



Just made it to Doubles Masterball with Mono Ghost
Like title says, I just hit masterball in MB Doubles with a monotype ghost team, this was a really fun challenge and I learnt quite a lot about the game as well as about team building.
Team Report
- Sableye
Without a shadow of a doubt, the goat of this team, here it behaves like a Grimmsnarl, setting up screens with Light Clay for them to last longer and not care if it goes down, since 8 turns are plenty for a doubles game.
It also has Encore to help support other pokemons, by doing something instead of setting up screens and transforming into a sitting duck.
Most teams have either Will-O-Wisp or Reflect, I have both for a reason. Reflect immediately goes up, protecting from both pokemons if facing against 2 physical sweepers. Will-O-Wisp helps also by further cutting down the attack since Chandelure and Basculegion are not that tanky. It also serves another purpose, it boosts Hex.
- Chandelure
The main damage dealer of the team. It's mega has a respectable 175 Sp. Atk. and the base form's Flash Fire ability also helps in pivoting against Charizard-Y, Torkoal and Incineroar.
Heat Wave is the main damage dealing attack, boosted by sun when against sun teams or by Flash Fire, but even without any boosts, it being a spread move, helps breaking Focus Sashes and with chip damage. It OHKOs Kingambit and Whimsicott; and does decent damage in general.
Psychic is the coverage move, deals with pesky Mega Staraptors, Toxapexes, Sneaslers and other randoms mons.
Hex is the most interesting move on the team, it does a little less damage that shadow ball, but if the opponent is burned, it hits like a truck.
Examples:
32+ SpA Chandelure-Mega Hex (130 BP) vs. 0 HP / 32 SpD Archaludon: 156-184 (94.5 - 111.5%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO (guaranteed OHKO after burn damage)
32+ SpA Chandelure-Mega Hex (130 BP) vs. 0 HP / 32 SpD Milotic: 103-123 (60.5 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after burn damage
Which is pretty helpful, specially against rain teams with Archaludon, since rain reduces drastically Heat Wave's damage. With Will-O-Wisp and Matcha Gotcha from Sinistcha, a burn comes more often than not.
- Basculegion
I love this fish, it doesn't come to every game, but can be quite helpful as a delete button, with Choice Scarf Wave Crash or a late game sweeper with Last Respects.
This set is more standard, but it fits team team quite well, checking some threats.
- Sinistcha
This set is also quite standard, I use it on a sand team, so I just kept everything as is. It's a hard check against Rain Teams, especially walling Mega Swampert.
Matcha Gotcha needs no introduction, very powerful grass type move, keeps Sinistcha alive.
Rage Powder to offer redirection, which is always helpful since most sweepers are not that tanky, even with double screens set up.
It's also the first and main Trick Room setter of the team.
- Aegislash
This one was a surprise, it handles way better than I've ever expected, can be very tanky and very strong as well, quite flexible, great pivot, great mon all around.
This is the main fairy check, Iron Head deletes Sylveons, Floettes, Grimmsnarls and even other rock type mons like Aerodactyl and Tyranittar.
Head Smash exists purely to kill Pelipper. It also helps with Chard-Y and other random threats, but the main job is to desintegrate Pelipper. This team struggles a bit against rain, so it's very important to kill Pelipper. The main rain counter is Sinistcha which gets deleted by Hurricane, so Pelipper must die.
Night Slash is the coverage move, helpful against Farigiraf (since it's immune to ghost), Mega Metagross and others.
Aegislash is quite slow, so it can easily tank moves, even super effective moves, before transforming into the damage dealing form, boosting the Atk to 140, because of this, it also behaves well in Trick Room.
- Runerigus
Definitely takes the prize for underground gem. It's the second Trick Room setter, but it also is a Trick Room sweeper.
Immunity to Intimidate and Body Press, makes it a great counter against Incineroar and Kingambit. Iron Defense boosts, both it's survivability and damage output. Perfect Mega Raichu Y counter, since it's immune to both Zap Cannon and Focus Blast.
It's not comming to every game, but when it does, it can be the difference.
Game Plan
Usually Sableye comes out in the lead to set up screens and set stuff on fire for Hex to do it's magic. Then, it can either start off strong with Basculegion or Chandelure deleting stuff, or save them for a late game sweep. Runerigus and Aegislash are the back up, depending on the enemy team. If it's rain, killing Pelipper is the priority, the Sinistcha can go to work.
Pros
Has no issue against Mega Staraptor since it doesn't let it use Close Combat and Will-O-Wisp can halve it's attack, making it a sitting duck.
Great against sun teams, Mega Chandelure can use the sun to it's advantage and tank Heat Waves from Chard-Y. I haven't found a reliable way to deal with Sleep Powder Venausaur, but it didn't come up as often.
Great in and out of Trick Room. Previous versions of the team struggled against Trick Room, since I had Mega Gengar instead of Chandelure and it was harder to manuvre.
It's not that well known, so a lot of attacks can take the opponent by surprise, especially Aegislash and Runerigus.
Cons
Struggles against rain teams, the only rain check is Sinistcha, who gets deleted by Pelipper. It tanks quite a lot of physical moves, even some Electro Shots. There's not an easy way to delete Archaludon in the rain, since it dampens Heat Wave, Hex is a good alternative, but it requires set up.
Knock Off is quite a common move, this team being all weak to it is unfortunate.
Sucker Punch from Kingambit can also be annoying, since it deals a lot of damage before the team can delete him. At full health and with Reflect up, Chandelure can tank it, but not well.
Runerigus is not that easy to use. It can be quite powerful in the right moments, but it's not that flexible, in the beginning I've had matches were the last two mons were Runerigus and a Ghost Type, so there was nothing I could do.
Aegislash is incredible, but it also takes time to get used to it's mechanic, since the form changes are dependant on the move used, sometimes I have to decide between it living or dealing damage, rarely does both when it's in its Blade Form.
Why?
Well my character looked dripped with the clothes from the battle pass so I wanted to make a team to complement his fashion, first I tried a Mono Poison team, but quickly gave up. Also my name fits. It was also fun to test it in Showdown since some people commented on the team.
Afterthoughts
There were some previous versions of the team that did not mesh well with my style of playing. I tried Mega Gengar since it looks sick and before Champions was out on mobile, I used a Perish Trap team on Showdown which was quite fun, but being so weak to Ground moves was painful, especially with the ammount of Garchomps and Mega Swamperts running around. It was replaced by Basculegion.
I tried Gholdengo instead of Aegislash for the role of fairy killer, but it struggled to stay in the field, since its Sp. Atk. is lowered after a Make It Rain.
TLDR:
Sableye screens, the rest sweeps.