So my VGC regional qualifier for Atlanta is in a week, and only now am I actually playtesting because I procrastinated.
I poked around through Smogon, looking through as much as I could to study up before I started building. I looked through the three top contenders, being Tailwind, Trick Room, and simple Goodstuffs. My initial thought on teambuilding was that I hated niche teams, so Trick Room/Tailwind would probably not be for me.
So I tried building a generic goodstuffs team, got my shit wrecked for several straight matches because I had no idea what the VGC2011 meta was actually like.
As I got more familiarized with the threats, I wanted to attempt a a beatdown strategy through Tailwind, using powerful sweeper times with less-than-fortunate speed tiers. It worked to some degree, but even then, I was being crippled by more seasoned Tailwind players and the Trick Room users which counterpicked my team to a tee.
So I figured out how to beat these two teams efficiently. Trick Room can be counterpicked by a combination of Bisharp/Amoongus irritating opponents and eating up turns of Trick Room. Amoongus can Rage Powder to protect Bisharp from Mach Punches while Bisharp can Substitute to dodge Amoongus' Spore and force attacks to smack opponents with a STAB Sucker Punch off of a deadly base 125 Atk stat. Tailwind/Goodstuff can be counterpicked by converting to the Trick Room strategy myself, in which I usually lead with Musharna/Jellicent. Musharna is incredibly difficult to take down in a single turn, and dodges Taunt with the use of Mental Herb. Jellicent becomes an absolute monster with Water Spout backed by Water Gem, and then receiving a Helping Hand boost to secure a ton of KO's. But I still need kinks ironed out, so with no further ado:
Narcolepsy (Musharna) (F) @ Mental Herb
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SDef / 42 Def
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Protect
The first of two TR users. In the event of the mirror match, I keep her in the backup slot, but in the event of the Tailwind/Goodstuff matchup, she's my go-to-gal. As stated earlier, Musharna is hella hard to take down in a single turn, and she buys herself a one-time immunity to Taunt (honestly, that's as long as she needs), and then Trick Room gets set up. Helping Hand is equivalent to a boost from a type-specific Gem every turn, with +5 priority to outspeed Whimsicott's Taunt or Encore. Protect is staple, so I'm just going to save explaining that because I have it on quite literally everything here. Psychic gives her a little offensive capability, but she's typically my enabler and my multi-use setup for explosive turns. As it stands, this team cannot function without Musharna. She's simply too good.
Big Empty (Jellicent) (M) @ Water Gem
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Water Spout
- Shadow Ball
- Protect
- Ice Beam
Jellicent is the bulky sweeper of the operation. Under Trick Room, the Pringles Ghost slaps everything with a Water Gem-boosted Water Spout, and accomplishing this setup is rather simple. (Trick Room on Musharna, Protect with Jellicent, and you're good to go by turn 2) While Water Spout does pretty much destroy anything without a resistance, things with resistances are irritatingly prevalent, such as Amoongus and enemy Jellicent. However, Shadow Ball boosted by Helping Hand secures KOs that it otherwise wouldn't, against opponents like Reuniclus/Jellicent/Confagrius, when using Water Spout isn't ideal because I've lost too much HP. Amoongus won't typically be OHKO'd by a Helping Hand Ice Beam, but it takes upwards of 70% from it, and will die to an unboosted Ice Beam followed by a STAB Psychic from either Musharna or Reuniclus. Whether it's the Trick Room matchup or the Tailwind/Goodstuff matchup, Jellicent is almost always present and is in my opinion, irreplaceable.
E-Pro (Amoonguss) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 200 HP / 156 Def / 152 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Amoongus is disgusting. No, seriously, how much subtle phallic imagery do you need, Gamefreak?
Amoongus is the irritating compliment to Bisharp that makes the duo worthy of hair tearing. While Bisharp dodges opposing Amoongus with Substitute, Amoongus draws attacks away from that Substitute with Rage Powder as Bisharp smacks weak TR users with his deadly Sucker Punch. While Bisharp can, at best, 2KO a Conkuldurr with Iron Head, Amoongus compliments him by sucking up resisted Mach Punches and taking them on the chin. His spread is odd, but it focuses on taking physical attacks, and the Impish Nature + 4 Speed EVs assures outspeeding opposing Amoongus, which are mostly Relaxed anyway. But I chose Impish to give an edge over Trick Room users to cripple their setup. Spore removes problem opponents rather nicely, especially when 1/4 of your opponent's team is such a huge portion. He's brought in on the Trick Room matchup, but against Tailwind, he's almost dead weight. STAB'd Acrobatics are almost begging a free KO out of my opponent, which I really dislike. Amoongus is a benchwarmer a lot of the time, but in the Trick Room matchup, he's invaluable. I'm open to replacements, but if I'm going to be replacing him, it's got to be something a hell of a lot better than the only Spore user available.
Anna Molly (Reuniclus) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 156 HP / 252 SAtk / 48 SDef / 52 Def
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Protect
The second user of Trick Room comes in the form of Reuniclus. Magic Guard and Life Orb allows me to slam opponent's with Reuniclus' impressive Sp. A score while avoiding the obvious negative applications of Life Orb. I don't typically, if ever, lead with Reuniclus given how much better Musharna is built for the setup, but Reuniclus is far more competent on its own, and only needs to set up Trick Room in the event that I've burnt out the turns Musharna set up. The moveset is nothing special, simply hit hard and keep the momentum going. Reuniclus also has the fortune to outspeed Jellicent and Chandelure under Trick Room conditions, the former of which cannot OHKO it with Shadow Ball, and the latter which will be typically OHKO'd by Shadow Ball + something else. Overall, Reuniclus has been extremely solid, but I'm open to suggestions as to its adjustment or replacement.
Papercut (Bisharp) (M) @ Dark Gem
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 148 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Substitute
- Iron Head
- Protect
Bisharp + Amoongus creates a very unique mindgame that nobody enjoys breaking. It's worth noting that leading with Bisharp and Amoongus makes Chandelure salivate at the thought of getting 2 potential KOs with its Heat Wave, only to get KO'd itself. Substitute lets Bisharp avoid status from slower pokemon and lets it bait out attacks to use Sucker Punch against all day. It's worth noting that besides the obvious anti-TR user application that a Dark Gem boosted Sucker Punch also OHKOs both Tornadus and Thundurus, and a couple other frailer sweeper types. Even after Dark Gem is expended, Bisharp has the strongest offensive priority move available to any Pokemon in the Unova region. Bisharp typically comes in against Trick Room users to completely disrupt their setup from turn one, but has a few useful applications against Tailwind teams. All in all, it depends on what particular pokemon exist on the opposing team, but Bisharp has proved time and again that he is capable of abusing the Protect-centric metagame. I'll probably stick with him.
Wasteland (Conkeldurr) (M) @ Flame Orb
Trait: Guts
EVs: 136 HP / 252 Atk / 120 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Protect
- Rock Slide
This is the member of the team I'm most unsure about. He's your generic physical sweeper under Trick Room conditions, but he's also capable of working independent of that setup with a Guts-boosted Mach Punch. He's certainly been useful in scoring KOs, and compliments Bisharp nicely to a degree with dual priority moves as well as near perfect coverage between strong Fighting/Dark STABs. It just seems this slot could be so much more that I'm not seeing. I'm open to ideas, but if nothing comes up, I'm sure he'll do fine at the event itself.
A Final Overview:
I poked around through Smogon, looking through as much as I could to study up before I started building. I looked through the three top contenders, being Tailwind, Trick Room, and simple Goodstuffs. My initial thought on teambuilding was that I hated niche teams, so Trick Room/Tailwind would probably not be for me.
So I tried building a generic goodstuffs team, got my shit wrecked for several straight matches because I had no idea what the VGC2011 meta was actually like.
As I got more familiarized with the threats, I wanted to attempt a a beatdown strategy through Tailwind, using powerful sweeper times with less-than-fortunate speed tiers. It worked to some degree, but even then, I was being crippled by more seasoned Tailwind players and the Trick Room users which counterpicked my team to a tee.
So I figured out how to beat these two teams efficiently. Trick Room can be counterpicked by a combination of Bisharp/Amoongus irritating opponents and eating up turns of Trick Room. Amoongus can Rage Powder to protect Bisharp from Mach Punches while Bisharp can Substitute to dodge Amoongus' Spore and force attacks to smack opponents with a STAB Sucker Punch off of a deadly base 125 Atk stat. Tailwind/Goodstuff can be counterpicked by converting to the Trick Room strategy myself, in which I usually lead with Musharna/Jellicent. Musharna is incredibly difficult to take down in a single turn, and dodges Taunt with the use of Mental Herb. Jellicent becomes an absolute monster with Water Spout backed by Water Gem, and then receiving a Helping Hand boost to secure a ton of KO's. But I still need kinks ironed out, so with no further ado:
Narcolepsy (Musharna) (F) @ Mental Herb
Trait: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SDef / 42 Def
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Protect
The first of two TR users. In the event of the mirror match, I keep her in the backup slot, but in the event of the Tailwind/Goodstuff matchup, she's my go-to-gal. As stated earlier, Musharna is hella hard to take down in a single turn, and she buys herself a one-time immunity to Taunt (honestly, that's as long as she needs), and then Trick Room gets set up. Helping Hand is equivalent to a boost from a type-specific Gem every turn, with +5 priority to outspeed Whimsicott's Taunt or Encore. Protect is staple, so I'm just going to save explaining that because I have it on quite literally everything here. Psychic gives her a little offensive capability, but she's typically my enabler and my multi-use setup for explosive turns. As it stands, this team cannot function without Musharna. She's simply too good.
Big Empty (Jellicent) (M) @ Water Gem
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Water Spout
- Shadow Ball
- Protect
- Ice Beam
Jellicent is the bulky sweeper of the operation. Under Trick Room, the Pringles Ghost slaps everything with a Water Gem-boosted Water Spout, and accomplishing this setup is rather simple. (Trick Room on Musharna, Protect with Jellicent, and you're good to go by turn 2) While Water Spout does pretty much destroy anything without a resistance, things with resistances are irritatingly prevalent, such as Amoongus and enemy Jellicent. However, Shadow Ball boosted by Helping Hand secures KOs that it otherwise wouldn't, against opponents like Reuniclus/Jellicent/Confagrius, when using Water Spout isn't ideal because I've lost too much HP. Amoongus won't typically be OHKO'd by a Helping Hand Ice Beam, but it takes upwards of 70% from it, and will die to an unboosted Ice Beam followed by a STAB Psychic from either Musharna or Reuniclus. Whether it's the Trick Room matchup or the Tailwind/Goodstuff matchup, Jellicent is almost always present and is in my opinion, irreplaceable.
E-Pro (Amoonguss) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 200 HP / 156 Def / 152 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect
Amoongus is disgusting. No, seriously, how much subtle phallic imagery do you need, Gamefreak?
Amoongus is the irritating compliment to Bisharp that makes the duo worthy of hair tearing. While Bisharp dodges opposing Amoongus with Substitute, Amoongus draws attacks away from that Substitute with Rage Powder as Bisharp smacks weak TR users with his deadly Sucker Punch. While Bisharp can, at best, 2KO a Conkuldurr with Iron Head, Amoongus compliments him by sucking up resisted Mach Punches and taking them on the chin. His spread is odd, but it focuses on taking physical attacks, and the Impish Nature + 4 Speed EVs assures outspeeding opposing Amoongus, which are mostly Relaxed anyway. But I chose Impish to give an edge over Trick Room users to cripple their setup. Spore removes problem opponents rather nicely, especially when 1/4 of your opponent's team is such a huge portion. He's brought in on the Trick Room matchup, but against Tailwind, he's almost dead weight. STAB'd Acrobatics are almost begging a free KO out of my opponent, which I really dislike. Amoongus is a benchwarmer a lot of the time, but in the Trick Room matchup, he's invaluable. I'm open to replacements, but if I'm going to be replacing him, it's got to be something a hell of a lot better than the only Spore user available.
Anna Molly (Reuniclus) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 156 HP / 252 SAtk / 48 SDef / 52 Def
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Protect
The second user of Trick Room comes in the form of Reuniclus. Magic Guard and Life Orb allows me to slam opponent's with Reuniclus' impressive Sp. A score while avoiding the obvious negative applications of Life Orb. I don't typically, if ever, lead with Reuniclus given how much better Musharna is built for the setup, but Reuniclus is far more competent on its own, and only needs to set up Trick Room in the event that I've burnt out the turns Musharna set up. The moveset is nothing special, simply hit hard and keep the momentum going. Reuniclus also has the fortune to outspeed Jellicent and Chandelure under Trick Room conditions, the former of which cannot OHKO it with Shadow Ball, and the latter which will be typically OHKO'd by Shadow Ball + something else. Overall, Reuniclus has been extremely solid, but I'm open to suggestions as to its adjustment or replacement.
Papercut (Bisharp) (M) @ Dark Gem
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 148 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Substitute
- Iron Head
- Protect
Bisharp + Amoongus creates a very unique mindgame that nobody enjoys breaking. It's worth noting that leading with Bisharp and Amoongus makes Chandelure salivate at the thought of getting 2 potential KOs with its Heat Wave, only to get KO'd itself. Substitute lets Bisharp avoid status from slower pokemon and lets it bait out attacks to use Sucker Punch against all day. It's worth noting that besides the obvious anti-TR user application that a Dark Gem boosted Sucker Punch also OHKOs both Tornadus and Thundurus, and a couple other frailer sweeper types. Even after Dark Gem is expended, Bisharp has the strongest offensive priority move available to any Pokemon in the Unova region. Bisharp typically comes in against Trick Room users to completely disrupt their setup from turn one, but has a few useful applications against Tailwind teams. All in all, it depends on what particular pokemon exist on the opposing team, but Bisharp has proved time and again that he is capable of abusing the Protect-centric metagame. I'll probably stick with him.
Wasteland (Conkeldurr) (M) @ Flame Orb
Trait: Guts
EVs: 136 HP / 252 Atk / 120 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Protect
- Rock Slide
This is the member of the team I'm most unsure about. He's your generic physical sweeper under Trick Room conditions, but he's also capable of working independent of that setup with a Guts-boosted Mach Punch. He's certainly been useful in scoring KOs, and compliments Bisharp nicely to a degree with dual priority moves as well as near perfect coverage between strong Fighting/Dark STABs. It just seems this slot could be so much more that I'm not seeing. I'm open to ideas, but if nothing comes up, I'm sure he'll do fine at the event itself.
A Final Overview:
