My first RMT: Trick Room

[Cxrtmxn]

Hey guys, I used to be really into competitive battling but I haven't played in a couple of years. After getting back into things, I decided I would take a week or two to get familiar with the current meta before I posted. Well, after a week of experimenting, here I am. I decided to have the theme of my team be trick room. Let's start where I did, by looking at the counters for trick room.

Things that ruin Trick Room teams:
-Weather Teams with Taunt
-Pokemon that outspeed and OHKO my Trick Roomers
-Other, slower, Trick Room Teams
To sum it up, Pokemon that can outspeed me, whether it's in or out of Trick Room, are no good.

Then, I picked my Trick Roomers

Pretty standard, huh?
I needed some sweepers, so I kept this next one pretty standard

In attempt to counter most weather teams, I decided to go with this guy and his Snow Warning

It took me a while to find that perfect 6th pokemon, and after a few too many losses from Weather teams, I decided I needed another weather poke. This next one might surprise you, but it is a FANTASTIC support for Trick Room teams

So, now we have my 6.

Let's get started with the movesets

@ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 SDef / 30 Spd
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Trick Room
- Protect
Just a standard Reuniclus set. Not much to really say here, just set up Trick Room, and Reuniclus becomes a total sweeper.

@ Wacan Berry
Trait: Cloud Nine
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Icy Wind
- Scald
- Encore
- Protect
This Golduck set absolutely destroys. It allows me to survive without Trick Room by slowing the opponent down immensely with Icy Wind. The beautiful thing about VGC, is everyone uses Protect non stop, so Encore becomes devastating. Scald is to finish off weak opponents. The goal of my battles is to keep Golduck up, because Cloud Nine destroys all weather teams. Wacan Berry because Thundurus is a common lead, and it allows me to survive a Discharge/Thunderbolt.

@ Ice Gem
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Mild Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard
- Protect
Just like Golduck, Abomasnow can hinder most weather teams. He has great typing, and can OHKO most dragons, as well as pack a punch against rain type teams. I might give him a berry instead of Ice Gem, as he's very weak to any fire type attacks.

@ Fighting Gem
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Fake Out
- Crunch
- Drain Punch
- Protect
Standard Scrafty set. I run Fighting Gem instead of a berry so I can really get some health back off of a Drain Punch. He's a threat to almost all Sandstorm teams, as well as most Trick Room teams.

@ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 HP / 252 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Protect
- Rain Dance
- Confuse Ray
Another Support Poke, He's really great for setting trick room up, as he can take quite a bit of damage. He can also be really annoying with confuse ray. I have Rain Dance to control weather (counter Sun, Sandstorm, and Hail teams), but I'm open to suggestions for replacements as I don't find myself using it that much.

@ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 Spd / 252 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
- Trick Room
- Protect
Chandelure really is a great trick room sweeper. With a Fire Gem and it's Heat Wave, it pretty much OHKOs or 2HKOs anything that doesn't resist it. Shadow ball for another STAB move, as I'm pretty sure this is just a standard set. Flash Fire allows me to predict fire moves on Abomasnow and safely switch him out.


Not much else to say here. I run standard sets on most of my pokemon, minus Golduck as he's never really seen in competitive battling. Please, feel free to leave some CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, as it would really help me improve my skills. Thanks in advance!
-Cartman

EDIT: I'll be posting replays here:
Not much Trick Room action, but a good battle fought by Golduck: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/doublesvgc2013-40220060

 

[Er Filethe]

Put Focus Sash in Abomasnow and run Chople Berry in Scrafty
Finally change 252/252/4 to a better ev spread in some pokes

 

[tlyee61]

run Chople Berry on Scrafty
Finally change 252/252/4 to a better ev spread in some pokes

agree with this, even though he didn't suggest any spreads....

I got some for you!

Abomasnow (F) @ Ice Gem
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 84 Atk /176 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Protect
- Ice Shard
First off, Ice Gem is the best choice for HailRoom because of the fact that Abomasnow will usually be in Trick Room. Since you have Ice Shard, it is easy for Abomasnow to do some serious damage with Ice Gem outside of Trick Room, too. By the time Abomasnow is out, the Pokémon with Bullet Punch or Mach Punch –Scizor and Conkeldurr being the most common, should be gone thanks to the checks you have for these threats, so Abomasnow should be able to safely fire off its Ice Gem Blizzard. While that is the preferred circumstance when using Abomasnow, it won’t always happen, so the EV spread is made so that Ice Shard will hit pretty hard with or without Ice Gem, too. Offensively, Abomasnow will OHKO 252/116 Calm Thundurus with a Gem-boosted Blizzard, which just goes to show how strong this Blizzard really is. Defensively Abomasnow can handle a Rock Slide from max Attack Tyranitar, while Dragon Claw from Jolly Garchomp would be a 3HKO. The Attack EVs allow you to 2HKO bulky Thundurus with Ice Shard (Gem included) even if it has Yache Berry. Ice Shard is important in cases where Trick Room ends due to its priority level, which means in a circumstance where you’d normally be KOed you could have the advantage. Abomasnow is great against Landorus-T, which has recently become a threat in the metagame. Since this is a Trick Room Abomasnow, Giga Drain is preferred so that it can survive longer, and Protect is basically a requirement on any non-Choice Scarf Abomasnow. Abomasnow’s Grass/Ice typing is amazing offensively, but horrible defensively, so Protect is really important to keep Abomasnow on the field. Ice Gem Abomasnow is the most dangerous set you’ll come across — even being able to do a fair amount of damage that resist, like Metagross, but it can be hard to use if you’re not conservative with Abomasnow.
While I use Ice Gem, Focus Sash is also usable on this set. If you’re not as cautious as I am with Abomasnow on the field, Focus Sash is a good option so that you’re sure you’re getting a Blizzard off before it faints. This is the most common and effective set for Trick Room, but there are also some that can make use of Sheer Cold, Light Screen, Energy Ball, Hidden Power Fire, Wood Hammer or Hidden Power Ground. Sheer Cold is usually last resort if you know you can’t KO the opponent because of the extremely low accuracy. Light Screen isn’t very common on Abomasnow because it is usually better off firing an attack, but if you can predict a Protect from the opponent it can be useful. Energy Ball is normally used on Focus Sash or Choice Scarf Abomasnow because of the fact that they want to hit as hard as possible before they faint. Hidden Power Fire and Hidden Power Ground is more common on Choice Scarf variants, but they can be used here as well if you’re afraid of ending up one-on-one with Metagross/Scizor or Heatran/Chandelure. In most cases Scizor/Metagross will KO you first with a STAB Bullet Punch or Heatran/Chandelure will KO you back with a STAB Heat Wave, so it’s better to have a partner to handle these Pokémon instead. After all, the best Abomasnow can do is 2HKO. Wood Hammer is generally used most often on Sash variants because of the fact that it is trying to hit as hard as it can before it gets taken out, but the recoil is hard to work with unless you’re okay with Abomasnow not doing much more than firing one attack off.

Reuniclus (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 204 SAtk / 20 SDef
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball / Energy Ball
- Recover
It may not look like it, but this Reuniclus can do a lot for you. The combination of Life Orb, Quiet Nature, and 204 Special Attack EVs lets you OHKO Conkeldurr, Hitmontop, and Terrakion with Psychic. This Reuniclus will OHKO Chandelure with Shadow Ball after Hail damage, or OHKO non-Rindo Gastrodon with Energy Ball. Defensively, Reuniclus can handle Chandelure’s Shadow Ball and all Crunches, except Tyranitar’s (even then it’s only a 12.5% of KO). Reuniclus will get KOed by Scizor 50% of the time, and will always be KOed by Heracross’s Megahorn. For Reuniclus’s moveset Trick Room is a given since that’s the point of using it here, and Psychic works as Reuinclus’s STAB so you’ll be 2HKOing pretty much everything that doesn’t resist. The choice between Shadow Ball and Energy Ball depends on what you feel is more of a threat: Chandelure and other Ghost/Psychic-types or Gastrodon. In most cases Shadow Ball is preferred because otherwise you won’t be hitting Ghost- and Psychic-types as hard as you’re hoping to, and because Energy Ball is weaker than Psychic when facing pretty much any Pokémon that isn’t Gastrodon. Recover works really well on Reuniclus because of the fact that once it gets Trick Room up the opponent will probably use Protect to avoid eating a Psychic and stall out Trick Room, so instead you can Recover your lost HP and become even more of a threat.
There are quite a few other choices for Reuniclus, so I’ll go through some of those here. If you’re more worried about living Crunch from Tyranitar you can use 252 HP / 52 Def / 196 SpA / 8 SpD. This spread loses out on the KO on Chandelure, and now you may get KOed by its Shadow Ball (12.5% of the time). While avoiding the KO from Tyranitar might be important, there’s not much you can do back unless you have Focus Blast, which will 3HKO in Sandstorm at best. If you’re extremely worried about all of these physical attackers, you can make a more defensive spread with a Relaxed nature, but you’ll miss out on some important KOs. Instead of Psychic you can use Psyshock, which will net a KO on Pokémon like Virizion; however, both Psychic and Psyshock have different perks, so go with what your team would appreciate more. If you’re really scared of Pokémon like Scizor, you can use Hidden Power Fire over Recover to KO Scizor and 2HKO Metagross. Reuniclus can make use of Trick as well, since Flame and Toxic Orbs don’t damage it and give it a status to block Paralysis and Sleep. If you’re not going for the more offensive set, you can definitely make use of the Orbs and Trick.

Chandelure (F) @ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 244 HP / 20 Def / 24 SAtk / 220 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Protect
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
While a Modest Chandelure with Focus Sash would work just fine, this set is made to handle a lot of problem Pokémon for Hail teams. With the help of Fire Gem and the Special Attack EVs, Chandelure is able to OHKO max HP Metagross and Scizor, while also OHKOing max Speed Chandelure with Shadow Ball. Defensively, Chandelure can tank Shadow Ball from opposing Chandelure, Earthquake from Jolly Garchomp, and Draco Meteor from Latios. This set works really well in Hail, because things that Chandelure can’t quite OHKO will die from Hail damage at the end of the turn. Hail teams usually have a hard time with Metagross, Chandelure, and Scizor so this Chandelure is pretty invaluable. Trick Room is an obvious choice for Chandelure since you’re using HailRoom, but because of all of Chandelure’s weaknesses, Protect is almost always a necessity. Shadow Ball works as a great STAB attack that will KO opposing Chandelure and Heat Wave is generally the preferred Fire-type move, especially when using Fire Gem.
There are quite a few other set choices for Chandelure that can work effectively, so I’ll cover what works well with HailRoom. Of course it’s a good idea to have a – Speed nature, so Quiet can work here as well. If you prefer a more offensive Chandelure you can go with the normal 252 Special Attack EVs, but it’s generally a good idea to give this Chandelure Focus Sash. While Focus Sash isn’t the greatest item for Chandelure working in Hail conditions, it’s best if you plan on leading with Chandelure and using Abomasnow in back. Offensive Chandelure shouldn’t be expected to last long, so Focus Sash tends to work best when you’re trying to get rid of threats. Ghost Gem is also a nice choice for Chandelure, and isn’t as common as Fire Gem. Ghost Gem is good for severely crippling Cresselia, if not KOing it, which Chandelure wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Moveset wise, Chandelure can make use of Fire Gem Overheat, or even Energy Ball like Reuniclus. Substitute is usually a good idea if you feel like you’re having problems with Hitmontop, since all it can do is Sucker Punch. It’s definitely a good idea strategically, but if you can’t get Trick Room up, Substitute won’t be as useful as you want it to be. You can use Imprison Chandelure as well — it’s not nearly as good as it was in VGC ’11, but it can catch people off guard occasionally.

also, 3 TR setters is pretty overkill. I would go with another sweeper like Rhyperior replacing Bronzong. Max HP and Attack with EQ / Rock Slide / Megahorn / Protect with a Ground Gem and Adamant nature.