Trap Team ! Ridiculously efficient

[Raycaza]

Hey ladies and gentlemen, i present you my original team, based on Shadow Tag. This strategy seems absurd, however, trust me, it works pretty well, and once you managed to set up the trap, the game is almost over.

I will present my three trappers together :

UrTrapped! (Wobbuffet) @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Def
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Encore
- Destiny Bond
- Mirror Coat
- Counter

UrTrapped2 (Gothitelle) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Trick
- Reflect
- Foul Play

BadGuy (Dugtrio) @ Leftovers
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Hone Claws
- Stone Edge
- Substitute

This trap requires the foe to be grounded, what happens the most of time.
Here we go. I often lead with Wobbuffet. When you face a Wobbuffet, often you won't attack immediately, right ? So Wobbuffet with 0SpeIV will move last, lock my opponent's lead on status moves like Stealth Rock, Swords Dance, Toxic or any other non-damaging move with Encore: First step accomplished.

Then, I switch to Gothitelle. With Trick, Gothitelle will give my opponent the Choice Scarf, so he will keep doing the same status move even after the three turns of Encore. That is the second step. My opponent still can't switch. If the opponent is locked into Toxic, Leech Seed or Will-O-Wisp, taunt will be necessary : otherwise dugtrio won't be able to set up. In that case, my opponent will struggle 2 times, then I switch to Dugtrio, immediately Dugtrio hides himself behind his substitute so opponents status move won't affect him anymore. Foul Play is here in case, you know, if somehow dugtrio died but I achieved to lock the foe into Swords/Draco Dance.

Once Trick done, I switch to Dugtrio... While my opponent keep doing the same useless move, dugtrio quietly launches Substitute + 6*Hone Claws. After that, Dugtrio is completly unstoppable. With his phenomenal 120 base speed, he's able to 0HKO everything with EdgeQuake combo, while Substitute protects him against priority moves and the few faster and maybe scarved pokemons. Easy, right ?

As this trap is pretty easy to set up, often my opponent will fall into that. In fact, this trap is completely unpredictable. After Dugtrio's sweep, if I haven't already won, there will be at max 3 pokemon left on my opponent's side, and I will easily finish him. The three other members of my team are here to eliminate everything I cannot trap (birds and ghosts) or that dugtrio still can't kill after +6 (in fact, only Skarmory and steel type with balloon can resist that)

TheWall (Tyranitar) (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Crunch

Ttar, special wall and one of the best bird hunter. Stone Edge will hit hard everything that has a flying-type. He also resists Dark- and Ghost- type moves, which may 0HKO Wobbuffet and Gothitelle. Crunch will eliminate the ghosts.

TheWall2 (Skarmory) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 232 Def / 252 HP / 24 Spd
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
Skarmory, physical wall. Probably the best physical wall in the entire metagame. Key resistance to u-turn. He also can take flying+fight combo. Brave Bird is very useful to take down Fight- types.

ToxicSpikes?! (Venusaur) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Synthesis
- Leech Seed
- Giga Drain
- Toxic
Mega-Venusaur is for me the bulkiest mega-evolution ever. With a great typing, it's able to absorb toxic spikes, which would be very handicapping for dugtrio's sweep. With Giga-drain and Synthesis, Mega-Venusaur is very hard to kill. Key resistance to Fight type moves.


So that's how my team is composed. This team especially loves unagressive leads, like Deoxy-D, Ferrothorn, Forretress, Laggron, and also stat-booster pokemons like Scolipede, Cloyster. If the opponent makes the mistake of not attacking Wobbuffet, he's trapped. Btw, who dares attack directly wobbuffet ?

This team does have some counters, notably, heatran with ballon or Skarmory. However, even if the trap didn't work, the team still stays competitive as Wobbuffet can often take down 1-2 pokemons and Gothitelle cripple enemies with Trick.

The great effectiveness of this strategy is also because the trap don't need to be used on the first coming pokemon. You just need to catch one of your opponent's grounded pokemon, then calmly set up the trap, as once you switch in Wobbuffet or Gothitelle your opponent can't escape anymore.

When the trap works (75% of time), there is a lot of fun watching your opponent struggle and cursing you, doing nothing but looking helplessly dugtrio setting up !

In the end, forgive me if my english isn't very good, i'm not English :) Again I repeat, this strategy may seem absurd, it works very well and is really worth a try, even in serious battles ^^

 

[jbtc10]

Why Toxic on Venu over Sludge Bomb? Sludge Bomb has a nearly 1 in 3 chance of poisoning something, can't miss and also gives you important coverage against Grass and Fairy types. Team concept is cool, but it does look as though it has some rather big problems in dealing with the meta in its current form. With some improvements though, it could shape up pretty well.

 

[Charlotte Zane]

Edit: Changing it to a list, by Pokemon!

• Dugtrio: A perfect set for its role.
• Gothitelle: Its current set is pretty solid. Taunt works very well with Encore, as it can force a Struggle if they used a setup move. Foul Play works for the same reason, and I assume Reflect is for when first-turn-attackers are trapped. Perhaps swap for Light Screen and invest in defense, as most Psychic types have decent Sp. Def to begin with-- but I can't give specific EV speads for Gothitelle, as I've not used it yet on a team.
  
• Tyranitar: Pursuit to keep with the trapping theme and support your trappers by hitting ghosts that get out of shadow tags, or enemy shadow taggers. Can work over Superpower or Crunch.
• Wobbuffet: With Pursuit on T-tar, you can take Tickle over Destiny Bond, to set up a kill on flying types without the sacrificial Destiny Bond (which is unreliable on a Pokemon that slow). I run a Wobbuffet, and adding to its already massive HP doesn't help nearly as much as just putting in 28 for a leftovers number, then putting 252 in one defense and 232 in the other (Bold and Calm are both viable, and I pefer the -atk natures for the lower confusion damage, unless trying to go for fast encores in trick room).
• Skarmory: Stealth Rock and Whirlwind feel completely opposite to the purpose of your team: preventing switches. Defog would mean that Venusaur absorbing Toxic Spikes no longer becomes necessary and can open up further possibilities for that slot. Toxic on Skarmory would work far better than on Venusaur, and would give it a means of starting passive damage.
• Venusaur: I'm not certain of its role on this team, as its weaknesses compound the issues of opposing Gothitelle or flying types. If keeping it, Sludge Bomb over Toxic is almost always preferable. Definitely the slot to play around with different ideas on, I'm thinking. Speaking of, might I suggest Zapdos? With Volt Switch to force flying types out and trap on the free switch, along with good bulk and a fighting resistance (in addition to the ability to hit back super-effectively), Zapdos has plenty of options for your team. It can even Defog and/or Toxic, if opting for a more defensive set (Volt Switch is still fantastic to keep for its trapping synergy). Alternatively, I've found that Ditto combos decently with Wobbuffet, should it Encore something flying that boosts. Mega Pinsir, in particular, can't even be tricked, and so could be handled by taking its boosts to OHKO if they don't switch, and even potentially sweep if they do. That said, Zapdos can check Mega Pinsir and other flying types (and Aegislash, if using Heat Wave, for that matter) pretty well anyway, so I don't think trying to fit both would be particularly helpful for the team.

 

[GreenMonkey]

Just a quick thought as there's not much to add, seeing as this is all about trapping etc why not try the good ol' gen 5 Durant/Dugtrio combo with entrainment truant durant!

Also lead VolTurners are a thing so, would you counter/coat straight off? How do you deal with this?

 

[Charlotte Zane]

Just a quick thought as there's not much to add, seeing as this is all about trapping etc why not try the good ol' gen 5 Durant/Dugtrio combo with entrainment truant durant!

Also lead VolTurners are a thing so, would you counter/coat straight off? How do you deal with this?

Yes, you generally counter or mirror coat the predicted u-turn or volt switch respectively. If doing so isn't safe, then switching into a resist can serve as a bit less risky at times (like if it could back taunt or u-turn). Outside of u-turns to ghosts or volt switches to dark types, it can net some free surprise kills.