SS Doubles OU A Farewell to SS Doubles OU

Teals

Banned deucer.

A Foreword

Hello all. For those of you that know me, this is Teal, and to those that don't, you may know me as "Shut up Shut up²." I'd like to preface this by stating that I am not the most influential builder or the greatest player. I got into Doubles OU back in summer of this year. I have had some history with playing pokemon at a competitive level, having played some previous years of VGC and Battle Spot Singles. I got into Doubles OU while being bored in Med School, and didn't expect to become as involved with it as I have been. I have always loved playing pokemon, but it was always more of a casual hobby. While it remains that for the most part, I have found myself actively putting a great amount of time and thought into this format this time around, for better or for worse. This is largely due to a few individuals that have encouraged me to pursue this game. Paraplegic was the one that initially reached out to me and invited me to the Doubles Discord, and actively pushes me to be a better. He is a great friend and I am thankful for his support in my endeavors within this format. SMB reached out to me during the long grind that was DLT and encouraged me to keep trying to make playoffs in the last minute of the tour. While I ended up choking the deciding game, his support was incredibly appreciated. To this day he is willing to help me whenever I have a random request, be it help in old gens or current gen he is willing to share ideas with me. Truly deserving of the title "The Goat." Lastly I'd like to thank Actuarily. While I don't talk to him as much as the other two, he was another figure that encouraged me to pursue this format when I was getting into it and he continues to like my VR posts even if they may be "hot takes" haha. With the support of these individuals, I found myself getting involved in Doubles Circuit. I started halfway through the year and while I didn't get the results I would have liked, I think I did fairly good in what I participated in considering my small amount of experience and and am overall happy with my results. This team is the last team I made for this format, and I will probably keep it that way. It has served me well and I think it is a great team for anyone looking to get into the format of SS DOU. I look forward to seeing what Generation 9 brings and look forward to playing more battles versus all of you in the future. With that said, let's take a look a the team.

Building Process & Set Descriptions
:Mew: :Zygarde:


I went into this team wanting to build around the idea of Spikes and DD Zygarde. DD Zygarde is one of those pokemon that is really good in the late game, and doesn't have many real defensive checks. The best of those being Rillaboom and Tapu Fini. With Spikes on the field however, Rillaboom can't reliably switch into Zygarde's Thousand Arrows, especially after a Dragon Dance. Zygarde is a fairly standard Dragon Dance set, but with Soft Sand over Leftovers. I think Soft Sand pairs fairly well with spikes because it makes the KOs ever so slightly easier to reach making switching into thousand arrows even more costly. The Mew set however is what will probably catch your eye. As many of you know, I am not a fan of Mew sets that stack up on support moves. That argument aside, I think this is the best way to run Mew on this particular team. Spikes with three attacks makes mew a very threatening force. Mew covers a lot of the weaknesses the team can face, all while being under the guise of a snarl wisp set with spikes. Most mew carry two forms of coverage at most, and people are often not prepared for three forms of coverage. Psychic is chosen to ease the Urshifu matchup, Earth Power is chosen to make sure Heatran doesn't have too many free turns, and Ice beam is to threaten opposing Zygarde and Lando.

:Rillaboom: :Diancie:

One of the biggest threats to any Zygarde is Tapu Fini. Rillaboom pairs incredibly well with DD Zygarde as it threatens any Fini that might try switching in, and it provides Fake Out and passive recovery making Zygarde a force to be reckoned with. At this stage in the building process the team struggles quite a bit to the likes of Kyurem-Black and Naganadel. I went and added a Diancie as it give me a form of speed control since I am opting to not run Tailwind on Mew, and it matches up very nicely into the after mentioned mons. Diancie is running a cool spread that guarantees the OHKO onto Urshifu all while maintaining enough Special Defense to survive a Steam Eruption from full against Volcanion.

:Tapu-Fini: :Incineroar:

Tapu Fini was the next thing to be added as it has some great synergy with both Zygarde and Diancie. Misty Terrain prevents burns from hitting both mons, and protects Zygarde from incoming Draco Meteors. Being able to Switch off Grassy Terrain is also incredibly nice as it makes it harder for opposing Rillaboom to just stay in and click Grassy Glide. I opted to run a scarf set on Fini as it allows me to outspeed and net surprise KOs on the likes of Pheromosa, Dragapult, and Landorus-I. One of the biggest threats to this team is bulky mons like Cresselia, Porygon2, and Iron Defense Ferrothorn and tricking a Scarf onto them can render them useless. Lastly, scarf Heal Pulse is incredibly good when paired with Zygarde as it helps it set up and can allow it to stay in the game longer if need be. Incineroar is the final glue to the team. It is another Fake Out user that also provides intimidate. Again, this pairs very well with Zygarde and makes the job of setting up very easy. It also acts as a way to neutralize DD Kyurem Black. The most notable thing about this set is the use of Overheat over Flare Blitz, and a negative Speed Nature. Special fire move Incin is something that has been talked about, but not many people have been confident enough to commit to. I think in this current state of SS DOU, it is the optimal version to use if you don't have any other special fire type moves as Iron Defense Ferrothorn will wall your entire team if it gets set up. I also find the minus speed nature to be quite nice as it allows you to underspeed opposing Incineroar in the mirror and get the slow Parting Shot off gaining you momentum.


Remarks on Matchups

In my experience with playing this team, there are some hard matchups, but no unwinnable matchups. Pokemon is a game about identifying win conditions and analyzing the current state of the field. If you find yourself in a bad matchup, keeping on the offensive will allow you to main control of the game.
The biggest matchups this team struggles against are rain, and fat set up mons like Cresselia and Ferrothorn.

Vs Rain
:Pelipper: :Politoed: :Kingdra:

When fighting rain it's important to prioritize threatening out kingdra, and getting a layer of spikes up. Tapu Fini almost renders Kingdra useless as it isn't taking much from Water Type attacks and it is lowering the power of Draco Meteor with Misty Terrain. With this in mind, you can almost always bring in Fini and force a switch onto Kingdra. If you can get a layer of spikes up with Mew, Kingdra will fold to Rillaboom at some point. Once Kindgra is gone, the team handles most other common rain threats fairly well.

Vs Fat Builds
:Cresselia: :Porygon2: :Ferrothorn:

When fighting any of these pokemon it's important to prioritize getting spikes up. This will make it so Zygarde can break past them in the late game if they try to switch in. It's also important to play around your Choice Scarf on Fini. Waiting for the right moment to throw out a trick can render any bulky mon useless and will essentially make them a dead slot. Big thing to watch out for is opposing Incineroar Knock Off. If you trick a choice scarf onto something, be sure to keep pressure up on opposing Incineroar as they can knock the scarf off their teammate and proceed to win if you're not careful.

Closing Remarks

This is by no means the best team ever created in this format. It is rather standard in composition, with some unique movesets to separate it from the rest. I have definitely built some fire teams during the course of SS DOU, but this was the most consistent of anything I built. I hope anyone using it can learn how to play around matchups and learn how to identify your win condition, as I think this team does a good job at providing the tools for learning. With that, I will be ending this RMT and saying goodbye to SS DOU. It has been a blast playing with you all and I look forward to all the competition that Scarlet & Violet will bring.
Have a good one ;)

Mew @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 92 HP / 164 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Spikes
- Ice Beam
- Psychic

Zygarde @ Soft Sand
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Substitute
- Protect

Rillaboom @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- U-turn

Diancie @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Atk / 8 Def / 104 SpA
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Diamond Storm
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Protect

Tapu Fini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
- Heal Pulse

Incineroar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Atk / 28 Def / 160 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Fake Out
- Overheat
- Knock Off
- Parting Shot



 

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