THE TEAM:
THE REJECTS:
?
(Conk may not deserve the title of reject)
THE PROCESS:
I originally began this team as a project during down time at work to see if I could get full Trick Room to work in BW OU. I had played around with sun and hail varieties, of course rain and sand, and even gravity teams, the only field effect I could think of that I hadn't seen any success with in BW was trick room. During the Reuniclus suspect, I saw teams using trick room on one Pokemon, Reuniclus, but I thought full trick room was actually possible because of the tier's huge offensive power that I could abuse and speed that I could take advantage of.
A rough history of the team: I started by basing the team off of a Gen 4 trick room team I use consisting of Bronzong, Cresselia, Latias, Heatran, Rampardos, and Slowking. I removed Slowking and Latias and replaced them with Reuniclus and eviolite Porygon-2, the move's best abuser in this gen and another non-dark/ghost weak Trick Room setter. I didn't find much success with this team and ended up swapping out the Heatran, Cresselia, and Rampardos for Chandelure, Conkeldurr and Crawdaunt, Crawdaunt being an idea I got from Gen 6 and beyond. This was an improvement, but I hit a brick wall, so I decided to look for some online resources, finding an outdated Smogon thread and a 2021 YouTube video, which also has a follow up you can find on the same channel: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/guide-to-trick-room-in-bw-ou.3469141/
From the thread, I got the idea to try slotting in offensive Donphan in the place of Conkeldurr to provide hazard relief for Chandelure/Crawdaunt but I found Donphan was far too weak, so I slotted back in Conkeldurr and tried slotting in the defensive Magnezone described on the YouTube channel in place of Chandelure but that didn't work very well either. The Youtube video was huge in reminding me that mental herb exists which was a huge boost to my Bronzong and the thread recommended going for a choice scarf user, which I had used on Latias in gen 4 because of the synergy with tricking an opponent a scarf under trick room. I had been relying on Conkeldurr's Mach Punch for revenge killing but I swapped it out for Terrakion, since the outdated guide read "Terrakion, is glue to most Trick Room teams." I figured this was just a holdover from how popular Terrakion used to be, but I figured I'd try it out - and that was when I finally found success. There were also a few other teams made up of variants of these same mons I tried.
At last, onto the final team:
Bronzong @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 120 Def / 60 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 1 Spe (0 Spe)
- Gyro Ball
- Explosion
- Stealth Rock
- Trick Room
Bronzong is one of the best Trick Room setters and usually a lead but there are some times when you have to save it. The 252HP/76Atk/120 Def/60 SpD spread gives it enough bulk to live 2 Kyurem-B outrages or 2 Latios Specs Draco Meteors. Stealth rock is huge for any offensive team like this. Against dragmag I tend to lead with Chandelure to either scare away their Jirachi or slam it with fire blast, keeping Bronzong in the back to tank a big dragon hit later on. The attack EVs give it enough to kill a Volcarona with gyro ball + explosion and its explosion alone usually brings Volcarona into Terrakion quick attack range and explosion of course kills Volcarona after stealth rocks and allows you to pivot to the next trick room user. 1 Speed EV is just me being cute, most non-trick room Bronzongs run HP Ice which requires 2 speed IVs, so this allows me to outspeed other trick room Bronzongs, while underspeeding the non-trick room Bronzongs.
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 80 SpA / 96 SpD (252 HP / 80 Def / 160 SpA / 16 SpD)
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Recover
Porygon 2 is an absolute beast. With download and eviolite, it can start with 3 stat boosts on a pretty respectable 515 BST, giving it basically legendary-tier stats alongside a recovery move and being a trick room setter. The EVs allow it to survive a specs keldeo hydro pump in rain with rocks or sacred sword with stealth rocks while still boasting a massive 438 SpA with download, equal to a modest 150 base SpA. Its thunder OHKOs 252 HP/252 Def Politoed and counters rain teams. Keldeo also gets OHKO’d with a download boost. Thunder gives it the power to break through Tentacruel with a crit with no download boost. It even has the power to 2HKO 252 HP Rotom-Wash without download boost. Ice Beam provides perfect coverage alongside thunder. 0 speed IVs allow Porygon to underspeed 0 Spe neutral nature Conkeldurr. Porygon is the team's secondary trick room setter/tank. The other set of EVs allow it to nab the guaranteed OHKO on 164 SpD Jellicent (special defensive taunt timid jellicent outspeeding brave Lando-T) with rocks and get better odds to KO Thundurus-Therian without rocks, with 16 SpD to live modest specs Starmie’s hydro pump in rain under rocks, but I decided to go more defensive as with only 16 SpD EVs Porygon2 is only 50/50 against specs Keldeo’s hydro pump, and I don’t want to rely on 2 50/50s vs specs Keldeo.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD (252 HP / 24 Def / 4 SpA / 228 SpD)
Quiet Nature (Modest)
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe (12 Spe)
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock
Reuniclus is the trick room Pokemon of gen 5 and an automatic inclusion on this team. The spread is defensive because Reuniclus is this team's tertiary trick room setter. 24 def EVs allow Reuniclus to survive 2 choice band Terrakion close combats, 232 SpD allows Reuniclus to survive 2 scarf Keldeo hydro pumps outside rain and 232 SpD has a 50/50 with specs hydro pump, while OHKOing back even with 0+ SpA life orb psyshock. 0+ Spa life orb focus blast is enough to 2HKO 252 SpD Ferrothorn after leftovers. Shadow ball is necessary to get an OHKO on Starmie with rocks, although you need to run 4 SpA to get the garunteed KO on 4 SpD starmie. I also previously used 12 Spe IVs and a modest nature to guaranteed outspeed non-gyro ball Ferrothorn which can be useful to switch in and start hitting it with focus blasts immediately so it doesn't get a layer of hazards while I trick room. It doesn't prevent it from underspeeding anything else except opposing trick room Reuniclus, however in the rare case that I go up against an opposing signal beam trick room Reuniclus, which I might, I would have to rely on the speed tie so I ended up deciding on quiet 0 speed IVs - even though this makes me slightly weaker in non-gyro ball ferro matchups. It would be embarrassing to be the trick room team countered by the most common trick room user.
Chandelure @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 7 Spe
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Trick Room
Chandelure is the team's last trick room setter. Chandulure helps beat every steel type except Heatran. Chandelure is the team's best counter to Scizor, punishing u-turn and bullet punch with flame body and surviving pursuit while countering with a fire blast. Using air balloon, it is also the team's counter to Excadrill by allowing it to switch in unexpectedly on an earthquake and force it to use iron head to break the balloon, risking a burn or an OHKO, while letting Chandulure set trick room. Modest 145 base SpA STAB ghost-type manhandles tons of staples in the tier like Reuniclus and Latios. It's best to avoid being trapped of course but energy ball gives you something to hit Tyranitar with when you sadly get trapped and also hits waters. 7 speed IVs allows Chandelure to underspeed HP Fire 0 Spe neutral nature Abomasnow which is always a good Pokemon for Chandelure to set up trick room on. At the same time, you still outspeed 0 Spe neutral nature Scraggy, which Chandulure can't set up on due to its powerful Crunch. When the team comes up against a matchup that asks Chandulure to do too much, such as a team with Scizor and Excadrill, it can be hard for this squad, but still manageable. Against the rare sun team, Chandelure can turn their weather against them.
Crawdaunt @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD (112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 SpA)
Brave Nature
IVs: 13 Spe
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Facade (Ice Beam)
Crawdaunt is this team's secret weapon. With adaptability and choice band off adamant 120 base attack it hits like a truck. Against a rain team, Crawdaunt can turn their weather against them, with huge waterfalls that even resisting mons can't take well. The occasional Jellicent can switch in with water absorb, but it also crumbles to crunch. Originally, I ran it with ice beam and a spread designed to let it OHKO standard Garchomp under rocks. The benefit of that set is allowing Crawdaunt to avoid Garchomp's rough skin damage as it already tends to suffer from being worn down by hazards and sand/hail. However, Crawdaunt isn't much of a threat when locked into Ice Beam, I rarely used it, and when I did, I always ended up switching out and usually wasting a Trick Room turn. So, I adjusted the set to use Facade instead, which allows Crawdaunt to better act as an emergency switch in against scald in desperate situations, giving it a move to use when burned. This also allows me to run max HP, which allows Crawdaunt to better act as a backup counter to Scizor under trick room, taking even less from bullet punch. 13 speed IVs allows Crawdaunt to outspeed 0 Spe neutral nature Gastrodon outside of trick room, which can help to beat it when it's trying to stall you out with recover in sand/hail after entry hazards have worn you down. The extra EV in SpD helps a tiny bit with scalds.
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Quick Attack
Terrakion is the glue of the team. It comes in and revenge kills and helps you threaten out the things that want to come in and mess you up when trick room is down. Its powerful close combat destroys Excadrill, Tyranitar and Blissey, while its Stone Edge/Quick Attack helps with Volcarona. Terrakion can also turn sand teams' weather against them a little bit as it gets a SpD boost. I've even gotten a couple sweeps by snagging a justified boost on a dark move since Reuniclus/Chandelure draw out so many.
Here's the replay of me reaching 1514 on the Showdown BW OU ladder with this team:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2200999616-hqty1zvr2y8jcot9pci3gzsy4zyqjstpw
For whatever reason I forgot to save the screenshot I originally took so here is a screenshot from last week, a week later, I've decayed to 1509 and rank 63, but immediately after the above match I was 52nd.
gen5ou ladder - Pokémon Showdown (archive.org)
I'm not really sure what the GXE and the Glicko-1 score mean, but I assume they're some estimate of my winrate and estimated actual rank or something like this, and mine looks comparatively low, which I would like to blame on all of my experimenting with different trick room teams before I finally got it right, and the occasional forfeit due to a work call. The name of this profile is a keyboard smash because I was originally just messing around with trick room teams on my work laptop. All of the BW OU games were played with various trick room teams. Thanks for reading my RMT! Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas to improve the team.
https://pokepast.es/13ab097db1517da4
THE REJECTS:
(Conk may not deserve the title of reject)
THE PROCESS:
I originally began this team as a project during down time at work to see if I could get full Trick Room to work in BW OU. I had played around with sun and hail varieties, of course rain and sand, and even gravity teams, the only field effect I could think of that I hadn't seen any success with in BW was trick room. During the Reuniclus suspect, I saw teams using trick room on one Pokemon, Reuniclus, but I thought full trick room was actually possible because of the tier's huge offensive power that I could abuse and speed that I could take advantage of.
A rough history of the team: I started by basing the team off of a Gen 4 trick room team I use consisting of Bronzong, Cresselia, Latias, Heatran, Rampardos, and Slowking. I removed Slowking and Latias and replaced them with Reuniclus and eviolite Porygon-2, the move's best abuser in this gen and another non-dark/ghost weak Trick Room setter. I didn't find much success with this team and ended up swapping out the Heatran, Cresselia, and Rampardos for Chandelure, Conkeldurr and Crawdaunt, Crawdaunt being an idea I got from Gen 6 and beyond. This was an improvement, but I hit a brick wall, so I decided to look for some online resources, finding an outdated Smogon thread and a 2021 YouTube video, which also has a follow up you can find on the same channel: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/guide-to-trick-room-in-bw-ou.3469141/
From the thread, I got the idea to try slotting in offensive Donphan in the place of Conkeldurr to provide hazard relief for Chandelure/Crawdaunt but I found Donphan was far too weak, so I slotted back in Conkeldurr and tried slotting in the defensive Magnezone described on the YouTube channel in place of Chandelure but that didn't work very well either. The Youtube video was huge in reminding me that mental herb exists which was a huge boost to my Bronzong and the thread recommended going for a choice scarf user, which I had used on Latias in gen 4 because of the synergy with tricking an opponent a scarf under trick room. I had been relying on Conkeldurr's Mach Punch for revenge killing but I swapped it out for Terrakion, since the outdated guide read "Terrakion, is glue to most Trick Room teams." I figured this was just a holdover from how popular Terrakion used to be, but I figured I'd try it out - and that was when I finally found success. There were also a few other teams made up of variants of these same mons I tried.
At last, onto the final team:
Bronzong @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 120 Def / 60 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 1 Spe (0 Spe)
- Gyro Ball
- Explosion
- Stealth Rock
- Trick Room
Bronzong is one of the best Trick Room setters and usually a lead but there are some times when you have to save it. The 252HP/76Atk/120 Def/60 SpD spread gives it enough bulk to live 2 Kyurem-B outrages or 2 Latios Specs Draco Meteors. Stealth rock is huge for any offensive team like this. Against dragmag I tend to lead with Chandelure to either scare away their Jirachi or slam it with fire blast, keeping Bronzong in the back to tank a big dragon hit later on. The attack EVs give it enough to kill a Volcarona with gyro ball + explosion and its explosion alone usually brings Volcarona into Terrakion quick attack range and explosion of course kills Volcarona after stealth rocks and allows you to pivot to the next trick room user. 1 Speed EV is just me being cute, most non-trick room Bronzongs run HP Ice which requires 2 speed IVs, so this allows me to outspeed other trick room Bronzongs, while underspeeding the non-trick room Bronzongs.
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 80 SpA / 96 SpD (252 HP / 80 Def / 160 SpA / 16 SpD)
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Thunder
- Recover
Porygon 2 is an absolute beast. With download and eviolite, it can start with 3 stat boosts on a pretty respectable 515 BST, giving it basically legendary-tier stats alongside a recovery move and being a trick room setter. The EVs allow it to survive a specs keldeo hydro pump in rain with rocks or sacred sword with stealth rocks while still boasting a massive 438 SpA with download, equal to a modest 150 base SpA. Its thunder OHKOs 252 HP/252 Def Politoed and counters rain teams. Keldeo also gets OHKO’d with a download boost. Thunder gives it the power to break through Tentacruel with a crit with no download boost. It even has the power to 2HKO 252 HP Rotom-Wash without download boost. Ice Beam provides perfect coverage alongside thunder. 0 speed IVs allow Porygon to underspeed 0 Spe neutral nature Conkeldurr. Porygon is the team's secondary trick room setter/tank. The other set of EVs allow it to nab the guaranteed OHKO on 164 SpD Jellicent (special defensive taunt timid jellicent outspeeding brave Lando-T) with rocks and get better odds to KO Thundurus-Therian without rocks, with 16 SpD to live modest specs Starmie’s hydro pump in rain under rocks, but I decided to go more defensive as with only 16 SpD EVs Porygon2 is only 50/50 against specs Keldeo’s hydro pump, and I don’t want to rely on 2 50/50s vs specs Keldeo.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 232 SpD (252 HP / 24 Def / 4 SpA / 228 SpD)
Quiet Nature (Modest)
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe (12 Spe)
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock
Reuniclus is the trick room Pokemon of gen 5 and an automatic inclusion on this team. The spread is defensive because Reuniclus is this team's tertiary trick room setter. 24 def EVs allow Reuniclus to survive 2 choice band Terrakion close combats, 232 SpD allows Reuniclus to survive 2 scarf Keldeo hydro pumps outside rain and 232 SpD has a 50/50 with specs hydro pump, while OHKOing back even with 0+ SpA life orb psyshock. 0+ Spa life orb focus blast is enough to 2HKO 252 SpD Ferrothorn after leftovers. Shadow ball is necessary to get an OHKO on Starmie with rocks, although you need to run 4 SpA to get the garunteed KO on 4 SpD starmie. I also previously used 12 Spe IVs and a modest nature to guaranteed outspeed non-gyro ball Ferrothorn which can be useful to switch in and start hitting it with focus blasts immediately so it doesn't get a layer of hazards while I trick room. It doesn't prevent it from underspeeding anything else except opposing trick room Reuniclus, however in the rare case that I go up against an opposing signal beam trick room Reuniclus, which I might, I would have to rely on the speed tie so I ended up deciding on quiet 0 speed IVs - even though this makes me slightly weaker in non-gyro ball ferro matchups. It would be embarrassing to be the trick room team countered by the most common trick room user.
Chandelure @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 7 Spe
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Trick Room
Chandelure is the team's last trick room setter. Chandulure helps beat every steel type except Heatran. Chandelure is the team's best counter to Scizor, punishing u-turn and bullet punch with flame body and surviving pursuit while countering with a fire blast. Using air balloon, it is also the team's counter to Excadrill by allowing it to switch in unexpectedly on an earthquake and force it to use iron head to break the balloon, risking a burn or an OHKO, while letting Chandulure set trick room. Modest 145 base SpA STAB ghost-type manhandles tons of staples in the tier like Reuniclus and Latios. It's best to avoid being trapped of course but energy ball gives you something to hit Tyranitar with when you sadly get trapped and also hits waters. 7 speed IVs allows Chandelure to underspeed HP Fire 0 Spe neutral nature Abomasnow which is always a good Pokemon for Chandelure to set up trick room on. At the same time, you still outspeed 0 Spe neutral nature Scraggy, which Chandulure can't set up on due to its powerful Crunch. When the team comes up against a matchup that asks Chandulure to do too much, such as a team with Scizor and Excadrill, it can be hard for this squad, but still manageable. Against the rare sun team, Chandelure can turn their weather against them.
Crawdaunt @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD (112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 SpA)
Brave Nature
IVs: 13 Spe
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Facade (Ice Beam)
Crawdaunt is this team's secret weapon. With adaptability and choice band off adamant 120 base attack it hits like a truck. Against a rain team, Crawdaunt can turn their weather against them, with huge waterfalls that even resisting mons can't take well. The occasional Jellicent can switch in with water absorb, but it also crumbles to crunch. Originally, I ran it with ice beam and a spread designed to let it OHKO standard Garchomp under rocks. The benefit of that set is allowing Crawdaunt to avoid Garchomp's rough skin damage as it already tends to suffer from being worn down by hazards and sand/hail. However, Crawdaunt isn't much of a threat when locked into Ice Beam, I rarely used it, and when I did, I always ended up switching out and usually wasting a Trick Room turn. So, I adjusted the set to use Facade instead, which allows Crawdaunt to better act as an emergency switch in against scald in desperate situations, giving it a move to use when burned. This also allows me to run max HP, which allows Crawdaunt to better act as a backup counter to Scizor under trick room, taking even less from bullet punch. 13 speed IVs allows Crawdaunt to outspeed 0 Spe neutral nature Gastrodon outside of trick room, which can help to beat it when it's trying to stall you out with recover in sand/hail after entry hazards have worn you down. The extra EV in SpD helps a tiny bit with scalds.
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Quick Attack
Terrakion is the glue of the team. It comes in and revenge kills and helps you threaten out the things that want to come in and mess you up when trick room is down. Its powerful close combat destroys Excadrill, Tyranitar and Blissey, while its Stone Edge/Quick Attack helps with Volcarona. Terrakion can also turn sand teams' weather against them a little bit as it gets a SpD boost. I've even gotten a couple sweeps by snagging a justified boost on a dark move since Reuniclus/Chandelure draw out so many.
Here's the replay of me reaching 1514 on the Showdown BW OU ladder with this team:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-2200999616-hqty1zvr2y8jcot9pci3gzsy4zyqjstpw
For whatever reason I forgot to save the screenshot I originally took so here is a screenshot from last week, a week later, I've decayed to 1509 and rank 63, but immediately after the above match I was 52nd.
gen5ou ladder - Pokémon Showdown (archive.org)
I'm not really sure what the GXE and the Glicko-1 score mean, but I assume they're some estimate of my winrate and estimated actual rank or something like this, and mine looks comparatively low, which I would like to blame on all of my experimenting with different trick room teams before I finally got it right, and the occasional forfeit due to a work call. The name of this profile is a keyboard smash because I was originally just messing around with trick room teams on my work laptop. All of the BW OU games were played with various trick room teams. Thanks for reading my RMT! Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas to improve the team.
https://pokepast.es/13ab097db1517da4
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