Slow Down, Mate! - a Trick Room NU Team

[Bynine]

I must preface this RMT by saying that not only am I fresh to the NU scene as it is today, I don't have many competitative battles under my belt. That being said, I have playtested this team a few times for any obvious flaws, but I need your help in order to make it the best it can be.

Now, when I looked at the list of Pokemon used in NU, I noticed a lot of very slow and not particularly bulky Pokemon with powerful attacking stats. Immediately the not-oft used Trick Room came to mind. Thankfully the tier is as populated with those who can set up the negative space-time dimension as it is with those who can utilize it. With that in mind, I picked three Trick Room users and three Pokemon who could use their slow speed and powerful techniques to utilize it with (hopefully) some synergy in their typing and attacks. Without further ado.

AT A GLANCE

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In-Depth

Bane @ Focus Sash
Ability: Insomnia
EVs: 252 ATK (0 HP, DEF, SPD, SPE IVs)
Nature: Lonely (+ATK -DEF)
Trick Room
Destiny Bond
Taunt
Shadow Claw

Banette's only use in this metagame is using Trick Room and dying spectacularly, and that's exactly what it does well. I almost always lead with it for fear of entry hazards ruining its Focus Sash. The strategy is clear from its moveset - Trick Room, take the hit, Destiny Bond and remove the foe from the game. Taunt stops foes from setting up on Banette and Shadow Claw is a decently powered move in case Banette gets taunted instead.

Kece @ Leftovers
Ability: Colour Change
EVs: 252 HP, 128 DEF, 128 SPD (0 SPE IVs)
Nature: Sassy (+SPD -SPE)
Trick Room
Recover
Return
Foul Play

Kecleon is an underrated special wall to be sure, as its useful Colour Change ability means that the foe either has to alternate moves or do resisted damage to Kecleon. Even better, its original Normal type means that Shadow Ball, the only special move of any concern that can hit its own type for super effective damage, requires three turns (coverage move, ball, ball for double damage) to hit Kecleon. With Recover in its movepool this means it won't go down easily and can use this to set up Trick Room reliably. Kecleon's attack is nothing remarkable but Return and Foul Play means that it won't be set up bait either, and quick, defensively weak sweepers will get severely injured.

Duoe @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP, 128 DEF, 128 SPA (0 SPE IVs)
Nature: Quiet (+SPA -SPE)
Trick Room
Psychic
Hidden Power Fighting
Shadow Ball

Duosion has fairly miserable base stats (barring special attack), but with Eviolite its defenses are workable and Magic Guard means that it cannot be whittled down, either. Because it's so slow it can set up Trick Room and go before anything, and a base 125 special attack stat is nothing to scoff at, especially with Psychic/Fighting/Ghost coverage.

Gige @ Choice Band
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP, 252 ATK, 4 SPD (0 SPE IVs)
Nature: Brave (+ATK -SPE)
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Explosion
Heavy Slam

Gigalith is an absolute monster. Its attack breaks 600 with Brave/252 EVs/Choice Band, and STAB Stone Edges deal crushing damage to anything that doesn't resist them. It's also so slow (55 speed!) that a foe would be hard pressed to outspeed it in Trick Room, allowing it to make a clean run of things regardless of their speed. An unfortunate weakness to common priority moves like Aqua Jet and Mach Punch is a bit of an issue, but its physical bulk is strong enough so that they don't do major damage.

Octe @ Life Orb
Ability: Suction Cups
EVs: 252 HP, 252 SPA, 4 DEF (0 SPD IVs)
Nature: Quiet (+SPA -SPE)
Surf
Energy Ball
Fire Blast
Ice Beam

Octillery is the special equivelent of Gigalith for this team, it being slow and powerful as well. Although 105 base special attack isn't incredible, its phenomonal coverage ensures little can safely stay in with this red-headed menace. There isn't much to do with Octillery besides pointing the correct elemental attack in the right direction. I'm contemplating using Sniper over Suction Cups - although Sniper isn't great, getting a 3x critical hit would mow down anything, and Suction Cups doesn't do much for Octillery either.

Pare @ Leftovers
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 ATK, 128 DEF, 128 SPD (0 SPE IVs)
Nature: Relaxed (+DEF -SPE)
Spore
Leech Seed
Substitute
X-Scissor

Parasect is a bit of an oddball on this very offensively paced team, with only one attacking move - however, a sleeping move that is essentially priority and has perfect accuracy is too great to pass up. Parasect can switch in surprisingly easily, as Fighting, Grass, Ground, Electric, and especially Water attacks do screw-all to it. Then as it sits comfortably behind a Substitute it can absorb life with Leech Seed and do good damage with X-Scissor. The only issue is its multitude of weaknesses, but if Fire and Flying move users are taken out (who aren't particularly common in the first place) Parasect can truly shine.


A problem I've run into with this team is that the Trick Room users always die before the sweepers. I don't know how to amend this besides that maybe I'm not playing conservatively enough, but help would be appreciated!

 

[WhiteDMist]

It wouldn't hurt if you increased your descriptions a little, especially for Gigalith and Duosion (you don't really explain why you have chosen any of your moves, or the reasoning behind the choice of team members). I admit that this is the first time I've ever looked at a Trick Room RMT for the NU tier, so bear with me as I give you my rate.

At first glance, your team seems to be weak to Absol and Skuntank especially. Looking over your team more, I see nothing to change my mind. You have nothing to handle: Dark and Ghost types, bulky Psychic types, Taunt, priority, the Fire and Flying types that you yourself have mentioned, entry hazards, or even Sawksbuck. Finally, Parasect may seem amazing for its fast Spore under Trick Room, but it slows downs the momentum of your team. Trick Room teams need to spend most of their time attacking, since outside of Trick Room, they are easy pickings despite defensive investments.

My first recommendation would be for you to change Foul Play on Kecleon with Sucker Punch, giving your team much needed priority. Foul Play is rather worthless against most set up Pokemon in any case, since Musharna and other bulky Psychic-types are the only ones that would commonly set up. Foul Play won't really stop Musharna in any case without offensive investment.

I also recommend Rock Blast over Heavy Slam on Gigalith, since you have Duosion to handle Fighting types that Heavy Slam hits harder against. Rock Blast breaks through Substitutes and is extra STAB to pierce through troublesome things like SubDisable Haunter (who can safely demolish your team). Duosion's EV spread makes it fairly bulky on both sides, but it means that it won't hit very hard anymore. I would have to say that it can use a more offensive EV spread in order to inflict more damage. You already admitted that your Trick Room users die rather fast, so it is more important to inflict crippling damage instead of trying to keep Duosion at a decent amount of HP without recovery. It'll set easy to stop it from setting up again with a competent opponent.

I cannot recommend much to prevent most of the problems without ruining your team. Every team has its weaknesses, so I'm counting on your skill to be able to mitigate most of this team's weaknesses. My suggestions simply make doing so possible for what you currently cannot handle (i.e.- Braviary, Emboar, and priority especially)

Now, my only significant change in your team is to remove Parasect like I mentioned before. That frees that slow up for a more useful Pokemon; many Pokemon can fit that roles as well so you have a plethora of options you can choose from. Here is a list of the possibilities that you can choose from that can actually benefit your team:

Hide

Trick Room user: Exeggutor, Lampent (handles Fire types), Musharna, Beheeyem (very limited in terms of typing unfortunately)

Hazard user: Garbodor, Cacturne, Torterra (handles Sawsbuck), Carracosta (priority)

Trick Room sweepers: Marowak, Camerupt, Gurdurr, Piloswine, Mawile, Eelektross, Wailord, Zweilous, Ursaring

Non TR sweepers/cleaners: Scarf Rotom-S, Cinccino, Zangoose, Samurott, Absol

The options are varied, so its up to you to choose what best works with your playstyle. I highly recommend something that is offensive or can up Trick Room, since Parasect becomes rather useless once Trick Room fades with the prevalence of Rock Blast in the tier.

Now here are the changes once again:

Kecleon: Sucker Punch>Foul Play
Gigalith: Rock Blast>Heavy Slam
Duosion: 252 HP/ 4 Def/ 252 SpAtk

Good luck and welcome to NU! :)

 

[Audiosurfer]

I don't know much about NU trick room, so I can't give this much of a rate. However, I second WhiteDMists's suggestions, particularly the one to remove Parasect, which isn't doing much, and replace it with a non Trick Room sweeper. Most successful Trick Room teams have something to clean up teams that they can use late-game, since they can't count on Trick Room being up the whole time. Thus one of the cleaners he listed would be beneficial to your team, as it lacks something like that currently.