SS OU Crown Tundra Illegal trick room

Introduction

I've always loved trick room conceptually, but it was never a very strong archetype in the earlier gen 8 metas (also I was never a very strong pilot). This team is heavily based on the recommendations of another TR team which seems to have been deleted from the forum; if anyone can find it, please let me know and I'll credit properly and/or remove my thread. EDIT: I found it, this thread, the response by gross sweep. I'm inclined to leave this up because it's so different from the top-level team in that thread, but I can take this down if people think it's redundant.
The name of this team comes from the fact that of the six mons, only one is vgc legal, though all are valid ou mons at present.


Team Overview

magearna.gif
cresselia.gif
uxie.gif
glastrier.gif
melmetal.gif
marowak-alola.gif


This is a fully committed trick room team; every mon has minimum speed and I have no priority, meaning the team is at a massive disadvantage fighting outside trick room. This is balanced by the fact that I have three very bulky TR setters, all of whom can get one trick room off (at least) before dying and safely get in an abuser.

Uxie @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Memento
- Magic Coat

Cresselia @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Moonlight
- Lunar Dance

Magearna @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Thunderbolt
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon


Glastrier @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Chilling Neigh
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Crunch
- High Horsepower
- Icicle Crash

Melmetal @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Thunder Punch
- Superpower
- Earthquake
- Double Iron Bash

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 1 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Bonemerang
- Flare Blitz
- Poltergeist

Pokemon/sets breakdown

uxie.gif

Uxie @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Memento
- Magic Coat

Uxie is a suicide lead; nine times out of ten, this will be your first pokemon in and first pokemon to faint. Uxie's role is to set up stealth rock and trick room then die so one of your abusers comes in. Magic coat and mental herb are mainly to deny taunt shenanigans. The ideal setup is stealth rock -> TR -> memento, which stops defog and rapid spin attempts and gives your abuser the chance to boost against a weakened enemy (though you don't have to). If your opponent leads with anything which can 2hko uxie (mainly Spectrier, Genesect, and Pheromosa, and notably NOT Kartana), you'll have to settle for trick room -> stealth rock without memento.
Note that specs Aegislash and choice band Urshifu can OHKO you (it's a 50/50 damage roll for Aegislash, and neither can ohko without their choice item).



cresselia.gif


Cresselia @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Moonlight
- Lunar Dance

Cresselia is our secondary trick room setter. This thing is so absurdly bulky that you can switch into and set up on almost every unboosted mon in the game. Once you do, you have the option to get in a sweeper safely with lunar dance or to hard switch and preserve cresselia; this is one of the most important decisions on the team. Cresselia can also directly answer the startlingly many pokemon who are quadruple weak to ice beam; in particular, this is our answer to both landorus forms and zygarde. The item choice here is negotiable; without colbur berry, cresselia will also be one-shot by a choice banded wicked blow, which makes urshifu an incredibly strong counter to this team; without mental herb, taunt makes you useless. There's even an argument to be made for kasib berry, which would let you set up trick room on a +1 spectrier.



magearna.gif


Magearna @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Thunderbolt
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon


Is it a setter? Is it an abuser? Why not both? Magearna is stupendously durable with 115 defenses and an incredible defensive typing, and until the dlc this was the highest special attack in the tier (before it was banned for being too strong). Magearna can sweep lategame with soul heart boosts, but its main role on this team is as an extremely versatile panic button. If you're ever losing tempo and Cresselia can't come in (for example, Spectrier just ko'd something, or Urshifu is in the game), Magearna can switch in and set up a trick room, then apply instant pressure with it's own devastating special attacks. In terms of move choice, fleur cannon forces out half the meta, and flash cannon is an excellent spammable stab. The last slot can be used for coverage; I'm using thunderbolt mainly to hit flying and steel types (or, better yet, flying steel types, as Corviknight can be problematic to this team), but ice beam, volt switch, and focus blast are all viable options.
The ev spread is self explanatory, be bulky, hit like a truck, and be fast under trick room; there is one important choice, though; moving one point from SpA to SpDef means we always survive +1 modest choice specs shadow ball from spectrier; without magearna, spectrier will sweep through the entire team if it ever gets in without trick room active. Without this slight reallocation, Spectrier has a 7% chance to ohko Magearna, at which point you can concede safely.



glastrier.gif


Glastrier @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Chilling Neigh
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Crunch
- High Horsepower
- Icicle Crash

The only strictly new member to the team, Glastrier was made for trick room. After a swords' dance, nothing can switch into this under TR, and chilling neigh lets you set up just by attacking. In addition, Glastrier's stupendous bulk lets it take one super effective hit from all but the strongest attackers after trick room ends. High horsepower crushes Heatran and Toxapex, as well as being generally strong coverage. Icicle crash is obvious stab option. The third slot is less set in stone; close combat to cover balloon users and hit as hard as possible is a valid choice, and avalanche is devastatingly powerful (and 100% accurate) for picking up an extra ko or two after trick room ends. My reasoning behind crunch was twofold; first, it's 100% accurate and one of the least resisted types in the game, making it good for safely picking up kos on weakened mons that might try to get fancy with switches; second, its chance to drop defense can break through walls that would otherwise stop you in your tracks. This was admittedly more of an issue when haze Toxapex was still popular in the first days of the expansion.



melmetal.gif


Melmetal @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Thunder Punch
- Superpower
- Earthquake
- Double Iron Bash

Wanna see me click double iron bash? Wanna see me do it again? Choice band Melmetal. It hits things. Hard. It's not uncommon for an opponent to not have a single member who can survive the iron assault from even footing, let alone switch into it; the rolls on this are ridiculous. Lando-T dies on the switch after intimidate. Kyurem-black is one shot through a substitute. Non-bulky Genesect is ohko'd after rocks despite being resistant, as are almost all offensive Pokemon. In addition, trick room makes the flinch rate very significant; in terms of damage, flinch chance, and typing, Melmetal in trick room is almost exactly the same as Jirachi if iron head had 305 base power. Melmetal can also fight fine outside of trick room, as, like Glastrier, it can usually take one or even two super effective hits. The other three moves are honestly not very important, but Earthquake is nice coverage on most things that resist Double Iron Bash, and Thunder Punch smacks Corviknight and Pex (again, this might be outdated for the current meta. I haven't actually clicked the move in the last 30 games).



marowak-alola.gif


Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 1 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Bonemerang
- Flare Blitz
- Poltergeist

Alolan Marowak is the only pokemon of which I am aware to have 209 base attack. Couple this with swords' dance, the best stab in the game in ghost, and a nice secondary of fire, and this thing is practically required on trick room teams. After SD there exist no switch-ins, and only the very bulkiest Pokemon can survive a hit. Flare Blitz and Poltergeist are obvious stab choices, and swords' dance is necessary to push our attack from "staggeringly high" to "unfairly high." I know there's significant disagreement on the third slot, with top choices being Shadow bone, Bonemerang, and Earthquake. I chose Bonemerang to be able to ohko through focus sash (particularly against excadrill, who otherwise threatens us out with sash) and to put more pressure on substitutes, as well as for the ground type coverage. I don't think shadow bone is neccessary on this team as nothing should live long enough to use its item.
Marowak's ability also presents a lot of options. I think cursed body is probably the weakest choice, as I'm not trying to take a lot of hits, but it can certainly be helpful, particularly as my team has a lot of shared weaknesses. Rock head would definitely help, as you often want to be spamming flare blitz and with this much attack, that hurts; I have taken 189% of Marowak's hp from flare blitz recoil in a single game. However, I currently prefer Lightning Rod for the simple reason that nothing on my team resists electric, and Regieleki and volt switch are both things that exist. Lightning Rod can also come in handy to block Thunder Wave hax.

Why one speed iv? I've actually been running into trick room enough that I thought it would be worth speed creeping their marowak. Trick room often doesn't go up nearly as much in the mirror, and marowak is already my "slowest" trick room sweeper, so I'm hoping to edge them out outside trick room.



Team Strengths

Un-stoppable
It's extremely difficult to stop this team from executing its gameplan; between mental herb, colbur berry, and the raw bulk of my setters, trick room is going up. Once it's up, Melmetal and Glastrier are slower than anything that is not iv'd for low speed (Glastrier is even slower than Stakataka that's not slow-invested). Even if the opponent is minspeed, they're among the ten slowest mons in the tier. In addition, even the sweepers are hard to ohko, meaning that they can often make the final push after trick room support is gone by their sheer bulk.

Power: Overwhelming
It would be hard to find a team that hits harder than this. Only dedicated walls can stand up to our physical breakers, and even then they need favorable typing and a way to deny boosts or they'll crumple. It's a regular occurrence to get Marowak or Glastrier over a thousand attack.

The First shall be Last, and the Last be First
The current meta is full of lightning-fast, devastating attackers like Pheromosa, Naganadel, Blaziken, Regieleki, and Kartana, to say nothing of more moderately fast Pokemon like Landorus, Urshifu, and the new legendary birds. These things were ubers for a reason in natdex, but trick room neuters all of them.

No Time to Die
As long as your trick room setters are alive, this team doesn't have a disadvantage state. Enemy boosters are a complete non-issue; they'll never have a window to set up without being obliterated by your abusers attacks, and if they try to set up on your setters, they'll simply be outsped and crushed under trick room.

Team Weaknesses

6.5/10 no comeback mechanics
If you get behind far enough Cressalia can't set up trick room, you're probably swept. With no priority and exactly one damaging mon with a 3-digit speed stat, even slow sweepers can outrun your entire team.

You're not Special
Nearly all of our offensive pressure is physical; as such, intimidate, iron defense, and simple physical walls can be very threatening.

The night is Dark and full of terrors
Guess who has a dark resistance and a ghost resistance? Not us. This plays into 6.5/10 above, but any strong spooky-type attack presents a real threat of sweeping this team; the fact that two of our setters are pure psychic compounds the issue. This problem can be extended to a general lack of type diversity. 3/4 of our offensive mons are weak to ground, 3/4 are weak to fire, and 2 are weak to fighting. Also, both of our levitate users (i.e. our only ground resists) like to commit suicide.


Specific Threats

Urshifu-Dark
Urshifu outspeeds our entire team (obviously), and nothing really switches into its attacks. Even without coverage, five of our mons are hit super effectively by either dark or fighting. Sucker punch also completely invalidates Marowak, our most flexible sweeper. If your opponent has an Urshifu, keep Magearna alive, always go for trick room the first turn your setter is in (no stealth rock or moonlight), and pray. Your win condition here is to force it to fight in trick room, or to switch in on a devastating attack.

Heatran
Heatran's bulk and typing are really inconvienent for this team. It easily switches into magearna even under trick room, it's taunt invalidates cresselia, and offensive sets are actually impossible for this team to switch into. It is also is one of the extremely few things in the meta that can take melmetal's banded iron fist or glastrier's icicle crash after a swords' dance. Heatran does need to be careful of the ground coverage on our three offensive mons, but the popularity of landorus means that prediction becomes vital, and our trick room turns can often be stalled out by smart switching between the two.

Aegislash
We don't have a ghost resist. Aegislash has 624 special attack. You can probably see the issue. In addition, aegislash has a nasty speed tier; it underspeeds our two main setters (who it also hits super effectively) to deny memento, stealth rock, and lunar dance, but it's also faster than any of our attackers outside trick room. Obviously, everything else does too, but Aegislash is balanced around being slower than most opponents, which makes it brutal when it has the speed advantage.

Spectrier
Remember the problem with Aegislash just clicking shadow ball and laughing at us? Give it a little more special attack and soul heart. Spectrier is totally harmless under trick room; any of your breakers can ohko it, and as long as we have either magearna or Glastrier in pristine condition, they can check it outside TR. Magearna needs to be at 100% to survive a +1 specs modest shadow ball reliably, glastrier can do it from 94%. NOTHING SWITCHES INTO SPECTRIER, EVEN UNBOOSTED. Also note that Magearna can't take the hit if rocks or spikes are up; Glastrier's boots let it. If Spectrier gets to +2 and you don't have trick room active you're swept. Don't let that happen. The counterplay here is the same as urshifu; never let this thing come in safely, either because you've got trick room up or ready to go up or you're clicking a button that ohko's it.

Conclusion
I'm bad enough at showdown that my ladder peak with this team won't impress anyone (~1590). However, that is as high as I've ever gotten, so the team is at least decent. It's also incredibly fun and effectively punishes the fast, frail meta before things start getting banned, and the satisfaction of watching toxapex, blissey, heatran, and more be obliterated by a single attack is immeasurable.


Edit: I found the comment this team was based on, it's the reply to This thread by user Gross Sweep. I can remove this post if people think it's redundant, but my team is very different from the top-level team in that thread, so I'm not sure.
 
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Someone will come around to like fully rate this team but here are some quick comments:
I would run Explosion over Memento on Azelf just because it is better
Use Volt Switch instead of Thunderbolt on Magearna
One question: What are you getting out of those EVs on Azelf? I would use Max Speed to outspeed faster Pokemon.
 
Hey M4RK5M4N, thanks for your comment; I'm afraid I have to disagree with some of your recommendations, though. Memento is much better for this team than explosion, as giving marowak or glastrier a chance to set up safely is far more useful than the moderate damage explosion would do. This magearna doesn't really want volt switch, as that throws away the advantage of soul heart boosts and has less power than thunderbolt.

Uxie is deliberately minimum speed so that it can underspeed other leads with memento or stealth rock once trick room is up; because trick room has negative priority, there's no point to investing in speed for this mon.
 
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Someone will come around to like fully rate this team but here are some quick comments:
I would run Explosion over Memento on Azelf just because it is better
Use Volt Switch instead of Thunderbolt on Magearna
One question: What are you getting out of those EVs on Azelf? I would use Max Speed to outspeed faster Pokemon.
Hey M4RK5M4N, thanks for your comment; I'm afraid I have to disagree with some of your recommendations, though. Memento is much better for this team than explosion, as giving marowak or glastrier a chance to set up safely is far more useful than the moderate damage explosion would do. This magearna doesn't really want volt switch, as that throws away the advantage of soul heart boosts and has less power than thunderbolt.

Azelf is deliberately minimum speed so that it can underspeed other leads with memento or stealth rock once trick room is up; because trick room has negative priority, there's no point to investing in speed for this mon.

Don’t you guys mean Uxie? There’s no Azelf on this team that I can see. Memento and Explosion are exclusive to Uxie and Azelf, respectively, so there’s never a choice between those two moves regardless of which mon’s on the team.
 
I built a similar team, I would run Ice Punch over Superpower on Melmetal, as Superpower was only used to hit M. Gyarados and other Mels in LGPE, Ice Punch here hits the Zygarde most of your team dislikes and also OHKOs Lando. It also doesn't lower its stats, forcing a swap. Shuca on Magearna is what I used, though if you find yourself losing to Fire frequently, Occa can help. I ran it due to the abundance of Cinderace and Heatran, though it is not necessary. Cresselia takes ~60%, so you could sack a sweeper to bring it in safely. Also, Mel and Glastrier can live a hit, and Mel can OHKO and Glastrier if set up with enough HP to live.
 
I built a similar team, I would run Ice Punch over Superpower on Melmetal, as Superpower was only used to hit M. Gyarados and other Mels in LGPE, Ice Punch here hits the Zygarde most of your team dislikes and also OHKOs Lando. It also doesn't lower its stats, forcing a swap. Shuca on Magearna is what I used, though if you find yourself losing to Fire frequently, Occa can help. I ran it due to the abundance of Cinderace and Heatran, though it is not necessary. Cresselia takes ~60%, so you could sack a sweeper to bring it in safely. Also, Mel and Glastrier can live a hit, and Mel can OHKO and Glastrier if set up with enough HP to live.
Yeah, ice punch might be a little more optimal, but honestly though I don't see a purpose for it; neither of the targets you mentioned really takes a double iron bash. Zygarde and landorus are both ohko'd (lando-t needs rocks up for the ohko but still really doesn't like taking the hit) unless they're invested heavily in defense. Melmetal's signature stab is so powerful that there's kinda no point for much else except against heatran and toxapex, both of whom are crushed by earthquake.
I'm not sure what hit you're referring to in the second half of your post.
 
The item on Magearna. I used Shuca because I had 3 ground weaknesses and no resists, but you have 3 fire weaknesses and Cinderace, Blaziken, and Heatran are everywhere. If you findyouraeld having problems with that you can experiment with Occa Berry.
 
Someone will come around to like fully rate this team but here are some quick comments:
I would run Explosion over Memento on Azelf just because it is better
Use Volt Switch instead of Thunderbolt on Magearna
One question: What are you getting out of those EVs on Azelf? I would use Max Speed to outspeed faster Pokemon.
i think memento is better, it weaknes the opposing mon so you can setup and potentially get more kills you feel me?
 
i think if you can fit a porygon2 on it, it can be better because you have some type of longevity but trickroom is usually built to just attack. porygon2 also gives you tr+teleport which is pretty op imo. also you should try specs torkoal under sun with eruption LMAO its kinda a meme but it 2hkos physdef pex
252+ SpA Choice Specs Torkoal Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex in Sun: 166-196 (54.6 - 64.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
 
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