>>16377779In Singles, Protect stalls a turn so that your opponent is hurt by status, you heal with leftovers, speed boost increases, and things like that.
In doubles, it allows one of your Pokémon to (almost) definitely survive a turn, while your other Pokémon is still free to move.
Imagine a situation like this:
You have Weavile and Scarf Charizard out
Your opponent has Scizor and Garchomp out.
Without Protect on Weavile, Scizor will Bullet Punch and it will die, leaving Charizard to do bugger all to Garchomp. With Protect, Scizor can do nothing to Weavile, Charizard can KO Scizor, Garchomp will probably KO Charizard with Rock Slide, but then Weavile KOs Garchomp and you win. Although if Scizor predicts your protect and protects itself, you're still screwed. There are situations where it's more simply useful, but this shows how it can determine matches.
>>16377822Yes, Sucker Punch requires them to be preparing an attacking move, not for your Pokémon to be the target.
