Jump to content

How to build a good competitive team [Doubles edition]


Recommended Posts

We had this idea with Pachima in PokeMMO discord, and I volunteered to do my write-up about Doubles.

 

 

 

How to build a good competitive team [Doubles edition]

 

 

 

Meta-theory

 

 

Teambuilding is a difficult process. Teambuilding in Pokemon is a challenge you can never fully master. Having six Pokemon to have an answer to the entire metagame of Pokemon is simply put an impossible task. Pokemon teambuilding is the endeavor of getting as close as possible to be able to answer to every metagame threat available.

 

Teambuilding can be approached by building against an unknown opponent and building against a known opponent. When building against an unknown opponent, a team’s goal should be able to give a good chance to beat anything an opponent could bring without focusing too much on what are commonly used Pokemon. Building against a known opponent means that there is a specific purpose on a teambuild. For example, if a certain team composition is getting very common in the metagame – the best teambuilding practice could be building a team that has a very favorable matchup against this specific team that is commonly used in current metagame, even if it results in more difficult matchups against some unexpected threats. Even though I would argue that to master teambuilding you should always build against a known opponent, in this guide I am focusing on building against an unknown opponent but this is an important distinction to make when making teambuilding decisions.

 

 

The approach

 

 

Teams are built by adding Pokemon to complement each other, until the 6 Pokemon limit is reached. I have noticed that many inexperienced players think that experienced teambuilders immediately come up with the exact six Pokemon that make the perfect team. Most commonly for experienced players, teambuilding is a step-by-step challenge. Each additional Pokemon should mitigate the weaknesses of the previous Pokemon. Some Pokemon need very specific Pokemon to support them while some Pokemon function well with almost any teammates.

 

 


Building the core

 

 

Technically speaking, you start your team with one Pokemon. What does this Pokemon lose against? Does this Pokemon need support to reach its full potential, or am I free to use any Pokemon as teammates? These are the main questions you should ask when coming up with a partner for your first Pokemon to start the initial core. A core is usually 2-4 Pokemon that make the basis of the team. It is the reason why this team exists. For the sake of demonstration, I will divide cores into synergizing cores and supporting cores (for the lack of better terms).

 

 

Synergizing cores

 

 

Synergizing cores exists to help the other Pokemon's weaknesses. In case of Doubles, a synergizing core could be a core of Tyranitar + Reuniclus. Tyranitar’s main threats could be considered Fighting-types and fast Water-type sweepers. Reuniclus supports Tyranitar by pressuring opponent’s Fighting-types with strong Psychic-attacks and Reuniclus also supports Tyranitar by setting up Trick Room so that opposing fast Water-types won’t outspeed and kill Tyranitar. Meanwhile Reuniclus has trouble against Pokemon like Gengar and Hydreigon, and Tyranitar does well against these Pokemon. Even as two Pokemon on the field, these Pokemon help each other a lot removing potential threats against them so they could be considered a synergizing core.

 

 

Supporting cores

 

 

Supporting cores exist to bring out the full potential out of a Pokemon, while potentially having trouble against same opposing Pokemon. Most common supporting cores are weather cores. A weather setting Pokemon supports a Pokemon with an ability to gain speed in a certain weather to perform to their fullest in a battle. An example of this is Tyranitar setting up sandstorm to boost Excadrill or Pelipper setting up rain to boost Swift Swim Pokemon to perform their best by going fast and hitting strong Water-attacks. With supporting cores, these cores generally tend to lose against the same Pokemon. For example, Tyranitar/Gigalith + Excadrill both lose heavily against Fighting-types and Water-types whereas most Rain-cores all struggle against Pokemon like Ferrothorn or Gastrodon to a large extent.

 

Other supporting cores could be a set up sweeper combined with a great redirection or Fake Out Pokemon. An example of this could be a Volcarona + Hitmontop core, where Hitmontop allows Volcarona to set up more easily by Faking Out for a set up turn and providing Wide Guard against opposing Rock Slides. Both Pokemon still are heavily struggling the same Pokemon, such as both struggle against rain cores on their own.

 


Finalizing the team

 

 

Finalizing a supporting core is far more restrictive than finalizing a synergizing core. If we take a Sand-core, for instance, an immediate improvement could be patching up the weakness against the Fighting and Water weakness immediately. I would go as far as claiming the purpose of the last four Pokemon should be to optimize the matchup against these types to allow the Sand-team as a whole to have a favorable match up against Pokemon even containing Water-types and Fighting-types. An example of improving Fighting-type matchup could be introducing Crobat, Reuniclus or any Pokemon that resists Fighting-type attacks and also strikes back with a strong attack of their own. Improving matchup against Water-types could be done with likes of Ferrothorn or Gastrodon to name a few examples. At the very least, two of the next Pokemon should be there to improve the matchups against Pokemon that your original supporting core struggles against. Last filler Pokemon should patch up any holes that the original core had.

 

Finalizing a team that has been built around a synergizing core is far easier. Simply put, every Pokemon should improve the matchup against Pokemon the previous one had problems with. For example previously mentioned Tyranitar+Reuniclus core could struggle against Pokemon with powerful Earthquake-attacks, such as Garchomp or Excadrill. Having a Pokemon to counter these Pokemon would be the next logical step. If your answer to them would be let’s say Rotom-Wash, then you could notice your team is suddenly weak to Grass-types and next Pokemon should be made to answer solve this problem. After every Pokemon addition you look at your team and try to come up with weaknesses to patch. You add Pokemon with the similar idea until your team has six Pokemon.

 

How good a teambuild is relates to how many problems were you able to solve with six Pokemon. To make the final adjustments, it is a good idea to optimize moves and EV spreads to be able to defeat as many potential threats to your team as possible, with your selected six Pokemon.

 

 

 

Importance of speed control

 

 

It cannot be understated how important it is to hit first, and this is even more true in Double battles. Hitting first can turn bad type advantages into favorable positions. Make sure that you will always try to attack first to improve your chances in battle. Ways of controlling the speed are for example Tailwind to double the speed of your Pokemon, Trick Room to reverse the speed order to allow your slow Pokemon to hit first or using speed dropping moves like Icy Wind to lower your opponent's speed. A team that has good means of speed control can win lots of difficult matchups by simply positioning your team to attack first. With four moves on two of your Pokemon, it is very likely you are able to do solid damage against any opponent if you are attacking first. Therefor making room in your team for solid speed control options is crucial.

 

 

Finalizing words

 

 

The purpose of this write-up was to demonstrate the thought process that goes into teambuilding, rather than to point out powerful cores. To get a grasp on powerful cores in the current Doubles’ metagame, I recommend to check Rakmaninov’s Teambuilding framework. I still mentioned some example cores to give an example how building around different cores requires different thought process.

 

 

 

P.S. If someone could help me to make this more visual, that would be awesome.


Also I made a thread relating to the same topic in a sense years ago but I feel like I focused on too many irrelevant topics there.
 

 

 

Edited by OrangeManiac
Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.