Monotype (Trick Room Normal) The Tortoises and the Hares

[acestriker19]

Intro​

Hi I'm Acestriker19 and I play Trick Room, while I love Trick Room a whole lot I was having trouble creating a solid Trick Room team that didn't just turn into bulky offense with Trick Room Setter liabilities using Ghost, Psychic or Fairy monos so out of love for my favorite (and best) trick room setter Porygon2 I decided to build a mono normal trick room team.

Teambuilding Process​

This team began with Porygon2 and Exploud, Porygon2 is imo the best bulky Trick Room setter in the entire game and since normal doesn't have a lot of setters unlike ghost or psychic Porygon2 is essential to the success of this team. Exploud hits hard with STAB Boomburst and 2hkos most of the metagame.

Diggersby was a natural second choice for Trick Room abuser since it has crazy strong attack with Huge Power and has a decent choice of coverage options.

This is the point where I decided this was going to be Trick Room with a cleaner to end games and revenge kill outside of trick room, since normal has access to best cleaner in mega lopunny I decided to use that.

There are is 1 normal pokemon in the game that can set up Stealth Rock and Trick Room, thats Kecleon so it works as my lead

I wanted a Mon that could deal with status like burn and poison so I grabbed ursaring since guts facade hits really hard.

(

/

)
So it turns out theres one more pokemon that can learn Trick Room and Stealth Rock and smeargle provided better utility than Kecleon. The last slot on my team fluctuated a lot I' decided that Ursaring while underwhelming was better for the team than Zangoose of P-Z because of his ability to deal with burns and the fact that he hits on the psychical side while P-Z is strictly outclassed in its role by Exploud.

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Dark Void
- Trick Room
- Destiny Bond
- Stealth Rock

So Trick Room Leads strange and I don't really use them on OU Trick Room Teams but with the lack of available normal type setters I kinda have to use what I have. So Smeargle's job is to set up Stealth Rocks, Set up Trick Room then try to take a Pokemon down with it when it dies. Ideally it lives 3 turns and no more since every turn that TR is up and I'm not wallbreaking with one of my Trick Room Sweepers is a wasted turn. Magic Coat is extremely useful since the most common smeargle leads are Sticky Web taunt bait mons therefore with Magic Coat I can bounce a predicted taunt back and continue my game plan without opposition. This works very, very well since on Team Preview my team looks like a bad Sticky Web but in reality its a bad Trick Room team. Magic Coat also allows me to bounce back predicted entry hazards which can waste a foes turn allowing me to get my ideal 3 turn smeargle life or skip setting hazards.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

As I stated above Porygon2 is the best Trick Room setter in the metagame since it has crazy good bulk with Eviolite. I'm running a defensive Porygon2 because if I was not I would simply be stomped by some mons who can completely over-power all of my pokemon before Trick Room is even set. Bolt-Beam coverage allows Porygon2 to put some strong pressure on mono-ground and dragon archetypes in fact Porygon2 is my best answer to ground teams since Trace allows P2 to beat Toxic Gliscor with its own poison heal and deal with any variant of Landorous-Therian. Porygon2 does have many weaknesses though beginning with his lack of offensive presence which usually isn't a big deal vs most teams but can give me trouble if P2 lets a mon with strong priority set-up.

Exploud @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Boomburst
- Focus Blast
- Fire Blast
- Surf

Exploud is the reason normal Trick Room is even semi-quasi-viable as an archetype since STAB Boomburst is silly strong and breaks a large amount of common archetypes alone, unless the team is packing a bulky resist at full health of T-Tar then that team is going to be in serious trouble everytime Exploud comes to the field. Exploud is also very bulky with full Hp investment allowing to survive most neutral attacks and at full health.

Diggersby @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Earthquake
- Return
- Quick Attack
- Wild Charge

Diggersby is strong and complements Mega-Lopunny very well. Diggersby draws in all of Mega Lopunny's defensive counters such as Skarmory and Slowbro and can punish them with a Wild Charge. Diggersby also hits very hard with full investment in attack and dismantles steel and rock teams with EQ both of which give Exploud trouble. Diggersby is very prone to getting worn down unfortunately and as a result will LO plus Wild Charge Recoil which attracts strong priority users. While a Choice Band would solve this issue being locked into a move on Trick Room teams can prove disastrous since for example Wild Charge KOing a Skarm will always lead to a Excadrill Switch in and thus the wear transfers from Diggersby to P2 who as the only Trick Room setter besides smeargle on this team is much more essential to keep at full health.

Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Transform

Ditto is here as a means to discourage and punish set-up on my trick room setters and is a key check to many pokemon that simply stop this team flat if given a turn to set up such as Bisharp and Azumarill. The IVs are for Hidden Power Ice because there really isn't a reason not to use HP Ice. Ditto also turns desperate losses against scarfers with SE STABs such as Heracross and Terrakion into 50/50s which while still not great is better than nothing.

Ursaring @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Facade
- Crunch
- Play Rough
- Hammer Arm

Ursaring is a weaker Diggersby with a stronger normal stab who has to pivot into a move to be useful. As a result Ursaring isn't very good on this team, but with the options that normal has its disposal for powerful Trick Room Sweepers, Ursaring was the best of the three options shown in the teambuilding process section. Ursaring hits hard with STAB Facade and is basically a physical Exploud when flame orb procs. Ursaring is usually the first mon to get pivot foddered though as I find him to be dead weight on a lot of teams since Exploud does his job of sweeping through unresisted teams better and Diggersby does a better job of luring in and KOing threats to a Lopunny cleaning.

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Quick Attack
- Fake Out

This is a weird lopunny set that is a product of how I saw my opponents counterplaying against my Lopunny while defensive cores were usually foddered first in most cases opponents kept their scarfer as a check to lopunny so the goal when this happens is to either wreck the team with the trick room sweepers or find times to send in lopunny to revenge and by doing wear down said scarfer with SR then being to clean once the scarfer is within fake out + quick attack range. This works very well sometimes but I never find myself missing the extra coverage since my trick room sweepers take care of defensive cores very well. At times Lopunny lacks the power to clean how I would like but its the best option I have given the type I'm working with.

Conclusion
​

Despite a large hot streak I had when I began using this team I haven't been winning all that much with this team due to it lacking a real defensive core to switch into while P2 is great he can't take the pressure of SE moves from strong attackers and this team doesn't really have any backup options due to the fact that its a monotype team. Honestly this team is entirely match-up based as it rampages through some teams while struggling against others. This team struggles to break through teams with pokemon like Jirachi, Diancie and other steel and rock types but it is very effective against water, electric, ghost, ice, fire, dragon and has 50/50 matchups with psychic and fairy.

 

[vlmufa]

Hey! Very creative team! I liked it a lot so I wanted to leave some ideas.

252HP/252Def --> 252HP/252Spe.

Max def doesn't really make smeargle bulkier while max speed lets you get a Destiny Bond off on slow wallbreakers.

-->

As you said already P-Z is unnecessary with Exploud and Diggersby outclasses Ursaring, so why not try an inbetween option? Meloetta can hit at the physical side with Psyshock while can also provide coverage AND Trick Room.

Meloetta

Meloetta @ Life Orb
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psyshock
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball / Focus Blast
- Trick Room

Hope this helps :)

 

[iLlama]

Hey acestriker19, nice team! Your design behind Trick Room Normal seems pretty cool and well thought out. Some of my suggestions may have already come up one way or another, but I will still give you a rate.

- Seeing as Smeargle is a suicide lead for your team, I would highly recommend changing Magic Coat > Spore/Dark Void. As you mentioned, Magic Coat can be very helpful with managing lead Utility bait Taunt Pokemon, however, if you feel that such a threat exists on your opponent's team, you should really just lead differently, such as with Mega Lopunny for Fake Out and Priority phazing/pressure. This way your team still has access to an incredibly strong move in Spore/Dark Void, but Smeargle now gains a generally better survivability and you can get the most out of your moveset. Because of this change, I would highly suggest making its EVs 252 HP / 252 Spe with a +Speed Nature. This in turn makes Smeargle a more effective Sleep Inducer while still being able to fulfill its other roles. It also gives you a sleep option against Bisharp which can prove to be a huge issue for your team.

- Exploud for most part is fine, and can be extremely dangerous on any team, especially Trick Room, if used effectively, however I would make a few small changes to its moveset. First I would suggest changing Blizzard > Ice Beam as Ice Beam covers the same options and losing 20 BP in favor of 100% Accuracy is well worth it in the long run. I also do not think Blizzard kills anything significant faster than Ice Beam, so overall it is a better option. With that, I would also change Surf > Focus Blast. I already touched on this before, but your team, as it stands, can have a lot of difficulty in handling Bisharp, and also Steel teams in general. Because of that, Focus Blast is really a must for your Special Wallbreaker. Also, Surf does not cover any options that could prove fatal for your team that your other moves can not already manage.

->

- Ursaring isn't very necessary as you already have Diggersby and Mega Lopunny as physical threats and it can really hurt your team's potential against 50/50 and Disadvantaged matchups. Your team is also incredibly susceptible to Set-Up mons, i.e. Azumarill and Bisharp, and Stall mons. A very easy way of handling most of these threats is by changing Ursaring -> Choice Scarf Ditto. Ditto can be an amazing form of secondary Speed control behind Mega Lopunny, especially if you are unable to utilize Trick Room. Plus, it can cover for the biggest threats to your team immediately and prove to be infinitely useful in Disadvantaged matchups, especially Fighting and Steel.

That concludes my rate. I hope my suggestions will help you out and good luck!

E: Linking IronBullet because this is his 2nd RMT post in 1 week.

 

[acestriker19]

Sorry this reply took a long time but I really like to try out changes before I reply about them. Thanks for the feedback though!

I think this replay I got really demonstrates how good these changes are I was able to beat a team packing both Bisharp and Sableye which wouldn't have been possible without ditto and sleep smeargle and the changes to Explouds moveset.

So with regards to Ditto its a really great addition to this team as while it rarely sweeps teams because of its limitations it complements Smeargle and P2 lack of offensive presence really well. Despite this being a trick room team choice scarf really does come in handy as its a 50/50 check to strong scarfers that beat lopunny and a check to most boosting mons.

Exploud's moveset has been adjusted a bit but I nixed Ice Beam since unless I'm hitting a resist to Boomburst with SE damage then Boomburst does more damage on a resist than neutral coverage. While Exploud coverage is largely useless if it nets me a OHKO on a serious threat to my team so I'm going to keep Surf solely because it beats Mega Diancie.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Surf vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Mega Diancie: 260-308 (107.8 - 127.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Ice Beam doesn't provide the same utility in a matchup that I'm losing so I decided to drop it entirely.

I tested Meloetta a bit and it doesn't really provide anything new over P2 and doesn't help the way ditto does so I decided its ok to rely solely on P2 still for Trick Room now since less mons are dependent on it.

Now regarding Smeargle I did grab Dark Void which has come in very handy against most archetypes mostly for the free turns it provides since unless I sleep a counter to a Sweep then the Pokemon Smeargle sleeps is simply going to be used as fodder if/when I sweep with Trick Room later in the match. The problem with investing in speed on Smeargle is the fact that Trick Room is -7 priority which means that after my sash is broken I can't set-up Trick Room regardless of invesment. Speed investment hurts Smeargle against mons slower than it though since it has to put trick room up but by doing so loses a turn and if its sash isn't up after setting up TR the it can't do anything afterwards. Its a mixed bag but negative speed is more reliable which is more important to me than getting an extra destiny bond or a slightly easier switch in.