Trickster Mode

[Legitimate Username]

Trickster Mode

Introduction

This is a team that I made back when Deoxys-D was banned. As my typical Volt-Turn Hyper Offense play style was heavily nerfed, I decided to move on to a new type of team: Trick Room. I remembered playing against Trick Room teams and feeling completely helpless, unable to outspeed anything, taking hit after hit with no chance of retaliation. So I figured it would be fun to be on the winning side of that kind of battle. And I’ll have to admit, people really don’t give Trick Room enough credit. I managed to bring my Glicko2 to about 1850 on a couple of alts, but I feel like this team can do better. So after nearly 3 months, I finally decided to make an RMT and see what improvements can be made.

Team at a glance

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Team Building Process

I started with three Trick Room setters. I’ve used Porygon2 in the past and that thing is nearly unbreakable. It has the advantage over other bulky Trick Room setters such as Cresselia and Bronzong in that it isn’t a Psychic type, something that these teams often have excess of. I had gone against a Trick Room Victini once back in BW1, and it was not a forgettable experience. V-Create’s raw power combined with its now-beneficial speed drop makes it hard to stop once it gets going. Lastly, Reuniclus, who is pretty much mandatory for any Trick Room team.

For my first Trick Room abuser, I picked Technician Breloom. It has pretty good power with Mach Punch and Bullet Seed, but its main selling point was that it could outspeed most opponents under Trick Room and hit them with Spore before they even got a chance to react.

Next, I decided on Heatran. With strong special attacks, the ability to wreck Sun teams, and access to Stealth Rock, I figured it would be a good powerhouse and supporter.

Finally, I went with Rock Polish Landorus as my late-game sweeper. Once the opposing team was weakened, and I wouldn’t get a chance to set Trick Room again, it could come in, set up, and finish them off with Sheer Force boosted attacks.

Landorus wasn’t doing quite as well as I hoped. It rarely got the setup opportunities to use Rock Polish, and its relative frailness was punishing if Focus Blast missed or it failed to OHKO a bulky threat. Besides that, it had a water weakness that a lot of my team shared. So I replaced him with Choice Scarf Salamence, who needed no setup and could get free boosts through Moxie.

The team was still more rain weak than I wanted. Heatran was almost always dead weight against them, and had trouble countering Sun teams when it would just get wiped out by Dugtrio the moment it showed its face. Besides that, I found Trick Room turns were often too valuable to waste on setting Stealth Rock. So I went with Choice Specs Magnezone. Besides helping Salamence by destroying steel types, it could counter Rain teams quite nicely and could conserve momentum through Volt Switch.

Magnezone left me rather weak to Sun, and he had trouble Volt Switching with the constant risk of Ground types switching in. So its replacement was Choice Specs Empoleon, who completed a nice FWG core, while keeping the valuable Steel typing and resistances it grants.

The Team​

porygon2 (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Trait: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover

And here’s reason #1 why you should never let me near MS Paint! Porygon2 is who I usually lead with, and it does its job perfectly. It takes pitiful damage from most attacks, sets up Trick Room, then retreats to let an abuser come in. The EVs are simple: max HP for bulk and max SpA for power. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam provide good coverage that lets it beat anything with such a weakness. If they aren’t weak to those attacks, it can gradually wear down most opponents while Recover stalling. Download is an absolutely incredible ability, letting it take on threats such as Heatran, Gastrodon, Jolteon, and Landorus-T with little trouble. Its weakness is status, especially Toxic, unless the opponent has something with Natural Cure it can switch into.

D--> Bre100m (Breloom) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Spore
- Focus Punch
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

While it may seem strange to be running two priority moves on a Trick Room abuser, this set works so well it’s almost poetic. I’ve found that Trick Room turns are too valuable to waste on setting up Swords Dance, so I went with Focus Punch. Usually I use Low Sweep with Techniloom to get the speed advantage when the opponent switches in, but that would backfire pretty badly in this situation. Then I remembered a friend of mine showed me this Focus Punch set, and it worked perfectly here. Breloom’s low speed allows it to hit the opponent with Spore before taking a hit, then it can freely launch Focus Punches at the opposition. I remember back before this set was popular opponents would get caught off-guard by the Focus Punch, expecting a Swords Dance. Nowadays it’s a bit more predictable, but it still gets the job done. Mach Punch can pick off anything that Focus Punch comes within a few inches of KOing, while Bullet Seed provides plenty of raw power, especially against rain teams. Life Orb is used over Fighting Gem to give Breloom some staying power after it takes down the first foe. The EVs are still simple here: max Attack and HP since Speed isn’t necessary.

wweh (Empoleon) (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SAtk / 3 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Hydro Pump

Empoleon is my second Trick Room abuser, functioning as a bulky pivot. Its Steel typing gives him plenty of resistances to compound its fantastic bulk, letting him switch into many attacks and retaliate hard. Choice Specs takes its decent Special Attack and boosts it incredibly high. Having Water typing really helps the team a lot, granting him boosted attacks in Rain and super effective coverage on many Sun and Sand threats. I’m one of those weird people who would use Surf over Hydro Pump, though Ice Beam and HP Grass give him good enough coverage so he can run both. The IVs seem a little weird, but their purpose is to minimize Attack and Speed while still getting a base 70 power HP Grass. The EVs are following a pretty obvious pattern here.

:33 < victini (Victini) @ Charcoal
Trait: Victory Star
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Brick Break

Ah yes, the classic Trick Room+speed drop combo. Victini has obnoxious power with V-Create. Factoring in STAB and Charcoal, V-Create’s base power is the equivalent of 180*1.5*1.2=324. That’s still 168 in Rain, and a jaw-dropping 486 in Sun. Essentially, a rain-weakened or resisted V-Create still hits harder than a neutral Bolt Strike. So besides being able to take down anything on a Sun team bar Heatran, Victini can even sweep Rain teams if given a free switch. V-Create hits the many Steel types found on Rain, while Bolt Strike murders the Water types. Heatran is the main counter, as Brick Break is usually only 3HKO. However, it won’t last if it’s taken too much prior damage. Charcoal is the best item as Life Orb recoil often causes Victini to faint too early, and as shown earlier, its coverage moves don’t really see much use anyways. The EVs are the same as everything else, as Victini has surprising bulk before its defenses have been lowered too much.

0_0 (Reuniclus) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

Reuniclus is essentially the essence of Trick Room itself manifested into a single Pokémon, and it’s pretty obvious why. Its Speed means that he’s outspeeds only Gyro Ball Ferrothorn, and its high Special Attack is further complemented by a drawback-free Life Orb. Psychic or Psyshock was a difficult choice as it always is, but being unable to break some physical walls with a special attacker is more annoying than being walled by Blissey. The last two moves are the basic coverage to hurt the types that resist Psychic. The EVs maximize Special Attack, with a small bulk investment dedicated to Defense rather than HP to better cushion physical blows.

S4L4M3NC3 (Salamence) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

Salamence is my backup plan. Victini and Reuniclus are both fully capable of pulling off late game sweeps on their own, but there are always those times where your Trick Room users die near the endgame and you’re left at a huge disadvantage. But then Salamence comes in and smashes through the opponent’s weakened team. With a Choice Scarf, it outspeeds most foes without needing to set up. Then if Moxie boosts start piling up, it becomes nothing short of a wrecking ball. Outrage is the primary move for obvious reasons: raw power. Dragon Claw is helpful if the opponent has a lot of severely weakened Pokémon left rather than a few moderately weakened ones; that way, there’s less reliance on how many turns Outrage lasts or whether or not Salamence hurts itself in confusion. Earthquake and Fire Blast provide coverage on Steel types in case Victini didn’t manage to melt them all down.

Threatlist
This section woulda been a lot longer if I was using Magnezone instead of Empoleon. Now I'm having trouble writing it. Anyways, like most Trick Room teams, this is heavily threatened by well-built stall teams. Most defensive Pokemon are checked by at least two of my own, but it isn’t hard for an opponent to make smart switches and keep the momentum in his favor. Generally what I try to do is force switches, wait for a misprediction, and kill something when given the chance. Once a core is broken down, it’s a lot less threatening. I don't think there's any real weakness to any specific Pokémon, just well played defensive teams.

A small note about Conkeldurr: I'm fully aware that under Trick Room, this thing can plow right through most of the metagame (Sheer Force set with Drain Punch and all 3 elemental punches). But I haven't yet had the chance to try it out, mostly because it's just too hard to give up Breloom and his epic SporePunch combo. I'm not quite sure which would benefit the rest of the team more, so I'm open to using either, depending on whatever you team-raters say. Similarly, I think Swords Dance Lucario may be worth using over MoxieMence, but I haven't been able to test that yet either.

Conclusion
Thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun using Trick Room for the first time, it’s a great strategy that I think deserves a lot more credit. Please steal this team, as it’ll bring Victini a little higher in the usage stats (I really hope it makes it to OU before Gen V ends), and help a few more people realize that Trick Room is indeed quite viable in this metagame.​

Importable (I'd appreciate it if the nicknames weren't changed)

porygon2 (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Trait: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover

D--> Bre100m (Breloom) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Spore
- Focus Punch
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

wweh (Empoleon) (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SAtk / 3 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Hydro Pump

:33 < victini (Victini) @ Charcoal
Trait: Victory Star
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk / 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Brick Break

0_0 (Reuniclus) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

S4L4M3NC3 (Salamence) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

 

[Rosez66]

Firstly well done for trying out trick room in ou, its not easy but a well made one can be very effective which is why you should take a look at my sand shifters team also ou may help you out. Now onto the rate. I sense this team is very rain weak looking at it, mainly rain stall. For this reason I would put in choice scarf thundrus t instead of salamenace, it has a higher speed resits electric and ground moves and really does out the hurt in most rain team mons.

I haven't ever really like trick room victini, as its very predictable, and empleon with a choice item can run down the momentum especially if you have to switch because of these reasons I would put in heatran into empleon a place, again standrd trick room stats however, heatran has eruption as an event only move with a quiet nature, and people don't usually expect heatran to be in a trick room team so this is surprising and it is very powerful especially if you nab a flash fire boost against sun teams.

Looking at your breloom I would really consider putting in sword dance over focus punch. This way you carry on the sweep even when trick room runs out, this way you have a huge advantage in trick room and once its effects are passed you can keep up the sweep with a powerful priority move.

Now the one last thing which I see as a problem is hazards. None of your pokemon have a hazard move or rapid spin, this is why I would suggest Xatu, I know you may be thing WTF but I treacly works, give it u turn, roost heat wave and toxic (or another move you see fit). Th brilliance of this is that you cannot be taunted and you can use the opponents hazards against them completely shutting down pokemon such ferro forre and skarm, also the toxic helps dragonite and Multiscale.

Anyway hope I have helped and good luck.

 

[deadflame]

Great team! I don't have much to say, but felt compelled to write this as I really like your team. One thing I noticed is that Empoleon has HP Grass instead of Grass Knot. If you run Grass Knot over Hydro Pump or Surf, you can run something like HP Electric, or even Signal Beam for Celebi. Just a passing recommendation, really.

Much Ludvisc!

 

[Masttershake]

Change your Mencs IVs to 31 Satk. No idea why you have it listed as 0 when you are using fire blast

 

[Legitimate Username]

Alright, better respond to some of these rates.

Rosez66, I like the suggestion of Scarf Thundurus-T. I'll definitely miss having STAB Outrage and Moxie boosts, but the extra power against rain may be worth it. As for Heatran, I've tried that already. It's dead weight against rain, and every sun team over prepares for it with Dugtrio and stuff like that. Swords Dance Breloom just doesn't work at all for this team. Considering that generally something that can wall it such as Celebi, Latias, or Gliscor switches in right after he Spores something, trying to boost is a waste of time. At least with Focus Punch he can dent them fairly hard before I switch out to a counter, whereas a Swords Dance boost would just be wasted. Xatu, I'm not quite sure about. It has 95 speed and can't hit very hard, killing a lot of the team's momentum, and this team doesn't have any trouble with Forretress and Ferrothorn at all. But it would be nice to do something about the team's hazard weakness, so it may be worth testing.

deadflame, thanks for liking this team! Considering that I don't use Hydro Pump as much as I originally thought, Signal Beam, or perhaps just Flash Cannon for an extra STAB, may be quite helpful in some situations. HP Electric doesn't seem so necessary, since Gyarados isn't much of a threat.

Masttershake, it's just a copy-paste typo from when I was testing out Fire Fang for a few games. But thanks for pointing it out.