The Beast that was Trapinch (UU Trick Room RMT)

BonDog

Sitting at home one day, I decided to make a trick room team for UU play. Looking through the pokemon with very low base speed, I stumbled upon Trapinch. With a base 10 speed and base 100 attack, I realized that it could "outrun" anything in trick room, and could use arena trap to prevent the opponent from switching to a counter. And so the team was born.
Changes to the team are in Italic.

uxie.png

Uxie @ Leftovers
Levitate
Careful
252 HP/160 Def/96 Sp Def
Yawn
Trick Room
Stealth Rock
U-Turn

I tried Mesprit here, and in the initial testing, it worked great. However, it didn't keep up it's usefulness. The main reason I choose Uxie of Mesprit is Yawn and it's ability to hang around longer. Even if this does put me at a disadvantage against Roserade leads, I find it overall more useful. Yawn forces switches to rack up Stealth Rock damage and give me free turns for Stealth Rock/Trick Room set up, and by not using a -Spe nature or a 0 speed Iv, he can utilize a "slow" U-Turn in Trick Room to safely bring in a sweeper. Overall, the most reliable lead I have used.

dusclops.png

Dusclops @ Leftovers
Pressure
Relaxed
252 HP/36 Atk/200 Def/20 Sp Def
Shadow Punch
Will-O-Wisp
Trick Room
Pain Split

Originally I had a Porygon2 here, but then snorlaxxz helped me realize that Dusclops works much better as a spin blocker/trick room setter upper. He can spread status to help with safe switch ins, and can kind of heal himself with Pain Split. A very good asset to my team. Thank you snorlaxxz!

porygon2.png

Porygon2 @ Leftovers
Download
Quiet
252 HP/120 Def/136 Sp Atk
Trick Room
Recover
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt

After getting rid of Porygon2, I decided to bring him back over Slowking. He gives me a welcome immunity to ghost and non-weakness to dark, which is beyond useful on a Trick Roomer. Boltbeam is awesome, as usual, and will help with that glaring Tangrowth walling I had. If there is a set that would fit my team better than the one here, let me know!

marowak.png

Marowak @ Thick Club
Rock Head
Brave
252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Fire Punch
Double-Edge/???

An obvious choice for a Trick Room team. Thick Club boosts his already good attack, and Trick Room turns his slow waddle into a massive sprint. Earthquake gets STAB and does massive damage, so it is an obvious choice. Stone Edge damages flyers that switch into Earthquake, Fire Punch beats down grass types that give my team trouble, and Double-Edge is just filler, so I am open to suggestions about other options for this slot. Unlike other members of my team, he does not like to switch in multiple times and often only comes in after a pokemon faints or when Uxie is able to U-Turn him in safely.

Cacturne.png


Cacturne @ Expert Belt
Sand Veil
Brave
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Sp Atk
Seed Bomb
Superpower
Dark Pulse
HP [Fire]

Originally I tested Blaziken and Honchkrow for the slot of wallbreaker. They worked....sort of. Milotic was destroying my team though. Then Sidd gave me the suggestion of Cacturne. He works very well as a wall breaker, and has become a useful member of my team. Seed Bomb gets STAB and helps with Milotic, Superpower decimates Chansey, Dark Pulse gets STAB and hits Mismagious, and HP [Fire] damages Roserade. But since this is also trick room, he makes for a great sweep ;).


Trapinch.png

Trapinch @ Life Orb
Arena Trap
Brave
252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
Earthquake
Crunch
Rock Slide
Quick Attack

:). What else is there really to say? Trapinch shines in the late stages of the battle when the opponents ground immunity has been removed by the other sweepers and he can trap and kill almost anything in the metagame. Earthquake is STAB, crunch gets psychics/ghosts/exeggutor that give my team trouble, and rock slide ruins flyers and bugs. Quick Attack picks off weakened priority users such as Azumarill. Life Orb gives extra power, as recoil is not an issue: he dies in one hit regardless. I have debated choice band for extra power, but do not like the idea of being locked into earthquake in a bad situation. Despite his appearance, Trapinch can actually be a force to be reckoned with in UU play with a 328 attack stat.



Overall, I have tried to make a strong Trick Room team, while keeping a few unique pokemon. Anyone is open for replacement except Trapinch, as the whole point of the team is to create an environment for him to shine and become king of the waddle/sprinters. If anyone has ideas to help with my glaring water/grass weakness, I am all ears. Any comments are appreciated, and thanks for reading my RMT.
 
If you're trying to abuse Trick Room, why give trapinch a stall-based move such as Toxic? Trick room teams are usually hyper-offensive. Also, I suggest Rampardos over Rhydon because of his superior attack power, and his perfect placement in a trick room environment.
 
Hi, welcome to Smogon! :)

This is a very interesting team, I dont think I have EVER encountered a Trapinch in UU, much less NU. Its an odd idea, and I probably wont be able to give you my best rate, as Im not what you would call "familiar" with Trapinch xD.

You say that you want someone in Porygon2's slot, and I have a good Trick Room user: Dusclops!

Dusclops @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Hp / 36 Atk / 200 Def / 20 SpD
Relaxed nature (+Defense, -Speed)
~ Shadow Punch
~ Will-O-Wisp
~ Trick Room
~ Pain Split

This Dusclops in an excellent spin blocker, can spread around obnxious status, function as a mixed wall, and set up Trick Room, all in one go! People say that Duskinoir was an unnessicary evolution, and with the only stat higher than Dusclops being its attack, this is very true. With base 25 Speed, Dusclops will almost always be going last. After it becomes a "speed demon", it can spread Will-O-Wisp around your opponents team like George Washington Carter spreads Peanut Butter on bread. Pain Split gives Duskinoir a minor form of recovery, and can also damage the opponent. An excellent user of Trick Room in UU, Dusclops can fit any role that you need him to.

I dont see any other real problems, with a Trick Room team, there isnt a lot of suggestions to be tossed around. Anyway, I hope this helped you in some way, and good luck :)​
 
@ SweetMochi: I use toxic on Trapinch so that when he comes to a wall that none on my team will get past easily, he can poison it so that I can stall it out with one of my bulky Trick Roomers and not be shut down by one pokemon. Also, he has no other notable attacking moves than quick attack, which would be redundant. Thank you for the Rampardos suggestion, I am currently testing it.

@ snorlaxxz: Thank you for helping me see the light (figuratively) that is Dusklops. Trapinch seems to be working well, as one way people fight Trick Room teams is by switching around with resists to wait out the short five turns. Trapinch helps with this problem by using Arena Trap.

Also, if anyone has an opinion on Life Orb vs. Choice Band on Trapinch, let me know.

Thanks!
 
I dont like that this team is so weak to Azumarill (Slowking lacks recovery). Consider changing sets on Slowking giving it Slack Off or even changing Slowking to Slowbro. Both of them could use Slack Off as they are some of the only TR users with instant recovery.

Marowak and Rhydon are doing the same thing with largely the same weakness (Rampardos would be the same). Using both of them AND Trapinch is pretty risky. Roserade, for example, is very common and can KO any of your pokemon should she catch them when TR isn't in effect.

I can't really think of a way to fix this problem, but a lead LO Roserade that sleep powders your Uxie is going to get at least one ko before it is forced out.
 
You make a very good point with the Azumarill/Roserade weakness, BurtonEarny. I have been looking into using a Cacturne to counter these threats. The set I am considering looks like this:

Cacturn @ Life Orb/Choice Specs
Sand Veil
Quiet
192 HP/252 Atk/32 Def/32 Sp Def
Energy Ball
Dark Pulse
Focus Blast
HP Fire

This guy has Energy Ball for Azumarill, and HP Fire for Roserade. Dark Pulse is for secondary STAB, and Focus Blast for Registeel and his metallic buddies. Max Sp Atk, obviously, and the remainder are distributed for the most bulky Cacturne possible while keeping a Life Orb number in HP.

If anyone has an opinion over Life Orb/Choice Specs, whether to put it over Marowak or Rampardos, or if it will even work, that would be awesome.

Thanks!
 
Life orb Over band.

Band will give you more power but will restrict your move ussage and since you are releying on trickroom to assist you when trapinch is out, you will be wanting to hit as much things as possible until you switch back out to set up another trick room.

Besides LO is x0.3 and vs Band which is x0.5

only 0.2 diffrence
 
After testing the Cacturne set I mentioned above, I have decided that it works very well as a check to many things that threaten my team. However, I do not know whether to replace Marowak or Rampardos with Cacturne. Any opinions on this would be sweet.
 
I found that with Trick Rooms hyperoffensiveness, Mesprit works better than Uxie, with the following set.

Mesprit@Lum Berry
Zen Headbutt
U-Turn
Trick Room
Stealth Rock

Zen Headbutt lets you do some pretty good damage off Mesprit's base 105 attack. With no attack investment, it OHKOs 6/0 Roserade. So if you're feeling bold and facing a Roserade lead (and it's not sashed), you can have Mesprit take the Sleep Powder and instantly OHKO back with Zen Headbutt, which is always really fun. Mesprit is also 15 base speed slower than Uxie.

One thing I think your team needs is a good mixed sweeper. Camerupt can fulfill this job admirably, and works great in Trick Room. It could really go over any of the last 3 slots. Honchkrow can also mixed sweep under TR conditions, and offers the wonderful Sucker Punch for priority. 71 base speed is a bit fast, but still workable.

Lastly, I'm not so sure replacing Porygon2 was the best idea. As it stands, all 3 of your Trick Roomers are weak to Dark and Ghost, which Porygon2 is very much not. Additionally, if you get Porygon2 in on +satk download, it can be quite deadly in its own right.

Overall, you do have the problem that your last 3 sweepers are quite frail, and all share many weaknesses. You should reconsider bringing Rhydon back. It may have some nasty weaknesses, but it can at least take some hits, and gets STAB on EQ and Megahorn, which Rampardos does not. Torterra also works quite well in Trick Room.

You also have a very serious Grass weakness. Flareon can take many special grass attacks with its high special defense, and can work as a mixed sweeper that can also provide Wish support, should you need it. Exeggutor can also take water/grass attacks, and its monstrous special attack and good movepool (as well as access to Trick Room) could be quite helpful.

And lastly, above all else, every trick room team absolutely needs a plan to defeat Stall. This can be done in a number of ways, so I'm not going to suggest specific Pokemon. But you should definitely keep Stall teams in mind when making a TR team.

EDIT: I have a TR RMT of my own you might want to check out. I found the team to be quite successful, so you may want to look over it. http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57740
 
petrie911 said:
And lastly, above all else, every trick room team absolutely needs a plan to defeat Stall.
Click to expand...
Oh, definitely. I use a stall team personally, and can see quite a few ways I could wall this team. By far the most glaring one is Tangrowth. It can switch in on absolutely anything on your team except Slowking's Psychic (and even that doesn't OHKO without a boost) and wall everything. If it sleeps Slowking, you're done. A physically defensive Milotic can also be quite painful, as it can put Toxic on your Slowking and survive the assaults of Rampardos/Marowak/Trapinch to OHKO back with Surf.

I strongly recommend the Mesprit that petrie suggested, as it can greatly help with lead Roserade. Having both Marowak and Rampardos seems like rather redundant coverage; I would recommend a slow special sweeper to replace one of those two. Exeggutor would probably be the best choice, especially as it can set up Trick Room itself if need be, though you could also try Glaceon if you don't want three Psychics.
 
I've included Porygon2 back in, and boltbeam adds super effective hits to help with Tangrowth/Milotic. Keep the comments coming, you all are a big help!
 
I think Slowking/bro is much better in Porygon 2's spot. It will help check Blaziken should you catch yourself w/o TR going. Also, Porgon 2 is safely KO'd by Leaf Storm and 2HKO'd by Sludge Bomb, so it can never switch into it safely. As for the Roserade problem... let me think for a little while. Ill get back to you if I think of something.
 
BurtonEarny said:
I think Slowking/bro is much better in Porygon 2's spot. It will help check Blaziken should you catch yourself w/o TR going. Also, Porgon 2 is safely KO'd by Leaf Storm and 2HKO'd by Sludge Bomb, so it can never switch into it safely. As for the Roserade problem... let me think for a little while. Ill get back to you if I think of something.
Click to expand...

I've found that using a physical Uxie or Mesprit with Lum Berry and Zen Headbutt counters Roserade beautifully.
 
Does Uxie's Zen Headbutt OHKO Roserade? If so, that would make a great addition to my moveset.

I've decided that I need to keep Porygon2, but am still debating on whether to bring Slowking back in over one of my other pokes, probably Exeggutor. I am also looking at a mixed Blaziken in that slot to help with stall. Thanks for the opinions, you all are a big help!
 
Unfortunately, Trapinch sees enough use to be NU, not NFE (surprisingly). My team has been having a lot of trouble with stall, and I've been looking into a NP Slowking or a mixed Blaziken to help (to be put over Exeggutor). Does anyone have any opinions?

P.S. Thanks for the support, Reaver12.
 
Blaziken and NP Honchkrow (with Superpower) are the best ones I've used. Both of them have diverse movepools and powerful STAB which hit all of UU's best walls for Super Effective.
 
I used Blaziken to somewhat disappointing results *Cough* Milotic *Cough*. However, Honchcrow is working out beautifully!

And just again, thanks guys, you all have been a great help!
 
Okay, Milotic is giving me some major problems! So to counter it i was thinking about maybe putting thunderpunch on Marowak. Would this be a good idea, or does somebody have another idea to counter Milotic?
 
Since you're using TR, you might wanna run Cacturne, as it can easily counter Milotic with STAB Seed Bomb.

Also, don't put Thunderpunch on Marowak, it'll do the same amount of damage EQ would with STAB factored in. You might wanna try Swords Dance over Double-Edge, as it also OHKO's Milotic with EQ and Thick Club.
 
Thanks for the suggestion :). I'm getting ready to test Cacturne, and I am trying to come up with a set that can counter Milotic and break stall, as it would probably go over Honchkrow. This is what I have come up with so far:

Cacturne @ Expert Belt
Sand Veil
Brave
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Sp Atk
Seed Bomb
Superpower
Dark Pulse
HP [Fire]

Seed Bomb gets STAB and helps with Milotic, Superpower decimates Chansey, Dark Pulse gets STAB and hits Mismagious, and HP [Fire] damages Roserade.

Anyone have an opinion?
 
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