VGC Semi-Trick Room Goodstuff

hublo · Feb 12, 2017

Introduction

Hello everyone, I'm a VGC 2017 newbie and in general mediocre vgc player, I'm more a singles format kind of guy. I played the past two vgc formats without much success and this year hasn't changed the trend, but I digress. My adventure in this format started slightly before the London International but then I stopped playing for a while and came back at the end of january. After the negative record on the ladder with a heat Primarina-Charjabug-Oranguru TR team I decided to play a more standard team.

Teambuilding Process

I started with Celesteela/Porygon2/Tapu Fini as they form a sturdy defensive backbone to rely on.

Next I picked Tapu Koko/Garchomp. I didn't want to be completely reliant on Trick Room to be set up so I added this tried and true offensive core

Last we have Marowak. Originally I wanted to have something faster, something with a middling speed tier like Tapu Fini in order to work in and out of Trick Room, but its ability and typing allows it to check Tapu Koko and Kartana, which is really important.

The Team

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Big fan of Celesteela since the beginning of the format. Courtesy of its typing it can roadblock stuff like Tapu Lele (!) and Garchomp, also allows garchomp to spam eq freely. The huge amount of bulk makes the list of things it can check pretty long and allows to overcome even bad matchups. The main tool for its success is leech seed which goes well in tandem with Substitute and Leftovers. Considered all of that I thought an ev spread that favors bulk would be better than one that gets an attack boost from beast boost. Here are the benchmarks that are met:

252 Atk Garchomp Fire Fang vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Celesteela: 64-76 (31.5 – 37.4%) — Miniscule chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Celesteela: 170-204 (83.7 – 100.4%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO

252+ SpA Xurkitree Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 116+ SpD Celesteela: 168-200 (82.7 – 98.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. +1 252 HP / 116+ SpD Celesteela: 88-109 (43.3 – 53.6%) — 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (no terrain)

+1 252 Atk Gyarados Hydro Vortex (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Celesteela: 169-201 (83.2 – 99%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (jolly Gyarados)

252+ SpA Golduck Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 116+ SpD Celesteela in Rain: 169-199 (82.8 - 97.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

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I wanted to try out the Return-Ice Beam p2 set that I saw in Jibaku's team report and for me it has done a great job due to being able to abuse much better the download boost. The ev spread was taken from the smogondex and survives two sacred swords from AV Kartana and any two attacks from the double duck core. Calm is the preferred nature to outspeed Araquanid outside of Trick Room.

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Ahh Tapu Fini, actually one of my favorite pokemon of this generation. Before Tapu Fini became this popular I tried different ev spreads for a supportive sitrus berry, but didn't work very well. I couldn't figure out what other item Tapu Fini could run but then Sejun popularized choice specs, so kudos to him.
The ev spread does the following:

228+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Fini Muddy Water vs. 252 HP / 68 SpD Marowak-Alola: 168-198 (100.5 - 118.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

4 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 20 Def Tapu Fini: 150-176 (84.7 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

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Marowak suffers competition from Arcanine as a fire type pokemon. It was preferred on this team because p2 is a reliable source of speed control and lightingrod allows marowak to check Tapu Koko and electric types in general. Its ability has come in clutch several times to secure a Tapu Fini sweep when facing electric types. Its reliance on Trick Room though limits a lot the flexibility of the team. The EV spread was ripped from TrainerTower and takes a modest Tapu Lele psychic under its terrain.

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Not much to say here; I wanted two fast pokemon to fill the last two teamslots and Tapu Koko is one of the fastest pokemon in the format and a metagame staple. Deals a lot of damage to almost anything in the format and its electric STAB allows it to check the water types that threaten marowak and Celesteela. The EV spread is plain and simple.

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In the format of this year Garchomp rose again to stardom, no longer suffering the competition from Landorus that it had in the past two VGC seasons. I opted for Fire Fang to ease the kartana matchup, also Dragon Claw doesn't work well with Misty terrain. Garchomp was picked to check Muk and Marowak, which can be annoyances for this team. Once again the EV spread is straightforward.

Conclusion

Usage tips: this team has two modes, a trick room mode(Celesteela, p2, Tapu Fini, Marowak) and a fast mode(Tapu Koko, Garchomp, Tapu fini and the last one is usually celesteela for easy eq spam with chomp). If the opponent is rocking a somewhat fast team (Tapu koko, Garchomp, Kartana, Nihilego, etc..) control the pace of the game with trick room. I advise to lead p2+celesteela/marowak because tapu fini can't protect on the turn p2 goes for Trick Room. Otherwise if the opponent has a sluggish team lead Tapu Koko and Garchomp and watch things drop from turn 1.

Issues: AV kartana, opposing koko-chomp leads, team with fastmons+TR disrupter (muk), magnezone if going TR mode. Probably I should fit taunt somewhere to better deal with opposing TR, but I think that matchup is still bearable. Things to look into are probably Marowak and Garchomp, at least these two are not as performing as I would like.
Hopefully you will be more helpful than the RMT Room on Showdown, peace.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 SpD
Careful Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Protect

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 188 SpD
Calm Nature
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Return
- Recover

Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 228 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Muddy Water
- Hydro Pump

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Atk / 68 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Bonemerang
- Protect

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Discharge
- Protect

Garchomp @ Groundium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Poison Jab
- Protect

hublo · Feb 14, 2017

Bump.
Also in order to not make this post useless... I've been trying the combination of Kommo-o+Nihilego in place of Marowak+Garchomp. I'm thinking I should probably replace Kommo-o with something else due to the interaction with clanging scales and misty terrain. Generally I solve this issue by picking Kommo-o and Porygon2 first and then leaving Tapu Fini in the back to clean the game, but there are times in which Kommo-o is not that useful as a lead even with TR up.
Putting a pokemon faster than marowak makes the team a lot more flexible; also a fighting type seems good to deal with Muk and Kartana, in and out of TR, even though I'm weaker to Tapu Koko. I think Buzzwole might be ok in place of Kommo-o but I don't have any experience with it, any piece of advice on its set is welcome.

VGC Semi-Trick Room Goodstuff

hublo

hublo

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