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Introduction
Hello Smogon! Back again with another one of my trick room teams, this time structured around alolum. Trapper trick room was a dream of mine over a year ago, and it has given me several successful builds. As an added benefit, this team isnt as braindead as most TR teams, where you just send in marowak/crawdaunt and sd up and click to kill stuff. You actually have to anticipate your opponent's plays. As a result, this team has given me the most success on high ladder, where people actually make sensical plays. This build looked meme-y to me at first but it absolutely surprised me with its effectiveness.
The Journey
Even before golem came along, I had experimented with magnezone as a trapper, but none of those teams were even remotely viable, which leads me to the original alolum team. I built this one for the first round of smogon's iron chef (whose requirements were 3 choice locked mons). The team fell on its ass, of course, as a result of bad construction and my dumb plays. After that I was feeling pretty defeated, so I dropped the concept for awhile.
The second iteration looks fairly similar to the first, but much more effective. For those of you who read my last rmt you know I was experimenting with banded stakataka, and its dislike of steels made him the perfect candidate. I played the team for awhile to a degree of success, but eventually moved on for reasons I cannot remember. After that, I dropped the formula for awhile.
Not too long ago I rediscovered the team in my archives, so I polished it up and played it a fair amount. It was a good team, for sure, but not great. Not very fun either. To solve that last part I decided it was time to change up the lineup more drastically.
Abomasnow and Lando certainly made the team more fun to play. The team was probably a bit less effective than its predecessor, but I had more fun playing it so I did better. Played it until about 1850 until I realized exactly how bad abomasnow was. I then decided it was time to rebuild again.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-938260844
(used to run sub over ice shard)
(used to run sub over ice shard)
I wanted to try another Ice type, and I'd previously experimented with mamoswine and magnezone in one of my bazaar posts, so he seemed to be the best choice. Mamoswine had a good run, peaking around 1920. And I was happy with this build; however I was a bit tired of using the same formula over and over again, so I built another team on the side while I laddered this one.....
I began with the 2 core members of the team.
I'd tried tyrantrum with golem a couple times before, but kept scrapping the teams after getting frustrated at head smash misses. I decided to keep a level head this time and give tyrantrum another shot.
Sylveon was a mon I wanted to use on TR for awhile, and alolum gave me a chance to use her without being walled by half the meta. I'd returned to the original strategy of triple choice at this point.
I didn't want to run magearna when sylveon could already spam weakish special fairy moves. The team didn't look that serious anyway at this point, and I'd tried mimikyu on some past non-golem teams to moderate success, so I decided he would be the next choice.
And of course toxapex is a bitch so I added lure bronzong as my lead. Because everyone leads pex for early tspikes. And then team took off.
In-Depth
Golem-Alola @ Choice Band
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wild Charge
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
- Explosion
The heart of the team, golem removes problematic steels for all. When tyrantrum or sylveon is locked into a move by choice, golem gives you an artificial anti-steel coverage move. When there are no steels to trap, he can be a suicide pivot off of cress or mimikyu. In other words, if you don't want your abusers to take damage, just switch into him sponge a hit and go boom, hopefully collecting a kill in the process. Electric isnt a very useful move for TR abusers, but in some cases he can be an ok sweeper.
Cresselia @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Moonlight
- Trick Room
- Lunar Dance
The cleric. Been in all of my RMT's, best TR setter, needs no explaination.
Tyrantrum @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Head Smash
- Ice Fang
- Outrage
- Fire Fang
The Muscle. Tyrantrum breaks through whatever sylveon can't. The dual STAB's in rock and dragon are very hard to stop once golem has removed steels from the equation. Head smash is, of course, the more reliable of the 2 because fairies are everywhere. Ice fang if you are absolutely sure lando will come in and you don't want to rick misses or if you don't want to lock into outrage against chomp. Fire fang is backup incase you lose golem somehow.
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Def / 204 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Hyper Voice
- Sleep Talk
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Ground]
The cleaner. Most teams rely on either poison or steel types to check fairies. With golem removing steels and bronzong taking care of poisons, sylveon has free reign. Hyper voice hits incredibly hard and through subs, which TR teams especially appreciate. Sylveon is also pretty fat, and is who the team relies on to check ash-gren. The given evs let you take a +1 waterfall from mega gyarados and a +4 sucker punch from mmaw both after rocks. If hp ground doesn't finish, mimikyu can come in on the second sucker punch and get rid of it. Sleep talk because TR is very weak to spore. HP ground serves 2 purposes: as a backup coverage move incase golem goes down somehow and because players will often think that they can earth power golem off the switch with their heatran, so you just kill them off with HP ground straight away.
Mimikyu @ Mimikium Z
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Swords Dance
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
The finisher. One guaranteed TR set and one guaranteed nuke. After sylveon and tyrantrum soften up the team, mimikyu can usually come in and pick off the stragglers. Mimikyu is usually bulky enough to stomach a hit and get a sd off to sweep, and alongside lets snuggle forever, mimikyu is actually a very strong breaker. Disguise is also an invaluable failsafe if things get out of hand.
Bronzong @ Psychium Z
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 20 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Zen Headbutt
- Explosion
The lure. You can never know the satisfaction of killing pex or mvenu on turn 1 until you've done it. The given evs make killing sp.def pex guaranteed, while dumping the rest into its own sp.def for a higher chance to live a pre-ash gren dark pulse on t1. If your opponent does not lead with their pex or mvenu, consider saving bronzong in the back for when they bring it in. Nobody expects the shattered psyche. And now you may think that this set is trash because it loses to taunt on t1, but Z-TR bypasses taunt. It's just a question of whether you want to spend your z move here or on mimikyu. Explosion is vital to the set as well. When your opponent has, say, koko in, they'll have to make the choice of either losing koko or switching to a steel and promptly being trapped off of the safe switch. Also rocks are generally more important than one TR set, in case you have to choose.
Conclusion
It's was really fun laddering with this team at its peak about a month ago, but I'm a bit too bored with mons currently to seriously ladder again. Ironically, it has a very weak matchup against some of the other off-meta teams floating around on ladder. A large part of the reason I was knocked off of my peak were the krookodile and m-aggron teams that I hit 2-4 times each. Regardless, I think that this team is probably the best representation of my playstyle yet. If I do another rmt before swsh, it could quite possibly be another golem squad. Whether it is better than my first 2 rmt's, namely the first, is another question though. What I do love about this team is that it is less matchup-driven than the former 2, but still has the almost auto-win matchup against some teams. Hope you all have fun playing it!
Spikes - Whole team is grounded, golem is 4x weak, big pain in the ass.
I tried mawile over tyrantrum after peaking to less success. It does make the team truly fairy spam though, so you can give it a try if you want.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-939779853
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-939784017
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-939806853
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-940351713
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-939779853
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-939784017
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-939806853
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-940351713
Golem-Alola @ Choice Band
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wild Charge
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Tyrantrum @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Head Smash
- Ice Fang
- Outrage
- Fire Fang
Cresselia @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Moonlight
- Trick Room
- Lunar Dance
Mimikyu @ Mimikium Z
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Swords Dance
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Def / 204 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Hyper Voice
- Sleep Talk
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Bronzong @ Psychium Z
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 20 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Zen Headbutt
- Explosion
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wild Charge
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Tyrantrum @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Head Smash
- Ice Fang
- Outrage
- Fire Fang
Cresselia @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Moonlight
- Trick Room
- Lunar Dance
Mimikyu @ Mimikium Z
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Swords Dance
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Def / 204 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Hyper Voice
- Sleep Talk
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Bronzong @ Psychium Z
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 20 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Zen Headbutt
- Explosion
Out
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