XY RU punching in a dream

[ryan]

​

introduction
I don't even play this tier, but RU has the coolest Trick Room Pokemon. Here's a Trick Room team.

the team
It has a Bronzong, a Reuniclus, a Pangoro, a Slowking, an Escavalier, and a Cofagrigus. That's why I put their sprites up there.

bronzong @ macho brace | levitate
252 hp / 232 atk / 24 spdef | brave
stealth rock / gyro ball / trick room / explosion

Bronzong is a cool lead Trick Room setter. It's the only dedicated setter that doesn't utilize Trick Room well, but it can still hit stuff hard with Macho Brace Gyro Ball. Over Leftovers or Normal Gem, I'm using Macho Brace to lower Bronzong's Speed, increasing the power of its Gyro Ball. I believe Iron Ball lowers its Speed even more, but it does so at the cost of Bronzong's Ground immunity, which really isn't worth it. You could actually use Mental Herb instead of Macho Brace, but if you were going to do that, you'd have to choose between setting Stealth Rock and not Trick Room or setting up both, starting with Trick Room, and losing an extra turn to set up Stealth Rock, which really isn't worth it. Explosion does pretty good damage to most neutral targets, but it's mostly used to sacrifice Bronzong and start terrorizing the opponent's team with the rest of the team.

I highly recommend not using a defensive Bronzong spread. The whole purpose of this team is bulky offense that has a good matchup against every playstyle. Against offensive teams, you set up Trick Room as much as possible with your bulky setters and start beating at the opposing team, which against defensive teams, the focus should be on breaking down the opponent's team with powerful attackers in order to clean up later on. If you use a defensive Bronzong, you barely improve your matchup against offense at the cost of a considerably weaker Explosion against defensive teams.

reuniclus @ life orb | magic guard
172 hp / 84 def / 252 spa | quiet
psychic / trick room / shadow ball / focus blast

Reuniclus is the very obvious go-to Trick Room attacker in RU, and its drop down this far is what convinced me to build this team back when RU was first introduced. I've always really liked Trick Room as a strategy, but it's commonly inconsistent and just generally pretty bad. But when you have access to three of the best offensive Trick Room setters in the game, this problem is heavily alleviated. Everything on this set is really standard. Shadow Ball is very unfortunately necessary for both Assault Vest Slowking and Doublade, while Focus Blast hits most Steel-types hard, barring Assault Vest Escavalier. Life Orb hits hard, and Magic Guard negates its recoil. I honestly don't know what the EVs do anymore because I built this team back in RU Beta, but I do know that it helps Reuniclus tank Shadow Sneaks and Sucker Punches a little bit better, so it must be alright!

pangoro @ life orb | iron fist
252 hp / 252 atk / 4 spdef | brave
hammer arm / crunch / poison jab / parting shot

I actually built this team using part of a UU Trick Room team that was pretty similar in composition to the final version of this one. I honestly did not expect Reuniclus or Cofagrigus to drop to RU, so once they did, I was pretty stoked to build this team. I'm telling you this really boring story to introduce Pangoro because it was actually on my original UU team. Pangoro is used here over other bulky and powerful Pokemon because it offers crucial resistances to my team. Not much resists Dark, and even fewer Pokemon resist Ghost. Pangoro resists both, and it does so with pretty low Speed and the ability to lower its Speed even further with Hammer Arm, which is really, really strong with the Iron Fist boost. The rest of the set is standard fare—Poison Jab hits Aromatisse and other Fairy-types, while Crunch offers secondary STAB. Parting Shot is a sick move, and it works exceedingly well under Trick Room. The most common method of beating dedicated Trick Room teams is to switch around and waste turns until Trick Room runs out, and if the opponent has something like a Gligar that can easily switch into any move you have, you just click Parting Shot and keep up momentum.

Life Orb is used over Choice Band because of the same reason I just mentioned: giving up free turns while Trick Room is up leads to losing the game. Life Orb recoil kind of sucks, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks in this situation. Fist Plate and Expert Belt aren't really strong enough to justify using, and to be honest, a lot of the time, Pangoro switches into Knock Off. I can't see anything else fitting on this set or teamslot because Pangoro's role on the team is really necessary.

slowking @ leftovers | regenerator
236 hp / 228 spa / 44 spdef | quiet
surf / fire blast / psyshock / trick room

Slowking was another auto-include Pokemon for an RU Trick Room team. Its combination of bulk, power, survivability, and coverage is simply incomparable. Furthermore, Slowking is my only real check to Moltres, which would otherwise probably knock out two or three of my Pokemon before it missed a Hurricane or Fire Blast, and with my luck, relying on the miss is a really poor strategy. You still have to play around Moltres a bit because it does lots of damage to Slowking with Hurricane, but you'll usually be fine against it, especially if you manage to keep up Stealth Rock or even just Trick Room. Surf is Slowking's strongest Water STAB, and even though Scald burns are really nice, hitting Moltres as hard as possible is more important. Fire Blast does a ton of damage to Assault Vest Escavalier, which is another big threat to my team because of its ability to take on a lot of my team on its own. Psyshock hits specially defensive Pokemon, particularly Amoonguss, harder than anything else I could carry in this slot, and again, if you can avoid giving up free turns under Trick Room, you should. The only other thing that might sound good on Slowking is Grass Knot to hit opposing Slowking, but as most of them are Assault Vest, Grass Knot does shit to them anyways. I also don't remember what these EVs do, but they look cooler than 252 / 252.

escavalier @ choice band | overcoat
252 hp / 252 atk / 4 def | brave
megahorn / iron head / drill run / knock off

Escavalier was another reason why I wanted to build this team. Choice Band Escavalier hits absurdly hard, and this gen, it doesn't even have to run Sleep Talk because it has other moves to choose and Overcoat. Escavalier is one of only two Pokemon on my team that doesn't set Trick Room, and I credit that to the success of the team. The more options you have to set up Trick Room, the easier it is to set up. Still, having Pokemon to utilize Trick Room without setting it is important because you need really strong Pokemon to break through specially defensive Pokemon. Megahorn and Iron Head are both STABs, while Drill Run covers Steel-types and Fire-types other than Moltres. Knock Off is a reliable way to hit bulky Psychic-types and is the only way to threaten Moltres.

cofagrigus @ leftovers | mummy
252 hp / 252 spa / 4 spdef | quiet
shadow ball / trick room / hidden power fighting / nasty plot

Cofagrigus is another one of those Pokemon that you just put on a Trick Room team without even thinking about it. This is also another way for me to break through defensive teams in case the sheer power of the rest of my team is simply not enough. Again, there's not much to say about Cofagrigus because it is the epitome of a Trick Room setter: amazing bulk, good coverage, solid power, and horrible Speed. I know that some people use this set with Will-O-Wisp over Hidden Power Fighting, and that's a fine choice for your average team. But being able to hit Dark-types which are pretty threatening for my team is much more important. Plus, this is a tier where Meloetta is a top tier threat, and even if Hidden Power Fighting doesn't do a ton to it, it gives you a way to hit it (and break the Substitutes of SubCM sets). Everything else is self-explanatory.

conclusion
This is my Trick Room team.

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rnc (Reuniclus) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 172 HP / 84 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room

cfg (Cofagrigus) @ Leftovers
Ability: Mummy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Trick Room
- Nasty Plot

slw (Slowking) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 236 HP / 228 SpA / 44 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Fire Blast

scv (Escavalier) @ Choice Band
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Drill Run
- Knock Off

brz (Bronzong) @ Macho Brace
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Atk / 24 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion

png (Pangoro) @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Hammer Arm
- Crunch
- Parting Shot
- Poison Jab