Nearly a month into the release of Pokémon X and Y, many competitive players have already moved past the initial in-game and exploration stages and are starting to breed their teams to participate in Random Matchup to get a handle on the new environment. A nascent metagame has begun to take shape, and while it’s questionable how long conclusions drawn from it will remain relevant after things like the announcement of VGC 14′s rules or Pokebank’s release, I think it’s still a fertile ground for discussion because it is ostensibly the current best method for players to explore all the new possibilities that the new generation has provided.
Many of us English-speaking players have long been fascinated by the Japanese community, with their different community organisation, tournament structure and mindsets giving rise to a playstyle that can be incredibly unorthodox at times, by our metagame’s standards. Today, I bring to you a translation of a preliminary overview of the XY doubles metagame by Japanese player taroimo, half in an attempt to shed some light on this playstyle and half in an attempt to stimulate discussion and comparison. Please share your own Random Matchup experiences if you have any, and let the discussion begin!
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This is a translation of these two blog posts kindly reposted with taroimo-san’s permission.
A Brief Overview of the XY Doubles Rated Metagame
(Because I haven’t racked up all that many battles myself, I have relied on observations and information from others to bolster this overview, and as a result it may not be completely impartial)
Standard (Goodstuffs) Playstyle
In the process of trying out the various Mega Evolutions, the one Mega that has risen to the pole position in common usage is Mega Kangaskhan. Its ability, Parental Bond, allows it to attack twice and do 1.5x damage. The notable benefits of this are the capability of boosting its attack by +2 through use of the new TM move Power-Up Punch and knocking out opponents through Focus Sashes. Thanks to Power-Up Punch, it can tear through opponents even when afflicted by Will-o-Wisp burns. However, ignoring the mirror matchup and considering its performance, the vast majority of Kangaskhan are running Jolly, maximum Attack/Speed, and furthermore with it being Normal-type, individually Kangaskhan is not much of a threat. To compensate for this, other Pokémon must be called in for support. Examples of such Pokémon include Rotom (Will-o-Wisp and screens), Togekiss (Follow Me) and Intimidators. Kangaskhan can also use Fake Out, and this opens up the possibility for disrupting opponents by flinching them and getting off Will-o-Wisp, screens and Intimidate.
Rotoms and Togekiss nowadays are rather slow.
With the Fairy type’s immunity to Dragon attacks, teams based on breaking through opponents with physical offense are aplenty. Bearing this in mind, players can answer with things like Will-o-Wisp, Intmidators and Prankster Meowstic ♂’s Charm (there are instances of players using a Bold nature to perform this role).
If Rotoms are running slow sets, an Atk/Spe invested Metagross’s Choice Banded/Normal Gem boosted Explosion may be able to deal decisively with it.
Trick Room Teams
Hail Room
No big differences from Hail Room of the BW2 days here.
Pokémon like Abomasnow, Chandelure, Rhyperior and Hitmontop form the general structure. Cresselia is unavaliable, but Musharna, Chandelure, Slowking and friends get Trick Room set up just fine.
The traditional Life Orb max Attack/Special Attack Abomasnow is being replaced by Mega Abomasnow.
Rain-Trick Room Switch Teams
(Translator’s note: ‘switch’ is the term Japanese players use to refer to teams that incorporate multiple different playstyles. English-speaking players would simply call this Rain-room.)
The essential Trick Roomers are Trevenant (both Frisk and Harvest are strong options) and Gourgeist.
The metagame is devoid of Raikou and Thundurus, but Mega Manectric is worthy of attention. Manectric’s normal ability Lightningrod may be able to protect friendly Water Pokémon, but after Mega Evolution its Intimidate allows it to weaken the opponent’s physical Pokémon. By using Volt Switch to scatter Intimidate Attack drops, it is possible to do a Volt Switch-into-Trick Room strategy. Overheat gives opposing Grass- or Steel-types a good roasting. Hidden Power Ice, if available, lets it stand against Dragons. These are some of Manectric’s noteworthy capabilities. Being able to deal with Garchomp with its 105 speed before and 135 speed after Mega Evolution is another strong point.
Sandstorm-Trick Room Switch Teams
Generally composed of Brave Tyranitar, Brave Intimidate (Mega) Mawile, and the essential Trick Roomers. Due to the low number of encounters with this type of team, many details are still unclear.
Overall, if you are aiming for a high rating, you can expect opponents to throw Will-o-Wisps, Thunder Waves and Swaggers (Prankster Klefki/Meowstic ♂) at you frequently. Because of this, Safeguard is worthy of consideration.
If you have Swagger, you can use it to boost friendly physical attackers as well.
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I shall continue on from the overview in my previous blog post. I shan’t focus on specific teams for the time being, but rather on individual things and gimmicks that left an impression on me.
Rocky Helmet
An item that returns a fixed percentage of damage back to attackers who used a contact move on the holder (basically most physical moves, but take note that the special Grass Knot is a contact move as well). With the physical-centric metagame and the popularity of Mega Kangaskhan, the usage rate of this item has gone up. Ideally this should be held by a Pokémon with superior endurance on the physical side (In Rated Singles it seems that there is a high-ranking player using Impish Rocky Helmet Gyarados, and Rocky Helmet Roost Skarmory is also a common thing). Another noteworthy property of this item is its ability to break Focus Sashes.
Disquake
The Discharger role is played by Levitating/Flying Electric Pokémon, mainly Rotom and Zapdos, and the Earthquaker role by Garchomp. Sometimes appears in teams even though it is unrelated to the main strategic focus of the team. There have been cases of people giving Rotom Choice Specs to expedite the strategy. The Zapdos currently in Rated Doubles have no way to learn Heat Wave, but plenty of high-ranking players seem to have taken the trouble to get hold of high IVed Zapdoses with Hidden Power Ice, so Salamences and Garchomps should tread carefully around them.
The common moveset on Zapdos would probably, I dare say, be Thunderbolt(Discharge)/ HP Ice/ Thunder Wave / Roost.
Rotom’s Various Sets
There are Bold and Calm bulky Rotom with recovery items going around spreading Will-o-Wisps, but there are also offensive sets and Modest Choice Specs sets going around (and Modest but reasonably bulky Rotom with recovery items like Sitrus Berry and Leftovers straddling the middle ground).
If it were me, I’d want to allocate my Speed EVs for Rotom in the following manner: If Bold/Calm, 20 EVs to speed creep on 4 EV Rotom, and if Modest, then at the minimum enough speed to get the jump on mirror matchups, standard Tyranitars and Hitmontops. With Electric-types” newfound immunity to paralysis, if not using other speed control methods such as Trick Room, Icy Wind or Tailwind, I would want to invest as many EVs in Speed as I could possibly afford.
Mega Evolutions
Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Mawile are aplenty, but I see various other Mega Evolutions around as well. Mega Lucario hits a maximum speed of 180 after evolving, and before that it doesn’t get flinched by Fake Outs thanks to Inner Focus which should be kept in mind. Memorizing the base speed stats of the various Mega Evolutions is a must.
Weather Pokémon
There is an extraordinarily low amount of rain teams. There are a few Sun- and Hail-dependent teams going around, but due to the ease with which Tyranitar denies other teams their preferred weather, my impression is that the situation will revert its previous state, where weather inducers were included in teams depending on their base stats and their general utility. The flinching that comes along with Choice Scarf Tyranitar’s Rock Slides is strong as well.
Garchomp
A utility Pokémon. I get the feeling that a lot of players using it are thinking something along the lines of “Garchomp may not be related to the rest of my team, but if I put it in it’ll probably manage to do some work for now”. Initially, due to the presence of Fairys in the metagame there was some debate over the use of Iron Head/Tail and Poison Jab, but in reality Dragon move / Earthquake / Rock move ends up more or less covering all the bases. Compared to the days of BW2, I feel that there has been a marked increase in the usage of Rough Skin. I’m rather uncertain about Sand Veil at the moment due to its inherent large amount of randomness.
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