*insert creative title here*

[drynyl47]

So I've been working with a team which revolves around the incredible duo of Reuniclus and Conkeldurr for quite a while now, and this one has been the most consistent so far. It performed decent enough on PO (peaked at rank 70/1498 points there), but obviously far from perfect so I'm posting this RMT to get some help from you guys.

Team Building

As I've said, I wanted to build a team around Reuniclus and Conkeldurr, so here they are.

Reuniclus is actually the main man of this team more than Conk, so I immediately thought a way to dispatch his main counters (Jirachi, Metagross, Scizor, Genesect). Those four falls quickly in the hands of Heatran, so he gets a slot in the team. Being a Steel type to counter those flying Dragon-types that Conk hates helps me make this decision, too.

I originally planned to build a weather-less team, but adding Heatran forced me to do otherwise (Heatran is a dead weight against rain teams). Hence, the addition of Abomasnow in this team. I could have gone for TTar, but Aboma's resistance to those pesky Hydro Pumps from rain abusers eventually won me over.

Abomasnow should almost always be supported with a Rapid Spinner, or else it will be worn down quickly by SR damage. Tentacruel easily fulfills that role. Being able to sponge Fighting-type attacks (which two of my team members are weak to) also greatly helps my cause.

"Always include two Steel-types". That's always been one of my main guidelines in building balanced teams like this one, mainly because of the abundance of Dragon-types in the metagame. I also figured out that I still two things: a Lati twins counter and an immunity to Ground type attacks. Bronzong perfectly fits the bill.

Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

The primary member of this team. I pretty much live or die depending on his performance, but he almost always delivers when I need him to. The formula of this team is fairly simple: bring down the opponent's Pokemon to at least four, kill or at least weaken Reuniclus's counters, and then bring in this guy, set up Trick Room, and wreck havoc. TR Reuniclus' counters is very scarce in OU outside of those Steel/Psychics, Steel/Bugs, and Chansey/Blissey thanks to the universal coverage of his attacking moves, so all I have to do is eliminate or weaken them and it's pretty much gg for the opponent.

Conkeldurr (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Hammer Arm
- Stone Edge
- Mach Punch
- Payback

This guy has been my favorite Pokemon in OU since 5th gen was introduced, and with a perfect offensive synergy when partnered alongside Psychic types like Reuniclus, it's not hard to see why I included him in this team. He annihilates the pink blobs and take a huge chunk of HP from Reuniclus's main counters, while Reuniclus destroys or severely weakens Conk's counters back. And with Choice Band, even his usual offensive counters are severely weakened by Hammer Arm. He's even deadlier when Trick Room from Reuniclus is in effect. If the opponent isn't use any Ghost-type, he can spam Hammer Arms which makes him even "faster" under TR thanks to its speed drop effect, while dealing massive damage against the opponent's Pokemon. Mach Punch is for picking off weakened Pokemon or destroying powerful sweepers like Terrakion, Stone Edge and Payback are for coverage.

Heatran (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flame Charge

The main role of Heatran in this team is to eliminate most of Reuniclus's Steel type counters. But he also does other important roles other than that. He is virtually untouchable by sun teams, making him a perfect sun team counter. With HP Ice, he also does a quick work of eliminating Dragonite, Salamence, and friends. I alrady have SR support in Bronzong, so I used Flame Charge on the final slot instead. It comes in handy in certain situations thanks to its effect of raising Heatrans speed by one stage.

Abomasnow (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 68 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Protect
- Leech Seed

It crossed my mind a couple of times that Abomasnow seems out of place in this team when I don't even have a single Pokemon that abuses hail, but he's been a great asset to my team so far. He summons eternal hail when the weather conditions don't go in my favor, he can somewhat provide a small amount of recovery to his teammates through Leech Seed, and he's a solid counter against Politoed and his rain-abusing friends. He can also catch TTar with Wood Hammer. Ice Shard is for Dragons, Landorus, and weakened Pokes. I chose a physical attacking spread because I have no one except Conk doing that job.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 80 Def / 92 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]

My primary switch-in against powerful Dragon-type attacks, as well as Psychic attacks aimed at Conkeldurr. He's also a very solid counter against Landorus and Gliscor, two of Conkeldurr's greatest nemesis. He also sets up Stealth Rock, so what more can you ask for? Gyro Ball is there to take advantage of his slow speed stat, and Earthquake is for catching off-guard Heatrans and Magnezones that might get greedy.

Tentacruel (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Ice Beam

Spinner and Fighting-type attack sponger. That pretty much sums up the role of Tentacruel in this team. I'm not really a fan of Toxic Spikes, but Tenta has access to it so I might as well take advantage. He also resists Water type attacks and that helps a lot because Abomasnow can only take so much boosted Hydro Pumps.


Threats:
1. Breloom - definitely a huge threat. This team can do almost nothing to it, especially against Technician variants. My best chance to beat it is to sacrifice one Pokemon to Spore, hit it with Gyro Ball from Bronzong while sacrificing it in the process, and then either finish it with Mach Punch from Conk while he takes massive damage from Breloom's own Mach Punch.
2. Gyarados - Abomasnow has a chance to beat Gyarados without Bounce, but if it has, I'm really going to have a very bad time. I guess my only chance is to hit it with Bronzong's Gyro Ball if it gains enough speed boost, and then finish it off with Aboma's Ice Shard.
3. Keldeo - I hate this thing, especially the sub CM set. If it gets one boost behind a substitute, I'm pretty much f*cked, unless it runs out of luck and fires repetitive Hydro Pump misses.


So that would be all. RMT please. :)

 

[Yeezy D]

Finally, someone else who runs HP Ice on Heatran. Speaking of Heatran, what's with Flame Charge? I know its for the speed stat increase, but its a very weak attack even with STAB boost, and it comes under physical damage which Heatran isn't so hot on. Besides, should a Trick Room team be running a speed booster? Consider Dark Pulse. Its an odd suggestion, I know, but when the BW2 metagame is filled with Ghost and Psychic types, its a great switch-in and counter, as it resists them and nobody expects you to run a Heatran with Dark Pulse, its brilliant.

 

[drynyl47]

This team is not really a dedicated Trick Room team. In fact, I only use it once Reuniclus is ready to sweep so a speed-boosting move isn't really a problem.

And actually, I've been considering Dark Pulse over Flame Charge for a while now. But the speed boost from Flame Charge has saved me a couple of times so I'm quite reluctant to replace it, although the ability to hit a Starmie or Lati switch-in with a surprise Dark Pulse sounds good too. I'd consider it.

 

[bubbly]

Okay...I just want to check, but did you base this team off one of mine? Because I've used a fair number of Hail + TR teams with Abomasnow / (Tenta / Starmie) / Bronzong / Reuniclus / Fighting type (and I know they were shared around a bit). If you honestly didn't then that's fine.

Something I've been doing recently is using Trick Room Starmie in place of Tentacruel, so you might want to try that. Toxic Spikes are ineffective in this metagame, so Tenta's ability to set them and absorb them isn't particularly useful. TR Starmie seems stupid given it's high speed, but it's fantastic at setting up for Reuni and Conk, and is also helpful against the Scarfers which like to come in on Starmie such as Genesect.

I personally don't like Heatran on this build but if it's working for you by all means keep it - definitely replace Flame Charge though, even on HO Sun teams it isn't great, on Trick Room it just isn't a good idea. On Bronzong, use Trick Room > HP Ice (to support your main offensive core) and run max physical defense; Heatran and Ice Shard Aboma help to handle Latios and Tornadus, but without full def investment Terrakion and Breloom will eat you alive. Last thing, on Conk consider Drain Punch over Hammer Arm. In Hail it dies incredibly fast and you actually rely on it to check a fair amount of stuff so it needs to stay healthy.

 

[Yeezy D]

^ He had just said that it isn't really a Trick Room build, its like a little extra on the side for those scenarios where Reuniclus can perform a sweep. Having only one Trick Room user doesn't make it a TR build, but OP, if you predict badly and Reuniclus dies while Trick Room is active, what then?

And yes, use Dark Pulse. A speed boost shouldn't really help you that much.

 

[drynyl47]

@bubbly: uh no, I didn't base this on anyone's team. I rarely even look at other people's teams, to be honest.

Anyway, as Yeezy said this isn't really a Trick Room team. It's more like a balanced team with one dedicated TR abuser. And speaking of Starmie, I already considered it to replace Tentacruel to add more firepower to my team. But then I realized that I would lose a Scizor counter if I did that. Sure, Heatran's there, but a smart opponent would see that he's my sole counter for Scizor and use a well-predicted Superpower. Happened to me a couple of times, actually.

Drain Punch for Conkeldurr looks good, but the difference in power is really noticeable. Hammer Arm can 2HKO even Skarmory, but Drain Punch doesn't even come close to it.


@Yeezy D: Conkeldurr's speed stat is put to a minimum (0 speed IVs, Brave nature) for that purpose. But I usually don't let Reuniclus be in a risky position unless it's already late game wherein his teammates can finish the job. Reuniclus is the main offensive option in this team so I never bring him out until all his threats are dead or weakened enough for him to KO.