Lower Tiers ADV Doubles - LATIAS BANNED

Xrn

is a Tiering Contributor
RBTT Champion
writing this really quickly so maybe I'll make it pretty and better later
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Tier 1: Latias is by far #1 and Metagross is by far #2, dropping either is pretty much always throwing. Gengar is also pretty clearly #3 but imo dropping it is slightly less consequential.
Tier 2: broken normals & electrics, stacking them is fine and they're consistent
Tier 3: strong flavor picks that are still pretty hard to go wrong with but can't just be thrown on a team. all worth respecting in the builder
Tier 4: just require more help than the mons above, can be scary under the right circumstances but easy for them to flop
Tier 5: mostly just mons I've seen or played around with that aren't totally awful, would rarely seriously consider them

the nature of the tier is still very fun to me but speed ties are lame and Latias speed ties in particular generate a really high number of coin flips in your control and outside of your control, would've liked to see it banned but looking forward to seeing how you can alleviate that in DOU Derby if I choose to play

ty to anyone who gave the tier a shot in ALTPL/ADVPL, cool that people played it without money on the line
 
I had fun playing ADV DOU in ADVPL! Though I didn't get a chance to play in Finals, I still finished 3-1 in my games played, here are some takeaways:

- Raikou is so fucking broken holy shit I hate feeling insecure into it
- Steelix is probably my favorite change of pace mon in the tier, this guy swings a lot of MUs (it's at its best when its acting as a 2nd metagross IMO, metaless lix is really bad from my tests)
- I think latias itself is fine, but the fact that it/bull/gar are all 350 is what's cringe about it.
- This tier would really like Bo3, speed ties are not fun in Bo1 and I definitely wouldn't have gone 3-1 without Bo1 helping me LOL

Overall, it was a great experience (despite initially not wanting to play it) and I'm excited to play more soon! Here's a small team dump for those interested: https://pokepast.es/303f3ede70ab1c56

Thanks to Xrn for being the greatest support imaginable and SuperEpicAmpharos, zee, and Mako (also thanks for telling my metas always need to be faster when I posted my teams mako LOL) for test games. Onto the next one!
 
Also, here's my VR. Couple notes -
- Raikou is borderline tier 1
- Sceptile/Steelix/Arcanine are really Those Guys. Swampert is also nice, but similar issues to lix (can only fit on specific teams.) Very good complex check to many threats though, not much can compress ttar + tbolt immune.
- Alakazam/Marowak should both be used more

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Its awfully sad how dead this format is. Practically nobody plays it daily.

Anyway, I'm testing out some weird-ass theme team. Tell me what you think.

Emerald (pokepast.es)

I tend to get bored easy, so this team is more about having fun than winning matches. Its based a little off of Emerald's teams that he uses in the Pokemon special manga. I enjoy the combination of a fire type with Starmie. Helps cover some of Starmie's type weaknesses. Rapidash is cool and pretty, but you can use Arcanine too here, for intimidate support and stuff. Dusclops is great utility and immune to Explosion so that's a plus. Not sure yet what to do with Sceptile.

btw zee you did a fine job in the PLs! I'd like to offer some commentary later on =-).

First of all, the team you used is very strong! I haven't seen Tyranitar much in this format, but it looks like it can do some pretty powerful stuff.

Tyranitar has great type synergy with Latias and Gengar, as well as good physical stats to compliment their special stats. I also love your addition of Snorlax. Great HP and defense, selfdestruct. Pardon the pun, but you can't sleep on it. Anyway, I have some things to take care of, but I'll finish this post soon. As an aside, King's Rockslide might be a pretty damn good strat with Aero. Ugh!

I'm gonna test out some support mons for awhile. See how we do. Will post all vods.

Okay, here's a vod against Driver Zee! Replays - Pokémon Showdown (pokemonshowdown.com)

Protect and Explosion helping me win games. And with Machamp too. Togetic also helped. Happy!
 
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Ban Ninjask (or Baton Pass or Follow Me)
I used Ninjask + Jynx + Togetic every round and got 100% WR with it, i ended up being in semis with literally the same team brought g1 every round and still won every time because Metagross +2 Atk +2 Speed is completely broken and it's hard to deny it from being baton passed by Ninjask except with some rare tech like multiple Intimidate / Zapdos Sub / Lead Zapdos or Raikou + Ttar and double focus on the incoming Togetic before it comes on the field (Follow me still works if Togetic gets killed, so getting a BPass is completely free even tho Togetic gets OHKO by one of the 2)

i'm too lazy to go find my replays with the team but in every single game the first 4 turns (max) i setup Ninjask and do everything to make the BPass safe and once i have BPassed Metagross just sweep the entire team by itself, i don't think banning Metagross would help anything as you could probably do the same tech with some other powerful Attacker such as Tauros / Tyranitar / Salamence maybe, any powerful physical attacker with EQ would do a great job

I don't think a good Baton Pass team is possible with any other Pokemon than Ninjask tho, this is why i think Ninjask should be banned and not BPass, but if anyone proves that BPass is still stupid with another Pokemon then just ban BPass (i mean i don't care anyway it's not like Baton Pass is a healthy mecanic that we need in the tier to be enjoyable, but Ninjask being in the banlist with legendaries would be pretty funny)

Ninjask Jynx Togetic having the best WR of the tournament with at least 5 games, new meta
 
Ban Lum Berry

When the meta was less developed and few people were actually abusing it, it was ok, but now that everyone is starting to use 5 or 6 lum berry per team , is just ridiculous and unhealthy as fuck

This is not a situation like gsc ou or singles adv with 12 lefties per game, because lefties doesnt change the way the game is played or nulifies any mechanic meanwhile the lum berry spam is making statues moves worthless while destroying a lot of the counterplay the tiers allows simplifying a lot the teambuilder process (you just put 6 lums and only protects + damage moves in nearly all the mons).


PD: i would wait in the ninjask case, first of all , the lum berry spam helps it, and second, is not just that is good per se (even tho is possible that it is ), but that it is perfect vs the actual meta and how people build, so i would like to wait a little to see if a change in building helps vs that (not a big change, but using more stuff like fake out, encore, substitute ,etc ) (sub is actually a op move that should be use more in a boom meta btw )
 
Ban Lum Berry

When the meta was less developed and few people were actually abusing it, it was ok, but now that everyone is starting to use 5 or 6 lum berry per team , is just ridiculous and unhealthy as fuck

This is not a situation like gsc ou or singles adv with 12 lefties per game, because lefties doesnt change the way the game is played or nulifies any mechanic meanwhile the lum berry spam is making statues moves worthless while destroying a lot of the counterplay the tiers allows simplifying a lot the teambuilder process (you just put 6 lums and only protects + damage moves in nearly all the mons).
I don't think Lum Berry is unhealthy, preventing hax to happen is actually very healthy, i've been frozen by Ice Punch/Beam so many time but hopefully i got my Lum to cure it because i don't need any other item on most of my pokemons, also preventing TWave from being spam and the tier to become yellow magic land, i think lum is very healthy, the other items are just not that helpful most of the time.
It being spammed actually allows you to build something out of the box with stuff like salac berry because nobody is risking to play twave because of lum berry

I completely understand your point and why you want it gone, but i don't think it's unhealthy in this case
 
agree with PD, overall i think lum is one of the few factors working against hax in this tier. restricting or outright banning lum (assuming cheri berry as well by extension) probably leads to mons like gross/lax/tar running quick claw way more often which I really do not want to encourage.

I have thought for a while now that two things will go a long way towards improving the health of adv, which is a tier that i think is in dire need of saving.

1) Ban Latias. I still cannot believe we did not ban this during the first suspect test and the tier is so much worse off for it. It compresses so many support options that all other utility Pokemon are effectively outclassed, save the occasional redirection users. Latias is one of the best checks to Latias in the tier, and the congestion in the base 110 speed tier means that even if you save your latias for the back while knocking out your opponent's lead latias, you're very possibly still having to play ties against tauros and/or gengar.

2) Ban Explosion and Self-Destruct. I think the only thing these moves add to the tier is more variance. I hope that people don't confuse the ADV spread mechanics with some sort of notion that Boom is a core mechanic of ADV and needs to be preserved. The uncertainty around boom, with its counterplay being limited to effectively click protect, switch in gengar, or let your gross/tar take 90 is just not healthy.

If you want to change ADV being a tier where 80% of mons run Protect + 3 Attacks, banning boom is a great place to start. Banning Latias goes the extra step in allowing more utility mons to see usage as well. I encourage the adv dou playerbase to think about the points I'm trying to make here and keep the discussion going on how to improve this tier's health. There's a lot of mechanics and strategies that are so unique to this gen, it's such a waste to keep it in the speed tie variance fest that it currently is.

As for ninjask bp I can take it or leave it, it's never going to be actually adding value to the tier so i really wouldn't mind a ban if more interest is shown.
 
The ADV council has released a second survey on tiering the metagame and we would all greatly appreciate your responses. The feedback collected from this survey will give us all a great idea of how to tier the metagame going into 2024.

Tagging ADV DOU Open top 8 & Doubles oldgens invitationals participants, but all responses are welcome.

 
Survey results!

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Overall, opinion on Boom is pretty even split, with 9 responses for not opposing tiering action, 8 responses for no action, and 7 responses for action.

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The response on Latias is far more direct: over half of the responses are calling for a ban/suspect, with nearly another quarter of respondents not opposing tiering action.

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The Baton Pass response is again pretty mixed, with the exception of no one focusing on Ninjask over Baton Pass in general. Still, less than half of the respondents are calling for action, but a notable portion of respondents were also fairly indifferent.

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It is quite obvious that the player base is not interested in trying out item clause.

Out of the free response answers, Thunder Wave was listed three times, which was the only thing we saw more than once. We'd like to hear more thoughts about Thunder Wave in this thread going forward, as the council feels that Lum Berry is pretty sufficient counterplay at present.

So you may be wondering what these survey results mean for the future of the tier. The ADV Council has agreed to run a vote on Latias, Baton Pass, and Explosion/Self-Destruct. With Baton Pass and Boom only receiving 1/3 of the votes for no action and Latias at 1/4, it makes sense to at least let the community vote on these metagame factors. There will be no policy review thread this time, instead you are welcome to use this thread to voice your thoughts on the upcoming vote. The voting pool will consist of top finishers from post Deoxys-D ADV Doubles tours, as well as potential suspect tournaments. An update will be posted in this thread when the specifics are figured out.
 
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Ban Lum Berry
Thunder wave is a broken move with big reward and low risk if Lum berry is baned. Also sleep is still op/broken even with sleep clause.
The 2 status give free turns and are hax reliant (+ the rare freeze) so baning something that helps against it...just no.
In fact, sleep and paralysis should be suspected/baned in most tiers if people want a competitive game.
 
I think that explosion should be looked at in more detail. It's true that there are many mindgames involving explosion, but with the unique quirk in gen 3 of pokemon switching in the same turn another one faints, explosion can be beyond devastating because you can put yourself in situations where explosion has extremely low risk and very high reward very easily. It's a unique concept in gen 3 but from a competitive standpoint I don't believe it is truly healthy for that type of experience.
 
if you're looking for players to draft for ADV DOU in ADVPL, hopefully this post will be helpful

to start, here are the results of last year's ADVPL players
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the next major ADV tour after this was the Doubles OU forum team tour Doubles Derby
Grandmas Cookin 8-0
PandaDoux 4-3
SEA 2-2
BIG WILL 2-3
Xrn 1-3
zoe 1-4
Memoric 0-1
Smudge 0-1
zee 0-1


Three individual tours have also taken place for ADV DOU, the ADV forum's ADV DOU Open (2023), The DOU forum's ADV Cup (2023) the DOU's Oldgen Circuit ADV Swiss tournament (2024). These are the top 8 players from the ADV DOU Open and ADV DOU Swiss, as well as the top 6 from ADV Cup. All these players have won at least 3 straight games of ADV DOU to secure their spot.

1. Banbadoro
2. Hugo
4. PandaDoux
4. BIG WILL
8. temp
8. Bless
8. Lhions
8. LBN


1. Genesis77
2. For 4LOM
4. Lhions
4. MADARAAAA
8. Amaranth
8. AIRedzone
8. Staraptor
8. Mishimono


1. Lhions
3. LBN
3. BIG WILL
6. Genesis77
6. Grandmas Cookin
6. qsns


My personal recommendations:

Grandmas Cookin: With Lhions managing, I would say Gma goes to be the best player actually in the draft. The 8-0 Derby run was followed immediately with making it to the semifinals of ADV Cup, just such a dominant run in the tier that has not been replicated. Very passionate and active, will be sure to put in lots of effort. Probably one of the only players I'd really greenlight drafting without support.

Genesis77 & For 4LOM: The two finalists from ADV Swiss, both of these players have demonstrated great knowledge of the new metagame with the Latias ban. Neither has gotten the chance to show off their stuff in a team tour and I imagine they would be eager to do so, while also holding their own against experienced team tour players.

Eragon: ADV DOU is a very centralized metagame, making it very easy for creative teambuilders to find ways to exploit certain player's habits. That is exactly why I'd expect Eragon to be a particularly valuable player to pick up in the draft. He isn't an ADV mainstay but he's involved enough with the tier to start and be okay.
 
i would like to share some thoughts in mons i ranked different than the others so we may have some discourse about the meta :

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: Tier 2 ---> Still the third best mon, but meanwhile i always see zapdos and snorlax doing his stuff like 99% of the time (and that 1% is player fault), is not the case with gross which is more abusable.

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: Tier 2 ---> As someone that played nearly all his latias with different support variances, celebi is just latias at home, pretty good vs rain and really good glue .

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: tier 4 --> the meta is jut pretty bad for him, good mon but nearly everything that is good, is good vs him .

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: tier 4 ---> In this meta, suicune is better most of the times.
 
Here are some of my thoughts on this new VR
:Gengar: Tier 1- This pokemon is still amazing, and has irreplaceable utility. Been using the support set more frequently and forgoing explosion. high speed tier and ghost typing allow it to always move without being disrupted. Insane movepool that no other pokemon can replicate fully. For this reason I still believe Gengar is a top pokemon.
:Metagross: - I still think this is definitely the best pokemon in the metagame, but it is not an auto include like before. It gets heavily pressured by neutral hits, has an unimpressive speed tier, and is weak to Earthquake and the many fire type moves in Doubles. It is also pretty poor into zapdos (unless running HP Rock which I’ve been using more lately) and sun teams.
:Celebi: Tier 2- This pokemon is amazing. Definitely better than sceptile and the best grass type in the format. Strong Psychic for gengar, Natural Cure so it doesnt need lum berry and can run something like Twisted Spoon/Miracle Seed/Salac Berry. Has a really good support movepool for doubles, great on rain and against rain teams. This one is gonna go to the moon.
:Jirachi: Tier 4 - This mon is very overlooked because metagross exists, but it has its own unique advantages. It has a much stronger psychic for gengar and fighting types, it has access to icy wind and helping hand, so it can run a supportive set, and it has great special bulk making it less vulnerable to zapdos than metagross is, and psychic hits back hard too. I firmly believe this pokemon is good enough to be on the ranking.
:Houndoom: Tier 4 - It’s criminal that this pokemon is not ranked at all. It’s great into both metagross and gengar, so it makes for an amazing lead pokemon, has access to willowisp to burn physical threats, particularly choice banded ones, and its quite good into other fire types thanks to Flash Fire. I think this one is a no brainer.
:Claydol: Potential to be ranked eventually, explosion is broken, has STAB Earthquake, and is immune to said earthquake, and has a strong shadow ball for starmie/gengar/celebi. Actually a pretty decent sleeper pick. But I don’t mind this one not being ranked yet.
 

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