The Four Fundamentals of Trick Room

So you decided to choose Trick Room, and you prolly stumbled upon my blog when Googling for "how to make a trick room team" by chance. I know there are other better guides like Smogon's, and as mentioned from my introduction post I'm nowhere national level (or...am I? lol), so why would you still want to read my post? 

Well, what I'm about to share with you is not only what you need, but also what kind of mindset you should have in the Pokemon WiFi Rating Battle Spot, reading your opponent, and most importantly, bringing the best out of your certain slow Pokemon chosen for the team (I'll share this more in the near future). 

(Image credit to TGN Youtube channel)

Shall we?

For starters, you should know that the move Trick Room only last 5 rounds, however, with a priority of -7 that means your Trick Room caster will move last, which also means you actually only have 4 rounds for your slow Pokemon. In a Doubles format environment, the pace is fast and I'd prefer it that your team of slow Pokemon can finish everything with that time period. Because once everything is set back to normal, you're gonna face some difficulties surviving. 

• Choosing the right Trick Room caster 

Lucky for you, many Psychic and Ghost Pokemon types can learn the move, along with the Porygon lineup and Diancie. It's best to choose a tanky caster because experienced trainers will do their best to KO the caster before Trick Room activates. 

Granted, your caster might not even survive if it gets double teamed (literally, not the move), thus, it's important to have a supporting Pokemon who can Fake Out (more on that later) to allow the caster to activate Trick Room, at the very least, your tanky caster can survive one powerful hit from one of their Pokemon, while your Fake Outer deals with the other. Also, a Mental Herb item is the only item your caster should have to counter Taunt.

As for me, Cofagrigus is my favourite Trick Room caster because it's tanky, can't be Fake Out (unless if the Pokemon has Scrappy ability), and also strong enough to take down many Pokemon if given the chance. 

• The Fake Out 

(Image credit to aminoapps.com)

If your Trick Room caster is the bread, then your Fake Out partner is the butter of the team (geddit?). Fake Out has a priority move of +3 which is great, so your Fake Out partner's job is to protect the Trick Room caster at all cost and should often come out in the front line, there are only a few Pokemon who can learn Fake Out; and even smaller number of slow strong Fake Out Pokemon. 

Experienced trainers will easily spot them, and prolly the only way for them to counter you is having a faster Fake Out user, but no worries, that also means your chance of setting up Trick Room is higher without being double teamed; even if your caster gets Fake Out, you can also Fake Out his other Pokemon for free and try again in the next round.

Normally, trainers will choose slow and strong Fake Out Pokemon such as Hariyama, Hitmontop and Scrafty because they're ridiculously threatening in Trick Room. Believe it or not, I use Kecleon and it's still my favourite Fake Out partner because of its Protean hidden ability gifted by Arceus (or rather GameFreak lol).

• What about the other 4 Pokemon?

(Image credit to nintendobuddyboards.freeforums.org)

Like I said in my Pokemon Team Building post, the rest of the members are entirely up to you and how well they synergize with the core Pokemon (which is your Trick Room caster). I don't think I need to tell you that you need a Mega-evolved Pokemon as well to add a little "umph!", and there are only a few of them which you can freely choose. 

On the other hand, supportive Pokemon with Follow Me or Rage Powder are also incredibly useful and can be seen as an altervative to Fake Out. You have the fairy Clefable for Follow Me, a good Trick Room member, and Amoongus is the most popular (and annoying, it's a love-hate relationship) Rage Powder user compared with Tangrowth and Parasect, super tanky but lacking raw power, The latter two are not that useless as you think, they're quite tanky as well with a respectable Attack stat, but prone to get demolish by many common weaknesses in the current metagame. 

My Trick Room style, as you might have guessed is more to offensive so most of my members are slow hard hitters and chosen to counter the ever present top 12 OU Pokemon in the Rating Battle Spot. Even Pokemon like Maractus can sweep the match for me in a Trick Room environment, when used correctly, of course. 

• Reading your opponent

(Image credit to mypokecard.com)

There are two types of opponents you'll face in the Rating Battle Spot - the one who makes poor decisions, and the one who knows your A-game. Most of the time in your early season career, you'll find it pretty easy to beat down opponents left and right with your Trick Room tactic until you reach above 1600 points; matches get harder.

Since there are so few Pokemon suitable for Trick Room, your seasoned opponent will know exactly what you're up to during the team preview. However, you can also use this to your advantage, and this is where the mind games come in; you can actually mind fuck them if you're cunning enough. Here are two popular situations in which the opponent think he/she can counter you and mind fuck back in return:

1. Your opponent can counter you back with a Trick Room of their own, that means if you were already planning to cast Trick Room; it will be cast 2 times that will make the speed order back to normal. Like your opponent, you too can also spot which of their Pokemon knows Trick Room. So in my encounters, I've met quite a few trainers who'd cast Trick Room to counter me, but unbeknownst to him/her; he/she was actually doing a favour for me, allowing my Pokemon have a free head-on attack shot in the first round.
2. Another popular counter is that your opponent will try to stall your offense by spamming Protect and switching Pokemon in between, it'd be annoying at first, but with enough experience you can eventually read them like book plowing their defenses mercilessly.

Keep in mind that there will be occasions that you won't be able to set up Trick Room at all, but all hope is not lost. If you come across that situation, you actually still have a winning chance without Trick Room, and this really depends on your tactics and understanding of the metagame. It's very rewarding if you won with style, making you a true Trick Room master. 

(Image credit to Smogon)

So there you have it, these are the four fundamentals of Trick Room and I hope it has given you some insights of how Trick Room is played in the Rating Battle Spot but experience is your best teacher. And most importantly, don't be afraid to try other Pokemon that are rated lowly just because they're slow, they truly shine under Trick Room. Glhf!