by Sasami Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:18 pm
I'm not going to go crazy in depth here but I can definitely give some pointers.
First off, I'm concerned about your lead. Most leads run Taunt and/or Explosion. A combination like that will not only prevent you from setting up Trick Room but could also cost you your Slowking. You need a lead that sets up Trick Room reliably. That might mean running something fast. I know that running something fast on a Trick Room team seems odd but bear with me :p. Gengar and Azelf can both set up Trick Room (and people won't expect it since those two are usually doing other things in the lead spot). Even better, after they set it up, they can explode. That'll take out a Pokemon (hopefully) and allow one of your Trick Room sweepers to come in for free. Another option is Scarf Jirachi (a personal favorite of mine). With the scarf, it'll outspeed basically any lead. Run something like Trick Room/Trick/Stealth Rock/Iron Head. If you feel like getting up Trick Room is your biggest priority, you can use that first. But what I'd do is actually first Trick off your scarf onto the defending lead. You'll hopefully lock them into something like Stealth Rock, giving you free turns. Now you can set up rocks and/or Trick Room. Iron Head is just there for attacking and flinching. The move is especially useful for Azelf and Aerodactyl leads who will try to Taunt you (preventing you from using Trick Room). Iron Head will 2HKO both of them and has a 60% chance of making them flinch (in other words, they'll have gotten KO'd without doing anything). The Jirachi set I gave you is completed owned by Magnezone but that shouldn't matter since the Jirachi will have done it's job by then. Oh, and I still think Slowking is fine on the team. Replace Shuckle, maybe (Power Trick Shuckle looks good on paper but rarely does anything in a real game and dies to any priority attack).
By the way, don't freak out if you can't get Trick Room up right away. The biggest mistake I see made with Trick Room teams is that people are eager to set it up immediately. Not only does that give away your strategy (and team since people will know what to expect) but against an experienced player, you're never going to pull off a clean sweep that early in the game anyways. Trick Room is most important later in the game when your opponent's team is weakened, believe me.
Since Slowking is no longer the lead and doesn't need Trick Room, that frees up a spot for Nasty Plot. That'll actually allow him to sweep. Power Gem and Psychic have poor type coverage, you need Surf on there. Slack Off is also good and gives you another chance to sweep if you fail. Nasty Plot/Surf/Ice Beam/Slack Off is good. It does leave you walled by water-types, though, so Grass Knot is an option over Ice Beam.
Camerupt seems odd. I know you're going for a mixer, but having two special fire attacks and Iron Head (which has crappy type coverage and no STAB) is a little weird. Instead of Iron Head, try Stone Edge. And definitely have Explosion over Heat Wave since you seem to be leaning more towards physical attacks on him.
As I read the rest of the team I can't help but wonder--who is sweeping, exactly? I mean, you have a bunch of slow Pokemon with good attacks...but their stats don't really reflect what you want them to do. Trick Room teams need to be able to hit hard and finish games fast. Pokemon like Steelix and Weezing can't accomplish that. Instead of rating the sets of the last few Pokemon, I'd like to instead recommend some stronger Pokemon. Look into Rampardos, Glaceon, Heatran, Ampharos, Rhyperior, Relicanth, Tyranitar, Ursaring, Machamp, Clamperl, etc. Some of those aren't insanely slow but they're slow enough for Trick Room, provided that you use a low speed IV and a speed-lowering nature.
Also, I feel that Spiritomb isn't really much of a sweeper BUT I think he's nice on the team. Try for a bulky set with Trick Room--this way, you have two Trick Room users (at LEAST...a third would be nice).
One last thing. Scizor would fit this team nicely if you find room for him. With a -speed nature he's slow enough for Trick Room and has the moves and stats to really sweep. Plus, he's bulky enough that he can function outside of Trick Room. Even better, he has access to one of the strongest priority attacks in the game--Bullet Punch. With STAB and the Technician boost, it's seriously powerful. Basically, using Scizor is insurance that if Trick Room goes down, you still have offensive power.
Haha, looks like I did go a bit in depth. But whatever :p. I hope this helps!
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