Battle Spot: Ariados Trick Room and Doubles strategy

Build set as of Gen 6

• Ability – Insomnia
• Stats – HP (252), Attack (252), Defence (4)
• Nature – Adamant 
• Item – Life Orb/Focus Sash
• Moveset – Megahorn (stab), Poison Jab (stab), Sucker Punch, Protect

With just slightly below average stats and a mediocre Attack stat, this is one Pokemon that many players do not have in mind. BUT, thanks to Trick Room, new Fairy-type preys, Steel-type defense nerf (to Sucker Punch), and new egg moves; this eight four-legged freak case file is revisited once again. Ariados can be divided into two builds, one is for stalling and another for Trick Room offense, but offense is more favored due to its Attack stat and slowness so better take advantage of that.

Strength
With Amoongus, Breloom and Smeagle running around putting Pokemon to sleep, Insomnia ability is a much-preferred choice as it prevents sleep status 24/7, while Sniper only activates when crit hits.

Sniper may look like an ideal ability to have now that the crit hit ratio formula changed in Gen 6 (a stage 2 crit-hit ratio is now 50% instead of 25%), it matches well with Scope Lens item along with crit-hit moves such as Cross Poison and Night Slash which it can learn. But the non-crit damage output is rather horrendous, so wearing a Scope Lens is out of the question. Even if Scope Lens is replaced with Life Orb or Choice Band, the 12.5% chance of crit is still too low so it's always better to do 100% constant damage with Poison Jab and Sucker Punch. 

It also got some new sweet move like Sticky Web, Rage Powder and Megahorn (especially Megahorn, thank you, Gamefreak). Lastly, being a Bug/Poison-type, it has some "decent" defensive physical resistance to Fighting, Fairy, Grass, Poison and Bug-types. But then again...

Weakness
Talonflame, the sole enemy of the spider so perhaps, in this case, you might need a Focus Sash to survive the heat or Brave Bird, but you won't want to lose that Life Orb power boost now do you? Probably best to sit Ariados out if that bird is around, or you can come up with a partner that can cover its weakness, preferably a Pokemon that can throw a rock at it.

Speaking of rock, it's also afraid of Rock-type moves that are seen around occasionally. Same goes to Psychic-types, It also definitely has a problem facing Steel-type too due to Bug resistance and Poison immunity, so with 4 common weaknesses, you're kinda forced to come up with at least 3 Pokemon to cover up the weakness, you don't need to worry about Psychic type that much because of Sucker Punch.

Moveset
The best part of Gen 6 is that Ariados has been blessed with a new egg move - the sweet and mighty Megahorn. This 120 base power Bug move combined with full Attack EV + Adamant nature can instantly super effectively OHKO many Psychic (like Cresselia), Dark and Grass-type Pokemon and nearly over killing others who are defensively neutral against it, and this is excluding the power boost from the Life Orb. The downside of having such power though, is that it has only 85% accuracy, X-Scissors is another alternative if Megahorn's accuracy is a turn off but it's not wise to give up such powerful move. 

Poison Jab can also OHKO many Fairy-type Pokemon, if not, then a 30% chance of poisoning is nice too. And as mentioned earlier, Sucker Punch is to counter Psychic-type Pokemon and to compensate for being slow, Shadow Sneak is good too but the power is too low.

As for the last move slot, if you don't feel like using Protect (why won't you?). There are other moves to consider, Hone Claws can be added so it can boost its Attack further and Megahorn's accuracy which is nice. It can learn Dig too to counter Fire and Rock-type Pokemon but it's not that reliable since smart trainers can just switch out to counter. 

Closing thoughts

Many trainers don't have any experience facing Ariados and they are sure to underestimate it, you can use this to your advantage in a Trick Room team. Under the right circumstances, your Ariados can be a surprise winner thanks to Megahorn, I imagined my opponent jaw-dropped after I OHKO his Cresselia with it, so that's really fun, and not forgetting 'Poison Jabbing' the Fairies with content. Just remember to be careful with it because it's not meant to come out all the time, especially when Talonflame is around.

So Ariados, I choose you! Glhf!