So with the
doubles lc seasonal and
doubles derby approaching, I kinda wanted to give an overview of the metagame to help people get into the tier. It is a bit of a centralized metagame this generation, but often times that just means the meta is ready to be blown open by smart teambuilding.
One disclaimer, the builder currently uses LC’s banlist, so pokemon like Stantler, Misdrevus, Girafarig, Rufflet are all legal in the tier. Definitely check the banlist on this thread.
First up is Eviolite. Basically
due to how damage works at little cup levels, pokemon get hit harder than they do at level 100, but Eviolite exists to balance this out. It’s the most used item, with basically 4-6 mons on every team carrying it. There’s only a couple other items even worth using, such as Choice Scarf/Band/Specs/LO, but outside of that there isn’t much else to be used. While the prevalence of Eviolite does mean there’s a little less flexibility in teambuilding, it also means that removing Eviolites is extremely important, so moves like Knock Off, and to a lesser extent Trick and Thief, are VERY good. This gen there’s only a couple viable Knock Off users:
(RIP Tinkatink, who learns it at level 20, so it isn’t legal in Doubles LC). So game planning on how to deal with Knock Off, and who you should try to Knock Off, is very important. For instance:
196+ Atk Mudbray High Horsepower vs. 196 HP / 76 Def Eviolite Girafarig: 10-13 (38.4 - 50%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
196+ Atk Mudbray High Horsepower vs. 196 HP / 76 Def Girafarig: 15-18 (57.6 - 69.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Onto the top Pokémon in the tier (my opinions of course):
1.
What it does: Grimer-A is the best Pokémon in the tier due to a combination of having good stats/typing, great movepool, and being really good into a lot of the other top Pokémon (like
and
). It has great bulk and defensive typing, which lets it just spread around Knock Offs that can also poison, and it can do good damage with Poison Jab/Gunk Shot to Fairy types. Drain Punch is then nice to hit Steels & Stantler, and aid in recovery.
Grimer-A should probably be on 75% of teams, and as such every team should have a plan on how to beat it.
How to check it: Ground moves or powerful attacks are the best way, since you don’t want it sticking around long to just knock off all your Pokémon.
and
are excellent users of Ground moves to hit it hard, but you can also Tera Ground to hit it, or use strong attackers like
,
, or
2.
What it does: The Giraffe is basically a giant stat stick, capable of beating out just about every mon 1v1 in the tier. Its abilities are also great, with Inner Focus letting psychical Giraffe’s ignore Intimidate & Fake Out, while Sap Sipper lets it absorb Grass moves, basically creating the best Foongus check in the tier. It also can be really fast hitting 19 speed, or can be a TR setter, which gives it a ton of set flexibility. Hyper Voice is a nice high BP spread move, so it can be a set up sweeper as well.
How to check it: Knock off is the best way, to lower its great bulk. The thing is, the Giraffe doesn’t hit
that hard, so it really wants to sit there for multiple turns and just do more damage than it takes. So good options are
. Other options are to use good Dark/Bug moves from like
3.
What it does: Misdreavus is one of the biggest threats in the tier, that can also be an excellent support pokemon due to its great speed and solid bulk. After a Nasty Plot, it can be one of the best sweepers, with multiple options for both tera and movepool. Tera Electric with levitate removes all weaknesses, or Tera Fighting with Tera Blast lets it hit Dark & Normal types. Dark pulse lets it hit
, while Thunderbolt can utilize Electric Tera for STAB and hit things like
and
. On the other hand, moves like Icy Wind, Will-o-Wisp, and Taunt, when combined with its fantastic speed, can be really disruptive.
How to check it: There’s a reason why
and
are both above Misdreavus on this list, and that’s because they’re both excellent checks. Any sort of Knock Off, Dark type, or Ghost resist is typically good, but you do have to be careful of what Tera type or movepool options it has. Its great flexibility is what makes Missy so dangerous.
4.
What it does: Mudbray has some of the best stats in the tier, with a sky high attack, that combines well with its high base power moves like High Horsepower, Heavy Slam, Stone Edge, and Close Combat. Mudbray can also be an excellent attacker in both TR and Tailwind, and trades favorably with most neutral Pokémon. It’s the best check to
in the tier, and is also a decent Stealth Rock setter if your team needs it. Inner Focus is definitely the best ability, letting it ignore Intimidate and Fake Out, to just keep on hitting hard.
How to check it: Obviously good grass and water types are the best bet, such as
, but also burning it can be really effective, from the likes of
and
.
5.
What it does: Similar to a lot of these top 5 Pokémon, Stantler is a 19 speed stat stick that just Intimidates and has a ton of movepool options. It can run both physical and special sets that can do very different things. The special set is a good check to
, able to Intimidate and Earth Power it. While the physical set can start Psyshield Bashing to make it really difficult to take down, and Body Slamming to spread damage & paralysis. It has a ton of other movepool options with interesting stuff like Trick Room, Imprison, Dual Screens, Disable, etc.
How to check it: Obviously fighting moves from like
are great, but similar to
, you can just wear it down with multiple moves, as it doesn’t try to ohko stuff, but win by doing more damage than it takes.
That concludes the top 5 Pokémon, and I’ll only go in depth on a few more. But these 5 are the clear best 5 Pokémon in the metagame, and every team should make sure they’re running at least 2ish on every team, otherwise you’re just so far behind BST wise.
I’ve even run a team that just uses all 5 plus the sixth best Pokémon, and the team works great. You ASBOLUTELY must teambuild with these 5 in mind, knowing how you can beat each.
Onto a few more very notable Pokémon:
6.
What it does: It’s the best support Pokémon in the tier, able to redirect hits with Ragepowder & heal allies with Pollen Puff. Even though there is sleep clause, it’s Spore can still be super threatening on the right target, able to put your biggest threat to sleep. Unlike Amoonguss, Foongus actually has reasonable attack stats in Doubles LC too, allowing it to not be deadweight when it’s not redirecting/healing.
How to check it: With no room for Safety Goggles in the tier, you have to rely on either immunities or allowing a not so valuable Pokémon eating a spore. A well timed Tera Grass is really important for how to handle it, but also just threatening it with stuff like
are all good options.
and
deserve especial notice, both being immune to Spore and able to hit Foongus back hard.
7.
What it does: Growlithe is a super disruptive Pokémon, able to Intimidate and burn physical attackers with Will-o-Wisp, while also being able to Snarl special attackers. It also gets access to a semi-reliable healing move in Morning Sun. It’s really effective at checking just about all of the Pokémon above it on this list (save possibly
, depending on the situation).
How to check it: Growlithe is something that needs to be removed quickly, otherwise it just withers down your whole team. Knocking it off is nice, but meanwhile it can be burning your Knock Off user. Special attackers that can hit it hard are great, such as
, while even physical attackers in the right situations can be really effective like
. Pokémon that can take advantage of Growlithe’s stat lowering are also extremely effective, such as
and
. Stealth Rocks can also be very effective to limit its ability to Intimidate.
8.
What it does: Meditite is the hardest hitter in the tier due to its Huge Power ability and good offensive typing. It can utilize a Choice Scarf to outspeed the rest of the tier, or it can be a Fake Out + Trick Room setter. It has good offensive typing into most of the Pokémon above it, able to threaten them, especially when under proper speed control.
How to check it: While it has a great offensive typing, defensively there’s a lot left to be desired. So threatening it with super effective attacks is often the way to go with options like
. Burning & Intimidating can be nice, but even then it still hits decently hard.
9.
Grookey is an excellent Fake Out + pivot mon, that can also be very threatening with Wood Hammer, and can spread around Knock Offs. It has a pretty good matchup into some mons above it on this list, such as
, and can be good into many of the others in the right position. There’s maybe room for a scarf set as well, but there’s not a ton of good Fake Out Pokémon, so you use them when you can. Grassy Terrain is also nice, especially for limiting Earthquake users.
How to check it: Typically just super effective moves, of which there are many, from users such as
. Burns & intimidate can be nice, however that doesn’t really stop it from just spreading Knock Offs.
That’s all the main Pokémon I’m gonna cover, lastly just gonna provide my thoughts on some other things.
Tailwind: Tailwind is obviously great, but many of the Tailwind setters are pretty flawed. You do have a couple options.
is the fastest, but at 19 speed it ties a lot of stuff and is slower than stuff like
, and it’s also very frail.
is a good option for teams that still want a water type that can set TW, and it gets a great ability in Storm Drain, however it has pretty average speed.
has reasonable bulk and average speed, but often you’d much rather be clicking powerful attacks with its hustle ability.
has similar average speed, is quite frail, but does have some good abilities.
Trick Room: Trick Room has a ton of good setters, but there aren’t like
great abusers of Trick Room. Thankfully since most of the tier is somewhere in the 8-19 speed range, you can often just min-speed your Pokémon to make them threats in TR.
is obviously great, but it isn’t that slow itself, and if it spends a turn setting TR and then isn’t going first, it can often be dead before it does anything else.
is much of the same, and isn’t as good under TR.
has a ton of additional utility behind Shadow Tag (which is legal) and Fake Out, but is offensively a dud, and pure Psychic typing is not the best.
similarly has access to Fake Out and Trick Room, and can hit really hard under it, but often doesn’t have the bulk & typing to get it off.
Other Notable Pokémon: There’s some Pokémon that I didn’t mention above that deserve a quick snippet.
can be really dangerous as a set up sweeper/Baton Passer, due to Calm Mind + Speed Boost.
can be a great screen setter, but running light clay really limits its longevity. It can also run Thunder Wave + Parting Shot for disruption. Hail is quite good, whereas last gen it was a hyper offense structure, now it boosts defenses of like
and
further after Eviolite, letting them just fire off Blizzards for a long time.
is the premier prankster mon, getting access to useful moves like Parting Shot, Encore, Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and others.
Some Underutilized threats: I do think there’s a lot of room for experimentation & pokemon that aren’t used nearly as much as their potential.
is surprisingly unpopular despite how hard it hits, similar to
.
can also be quite good, even if there’s a lot of t-spikes absorbers.
is a very interesting TR attacker.
is super good into the metagame at large. Rain & Sun both probably have some room to be expanded.
Hope this post helps people get into the tier! It’s a fun one, and while this post mostly only contemplates very competitive strategies, there’s a ton of fun options out there too (surf + storm drain, perish song, skill swap stuff, etc.)