ORAS NU Slow and Steady Wins the Race (Trick Room)

[OneTrickPony]

Hey everyone. So a little background about me. I first came up with a UU trick room team, reached top 100, then plateaued. After getting bored with that, I moved to RU trick room, where I thought pokes like M-camerupt, Druddigon, Escavalier, etc, would be able to work incredibly well in tandem with trick room. Unfortunately, my trick room setters, Cofagrigus and Xatu, were way too frail in the meta, and as a result I'd rarely be able to get a trick room off without sustaining huge damage to my team.

Still bored with UU at this point and at an impasse for RU, I decided to take the power of Trick Room to NU. Here is what I came up with. I'm looking to improve it, but I have little experience in NU and need all the help I can get.

Core:

Audino @ Audinite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Dazzling Gleam
- Wish
- Trick Room

Malamar @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Superpower
- Destiny Bond
- Trick Room

Here is the trick room setters. One is physically defensive, and can serve as a wish passer or a mono-attacking sweeper under the right circumstances, whereas the other is specially defensive, designed to gimmick opponents with destiny bond, knock off eviolites, or potentially hit the opponent hard with a Contrary superpower.

Tank Attackers:

Aurorus @ Choice Specs
Ability: Refrigerate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
- Frost Breath

With HP EVs, this pokemon tends to survive most hits without getting OHKOed, bar steel/fighting attacks and some physical STAB super effective attacks. While its normal downfall is that this setup is too slow and threats like Archeops, Speed Rhydon, and Barbarcle would kill it before it could do anything, access to trick room gives this pokemon the chance to hit first, often for an OHKO. Be wary of priority steel/fighting moves!

Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Facade
- Knock Off

Between Close Combat, Facade, and Knock off, A Guts boosted Hariyama kills just about anything in its path. Fake out is the other move of choice, allowing Hariyama a chance to pick off weakened pokes on the switch in, and give time for flame orb to activate if Hariyama does not OHKO without the guts boost.

Non-Trick Room Dependent Pokes

Archeops
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Acrobatics
- Stone Edge
- Earth Power
- Roost

This is my late-game cleaner, who virtually outspeeds the entire meta sans Electrode and scarved pokemon (who struggle against this team anyways). I tried full trick room, but it is hard to keep opposing teams honest if you have a matchup that struggles to send out trick room or your trick room runs out.

Skuntank @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 148 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Poison Jab
- Defog

With two pokes that have 2x weakness to stealth rock, as well as no entry hazards of my own, I sought a strong defog user. Against slow and fast pokemon, sucker punch hits hard. Pursuit is for trapping psychic/ghost pokemon. Poison jab is for STAB coverage.

Any thoughts on how I could improve this team? I haven't done enough testing, but looking for potential better fits. No pokemon is untouchable, as long as it keeps the trick room theme! Getting middling results right now, but I can feel the potential, it just needs some tweaks.

 

[Pilo]

This is a pretty neat looking trick room team but I noticed a few flaws.

Audino's set doesn't work very well, Calm Mind burns precious trick room turns, Wish is generally not very good for keeping Audino sustained without protect and hard switching to pass wishes doesn't always work on an offensive team. In short, this set doesn't really know what it wants to be. Instead, I would try to more supportive set with Dazzling Gleam / Encore / Trick Room / Healing Wish. Encore is great for locking opponents into non-damaging moves netting you a free switch into one of your trick room sweepers and Healing Wish's ability to keep up momentum and effectively give a threatening sweeper a second chance is immensely powerful in many situations.

Malamar, while it is a threatening mon doesn't work very well as a Trick Room setter because it has no means of maintaining momentum once it has set up Trick Room and forces you to hard switch to a team member. Since your team also lacks Stealth Rock I suggest replacing it altogether with suicide lead Carbink. Carbink is able to set up both rocks and Trick Room before exploding to give you a free switch into a powerful Trick Room abuser. This set also has Magic Coat to deter common anti-leads who carry Taunt.

While Arorus is pretty well rounded, it's not the best Trick Room abuser. Its power is decent but I think that Aggron would make for a much better fit. Aggron forms a powerful offensive core with Hariyama and the two can effectively wear down switch-ins with constant offensive pressure.

Hariyama is great, don't get me wrong. But I don't think a Guts Flame Orb set is the right direction to take it. Guts Hariyama gets worn down far too quickly and I personally think the Choice Band set is superior. Choice band gives you similar power while still allowing you to absorb burns and the likes. I figured since your team had few other means of taking on status that letting Hariyama keep Guts was a good idea.

I believe that Jynx would make a better late-game cleaner than Archeops. Even though Archeops is very powerful late-game, Jynx's access to setup and ability to abuse sleep make it a much better wincon imo. Jynx also has a few nice synergies with Skuntank as the latter can keep Jynx's sash intact by use of Defog as well as Pursuit-trap bulky Psychic-types that may present a problem. Jynx also benefits from the wallbreaking powerful offensive cores like Aggron and Hariyama accomplish. On a side note, I think Skuntanks EV spread would be more effective if it were 232 Atk / 132 SpD / 144 Spe. This spread allows Skuntank to hit certain benchmarks that are imperative to its success.

These are just a few of my ideas, feedback is always appreciated

Sets

Audino @ Audinite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Dazzling Gleam
- Encore
- Trick Room
- Healing Wish

Carbink @ Normal Gem
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion
- Magic Coat

Aggron @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
- Head Smash
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Superpower

Hariyama @ Choice Band
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake / Stone Edge

Jynx (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lovely Kiss
- Nasty Plot
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock

Skuntank @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 232 Atk / 132 SpD / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Poison Jab
- Defog / Taunt

Stay sharp.

 

[OneTrickPony]

These are some great suggestions. Things I immediately changed

-Audino set: Wow, these seem like obvious changes but I never really thought of them and I feel bad for it. Its going to be a far more effective mon with auto-switching from healing wish and encore to trap certain mons
-Carbink: Same idea with Audino, I like how I can explode to get an auto-switch and due to sturdy I'm guaranteed a setup which was far from the case previously (didn't ever try out this guy because he wasn't even featured on the NU viability rankings although he fits perfectly with this team.

Currently testing: Aggron over aurorus, jynx over archeops
I want to keep the flame orb over choice band on Hariyama, I tried choice band before the orb and the increased flexibility by not getting movelocked is important in not wasting trick room turns especially with Ghost mons on opposing teams.

Thanks so much for the rate, even if I only use the top 2 suggestions it will improve my team tremendously