Smogon Doubles

Hey everybody, recently I've been finding smogon singles tiers to be kind of stale and VGC a bit too hax reliant, so I've been playing some games of Doubles OU and have been having a great time. It's a pretty nice blend between VGC and smogon singles, having the 6v6 aspect and broader range of viable pokes from OU (or at least more varied teams), while having the more lenient rules and similar playstyle of VGC.

Having never played a single game in my life I decided to take a team from somebody who knows what they were doing. I took this team from a youtuber named Kyle Cole, here's the video where he explains the team and shows a battle with commentary (skip to 12:21 for the team I'm talking about). Well as of writing this, I have gone 32 and 4 using the team (32 and 6 in total, the 2 losses were using a pretty bad adaptation using Tailwind as opposed to TR). Anyway, here's the importable:

Spoiler

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 224 HP / 124 Def / 144 SpA / 16 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Protect

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 164 SpA / 92 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Superpower

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 112 SpA / 52 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Swagger
- Protect

Volcanion @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 96 SpA / 44 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Steam Eruption
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

At least for me, everything about this team is perfect and fits my playstyle. Everything is bulky enough so that they can switch in on resisted or weaker neutral hits, while powerful enough to beat key threats. It also stars the newly added volcanion which is great to see.

Here's a few replays using it. Please ignore my username...this is a troll throw away account that me and my friends use and I wasn't exactly intending to get very high on the ladder. I seemed to be doing well so I just kept going.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-362327798 (A pretty haxy game, with some questionable plays. I feel the double protect + Hurricane hit not in rain through para and confusion later in the game, after previously hitting a Hurricane out of the rain through para, amply makes up for the turn one Draco miss)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-362164223 (I feel I played this game pretty damn well. My opponent used some unusual sets (unless sash sandstorm lead aerodactyl is common in this format
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-361389620 (A bit of a one sided match, considering my opponent didn't really have any way to deal with status spam. Mega Pert can be annoying for this team since Thundurus can't touch it, it outspeeds my entire team in the rain and hits the entire team for super effective damage. In hindsight I probably should a prioritised getting Giga Drain damage off on it instead of a spore. Anyway, this would have been a 6-0 if I clicked Hyper voice on the second to last turn and he hadn't crit on the last turn, but who cares.)

So enough about me and more about the format. So far I find it to be really interesting. I've seen some pretty interesting Pokémon (though many gimmicks which often fail). I've also seen an astonishing number of players on the lower end of the ladder with an extraordinary number of games. Like over 1000 at times, but only breaking even in terms of win/loss. I don't think I really have enough experience (or practically any) in the higher end of the ladder, so I don't think I can really have too much of an opinion on the format as a whole, but from what I've experienced it's pretty great.

So yeah, let me know your thoughts. Have you tried the format? How did it work out for you? Do you play it often? What team(s) do you use?

 

I'm not scoffing, I think it's cool when people find success using less common Pokémon/sets. Could I ask what some of these EV spreads/sets are supposed to do? For example, I've never seen Shell Bell on Talonflame (or on anything besides Aron tbh) and it seems like you'd be better off using something like a Sitrus Berry, Life Orb or even a Charti Berry since the HP recovery is miniscule compared to the recoil damage Talonflame would be taking.

Just an update on my experiences with doubles OU, I started laddering with a new team on my main account. I have a similar record to what I had with the other team, but with fewer games. I wanted to use more of a balls to the wall offense team so I took a core from the Doubles OU forum on smogon, of Abomasnow, Darkrai and Greninja forming a cool Blizzard spam core. I then added Talonflame for Tailwind support, as well as dealing with Fighting types which kind of destroy the core (especially ones with priority), Lando-T for Intimidate and a Talonflame check (Honestly the set should probably be scarf, I just really appreciate the freedom to swap between moves and the ability to tank certain hits) and Jirachi for redirection, another form of speed control and its nice resistances. I was considering swapping Jirachi for Amoonguss to improve my TR match up, but being able to redirect Brave Birds and the fact that Jirachi is less passive and useless once taunted is attractive on this sort of team.

Here's the importable for anybody interested:

Spoiler

Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Protect

Darkrai @ Life Orb
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Focus Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Protect

Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Blizzard
- Hydro Pump
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Tailwind
- Protect

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Superpower

Jirachi @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Impish Nature
- Follow Me
- Iron Head
- Icy Wind
- Protect

Trust me, the core works a lot better than you'd expect. Opponents will probably underestimate you for using Darkrai since its considered fairly bad but it's honestly pretty effective and difficult to deal with. Watch out for Wide Guard users and try to scout for potential scarfers before relying on Darkrai and Greninja's high base speed to outspeed them.

 

If anybody's interested in this format but wants a team to get high enough on the ladder that you see less gimmicky and more serious teams I'd suggest trying this team out. It's mostly put together by me with some input from people on the smogon forum.

Spoiler

Gardevoir-Mega @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hyper Voice
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
- Psychic

Bisharp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Protect
- Iron Head

Suicune @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 144 SpA / 40 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Protect
- Tailwind

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 244 HP / 104 Def / 8 SpA / 132 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
- Rock Slide

Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 120 SpA / 136 Spe
Naive Nature
- Overheat
- Brave Bird
- Protect
- Tailwind

It's fairly standard and pretty straight forward. Set up tailwind with either Tflame or Cune, click Hyper voice. Use the rest of the team to beat steels like Heatran, Aegislash and Ferrothorn. Just to explain what each member does, Gard has hp ground to KO Aegislash and Heatran once they're put in range (make sure to do this especially with Aegis to avoid activating its weaknes policy). Sash Bisharp beats opposing fairies, outspeeding and KOing Diancie with tailwind up and out and KOing Sylveon after a bit of damage (not much). It also deters a Lando-T lead. Suicune is my most reliable TW setter (well talonflame guarantees it gets up but often at the cost of its life), as well as another way to beat Heatran, as well as Tflame and Lando-T. Thundurus is here as a trick room (or low ladder BS) check. It also helps vs Keldeo and Volcanion to an extent. T wave is for speed control, while Swagger is there just to help with a wider variety of threats (such as opposing TW setters), since I didn't feel HP Ice was necessary. Lando-I destroys steels all steels (bar the rare ferro and even rarer ballon Tran), checks Lando-T and Talonflame, as well as spamming harder hitting Rock Slides than Lando-T to get certain Pokémon in KO range of my other mons (with a nice flinch chance). And Talonflame is the Overheat set since it has a better time against Ferrothorn which can be a pain to the team, as well as not having to play King's Shield mindgames with Aegislash.

Just thought I'd share it if anybody cares.