Welcome to Smogon Doubles!
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Introduction
Nearly two and a half years past since the inception of BW, and despite a whopping 649 Pokémon, the feeling that we have learned everything there is to know about this game begins to settle in. So, while we wrap up everything there is left to do in BW, we eagerly await for the release of the upcoming Generation VI.
However, a group of Smogon members have started a new exploration into this seemingly cultivated generation. They have entered into the world of SMOGON DOUBLES.
I invite you all to join in the fun of carving an entirely new metagame together with my fellow SmogDubs comrades and myself! We follow an identical ruleset to Singles, as follows:
- Sleep Clause ON
- Item Clause OFF
- OHKO Clause ON
- Evasion Clause ON
- Soul Dew Clause ON
- Moody Clause ON
By extension of Sleep Clause, the move Dark Void is banned, since it affects both enemies on the field. Unfortunately, Sky Drop is also another banned move for its implications with a known glitch in Doubles. Those two are the only additional rules you need to remember, though!
Our banlist is essentially the same list we utilized at the very beginning of BW1 suspect testing, with only 670+ BST Ubers prohibited from play. Kyurem-B is the only exception to this restriction, and recently released Pokémon from BW2, such as Genesect, Keldeo, and the Therian formes, are also all eligible for play! Smogon Doubles is certainly an untamed territory, and we need your help to carve a cultured metagame!
Why Play Doubles?
Despite having similar Pokémon to OU singles, controlling two Pokémon simultaneously adds an extra layer of complexity that transforms doubles into an entirely different game. In fact, this crucial distinction makes a single turn of doubles far more intense and exhilarating than an average turn of singles. Every move you perform is that much more critical, and the turn of events within a game flip-flops at an alarming rate. If you have become numbed by the meandering matches of singles, doubles will offer you a nice change of pace!
The "double aspect" provides an additional dimension to many moves, giving them uses that are not seen in singles. Protect, a move that proves useful in providing an extra turn of recovery or scouting a Choice item-wielding users' move in singles, also becomes a powerful alternative to switching in doubles. Rather than switching in a Pokémon to tank hits, why not simply prevent any harm at all with Protect!? Any move targeted at the protected user is basically wasted, while the attacking opponent is vulnerable to assaults from the protected user's partner. Since Protect is such a pervasive aspect of doubles, some players even pack Feint users to nullify Protect! A seasoned doubles player knows when to use Protect and how to exploit the opponent's turn of Protect.
It's not just Protect, either; there are plenty of moves that have brand new application in doubles. Here are some of the most notable:
- Spread Moves—These are moves which target multiple Pokémon. While their power is reduced by 25%, hitting two Pokémon at once is an amazing skill for any Pokémon to have. In addition, the feeling you get when you KO two Pokémon with one move is just too good to ignore.
- Wide Guard—Wide Guard is a move with obvious implications in double battles. Multi-target moves are on almost every team; Wide Guard makes the user's team immune to these moves on the turn it is used, essentially granting a double Protect. It works against the opponent's spread moves and also protects the user against its partner's spread moves.
- Helping Hand—Remember that next-to-useless move that almost every Pokémon got from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness? No, not Refresh, Helping Hand! This is one of the best moves available in double battles, to the point that if a Pokémon has a spare moveslot it's usually occupied by Helping Hand. Helping Hand gives a 1.5x boost to the move that the user's partner attacks with, and no move has higher priority than Helping Hand. This is, to put it bluntly, one hell of a move. It can be used to pick off a Pokémon who you might not be able to OHKO normally, or it can be a doomed Pokémon's last contribution to the battle, giving its partner an incredibly powerful attack.
- Fake Out—Fake Out is a 40 Base Power Normal-type move that strikes before even ExtremeSpeed and has a 100% flinch chance, essentially rendering the target useless for the turn. In singles a free hit is nice, but in doubles stopping one Pokémon for even a single turn can be crucial to a victory. Fake Out is not only an excellent tool for forcing the odds into your favor quickly, but it gives you an extra turn to respond to your opponent's actions. For example, using Fake Out against a foe's deadly sweeper with one Pokémon will give you an opening to attack it with the other, turning a game-ending sweep into a hilarious flop!
Moves aren't the only aspects of Pokémon that can work differently in doubles, of course! Pinch items can be used much more effectively—a Kingdra or Ludicolo holding an Absorb Bulb can tank Politoed's Surf and use the item to get a 50% boost to their Special Attack. Gems and resist Berries become more viable as well; since battles can be much more fast-paced in doubles, having one of these items can mean the difference between life and death for a team.
Next, we have abilities—some prominent in singles, but others completely neglected—that get a new lease of life in a 2v2 metagame. Intimidate is a notable one, as it drops both opponents' Attack stats, which is incredibly useful for gaining momentum. With the rise in Intimidate's usage comes viability for Defiant; its two notable users in Tornadus and Bisharp are perfectly capable of sweeping if given a free +1 to Attack. Telepathy can't go unmentioned either—though completely useless in singles, the ability to avoid a partner's spread moves single-handedly propelled Musharna from obscurity into the limelight as a great partner for threatening Pokémon like Thundurus-T and Landorus-T. Last, but not least, is Swift Swim. That's right. It's back, baby.
Why Not Play VGC?
VGC is a perfectly fine metagame, but it caters to a completely different purpose than Smogon metagames do. We're here to fill demand for a doubles tier that exists for the same reason as OU—not to prepare for a tournament or win prizes, just for healthy competition and, most importantly, some good honest fun. Oh, and we get to make our own bans, so our rulesets are guaranteed to be more logical, at least until we get a suspect testing method.
Concluding Remarks
There you have it—a new, fresh metagame, with something in store for players of both singles and VGC. I strongly urge everyone to play a couple of ladder matches after reading this article. You just might find a new favorite tier! As someone who's been playing doubles since ADV, I can safely say that a meta based around this playstyle is (in the words of the ST8 Runner-up) justpeachy.
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