Hello, Smogon! I need not tell you that I'm new here (Edit: Oh man, I made this account in march of last year? Don't let that fool you, I am still quite new), so I wanted, when I made my team, to have at least a few "uncommonly" seen pokemon on my team, like so many fresh faced newbs. However, I found that many of them were just too darn slow to compete, and I needed a quick fix. Fortunately, when I browsed the articles, I came across the trick room strategy, and I've been having fun with it! This team has only gotten me a CRE of about 1100, and I'm stuck there, after trying to be better from about a week of playing. So, I hope can get some team advice from you guys, even though I'm not really experienced enough to have a lot to say about my pokemon!
Also, there is no theme to this team. I'm kind of annoyed by themed RMT threads, but that's just me.
Any of my deductions may be wrong, feel free to correct them.
Team at a glance:
Here's the pre-RMT thread team building process for anyone interested:
Amusingly, it all started with a quiet Porygon-Z that I made in my HG cartridge. I wanted a team based off of it, and once I found Trick Room and that it learned it, maybe I could have some fun. The amusing thing is.... as you can see, it is no longer on the team.
++ 
So, I got in a couple of trick-room supporters, after searching the strategydex. Finding that apparently Slowbro is quite helpful in OU with trick room, I picked it, as well as Dusknoir. These decisions were immediately based on which pokemon I liked, and not much more. Dusknoir was to be my lead, because he is extremely bulky and could handle most non-dark or ghost leads with ease.
++ + 
+
+
So, I got my sweepers, and the team is done, right? Hm, no, this isn't good. Porygon-z isn't bulky enough to use trick room after a hit, and if it goes first with its mediocre speed, then the trick room was a waste. Maybe I should make some substitutions and use it as a pure sweeper...
++ + + +
Much better! Bronzong can trick room on anything that's not infernape or heatran, but those fire attacks can be absorbed by Slowbro, who can then trick room himself! Lovely, lovely. Also, Bronzong can stealth rock, if there is the opportunity, which is always helpful, but maybe not necessary. I've got two special sweepers and a mixed one, maybe that will be enough to take out Blissey... We'll see. But now, crap, this thing lacks one important, helpful element: a priority move. The weakest link on my team right now is dragonite, it's just not doing what I thought it would do, and it's weak to SR when I have no rapid spin support.
++ + + +
Two steps forward, one step back, am I right? Mamoswine's choice banded ice shard is enough to take care of the dragon threats if trick room is not up. So, yay, I played with this team until about a CRE of 1000, but I noticed one terrible, fatal flaw. Porygon-z is way too damn fast. It has such sheer power that I would hate to give it up, as well as it was the entire reason for this team and I do have a thing for normal types, but fortuantely, there is a replacement!
+ + 
+ + +
Ursaring to the rescue! It's not quite as powerful as porygon-z's tri attack, but I get more type coverage by using it, as well as a real physical sweeper! Hooray!
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Assumptions:
All pokemon have a speed IV of 0. This has great benefits to my team, especially magnezone.
The Lead:
@Lum Berry
Relaxed nature
Levitate
EVs:HP 252/ Atk 152/ SpD 96
-Trick Room
-Explosion
-Stealth Rock
-Gyro Ball
Yay leads. Apparently bronzong is declining in popularity? I can't fathom why, I couldn't think of a more reliable lead. Well, in trick room, anyway. He works best against non-taunters to set trick room up, and then he can either stealth rock or explode, depending on how badly I might want my sweepers in. Stealth rock is generally a 'waste' of a trick room in terms of sweeping, but I feel that it's worth it. Against fast taunters like Aerodactyl and Azelf, Gyro Ball works exceptionally well, always bringing them down to their 1 HP focus sash. At this point, I can get a good switch into one of my sweepers, or I can finish them off. Also at this point, stealth rock is probably up on my side of the field, but I find that if I play well, I can out-play that hinderance, and stealth rock is not usually what ensures the death of my sweepers. If anyone thinks of any good rapid spinning sweepers, now would be the time to tell me. I looked at forretress, but I neither need ground or steel damage. Darnit.
Synergy with the lead!
@Leftovers
Relaxed nature
Own Tempo
EVs: HP 252 / Def 252 / SpD 6
-Trick Room
-Surf
-Slack Off
-Ice Beam
I believe this is the set exactly off of the strategy dex, so I'm just going to reiterate things that are already there. As I said before, this works very well with Bronzong in that it can soak most fire damage, trick room, and heal off any residual effects. It doesn't mind being burned much, either, since it's not a physical attacker. I also find that even though it's not EV'd for offense at all, it is a capable offensive pokemon under trick room conditions. I thought the attacks were merely there for prediction purposes, but, no, it's quite capable of just using trick room and getting right at it. I really love this pokemon, but U-turn and dark attacks are often a problem for it. I have yet to see a ot of pursuit trappers on shoddy, but I imagine they'd be a big be-yotch.
He's a wallbreaker, love maker, etc:
@ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Quiet
EVs: 4 HP | 252 Atk | 252 SpA
- Dragon Claw
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
Unfortuantely, I have to admit defeat when it comes to comparing Ursaring and Dragonite. The thing I lose most by switching ursaring out is the move Crunch, which is an excellent way to eliminate most ghost type pokemon (come in on a shadow ball with no damage, activate my toxic orb and OHKO). I chose to switch Ursaring out for Dragonite for the synergy with Magnezone that Dragonite puts forward: Steel-type switch ins to dragonite's dragon attacks would get trapped with Magnezone's ability, Magnet Pull, if they don't get killed by a flamethrower (For example, Empoleon). Ursaring was more of a stand-alone pokemon. Dragonite's Outrage is extremely potent, but I would prefer not to be stuck into any attacks whatsoever during a trick room sweep, so Dragon Claw will have to do.
I got a fever, and the only cure is more Trick Room:
@Leftovers
Relaxed nature
Pressure
-Trick Room
-Will O' Wisp
-Earthquake
-Pain Split
Well, my third and final trick roomer. Maybe, if I could fit another trick room-using attacker on my team, let me know? Dusknoir is great at blocking rapid spins, burning things to a crisp, pressure stalling (Even though I am terrible at it), and getting trick room up to ensure that either he or the next sweeper goes first. Will O' Wisp is the most expected move of Dusknoir these days, so this usually draws out Heatran. Sometimes, when I'm feeling lucky, I like to immediately switch into Slowbro and grin smugly at myself if I get it right. I added earthquake at the suggestion of Starbuck and the Shiney Pidgey, and it's working out much better than Shadow Punch ever did. Heatrans are suddely less of a threat to my entire team. I am going to continue to use this over porygon-2 because if I do not do so, Jirachi eats this team in the face. And Jirachi is everywhere, so, yeah.
Aw, crap, it has an ice move?
@Leftovers
Quiet nature
Magnet Pull
EVs: Atk 40 / Def 218 / SpA 252
-Hidden Power [Ice]
-Explosion
-Thunderbolt
-Signal Beam
Magnezone's IV combination with Hidden Power is probably the smartest, most fun thing I have on my team. With a speed IV of 0, Magnezone gains a 64 base power HP Ice. While it is mildly weakened, Magnezone's sheer power makes up for it under trick room conditions. What this means is that any clever ground pokemon users who think they're so smart, oh, look at me, I'm going to earthquake yooooouuu get owned in the face, along with any of those darned salamence/dragonite users. So THERE. Moving on, I use magnezone as the standard steel-trapper, as well as a general sweeper under trick room conditions. Scizor (if it lacks superpower, or is choiced into a bullet punch), Empoleon, Skarmory, Metagross and an unbuffed Jirachi all get smacked around by this baby under trick room. Substitute has been replaced with Signal Beam, as opposed to Flash Cannon for its Bug-type effectiveness against dark pokemon, a special attack against dark-types is something Hitmontop does not offer whatsoever.
Clever caption:
@ Life Orb
Brave nature
Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Moves:
-Mach Punch
-Fake Out
-Sucker Punch
-Stone Edge
This hitmontop briefly had rapid spin for the purpose of protecting dragonite from Stealth Rock, but I found that I really, really needed a dark-type move like sucker punch to counter the rotom formes and gengar, who would normally wreak havoc on my team since I lost Ursaring. Also, I tended to underestimate Dragonite's defensive capabilities while weakened. If it were a salamence, I'm sure I would have more problem, but Dragonite still works fine under SR as long as it's not eating an ice beam. Anyway, about Hitmontop: these priority attacks have proven to be extremely valuable in my arsenal for the moments when TR was not up. Plus, playing the prediction game is a lot easier when most of my moves have more than one beneficial outcome (like Fake Out, or Stone Edge).
Conculsion:
So, what I've noticed is that my two best players, slowbro and ursaring, are not labeled 'OU' as of yet, and for that, I feel that my mission has been accomplished. Now, how can I fix whatever other problems I haven't seen, as well as the ones I have pointed out?
In other words, pls halp.
List of previous changes:
Mamoswine to Donphan, physical attacking rapid spin build, thanks to Starbuck
Donphan to TechniTop, thanks to Shizzle
Ursaring to Wallbreaking Dragonite, influenced by The Shiny Pidgey
Also, there is no theme to this team. I'm kind of annoyed by themed RMT threads, but that's just me.
Any of my deductions may be wrong, feel free to correct them.
Team at a glance:
Here's the pre-RMT thread team building process for anyone interested:
Amusingly, it all started with a quiet Porygon-Z that I made in my HG cartridge. I wanted a team based off of it, and once I found Trick Room and that it learned it, maybe I could have some fun. The amusing thing is.... as you can see, it is no longer on the team.
++ 
So, I got in a couple of trick-room supporters, after searching the strategydex. Finding that apparently Slowbro is quite helpful in OU with trick room, I picked it, as well as Dusknoir. These decisions were immediately based on which pokemon I liked, and not much more. Dusknoir was to be my lead, because he is extremely bulky and could handle most non-dark or ghost leads with ease.
++ + 
+
+
So, I got my sweepers, and the team is done, right? Hm, no, this isn't good. Porygon-z isn't bulky enough to use trick room after a hit, and if it goes first with its mediocre speed, then the trick room was a waste. Maybe I should make some substitutions and use it as a pure sweeper...
++ + + + Much better! Bronzong can trick room on anything that's not infernape or heatran, but those fire attacks can be absorbed by Slowbro, who can then trick room himself! Lovely, lovely. Also, Bronzong can stealth rock, if there is the opportunity, which is always helpful, but maybe not necessary. I've got two special sweepers and a mixed one, maybe that will be enough to take out Blissey... We'll see. But now, crap, this thing lacks one important, helpful element: a priority move. The weakest link on my team right now is dragonite, it's just not doing what I thought it would do, and it's weak to SR when I have no rapid spin support.
++ + + +Two steps forward, one step back, am I right? Mamoswine's choice banded ice shard is enough to take care of the dragon threats if trick room is not up. So, yay, I played with this team until about a CRE of 1000, but I noticed one terrible, fatal flaw. Porygon-z is way too damn fast. It has such sheer power that I would hate to give it up, as well as it was the entire reason for this team and I do have a thing for normal types, but fortuantely, there is a replacement!
+ + 
+ + +Ursaring to the rescue! It's not quite as powerful as porygon-z's tri attack, but I get more type coverage by using it, as well as a real physical sweeper! Hooray!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assumptions:
All pokemon have a speed IV of 0. This has great benefits to my team, especially magnezone.
The Lead:
@Lum Berry
Relaxed nature
Levitate
EVs:HP 252/ Atk 152/ SpD 96
-Trick Room
-Explosion
-Stealth Rock
-Gyro Ball
Yay leads. Apparently bronzong is declining in popularity? I can't fathom why, I couldn't think of a more reliable lead. Well, in trick room, anyway. He works best against non-taunters to set trick room up, and then he can either stealth rock or explode, depending on how badly I might want my sweepers in. Stealth rock is generally a 'waste' of a trick room in terms of sweeping, but I feel that it's worth it. Against fast taunters like Aerodactyl and Azelf, Gyro Ball works exceptionally well, always bringing them down to their 1 HP focus sash. At this point, I can get a good switch into one of my sweepers, or I can finish them off. Also at this point, stealth rock is probably up on my side of the field, but I find that if I play well, I can out-play that hinderance, and stealth rock is not usually what ensures the death of my sweepers. If anyone thinks of any good rapid spinning sweepers, now would be the time to tell me. I looked at forretress, but I neither need ground or steel damage. Darnit.
Synergy with the lead!
@Leftovers
Relaxed nature
Own Tempo
EVs: HP 252 / Def 252 / SpD 6
-Trick Room
-Surf
-Slack Off
-Ice Beam
I believe this is the set exactly off of the strategy dex, so I'm just going to reiterate things that are already there. As I said before, this works very well with Bronzong in that it can soak most fire damage, trick room, and heal off any residual effects. It doesn't mind being burned much, either, since it's not a physical attacker. I also find that even though it's not EV'd for offense at all, it is a capable offensive pokemon under trick room conditions. I thought the attacks were merely there for prediction purposes, but, no, it's quite capable of just using trick room and getting right at it. I really love this pokemon, but U-turn and dark attacks are often a problem for it. I have yet to see a ot of pursuit trappers on shoddy, but I imagine they'd be a big be-yotch.
He's a wallbreaker, love maker, etc:
@ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Quiet
EVs: 4 HP | 252 Atk | 252 SpA
- Dragon Claw
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Blast
- Superpower
Unfortuantely, I have to admit defeat when it comes to comparing Ursaring and Dragonite. The thing I lose most by switching ursaring out is the move Crunch, which is an excellent way to eliminate most ghost type pokemon (come in on a shadow ball with no damage, activate my toxic orb and OHKO). I chose to switch Ursaring out for Dragonite for the synergy with Magnezone that Dragonite puts forward: Steel-type switch ins to dragonite's dragon attacks would get trapped with Magnezone's ability, Magnet Pull, if they don't get killed by a flamethrower (For example, Empoleon). Ursaring was more of a stand-alone pokemon. Dragonite's Outrage is extremely potent, but I would prefer not to be stuck into any attacks whatsoever during a trick room sweep, so Dragon Claw will have to do.
I got a fever, and the only cure is more Trick Room:
@Leftovers
Relaxed nature
Pressure
-Trick Room
-Will O' Wisp
-Earthquake
-Pain Split
Well, my third and final trick roomer. Maybe, if I could fit another trick room-using attacker on my team, let me know? Dusknoir is great at blocking rapid spins, burning things to a crisp, pressure stalling (Even though I am terrible at it), and getting trick room up to ensure that either he or the next sweeper goes first. Will O' Wisp is the most expected move of Dusknoir these days, so this usually draws out Heatran. Sometimes, when I'm feeling lucky, I like to immediately switch into Slowbro and grin smugly at myself if I get it right. I added earthquake at the suggestion of Starbuck and the Shiney Pidgey, and it's working out much better than Shadow Punch ever did. Heatrans are suddely less of a threat to my entire team. I am going to continue to use this over porygon-2 because if I do not do so, Jirachi eats this team in the face. And Jirachi is everywhere, so, yeah.
Aw, crap, it has an ice move?
@Leftovers
Quiet nature
Magnet Pull
EVs: Atk 40 / Def 218 / SpA 252
-Hidden Power [Ice]
-Explosion
-Thunderbolt
-Signal Beam
Magnezone's IV combination with Hidden Power is probably the smartest, most fun thing I have on my team. With a speed IV of 0, Magnezone gains a 64 base power HP Ice. While it is mildly weakened, Magnezone's sheer power makes up for it under trick room conditions. What this means is that any clever ground pokemon users who think they're so smart, oh, look at me, I'm going to earthquake yooooouuu get owned in the face, along with any of those darned salamence/dragonite users. So THERE. Moving on, I use magnezone as the standard steel-trapper, as well as a general sweeper under trick room conditions. Scizor (if it lacks superpower, or is choiced into a bullet punch), Empoleon, Skarmory, Metagross and an unbuffed Jirachi all get smacked around by this baby under trick room. Substitute has been replaced with Signal Beam, as opposed to Flash Cannon for its Bug-type effectiveness against dark pokemon, a special attack against dark-types is something Hitmontop does not offer whatsoever.
Clever caption:
@ Life Orb
Brave nature
Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Moves:
-Mach Punch
-Fake Out
-Sucker Punch
-Stone Edge
This hitmontop briefly had rapid spin for the purpose of protecting dragonite from Stealth Rock, but I found that I really, really needed a dark-type move like sucker punch to counter the rotom formes and gengar, who would normally wreak havoc on my team since I lost Ursaring. Also, I tended to underestimate Dragonite's defensive capabilities while weakened. If it were a salamence, I'm sure I would have more problem, but Dragonite still works fine under SR as long as it's not eating an ice beam. Anyway, about Hitmontop: these priority attacks have proven to be extremely valuable in my arsenal for the moments when TR was not up. Plus, playing the prediction game is a lot easier when most of my moves have more than one beneficial outcome (like Fake Out, or Stone Edge).
Conculsion:
So, what I've noticed is that my two best players, slowbro and ursaring, are not labeled 'OU' as of yet, and for that, I feel that my mission has been accomplished. Now, how can I fix whatever other problems I haven't seen, as well as the ones I have pointed out?
In other words, pls halp.
List of previous changes:
Mamoswine to Donphan, physical attacking rapid spin build, thanks to Starbuck
Donphan to TechniTop, thanks to Shizzle
Ursaring to Wallbreaking Dragonite, influenced by The Shiny Pidgey
