Introduction:
Well I don't know if my idea is completely new or not, but I noticed a couple days ago that a huge number of Trick Room sweepers were rock type. That got me thinking; Yah know what would really help a Trick Room team? Sandstorm! So I decided to make my first RU team a combination of Sandstorm and Trick Room. It's a bit gimmicky, but after a while I think I've proven that the concept works. I think right now the only thing holding it back is my inexperience with UU, so I was hoping you lot would be able to help me change things up so I can better deal with the threats in UU I am, quite frankly, unfamiliar with.
Current ranking: 1016, which already puts it above most gimmick teams in that at least the damn thing is above 1000.
Team and Philosophy:
The main goal of this team is to get Stealth Rock up, then get Trick room up. Then Rampardos goes in and causes as much destruction as possible, hopefully demolishing the opponents walls. After that Trick Room gets set up again and I bring out Rhypheiror in to clean up what's left. It rarely goes exactly as planned, but it DOES work, and usually leads to at least close games when I don't win, and a lot of shit getting OHKO'd when I do win :P.
Individual Pokemon:
Stormbringer (Hippowdon) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
Stormbringer here does a few things for my team. Aside from obviously setting up Sandstorm, she also sets up Stealth Rock, which greatly aids my team. She can also wall most physical attackers and even strike back pretty well with Earthquake and Stone Edge. The choice of Stone Edge might confuse a few people, but Ice Fang isn't really as good as it was in OU, seeing as there's a lot fewer Pokemon 4x weak to it here. I certainly haven't regretted it so far. The other option was Roar, but I have Whimsicot for dealing with boosters and the purpose of this team isn't to hazard shuffle, and it's damn nice to be able to hit the flying types and levitating Pokemon that'd otherwise make her useless.
Apocalypse (Rhyperior) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Solid Rock
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Def / 48 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Megahorn
- Substitute
Rhyperior is my primary sweeper, having good coverage, great bulk on both sides in Sandstorm, and enormous power. He can take a surprisingly large number of hits even with Life Orb, and can switch in on almost any attack that isn't supper effective. I'm thinking of replacing Substitute with Aqua Tail though, since as it is he can't get past opposing Hippowdons and rarely has the opportunity to put one up since he can't waste Trick Room turns. Still, I feel part of the reason why I haven't been using Substitute is just my plain unfamiliarity with the move (I've never really used it much), so I might just keep it for a while longer and see if I can get some use out of it to take down things like opposing water types that think they can take him out.
Tricky (Slowbro) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Scald
- Psychic
- Slack Off
My primary Trick Room user, secondary tank and only Ice resist, Tricky here is a total boss. She can take hits well and has saved my ass a few times by abusing trick room herself. She might not hit super hard, but it's enough to turn the tables on many of her counters, especially when they're expecting a switch. The biggest issue I have with her is that she shares 3 weaknesses with Bouncy the Xatu, and is weak to Grass like most of my team is. However, if someone has got to go, it's going to be something other than Tricky here. She's just too damn valuable to pass up.
Bouncy (Xatu) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Roost
- Toxic
- Trick Room
- Night Shade
My secondary Trick Room user and pseudo hazard placer, Bouncy hasn't been doing as well as I had hoped. Sure Magic Bounce is priceless for Taunt users, who otherwise cause my team a lot of headaches, but other than that I can't help but to think I could do better. Of course, without her hazards become a problem too, and you'd be hard pressed to find something that can spin and set up trick room other than Claydol, who just shares way too many weaknesses with the rest of my team (as I discovered with my first incarnation of this team). Still, I am looking to replace her, so if you guys have any suggestions it would really be appreciated.
HULK SMASH (Rampardos) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Head Smash
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Zen Headbutt
Oh boy, does Hulk here hit hard. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING except Hippowdon gets 2HKO'd or OHKO'd by Head Smash, except maybe Registeel though I haven't had the chance to test that (always used Earthquake on him). There's only been a few times where I've used another move on an easily predicted switch, but other than that using this guy once he's in is simple: Hit Head Smash, stuff dies. With Sandstorm up he's not even as hard to get in as you might expect, easily coming in on many weaker special attacks. What really kills him is that he has no durability whatsoever. Most of the time, once he's in, that's it. Head Smash Recoil dos him in by the time his Trick Room turns are up, and sometimes other sources of damage will finish him off before then. Usually it doesn't matter much though, as he almost always manages to take something out on the opposing team. If conditions are right, half the entire opposing team will fall.
Trollington (Whimsicott) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Taunt
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Encore
My utility counter to anything and everything that relies on status moves of some sort. Being the fastest Taunt in the game (bar timid Tornadus, but he's going to get wrecked by Hurricane anyway) means that nothing can set up on him. Encore fucks up stat boosters to kingdom come, making them completely harmless. The low HP EV spread is so that he can abuse Sub-Seed to its fullest, while still taking hits from both sides better than my opponents tend to expect. Trollington is so annoying that sometimes he causes rage quits all by himself. I gave him his name for a reason yah know!
Threat list:
Eh heh, this is kind of long at the moment... I'm new to UU and don't really know what to expect a lot of the time. What I have here is far from a comprehensive list, but it's some of the more annoying ones I've faced so far:
Roserade: Roserade just has everything it needs to screw my team over. While one being on the opponents team is by no means a death sentence, it does make stuff a hell of a lot harder. It can hit everything on my team super effectively with the right coverage move. Whimsicott can't touch it thanks to the fact it's a grass type. Xatu is usually my best shot, but a Shadow Ball or sludge bomb to the face can really screw me over, not to mention that he can't do much back.
Chandelure:Yeah yeah, you'd think it'd be no biggy what with all the rock and ground type attacks I got flying around. The issue is that without trick room up it outspeeds everything and can hit my entire team super effectively. If it lacks Energy ball Rhypheiror and Hippowdon can tank a hit and KO back, but otherwise I have to rely on hitting it on the switch. Again though, I can deal with it through careful playing... it's just that I frequently lose a Pokemon or two before I can bring it down.
Alakazam: Again, thanks to having both Energy Ball (or Focus Blast) and Shadow ball, it can be a huge pain. Thankfully, it turns out Hippowdon is capable of tanking a hit from anything but Specs psychic and KOing back, but if it has prior damage I can be in deep trouble. If it lacks Energy Ball, Rhypheiror can beat it too sometimes. Usually though, I simply have one of my trick roomers absorb a single hit, set up trick room, then revenge it. Not exactly an ideal method to deal with it though.
Empoleon: Water, Ice and Grass moves again make a combination I can't wall. Thankfully I haven't encountered many of these, but when I do I really have to hope I can get it either when trick room is up or on the switch or I'm done for.
Jolteon: HP Ice and Volt Switch together cause me troubles, since my only Ice resist is weak to electricity. Thankfully if it runs Specs I can wall it one way or another, and again Hippowdon can tank a single HP Ice and KO back. Still, if I ran into a life orb one and Hippowdon couldn't take the hit for whatever reason, I'd be toast.
Ice types and hail in general: I have 4 Ice weaknesses, one Ice resist, and it's weak to grass and ghost. Enough said.
Team Building Process:
For those interested, this is how I came to my current choices:
I wanted to make a Trick Room team with Rampardos. I wanted to use Sand. So I just threw this stuff together because they filled all the roles I needed filled; two trick roomers, something to clean up after Rampardos inevitably bit the dust, and hazard support/clearance. I knew they didn't have type synergy but I figured I'd just work that out afterwards.
From this team I learned 3 things: My team is horribly Ice and Water weak, I have no idea how to play trick room or UU yet, and that while the execution is off, my basic idea actually had some merit to it. So to try and remedy the type weakness problem, I swapped out Claydol and Whimsicott for Slowbro and Hitmontop. Hitmontop could spin just like Calydol could, while Slowbro did everything else Calydol did and more. Whimsicott was just really a casualty, since I needed to get rid of another Ice weakness and at the time I couldn't really put my finger on how it was helping. That it was helping was obvious, but since I couldn't decide how I figured he was expendable.
After a few more games 3 new things became clear: Slowbro outclassed Claydol in every way, Hitmontop was fucking useless, and Stat boosters totally wasted my team. I quickly realized that with Xatu a Rapid Spinner was somewhat superfluous, especially since hazards don't seem to show up in the same volume here as they do in OU. I also realized that Whimsicott could actually prevent hazards from going up at all in the first place and was the reason why I wasn't having problem with stat boosters before. As such, Hitmontop was booted and Whimsicott put back on.
And that's the story up until this point.
Final Word:
Alright people, don't go too hard on me and tell me "this team SUXORS I mean it's so weak to hail trolololololol". I realize it's hardly the best team out there at the moment. It is however a team based on an idea that I think could be great if I could improve on it, but I'm going to need help to do so. That's why I'm posting it here. You're free to suggest I swap out any Pokemon and I'll listen, however you are not allowed to suggest I remove the Sandstorm or Trick Room aspects. That defeats the whole idea of the team. If you do suggest such a thing, you will be promptly ignored. Also, just because you suggest something don't think I'll accept it without question. If I have issues with what you suggested, I will mention them and ask how you propose the issues be addressed. I might be new to UU and the Trick Room playstyle, but I'm not new to competitive battling as a whole. So don't take offense when I make arguments as to why I think your suggestion might be flawed; I'm just trying to figure out what will and won't work, and discussing it can only help.
Well I don't know if my idea is completely new or not, but I noticed a couple days ago that a huge number of Trick Room sweepers were rock type. That got me thinking; Yah know what would really help a Trick Room team? Sandstorm! So I decided to make my first RU team a combination of Sandstorm and Trick Room. It's a bit gimmicky, but after a while I think I've proven that the concept works. I think right now the only thing holding it back is my inexperience with UU, so I was hoping you lot would be able to help me change things up so I can better deal with the threats in UU I am, quite frankly, unfamiliar with.
Current ranking: 1016, which already puts it above most gimmick teams in that at least the damn thing is above 1000.
Team and Philosophy:
The main goal of this team is to get Stealth Rock up, then get Trick room up. Then Rampardos goes in and causes as much destruction as possible, hopefully demolishing the opponents walls. After that Trick Room gets set up again and I bring out Rhypheiror in to clean up what's left. It rarely goes exactly as planned, but it DOES work, and usually leads to at least close games when I don't win, and a lot of shit getting OHKO'd when I do win :P.
Individual Pokemon:
Stormbringer (Hippowdon) (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
Stormbringer here does a few things for my team. Aside from obviously setting up Sandstorm, she also sets up Stealth Rock, which greatly aids my team. She can also wall most physical attackers and even strike back pretty well with Earthquake and Stone Edge. The choice of Stone Edge might confuse a few people, but Ice Fang isn't really as good as it was in OU, seeing as there's a lot fewer Pokemon 4x weak to it here. I certainly haven't regretted it so far. The other option was Roar, but I have Whimsicot for dealing with boosters and the purpose of this team isn't to hazard shuffle, and it's damn nice to be able to hit the flying types and levitating Pokemon that'd otherwise make her useless.
Apocalypse (Rhyperior) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Solid Rock
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Def / 48 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Megahorn
- Substitute
Rhyperior is my primary sweeper, having good coverage, great bulk on both sides in Sandstorm, and enormous power. He can take a surprisingly large number of hits even with Life Orb, and can switch in on almost any attack that isn't supper effective. I'm thinking of replacing Substitute with Aqua Tail though, since as it is he can't get past opposing Hippowdons and rarely has the opportunity to put one up since he can't waste Trick Room turns. Still, I feel part of the reason why I haven't been using Substitute is just my plain unfamiliarity with the move (I've never really used it much), so I might just keep it for a while longer and see if I can get some use out of it to take down things like opposing water types that think they can take him out.
Tricky (Slowbro) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Scald
- Psychic
- Slack Off
My primary Trick Room user, secondary tank and only Ice resist, Tricky here is a total boss. She can take hits well and has saved my ass a few times by abusing trick room herself. She might not hit super hard, but it's enough to turn the tables on many of her counters, especially when they're expecting a switch. The biggest issue I have with her is that she shares 3 weaknesses with Bouncy the Xatu, and is weak to Grass like most of my team is. However, if someone has got to go, it's going to be something other than Tricky here. She's just too damn valuable to pass up.
Bouncy (Xatu) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Roost
- Toxic
- Trick Room
- Night Shade
My secondary Trick Room user and pseudo hazard placer, Bouncy hasn't been doing as well as I had hoped. Sure Magic Bounce is priceless for Taunt users, who otherwise cause my team a lot of headaches, but other than that I can't help but to think I could do better. Of course, without her hazards become a problem too, and you'd be hard pressed to find something that can spin and set up trick room other than Claydol, who just shares way too many weaknesses with the rest of my team (as I discovered with my first incarnation of this team). Still, I am looking to replace her, so if you guys have any suggestions it would really be appreciated.
HULK SMASH (Rampardos) (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Head Smash
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Zen Headbutt
Oh boy, does Hulk here hit hard. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING except Hippowdon gets 2HKO'd or OHKO'd by Head Smash, except maybe Registeel though I haven't had the chance to test that (always used Earthquake on him). There's only been a few times where I've used another move on an easily predicted switch, but other than that using this guy once he's in is simple: Hit Head Smash, stuff dies. With Sandstorm up he's not even as hard to get in as you might expect, easily coming in on many weaker special attacks. What really kills him is that he has no durability whatsoever. Most of the time, once he's in, that's it. Head Smash Recoil dos him in by the time his Trick Room turns are up, and sometimes other sources of damage will finish him off before then. Usually it doesn't matter much though, as he almost always manages to take something out on the opposing team. If conditions are right, half the entire opposing team will fall.
Trollington (Whimsicott) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Taunt
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Encore
My utility counter to anything and everything that relies on status moves of some sort. Being the fastest Taunt in the game (bar timid Tornadus, but he's going to get wrecked by Hurricane anyway) means that nothing can set up on him. Encore fucks up stat boosters to kingdom come, making them completely harmless. The low HP EV spread is so that he can abuse Sub-Seed to its fullest, while still taking hits from both sides better than my opponents tend to expect. Trollington is so annoying that sometimes he causes rage quits all by himself. I gave him his name for a reason yah know!
Threat list:
Eh heh, this is kind of long at the moment... I'm new to UU and don't really know what to expect a lot of the time. What I have here is far from a comprehensive list, but it's some of the more annoying ones I've faced so far:
Roserade: Roserade just has everything it needs to screw my team over. While one being on the opponents team is by no means a death sentence, it does make stuff a hell of a lot harder. It can hit everything on my team super effectively with the right coverage move. Whimsicott can't touch it thanks to the fact it's a grass type. Xatu is usually my best shot, but a Shadow Ball or sludge bomb to the face can really screw me over, not to mention that he can't do much back.
Chandelure:Yeah yeah, you'd think it'd be no biggy what with all the rock and ground type attacks I got flying around. The issue is that without trick room up it outspeeds everything and can hit my entire team super effectively. If it lacks Energy ball Rhypheiror and Hippowdon can tank a hit and KO back, but otherwise I have to rely on hitting it on the switch. Again though, I can deal with it through careful playing... it's just that I frequently lose a Pokemon or two before I can bring it down.
Alakazam: Again, thanks to having both Energy Ball (or Focus Blast) and Shadow ball, it can be a huge pain. Thankfully, it turns out Hippowdon is capable of tanking a hit from anything but Specs psychic and KOing back, but if it has prior damage I can be in deep trouble. If it lacks Energy Ball, Rhypheiror can beat it too sometimes. Usually though, I simply have one of my trick roomers absorb a single hit, set up trick room, then revenge it. Not exactly an ideal method to deal with it though.
Empoleon: Water, Ice and Grass moves again make a combination I can't wall. Thankfully I haven't encountered many of these, but when I do I really have to hope I can get it either when trick room is up or on the switch or I'm done for.
Jolteon: HP Ice and Volt Switch together cause me troubles, since my only Ice resist is weak to electricity. Thankfully if it runs Specs I can wall it one way or another, and again Hippowdon can tank a single HP Ice and KO back. Still, if I ran into a life orb one and Hippowdon couldn't take the hit for whatever reason, I'd be toast.
Ice types and hail in general: I have 4 Ice weaknesses, one Ice resist, and it's weak to grass and ghost. Enough said.
Team Building Process:
For those interested, this is how I came to my current choices:
I wanted to make a Trick Room team with Rampardos. I wanted to use Sand. So I just threw this stuff together because they filled all the roles I needed filled; two trick roomers, something to clean up after Rampardos inevitably bit the dust, and hazard support/clearance. I knew they didn't have type synergy but I figured I'd just work that out afterwards.
From this team I learned 3 things: My team is horribly Ice and Water weak, I have no idea how to play trick room or UU yet, and that while the execution is off, my basic idea actually had some merit to it. So to try and remedy the type weakness problem, I swapped out Claydol and Whimsicott for Slowbro and Hitmontop. Hitmontop could spin just like Calydol could, while Slowbro did everything else Calydol did and more. Whimsicott was just really a casualty, since I needed to get rid of another Ice weakness and at the time I couldn't really put my finger on how it was helping. That it was helping was obvious, but since I couldn't decide how I figured he was expendable.
After a few more games 3 new things became clear: Slowbro outclassed Claydol in every way, Hitmontop was fucking useless, and Stat boosters totally wasted my team. I quickly realized that with Xatu a Rapid Spinner was somewhat superfluous, especially since hazards don't seem to show up in the same volume here as they do in OU. I also realized that Whimsicott could actually prevent hazards from going up at all in the first place and was the reason why I wasn't having problem with stat boosters before. As such, Hitmontop was booted and Whimsicott put back on.
And that's the story up until this point.
Final Word:
Alright people, don't go too hard on me and tell me "this team SUXORS I mean it's so weak to hail trolololololol". I realize it's hardly the best team out there at the moment. It is however a team based on an idea that I think could be great if I could improve on it, but I'm going to need help to do so. That's why I'm posting it here. You're free to suggest I swap out any Pokemon and I'll listen, however you are not allowed to suggest I remove the Sandstorm or Trick Room aspects. That defeats the whole idea of the team. If you do suggest such a thing, you will be promptly ignored. Also, just because you suggest something don't think I'll accept it without question. If I have issues with what you suggested, I will mention them and ask how you propose the issues be addressed. I might be new to UU and the Trick Room playstyle, but I'm not new to competitive battling as a whole. So don't take offense when I make arguments as to why I think your suggestion might be flawed; I'm just trying to figure out what will and won't work, and discussing it can only help.