Doubles CCAT #2 - Completed!

[BlankZero]

Approved by Audiosurfer and Pocket
Artwork by Based Art God Bummer

Welcome to the second Doubles Community-Create-A-Team Project! Format shamelessly stolen from NixHex's thread.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A COMPLETED TEAM. ALL THE ORIGINAL NOMINATIONS AND VOTES ARE INCLUDED IN THIS THREAD FOR YOU TO PERUSE AT YOUR LEISURE. JUST BECAUSE A POKEMON DID NOT GET VOTED ONTO THE FINAL TEAM DOES NOT MAKE IT A POOR CHOICE. YOU ARE FREE TO USE ANY AND ALL SETS FOUND HERE ON YOUR OWN PERSONAL TEAMS AND TO USE THIS THREAD AS A REFERENCE POST. HAPPY BUILDING!

Introduction to CCATs

This has been done in several other forums multiple times and I'd like to bring it to Doubles. Basically, the CCAT, or Community Create-a-Team, is a chance for Doubles enthusiasts and new players alike to join and create a team. The usual way this works is, in the first round, people post sets they would like to build a team around. After a few days of nominating new Pokemon and discussion each other's sets, the community votes on which set they like and the most popular set gets chosen. From that point on, teammates are chosen carefully using the same process (nomination, discussion, voting) until the team is complete. The team is then tested by several users on that tier's respective ladder and replays are shared and discussed. Revisions may be made at that point until there is a polished finish product!

The Doubles CCAT

In the Doubles responsible for nominating TWO Pokemon. Essentially, you want to choose two Pokemon who perform roles either to support each other or to accomplish an overall goal around which to build the team. I'll use an example from an old VGC team of mine (take these with a grain of salt, the EVs aren't worked out or anything).

1. List the movesets for both Pokemon. Please put sprites too, it looks pretty and makes it easier to distinguish between different submissions. Feel free to add little item images if you so desire. Be sure not to slash natures, items, abilities, or moves! This just makes voting a hassle so let's not go there.

example

Jellicent @ Water Gem

Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Water Spout
- Shadow Ball
- Recover
- Trick Room

Amoonguss @ Coba Berry

Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect

2. Now write an informative write-up explaining the core. This doesn't have to be a 5 paragraph essay, but it needs to explain the core strategy and the moveset selection. Outline potential threats and discuss Pokemon that can counter them and/or work well with the core's strategy. Here's an idea of how it should look.

example

Jellimoonguss is a very potent Trick Room core. It is the basis of RainRoom and you are almost guaranteed to set up Trick Room and start blasting away with Water Spout. This can be done from turn 1: Amoonguss uses Rage Powder to draw any attacks or Taunts away from Jellicent, allowing it to set up Trick Room and still have full HP for a powerful Water Spout. Jellicent also has that handy Ghost typing, making it immune to the ever common Fake Out. After Trick Room is up, Amoonguss basically gets a free Spore with its miserable Speed stat making it go first in nearly every case. Politoed is an unquestionable partner for Jellicent, providing it with Drizzle and a huge boost to Water Spout. Politoed even has Helping Hand to boost Water Spout to ridiculous levels. On the other hand, it can use Surf to heal Jellicent's HP thanks to Water Absorb, allowing it to keep Water Spout's base power healthy as well as deal more damage to your opponent's team on top of Water Spout.

Some things to consider:

- Your core does not need to be used as a dedicated lead pair. For example, Tyranitar / Excadrill are amazing for Sand Stream and Sand Rush, but you would be foolish to lead with the two Pokemon in every single battle.

- Please go easy on the gimmicks and absolutely nonsense. Leave your Special Machamp and physical Alakazam out of this thread. If you're going to post something outlandish (which is often times the case in doubles) make sure you provide solid reasoning and possibly replays (against solid opponents) as to why it will work. Troll posts will be deleted and possibly infracted if you are terrible.

Each user will nominate only one core. Feel free to discuss other people's work, too! We're working on this as a community so feedback from your peers is necessary. You may suggest minor moveset changes, but the poster of the set MUST have made a final decision before voting.

After four days to one week of nomination and discussion, we will move on to the voting stage. You will vote for one user and one user only. This usually lasts a day or so. More details including the voting format will be made available on the first voting day.

The consecutive rounds will follow the same format except that one set will be submitted (instead of a 2 Pokemon core).

Make sure to re-read the rules carefully. Now that you have re-read them, let's get to it!


The Team:

Oda Nobunaga (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Protect

Red Bull (Terrakion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Bisharp and Terrakion stomp everything so hard. Thanks to Terrakion's Quick Guard Bisharp is free to stomp pretty much any Trick Room lead, especially against ones which think they can buy a free turn with a Fake Out from Scrafty (lol Defiant). Terrakion / Bisharp can beat a lot of common Pokemon that populate the tier, Landorus-T falls to a LO +1 252+ Sucker Punch from Bisharp whilst Rotom falls to a combination of Knock Off and Rock Slide. Terrakion does a good job of clearing Fire-type Pokemon with STAB Rock Slide which gives Bisharp a lot more room to breathe.

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 Atk / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive nature
- Draco Meteor
- EQ
- Fire Blast
- Protect

With a mixed spread would suit us more. It doesn't have to worry about Fairies coming in vs Draco, so it has more breathing room and can suit more reckless playstyles. EQ wrecks Mega Mawile and hits Mega Gard / Sylveon harder than everything else Mence has rn; with mixed EQ, we could even forsake Venusaur's mixedness for a more focused bulky set. Fire Blast stays because fuck Steels and Fire coverage is awesome, but I think Heat Wave can be tested as well. Finally, obligatory Protect.

LO MixMence works because:
- Has more breathing room to spam Draco Meteors since it isn't completely helpless when a Fairy switches in.
- Has more stayin ability- Mixed means you can fire off Draco yet still hit hard with physical EQ
- Hits harder; LO is a lot more powerful
- Pairs with Tailwind exceptionally well; extra Speed + Power + Coverage = domination
- More liquid set leads to greater abusability of Intimidate

Cresselia (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 160 SAtk / 252 HP / 96 Def
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Helping Hand

cresselia just fits really well on a team with bisharp and terrakion. offensive cresselia could work well since it checks two of our big concerns right now; landorus-t and fighting types, plus it's not very expected. this spread ohko's landorus-t, garchomp, salamence, and 2hko's latios with ice beam. psyshock ohko's breloom and 2hko's 80 HP / 96 Def conkeldurr and 252 HP hitmontop. levitate gives it a nifty ground immunity, so that's always nice when dealing with garchomp or landorus.

252 HP / 96 Def lives a lot of stuff and is always 3hko'd by cb adamant talonflame. helping hand is fantastic support and cress can function under trick room or be an anti-tr pokemon, so it gives a lot of options.

Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- After You
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Spore

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake

Amoonguss goes well with Terrakion and Bisharp, and After You helps Terrakion, Salamence, and Gyarados if you get in to an awkward position with Trick Room.

Suicune is a little too defensive for me, and Gyarados has similar bulk with a better offensive presence. Gyarados makes the burn problem a little worse, but Rage Powder helps with that. If Will-O-Wisp is still too frightening, perhaps Substitute over Protect on Gyara, Substitute over Quick Guard on Terrakion, or Safeguard over Helping Hand on Cresselia.

Importable

Oda Nobunaga (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Protect

Red Bull (Terrakion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 Atk / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive nature
- Draco Meteor
- EQ
- Fire Blast
- Protect

Cresselia (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 160 SAtk / 252 HP / 96 Def
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Helping Hand

Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- After You
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Spore

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake

Edited to include the original Team Descriptions.​

 

[Arcticblast]

Let's start off with a couple of Pokemon I've been laddering with recently.

Abomasnow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Naive Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Wood Hammer
- Focus Blast

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Protect

I originally came up with this as an experiment of sorts in bluffing the Mega stone. I realized that Mega Gyarados had some problems dealing with Rotom-W (sometimes), Venusaur, Lati@s, and Thundurus-I - and Abomasnow just happens to outspeed all of them with a Choice Scarf, and on top of that it removes problematic Sun that weakens Gyarados's STAB. With these threats removed Mega Gyarados is more than capable of sweeping teams. On Abomasnow it's basically standard fare for a Scarf set, and the same goes for Gyarados - whack stuff with powerful moves. Abomasnow's EV spread is up for change though - Wood Hammer does get used a lot - and Gyarados's could use a bit of fine tuning as well. There's a replay of me using this against Haruno somewhere...

This combo does have its share of problems - it has trouble with Fighting-types and Mega Charizard Y in particular. That's one of the reasons I'm nominating it - solving the problems these Pokemon share will ultimately make for a better CCAT and hopefully heighten the skills of the players using it (Gyarados gives no shits about Fighters before Mega Evolution for example) and help us further understand Mega Evolution.

Also, Abomasnow has to be shiny - the color scheme is fantastic.

 

[BLOOD TOTEM]

Oda Nobunaga (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Protect

Red Bull (Terrakion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Bisharp and Terrakion stomp everything so hard. Thanks to Terrakion's Quick Guard Bisharp is free to stomp pretty much any Trick Room lead, especially against ones which think they can buy a free turn with a Fake Out from Scrafty (lol Defiant). Terrakion / Bisharp can beat a lot of common Pokemon that populate the tier, Landorus-T falls to a LO +1 252+ Sucker Punch from Bisharp whilst Rotom falls to a combination of Knock Off and Rock Slide. Terrakion does a good job of clearing Fire-type Pokemon with STAB Rock Slide which gives Bisharp a lot more room to breathe. Basically TerraSharp es good, seriously try it out.



Also Arcticblast I prefer regular Abomasnow :<

 

[Ash Borer]

Im not a great player, but I experimented with Trick Room recently, and I found this duo can be pretty deadly

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 160 Def / 252 HP / 96 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Helping Hand
- Safeguard
- Ice Beam

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 180 Atk / 252 HP / 36 SDef / 40 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Play Rough
- Brick Break
- Protect
- Sucker Punch

This a pretty simple Trick Room Nuclear Bomb core. Cresselia's ability to reliably set up trick room, persist, and give out helping hands is ideal to partner with Mawile. Mawile is the star of the show here, it basically 1 shots everything with a helping hand play rough and it 1 hits max HP heatran with HH brick break, nothing lives that barrage, sucker punch cleans out opposing priority users, and can let you attack first without the trick room. Protect lets you play around attackers that are faster while Cress sets up the ruse room. Stone edge > Sucker punch is an interesting choice, although making you completely reliant on trick room you can snipe Talonflame, Charizard, and other fire types that are not the unslammable quite reliably with it. AS for cress' moves, Safeguard is a fantastic countermeasure to will o wisp, something opponents will vehemently try and use to shut down mawile, as well it can block other nasty status, naturall. Lunar Dance over Safeguard may seem a bit peculiar, but it is invaluable, it forces the opponent to fight mawile twice and still lets you play more aggressively against Will o Wisp users, switching out mawile, and using Lunar Dance in the same turn, after TR has just been reset gives you a fresh mawile and a number of turns of TR to play with, this alone is devastating to the enemy should their checks be weakened by the first onslaught, the advantage this has over Safeguard is mawile gets its HP back basically. Ice beam is filler but is useful for sniping Landorus-T whose intimidate and EQ are a pain for Mawile, as well it help damage Amoongus, one of the most popular poison types that can actually take a play rough from Mawile.

 

[Pocket]

Interesting nom Ash Borer, but I suggest 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD; Sassy Nature on the Cresselia set. This has enough physical bulk to survive a +2 Kangaskhan's Double-Edge while the rest is dumped into Special Defense to pad its special side.

I also suggest the spread 252 HP / 180 Atk / 40 Def / 36 SpD for Mawile. The extra investment in bulk allows it to survive Heatran's Heat Wave, Specs Rotom-W's Hydro Pump, LO Garchomp's EQ, and -1 CB Talonflame's Flare Blitz. The power drop is not noticeable imo; it still OHKOs max HP Heatran with a HH Brick Break

 

[Stratos]

If we are to go with Ash Borer's then I would want to make the minor edit of replacing Lunar Dance on Cress with Safeguard, since Mawile is a burn magnet and TR is a sleep magnet, and perhaps switching Ice Beam for Psychic to deal with common intimidators, since Maw already has Play Rough.


edit: i might post my own core here once i get a computer again

 

[Gyarad0s]

I've been playing around with different megas lately and decided to try Mawile outside of TR. I decided on Sableye as a direct support mon to help Mawile out and the results have been devastating:

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch

Sableye @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Mean Look

Mega-Mawile's base attack stat is 678. six hundred and seventy eight. To quote Pocket: "Kindly plz gtfo nao".

However; as it has underwhelming speed Mawile is going to tank some hits. Sableye is there to cripple and disrupt the opposing team, lessening those blows and enabling Mawile to sweep. Taunt is to protect Mawile from Burns and Spores, Will-o-Wisp to cripple physical foes, and Mean Look to trap Mawile's counters as Mawile switches out into something that can take on said foe. Mawile's set is pretty self explanatory; and very deadly. Note that Mental Herb > Sitrus Berry and Helping Hand > Mean Look are options on Sableye.

 

[youngjake93]

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: standard+creep, will edit
Modest Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power

Cresselia @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 Def / 252 HP / 16 Spd
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Icy Wind
- Rest

This is the combo I've been running and sharing for a while now. Basically, Cresselia wins games all by itself. However, very powerful attackers such as Mega Mawile, Scizor, Bisharp, Aegislash,Genesect and sometimes Fire Blast Charizard+partner try to stop that from happening. The idea is, Heatran completely rapes every CM Cress counter. As long as you make sure to not let Heatran die to random HP Grounds, it should be smooth sailing late game.
The Cress set is max physical bulk+Icy Wind to be extremely effective at helping Heatran early game. The spread damage picks off weakened stuff, Ice coverage+tankiness make Garchomp and Landorus cry and the speed drops give Heatran the jump on opponents to score a sub or attack easier if needed.
Moonblast is the superior attack for CM sweeping no matter what. The 30% sAtt drop is sooo sweet, Fairy coverage is much better than Psychic and you want coverage first on bulky CM, and it beats Tyranitar and Scrafty who would otherwise hurt this set.

Conveniently, this combo does not use a mega, but greatly appreciates early-mid presence of any of the mega powerhouses to soften up the opposition for a Cresselia sweep and weed out Trick/Taunt/Knock Off users for both Cress and Tran.

 

[Mizuhime]

Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 192 HP / 192 SDef / 20 Spd / 104 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Taunt

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on here. A fast Fake Out user to support Thundurus so he can T-wave everything he wants. The move sets are pretty self explanatory, Mega Mama, aims to deal as much damage as possible, while Thundurus is a very large pain in the ass with T-wave and Taunt. Thundurus allow for some bulkier partners in the back, that will benefit from the lower speed of the opponents ect ect.

 

[BlankZero]

Feeling obligated to make this post.

Checkmate (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spd (changed at ASurf's suggestion)
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

Duckwall (Cresselia) (F) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 16 SDef / 240 Def
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Moonblast
- Trick Room
- Calm Mind
- Rest

This is an Anti-TR/Emergency TR core. Bisharp basically slays every single Trick Room user in the game, while TR Cress does one of two things. Either it resets Trick Room or sets it up on Tailwind/Fast mode teams, allowing it to abuse it with Bisharp's middling 70 base speed. It's super anti-meta currently, with Bisharp being anti-meta already, and Setup Cress being an unbreakable force lategame, as youngjake has recently found out (been using CM Cress since the beginning myself). This core fits on almost any team comp due to its flexibility and power, as well as its unpredictable nature. Monoattacking sets are usually frowned upon, but MonoFairy is actually very strong currently, as the only real resist is in Steel types. This core is quite weak to Heatran, but having another team member to take care of it, like Landorus-Therian, HP Ground-carrying Latios/Gardevoir, and opposing Heatran (BalloonTran is strong right now) help that out tremendously, and are all viable mons in the current metagame. This core also benefits from not including a MegaEvolution, allowing us much greater freedom while building the rest of the team, not limiting us to building around a Mega, but allowing us to use a Mega as a supporting check to troublesome teamcomps. The EVs on Bisharp are standard bulky killing machine, able to function in and out of Trick Room, faster than other Trick Room abusers, yet slower than fastmode abusers, and also carrying the all-powerful Knock Off and Priority Suckerpunch, which also received a huge buff as only Dark/Fairy resists now, which Iron Head terrifies. Cress is EV'd to be Physically Bulky, using CM to set up its Special Defense as well as its offenses. 0 Atk is for Confusion, while 0 Spd let's you become a terrifying SlowMon under TR, especially if you start building up CM boosts. Then, just Rest up and begin slaying.

 

[Ash Borer]

Interesting nom Ash Borer, but I suggest 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD; Sassy Nature on the Cresselia set. This has enough physical bulk to survive a +2 Kangaskhan's Double-Edge while the rest is dumped into Special Defense to pad its special side.

I also suggest the spread 252 HP / 180 Atk / 40 Def / 36 SpD for Mawile. The extra investment in bulk allows it to survive Heatran's Heat Wave, Specs Rotom-W's Hydro Pump, LO Garchomp's EQ, and -1 CB Talonflame's Flare Blitz. The power drop is not noticeable imo; it still OHKOs max HP Heatran with a HH Brick Break

If we are to go with Ash Borer's then I would want to make the minor edit of replacing Lunar Dance on Cress with Safeguard, since Mawile is a burn magnet and TR is a sleep magnet, and perhaps switching Ice Beam for Psychic to deal with common intimidators, since Maw already has Play Rough.

I like these optimizations, Safeguard is probably better than Lunar Dance overall.

 

[Lasagne]

Diggersby @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 72 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Return
- Quick Attack
- Protect

Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Calm Nature
- Follow Me
- Air Slash
- Protect
- Helping Hand

basically this core is based around diggersby smashing shit and togekiss helping it smash shit. togekiss redirects all the annoying will-o-wisps, grass moves and fighting moves so diggersby can go on destroying. the diggersby evs allow it to outspeed standard heatran and smash it with eq (this thing was fucking made to kill heatran, one base speed point higher). togekiss evs let it survive a max attack metagross meteor mash (stolen from the wip analysis). diggersby is surprisingly bulky, able to live heat wave from max spA modest zardy in sun and hit back with rock slide. diggersby gets really good coverage with just its stabs, hitting loads of shit for insane amounts of damage. quick attack is insanely useful for getting rid of low health mons, and is surprisingly powerful thanks to diggersbys massive attack. helping hand on togekiss is really cool cos it makes diggersby THE MOST POWERFUL FUCKER EVER. THIS THING WILL SMASH YOU SO HARD YOU'LL BECOME A SINGLE SPERM CELL AGAIN. *ahem* yeah with helping hand diggersby is really powerful, lets show a calc v heatran for fun :)

252+ Atk Life Orb Huge Power Diggersby Helping Hand Earthquake vs. 180 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 1175-1388 (319.2 - 377.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

 

[Electrolyte]

While I am naturally opposed to creating something bog standard with this project, I do think that it's a good idea to put in some solid backbone to the team and then toy with our options later. That way, we can stray off the standard course but still maintain a relative (high! :]) level of viability and team synergy.

Hitmontop @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Atk / 60 Def / 60 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Fake Out
- Wide Guard
- Close Combat

Shaymin-Sky @ Life Orb
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Air Slash
- Seed Flare
- Earth Power
- Protect

This is a core I've been using in my latest team to great success. Hitmontop is an important team player and all around offensive support Pokemon. It provides Intimidate, Fake Out, and Wide Guard protection all in one Pokemon, covering many of the major necessities of successful teams. With Fake Out, it can provide the team and its partner with valuable opportunities and free windows to do as they please- be it attack or set up safely. With Wide Guard, it can also cover for the vast majority of spread moves out there, including Earthquake, Heat Wave, Surf, Rock Slide, and Discharge, giving us even more breathing room in the future. I definitely feel that if we want to do something creative and interesting in the future with this CCAT, we'll need Hitmontop to cover up weaknesses with his support movepool and Intimidate.

Shaymin comes up next and provides the team with power and immense speed. Modest LO STAB Seed Flare knocks the living shit out of everything, and with its nice -SpDef chance, can be used to wreck the opponent. Its Serene Grace Air Slash is really useful as well, flinching 60% of the time and also creating opportunities for teammates, just as Fake Out does. Because of its high Speed stat, it can easily use Air Slash to not only deal damage but also aid slower partners by shutting down one opponent. Protect is a necessity on this set; it lets you stall out an opponent, and because of Skymin's relative low bulk, lets you last a turn as you maneuver with your other Pokemon.

Already, there is some great synergy present. The two act awesome as a lead combination, with Top flinching a Pokemon and Shaymin hitting anything it wants for a lot of damage (often an OHKO!) Hitmontop's Wide Guard is also extremely useful for Shaymin, whose weaknesses (Ice, Rock, Fire) are often present in spread moves (Blizzard, Rock Slide, Heat Wave) that Hitmontop can cockblock with Wide Guard. Skymin's special power also takes down physical walls, such as Landorus-T or Azumarill, giving the team more momentum. The two also work together fairly well to take down most common Mega Pokemon; Mega Garchomp can be Intimidated and taken down by Air Slash + Seed Flare; Mega Kanga falls to Air Slash + Close Combat; Mega Gyarados is Intimidated and OHKOd by Seed Flare; Mega Mawile is Intimidated and taken down by Earth Power; Mega TTar falls to CC + Intimidate; and Mega Char Y falls to Air Slash + Rock Slide or two Air Slashes.


The synergy and offensive team support these two provide not only give us valuable backbone synergy but also the ability to play around with our future members.

 

[BlankZero]

Ok, since we already have a ton of Cores (possibly 10 if Pwnemon does one), I'm going to close nominations as of tonight. You guys have roughly 8 hours to get in any submissions before I compile the list for vote.

Great start to the project though!

 

[Audiosurfer]

Cool cores around here :) Just wanted to suggest some things for another core. For BlankZero's core, I think a spread of 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spd @ Adamant would be a good spread for Bisharp. Lets you outspeed up to 4 Speed Rotom-W, which is a pretty good benchmark to avoid a Will-O-Wisp before you can hit Rotom-W first.

edit: figured i'd add my own

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Pretty simple core. With Rage Powder Amoonguss can create free turns for Azumarill to Belly Drum, at which time Azumarill will be at +6 and will thus be able to rampage through a team. Spore can be used to eliminate any problem Pokemon that could arise and to create more free turns. Grass and Water cover each other's weaknesses fairly well which makes this pairing work p. well. Also, they both function well on their own, so they're not reliant on them both being out like some might think.

 

[BlankZero]

Cool cores around here :) Just wanted to suggest some things for another core. For BlankZero's core, I think a spread of 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spd @ Adamant would be a good spread for Bisharp. Lets you outspeed up to 4 Speed Rotom-W, which is a pretty good benchmark to avoid a Will-O-Wisp before you can hit Rotom-W first.

edit: figured i'd add my own

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Pretty simple core. With Rage Powder Amoonguss can create free turns for Azumarill to Belly Drum, at which time Azumarill will be at +6 and will thus be able to rampage through a team. Spore can be used to eliminate any problem Pokemon that could arise and to create more free turns. Grass and Water cover each other's weaknesses fairly well which makes this pairing work p. well. Also, they both function well on their own, so they're not reliant on them both being out like some might think.

I'll make the change on Bisharp. Thanks! Any suggestions for the Cress set? Currently, it's going for more Defense and using CM to shore up my offense and SpDef, but I feel it could be optimized a bit better.

I like your core but it is super weak to Breloom, who gives no fucks about Rage Powder or Spore, and can completely destroy Azumarril with Bullet Seed. While I know we can patch that up with team mates, it's a pretty glaring weakness to me.

 

[Electrolyte]

While I don't necessarily support any nomination over another just yet (still have to scrutinize them in further detail) I would like to note that right now, we should be considering the BENEFITS of our nominations more than the weaknesses simply because it's an early stage of teambuilding and we're just working on expanding our future options. Having a few synergistic holes here or there isn't too big of a deal as long as the core we vote for provides the best overall handle on the metagame or presents the most solid center core.

It's not going to be difficult to point out various weaknesses in our armor in the beginning of this project simply because we don't have that much to work with yet. We need to lay down a solid framework now, and worry about covering weaknesses in the future.

 

[BlankZero]

NOMINATIONS ARE CLOSED! ROUND 1 VOTING WILL NOW COMMENCE!

Here's how this is going to work. We have a whole bunch of possible cores and a ton of variation, and therefore, I don't feel a simple vote will do it justice.

So, the voting process will go as follows:

1. Pick the 3 cores you like the most.
2. Put them in order of Favorites by name of Poster.
(example-Arcticblast/Blood Totem/Ash Borer)
3. Each vote will be counted with a flat point value. First Pick will get 3 points , second 2 points, and third 1 point.
4. I will tally all the points after voting concludes, and we will REVOTE between the TOP 3 CORES.

This is only for this round, and only because we have a ton of great cores by great players. Afterward, unless we get like 20 nominations for the 3rd Pokemon, we will do simple voting. I apologize if this seems overly complicated, but there's 10 Cores to pick from and all of them are pretty fantastic.

Each spoiler tag includes the Core and the Description, so please read through every core before picking your 3 favorites.

Voting will end on February 4th at 12pm (-7 GMT).

Happy Voting!

Abomasnow/Gyarados-Arcticblast

Abomasnow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Atk
Naive Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Wood Hammer
- Focus Blast

Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Protect

I originally came up with this as an experiment of sorts in bluffing the Mega stone. I realized that Mega Gyarados had some problems dealing with Rotom-W (sometimes), Venusaur, Lati@s, and Thundurus-I - and Abomasnow just happens to outspeed all of them with a Choice Scarf, and on top of that it removes problematic Sun that weakens Gyarados's STAB. With these threats removed Mega Gyarados is more than capable of sweeping teams. On Abomasnow it's basically standard fare for a Scarf set, and the same goes for Gyarados - whack stuff with powerful moves. Abomasnow's EV spread is up for change though - Wood Hammer does get used a lot - and Gyarados's could use a bit of fine tuning as well. There's a replay of me using this against Haruno somewhere...

This combo does have its share of problems - it has trouble with Fighting-types and Mega Charizard Y in particular. That's one of the reasons I'm nominating it - solving the problems these Pokemon share will ultimately make for a better CCAT and hopefully heighten the skills of the players using it (Gyarados gives no shits about Fighters before Mega Evolution for example) and help us further understand Mega Evolution.

Also, Abomasnow has to be shiny - the color scheme is fantastic.

Bisharp/Terrakion-Blood Totem

Oda Nobunaga (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Protect

Red Bull (Terrakion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Bisharp and Terrakion stomp everything so hard. Thanks to Terrakion's Quick Guard Bisharp is free to stomp pretty much any Trick Room lead, especially against ones which think they can buy a free turn with a Fake Out from Scrafty (lol Defiant). Terrakion / Bisharp can beat a lot of common Pokemon that populate the tier, Landorus-T falls to a LO +1 252+ Sucker Punch from Bisharp whilst Rotom falls to a combination of Knock Off and Rock Slide. Terrakion does a good job of clearing Fire-type Pokemon with STAB Rock Slide which gives Bisharp a lot more room to breathe. Basically TerraSharp es good, seriously try it out.

Cresselia/MegaMawile-Ash Borer

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 160 Def / 252 HP / 96 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Helping Hand
- Safeguard
- Ice Beam

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 180 Atk / 252 HP / 36 SDef / 40 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Play Rough
- Brick Break
- Protect
- Sucker Punch

This a pretty simple Trick Room Nuclear Bomb core. Cresselia's ability to reliably set up trick room, persist, and give out helping hands is ideal to partner with Mawile. Mawile is the star of the show here, it basically 1 shots everything with a helping hand play rough and it 1 hits max HP heatran with HH brick break, nothing lives that barrage, sucker punch cleans out opposing priority users, and can let you attack first without the trick room. Protect lets you play around attackers that are faster while Cress sets up the ruse room. Stone edge > Sucker punch is an interesting choice, although making you completely reliant on trick room you can snipe Talonflame, Charizard, and other fire types that are not the unslammable quite reliably with it. AS for cress' moves, Safeguard is a fantastic countermeasure to will o wisp, something opponents will vehemently try and use to shut down mawile, as well it can block other nasty status, naturall. Lunar Dance over Safeguard may seem a bit peculiar, but it is invaluable, it forces the opponent to fight mawile twice and still lets you play more aggressively against Will o Wisp users, switching out mawile, and using Lunar Dance in the same turn, after TR has just been reset gives you a fresh mawile and a number of turns of TR to play with, this alone is devastating to the enemy should their checks be weakened by the first onslaught, the advantage this has over Safeguard is mawile gets its HP back basically. Ice beam is filler but is useful for sniping Landorus-T whose intimidate and EQ are a pain for Mawile, as well it help damage Amoongus, one of the most popular poison types that can actually take a play rough from Mawile.

MegaMawile/Sableye-Gyarad0s

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch

Sableye @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Mean Look

Mega-Mawile's base attack stat is 678. six hundred and seventy eight. To quote Pocket: "Kindly plz gtfo nao".

However; as it has underwhelming speed Mawile is going to tank some hits. Sableye is there to cripple and disrupt the opposing team, lessening those blows and enabling Mawile to sweep. Taunt is to protect Mawile from Burns and Spores, Will-o-Wisp to cripple physical foes, and Mean Look to trap Mawile's counters as Mawile switches out into something that can take on said foe. Mawile's set is pretty self explanatory; and very deadly. Note that Mental Herb > Sitrus Berry and Helping Hand > Mean Look are options on Sableye.

Heatran/Cresselia-youngjake93

*ADDED IMAGES BECAUSE JAKE IS A FREAKING NOOB WHO CAN'T READ*

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: standard+creep, will edit
Modest Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power

Cresselia @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 240 Def / 252 HP / 16 Spd
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Icy Wind
- Rest

This is the combo I've been running and sharing for a while now. Basically, Cresselia wins games all by itself. However, very powerful attackers such as Mega Mawile, Scizor, Bisharp, Aegislash,Genesect and sometimes Fire Blast Charizard+partner try to stop that from happening. The idea is, Heatran completely rapes every CM Cress counter. As long as you make sure to not let Heatran die to random HP Grounds, it should be smooth sailing late game.
The Cress set is max physical bulk+Icy Wind to be extremely effective at helping Heatran early game. The spread damage picks off weakened stuff, Ice coverage+tankiness make Garchomp and Landorus cry and the speed drops give Heatran the jump on opponents to score a sub or attack easier if needed.
Moonblast is the superior attack for CM sweeping no matter what. The 30% sAtt drop is sooo sweet, Fairy coverage is much better than Psychic and you want coverage first on bulky CM, and it beats Tyranitar and Scrafty who would otherwise hurt this set.

Kangaskhan/Thundurus-I-Mizuhime

Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 192 HP / 192 SDef / 20 Spd / 104 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Taunt

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on here. A fast Fake Out user to support Thundurus so he can T-wave everything he wants. The move sets are pretty self explanatory, Mega Mama, aims to deal as much damage as possible, while Thundurus is a very large pain in the ass with T-wave and Taunt. Thundurus allow for some bulkier partners in the back, that will benefit from the lower speed of the opponents ect ect.

Bisharp/Cresselia-BlankZero

Checkmate (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

Duckwall (Cresselia) (F) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 16 SDef / 240 Def
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Moonblast
- Trick Room
- Calm Mind
- Rest

This is an Anti-TR/Emergency TR core. Bisharp basically slays every single Trick Room user in the game, while TR Cress does one of two things. Either it resets Trick Room or sets it up on Tailwind/Fast mode teams, allowing it to abuse it with Bisharp's middling 70 base speed. It's super anti-meta currently, with Bisharp being anti-meta already, and Setup Cress being an unbreakable force lategame, as youngjake has recently found out (been using CM Cress since the beginning myself). This core fits on almost any team comp due to its flexibility and power, as well as its unpredictable nature. Monoattacking sets are usually frowned upon, but MonoFairy is actually very strong currently, as the only real resist is in Steel types. This core is quite weak to Heatran, but having another team member to take care of it, like Landorus-Therian, HP Ground-carrying Latios/Gardevoir, and opposing Heatran (BalloonTran is strong right now) help that out tremendously, and are all viable mons in the current metagame. This core also benefits from not including a MegaEvolution, allowing us much greater freedom while building the rest of the team, not limiting us to building around a Mega, but allowing us to use a Mega as a supporting check to troublesome teamcomps. The EVs on Bisharp are standard bulky killing machine, able to function in and out of Trick Room, faster than other Trick Room abusers, yet slower than fastmode abusers, and also carrying the all-powerful Knock Off and Priority Suckerpunch, which also received a huge buff as only Dark/Fairy resists now, which Iron Head terrifies. Cress is EV'd to be Physically Bulky, using CM to set up its Special Defense as well as its offenses. 0 Atk is for Confusion, while 0 Spd let's you become a terrifying SlowMon under TR, especially if you start building up CM boosts. Then, just Rest up and begin slaying.

Diggersby/Togekiss-Lasagne21

Diggersby @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 72 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Return
- Quick Attack
- Protect

Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Calm Nature
- Follow Me
- Air Slash
- Protect
- Helping Hand

basically this core is based around diggersby smashing shit and togekiss helping it smash shit. togekiss redirects all the annoying will-o-wisps, grass moves and fighting moves so diggersby can go on destroying. the diggersby evs allow it to outspeed standard heatran and smash it with eq (this thing was fucking made to kill heatran, one base speed point higher). togekiss evs let it survive a max attack metagross meteor mash (stolen from the wip analysis). diggersby is surprisingly bulky, able to live heat wave from max spA modest zardy in sun and hit back with rock slide. diggersby gets really good coverage with just its stabs, hitting loads of shit for insane amounts of damage. quick attack is insanely useful for getting rid of low health mons, and is surprisingly powerful thanks to diggersbys massive attack. helping hand on togekiss is really cool cos it makes diggersby THE MOST POWERFUL FUCKER EVER. THIS THING WILL SMASH YOU SO HARD YOU'LL BECOME A SINGLE SPERM CELL AGAIN. *ahem* yeah with helping hand diggersby is really powerful, lets show a calc v heatran for fun :)

Hitmontop/Skymin-Electrolyte

Hitmontop @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Atk / 60 Def / 60 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Fake Out
- Wide Guard
- Close Combat

Shaymin-Sky @ Life Orb
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Air Slash
- Seed Flare
- Earth Power
- Protect

This is a core I've been using in my latest team to great success. Hitmontop is an important team player and all around offensive support Pokemon. It provides Intimidate, Fake Out, and Wide Guard protection all in one Pokemon, covering many of the major necessities of successful teams. With Fake Out, it can provide the team and its partner with valuable opportunities and free windows to do as they please- be it attack or set up safely. With Wide Guard, it can also cover for the vast majority of spread moves out there, including Earthquake, Heat Wave, Surf, Rock Slide, and Discharge, giving us even more breathing room in the future. I definitely feel that if we want to do something creative and interesting in the future with this CCAT, we'll need Hitmontop to cover up weaknesses with his support movepool and Intimidate.

Shaymin comes up next and provides the team with power and immense speed. Modest LO STAB Seed Flare knocks the living shit out of everything, and with its nice -SpDef chance, can be used to wreck the opponent. Its Serene Grace Air Slash is really useful as well, flinching 60% of the time and also creating opportunities for teammates, just as Fake Out does. Because of its high Speed stat, it can easily use Air Slash to not only deal damage but also aid slower partners by shutting down one opponent. Protect is a necessity on this set; it lets you stall out an opponent, and because of Skymin's relative low bulk, lets you last a turn as you maneuver with your other Pokemon.

Already, there is some great synergy present. The two act awesome as a lead combination, with Top flinching a Pokemon and Shaymin hitting anything it wants for a lot of damage (often an OHKO!) Hitmontop's Wide Guard is also extremely useful for Shaymin, whose weaknesses (Ice, Rock, Fire) are often present in spread moves (Blizzard, Rock Slide, Heat Wave) that Hitmontop can cockblock with Wide Guard. Skymin's special power also takes down physical walls, such as Landorus-T or Azumarill, giving the team more momentum. The two also work together fairly well to take down most common Mega Pokemon; Mega Garchomp can be Intimidated and taken down by Air Slash + Seed Flare; Mega Kanga falls to Air Slash + Close Combat; Mega Gyarados is Intimidated and OHKOd by Seed Flare; Mega Mawile is Intimidated and taken down by Earth Power; Mega TTar falls to CC + Intimidate; and Mega Char Y falls to Air Slash + Rock Slide or two Air Slashes.

Azumarril/Amoongus-Audiosurfer

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Pretty simple core. With Rage Powder Amoonguss can create free turns for Azumarill to Belly Drum, at which time Azumarill will be at +6 and will thus be able to rampage through a team. Spore can be used to eliminate any problem Pokemon that could arise and to create more free turns. Grass and Water cover each other's weaknesses fairly well which makes this pairing work p. well. Also, they both function well on their own, so they're not reliant on them both being out like some might think.

Remember, pick 3 and please rank them in order so I can tally them up easily.

 

[Haki]

Blood Totem/Mizuhime/Arcticblast

 

[finally]

1. youngjake93- heatran + cress
2. arcticblast- abomasnow + mega-gyarados
3. blood totem- bisharp + terrakion

 

[Lasagne]

BLOOD TOTEM
Mizuhime
Audiosurfer

 

[Level 51]

Arcticblast
BLOOD TOTEM
Mizuhime

 

[Bughouse]

BlankZero
Blood Totem
Audiosurfer

 

[Laga]

totem
ablast
gyarad0s

 

[WinterWave]

blood totem
mizuhime
youngjake