How important are double weaknesses?

[PhazonElite]

Well, I've been thinking about this lately because of the flames I seem to get from basically disregarding double weaknesses (and rapid spinners...but that's another story) for teams (i.e. two of your pokemon are weak to water, etc). I've made teams with 0-1 double weaknesses before, but the problem I encountered is that the team seems to act as a group of tech-ish, situational pokemon that can't overcome an aggressive opponent. If you just want to see the choices of pokemon on my current team...

-Houndoom
-Heracross
-Dusclops
-Metagross
-Latios
-Slaking

...or you can go here (http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=55714) for a more in-depth look.

However, if you look at that team, you'll notice quite a few double weaknesses...

-Fighting
-Ghost
-Dark
-Fire
-Ground
-Bug

Now, lets take a look at the pokemon that resist these attack-types...

-Fighting~Heracross, Latios, Dusclops
-Ghost~Houndoom
-Dark~Houndoom, Heracross
-Fire~Houndoom, Latios
-Ground~Heracross, Latios
-Bug~Dusclops, Heracross

Well, for each double weakness besides ghost, there are at least two pokemon that resist it as well.
Also, remember that most battles are 3 v 3, not 6 v 6. For this reason, creating two seperate teams which consist of pokemon that share few weaknesses within the overall team is usually a better idea than just creating a group of 6 that share few weaknesses.
For example, I tend to split my team like this...

-Houndoom
-Dusclops
-Heracross
______________

-Latios
-Metagross
-Slaking

Now neither team has any double weaknesses, yet does not consist of pokemon with situational movesets. I use the first team more often than the second, simply because I like houndoom's versatility combined with heracross's raw power, but that's just preference. Both sub-teams have managed to get over 200 straight wins in the level 100 and 50 BTs as well. (I have two copies of each - one level 50, one level 100)

Overall, I believe with the introduction of the EV system, people should be more concentrated on synergy-filled movesets, speed, and attack patterns; rather than continue to follow the defensive tactics/worries of G/S/C.
Then again, that's just my opinion...

As for the question, how important do you think double weaknesses (or weaknesses in general) are?

[shineyaltaria]

Weaknesses, and covering them, is an important part of the game to me, just like strengths are. Picking pokemon that work well together and cover each others weaknessess usually means a more balanced team with a higher chance of success, in my experience. This is especially true for 2v2 battles.

Just because you have several water pokemon does not necessarily mean you have a double or triple weakness. One of my all-time favorite teams was the "Water Warriors". Three water pokemon sounds like suicide at first, but when you look at the individual pokemon (Ludicolo, Kingdra, and Lanturn) they actually worked very well together. They won around 125 straight at the BT. Granted they are all dual types, but still, not too bad since all 3 shared water as a type also. I point this out to show that pokemon selection really means a lot and covering weaknesses is one of the deciding factors in doing it.

Got coverage?

[Kuiper]

Double weaknesses don't make a HUGE difference. Triple weaknesses can really doom you to destruction, especially if it's to something like Ground.

[Maverick Hunter]

in my opinion, double-weaknesses are not important as long as you can cover them up with other ppl on your team (for instance, i have a 3x weakness to fire on my team but starmie totally takes care of it)

so there is my take on it

[Fate37]

from what i read, ur strategy sounds great. the rest made my brain hurt!

[Near]

Double weakness? I don't really care.
I got:
Rock x2
Psychic x2.
Fighting x2
Electricity x2

And perhaps even more. That's 4 double weaknesses.

Of course, I use my favorite Pokemons, using random OU Pokemons just to cover weaknesses for casual play is pointless.

[Venny]

Massive weaknesses can be used to your advantage. On one of my sandstorm teams, four of my pokemon are weak to water attacks. This made it really easy to get my water absorb lapras healed and also made it easy to switch in. Of course, four guys weak to water blows, so I did eventually cut that number down, but yeah having multiple weaknesses isn't all that bad.

IMO, having four or more guys weak to the same type is typically bad news. Three is usually acceptable to me, so long as I know I can easily wall that attack type without exception, or if that attack type is very uncommon. I don't see why having two guys die to the same type though is a problem. Just make sure you can resist all attacks that hit multiple guys really hard.