Smogon Doubles Teambuilding Competition! Round 3: ENSUE

[Deoxymoron]

(Co-hosted by Ultimathunder)

Welcome, everybody, to the first ever Smogon Doubles Teambuilding Competition! This is going to be a weekly competition that anyone can join at any time. Each week, a core of two pokemon will be posted. Everyone who is interested will try to make a team utilizing those two pokemon, and then come back and post their results. Along with your team, you must provide a short explanation on what each pokemon does for the team, sort of a mini-RMT. After a week has passed, voting will begin. During the following three days, anyone can come and vote on the team they think is best. To make things easier, you are not allowed to vote for your own team. This competition is going to include Pokebank.

In addition, if you win, you will get sweet bragging rights, your team in the Hall of Eternal Fame and a total of 3 Smogon Doubles Leaderboard Points!!! If you want, you can post replays of your team in action to increase your chances of winning. You can also go to #doubles or the PS Doubles chatroom and show off your team to try and get some support, but you are not allowed to explicitly ask anyone to vote for you.

HALL OF ETERNAL FAME

Round 1: Mega Charizard Y + Hitmontop
Winner: Truce

Round 2: Gardevoir + Scizor
Winner: BLOOD TOTEM

And without further ado, let's get started! Good luck to all!

 

[Deoxymoron]

ROUND 1

+

We're starting off simple. Topmoth (Hitmontop + Volcarona) was a popular core in BW Doubles, due to Volcarona's great stats and movepool and Hitmontop's fantastic support moves. This core is similar, but replaces Volcarona's great offensive typing and access to Quiver Dance with Mega Charizard Y, whose ability, Drought, brings sun to the field for 5 turns. Normally, the greatest hindrance on weather teams is the lack of good weather starters. Mega Charizard Y changes that with a nice 100 speed and a fantastic 159 SpA. The rest is up to you- let's see what teams you can think up!

 

[youngjake93]

Hide

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
- Protect

Hitmontop @ Sitrus Bery
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 64 Atk / 64 Def / 128 SDef
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Feint
- Wide Guard

Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Protect
- Bug Bite

Deoxys-Attack @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 238 Spd / 252 SAtk / 20 Atk
Mild Nature
- Psycho Boost
- Superpower
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 228 SDef / 252 HP / 24 Def / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Spore
- Foul Play
- Rage Powder

Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Steel Wing

Well, I had a pretty huge head-start because my current RMT iteration post-suggestions already had Charizard Y and Top in it. Link for details. I will eventually add replays and my experiences after the changes when I get to it.
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/fire-fire-fire-glass-cannon-bug-shroom-peaked-2070.3493697/

 

[AuraRayquaza]

Hide

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Heat Wave

Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 64 Atk / 64 Def / 128 SDef
Careful Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Feint
- Wide Guard

Rotom-Wash @ Assault Vest
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Electroweb
- Volt Switch

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Sleep Powder
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect

Aegislash @ Lum Berry
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Sacred Sword
- King's Shield

Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Sleep Talk

Never tried one of these activites before but decided to give it a go. ChariYard and Hitmontop were given, just used standard sets. I then added Rotom-W because the core seemed weak to CB Talonflame. AV because it is amazing and electroweb for a STAB icy wind. The evs let it live Mega Kangaskhan double edge and OHKO Lando T with hydro pump out of sun. Then added Venusaur to abuse the sun and give me sleep as well as a way to hurt fairies. Aegislash was next because it is my answer to TR, priority and can set up with fake out support from hitmontop. Finally, Talonflame was added for priority brave bird to OHKO opposing ChariYards, another way to hit cresselia on her weaker stat and another sun abuser in flare blitz.

 

[Scotti]

Team is Here :3

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Air Slash
- Solar Beam
- Substitute

Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Brick Break
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out
- Detect

Thundurus (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast

Celebi @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Hasty Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Taunt
- Swords Dance

Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
- Psyshock
- Tailwind

The point of this team is to fake out with hitmontop and setup sub with charizard. Next round i mega evolve then attack just to make sure nothing tried to switch in to setup their weather. I run Brick Break on hitmontop because Dual Screens are a pain, and i hate facing teams that use them. Thundurus helps a ton because it spread paralysis on to everything my opponent sends out. That may not seems like much, but when thundurus does its job charizard will have an easier time sweeping because it can outspeed the things that try to check it. Celebi does a great job a luring in heatran or pretty much anything that "tries" to wall charizard. Also it helps against politoed who is a pain because it can make rain come from the sky, and get rid of the beautiful sunny day that charizard setup for the battle. Terrakion is great a taunting trick room users, but i mostly choose terrakion to act as a back up check to tyranitar, so i can utilize sun later on into the match. Latios is just there to cause chaos, and if it can setup tailwind to give charizard some speed. Thats pretty much the whole point of my team, but i wish i could use fighting gem or draco gem for my latios or hitmontop.

 

[youngjake93]

scotti I really like your team, but I almost feel like Modest Hydreigon would fit Latios's role much better. There is the downside of being weaker to fairies(although CharY is a hard stop to most), but it hits a little harder and Dark has better offensive and defensive synergy with your team(again, other than fairies, but Latios is weak to them anyway).
Better yet, you could drop TailWind since you run prankster T-Wave anyway and Hydreigon has access to both Heat Wave and Superpower.

In fact, it could serve Latios's role as a nuke and Terrakion's role of TR and Ttar check all in one. Something to think about.


It is a good looking team though, most of the Pokemon partner exceptionally well with each other. Good supporter in Top, top-notch FWG core, plus Dragons and Terrakion have always been good fits on sun team.

 

[Ultimathunder]

Nice teams so far guys.

One thing I would like to see being posted along with the team descriptions are weaknesses to your team's core, and how your other team members deal with these.
And if you can, please put replays of your team in action, because a team in practice and in paper are different. Also don't give a replay against a shitty opponent.

That is all.

 

[BlankZero]

On paper team:

CharY/Top

Talonflame/Gastrodon/Volcarona/Landorus-T

If we're gonna abuse Wide Guard Top, might as well go full tilt and run 2 more Rock Slide weak mons with offensive leanings that thrive in Sun. Gastrodon and Lando-T round out our Rain/Sand protection.

It does lack a Chloroabuser, but Doubles really doesn't have any good ones that I can think of other than Grass Pledge Venusaur, which is too gimmicky for my taste.

I'll put sets together later.

 

[Deoxymoron]

We have a banner now! Thanks to Acklow for making it. By the way, this round ends on December 20th, so be sure to post your teams before then!

 

[cxinlee]

team

Charizard @ Charizardite Y

Ability: Solar Power

EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP

Timid Nature

- Heat Wave

- Solar Beam

- Hidden Power Rock

- Protect



Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def

Bold Nature

IVs: 0 Spd

- Psyshock

- Trick Room

- Icy Wind

- Helping Hand



Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb

Ability: Prankster

EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP

Timid Nature

- Thunderbolt

- Thunder Wave

- Hidden Power [Ice]

- Taunt



Rhyperior @ Assault Vest

Ability: Solid Rock

EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef

Adamant Nature

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

- Fire Punch

- Megahorn



Exeggutor @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Harvest

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk

Modest Nature

- Psychic

- Leaf Storm

- Trick Room

- Hidden Power Ground



Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef

Adamant Nature

- Close Combat

- Sucker Punch

- Wide Guard

- Fake Out

description

The theme of the team is speed control.

Char Y is the main powerhouse of the team with Heat Wave spam, Solarbeam is standard for coverage against rock and water types. I chose HP rock over focus blast mainly to beat opposing Char Y, Talonflame (which are very annoying), and other stuff like Dragonite. Protect gives a free turn for Trick Room and Icy Wind against faster opponents.



Cresselia does loads for this team, and does well with Char Y. It can provide Icy Wind support to make up for Charizard’s mediocre speed, and Helping Hand to boost Heat Wave’s power to ridiculous levels. Trick Room is for other stuff, namely Rhyperior (It also likes HH EQ) and Exeggutor. Sitrus Berry gives it extra longevity.

Thundurus provides Prankster Thunder Wave+ Taunt support, with the latter being especially important with the Wide Guard boost that Char Y hates. However most of the time, it functions as a powerful attacker with LO and Bolt Beam coverage.

I used Assault Vest Rhyperior because everyone was hyping over how awesome it was, and I was curious to see if it was true. Lacking Protect, Rhyperior usually lasts less longer, but a defense boost is always a plus, and allows Rhyperior to be a little more brave and deal more damage. Rock Slide and EQ are standard, Megahorn for grasses, and Fire punch hits Breloom (In TR of course), and gets the OHKO on Abomasnow.

Exeggutor is actually a very underused and underrated pokemon. Harvest and Sitrus Berry means that it will last pretty long, and its 125 base SpA is no joke. Trick Room is a must with its low speed, and Psychic and Leaf Storm are its STABs and HP Ground is for steels, particularly Heatran. It has pretty good synergy with Rhyperior, keeping Conkeldurr, Hitmontop, and Rotom-Wash in place, while in return Rhyperior takes down Jirachi, Heatran, Abomasnow, Togekiss and sometimes even Volcarona.

Hitmontop is great to have and works great with Char Y with Intimidate to make up for Char y’s low defense stat, and the ability to avoid Rock Slides. Fake Out and Close Combat are standard, Sucker Punch was mainly chosen over Stone Edge because it provided better coverage. Wide Guard is amazing now that the fail rate was lowered to 0%. Mons like Landorus-T, Charizard Y, and Rhyperior can’t do anything when it’s on the field. Sitrus Berry is a must, because it is not very bulky and won’t last very long.

 

[BlankZero]

team

Charizard @ Charizardite Y

Ability: Solar Power

EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP

Timid Nature

- Heat Wave

- Solar Beam

- Hidden Power Rock

- Protect



Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def

Bold Nature

IVs: 0 Spd

- Psyshock

- Trick Room

- Icy Wind

- Helping Hand



Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb

Ability: Prankster

EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP

Timid Nature

- Thunderbolt

- Thunder Wave

- Hidden Power [Ice]

- Taunt



Rhyperior @ Assault Vest

Ability: Solid Rock

EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef

Adamant Nature

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

- Fire Punch

- Megahorn



Exeggutor @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Harvest

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk

Modest Nature

- Psychic

- Leaf Storm

- Trick Room

- Hidden Power Ground



Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef

Adamant Nature

- Close Combat

- Sucker Punch

- Wide Guard

- Fake Out

description

The theme of the team is speed control.

Char Y is the main powerhouse of the team with Heat Wave spam, Solarbeam is standard for coverage against rock and water types. I chose HP rock over focus blast mainly to beat opposing Char Y, Talonflame (which are very annoying), and other stuff like Dragonite. Protect gives a free turn for Trick Room and Icy Wind against faster opponents.



Cresselia does loads for this team, and does well with Char Y. It can provide Icy Wind support to make up for Charizard’s mediocre speed, and Helping Hand to boost Heat Wave’s power to ridiculous levels. Trick Room is for other stuff, namely Rhyperior (It also likes HH EQ) and Exeggutor. Sitrus Berry gives it extra longevity.

Thundurus provides Prankster Thunder Wave+ Taunt support, with the latter being especially important with the Wide Guard boost that Char Y hates. However most of the time, it functions as a powerful attacker with LO and Bolt Beam coverage.

I used Assault Vest Rhyperior because everyone was hyping over how awesome it was, and I was curious to see if it was true. Lacking Protect, Rhyperior usually lasts less longer, but a defense boost is always a plus, and allows Rhyperior to be a little more brave and deal more damage. Rock Slide and EQ are standard, Megahorn for grasses, and Fire punch hits Breloom (In TR of course), and gets the OHKO on Abomasnow.

Exeggutor is actually a very underused and underrated pokemon. Harvest and Sitrus Berry means that it will last pretty long, and its 125 base SpA is no joke. Trick Room is a must with its low speed, and Psychic and Leaf Storm are its STABs and HP Ground is for steels, particularly Heatran. It has pretty good synergy with Rhyperior, keeping Conkeldurr, Hitmontop, and Rotom-Wash in place, while in return Rhyperior takes down Jirachi, Heatran, Abomasnow, Togekiss and sometimes even Volcarona.

Hitmontop is great to have and works great with Char Y with Intimidate to make up for Char y’s low defense stat, and the ability to avoid Rock Slides. Fake Out and Close Combat are standard, Sucker Punch was mainly chosen over Stone Edge because it provided better coverage. Wide Guard is amazing now that the fail rate was lowered to 0%. Mons like Landorus-T, Charizard Y, and Rhyperior can’t do anything when it’s on the field. Sitrus Berry is a must, because it is not very bulky and won’t last very long.

I'm curious as to why you're running TWave on Thundurus when you're running predominantly Trick Room...

 

[cxinlee]

The same reason why im running icy wind on cresselia

As mentioned, thundurus' main job is to attack, so most of the time paralysis isn't going to be common.

Also, the theme of the team is speed control, and having multiple ways of controlling speed is always great.

 

[GCN-2000]

Here it is:

Hide

Tortillas (Charizard) (M) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 104 HP / 76 Def / 120 SAtk / 104 SDef / 104 Spd
Bold Nature
- Heat Wave
- SolarBeam
- Roost
- Air Slash

Tops-a-Lot (Hitmontop) (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP / 100 Atk / 144 Def / 104 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Wide Guard
- Fake Out

PalmPixie (Tropius) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 64 HP / 148 Def / 88 SAtk / 208 SDef
Bold Nature
- Leech Seed
- Roost
- Solar Beam
- Sunny Day

Mantis (Leavanny) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 88 HP / 120 Atk / 104 Def / 104 SDef / 92 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Sticky Web
- Leaf Blade
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor

A Lamp (Chandelure) (F) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 124 HP / 96 Def / 128 SAtk / 96 SDef / 64 Spd
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Will-O-Wisp
- Clear Smog
- Shadow Ball

Mach (Machamp) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 136 Def / 104 SDef / 148 Atk / 120 HP
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- DynamicPunch
- Rock Slide

Floodgate (Gastrodon) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 156 Def / 128 SDef / 164 HP / 60 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Clear Smog
- Toxic
- Scald
- Recover

This team's theme is to harness the power of the sun, as seen with my Chlorophyll Leavanny and Harvest Tropius. I appreciate any form of critique about the team so that may improve it (if able to, just not sure about all the rules for this contest). I would just like to request that you try to keep your comments from being too negative.

Update: Took off Machamp for Gastrodon; it gives better support that is needed badly.

 

[BlankZero]

Heatran nukes pretty much everything you listed, and SubTran will make you rage.

Also, nothing has Protect, Leavanny is pretty weak overall with poor STAB coverage, and is the only real "fast" thing on the team, and you have no answer to Rain teams, and barely any to Sand running Talonflame.

 

[GCN-2000]

ok, thanks for the tips, BlankZero. I'll see what I can do about that.

 

[Truce]

So I didn't actually make this team for the competition (sorry!), but it includes the core and got me 2k+ on the ladder so I figured I'd share it with you guys. I think I'm still within the contest deadline so if you want to count this as an entry that'd be cool, but again it wasn't technically based off the core posted.

Importable

Landorus-T @ Yache Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 24 Def / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Imprison
- Protect

Heatran (F) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 224 SAtk / 28 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Substitute
- Protect

Charizard (F) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 8 HP / 108 Def / 252 SAtk / 32 SDef / 108 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Solarbeam
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect

Cresselia @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 200 HP / 44 SAtk / 252 SDef / 12 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm Nature
- Psyshock
- Icy Wind
- Skill Swap
- Rest

Hitmontop @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 172 HP / 248 Atk / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Wide Guard

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 196 HP / 76 SAtk / 212 SDef / 24 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt
- Protect

Description

Yup, an Imprison Landorus-T. I saw it got the move and wanted to see if I could make a team around it since I had so much success with an Imprison Musharna set on the cartridge. By blocking Earthquakes and Rock Slides, as well as Protect, Landorus-T acts as almost an ongoing Wide Guard / Feint. This lets Heatran and Charizard-Y sit around comfortably without fear of their 4x weaknesses and spam powerful Heat Waves. Hitmontop can Wide Guard for real for better security for the duo and Cresselia loves to be able to swap Levitate on to Heatran.

I always do ChestoRest on my Skill Swap Cresselias after getting Harvest from a Trevenant one game, but I suppose it could be replaced with Sitrus and Protect. Cresselia's Icy Wind and Thundurus' Thunder Wave help support the slower, bulky spreads the team sports as a whole. The second guard move on Hitmontop gives Thundrus room to Taunt faster prankster Taunt users as well as blocking Talonflame and general priority shenanigans. Finally, the EV spreads probably seem a bit weird but it all lines up on speed tiers, hits specific hitpoint values for residual damage, and survives hits from strong attackers as benchmarks.

There's a lot of more subtle synergy like Charizard's sun reducing water type attacks that hinders Landorus-T and Heatran, Cresselia having psychic type STAB to hit any Wide Guard users that try to block the Earthquake + Heat Wave spam, and so on. I definitely recommend giving it a try - it's a really fun team to use that has a little bit of everything.

 

[BlankZero]

Ok, I have sets now for my team idea, with some changes due to some sets already posted.

import team

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 160 Spd / 252 SAtk / 96 HP
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Protect
- Overheat

Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Atk / 172 Def / 40 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Detect
- Wide Guard
- Fake Out

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Yache Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Spd / 24 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Imprison

Talonflame @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 136 Spd / 252 Atk / 120 HP
Jolly Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird

Gastrodon @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
- Stockpile

Trevenant @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Atk / 212 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Wood Hammer
- Will-O-Wisp

strategy

So here's my team. Charizard-Y and Hitmontop were required here, so I aimed to give them their best sets for the situation.

Charizard-Y is such a damn monster. Heat Wave/Solarbeam gives us coverage upon coverage for everything except Dragon/Fire typing. I opted for Overheat over HP Ice/Dragon Pulse because I think having that 140 bp nuke is more important. It runs just enough speed to outrun max speed Excadrill out of Sand, full SpAtk and rest in HP to dodge the OHKO off of CB Adamant Talonflame.

Toppers is still awesome and I wish I used him more often but Scrafty is way more enjoyable now with Assault Vest. Anyhow, Wide Guard aboose + CC + Detect + Fake out = Great Wall of Top. He can disrupt, shield, and otherwise annoy enemy teams, while still having a nice 120bp STAB attack. Sadly, Fighting is not a great typing anymore offensively or defensively. the EVs let him live 2 Psyshocks from Cress 100% of the time and 2 Psychics 99.6% of the time, as well as Talonflame's LO adamant Brave Bird after Intimidate while Choice Band only has a 43% chance of OHKOing. The Attack EVs+Adamant give him a 100% chance of OHKOing 252/0 MegaTTar, which is funny.

So obviously Hitmontop cockblocks the Rock slide spam this team fears, and after seeing that Imprison Lando-T idea, I'm sold! I always had trouble coming up with a third move for non-Scarf Landog, and usually ran SR in the 4th slot for lack of something better. I'll be testing Imprison now to help stop Excadrill cold, which would let me stop worrying about it completely.

Talonflame is obvious here, pairing off just as well as CharY with Top.

Gastrodon is mah baybay as most of you know, cold-stopping rain and being a fucking menace once it sets up. If the enemy lacks a Grass move, it's over unless they can kill it before it sets up. For example, Life Orb Deoxys-Attack Forme (Rash/252 SpAtk) can only do the following

252+ SpA Life Orb Deoxys-A Psycho Boost vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gastrodon: 341-403 (80 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

After Stockpile is fed:

252+ SpA Life Orb Deoxys-A Psycho Boost vs. +3 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gastrodon: 138-164 (32.3 - 38.4%) -- 2.1% chance to 3HKO

After setting up, Gastro literally shits on everything, only fearing crits. I went full Special Defense here because there's 2 stong, bulky Intimidate users on my team, making up for the loss of immediate bulk.

Finally, Trevenant is my Sun Abuser in earnest, abusing Harvest Sitrus behind Sub while helping check Water/Ground/Rock types.

ok, thanks for the tips, BlankZero. I'll see what I can do about that.

Don't forget what I said about EV distribution either.

• What does Leavanny need to outspeed, with OR WITHOUT sun support? What does it kill with its Attack EVs?
• What does the bulk EVs on CharY accomplish? Does it even live TTar's Rock Slide with that spread? Scarf Tar is a real threat in Doubles.
• Why Tropius and not Trevenant, who gets the better typing and power, with the same ability.
• Bulky Top is a good pick, but why Bullet Punch over Sucker Punch or even just Protect, which is still completely absent from your team.
• Gastrodon is a good pick. I myself have a sort of fetish for Stockpile Gastrodon, which actually has won me more than one close match. Rindo Berry is needed though, as well as smart bulk investments.
• Still no Protect anywhere, which can and will screw you over majorly. Protect in Doubles is probably more ubiquitous than Cresselia/TTar.

I'm not trying to bash your team in any way. I just want you to be aware of the more glaring faults in the team that WILL be exploited regularly.

So I didn't actually make this team for the competition (sorry!), but it includes the core and got me 2k+ on the ladder so I figured I'd share it with you guys. I think I'm still within the contest deadline so if you want to count this as an entry that'd be cool, but again it wasn't technically based off the core posted.

Importable

Landorus-T @ Yache Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 24 Def / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Imprison
- Protect

Heatran (F) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 224 SAtk / 28 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Substitute
- Protect

Charizard (F) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 8 HP / 108 Def / 252 SAtk / 32 SDef / 108 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Solarbeam
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect

Cresselia @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 200 HP / 44 SAtk / 252 SDef / 12 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm Nature
- Psyshock
- Icy Wind
- Skill Swap
- Rest

Hitmontop @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 172 HP / 248 Atk / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Wide Guard

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 196 HP / 76 SAtk / 212 SDef / 24 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt
- Protect

Description

Yup, an Imprison Landorus-T. I saw it got the move and wanted to see if I could make a team around it since I had so much success with an Imprison Musharna set on the cartridge. By blocking Earthquakes and Rock Slides, as well as Protect, Landorus-T acts as almost an ongoing Wide Guard / Feint. This lets Heatran and Charizard-Y sit around comfortably without fear of their 4x weaknesses and spam powerful Heat Waves. Hitmontop can Wide Guard for real for better security for the duo and Cresselia loves to be able to swap Levitate on to Heatran.

I always do ChestoRest on my Skill Swap Cresselias after getting Harvest from a Trevenant one game, but I suppose it could be replaced with Sitrus and Protect. Cresselia's Icy Wind and Thundurus' Thunder Wave help support the slower, bulky spreads the team sports as a whole. The second guard move on Hitmontop gives Thundrus room to Taunt faster prankster Taunt users as well as blocking Talonflame and general priority shenanigans. Finally, the EV spreads probably seem a bit weird but it all lines up on speed tiers, hits specific hitpoint values for residual damage, and survives hits from strong attackers as benchmarks.

There's a lot of more subtle synergy like Charizard's sun reducing water type attacks that hinders Landorus-T and Heatran, Cresselia having psychic type STAB to hit any Wide Guard users that try to block the Earthquake + Heat Wave spam, and so on. I definitely recommend giving it a try - it's a really fun team to use that has a little bit of everything.

The only things I'd ask are:
1. Is this originally a VGC team? The EVs look a lot like they were tailored for level 50 battles.
2. What does CharY's spread accomplish? Max SpAtk is obvious, but what about Bulk?
3. Why not Moonlight > Rest on Cress since it is a Sun team?

I love the idea of Imprison Lando-T stopping RS and EQ. that's actually pretty genius and I'll be on the lookout for it :)

 

[termi]

Incidentally, my most used team utilizes this core so might as well give it a shot:

Hide

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Focus Blast
- Protect

Garchomp (F) @ Yache Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dual Chop
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Tailwind

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Powder
- SolarBeam
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect

Jirachi @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 148 SDef / 108 Spd
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Icy Wind
- Psychic
- Helping Hand

Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 20 Spd / 252 HP / 236 SDef
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Feint
- Wide Guard

Desription:

Hide

Charizard is there for obvious reasons, I use Focus Miss on this set because my team greatly struggles with Heatran otherwise. Hitmontop is amazingly useful, as Zard and burd attract Rock Slide spam, which Top can block with Wide Guard. EVs focus on special defense, as I usually found that I wanted to take special hits better than I did. 20 Speed EVs for speed creep on fellow defensive Hitmontops so that he gets to Fake Out faster than the enemy Hitmontop in case both come in at the same time (usually when leading). Garchomp finds it quite comfortable to spam EQ, as there are two Pokemon immune to it and Hitmontop can use Wide Guard to protect itself from EQ if they're out at the same time. Venusaur is a second sun abuser, although I tend to use him more for sleep shenanigans than for sweeping, but he does take excellent care of Rotom-W and other bulky waters regardless. Thanks to the powerful spread moves of Chomp and Zard, Talonflame finds it easy to clean late-game once the opposition is weakened. 252 Speed EVs to outspeed burds that run HP EVs and I generally don't care for the bulk on Talonflame, if it kills a couple of Pokemon then it's got its job done, not asking more than that. Jirachi redirects many harmful attacks aimed at the team, especially Psychic attacks aimed at Hitmontop. EV spread is taken from the site bc I was too lazy to come up with some unique custom spread. Pretty decent team I suppose.

 

[Deoxymoron]

Announcement: This week's submissions will end at 8 P.M. CST, which is in a little more than 12 hours. Please post your teams before then, and if you already have, here's a great chance to show your team in action to encourage more votes.

Also I want to give a shout-out to BlankZero for helping other contestants with their teams. This is supposed to be a friendly competition, so working together is never a bad idea!

 

[Deoxymoron]

(Sorry I'm postng this a few hours late- I'll try to be more timely in the future.) And so concludes the submission portion of round 1. Let's recap, shall we?

@youngjake93 -

@AuraRayquaza-

@scotti-

@BlankZero-

@cxinlee-

@GCN-2000-

@Truce-

@Robert Alfons-

Cast your votes now! Voting ends on December 23rd.

P.S. I am never doing that much copypaste ever again.

 

[Kingler]

Deoxymoron can you please link to the teams in the posts? it's kinda hard having to go through all the team movesets >_>
anyway my vote goes for cxinlee

 

[tofucocoa]

Truce

 

[BlankZero]

Can you please change my team to the one I listed later on? That Volc one was for lolz

 

[Mizuhime]

I wanted to vote for GCN-2000- because he had a tropious, but he stacks weaknesses on his team, 2 fire, 2 rock, and it's reliant on hitmontop to stay alive for way to long. so my vote is actually going to cxinlee. His team seems like something I would use and has good typing synergy and can perform well in, and outside of trick room. Good work d00d

 

[Deoxymoron]

Can you please change my team to the one I listed later on? That Volc one was for lolz

Sorry Blank, I'll fix that as soon as possible.

EDIT: fixed