SS Doubles OU GAMER NECROZMA & a Detailed Journey of SS DOU through DLC 2

emma

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DPL Champion

Art by Kolohe! Thank you!

Introduction

Hi, I'm Emma and I want to RMT probably the best team that I've ever built. This is the first time any six I've put together myself has had widespread tournament success, and became legitimately metagame defining. Of course, I don't deserve all the credit. AuraRayquaza first used a version of Necrozma Psychic Spam in invitationals, and Raineko beat me with the same squad in a side Discord Premier League match, although with a much different version. Furthermore, SMB is responsible for optimizing more than half the sets, and the team wouldn't have been as successful without him.

I've been around Doubles for quite a long time. I was an active, but bad, contributor from February 2016 to August 2017, before taking a massive break from Smogon as a whole. I returned in June 2020 because I was super bored due to COVID-19 lockdown, and finally became a certified good user. I lead US East in Doubles World Cup of Pokemon, finally played in Doubles Premier League VII, and earned my Community Contributor badge by taking over seasonals and making forum resources. I have also gone from extremely subpar player to somewhat competent, which is cool!

Not only do I want to showcase Necrozma, but I also want to take a drip down memory lane, and reminisce about how SS Doubles OU has developed through DLC2. I'm going to go back through five major tournaments -- Doubles World Cup I, Doubles Invitationals 2020, Lower Tier Premier League III, Doubles Premier League VII, and Doubles Ladder Tour Playoffs 2021 -- highlighting all the metagame shifts and trends we've seen throughout. I hope not only will it be a fun read, but also serve as an archive of our tier, and show just how much it has changed in a matter of months.

A Detailed Journey of SS DOU through DLC 2

Doubles World Cup I


Pools + Tiebreak / Semifinals + Tiebreak / Finals
Replays & Usage Statistics

Week 1: October 31st to November 8th

New Toys
[MED] DLT JRL BELL vs Demantoid [USW]
[CAN] Grandmas Cookin vs YoBuddy [APA]
[MED] umbry vs MajorBowman [USC]
[EUR] AuraRayquaza vs Hashtag [USE]
[EUR] Sakura vs Akaru Kokuyo [LAT]
[CAN] Mizuhime vs Spurrific [USC]

DLC 2: The Crown Tundra infused the metagame with both returning Doubles titans (Landorus-T, Tapu Fini, Kartana), and new toys that looked both fun and deadly (Regieleki, Regidraco, Galarian Birds). Regieleki looked primed and ready as an excellent Tapu Koko partner to form an "Electric Spam" core, but it turned out quickly that both these Pokemon were simply not very good. Tapu Koko fell from its SM grace with the loss of Z-Moves, Terrain Nerf, and the ever so common Rillaboom and Kyurem-Black that made almost all Electric-types unusable at the start of the new metagame. Additionally, Regieleki was too frail to survive any hits, and could rarely find the chance to fire off Electric Terrain boosted Rising Voltages with how often Terrain would get changed. While many tried (8 uses, 14%, 13th in usage), it became clear that Regieleki was not the play (25% winrate and never doing anything productive).

Mizuhime vs. Spurrific perfectly shows the "new toy syndrome" some were getting at the beginning of DLC 2, which felt very similar to a generational shift. Mizuhime brought three new legendary Pokemon, Regieleki, Regidrago, and Galar Zapdos, and got beat down in only ten turns by an actual good core in Spurrific's Diancie and Volcanion Semiroom. The archetype would go on to see decent usage as the tournament progressed, and is still seen today.

[USW] I want Atago to sit on me vs YoBuddy [APA]
[EUR] Frania vs Nails [USC]

Regieleki's counterpart, Regidraco, met a similar, fate but to a far less extent. It was brought to the first game of the tournament, made a laughing stock of itself, was used only once more in Week 1, and then one other time the entire rest of the tournament. It won a grand total of zero (0) its appearances, and would go one to get no more usage in any high stakes tournament game. It turns out, having no way to hit Fairy-types and no coverage outside of Dragon in general, was not ideal, especially when you factor in its mediocre Speed tier.

I want Atago to sit on me vs. YoBuddy was the first match of the tournament, with the former bringing something we all thought of at some point: Regidraco Fullroom. With strong threats such as the aforementioned legendary Dragon, Torkoal, and Diancie, it was a safe bet to do well. Fullroom saw a lot of usage at the end of DLC1 during the Volcarona suspect, and it's generally an archetype that performs well at the beginning of a new metagame. However, everything went poorly quickly, with Metagross landing a Toxic on (and effectively OHKOing) Calm Mind Cresselia, Regidraco having to face both a Dragon immunity and resist, as well as Diancie showing off its new tech in Body Press to KO Heatran. I want Atago to sit on me forfeited after only six turns, and a lot of our hope in Regidraco immediately crumbled. However, two very strong Pokemon, Cresselia and Diancie, made their debut, which would become trends in themselves as the week progressed.

Calm Mind Cresselia (Part 1)
[USW] I want Atago to sit on me vs Grandmas Cookin [CAN]
[APA] Memoric vs Paraplegic [USC]
[USE] The_Bandit vs papiloco [LAT]

After playing the first match of the tournament, I want Atago to sit on me played the very the second match of the tournament. After failing with Calm Mind Cresselia the first time, he brought it once more in hopes that he wouldn't catch any stray Toxics. And while he didn't, Cresselia was unable to win, despite getting to +6 Special Attack, due to Grandmas Cookin excellent job playing around it with the combination of Natures Madness Tapu Fini and U-turn Genesect. I want Atago to sit on me dropped his second game in a row, which let to him being subbed out a mere two days into the tournament. Calm Mind Cresselia would go one to be used twice more in Week 1, with one win and one loss, but we'd have to wait until later in the tournament to see its true shining potential.

Diancie (pre Diamond Storm fix)
[EUR] Frania vs Nails [USC]
[EUR] Frania vs fespy [USE]
[LAT] Sawamura vs FloristtheBudew [APA]
[MED] Qwello Lee vs LLiama [LAT]
[USE] n1n1 vs shrop [USC]
[CAN] Mizuhime vs Spurrific [USC]
[USE] emma vs Demantoid [USW]

The opening fight of DWCoP gave us a glimpse of how strong Diancie could be... but were playing with the wrong Diamond Storm mechanics! In case you weren't aware, the Doubles community was using an unintended buff to Diancie for over three years. Throughout XY, SM and the beginning of SS, it was believed that Diancie could roll a +2 Defense Boost for each successful target of Diamond Storm, but in reality, it can only ever give you a single +2 Defense boost for successfully hitting either target. While our original interpretation stood true in XY, it turned out we had been playing all of SM completely wrong! DaWoblefet discovered the "brand new" mechanic on November 3rd, but it wasn't implemented on Pokemon Showdown for a bit, so multiple games were played with bugged Diamond Storm mechanics. This made getting to +6 Defense incredibly easy, and led to Diancie being a lot better than it should have been.

Even once Diamond Storm was fixed, Diancie Semiroom remained a strong archetype during Week 1 of DWCoP, and it's still very good months later. Diancie is firmly ranked Tier 2 on the SS Doubles OU Viability Rankings, with some users even ranking it Tier 1 in their Personal VR.

Throughout DWCoP as a whole, one of the most common teams we saw was Diancie / Volcanion / Amoonguss / Landorus-Therian / Kyurem-Black / Genesect. The core four of Volcanion / Genesect / Diancie / Landorus-Therian was used a total of 14 times (7%, second most popular four Pokemon combination.

Week 2 & Semifinals: November 9th to December 4th

Nihilego
[USW] EternalSnowman vs Memoric [APA]
[CAN] Z Strats vs LLiama [LAT]
[MED] Qwello Lee vs Mishimono [CAN]

The Pokemon with the single biggest jump in usage from Week 1 to Week 2 was none other than Nihilego, which went from one use (2%, 45th in usage) to fourteen (15%, 13th in usage). It all started when Memoric decided to try out Meteor Beam Nihilego, a tech he saw blunder use in a video, and it became the flavor of the week after getting to +6 Special Attack and sweeping. It you want to see more about Memoric's team and inspiration, you can check here.

The best part of the match wasn't Nihilego winning, but Dragonite getting 6-0d. It is no secret that Dragonite is my least favorite Pokemon, and I truthfully think it is potentially the worst Pokemon ever in a Doubles setting. Its XY Analysis goes into great (and hilarious) detail about how inexperienced players think it can sweep with Multiscale and Weakness Policy, but it never works because Dragonite is a joke of a Pokemon. Back to Nihilego, it was an absolute menace and very tough to beat unless you were running some combination of Genesect (we'll get to that later), Zygarde, or Kartana, with the last two having no where near the usage it has today.

Calm Mind Cresselia (Part 2)
[CAN] Z Strats vs LLiama [LAT]
[USW] Sunrose vs Akaru Kokuyo [LAT]
[APA] Memoric vs Frania [EUR]
[MED] umbry vs Grandmas Cookin [CAN]

Calm Mind Cresselia made its return, but this time it actually started winning games! It was quite easy to set-up (+1 Defense from Grassy Seed, no strong Ghost- or Dark-types) and win games on its own with Stored Power. Even Incineroar, the #1 most common Pokemon, couldn't do a thing back once it got the immediate Defense boost upon Grassy Terrain activating. The boost also removed its item, so Knock Off really did nothing back. If you were not prepared for it with some sort of secret tech, you were going to lose to Calm Mind Cresselia. It developed into the strongest win condition in the tier, which forced to all teams to run Toxic, since there was simply no other way to beat it.

Imagine, it's Semifinals tiebreaker, and you load up the most matchup fish of matchup fishes (Fullroom) and face Calm Mind Cresselia. Your Porygon2 gets hit with Toxic Turn 2, and you literally cannot do any significant damage to the Moon Duck. This is a large reason why Fullroom went out of style: you got 6-0d by Calm Mind Cresselia (or Tapu Fini) every single time.

Playoffs: December 5th to December 13th

Genesect
[MED] Zigh vs frostyicelad [APA]
[MED] umbry vs Memoric [APA]
[MED] SMB vs no one interesting [APA]
[MED] duckpond vs YoBuddy [APA]

Genesect took the finals between Teams Mediterranean and APAC by storm, with the former bringing it to every single match. Genesect had one of the steepest climbs in usage, going from eleven uses (19%, 11th most) in Week 1 (also with a 91% winrate!), to 36 uses (39%, 2nd most) in Week 2, to 7 uses (59%, Most) in finals. Gensect's combination of speed, coverage, Downloaded-boosted attacks, and being one of the few reliable Steel-types into Diancie made it one of the best assets in the tier. Team Mediterranean utilized it perfectly on their way to winning the first ever Doubles World Cup of Pokemon.

I even took to the streets and interviewed the captain of Team Mediterranean: SMB. He told me about how in their prep, Thunderbolt Genesect smacked common builds APAC was bringing. There was a lack of Tapu Fini and Incineroar, while they had significant Urshifu-R and Nihilego usage. Furthermore, in general, they used a lot of offensive builds which Genesect could thrive against. While Team Med didn't build any specific Genesect-centric teams, they did try (and succeed) at fitting it on everything they used.

Team Dumps
zikam, Akaru Kokuyo, MajorBowman, Grandmas Cookin, Sunrose, FloristtheBudew, YoBuddy, no one interesting, emma, Memoric

Doubles Invitational 2020

Tournament Thread
Teams, Replays, & Usage Statistics

Round 1: December 6th to December 19th
Defining Team: Kyurem-Black / Blastoise / Heatran / Kartana / Spectrier / Landorus-Therian by Memoric

Spectrier

(1) Ezrael vs. AuraRayquaza (16) -- G1
(1) Ezrael vs. AuraRayquaza (16) -- G2
(2) Memoric vs. Demantoid (15) - G3
(3) Z Strats vs. umbry (14) - G1
(5) Tenzai vs. shrop (12) - G1

Lo and behold, another terrorizing special sweeper popularized by the People's Champ himself, Memoric. The first time we saw Spectrier was actually by Ezrael in his Invitationals Round 1 set, where it ended up cleaning up Game 2. However, Memoric took it to a whole new level. At this point in time, Mew was extremely common (>50% usage in Round 1), and the tier had absolutely no viable Ghost resists. What separated Spectrier from Dragapult was access to Nasty Plot. Its reign of dominance was only amplified by Blastoise, which was one of the best support options the tier had ever seen. The combination of Fake Out, Follow Me, and Flip Turn was a perfectly made toolkit for helping its partner win.

In his match against Demantoid, Memoric leads Spectrier + Blastoise and just... wins. Even after Blastoise is forced to pivot out, Memoric just brings in another threat in Kartana and keeps going ham. Not only does Blastoise support Spectrier getting to +3 and two kills, it later continue uses Follow Me to let Kartana getting a Beast Boost and clean up.

"HorseToise" was demonic in nature. If you want to learn more about Memoric's team, you can go here. Naturally, once others saw how freaking good Spectrier was, they copied the team and so began the spread. The exact same team, Kyurem-Black / Blastoise / Heatran / Kartana / Spectrier / Landorus-Therian, was brought twice after in Round 1 and it won both times.

Round 2 - Round 4: December 20th to January 10th
Defining Teams: Porygon2 / Rillaboom / Volcanion / Dragapult / Diancie / Landorus-Therian by Memoric & Blastoise / Volcarona / Rillaboom / Kartana / Landorus-Therian / Dragapult by shrop

Set-Up Offense

(3) SMB vs. shrop (12) - G1
(3) SMB vs. shrop (12) - G3
(9) JRL vs. shrop (12) - G2
(9) JRL vs. shrop (12) - G3

Along with Spectrier, others found more ways to take advantage of Blastoise's support capabilities. By far the most common structure was shrop's Dragon Dance Dragapult plus Quiver Dance Volcarona Offense. The idea was simple: Dragapult and Volcarona were scary threats if they could get a boost up, so they were supported by both the aforementioned Blastoise as well as Stealth Rock and U-turn from Landorus-T. Both threats struggle with Tapu Fini, which the "Grass Spam" core of Rillaboom and Kartana along, with Giga Drain Volcarona, took care of.

Quick Note: With the rise of Porygon2 Semiroom archetypes (we'll get to that later), shrop revamped the team to Blastoise / Rillaboom / Diancie / Kartana / Heatran / Dragapult to match up better against common structures. You can see shrop use the next version in DPL Week 1 here, and read more about the teambuilding process here.

Porygon2 & Semiroom
(14) umbry vs. Qwello Lee (13) - G2
(14) umbry vs. Qwello Lee (13) - G3
(7) Frania vs. Qwello Lee (13) - G1
(7) Frania vs. Qwello Lee (13) - G2

At this point of time, there was legitimate discussion surrounding Spectrier's place in the metagame. We had multiple SPL SCL level players calling it broken, and honestly I can't really blame them. There was absolutely no (discovered) counterplay, and it had dominated every time it was used. Both myself and others were spamming it in the beginning rounds of Winter Seasonals where it was also doing quite well. With broken Ghost Horse winning every game, the metagame shifted and one hero came to light: Porygon2.

We first saw Porygon2 in Round 2, where it was used by none other by eventual circuit winner Qwello Lee, with the team built by Memoric. dnagerbadger asked him about why he whipped out Porygon2 here, where he responded with not only did it hard check Spectrier, but it was also the best enabler of Semiroom. Semiroom has long been one of the best Doubles Archetypes (recall Diancie / Volcanion teams from DWCoP), and Porygon2 takes it to a whole new level by being virtually unkillable. Similar to Cresselia, unless you were running Urshifu-R, your only check was going to be Knock Off from Incineroar or a stray Toxic. While Porygon2 didn't do anything cool in Round 2 (it didn't even catch a Spectrier!), it would go one to see massive usage and success in both later rounds and tournaments.

Porygon2 had a whopping 40% usage in Top 4 and 50% in Finals, compared 14% in R2, 0% in R1, 5% in DWCoP. Porygon2 single handily made Spectrier go from borderline broken to a Tier 4 Pokemon in the matter of literally three weeks. The most popular six at the time was Porygon2 / Rillaboom / Volcanion / Dragapult / Diancie / Landorus-Therian. Qwello Lee's innovation started a new metagame shift we would see more of in Lower Tier Premier League III -- featuring DOU!

Team Dumps
Memoric, AuraRayquaza

Lower Tier Premier League III

W1 / W2 / W3 / W4 / W5 / W6 / W7 / Semifinals / Finals
Teams, Replays, & Usage Statistics

December 20th to February 26th
Defining Team: Tapu Fini / Kyurem-Black / Porygon2 / Heatran / Landorus-Therian / Zeraora by Z Strats

LTPL III had zero (0) hype on the DOU side of things. There was no discussion thread, hardly anyone talked about it in the Discord, and I only posted Teams, Replays, & Usage Statistics once the tournament ended. There's wasn't as much new metagame development like we saw in the last two major tours, but there are still trends to talk about.

Tapu Fini + Kyurem-Black + Porygon2
W1: EternalSnowman vs. umbry
W1: Biosci vs. Qwello Lee
W2: jcbc vs. Qwello Lee
W3: Tenzai vs. umbry
W5: umbry vs. JRL
W6: Z Strats vs. YoBuddy

The beginning of LTPL overlapping with the ending of Invitationals so we saw a lot of similar teams during the first few weeks. For example, Week 1, which happened at the same time as Round 2, saw multiple uses of Memoric's HorseToise team. Similarly, Week 2 overlapped with Round 3, so we started to see the rise of Porygon2. Week 3, which again corresponds with Invitational Finals, was the first time we saw the next metagame defining team: Tapu Fini / Kyurem-Black / Porygon2 / Heatran / Landorus-Therian / Zeraora, which you can learn more about here.

As it turned out, throwing all the best Pokemon in the tier together produced solid results. Calm Mind Tapu Fini began to rise in usage because as you might have noticed, Electric-types had gone absolutely extinct. Tapu Koko went from Tier 1 to UR, Regieleki was terrible, and Zeraora and Zapdos had minimal usage at the time. This led to your only reliable Tapu Fini check being Rillaboom, which gets worn down quickly pivoting in-and-out and trying to check a lot of other things as well. Additionally, Kartana was nowhere at the peak it is now. Porygon2 was also at the top of the metagame, which Tapu Fini provided great support for by checking Fighting-types and blocking Toxic. The duo was made even better with the addition of Assault Vest Kyurem-Black, which destroyed all Rillaboom as well as checked half the tier by itself.

Doubles Premier League VII

W1 / W2 / W3 / W4 / W5 / Semifinals / Finals
Teams, Replays, & Usage Statistics

Week 1 - Week 3: February 14th to March 6th
Defining Team: Volcanion / Diancie / Amoonguss / Landorus-Therian / Tapu Lele / Kyurem-B by shrop (original version by frania)

Tapu Lele + Amoongus Semiroom

W2: Yoda2798 vs. Tenzai
W3: Toxigen vs. Paraplegic
W3: Qwello Lee vs. shrop

Similar to SM, players only relied on Terrains that prevented Sleep to check Amoonguss. Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini were both Tier 1 last generation, so you were likely able to leave your Safety Goggles at home and be fine against Sleep. However, with the generational shift that saw Tapu Koko fall from its grace, people's sleep checks became only Tapu Fini setting Misty Terrain. As it turns out, having only one Pokemon that could check Sleep was very easy to expose with your own Terrain control. Further coupled with Trick Room support from Diancie, Amoonguss went from somewhat forgotten to the center of the spotlight once more. Even against Misty Terrain teams, Tapu Fini couldn't Calm Mind since it had to constantly pivot in-and-out to block Spore. Personally, I think this has led to support Tapu Fini sets becoming much better, since it was more equipped with constantly switching out and coming back in to prevent Sleep.

Week 4 - Semifinals: March 7th to March 27th
Defining Team: Tapu Lele / Urshifu-R / Amoonguss / Zapdos / Heatran / Necrozma by emma and SMB

Necrozma (and Escavalier!)

W4: Paraplegic vs. TonyFlygon
W5: Toxigen vs. YoBuddy
W5: shrop vs. Shadowmonstr7
Semifinals: shrop vs. Tenzai
Semifinals: Paraplegic vs. TonyFlygon

Before we get to Necrozma, another tech brought to you by the Hoenn Heroes needs to be talked about: Escavalier. With the combination of Overcoat and a Bug and Steel typing, Escavalier absolutely shredded Tapu Lele plus Amoonguss builds once you removed the Fire-type, which could even be lured with Substitute plus Drill Run. While it went 0-2 in Semifinals (after having zero usage throughout the tournament), none of us regret bringing it, and we believe it deserves a spot on the Viability Rankings because of how well it invalidates an entire style of play.

Moving on to something that actually saw success, Necrozma built upon the established core of Tapu Lele and Amoonguss, but went for a more offensive and fast approach compared to Semiroom with Volcanion and Diancie. Looking at Paraplegic's scout, Necrozma, which I had so happen to be experimenting with before, destroyed everything he used. We were also expecting him to bring some variation of Tapu Lele and Amoonguss again, which our fast paced Necrozma variation would eat up. We called the matchup right, Necrozma won in nine turns, and it went on to become a defining archetype in the current Hyper Offensive metagame we see today.

Finals: March 28th to April 3rd
Defining Team: Rillaboom / Kartana / Heatran / Zygarde / Urshifu-R / Zeraora by Z Strats

Urshifu-R / Kartana / Zygarde

Finals: Shadowmonstr7 vs. shrop

Unfortunately for his ego, Z Strats once again made one of the best and most defining teams of the generation. I already touched on the Urshifu-R, Kartana, and Zygarde trio here, while Z Strats gives a breakdown of his six here. Basically these three threats have minimal defense counterplay, and stacking them all together easily overwhelms the opponent. Their presence is only amplified by great support options Rillaboom (Fake Out, Grassy Terrain, Eject Button) and Zeraora (Fast, Fake Out, Taunt). While we only saw a glimpse of its power in DPL Finals, it would get to a whole new level in Doubles Ladder Tour Playoffs!

Team Dumps
SMB, emma, zeefable

Doubles Ladder Tour Playoffs 2021

Tournament Thread
Teams, Replays, & Usage Statistics

April 25th to May 23rd
((NEW)) Defining Team: Heatran / Urshifu-R / Necrozma / Amoonguss / Kartana / Indeedee-F by The_Bandit

Hyper Offense

(2) Karnisbroke vs. emforbes (15) - G1
(2) Karnisbroke vs. emforbes (15) - G2
(3) The_Bandit vs. n1n1 (14) - G2
(4) Paraplegic vs. JRL (13) - G2
(5) papiloco vs. LightScreener (12) - G3
(6) SMB vs. Yoda2798 (11) - G2
(15) emforbes vs. fespy (10) - G2
(13) JRL vs. LightScreener (12) - G2
(8) MADARAAAA vs JRL (13) - G1
(8) MADARAAAA vs JRL (13) - G2

DLT Playoffs perfectly emulates what the metagame has become today: Hyper Offense Spam. There have been primarily three versions: Urshifu-R / Kartana / Zygarde by Z Strats, Necrozma by me and SMB, and another variation of Necrozma by The_Bandit. All three teams aim to win games as quickly as possible with massive threats, and it has sparked legitimate discussion (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) on if threats such as Urshifu-R and Zygarde are broken. It seems we have hit another impasse similar to Spectrier: will the playbase figure out how to deal with it, or will elements (Urshifu-R primarily) need to be banned to bring order to the metagame?

Teambuilding Process

:urshifu: :tapu-lele: :amoonguss:

Urshifu-R, Tapu Lele, and Amoonguss had been in my builder since December as "urshifu lele sleep" ever since AuraRayquaza used the same core in Doubles Invitationals. He even had a Necrozma, but I actually thought nothing of it at the time. The idea behind the three was that Urshifu-R was very strong and broke down all the Steel-types for Tapu Lele, which in return blocked Grassy Glide and let Amoonguss fire off uncontested Spores. At the time, Tapu Fini was quite popular, so using Amoonguss without Psychic Terrain support was extremely risky. I never really got around to finishing this because I was too busy spamming Porygon2 Semiroom, and the core seemed a bit too offensive for my tastes.

:urshifu: :tapu-lele: :amoonguss: :zapdos: :volcanion: :landorus-therian:

Zapdos and Volcanion were added to check Kartana, Rillaboom, Tapu Fini, and provide reliable Speed Control. Zapdos originally also benefited from Psychic Terrain with Psychic Seed, which would make it quite hard to take down. Landorus-Therian was our original sixth team member to provide Stealth Rock, Intimidate, and pivoting to allow (at the time) Choice Band Urshifu-R and Life Orb Tapu Lele to come in and do massive damage. I also had a Ground-type on literally all my teams, and I thought Zygarde was pretty mediocre at the time, so Landorus-T was an easy choice. It worked well as a glue-type Pokemon, but never individually stood out.

:urshifu: :tapu-lele: :amoonguss: :zapdos: :heatran: :landorus-therian:

As it turns out, having a Steel-type over a second Water-type was a lot more helpful. Heatran also fit a lot better with the Tailwind support as opposed to Volcanion, which usual resides on Semiroom structures. Heatran was also better into Rillaboom and Kartana, which was super important. You were worse against Tapu Fini, but Volcanion loses to it in the long term so I wasn't really sacrificing much.

:urshifu: :tapu-lele: :amoonguss: :zapdos: :heatran: :necrozma:

Lastly, we replaced the pretty mediocre Landorus-T with Gamer Necrozma. Despite AuraRayquaza using it on the team that inspired mine, I only ended up using it after yuki beat me with it in a side Discord Premier League match. Although it didn't actually do anything, it intrigued me as a massive threat that loved Psychic Terrain being up.

There were two versions of this six before the one you see today. The first version featured a Semiroom mode with Trick Room Necrozma and slow Heatran, but I quickly changed to both of them being fast and taking advantage of Tailwind. However, this version had some lackluster sets until my teammate SMB patched them all up, notably adding Choice Scarf Urshifu-R, Pixie Plate Tapu Lele, Eject Button Amoonguss, and Timid Zapdos. You can see a version-by-version breakdown here, which also includes a quicker version of my thought process.


The Six
:ss/urshifu-rapid-strike: :choice-scarf:
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Ice Punch

Choice Scarf Urshifu-R is the team's immediate form of Speed, which is incredibly important since Tailwind won't always be up. Notably, it works wonders against Nihilego, which can be a massive pain if we don't have the Speed advantage. Choice Scarf lets us switch Urshifu-R in directly, while protecting with Zapdos for example, and then claim our OHKO the next turn. Breaking Protect, as well as ignoring Intimidate and opposing Defense boosts makes it quite difficult to switch into, and with Choice Scarf it can move before its supposed offensive counterplay. While the power drop is noticeable from Life Orb and Choice Band, having a Scarfer is pretty mandatory on this archetype to be the fastest Pokemon on the field. A Jolly Nature is used to outspeed +1 Kyurem-Black and OHKO with Close Combat, which was especially important while originally building since the intended opponent, Paraplegic, loves Dragon Dance Kyurem-Black.
:ss/tapu-lele: :pixie-plate:
Tapu Lele @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Taunt
- Protect

Tapu Lele is a bad Pokemon, but it enables actually good Pokemon like Necrozma and Amoonguss, so it finds its way here. Psychic Terrain is absolutely critical to the team's success: blocking Grassy Glide for Urshifu-R, clearing Misty Terrain for Amoonguss, and powering up Expanding Force for Necrozma. It's crucial not to lose Tapu Lele early, as changing terrain is one of the team's best checks, and losing the terrain war makes things a lot harder for you. Taunt is important for stopping opposing forms of Speed Control which the team hates. Pixie Plate is used over Life Orb to make sure Tapu Lele doesn't get worn too quickly so you can continue to pivot in-and-out and reset Terrain. You already secure the OHKO on Urshifu-R, Zygarde, and Nihilego, so I would say it's definitely worth using over Life Orb on this team.​
:ss/amoonguss: :eject-button:
Amoonguss @ Eject Button
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 232 HP / 88 Def / 188 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Pollen Puff
- Clear Smog

Sleep is a fundamentally broken mechanic in Pokemon. Securing psuedo-KOs for no price is absolutely insane, and even more insane when people's Sleep checks are only relying on Misty Terrain from Tapu Fini. With Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge, Amoonguss is typically free to spam Spore due to the massive lack of Safety Goggles currently. Clear Smog is chosen as the fourth move to stop Tapu Fini, as it can be quite hard to take down after a Calm Mind or two. Protect was considered, but dropped due to the offensive nature of this team. If you are Protecting with Amoonguss, you are not making progress. Eject Button also helps alleviate Amoonguss's passivity. Switching in, soaking up damage, and getting a free switch to Necrozma, Heatran, or Urshifu-R is incredibly important to keep up momentum. We used the Dex spread which allows Amoonguss to live two Heat Waves from Volcanion... with Sitrus Berry. Whoops! You do still survive it after you Eject out due to Regenerator, so not all is lost.
:ss/zapdos: :heavy-duty-boots:
Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 144 HP / 112 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
- Tailwind
- Protect

Fast Tailwind, best Tailwind. Apart from Necrozma, speedy Zapdos is often the MVP as it fills the crucial role of reliable Speed Control. Heatran and Necrozma both don't perform as well when going second, so prioritizing setting up Tailwind is critical to the team's success. Volt Switch is chosen over Thunderbolt to grab momentum and bring in your aforementioned heavy hitters, as well as to make sure you're wasting as little turns as possible not doing massive damage. You can also freely Volt Switch around while ignoring Stealth Rock thanks to Heavy-Duty Boots. Heat Wave is very important for both Genesect and Kartana, which you outspeed once you double your Speed stat, since they are often one of your opponent's only Psychic resist. Protect is usually not seen on Zapdos (Roost has historically been more common) but it's absolutely needed here. Zapdos is often double-targeted to be removed from the field ASAP, and with minimal bulk investment and no healing you need to be very careful with it, which Protect helps a lot with. The EV spread always 2HKO'd Choice Band Rillaboom with Heat Wave, which, looking back, was a fairly stupid benchmark but I didn't have anything better at the time so I rolled with it.​
:ss/heatran: :charcoal:
Heatran @ Charcoal
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Eruption
- Protect

Heatran functions as the near mandatory Fire-type and a way to plow through typical Psychic-type resists such as Kartana, Metagross, and Genesect. It is also one of the best Rillaboom checks, which is usually the only way the opponent can slow down Necrozma. With the introduction of Mints, Heatran can now run Eruption without a Quiet Nature, and has become the most common (and best) third move on Heatran, overtaking the likes of Substitute, Flash Cannon, and even Stealth Rock from past generations. Charcoal provides the perfect blend of strengthening your Fire STAB without taking recoil or locking yourself into one move. Modest is chosen over Timid for the notable power difference and not missing out on outspeeding anything besides in the mirror match.
:ss/necrozma: :power-herb:
Necrozma @ Power Herb
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Expanding Force
- Meteor Beam
- Earth Power
- Protect

The MVP of the show, Necrozma is capable of winning games by itself if it gets to +1 and Psychic Terrain is set. Power Herb Meteor Beam is not only helpful for setting up, but also nuking would-be checks such as Assault Vest Kyurem-Black, Heatran, and Incineroar. Be careful not to blow your one shot at boosting, since there is a noticeable difference between +0 and +1 Expanding Force. Earth Power is the third coverage move (over Heat Wave) to deal with Heatran and Incineroar, since Kartana and Genesect still get bopped by Expanding Force in Terrain, and unfortunately Escavalier as yet to rise to stardom. Necrozma is a pretty simple Pokemon: Max Special Attack and Speed to hit hard and fast, click Meteor Beam to decimate something and boost, and then click broken +1 Expanding Force in Psychic Terrain and win.​

Threat List
Terrain Control

This team relies on Psychic Terrain being up, so Pokemon that automatically change it is the easiest way to check the team. Of course, opposing Terrain Control is on basically every other team, but more often that not it is their only PsySpam check. Playing carefully with your Tapu Lele and saving Necrozma for the end is important to play the matchup. Rillaboom is quite easy to get chipped, while Tapu Fini isn't a threat on its own since its stopped dead in its tracks by Clear Smog Amoonguss.

Stopping Momentum

It's a bit weird having the two best checks to a team not be actual Pokemon, but Doubles is quite complex with having two Pokemon on the field at once that it's sometimes hard to say "Pokemon x checks Pokemon y" when there are so many things going on at once. Anyways, this team wants to win games in as few turns as possible, so opposing Fake Out and Speed Control, as well as even Parting Shot and Snarl, makes it difficult to click buttons and win. Matching opposing Tailwind and making sure you have Psychic Terrain around to block Fake Out is very important.

Zygarde

The biggest individual Pokemon weakness is Zygarde. Choice Band sets, which are always accompanied with Speed Control, can do damage massive since this team lacks any sort of Thousand Arrows switch-in, and you can't immediately threaten it back. Heatran is outsped and OHKO, Zapdos can't touch it, and Necrozma needs to get to +1 or be in Psychic Terrain to 2HKO. Losing the speed advantage to Choice Band Zygarde usually means you need to click the x button. Dragon Dance is slightly less threatening since it needs multiple free turns to set up, and is revenged by Urshifu-R at +1.

Metagross and Tyranitar

The difference between Metagross and Tyranitar compared to fake Psychic resists such as Heatran and Incineroar is that they both resist Meteor Beam and often runs Assault Vest or Shuca Berry to get around your Ground coverage. Steel Roller from Metagross does 70%-84% back and can potentially snipe you down with Bullet Punch right after getting rid of Psychic Terrain, while Tyranitar 2HKOs with Crunch and psuedo KOs you with Thunder Wave. If you slap an Assault Vest on either, it also avoids the 2HKO from +1 Earth Power. Be sure not to go for the sweep if they're still around; try to weaken it down with Heatran, Urshifu-R, and Zapdos first.

Dragapult

Dragapult resists STABs from Urshifu-R and Heatran, while outspeeding and OHKOing Tapu Lele and does 80% minimum to Necrozma with Choice Specs Shadow Ball. Having the speed advantage is incredibly important, since Tapu Lele and Necrozma (at +1) can OHKO first in Tailwind. Dragon Dance is less threatening since it actually needs to find opportunities to set-up which is hard against such a fast paced team.

Support Zeraora

The combination of natural speed, Assault Vest, Fake Out, Snarl, and Knock Off is incredibly annoying to deal with. Good thing is most Zeraora aren't Max HP + Assault Vest + Snarl, but it is an issue if you ever run into one; most are zero bulk without Snarl and sometimes even Sitrus Berry which is a lot easier to deal with. Prioritizing knocking it out early is important so your big threats in Necrozma and Heatran won't be slowed down later.

Replays

This team has not lost a high stakes tournament match.

Doubles Winter Seasonal 2021

Round 8: emma vs. Tenzai
Round 9: emma vs. Yoda2798
Round 10: emma vs. duckpond

Doubles Premier League 7

Week 4: TonyFlygon vs. Paraplegic
Week 5: Toxigen vs. YoBuddy

Doubles Ladder Tour Playoffs 2021

Top 16: Yoda2798 vs. SMB
Top 8: JRL vs. LightScreener

Paste


Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Ice Punch

Tapu Lele @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Taunt
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Eject Button
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Pollen Puff
- Clear Smog

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 152 HP / 104 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
- Tailwind
- Protect

Heatran @ Charcoal
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Eruption
- Protect

Necrozma @ Power Herb
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Expanding Force
- Meteor Beam
- Earth Power
- Protect

Conclusion

Thanks to everyone who read the whole thing; I spent a lot of time on this and I really hope you enjoyed. No individual thanks, but shoutouts to Smogon Doubles, Heroes, US East, umbryfans, Church, the country of Brazil, #insideoverused, and everyone I DM on a constant basis. Smogon has grown into (usually) a really great community where I can express myself freely and I'm really appreciative of it. See everyone in Doubles OST and SCL!
 
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