My double battle team

[Dark Pulse94]

I'm starting in the bis for EV training, and since i love double battles (and can't wait for triple battles) i'm posting my team for review - any comments, suggestions, and I need help with a sixth pokemon
also no ubers please

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Swampert - Adamant - Stealth Rock1/2Ice punch, Earthquake, Aqua Tail, Stone Edge - Rindo Berry
Charizard - Modest - Fly, Heat Wave, Sunny Day(1)/(2)stealth rock, Solarbeam(1)/(2)focus blast/air slash - Petaya Berry

I need Charizard to counter any Grass types, the Rindo berry will allow Swampert to survive one attack (if the opponent has 2 grass pokemon) from a grass-type move. then my fast charizard (252 EV speed) will take them both out.

Flygon - This is essentially Charizard Version 2. here's how it goes
Fire Punch, Dig, Dragon Claw, outrage (needs editing) - Lum Berry/life orb

Metagross - A fast revenge killer - adamant/Jollly - I chose this based on agiligross (smogon combo), but with explosion instead of agility, this way, i can get a revenge kill, but then still survive a few turns, before- KABOOM!.
explosion, meteor mash, earthquake/zen headbut/ice punch/thunderpunch - life orb (he'll explode eventually)

Kindra - Special sweeper/rain dance - modest - my team has lots of physical pokemon (charizard and Kingdra are the only specials) so i needed a good special sweeper, plus Kingdra has good type coverage.
Rain Dance, Hydro Pump/Surf, Ice Beam/Blizzard, Dragon Pulse/Draco Meteor - Life Orb/Leftovers, (if using Draco Meteor, then) White Herb

TANK POKEMON!!!!! PLEASE HELP! - I wanted a good, survivable pokemon, no legendaries (as you can see) I currently have the Winners Path Selfdestruct munchlax, so i could evolve it, but maybe some other pokemon e.g. blissey, shuckle, spiritomb. any ideas for a good, solid support. maybe even a baton passer to swampert (therefore putting this pokemon as lead)

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this is my battle strategy

Swampert leads with stealth rock, while Charizard takes out any grass threats, then swamperts sweeps (heavily) with earthquake/stone edge, if a levitating/ground immune (and rock-resistant) pokemon comes up, then charizard flys while swampert surfs

if my charizard dies, then in comes flygon! flygon will dig to avoid surf, (and even if earthquake becomes apparant, flygon {for some unknown reason} will not get affected {because of levitate}) and will dragon claw/fire punch out any enemies.
when swampert dies, in comes revenge killer metagross! metagross will revenge kill anyone who was foolish enough to defy lord swampert. and whent the time comes... tick, tick, BOOM!

If i face an enemy who has very high defence, but no special defence, then "who ya gonna call?" MY KINGDRA! Kingdra will rain dance to double its speed, then surf, dragon pulse and ice beam the enemy down (or the other moves, you decide) kingdra will take out any dragon type (its only weakness) and fight off almost any enemy.

as for my tank pokemon, i'll just use one friends (from the hive) tactic of dusknoir (or spiritomb, either way) for this example
Dusknoir can survive explosion (its immune), so if i dont have a digger/flyer out, and i want my metagross to go, then i can just switch to dusknoir (rather than to flygon/charizard then use dig/fly) for absolute surprise factor (it hist them all in one turn, there's no predicatbility about it (unless you know that metagross has explosion, then its out the window)

I want my tank pokemon to be mainly devensive, and be able to fit with all of tese combinations, without being a dead weight (no attacking moves, therefore useless on its own/against types that are immune) e.g. no all-ghost, ground, fighting or normal moves in the one set (it would be a disaster) i know its a tall order, but i want to make this team as strong as possible.
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as a side note, i've already had suggestions for Dusknoir, spiritomb, my winner's path munchlax (knows selfdestruct) shuckle, and NOT blissey (they thought it a bad choice) elsewhere, feel free to add to that list

oh and don't bother saying that flygon w/ dig is bad comboed with my swamperts EQ, I tested it, and levitate even works while its digging! (i no, fail)

 

[aragornbird]

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Yeah, I hate to break it to you and I'm not trying to be mean, but this team just isn't good for double battles. Double battles are NOT like single battles. Some strategies that work in single battles won't work in double battles and vice versa. It seems you don't know anything about double battles and you're treating it like single battles and that just won't work at all.

You need to research more about double battles and how they're different from single battles and what strategies work and what strategies don't work.

Each Pokemon on your team needs to WORK TOGETHER AS A TEAM and not get in each other's way. This is true for single battles, but it's even more important in double battles since your Pokemon are battling as pairs.

Here's what you should read to be more prepared for double battles.

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[Lickitricky]

I'm sorry Dark Pulse, but aragorn is kind of right :( I really like your strategy where your Pokemon cover each others' weaknesses- you've got that in the back of your head, which is great since it's on of the best things to know when double battling. Unfortunately, many of your moves make you often shoot yourself in the foot, which is one of the #1 don'ts. (Examples of this include Lava Plume having a 30% chance of burning Swampert, thus completely ruining its attack, or using Sunny Day or Rain Dance, which support only one Pokemon each on your team and hinder many of the others). The solution is to either change the movesets on Charizard or Kingdra, or to get at least 3 Pokemon that will take advantage of the weather (thus making your team a Sunny Day or Rain Dance team).

There are also some item and nature issues, as well as movesets that could work much better in terms of revenge killing and supporting your team.

Finally, if you want a mainly sweeping team, which I respect, you should definitely have at least one sweeper that can boost its own stats before unleashing total hell: otherwise, you're probably constantly switching out your sweepers against their counters, which can be a big problem, especially if SR is set up against you, which it almost always will be D:

I'm really, really sorry about this, but this team has its fair share of issues :( When you get into really serious double battle competitive playing there are going to be a decent amount of problems.

It does have alot of potential though, and it looks really cool, so I'll be happy to build it with you ^^ And yes, I agree with Aragornbird about reading the Smogon double battles page.

If you want to talk to me more, you can go on the PokeCommunity server on Shoddy- my username is Torkoal or Pirate Empoleon :D

 

[Dark Pulse94]

i guess you're right, my team will fall apart very quickly if swampert dies, i could get a revenge kill or 3 with Metagross, but there won't be too much to do there.

i've spent way too tolng at the battle tower. there, i had a Whiscash+Salamance & Flygon combo, they all worked really well together, flygon would dig to avoid surf, and salamance would fly to avoid it. and if whiscash died (heavan forbid) my 2 dragons swept well. my only counter was ice

but yeah, i wanted to step out of the 3v3 and into the 6v6 - and i guess i was counting on swampert too much.

So, if you think its so bad, could you give me some suggestions to improve it?

 

[empty streets]

Ya know what, if you don't like critiques, then just use the pokemon that you like, like myself. And if you just want to always win in wi-fi battles then you'll most likely just end up with pokemon that are over used...

If you want to improve your current team then look in smogon https://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/ and see what attacks they suggest for your pokemon ^^.

Good luck.

 

[Lickitricky]

So, if you think its so bad, could you give me some suggestions to improve it?

I suggested we go on Shoddy because it's easier to talk and everything there, especially cause there's a ton of little things that would be annoying to keep posting about on the thread~ I probably should've said that though, so I'm sorry :(

 

[Dark Pulse94]

Ya know what, if you don't like critiques, then just use the pokemon that you like, like myself.

i do like critiques, but i prefer "constructive critisism" - i want this team to be POWERFUL!

 

[CacturneRules123]

i think you got the pokemon right but not the stragety

 

[NickofTime]

Its just really hard to tank in Double battles, you can't really win that way, as there is 2 pokemon hammering on your wall instead of only one and most people run with special sweepers and physicals so its just really difficult to wall, double battle is running a strategy and executing it. stuff like Discharge+motor drive and Explosion+ protect is extremely common in Double battling, follow me + belly drum, the combos go like that

Double battling is so much more different than single battling that most people avoid it. DO NOT think that the sets on smogon for singles will work for double battle play.

This is the link to SMOGON DOUBLE BATTLING PRIMER
READ THE LINK IF NOTHING ELSE IN THE POST

 

[$moG878]

ok nick, here's what you do. You have very little in the defence department, so if you wanna stick with those specific pokemon, i'll tell you what you need to look out for. Grass and rock are your first hurdles. You might want to get a swampert who specializes in defensive strategies (ie: hail-toxic-protect-mirror coat) and charizard isn't that fast so just try bulk him up as much as possible.

Aerodactyl will wipe your charizard flat out in the first turn. It's a speed demon you should watch out for. As for swampert, there aren't many ultra-fast grass type pokemon to get STAB but there are quite a few universal moves like, leaf blade on a galade. In double battles you have to work in a team. It's not just two pokemon facing two others doin' their own thing whenever :\
But sometimes you have to manipulate your options to best fit the situation.

example: chrizard uses dig. swampert uses earthquake. both opponents get hit, but for some wierd reason charizard doesn't get hit :D

But when constructing a team, i always try to cover my defences first. Don't attempt professional double battling until you get a black star trainer card. And by that i mean demolishing the battle tower. In the battle tower, your pokemon will be put to the test of endurance and you will see just how good your combinations are.


I suggest testing your teams there to start with, and after every loss, you will learn something new. It's how you gain experience to battle alot better. But my advice, start on emerald where you are restriced to less pokemon. It might seem easier but it's quite the opposite.

ciao~

 

[Dark Pulse94]

contradiction

ok nick, here's what you do. You have very little in the defence department...

Its just really hard to tank in Double battles, you can't really win that way, as there is 2 pokemon hammering on your wall instead of only one and most people run with special sweepers and physicals so its just really difficult to wall, double battle is running a strategy and executing it...

am i the only one noticing these things?