Is there any advantage to using minimize over double team?

Question

They both raise evasion, but if you use minimize, the opponent can use stomp or body slam, which will then ignore the evasion and attack with double power. It doesn't help that any Pokemon that can learn minimize can also use DT. Do stomp and body slam have the same effect for DT, or is minimize just the objectively worse move?

Comments

Sorry about this question; I spent a little while away from pokemon and didn't realize minimize got buffed from +1 to +2 evasion in gen 5

Answer 1

No, Double Team is not impacted more by stomp and body slam, but Minimize is.

Minimize is actually hurt more by many attacks, including: Stomp and Body Slam of course, Steamroller, Dragon Rush, Flying Press, and Phantom Force. However, it is unlikely you will see any of these moves besides maybe Stomp and Body slam.

Besides taking more damage from those attacks, Minimize also has less PP than Double Team does. If you max out the amount of PP you can have, then the difference is only 8, but that can mean a world of difference if a game comes down to PP stalling.

In my opinion, since Minimize's weaknesses are mostly circumstantial, Minimize is still better than Double Team, simply because of the faster boost of evasion. You wouldn't replace Swords Dance for Howl, would you? (I know, not exactly the same thing, but close).

Hope this helps! :)

Comments

Just because this answer didn't exactly make things clear:

Minimize gives evasion increase +2
Double Team gives evasion increase +1

So Minimize is always better.