Metagame Sun and Moon Doubles Discussion Thread

[miltankmilk]

I wanted to build a team with Alolan Ninetails and ended up liking the results. Aurora Veil is a super neat move that makes hail viable imo. This team works well as a solid Magearna/Zygarde CT without being unviable in other matchups. Most notably I've won multiple games against other people using SamVGC's "Protek the snek" team and variants of it (replays below). Psychic Seed Milotic is a pretty big threat though, so take out that mon ASAP if you face it. Opposing weather teams also make it harder to set Aurora Veil.

Kill the snek

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 112 HP / 156 Atk / 16 Def / 4 SpD / 220 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Tapu Lele @ Psychium Z
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect

Jirachi @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Follow Me
- Iron Head
- Trick Room
- Protect

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Moonblast
- Aurora Veil
- Protect

Volcanion @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Steam Eruption
- Earth Power
- Protect

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Protect

Description

Lando: Standard AV Lando set. AV stacks well with Aurora Veil to let Lando take hits really well. The Intimidate support and ground coverage help against Mage and Zygarde teams.

Tapu Lele: The best Tapu. EVs let it hit hard and fast, letting it outspeed neutral base 100s like Adamant Kangaskhan. Tapu Lele's main goal is to hit hard with terrain-boosted Psychic attacks and nuke stuff with its 175 bp Shattered Psyche. Moonblast is additional STAB coverage to hit Dark types. Taunt is a layer of defense against Trick Room teams. It can also disable Jirachi's follow me, but be wary of getting an Iron Head in return.

Jirachi: Obligatory bulky steel / redirector. I kept Goggles on Rachi because it protects it against hail chip damage, and things like Mega Venusaur or Amoonguss could still try to sleep your team. Trick Room > Icy Wind to reset TR against setters, but that's just my preference since this team otherwise lacks TR checks.

Ninetails-Alola: I'm torn on what to run for EVs here, but for now I'm running max HP and max+ speed. The main purpose of Ninetails is to set Aurora Veil, which reduces the damage your team takes from all attacks by one third (it's like duel screens in one move). Light clay lets Aurora Veil last for 8 turns. Dragons and Lando don't want to stay in on Blizzard, and Moonblast can hit dark types like Scrafty pretty hard. If I can figure out specific offensive benchmarks, I might try investing more into special attack.

Volcanion: Max+ speed and max SpA let it outrun Modest Heatran and ensure it gets the jump on Magearna. Shuca Berry helps it stay in on a ground attack - especially when Aurora Veil is up. Pretty standard set overall.

Mega Salamence: This is basically a standard physical Mence set, but I went Draco Meteor > Dragon Dance to let it ohko opposing Dragons and take a good chunk out of Zygarde.

Replays:

[Gen 7] Pokebank Doubles OU: not haruno vs. GenOne (fwiw I did lose in a rematch)
[Gen 7] Pokebank Doubles OU: Sexual_Blaziman vs. GenOne (also lost in a rematch)
[Gen 7] Pokebank Doubles OU: GreenGogoatttt vs. GenOne

From experience when I played you on ladder this team is super weak to Mega-Gar + literally anything. Making lando or lele scarf would go a long way imo.

 

[GenOne]

From experience when I played you on ladder this team is super weak to Mega-Gar + literally anything. Making lando or lele scarf would go a long way imo.

Good call. I'll try scarf Lando.

E: Scarf Lele is the way to go. I'll update the original team.

 

[Test Bot #]

Solgaleo
Ability: Full Metal Body
- Sunsteel Strike
- Zen Headbutt / Flare Blitz / Rock Slide / Wild Charge
- Wide Guard / Morning Sun / Noble Roar / Thunder Wave
- Protect

Solgaleo is perhaps a blessed mon for DUbers. With great supportive moves and coverage as shown above, it's a mon that seems quite flexible and worth using. Its ability, known as Full Body Metal (basically Clear Body), is not that bad either. Sunsteel Strike, a STAB move that ignores the Abilities of other Pokemon, is useful for... idk... maybe against Wonder Guard and Lunala's Shadow Shield? And unlike Aegislash, which is cursed with stance changes, this mons already has a reasonable bulk and an offensive stance. An annoyance to Primals, a decent pivot against some Dragons, and a solid choice against Xerneas.

Calculations (I'll put more relevant ones w/ further testing):
252+ Atk Life Orb Solgaleo Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Kyogre-Primal: 226-268 (55.9 - 66.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Xerneas just get OHKO'd.

And of course, you can teach it the ultimate move known as Z-Splash, thus raising its Attack stage by 3. lolz

 

[Pocket]

I feel like Solgaleo would struggle a lot with Primal Groudon around; not even a +3 EQ guarantees an OHKO on min HP Groudon. However, I can see its Wide Guard support helping out its own Primal partner. Solgaleo just needs to watch out for opposing Groudon's Fire Punch.

I think Yveltal has more to gain in SM, since this gen added two legendaries that dies to its Foul Play. Solgaleo is another Xerneas counter to help cover for Yveltal's main weakness, too.

 

[GenOne]

Here's another Lele team that doesn't lose to Mega Gengar so easily:

Tailwind Balance Lel

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Shadow Ball

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Protect

Jirachi @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Follow Me
- Iron Head
- Trick Room
- Protect

Landorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Volcarona @ Life Orb
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Giga Drain
- Quiver Dance
- Protect

Suicune @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 144 SpA / 40 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Roar

Description

Scarf Lele outspeeds Mega Gengar for the kill, and in general hits hard and fast with Psychic. Modest > Timid for more power, since I don't think Timid makes it outrun anything relevant.

Salamence hits hard with Double Edge, kills fires and steels with EQ, and hits opposing dragons with Draco Meteor. I'm pretty sure it doesn't need any SpA investments to hit other dragons, but I could be wrong.

Rachi does rachi things. Trick Room's just for the TR reset.

Landorus-I is super good in this meta. Earth Power kills fires, Gengars and steels. Sludge Bomb kills the Tapus. Rock Slide keeps Char Y in check and also hits Flying types hard in general.

Volcarona sets up and nukes stuff. Self-explanatory set.

Suicune provides essential speed control support. Roar > Snarl to force out setup sweepers, TR setters, and rachis.

Obligatory replays against (mostly) decent players. S/O people forgetting what Psychic Terrain does:

[Gen 7] Pokebank Doubles OU: Lolk vs. GenOne (#1)
[Gen 7] Pokebank Doubles OU: Lolk vs. GenOne (#2)
[Gen 7] Pokebank Doubles OU: GenOne vs. Sexual_Blaziman
[Gen 7] Pokebank Doubles OU: GenOne vs. Funbot28

 

[VCrakeV]

I haven't played doubles since SUMO came out... is Mega Mence still OP and centralizing? Or had something (what?) made it less of a threat?

 

[DaAwesomeDude1]

I haven't played doubles since SUMO came out... is Mega Mence still OP and centralizing? Or had something (what?) made it less of a threat?

Honestly we don't know if it'll be OP yet. Magearna was still legal before and that helped keep mence in check. I would assume that after the meta settles down in a couple of weeks we'll know. I personally believe it'll be pretty centralizing (not really sure if banworthy yet or not) since when magearna was still legal, mence was easily the best mega, and now that we've lost magearna (and garde + diancie not being legal) it'll only get better.

 

[kamikaze]

Locking. Use the np 0 thread for future discussion