Battle Spot A Newb's Battle Spot Doubles Team

[CeCe]

I've browsed a lot of forums and obsessed a lot about competitive strategy but haven't put together a complete team until recently.
I got to 1614 on battle spot with 25-18 with this team my first few days testing it out. And that was with mediocre skill from being new and minimal knowledge about what to expect.
Please help me patch any obvious weaknesses you see to make my team more viable at higher ranks.

Mega Charizard Y
Item: Charzardite Y
Nature: Modest
Ability: Drought
EV Spread: 252 Speed 252 SpA 4 HP
-Heat wave
-Air Slash
-Fire pledge
-Protect

Venusaur
Item: Focus Sash
Nature: Modest
Ability: Chrophyll
EV Spread: 252 speed 252 SpA 4 HP
-Protect
-Sludge bomb
-Solar beam
-Grass pledge

If it looks safe enough to start out offensively, I'll usually open with this duo. Charizard uses drought, Venusaur gets to sweep with Solar Beam.
if I'm going to single target one of my opponents, I'll use grass and fire pledge. I've read a lot about how pledge moves are a bit gimmicky, but I think they have their place. The best part about Chlorophyll is the fact that the move executes at Venusaur's speed which is faster than just about anything in the sun.

Gastradon
Item: Sitrus berry
Nature: Relaxed
Ability: Storm Drain
-Scald
-Earthquake
-Recover
-Protect

This pokemon is both my trick room and rain dance team counter. As long as I have this guy out with storm drain, both pokemon are effectively invulnerable to water attacks. I love switching him in next to Charizard when I think Charizard is going to get hit by a water attack too. It both protects Charizard that move and gives me the benefit of a boosted special attack for a stronger scald. I also have two flying types on my team so I can use earthquake if Charizard or Togekiss is out.


Greninja
Item: Life Orb
Nature: Naive
Ability: Protean
EV Spread: 252 Speed 232 SpA 24 Atk
-Scald
-Shadow Sneak
-Gunk shot
-Ice beam

My sweeper and revenge killer. I'll usually use him after one of my other pokemon gets KO'd.
Faster than some common threats Garchomp and Mega Salamence and can OHKO them with ice beam.
Can hit fairies hard with gunk shot.
I opted for shadow sneak instead of water shruiken because some of the time I'll have sunlight which weakens water, I don't need two water type moves, and I can sometimes screw with mega Kangaskhan by hitting her buddy with shadow sneak and becoming immune to Kangaskhan's attack for that turn.


Terrakion
Item: Lum berry
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Justified
EV Spread: 252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
-Double kick
-Rock slide
-Taunt
-Protect

If my opponent has a Smeargle or something that I think I should taunt, I'll usually open with Terrakion and Togekiss.
Double kick can break Smeargle's sash and OHKO it. If I don't open with him, he can also be a mid-late game sweeper. Is also faster than Mega Kangaskhan and can hit super hard with double kick. I was bouncing back and forth between Rock slide and sacred sword, but finally settled on rock slide to hit multiple targets and because I don't have anything other rock type moves.


Togekiss
252 HP 164 Def 4 SpA 28 SpD 60 Speed
Item: Rocky helmet
Nature: Bold
Ability: Super Luck
-Follow Me
-Dazzling Gleam
-Protect
-Roost

Honestly, this EV spread is a bit out of my scope of understanding, but I ripped it off the Smogon page for Togekiss doubles. Follow Me helps when I'm trying to allow Terrakion or Greninja to sweep. I opted for Dazzling Gleam and super luck over air slash for max damage since dazzling gleam hits both targets.

 

[ProjectTitan313]

Alrighty, let's go in order. I'm sitting at ~1710 with Venusaur and Charizard right now.

Charizard, it's extensive to explain, but Air Slash is literally useless; anything you'd ever hit with it is slammed far harder by a Fire move and it adds no coverage at all. Get rid of that ASAP. Best moves to run in that slot are Ancientpower (Deals with opposing Charizard, talonflame, and Gyarados/Mence to a small degree), HP Ground (Annoying to breed by reliably smites Heatran), or the dreaded Focus Blast (hits Khan, Heatran, Ttar). Tailwind may also work.

Venusaur, I run something radically different myself but a Solarbeam Modest set isn't too weird. Honestly, I'm fine with that setup. Lemme know how that works; I run Bold Mega Venusaur as a total fucking horror to the inadequately prepared.

Gastrodon, I would drop Earthquake for Earth Power. Stronger move, no worries about hitting your partner ever (Greninja for example). Ice Beam is also huge on it; wrecks Mence/Chomp and is a much better hit on Lando with Sun up. Recover is probably the best move to drop.

Greninja, needs a big moveset change but you'll be able to use your currently trained one.

Greninja @ Life Orb
Naive, 24 Atk, 232 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Protean

- Water Pledge
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Gunk Shot

It's the same as your current spread, so no re-train.
The point here is 3-fold.
Water pledge wields the same power as Scald, and while it lacks the Burn chance, it has a single and devastating advantage: Water + Grass Pledge.
Greninja is a very unique case with pledge moves, fortunately for you I'm among the very few that's used it/knows how it works. When Protean Greninja, specifically, uses a Pledge combo with its ally, it WILL NOT change type if it is the first to move. Greninja WILL change type if it is slower than its partner (Venusaur in Sun). Greninja, blessed by its Speed, keeps you in good shape with Pledge moves. Now, Water + Grass gives you a 240 power Grass attack (80*2*STAB), which absolutely nukes anything weak to it with no doubts. It creates Swamp as its secondary effect, cutting the Speed of all your foes by half for 4 turns. It does not trigger Competitive or Defiant, and ignores Contrary. Nothing is immune or exempt from this effect; it is very similar to a reverse Tailwind. It's an extremely powerful, and imo very useful, method of speed control. Greninja + Venusaur, Greninja would gain Grass typing and hit fantastically hard:

232 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Grass Pledge (Combined) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 149-177 (82.3 - 97.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Second, Protect keeps greninja around longer, while also reducing weaknesses to most types. Greninja is a big target for Fake Out and Brave Bird, and this will punish those.

Third, do not ever use Fire + Water. It yields a Water move, in the Sun, used by Charizard for neglegible damage and an utterly useless side efect. Fire + Grass, and Water + Grass, however, are extremely powerful and useful.
Even if you do not have Sun up, Water + Grass Pledge would be used by your Venusaur (thus keeping STAB) at your Greninja's speed.

Terrakion: Perfectly fine, use it myself. Just drop Double Kick for Close Combat. Smeargle is very uncommon beyond the 1400 low-ladder cheeseteams, where as Khan is 50% or higher usage. Double-Kick will not kill Khan, which will in turn kill you with Low kick. Close Combat is utterly non-negotiable on Terrakion for smashing Khan, and keeping good neutral damage output. I like mine Sashed, but Lum is 100% fine, fuck Thundurus. Lum + Taunt completely ruins Smeargle anyway.

Togekiss, never use Dazzling Gleam unless you have a MASSIVE problem with Clefairy + DD Mence, or Hydreigon. Which you don't have that huge a problem with.
I would advise Air Slash / Protect / Follow Me / Tailwind, for full support plus Speed control. Thunder Wave could also be used, as its better for Gastrodon to abuse / won't get stalled out by Protect, and makes Air Slash outright obnoxious. Thundurus never hesitates to switch into Kiss though, so that gives it a perfectly clean switch while Tailwind does not.

Overall, not sure on Greninja AND Gastrodon on teh same team, but meh. Kiss + Char-Y is also bad, I used a similar team myself (4 of your same mons in fact) and just got Rock Slided to death far, far too much. Klefki has amazing synergy with Char-Y, and adds T-Wave + Safeguard on top of a Rock resist, and is equally useless against Thundy. Swagger sets up your Terrakion, which also handles Thundy, so Klefki over Kiss may be a good thing to test. Really funny against rain teams too since they rarely run Ground coverage. Completely walls Kangaskhan; just spam T-Wave and Foul Play against it lol.
Can give a set if you want one.

Try those changes and see what works. I was aiming for minimally invasive without swapping out team mates.

 

[CeCe]

You, sir, are a genius in team building. Maybe it helps that you've run something similar before, haha.

I used to have water pledge on Greninja, but I was finding that Venusaur usually gets KO'd before Charizard, and then I didn't really want to use fire + water for the reasons you described.

I can make changes pretty easily. It's called powersaves.

I kind of like the Klefki for Togekiss idea. I'm not very familiar with Klefki, but it looks like a good idea for some coverage other than just attacks. So if I were to use Klefki, what set who I use?

Oh yeah, and I also noticed that my team is incredibly weak against perish trap. There's no real counter strategy other than "just kill everything before they can execute the plan" Not exactly a priority to worry about because I've only run into perish trap once in total.

 

[Omastar68]

Total genius, that guy. Got basically everything i was gonna say and more.

Only thing really is yer Gastrodon is missing evs. Also Gren should have 20 Atk and 236 SpA, one more point of SpA and same atk stat. It's cuz of how evs werk at lvl 50, they shouldn't be divisible by 8 fer a stat with an odd IV.

Also I think you could get away with Quick Guard over Protect on Terrakion. Might allow Gren to not run Protect if it's getting hit with priority a lot.

Perish Trap is really tuff. Not much way around it. Soundproof stops it but that's meh. Stuff with Volt Switch or U-Turn messes it up, pretty much the only thing bar blasting the foe. Only other thing i can think of is leading with two Taunt users(to deal with Whimsi if you double taunt Gar or it Taunts the rong one) faster than Gengar if u see it..but don't do that. Chances are Gar will Protect ferst so Whimsi can Taunt yer other guy next tern if you don't knock it out, plus many Gar aren't Perish. Really only answer is Volt Switch/U-Turn or stuff that can't be trapped and hits it hard...while also surviving and not sucking in general.

good lucl:)

 

[ProjectTitan313]

Every team that isn't running Landog + Scarf Hydra + Aegislash is completely demolished by Perish trap and there is literally nothing that can be done about it. U-Turn, Volt Switch, Roar/Whirlwind, Skill Swap, and Role Play are the only "counters". Luckily its fairly rare.

Klefki I have buried somewhere, gimme a sec.

Venusaur I run a very bulky Bold spread; acts as a secondary Mega option that usually throws people off guard and singlehandedly wipes out entire Rain teams (which seem to be almost as popular as CHALK amongst the Japanese). Tends to flaunt its fat head around for decades; I specifically built my team around supporting it though, yours is used more AS the support. If that makes sense? Even non-mega, it's pretty bulky. Damage output is complete shit, sure, but imo its not that much worse than my Modest one; can't actually think of a relevent KO.

Oh ok. Greninja can run a ton of things, so it's mostly used as a blanket check to a specific list. If you wanna hit Kang, you need Low Kick and obnoxious Atk investment even with LO, so I kinda steered away from Physical greninja.
Scald is fine, I ran my Char-Y / MegaSaur / Swampy core with non-Pledge moves for a bit and it was ok, gave Char-Y some extra coverage / allowed giga drain on Venusaur which is monumental.

Ah here's Klefki, I have more notes than anyone would ever want to know about lol:

Klefki @ Sitrus Berry (Or Leftovers)
Bold, 252 HP, 108 Def, 148 Sp. Def
Ability: Prankster

- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
- Swagger
- Safeguard / Metal Sound / Switcheroo

Tanks 252+ LO Hydreigon's Earth Power, and 252+ Heatran's Heat Wave. Kind of a hasty spread so not idea but it worked fine for me. Speed investment is largely wasted, Klefki is the only Prankster mon anywhere close to its Speed Tier and is very uncommon so ties are moot. Also completely walls itself.
Safeguard is a grand shield against low-ladder fucktards (aka, Smeargle and Hypnobat), but mainly stops Thundy from spamming auto-win magic against the entire team, while Klefki happily counterspams. Metal Sound is disgusting o a special heavy team, especially one with spread damage. Switcheroo + Eject button / Lagging Tail is funny shit too to wreck Landog / Garchomp /Thundy switchins
Thunder Wave is your speed support, useless of course against Landog/Thundy, which never, ever hesitate to switch in, lead, or kill you anyway. Swagger completely throws skill out of the battle, mostly in your favor, and often allows you to win against normally unbeatable odds. Also buffs terrakion, and as we all know, +2 Terrakion is quite the wrecking ball. Oh, and buffs Foul Play damage against Milotic, Zapdos, etc.
Only reason I stopped using this is because I made pretty major team changes that better suited Cresselia. Klefki is honestly only inhibited by its horrible weakness to Thundy.

 

[CeCe]

Thanks, dude. Can't wait to test out these new improvements. Kind of a tough decision on moves for Klefki. Too many good ones lol