One of the most interesting moves to build a competitive Pokémon team around is the move Trick Room. For five turns the slower a Pokémon is, the sooner it gets to attack, the opposite of the normal calculation. This can be a huge boon for teams built around the move. A ton of Pokémon with monstrously high attack stats will have low speed stats to prevent them from trashing the opposition, and Trick Room allows them to act as if they were also extremely fast.
In VGC double battles, Trick Room strategies are constantly evolving. Trick Room setters are swapped for those who have preferable defenses or better typing that allows them to survive the turn necessary to set up Trick Room. Their partners are also switched in and out with aplomb, and as with most metas certain Pokémon flourish while others languish.
10 Thriving: Amoonguss Acts As Disruption
The premier Spore user, Amoongus absolutely thrives in a Trick Room meta. Its base thirty speed gives it fantastic agility under Trick Room, and moves like Spore and Rage Powder can keep teammates like Incineroar and Regieleki safe from opposing threats, allowing them to strike back viciously.
The camouflaged mushroom found itself on two of the top eight teams at the 25th Anniversary Invitational, and will probably be seen on many more teams in the future thanks to its bulk and utility.
9 Fallen Out: Dusclops’ Typing Is No Longer Top-Tier
While Dusclops was one of the premier Trick-Room setters in previous metas, the changes that Series 10 made to the VGC metagame really stripped the Eviolite-wielding ghost from relevance. Incredibly strong legendary Pokémon like Calyrex-Shadow and the weather duo were legal, and the former of the two gave Dusclops a hard time.
Since what Dusclops was going to do was so predictable, the plethora of Pokémon with good type matchups preyed on the unfortunate spirit, and drove it further out of the meta.
8 Thriving: Rillaboom Still Glides To The Top
Although they aren’t part of the Trick Room core, Rillaboom can be used to greatly benefit pretty much any team it’s a part of. The move Grassy Glide is extremely powerful in combination with Rillaboom’s Secret Ability: Grassy Surge, as it gets +1 priority when Grassy Terrain is active.
This priority bypasses the speed swap of Trick Room, so Rillaboom can still be used to great effect with a Trick Room setter. Rillaboom is currently the second most used Pokémon in VGC, and was used in three of the top four teams at the 25th anniversary invitational.
7 Fallen Out: Galarian-Moltres Doesn’t Fit The Attack Meta
In Series 9 VGC tournaments, one of the most fun and viable strategies was activating Galarian-Moltres’s Weakness Policy Item in combination with its Berserk ability. This would essentially give the bird three boosts to its Special Attack, making its attacks extremely deadly.
After Series 10 rules were put in place, this Pokémon dropped completely off of the radar due to Pokémon like Kyogre and Zacian-Crowned disposing of it quickly. The meta-also focused more on physical attacks, which Moltres took poorly.
6 Thriving: Indeedee-Female Basically Guarantees Trick Room Victory
There is almost no better partner to a Trick Room user than Indeedee-Female. Her ability to immediately summon Psychic Terrain allows for slower teammates to attack without the worry of any sort of priority moves like Fake Out, and combines fantastically with the Psychic Seed held item. Follow Me allows her to take attacks that would hit the Trick Room setter, and Expanding Force can hit both opposing Pokémon for great damage.
The other two moves in Indeedee’s moveset tend to be support-based, and it’s just this supporting playstyle that keeps the creature high on the usage charts.
5 Fallen Out: Venusaur’s Loss Of G-Max Nerfs It
During the Series 9 VGC meta, Venusaur was a powerhouse. Its ability Chlorophyll made the toad-like Pokémon an absolute powerhouse when combined with a Sun setter like Torkoal, and is especially dangerous in formats where Dynamaxing/Gigantimaxing is legal. Gigantimax Venusaur’s G-Max Vine Lash does a massive 1/6th of all non-Grass opponents maximum HP every turn.
A rampaging G-Max Venusaur could trash an entire team if maneuvered correctly. When D-Max/G-Max was banned in the Series 10 Format, Venusaur completely dropped off of the map, as its strongest move couldn’t be used, and the boosted speed was actually a detriment under Trick Room.
4 Thriving: Incineroar Is Simply Everywhere
The most often used Pokémon in the entirety of VGC is the Pokémon Incineroar. It’s Intimidate ability allows Trick Room setters to survive normally fatal physical attacks, while its low speed and bulky nature allow it to survive long enough to reap the benefits of the move. It also has access to the move Fake Out, which can act as predictive support while doing decent damage due to Incineroar’s base 115 attack.
While it didn’t top the 25th Invitational, it was on six of the top eight teams and provided fantastic support to the players who used it. The only downside to using this Pokémon is that its 60% inclusion rate means that counters to Incineroar are everywhere.
3 Fallen Out: Cresselia Isn’t Flexible Enough Anymore
Cresselia is one of the best tanks in the game and was often either paired with Trick Room setters or used as a Trick Room setter itself. Getting past its base 120 Defense and 130 Special Defense was extremely difficult unless the opponent was running a Pokémon that countered Cresselia.
Unfortunately, since Incineroar became so popular in VGC Cresselia has become nearly obsolete. It simply doesn’t hit hard enough, and while it is an impressive tank, its utility is too limited to push it into true viability.
2 Thriving: Stakataka’s Bulk And Type Are Fantastic
After becoming available in the newest generation of games, Stakataka cemented itself as the Trick Room setter of choice. It had a massive base 211 Defense, a boon in a physically offensive metagame, as well as a great typing, mono-rock.
Even though it’s weak to plenty of the Pokémon running rampant in VGC, Stakataka also has good matchups against creatures like Zapdos and the ever-present Inceneroar. Compared to the Trick Room setters from Series 9, Stakataka provides more consistency, as well as better matchups in general.
1 Fallen Out: Porygon-2 Doesn’t Fit The Bill
Before the advent of the Series 10 ruleset, Porygon-2 was far from the most used Trick Room Pokémon in the meta. Its Eviolite boosted defenses, and hard to punish Normal typing made its setup extremely consistent. Paired with Pokémon like Venasaur and Torkoal, the polygonal duck made for some devastatingly powerful plays.
Unfortunately, a huge counter to Porygon-2 emerged in the form of Zacian-Crowned, who absolutely decimated Porygon if it happened to be running Close Combat. As the sword-wielding dog rose in popularity, and as Stakataka blasted its way into the metagame, so too did Porygon-2 drop in usage.
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