Defense is not something possible in a Doubles format due to the ability to double target and the ubiquity of Taunt; Kyurem-B discourages bulkier teams only because they always use like two of Heatran / Rotom-W / Amoonguss rather than things that can actually beat it like Suicune and Jirachi
dont have this discussion in my thread
anyways heres my first go: an attempt at building around Blaziken because I really like Blaziken. it OHKOes 2/3 of the pokes in Tiers 1 and 1.5.
Gonna start with my personal Blaziken set; there are many like it, but this one is mine:
Blaziken @ Life Orb
Speed Boost
164 Atk / 92 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive
- Superpower
- Overheat
- Stone Edge
- Protect
Flaws of Blaziken's:
- Talonflame
- Rain
- Trick Room
- Needing to stay in a turn to get going—speed control would be nice, though not mandatory
- Azumarill
- Sub users—because Blaziken protects a lot they can get cheeky subs with pressure from their partner and then blaziken cri
- Few switchin opportunities
- Diancie/Keldeo require chip
- Thundurus
- Latios
Options for second pokemon:
Offensive Thund. Pros: Outspeeds Talon/Diancie/Keldeo (can't switch in). Has protect. If i switch Blaziken to HP Ice, still beats Zard. Has prio t-wave. Cons: not a switch-in on anything (bad since Blaziken often wants to switch out).
Defensive Thund. Pros: Paralyzes Ludicolo for Rain MU (Blaziken EVd to OHKO). Paralyzes shit easy (yellow magic is god). Better at switching in on Talon. Taunt helps vs TR and Sub. Cons: Worse Keld/Diancie/Thundurus/Latios MU. Lack of Protect means that Blaziken can't help me out vs Scarf Lando.
I looked for some things that would help me with the single-pokemon matchups I had trouble with but I couldn't find anything great yet. Checked out Darkrai, Mega Lucario (speed control me pls), QG Keld (doesn't work at all). I like the idea of pairing Thundurus with Blaziken in general, because the speed control is really helpful for an offensive team. I need help vs TR too, so I want taunt. But defensive thund is yucky because no Protect. So I'm going to use this set:
Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Prankster
244 HP / 104 Def / 8 SpA / 132 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt
- Protect
Flaws of this two-mon combo:
- DISGUSTING latios matchup
- Bad diancie/cube/keldeo/thundurus matchups
- rotom-w
- Landorus-T
- bulky poke mans in general
- Sylveon
- don't like redirection
Looks like my best bet is a bulkier poke of my own. Two options which spring to immediate mind are Gardevoir and Aegislash. Gardevoir has decent special bulk and ploughs through a lot of the Pokemon i'm afraid of, like Rotom-W, Mega Venu, Latios, Keldeo, Cube, and can imprison Sylveon (and to a lesser extent other Garde / Latios). Aegislash serves as a sorely needed switchin for Rock-type moves and helps with my not good matchup vs QuakeSlide in general. But I don't like Aegislash's matchup vs most offensive Pokemon and it seems to lack the ability to keep up with this team's tempo or take advantage of the speed control Thundurus provides. I'm also already subtran bait For now, I'll add MGarde and keep looking from there.
Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Trace
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest
- Psyshock
- Hyper Voice
- Protect
- Imprison
I'll almost certainly end up wanting a bulkier spread for talon, diancie, and lando-t but we can cross that bridge when we come to it. nah fuck it we'll cross it now:
244 HP / 12 Def / 120 SpA / 132 Spe
Lives talon BB, we'll see if that's enough bulk to be comfortable. I'll probably end up adding Intimidate to this team at this rate so that I can avoid getting raped by KFC, which will also help my Garde's livablility.
rn i want:
- rock type switchin
- beats kfc
- beats subtran
- preferably physical attacker (bc im weaker to things like sylv and latios and mgarde rn)
- lando switchins
this list basically sounds like I want Lando-t and honestly after a lot of thinking (various fighting types, steels, even considering garchomp) ive decided that lando-t is indeed the right pick, but im not going to do a classic scarf. going with my theme of using protect on things w/ no business running protect:
Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Intimidate
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Explosion
-Protect
Debated explosion or U-turn but Explosion gives me a kapow against Rotom-W / Fairies / whatever. Explosion also gives even freer switches to Blaziken than u-turn does which is good cuz blaziken needs free switches badly. Without bulk Im able to outrun standard zard. At this point I'm seriously thinking about HP ice on Blaziken, if i do change then im definitely not going to slow down my landorus but if i don't then i might.
fears:
- Venusaur, kind of. Blaziken/Thund are both good against zard/venu leads though.
- Still fires, esp subtran (since garde's sub bait), with my only resist being blaziken
- waters for sure, i have no resists lol
- sash gar, keld, diancie, latios still not fun.
I think about follow me for a little bit, amoonguss helps with keld/waters/sashgar/diancie but doesn't help my talon matchup and definitely doesnt help against subtran, Jirachi is right out, Togekiss is only good if you're fighting weak, and Blastoise sounds promising but i remember using blastoise once and it completely sucked ass. so i don't think follow me is going to work on this team.
Two options that come to mind are Talon and Suicune. Both have Tailwind which, with LO lando, Mega Garde, and Blaziken, is something i really think I would want. Suicune is better defensively, helps with Diancie and Subtran. Talon is better offensively, helps with Ludicolo, Latios, Keld, Venusaur. I *hate* adding more subtran bait though, and talon is bad vs lando-t. So I'm going to go with Cune. Having +2 speed on the Pokemon on this team will be a serious help vs the offensive Pokemon that i'm fearing atm.
I hate ice beam and almost didn't include it, but I already am dragon weak enough so i need it. With Tailwind I'm seriously considering doing U-turn instead of Explosion on my Lando-T, so that I can OHKO latios. I want protect on Suicune so I can EQ safely, which means my options seem to be Explosion + Ice Beam or U-turn + Snarl. Right now I go with the former but keep this in the back of my mind. The idea of using Snarl + Mgarde in tailwind sounds vicious.
Suicune @ Sitrus Berry
Pressure
232 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpA / 20 Spe
Bold
- Tailwind
- Scald
- Protect
- Ice Beam
which makes stone edge all but a lock on blaziken so i dont get rekt by zard.
Last slot needs to be a rain check. MGarde/thund/cune/even blaziken are
passable vs rain but I don't feel confident. more specifically i want a ludicolo check. I also want it to check TR. I already have speed control so u know what why the fuck not hoopa-u.
Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Magician
252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely
- Hyperspace Fury
- Hyperspace Hole
- Gunk Shot
- Protect
If it's too hard to play this team against talonflame then i'll beef up the hoopa-u or change it. I had thought briefly about Bisharp or Talonflame in this slot anyways. This also makes me feel a lot better about running sub bait.
I just realized that I kept calling Talon KFC but Blaziken is also KFC so the name of this team is going to be KFC Original
So this is the team at a final glance:
you have been visited by the genies of healthy meta