Stakataka

[GenOne]

**Taking this analysis over from Exploudit**

[OVERVIEW]

• Stakataka is one of the most threatening Trick Room sweepers in the tier.
• It can set-up it's very own Trick Room with the ideal support and demolish offensive arcehtypes with full-powered Gyro Balls.
• An astronomical physical bulk nearly makes up for it's poor typing which allows it to set up Trick Room against the likes of Marshadow with a Chople Berry, Landorus-T with Intimidate or Grassy Terrain support, and numerous other physical attackers such as Mega Salamence, Mega Metagross, and Mega Scizor.
• Stakataka's low Speed also makes is nearly impossible to outrun under Trick Room, allowing it to outspeed the likes of Amoonguss, Hoopa-U, and Diancie.
• Beast Boost is a great ability, providing Attack boosts which may let it rampage easier through faster teams or Defense boost let's it avoid crucial OHKO's such as Earthquake from Landorus-T or Close Combat from Marshadow.

• Unfortunately, Stakataka is rather one-dimentional, relying too much on Trick Room to suceed, so if it's opponents manages to prevent Trick Room with Taunt, Fake Out, Spore, or anything similar, Stakataka is having a tough time.
• It's poor Special bulk also doesn't enable it to set up Trick Room on notable Special Attackers such as Mega Gengar, Tapu Koko, and Volcanion.
• Stakataka also mandates a considerable amount of support as it often struggles to reliably set up Trick Room on it's own.

[SET]
name: Trick Room
move 1: Trick Room
move 2: Gyro Ball
move 3: Rock Slide / Stone Edge
move 4: Protect / Ally Switch / Wide Guard
item: Chople Berry / Shuca Berry
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Brave
evs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

• Trick Room is key to Stakataka's niche, as it enables the Ultra Beast to outspeed the entire metagame from a couple of turns.
• Gyro Ball hits devastatingly hard, achieving OHKOs on Marshadow, Tyranitar and Tapu Koko, while having a big chance to OHKO Hoopa-U and Mega Salamence as well (disconsidering Intimidate). The move also 2HKOes Tapu Fini, Landorus-T, and Zygarde.
• Rock Slide acts as a secondary STAB hitting the likes of Zapdos and Amoonguss strongly enough, specially after a couple of Attack boosts.
• Alternaively Stone Edge can be used instead to 2HKO Amoonguss and have a better shot against Celesteela and Mega Scizor.
• Ally Switch allows Stakataka swap places with it's partners, creating mind games that may help Trick Room go up.
• Protect allows Stakataka not to take damage when a partner sets up Trick Room or for an ally to take down a threat to Stakataka such as Marshadow or Pelipper.
• Wide Guard, on the other hand, provides a way to block spread moves such as Heat Wave from Mega Charizard Y or Heatran and Muddy Water from Kingdra or Tapu Fini.
• Finally, Stomping Tantrum can be used in either the third or last slot to give Stakataka a better matchup against Aegislash, Mega Metagross and Heatran.

Set Details
========

• A Brave nature is prefered to provide Defense boosts from Beast Boost, making Stakataka a more reliable setter of Trick Room, notably enabling it to avoid the OHKO from uninvested Landorus-T's spread Earthquake when compared to it's Lonely counterpart.
• However, a Lonely nature and 15 Def IVs along with 252 Atk EVs make it so Stakataka's Attack and Defense stats are identical, providing Attack raises from Beast Boost, this spread should be used in conjuction with a Rockium Z or a Life Orb.
• Chople Berry is the prefered item, allowing Stakataka to set up Trick Room on Marshadow.
• However Shuca Berry is an option to better handle Ground-types such as Landorus-T and Zygarde.
• Rockium Z can be used with Stone Edge and the Lonely spread as it enables Stakataka a powerful move that often nabs it a KO on Pokémon such as standard Amoonguss or weakened Celesteela, giving it a coveted Attack raise.
• Alternatively, Life Orb can be used if the Z slot is already taken.

Usage Tips
========

• In most cases, Stakataka's goal is to set up Trick Room for it and it's partners to sweep.
• Therefore, it is often important to make use of redirection, Fake Out, Wide Guard, or Ally switch from Stakataka's ally to help it get it up, as oftentimes, an opponent double-targetting Stakataka will likely knock it out.
• Having another Trick Room setter on field also mitigates this, as the opponent can only double target one of them, creating some mind games.
• Similarly, punishing the opponent from double-targetting Stakataka is also nice, with a partner weilding strong offensive presence and by using Protect on Stakataka.
• Finally, Tricking the opponent into thinking they'll KO Stakataka by switching into a Intimidate Pokémon to dissuade Ground- or Fighting-type moves is also a great strategy.
• Aganst Taunt users such as Mega Gengar, Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, and Whimsicott, it might be a smart idea simply to Gyro Ball them as they Taunt Stakataka.
• Under Trick Room, though, it's important to always give Stakataka the KO instead of it's ally, if possible, in order to trigger Beast Boost.

Team Options
========

• Pairing Stakataka with another Trick Room setter is a great idea, this is true because Stakataka isn't the most reliable setter out there. Necrozma deals with most of the Steel-types that annoy Stakataka with Earth Power and Heat Wave, but the likes of Hoopa-U, Mega Gardevoir and Mew are great options as well.
• Intimidate users such as Scrafty, which also provides Fake Out support, Landorus-T, and Mega Salamence help Stakataka take moves it's weak to and set up Trick Room more reliably.
• Mew also helps Stakataka out with Fake Out and can possibly Transform into it if Trick Room is up.
• In a similar vein, Tapu Bulu provides Grassy Terrain which is very nice for weakening Earthquake from the likes of Landorus-T and Excadrill and deals with some Steel-types with Superpower.
• Amoonguss is also a nice partner because not only is it a redirector for Fighting-type moves such as Marshadow's Close Combat, but it also is deadly under Trick Room with Spore support.
• Overall, other slow attackers such as Mega Camerupt, Torkoal, and Mega Abomasnow really appreciate the Trick Room provided by Stakataka.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

• Weakness Policy can be used with Intimidate support to make Stakataka infintely more threatening, however it may be very unreliable to trigger it, as most Fighting- or Ground-type moves often OHKO it thanks to it's 4x weakness whereas Water-type moves are mostly special and OHKO it as well.
• Superpower is an option for Stakataka to better handle Ferrothorn and Kartana, but Stomping Tantrum covers Steel-types such as Aegislash and Mega Metagross much better.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Trick Room countermeasures**: Double-targetting Stakataka and using Taunt or Fake Out on it often means it will fail to set up Trick Room and therefore won't put as much work.

**Steel-types**: Stakataka often lacks Ground- or Fighting-type coverage for Ally Switch or Wide Guard, making Aegislash and Mega Metagross capable of taking a hit and hevily damaging Stakataka lacking Stomping Tantrum, whereas Ferrothorn and Kartana take on Stakataka lacking Superpower.

**Fighting-types and Fighting-type coverage**: Marshadow, Superpower Doexys-A, Scrafty, and Superpower Tapu Bulu all 2HKO Stakataka through Chople Berry and OHKO it otherwise.

**Ground-types and Ground-type coverage**: Landorus-T, Stomping Tantrum Mega Metagross, Mega Swampert, and Excadrill can either OHKO or heavily damage Stakataka and all 2HKO through Shuca Berry.

**Water-types**: As most Water-types resist Gyro Ball, Stakataka often has some trouble getting past the likes of Mega Swampert, Kingdra, and Politoed. And they all threaten Stakataka with their STAB super-effective moves.