Best Pokemon for Scarlet & Violet Ranked Double Battles: Movesets & strategies explained
Game FreakPokemon Scarlet and Violet Ranked Double Battles can be tricky to understand for both veteran and beginner players given the wide variety of combinations and meta duos available. So, here’s a full guide with the best Pokemon, teams, and strategies to use in VGC PvP.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Double Battles are quite hard to understand for beginners, but they can also be quite tricky for experienced players. There are many new items, TMs, Pokemon, strategies, and abilities trainers use to get the advantage, and tracking them all down can be quite challenging.
Double Battles require finesse, structure, and ahead planning to accomplish the best results. Many strong Pokemon of the late meta synergize well with the new Pokemon introduced with the Regulation E changes, Kitakami Dex species included.
So here’s the best Pokemon for Scarlet and Violet Ranked Double Battles, with movesets and strategies explained, up-to-date with Regulation E changes.
Game FreakBest Scarlet & Violet Ranked Double Battles Pokemon
To get the best results in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Ranked Double Battles, you’ll need the best Pokemon. Trainers require a lot of time and dedication to raise their Pokemon with the correct natures, abilities, and IVs, but they also have the choice to get them through trading via Pokemon Home.
But be careful since the enforcement of Regulation E also introduced a silent patch to Pokemon Home and some additional restrictions for trades, including an auto-ban feature that detects and marks genned Pokemon. So, always trade with trusted partners, and don’t use Mystery Box Pokemon for PvP battles.
These are some of the current strongest Pokemon for Ranked Double battles, with the best strategies, build, and equipment included:
Ogerpon (Hearthflame Mask)
Ability: Mold Breaker – Held Item: Hearthflame Mask
- Ivy Cudgel
- Wood Hammer
- Knock Off
- Spiky Shield
Iron Hands
Ability: Quark Drive – Held Item: Assault Vest
- Wild Charge
- Drain Punch
- Volt Switch
- Fako Out
Urshifu Rapid-Strike
Ability: Unseen Fist – Held Item: Punching Glove
- Aqua Jet
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- U-turn
Bloodmoon Ursaluna
Ability: Mind’s Eye – Held Item: Assault Vest
- Blood Moon
- Earth Power
- Moonblast
- Hyper Voice
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Meowscarada & Krookodile Crit Combo
This incredibly powerful but risky combo for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Double Battles uses Meowscarada’s Flower Trick to trigger Krookodile’s Anger Point ability, boosting its attack stats to the max and guaranteeing double KOs using Earthquake. If executed correctly, this could become the strongest strategy in the Doubles Battle meta.
A YouTuber named SongKnife made a guide for this strategy, which he improved by equipping Meowscarada with Eject Button and adding Flamigo and Sableye into the mix.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Politoed and Gothitelle Perish Trap
In this strategy for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Double Battles, Politoed uses a slow Perish Song strategy, delaying it to fainting last due to its effect. Meanwhile, Gothitelle with the Shadow Tag Ability prevents opponents from switching out, guaranteeing that Perish Song succeeds.
Politoed HP pool allows it to resist multiple hits, and if you combine this feature with a defensive Tera Type and Terastallization, Politoed becomes a stronger tank. And its Drizzle ability ensures that its Water-type moves are always top hitters.
Gothitelle has good resistance as well and equipped with Iapapa Berry, you guarantee its survival until the last round. Make sure to equip Politoed with recovery items as well, such as a Sitrus Berry, to ensure it stays alive long enough for the Perish Trap to work.
The only flaw this strategy has is that Gothitelle‘s Shadow Tag is ineffective with Ghost-type Pokemon.
Game FreakPokemon Scarlet & Violet Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style and Chien-Pao debuff shield break
This strategy for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Double Battles uses Urshifu as the main attacker and Chien-Pao as a support partner Pokemon.
Urshifu Rapid-Strike is arguably the best shield breaker in the core games. Its Unseen Fist Ability disables moves like Protect, Detect, and Spiky Shield when using contact moves. Chien-Pao is a natural debuffer with its Sword of Ruin ability and has some solid moves like Sacred Sword, Icicle Crash, Protect, and Sucker Punch that make it the best pair for physical attackers like Urshifu Rapid-Strike.
Equip Urshifu with Punching Glove, which boosts the damage of Surging Strikes by 10%, making it a non-contact move. This means that Urshifu will be immune to effects like Rocky Helmet or Rough Skin.
This eliminates Urshifu’s main counter-strategy and allows it to mow down its opponents with Close Combat and Surging Strikes. If you see that Urshifu’s being over-countered, use U-Turn to switch to another Pokemon. You can even switch with Chien-Pao if you have it at your party as a spare.
Equip Chien-Pao with Focus Sash and this will ensure you can handle at least a single-strike K.O. per combat, which is incredibly useful considering that Chien-Pao is somewhat squishy. Make sure that you use Sucker Punch and Protect alternatively to keep your opponent entangled and ensure that Urshifu can break their Pokemon even if it resorts to movements like Voltswich and U-Turn.
Use Icicle Crash to destroy strong attackers like Rillaboom, Amoongus, and Tornadus-I.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Ogerpon with Hearthflame Mask & Bloodmoon Ursaluna
This Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Double Battles duo has Ogerpon and Bloodmoon Ursaluna as front liners. They are two of the top-tier Pokemon for Ranked battles at the moment.
Ogerpon with Hearthflame Mask is currently one of the strongest attackers on the Regulations E meta, and with its signature moves, Ivy Cudgel and Wood Hammer, it is breaking down to the top of the singles rankings too.
But Ogerpon is somewhat squishy and requires partnering with a bulky, strong Pokemon. Bloodmoon Ursaluna is the perfect candidate for this job. With its powerful moveset, which includes its signature move Blood Moon, and the destructive Earth Power, you can easily take down strong opponents of various types.
Use Spike Shield to protect Ogerpon while Ursaluna hits the rival team. Use Knock Off if you see any problematic enemies with strong item combos, like Eviolite or Life Orb.
If you Terastalize Ogerpon, its innate ability will switch due to the Embody Aspect buffing its attack Power, making it even stronger. Ivy Cudgel will turn into the Fire Type, Fire Cudgel, with a 100 Base Power, but keep in mind that Terastilize will deactivate Ogerpon’s ability Mold Breaker, so use it sparingly to ramp up the attack once you secured your strategy.
Game FreakPokemon Scarlet & Violet Iron Hands & Flamigo’s copy buff strategy
In this strategy for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Double Battles, we use Flamigo’s hidden ability and Iron Hands as a buff partner, instead of an attacker.
Most think that Iron Hands using Belly Drum is a lame strategy, but few are aware that Flamigo’s hidden ability Costar can be used to turn it into a destroyer from turn zero. This strategy requires precise timing and a third wheel: a Pokemon with switch abilities like Voltswitch and U-Turn.
Iron Hands and Urshifu Rapid-Strike equipped with U-Turn can be a good choice. Your rival will think that you are using a Shield Break/Tank Strategy and switch to Heavy-Hitters. Then, you can use Belly-Drum with Iron Hands and U-Turn with Urshifu, and surprise with Flamigo, who copies Iron Hands boosted stats using Costar and blasts into combat with its empowered moves.
Equip Iron Hands with recovery Held Items and Flamigo with Lum Berry to ensure that he doesn’t get crowd-controlled, then take the initiative with moves like Brave Bird for Ogerpon, Liquidation for Heatran and other strong Fire, Ground, and Rock-type Pokemon. You can also use Close Combat to destroy Steel-type metas like the empowered Empoleon, which is wreaking havoc in the Ranked Battles.
Game FreakPokemon Scarlet & Violet Dusclops & Conkeldurr Trick Room
In Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Trick Room remains a viable option, and now with Regulation E re-introducing Dusclops as Trick Room setter, things are getting interesting for fans of this strategy. Dusclops pairs well with strong Guts attackers like Conkeldurr. Make sure that Conkeldur has a Flame Orb equipped and that Dusclops has an Eviolite as a held item.
Conkeldurr will jump into battle with the Burning condition, which will activate its Guts ability, boosting its attack power. Meanwhile, Dusclops with Frisk will warn you about troublesome items held by the opponent. Follow up by activating Trick Room with Dusclops, making the slow Conkeldurr the priority attacker.
Take that chance and use Knock Off with Conkeldurr to deal heavy damage to vulnerable opponents and debuff them by making them lose key items.
You can also pair Dusclops with Ursaluna and other Guts attackers, but this Trick Room strategy works best with Conkeldurr, as it is a real heavy hitter.
And that’s all you need to know about the Best Pokemon for Scarlet and Violet Ranked Double Battles. Now go out there and conquer the Ranking Boards. And if you are still in need of more Pokemon content and guides, you can also check these:
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