VGC Trick Room Team

[CrackBeWhack]

Slowbro @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 91 Def / 165 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Ice Beam

This mon is great for setup especially under trick room. I specifically like it for its lead potential against a good couple of big threats like incineroar and Landorus. As it OHKO's the both without the need for a calm mind It can also lead decently against a lele especially alongside stakattaka. It has trouble against ferrothorns and bulus but hariyama mostly makes up for that with trick room up. All in all if a trick room is up and you can get a calm mind this mon quickly snowballs and can easily rip through you opponents team. It also provides me with some variety.

Mimikyu @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Disguise
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Taunt
- Play Rough
- Shadow Ball

This is an odd mimikyu but it seems to work pretty well as it helps control setup sweepers like curselax with taunt and gets a free trick room if needed it also gets some great damage with never ending nightmare and play rough is good stab damage as well. Its mainly a niche against certain teams but does work well in general if the circumstances play out.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 188 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

Porygon 2 is a good trick room setter and ice beam and thunderbolt give it some great spread on mons like landorus and celesteela and with its bulk and revover it can switch in on a good deal of attacks. It is just a great asset to the team and works well as one secondary trick room setters.

Tapu Bulu @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Horn Leech
- Wood Hammer
- Superpower
- Protect

Tapu Bulu works well as a good sweeper as it is slow and can help stakattaka with earthquakes and has all around decent bulk and attack that just works well for the entire team. Not much to say here.

Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sheer Force
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Poison Jab
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch

Hariyama is great in the current meta with great coverage and good damage on landorus ferrothorn and the tapus and fake out helps other get a rick room up. The assault vest also gives it good switch ins as well. It is just a great Trick room mon that most teams can benefit from.

Stakataka @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Gyro Ball
- Rock Slide
- Protect

And lastly there is orbed stakattaka. It give sme utility and options as a third trick room setter (i have found it is needed because a good deal of teams ive faced are ready for trick room prevention and having three options is great). Its bulk is a plus and gyro ball deals with leles and rock slide helps with zard teams and is great stab damage.

I have found success with this team and it seems to do well and its fun for me to use as it provide some variety.

 

[Level 51]

Hi CrackBeWhack, cool team! I see that you're going for a full TR-style team, so allow me to offer some pointers on how to further sharpen your team. As you're aware, a Trick Room team generally only has a few turns in which to perform its offensive roles, since its Pokemon suffer from their extremely low Speed stats. However, as it stands, I feel that the team suffers from one main problem: it doesn't have enough offense going for it.

In its current form, the team has four Trick Room users—far more than any single TR team really needs. I'd recommend starting with maybe two TR users and four TR abusers, and then tweaking it from there according to what you like.

<-- current team

Let's start by removing the two less useful TR setters on the team. Slowbro as an offensive TR user is mostly outclassed by Stakataka, and as a defensive TR setter it's outclassed by Porygon2. Since Fighting is a fairly uncommon type in the current format, having Porygon2 and Stakataka as your two TR setters doesn't open your team up as badly as it might look. Mimikyu, on the other hand, is just kind of weak overall; it was fine in VGC '17 due to the general weakness of the overall pool of available Pokemon, but in a VGC '18 context it's noticeably weaker, and doesn't do much after TR is up.

You'll probably want a Mega on your team now that you've removed Slowbro. There's a few choices for this role, like Mawile and Abomasnow, but the most common choice is Camerupt, which I think fits here well. It synergizes offensively with Tapu Bulu, since they can cover the Pokemon that resist each other's attacks; additionally, Tapu Bulu's Grassy Terrain lets Camerupt turn its Nature Power into an obscenely strong Energy Ball to break through bulky Water-types.

We can then complete the Fire/Grass pairing with another strong attacker, Araquanid. It acts as a physical TR sweeper to complement Camerupt's special attacks, and also provides Wide Guard to help protect Camerupt and Stakataka from spread attacks like Earthquake and Muddy Water.

Next, moving on to a couple of your sets:

Tapu Bulu: Sitrus Berry -> Grassium Z
Tapu Bulu is naturally an offensive powerhouse, so using a Sitrus Berry on it is kind of a waste of this power. On the other hand, a Grassium Z or Miracle Seed would be much more effective at letting Tapu Bulu take advantage of its high Attack stat and Grassy Terrain. Notably, if you use the Miracle Seed for Tapu Bulu, you can give the Waterium Z to Araquanid.

Hariyama: Sheer Force -> Guts / Thick Fat, Fire Punch -> Close Combat
There's two things I wanted to change here. Firstly, Sheer Force negates secondary effects, which might seem fine for Poison Jab, Fire Punch, and Ice Punch, but it also unfortunately negates the flinch effect of Fake Out, since it counts as a secondary effect (with a 100% chance, of course). You could change this to Thick Fat, but I think you could also try an offensive set with Guts + Flame Orb; the choice is up to you. Secondly, a Hariyama without STAB is just... weird. Fighting, as I mentioned earlier, is definitely a rare offensive typing, but it's also a very good offensive typing when you have it.

 

[SlickL7690]

Hi CrackBeWhack, cool team! I see that you're going for a full TR-style team, so allow me to offer some pointers on how to further sharpen your team. As you're aware, a Trick Room team generally only has a few turns in which to perform its offensive roles, since its Pokemon suffer from their extremely low Speed stats. However, as it stands, I feel that the team suffers from one main problem: it doesn't have enough offense going for it.

In its current form, the team has four Trick Room users—far more than any single TR team really needs. I'd recommend starting with maybe two TR users and four TR abusers, and then tweaking it from there according to what you like.

<-- current team

Let's start by removing the two less useful TR setters on the team. Slowbro as an offensive TR user is mostly outclassed by Stakataka, and as a defensive TR setter it's outclassed by Porygon2. Since Fighting is a fairly uncommon type in the current format, having Porygon2 and Stakataka as your two TR setters doesn't open your team up as badly as it might look. Mimikyu, on the other hand, is just kind of weak overall; it was fine in VGC '17 due to the general weakness of the overall pool of available Pokemon, but in a VGC '18 context it's noticeably weaker, and doesn't do much after TR is up.

You'll probably want a Mega on your team now that you've removed Slowbro. There's a few choices for this role, like Mawile and Abomasnow, but the most common choice is Camerupt, which I think fits here well. It synergizes offensively with Tapu Bulu, since they can cover the Pokemon that resist each other's attacks; additionally, Tapu Bulu's Grassy Terrain lets Camerupt turn its Nature Power into an obscenely strong Energy Ball to break through bulky Water-types.

We can then complete the Fire/Grass pairing with another strong attacker, Araquanid. It acts as a physical TR sweeper to complement Camerupt's special attacks, and also provides Wide Guard to help protect Camerupt and Stakataka from spread attacks like Earthquake and Muddy Water.

Next, moving on to a couple of your sets:

Tapu Bulu: Sitrus Berry -> Grassium Z
Tapu Bulu is naturally an offensive powerhouse, so using a Sitrus Berry on it is kind of a waste of this power. On the other hand, a Grassium Z or Miracle Seed would be much more effective at letting Tapu Bulu take advantage of its high Attack stat and Grassy Terrain. Notably, if you use the Miracle Seed for Tapu Bulu, you can give the Waterium Z to Araquanid.

Hariyama: Sheer Force -> Guts / Thick Fat, Fire Punch -> Close Combat
There's two things I wanted to change here. Firstly, Sheer Force negates secondary effects, which might seem fine for Poison Jab, Fire Punch, and Ice Punch, but it also unfortunately negates the flinch effect of Fake Out, since it counts as a secondary effect (with a 100% chance, of course). You could change this to Thick Fat, but I think you could also try an offensive set with Guts + Flame Orb; the choice is up to you. Secondly, a Hariyama without STAB is just... weird. Fighting, as I mentioned earlier, is definitely a rare offensive typing, but it's also a very good offensive typing when you have it.

Your response is so organized! Mine is usually just a pile of words! Your insight is amazing! Very cool!

 

[SlickL7690]

I agree with Level 51 and his analysis of the team. I just have a couple of suggestions. Weakness Policy could be run on Hariyama given you think it can tank a hit or two, but honestly idk. Tapu Lele scares me early game for Psychium Z against Hariyama especially. Make sure Tapu Lele always gets taken down. A taunt could prove lethal, especially since Mega-Gengar is a really fast user of it and Fake Out doesn't touch it. Mega-Gengar also prevents pivoting your Pokemon in and out. Overall really good.