Welcome to the Trick Zone (TR for doubles)

FlamerMPE

When I had a look at the new pokemon for gen v, my first thought was that trick room would be the uber strategy. With so many powerful but slow pokemon, trick room seemed tailor-made for the new metagame. A few old faces got some major boosts along the way, making this stategy incredibly viable and annoying at worst to most other teams. Most highly offensive teams just don't have the bulk to last until the end of trick room, and ganging up on an opposing threat is a common tactic.

I took this team to a local tournament and swept through every match either 6-1 or 6-2. Poor ferrothorn didn't even get a chance to leave the pokeball.

I made a couple of changes before another tournament, and it feels a better fit, although I still haven't given all my pokemon a good workout yet. Scizor in particular needs testing in both roles.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 160 HP, 68 Def, 252 SAtt, 28 SDef
Nature: Quiet

Trick Room
Recover
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt

My number one lead and the star of the show. The EVs bring the defences to 351/349.5/349.5, which has proven enough to tank practically anything short of fake out/hi jump kick mienshao. The usual tactic is to get trick room out, but if faced with something very weak to the boltbeam combo or a taunter, I have plenty of power to remove the threat.

Conkeldurr @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Att, 4 SDef
Nature: Brave

Mach Punch
Drain Punch
Payback
Stone Edge

My number two lead. Conkeldurr has been very good for me, landing critical early OHKOs and 2HKOs with mach punch before trick room sets in. Once the speed has been reversed, I can either continue with the priority to beat out opposing priority, or regain bulk with drain punch. Payback and stone edge for the coverage to round things out and I have a vicious opening combination. By the time I have to switch Conkeldurr out, I've usually taken down one or two opponents, which sets me up nicely for the rest of the team.

Octillery @ Life Orb
Ability: Sniper
Evs: 248 HP, 252 SAtt, 8 SDef
Nature: Quiet

Water Spout
Flamethrower
Energy Ball
Ice Beam

Here's the main sweeper of the team. Water Spout in doubles is just plain vicious. With the life orb, water spout is just plain vicious for the first two turns. With trick room going, there isn't much going ahead of octillery, and with the right partner, can simply cherry pick opponents to kill with coverage moves if health becomes an issue. Within three turns, this octopus can tear the heart out of most opposing teams, leaving crumbs for the others to clean up.


Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 184 HP, 252 Att, 56 Def, 16 SDef
Nature: Brave

Outrage
Extremespeed
Fire Punch
Roost

For my main late physical sweeper, I wanted a pokemon with priority, a useful STAB, decent coverage, plenty of bulk and a typing that eliminated my fighting weakness. Enter dragonite. The EVs give her plenty of bulk (369/240/240) and lots of power to clean up opposing threats with either outrage or extremespeed. The berry ensures the first outrage doesn't backfire, allowing me to clean up the debris left over by octillery. Extremespeed also means I can take a weakened opponent down once trick room ends, keeping the momentum going while I prepare another round of trick room.

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 144 HP, 96 Def, 252 SAtt, 16 SDef
Nature: Quiet

Trick Room
Psychic
Ice Beam
Moonlight

After the first tournament, I'd found that reuniclus was getting hammered every time, so I couldn't set up trick room early enough. I didn't want to upset the type balance too much, so I went with cresselia instead. Everything about her just screams bulk, and she makes the team a bit more stable. Psychic and ice beam are to prevent taunters and to get a kill or two. Moonlight was selected to add even more bulk and ensure trick room gets up.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP, 252 Att, 8 SDef

U-Turn
Bullet Punch
Superpower
Pursuit

Scizor is here instead of ferrothorn. I never had to use ferrothorn in the first tournament, but I figured I had enough bulk as it was and needed some more priority to go with the choice band that was freed up. Enter scizor. Not only is scizor a good replacement for conkeldurr for leading duties, she comes back in later on to finish the job. The set is relatively standard, just with a little bit of special defense rather than speed because this is a trick room team.

Retirements/delistings:

Ferrothorn @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Barbs
Evs: 228 HP, 252 Att, 28 SDef
Nature: Brave

Power Whip
Gyro Ball
Leech Seed
Bulldoze

To be honest, I have no idea how well ferrothorn fits into the team as I have never needed to bring it out so far. Gyro ball and power whip are the obligatory STABs, made even more monstrous by trick room making ferrothrorn go first. Leech seed is a little gimmicky, but seeding both opponents adds some extra bulk to the team while bringing the enemy down to KO range for the partner. Bulldoze handles those enemy steels (ferrothorn especially) and electrics that may want to take out octillery. Ferrothorn is so slow it's almost guaranteed to go first (barring shuckle and some odd quick claw user) allowing it to remove anything remaining after the main sweepers have had their fun.

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 200 HP, 56 Def, 252 SAtt
Nature: Quiet

Trick Room
Psyshock
Focus Blast
Hidden Power Fire

Any good trick room team has a secondary trick roomer, and reuniclus fits the bill quite nicely. Hidden power is extremely helpful in surprising pokemon that would otherwise tank their way through reuniclus, while focus blast's luck has been with me. Psyshock is a useful STAB for sweeping with. I am finding that this set is not quite bulky enough, so a few tips here would be handy.

Defensive type effectiveness
Normal: 1 resistant, 5 normal
Fire: 2 resistant, 3 normal, 1 quad effective
Water: 2 resistant, 4 normal
Electric: 5 normal, 1 super effective
Grass: 2 quad resistant, 3 normal, 1 super effective
Ice: 2 resistant, 3 normal, 1 quad effective
Fighting: 2 resistant, 3 normal, 1 super effective
Poison: 1 immune, 5 normal
Ground: 2 immune, 4 normal
Flying: 5 normal, 1 super effective
Psychic: 2 resistant, 3 normal, 1 super effective
Bug: 3 resistant, 2 normal, 1 super effective
Rock: 1 resistant, 4 normal, 1 super effective
Ghost: 1 immune, 1 resistant, 3 normal, 1 super effective
Dragon: 1 resistant, 4 normal, 1 super effective
Dark: 2 resistant, 3 normal, 1 super effective
Steel: 2 resistant, 4 normal
 
anyways, on topic I see that you don't have many pokemon reliable outside of Trick Room. For this reason, I'd recommend you change D-nite to a 252 HP, 216 Speed, 44 Attack spread; this standard DD set will function well either way. if you change, replace extremespeed with dragon dance. to be honest, I can't say too much as I have never used a TR team in doubles
 
If this is a Doubles team, use Life Orb on Octillery. Games aren't going to be lasting long enough for the recoil to matter too much, and missing out on a key KO would be a worse outcome. Dragonite should also definitely be running a Lum Berry over Persim, since it helps blocks Burns from stuff like Sableye and Spores from Smeargle or something?
 
Interesting ideas guys. The lum berry is a definite improvement for dragonite. Life orb on octillery defeats the strength of water spout, especially if I have to use a coverage move early to eliminate a possible threat. That alternative set doesn't appeal to me, dragon dance and hone claws are practically wasted given the team and other moves, and the second priority user is something I've found to be very useful.
 
Hey therre
First off I'd put Scizor over Ferro because your gonna want as many sweepers as possible
That's about my only nitpick
Good luck :]
 
FlamerMPE said:
Life orb on octillery defeats the strength of water spout, especially if I have to use a coverage move early to eliminate a possible threat.
Click to expand...
Maths time!

Water Spout @ Wise Glasses

Water Spout will hit for (150*1.1)BP consistently.

First hit: 165 BP
Second hit: 165 BP
Third hit: 165 BP
Fourth hit: 165 BP

Sum: 660 BP

Water Spout @ Life Orb

Water Spout will hit for (150*1.3)BP, but this is decreased by 10% of the original value after each use.

First hit: 195 BP
Second hit: 175.5 BP
Third hit: 156 BP
Fourth hit: 136.5 BP

Sum: 663 BP

This means that, if Octillery was to do nothing but spam Water Spouts, without getting hit, the Life Orb set would outdamage the Wise Glasses set for 4 hits, and in Doubles that's pretty much as long as Octillery's going to live (if he's lucky) So long as Octillery uses Water Spout as his first or second attack (175.5 + 156 > 165 + 165), Life Orb is going to outdamage Wise Glasses on average. As you said, you'd only be using one coverage move before Water Spout most of the time, so this is a reasonably solid model. Since Water Spout's damage scales linearly with health, I think this assumption is correct even if Sandstorm is present. Not to mention your coverage moves will ALWAYS be much stronger.
 
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