Other Metagames Doubles UU: Semiroom Araquanid Rain!

[Ryan5374]

Introduction!
This team is a semiroom team meant for DUU, it is meant to break the opponent's team down in trick room before cleaning up with Kingdra and specs Politoed.

King Indedede (Indeedee) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Psychic Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Expanding Force
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Voice
- Trick Room

Indeedee is used as my psychic terrain setter, used in conjunction with aromatisse for pseudo hatterine indeedee-f like in DOU. Expanding force is used as powerful stab spread, shadow ball and hyper voice for coverage. Sash is to survive a hit and force a double target, potentially leaving aromatisse unscathed.


Plague Doctor (Aromatisse) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Toxic
- Psychic

Aromatisse is the other half of the setter duo. Aroma veil prevents taunting, much like hatterine's magic bounce does. It can also set trick room, I usually click trick room on the mon that it seems the opponent is less likely to double target. Moonblast is stab, psychic is boosted by psychic terrain, and toxic is for things like shedinja and other mons that are crippled by it.

Michael Bubble (Araquanid) @ Life Orb
Ability: Water Bubble
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Liquidation
- Leech Life
- Crunch
- Poison Jab

Araquanid is based off of the vgc trick room araquanids I've been a huge fan of. Liquidation and leech life are powerful stabs, one with recovery, crunch is for coverage, and poison jab specifically for things like primarina.

I frogor (Politoed) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power

Politoed is our offensive rain setter. Works well in or out of TR due to its bulk, often helping Kingdra or Araquanid clinch KOs.

Pony (Kingdra) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
- Ice Beam

Not much to say here. Standard swift swim fast special Kingdra. Built for cleaning up after the tr mons have left their mark. Likes politoed support to break sashes, but the TR mons can work outside of it in a pinch. Most of the mons left by the endgame fall to a few muddy waters and occasionally a draco meteor. Can also function as a lead against certain teams with politoed.

BONK (Dracozolt) @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Bolt Beak
- Low Kick
- Dragon Claw
- High Horsepower

Dracozolt is a TR attacker with a ridiculously powerful bolt beak that almost always hits first in TR against many mons. Low kick is used for the kangaskhan and rock types I see, dragon claw is stab, and high horsepower is further coverage for things like other electric types that trouble Araquanid.

Pokepaste link: https://pokepast.es/7453d9d7ddb2a86f

Conclusion:
This team seeks to combine trick room and swift swim for powerful rain offense, with rain being enjoyed by both the TR mons and the swift swim mon.
This is my first time attempting to post a RMT, so let me know how I did!

 

[Actuarily]

Good RMT post, and I love where your heads at, as I too have built rain Psyspam in DUU; and you even added another layer with TR. There was even a dpl game recently that used a very similar team type that we can look at: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesuu-1534267305

So the most important aspect of this archetype is being good into Tapu Bulu. Bulu is used as both a rain check & as a Psyspam check, so these types of teams are good for overloading it and forcing it to only be able to check one. Currently your team doesn’t really have any reliable Tapu Bulu checks, so we can focus on that issue and then fix a few of the sets.

My biggest recommendation would be adding a Slowking-Galar, as it can add another TR setter who exploits expanding force while also beating Tapu Bulu. I’d replace the Araquanid, who’s best used as a sticky webs utility mon because it has little to no offense outside of water moves. Here’s the slowking-galar set I’d recommend:
Slowking-Galar @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Expanding Force
- Sludge Bomb
- Trick Room
- Protect

Next we need a Pokémon that is still good into Tapu Bulu but is also good into steel & dark types, while being a physical attacker as we’re at 5 special attackers... which I think leaves us with two options: Hawlucha or Ferrothorn. Hawlucha would add another fast attacker to the team, while Ferrothorn would give us another TR abuser that can beat opposing water types. Both are good into sand & hail, but Hawlucha is definitely better into sun.

Here’s the Hawlucha set I would recommend:
Hawlucha @ Psychic Seed
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Acrobatics
- Close Combat
- Taunt
- Protect

This set outspeeds Excadrill with max attack and the rest is dropped into bulk. Taunt gives you an anti-cheese mechanic as well as stopping opposing status moves to try and slow down your offense.

If you wanted to go with Ferrothorn, a set like this could be useful:
Ferrothorn @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Body Press
- Knock Off

AV allows Ferrothorn to be extremely bulky while still placing your EVs into attack to let it hit hard. Body press allows you to ignore intimidate and still hit dark/steel types, and gyro ball can OHKO most Tapu Bulu.

That gives us two options for a good six, and so next we can focus on trying to improve your existing Pokémon. I think most of your sets are pretty good, but there’s a couple small changes I’d recommend. Firstly for Aromatisse, I think you need some sort of status absorb check, as status has become a big part of DUU recently, and it’s a method to stop TR from getting up. Secondly I don’t think you need psychic as you have plenty of psychic attacks, so I’d recommend some spice and going Fake Tears here to lower spdefs for your strong special attackers:

(Aromatisse) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Fake Tears
- Toxic

Lastly there’s one small change I’d recommend, and that’s on Kingdra replacing Ice beam with Hurricane. Hurricane is higher base power than Ice beam, and is able to hit grass types better. Even though Ice beam does hit dragons, you have Draco Meteor for those. So here’s the set:


(Kingdra) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
- Hurricane

So with that said, I think you have two options, both of which look really powerful:
Hawlucha:
https://pokepast.es/5f81b3150eb2f7e2
Ferrothorn:
https://pokepast.es/0340360d85699ab7

 

[Ryan5374]

Thank you so much for the advice! Never used av ferrothorn as an attacker before, but it really makes sense :)