My first Doubles team

[Milun]

Hi, I'm a little new to this, but here goes:

I'm planning on entering a Doubles tournament in a few weeks. This uses the legitimate cartridges, which means having the standard of "Max IV's in everything" isn't really an option for me (and no, I can't RNG, I have a DSi). What this also means is I won't have to worry too much about Celebi, Mew, Jirachi, or any other particularly rare OU's.

If it is of any relevance (I'm not sure. Sorry, like I said, I'm new to this), the rules are the same as Battle Subway: Go in with a team of four, enjoy double team, Garchomp, and Swift Swim + Drizzle etc. Also, all Pokemon are level 50 for this,

With that out of the way, the team I currently have and plan to enter with is:

* The team I'm using kiiiinda revolves around Marowak, as will be made evident by the descriptions.

Gyarados @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Atk / 140 Def / 64 SpD
IVs: 31 in Att, Def, SpD, Spe. 26 in HP
Nature: Adamant
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Taunt
- Protect

The first of my leads and, due to my trial runs in the Battle Subway, I've found he pulls his weight the least. Taunt is very rarely used (as Cresselia holds a Mental Herb anyway), he's often out sped, and Waterfall is lacking. He does have a lot of Bulk however, and that, combined with Intimidate (which Marowak is in great need of) is why I keep him around.

Cresselia @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 SpD
IVs: 25+ in HP, Def and SpD. 22 in SpA
Nature: Bold
- Psychic
- Helping Hand
- Light Screen
- Trick Room

Cresselia, the other lead, was a PAIN to acquire, but I'm quite proud of this one. She has Speed 2 points higher than my Gyarados, making it the fastest thing on the team (not that it matters). My current strategy is to use Trick Room on the first turn, Light Screen on the second (while I switch Marowak in), and then Helping Hand said Marowak until Trick Room ends or a different strategy is called for.

Marowak @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightningrod
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Att / 4 Def
IVs: 31 in HP, Att, Def. 26 in SpD. 8ish in Spe.
Nature: Brave
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fire Punch
- Bonemerang

He's the star of the show. Marowak, with his intense Attack boosted further by Cresselias Helping Hand, is what wreaks most of the havoc in my team. This is both good and bad, as while it can sweep the whole team in two moves during Trick Room, if it still somehow gets KO'd the rest of the team is put in a very difficult situation.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
IVs: 31 in Def, SpA, SpD. 30 in HP, Spe.
Nature: Relaxed
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Tri-Attack
- Recover

The final member, and also the reliable wall to switch to whenever in doubt, my Porygon2 can even stand up to a Choice-Band Hi-Jump-Kick from a Naive Mienfoe (and survive at 20 HP). Bolt-Beam for coverage, Tri-Attack for hax, and Recover for when the going gets rough. Currently though, Porygon2 only sees action when it's too late, as I rarely switch him in unless Marowak is gone.

So there you have it. Please excuse any rookie mistakes I may have made.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Burgba]

YAY

Hey, I used a doubles trick room team at a VGC 12 Regionals, and I got 24th place out of like 400. I too had a Marrowak. As for Gyarados, scrap him! There are two much better trick room leads. One is Amoongus
Amoongus@Sitrus Berry/Mental Herb/Black Sludge
Ability-Effect Spore
EV's-252 HP 4 Def 252 Sp.D
-Spore
-Rage Powder
-Protect
-Giga Drain/Sludge Bomb

He is amazing!!! His defences are good, and he is pretty bulky. Basically he uses rage powder the first turn. If you didn't know, that draws all attacks to him. So you don't need to worry about taunts, or something going after Cressilia. And once trick room is up, spam your spores. Put everything to sleep. Then your marrowak can wreck havoc.

The other guy is hariyama. I can't post a set, I'm running out of time here, but search for him VGC 12. He's really good.

 

[Chidori]

For Porygon2, delete Thunderbolt or Tri-Attack for Trick Room. I mean, if TR ends, you and Cresselia faints, you kinda want to use it again. And all moves will be aimed towards it (because of all the bulk). Ice Beam is there so you can take down 3 common pokemon, Dragonite, Garchomp and Salamence.

Hope I helped!

 

[Milun]

Hm... Burba, I agree with you I should scrap Gyarados (not fond of him either), and Amoonguss DOES sound like a good idea but... I'll have to think about it. The only thing stopping me is that I'm not fond of Amoonguss' design.

What I was thinking was to replace Gyarados with Intimidate Arcanine, with Extremespeed, Flare Blitz, Close Combat and Protect. The reason being, if Trick Room isn't an option, I still want something that can move fast. Also, I was thinking of replacing Porygon2 with a Ferrothorn with Leech Seed, Power Whip, Protect and either Substitute/Gyro Ball or Gravity.

One thing I forgot to mention is that we make a team of 6, see Team Preview and THEN choose the 4 Pokemon we want. Arcanine, Marowak, Cresselia and Ferrothorn are just what I plan on using most of the time.

What do you think?

 

[Burgba]

There ya go

I know, that's exactly like VGC 12. EXACTLY. But, If you have amoongus using rage powder the first turn you can stop other people in their tracks. If your afraid another team will have Cressilia with trick room for the purpose of countering yours, use Musharna instead. He's what I used. And in conjunction with telepathy, non of your teams attacks will harm him. With the move imprison, he entirely shuts down anyone who tries to counter it. Another plus is that even with no investment in Sp.Atk, he does way more damage than Cressilia ever could.

Musharna@Mental Herb
Ability-Telepathy
EV's: 252 HP/ 252 Sp. D/4 Sp. Atk
-Trick Room
-Psychic
-Helping Hand
-Imprison/Protect

 

[Milun]

Hm... true. However, my main reason for keeping Cresselia is for its Helping Hand, as Cresselia lasts a lot longer than Musharna would. Telepathy WOULD be nice, but the only move I currently have that hits my own team is Earthquake anyway. Besides, if my opponent uses Trick-Room, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Hey, would there be any merit in leading with Marowak and Cresselia, making Marowak Protect on the first turn while Cresselia Trick Rooms and then Helping Handing everything out of existence? Though that would mean he's much easier to kill due to lack of Intimidate/Light Screen support...

And Ferrothorn is Haxorus insurance. Which reminds me: does Gyro Ball work differently in Trick-Room? As in, would it be completely useless in it?

 

[Burgba]

Dont lead off with cress and marrowak. If intimidate support is what your team needs, use hitmontop. With base 70 speed brave nature he can get pretty slow. Fake out can be used and it really helps getting your trick room down and then can spam close combat. However amoongus and hariyama are more effective options with a guts boost+helping hand+close combat you can OHKO so many things. I won a match at a tournament without losing any Pokemon. I love my hariyama.

 

[Milun]

Hm... I just feel it would be a good idea to have one fast Pokemon in case getting Trick Room up is not an option. Hence Arcanine with Extremespeed.

 

[Burgba]

Arcanine is not a good fit if priority is what floats your boat hitmontop can have bullet punch Mach punch, sucker Punch and fake out he is the better choice.

 

[Milun]

Hm... I do need Fighting Type coverage more than I need Fire... but he doesn't have a lot of power behind his moves, especially considering I'll give him intimidate... I'll have to think about this one. Fake out WOULD be useful for that initial Trick-Room turn.

 

[Burgba]

If you try to use a Pokemon with middling speed for that nightmare scenario wen your trick room doesn't set up. DON'T!!!!!! You should go all one way or the other. Since if your trick room goes up and he happens to have that scrafty or that conkdurr. They'll go first. My mindset on my team was I needed to lead off with a devoted set up Pokemon and a team mate to shield him. The team mate then semi sweeps dishing out lots of damage. Then I needed a sweeper and a Pokemon that could deal damage and carry trick room and replenish the trick room. Porygon2 is a good fit on your team but geez louise GIVE it trick room.

 

[Milun]

Well, when you put it that way, fair enough.

I shall use Hitmontop, Cresselia, Marowak, and Porygon2 with Trick-Room. Should I remove Porygon2's Recover? Due to the opponents tendency to gang up on him, Recover is rarely useful. Either that or Tri-Attack.

 

[Burgba]

I would replace tri attack with trick room. Because you already receive excellent coverage from t-bolt and Ice Beam. Tri attack although useful is less practical than Recover so get rid of it for trick room.

 

[Milun]

True I guess. I'm just so used to STAB Tri-Attack. It's hax has gotten me out of countless situations... mostly with Togekiss' ability.

Listen, thanks for all your help. I'm actually quite confident with this team now. If you're interested, I'll post the results the Monday following the tournament. Thanks again.

Now, FORWARD... to lose to a flawless RNG'd team!

 

[Burgba]

If you can, try posting the results, I'm wondering how it will turn out. BTW hitmontop is hard to get merely because its DEF. and ATK. have to be identical. When I did mine, I had to get him Def EV's and then subtract them once he evolved. Hopefully it's not such a pain for you. Oh, and your team's IV's are- in my opinion perfect. People aren't as patient and settle for 31/29/29/31/20/X. RNGing is very difficult anyways. Good Luck

 

[Milun]

My team is not RNG'd though. The reason I have so much patience is because I take a daily, 2 hour train ride with little to do. Though getting a Hitmontop will be a great challenge. I'll have to go back to Heart Gold, and after playing B/W for so long, HG runs so much slower in comparison.

...You know, I think I might try learning RNG just for this occasion.

 

[Burgba]

I've done some RNG before and it is pretty darn hard. Even with parents with perfect or near perfect IV's getting a perfect egg is still a big challange. I would say to try RNGing after the tournament. It is a big stress.

 

[Milun]

Well, as I said. I'll tell you about it. But why tell when I can show?

http://youtu.be/7fkiGeM7dq4

Anyway, THANK YOU for your Hitmontop advice. He was incredibly useful. It's a pity though many of my opponents had the same idea.

I WOULD have made it to the finals quite easily, if not for my *ahem* attempt to spite a losing player. All he had was a Garchomp with 25% HP left under trick room, and I had Marowak + Hitmontop left. Had I just finished him off with Fire Punch, I would have had 2 Pokemon left (the amount you had at the end of the battle increases your score) and would have gotten into finals. BUT NO. I had to mock him and use Earthquake. Jokes on me I guess. Because of that, I didn't have enough points.

Now, that aside, I went up against 3 ALMOST IDENTICAL Sandstorm teams consisting of the crowd favorites: Tyranitar, Excadrill and Garchomp. Fortunately, Trick Room + Intimidate saved me on all 3 occasions.

One of the most unpredictable losses I had was against a Politoed. I had set up Trick-Room, Hitmontops Eject Button had activated and Marowak switched in fine and dandy... AND WAS OUTSLOWED BY THE POLITOED (It had an Iron Ball). I never would have expected that. It's a pity too.

Anyway, thanks for the advice! The Hitmontop was an extreme pain to get due to Sucker Punch being Gen IV, but he was beyond worth it in the end.