Alright, so for my first truly competitive team, I decided to go all NU. (There isn't really any other reason besides because I felt like it).
How the heck can an NU team stand up against anything? Through a bit of researching on what could have ANY possibility of working, a basic Trick Room team seemed to be the answer. I'm not REALLY going to use this in many serious OU battles as there are too many flaws as just the single turn setup for Trick Room is almost too difficult to get in these days (you wouldn't have enough fingers to count all the OU leads that could sweep this team single-handed), I'll explain more about that in a bit, let's get to the team.
Trick Roomer #1 - Lead
Solrock w/Focus Sash- Levitate- Adamant- EVs- Atk 252, HP 252, Def 4
Trick Room
Explosion
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Why Solrock? Due to being more a physical attacker than it's counterpart Lunastone, having Levitate to avoid ground (EQ is EVERYWHERE in competitive battling, don't deny it for a second. Although may be a better reason to NOT make it my lead :/). And just for being not a half bad Trick Room starter overall. Trick Room, and Explode is a pretty old, but effective strategy. Stone Edge and EQ are just there if it's facing a lead it can easily kill. Focus Sash is just obvious to survive (Grass Knot, any water attack, save Aqua Jet). Well, I guess there's flaw #1, Aqua Jet, quite common in UU play would defeat this, although I'm a bit more versed in OU play than UU play to be completely sure. (The reason that's saying something is because I SUCK at OU play). Obviously if this WERE OU, there'd be counters everywhere (Taunt, any status modifying moves like Hypnosis or Spore, Bullet Punch, etc. etc.). Still, this is the first of my 3 Trick Roomers.
Trick Roomer #2 - Green Copy
Exeggutor w/Life Orb- Chlorophyll- Quiet- EVs- 252 Atk, 252 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def
Trick Room
Explosion
Leaf Storm
Psychic (Placeholder?)
I won't deny it, this is copied almost identically to Green in HG/SS, not including the Life Orb, Nature, and EVs. But now it's the hands of a human mind, not some silly AI. This is pretty much the same idea as Solrock anyway,Trick Room, and explode. Leaf Storm is just there since it's an excellent STAB special move for Exeggutor if it is going to remove something else (since Sp. Atk IS it's best stat after all). And hopefully to lure in a Special Wall to explode on (actually this WOULD work somewhat well in OU, if I could predict a Blissey Switch-in). I was debating this as a lead too actually, wouldn't be a bad idea...or would it? (in UU play, Typhlosion says hello, and where there's Aqua Jet leads to remove Solrock, Ice Beam isn't far behind). I also have no clue what to put in that last move...Psychic? For the smallest bit of extra coverage maybe...you tell me.
Trick Roomer #3 - No it doesn't explode
Grumpig w/Leftovers- Thick Fat- Modest- 252 Sp. Atk, 252 HP, 4 Sp. Def
Psychic
Shadow Ball
Trick Room
Substitute/Calm Mind
Bit of a staller or special user too, Substitute could be helpful, but I'm thinking Calm Mind even more so, then again, I doubt I'll have the amount of time to set up all of that. Trick Room alone is fine, no Explosion this time thank you very much, I already have two. Anyway, the ability and leftovers allow me to take a hit or two to switch in and use Trick Room, from there it's easy going (Shadow Sneak says hi too DARNIT). Shadow Ball is for other psychics and ghosts, Psychic for obvious STAB, and I'm screwed with Darks! Great.
Next are the sweepers, slow pieces of crud with insanely powerful attacks. Without Trick Room, consider them dead.
Sweeper #1 - Thick Club BOOMSTICK (Physical)
Marowak w/Thick Club- Rock Head- Adamant- EVs- Atk 252, HP 252, Def 4
Double-Edge
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Fire Punch
This should REALLY be expected. Marowak is perfect for Trick Room, Rock Head with Double-Edge, STAB EQ, Stone Edge and Fire Punch to deal with almost anything else. Swords Dance isn't required...really..there's no need to waste that one turn which will get me killed if I tried using it (As EQ is one of the most common moves in any competitive play, Ground type should be fairly common, and thus, it's Counters). But when you have a FAST Marowak...it's almost self-explanitory. But this thing is over when Trick Room is over. Smogen even warned to not make Marowak the slowest thing ever, here I am ignoring that. If you can sweep two counters for Marowak while it's in effect, then it's more than likely you can survive at least one hit from something that's not a counter/not a super effective attack and get in that one last attack before moving on to the next trick roomer.
Sweeper #2 - Forget Starmie (Special)
Clamperl w/DeepSeaTooth- Shell Armor- Quiet- EVs- 252 Sp. Atk, 252 HP, 4 Def
Muddy Water/Surf
Ice Beam
Toxic
Barrier (Placeholder)/Hidden Power (still deciding on type)
As I was told when I tested this team on netbattle, Clamperl is a BEAST with Trick Room. (Since netbattle hasn't inserted HG/SS egg moves yet, Surf was put in it's place, better for Accuracy anyway). Toxic is for any switch in, and Barrier is...kind of a placeholder to be honest. Surf STAB here does a LOT of damage, even if it's not super effective. Ice Beam is to provide decent coverage (are there any dragons not including non-fully evolved that aren't OU or Uber? Oh that's right, just Altaria to my knowledge) but it's still effective. More likely I'll manipulate Hidden Power to replace Barrier.
Sweeper #3- Wut? (Special, mostly for misc. coverage)
Ampharos w/Magnet (or Choice Specs, actually Expert Belt might be a viable choice too)- Static- Modest- EVs- 252 Sp. Atk, 252 HP, 4 Sp. Def
Thunderbolt
Signal Beam
Thunder Wave/Power Gem (if using Choice Specs/Expert Belt)
Focus Blast
Permission to say "WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?" go. Let's face it, this works better in-game than competitive, but it's still not something to be laughed with under trick room. Thunderbolt STAB with Choice Specs/Magnet is deadly and enough to OHKO PLENTY. The rest are all for type coverage (I prefer Magnet since it allows me not to be restrained by Choice Specs as my opponent changes pokemon, let's say I used Thunderbolt, OHKO'd something, then they pull a ground pokemon (OR more likely, they switched in a ground pokemon). THEN what, my only levitator already acted as a suicide bomber so I'd doom myself).
Already seen potential problems:
Ghost & Dark Weakness (let's face it, only ONE pokemon with Shadow Ball and ANOTHER with Signal Beam isn't taking out every single Dark & Ghost out there, they can also switch in on quite a few things). Bug could destroy a good bit too (after Marowak is gone anyway).
That said, nothing is stopping the old Endeavor trick either.
Through a test battle this is also Status problem weak (correction, SLEEP weak I can live with Burn, PSN, and even Paralysis)
And that's just the basic stuff.
Overall this would be an interesting team for me to test out against OU...it'd fail miserably most likely but Trick Room is about surprise. Almost every team has something that deals with some bit of speed (even Stall teams have SOME speed in them). Anyway, any comments or suggestions for improvements to block up some of the counters (for whatever there is in UU/NU...ugh, should research more into that) commonly in UU, or even OU for that matter. Another thing, regarding SHUCKLE, yeah, I didn't forget about it. I really don't want to have to deal with risking Power Trick...a screw up there is an auto -1 pokemon for me and I'm not too risky a battler. (I AM considering replacing Stone Edge with Rock Slide for Marowak, just due to accuracy. Also Power Trick uses up yet another turn of the few precious turns given for each Trick Room. After Trick room is used, it's be pretty easy to predict too).
Thanks in advance for any help!
~Kudo
How the heck can an NU team stand up against anything? Through a bit of researching on what could have ANY possibility of working, a basic Trick Room team seemed to be the answer. I'm not REALLY going to use this in many serious OU battles as there are too many flaws as just the single turn setup for Trick Room is almost too difficult to get in these days (you wouldn't have enough fingers to count all the OU leads that could sweep this team single-handed), I'll explain more about that in a bit, let's get to the team.
Trick Roomer #1 - Lead
Solrock w/Focus Sash- Levitate- Adamant- EVs- Atk 252, HP 252, Def 4
Trick Room
Explosion
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Why Solrock? Due to being more a physical attacker than it's counterpart Lunastone, having Levitate to avoid ground (EQ is EVERYWHERE in competitive battling, don't deny it for a second. Although may be a better reason to NOT make it my lead :/). And just for being not a half bad Trick Room starter overall. Trick Room, and Explode is a pretty old, but effective strategy. Stone Edge and EQ are just there if it's facing a lead it can easily kill. Focus Sash is just obvious to survive (Grass Knot, any water attack, save Aqua Jet). Well, I guess there's flaw #1, Aqua Jet, quite common in UU play would defeat this, although I'm a bit more versed in OU play than UU play to be completely sure. (The reason that's saying something is because I SUCK at OU play). Obviously if this WERE OU, there'd be counters everywhere (Taunt, any status modifying moves like Hypnosis or Spore, Bullet Punch, etc. etc.). Still, this is the first of my 3 Trick Roomers.
Trick Roomer #2 - Green Copy
Exeggutor w/Life Orb- Chlorophyll- Quiet- EVs- 252 Atk, 252 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def
Trick Room
Explosion
Leaf Storm
Psychic (Placeholder?)
I won't deny it, this is copied almost identically to Green in HG/SS, not including the Life Orb, Nature, and EVs. But now it's the hands of a human mind, not some silly AI. This is pretty much the same idea as Solrock anyway,Trick Room, and explode. Leaf Storm is just there since it's an excellent STAB special move for Exeggutor if it is going to remove something else (since Sp. Atk IS it's best stat after all). And hopefully to lure in a Special Wall to explode on (actually this WOULD work somewhat well in OU, if I could predict a Blissey Switch-in). I was debating this as a lead too actually, wouldn't be a bad idea...or would it? (in UU play, Typhlosion says hello, and where there's Aqua Jet leads to remove Solrock, Ice Beam isn't far behind). I also have no clue what to put in that last move...Psychic? For the smallest bit of extra coverage maybe...you tell me.
Trick Roomer #3 - No it doesn't explode
Grumpig w/Leftovers- Thick Fat- Modest- 252 Sp. Atk, 252 HP, 4 Sp. Def
Psychic
Shadow Ball
Trick Room
Substitute/Calm Mind
Bit of a staller or special user too, Substitute could be helpful, but I'm thinking Calm Mind even more so, then again, I doubt I'll have the amount of time to set up all of that. Trick Room alone is fine, no Explosion this time thank you very much, I already have two. Anyway, the ability and leftovers allow me to take a hit or two to switch in and use Trick Room, from there it's easy going (Shadow Sneak says hi too DARNIT). Shadow Ball is for other psychics and ghosts, Psychic for obvious STAB, and I'm screwed with Darks! Great.
Next are the sweepers, slow pieces of crud with insanely powerful attacks. Without Trick Room, consider them dead.
Sweeper #1 - Thick Club BOOMSTICK (Physical)
Marowak w/Thick Club- Rock Head- Adamant- EVs- Atk 252, HP 252, Def 4
Double-Edge
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Fire Punch
This should REALLY be expected. Marowak is perfect for Trick Room, Rock Head with Double-Edge, STAB EQ, Stone Edge and Fire Punch to deal with almost anything else. Swords Dance isn't required...really..there's no need to waste that one turn which will get me killed if I tried using it (As EQ is one of the most common moves in any competitive play, Ground type should be fairly common, and thus, it's Counters). But when you have a FAST Marowak...it's almost self-explanitory. But this thing is over when Trick Room is over. Smogen even warned to not make Marowak the slowest thing ever, here I am ignoring that. If you can sweep two counters for Marowak while it's in effect, then it's more than likely you can survive at least one hit from something that's not a counter/not a super effective attack and get in that one last attack before moving on to the next trick roomer.
Sweeper #2 - Forget Starmie (Special)
Clamperl w/DeepSeaTooth- Shell Armor- Quiet- EVs- 252 Sp. Atk, 252 HP, 4 Def
Muddy Water/Surf
Ice Beam
Toxic
Barrier (Placeholder)/Hidden Power (still deciding on type)
As I was told when I tested this team on netbattle, Clamperl is a BEAST with Trick Room. (Since netbattle hasn't inserted HG/SS egg moves yet, Surf was put in it's place, better for Accuracy anyway). Toxic is for any switch in, and Barrier is...kind of a placeholder to be honest. Surf STAB here does a LOT of damage, even if it's not super effective. Ice Beam is to provide decent coverage (are there any dragons not including non-fully evolved that aren't OU or Uber? Oh that's right, just Altaria to my knowledge) but it's still effective. More likely I'll manipulate Hidden Power to replace Barrier.
Sweeper #3- Wut? (Special, mostly for misc. coverage)
Ampharos w/Magnet (or Choice Specs, actually Expert Belt might be a viable choice too)- Static- Modest- EVs- 252 Sp. Atk, 252 HP, 4 Sp. Def
Thunderbolt
Signal Beam
Thunder Wave/Power Gem (if using Choice Specs/Expert Belt)
Focus Blast
Permission to say "WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?" go. Let's face it, this works better in-game than competitive, but it's still not something to be laughed with under trick room. Thunderbolt STAB with Choice Specs/Magnet is deadly and enough to OHKO PLENTY. The rest are all for type coverage (I prefer Magnet since it allows me not to be restrained by Choice Specs as my opponent changes pokemon, let's say I used Thunderbolt, OHKO'd something, then they pull a ground pokemon (OR more likely, they switched in a ground pokemon). THEN what, my only levitator already acted as a suicide bomber so I'd doom myself).
Already seen potential problems:
Ghost & Dark Weakness (let's face it, only ONE pokemon with Shadow Ball and ANOTHER with Signal Beam isn't taking out every single Dark & Ghost out there, they can also switch in on quite a few things). Bug could destroy a good bit too (after Marowak is gone anyway).
That said, nothing is stopping the old Endeavor trick either.
Through a test battle this is also Status problem weak (correction, SLEEP weak I can live with Burn, PSN, and even Paralysis)
And that's just the basic stuff.
Overall this would be an interesting team for me to test out against OU...it'd fail miserably most likely but Trick Room is about surprise. Almost every team has something that deals with some bit of speed (even Stall teams have SOME speed in them). Anyway, any comments or suggestions for improvements to block up some of the counters (for whatever there is in UU/NU...ugh, should research more into that) commonly in UU, or even OU for that matter. Another thing, regarding SHUCKLE, yeah, I didn't forget about it. I really don't want to have to deal with risking Power Trick...a screw up there is an auto -1 pokemon for me and I'm not too risky a battler. (I AM considering replacing Stone Edge with Rock Slide for Marowak, just due to accuracy. Also Power Trick uses up yet another turn of the few precious turns given for each Trick Room. After Trick room is used, it's be pretty easy to predict too).
Thanks in advance for any help!
~Kudo