Alright seeing as the first post about Eevee-passing took a pretty unorganized starting point (no offense, you probably just met it on the ladder and wanted to kill something), I'll go ahead and make a big arse argument as to why this strategy is broken.
Whenever i refer to Eevee-passing (or EV-pass) I will be referring to the Necrozma-recipient team I built, pretty much mathematically/logically, to garner the most success out of as many matchups as possible utilizing EV-pass. Go look at the pastebin before you say EVpass is managable, because pretty much everything you and
nadando think stops it, doesn't stop it.
Here is the team
It's worth mentioning that I don't consider this team perfect or done, it's just what I've discovered most efficient. Sash Smeargle is a possibility over Hitmontop or Jirachi, but Mental Herb is really nice, as well as Icy Wind to cancel out opposing Twind. Actual typing is also nice.
Roles:
Eevee: it's Eeveepass. Come on. If you don't want the potential cheese you can get out of Endure + PsyTerrain, then use Helping Hand.
Jirachi: main man rachi as redirector. Mental Herb is good cuz taunt, icy wind / iron head is nice against all speed control.
Hitmontop: Eject Button tops is nice for early game strong EQ / rock slide users. Fake Out + Intimi can also be enough to set up. Lead if strong spread.
Necrozma: easily the most consistent recipient of the stat boosts. It's CM cress after 5 years on steroids. HP ground for dark types only.
Scarf Lele: 1) good backup clean mon if you get crit 2) blocks early priority against Eevee 3) blocks fake out later on 4) Necro now oneshots more
CharY: mainly here because opposing weather can fuck up Necro's Moonlight, and 75% healing on +2+2+2+2+2 necro is just so good. Overheat so you can break muk.
"Hey man i could just double target the Necro right?" well go ahead and look at these calcs
252+ Atk Muk Knock Off vs. +2 252 HP / 74+ Def Necrozma: 84-102 (21.1 - 25.6%) yea that's just pathetic
252+ SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. +2 252 HP / 0 SpD Necrozma: 203-242 (51 - 60.8%) and no one even uses modest
252+ Atk Choice Band Tyranitar Crunch vs. +2 252 HP / 74+ Def Necrozma: 186-222 (46.7 - 55.7%) yes i know band isn't used but thats my point
252 SpA Gengar-Mega Shadow Ball vs. +2 252 HP / 0 SpD Necrozma: 176-210 (44.2 - 52.7%) oh btw this gets outsped
252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. +2 252 HP / 0 SpD Necrozma: 176-210 (44.2 - 52.7%) worth mentioning this counts as CM bait
252+ SpA Charizard-Mega-Y Overheat vs. +2 252 HP / 0 SpD Necrozma: 225-265 (56.5 - 66.5%) remember that sun lets necro heal 75% and this dies
And here are a few replays of this team in action:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankdoublesou-492205930 vs Skiddo (good example of switching around a shit lead matchup)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankdoublesou-493757447 vs Paint
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankdoublesou-493748364 not vs haruno :]
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankdoublesou-494077283 roomtour final vs parkour_lad
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankdoublesou-494221754 this one doesn't really highlight any strengths about the act of EV-passing, but it's funny cuz n1n1 lost to 4 pokemon after "hard-countering" this strategy xd
Now the thing about this team is that it isn't completely braindead. Reminiscent of the legendary Hypnosis + Gravity team that McMeghan broke Doubles with, and also kind of like bunnies, EV-pass is a type of cheese. Gonna go ahead and say fuck you haruno in case you wanna say bunnies isn't cheese, because using mew with Transform is cheese in itself, especially paired with double setup. EV-pass, like the other two, is not "skill-less" cheese, because you have to weigh the possibilities of the first few turns very thoroughly, just like you had to the entire game through when using HypnoGrav. This gives it some sort of merit for staying in the metagame. My argument is that, considering the fact that the only way for the regularly built Doubles team to deal with this dude is a critical hit on a STAB attack either SE or boosted by terrain or weather makes it, in my eyes, completely batshit broken.
The slightest passive trait in your building pattern punishes you ridiculously hard if you face this team, unless you bring an irrational move. Let's take a look at these irrational counters, and why they don't "unbreak" EV-pass:
1) Roar / Whirlwind / Dragon Tail
Let us take a good hard look at the potentially viable users of these moves...
Kangaskhan-Mega, Zapdos, Suicune, Salamence(-Mega), Lati@s, Empoleon, Heatran,
Musketeers,
Chesnaught, Tyranitar,
Hydreigon, Pangoro,
Crobat... probably more, point still stands.
Bolded Pokemon on the list have way too much 4MSS to take these moves - those that argue against are saying that Zapdos doesn't want TW. Shut up.
Pokemon in
Italics get outsped (not relevant with these moves, but still) and OHKOd without Psychic Terrain. Hearan, Empoleon, and bulky Latias get killed regardless. So arguing that Roar, Whirlwind, and D-tail are good Doubles moves is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Suicune having to give up one of Ice Beam / Speed Control slot / Protect / STAB is a ridiculous statement, but i gave it the benefit of the doubt and didn't bold it.
Now... Let's look a bit more fair on these moves. What else are they good for?
- Dealing with DD mence, can be done by Ice moves / Thunder Wave or Trick Room. All those do objectively more than Roar as single moves.
- Dealing with Azumarill, can also be done via Psychic Terrain; Tapu Lele is WAY better for your team than using a Pokemon with Roar and a moveslot.
- idk bothering people behind a substitute? you can just break that with an attack that deals 25% of the Pokemon's health.
- new pop-up: EV-pass
worth mentioning that Dragon Tail might deal a bit of dmg, but it also misses and cant hit azu or sub users.
So, since Roar / Whirlwind fill about 3 and half VERY specific niches each, I believe it's possible to staple the moves as
irrational moves in Doubles
2) Toxic
Now, we can't do a list of potentially viable users of this move, as everyone gets it. Obviously there will be some with too much 4MSS to use the move, but lets look at the things Toxic can do for you.
- Do absolutely nothing against Hyper Offense
- Kill an Azumarill after it has killed 4 of your 6 Pokemon
- Deal with CM Cresselia, oh wait no one uses that this gen
- Deal with Necrozma, especially EV-pass
That counts as about 1.13 specific niches. Toxic is, without a doubt an
irrational move in Doubles, and probably also just
bad.
3) Haze
Now comes the good stuff. I'm not going to make paint a picture of how shit of a move Haze is in Doubles, because I respect the move and try myself to make it work. It doesn't get redirected, so it's much
better at countering setup strategies (EV-pass obviously included), and it can go through Protect. What's more is, Haze isn't only for targeting enemy setup, it can also be used to refresh Pokemon, who have used moves that lower their own stats, even through their Protect use. This can be a gamewinner for an ally pokemon such as Draco Meteor Latios, Overheat Zard, and one of my personal favourites: Mixed Chicken with Overheat and Superpower. The main problem with Haze is that it just simply has terrible distribution.
The only actual potential viable users of this move are Blastoise, Milotic, Darkrai, and Tapu Fini (e: Volc too!). I guess you could also try it on Zygarde, but how often is that going to be more useful than one of Espeed / DDance / Glare? I'll tell you when! Only if you meet this stupid team I built.
So to conclude, EV-pass should be quickbanned. Sad for me to admit, as I've spent quite some time thinking of the optimal team composition for it, and yet if HypnoGrav deserved a quickban, then this does too. It forces people to either autolose, pray for crits, or resort to irrational Doubles moves with limited viable distribution. EV-pass is set apart from other arguably broken things, since it does this. Sure, you can flat out hard-counter it with one moveslot, but that moveslot will be very idle outside of it. This is unlike things like Salamence or Tapu Lele, as they have counters and checks that can put in tonnes of work against any matchup.
It's quite frankly a stupid concept, and we need to rid ourselves it of before SPL starts.
e: updated the pastebin to speedcreep Eevee a bit. It now outspeeds Pheromosa post boost (mostly aimed at creeping Deo-A)