Rate My Team: VGC Doubles.

[Krash]

This is my VCG Doubles team. So far I've had pretty decent luck with this team, winning quite a few matches with friends and people online. My only real Hum-And-Haw in this lineup is my Smeargle, who quite frankly, I've been switching around as a supporter/trickster.

Kingdra
Item: Scope LensNature: Modest
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 60/HP 252/Sp.ATK 192/Speed
Moveset:

• Focus Energy
• Draco Meteor
• Muddy Water
• Outrage

Kingdra is my glass canon that usually only goes out when I have Togekiss on the field, so if the opportunity presents itself, I usually make them my leads. Togekiss uses Follow Me to ensure Kingdra gets a free Focus Energy setup. That paired with Scope Lens, ensures a 100% critical hit every time. Seeing as Crit hits bypass status changes, I can Draco Meteor again and again and not have to worry about the stat drop. Sniper also increases my critical hit damage, dealing 2.25 times the damage. With my maxed Sp.ATK, this deals some serious hurt. Muddy Water is used as a coverage move. I had used Surf before, but I got tired of dealing damage to my other Pokemon. Outrage is sort of an "Only If" move, meaning if I'm facing an especially bulky Sp.DEF pokemon, I can chip away with Outrage and deal Physical damage.

Togekiss
Item: LeftoversNature: Calm
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252/HP 4/DEF 252/Sp.DEFMoveset:

• Follow Me
• Thunder Wave
• Dazzling Gleam
• Fire Blast

This Togekiss was made strictly as a support tank for my Kingdra. Thunder Wave gets the paralysis and slow down on the competition, where Follow Me (aided by this things huge bulk) allows Kingdra to set up a Focus Energy, letting it go untouched (save for coverage moves), thus setting up the 100% crit chance.

Mega Pidgeot
Item: Pidgeotite
Nature: Timid
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 4/ATK 252/Sp.ATK 252/SpeedMoveset:

• Hurricane
• Roost
• Hidden Power Ground
• Hyper Beam

This Mega Pidgeot is fairly standard. It's fast, and it hits hard. Hurricane is the primary STAB, hitting 100% of the time thanks to No Guard. Roost is for HP recovery, and Hidden Power Ground is to deal with Electric and Steel types that would be otherwise unbothered by this bird. I know Hyper Beam is a bit unconventional, but in cases where I need to Roost, I still have a pretty powerful STAB to use after I've sacked my Flying type for a turn. I know that I will have a full turn to take more damage later, but if I have my Togekiss still up, queue a Follow Me. If not, then I would only really use Hyper Beam after Roost if I knew I wasn't going to last much longer.

Ferrothorn
Item: Rocky Helmet
Nature: Impish
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 4/HP 252/DEF 252/Sp.DEFMoveset:

• Toxic
• Gyro Ball
• Leech Seed
• Iron Defense

This is not an innovative Ferrothorn. Rocky Helmet/Iron Barbs gets incredible chip damage off to opponents who hit with physical attacks. The Impish nature slows this pokemon down even more in favor of increased defence, thus making Gyro Ball a bit more of a powerful STAB. Leech Seed stacks with Toxic for even MORE chip damage, and adds recovery. Iron Defense, paired with the Impish Nature and EVs invested in Defense make this a pretty touch cookie to eliminate. The maxed Sp.DEF stat is for Special hitters, and the 4 EVs in HP were pretty much so they wouldn't go anywhere else. He's not meant to hit hard, but he's meant to piss you off.

Smeargle
Item: Red Card
Nature: Timid
Ability: Moody
EVs: 4/HP 252/DEF 252/SpeedMoveset:

• Dark Void
• King's Shield
• Shadow Force
• Guard Split

Like I said above, this particular Smeargle has the habit of changing tasks on me. I opted for the famous Dark Void Smeargle because it's a pretty alright move to put on something that can learn anything. With the maxed Speed EVs, it can usually fire one of these off before the opponent gets a chance to attack or set up. King's Shield works just like Protect, but has the added effect of lowering the attack stat of the thing that tries to hit it. Where Smeargles are mostly suicide pokemon anyway (crappy defenses) I thought this would be a nifty way to mess with people trying to take it out. Shadow Force works as a turn staller. For one, it allows Smearle to hold on for one more turn (albeit, it doesnt do very much). Secondly, it's one of the only attacks I would want to give Smeargle should I decide to do any damage with him. I had Judgement there before for STAB, but I liked the idea of messing with my opponent. That turn buffer before the actual strike accomplishes one of two things: The opponent either focuses all of its next attacks on Smeargle knowing I can't King's Shield, earning me a free turn with its partner, or they retreat and go into something that can take a base 120 Ghost move. Seeing as Smeargle is a throw-away choice, I opt to mess with minds. Lastly, I chose Guard Split as a way of lowering a bulky opponent's Def and Sp.DEF. Even with the invested EVs in these two stats, Smeargle still sucks bigtime when it comes to bulk. With this move, I can lower an opponents base defenses, making them easier for my heavy hitters to take out.


So there's my team. I know that it's flawed, but all teams are to a degree. My biggest wildcard, as I said, is the last pal on my list. I'm thinking of scrapping him completely if I can find something else to piss off my opponents with. I'm up for suggestions, for sure.


Also, keep in mind that this team is VGC Doubles, and NOT Smogon.

 

[Wispy Willow]

Ah, it's good to see some other VGC players around here...

Anyway, before I begin I'd like to say that I've gotten a bit rusty lately so my advice might no be as good as it could be, but at least I am giving you advice in the first place.

OK, let's see... Overall, (appart from lacking a sixith member) the team's type matchups look... Pretty good, I must say. Not perfect, but no glaring weaknesses either.


As for the individual 'mons...


Kingdra:

Spoiler

...This Kingdra is giving me ideas for a Kingdra of my own, so thanks for that. Either way, I have a few suggestions for this one: first, get rid of Outrage since it is random which target it hits - thus, if you want to target, say, a Goodra, you only have a 50% likelyhood of actually hitting it as opposed to the other 'mon which could be a Steel type like Aegislash. As for what you could replace it with... *Looks up Kingdra's learnset* ...You could use Waterfall as a Physical Water STAB, Clear Smog as a method to remove opposing stat boosts, Flash Cannon for Fairy types, Ice Beam/Blizzard for an Ice attack, Yawn or Icy Wind for utility. Also, if you do decide to use a Physical move, I suggest you don't use a Nature that lowers Attack - instead, use a Nature like Rash that doesn't lower one of the Attacking stats.

Togekiss:

Spoiler

Ah, I love me a good Togekiss... Anyway, if you're going to use this Togekiss as a Follow Me 'mon, I would suggest giving it some longevity with a recovery move like Roost. Other then that, the only thing I can really think of is to give it Air Slash to take advantage of Paraflinch or Protect for Protect.

Mega Pidgeot:

Spoiler

...To be honest, there are way better Flying type Megas then Pidgeot... Though I will save that for when I talk about other team options. For now, I'll just give you whatever advice I can for Pidgeot. First, Hyper Beam isn't really worth wasting a moveslot on - instead, I suggest you go with Heat Wave to target Steel types (I know you have HP Ground, but A. Skarmory and Bronzong exist and B. Heat Wave has more power and takes advantage of No Guard). I don't really have more suggestions for it since I've never used one.

Ferrothorn:

Spoiler

Ah, Ferrothorn, one of my favourites.... Well, I could make some suggestions here, but I'd rather give you a my set so you can get an idea or two:

Ferrothorn
Item: Leftovers/Rocky Helmet
Nature: Brave, EVs: EVs: 228 HP, 108 Atk, 72 Def, 100 SpD
Ability: Iron Barbs
Moves:
Gyro Ball
Power Whip/Protect
Protect/Leech Seed
Curse

The idea with this set is to use Curse to boost Attack and Defence, then hit hard with Gyro Ball, taking advantage of the Speed drop from the aforementioned Curse. As for the other moves, Power Whip for an extra (and more reliable) STAB, Protect for Protect and Leech Seed for recovery.

Smeargle:

Spoiler

Well, I've never used a Smeargle competitively, so I'm not too sure how this'll work out, but I can give you a few ideas I have seen before. First, you could give it a Power Herb and the moves Geomancy and Batton Pass, whoich could work like this: Togekiss uses Follow Me, Smeagrle uses Geomancy and gets all the boosts turn 1 thanks to the Power Herb, then on turn 2, Togekiss uses Follow Me (assuming it's still alive) while Smeargle Batton Passes the boosts onto Kingdra (or some other Special attacker). Another suggestion is to give it a Focus Sash since most things will OHKO it. You could replace Guard Split with Transform so you can get a copy of one of your 'mons, boosts included... Kingdra, for instance. And you should probably give it 252 HP EVs and put the rest in either the Defences or Speed... I don't really have any other ideas.

As for other 'mons I can suggest... Let's see... First, Clefairy could replace Togekiss:

Clefairy
Item: Eviolite
Nature: Bold, EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Sp. Def.
Ability: Friend Guard
Moves:
Dazzling Gleam
Follow Me
Moonlight/Wish/Helping Hand/Healing Wish/Light Screen/Reflect/Protect/Thunder Wave/Toxic/Substitute/Aromatheropy/Heal Pulse/Icy Wind/Knock Off/Magic Coat
Whichever move from slot 3 works best with what you picked for said slot

The idea here is, much like Togekiss, to use Follow Me to draw the opponent's attack(s) towards this 'mon instead of a 'mon that might want to set up. However, togekiss doesn't have Friend Guard, which is a very good Ability that lowers damage that an ally receives. Another thing it doesn't have is such a vast array of support moves, which makes it a way better Follow Me user. Oh, and Dazzling Gleam so that it isn't completely useless if it gets Taunted.


I mentioned earlier that there are way better Flying Megas then Mega Pidgeot, here they are. Oh, and I've kinda given up on writing out sets at this point.

Mega Pinsir is a great Physical attacker, with Aerialate boosting Normal type moves ant giving them STAB.

Mega Charizard Y is a great Special attacker with Drought-boosted Heat Waves and Solar Beams.

And Mega Salamence is pretty much the king of (non-Legendary) Megas with those massive stats and Aerialate turning Normal moves like Double Edge into Flying types and giving them that boost. And there are also Special variants with Hyper Voice, so you have multiple options there.


And as for some candidates for a final 'mon...

Talonflame, a Physical attacker with high-powered priority in the form of Gale Wings and Brave Bird.

Chandelure, one of the strongest Special attackers in the game that can take any Fire or Fighting attacks thrown in Ferrothorn's direction.

Excadrill, a powerful Physical attacker with access to Mold Breaker.

Sylveon, a Special attacker who only really needs Hyper Voice to do damage.

Gallade, a high-risk Physical attacker.

And Greninja... Do I really need to explain Greninja?

 

[Krash]

Ah, it's good to see some other VGC players around here...

Spoiler

Anyway, before I begin I'd like to say that I've gotten a bit rusty lately so my advice might no be as good as it could be, but at least I am giving you advice in the first place.

OK, let's see... Overall, (appart from lacking a sixith member) the team's type matchups look... Pretty good, I must say. Not perfect, but no glaring weaknesses either.


As for the individual 'mons...


Kingdra:

Spoiler

...This Kingdra is giving me ideas for a Kingdra of my own, so thanks for that. Either way, I have a few suggestions for this one: first, get rid of Outrage since it is random which target it hits - thus, if you want to target, say, a Goodra, you only have a 50% likelyhood of actually hitting it as opposed to the other 'mon which could be a Steel type like Aegislash. As for what you could replace it with... *Looks up Kingdra's learnset* ...You could use Waterfall as a Physical Water STAB, Clear Smog as a method to remove opposing stat boosts, Flash Cannon for Fairy types, Ice Beam/Blizzard for an Ice attack, Yawn or Icy Wind for utility. Also, if you do decide to use a Physical move, I suggest you don't use a Nature that lowers Attack - instead, use a Nature like Rash that doesn't lower one of the Attacking stats.

Togekiss:

Spoiler

Ah, I love me a good Togekiss... Anyway, if you're going to use this Togekiss as a Follow Me 'mon, I would suggest giving it some longevity with a recovery move like Roost. Other then that, the only thing I can really think of is to give it Air Slash to take advantage of Paraflinch or Protect for Protect.

Mega Pidgeot:

Spoiler

...To be honest, there are way better Flying type Megas then Pidgeot... Though I will save that for when I talk about other team options. For now, I'll just give you whatever advice I can for Pidgeot. First, Hyper Beam isn't really worth wasting a moveslot on - instead, I suggest you go with Heat Wave to target Steel types (I know you have HP Ground, but A. Skarmory and Bronzong exist and B. Heat Wave has more power and takes advantage of No Guard). I don't really have more suggestions for it since I've never used one.

Ferrothorn:

Spoiler

Ah, Ferrothorn, one of my favourites.... Well, I could make some suggestions here, but I'd rather give you a my set so you can get an idea or two:

Ferrothorn
Item: Leftovers/Rocky Helmet
Nature: Brave, EVs: EVs: 228 HP, 108 Atk, 72 Def, 100 SpD
Ability: Iron Barbs
Moves:
Gyro Ball
Power Whip/Protect
Protect/Leech Seed
Curse

The idea with this set is to use Curse to boost Attack and Defence, then hit hard with Gyro Ball, taking advantage of the Speed drop from the aforementioned Curse. As for the other moves, Power Whip for an extra (and more reliable) STAB, Protect for Protect and Leech Seed for recovery.

Smeargle:

Spoiler

Well, I've never used a Smeargle competitively, so I'm not too sure how this'll work out, but I can give you a few ideas I have seen before. First, you could give it a Power Herb and the moves Geomancy and Batton Pass, whoich could work like this: Togekiss uses Follow Me, Smeagrle uses Geomancy and gets all the boosts turn 1 thanks to the Power Herb, then on turn 2, Togekiss uses Follow Me (assuming it's still alive) while Smeargle Batton Passes the boosts onto Kingdra (or some other Special attacker). Another suggestion is to give it a Focus Sash since most things will OHKO it. You could replace Guard Split with Transform so you can get a copy of one of your 'mons, boosts included... Kingdra, for instance. And you should probably give it 252 HP EVs and put the rest in either the Defences or Speed... I don't really have any other ideas.

As for other 'mons I can suggest... Let's see... First, Clefairy could replace Togekiss:

Clefairy
Item: Eviolite
Nature: Bold, EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Sp. Def.
Ability: Friend Guard
Moves:
Dazzling Gleam
Follow Me
Moonlight/Wish/Helping Hand/Healing Wish/Light Screen/Reflect/Protect/Thunder Wave/Toxic/Substitute/Aromatheropy/Heal Pulse/Icy Wind/Knock Off/Magic Coat
Whichever move from slot 3 works best with what you picked for said slot

The idea here is, much like Togekiss, to use Follow Me to draw the opponent's attack(s) towards this 'mon instead of a 'mon that might want to set up. However, togekiss doesn't have Friend Guard, which is a very good Ability that lowers damage that an ally receives. Another thing it doesn't have is such a vast array of support moves, which makes it a way better Follow Me user. Oh, and Dazzling Gleam so that it isn't completely useless if it gets Taunted.


I mentioned earlier that there are way better Flying Megas then Mega Pidgeot, here they are. Oh, and I've kinda given up on writing out sets at this point.

Mega Pinsir is a great Physical attacker, with Aerialate boosting Normal type moves ant giving them STAB.

Mega Charizard Y is a great Special attacker with Drought-boosted Heat Waves and Solar Beams.

And Mega Salamence is pretty much the king of (non-Legendary) Megas with those massive stats and Aerialate turning Normal moves like Double Edge into Flying types and giving them that boost. And there are also Special variants with Hyper Voice, so you have multiple options there.


And as for some candidates for a final 'mon...

Talonflame, a Physical attacker with high-powered priority in the form of Gale Wings and Brave Bird.

Chandelure, one of the strongest Special attackers in the game that can take any Fire or Fighting attacks thrown in Ferrothorn's direction.

Excadrill, a powerful Physical attacker with access to Mold Breaker.

Sylveon, a Special attacker who only really needs Hyper Voice to do damage.

Gallade, a high-risk Physical attacker.

And Greninja... Do I really need to explain Greninja?

Thanks for the input! I bred a Clefable earlier this week with Follow Me, Wish, Aromatherapy, and Dazzling Gleam with a Sitrus Berry. I haven't played with the change in stats, but it's very possible that Clefary with Eviolite WOULD be better. In fact, it was a coin toss which won Togekiss for me. It also helps that it resists Ground.

I had never even thought to put Waterfall on Kingdra (honestly forgot the move existed).

I'll definitely switch out Mega Pidgeot. My interest in using it was A) I was tired of running Kangaskhan; and B) I had only recently began encountering it and that Hurricane was a beast. Mega Pinsir seems promising.

All-in-all, thanks VERY much for your input! It's nice to know that people are willing to help, and not hoard their own strategies.