Trick Room in OU (1500+)

Sesquipedalian

It's rather strange that comparatively bad Pokemon using a comparatively bad playing style end up being better together than if either part were good, but it seems to end up this way.
h21pPbo.png

At a glance:
  1. Bronzong
  2. Reuniclus
  3. Exploud
  4. Crawdaunt
  5. Malamar Porygon2
  6. Mawile
This motley collection of Pokemon, most of which are in RU are below, has somehow managed to bring me some success through the use of Trick Room. Right now, I have three gaping weaknesses that I'm hoping for some advice on filling: I have no hazard setter, no hazard remover, and am left quite weak to priority users. Other than that, any assistance on maintaining and improving my rating will be greatly appreciated.

bronzong.gif

Bronzong @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 SDef / 252 HP / 252 Atk 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Trick Room
- Gyro Ball

In 99% of games, Bronzong will be my lead. It is also the first of my three Trick Room setters. Gyro Ball and Trick Room make a very pleasant combination, since both play off of low speed. Since a great many other popular leads are actually quite speedy (Deoxys-S, of course, being the most notable), Gyro Ball can actually do some heft damage on occasion, but it's main use is honestly just Taunt protection. Reflect and Light Screen, combined with the Light Ball, round out Bronzong's role as a Dual Screener, which actually ends up being even more useful than you might expect. If you time it right, the screens stay up just long enough for the second round of Trick Room to be set up, so they provide some very helpful protection while doing so.

reuniclus.gif

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef 192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Energy Ball Shadow Ball

As the second of my Trick Room setters, Reuniclus plays a very important role. It's a fairly obvious choice for the Room, and its moves are also pretty self-explanatory. Psychic is the main stab (I chose it over Psyshock simply because Malamar covers physical psychic attacks so much better, and the damage output is better), while Focus Miss (for Ferrothorn, Bisharp, and Tyranitar), and Shadow Ball (for Gengar, Aegislash, and Deoxys-S) provide some much-needed coverage against those that resist it. Magic Guard and Life Orb make a fairly obvious combination, and it's nice to have around to slurp up Will-o-Wisps.

porygon2.gif

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 4 SDef / 252 HP / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Tri Attack
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam


exploud.gif

Exploud @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Boomburst

If Exploud only had one move on it, I would hardly know the difference. Boomburst is essentially a 210 base power move with no drawbacks on Exploud, and it hits through substitutes, Ghosts, and almost everything else. I can hardly count the number of times of seen sweepers comfortably set up behind a substitute only to be OHKO'd by Exploud on the revenge.

crawdaunt.gif

Crawdaunt @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Crabhammer
- Crunch
- Knock Off

Between Adaptability, Choice Band, and some great moves, Crawdaunt's offensive presence is always felt. Aqua Jet makes Crawdaunt able to function when Trick Room inevitably goes down, while Crabhammer and Knock Off are there for raw power while it's up. As my best response to a Charizard-Y, Crawdaunt is an essential part of the team.

mawile-mega.gif

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Fire Fang

With it often cited as having only one flaw, speed, Mawile is an obvious choice for the Mega slot. It beats out Ampharos (perhaps the next best option) mostly for its role as a fairy and dragon slayer. Sucker Punch is there for priority and for a good old-fashioned mind game, while Fire Fang is some very nice coverage, especially in the mirror match-up.

Trick Room has shaped up to be a moderately viable strategy in the current metagame. It completely trumps Sticky Web users (and the occasional Tailwind, if you ever seen one), and it allows Pokemon to invest more heavily in defense while also hitting harder and faster. However, it is far from perfect, since it is always a struggle to maintain the Room. Let me know what I can do to improve my team; thank you both for your time and for any assistance you can provide.
 
Last edited:
This team seems a ok at a glance, but I'm going to throw a few pointers around.

Firstly, for Bronzong, Trick Room + Gyro Ball is basically one of the worst possible combinations you can put on a pokemon. Trick Room with 0 Speed IVs + a hindering nature will make Bronzong almost always move first, and that pretty much means that you'll be using a base 20 Gyro Ball. Prior to setting up Trick Room however, Gyro Ball will be doing a lot of damage. To keep to a consistent amount of damage regardless of Trick Room, I'd recommend using Iron Head. Iron Head is a base 80 power, and is good enough at doing damage as well as being Taunt protection, considering that the only main thing this Bronzong should be doing is setting up Dual Screens + Trick Room. I'd also switch around the EVs to be 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD with a Careful nature as you really want to be bulky enough to switch in multiple times and take more hits, and specially defensive investment basically is a better way to take threats such as Keldeo, Landorus-I, Thundurus etc.

On Reuniclus, I'd recommend getting rid of Energy Ball and throwing either Calm Mind or Shadow Ball on it, as Reuniclus doesn't exactly hit things with Energy Ball that it doesn't with Psyshock. Calm Mind basically makes Reuniclus a total powerhouse, but it doesn't work too well in Trick Room, which is where Shadow Ball becomes a viable option. With Shadow Ball, you hit many threats such as Aegislash, Deo-S, and Gengar. I'd also recommend a spread of 192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SpA with a Quiet nature to boost physical bulk a little more.

Malamar is absolute trash. It's NU for a reason. Basically, with Malamar, the only real niche I see on it is Contrary Superpower, and that takes a while to use until Malamar actually becomes a threat. Its 4x weakness to Bug also messes it up as most Bug Buzz / Bite users can take any hit Malamar has got (except for Volcarona with Rock Slide) and just OHKO it. I'd recommend Porygon2 as it has the bulk and offensive stats as well as access to Trick Room to pull off a sweep. A simple spread of 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD and a Quiet nature is good, with basically Tri Attack / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt as offensive moves, but Recover could work for Thunderbolt as well.

Exploud, Crawdaunt, and Mawile look good, keep them.
 
The Shellder Smuggler said:
This team seems a ok at a glance, but I'm going to throw a few pointers around.

Firstly, for Bronzong, Trick Room + Gyro Ball is basically one of the worst possible combinations you can put on a pokemon. Trick Room with 0 Speed IVs + a hindering nature will make Bronzong almost always move first, and that pretty much means that you'll be using a base 20 Gyro Ball. Prior to setting up Trick Room however, Gyro Ball will be doing a lot of damage. To keep to a consistent amount of damage regardless of Trick Room, I'd recommend using Iron Head. Iron Head is a base 80 power, and is good enough at doing damage as well as being Taunt protection, considering that the only main thing this Bronzong should be doing is setting up Dual Screens + Trick Room. I'd also switch around the EVs to be 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD with a Careful nature as you really want to be bulky enough to switch in multiple times and take more hits, and specially defensive investment basically is a better way to take threats such as Keldeo, Landorus-I, Thundurus etc.

On Reuniclus, I'd recommend getting rid of Energy Ball and throwing either Calm Mind or Shadow Ball on it, as Reuniclus doesn't exactly hit things with Energy Ball that it doesn't with Psyshock. Calm Mind basically makes Reuniclus a total powerhouse, but it doesn't work too well in Trick Room, which is where Shadow Ball becomes a viable option. With Shadow Ball, you hit many threats such as Aegislash, Deo-S, and Gengar. I'd also recommend a spread of 192 HP / 64 Def / 252 SpA with a Quiet nature to boost physical bulk a little more.

Malamar is absolute trash. It's NU for a reason. Basically, with Malamar, the only real niche I see on it is Contrary Superpower, and that takes a while to use until Malamar actually becomes a threat. Its 4x weakness to Bug also messes it up as most Bug Buzz / Bite users can take any hit Malamar has got (except for Volcarona with Rock Slide) and just OHKO it. I'd recommend Porygon2 as it has the bulk and offensive stats as well as access to Trick Room to pull off a sweep. A simple spread of 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD and a Quiet nature is good, with basically Tri Attack / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt as offensive moves, but Recover could work for Thunderbolt as well.
Exploud, Crawdaunt, and Mawile look good, keep them.
Click to expand...
I dont think thats how the bp of gyro works js zongers speed is still very low and i think that keeps gyro's bp high TR or not
 
The Shellder Smuggler said:
This team seems a ok at a glance, but I'm going to throw a few pointers around. [snip]
Click to expand...
I'm not quite sure Gyro Ball behaves like that. I just did a Google search, and according to this, I should be fine, but definitely let me know if that source is incorrect. For now, I think I'll keep Gyro Ball until I can be certain one way or another. The EV stuff looks really helpful, though; thank you very much. Malamar has been serving me pretty well, but I'll switch it out for Porygon-2 and see how I like it. Over all, thank you a ton for taking the time to help me out and for the very valuable advice.

What's the convention for making changes? Should I leave the original, so that people don't get confused when they see it again later, or should I change it so that people don't suggest the same things? For now, I'll use strike-throughs, though that won't make it exportable.
 
Sesquipedalian said:
I'm not quite sure Gyro Ball behaves like that. I just did a Google search, and according to this, I should be fine, but definitely let me know if that source is incorrect. For now, I think I'll keep Gyro Ball until I can be certain one way or another. The EV stuff looks really helpful, though; thank you very much.

Malamar has been serving me pretty well, but I'll switch it out for Porygon-2 and see how I like it.

Over all, thank you a ton for taking the time to help me out and for the very valuable advice.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, no problem! I'm glad I helped, sorry for my poor advice on Gyro Ball.
 
Cacturne said:
Im with TSS on malimar being subpar tho :/ definitely make that switch
Click to expand...
The Shellder Smuggler said:
Oh yeah, no problem! I'm glad I helped, sorry for my poor advice on Gyro Ball.
Click to expand...
I made the changes you suggested (and don't worry about Gyro Ball) and I'm trying them out now.
One other option for a Trick Room setter I was considering was Chandelure:

chandelure.gif

Chandelure @ Expert Belt
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Fire Blast
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball

Is this superior to any of the current three, or should I just leave it out?
 
Sesquipedalian said:
I made the changes you suggested (and don't worry about Gyro Ball) and I'm trying them out now.
One other option for a Trick Room setter I was considering was Chandelure:

chandelure.gif

Chandelure @ Expert Belt
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Fire Blast
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball

Is this superior to any of the current three, or should I just leave it out?
Click to expand...

Chandelure really isn't that slow, so I wouldn't advise it.
 
The Shellder Smuggler said:
Chandelure really isn't that slow, so I wouldn't advise it.
Click to expand...
Actually chandy is slower than a good deal of stabdards mons especially w/ 0 spe and a - nature

On another note as a pure setter aromatisse could be cool as it has the niche of not being taunted as it gets TR up and can also act as a cleric

EDIT: i meant its ability negates taunt if that wasnt clear im on my phone atm so posting is hard
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top