Hi, well let’s get straight to the point! Trick Room! Having played these two variations extensively I think they deserve a spot in the sample thread, especially for those people who like me do not like to play balance and want to keep our teams offensive but viable. Honestly I don’t think there’s a stronger or more viable version of HO than TR in the common meta, it significantly reduces the poor mu that HO teams find themselves with and is the king of dunking on stall teams.
https://pokepast.es/04c5713cf9ce4725
https://pokepast.es/530df362ece3c5be
Now you may be thinking Bulu on TR!? Ewwww!! But on this particular team not only does bulu serve as an excellent switch in to the prominent dark types like ttar and ash gren, but with an adamant nature, sd and meadow plate it is a ridiculously strong breaker that can work in/out of TR, it also supports mage/mmaw/alola wak through recovery n eq reduction, 220hp for maximum grassy terrain recovery. However this version of TR can struggle with hard hitting fire types, the most prominent threats being Zard/heatran/victini/volc it of course has an answer in alola wak but users should be weary of the coverage moves these threats have when considering hard swapping in alola wak.
The second sample mitigates this fire weakness through the combination of bdrum azu and alola-wak. Azu also mitigates TR’s common weakness to dark types and is ev’d to be able to survive attacks like zapdos discharge, mvenu giga drain, sludge bomb (roll) after a bdrum. Mega Heracross is a surprise inclusion over Mega Mawile in this team but it puts in as much work if not more than mmaw if I’m honest. It’s typing gives u great offensive and defensive utility with what it can successfully switch into. Skill link deals well with any pests that what to try n sub stall tr, it’s stabs are almost unresisted in the meta with rock blast cleaning up anything that does. With or without an SD up this mon will run through teams, it’s ridiculously strong.
The common mons between the two teams I believe need little explanation if any but for the sake of full disclosure I’ll explain the move choices.
Uxie: a lot of people prefer magic coat over u-turn on this set but in the current meta I find u-turn to be much more useful, it’s inclusion eases the mu vs sash drill leads, gren leads and the slightly rare but still relevant hoopa-u. The idea is to trick room up vs these and then forgo clicking memento and press u-turn for the chip or the ko in hoopa’s case as it will consistently fall after a hyperspace fury def drop, leaving uxie alive also offers potential momentum later in the match as you’ll have a free mon to sac.
Alola-Marowak: I get a lot of questions about this set so I should definitely clarify this. Sub is preferred over sd as I find more often than not ppl will switch from this mon, especially if u memento into it. From behind the sub you effectively gain one extra turn outside of tr (assuming sub stays up) to hit whatever mon your opponent may send out before you have to retreat/sac. Bone Marang features on both teams to once again ease the mu vs sash drill leads who can be annoying to both teams. It also isn’t subject to tapu bulus grassy terrain.
Magearna: standard otr mage, people may prefer focus blast over aura sphere, personally I find on both teams that as a late game sweeper all mage tends to need is tbolt n z fleur to do its job.
Cress: standard TR cress, really nothing to mention here, the analysis already says it all.
I’ve probably missed a few solid points about these teams but please feel free to ask any questions. The teams are free for you to use and hopefully they make it into the official samples :)
