Follow the Leader - Redirection in Doubles

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Independence and freedom are mankind's most coveted privileges. Being able to do what you want when you want is an important part of many peoples' lives. Similarly, in the Smogon Doubles environment, freedom is vital—you want your Pokémon to be able to target the right opponent with the right move in order to deal or avoid as much damage as possible. Because of the fact that dual targeting exists, many extremely powerful glass cannons that are banned in singles OU, such as Deoxys-Attack, Shaymin-S, and Darkrai, are allowed in Doubles because they are much less powerful in a 2 vs 2 environment—even if they take out one Pokémon, the other opponent can still easily take them down. This makes glass cannons high risk, high reward attackers that require the right support to really be effective.

Enter redirection. Follow Me and Rage Powder make up the groundwork synergy in many hyper offensive and balanced teams alike. By attracting all attacks towards themselves, redirectors can buy free turns for their partner to attack or set up freely. This is extremely helpful for setup sweepers, defensive supporters, and glass cannons alike, as they can avoid status and attacks for as long as their redirecting partner stays alive. Pokémon that are typically frail and easily taken down can stay around longer, deal more damage, avoid being revenge killed, and avoid being crippled. It's no wonder that a redirector is such a vital part of many famous and popular teams.

Popular Redirectors

Amoonguss is the most popular redirector in Doubles because of its defensive and supportive prowess. Its massive HP stat and well rounded defenses help it soak up hits continuously, and with a superb defensive typing that grants it resistances to Grass-, Water-, Fighting-, and Electric-type moves, it can shrug off a variety of common attacks. When it's done taking damage, it can simply switch out and replenish its health with Regenerator so that it can support its teammate superbly with Rage Powder once more, adding longevity to the mix. With this, it can easily just outlast its targets while a powerful teammate launches an onslaught.

Aside from Rage Powder, Amoonguss also has Spore, which, thanks to the recent removal of Sleep Clause, can be spammed until the entire opposing team is asleep. With these two moves, Amoongus is one of the best in the tier at shutting down opponents and creating openings for partners; thus, it is frequently seen on all sorts of offensive and balanced teams. There are many different spreads for Amoonguss, and its true bulk can be tweaked to meet personal needs, but I chose to show the most popular spread, leaning on special bulk because most of its resistances usually attack specially, with just enough physical bulk to survive Latios's Psyshock. However, a physically bulky spread is definitely also viable. Because of its low Speed, Amoonguss also has the side job of being one of the tier's most reliable Trick Room counters in conjunction with its main job as a redirector. It's an all around solid Pokémon that is great at manipulating momentum.

The other most popular redirector in Doubles, Togekiss has many key traits that make it better adapted for certain circumstances in comparison to Amoonguss. In general, its redirection is much more reliable, as, unlike with Rage Powder, which does not affect Grass-types, there are no Pokémon that are immune to Follow Me. This helps make Togekiss one of the best Grass-type counters in the game, shrugging off Giga Drain and Spore thanks to its Safety Goggles. This also helps Togekiss beat other Amoonguss, which will often take advantage of its immunity to Rage Powder and its great bulk to reliably put to sleep a vulnerable opponent. With resistances to Fighting-, Dark-, Grass-, and Bug-type attacks and an immunity to Ground- and Dragon-type moves, Togekiss can also cover a wide variety of threats, especially because those are all very common attacking types in Doubles.

Togekiss also has an interesting movepool. Unlike Amoonguss, who typically always runs the same Protect / Spore / Rage Powder / STAB attack set, Togekiss has a long list of support and offensive moves alike that it can use to cater to its team's needs. Tailwind is probably the most popular, as it lets Togekiss support its team members by doubling their Speed for a few turns. On this set I've also put Helping Hand, which allows Togekiss to boost the power of its teammates' attacks, potentially turning some 2HKOs into OHKOs. Although unlisted, Togekiss also has access to Thunder Wave, which it can use to provide speed control support, and Encore, which it can use to help hinder defensive teams from setting up or from using Protect too often. Offensively, Togekiss can utilize its very high base 120 Special Attack stat and fire off powerful attacks, including Air Slash, which has a very nice flinch chance with Serene Grace, Aura Sphere, which can be used to keep Steel-, Rock-, and Ice-types out, and Dazzling Gleam, a reliable STAB spread attack. This makes it more suitable in cores that lean offensive or defensive because it appreciates a partner that can give it some free time in return in order to allow Togekiss itself to set up or attack.

Jirachi is the final notable redirector in Doubles. Like Togekiss, it utilizes Safety Goggles and the more reliable Follow Me to aid more offensive sweepers that don't like to be blocked by bulky or fast Spore abusers such as Amoonguss and Venusaur in the sun. It too has great defensive stats and a handful of useful resistances that make it very durable. Unfortunately, the transition to XY hindered it somewhat by giving it new weaknesses to Dark- and Ghost-type attacks, both of which are quite common in Doubles. However, it still has a notable niche because of its movepool and higher Speed in comparison to Togekiss and Amoonguss. Jirachi can actively stun opponents by outspeeding them and repeatedly hitting them with Iron Head, something that Togekiss needs to use a turn to set up in order to do. Jirachi's Icy Wind also provides reliable Speed control that neither Amoonguss nor Togekiss can do as efficiently.

The given set is Jirachi's most common one, but it also has some other support moves up its sleeve. Helping Hand is the biggest one, allowing Jirachi to boost the power of an ally's move. Wish is also a big one, taking advantage of Jirachi's large HP stat to help heal a partner back up. Unfortunately, Wish is unreliable, as a well-timed double target on the easily predicted switch-in could spell the death of one Pokémon and the waste of the previous turn. Jirachi packs Thunder Wave as well, which can be used to cripple opposing Pokémon more quickly than Icy Wind. Aside from those, it has a few more less-used moves, such as Reflect / Light Screen, Healing Wish, Trick Room, and Psychic / Psyshock.

Other Honorary Redirectors

Besides the main three, there are a few other redirectors occasionally seen in Doubles. Rage Powder Volcarona is occasionally used as an offensive attacker that can also support its partner by drawing in attacks. Unlike the other Rage Powder users, Volcarona can also hit Grass-types super effectively, keeping them out or drawing them in for the KO. However, Rage Powder Volcarona is quite rare, as it is very frail and will often die to just a few hits; its Quiver Dance set is drastically better, and because of 4MSS, it can't viably run both at once. Another viable Follow Me user is Mega Blastoise: it has pretty much the same special bulk as Togekiss, a lot more physical bulk, a lot more power, and more reliable typing to boot. Unfortunately, it suffers a bit of 4MSS: it requires Protect and at least two damaging attacks, and most people use Fake Out or another Water-type move in the fourth slot, the former of which prevents them from using Follow Me because Blastoise cannot legally learn both moves at once. It also takes up the Mega slot, which can often be used more beneficially otherwise. Finally, Rage Powder Jumpluff is seen occasionally, but it is not recommended to be used due to its poor bulk and inability to actually sponge the attacks that it baits in. It is much better using its high Speed as a sleep spreader.

There are also quite a few type redirectors that utilize their abilities to draw in attacks of certain types. Manectric is the most common, using its pre-Mega ability, Lightningrod, to draw in all Electric-type attacks and grab a potential boost. This is extremely helpful on Rain teams, where Water-types can draw in Electric-type attacks for Manectric to switch into and grab a boost from. Rhyperior also has Lightningrod, providing it and its teammate with a valuable virtual Electric-type immunity. Gastrodon has Storm Drain, which functions like Lightningrod, except for Water-type attacks. Unfortunately, due to the prevalence of sun and Amoonguss, Gastrodon is not as reliable as the rest, and because its support movepool is bare otherwise, people often tend to use other bulky Water-types.

Conclusion

So there you have it! Redirection is a very important tool in Doubles, reliably keeping frail glass cannons such as Deoxys-A and Shaymin-S from getting hurt. With it and their plethora of other support moves, Pokémon such as Amoonguss, Togekiss, and Jirachi can provide one of the most valuable forms of support in the game: free turns.

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