone who understands bw for once. It was such a breath of fresh air to have someone around to bounce ideas off even if most of what we came up with is borderline unusable. An amazing player with the worst luck ive ever seen.

Xrn - You're a monster at sv and a very awesome dude to hang around with. Glad to have gotten the opportunity to team with and build with you. That Gambit Bundle Tusk team is one of the best teams i've ever used. Hopefully we team again one day in the future n_n

Rest of sp_ndas, great team you all rule love you all and you're all fantastic players that made me look bad the entire tournament, thanks for the carry.

Special shoutout to bunnyy for hosting, you rule.

if there's any grammatical errors I worked 13 hours today no there isn't​

 

[Omastar68]

Armarouge gets Energy Ball, so grass tera Blast has no advantages as far as I know.

Also I never though of it before, but Psychic surge Indeedee still works w/ Follow Me and HH right? I figure you would've noticed if they failed, but it just doesn't seem stated on Bulbapedia anywhere obvious(looked at terrain page and HH page.)

 

[Fangame10]

and Psychic Terrain to block all the priority much better than that stupid Giraffe people use for no reason (looking at you Fangame10)

 

[GenOne]

Armarouge gets Energy Ball, so grass tera Blast has no advantages as far as I know.

Also I never though of it before, but Psychic surge Indeedee still works w/ Follow Me and HH right? I figure you would've noticed if they failed, but it just doesn't seem stated on Bulbapedia anywhere obvious(looked at terrain page and HH page.)

Energy Ball is objectively better yeah. Follow Me and Helping Hand both work fine as Psychic Terrain only stops priority moves that are targeted at grounded opponents; if you really wanted to you could even click Fake Out on your ally and it would still work inside of Psychic Terrain.

 

[Omastar68]

Ok I see, ty.

 

[F4nt45m]

Aura sphere defeats dark types, so you prob don't need the sylveon for dark types. Also, sand stream will hurt you own pokemon, so unnerve might help more.

 

[Omastar68]

I don't think Aura Sphere is necessarily bad, but what about Clear Smog? Armarouge gets a wide movepool, so there's options.