What time is it? It's RMT TIME YAY! Now I am aware that nobody reads this, but that's not gonna stop me from asking their opinions. Besides, I've been playing some hardcore Battle Subway recently and I'mma gonna talk bout it. Because that's just how I roll.
Man, the Battle Subway. Getting a streak there is all DIFFERENT and shit from winning competitively. Because you don't just have to win the majority of the time, but rather EVERY TIME IN A ROW, strategies that are weak to hax kind of fall apart. And don't y'all be givin me no BULLSHIT bout how there's more hax in the Subway. It really seems about normal to me, it's just that instead of dropping your ranking on the ladder a little bit when you lose because of it, you in fact have to START THE WHOLE GODDAM THING OVER AGAIN. SHIT. So it stands out more to the player. It's one o' them, you know, observational bias whatsits that you learn about in your first statistics class. Shit, I don't remember.
The point is, in order to get a good streak, you have to exploit the weaknesses of the computer. In singles, I did this by setting up Calm Minds on a Suicune behind a Substitute. I was protected from critical hits and status, and could abuse the fact that the AI would not switch to stop my setup. Setting up behind a sub doesn't work nearly so well in doubles, so I thought I might use a little Trick Room strategy to give myself a bit of an edge. Oh, and break the HELL out of sleep clause to REALLY fuck things up for the computer. So here's the team as it stands.
Nickname: Party Pat
Reuniclus [Magic Guard] @ Life Orb
Quiet
192 HP, 64 Def, 252 SpA
-Trick Room
-Psyshock
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast
So Reuniclus is a total beast. He ENDS bitches with his ridiculous power AND sets up Trick Room. I've long been considering replacing Psyshock with Psychic for more power since I have the physical power to blast through Blissey with the rest of the team. But so far I haven't had enough problems with that so I haven't bothered. After a number of test runs, he has become one of my standard leads. Get up dat Trick Room and power through. Very few things can take more than two hits, and almost nothing can OHKO. Except for Fling users. But I have my ways around that. The defensive EVs give maximum all-around bulk at level 50 (it would be 188/68, but both of my IVs are even).
Nickname: L.S.P.
Amoonguss [Effect Spore] @ Leftovers
Sassy
244 HP, 184 Def, 4 SpA, 76 SpD
-Spore
-Giga Drain
-Rage Powder
-Protect
Oh my glob, Amoonguss. You are so lumpin' great. Amoonguss has become my other lead. Either Protect to stay healthy on the first turn, or Rage Powder to absorb hits that would otherwise drop Reuniclus while he sets up. Since I can usually get in a OHKO on at LEAST one of the Pokemon I'm facing with Reuniclus, adding a fast (slow?) Spore usually means that no one can touch me once Trick Room is up. I woooouuuuuulllllld really like more coverage than just Giga Drain, but honestly, all of my other moves are just TOO IMPORTANT and Giga Drain is my next best option since I didn't bother getting a good Hidden Power. Once again, the EVs maximize bulk from both sides of the spectrum, but since my defense IV is only 30, I moved 4 EVs from there to my special attack. My main issue with Amoonguss is that her Dream World ability hasn't come out yet. Effect Spore is nice when it puts my opponents to sleep, but sometimes they get poisoned, making them immune to my Spores. AND SOMETIMES IT PARALYZES THEIR SWEEPER AND THEY TEAR THROUGH MY TEAM WITH THEIR NEW SPEED UNDER TRICK ROOM. ALL. OF MY HATE. But none of the other Sporers can replace her bulk and ability to Rage Powder, so I guess this is what I'm using for now.
Nickname: B-MO
Porygon2 [Trace] @ Eviolite
Sassy
252 HP, 196 Def, 60 SpD
-Recover
-Trick Room
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
Porygon2 takes hits like a MOTHERFUCKIN BOSS. Seriously, not a single thing can 2HKO this bitch unless they hit super-effective. While it is a little bit status-weak, the fact that it is so GODDAM IMPOSSIBLE to 2HKO makes it a lot less unhappy about critical hits. Plus, it makes a nice switch-in to Ghosts who threaten Reuniclus. Particularly Chandelure, who Amoonguss can't safely Rage Powder. And if Porygon2 manages to Trace Flash Fire, it becomes immune to all of Chandy's moves. WHAT UP BITCHES. There's also a fairly common Vaporeon set that only carries Shadow Ball and Water moves which this little dicktool can become fully immune to as well. And when you factor in the number of Intimidaters, there are a lot of good switch-in opportunities for lil' B-MO that can let it change the tide of the match. That being said, Porygon2 does sit at a rather awkward speed tier (base 60) where pretty much everything faster than it is considered fast enough to potentially run speed investment and nothing slower ever does. So with Trick Room up, it's faster than all the sweepers but slower than all the walls. Also, the paralysis chance on Thunderbolt can totally screw you over sometimes. But all in all, Porygon2 is a solid choice for this team.
Nickname: Billy
Conkeldurr [Guts] @ Iron Ball
Brave
4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 SpD
-Hammer Arm
-Stone Edge
-Fling
-Protect
Conkeldurr is my other sweeper, and blasts through shit like NOBODY'S business. Similar to Reuniclus, very few things can take two hits from this guy, and quite a number fall in one. Hammer Arm over the standard Drain Punch lets me not only KO faster (to keep me safer from critical hits), but also lets me keep up with Curse users. I rarely need the speed drops for anything else though. Although Fling is a one-time use, that's a lot better when facing a team of only four Pokemon instead of six, and one that never switches either. It OHKOs pretty much everthing weak to it except for physically defensive Calm Mind Musharna, who can then be finished by other means. Plus it lets me outspeed other Pokemon carrying Iron Balls. Billy used to be my standard lead along with Reuniclus, but I found that the lack of Rage Powder meant that too often I had to switch to Pory2 on my first turn instead of setting up. Conkeldurr rounds out my anti-hax-status plan nicely, loving the power boosts that they give. And he just ADORES paralysis. Despite the fact that the opponent is supposed to know what your ability is regardless of whether it should, things seem to like to Will-O-Wisp this guy anyway. Whatever you want, Battle Subway. Whatever you want.
So that's the team as it stands NOW. However, it still hasn't been doing as well as my singles team. Part of this is probs my relative lack of experience in doubles, which makes it harder to abuse the fact that the AI is RIDICULOUSLY predictable. But another large fact, as you may have noticed by now, is that the team is rather Psychic-weak. This is a problem, because not only are a large chunk of the legendary teams you start seeing after a 30 streak Psychic types, they decided that they wanted to have AN ENTIRE TRAINER CLASS THAT ONLY USES PSYCHIC TYPES IN THERE. Conkeldurr can take out one, and only one, Psychic mon with Fling before dying. Reuniclus resists and can hit hard with Shadow Ball, but often can't break through Calm Minders with their own Shadow Ball. Amoonguss just dies, and Porygon2, bulky as it is, is not actually good enough to take out an entire opposing team all by its lonesome. So. I've started considering a potential remedy to this problem:
Scrafty [Moxie] @ Fighting Gem/Lum Berry
Brave
252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 Def
-Drain Punch/Hi Jump Kick
-Crunch
-Stone Edge/Ice Punch
-Protect/Fake Out
Dis gangsta-ass muhfucka would take the place of Conkeldurr. The idea is that with an immunity to Psychic, resistance to Ghost, and the ability to use a powerful Dark move indefinitely, Scrafty would patch up that little hole in my team. However, there are some things that make me nervous. First off, he's very status weak. One burn, and Scrafty starts to lose his luster. The only way to deal with this is to sacrifice my item for a Lum Berry, but I REALLY don't want to do that because of my other problem: he just doesn't hit as hard right off the bat. As much as Moxie is supposed to patch that up, the fact that I start at 90 base attack instead of 140 is a real killer. I rely on Conky to OHKO major threats like Hydreigon before they can start sweeping my team, and I'm just not sure I can take that extra turn or two to get strong. It doesn't help that I'm stuck with Drain Punch over Hammer Arm, unless I want to rely on Hi Jump Kick, which honestly, is just ASKING for hax to lose me the game like one in ten battles. UNACCEPTABLE. I'm considering using a Fighting Gem to try to help remedy this problem, but I'm not sure how well it would do. Anyway, I'm going to TRY breeding this guy at some point, and I'll see how it goes. Maybe he'll become a superstar, maybe he'll suck ass. There's really no way to know without trying.
So that's the doubles team. Any suggestions I might get on improving it would be AWESOME.
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