My first... VGC 2010 RMT

Showsni

Now, I've never really played doubles competitively before, so this team is pretty much all theory and untestedness; but I'd like to get some opinions before I go out and start putting the team together!

I've been watching a few videos of other people's VGC 10 matches to get some ideas, and there were a few Pokémon that seemed interesting to me. Plus, I've never used any of these before, so it should be a fun experience!


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Weavile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 42 HP/252 Att/216 Speed

Fake Out
Ice Punch
Night Slash
Low Kick

I wanted a Fake Out user, and Weavile came to mind with its dual STABs that should prove useful against a lot of the field. Night Slash is super effective against things like Mewtwo and Giratina, as well as being able to hit Shedinja (always a bonus). Ice Punch should do well against Rayquaza, Lugia, Ho-oh and so on, and Low Kick is to take advantage of the heaviness of many of the opponents, especially punishing Dialga. Focus Sash is obviously to protect against OHKOs, as Weavile isn't the most bulky thing around.

The EVs are pretty much copies from the Smogon analysis, which claims maximising speed isn't necesary... I'm not too savvy about speed tiers myself, so can anyone confirm this? What will my Weavile be looking to/able to outspeed?

I was a little tempted towards giving it Ice Shard, probably replacing Ice Punch; what are people's thoughts? In general, Weavile should be able to outspeed most things, but priority moves are never a bad thing (especially if they get Trick Room set up).

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Lugia @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 HP/66 Def/192 Speed

Calm Mind
Roost
Aeroblast
Earth Power

Since a lot of the scariest Pokémon out there are specially based, I wanted something that could take some special hits. Lugia is fast enough that it should easily get one Calm Mind off, expecially with Weavile Faking something Out, and with Roost to recover itself (and lose its weaknesses to Rock, Electric and Ice for a turn) hopefully many more. Aeroblast is a strong STAB move (that can hit Shedinja!) that should get pretty powerful after several Calm Minds. Earth Power is to hit things that resist Aeroblast; targets such as Metagross, Dialga and Tyrannitar. Lum Berry is to cope with Dark Void Smeargle, and any other potential problems (freezing blizzards and paralyzing thunderstorms, for instance...).

The EVs are again copied from the analysis, though Skarmbliss suggests 100 speed EVs instead. Which is better?

Now, I was kind of unsure about the attacking moves here; perhaps it would be better to go with Ice Beam, Blizzard or Thunder? What are people's opinions? Thunder and Blizzard kind of rely on Kyogre or Abomasnow being out, with Ice Beam a safer ice option...

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Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
EVs: 6 HP/252 Def/252 Sp. Def

Helping Hand
Psych Up
Softboiled
Toxic

I saw the Lugia/Blissey Calm Mind/Psych Up combo on a video, and it seemed pretty interesting; though like I say, I haven't tested it, so
I don't know how well it works. Poor Blissey I kind of want to be doing way more things than it has move slots for; ideally I'd give it Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Psych Up, Substitute, Softboiled, Helping Hand, Heal Bell, Protect, Toxic and Safeguard... The plan is to switch Blissey in after Lugia has got a few Calm Minds, and then Psych Up to match it. That should make Blissey into a truly formidable special wall, who can then recover itself and either help its partner to do damage with Helping Hand or chip away the opponent's life with Toxic. Leftovers meanwhile steadily cure Blissey

Since it doesn't have any attacking moves, the EVs kind of write themselves; obviously they might need changing if I change her moveset.

So, the moveset. I'd really like to fit Substitute or Protect on to dodge Explosions; I'm also not using the Sp. Att boost from Pysch Up at all. Perhaps she should gain an attacking move. And maybe it would be better just to give Blissey herself Calm Mind? She could also be a good Safeguard and/or Heal Bell user (or maybe Lugia should get Safeguard?). What do you think?

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Kyogre @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
Nature: Timid
EVs: 6 HP/252 Sp. Att/252 Speed

Water Spout
Thunder
Ice Beam
Ancientpower

My last member, a somewhat typical Kyogre. Its job is pretty simple: get in and do massive damage with Water Spout, especially when boosted by Blissey's Helping Hand. Being Scarfed should let it outspeed most things. The remaining moves are to give coverage: Thunder for opposing Kyogres, Ice Beam for dragons and ground types, and if necessary Ancientpower for Shedinja. Hiding at the back also allows me to switch it in to change the weather if needed, or else just to come in last when hopefully they can't switch around and stop it raining any more.

So, that's my team. A few points: I don't have anything with Protect, which worries me, and most of my members are more specially defensive than defensive. Against an Explosive opponent my only real hope is to try and KO it before it goes boom.

So, how does it look? Is it good enough for me to start RNGing the necessary Pokémon, or are there more major flaws to be worked out?
 
Blissey seems the obvious weak link here. No way to Protect against Explosion and the Low Kicks. Toxic stalling is just way too slow for VGC, even Icy Wind would be more helpful.

If I were to run a Blissey, it would have Focus Blast, Icy Wind, Softboiled, Substitute @Leftovers. Or a Minimize\Substitute set with a Psych Up partner. But you have more pressing problems. Your team needs an Explosion resist, especially because you don't have Protect anywhere. There's nothing you can switch in safely if you see it coming, and you can't rely on the possibility that you will KO the Exploder before it goes boom. Especially since there are plenty of fast ones: Mewtwo, Azelf, Snorlax\Metagross\Bronzong under TR (who are also bulky enough to survive most of your attacks).
 
OmegaDonut outlined most of this already, but yah, I just wanted to emphasize a bit more.

Your team is really weak to pretty much any Trick Room team and any team with exploders. You NEED to have Protect on probably at least two members in your team if you do not wish to use other members, since Protect at least lets you stall out Trick Room a bit while allowing you to dodge potential explosions.

Looking at your current team, everything except for Blissey is fast (and Blissey doesn't do much damage), so if someone gets Trick Room down, it would be really hard for the team do win. ... And it isn't very hard for a TR team to get Trick Room down.

For Blissey, I really do not think it should have BOTH Helping Hand and Psych Up, because you will either be doing one or the other. (If Blissey Psyched Up Calm Minds, it'd most likely do more damage by attacking than by Helping Hand). If Blissey is Psyching Up Calm Minds, it should have attacks. Toxic is too slow. I would probably go with Psych Up / Protect / Softboiled / Attack. Attack probably being Ice Beam since Lugia has Earth Power to deal with steels already and Ice + Ground has good coverage, especially in this metagame full of dragons and steels.
 
Okay, so I need a wy to deal with exploders, and a way to deal with Trick Room teams. (Especially when both come at once!)

Hm, I could give Weavile Taunt to try and stop TR; though, if they have a Follow Me user that obviously won't work. Alternatively I could give one of my own Pokémon TR to cancel it out, but that would require a level of prediction I probably don't have.

Incidentally, what happens if Trick Room goes off in the middle of a turn? Say four Pokémon are out, in order of fastest to slowest, A, B, C, D and A uses Trick Room; will the remainder take the turn in D, C, B order? If D also TRs, will it go back to B, C?

Of course, protecting against Explosion is also something I probably wouldn't be too good at predicting... I could switch Blissey for a ghost to laugh at Explosions. Or even for something a bit Damp! (Choices are Golduck, Quagsire, Poliwrath and Politoed; are any of them any good in doubles? Poliwrath can use things like Icy Wind, Helping Hand, Encore, Rock Slide, Surf, Vacuum Wave...) So is it worth getting a Poliwrath? Or a ghost? Which ghost is the best to use, by the way?

I hadn't considered Minimize (too used to playing with the OU "Sand Attack? No way, that's broken!" mindset, I guess)... That might be useful, too.
 
Incidentally, what happens if Trick Room goes off in the middle of a turn? Say four Pokémon are out, in order of fastest to slowest, A, B, C, D and A uses Trick Room; will the remainder take the turn in D, C, B order? If D also TRs, will it go back to B, C?
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Using Trick Room always goes last, even beyond using Roar/Whirlwind). That's all the help I can give you, I think.
 
Oh yeah, forgot that. Silly me.

Okay, would this work? Instead of Blissey, I use a bulky Damp Poliwrath with something like Encore/Helping Hand/Icy Wind/Protect. Switch in if I predict an Explosion. Ideally it would Encore the Explosion, though being fast enough to do so is unlikely... Unless I bank on TR, and make it as slow as possible? Icy Wind to lower opponent's speed, and then Helping Hand and Protect to round the set off.

252 HP EVs, obviously; how should I manage the rest? And what item? Iron Ball/Macho Brace to be slow enough to outspeed and Encore in TR? Or just Leftovers? Or maybe give it Fling and the Iron Ball?
 
So, any thoughts on chaning Blissey for a Damp Pokémon to deal with my Explosion problem?

There are two I'm considering; namely, Poliwrath and Quagsire. Poliwrath has generally better stats, and I think a slightly better movepool; but it would make 3/4 of my team weak to Electric, whereas Quagsire is immune. (And I expect to see Thunder frequently!) Quagsire is also slower, so I could EV it as though it were a TR Pokémon to take some advantage of an opponent's TR; though, what it could actually do to hurt them is another question.

So, would that be a sensible swap for Blissey, or should I just change her moveset?

Poliwrath @ Leftovers

Protect
Helping Hand
Brick Break/Icy Wind?
Encore

or

Quagsire @ Leftovers (or maybe Iron Ball?)

Encore
Earthquake
Recover
Icy Wind/Fling/Waterfall
 
Quagsire. Quagsire can bluff Water Absorb, and Encore lets it make itself useful if your opponent has Trick Roomers.

It's not going to make itself very useful beyond that, except for Icy Wind. When you think you've finalized your team more, I have a Sassy Damp Quagsire I trained up that I don't think I'll be using. It's EVed to survive Modest Life Orb Dialga's Draco Meteor and non-Modest Ludicolo Grass Knot. (basically 252 HP \ 252 SpDef)
 
And Poliwrath can't bluff Water Absorb? :P

Okay, think I will use a Quagsire. Don't worry, I'll train one myself; got to have the whole team shiny!
 
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