Topic of the Week #12 - Shielding Moves

[Audiosurfer]

Topic of the Week 7

Back from the dead. Now that Gen 6 has started, Topic of the Week is now being resurrected. As for the last Topic of the Week, due to the long duration of time and the range of things posted, I won't be awarding a Best Poster for that topic. Before you bemoan the lost point opportunities, leaderboard points will still be given out. However, due to the unique circumstances, instead of the usual format, 2 points will be awarded to the following users for their discussion over this time period:

Points Breakdown:
+2 - Arcticblast, Audiosurfer, Blankzero, Laga, Lucariojr, noobcubed, Nollan, Pocket, Punchshroom, and Pwnemon

Now that that's out of the way, onto the new Topic of the Week: Pokebank

Due to the fact that Pokebank, a downloadable software that allows you to store Pokemon from ingame onto an online cloud storage space, will not be available until late December, many Pokemon are unavailable in XY until then. This means that many iconic Pokemon from Gen 5 such as Thundurus, Heatran, and Latios will not be in the XY metagame, at least for a time. For this topic, think about the impact it will have on the metagame. Which Pokemon will rise due to less competition? Which Pokemon will fall due to the loss of a niche? Questions like these are things you should be considering as you respond to this topic. Also, when answering, don't forget that this is a discussion project. While sharing your thoughts is great, the importance of providing input on other people's posts can't be stressed enough. No one wants to just read a bunch of mini essays saying the same thing. Good luck :)

 

[Stratos]

pokebank fucks up the meta so much for real. Trick Room, for one, takes a MASSIVE hit, since it loses Jellicent and Cress, its best setters; i wanted to make a tr team but i gave up because who the fuck was i supposed to use. Thundurus being gone is obviously a big deal, as are Heatran and Landorus-I; without the game's best intimidators and prankster twave users, the metagame seems more forgiving. The absence of those last three and Jellicent makes SD Scizor an absolute fucking beast though; nothing can stop it easily. Other steels are worse off because Scizor is so damn good. Some other Pokemon, like Talonflame, are also a lot better off with those guys gone, and new Pokemon have stepped up to try to take their roles like Klefki and Scrafty. Not strictly PokeBank but absolutely essential to the understanding of this meta is the lack of Dragon Gem; that one item singlehandedly made most dragons what they are, and without them (or latios) the presence of dragons in the meta seems to be almost nil. I wonder if they're being underhyped :| I'd say to give the meta more time to develop but we only have a month until PokeBank comes out so we'll see where this ride takes us, I guess.

 

[Arcticblast]

pokebank fucks up the meta so much for real. Trick Room, for one, takes a MASSIVE hit, since it loses Jellicent and Cress, its best setters; i wanted to make a tr team but i gave up because who the fuck was i supposed to use. Thundurus being gone is obviously a big deal, as are Heatran and Landorus-I; without the game's best intimidators and prankster twave users, the metagame seems more forgiving. The absence of those last three and Jellicent makes SD Scizor an absolute fucking beast though; nothing can stop it easily. Other steels are worse off because Scizor is so damn good. Some other Pokemon, like Talonflame, are also a lot better off with those guys gone, and new Pokemon have stepped up to try to take their roles like Klefki and Scrafty.

Just to touch on this a bit: in Jellicent's absence, we did gain two new setters with a typing only seen on CAP before...

Gourgeist-Super and Trevenant
Grass/Ghost
_________________Frisk/Pickup ....... Frisk/Natural Cure/Harvest (HA)
85/100/122/58/75/54 ....... 85/110/76/65/82/56​

They're not too different - Gourgeist-H has better physical bulk and lower Speed, while Trevenant has marginally better Special bulk and higher Attack. Trevenant is definitely the more offensive of the two; packing Wood Hammer (or Horn Leech for you stally types), Earthquake, the gimmicky Power-Up Punch, a more reliable Ghost STAB in Shadow Claw, and Harvest+Sitrus or Harvest+ChestoRest to amplify its lower bulk. Gourgeist has a few more interesting options, despite its lower offensive pressure - Trick, Fire Blast, Explosion, Incinerate (which is now spread and burns gems!), Gyro Ball, and Pain Split can be found in Gourgeist's movepool, making it a bit more... interesting to play with. They also both carry the new Phantom Force, which is a two-turn 90BP physical Ghost move that bypasses Protect - a poor 'mon's Shadow Force, if you will. Unfortunately, their weakness to Heat Wave and vulnerability to Talonflame's priority Flying attacks may be their downfall. I personally can't say which one will end up being better, really - all I know is that these Pokemon look like they're ready to fuck some shit up in Trick Room and I'm not too fond of being on the receiving end of them.

 

[Kingler]

^ the thing about these is that they are also perfectly slow enough to be under trick room! Both these pokes get some nifty stuff. Georgeioust or whatever it's called seems to be utility-oriented while trevenant is looking to be like exeggutor's counterpart except part ghost, high attack instead of spatk, and more special defense. This thing could hurt under tr. Btw if someone could provide teams it would be nice, I'm quite confused as to what isn't allowed.

 

[BlankZero]

Once PokeBank is available, the Metagame will resolitify. Right now there's too many unknowns but we will have a good chance we will see what niches these new Pokemon will fill, as well as getting plenty of time to discover new strategies without having to worry about old threats.

One example is Klefki. It gets the Prankster TWave and Swagger that our friendly Thundy-I is so revered for, yet it lacks Taunt to beat opposing slower Pranksters. However, it does have access to Dual Screens, which gives it a big leg up in that sense.

 

[Nollan]

One example is Klefki. It gets the Prankster TWave and Swagger that our friendly Thundy-I is so revered for, yet it lacks Taunt to beat opposing slower Pranksters. However, it does have access to Dual Screens, which gives it a big leg up in that sense.

I might also add on that it has Prankster Safeguard and Foul Play to use alongside Swagger, something Thundy doesn't have.

pokebank fucks up the meta so much for real. Trick Room, for one, takes a MASSIVE hit, since it loses Jellicent and Cress, its best setters; i wanted to make a tr team but i gave up because who the fuck was i supposed to use. Thundurus being gone is obviously a big deal, as are Heatran and Landorus-I; without the game's best intimidators and prankster twave users, the metagame seems more forgiving. The absence of those last three and Jellicent makes SD Scizor an absolute fucking beast though; nothing can stop it easily. Other steels are worse off because Scizor is so damn good. Some other Pokemon, like Talonflame, are also a lot better off with those guys gone, and new Pokemon have stepped up to try to take their roles like Klefki and Scrafty. Not strictly PokeBank but absolutely essential to the understanding of this meta is the lack of Dragon Gem; that one item singlehandedly made most dragons what they are, and without them (or latios) the presence of dragons in the meta seems to be almost nil. I wonder if they're being underhyped :| I'd say to give the meta more time to develop but we only have a month until PokeBank comes out so we'll see where this ride takes us, I guess.

Trick Room doesn't really seem ruined to me at all, it just has to play more offensively now. Chandelure is still around for example and it is one wonderful TR setter. In fact, I might go as far as to say TR might even be better off since Thundurus and Whimsicott (and their respective Prankster Taunts) don't exist atm. Iirc, the only Pokemon who pack priority Taunt as of this moment are Liepard, Murkrow (assuming Hidden Ability is available), and Purrloin (Liepard should definitely see some usage now). As for Dragon Gem, it was hardly what made Dragon-types top tier and imo is hardly why they aren't as good. Most of them can still get by with Life Orb or things like Haban Berry, Roseli Berry, or Yache Berry. The big punch to the face for Dragons was the inception of the Fairy-type, which hinders them a lot. I also disagree that SD Scizor will be hard to counter, even at +2, almost every Fire-type easily counters it (tbh a lot of Pokemon can wall its STABs). Other Steels also certainly have their advantages (Klefki way better at support; MegaMawile complete tears up things and has an arguably better typing; Bisharp looks cooler and has Defiant but loses Sucker Punch, so it'll probably see little to no use outside of Trick Room). Scizor will definitely see a bit more usage in the absence of Heatran though, that's for sure.

As for what I have to say, in general a lot of top-tier threats (Heatran, Thundurus, Latios, Cresselia) are gone, which means the metagame will slow down a bit (since strategies lose some of their efficiency that they'd have with the aforementioned threats), which means that bulky offense will most likely become slighty better while fast-paced offense drops slighty in usage. This means less Tailwind and more Trick Room and Thunder Wave (Icy Wind couldn't care less; it works for both types of teams). A lot of past-gen Pokemon also lack specific Move Tutor moves as well (I felt really awkward when I ran Taunt on TTar because it didn't have Low Kick anymore), which means coverage has become somewhat harder to come by (especially with the Hidden Power nerf). Add in the existence of MegaEvolutions and the lack of Gems and bulky offense becomes all the more viable while fast-paced offense becomes all the less viable. I suppose I could go into Pokemon specifics at this point, but I don't really feel like writing an (bigger) essay.

 

[BlankZero]

Nollan , Thundy does get Foul Play, but you are right about the Safeguard thing.

 

[tofucocoa]

the topic moved but you guys didnt move this post so feel free to delete the other one

Trick Room doesn't really seem ruined to me at all, it just has to play more offensively now.

As for what I have to say, in general a lot of top-tier threats (Heatran, Thundurus, Latios, Cresselia) are gone, which means the metagame will slow down a bit (since strategies lose some of their efficiency that they'd have with the aforementioned threats), which means that bulky offense will most likely become slighty better while fast-paced offense drops slighty in usage.

A lot of past-gen Pokemon also lack specific Move Tutor moves as well (I felt really awkward when I ran Taunt on TTar because it didn't have Low Kick anymore), which means coverage has become somewhat harder to come by (especially with the Hidden Power nerf).

Trick Room should always be played offensively imo. The real reason Trick Room gets hit hard is because Cress could set it up more than once, unlike the likes of Chandelure, and just had some great all-around support options that could be used even outside of TR. We could use Musharna in a similar vein to cress, a la VGC11, but mushy just doesn't have the same bulk and isn't immune to enemy EQ's. Also, I'm pretty sure we have Whimsicott, otherwise people wouldn't know it's a Fairy.

Heatran, cress and thund are all Pokemon that tend to slow down games (in thund's case, literally slow down) since you can rarely OHKO them with a single mon (assuming they're given basic support), so wouldn't the meta speed up following that logic? The loss of Gems kinda hurts, but the main Pokemon that would benefit them within the current pool of Pokemon (that I can think of off the top of my head) would be steel gem scizor and bug gem heracross, both of which have mega evolutions to offset this, though hitmontop sorely misses fight gem CC. pretty much everything else has some good options besides gems to play with like scarf mamo and defensive/specs politoed over offensive water gem toed. Dragons hate not having gem dmeteor, but they also hate that dmeteor is redirected and absorbed by togekiss, so you'll just have to make do with life orb (which is the better item on latios and noivern anyway). so as a whole, I don't think the exclusion of cress and the like will matter much in the greater scheme of things; we'll just have to make do with what we have until we get them back. i also doubt gems will stay unreleased for long; we do have the pokemiles shop on the new GBU to watch as they iron it out.

i've been using iron head ttar to help compensate, but the lack of tutors is really apparent when i want to use tailwind togekiss and bug bite scizor. it's part of the reason i haven't bothered to get outstanding IVs on my ingame mons >_>;

 

[Arcticblast]

Sorry, you must have been making your post when I moved them all lucariojr.

Also, I'm pretty sure we have Whimsicott, otherwise people wouldn't know it's a Fairy.

Someone tried to Draco Meteor a Whimsicott in the Battle Maison and it didn't have an effect. Whimsicott isn't actually released yet. That said, it wasn't really a great TR setter in the past either. If we're just trying to get Fairies that set TR, Aromatisse might be our best option - a hilarious 29 base Speed and 101/72/89 defensive stats coupled with two workable Doubles abilities, Heal Pulse, and Misty Terrain give it some potential.

 

[youngjake93]

pokebank fucks up the meta so much for real. Trick Room, for one, takes a MASSIVE hit, since it loses Jellicent and Cress, its best setters; i wanted to make a tr team but i gave up because who the fuck was i supposed to use. Thundurus being gone is obviously a big deal, as are Heatran and Landorus-I; without the game's best intimidators and prankster twave users, the metagame seems more forgiving. The absence of those last three and Jellicent makes SD Scizor an absolute fucking beast though; nothing can stop it easily. Other steels are worse off because Scizor is so damn good. Some other Pokemon, like Talonflame, are also a lot better off with those guys gone, and new Pokemon have stepped up to try to take their roles like Klefki and Scrafty. Not strictly PokeBank but absolutely essential to the understanding of this meta is the lack of Dragon Gem; that one item singlehandedly made most dragons what they are, and without them (or latios) the presence of dragons in the meta seems to be almost nil. I wonder if they're being underhyped :| I'd say to give the meta more time to develop but we only have a month until PokeBank comes out so we'll see where this ride takes us, I guess.

Oblivious Slowbro is immune to Taunt. This is especially important because Taunt now goes through Protect iirc. Basically you can double Protect, then TR. Also, Regenerator Assault Vest Slowbro could be a great abuser(edit:AKA not a setter).
That point about lack of gems is pretty great for super tanks like Goomy and Vest Tyranitar that usually can only be knocked out by crazy powerful gem boosted attacks.

 

[tofucocoa]

the biggest problem with assault vest (and why i will never use it) is the fact that you can't protect with it. i would rather be able to protect than have to take two attacks, even if my spD is boosted, so i'd rather just hold a type resist berry. also @ your slowbro example, it can't use trick room with assault vest, but the oblivious buff will certainly help the slowbro/king out as trick room users, but it's a shame there aren't any more bulky TR setters with oblivious :/

 

[Darkmalice]

I'm not sure why people are jumping on using Trick room offensively because of the absence of Cress and Jellicent. There are plenty of defensive settlers that can still be used. We've got new comers like the Grass-ghosts and Aromatisse. Of the two Grass-ghosts, I see Trevenant being the superior user as it can abuse Harvest. We've also got oldies like Dusclops and Musharna that can fill in Cress' place, obviously not as good as Cress but still effective. Dusclops also benefits from Will-O-Wisps's accuracy buff, and it could be paired with the buffed Hex to give it a useable STAB, but it loses Helping Hand (XD move).

In a similar vein to Trick Room, I feel that players will try to replace other "lost" Pokemon with other Pokemon. We could see Hydreigon become the new Latios, and it was already a great mon in 5th Gen, arguably greater than Latios itself. Or perhaps Noivern, who does more than just retain Latios' speed. BlankZero mentioned Klefki to replace Thundurus-I, and it has a better defensive typing to do so.
We'll lose some aspects of old Pokemon though. Shaymin-S' role as a fast Flying-type attacker can be replaced by Talonfame and Crobat, but not its Seed Flare and Air Slash flinching that isn't reliant on speed support (unlike Togekiss). No Pokemon shares Heatran's typing, stats and bulk. But we can replace it offensively with Chandelure and Charizard Y (with Drought, it's Heat Wave will deal more damage than Heatran's Eruption).

And with this, we'll see the metagame adapting. Everyone will EV their Mons to survive Hydreigon's Draco Meteor instead of Latios'. And 108, 110 and 111 base speeds will no longer become ideal marks to hit with the disappearance of Terrakion, Latios and the genii. We could a huge gap in speed stats to hit, with potentially no major speed tiers from 102 (Garchomp) to 123 (Noivern). Ice-types will take a hit with Latios' and the genii disappearances (sorry Mamoswine).

Also, with Slaking and Regigigas gone, we will no longer see any remove-the-bad-ability gimmicks!

 

[Audiosurfer]

Pokebank not being around yet is forcing some really creative Pokemon usage imo. For example, on one of my teams I wanted a bulky Water-type without having to use Rotom-W and the next best thing was Blastoise simply due to how few bulky Water types were still around (Jellicent, Milotic, Swampert, Empoleon were all banned). I've also been using Musharna as a pseudo Cresselia on some teams too. Once Pokebank comes there will definitely be many displaced Pokemon, as mons such as Klefki will likely not see the light of day when Thundurus is around (no, Prankster dual screens really isn't a big deal). That's something I think is an inherent benefit of nonBank though, because there wouldn't be as much exploration of these lesser mon's roles if we had every Pokemon from the start, which is pretty cool. For the most part though I think that examing Pokemon in terms of "which mon can best replace a Pokemon that's no longer around" is a bad way to look at it. It's usualy better to examine Pokemon in terms of their individual strengths and capitalizing on those as opposed to just making a worse version of another mon.

I also agree w/ Pwnemon regarding the loss of gems being a pretty bad loss for Dragon-types. I wonder if Choice Specs sets on Pokemon like Hydreigon or Latios will be more popular if gems are never added to Gen 6, since then you can still get the power boost of a gem. Specs already had value on Dragons last gen, where it made Draco Meteor alot more spammable than with just a Dragon Gem where you'd lose it after the first use, so I think it's a promising idea. Thoughts?

 

[tofucocoa]

according to research, gems only boost by 25% now, so even if we did get the gems, the only one worth using would probably be flying gem, and that's only for acrobatics. for dragons like latios (well, mostly latios i guess), life orb is a suitable replacement, and i'd go as far as to say it was the best item for it anyway. i don't think the loss of gems really hurts dragons much (besides hydreigon imo), but it does hurt stuff like eruptran and tornadus that really need that one powerful hit to be effective.

 

[Kingler]

^ above:
That kind of really ruins stuff. Dragon Gem latios and hydreigon are really potent wallbreakers and can just straight up kill shit. With a measly 25% boost, I don't see ANY reason to run gems over life orb. Except maybe eruptran, which can still just run lefties for subprotect and specs for all out attacker under TR. So yeah, I don't see any reason to run gems over LO/berry/specs/band, and they have indeed lost so much of their utility. Flying Gem acrobatics will kind of suck now =(, poor tornadus.

 

[BlankZero]

I'm ok with Gems getting nerfed, as the power creep last Gen was just dumb. Maybe Stall will be come a bit more viable after PokeBank is released, as it lets us use a ton of bulky mons.

While True Stall in Doubles will never come to pass, as you can't Wall 2 attackers every turn, I think the game will slow down a bit this gen, allowing slower, bulkier mons to function better.

 

[Darkflagrance]

As a newcomer to doubles/triples and their gen 5/6 strategies, I'm going to miss Meowstic and Klefki when they inevitably get outclassed by their legendary counterparts. When I was learning the game, it was exciting to discover all the potential strategies these two prankster supports can pull off. But when we get back our superior pseudo-legendary or power-crept walls, attackers, and supports, these guys will be relegated to the teams of youtube personalities trying to attract viewers with novel teambuilding.

 

[tofucocoa]

i think meowstic will still have some sort of niche even when stuff gets released. fake out and neat priority dual screens could really help out megakhan and some other semi-bulky megas, as well as priority weather (almost the same as auto weather abilities this gen), priority imprison+protect, quick guard, and misty terrain, though nobody knows how that will pan out just yet. it also has similar bulk to thundurus, that is, if i'm remembering correctly and they both have around 80/80/80 defenses, though it doesn't have the neat ground immunity that made thundurus such a great landog partner. i can definitely see klefki dying out though, since it doesn't get as many neat tricks as meowstic, mostly the fake out part. it certainly has better longevity than meowstic with recycle+sitrus though, so it might be better suited to a dedicated screens set.

 

[Darkflagrance]

Actually, after reading the Priority thread in singles, I'm wondering whether Quick Guard might become the gem that separates Meowstic from the rest. Instead of running Fake Out, it can use Quick Guard to both prevent enemy Fake Outs from stopping Tail Wind/Trick room (scrappy khan) and save teammates from being revenged by MegaKhan. I haven't encountered Quick Guard on wifi yet (and this baffles me because of how anti meta it is) but distribution of Quick Guard, along with its buffed cousin Wide Guard, might also be a way to judge whether older mons will be comparable.

And speaking of Wide Guard, Eruptran has a new nemesis in this move, easily spammable by Hitmontop and his fighting type friends. A wide guarded eruption should consume Heatran's gem if any and makes hitmontop the main priority of the enemy team, while his partner can use its own spread moves or ko heatran.

 

[BlankZero]

Speaking of Tran, I cannot wait for its release. I miss the lavadog on my teams.

 

[Audiosurfer]

Ok, time to have a new Topic of the Week! (these are going to actually be a week long now). But first, points time. The award for Best Poster goes to lucariojr, for his post which went indepth on aspects of nonbank such as the loss of gems and how the absence of notable powerhouses would afect the tier.. Other good posters include Nollan, Darkmalice, and Pwnemon. Nollan discussed how the viability of Trick Room and other strategies was altered due to the new shifts, Darkmalice discussed the ways people would respond to the different shifts in the metagame, and Pwnemon highlighted Pokemon he felt benefited from the new generation.

Points breakdown:
+3 - lucariojr
+2 - Darkmalice, Nollan, Pwnemon
+1 - Audiosurfer, Arcticblast, Darkflagrance

Onto the new Topic of the Week: Fairies!

One of the most talked about additions to XY was the introduction of a new Fairy type. Some Pokemon such as Gardevoir, Togekiss, Azumarill, Mawile, and Granbull were retyped to have Fairy typing, and other Pokemon such as Sylveon were introduced in Gen 6 as new Fairies. Fairies are most notable for their immunity to Dragon-type moves and their ability to hit them super effectively, but the full coverage chart can be found here. For this TOTW, analyze the effect of Fairies on the Doubles metagame. Things such as whether Fairies will have a large impact on the metagame, which Fairies will be the most viable, what Pokemon can best handle them and how their introduction will affect Dragon-types are all good things to think about when posting. Good luck :)

 

[Ultimathunder]

I'm going to talk about one of the most dangerous Fairy types: Mawile, because I have been using it a lot.

Pros:
Normal Mawile has Intimidate to weaken blows as it switches in and Mega-Evolve.
Huge power and 105 base attack + the fact you should run Attack boosting nature makes it hit extremely hard.
It functions really well in Trick room, but does not need it, due to sucker punch and good bulk.
The added Fairy typing combined with steel makes it neutral/ immune to Fairy's weaknesses.
Good STABs in Play Rough and Iron Head, and Priority Sucker Punch.

Cons:
Crippled by intimidate.
Weak to ground and fire, which have two common spread moves.
Mediocre HP and special defense, making it harder to tank special hits.
Takes up mega stone slot.

So, Mega Mawile is a huge threat, and definitely one of the top fairies.

 

[youngjake93]

I think Togekiss is obviously the Fairy with the biggest impact on the metagame. It was already a beast in gen 5, but somewhat outclassed by Jirachi in some cases. Now that Jirachi and Amoonguss got hit with the nerf stick, Togekiss has to cover a wider niche.

Trading a neutrality to Fighting for a 4x resistance is HUGE. The immunity to Dragon is amazing too and the resistance to Dark alone almost makes up for being weak to Steel and Poison(you only really care about Scizor).

I find a Roost+Follow Me+Air Slash+TWave set very powerful. Gems don't exist to knock it out fast, Roost patches Ice and Rock weakness, paraflinch is sweet and it has the just the right stat spread for that type of set.

Finally, it had PHENOMENAL synergy with steel types and that is a great trait to have for a support mon. It resists Fighting 4x and immune to Ground. Steel resists Steel, Ice and Rock while being immune to Poison.

I also have seen Dazzling Gleam sets being put to use on the ladder as well. And they are actually not bad sets. TailWind and Helping Hand are strong options too. I might argue that Togekiss is *almost* turning out to be like the Cresselia of Gen 6 dubs

 

[Darkmalice]

Thought not quite Cresselia status, Togekiss is notably better from what it was in 5th Gen. It has gone from simply abusing Follow Me to redirect attacks to using it to redirect attacks and shrug them off with little damage taken in the process thanks to its improved typing (none in the case of Dragon-type attacks). Follow Me really allows Togekiss to abuse its good defensive typing. It is probably the best Fairy against Dragon-type as a result, as it can protect your teammate too. It makes Choiced Dragon-types a riskier choice in doubles and is part of the reason why we don't see Specs Draco Meteors replacing the Gem Meteors but more commonly the power-wise weaker Life Orb. Mind you, the loss of Lati@s plays a role here too. The new typing also helps against fighting- and Dark-types, though they commonly use Rock Slide. You still handle Togekiss the same way that you did in last gen though - super-effective attacks, or high-power physical attacks, the latter of which is more common in this metagame than in 5th Gen.

We've also got two notable bulky offense Fairies - the aforementioned Mawile and Azumarill. MegaMawile is the hardest hitting Pokemon in the game (with Pure Power, it has the equivalent of 259 base attack) and is difficult to play around if you do not have a check for it in play when Mawile enters the battlefield. It is arguably the best attacker a TR team can use. Ultimathunder summed it up well. Azumarill arguably has a better typing in terms of an offensive few point. It only has 3 weakness that are difficult to abuse - Electric types are uncommon with the exception of Rotom-W (all the other good ones will come in with PokeBank), Poison-type attacks are still seldom used, and the two most common Grass-types are generally defensive Pokemon (Amoonguss and Trevenant). It's like Mawile in that it has good bulk, good coverage with its STAB moves, priority, and deals high damage, but doesn't require a Mega Stone, although it is noticeable weaker - you need Choice Band if you want a really hard hitter. Azumarill is also great for checking Dragon-, Fighting, and Dark-types thanks to its new typing; so is Mawile but he has to watch out for Flamethrower, which commonly accompanies the Dragon-types (though Sucker Punch helps to an extent against this). Azumarill's main downfall is Amoonguss, who can spam Rage Powder to make sure Azumarill achieves little unless it carries Ice Punch. No to forget that many of its checks carry Will-O-Wisp (Trevenant, Rotom-W), which ironically also beats Mawile.

Klefki is largely taking up the same role that Thundurus had last gen, with it usually spamming Thunder Wave everywhere and sometimes Thunder Wave. In addition to this, it's also commonly setting up screens. It's got enough bulk and great typing for the job. Mind you, it's not as good as Thundurus due to the lack of offensive presence - it can only abuse its excellent typing defensive, not offensively. In the off-chance that you have Quick Guard, it will shut down Klefki completely - this move is actually much better these metagame thanks to the mechanics changes and the new priority users, and Klefki is a member of these priority users (though not as influential as say Talonflame).

EDIT last paragrpah: Aromatisse also makes a good TR user primarily due to its typing. It's sorta like a Fairy-type Musharna. I haven't seen any good use of the other Fairies, so I can't comment on them. Whimsicott might be good when it's released.

 

[Parallel]

I think Aromatisse deserves a mention in the doubles metagame.
More specifically, in the context of traditional Trick Room. Other than low speed, bulk, good support movepool, and a reasonable attempt at having a Special Attack Stat.
But the big draw is that Aromatisse is one of 5 fully evolved pokemon in the game that learns TR and isn't either part Ghost or Paychic. (The others being: Spinda, Kecleon, Klingklang, Audino and Carbink.
Which is huge, because finally not only is choice for TR setters "Weak to Dark, Neutral to Dark or Klingklang" we finally have "resistant to dark in a pokemon that can earn its keep".

With two great abilities in Healer and Aroma Veil (prevents the ally having mental status affected, so massive use in preventing being Taunted. The ability to protect fellow setters/ Amoongus from taunt is a boon in and of itself.)
Access to Screens, Disable, Misty Terrain, Trick Room and a wide variety of coverage options, i'll be suprised if Aromatisse doesn't see itself becoming the back-up setter in many Trick Room teams

Carbink deserves a mention for being incredibly tanky, a usable support movepool and also getting that Dark resist.