Building in Pairs: Synergy basics, what to look for when building a team, creativity versus gimmicks

To start off with, let's cover the central idea of synergy, and what high level players mean when they refer to the synergy between different Pokemon. Synergy essentially applies to two different areas, offensive and defensive. When players refer to two Pokemon as having good offensive synergy, they are referring to the fact that the two Pokemon provide good overlapping offensive coverage (things which they hit for either neutral or super-effective coverage), meaning that they can handle opposing teams together effectively. Defensive synergy works in reverse, meaning the two Pokemon can stand on the receiving hits of a large array of different offensive types together.

A common mistake when covering the idea of synergy is that the two Pokemon need to be on the field together (which is also a key misunderstanding of the idea of a core). Pokemon with good synergy should be able to work reliably together on the field, or apart with the two switching in and out as best needed for the other. For example, using the very effective HydreiSlash core, we can see that the two can work well together on the field for an effective offensive pairing, as well as switch in for each other easily, with Hydreigon switching in on Ground-types with ease, and Aegislash doing the same for Ice-, Fighting-, and Fairy-type moves. The defensive synergy between the two is almost non-existent in regards to function if both are out at the same time, but the offensive synergy works best when both are out together. A good player will be able to find the best ways in which they can use this information to make sure both are out or in as needed to best serve the other.

Building in cores, which is building your team with a preliminary core (such as HydreiSlash) and then building around that with additional cores that best serve the team, is a simple and effective way of building a team. In Doubles, which is in my opinion the most fluid and fast flowing style of play, you will often not have your most ideal core out at the same, so by building your team with various cores which all work effectively together will allow you to have a functioning offense at all times. Having a team with 3-4 different cores that work well together to break past opposing ones is a nice amount to have, though you can have less or more and still have an effective team.

The next area we will cover is what to look out for when building your team. Having cores is not enough to sufficiently build a high level team; what your team should be using at its foundation is the teams primary function. Whether that function is to setup and sweep with a Kangaskhan, having a late game Sun sweep with ChloroSaur, or setting up Trick Room, a good team knows what it wants to do and builds itself in the way that is most effective at doing so. Something to remember though is that your team should also be able to work independent of your primary strategy. Battles are, as previously mentioned, a fluid and dynamic series of actions between 2 people, each of whom are trying to setup and execute their primary plan as well as stop the other from doing so. Understanding this allows us to think more carefully about how we approach a battle, for example, a Trick Room team should stop and evaluate whether or not they should try and get up Trick Room as early as possible when the opposing team has 2 or more dedicated stops to Trick Room. Or a Sun team versus a Tyranitar Sand should be patient with the use of Charizard, and wait until the Tyranitar has been removed from the game.

The next area to look at when team building is ways of disrupting elements of, as well as the primary purpose of opposing teams. Having stops to common threats throughout the metagame are a key aspect of building a good team; for instance having your team have nothing for Landorus-T or Kangaskhan is poor building. Having your team lose at team preview to Trick Room, weather, or any other common team archetypes is just as bad team building. Being able to build around ways of stopping these things (weather trapping with Gothitelle + opposing weather), Fake Out + Taunt versus Trick Room teams, and other ideas are key to making sure your team is able to serve its primary purpose against other teams.

Common things you should be looking out for when teambuilding:
A check for Landorus-T, as well as at least one way of switching in on it's common moves (1 for U-Turn, 1 for Rock Slide, 1 for Earthquake)
Two ways of both switching in on, and beating Mega Kangaskhan
A way of handling Rain teams (Politoed + Ludicolo, Kingdra, or Swampert)
A way of handling Sun cores (Venusaur + CharizardY)
Two ways of switching in on Charizard Y
Two ways of disrupting Trick Room
A switch in and check for Aegislash
A switch in and check for Heatran
A switch in and check to Fairy spam (Hyper Voice backed by Pixilate)
The tricky part of building a team is that you have 6 team slots to find a way of dealing with all of these, as well as whatever else opposing teams might try and throw at you, so condensing roles is key. This is why certain Pokemon, such as Aegislash, are so good. Aegislash for example can work well as a switch-in for two of Landorus-T's common moves, it is an excellent way of switching in on Kangaskhan, and can check it from about 50%, and it works well versus Fairy spam and Trick Room.

The last element of teambuilding I want to go over is my personal favourite part: creativity. This is the part of teambuilding that I see the least of, both on the ladder and in tournaments. Having the element of surprise is a lost art, with many players opting for simple strategies such as Kangaskhan and BD Azumarill, or pure Sun with Chlorosaur. This leaves a large area of the metagame untapped for potential, so much to the point that we are likely not seeing the best the game has to offer. However, there is a thin line between creativity and gimmicks, and finding ways to toe that line are also important. For example, if your team has issues with Rotom-W, Kangaskhan, and Heatran, you could address all of those with the use of Virizion, who fills that niche quite nicely. Virizion is a Pokemon that sees almost no usage, but it is definitely a viable choice. Or you could address all of that with Hidden Power Ground Focus Blast Simisage, which does the same. One of those is a much more effective method of dealing with your required niche, so we can draw our line for viable versus gimmick there. Finding unique and creative ways of dealing with common problems, or for making sure your opponent does not know how best to handle your team can be a rewarding and educational experience, as in doing so you're also expanding your own knowledge of the metagame.

Battling Guide and Tips: Miniature strategies, on assumptions and predictions

This is likely going to be the shortest overview of any of the lessons, as battling is something that is very straightforward in how it works, unlike the other topics covered. To boil it down though, the main point of a Pokemon battle is to beat your opponents team before they can beat yours, so the main gist of a battle is to figure out the easiest and most effective way of doing so, and then you work towards carrying that out. From team preview, to lead, to mid-game, and end-game you should always be trying to stop your opponent at every possible moment, and advance yourself in that same time. For those of you who are coming from a singles background here is the 1st tip: a very basic lesson you will quickly learn is that there is no stall wars in doubles, there are no turns to be spared for setting and removing hazards, the only forms of hazard control you will likely have is Taunt and your own Pokemon KO'ing the opponents faster than they can set up.

As I've already said before, doubles is a very dynamic metagame, wherein every turn there is likely to be something happening that drastically changes the balance of power in the match (assuming 2 equally skilled players). Taking this into account, we have to find a way to be flexible in how we approach our battles. A good player has a general strategy in mind and plays towards accomplishing that strategy; a great player has a general strategy in mind, and then plays towards it but can change on the fly if need be. In a battle always make sure to examine your position at the start and end of each turn, taking stock of what your opponent has and what you have. Does your opponent need their Latios in order to win? If so, ask yourself "what is the most effective way I have to remove my opponents Latios from the game?", and then ask yourself "how would I go about doing that?". This is what I like to refer to as having "miniature strategies", or little things I need to do throughout the battle in order to win. For example, in a weather war, I generally ask myself what the most effective way do I have in order to remove the weather element from the battle, and then I try and play into a position in order to do so. However, as mentioned earlier the metagame is very dynamic, and even these smaller strategies should always be constantly re-evaluated.

The last thing to mention is on assumptions and predictions in a battle. Ideally, we want to minimize the amount of each of these we have to make as a miscalculation can prove to be devastating, though these can not always be avoided. However there are several steps we can take to avoid having to make "plays". A main one is the prevalence of speed ties which are the bane of everyone who has ever played competitive Pokemon. An easy way to determine speed between 2 Pokemon of the same speed tier is to look at the turn in which ability stat drops (such as Intimidate) occur, the turn in which healing items take effect, or when weather damage occurs. The faster the Pokemon, the earlier it will go in those turns, and of course, under Trick Room, the slower Pokemon goes before the "faster" one. Of course, rolling the dice on a speed tie is always an option, but it is something you should really avoid relying on through managing your field positions at all times.