Toge-ther we Ride! - BS Doubles S1 / VGC 2020 Team

Happy New Year! As we approach the start of the SwSh era of VGC tournaments for real, I've come up with a new team I would like to share.

Weakness Policy Togekiss has been gaining some steam as an option in VGC as of about halfway into December. While I didn't really understand it much at first, it did start to make sense in the context of how a team is built to abuse it, taking advantage of Togekiss's natural bulk, numerous weaknesses, and supporting it with Screens or Intimidate or other similar damage reducing methods. Policy is likely to activate if people don't consider the option and just attack thinking that Togekiss is just going to draw attacks onto itself anyways, and it can quickly spiral out of control if it gets activated at a bad time.

While I still am not personally a big fan of using Weakness Policy for Togekiss, the idea of using Togekiss more as an attacker did seem like an option to consider. It led to the thought of:

"What if I use like... Togekiss, Togetic and... Togedemaru? That would be Triple Toge! It would be funny if a team like that could work."

So I started to work into trying to make a team around Togekiss, Togetic, and Togedemaru. Shortly after starting this though, I saw Sejun actually just go all in and run Quad Toge on his stream one time, so there was less novelty in trying Triple Toge. Instead, I dropped Togedemaru and changed my team plans from trying to push a meme to putting effort into making a proper team with Togekiss and Togetic. I climbed up to about the 1700s on PS ladder (about Top 50) starting from the bottom while trying to fine tune the team to something I felt was sufficiently strong. While it still felt like there was room for change, I decided to take what I had at the time of reaching 1700 on PS and decided to make the team on cart to ladder during the final weekend of Ranking Season 1.

The Master Ball ladder session was pretty rough compared to run up the PS ladder, with a record of 45W-29L, but I did manage to climb back up into Top 50 or so after having a tilt and tumble down to around 300th, so I feel like I got my act together with playing the team and got a lot better at playing around tough matchups as I progressed. The losses highlighted the key flaws to the team that gives me something to think about with how I might want to change things moving forward, and helped me establish a more tangible game plan on matchups that were fairly even footing.

As with my previous write up, I'll highlight a few things in Red as aspects of the team one may consider changing if they decide to build this team themselves. This time my ingame EVs/IVs will be reflective of what I use in PS, so the rental team and the paste will be pretty much the same. The pastebin of the team as well as the rental code can be found at the end of this report. I will also tweet out the rental team code as well.

Team Name: "Toge"ther we Ride

Togekiss and Excadrill are likely the strongest they've ever been with VGC 2020, even stronger than the time when they were considered my signature duo back in 2013. But that also means that a lot of people are using Togekiss Excadrill, and a lot of people are going to have answers to the duo, especially when it comes to fighting other players around the Top 500 or so of the BS Doubles Ladder.

To fit the theme of the team, all the Pokemon have Fire Emblem related nicknames. In this case, I named all of them after songs from Fire Emblem Three Houses. I also changed my character's appearance and league card now to look somewhat like Caeda from Shadow Dragons and Mystery of the Emblem.

Edge of Dawn (Togekiss) @ Razor Claw
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Fire Blast
- Nasty Plot

♫ Now Playing: The Edge of Dawn

Setup Dynamax Attacker. The idea for this Togekiss is that it sets up a Nasty Plot while being covered by Togetic, then Dynamaxes and goes in with +2 Max Moves, starting first with a Max Airstream in order to pick up some Speed and gain control over the battle. As mentioned I wanted to try to make a team with offensive Togekiss work. This Togekiss is a bit on the all-or-nothing side in regards to that. I either lead and try to execute the strat, or Togekiss does not enter battle at all.

The EVs are fully offense oriented for this Togekiss. I experimented a bit with trying to run a bulky offense variant, but what I found is that given how important it is for Togekiss to be getting out there and dealing damage once it is ready to go, it can't afford needing two Airstreams in order to outspeed opponents, nor can it afford shaving off SpA EVs as you want to be ensuring you land your KOs. As a result, it makes Togekiss less durable than desired, making Follow Me support all the more important for it, especially since it cannot use Protect. Once Togekiss is set up with a +2 you want to be healthy enough to unload 3 Max Moves into the opponent without worry instead of being forced on the defensive burning turns away with Max Guard.

Togekiss's moveset likewise is full on offense, sacrificing Protect in order to have an additional coverage move in Fire Blast for 140 power Max Flare. Protect can be considered as an option over the extra coverage move when running this kind of Togekiss, but I feel like it makes running this Togekiss even more situational as its matchup vs Steel-types becomes even worse.

Super Luck?

Lastly, let's talk about something that makes this Togekiss particularly dangerous. As you have noticed, this Togekiss is not using Serene Grace. Super Luck + Razor Claw makes it so that this Togekiss has a 50% Critical Hit rate. Razor Claw is mostly just in case people for some reason forget that it is an item and forget what its effect does.

Grimmsnarl getting you down with its Screens? Crit through it.
Opponent Dynamax HP pool looking a bit too big to take out? Crit through it.
Opponent got some Max Quake SpDef buffs? Crit through it.

The damage output for +2 Crit Max Moves is a bit higher than the strength of Dragapult +3 Max Moves from my previous team, which is to say you never want to get hit cleanly by one of those. While 50% is not always the most consistent rate for dealing extra damage with Togekiss, the benefits of bypassing a number of defensive options for an opposing team makes this Togekiss extremely scary to deal with.

Spirit Dais (Togetic) @ Eviolite
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 236 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Mystical Fire
- Helping Hand
- Protect
- Follow Me

♫ Now Playing: The Spirit Dais

Follow Me Support. While Togekiss does the attacking, Togetic is delegated to being the dedicated Follow Me user for this team. In a lot of ways Togetic functions similar to the usual Follow Me support Togekiss, so a lot of general thoughts about this still apply.

EVs on Togetic are heavily SpD focused. I was looking to see what kind of high-power attacks Togetic can be made to survive. It can either go all in on physical bulk in order to survive Excadrill Max Steelspike (if not Life Orb), or it can be made to survive Sun LO Solar Power Max Flare (130BP) from Charizard. While physical Steel-type moves are a concern to the team, I feel like I have more options to try to get around those compared to something like Sun boosted Charizard.

252 SpA Life Orb Solar Power Charizard Max Flare (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 236+ SpD Eviolite Togetic in Sun: 138-164 (85.1 - 101.2%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
(138, 140, 142, 142, 144, 146, 148, 149, 152, 152, 153, 156, 157, 160, 161, 164)

The EV spread can also take a non-LO Max Steelspike from opposing Duraludon.

Togetic's moveset is fairly straightforward. Follow Me in order to perform its redirection role. Protect to help preserve its staying power in a battle and make opponents think a bit before throwing around attack haphazardly at Togetic. As Togetic cannot learn something like Air Slash (and because it is very slow), Mystical Fire is chosen as a damaging attack of choice, providing an additional supportive option in dropping an opponent's Special Attack. For a final move, I chose to run Helping Hand, to improve the damage output of my Dynamax Pokemon. Yawn can be considered as a fourth move as an alternative way to help disrupt opposing Dynamax Pokemon. Since Mystical Fire's secondary effect is guaranteed, Togetic also runs Super Luck.

0- IV Speed vs 31 IV Speed

For my Togetic, I chose to run min Speed. Min Speed can allow Togetic to underspeed some Trick Room Pokemon, and can potentially allow it to throw around Mystical Fires to drop Special Attack, relieving offensive pressure from my team. It also helps in making Gyro Ball do less damage. A 31 IV can be used instead of Speed given that Togetic will often be the beneficiary of Speed buffs from Max Airstream. However, given that its Speed stat is 60 normally, it doesn't really get particularly fast, even at +3 Speed. It also can let Togetic outspeed Gastrodon cleanly outside of Trick Room, allowing Togetic to hit it with Mystical Fire before it can move.

Special Bulk vs Physical Bulk

Despite the EV spread meaning that my Togetic would get OHKO'd by Max Steelspike from the many many Excadrill that I faced on BS Ladder, I don't really regret the choice at all. My team generally has a lot more ways at mitigating the damage from Physical Attacks compared to Special, and the extra Special Bulk generally worked better in conjunction with using Duraludon, who often paired with Togetic. With how reliant the team is on Follow Me support, there is some arguement to say that it is better for me to know that I will be KO'd by phyiscal Max Steelspike and learn to play around it, as opposed to trying to tank a hit only to find that they are running Life Orb, or that chip damage from something like Snarl pushes Togetic over the edge.

God-Shatter★ (Hitmontop) @ Black Belt
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Wide Guard

♫ Now Playing: God Shattering Star

Fake Out Support. Hitmontop often serves as a switch pivot for the team and generally acts as a bit of a utility player in trying to keep the team operation.

The EV spread is pretty simple, max out Atk, and putting a few points into Speed in the rare occasion of a mirror, 4 EVs to both defenses and the remainder into HP. The moveset has Fake Out and Close Combat as staple moves and two other moves that are more variable. I've tested Feint and Bullet Punch but found that I rarely used them, but found Mach Punch to be very serviceable as a third move as it does a sizable chunk of damage to opposing Excadrill and Tyranitar that Hitmontop will commonly face off against. Wide Guard is a bit more hit or miss. Spread moves are not super common to be needing to block in the current meta, so Wide Guard doesn't see much use, but when it does get used it wins games. If replacing Wide Guard, I would suggest using Detect or Helping Hand as alternatives to consider.

Black Belt once again is a bit of a placeholder item, but since Hitmontop runs two Fighting-type moves, it's a justifiable item option. Alternatives to consider can include Sitrus Berry, Coba Berry, and Assault Vest (if you want to replace Wide Guard with another attacking move)

Hitmontop vs Scrafty

Scrafty has more bulk and STAB Dark-type moves and immunity to Psychic going for it, but Hitmontop doesn't get destroyed by Fighting and Fairy moves, trades a noticeable amount of bulk for a bit of speed, and has a wider variety of supportive and priority attacking moves. For this particular team, the extra support options and priority moves that Hitmontop has in its tool kit makes it more ideal as a consideration over Scrafty.

Heaven&Earth (Excadrill) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- High Horsepower

♫ Now Playing: Between Heaven and Earth

Scarfed Excadrill. Excadrill is often used as a clean-up Pokemon for this team, where I try to play towards an endgame where Excadrill can wrap things up. Occasionally it can be brought out earlier and Choice Scarf can be used to surprise opponents.

Both the EVs and the moveset are very straightforward. Max Atk and Speed, have STAB moves, Rock Slide, and an alternative Ground-type move to Earthquake in High Horsepower so you aren't demolishing your ally every time you want to click a Ground-type move.

In occasions when Excadrill needs to be brought out earlier in a battle, Dynamax can be used as an option for it in order to be able to deactivate Choice Scarf temporarily to change its selected move. For example, locking into Iron Head, but using Dynamax to be able to hit a mon weak to Ground with a Max Quake. One down side is that Excadrill as a Dynamax mon does not have Max Guard at all and loses its Speed from Choice Scarf, which can leave it wide open for big attacks so be sure to plan accordingly.

ApexOfWorld (Duraludon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Stalwart
EVs: 188 HP / 252 SpA / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Thunderbolt
- Steel Beam
- Protect

♫ Now Playing: The Apex of the World

Secondary Dynamax. Over the time between writing my previous team report and writing this one, I've come to really appreciate the use of Life Orb Dynamax Duraludon. Life Orb Duraludon with Helping Hand support does disgusting amounts of damage to things and its ability to ignore redirection can allow it to put a lot of pressure against the opponent. Despite being weak to Ground, Duraludon actually does pretty well against common Ground-type Dynamax mons in Excadrill and Mudsdale, simply by throwing around Steelspikes and Wyrmwinds to gradually reduce their offensive capabilities and allow my team to outlast their Dynamax before working to finish them off.

The EVs and moveset are the same as they were in my previous report. One thing that has changed as the metagame has shifted is that instead of my Duraludon often being faster in the mirror, it has fallen behind in the Duraludon mirror speed race and has lately been slower, so an adjustment to the EV spread may be considered. I used to be unsure whether Thunderbolt was a good coverage move for the moveset, but as time progressed I've found Thunderbolt to just have a lot of utility to it in handling mons such as Gyarados, Jellicent and Corviknight. Max Lightning is also a nice tech that Duraludon can have to negate Yawn if an opponent tries to use that as a way to slow Duraludon's offense.

SwiftAsWind (Inteleon) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Snipe Shot
- Air Slash
- Ice Beam
- Protect

♫ Now Playing: As Swift as Wind

???. Am I saying this whole 6th Pokemon might not even need to be here, and can be something else entirely? Yes and No.

The theory here was that I wanted a Water-type Pokemon as a lot of the Pokemon I felt that the team can struggle against are weak to Water. I used to have a Rotom-W, but Excadrill being about a 50/50 on being Mold Breaker and Arcanine outspeeding and weakening Rotom-W with Snarl were both issues that made Rotom-W difficult to use for its intended purpose. Instead I thought that perhaps a faster Water-type in Inteleon might be able to work.

Inteleon just has a simple EV spread and set, with Timid Max SpdSpA with a Sash to protect it. Snipe Shot to allow it to hit Water-weak Pokemon without fear of redirection, Ice Beam for coverage, and Air Slash for potential Max Airstream options.

In practice, I rarely ever brought Inteleon to any battles. Its frailness and my unfamiliarity with how I want to be using Inteleon on my team often made it difficult to justify bringing it to battles. While Snipe Shot could bypass redirection, Max Geyser would still get intercepted by Follow Me and Storm Drain Gastrodon, but at the same time not Dynamaxing often resulted in a huge amount of damage being taken, making me not want to be Dynamaxing up something at critical HP.

While Inteleon is indeed a fast Pokemon, it often ended up in situations where I would have it in the back, but the opponent would have a Tailwind up that would prevent it from cleaning up the battle. Either that, or it would be something like a Dragapult that naturally outspeeds. As a result, the few times I did bring Inteleon often ended up with disappointing results.

Using the Team

The first question to ask at Team Preview for the opponent's team is "What are their Togekiss answers?". If they don't have solid Togekiss answers, you can easily lead Double Toge, set up the Nasty Plot and demolish the opponent.

More often than not though, you will have to stick to fighting things out the normal way, and the usual go-to is to use Togetic and Duraludon. Togetic shields Duraludon from Special Attacks while Duraludon's Max Moves help make Physical attacks easier to handle. The combination can often let Duralodon easily launch off powerful Max Moves to punch holes into the opposing team if they aren't able to apply immediate pressure to get rid of Togetic.

Hitmontop and Excadrill are often used as back-end members for the team, Hitmontop to allow for Intimidate switch ins when the opportunity arises, and providing Fake Out support in situations when you can be sure that the opponent can't Dynamax to get around flinches. Excadrill being a Scarf mon can outspeed just about everything as long as they do not have a Tailwind up and can pin down the opponent at an end game situation for a checkmate situation.

As experience with using the team grows, or after gaining some knowledge of an opponent's team in a best of three setting, there are opportunities to mix things up from the standard comfort leads in order to make reads on the opponent's leads or to capitalize on weaknesses in the opponent's team compositions.

Threats

Steel-Types

As the team runs both Togetic and Togekiss, the weaknesses that they have become a compounded issue. As a result, a lot of Steel-types become dangers to look out for. Let's go over a few of them.

Excadrill

Excadrill is very common, and while I wouldn't say my team's matchup against it is the worst, it certainly isn't one that you can falter with. If they don't lead Excadrill, it is a good thing as it allows more time to get into proper position to handle it. However, Opponents will very often lead it and very often Dynamax it immediately to go on the offense, so you will need to be on your toes for the first few turns of a battle to outlast their Dynamax and mount a counter attack.

Durant

Ants are jerks. Big hustly ants that can't miss and do huge amounts of damage are big jerks. This is one instance where a play is to just lead Double Toge, sacrifice Togetic and turn 1 Max Flare to take out Durant. If you feel a bit risky, you can Airstream it for a Speed boost instead and finish it off on a later turn.

Corviknight

Corviknight is not a mon that poses immediate threat like some of the other Steel-types, but it can be dangerous if left alone too long as it gets set up. A lot of Corviknight I saw were Iron Defense Body Press variants with max Special Bulk and they can be very difficult to take out if you don't find the opportunity to drop a Thunderbolt or Max Lightning onto it with Duraludon. Togekiss can also sort of handle it, but it may be hard to justify bringing Togekiss to the battle depending on the rest of the team with Corv.

Duraludon

The danger with Duraludon is that it can ignore redirection, and that a lot of Duraludon have been running speedier EV spreads making the mirror a lot more dicey. A lot of Pokemon on my team can hit Duraludon hard, but I can also take a lot of damage from Duraludon making it a volatile matchup, though mostly in the case when it is Dynamax (which is most of the time).

Trick Room + Rhyperior

The team is unfortunately lacking in Protect in a lot of places. This can make something like Rhyperior a bit of a danger to deal with if you don't respect it, especially since it can quickly demolish Togetic leaving the team exposed to a Trick Room onslaught. There were definitely a number of games where I lost simply due to mismanaging my resources and getting Togetic taken out way too early causing me to take too much damage by the time Trick Room ended to be able to make any sort of comeback.

Gothitelle

Switching is very important for this team to deal with tougher matchups. Gothitelle takes that option away. This is made worse by the team itself not really having a strong option to quickly smash its way through Gothitelle to free the team from the effects of Shadow Tag.

Whimsicott Hyper Offense

Teams sort of similar to what Sejun used to win the World Champion Invitational, though not necessarily the exact same six mons. As with the concern about Trick Room at times, the team can struggle at times when the opponent has Whimsicott Tailwind along side a hyper aggressive strategy. Often this can lead to Togetic being taken out too early leaving me badly exposed to the opponent's offense as I struggle to have the opponent Tailwind turns count down. These kinds of teams are examples where it can sometimes be considered to lead with Hitmontop just so that Whimsicott can be denied any immediate Tailwind set up.

Hard Sun

Another instance of overwhelming offensive pressure that can just overload my team's ability to defend. Often times the play is to lead with Double Toge and go immediately for Airstream vs Charizard. If they choose to Max with Zard Togetic can take the hit, if they do not choose to max with Zard it is possible to KO it with an Airstream crit. Missing the Crit either results in:

3/16 it will be KO'd in one tick of Solar Power
10/16 it will be KO'd in two ticks of Solar Power
3/16 it will survive two ticks of Solar Power

The odds are mostly in your favour to at least handle Charizard and work from there, but the matchup can definitely be rough to deal with due to the high amount of damage pressure that the opponent can apply to a team that has no real Fire-type resist.

Given that I consider this to be a five mon team by the end of playing on BS Doubles, the team is definitely still in the works. I've got a few ideas that I plan to try out in replacement of Inteleon in the future that may see use again on BS Season 2, or at a Galar Weekly in the near future.

2020 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Pokemon and for VGC, so let's keep this momentum going right to Worlds at London.

Happy New Year.

Team Paste: https://pokepast.es/6b4eb548ad3ee0ff
Rental Code ID: