UU Tricky - A UU Trick Room Team
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At a Glance
From a glance, you can see that it's a somewhat standard TR setup; three users of the move and three others to abuse it.
But there's not really much else to say just from looking at sprites, so let's move on to the actual discussion of the team.
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From a glance, you can see that it's a somewhat standard TR setup; three users of the move and three others to abuse it.
But there's not really much else to say just from looking at sprites, so let's move on to the actual discussion of the team.
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Specter - Dusclops (♂) @ Lum Berry
Relaxed (+Def, -Spe)
EVs: 252 HP / 146 Def / 112 SpDef
Pressure
~ Trick Room
~ Will-O-Wisp
~ Seismic Toss
~ Destiny Bond
Dusclops is, I feel, the best possible lead for this team, and also a pretty decent UU lead in general. Since the introduction of Dusknoir, Dusclops seems to have been forgotten as a UU contender. His major disadvantages compared to his big brother are a lower attack stat, 20 less speed, and slightly lower defensive stats. The defense differences are negligible (40/130/130 against 45/135/135), the attack doesn't matter since I'm using seismic toss, and the lower speed is actually an advantage on a trick room team.
He does a great job of countering some of the underused tier's most common leads, and almost always gets trick room set up. First off, his good defense, immunity to fake out, and resistance to u-turn make Ambipom basically a non-factor. The worst Ambipom can do is taunt, which might suck but I'll still come out ahead by racking up some damage. The lum berry lets me set up TR against Roserade, then break its sash with a seismic toss, which would help out later in the battle. Yanmega leads running protect / speed boost are neutralized, since the speed boost is useless and the lum berry counters any attempts at hypnosis. Dusclops' immunity to explosion also helps against any suicide leads I might encounter. Spiritomb with taunt and sucker punch is the only lead I have real problems with, but I can just switch out if I run into him.
The EVs are pretty standard. I opted to go with a little extra SpDef since I don't know what I'll be coming up against at the start of a battle, and wanted to be protected from both sides of the damage spectrum. This helps against things like specs/scarf Yanmega and Typhlosion. Oh and by the way, all of my pokes have speed IVs of 0. As for the moves, Trick Room is obvious, and Will-O-Wisp cuts the attack of potential threats. Seismic Toss is just there as an obligatory attack, but it works quite well, dealing more damage than any other attack I could use. I chose it over Night Shade simply because it hits more things in the UU metagame and allows me to deal with Ambipom more easily. You may be wondering what Destiny Bond is doing on there. Well, I tried using Pain Split for a while, but it was simply an ineffective and very situational form of healing/attacking, especially since I lack leftovers to supplement it. While Destiny Bond is also a situational move, I find more opportunities to make use of it than I did with Pain Split. The usual reasoning against using Destiny Bond on Dusclops/Dusknoir is their terrible speed. However, with Trick Room in place, I'm able to remedy this problem and often pull a surprise KO on my opponent.
Zero Cool - Porygon2 @ Leftovers
Quiet (+SpAtk, -Spe)
EVs: 252 HP / 130 SpAtk / 128 SpDef
Trace
~ Trick Room
~ Thunderbolt
~ Ice Beam
~ Recover
Porygon2 is just a great trick room user. Being very usable in OU shows how solid of a supporter this guy can be. As a TR user, he lends my team a very useful ghost immunity and neutrality to dark attacks. His only weakness is covered up very well by his fellow trick roomers, Dusclops and Slowbro.
Being that my other two TR users are bulkier on the physical side, I decided to make Porygon2 a bit more specially defensive. His 95 base SpDef makes him more than capable of taking special hits, especially with max HP. The 130 SpAtk EVs w/ a quiet nature put him at 305 SpAtk, making him a formidable attacking force. The classic boltbeam combo provides great coverage and hits nearly everything in UU for at least neutral damage. Recover is an obvious choice to stick around longer, allowing Porygon2 to set up trick room multiple times if necessary. Access to trace is also pretty cool, allowing me to potentially take advantage of many beneficial abilities.
Bropoke - Slowbro (♂) @ Leftovers
Relaxed (+Def, -Spe)
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 106 SpAtk
Own Tempo
~ Trick Room
~ Surf
~ Psychic
~ Slack Off
My third trick room user, Slowbro has proven himself to be a solid and reliable part of the team time and time again. He's bulky enough to take a hit, can strike back reasonably hard with his dual STAB attacks, and he's, um...really slow. So he has no problem taking full advantage of the inverted dimensions by healing himself and attacking before his enemies do. This spot used to be occupied by Claydol, who also set up stealth rock for the team. However, after a good bit of playing with both teams, I decided that Slowbro is the better fit. My sweepers do occasionally miss the stealth rock support, but having an extra TR user who can heal himself is invaluable. Also, Claydol often found itself moving last even after the dimensions were twisted due to its base 75 speed.
The EVs and moves are basically the same deal as with Porygon2. Max HP, a healthy amount of defense, and then some SpAtk to give the attacks a little extra kick. Water + Psychic provide great coverage together, unresisted by anything that's not a dual type. Own Tempo is the ability of choice, and although it doesn't get used much, it's still nice to have.
Gara - Marowak (♀) @ Thick Club
Brave (+Atk, -Spe)
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 64 Def / 34 SpDef
Rock Head
~ Bonemerang
~ Fire Punch
~ ThunderPunch
~ Double-Edge
The first of my three sweepers. Marowak (and Cubone) has always been one of my favorite Pokemon, so I try to use it whenever I get a chance. Needless to say, Marowak shines on a trick room team with its low speed, respectable defenses, and Godly attack stat (it hits 568 with thick club factored in). Being that I have two electric weaknesses and no other resists, Marowak's ground typing is very useful to have around.
I tried running swords dance on this set with a variety of move combinations (stone edge used to be on here, but was later dropped due to its shaky accuracy), but I find a standard four attacks do better with this team. Since Marowak is only going to have its speed advantage for three turns (in most cases), she makes the most of them by beating on her opponents with every chance she gets. Bonemerang is the obligatory STAB move, dealing insane amounts of damage to anything that doesn't resist it. I chose it over earthquake because even with the speed advantage, my opponents often find the time to put up substitutes, usually on the turn I set up trick room or on the turn I switch out to my sweeper. The 90% accuracy isn't as bad as you might think, and in my opinion it's a fair trade-off for the ability to break subs and attack on the same turn. Fire + Electric cover all of stone edge's super-effective targets, and they don't carry that often upsetting 80% accuracy. Fire and Electric also cover Marowak's weaknesses well, striking water, grass, and ice types for super-effective damage. Double-edge rounds the set off nicely with a solid, 120 base power attack that doesn't carry the recoil drawback thanks to Marowak's ability, rock head.
The EVs are as expected, max attack and the rest in defenses. I decided to make the most out of Marowak's good Def and SpDef by throwing some EVs into each of them.
Zooka - Octillery (♀) @ Life Orb
Brave (+Atk, -Spe)
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpAtk
Sniper
~ Waterfall
~ Seed Bomb
~ Fire Blast
~ Ice Beam
The second sweeper, and imo the best mixed attacker for TR teams. Let's see what this girl has going for her: fantastic base 105 offenses, a huge attacking movepool, and very low base 45 speed. Simply put, Octillery kicks ass on trick room teams. Let me put this into perspective: think of how dangerous Infernape is. Now imagine if Infernape retained its speed, had maxed Atk and SpAtk, and slightly better defenses. That's pretty much Octillery under trick room conditions, but it outspeeds (or outslows) even more targets and has offensive stats just slightly better (104s for Infernape, 105s for Octillery). Octillery's base 75 defenses aren't particularly impressive, but they're enough to let her do her job without fearing a OHKO from every attack.
The moveset is the result of me wanting to get the most coverage possible between both ends of the damage spectrum. I wanted two physical attacks and two special attacks, which is why I chose waterfall over surf as the STAB attack. Waterfall also has a nice 30% flinch rate that becomes usable when trick room is up. Seed bomb is mostly for hitting other water types. Fire blast and ice beam give me two powerful special attacks to use, and when coupled with waterfall and seed bomb, no target is truly safe from Octillery. I opted to go for a brave nature over a quiet one since my STAB attack is physically based, and it's the move I'll be turning to in most situations. Again, the EVs are self-explanatory: max both forms of attack to maximize the mixed sweeping potential.
Sniper is a cool ability, and it's more useful than the other ability, suction cups, when it comes to trick room play. With 3x effectiveness, a critical hit spells doom for pretty much anything unlucky enough to get struck by it. It really doesn't even matter what the move is. I thought about using a scope lens to make the most of this ability, but I'd still only be seeing the benefits of it 12.5% of the time, as opposed to 100% of the time with life orb. Besides, Octillery doesn't last very long anyway, so the life orb recoil isn't that big of a deal.
Kuma - Ursaring (♀) @ Flame Orb
Brave (+Atk, -Spe)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
Guts
~ Facade
~ Hammer Arm
~ Crunch
~ Rest
The third, final, and perhaps most dangerous of my trio of sweepers. With guts activated, Ursaring's Atk reaches a whopping 591, coming in above even the mighty Marowak (though Marowak doesn't lose a large chunk of her health every turn).
With a 210 base power facade (with STAB factored in), Ursaring can tear through a team that doesn't have a good normal resist. The other moves are there to deal with those pokes that do fare well against facade. Hammer arm smashes through Regirock, Registeel, and Steelix, as well as any other Rock/Steel types that try to absorb facade. I also thought about close combat and earthquake for this moveslot, but since I already had a ground attacker, I thought fighting would be the way to go. While close combat may pack a little extra power, the drop in Def/SpDef can hurt, especially when Ursaring's health is already taking a beating from her burn every turn. Hammer arm, on the other hand, lowers speed one stage, which is actually beneficial since I want to be as slow as possible. The 90% accuracy is a bit of a disappointment, but I only have to rely on it to hit things that facade can't handle. Crunch is there to smack around the ghost types that are immune to the first two moves. Two of the most common ghosts of UU, Rotom and Mismagius, don't stand a chance against a guts boosted crunch, and even a max HP / max Def impish Dusclops is easily 2HKO'd. Spiritomb is a little trickier to handle, since there isn't a guarantee of even a 3HKO for a max HP / max Def relaxed Spiritomb with leftovers. Spiritomb is also a problem if it's running a nature that lowers speed, since it will then be slower than Ursaring. However, Spiritomb can't do much damage in return and can't use status attacks, so that helps.
This is also where rest comes into play. Since there wasn't a fourth attack I could use that could offer me any significant advantage, I started looking for other things to fill the last slot. I used to use ice punch here, but outside of maiming Altaria and Torterra, it was just dead weight. And it's not as if either of those pokes enjoy taking facades, anyway. A 2x super-effective ice punch is still outclassed in power by facade, so it seemed pretty useless. And Fighting + Dark is unresisted by everyone except Heracross to the best of my knowledge, and he's OU so it doesn't even matter. I then narrowed the field down to rest, yawn, toxic, taunt, and torment. The latter four options each seemed appealing in their own way, but rest stood out to me as the best "last resort" type move I could use. If Ursaring finds herself on the brink of unconsciousness and doesn't want to go out just yet, she can rest to refill her HP and rid herself of her burn. Of course, this also means that I'll lose my guts boost, but even without it, Ursaring still has a fantastic attack stat. And sure, she might have some trouble survivng those two turns of rest, but 252 HP EVs help out in this endeavor.
Flame orb is the glue that holds this set together, for without it I'd have to rely on my opponent to throw a status move my way to activate guts. And being that I'm usually going to be switching in right after one of my other pokes uses trick room, the flame orb is already activated by the time Ursaring is ready to attack.
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Threats
Most of my threats aren't really individual pokemon, but just things to watch out for. A few of the major ones:
- Taunt Users - Simply because my team is built around getting trick room up, and if I'm unable to do that, I'm in serious trouble. Luckily, teams usually only pack at most one taunter, and I can just attack it until it faints or switches, then proceed to set up.
- Priority Attacks - Because priority attackers ignore trick room, they can be a pain in the ass. It seems the most prevalent priority attackers in UU are mach punch Hitmontop, aqua jet Azumarill, extremespeed Arcanine, and sucker punch Absol/Honchkrow/Spiritomb/Shiftry/etc. Dusclops is immune to two of those attacks, and slowbro resists two of them. Slowbro can handle Hitmontop, Azumarill, and Arcanine with his good defense and water/psychic typing. I also have electric and grass attacks to fend off Azumarill. I'll have to watch out for Arcanine using either crunch or thunder fang, but he should still be manageable. As for the dark types, I guess I'll usually just have to suck it up and take the hit. None of my sweepers are weak to dark attacks, though, so that helps a bit.
- Grass - It's not too often you run into a team with a big grass problem, but it turns out this team is just such a case. When building this team, I wasn't really taking type weaknesses into much consideration, but I now see that I have three grass weaknesses and no resists. However, even with the increased use of grass types in UU, I have ways to counter them. I have two pokes with fire attacks and two pokes with ice attacks, which should give grass types a hard time. I also have a psychic attacker with Slowbro, who often hits grass types for super-effective damage due to their common secondary poison typing. And because of trick room, I'll usually get to attack these grass types before they can retaliate. As for non-grass types using grass attacks, the most common move is grass knot, which only has 60 base power against Octillery and Marowak, and 80 base power against Slowbro. So while a grass knot will still hurt, it likely won't be the end of their game.
- Counter - Basically anything with counter (and to a lesser extent mirror coat) can cause my sweepers problems if they can't take it down in one hit. However, pokes that use counter/focus sash or just counter in general are usually easy to spot, and they're not too common as it is.
- Toxic Spikes - My team has the rare quality of having no ground immunities, so toxic spikes can be an annoyance. Ursaring doesn't mind them and if Dusclops' lum berry is still intact he fares well, but the rest of my team suffers from this entry hazard, particularly my trick room users. I need them alive as long as possible to set up TR, and poisoning really hampers their ability to do so. I'll usually just try to either knock out or force out any t-spikers before they can get anything going, but that's easier said than done.
- Really Slow Pokemon - Pokemon like Steelix and Slowbro/Slowking often find themselves moving before my players when trick room is up, effectively ruining my main strategy. Steelix is particularly annoying, since people often run a sassy/relaxed nature with 0 speed IVs to power up Steelix's STAB gyro ball. Well, gyro ball won't be causing much damage, but this will allow Steelix to match Slowbro in slowness, moving before everyone else on my team barring Dusclops with trick room in place.
- Spiritomb (Lead) - I mentioned this one earlier. If Spiritomb is in a lead position with taunt and sucker punch, my Dusclops is basically shut down. If I run into Spiritomb anywhere else, though, I can usually just beat on him until he falls over. Being that he's incredibly slow, Spiritomb also manages to sometimes go before Porygon2 and Ursaring when trick room is up. So in short, he's something to watch out for.
- Ludicolo - Okay, so any subseeding sets are going to have a hard time setting up, and any rain dance / swift swim sets are going to be rendered useless by trick room. However, Ludicolo is still a grass type that is neutral to fire and ice, the two things upon which I rely to counter grass. I can usually take Ludicolo down in a few hits, but until he's unconscious he's still a major threat.
- Shiftry - Shiftry was mentioned briefly above, and is a combination of priority attacker and grass attacker. However, he's not that bulky and will usually fall from one super-effective hit. Plus, I don't see too many people use this Pokemon, anyway.
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Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Not much left to say, really. I hope you enjoyed reading and look forward to any thoughts/criticism/suggestions.
