How to use Follow Me and Rage Powder effectively in Pokémon Champions doubles — protecting setup sweepers, key users like Sinistcha and female Indeedee, and how opponents counter it.
Redirect moves are among the most important support tools in competitive doubles. Follow Me and Rage Powder force all single-target moves to hit the redirect user instead of their original target — effectively acting as a human (or mushroom) shield for your attacker.
When a Pokémon uses Follow Me or Rage Powder, all single-target moves from opposing Pokémon are redirected to that user for the rest of that turn. This is incredibly powerful for protecting fragile setup sweepers or important support Pokémon.
Sinistcha is the main Rage Powder user in Pokémon Champions. Hospitality restores a chunk of its partner's HP the moment it switches in, Matcha Gotcha drains HP from both opponents, and it can set Trick Room for the slower half of the format. Standard set: Rage Powder, Matcha Gotcha, Trick Room, Protect. Female Indeedee is the Follow Me counterpart: Psychic Surge terrain blocks priority moves aimed at your side, and Psychic Seed turns that terrain into +1 Special Defence.
Redirect support is most valuable for Pokémon that need a turn to set up or that die quickly to focused attacks.
💡 Tip: Check the opposing lead before you commit to Rage Powder. Against Rillaboom, Sinistcha's redirect does nothing at all — female Indeedee's Follow Me is the one that holds.
What is the difference between Follow Me and Rage Powder?
Follow Me is a Normal-type redirection move — female Indeedee, Clefable and Raichu all learn it in Champions. Rage Powder is the Bug-type version, carried by Sinistcha and Volcarona. In modern VGC (Gen 6+), BOTH moves redirect all single-target moves including Ghost-type moves — there is no Ghost-type bypass. The key difference: Grass-type Pokémon are immune to Rage Powder and can still target freely, but Grass-types are NOT immune to Follow Me.
Can redirect moves protect against spread moves?
No — spread moves like Earthquake and Rock Slide hit all Pokémon on the field and cannot be redirected. Redirect only works against single-target moves.
Does redirect work against Rillaboom's Grassy Glide?
Follow Me does. Grassy Glide is a single-target move, so it is redirected like any other — priority changes when a move goes, not who it hits. Rage Powder does not help here: Rillaboom is a Grass-type and ignores powder moves entirely, so bring a Follow Me user against the most-used Pokémon in M-C.
Related Pokémon