I've been playing RU since the tier was made, and quickly realised that the tier was going to be quite centralised at first. So I decided to design a team that tried to decentralise as much as possible, and invariably that involved using Trick Room. Trick Room not only lets me make the most of some really underrated and awesome threats, but it also renders things like Speed Boost Yanmega and Sharpedo useless against certain members of the team, making revenging much, much easier. So without any more stalling, here's the team at a glance!
Speed of Light? Not Quite!
This team involves a lot of fun threats, it'll be sad to see Rhyperior leave the tier but I've used Armaldo to fill his shoes somewhat well before so that shouldn't be too bad. I'm aware this team probably isn't the most competitive, but it's won me a lot of games via its cheap tricks, so I thought it was worth posting about. Anyways, onwards to the deep analysis!
Smeargle (lv2) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 SpD
Awesome Nature
- Trick Room
- Spore
- Endeavor
- Dragon Rage
Okay, I'm going to have to justify a lot with this set. First of all, this is a dedicated lead, although if the opponent doesn't get hazards up (or if Trick Room is active) I can use it in other situations. Against straight up attacking leads, Smeargle can survive everything with his Focus Sash and set up Trick Room. From here, he outspeeds everything being at lv2 (and thus having 8 Spe) and can thus throw out a free Spore, putting the attacker to Sleep instantly. Next turn he Endeavors, reducing the opponent to 14 HP at most, and then he can use Dragon Rage to finish the job (even if the opponent has Leftovers, only stuff like Alomomola and Wailord can get more than 40HP from Leftovers + 14) This gives him a spare turn if Trick Room left, where he can either Spore something else or Endeavor to cripple another pokemon. Using this strategy, Smeargle can more or less guarantee a kill or guarantee crippling two pokemon, and he often achieves more since people aren't prepared for him.
The reason he's lv2 instead of lv1 is that he outspeeds all conventional lv1 smeargles, letting me Spore them with impunity and then switching into Rhyperior to Rock Blast him into hell. The SpD EVs make my SpD stat higher than my Def stat, giving PorygonZ the "wrong" Download boost should it switch in at an advantageous moment, letting it be walled by Lampent / Lanturn. And the nature doesn't make any difference. :P
The main threats to Smeargle are Fake Out users, Ghost types and pokemon using multi hit moves, but all of them are dealt with decently by the rest of the team.
Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA (0 Spe IVs)
Quiet Nature
- Trick Room
- Nasty Plot
- Surf
- Psyshock
This thing is amazing, or at least it would be were it not weak to all the tier's biggest threats. Nevertheless, Slowking is a respectable sweeper in his own right. Many opponents try to Toxic or Thunder Wave him, thinking he's a bulky supporter. Yeah... no. Once Slowking gets a few Nasty Plots up, he can use Trick Room and go on a sweeping rampage for five turns (or alternatively just set it up for teammates should the time call for it) Surf hits physically defense pokemon, Psyshock hits specially defensive pokemon, there's generally just no stopping him until he's either Toxic'd to death or Trick Room runs out. He can also help sponge Water attacks aimed at Rhyperior. Even without a fully defensive spread, Slowking is still a bulky son-of-a-bitch and has occasionally tanked super effective special STAB attacks and proceeded to sweep. I tried Calm Mind for a while to help boost his SpD as well, but Nasty Plot synergised better with Trick Room and left him less vulnerable to Toxic (since he doesn't spend so long setting up) Plus, with Trick Room up he just doesn't get hit because he's constantly killing everything. :P
The main check to this is probably Tangela, the only real casualty of using Psyshock over Psychic, but he gets owned by Bouffalant and to an extent Lampent, so that's fine.
Lampent @ Eviolite
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 92 Def / 168 SpD (0 Spe IVs)
Sassy Nature
- Trick Room
- Will o Wisp
- Flamethrower
- Pain Split
After trying Ghosts like Cofagrigus, Dusknoir, Frillish and Misdreavus I eventually settled on Lampent, since he provides a lot of useful things to the team. Not only is he a respectable tank (323 / 270 / 325 defenses ain't bad, almost as good as specially defensive Cofagrigus) he also has surprisingly good offense, with a nice base 95 STAB Flamethrower. He helps check Yanmega; even Specs Tinted Lens Bug Buzz isn't a 3HKO and Air Slash isn't a 2HKO. Meanwhile, Lampent can set up Trick Room, and proceed to OHKO him with Flamethrower, guaranteed. He also checks Entei, being able to switch into anything other than Stone Edge with ease (hell, even Adamant CB Stone Edge doesn't OHKO) and set up Trick Room whilst he switches. If he doesn't switch, he gets a face full of Rhyperior. With a Flash Fire boost, Flamethrower deals some really good damage, but I'm considering changing Flash Fire for Flame Body and using Shadow Ball over Will o Wisp (and maybe using a Quiet nature) so I can deal more directly with Ghost types, who are probably this team's biggest problem. Pain Split gives him some Recovery, especially against stuff like Munchlax which thinks it can Rock Slide him. Will o Wisp also lets me deal with physical attackers and hassle switchins in general (especially with Trick Room letting me outspeed the majority), and has so far proved useful, but I'm considering switching it for Shadow Ball.
Lampent generally has trouble dealing with Water types like Blastoise, although usually he can just setup Trick Room when they come in, and then I can just switch to Slowbro. Crawdaunt and Sharpedo be damned!
Rhyperior @ Life Orb
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 SpD (0 Spe IVs)
Brave Nature
- Substitute
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Megahorn
Rhyperior is an absolute boss, and I'll sorely miss him when he comes out of the tier. Trick Room lets him smash the hell out of everything with his crazy powerful attacks and excellent coverage. And when it's about to end, I can set up a Sub and continue. >:) The HP EVs give him 404 HP (and thus 101HP Subs, which is nice) and the rest is poured into SpD to help him take Hidden Power Fighting from various Ghosts. Rock Blast is used to destroy Substitute users, whilst Earthquake is the generally more and powerful reliable STAB. Megahorn lets me cripple Grass types and Slowking that try and switch in on me. Not too much more to say about this guy, you all know how awesome Rhyperior is already. :)
The Water types that can give him trouble are dealt with by Lanturn and Slowking, whilst Grass types are setup fodder for Bouffalant (or just straight-up fodder for Lampent). Gallade, the only Fighting type commonly seen gets massacred by Earthquake and Lampent.
Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 52 HP / 252 SpA / 204 SpD (0 Spe IVs)
Quiet Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Heal Bell
The first "glue" member of the team, Lanturn covers my weakness to Electric attacks and is great at walling special attackers in general. Not only does it provide a good special tank to synergise with Rhyperior, not only does it have beautiful coverage and good enough attacking power, it also has Heal Bell! My team's pretty weak to status at the moment, with everything being so slow and lacking Taunt, so I thought a cleric was necessary. Heal Bell is helpful since he tends to attract Poison like a... I don't know how to end that, but Heal Bell is really helpful and my main reason for using Lanturn over other special attackers. I've debated running Licklicky in this guy's slot since he has better bulk and helps me deal with Ghosts, but at the moment I'm prefering Lanturn's better offense and typing. I'm also seriously considering running Lapras in its place, but I'll have to test Lapras more before I come to a conclusion. Not sure if the Electric STAB and immunity is worth choosing over Lapras' better stats. Either way, Lanturn has been useful so far as a general stabilising influence, and a surprisingly good attacker.
Ground attacks aren't easily dealt with by this team, which is one of the reason's I'm considering Lapras instead. Grass types are just eaten up by Bouffalant and Lampent.
Bouffalant @ Life Orb
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD (0 Spe IVs)
Brave Nature
- Head Charge
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Megahorn
OHGODTHISGUYISSOAWESOME. Absolutely love using him as a Trick Room wallbreaker, he patches up my Grass weakness (and eats up Sleep Powders and Leech Seeds in general, which is AWESOME) and proceeds to sweep or wallbreak from there. With a boost he has 525 Atk, and that's not including the Life Orb boost. He can just flat out maul things with Head Charge, wreck Rock and Steel types with Earthquake, destroy Bug types with Rock Slide and own Tangela with Megahorn (if it doesn't miss :/) If Trick Room's up, he outspeeds everything and can often get 2-3 kills depending on how many turns are left. Even when it runs out, he's bulky enough to take almost any neutral hit and deal more massive damage in his final fight. Not much more to be said about him, it's a pretty standard set. I'm slightly concerned that his role overlaps too much with Rhyperior since they run three of the same move types, but Sap Sipper is too awesome to pass up and tbh they're his best attacking options. Plus, he's immune to Ghost typed attacks and if Trick Room's up he can get a solid hit with Earthquake before they can burn him (and afterwards, Lanturn can just heal the burn)
Fighting weakness and lack of resistances is a bummer, but Bouffalant has good bulk anyways and Gallade's pretty much the only Fighting type.
So there you have it! My fun little Trick Room experiment. Hope you enjoyed reading this. Here's a list of things I'm planning on testing out.
Speed of Light? Not Quite!
This team involves a lot of fun threats, it'll be sad to see Rhyperior leave the tier but I've used Armaldo to fill his shoes somewhat well before so that shouldn't be too bad. I'm aware this team probably isn't the most competitive, but it's won me a lot of games via its cheap tricks, so I thought it was worth posting about. Anyways, onwards to the deep analysis!
Smeargle (lv2) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 SpD
Awesome Nature
- Trick Room
- Spore
- Endeavor
- Dragon Rage
Okay, I'm going to have to justify a lot with this set. First of all, this is a dedicated lead, although if the opponent doesn't get hazards up (or if Trick Room is active) I can use it in other situations. Against straight up attacking leads, Smeargle can survive everything with his Focus Sash and set up Trick Room. From here, he outspeeds everything being at lv2 (and thus having 8 Spe) and can thus throw out a free Spore, putting the attacker to Sleep instantly. Next turn he Endeavors, reducing the opponent to 14 HP at most, and then he can use Dragon Rage to finish the job (even if the opponent has Leftovers, only stuff like Alomomola and Wailord can get more than 40HP from Leftovers + 14) This gives him a spare turn if Trick Room left, where he can either Spore something else or Endeavor to cripple another pokemon. Using this strategy, Smeargle can more or less guarantee a kill or guarantee crippling two pokemon, and he often achieves more since people aren't prepared for him.
The reason he's lv2 instead of lv1 is that he outspeeds all conventional lv1 smeargles, letting me Spore them with impunity and then switching into Rhyperior to Rock Blast him into hell. The SpD EVs make my SpD stat higher than my Def stat, giving PorygonZ the "wrong" Download boost should it switch in at an advantageous moment, letting it be walled by Lampent / Lanturn. And the nature doesn't make any difference. :P
The main threats to Smeargle are Fake Out users, Ghost types and pokemon using multi hit moves, but all of them are dealt with decently by the rest of the team.
Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA (0 Spe IVs)
Quiet Nature
- Trick Room
- Nasty Plot
- Surf
- Psyshock
This thing is amazing, or at least it would be were it not weak to all the tier's biggest threats. Nevertheless, Slowking is a respectable sweeper in his own right. Many opponents try to Toxic or Thunder Wave him, thinking he's a bulky supporter. Yeah... no. Once Slowking gets a few Nasty Plots up, he can use Trick Room and go on a sweeping rampage for five turns (or alternatively just set it up for teammates should the time call for it) Surf hits physically defense pokemon, Psyshock hits specially defensive pokemon, there's generally just no stopping him until he's either Toxic'd to death or Trick Room runs out. He can also help sponge Water attacks aimed at Rhyperior. Even without a fully defensive spread, Slowking is still a bulky son-of-a-bitch and has occasionally tanked super effective special STAB attacks and proceeded to sweep. I tried Calm Mind for a while to help boost his SpD as well, but Nasty Plot synergised better with Trick Room and left him less vulnerable to Toxic (since he doesn't spend so long setting up) Plus, with Trick Room up he just doesn't get hit because he's constantly killing everything. :P
The main check to this is probably Tangela, the only real casualty of using Psyshock over Psychic, but he gets owned by Bouffalant and to an extent Lampent, so that's fine.
Lampent @ Eviolite
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 92 Def / 168 SpD (0 Spe IVs)
Sassy Nature
- Trick Room
- Will o Wisp
- Flamethrower
- Pain Split
After trying Ghosts like Cofagrigus, Dusknoir, Frillish and Misdreavus I eventually settled on Lampent, since he provides a lot of useful things to the team. Not only is he a respectable tank (323 / 270 / 325 defenses ain't bad, almost as good as specially defensive Cofagrigus) he also has surprisingly good offense, with a nice base 95 STAB Flamethrower. He helps check Yanmega; even Specs Tinted Lens Bug Buzz isn't a 3HKO and Air Slash isn't a 2HKO. Meanwhile, Lampent can set up Trick Room, and proceed to OHKO him with Flamethrower, guaranteed. He also checks Entei, being able to switch into anything other than Stone Edge with ease (hell, even Adamant CB Stone Edge doesn't OHKO) and set up Trick Room whilst he switches. If he doesn't switch, he gets a face full of Rhyperior. With a Flash Fire boost, Flamethrower deals some really good damage, but I'm considering changing Flash Fire for Flame Body and using Shadow Ball over Will o Wisp (and maybe using a Quiet nature) so I can deal more directly with Ghost types, who are probably this team's biggest problem. Pain Split gives him some Recovery, especially against stuff like Munchlax which thinks it can Rock Slide him. Will o Wisp also lets me deal with physical attackers and hassle switchins in general (especially with Trick Room letting me outspeed the majority), and has so far proved useful, but I'm considering switching it for Shadow Ball.
Lampent generally has trouble dealing with Water types like Blastoise, although usually he can just setup Trick Room when they come in, and then I can just switch to Slowbro. Crawdaunt and Sharpedo be damned!
Rhyperior @ Life Orb
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 SpD (0 Spe IVs)
Brave Nature
- Substitute
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Megahorn
Rhyperior is an absolute boss, and I'll sorely miss him when he comes out of the tier. Trick Room lets him smash the hell out of everything with his crazy powerful attacks and excellent coverage. And when it's about to end, I can set up a Sub and continue. >:) The HP EVs give him 404 HP (and thus 101HP Subs, which is nice) and the rest is poured into SpD to help him take Hidden Power Fighting from various Ghosts. Rock Blast is used to destroy Substitute users, whilst Earthquake is the generally more and powerful reliable STAB. Megahorn lets me cripple Grass types and Slowking that try and switch in on me. Not too much more to say about this guy, you all know how awesome Rhyperior is already. :)
The Water types that can give him trouble are dealt with by Lanturn and Slowking, whilst Grass types are setup fodder for Bouffalant (or just straight-up fodder for Lampent). Gallade, the only Fighting type commonly seen gets massacred by Earthquake and Lampent.
Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 52 HP / 252 SpA / 204 SpD (0 Spe IVs)
Quiet Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Heal Bell
The first "glue" member of the team, Lanturn covers my weakness to Electric attacks and is great at walling special attackers in general. Not only does it provide a good special tank to synergise with Rhyperior, not only does it have beautiful coverage and good enough attacking power, it also has Heal Bell! My team's pretty weak to status at the moment, with everything being so slow and lacking Taunt, so I thought a cleric was necessary. Heal Bell is helpful since he tends to attract Poison like a... I don't know how to end that, but Heal Bell is really helpful and my main reason for using Lanturn over other special attackers. I've debated running Licklicky in this guy's slot since he has better bulk and helps me deal with Ghosts, but at the moment I'm prefering Lanturn's better offense and typing. I'm also seriously considering running Lapras in its place, but I'll have to test Lapras more before I come to a conclusion. Not sure if the Electric STAB and immunity is worth choosing over Lapras' better stats. Either way, Lanturn has been useful so far as a general stabilising influence, and a surprisingly good attacker.
Ground attacks aren't easily dealt with by this team, which is one of the reason's I'm considering Lapras instead. Grass types are just eaten up by Bouffalant and Lampent.
Bouffalant @ Life Orb
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD (0 Spe IVs)
Brave Nature
- Head Charge
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Megahorn
OHGODTHISGUYISSOAWESOME. Absolutely love using him as a Trick Room wallbreaker, he patches up my Grass weakness (and eats up Sleep Powders and Leech Seeds in general, which is AWESOME) and proceeds to sweep or wallbreak from there. With a boost he has 525 Atk, and that's not including the Life Orb boost. He can just flat out maul things with Head Charge, wreck Rock and Steel types with Earthquake, destroy Bug types with Rock Slide and own Tangela with Megahorn (if it doesn't miss :/) If Trick Room's up, he outspeeds everything and can often get 2-3 kills depending on how many turns are left. Even when it runs out, he's bulky enough to take almost any neutral hit and deal more massive damage in his final fight. Not much more to be said about him, it's a pretty standard set. I'm slightly concerned that his role overlaps too much with Rhyperior since they run three of the same move types, but Sap Sipper is too awesome to pass up and tbh they're his best attacking options. Plus, he's immune to Ghost typed attacks and if Trick Room's up he can get a solid hit with Earthquake before they can burn him (and afterwards, Lanturn can just heal the burn)
Fighting weakness and lack of resistances is a bummer, but Bouffalant has good bulk anyways and Gallade's pretty much the only Fighting type.
So there you have it! My fun little Trick Room experiment. Hope you enjoyed reading this. Here's a list of things I'm planning on testing out.
- Running Misdreavus over Lampent. With Power Gem it can still OHKO Yanmega with slight investment (and subsequently 2HKO Subroost Moltres), and it has superior bulk and no weakness to Stealth Rock. Plus Trick Room + Destiny Bond is awesome, and the main thing I regret not having on Lampent. My only real quarrel with Misdreavus is that the thing's too fast, and I'd hate to Trick Room only to be outsped and killed by Rhyperior as I try and burn it. :/
- Running a more aggressive Lampent set if Misdreavus doesn't pan out. Might as well make the most of that base 95 SpA and dual STAB. Just not sure if Flame Body will be consistent enough to deter physical attackers like Will o Wisp, or whether I'll be able to deal with Entei's CB Flare Blitzes.
- Running Lapras over Lanturn. Honestly this is just me forgetting about Lapras until this very moment, apart from Lanturn's electric typing and immunity Lapras seems to be superior in every way...
- Running a different physical attacker instead of Rhyperior. He's great, but sadly he's got to go at some point, and tbh he does kind of overlap with Bouffalant. I've used Armaldo as my back up plan to some success, but he's just not quite as good (although Rapid Spin is nice) I'd like to keep Rock Blast on the team somewhere so that I can reliably deal with Substitute users but I'm open to change. I might just have to run Taunt on something instead. :P
