Introduction
Hello all it's Usatoday here again, and I'm here with a new team that I have been working on for a couple months now. The team focuses around the idea of trick room in the ubers tier which is something I had recalled reading about in a thread a while back where people generally agreed that trick room was very nearly incompatible with today's ubers metagame. I then molded in a bit of weather to make the team able to handle opposing weather teams and decided to use sand as it is the least three used of the three viable weathers. So I decided to try it, the initial team was a little rough in form and not very good. However as the team progressed it started to be more anti meta in my opinion which allowed me to get many surprise kills upon my opponent. The team at it's highest level peaked around 1400 on pokemon online with my alt of the white witch. Then I moved to pokemon showdown and did a little better than 1950 with the team and went back down after losing to double team lugia >_<
Team Preview
Brief Team Building Process
I started with a pokemon I had found in the dark horse challenge and it seemed that most people thought it was quite useless so I decided to see for myself and give reuniclus a go, hence reuniclus is extremely slow so it dies to just about any hard hitting move in the ubers metagame such as water spout from scarfogre and draco meteors from latios.
Since after some looking I found that reuniclus really hated bulky psychic and ghost types, I decided to throw in a dark type. Tyranitar was the perfect fit for this team as it allowed me to pursuit trap both latios, latias, and the more important giratina which walled reuniclus to hell and back. Next up to join the team was a sweeper I could have outside of sand in the form of a bulkier excadrill which quaintly enough provided me with an essential pokemon in todays ubers metagame in the form of a rapid spinner. It also was pretty much an ensured rapid spin with choice banded tyranitar lurking.
Next I wanted a pokemon to check extreme killer arceus with mixed giratina origin, with its dual stab alone it hits half the metagame like a freight train especially with draco meteor. It also provided me with a spin blocker and a good check to groudon which was extremely annoying otherwise especially the paradancing set.
Next off I threw in two other trick room users and a great defensive check to rayquaza who otherwise would have **** upon my team. Arceus water also allowed me to have a nice check to kyogre and a great lure for latias to bait them out as I trick room and then could pursuit trap with tyranitar. Dialga was a bit different as I lacked a stealth rocker, and also lacked a nuke that could take out entire teams if misplayed around. Offensive life orb dialga was amazing to play with in todays metagame between draco meteor, fire blast, and thunder it easily became the mvp.
After some play testing I realized that I needed some hazards, and reuniclus hadn't been pulling its weight 125 base special attack is great but not enough. I had a few choices for suicide leads, any deoxys form or a custap berry forretress. However since I wanted something with bulk and already had a spinner deoxys defense was the best choice for me.
The version of the team today arrived when I noticed that giratina origin wasn't cutting it to check extreme killer arceus. So I decided to forgo arceus water for an arceus fighting it allowed me provide solid damage to extreme killer arceus and still provided a neutral way to damage dragon dance rayquaza. Hence it was dialga's time to part us for a combination of it and arceus water as I used it mainly to check kyogre besides checking rayquaza and palkia was the perfect person for the job quad resisting water attacks and even still could learn trick room.
In Depth Analysis
Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 244 HP / 72 Atk / 192 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
Tyranitar I was hesitant to use in the ubers metagame however it has proven to be my most reliable weather inducer as compared to kyogre or groudon it has the special bulk of a titan and the ability to take on any ho-oh that is lacking earthquake which is extremely rare. Crunch and pursuit go hand in hand with eachother being able to predict my opponent is key when using them. Stone edge is there for a stab move and to hit ho-oh for some awesome damage as well as destroy lugia. Finally there is superpower for coverage options against arceus dark, opposing tyranitar, and ferrothorn.
Deoxys-Defense @ Mental Herb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Magic Coat
- Trick Room
This is a pokemon that took a while to perfect it's moveset on, as they can usually run taunt, night shade, or magic coat with it's dual hazards. Then there is the idea of the item between rocky helemt or some sort of gem. I decided to utilize the ideas of magic coat and mental herb, this is because deoxys defense is the slowest of most all suicide leads beside custap berry forretress or skarmory. Because of this deoxys can utilize priority magic coat to bounce back taunt, spikes, or even stealth rock. Mental herb was chosen as it allowed me to forgoe opposing deoxys forms and use stealth rocks to my hearts content as I could prevent the taunt and then magic coat the second turn. Trick room is probably the least used move on this set however it can provide crux moments as a secondary option on a fast taunter and then stealth rock.
Palkia @ Lustrous Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Spacial Rend
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
Now many of you may doubt the prowess of trick room palkia with its decent 100 speed, however it is incredibly potent on this team and I would not change it in a heart beat. The thing is for many pokemon in ubers unless your a wall, your almost always looking for speed. Trick room allows me to use this to my advantage, we all know how hard palkia hits and how many switches it causes just by the threat of a hydro pump or spacial rend. This is where it comes to perfection because of the switches it will cause a substansial amount of damage from entry hazards that will turn some 2HKO's into OHKO's and allow palkia to outspeed most everything under the sun with a trick room enabled. Spacial rend is there for the secondary stab that will allow us to hit opposing palkia, dialga, and more importantly do huge damage to kyogre that aren't specially defensive. Fire blast is there to nail ferrothorn, forretress, and genesect for an ohko 100% of the time minus a sturdy forretress. Finally there is hydro pump for a main stab move to punish rain teams that win the weather war as it gets the boost from lustrous orb and then rain that will demolish just about any rain team.
Excadrill (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
Now I have found that the key to having a successful trick room team in any tier is having something fast that will absolutely demolish your opponent late game. Excadrill was just the pokemon for me as it allowed me to handle terrakion, and many scarfers such as palkia or genesect. This set is probably the most common for the sand rush variants as it allows it to troll terrakion just outspeeding it by 1 point while the rest is thrown into bulk allowing it to have some great opportunities to set up a swords dance and sweep my opponent flat lategame. Iron head is chosen over rock slide as it has because as opposing to hiting hooh I wanted something to greater damage giratina origin and other levitators such as latias. Earthquake is there mainly for stab and coverage against random things such as arceus fire and water types within the tier. Rapid spin is a godsend to have on excadrill as it allows me to get rid of hazards even if it meant forgoing excadrill dentng a huge portion of his team if the hazards have racked up too much. Because it's a spinner air balloon is optimal on this set over leftovers or life orb as it allows excadrill to temporarily dodge spikes damage as long as it is intact.
Arceus-Fighting @ Fist Plate
Trait: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spd
Bold Nature
- Judgment
- Trick Room
- Recover
- Ice Beam
Arceus fighting is a really underrated arceus form in my opinion. It single handely can check rayquaza, groudon, darkrai, and genesect all of which are pokemon my teams hates to face against especially rayquaza. Arceus is specifically ev'd to outrun adamant rayquaza and kill it if it attempts to swords dance. Dragon dance sets are a little more probablamatic though as they can do solid damage to my extremekiller arceus check so if paired with one and arceus fighting is weakened they have a good chance of getting past me. Judgement should be fairly obvious as it allows arceus fighitng to man handle quite a few threats to this team mainly being darkrai. It also serves as a great lure to bait out latias or mewtwo so that I can double into my tyranitar and kill it off with pursuit or fire off an extremely powerful stone edge. Recover is crucial to this team as it allows me to keep the main backbone to the team healthy and kicking. Ice beam is there specifically to handle some of the dragons that like to come in on arceus mainly being giratina however is also manhandles rayquaza and garchomp ensuring a clean ohko. Trick room is the final slot in arceus's movepool as it allows me to twist my opponent on their backside as they scramble to put together what they once have. This is usually when I can nab a few surprise kills with either tyranitar or giratina while my opponent is caught off guard.
Giratina-Origin @ Griseous Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 136 Atk / 252 SAtk / 120 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk / 2 Spd
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sleep Talk
- Shadow Sneak
Finally we have giratina origin who has been with this team from the beggining and is well worth the spot it holds on this team. It is my best bet for taking on groudon and defensive dragon types in the tier such as latias and normal physically defensive giratina. Giratina also provides a nice form of sleep fodder for the team as you can see it absolutely hates darkrai, in which it's usually lead with tyranitar set up sand sleep fodder giratina origin, and finally double into arceus to dispatch with it. Hidden power fire is there to surprise forretress, ferrothorn, or even a genesect as they switch in expecting to sponge some sort of hit. This works extremely well as they expect me to switch into giratina to spin block and toxic me. The then will generally gyro ball/volt switch enabling me to get solid damage and hopely enough to have hazards deoxys defense laid down earlier to do it's job. Shadow sneak is crucial for the success of this team as it allows me to have a handy way of dealing some solid damage to the latitwins, and mewtwo. I chose draco meteor over dragon pulse or dragon tail because I wanted instant pure power as I normally use giratina origin when there is a little less than 2 turns of trick room left. Finally I guess I should describe what the evs do for me as they might seem weird the 120 special defense allow for giratina to survive both a dragon pulse from soul dew latias and then sand storm at 100%.
Hello all it's Usatoday here again, and I'm here with a new team that I have been working on for a couple months now. The team focuses around the idea of trick room in the ubers tier which is something I had recalled reading about in a thread a while back where people generally agreed that trick room was very nearly incompatible with today's ubers metagame. I then molded in a bit of weather to make the team able to handle opposing weather teams and decided to use sand as it is the least three used of the three viable weathers. So I decided to try it, the initial team was a little rough in form and not very good. However as the team progressed it started to be more anti meta in my opinion which allowed me to get many surprise kills upon my opponent. The team at it's highest level peaked around 1400 on pokemon online with my alt of the white witch. Then I moved to pokemon showdown and did a little better than 1950 with the team and went back down after losing to double team lugia >_<
Team Preview
Brief Team Building Process
I started with a pokemon I had found in the dark horse challenge and it seemed that most people thought it was quite useless so I decided to see for myself and give reuniclus a go, hence reuniclus is extremely slow so it dies to just about any hard hitting move in the ubers metagame such as water spout from scarfogre and draco meteors from latios.
Since after some looking I found that reuniclus really hated bulky psychic and ghost types, I decided to throw in a dark type. Tyranitar was the perfect fit for this team as it allowed me to pursuit trap both latios, latias, and the more important giratina which walled reuniclus to hell and back. Next up to join the team was a sweeper I could have outside of sand in the form of a bulkier excadrill which quaintly enough provided me with an essential pokemon in todays ubers metagame in the form of a rapid spinner. It also was pretty much an ensured rapid spin with choice banded tyranitar lurking.
Next I wanted a pokemon to check extreme killer arceus with mixed giratina origin, with its dual stab alone it hits half the metagame like a freight train especially with draco meteor. It also provided me with a spin blocker and a good check to groudon which was extremely annoying otherwise especially the paradancing set.
Next off I threw in two other trick room users and a great defensive check to rayquaza who otherwise would have **** upon my team. Arceus water also allowed me to have a nice check to kyogre and a great lure for latias to bait them out as I trick room and then could pursuit trap with tyranitar. Dialga was a bit different as I lacked a stealth rocker, and also lacked a nuke that could take out entire teams if misplayed around. Offensive life orb dialga was amazing to play with in todays metagame between draco meteor, fire blast, and thunder it easily became the mvp.
After some play testing I realized that I needed some hazards, and reuniclus hadn't been pulling its weight 125 base special attack is great but not enough. I had a few choices for suicide leads, any deoxys form or a custap berry forretress. However since I wanted something with bulk and already had a spinner deoxys defense was the best choice for me.
The version of the team today arrived when I noticed that giratina origin wasn't cutting it to check extreme killer arceus. So I decided to forgo arceus water for an arceus fighting it allowed me provide solid damage to extreme killer arceus and still provided a neutral way to damage dragon dance rayquaza. Hence it was dialga's time to part us for a combination of it and arceus water as I used it mainly to check kyogre besides checking rayquaza and palkia was the perfect person for the job quad resisting water attacks and even still could learn trick room.
In Depth Analysis
Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 244 HP / 72 Atk / 192 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
Tyranitar I was hesitant to use in the ubers metagame however it has proven to be my most reliable weather inducer as compared to kyogre or groudon it has the special bulk of a titan and the ability to take on any ho-oh that is lacking earthquake which is extremely rare. Crunch and pursuit go hand in hand with eachother being able to predict my opponent is key when using them. Stone edge is there for a stab move and to hit ho-oh for some awesome damage as well as destroy lugia. Finally there is superpower for coverage options against arceus dark, opposing tyranitar, and ferrothorn.
Deoxys-Defense @ Mental Herb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Magic Coat
- Trick Room
This is a pokemon that took a while to perfect it's moveset on, as they can usually run taunt, night shade, or magic coat with it's dual hazards. Then there is the idea of the item between rocky helemt or some sort of gem. I decided to utilize the ideas of magic coat and mental herb, this is because deoxys defense is the slowest of most all suicide leads beside custap berry forretress or skarmory. Because of this deoxys can utilize priority magic coat to bounce back taunt, spikes, or even stealth rock. Mental herb was chosen as it allowed me to forgoe opposing deoxys forms and use stealth rocks to my hearts content as I could prevent the taunt and then magic coat the second turn. Trick room is probably the least used move on this set however it can provide crux moments as a secondary option on a fast taunter and then stealth rock.
Palkia @ Lustrous Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Spacial Rend
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
Now many of you may doubt the prowess of trick room palkia with its decent 100 speed, however it is incredibly potent on this team and I would not change it in a heart beat. The thing is for many pokemon in ubers unless your a wall, your almost always looking for speed. Trick room allows me to use this to my advantage, we all know how hard palkia hits and how many switches it causes just by the threat of a hydro pump or spacial rend. This is where it comes to perfection because of the switches it will cause a substansial amount of damage from entry hazards that will turn some 2HKO's into OHKO's and allow palkia to outspeed most everything under the sun with a trick room enabled. Spacial rend is there for the secondary stab that will allow us to hit opposing palkia, dialga, and more importantly do huge damage to kyogre that aren't specially defensive. Fire blast is there to nail ferrothorn, forretress, and genesect for an ohko 100% of the time minus a sturdy forretress. Finally there is hydro pump for a main stab move to punish rain teams that win the weather war as it gets the boost from lustrous orb and then rain that will demolish just about any rain team.
Excadrill (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
Now I have found that the key to having a successful trick room team in any tier is having something fast that will absolutely demolish your opponent late game. Excadrill was just the pokemon for me as it allowed me to handle terrakion, and many scarfers such as palkia or genesect. This set is probably the most common for the sand rush variants as it allows it to troll terrakion just outspeeding it by 1 point while the rest is thrown into bulk allowing it to have some great opportunities to set up a swords dance and sweep my opponent flat lategame. Iron head is chosen over rock slide as it has because as opposing to hiting hooh I wanted something to greater damage giratina origin and other levitators such as latias. Earthquake is there mainly for stab and coverage against random things such as arceus fire and water types within the tier. Rapid spin is a godsend to have on excadrill as it allows me to get rid of hazards even if it meant forgoing excadrill dentng a huge portion of his team if the hazards have racked up too much. Because it's a spinner air balloon is optimal on this set over leftovers or life orb as it allows excadrill to temporarily dodge spikes damage as long as it is intact.
Arceus-Fighting @ Fist Plate
Trait: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spd
Bold Nature
- Judgment
- Trick Room
- Recover
- Ice Beam
Arceus fighting is a really underrated arceus form in my opinion. It single handely can check rayquaza, groudon, darkrai, and genesect all of which are pokemon my teams hates to face against especially rayquaza. Arceus is specifically ev'd to outrun adamant rayquaza and kill it if it attempts to swords dance. Dragon dance sets are a little more probablamatic though as they can do solid damage to my extremekiller arceus check so if paired with one and arceus fighting is weakened they have a good chance of getting past me. Judgement should be fairly obvious as it allows arceus fighitng to man handle quite a few threats to this team mainly being darkrai. It also serves as a great lure to bait out latias or mewtwo so that I can double into my tyranitar and kill it off with pursuit or fire off an extremely powerful stone edge. Recover is crucial to this team as it allows me to keep the main backbone to the team healthy and kicking. Ice beam is there specifically to handle some of the dragons that like to come in on arceus mainly being giratina however is also manhandles rayquaza and garchomp ensuring a clean ohko. Trick room is the final slot in arceus's movepool as it allows me to twist my opponent on their backside as they scramble to put together what they once have. This is usually when I can nab a few surprise kills with either tyranitar or giratina while my opponent is caught off guard.
Giratina-Origin @ Griseous Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 136 Atk / 252 SAtk / 120 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk / 2 Spd
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sleep Talk
- Shadow Sneak
Finally we have giratina origin who has been with this team from the beggining and is well worth the spot it holds on this team. It is my best bet for taking on groudon and defensive dragon types in the tier such as latias and normal physically defensive giratina. Giratina also provides a nice form of sleep fodder for the team as you can see it absolutely hates darkrai, in which it's usually lead with tyranitar set up sand sleep fodder giratina origin, and finally double into arceus to dispatch with it. Hidden power fire is there to surprise forretress, ferrothorn, or even a genesect as they switch in expecting to sponge some sort of hit. This works extremely well as they expect me to switch into giratina to spin block and toxic me. The then will generally gyro ball/volt switch enabling me to get solid damage and hopely enough to have hazards deoxys defense laid down earlier to do it's job. Shadow sneak is crucial for the success of this team as it allows me to have a handy way of dealing some solid damage to the latitwins, and mewtwo. I chose draco meteor over dragon pulse or dragon tail because I wanted instant pure power as I normally use giratina origin when there is a little less than 2 turns of trick room left. Finally I guess I should describe what the evs do for me as they might seem weird the 120 special defense allow for giratina to survive both a dragon pulse from soul dew latias and then sand storm at 100%.
