I haven't been been playing this tier for too long but I want to share my teams here, which peaked at top 30 and 20 along with a little tech I think could see more use.
To be clear these teams aren't quite pick-up-and-win as imo trick room teams are inherently volatile in this tier with such a huge damage output so you still need to outplay your opponents basically every game if they're good, especially in the first few turns of the game but I think these are still really fun teams that can win if you're playing well enough.
https://pokepast.es/1499179e05d653a0
View attachment 453071
Proof of peak ^
The gameplan is very simple, you get room up with the help with fake out/wide guard and do some damage, I usually lead stakataka perrserker for a more offensive lead but rillaboom/porygon can both lead as well. The sets here are quite self explanatory as well so I don't think I need to go in depth on them
(I'll probably not edit in replays here as this team just isn't as good and I forgot to save any while I was still using it)https://pokepast.es/8d060e57a915cbba
View attachment 453073Proof of peak ^
This team, again, is relatively intuitive to use, you basically always lead hitmontop + hat/p2 depending on the matchup unless hitmontop in which case you have to adapt a bit but most of the time getting room up is relatively simple, and once you do you just position to get your sweepers in and sweep
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Eerie Impulse
- Ice Beam
- Reflect
Porygon2 is an excellent trick room setter in pic because it has excess to download to buff sweepers while also having an excellent bulk and supporting moveset, along with an ability to still do good damage especially with a download buff
Hatterene (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Dazzling Gleam
- Protect
- Expanding Force
Hatterene is an offensive setter with the ability to do huge damage when paired with eruption while also providing magic bounce to counter taunt and spore, while also being immune to dragon spam and 4x resists fighting which is a huge weakness for the rest of the team. Expert belt here is a nice alternative to life orb to give hat more survivability.
Torkoal @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Protect
Just your stock-standard torkoal, eruption for damage, heat wave when low health, along with solar beam for much needed coverage against the water types. Safety Goggles for spore/sleep powder though charcoal probably fits as well.
Heatran @ Charcoal
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Earth Power
- Eruption
- Flash Cannon
- Lava Plume
Again, nothing special here, eruption for main damage and lava plume for flash fire activation along with earth power and flash cannon coverage.
Pangoro @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Quick Guard
- Close Combat
- Protect
My favourite part of the team, pangoro provides mold breaker to help heatran wreck teams, going right through other heatrans' flash fire. CC and knock off also do good damage with lorb and provides some physical attacks on the team, while protect is a nice, simple defensive option you can always appreciate. Quick guard? Quick guard! It invalidates priorities like bullet punch or grassy glide along with fake out and triage, the latter two are way more important but also be mindful that it can only be used in room as it ties priorities with both at +3, which is incredible utility for a trick room team so you don't have to go on the defensive.
Hitmontop (M) @ Eject Button
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wide Guard
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Feint
Last but not least, hitmontop is surprisingly uncommon (and unranked?) mon but it provides great utility with fake out + wide guard + feint. Fake out and wide guard can help a bunch with setting room up while and feint will help you do some damage once it is up, most notably for wide guard breaking which is another strangely uncommon thing, in combination with intimidate which is obviously amazing.
(I will edit in replays here probably)(sorry if this is a bit messy or something but it's my first smogon post that isn't in or a winpost)To be very clear, this is not exclusive to pic, nor am I the first one to discover it probably but I've kept this at the back of my mind for a long time now (like 2 years?) and I haven't seen anyone use it or mention it(ever, not just in this tier) so I want to share it here.
What is this little trick?
The concept of it is very simple, you use trick room with both your mons when trick room is up, reversing it then setting it again to reset turns.
What are the main use cases?
As you may have noticed, doing this takes up your entire turn, no attacks, no protection so the main way you'll get to utilize this is when you're predicting them protecting on both mons (or switching), you can also do this when you think/know they're not going to ko either one of your mons but that's more niche and unsafe
Why is this so much more potent in pic?
Set up for regular doubles: you need to have 2 trick room setters up while also pressuring enough for them to protect on both (or switch) or you're very sure they can't ko you, for the sake of this I'll just focus on the former as it's way more practical. To be able to pull that off you would need either 2 trick room setters on the field which is rare or only one that can pressure both enough, for example necrozma or hat in psychic terrain, now even with this set up, which is already hard and niche to pull off they would also have to be sure they won't attack especially if they already protected the turn previous.
Set up for pic: you now only need one trick room setter on the field, which opens up much more opportunities, because you can have any trick room sweeper along with a bulky or offensive setter to pull this off as long as they can assert enough pressure on, for example for my team that could be heatran or torkoal with either hat or p2, or even hat and p2 in some cases.
Replays: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8partnersincrime-1662296616-jyffjj3yzm1asng78mwttli3cpbdd9apw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8partnersincrime-1662330563-pbx61w42bywfr5cf19nghdo75w3gt7cpw
I've probably faced you. Because I have seen that Trick Room tech several times in this meta. It's jaw dropping to see in action for the first time, as, like you said, it depends on your opponent not double attacking.
I felt so good the first time I actually countered it. I think I used either imprison trick room, or just straight up killed one of the opponent's mons.
Edit: funnily enough, I just got served by this same tech while writing this and playing my latest game.
UR(seriously how is this UR) --> C
Provides thousand arrows which allows dugtrio to trap, thousand waves which can trap two mons at once, and coil as a set up move. It doesnt need an ability so it is not really affected by neutralizing gas.
Is there to prevent Fake Out. It has calm mind just in case it's the mon you end up setting up with.
Helps to control abilities like stopping your own truant, prevent intimidate from activating, and preventing some ability based strats. Haze helps a lot to stop set up.