Hello!
Most of my experience on Showdown lies in OU, the bread and butter tier. What I like doing there is trying out different kinds of offensive teams. Bog standard offense, Sand offense, Rain offense...
And then I looked at Trick Room.
OU is harsh on Trick Room, most of the cool setters shine in lower tiers. When I then saw Reuniclus, the game's most notorious self-supporting Trick Room sweeper, found himself in the S-rank of the UU viability rankings, I decided an UU Trick Room team is what I wanted to go for.
Click below and you'll see how this team was formed.
Trick Room, combined with a Life Orb boost yet no residual damage thanks to Magic Guard, is to be the sweeper of the team. Often when building an offensive team, I let myself be inspired by this link, and with Reuniclus fitting the role of sweeper, I went looking for a lead, 2 breakers, a pivot and a revenge killer. Knowing I was aiming for a dedicated Trick Room team, I knew I needed slow breakers, and ideally, a lead and pivot that could support the team with Trick Room, knowing Reuniclus is an offensive user who is mostly gonna set up Trick Room for himself and not so much for the team.
Mega Abomasnow, the breaker, and Aromatisse, the pivot, quickly found their way to my team. Abomasnow felt like he had such brilliant synergy with Reuniclus, as his low Speed make him shine in Trick Room, AND with his mixed offenses he can lure special walls with Blizzard to then threaten them with physical attacks, and as if that's not enough, the Hail he summons does nothing to Reuniclus. And priority is nice on Trick Room as it will go first regardless of whether Trick Room's active or not.
Aromatisse, then, just offers brilliant support. Really ideally as an offensive player I'd want my pivot to use U-turn or Volt Switch or even Baton Pass, but what Aromatisse has to offer, is Wish, which is a perfectly cool thing to use when pivoting. He also has a great Speed stat for Trick Room, as well as a Dark resistance that's rare among Trick Room setters. And immunity to Taunt!
I wanted a lead that could lay down Stealth Rock AND get the Trick Room going. The list of candidates was short. Bronzong obviously has the downside that he shares weaknesses with Reuniclus, but, you know, that's what teammates are for. Bronzong can even get some momentum going with Explosion!
There, Exploud, second breaker, that's gonna ease the pain of the shared Ghost type weakness of Bronzong and Reuniclus. Good Speed stat for Trick Room and his Boomburst hits LOADS of Pokemon in the tier like a truck, including most Ghost types, which makes him a useful Pokemon for softening up opponents before a Reuniclus sweep.
Entei, the revenge killer! For a number of reasons. Without him, the team was having mild weaknesses against Bug, Steel and Fire, types resisted by Entei, meaning I now have resistances against all types. More importantly, Extreme Speed. Using a Choice Scarf (or outright fast Pokemon) for your revenge killing needs is a gamble with Trick Room. But Extreme Speed doesn't care about the status of Trick Room, so that's cool. Also has good synergy with Mega Abomasnow.
And now a little more on the individual Pokemon.
Bronzong @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
The lead
Can be used as a suicide lead, that will almost always be able to use Stealth Rock thanks to Mental Herb and great bulk, to then hopefully use Trick Room, to then hopefully Explode for momentum. Can ALSO be preserved for later, which is sometimes wise, as he is my sole Rock resist in a team that has 2 Pokemon weak to Rock. Gyro Ball hits Rock types (and many other Pokemon) hard and is a huge asset against certain threats. Team Preview is my friend here, helping me decide to go suicide or not. Given the fact Bronzong has some exploitable weaknesses (combined with the fact I sometimes really want to preserve him), he can be a liability if my opponents leads with, say, Darmanitan, and also has an Aerodactyl. It will go without saying that most of my Pokemon have minimal Speed.
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 8 HP / 248 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Blizzard
- Wood Hammer
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
The first breaker
Ideal Speed for Trick Room, ideal offenses to go mixed. And heck, the fact I am using Trick Room means I can easily sacrifice a stat, Speed, whereas usually sacrificing a stat is troublesome for a mixed attacker. The suggestion of Blizzspam will lure special walls, which can then be threatened with STAB Wood Hammer or Earthquake, which can make Reuniclus's sweep much easier. His ample weaknesses become so much less of an issue when Trick Room's active, too. Ice Shard is lovely, allowing Mega Abomasnow to still hit fast even when those few turns of Trick Room are over.
Exploud @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Boomburst
- Fire Blast
- Surf
- Focus Blast
The second breaker
While reading up on UU while making this team, I saw Exploud had left the UU viability rankings! Some research made me believe the main reason was that he was outclassed by Porygon-Z, an important factor being Porygon-Z's superior Speed. Needless to say, building a Trick Room team, high Speed is not something I value. For my purposes Exploud's stats are much better than Porygon-Z. His Ghost immunity is invaluable with both Bronzong and Reuniclus being important for the team. While I am personally NOT a fan of Choice items, quite often Boomburst is all Exploud will need, and I want it to hit as hard as possible. It hits Ghost-types, which is great, but it even hits a lot of Steel- and Rock-types fairly hard because they tend to be physically defensive. On the other hand, Fire Blast, Surf and Focus Blast offer great coverage against Rock- and Steel-types. Just a great tool to soften up teams, not unlike Abomasnow.
Aromatisse @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wish
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy/Protect
The pivot
As you may or may not have noticed by now, I tend to use Smogon's Strategy Pokedex for my sets. For Aromatisse, I tweaked the defensive UU set to fit in Trick Room. Knowing for sure I wanted Moonblast (to not become setup bait) and Wish (for fancy pivoting), I wasn't, and still am not, 100% sure if I should drop Aromatherapy or Protect to create room for Trick Room. That being said, this odd one has proven to be a great user of Trick Room, ignoring Taunt completely, and spreading Wish support every here and there to let my offensive threats fight on a little longer. I tried both Protect and Aromatherapy, the first helps Aromatisse to survive much longer, the second is a lovely utility move to keep my Pokemon in shape. 99 Special Attack combined with a good STAB attack in Moonblast meant this thing has downed a few Dragon-types and Dark-types all by herself. Which is cool.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
The sweeper
The start of it all. On him, Trick Room basically becomes an overpowered Agility. Psyshock is brilliant as it gives Reuniclus something to do against special walls, whereas Focus Blast and Shadow Ball just give great coverage against loads of things, like Dark-, Steel- and Psychic-types. Thrives in Hail, and thrives with Life Orb, because he receives damage from neither.
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
The revenge killer
A slightly awkward one, but I wanted something that hits fast and hard with or without Trick Room, as I am not always gonna have Trick Room activated. Extreme Speed is what gives me this, and using it on Choice Band Entei gives me a powerful revenge killer that happens to have a typing that patches up some weaknesses the rest of the team has. Luckily, Entei is more than just a user of Extreme Speed, and it has Flare Blitz for (lots of) immediate power, Sacred Fire for less power yet a good burn chance, and Stone Edge to punish incoming users of Flash Fire. All this extra utility is nice, he is my sole Fire resist after all. Entei is the only Pokemon that has not got minimal Speed, to be able to have something to use outside of Trick Room.
Thoughts
-I am a massive fan of grabbing momentum through Volt Switch and U-turn, this team lacks THAT. I even gave myself 2 Choice users, which technically takes away momentum, but Entei and Exploud do make good use of their Choice items.
-I lack hazard removal, something most of my teams do have. Sticky Web, of course, doesn't hurt me at all, whereas damage done by other hazards can be lessened through Wish. Main sweeper Reuniclus is literally entirely unaffected by all hazards.
-I lack direct phazing, but Trick Room (+offensive pressure) is a great way to punish setup sweepers. Same for the priority moves of Entei and Mega Abomasnow.
-Personally, to overcome defensive teams, I always prefer having access to a booster of Attack/Special Attack. I lack that on this team. I hope that I can compensate that by the fact a bunch of my Pokemon pack a massive punch without any boosts.
Perceived problems
-Poor lead match-ups. Seriously, when my opponent threatens me with Fire/Dark/Ghost AND has a Rock-type, I am forced to switch my Bronzong out. Which is annoying, I lack walls that I can easily switch in against strong attacks. I can still always turn to Entei against Fire, Aromatisse against Dark, Exploud against Ghost.
-Strong Fire-types. Like I said, I come from OU. Fire seems to be a more important offensive type in UU than in OU. Entei can take a Fire-type attack, beyond that it becomes more wobbly. Darmanitan and Entei have caused me massive issues at times, Chandelure even more so as his Ghost-type STAB also threatens Bronzong and Reuniclus. For this reason, I have at times considered using Flash Fire Arcanine over Entei. Tell me what you think.
-Opposing Trick Room users. Especially standalone ones. I have faced a non-Trick Room team that happened to have 1 Trick Room Hoopa. He was constantly undoing my Trick Room. So annoying.
Please feel free to add any problems you see and I missed. I fully expect someone more experienced in UU too see things I fail to see.
Most of my experience on Showdown lies in OU, the bread and butter tier. What I like doing there is trying out different kinds of offensive teams. Bog standard offense, Sand offense, Rain offense...
And then I looked at Trick Room.
OU is harsh on Trick Room, most of the cool setters shine in lower tiers. When I then saw Reuniclus, the game's most notorious self-supporting Trick Room sweeper, found himself in the S-rank of the UU viability rankings, I decided an UU Trick Room team is what I wanted to go for.
Click below and you'll see how this team was formed.
Trick Room, combined with a Life Orb boost yet no residual damage thanks to Magic Guard, is to be the sweeper of the team. Often when building an offensive team, I let myself be inspired by this link, and with Reuniclus fitting the role of sweeper, I went looking for a lead, 2 breakers, a pivot and a revenge killer. Knowing I was aiming for a dedicated Trick Room team, I knew I needed slow breakers, and ideally, a lead and pivot that could support the team with Trick Room, knowing Reuniclus is an offensive user who is mostly gonna set up Trick Room for himself and not so much for the team.
Mega Abomasnow, the breaker, and Aromatisse, the pivot, quickly found their way to my team. Abomasnow felt like he had such brilliant synergy with Reuniclus, as his low Speed make him shine in Trick Room, AND with his mixed offenses he can lure special walls with Blizzard to then threaten them with physical attacks, and as if that's not enough, the Hail he summons does nothing to Reuniclus. And priority is nice on Trick Room as it will go first regardless of whether Trick Room's active or not.
Aromatisse, then, just offers brilliant support. Really ideally as an offensive player I'd want my pivot to use U-turn or Volt Switch or even Baton Pass, but what Aromatisse has to offer, is Wish, which is a perfectly cool thing to use when pivoting. He also has a great Speed stat for Trick Room, as well as a Dark resistance that's rare among Trick Room setters. And immunity to Taunt!
I wanted a lead that could lay down Stealth Rock AND get the Trick Room going. The list of candidates was short. Bronzong obviously has the downside that he shares weaknesses with Reuniclus, but, you know, that's what teammates are for. Bronzong can even get some momentum going with Explosion!
There, Exploud, second breaker, that's gonna ease the pain of the shared Ghost type weakness of Bronzong and Reuniclus. Good Speed stat for Trick Room and his Boomburst hits LOADS of Pokemon in the tier like a truck, including most Ghost types, which makes him a useful Pokemon for softening up opponents before a Reuniclus sweep.
Entei, the revenge killer! For a number of reasons. Without him, the team was having mild weaknesses against Bug, Steel and Fire, types resisted by Entei, meaning I now have resistances against all types. More importantly, Extreme Speed. Using a Choice Scarf (or outright fast Pokemon) for your revenge killing needs is a gamble with Trick Room. But Extreme Speed doesn't care about the status of Trick Room, so that's cool. Also has good synergy with Mega Abomasnow.
And now a little more on the individual Pokemon.
Bronzong @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
The lead
Can be used as a suicide lead, that will almost always be able to use Stealth Rock thanks to Mental Herb and great bulk, to then hopefully use Trick Room, to then hopefully Explode for momentum. Can ALSO be preserved for later, which is sometimes wise, as he is my sole Rock resist in a team that has 2 Pokemon weak to Rock. Gyro Ball hits Rock types (and many other Pokemon) hard and is a huge asset against certain threats. Team Preview is my friend here, helping me decide to go suicide or not. Given the fact Bronzong has some exploitable weaknesses (combined with the fact I sometimes really want to preserve him), he can be a liability if my opponents leads with, say, Darmanitan, and also has an Aerodactyl. It will go without saying that most of my Pokemon have minimal Speed.
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 8 HP / 248 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Blizzard
- Wood Hammer
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
The first breaker
Ideal Speed for Trick Room, ideal offenses to go mixed. And heck, the fact I am using Trick Room means I can easily sacrifice a stat, Speed, whereas usually sacrificing a stat is troublesome for a mixed attacker. The suggestion of Blizzspam will lure special walls, which can then be threatened with STAB Wood Hammer or Earthquake, which can make Reuniclus's sweep much easier. His ample weaknesses become so much less of an issue when Trick Room's active, too. Ice Shard is lovely, allowing Mega Abomasnow to still hit fast even when those few turns of Trick Room are over.
Exploud @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Boomburst
- Fire Blast
- Surf
- Focus Blast
The second breaker
While reading up on UU while making this team, I saw Exploud had left the UU viability rankings! Some research made me believe the main reason was that he was outclassed by Porygon-Z, an important factor being Porygon-Z's superior Speed. Needless to say, building a Trick Room team, high Speed is not something I value. For my purposes Exploud's stats are much better than Porygon-Z. His Ghost immunity is invaluable with both Bronzong and Reuniclus being important for the team. While I am personally NOT a fan of Choice items, quite often Boomburst is all Exploud will need, and I want it to hit as hard as possible. It hits Ghost-types, which is great, but it even hits a lot of Steel- and Rock-types fairly hard because they tend to be physically defensive. On the other hand, Fire Blast, Surf and Focus Blast offer great coverage against Rock- and Steel-types. Just a great tool to soften up teams, not unlike Abomasnow.
Aromatisse @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wish
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy/Protect
The pivot
As you may or may not have noticed by now, I tend to use Smogon's Strategy Pokedex for my sets. For Aromatisse, I tweaked the defensive UU set to fit in Trick Room. Knowing for sure I wanted Moonblast (to not become setup bait) and Wish (for fancy pivoting), I wasn't, and still am not, 100% sure if I should drop Aromatherapy or Protect to create room for Trick Room. That being said, this odd one has proven to be a great user of Trick Room, ignoring Taunt completely, and spreading Wish support every here and there to let my offensive threats fight on a little longer. I tried both Protect and Aromatherapy, the first helps Aromatisse to survive much longer, the second is a lovely utility move to keep my Pokemon in shape. 99 Special Attack combined with a good STAB attack in Moonblast meant this thing has downed a few Dragon-types and Dark-types all by herself. Which is cool.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
The sweeper
The start of it all. On him, Trick Room basically becomes an overpowered Agility. Psyshock is brilliant as it gives Reuniclus something to do against special walls, whereas Focus Blast and Shadow Ball just give great coverage against loads of things, like Dark-, Steel- and Psychic-types. Thrives in Hail, and thrives with Life Orb, because he receives damage from neither.
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
The revenge killer
A slightly awkward one, but I wanted something that hits fast and hard with or without Trick Room, as I am not always gonna have Trick Room activated. Extreme Speed is what gives me this, and using it on Choice Band Entei gives me a powerful revenge killer that happens to have a typing that patches up some weaknesses the rest of the team has. Luckily, Entei is more than just a user of Extreme Speed, and it has Flare Blitz for (lots of) immediate power, Sacred Fire for less power yet a good burn chance, and Stone Edge to punish incoming users of Flash Fire. All this extra utility is nice, he is my sole Fire resist after all. Entei is the only Pokemon that has not got minimal Speed, to be able to have something to use outside of Trick Room.
Thoughts
-I am a massive fan of grabbing momentum through Volt Switch and U-turn, this team lacks THAT. I even gave myself 2 Choice users, which technically takes away momentum, but Entei and Exploud do make good use of their Choice items.
-I lack hazard removal, something most of my teams do have. Sticky Web, of course, doesn't hurt me at all, whereas damage done by other hazards can be lessened through Wish. Main sweeper Reuniclus is literally entirely unaffected by all hazards.
-I lack direct phazing, but Trick Room (+offensive pressure) is a great way to punish setup sweepers. Same for the priority moves of Entei and Mega Abomasnow.
-Personally, to overcome defensive teams, I always prefer having access to a booster of Attack/Special Attack. I lack that on this team. I hope that I can compensate that by the fact a bunch of my Pokemon pack a massive punch without any boosts.
Perceived problems
-Poor lead match-ups. Seriously, when my opponent threatens me with Fire/Dark/Ghost AND has a Rock-type, I am forced to switch my Bronzong out. Which is annoying, I lack walls that I can easily switch in against strong attacks. I can still always turn to Entei against Fire, Aromatisse against Dark, Exploud against Ghost.
-Strong Fire-types. Like I said, I come from OU. Fire seems to be a more important offensive type in UU than in OU. Entei can take a Fire-type attack, beyond that it becomes more wobbly. Darmanitan and Entei have caused me massive issues at times, Chandelure even more so as his Ghost-type STAB also threatens Bronzong and Reuniclus. For this reason, I have at times considered using Flash Fire Arcanine over Entei. Tell me what you think.
-Opposing Trick Room users. Especially standalone ones. I have faced a non-Trick Room team that happened to have 1 Trick Room Hoopa. He was constantly undoing my Trick Room. So annoying.
Please feel free to add any problems you see and I missed. I fully expect someone more experienced in UU too see things I fail to see.
Bronzong @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 8 HP / 248 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Blizzard
- Wood Hammer
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
Exploud @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Boomburst
- Fire Blast
- Surf
- Focus Blast
Aromatisse @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wish
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 8 HP / 248 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Blizzard
- Wood Hammer
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
Exploud @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Boomburst
- Fire Blast
- Surf
- Focus Blast
Aromatisse @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wish
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
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