VGC My first VGC team. 2018 Trick Room Hail

Favorite Tapu


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Introduction
Hello. After watching a bit of VGC here and there over the past few years, I figured the 2018 season would be a good time to get into it. One thing I like to do when building a team, is take a forgotten or gimmick mon, and try to make it work well. That's what this team tries to do.

The Team

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Abomasnow-Mega (M) @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 188 HP / 68 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Blizzard
- Ice Shard
- Protect

The main focus of the team, Abomasnow has many downsides. It is weak to many common types like Rock and Fire, hates how common the other weather setters are, and with this moveset at least, it can't touch Steel or Fire Types. Thankfully, Abomasnow has some upsides. It has useful resistances to Ground, Water, and Electric. It can avoid Mega evolving in order to keep its immunity to sound based moves such as Mega Gardevior's Hyper Voice. Thanks to Hail, it never misses Blizzard, allowing it to take chunks out of the opponent's team (have to watch out for Wide Guard though). Giga Drain is there for decent STAB and recovery, while Ice Shard it there for STAB priority, which is nice in case I cant get up Trick Room. The EVs are max SpA, enough HP to live Life Orb Psychic from Tapu Lele, with the rest put into Atk to give a power boost to Ice Shard.

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Aegislash (M) @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- King's Shield
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak

Next I knew I wanted a mon who could handle Fighing and Rock Types while also serving as a general nuke, and Aegislash fit the bill. King's Shield as you all know is a version of Protect that lowers the opponent's Attack, even making mons like Ttar a bit nervous to hit this thing. Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon are STAB that compliment each other kinda well, with Shadow Sneak being nice priority, but comes with the price of leaving the bulky form at the beginning of the turn. EVs are self-explanatory. Z Shadow Ball is also a great Nuke.

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Cresselia @ Psychium Z
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Ally Switch

Next I wanted a bulky Trick Room setter with a Fighting resist and Ground Immunity. Unsuprisingly, the Trick Room staple Cresselia is on the team. Trick Room makes every mon on the team a more effective killer. Psychic is for STAB, while Ice Beam hits many common threats like Lando-T. I originally had Toxic over Ally Switch, but I never found myself using it so I went with Ally Switch mind games instead. The EVs are self-explanatory. Psychium Z enables Cress to either fire off a big hit or bypass Taunt users who try to prevent Trick Room.

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Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 92 SpA / 164 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Recover
- Thunderbolt

Next I wanted another bulky Trick Room setter, this time one a ghost immunity. Download is a fantastic ability that makes P2 a potent offensive threat when combined with its BoltBeam coverage. Recover to keep it alive. The SpA guarantees the 2hit ko on Zard Y(unless they run bulkier EV spread than I'm aware of, keep in mind I'm new to this). The rest is put into Special Bulk to better handle mons like the previously mentioned Zard Y, Zapdos, Koko, etc.

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Araquanid (F) @ Splash Plate
Ability: Water Bubble
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Liquidation
- Protect
- Wide Guard
- Lunge

Next I wanted a Water type who resisted fighting. I was thinking of going Azumarill, but i went with Araq thanks to it not being weak to Zard Y's Solar Beam and other Grass coverage Fire types might carry. Liquidation combined with Water Bubble is a strong nuke, while Lunge is nice for lowering the opponent's Attack. Wide Guard is nice for preventing spread moves. The EVs are pretty basic.

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Scrafty (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Super Fang

Lastly, I wanted an Intimidate mon who could also use Fake Out to aid in settings up Trick Room. I felt like Scrafty was a decent pick for the Job because it also handles the Dark types that give this team trouble, such as Ttar or Incineroar. It can also do okay vs Aegislash. Drain Punch and Knock Off are both reliable STABs with their own advantages, healing and removing items respectively. I almost went with Poison Jab for Bulu, but I ended up picking Super Fang for doing large chunks of damage to mons it otherwise couldn't touch, often putting them in range of the attacks from other Team members.

Conclusion/Threatlist

Although the team is far from perfect, I've enjoyed it so far and feel like with some more changes, it could be good. I've noticed the team kinda struggles vs Dark types, mainly Hydreigon and opposing Scrafty, but Ttar and Incineroar can be a headache at times. Mega Gengar and Milotic are also nuisances, but other than these I haven't found many issues. I'm lookin forward to yal's thoughts!

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Hey woofmasterarf! It's cool that you're exploring Full TR in VGC 18, which I think is an unexplored archetype in general, but I think the team could be optimised somewhat. I think the reason you're having trouble vs some Dark types is in part due to the fact that they threaten Cresselia and can sometimes Knock Off Porygon2's Eviolite (Scrafty / Incineroar) but mainly due to the fact that they're relatively bulky - Scrafty, Tyranitar and Incineroar can stand up to Abomasnow's attacks, for example, while Scrafty and Hydreigon can hold their own against Araquanid (especially with the former's Intimidate).

You could start fixing this vulnerability with Cresselia: adding some bulk would go a long way towards guaranteeing a TR set near the start of the game. Cresselia's main role isn't to produce a huge damage output, so in that sense I think Psychium Z is an inferior option to something like a Mental Herb (though at least it lowers Knock Off damage, I guess). I'd personally go for a bulkier set; even if you already survive most hits at 252/0, it's always good to be able to take some combination attacks. You may want to replace Psychic, since even with STAB Cresselia's damage output is mostly negligible; instead, Helping Hand could allow it to channel some sort of offensive pressure through its allies.

Instead, I feel that the Z Crystal could be better used on Araquanid, since Water Bubble Hydro Vortex is a truly fearsome nuke, OHKOing the likes of semi-bulky Pokemon like Mega Kangaskhan and (bulky) Zapdos; it also does some zany stuff like OHKO Tapu Koko and Tapu Lele even after Intimidate. Given that you have few turns of Trick Room, this would be an effective way to maximise them, and could also let you get some damage through the Protects that are so often used to stall out TR turns, potentially picking off weakened opponents. For your other Z Crystal, I'd say that Steelium Z might be a better choice on Aegislash. It lets you chunk the Dark-types you're struggling with more easily; for example, Corkscrew Crash OHKOs pretty much all non-AV Tyranitar.

Speaking of Aegislash, I think Substitute or Wide Guard could be a good pick in the last slot over Shadow Sneak. Substitute can take advantage of your opponents Protecting on the last turn of Trick Room, letting you net some good momentum, and works especially well in TR; Wide Guard, on the other hand, gives your team a better matchup against threats like Landorus-T. I've never really tried Shadow Sneak, so I have no experience with how it helps the team, but intuitively to me these two picks seem better.

Mega Abomasnow is a nice pick in theory, but I think often in practice it's fairly easily to play around because there are a lot of Pokemon in the format which can just wall it: Heatran, Aegislash, and even Ferrothorn, Celesteela and Snorlax to some extent. This is problematic, especially since some of those Pokemon (Aegislash, Ferrothorn) do pretty well against your other sweeper (Araquanid) too. I'm not sure how much this has affected you in practice, but I think you could use some coverage for those threats. Porygon2 could potentially be replaced with something like your own Heatran or Mega Camerupt for the dual Mega build, so that's always an option you could look into (you could also use Sunny Day on Cresselia if you do this).

My rate's been a little confused and filled with brackets, so here's a summary:
- Cresselia: Psychium Z -> Mental Herb, Psychic -> Helping Hand
- Araquanid: Mystic Water -> Waterium Z
- Aegislash: Ghostium Z -> Steelium Z
- Porygon2 -> Heatran / Mega Camerupt

Disclaimer, I'm not super experienced with this style of fullroom (I'm more used to Bulu/Camel/Bronzong) so please take my words with a pinch of salt (I think the Steelium change was good though, at least :x), and feel free to ask if you'd like more clarification on my thought process!!
 
Hey woofmasterarf! It's cool that you're exploring Full TR in VGC 18, which I think is an unexplored archetype in general, but I think the team could be optimised somewhat. I think the reason you're having trouble vs some Dark types is in part due to the fact that they threaten Cresselia and can sometimes Knock Off Porygon2's Eviolite (Scrafty / Incineroar) but mainly due to the fact that they're relatively bulky - Scrafty, Tyranitar and Incineroar can stand up to Abomasnow's attacks, for example, while Scrafty and Hydreigon can hold their own against Araquanid (especially with the former's Intimidate).

You could start fixing this vulnerability with Cresselia: adding some bulk would go a long way towards guaranteeing a TR set near the start of the game. Cresselia's main role isn't to produce a huge damage output, so in that sense I think Psychium Z is an inferior option to something like a Mental Herb (though at least it lowers Knock Off damage, I guess). I'd personally go for a bulkier set; even if you already survive most hits at 252/0, it's always good to be able to take some combination attacks. You may want to replace Psychic, since even with STAB Cresselia's damage output is mostly negligible; instead, Helping Hand could allow it to channel some sort of offensive pressure through its allies.

Instead, I feel that the Z Crystal could be better used on Araquanid, since Water Bubble Hydro Vortex is a truly fearsome nuke, OHKOing the likes of semi-bulky Pokemon like Mega Kangaskhan and (bulky) Zapdos; it also does some zany stuff like OHKO Tapu Koko and Tapu Lele even after Intimidate. Given that you have few turns of Trick Room, this would be an effective way to maximise them, and could also let you get some damage through the Protects that are so often used to stall out TR turns, potentially picking off weakened opponents. For your other Z Crystal, I'd say that Steelium Z might be a better choice on Aegislash. It lets you chunk the Dark-types you're struggling with more easily; for example, Corkscrew Crash OHKOs pretty much all non-AV Tyranitar.

Speaking of Aegislash, I think Substitute or Wide Guard could be a good pick in the last slot over Shadow Sneak. Substitute can take advantage of your opponents Protecting on the last turn of Trick Room, letting you net some good momentum, and works especially well in TR; Wide Guard, on the other hand, gives your team a better matchup against threats like Landorus-T. I've never really tried Shadow Sneak, so I have no experience with how it helps the team, but intuitively to me these two picks seem better.

Mega Abomasnow is a nice pick in theory, but I think often in practice it's fairly easily to play around because there are a lot of Pokemon in the format which can just wall it: Heatran, Aegislash, and even Ferrothorn, Celesteela and Snorlax to some extent. This is problematic, especially since some of those Pokemon (Aegislash, Ferrothorn) do pretty well against your other sweeper (Araquanid) too. I'm not sure how much this has affected you in practice, but I think you could use some coverage for those threats. Porygon2 could potentially be replaced with something like your own Heatran or Mega Camerupt for the dual Mega build, so that's always an option you could look into (you could also use Sunny Day on Cresselia if you do this).

My rate's been a little confused and filled with brackets, so here's a summary:
- Cresselia: Psychium Z -> Mental Herb, Psychic -> Helping Hand
- Araquanid: Mystic Water -> Waterium Z
- Aegislash: Ghostium Z -> Steelium Z
- Porygon2 -> Heatran / Mega Camerupt

Disclaimer, I'm not super experienced with this style of fullroom (I'm more used to Bulu/Camel/Bronzong) so please take my words with a pinch of salt (I think the Steelium change was good though, at least :x), and feel free to ask if you'd like more clarification on my thought process!!
Thanks! The main reason I had Shadow Sneak on Aegis was because I like to have priority in case I cant set up Trick Room, but with Lele so common it has been hard to use it. I'll likely replace it with Sub. I like a lot of the ideas. My only issue is dropping P2 since it was another Trick Room setter in case cress didnt like the matchup, but i think Mega Camerupt or Tran would be a good idea that I will definitely try. Overall, thanks for helping a newer player such as myself!.
 

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