Power & Flexibility

[NinjaSyao]

Hello.

I just finished my first competitive team for doubles and since I'm kinda new to the whole competitive scene would appreciate my team to be rated. I've used this team for well over 10 hours and am pleased with its performance, but there's always some flaw you don't see yourself but others do.
Any advice on how to improve it is most welcome, though I don't intend to switch them out for anything else as I really like these guys.

Focus of the team is to be offensive minded, with boosting and status moves thrown around when the situation calls for it.

Charizard (M) @ Charizardite X
Ability: Solar Power/Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Spe/ 152 Atk / 104 SAtk
Naive Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Dragon Claw
- Heat Wave
- Earthquake

Charizard X is my main lead alongside Gardevoir as Gard likes strong partners so she can support and clean up the remains. Though he can also work great alongside the others if needed. Will-O-Wisp is to burn big threats and have a tool against Fake Out Mega Kangaskhan (who otherwise would just Fake Out + Return Gardevoir to death before she can burn it) and Mega Mawile who can't do anything to stop a burn except hope it misses. Heat Wave/Earthquake is to attack everyone at once and avoid possibly wasting a turn on Pokemon eager to use Protect.

Main reason to make him mixed with an emphasis on physical is to avoid him getting completely stopped in his tracks by physical walls, without nerfing his awesome physical offense too much.


Gardevoir (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Calm Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Calm Mind
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball

She nerfs pesky physical attackers with burn and supports the others. Dazzling Gleam and Energy Ball provide coverage against things the others really don't like and allows her to pick off weakened foes. Telepathy is the star of her set as it allows Charizard X to go ham with Earthquake and that has saved me a lot of times
She gets completely walled by Fire types with this moveset unfortunately, but it's something I can live with as the rest will take care of those.

Sunny Day is replaced by Calm Mind. Thanks to her spread/typing she can pull off 1 or 2 giving her more of an offensive presence even against Poison/Fire types.


Scizor (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Protect
- Brick Break (Superpower when Pokebank releases)

My Fairy/Rock buster. Scizor does his job as great as always often giving me the momentum I need. Bullet Punch needs no explanation, Swords Dance is to boost whenever possible as just one boost alone is already enough to start the carnage for real! Protect is to take advantage of his fame. If the opponent sees him he/she WILL attack him, effectively giving me a free attack with his partner to dispatch the threat. Brick Break is filler until I can get Superpower.

Charizard X likes having Scizor around due to all those Rock types trying to crush it. Scizor also doesn't mind taking a friendly Earthquake one bit so Charizard is free to do his thing.

Talonflame (M) @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 164 Spe / 252 Atk / 92 HP
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Tailwind
- Protect

My suicide lead or endgame sweeper. Talonflame is always used to get momentum through priority attacks or a Tailwind sacrifice while also baiting attacks with Protect thanks to his fame (pretty much like Scizor who is his main partner) so the partner can dispatch the threat. Brave Bird and Flare Blitz are self explanitory as no Talonflame is complete without them.


Greninja (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 220 Spe / 136 Atk / 152 SAtk
Naive Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Extrasensory
- Ice Beam
- Rock Slide

Pretty much the posterboy of my team when it comes to flexibility and being unpredictable. Water Shuriken is wrongfully dismissed by most people as just not worth it. 8 out of 10 times it gets 3 hits at the very least, making it stronger then most priority moves and the ability to change types with priority and be able to fight Talonflame and Blaziken (after a Speed Boost) has proven invaluable.
Extrasensory is to bait all the Fighting moves thrown at him and retaliate while Ice Beam gives him great coverage and is basically a big stick to smack those blasted Garchomp users with! I originally had Dark Pulse, but Mega Gengar and Aegislash are very rare in rated Doubles so Ice Beam will be more useful.

Rock Slide deserves a seperate mention as it has turned out to be the move I use most with him. It punishes Talonflame switch-ins and destroys Charizard Y's who are confident that Drought will protect them from Water STAB moves. It has proven to be an invaluable tool against Sandstream/Drought users in general as well.
The moveset is made with flinching moves in it as I found that Greninja really HATES to get hit and flinching is one of the best ways to prevent that. I don't rely on it to happen, but when it does it often gives me the upperhand in a match.

The EV spread is something I just cooked up with one line of thinking: Stay a comfortable couple of speed points above +Speed Starmie (Greninja is at 369 with this if I'm correct) and divide the rest over Atk and SAtk.

Meowstic (M) @ Twisted Spoon
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature
- Safeguard
- Swagger
- Psychic
- Fake Out/Calm Mind/Energy Ball

Galvantula had to go, I didn't want to but she just couldn't keep up and I needed some more oomph to my team. Mixed Charizard X/Greninja didn't have enough bite to their attacks and Scizor often doesn't have the time to be using Swords Dance so that's where Meowstic comes in!

SafeSwag is a very powerful combo and Meowstic has the tools to pull it off consistently. All my pokes like the +2 Atk boost and status protection he can give and in Scizor's case I can do a Swagger right away if I feel I need a +2 Bullet Punch immediately. If I expect a switch I can do a combo with Swords Dance for +4. Even Fire/Water types won't enjoy having to deal with +4 Scizor.

Psychic is obvious for STAB and Fake Out is the last move for now. If testing proves it to be useless (which I very much doubt since out faking the Kanga is great!) I'll switch it out for Calm Mind or Energy Ball. Twisted Spoon is a filler item until I can figure out what would benefit him more...

Notable threats:

1. Mega Mawile: this thing has been giving me headache a lot.
2. Azumarill: only dangerous if I can't damage it enough before the 2nd turn starts (Belly Drum)
3. Mega Kangaskhan: I can deal with it just fine, but thanks to Fake Out among other things it puts a lot of strain on my team before going down...

 

[fadi]

ok i think personally you got both charizard and tanoflame both super weak to selth rock so i say yow should swap one of them out and one thing charizard and gadavore can have allot better moves just give charizard fire punch (or flare blitz if you want to get risky ) i know you don't want to get nerfed by physical walls so give gardivore moon-blast and phycic and give scisor bug bite instead of brick break (if he can lern it before pokebank if not ignore this) with bullet punch priority he can just stop a screen before it happens other than that i think that the rest of your team is great

 

[NinjaSyao]

ok i think personally you got both charizard and tanoflame both super weak to selth rock so i say yow should swap one of them out and one thing charizard and gadavore can have allot better moves just give charizard fire punch (or flare blitz if you want to get risky ) i know you don't want to get nerfed by physical walls so give gardivore moon-blast and phycic and give scisor bug bite instead of brick break (if he can lern it before pokebank if not ignore this) with bullet punch priority he can just stop a screen before it happens other than that i think that the rest of your team is great

To be honest I don't see the point of running Psychic and Moon Blast together. Psychic only adds SE against Poison while Energy Ball gives you SE against Water, Rock and Ground (arguably the worst types for me to face). Shadow Ball would be better if I really wanted to replace Energy Ball since its SE against Ghost/Psychic and neutral against a lot of other stuff. Hmm, just thought of Calm Mind... Might be worthwhile dropping Sunny Day for to give her more of an offensive presence and she does have the bulk to pull it off.
Good synergy with Talonflame's Tailwind sacrifice to make a bulky sweeper out of her ^^

 

[fadi]

To be honest I don't see the point of running Psychic and Moon Blast together. Psychic only adds SE against Poison while Energy Ball gives you SE against Water, Rock and Ground (arguably the worst types for me to face). Shadow Ball would be better if I really wanted to replace Energy Ball since its SE against Ghost/Psychic and neutral against a lot of other stuff. Hmm, just thought of Calm Mind... Might be worthwhile dropping Sunny Day for to give her more of an offensive presence and she does have the bulk to pull it off.
Good synergy with Talonflame's Tailwind sacrifice to make a bulky sweeper out of her ^^

actually Psychic and Moon Blast give you SE on dragon fight and dark and you only have two Pokemon who need to worry about earthquake and gavantula has energy ball and great speed to take out most ground types other than a garchomp that can be dealt with by charizard x and i agree about the calm mind i think its great on Gardevoir it can boost her sp defence to become a real deadly sweeper and one last thing if you are set on having charizard and tanoflame i think you may need a rapid spinner or espeon with magic bounce (but you got Gardevoir that has a fairy type to deal with dark)

 

[youngjake93]

actually Psychic and Moon Blast give you SE on dragon fight and dark and you only have two Pokemon who need to worry about earthquake and gavantula has energy ball and great speed to take out most ground types other than a garchomp that can be dealt with by charizard x and i agree about the calm mind i think its great on Gardevoir it can boost her sp defence to become a real deadly sweeper and one last thing if you are set on having charizard and tanoflame i think you may need a rapid spinner or espeon with magic bounce (but you got Gardevoir that has a fairy type to deal with dark)

No. Moonblast gives coverage on Dragon, Fighting, Dark. Assuming you already have Moonblast, then Psychic only adds Poison. However, with Energy Ball over Psychic you get walled by both Poison and Fire.

Never run Rapid Spin in Doubles. The cost to waste a turn+teamslot is way too high EVEN IF they lay down rocks and your team is weak to it. Defog could be viable because it ruins screens, safeguard and lowers evasion too. But SR really isn't a threat in doubles...



Anyway, I would suggest replacing Galvantula with Rotom W or C. Immunity to Charizard's EQ is pretty crucial, you maintain electric coverage, but you get a much more viable mon. Also, Thunder is less accurate in Sun iirc, so that's not a great idea. Rotom C won't have to worry about its STAB weakening in Sun and double resists Electric while Rotom W is just one of the best mons in the tier, you decide.

 

[NinjaSyao]

No. Moonblast gives coverage on Dragon, Fighting, Dark. Assuming you already have Moonblast, then Psychic only adds Poison. However, with Energy Ball over Psychic you get walled by both Poison and Fire.

Never run Rapid Spin in Doubles. The cost to waste a turn+teamslot is way too high EVEN IF they lay down rocks and your team is weak to it. Defog could be viable because it ruins screens, safeguard and lowers evasion too. But SR really isn't a threat in doubles...

Anyway, I would suggest replacing Galvantula with Rotom W or C. Immunity to Charizard's EQ is pretty crucial, you maintain electric coverage, but you get a much more viable mon. Also, Thunder is less accurate in Sun iirc, so that's not a great idea. Rotom C won't have to worry about its STAB weakening in Sun and double resists Electric while Rotom W is just one of the best mons in the tier, you decide.

Yeah, SR has only appeared twice in over 70 fights so I don't worry about that. Rotom just makes me cringe everytime I see it so a no-go on that one. I forgot that Sunny Day also lowered Thunder's accuracy so it's even more of a double-edged sword for my team >.<
I'll just dump it and go for Healing Pulse first, see how that works for my team and if healing doesn't work I'll just slap Calm Mind on her. Dazzling Gleam would still do respectable damage to fire/poison after one boost thanks to STAB so she wouldn't be completely helpless. Would be nice if someday she got Ice Beam as a move.

And thanks a lot for the replies guys, since nobody is mentioning replacing my other guys it must mean I'm on the right track ^_^

 

[Audiosurfer]

Hello NinjaSyao! This team really doesnt seem cut out for the Doubles metagame. A lot of the movesets aren't very good, and you'd probably lose to someone who knew what they were doing. I would urge you to stop by the Doubles subforum as well as #doubles which is linked in my sig to get a better idea of what double battling is like before trying to post a team. There are plenty of people in #doubles who'd be more than willing to help you succeed in learning the tier. Good luck :)

 

[NinjaSyao]

Hello NinjaSyao! This team really doesnt seem cut out for the Doubles metagame. A lot of the movesets aren't very good, and you'd probably lose to someone who knew what they were doing. I would urge you to stop by the Doubles subforum as well as #doubles which is linked in my sig to get a better idea of what double battling is like before trying to post a team. There are plenty of people in #doubles who'd be more than willing to help you succeed in learning the tier. Good luck :)

Thank you for the hint, I'll definetly search the Doubles subforum for more information and stuff.

First post has been edited to incorporate changes to movesets/items and Galvantula has been repaced by M-Meowstic. Wifi Rated Double Battles thought me a lot about what was good and bad about my team. Opinions and ratings for the altered team are most appreciated.

PS

I saw in the alert box that I was tagged by you, what does that mean?