Presented by James Baek/Jamesspeed1
Introduction
During the post-winter regionals time period, I noticed a lot of Trick Room teams did very well at all the regionals so I decided to start using Trick Room again. I also was meaning to try out Mega Camerupt again except with no Eruption this time and ended up with an all right team.
The Team
Cofagrigus @ Mental Herb
Ability: Mummy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 108 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Will-O-Wisp
- Night Shade
- Trick Room
- Protect/Disable
In my opinion, I think Cofagrigus is a really underated Pokemon as it has amazing bulk and the ghost typing just really helps it. I choose Cofagrigus instead of Cresselia because it is a ghost type so it is immune to Fake Outs except Scrappy ones. Also the fact that it can survive a Bisharp's Life Orb Knock Off while being able to have a free item slot for the Mental Herb unlike Eviolite Misdreavous or Dusclops. The Ev Spread allows Cofagrigus to take a Life Orb Knock Off from Bisharp while the rest of the evs went into special defense. I choose Trick Room and Will-O-Wisp as my first 2 move choices as they really benefited my team with how slow and bulky my team would soon become. I chose Night Shade instead of Shadow Ball because I like how reliable the damage from Night Shade does to certain tanks such as Suicune or Mega Venusaur. On YouTube, I used Disable as it is a really good disrupter and sometimes I could use Disable on a Pokemon holding a choice item or just prevent a powerful attack from occuring to my teammates. I decided to switch up Disable for Protect at the Premier Challenge because I noticed how Life Orb Aegislash can knock out Cofagrigus and I had no way to stop it (Funny how that turned out).
Hariyama @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 52 HP / 92 Atk / 108 Def / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Brave Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge/Helping Hand
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
Obviously with a Trick Room team, the best support would be a Fake Out user. I didn't want to use Scrafty since I would be giving Bisharp a free Defiant boost so I ended up with Hariyama as my bulky fighting type. The Ev spread is an edited version of Aaron Zheng's/PokeAlex's Hariyama from the 2014 Pokemon World Championship with the Hp evs adjusted so Super Fang would activate my Sitrus Berry. Fake Out is obvious in order to set up Trick Room easily. Close Combat allows Hariyama to dish out heavy damage being it's best stab move. Knock Off was for Aegislash and is useful to scout for items in a Best of 3 set. For YouTube, I used Helping Hand because I used it at Fall Regionals and it allowed my partners to dish out some very heavy damage. I decided to switch over for Stone Edge because I never really used Helping Hand at all and I needed a way to hit Charizard. The reason for Stone Edge over Rock Slide or Rock Tomb is because they don't get the OHKO on bulky Charizard so i was willing to use Stone Edge despite the accuracy (Fun Fact: I ended up hitting 2 Stone Edges and missed 3 Will-O-Wisps at the PC)
Camerupt @ Cameruptite
Ability: Solid Rock
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
Finally, let's get to the mega of this team. I was really interested with Mega Camerupt because it has overall amazing stats for a Trick Room Pokemon with 2 amazing stabs and even an ability to boost the power even farther. The Ev Spread was simple yet highly effective on this Pokemon to do heavy damage while having decent bulk as well. Earth Power and Heat Wave are strong move choices and when boosted by Sheer Force are able to 2 hit ko Bulky Pokemon such as Thundurus and Mega Gardevoir. I chose Hidden Power over Ancient Power because I felt like I would be needing the ice coverage for all the dragons and ground types around. Protect because it is a good move as always.
Gastrodon @ Expert Belt
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 SpA / 220 SpD
Modest Nature
- Muddy Water
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Recover
As good as Mega Camerupt is, the 4x water weakness is a huge pain to deal with so Gastrodon is there as support. I ended up using a very special bulky Gastrodon in order to completely wall other water types so Camerupt is able to get some heavy damage off. I chose Expert Belt as my item instead of Rhindo Berry because I wanted Gastrodon to get off some decent damage with little investment in special attack. Muddy Water over Scald is because I don't have to predict a Pokemon to switch out when using Muddy Water and the chance to lower accuracy has helped me out in a few games. I went with Earth Power just to help with Mega Mawile in Rain if I can't bring Camerupt. Ice Beam in order to hit genies and dragons. Recover was an interesting move choice but it allows me to completely wall Pokemon such as Rotom-Wash and Suicune and I didn't feel like Protect was necessary on this Pokemon.
Escavalier @ Choice Band
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Megahorn
- X-Scissor
- Iron Head
- Drill Run
Now for a grass type counter and I felt I wanted a switch into Spore because Amoonguss was an annoying issue. Ludicolo was an annoying Pokemon that can easily break through Gastrodon and Camerupt. It also didn't help that I had nothing to hit Cresselia very hard. Escavalier is a perfect Pokemon for all the issues. The ability for being able to OHKO a Cresselia is absolutely fantastic and the fact that it does pretty well against Kangaskhan and Mawile too. I think Escavalier deserves more credit as it is a powerful Pokemon under Trick Room and has amazing combinations of offense and defense. Megahorn picks up the OHKO on Cresselia and will pretty much hurt anything even if it is resisted. X-Scissor as a backup incase I couldn't afford a miss on Hydreigon and Ludicolo. Iron Head for the annoying Sylveon who puts a dent in my team. Drill Run for Heatran and other Pokemon that could annoy me.
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Protect
Amoonguss was basically my insurance for a few holes in my team. Rage Powder support allows me to set up Trick Room if I can't lead Hariyama such as a scenario with 2 ghost types staring down my Cofagrigus. Also this team had very little ways to hit bulky water types such as Suicune and Rotom-Wash which is annoying to deal with. So I decided to go Amoonguss in order to fix the small holes and the moveset and Ev Spread is standard. The item I wasn't sure of because all items were situational but Rocky Helmet seemed like the best choice.
Conclusion
This team did very well during my testing and I was able to do well with the team in general. I managed to get 9th at the PC choking the first round due to I had thought Trick Room ended but it didn't and lost the last round to Aaron Zheng (4/4 losses to Aaron at Brooklyn :(). However the team didn't have a good answer to Mega Venusaur and Suicune as well as Aegislash who are easily able to stall out Trick Room and my Pokemon couldn't touch them. Be sure to check out the videos with this team.
Videos of the Team
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