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Battle Subway Doubles Team

Sir Red

Sir Red

Charms' Caped Crusader
Working on team for battle subways (using VGC11-esque rules) and have found a pretty balanced group of Pokemon here that, in theory, should work very well together.

Emboar@???
Blaze
Jolly
EVs: 252 Attk/Spd
- Flame Charge
- Earthquake
- Wild Charge
- Brick Break

Pretty much a straight forward sweeper. Go out and try and smash things up, take advantage of the speed boost from Flame Charge too. Earthquake to pair it with Hydreigon seeing as they cover each others weaknesses rather well and it allows Emboar to dish out EQ at will. I had Leftovers on it before to try and negate the Health loss from Wild Charge a bit, but I now have it on Jellicent instead so I need a new item for Emboar.

Hydreigon@Life Orb
Levitate
Timid
EVs: 252 Sp Attk/Spd
- Draco Meteor/Dragon Pulse
- Dark Pulse
- Surf
- Fire Blast/Charge Beam

Hit hard and fast. Pretty much the obvious for Hydreigon. I'm just not sure which Dragon move that I want to run with and if I want the bonus of Charge Beam's Sp. Attack boosts (plus it gives me another Electric move).

Jellicent@Leftovers
Water Absorb
Calm
EVs: 252 HP/Sp. Attk
- Scald
- Hex
- Protect
- Toxic

I kinda flip-flopped a bit on whether I should go with Hex or Shadow Ball and in the end decided with Hex seeing as Jellicent is packing two moves that can inflict status ailments. Recover and Leftovers to add to it's crazy bulk some more. Wasn't entirely sure on the EV spread, though. :x

Excadrill@???
Sand Rush
Jolly
EVs: 252 Attk/Spd
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- ??

Excadrill was a last minute addition, mainly only because this team was originally planned to be a singles team (which is why the three above all cover each other so well and share no common weaknesses from type to type), but that does not mean that I discount his awesomeness. I previously had Escavalier in his spot (he fit awesomely with the typing. :x), but then I remembered his speed stat is crap and I was running a Trick Room team so he was sadly out. Excadrill fits the team well enough with Jellicent completely shrugging off two of the Pokemon that hit him and another for SE damage while Hydreigon is immune to the other. Excadrill's set is pretty straight forward for what I have on it, but I just don't know what to put for the last move or the held item.
 
KoL

KoL

Expert FPS Player
Staff member
Moderator
I've no idea what theory you're working with because none of this is any good for doubles.

I'm going to make it short and sweet for you since most of this stuff here will be in the next Clinic article anyway:

DO:

- Use Protect/Detect. These two moves are so standard it’s expected that almost every Pokemon competing in doubles should carry either one of them.

- Use moves that strike more than one Pokemon. I think it goes without saying that you’ll win a lot faster if you aim to knock out your opponent’s Pokemon two at a time rather than one at a time. That's not to say moves that only strike one target shouldn't be used, but moves that can strike both opponents at once should generally be the focus on attackers for the most part.

- Team your Pokemon up according to their moves. Discharge Thundurus + Earthquake Landorus for example...I'll let you work that one out. Don't forget moves like Helping Hand either.

DON’T:

- Use entry hazards. In 4vs4 doubles, all entry hazards suck ass.

- Use standard setup moves, this means no Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, Substitute etc. Instead, focus on moves such as Tailwind, Trick Room and weather effects, since they won't disappear if the user is KO'd unlike the former moves. If a player spotted you using a setup move like that, odds are the user would get double-teamed and KO'd immediately afterwards.

- Use an excessively complicated or gimmicky strategy. This means no Skill Swap Slaking/Regigigas-style crap because against anyone with half a brain it's completely useless, and I daresay even CPUs will be able to ruin the fun very efficiently as well.

Looks like you have some work to do.
 
Sir Red

Sir Red

Charms' Caped Crusader
I edited a few things in my first post and have thought of possibly a new team member, but I'm not sure whom I should replace it with.

Eelektross@???
Levitate
Modest
EVs: 252 Sp. Attk/HP
- Discharge
- Flamethrower
- Grass Knot
- Acid Spray

One of the things I was thinking of was using Eelektross in conjuncture with Excadrill, as they quite obviously work well together when unleashing their full field attacks. The only thing is that I'm not entirely sure where Eelektross would fit into this team. Acid Spray is on there for the awesome bonus that it gets. Flamethrower and Grass Knot for coverage help on the set too (plus nobody else has a Grass-type move yet).

My default pairings for these Pokemon would be:
- Emboar - Hydriegon
- Eelektross - Excadrill
- Jellicent - whomever is out there

Jellicent just provides a nice switch in for several of my team members as it is immune to several attack types so I don't want to necessarily knock it off the team in favor of Eelektross. I could possibly drop Emboar from the team in favor of Eelektross, but I'm not entirely sure about that either. Any thoughts on team combinations? :x
 
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