Doubles Overview, Benchmarks, and Q&A Thread—Read before asking!

[Onicon]

Thanks guys, that is the reason we have asked it here instead of going google. We'll share the results with you once we have a good spread.

 

[TorchicBlaziken]

Does using Defog on your ally with Contrary violate Evasion Clause?

 

[Stratos]

Does using Defog on your ally with Contrary violate Evasion Clause?

I don't know the answer to this (my guess is no), but if you were actually planning on doing this instead of just asking a gotcha question, don't. Every contrary Pokemon is pretty terrible; there are much better options unless you just want to troll the lower half of the ladder.

 

[Magcargo]

Recently, I created a horrendous Doubles team to achieve the suspect reqs. So far I have won all my matches, but that is either due to dumb luck or the opposing player being incredibly stupid.
Here is my team:

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Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 180 HP / 252 SAtk / 76 Spd
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Substitute
- Protect

Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Wide Guard
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 132 SAtk / 248 HP / 128 SDef
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 SAtk / 30 SDef
- Electroweb
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Bug Bite
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Protect

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Icy Wind
- Helping Hand
- Protect

I'm incredibly weak to Trick Room due to the fact that the opposing Trick Room user is paired up with a WOW user, crippling Scizor for the rest of the match, as well as the fact that the opponent may lay Mind games with my Anti-Trickroom Cresselia. This team has many, many other flaws, such as inefficient movesets, that I'm looking to resolve, so any help is appreciated.

 

[Nollan]

Well first off your team has some pretty big problems with Ghost-types. While Hitmontop can technically Sucker Punch them several will be running WoW and Sucker Punch will not KO even Gengar-Mega regardless. A good way to patch this (imo) would be to replace Hitmontop with Assault Vest Scrafty. Something like:

Scrafty @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Stone Edge
- Fake Out

This still has some trouble with burns, however, so it'd also be a good idea to replace either Cresselia or Latios. Given Rotom-W already provides some speed control Cress is pretty redundant so that's what I would replace. Given that your team uses Scizor, eliminating Heatran and CharYZard will be a must (Talonflame as well though that's easier to handle typically). For this reason, I think Choice Scarf Landorus-T (that set I absolutely despise) would be a good fit for your team. An example of such a set would be:

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 Spd / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- U-turn

You will have to watch out for Defiant with this lineup, though.

 

[BlankZero]

Well first off your team has some pretty big problems with Ghost-types. While Hitmontop can technically Sucker Punch them several will be running WoW and Sucker Punch will not KO even Gengar-Mega regardless. A good way to patch this (imo) would be to replace Hitmontop with Assault Vest Scrafty. Something like:

Scrafty @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Stone Edge
- Fake Out

This still has some trouble with burns, however, so it'd also be a good idea to replace either Cresselia or Latios. Given Rotom-W already provides some speed control Cress is pretty redundant so that's what I would replace. Given that your team uses Scizor, eliminating Heatran and CharYZard will be a must (Talonflame as well though that's easier to handle typically). For this reason, I think Choice Scarf Landorus-T (that set I absolutely despise) would be a good fit for your team. An example of such a set would be:

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 Spd / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- U-turn

You will have to watch out for Defiant with this lineup, though.

I would honestly suggest Ice Punch over Stone Edge on Scrafty, especially if you already have Scarfed Lando-T. It lets you hit opposing Landorus, Garchomp, and hits Dragonite much harder than Stone Miss or Rock Slide.

 

[BlankZero]

Something I found on Bulbapedia while looking up game mechanics:

Generation VI onwards
A critical hit now multiplies damage by only 1.5 rather than 2. The Sniper Ability still multiplies damage from a critical hit by 1.5, resulting in 2.25 times the usual damage. In addition, the probabilities for each critical hit stage have been modified, greatly increasing the likelihood of a critical hit for stages +2 and above:

Any word on if this is already implemented on PS?

PwneEdit: holy shit late lmao this was implemented on like oct 14

 

[youngjake93]

Something I found on Bulbapedia while looking up game mechanics:



Any word on if this is already implemented on PS?

Yea it has been implemented a long time ago
12.5% for +1, 50% for +2 and 100% for +3 or more
Kingdra hits reeeally hard with scope lens focus energy draco meteor spam


And the damage mods were all changed to

 

[BlankZero]

Yea it has been implemented a long time ago
12.5% for +1, 50% for +2 and 100% for +3 or more
Kingdra hits reeeally hard with scope lens focus energy draco meteor spam

I meant the damage change :p

 

[Buckeye63]

Thinking about going with a trick room/ hail team... I'm sorta wondering if i should use a fake out Pokemon to get the trick room up.. any advice on some good fake out mons?

 

[Gyarad0s]

Thinking about going with a trick room/ hail team... I'm sorta wondering if i should use a fake out Pokemon to get the trick room up.. any advice on some good fake out mons?

Fake out is an wonderful tool for setting up TR; especially when paired with a good Mental Herb user such as Cresselia. The two best users of fake out in TR are Scrafty and Hariyama; and Scrafty is by far the more popular of those two. The scrafty set Nollan posted earlier is excellent:

Scrafty @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Stone Edge/Ice Punch
- Fake Out

Alternatively; an excellent TR user on the ladder (fangame10) recommended to me the same Scrafty with White Herb > Assault Vest and High Jump Kick > Drain Punch for the purpose of avoiding intimidate with white herb in order to guarantee a KO on Mega-Kang; who--being able to fake out ghosts and then hit ridiculously hard--is a huge threat to TR. Good luck whichever you choose :).

 

[BlankZero]

Fake out is an wonderful tool for setting up TR; especially when paired with a good Mental Herb user such as Cresselia. The two best users of fake out in TR are Scrafty and Hariyama; and Scrafty is by far the more popular of those two. The scrafty set Nollan posted earlier is excellent:

Scrafty @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Stone Edge/Ice Punch
- Fake Out

Alternatively; an excellent TR user on the ladder (fangame10) recommended to me the same Scrafty with White Herb > Assault Vest and High Jump Kick > Drain Punch for the purpose of avoiding intimidate with white herb in order to guarantee a KO on Mega-Kang; who--being able to fake out ghosts and then hit ridiculously hard--is a huge threat to TR. Good luck whichever you choose :).

White Herb is an interesting option, but the longevity of Assault Vest isn't something to lose lightly, especially when you can Fake Out, switch out to lose the Attack Drop, then come back in again, rinse and repeat.

 

[Buckeye63]

Fake out is an wonderful tool for setting up TR; especially when paired with a good Mental Herb user such as Cresselia. The two best users of fake out in TR are Scrafty and Hariyama; and Scrafty is by far the more popular of those two. The scrafty set Nollan posted earlier is excellent:

Scrafty @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Stone Edge/Ice Punch
- Fake Out

Alternatively; an excellent TR user on the ladder (fangame10) recommended to me the same Scrafty with White Herb > Assault Vest and High Jump Kick > Drain Punch for the purpose of avoiding intimidate with white herb in order to guarantee a KO on Mega-Kang; who--being able to fake out ghosts and then hit ridiculously hard--is a huge threat to TR. Good luck whichever you choose :).

Thanks a lot i was thinking about scrafty but i think you sorta just solidified that for me!

 

[Hashtag]

if a fast pokemon uses icy wind, and the opponen'ts speed is brought below my second pokemon's speed, will this pokemon move before it?

 

[Audiosurfer]

if a fast pokemon uses icy wind, and the opponen'ts speed is brought below my second pokemon's speed, will this pokemon move before it?

No. Speed is determined at the beginning of the turn, so the effects of the icy wind drop wouldn't occur until next turn.

 

[Joim]

That also applies to chloro mega venusaur, if there's sun you can move with venusaur, mega evolve and it'll be mega and move faster as well.

 

[Ninetale3]

What are some good pokemon for an explosion blitzkrieg team?

 

[Stratos]

explosion blitzkrieg doesn't work anymore because its power was halved with gen v, so it actually doesn't kill anything /me cries

 

[Ninetale3]

explosion blitzkrieg doesn't work anymore because its power was halved with gen v, so it actually doesn't kill anything /me cries

That's a shame. Well thanks for an answer

 

[Onicon]

Last generation the most common nuke you can judge the quality of a tank on was Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Latios. What is the reference in this generation?

 

[Stratos]

Last generation the most common nuke you can judge the quality of a tank on was Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Latios. What is the reference in this generation?

there really hasn't emerged a "new nuke" on the special side but the physical is definitely mega kangaskhan return

 

[youngjake93]

Last generation the most common nuke you can judge the quality of a tank on was Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Latios. What is the reference in this generation?

Check out Audio's list of benchmarks
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/xy-doubles-benchmarks.3498702/
Deoxys-A Psycho Boost, CharY Fire Blast, Heatran Eruption are some special "nukes" to go along with mega kanga as pwne said
I like to not get 2hko'd be modest heat wave in sun or (mega)ttar rock slide+sand dmg.

 

[Pocket]

Here are some notable references:

Physical

Kyurem-B's CB Dragon Claw / Outrage
Kangaskhan's Return / Double-Edge / Sucker Punch
Mawile's Play Rough / Sucker Punch
Bisharp's Sucker Punch / Knock Off
Talonflame's CB Brave Bird
Garchomp's Earthquake / Rock Slide
Landorus-T's Earthquake / Stone Edge
Excadrill's Earthquake
Tyranitar's (Mega) Crunch / Rock Slide
Terrakion's Close Combat / Rock Slide
Hitmontop's Close Combat
Azumarill's Aqua Jet / Play Rough
Scizor's Bullet Punch / Bug Bite
Breloom's Mach Punch / Bullet Seed

Special

Charizard Y's Heat Wave / Fire Blast
Gardevoir's Hyper Voice
Abomasnow's Blizzard
Latios's LO Draco Meteor / Psyshock
Deoxys-A's Psycho Boost
Aegislash's Shadow Ball
Thundurus-T's Thunderbolt
Rotom-W's Hydro Pump / Thunderbolt
Heatran's Heat Wave / Earth Power

 

[Haruno]

That's a shame. Well thanks for an answer

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-75588440

is the new explosion blitzspam

pwne edit: i do not endorse this

 

[BlankZero]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-75588440

is the new explosion blitzspam

That was so dumb that it worked. Holy crap.