Z Strats
Banned deucer.
Hi dou members. I have been playing doubles for only about 4 months now. This team I made was made to counter the current meta game. Originally I wanted to ladder up a bit more with this team before posting, but unfortunately I will be gone later today for about a week only being to access things like ps and forums via mobile. Lets get into the team.
We start off with Abomasnow this mon is to get the hail up for my next mon. I choose sash Abomasnow here because it's not a trick room/semi room team so I sacrificed bulk for some speed and to live a hit I put on a sash.
Abomasnow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard
- Protect
Next I picked Articuno. Scarfed articuno is great for surprising scarfed lando-t's that think they can rock slide it. It also lets me not worry if rain is up instead of hail as the rain will let it's hurricane always hit. The speed EVs is to outspeed what the analysis said to run on Ludicolo in rain.
Articuno @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Freeze Dry
- Hurricane
- U-turn
We now get out of hail based mons with Arcanine. Arcanine beats a lot of what Articuno and Abomasnow can't. It ohkos a lot of the bulky steels like jirachi and aegislash while in shield form and has a 68% chance to ohko 0hp/0def mega kang. It also provides some nice intimidate support.
Arcanine @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
- Protect
I still was a bit weak to some of the common megas such as Charizard-y and Diancie, and raikou helps with just that. Thunderbolt deals a huge amount to charizard while hp steel ohkos diancie. A reason I choose this over thundurus which does the same thing is because I already had 3 mons weak to rock and 4 is to much for me, plus it also gets a nifty move in snarl.
Raikou @ Expert Belt
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpD
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Snarl
- Protect
Next up we have Mega-Swampert. While making this I realize I was playing with a 0 evs Mega Swampert so right now I just changed the spread to what it is until I find a better spread. Mega Swampert deals with fire types like Heatran and Volcanion also while giving me a great thundy check and thunder wave switch-in. Another thing I noticed is that other than scarfed articuno I didn't have any speed control so I decided to give it icy wind for the nice speed control.
Swampert-Mega @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Icy Wind
- Protect
Lastly we have Gengar. Gengar is my support mon providing both WoW and taunt while dishing out some nice attacks. Taunt is nice to stop my opponent from using any form of speed control like tailwind or trick room as my team doesn't really like being that slow. It also serves as another mon for my Swampert to eq beside
Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
Threatlist:
Mega Charizard is a huge threat as nothing wants to switch into it's two main attacks of heat wave and solarbeam
Full trick room is also hard for this team as its only way of stopping tr setters is a frail gengar which will usually have to taunt the setter in front of a Scrafty.
The last thing is something that isn't common, but my team really hates is stealth rocks. Only having 2mons that don't get ruined by stealth rocks isn't ideal even with it being super rare in doubles.
Replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-415702293 (me taking on mishii)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-416190031 (me taking on test bot)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-416192481 (me taking on some guy who is currently 7th on ladder)
I hope you guys enjoyed the team. Took a while to make as it's obviously not the most common pokemon. Any advice is appreciated.
We start off with Abomasnow this mon is to get the hail up for my next mon. I choose sash Abomasnow here because it's not a trick room/semi room team so I sacrificed bulk for some speed and to live a hit I put on a sash.
Abomasnow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard
- Protect
Next I picked Articuno. Scarfed articuno is great for surprising scarfed lando-t's that think they can rock slide it. It also lets me not worry if rain is up instead of hail as the rain will let it's hurricane always hit. The speed EVs is to outspeed what the analysis said to run on Ludicolo in rain.
Articuno @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Freeze Dry
- Hurricane
- U-turn
We now get out of hail based mons with Arcanine. Arcanine beats a lot of what Articuno and Abomasnow can't. It ohkos a lot of the bulky steels like jirachi and aegislash while in shield form and has a 68% chance to ohko 0hp/0def mega kang. It also provides some nice intimidate support.
Arcanine @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
- Protect
I still was a bit weak to some of the common megas such as Charizard-y and Diancie, and raikou helps with just that. Thunderbolt deals a huge amount to charizard while hp steel ohkos diancie. A reason I choose this over thundurus which does the same thing is because I already had 3 mons weak to rock and 4 is to much for me, plus it also gets a nifty move in snarl.
Raikou @ Expert Belt
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpD
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Snarl
- Protect
Next up we have Mega-Swampert. While making this I realize I was playing with a 0 evs Mega Swampert so right now I just changed the spread to what it is until I find a better spread. Mega Swampert deals with fire types like Heatran and Volcanion also while giving me a great thundy check and thunder wave switch-in. Another thing I noticed is that other than scarfed articuno I didn't have any speed control so I decided to give it icy wind for the nice speed control.
Swampert-Mega @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Icy Wind
- Protect
Lastly we have Gengar. Gengar is my support mon providing both WoW and taunt while dishing out some nice attacks. Taunt is nice to stop my opponent from using any form of speed control like tailwind or trick room as my team doesn't really like being that slow. It also serves as another mon for my Swampert to eq beside
Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
Threatlist:
Mega Charizard is a huge threat as nothing wants to switch into it's two main attacks of heat wave and solarbeam
Full trick room is also hard for this team as its only way of stopping tr setters is a frail gengar which will usually have to taunt the setter in front of a Scrafty.
The last thing is something that isn't common, but my team really hates is stealth rocks. Only having 2mons that don't get ruined by stealth rocks isn't ideal even with it being super rare in doubles.
Replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-415702293 (me taking on mishii)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-416190031 (me taking on test bot)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/doublesou-416192481 (me taking on some guy who is currently 7th on ladder)
I hope you guys enjoyed the team. Took a while to make as it's obviously not the most common pokemon. Any advice is appreciated.