>>44130085I have to disagree on this one. Fundimentally doubles games are a lot more fast-paced than singles, with fewer turns on average in a match compared to singles of the same team size. Damage is output much quicker, esspecially when potentially 2 enemies can strike before either of yours gets to, and this could result in 1 or even 2 KOs to one side in a single turn. A single turn in doubles has much higher risk and value than singles because of this. It is also one reason why Protect is so common: if you negate the enemy's actions then you have neutralized them and caused them to waste a turn. In singles you can flub or waste a turn, but you on average haven't as much consequence for it.
In singles, how many pokemon run a protect move? A seldom few only doing it for stall strats such as chip damage/healing or something similar. It's made to crush enemy's PP and heal back/ cause enemy to chip twice as much until they csn land again.
Sp if Urshifu's Unseen Fist were to proct in singles it would more likely be in regards to one of these Pokemon/strats. Doubles is different, often times a Pokemon will protect in anticipation of a big attack and/or just out of saftey. The number of times Protect is used in a fight is significantly higher with respect to every Pokemon in the formats, and this means a well timed protect could swing advantage tremendously in your favor, say your partner was able to pick the protector's threat away so they'll be safe next turn, for example.
Factor in Urshifu. In singles a protect play would typically be seen a mile away. In doubles not only does it circumvent one of the strongest mindgame tools thay exists, it does so at a much higher frequency and is much more impactful. Diving in a sweeper to clean up a threat is a lot more risky when the thought of protect thwarting all your damage and getting crushed in 1 turn, Urshifu not only removes that tool but also punishes you for using it, same for singles but not as impactful imo.
