Well, your Oranguru would do a lot better with much more investment in defense. I use 164 while keeping Sassy and 92 points in SpD. It can tank physical hits much better and will be able to use Mental Herb more safely.I just lost on battle 48 with this Trick Room team:
Oranguru @ Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Protect
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Instruct
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
- Protect
- Bonemerang
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
Wishiwashi @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Schooling
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Helping Hand (probably replacing with Protect)
- Hidden Power Grass
- Scald
- Ice Beam
Mudsdale @ Assault Vest
Ability: Stamina
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Heavy Slam
This is the first time I've ever used TR, and I basically just threw a few of the relevant 'mons I had together into a team, but it worked well. The loss was definitely avoidable, and would've been avoided if a Cofagrigus hadn't used Destiny Bond on Wishiwashi, but I'm sure the team can be improved a decent amount. Marowak is absolutely devastating for almost everything in the Tree, especially alongside Instruct, and Wishiwashi and Mudsdale have been pretty serviceable.
A few questions:
- What EV tweaks should I make to tank certain hits, especially on Oranguru (whose survival is usually pretty crucial)?
- Should I replace Mudsdale with something else or give it Life Orb instead of Assault Vest? It's been useful, but it definitely contributes less than Marowak and Wishiwashi.
- I was originally using a Mental Herb on Oranguru, but was finding at least in the early battles that certain OHKOs were a more frequent threat than Taunt was. Is there a good way to address both of those problems at once? (I assume leading with a partner that knows Fake Out is the best way, but I've found pairing it with Marowak, who shares its Dark weakness and uses Protect on Turn 1, seems to be pretty helpful because Marowak often gets targeted.)
- Other improvements I should make?
If there's one thing I've learned it's that 252 HP (with no other investment) is almost never ideal for most pokes, especially when there are certain attacks you want to keep under a specific threshhold.
Leading with a weakness shared by the setter isn't too much of a gamble until both are OHKOd by the same move; having to make that coin flip is an uncomfortable position to be in. Marowak is targeted mostly because it can be killed by the things that Oranguru can survive, if only barely.
Sitrus Berries are a thing of the past. The pinch berries that cause confusion if disliked were majorly buffed and now restore 50%. Use the one with dry flavor, which Quiet pokes prefer eating. Having said that, I think Wishiwashi's physical set is more accommodating and still allows use of Ice Beam for heavy damage on certain targets. Because it's so slow and its HP is so crappy, you may find Endeavor more useful than HP Grass. Your set looks incredibly weak given its otherwise enormous SpA.
I'm a big fan of Mudsdale and intend to try an Assault Vest variant myself, but otherwise have no experience with it. I wouldn't want to share a water weakness with two pokes, myself.




