Drifblim and Clefable Double Battle strategy ?

Question

Hello ! I'm posting for my brother. He loves Drifblim and Clefable and created a Flare Boost strategy. I would like to check if it works, though. No worries, he's got 4 other independent Pokemon in his party so if this fails, he can still win.

The Pokemon:

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and

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@ Flame Orb:
Trait: Flare Boost
EV: 200 HP / 52 Spe / 248 Sp.ATK / 4 Def / 4 sp.Def
Timid nature

• Shadow Ball
• Thunder
• Rain Dance
• Weather Ball

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@ Leftovers:
Trait: Magic Guard
EV: 252 HP / 126 Def / 126 sp.Def / 4 sp.ATK
Relaxed Nature

• Trick
• Stored Power
• Calm Mind
• Facade

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The Strategy:

PS: This is only for Double Battle.

1. Drifblim does Rain Dance on the first turn. Clefable does Calm mind.
   Drifblim gets burned. Flare Boost will double Drifblim's speed 'cuz it got burned.
2. Drifblim attacks with one of his 3 attacks (the strongest in the situation), then Clefable Trick with Drifblim; giving Leftovers and taking Flame Orb. Now Clefable is burned, while Drifblim takes the Burn and recover most of the damage with Leftovers. Clefable's ability, Magic Guard, prevent it from being affected by damage. Then, as it got burned, Facade's base power doubles.
3. Drifblim spams a new hit, while Clefable gives the Flame Orb to Sheer Force Conkeldurr and sensible-to it Pokemon.
4. Drifblim attacks, Clefable stores power. In this case, opponent may believe that Drifblim is important, and there they rush in the trap: Clefable would have stored power, giving out an all insane Stored Power, and the 2 Pokemon spams attacks one right after the other.

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My brother's got 4 other individual sweepers so if this fails, he can still counter-attack.

Would this work, or not ?

Thank you.

Answer 1

1. Flare Boost does not double Drifblim's speed. It boosts its special attack by 50%. Unburden doubles Drifblim's speed if the item it's holding has been consumed. The current EV spread sees Drifblim being really slow. Even if its speed was going to be doubled, it EV spread should still be 252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP to maximise sweeping.
2. Nearly no one uses Sheer Force Conkeldurr; Guts is a much better option in case of burn, so you don't waste a physical sweeper.
3. Rain Dance is not just advantageous for you, but if you face something like Swift Swim Kingdra or Ludicolo, you're really screwed. Kingdra and Ludicolo are 2 of the most common Pokemon in doubles.
4. Clefable is pretty much screwed if you face a physical based Pokemon, like Heracross. You also gave her no Speed EVs so she has no hope of outspeeding, well, anything.
5. Prankster Pokemon are pretty common in doubles, and should you face Whimiscott with Encore/ Taunt or Sableye with Taunt, you will be trapped into setting up or won't be able to set up.
6. Facade won't do that much damage, considering that Celfable's attack is at base 70 and you gave no EV investment in that. It would really be better to have Softboiled or Protect, since doubles Pokemon frequently need Protect.
7. 4 independent sweepers working by themselves... that's not particularly good. You should really considering some synergy or some (workable) doubles tactics like Discharge + Motor Drive etc.
8. This takes too many turns to set up. You need to 1) Set up Rain Dance & wait for the Flame Orb to activate, 2) Trick the Flame Orb and 3) mass spam Calm Mind. By the time turn 3 comes around, I'm pretty sure that at least one of the two Pokemon will have fainted, since you barely dealt any damage to your opponent where your opponent has either had time to set up on you or sweep you.

So no, this doesn't work. Not least because the ability doesn't do what your brother thought it does.

Comments

OK thank you :(

Answer 2

It probably won't work. It certainly won't work against a semi-competent opponent. You don't take into account the fact that you are being hit while you do all this stuff. Drifblim isn't likely to last long, as it has quite a few weaknesses and not the greatest of defenses. And Clefable isn't going to survive for four turns either. That's really all there is to it for the flaw in this strategy, now just to correct/inform you on a few things.

Flare Boost increases Special Attack, not Speed. Drifblim is still unable to hit all that hard, and it still is pretty slow.

I'm glad you're confident that you'll be facing Sheer Force Conkeldurr every battle. I wish I could predict the future like that.

Stored Power will not be all that great after only one Calm Mind. Base 60 Stored Power is very weak.

Comments

Oh yeah ... Damn it ... **snif snif**

Thank you.