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Smogon Doubles LC

As the runner-up in a recent LC dubz tourney, I can say that Gligar in sun is really hard to deal with. It's basically the Lando-T of LC, having massive physical bulk and a very solid Attack stat. In sun, ice is its only weakness (with no really amazing sun removers, mind you), and most importantly, its Speed stat is impeccable. etc. There really aren't very many Pokémon that can easily fit Ice-Type moves on their sets, either. Tyrunt can run Ice Fang, but it hates Earthquake; you could try to put Ice Punch on Timburr/Machop, but both hate Acrobatics; etc, etc. If I have to run Hidden Power Ice for one Pokémon, then... I don't know, pretty sure that's centralization. Possibly Hippopotas would be a good counter in removing sun, walling Gligar and having access to Ice Fang, it just has to worry about the special attackers that typically are paired with Gligar, especially on said sun team.

I'm also curious to know if we'll remove the sleep clause in Doubles LC. I've devised this list of Pros and Cons to it:

Sleep is NOT broken:
  • There were multiples nerfs to sleep this gen, including Overcoat, Grass-Types, as well as the previous counters such as Imsomnia and Vital Spirit
  • Fletchling can OHKO most Grass-Types that don't invest in Defense, even if they have Eviolite and without Choice Band/Life Orb
  • Not many sleep-inducing threats, the prime ones include Foongus and Chloro(bulba)Saur
  • It's already being tested in Doubles OU
Sleep is broken:
  • The only Pokémon with both Prankster and Safeguard in LC is Cottonee.
  • There's nothing super bulky that can reliably set up Safeguard (no Cresselia)
  • A lot of things can't afford to run Lum Berry/Safeguard and would instead prefer Eviolite/Berry Juice
This obviously isn't the primary problem/thing to debate in the Doubles metagame, but I thought it would be interesting to bring up.

So what do you think? Is Gligar broken? If not, what do you use to counter it? Is Sleep Clause necessary in LC Doubles?
 
Are there even any viable Sleep inducers in LC, especially with Tangela banned? All I can think of is Foonguss.

I think it makes perfect sense for the standard ruleset of Doubles to be uniform throughout its tiers. If Sleep Clause ends up being removed from Doubles OU, then this new change should be implemented in every doubles format (unless somehow it unbalances a particular tier, although quite unlikely)
 
Well there's Bulbasaur, and given how good Sun is already, I'm not sure how eager I'd be to unban it in Doubles LC. As for Gligar, I don't think it's broken. While it's an excellent Pokemon, things such as spread moves and the fact that having two Pokemon means you don't have to take it on 1v1 make it easier to deal with than in normal LC.
 
I haven't played much yet (only like four or five games), but from what I've seen, sun and flechling are incredible! Sun is great because there are SO many good abusers, and there isn't auto rain to stop heat wave spam, and the only sandstorm inducer isn't resistant to fire. Flechling is great because because it isn't pitifully weak compared to the rest of the tier like it's fully evolved counterpart, it isn't 4x weak to rock, and it is one of the only good priority users in the tier (that I've seen). There isn't Scizor with bullet punch or Breloom with Mach punch. There is Bisharp (aka paniward) with sucker punch and Talonflame (flechling) with peck flying moves. Those are just some observations from playing a few games. I think this will be a very fun tier!
 
How do you play in this tier on showdown? There is no "LC Doubles" option. In the replays it says you played in smogon doubles, but when I play in that see standard doubles with evolved pokemon?
 
CoolTrainerGary said:
How do you play in this tier on showdown? There is no "LC Doubles" option. In the replays it says you played in smogon doubles, but when I play in that see standard doubles with evolved pokemon?
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You can currently only do this in challenge battles. Mutually agree to do LC Doubles with an opponent. The PS! Doubles room is a great place to look for a battle. If you say "Anyone want to battle me LC Doubles?" you will normally get a response. Just make sure you and your opponent follow all the rules outlined in the OP and you'll be good to go! I really wish there would be at least an unofficial format for this as well, but as for right now that's what you need to do.
 
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