Monotype Tricky Situations [#94 Peak Mono Ghost Trick Room]

[Gammbitt]

Introduction​

The idea of this team was sparked when me and some of my buddies had a competition to see which could get higher on the ladder with a specific type, and that type was ghost. While my friends opted for more of a balance type mono ghost, I decided that trick room would be the optimal archetype for laddering. Let’s hop into the team

Teambuilding Process​

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When I went to building for this team, alolan marowak was a staple to trick room, due to its ability to abuse trick room and it’s limited switch ins could cause opponents to struggle trying to break.

Mimikyu is an exceptional trick room setter, as it’s ability disguise allows it to set up trick room safely against opponents.

Next is our rocker for the team and second trick room abuser. Stealth rock on mono ghost significantly enhance matchups that have rapid spin as their hazard control.

Jellicent provides us with a second trick room setter. With jellicent’s relative bulk and access to recovery, ghost finds itself a second reliable trick room setter.

Doublade is our third trick room abuser and with solid typing and access to Eviolite, Doublade functions well under the trick room.

Mega banette gives us a third trick room setter, also supporting the team with moves such as knock and Will-o-Wisp.

The Team

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Swords Dance
- Low Kick
​

This Pokémon is a staple on trick room due to its immense attack thanks to its held item thick club. Marowak serves as a late game sweeper, with the help of its teammates, marowak can clean up weakened teams and often times can punch holes in a team early in the game. Flare blitz is a nuke on anything that doesn’t resist it. Shadow bone is it’s second stab, and is there to hit anything that flare blitz does not. I opted for a low kick variant due to its power to OHKO mons that would otherwise live it’s stabs, such as Tyranitar, Heatran, and Hydreigon. Sd is in its fourth slot to help break down walls such a toxapex and mandibuzz, that could otherwise handle marowak.

Mimikyu @ Mimikium Z
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak
​

Mimikyu is a failsafe trick room setter, allowing us to set trick room at any point of the battle. Mimikyu is essential due to its trick room capabilities as well as it’s offensive threat to some of ghosts bad matchups, such as dark and dragon. I opted for z mimikyu due to its immense power and gives mimikyu a more offensive presence than it would otherwise. Shadow claw and play rough are our stabs to click under trick room, while shadow sneak helps revenge mons that are at critical health.

Golurk @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
​

Golurk significantly boosts our matchup vs multiple types, namely types such as bug, ice, and fire, that often times rely on rapid spin as their answer to get rid of hazards. Life orb iron fist allows it to put in tremendous work against dragon, bug, and steel with ice punch and fire punch under trick room. Earthquake is our only stab move, but allows us to hit anything hard neutrally.

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 22 Spe
- Trick Room
- Recover
- Giga Drain
- Taunt
​

Due to the ground matchup being relatively tough for ghost, I opted for a creative set showcasing gigs drain and taunt, significantly increasing our mu. 22 ivs in speed allow jellicent to outpace hippowdon and gastrodon, enabling jellicent to keep these mons weakened for our trick room abusers to break these mons in the late game. 252 bold is to take as little as possible from physical attacks, to be able to effectively recover off damage when needed.

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword
​

Doublade acts as our third trick room abuser and gives us a good matchup versus types that struggle to kill it, such as fairy, rock and ice. I opted for sd 3 attacks to maximize coverage and damage done while trick room is active. Sacred sword helps us with the dark matchup, when mandibuzz is weakened early game. Doublades solid defensive typing combined with its offensive capabilities makes it an effective trick room sweeper.

Banette-Mega @ Banettite
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Will-O-Wisp
- Knock Off
- Destiny Bond
​

I decided to use Mega-Banette over its superior option, Mega-Sableye. I made this choice due to Banette’s utility it gives to the team. Access to trick room gives us a third Setter, Will-o-Wisp is to hinder physical attacks that threaten ghost, and destiny bond to eliminate Pokémon that threaten the team.
Max Special Defense set allows us to live attacks from notable breakers such as fire blast Mega Charizard-Y, Expert Belt Hydreigon and Specs Meloetta.

Conclusion​

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this RMT. Of course I’m accepting to all suggestions to make this team better.

Importable

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Swords Dance
- Low Kick

Mimikyu @ Mimikium Z
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak

Golurk @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 22 Spe
- Trick Room
- Recover
- Giga Drain
- Taunt

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword

Banette-Mega @ Banettite
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Will-O-Wisp
- Knock Off
- Destiny Bond

Replays:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-947049920 (Dragon)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-947642268 (Ground)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-947654295 (Dark)

 

[Splash]

Hi Gammbitt its refreshing to see Ghost being used on the ladder these days and reaching top 100, however I do have changes to suggest.

First off, the Golurk set needs to be changed as Golurk's main role on Trick Room Ghost teams is to set up Stealth Rock, rather than abusing Trick Room itself. A Focus Sash would be the optimal held item of choice as you will be able to use it as a suicide rocker, and that way the rest of its teammates such as Alolan Marowak can break through teams easier with Stealth Rock up. You mention that Ice Punch and Fire Punch are helpful for the Bug and Ice matchups, but Ghost does excel in those matchups regardless, and better options are Stone Edge and Dynamic Punch. as Stone Edge is useful in the Flying matchup as well. In addition, changing Golurks ability to No Guard allows Stone Edge and Dynamic Punch to be perfectly accurate.

Your reasoning for running Mega Banette is because it provides an additional Trick Room setter, as well as the support options such as Will-O-Wisp and Destiny Bond. I would slot in Cofagrigus here as it is able to of course set Trick Room and has the ability to set Toxic Spikes which aid in the Fairy and Normal matchups which Ghost may struggle with and It also gets access to Memento which allows Cofagrigus to let its teammates take advantage of the Trick Room turns and grant a setup opportunity for Alolan Marowak. Furthermore it can utilize Z-Memento to fully restore the HP of the Pokémon switching in, therefore if Alolan Marowak for example is worn down you will be able to use it to its full potential again. (essentially have 2 Alolan Marowak's). I feel as though Cofagrigus would be a better option to support your team over Mega Banette, and the only real downside is that you will have to forego Mimikyum-Z crystal on Mimikyu, however Mimikyu can always hold a Red Card as an emergency stop to a sweep.


Now that the major changes are done, I would like to suggest some minor changes here:

Changing Alolan Marowak's Speed IV's to 24 allows it to outspeed Toxapex outside of Trick Room. As well as opting for Earthquake over Low Kick as the only significant Pokemon Low Kick hits over Earthquake is Hydreigon, as well as +2 Earthquake can OHKO Toxapex.
Changing Iron Head on Doublade to Gyro Ball can allow for a Steel-type STAB move with a higher potential base power as Doublade is a very slow Pokemon, however if consistent damage output is preferred alongside higher PP, then Iron Head is totally fine.
Running Giga Drain over Scald on Jellicent is not really worth the move slot, as Scald has benefits for many other matchups, the burn chance and Water STAB move alongside Toxic would be enough to wear down Hippowdon and Gastrodon.



I enjoyed reading your RMT, good luck with the team, Trick Room Ghost is one of my favourite archetypes to use. Here are the sets I have suggested below.

Sets

Golurk @ Focus Sash
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Dynamic Punch


Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head / Gyro Ball
- Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 24 Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake / Low Kick

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 22 Spe
- Trick Room
- Recover
- Scald
- Toxic

Cofagrigus @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Mummy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Memento
- Toxic Spikes
- Hex / Will-O-Wisp

Mimikyu @ Red Card
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak