Battle Spot A newb's first bsd team!

[SuperPotsep]

New competitive pokemon player here still struggling with the basics.I'm trying to rank up the battle spot doubles ladder but I'm not having much success, mainly due to my team.Please be tolerant with any mistakes I make, since I'm new to this whole thing.



Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbut
- Ice punch
- Protect

One of the core pokemon of this team.I really like metagross due to its awesome speed and amazing offensive capabilities. Im running standard physical sweeper EVs so that it hits harder, as well as jolly nature to increase its speed. I chose iron head for its synergy with togekiss, zen headbut for psychik coverage, ice punch to help deal with dragons that threaten hydreigon and protect to survive double targetting.

Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power

The other core pokemon of this team. Chose choice specs to make it capable of one-shotting anything and standard special attacker EVs, as well as Modest nature for the boost to its SpA. Draco Meteor to ohko anything that takes neutral damage from it, dark pulse for STAB, Fire Blast to be able to hit my team's weaknesses, especially Bisharp and earth power to ohko heartan, which threatens my metagross. Protect might also be good for it but I just can't find a way to put it in.

Togekiss @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 4 SpA / 28 SpD / 60 Spe
Calm Nature
- Follow Me
- Air Slash
- Tailwind
- Thunder Wave/Protect

The last core pokemon of this team. I chose it because of I needed a redirection support and proper speed control for my team, while also having type coverage (DSF core). I picked Safety Goggles because my team's sitrus berry is already in use and because of Togekiss' weakness to powders.Another reason is to avoid damage from sandstorm by tyrannitar. The EVs spread I just copied online, since I can't yet decide them on my own. Please do suggest a better spread, especially one that counters bisharp and landorus-T. Calm nature for the extra Sp. Def. Follow Me is my go-to redirection move and Air Slash for the STAB (60% chance with Serene Grace).Tailwind and Thunder Wave for speed control. Protect is also good but I'm not sure if its worth over Thunder Wave.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 80 SpA / 132 SpD
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

I chose Rotom-Wash because my team needed a bulky special sweeper. Sitrus Berry to allow it to take more hits. 252 HP EVs for extra bulk, 44 Def EVs to survive physical hits 132 Speed to outspeed max speed Bisharp (yeah I hate Bisharp :P). Modest nature for extra SpA, thunderbolt for electric-type coverage, hydro pump for water-type coverage, will-o-wisp to cripple enemies and protect to survive double targetting. In my opinion Rotom has perfect synergy with the team, its excellent for switch-ins against fire types, which threaten metagross and is very good with TTar.

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Low Kick/Ice Beam
- Protect

Physical tank TTar with Lum Berry to survive more while still be able to do damage. Sand Stream for that sweet extra damage and tank EVs. Adamant nature to hit harder, Rock Slide for STAB, Crunch for dark-type coverage, Low Kick because of enemies like Mega Kangashkan and Protect against double targetting. Might consider Ice Beam instead of Low Kick for Lando-T.

Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Low Kick/High Jump Kick
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz

Last pokemon of my team. Not sure if it fits this team, but i would easily replace it if i found something better. Life Orb because it puts more Damage than Blazikenite.Standard physical sweeper EVs and Adamant nature to boost Atk. Protect to set up its speed, low kick for stuff like kanga, stone edge for type coverage and flare blitz to ohko stuff.

That's my team. Please forgive any mistakes I made since this is my first thread and give me suggestions to improve it, thanks.

 

[Omastar68]

BattleSpotStats.com is being uncooperative, but i'm gonna try to help anyways.

Your team is pretty fast-paced for all the Spe control. I'd drop t-wave on Togekiss for Protect. If you still want t-wave, I think it might go better on TTar.

Hydra I think you could cut back on Spe a little and opt for more bulk. 252 neutral Spe Arcanine is the next common benchmark to hit. But that's just dropping Spe a little, not much bulk. I think you could go down to just enough Spe for max 80s, or lower like 252 neutral Landog. http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-spot-doubles-speed-tiers.3574205/ Up to you, but I don't think the tie on other Hydra is really worth it when your team is quite good against them and you have Tailwind. Unless ofc the bulk ends up not doing much.

Really don't think you need that much Spe on Rotom-W. For one Bisharp prolly won't be max Spe-i'd expect Adamant. Your team also isn't bad with it at all really, and it's declining/declined in usage anyways. I guess you could keep all the Spe for Breloom...but again that's prolly not max Spe much(I kno it's not in singles, can't see why BSD would differ.) Really I think no Spe is best on Rotom-W here.

Last thing I see is some stuff with Blaziken. Stone Edge doesn't seem like terribly important coverage, and you'd want Rock Slide anyways. Your team already deals well with Talon, and Blazi wouldn't get to attack it anyways. Zard Y is a veritable threat, but you don't really need a move for it. TTar ruins it for the most part by switching in, and Hydra and Togekiss can likely take a hit and blow it up or set Tailwind for an easy revenge respectively. Metagross outspeeds naturally and can possibly get a flinch or revenge with a little prior damage. I guess Thunnd is a little threatening, but it takes a lot from Flare blitz anyways.

I think running Knock Off, WoW, or going mixed with HP Ice would be good. Knock Off is just great in general by messing up item reliant stuff(I don't think you like P2,) and finishing weakened Gengar without taking recoil. Cress hates it more than the other moves if sun isnit up, and with Low Kick it's far and away the best option on Rotoms of the three moves. WoW is less good on Blazi than many things cuz you can prolly just kill Kang, but you might want to predict a Sucker Punch(goes for Bisharp too :D) Again kinda nice for Cress even if it isn't Toxic, and Landog doesn't like it either. Speking of Landog, it'd get killed easy by HP Ice if you ran that. Mence and Chomp would also be dealt with better.

oh, also I think you could run less Spe on Ken-definitely I you go mixed.

Lastly, it seems you're already leaning towards Low Kick, but just wanna say definitely don't go for HJK. Too much Protect, and it can miss even without that. Superpower should be more than enuff with LO if you want more power, but then I think Overheat>Flare Blitz like in BS.

Anyways, hope that advice isn't useless. I do better when I can actually see the usage stats. This team looks very good to me, there isn't really any obvious problem like you see sometimes. Then again i'm meh at doubles lol

 

[SuperPotsep]

BattleSpotStats.com is being uncooperative, but i'm gonna try to help anyways.

Your team is pretty fast-paced for all the Spe control. I'd drop t-wave on Togekiss for Protect. If you still want t-wave, I think it might go better on TTar.

Hydra I think you could cut back on Spe a little and opt for more bulk. 252 neutral Spe Arcanine is the next common benchmark to hit. But that's just dropping Spe a little, not much bulk. I think you could go down to just enough Spe for max 80s, or lower like 252 neutral Landog. http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-spot-doubles-speed-tiers.3574205/ Up to you, but I don't think the tie on other Hydra is really worth it when your team is quite good against them and you have Tailwind. Unless ofc the bulk ends up not doing much.

Really don't think you need that much Spe on Rotom-W. For one Bisharp prolly won't be max Spe-i'd expect Adamant. Your team also isn't bad with it at all really, and it's declining/declined in usage anyways. I guess you could keep all the Spe for Breloom...but again that's prolly not max Spe much(I kno it's not in singles, can't see why BSD would differ.) Really I think no Spe is best on Rotom-W here.

Last thing I see is some stuff with Blaziken. Stone Edge doesn't seem like terribly important coverage, and you'd want Rock Slide anyways. Your team already deals well with Talon, and Blazi wouldn't get to attack it anyways. Zard Y is a veritable threat, but you don't really need a move for it. TTar ruins it for the most part by switching in, and Hydra and Togekiss can likely take a hit and blow it up or set Tailwind for an easy revenge respectively. Metagross outspeeds naturally and can possibly get a flinch or revenge with a little prior damage. I guess Thunnd is a little threatening, but it takes a lot from Flare blitz anyways.

I think running Knock Off, WoW, or going mixed with HP Ice would be good. Knock Off is just great in general by messing up item reliant stuff(I don't think you like P2,) and finishing weakened Gengar without taking recoil. Cress hates it more than the other moves if sun isnit up, and with Low Kick it's far and away the best option on Rotoms of the three moves. WoW is less good on Blazi than many things cuz you can prolly just kill Kang, but you might want to predict a Sucker Punch(goes for Bisharp too :D) Again kinda nice for Cress even if it isn't Toxic, and Landog doesn't like it either. Speking of Landog, it'd get killed easy by HP Ice if you ran that. Mence and Chomp would also be dealt with better.

oh, also I think you could run less Spe on Ken-definitely I you go mixed.

Lastly, it seems you're already leaning towards Low Kick, but just wanna say definitely don't go for HJK. Too much Protect, and it can miss even without that. Superpower should be more than enuff with LO if you want more power, but then I think Overheat>Flare Blitz like in BS.

Anyways, hope that advice isn't useless. I do better when I can actually see the usage stats. This team looks very good to me, there isn't really any obvious problem like you see sometimes. Then again i'm meh at doubles lol

Thanks for your advice, I have already began to change some of the stuff you told me to.However, I still have some questions. First of all, is the ev spread on togekiss fine?It gave me a lot of trouble to decide it.Also should I dump all speed on rotom in favour of SpA? And regarding blaziken, how much should I lower its speed which stat should I increase?

 

[Omastar68]

Thanks for your advice, I have already began to change some of the stuff you told me to.However, I still have some questions. First of all, is the ev spread on togekiss fine?It gave me a lot of trouble to decide it.Also should I dump all speed on rotom in favour of SpA? And regarding blaziken, how much should I lower its speed which stat should I increase?

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-spot-doubles-sample-teams.3560836/

Making EV spreads in doubles is really tough, so I think using the samples team thread is a good idea. Just click to see each team looking for the mon whose EVs you want. Spreads you find might not always e the very best possible, but you can tell people put a lot of work in finding them so I'd say they're a great place to start.

Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Calm, 252 HP, 60 Def, 4 Sp. Atk, 116 Sp. Def, 76 Speed
Ability: Serene Grace

- Air Slash
- Follow Me
- Tailwind
- Thunder Wave

So first is Togekiss. This is the only variant I saw, and it looks good. Yours is Goggles instead of Sitrus, but I think that's fine. So the first that jumps out to me is the difference in Spe. Yours is 60, and while ProjeectTitan313 who made this one is pretty great(bar the potty-mouth-er keyboard,) I'd actually disagree on 76 Spe(which is mentioned to be for +1 Max Spe Gyara.) Gyara is a fairly common mon in BSD(but not too much so, #50,) and it does typically run DD(54.7%,) but it's often not gonna be max Spe(27% are Jolly,) and keeping it from setting up is often gonna be possible too.

Next is the difference in defenses. HP is maxed in both cases as I'm sure it should be, but yours has much more Def EVs. I'm really not sure which side is better to invest in. Both live max Atk Kang's DE for instance. That said...I'm kinda leaning towards Def like you have. Most Kiss are Bold going off stats, which also means way more Def evs than SpD EVs, so clearly a physically bulky focus on it is valued in BSD.

Finally there's the question of the last slot. PJT mentions winning Tailwind wars, which is a good reason for t-wave. Protect is actually the more common move tho, and your team is quite fast. Honestly mayb just try both and then decide.

Next is Blazi.

Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 68 Atk / 196 SpA / 244 Spe
Naive Nature
- Overheat
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

This seems to be the agreed upon set, and I think it's an ok change. In keeping with it's complicatedness(BSD,) Adamant Blazi is quite a bit more common than Naïve, so idk if this is really best or what lol. If you want to keep Adamant, then I think Rock Slide and Superpower are good. Maybe just keep max Spe since bulk prolly won't do much.R

For Rotom-w I didn't see any bulky Modest ones, even tho that's by far the most common set. Spe you need a lot on Rotoms to outrun anything relevant. Lowest is 252 neutral base 70s like you have now, but I don't think those are worth it like I said. So dumping all that Spe in SpA seems like a good plan.

 

[SuperPotsep]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-spot-doubles-sample-teams.3560836/

Making EV spreads in doubles is really tough, so I think using the samples team thread is a good idea. Just click to see each team looking for the mon whose EVs you want. Spreads you find might not always e the very best possible, but you can tell people put a lot of work in finding them so I'd say they're a great place to start.

Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Calm, 252 HP, 60 Def, 4 Sp. Atk, 116 Sp. Def, 76 Speed
Ability: Serene Grace

- Air Slash
- Follow Me
- Tailwind
- Thunder Wave

So first is Togekiss. This is the only variant I saw, and it looks good. Yours is Goggles instead of Sitrus, but I think that's fine. So the first that jumps out to me is the difference in Spe. Yours is 60, and while ProjeectTitan313 who made this one is pretty great(bar the potty-mouth-er keyboard,) I'd actually disagree on 76 Spe(which is mentioned to be for +1 Max Spe Gyara.) Gyara is a fairly common mon in BSD(but not too much so, #50,) and it does typically run DD(54.7%,) but it's often not gonna be max Spe(27% are Jolly,) and keeping it from setting up is often gonna be possible too.

Next is the difference in defenses. HP is maxed in both cases as I'm sure it should be, but yours has much more Def EVs. I'm really not sure which side is better to invest in. Both live max Atk Kang's DE for instance. That said...I'm kinda leaning towards Def like you have. Most Kiss are Bold going off stats, which also means way more Def evs than SpD EVs, so clearly a physically bulky focus on it is valued in BSD.

Finally there's the question of the last slot. PJT mentions winning Tailwind wars, which is a good reason for t-wave. Protect is actually the more common move tho, and your team is quite fast. Honestly mayb just try both and then decide.

Next is Blazi.

Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 68 Atk / 196 SpA / 244 Spe
Naive Nature
- Overheat
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

This seems to be the agreed upon set, and I think it's an ok change. In keeping with it's complicatedness(BSD,) Adamant Blazi is quite a bit more common than Naïve, so idk if this is really best or what lol. If you want to keep Adamant, then I think Rock Slide and Superpower are good. Maybe just keep max Spe since bulk prolly won't do much.R

For Rotom-w I didn't see any bulky Modest ones, even tho that's by far the most common set. Spe you need a lot on Rotoms to outrun anything relevant. Lowest is 252 neutral base 70s like you have now, but I don't think those are worth it like I said. So dumping all that Spe in SpA seems like a good plan.

Thanks a ton for all the advice, really appreciated.Last night i came up with the idea to bench blaziken and replace it with terrakion.
Terrakion @ Lum Berry

Ability: Justified

EVs: 116 HP / 140 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Close Combat

- Rock Slide

- Quick Guard

- Protect
It does pretty much anything blaziken does but better and it also has great synergy with metagross and hydreigon, since it can utilize quick guard.Should I do it or should I just keep blaziken?

 

[Omastar68]

Thanks a ton for all the advice, really appreciated.Last night i came up with the idea to bench blaziken and replace it with terrakion.
Terrakion @ Lum Berry

Ability: Justified

EVs: 116 HP / 140 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Close Combat

- Rock Slide

- Quick Guard

- Protect
It does pretty much anything blaziken does but better and it also has great synergy with metagross and hydreigon, since it can utilize quick guard.Should I do it or should I just keep blaziken?

I think I prefer Blaziken. It's more helpful against Gardevoir(which is liable to for Psychic or w/e if it expects WG,) and Gengar, and better against Landog even if you keep it Adamant. Talon is very covered by this team, so that weakness in Blazi isn't really a problem. Terrakion also does less to Cress and nothing to Aegi(Aegi is actually quite dangerous for you. Underspeeds even the slowest TTar bar Macho Brace to get hit for less in Shield then gets WP boost. Susceptible to AS flinches from Toge, but that won't do much damage and there's Flash Cannon. Gross can't hit for much damage on it and gets hit hard. Rotom-W isn't really good or bad vs. Aegi. Hydra does pretty good, but lots of Aegi live even Specs DP and get a boost to do lots of damage)

Maybe Terrakion would be good if you change TTar for something. hey stack some very unfortunate weaknesses, and even tho Terra likes sand somewhat, I don't think it's worth it. Also, what's that ev spread for? i'd expect just max atk and Spe to be fine, tho it's good to be creative in this meta. Taking 8 evs out of HP for 4 evs in each defense would help that Terra's bulk, one point of HP for one in each defense. Doesn't work for stuff like Rotoms, but cuz Terra has slightly higher HP than defenses.

 

[SuperPotsep]

I think I prefer Blaziken. It's more helpful against Gardevoir(which is liable to for Psychic or w/e if it expects WG,) and Gengar, and better against Landog even if you keep it Adamant. Talon is very covered by this team, so that weakness in Blazi isn't really a problem. Terrakion also does less to Cress and nothing to Aegi(Aegi is actually quite dangerous for you. Underspeeds even the slowest TTar bar Macho Brace to get hit for less in Shield then gets WP boost. Susceptible to AS flinches from Toge, but that won't do much damage and there's Flash Cannon. Gross can't hit for much damage on it and gets hit hard. Rotom-W isn't really good or bad vs. Aegi. Hydra does pretty good, but lots of Aegi live even Specs DP and get a boost to do lots of damage)

Maybe Terrakion would be good if you change TTar for something. hey stack some very unfortunate weaknesses, and even tho Terra likes sand somewhat, I don't think it's worth it. Also, what's that ev spread for? i'd expect just max atk and Spe to be fine, tho it's good to be creative in this meta. Taking 8 evs out of HP for 4 evs in each defense would help that Terra's bulk, one point of HP for one in each defense. Doesn't work for stuff like Rotoms, but cuz Terra has slightly higher HP than defenses.

I dont think I should swap Ttar because its just very good in this team, so I guess im back to blaziken