A Top 16 EUIC/Top 4 Orlando Regionals Team Report

Contributions by Ben Grissmer

Table of Contents

Intro

Teambuilding

Tournaments

Team Breakdown

INTRO

Hi everyone, my name is Brian Collins aka Angelohunter, and I recently finished Top 16 at the 2024 European International Championships. This was supposed to be a report on a European International Championship Top 16 Team, but thanks to recent developments, I am ecstatic to include Orlando Regionals Top 4 by Ben Grissmer, aka Chef, to its list of accomplishments. This is a team that Ben and I have been working on for months and we are extremely proud of the final product, and to have two incredible results behind it is so validating for both of us. This is our first time doing a long-form written report, and we hope you enjoy it!

I would like to preface this article by saying yes, I'm a filthy Psyspam player, just the worst, I know. It's not the most popular way to play the game, but I think it's an interesting, offensive archetype that is overlooked because of its simplistic nature. I don’t have a problem just trying to position something like a Tera Psychic Life Orb Armarouge and knocking everything out with Expanding Force, makes my life easier. I got Top 8 at the Sacramento Regionals earlier this year with Psyspam, forging a path for Gallade as a Trick Room staple in the process. More than just Psyspam, I'm a hard TR player (yes this is different from a Psyspam player, look at Ben and I’s 2023 Worlds / Pittsburgh Regional teams.) I know a lot of people have gripes with the archetype, but call us crazy, we like setting up Trick Room, clicking the big attacks, and winning in 5 turns. There are complexities and intricacies to make that work, but I'm a simple guy at heart, and playing an archetype that narrows my game plan to executing one strategy and doing it perfectly works for me. Now with that being said, I hope this article will shine some light on building this specific Hard Trick Room team and show there was a lot of thought put into making it the best in the world!

TEAMBUILDING 

--Inspiration of Team / Starting Points--

“PaintSpam”, the team Ben and I used at Vancouver and later EUIC and Orlando, was a combination of two team concepts we had used before. The first was the typical “Psyspam” Trick Room teams that people including myself had been using in Reg E, with the usual suspects such as Indeedee-F, Hatterene, Gallade, Ursaluna, Torkoal, and then a variation of Pokemon in the 6th slot (Urshifu-Single, Ogerpon-Cornerstone, etc.). I had even been testing a Life Orb Articuno-Galar team with Walking Wake, heavily inspired by fellow Irishman Mark Cotter's Day 2 at Utrecht Regionals.

These Psyspam TR team variants felt very solid with plenty of explosive offensive potential, it just felt like there was a glaring issue concerning a certain meta-relevant team - Japan Balance. The Japanese balance team that had gained popularity following one of the Global Challenges was running rampant and had both Pokemon that make Psyspam players’ lives miserable, Rillaboom and Incineroar, along with offensive threats that can sponge damage to stall out Trick Room turns and dish out huge damage in return, such as Raging Bolt and Substitute Landorus-Incarnate. There were also other variants that included other problematic Pokemon such as Quiver Dance Volcarona and Nasty Plot Gholdengo. In testing, it felt like consistently beating this archetype was nearly impossible. Going into Vancouver, it felt as if Psyspam TR certainly had the options to take on this team, but required near-perfect positioning to win consistently. Using a team like Psyspam with one of the most popular teams in the format being so problematic felt very high-risk-high-reward, where dodging the matchup and playing more unconventional stuff would result in a good finish, but playing Japan Balance multiple times would lead to a long, read-filled day. This assessment seemed to be validated by the lack of results from conventional Psyspam teams during Regulation F from the point where Japan Balance became a meta staple. I decided pretty early in testing this wasn’t the way I wanted to go for Vancouver, and decided to look for other options.

The second team that inspired PaintSpam, “Anyone Can Paint”, was one of my favorite teams I had ever used, earning me a Top 32 placing in Charlotte Regionals, the largest tournament ever at the time. ACP had some fun picks like Decorate Smeargle with Farigiraf, Sleep Talk Bloodmoon, and then the min-speed pair of Choice Band Urshifu and Clear Amulet Rillaboom.

At the time this team felt like one of the strongest in the meta, and I genuinely felt it was capable of winning the Charlotte Regional if I was able to reach Top 8. Following the tournament, the team still felt very strong, but there were certain meta adaptations that made it more difficult for the offensive tools to overwhelm teams, such as the rise AV Tera Fairy Raging Bolt, making it difficult for Farigiraf and Ursaluna to sweep in Trick Room, even paired next to Urshifu. There was also the rise of generally bulkier archetypes, like Scott Iwafuchi’s Ting-Lu Kommo-o team (which later evolved to his Top 4 Vancouver Team), and the Japanese Ting-Lu Dozo teams. These archetypes were very difficult for ACP to break through with the present tools, and we felt like we needed to take a new direction to succeed with the overall meta. Perhaps this team could have still been a solid call for EUIC on the basis of comfort and not being in the public eye, but myself and Ben had a gut feeling that there needed to be some kind of adaptation to be successful. 

One day in February, Ben messaged me a paste of a very unique-looking Trick Room Team. It had Hatterne, Indeedee, Torkoal, a common core from the Psyspam teams, but there was also the Farigiraf, Smeargle, and Urshifu-Single from ACP. This seemed like a redundant addition to Indeedee and Hatterene, both combos had Follow Me and Trick Room with very limited offensive coverage and potential. Ben had essentially smashed together the two Trick Room teams that we were familiar with and carried over the Torkoal and Urshifu as the center points for damage. I was hesitant at first, but Ben was very insistent that there was potential here, and that the combinations of Hatterne + Indeedee and Farigiraf + Smeargle cover each other extremely well, With ACP, the Farigiraf and Smeargle combination was extremely effective in handling Incineroar and Rillaboom, blocking priority and boosting Farigiraf with Decorate to sweep through entire teams or paving the way for other sweepers to clean up. One of the problems for the Smeargle was Ogerpon, which can Follow Me, redirecting both Spore and Decorate, making Smeargle useless. Psyspam matches up into this quite well, especially considering Ogerpon and Rillaboom are often not on the same team. The addition of Psyspam also makes certain Amoonguss teams much easier to handle thanks to Hatterene and Torkoal both underspeeding it, threatening a knockout under Trick Room even if it Terastilizes. The team was rounded out by min speed Choice Band Urshifu-Single and Choice Specs Torkoal to act as the main sweepers in Trick Room. These two sweepers seemed like they would give us the highest return for their investment. There is practically nothing in the game that can withstand a Helping Hand Choice Specs Tera Fire Eruption without both a resistance and some kind of special defense boost, making it a great sweeper, and Urshifu-Single makes the most sense as the dedicated physical sweeper, as most opponents’ gameplans revolve around positioning to withstand hits and stall Trick Room with Protect. Positioning Urshifu into the right position eliminates these gameplans entirely, and with the Choice Band, it can single-handedly run away with games with Decorate and Helping Hand. In essence, it seemed like this all-in concept on Trick Room had two very effective modes of setting Trick Room and supporting the dedicated sweepers.

Team Refinement

With the initial idea in hand, it was now time to hit the ladder and work together to test and refine the concept. One part of the original paste that I initially wasn’t in favor of was the item choice of Covert Cloak on Hatterene. I was used to the damage potential of Life Orb Tera Psychic Hatterene on my other teams I was testing, which made it capable of sweeping entire teams on its own if positioned well. However, Ben was sold that the Covert Cloak was essential to preventing Snarl from the Assault Vest Raging Bolts that were picking up in usage, which was a valid concern. I was on board to try it out, but it was when Ben suggested Psyshock as the 4th move on Hatterene that I was convinced on the set. The combination of Covert Cloak and Psyshock allowed us to shrug off Snarls from AV Raging Bolts and allowed us to follow up for knockouts on Pokemon that Choice Specs Torkoal could not power through on its own, mainly Tera-Water Ogerpon-Wellspring, we even went ahead and slapped it on Indeedee as well. Since we were running Rocky Helmet, we were fine not having Dazzling Gleam to break sashes on the typical Focus Sash Dark Types, Urshifu and Chien-Pao, and having Indeedee soften up targets for Torkoal seemed like the best use of its offense. Other team refinements were made, like switching from Tera Water to Tera Fire Hatterene to help more with Chi-Yu/Flutter Mane Leads, as well as refining the Farigiraf spread for the progressing meta, and the team was starting to feel very solid.

Indeedee's Wish

Ben and I laddered with our “first draft” for several weeks in February, having success on the Showdown ladder, and shared the concept with our good friend and teambuilding partner Nathan Ortiz, aka Kortex, where he then began laddering and experimenting with the concept himself. 

Our team building group has been very keen on the concept of setting Trick Room while having a slow-pivot into a sweeper to maximize the efficiency in Trick Room. Having the ability to get a Trick Room sweeper safely with maximum Trick Room turns remaining is crucial for the success of a dedicated Trick Room team. Nate, Ben, and I all used min-speed Friend Guard Maushold with U-Turn on our Worlds 2023 teams because it was so effective at allowing a safe Trick Room and switch into a sweeper turn 1. One night in a group call we were looking into Clefairy, a new tool to Regulation E and F that also achieved this first turn pivot, with the initial idea of utilizing Teleport to keep Friend Guard on the field until the last moment to allow for a safe Trick Room, while also protecting the incoming sweeper. Unfortunately, Teleport was removed from Clefairy’s movepool in Generation 9. Baton Pass seemed to be the only other realistic option, but that has the downside of passing Snarl special attack drops to the sweeper. I was looking through Clefairy's movepool and jokingly suggested Healing Wish which Nate and Ben thought was funny but we didn’t seriously consider it. I originally suggested Healing Wish because it had none of the drawbacks of Baton Pass, instead trading Clefairy’s life for a free switch to a sweeper. We continued discussing options that night and looked into other ideas, but walked away from the call thinking we hadn’t made much progress. 

The next day, Ben messaged me with a realization that simultaneously confused and flattered me - I had unintentionally solved the team.

I wasn’t sure how debating the viability of Clefairy in voice chat the night before then slaving away at my 9-to-5 solved the team, but I was interested to hear what I did. Ben then revealed a discovery that would change the dynamic of our team - Indeedee gets Healing Wish. At a glance, this may seem like a strange suggestion. Why would I want to purposefully sacrifice such an important support piece at the beginning of the game? An inherent flaw with Indeedee is that it gets stuck on the field not doing anything, and if you switch in a sweeper to avoid being stalled, you risk taking too much damage or even getting knocked out. Healing Wish allows Indeedee to get off the field whenever we want, and because the incoming Pokemon is brought in at the end of the turn, it allows the main sweepers Torkoal or Urshifu to come in without any risk of damage for free.

What about if there's a Rillaboom and I need to keep terrain control? Well luckily for us, we can prevent terrain wars with our alternative mode, Farigiraf and Smeargle. What about Helping Hand Indeedee? Most typical Indeedee’s have Helping Hand by default, which is fantastic at boosting sweepers’ damage to get knock outs. As strong as Helping Hand with Expanding Force, Eruption, and Wicked Blow is, most teams in Regulation F had defensive tools, so we needed even more offense on the field to win in Trick Room.

We also learned in testing that Healing Wish has a unique property where the healing effect remains available until something that has taken damage is switched into the Indeedee slot, even if it happens several turns later. This allows us to go for neat plays where we can preserve a damaged Hatterene for late game scenarios, and switch it back into the slot where Indeedee was to heal it up to full, and get another Trick Room off, which Ben was able to pull off at EUIC. Healing Wish seemed like a neat tech at first but we weren’t certain of its viability or practicality, but when we started our ladder testing with it, it changed everything. We were destroying people on Showdown using it effectively to get Indeedee off the field. It wasn’t just a tech that came up in a few games, we were clicking it almost every game that we brought Psyspam. The effectiveness in Healing Wish is mainly turn 1 or turn 2 scenarios. In general, Indeedee is needed to help Hatterene set up Trick Room, especially in front of things like Parting Shot Incineroar, which can simply eject Hatterene thanks to the Magic Bounce interaction (wink wink). On the first turn after setting Trick Room, Indeedee can simply go for Healing Wish to get off the field, while Hatterene gets some chip damage off on the opponents or even threatens a knockout. In many scenarios, it was totally fine to get Indeedee off the field and let Hatterene go down in order to get in Torkoal and Urshifu with 3 turns of Trick Room remaining. The overwhelming offense from Torkoal and Urshifu, which cannot be fully protected against thanks to Unseen Fist, was enough to beat entire teams. Healing Wish’s funniest, and sometimes most effective use, is to use it on turn one for an immediate free switch on the same turn Trick Room is set. The moment we knew Healing Wish was “the nuts”, as Nate would say, was going for this play turn 1 against an Amoonguss, watching them Tera Water to cover for a turn 1 Expanding Force, only to end up Sporing itself because it was redirected into Magic Bounce thanks to Indeedee’s Healing Wish. 

This Healing Wish Indeedee tech would prove to be the most influential piece of the team, pushing questionable matchups heavily in our favor, and giving us the surprise factor on our opponents (you’d be surprised how many people we talked to and played against didn't understand how it worked, or didn’t even notice it on the team sheet). Healing Wish was so strong in fact, Nate even revisited it on Clefairy, reaching high on Showdown and catching the attention of top players, one of whom applied the idea to a similar Trick Room team. Ben and I also had multiple accounts near the top of the Showdown ladder using our team and realized how strong Healing Wish was on our concept. We then decided we would limit laddering as much as possible, and stop laddering completely 3 weeks before Vancouver. A big factor in doing well with this team would be catching the opponent off guard, so we needed to keep it out of the public eye as much as possible to prevent people from forming game plans around it. This tech would complete the team, leaving only certain tera types and spreads up for debate, and we set off to Vancouver, and later London and Orlando with the confidence of great results in our future.

Hatterene’s Secret

There was one more important team-building decision that had a big impact on Ben’s top 4 run in Orlando. If you look at his team list, you’ll notice that Ben is not running Covert Cloak on his Hatterene, he’s running Clear Amulet. Following Vancouver, and in the few days leading up to EUIC, Ben had a great idea - we should run Clear Amulet to block Parting Shot! This would solve a big problem, stopping Incineroar from ejecting Hatterene before setting Trick Room, which happens because of the interaction with Magic Bounce. This would allow us to go for Healing Wish turn 1 against certain Incineroar leads, which was very favorable for positioning. The main purpose of Covert Cloak was to block Snarl drops anyway, so Clear Amulet still achieves this while trading additional secondary effects for Parting Shot prevention. The “Clear Amulet to block Parting Shot” idea has been used a few times on some niche Pokemon to success, like Entei and Kingambit, and this proved to be very successful for Ben in both his EUIC and Orlando runs. He did not have a single Incineroar attempt a Parting Shot onto his Hatterene.

Now, if you look at my Team List from EUIC, you will notice that I do not have Clear Amulet, I have Covert Cloak. Why, you might ask, would I give up such a good tech on Hatterene? Was I worried about flinching, or other secondary effects? Well, to tell you the truth… Clear Amulet does not stop Parting Shot from ejecting Hatterene. Yes, that’s right, you’ve all been fooled. Ben tested this interaction when he proposed the idea, and found that on cartridge, the Magic Bounce interaction still triggers first, and Hatterene is ejected despite having Clear Amulet. However, when Ben asked game mechanics expert DaWoblefet if he knew the answer on the interaction before he tested it, they did not know the answer. Ben’s takeaway from this: if he doesn’t know the interaction, then nobody else will, and nobody in a tournament is going to see Clear Amulet and still click Parting Shot. Why else would he be running Clear Amulet?? 

There was much debate in our teambuilding group on whether this was a good idea, but after discussion, Nate and Ben were fully onboard with Clear Amulet, agreeing that most people wouldn’t know the interaction, and that we could get away with it. I, along with other padders such as Adrien Hurley, was not convinced this would work, so I went with Covert Cloak to play it safe. For this to really pay off, it was really important to, well, spread misinformation when the opportunity presented itself. To Ben’s benefit, everyone, even the stream commentators in Orlando, assumed the reasoning for Clear Amulet was for Parting Shot, so we just had to “reassure” people when they asked. Regardless of how you feel on this, and whether you want to call him genius or crazy, Ben fooled everybody on his way to a Top 4 finish in Orlando. For all of those who asked me about the interaction over the weekend of Orlando Regionals, I lied to you, and I’m sorry, it was for my friend. I hope you can all forgive me, at least it worked. XD

TOURNAMENTS

Vancouver

We ended up bringing the team to local tournaments the weekend before Vancouver regionals, with the agreement that we would use something else last minute if there were notable top players at the local. Ben ended up having some well-known players at his local, so he used a slightly alternative version without Healing Wish Indeedee, but luckily for me, I was comfortable using the full version without worry that it would spread afterward. Ben and I managed to win both locals, myself without dropping a single game, and we were feeling great going into Vancouver knowing our team was still off of the radar. Despite entering full of confidence, Vancouver did not go as planned. I fumbled a 5-0 start, finishing 6-3, while Ben dropped at 3-3. One thing we had in common though was our matchup spreads, we both played some off-the-wall teams that gave our team a lot of trouble. Ben played against two teams with Imprison and Trick Room, something that is extremely difficult to beat with our all-or-nothing Trick Room strategy that we banked on not playing against. I played against an unorthodox Ting-Lu Dozo team with Unaware Dozo and a Wide Guard Pelipper / Tera Fairy AV Archaludon Team with screens, which invalidates both of our main Trick Room sweepers in Torkoal and Urshifu. In hindsight, I think I could have still beaten the tough matchups, but was not playing my best and didn’t have as much experience using the team as I probably needed. Ben’s performance, however, can be wrapped up purely by bad matchup luck. What’s the game plan against Imprison-Trick Room teams you might be wondering - well, depending on what else is on the team, sometimes the game plan is just to take the L and win the rest of your sets. Yes actually, we didn’t have much of a matchup into Imprison-Trick Room but we were willing to take our chances because we were so confident in beating everything else. Vancouver just proved to be the wrong tournament with that mentality. Regardless of the result from the regional, the next day in the MSS, a bit pissed off and wanting to take out my frustration, I came in 2nd, playing a lot of meta-standard teams, restoring my confidence for EUIC.

EUIC

I was thankful to have secured my Worlds invite after the Vancouver Regional, so I was not feeling any outside pressure going into EUIC. Ben is also not able to attend Worlds this year, so he was only going to EUIC with hopes of a good finish. We both were definitely feeling pressure from ourselves to give this team a result that we felt it deserved. Typical European metagames trend towards balanced playstyles more so than in North America, which our team was designed to beat. So while we both had zero expectations, we felt like a strong result was in the works. I arrived in London the weekend before EUIC, meeting up with friends Raj Desai and Ryan Powney from Team Ireland (World Cup of Pokemon) in Orpington to take on the locals for some practice. I didn’t have the best finish, and was mainly there for the vibes, but was feeling good for the main event next weekend. Ryan asked me something at dinner that really stuck with me up until the tournament, he asked “Brian, you’ve had some pretty great finishes this season, but two of your results with this team are 6-3 and 3-2. Why are you still so confident in the team that’s not getting you results you’re used to?” After laughing a bit at the bluntness of the question, I realized that it was a good reality check - is this team really something I can do well with? I really thought about it, and I truly believed that had I had some more practice, and dodged some bad matchups in Vancouver, I would have done much better. I used this question as motivation for the upcoming week to get prepared and be confident for EUIC so I can give this team the finish it deserves.

I flew to Ireland to spend the week with my family leading up to EUIC, waking up at 6am to prep with Ben and friends back home in the US, then spending time with family, and then working remotely late into the night, repeating this routine everyday until it was time to fly back to London for the tournament. I landed back in London just excited to play Pokemon again, what a great feeling. The day leading up to EUIC, I got to meet the rest of Team Ireland in person for the first time. I also met up with Ben and other friends from the US, and together the two groups went to dinner together. This night was really special for me because it was a crossover of two groups I had grown really close with during my time in VGC, reminding me how amazing it is that we get to make friends from all over the world through this game, and come together to celebrate our passion - what a great kickoff to the weekend. The next morning we entered ExCel with our hopes held high, ready to take on Europe’s best.

Ben finished 6-3 at EUIC, with very unfortunate luck in his three losses. Two of his losses were to Torkoal speed ties, in which he lost 4 of 4, and the other loss was to consecutive double Protects in two separate games, their only win condition against our team. Ben self-described his play that day as “the best he’s ever played” and the first time he played a nine-round tournament feeling like he should have won all nine sets, but luck was just not on his side. 

For me, Day 1 of EUIC had its ups and downs, with an early loss sending me to 1-1, fighting back to 6-1, then being forced into a win-and-in. In this set against a very difficult matchup, I had to get my most creative, leading Farigiraf and Urshifu with Indeedee and Smeargle in the back for game 3 to seal my spot in day 2 with a record of 7-2. My realistic goal going into day 2 was Top 32, and I was feeling great starting 2-0. I then faced one of Europe’s best (if not, the best) Alex Gomez in round 12, where he thoroughly dismantled my team. After being humbled, I bounced back to win the rest of my sets finishing 5-1 on the day, and 12-3 overall securing 14th place at the biggest Pokemon tournament of all time. Having the record good enough for a Top 8 spot and not having a chance to win it all really stung. I feel like I did everything I could, only losing to two of Europe’s best in Francesco Pio Pero and Alex Gomez, as well as an extremely difficult matchup against Luigi De Filpo. We all dream of the opportunity to win a tournament as big as EUIC, and to lose that opportunity on resistance was very disappointing. I kind of knew after losing in round 12 that I would very likely not make it, and knew going into day 2 that I would have to be perfect to make Top 8 with so many players. I nearly was, just not quite. But having surpassed my goal of Top 32, I was still extremely happy with the finish.

With the amazing weekend I had, I couldn’t even be upset for more than a few minutes. The people I met and familiar faces I got to see this weekend were truly the best part of the experience. All of my opponents were so wonderful and I had memorable conversations with each of them. The after party at SO! was a sight to behold, and one of the most memorable VGC events I’ll ever have. It just felt like every VGC player was in a tiny English bar together drinking, socializing, and celebrating, truly an amazing experience. Overall I’m extremely happy with how EUIC went, and I’m just so thankful for the amazing weekend.

Orlando

This is where the report was originally planned to end. A Top 16 at an International, a great result worthy of a Team Report, but Ben, the only one of us attending Orlando Regionals, decided that was not enough. After weather delays caused Ben to land in Orlando at 1:30am Saturday morning, and arrive at his hotel at 2:30am, he was ready to give the team its final sendoff on 4 hours of sleep. 

Ben had a flawless Day 1, finishing a perfect 9-0. With 824 players, Orlando Regionals was as stacked as they come, and Ben dominated the first day. Day 2 started off a bit more shaky, with Ben losing the first round to a tricky Weezing team. Weezing with the right tools is almost impossible for our team to deal with because of our reliance on every Pokemon’s ability. He would go on to win his next two matches, and was then featured on stream against Luca Paz, and I recommend everyone to go watch it, as it perfectly demonstrated the impact of Healing Wish Indeedee. Ben was able to Healing Wish effectively turn 1 in game 1, and attempted it turn 2 in game 2, allowing Torkoal and Urshifu to get into position early and wipe out Luca’s team. With this win, Ben had secured his spot in Top 8 thanks to his day 1 performance and resistance. 

Ben went on to beat Joshua Lorcy in Top 8 in a thrilling 3-game set. Ben was in a dire situation in game 2, found a way to win, then dominated in game 3 with Hatterene and Indeedee in the lead, and an unexpected Farigiraf waiting in the back which allowed Torkoal to sweep. Wolfe Glick stood in Ben’s way for a spot in the Finals, and Wolfe played what I can only describe as a flawless game. Never in my experience with the team have I seen someone make what I think is a decent matchup look so bad. His positioning and play with Amoonguss was nothing I’ve personally ever seen. Looking back, there were potentially stronger lines Ben could have taken against Wolfe’s optimal gameplan, but we didn’t have the foresight to prepare them ahead of time, or see in the moment. Running into the greatest player of all time at his best is unfortunate, but Ben’s run was incredible nonetheless, and I couldn’t be more happy for him. This performance was a perfect sendoff for this amazing team, and with two separate results by two players further solidifies it as the best Trick Room team in Regulation F. 

TEAM BREAKDOWN

Hatterene @ Covert Cloak  

Ability: Magic Bounce  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Fire  

EVs: 244 HP / 220 SpA / 44 SpD  

Quiet Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe  

Expanding Force  

Dazzling Gleam  

Psyshock  

Trick Room

Hatterene is the preferred Trick Room setter when there's no Rillaboom or terrain control on the opposing team. Expanding Force and Dazzling Gleam paired with Choice Specs Eruption will clear the field against just about anything, and Psyshock is to follow-up Eruptions to knock out specially defensive threats. Covert Cloak is purely to block Snarl as mentioned earlier, but also has the added benefits of not getting flinched by Rock Slide, frozen by Blizzard, and any other random hax. Tera Fire was chosen to safely set TR in front of Chi-Yu and Flutter Mane, something all hard TR players should have in mind, as well as Make It Rain from Gholdengo. 

The EV spread was initially 244 HP / 44 Def / 220 SpAtk, which is calculated to live a 252+ Tera Dark Wicked Blow 81.2% of the time as a precautionary measure. We decided we were fine with that roll to preserve points in special attack, but could, in theory, have improved it more. The 220 EVs in special attack only varied from 252 investment by ~1% on critical damage rolls, which didn't affect any of the Psyshock calcs we were looking at for problematic Pokemon. Ben used this set at both Vancouver, EUIC, and Orlando for comfort, but since the Urshifu calc never came up in any of our Vancouver sets or in testing, I opted to move the defense investment into SpDef, in order to maximize the odds of surviving a 252+ Tera Normal Life Orb Hyper Voice from Bloodmoon Ursaluna paired with Dazzling Gleam from 116+ Choice Specs Flutter Mane (when Tera Fire). This combination was picking up in popularity on hyper-offense teams leading into EUIC, specifically in London locals I attended the week before, and this spread gave me added confidence in leading Psyspam into these combinations while maintaining the same damage output we were used to. I never played against it in EUIC, but this spread paired with the Indeedee spread explained later allows you to comfortably bring Psyspam into big special spread moves, which swings the matchup immensely in our favor. The key interaction with this Hatterene set was to always KO AV Raging Bolt with the combination of Expanding Force (or Dazzling Gleam) + Psyshock + Eruption. Thanks to Healing Wish, we only had to weave in one of these attacks before sacrificing Indeedee and bringing in Torkoal to threaten a knockout the following turn. The combination of Psyshock + Tera Fire Eruption was able to KO every common Tera Water Ogerpon spread and still had a very favorable chance of knocking out even Impish ones (which came up a few times). The combination of Hatterene and Torkoal with this spread had a very favorable roll to knock out Tera Water Amoonguss with non-Tera Eruption and Expanding Force, which was key to the team’s success.

Indeedee-F @ Rocky Helmet  

Ability: Psychic Surge  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Dragon  

EVs: 244 HP / 228 Def / 36 SpD  

Sassy Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe  

Psyshock  

Follow Me  

Healing Wish  

Trick Room

With the "sauciest" tech on the team in Healing Wish, Indeedee was a very important piece to the team. Follow Me and Trick Room are staple moves for Indeedee, Healing Wish was our secret weapon, and Psyshock was chosen as our damaging move in order to do solid damage to some of the Torkoal-resistant mons mentioned previously if needed. Rocky Helmet is my go-to item on Indeedee, mainly to break Focus Sash on Urshifu-Single (Farigiraf is the preferred bring against Spinner Chien-Pao, so that one doesn't really come up) as well as deal a nice 50% to Urshifu-Rapid willing to Surging Strikes Indeedee. Even though Rocky Helmet makes Focus Sash Urshifu more manageable and the chip damage to other physical attackers adds up, an alternative item that could have improved the team was Mental Herb to prevent non-Prankster Taunt so that you can freely Healing Wish turn 2. Tera Dragon was a last minute change for EUIC from Vancouver, which was originally Tera Grass to help against Incineroar and Amoonguss leads. Tera Grass let us Tera Indeedee to take both Parting Shot and Spore to prevent Hatterene from getting ejected and Indeedee from getting Spored (This interaction was a good example for the Clear Amulet idea). Tera Dragon's main purpose was to resist Ogerpon-Hearthflame Tera Fire Ivy Cudgel, so that its partner could not KO or eject Hatterene (Bloodmoon or Parting Shot for example). Tera Dragon also picks up some nice resistances compared to Tera Fire, like Water and Electric, which could come up against certain leads. Tera Dragon also eliminated a tricky 50/50 against the lead of Roaring Moon and Incineroar, where with Tera Grass they can reasonably knock out Indeedee with either Knock Off or Acrobatics, then eject Hatterene with Parting Shot. We concluded in testing that Amoonguss and Incineroar leads were able to be played around and the threat of Hearthflame was much scarier, so we opted to go with Tera Dragon. 

The EV spread from Vancouver was the ol' reliable 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpDef with Relaxed nature, which is what Ben opted to keep for EUIC and Orlando as well. I decided I wanted extra security against the Bloodmoon Tailwind teams, so I opted to the spread below to always live 252+ Tera Normal Life Orb Hyper Voice plus a 252 SpAtk Bleakwind Storm, which is the typical play opponents with this combo go for against Hatterene and Indeedee. This gave me extra security against the Tailwind Bloodmoon teams because I knew I could essentially always get a safe Trick Room with Indeedee. This spread is also able to live a 252+ Tera Dark Wicked Blow 15/16 times with Tera Dragon, which was realistically the only other non-resisted single attack Indeedee needs to take, so I thought the spread was perfect. 

Farigiraf (F) @ Safety Goggles  

Ability: Armor Tail  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Fire  

EVs: 76 HP / 84 Def / 156 SpA / 188 SpD  

Modest Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk / 18 Spe  

Hyper Voice  

Psyshock  

Helping Hand  

Trick Room

Farigiraf kept it's moveset and tera type from the “Anyone Can Paint” Charlotte team - Hyper Voice is good general STAB spread damage, Psyshock gets important OHKOs after a Decorate on Pokemon such as Flutter Mane, Helping Hand is to amplify Torkoal and Urshifu's damage, and Trick Room in a necessity. Tera Fire is preferred because it allows Farigiraf to survive STAB moves from Rillaboom and Incineroar while receiving Decorates, firing off boosted attacks. Many gameplans around Japanese Balance style teams revolve around keeping Farigiraf alive to block priority and support Urshifu and Torkoal, which Tera Fire was excellent at enabling. This also gave another option into Chi-Yu and Flutter Mane in case they have terrain control. Safety Goggles allow Farigiraf to be brought to certain Amoonguss matchups where Psyspam isn't preferred like with Ice Spinner Chien-Pao or Rillaboom. 

This Farigiraf spread always survives a 252+ Tera Dark Wicked Blow with Tera Fire, a Surging Strikes with a single boost (either Tera Water, Mystic Water, or next to Chien Pao, but not any combination of the three), and survives a 252+ Tera Steel Choice Specs Make It Rain without Tera 14/16 times. It's most important benchmark is having enough special attack to always do 75% minimum to non-bulky Landorus-Incarnate with Hyper Voice after a Decorate, so that it can KO through a Substitute. This lets Smeargle Fake Out the partner and let Landorus-I Substitute, and still knock it out next turn given it does not have significant bulk or Tera Steel. The special attack investment also conveniently hits the special attack bump and allows reliable KO's with +2 Psyshocks into ridiculously physically bulky Flutter Manes. Farigiraf's speed stat was chosen to outspeed Smeargle in order to get Decorates off before attacking in Trick Room.

Smeargle (M) @ Focus Sash  

Ability: Technician  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Grass  

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD  

Sassy Nature  

IVs: 4 Spe  

Spore  

Follow Me  

Fake Out  

Decorate

Smeargle, the Swiss Army Knife of the team. Tera Grass is really just a precaution for Amoonguss, it's not worth using Tera on it for anything else anyways. Fake Out and Follow Me are for Trick Room setup and general support. Spore is mainly used for positioning purposes, where you Spore a target on the same turn you switch in one of the sweepers. It can also be used on turn 1 to advance positions if Farigiraf can safely get off Trick Room without Fake Out or Follow Me. Spore is also key at preventing opposing Trick Room users from reversing Trick Room, granted they are not Tera Grass of Safety Goggles. The last move on Smeargle is the most impactful move on the entire team, and THE BEST and most UNDERUTILIZED tool in the game right now, Decorate. Do you know your +2 Tera Fire Choice Specs Eruption calcs? How about +4 Choice Band Wicked Blow? To be honest, me neither, I just kind of assume it will knock out anything, and that's usually the case. Some notable knockouts I've gotten with Decorate is knocking out a Raging Bolt with +2 Tera Fire Eruption, Kingambit with +2 Wicked Blow (next to a Chien-Pao), and a Tera Fairy Raging Bolt with a +4 Wicked Blow. 

Technician may seem like a silly choice for an ability on Pokemon with its only attacking move as Fake Out, but the only other options are Moody and Own Tempo. Moody is not preferred because in the case where you get a speed boost in Trick Room, the entire Decorate strategy is thrown out the window. Own Tempo prevents confusion and Intimidate drops, but when looking at calcs, an intimidated Fake Out with Technician does the same amount of damage as non-intimidated with Own Tempo. Technician also gives Fake Out roughly 1-2% more damage, which as little as it sounds gave better chances for KOs with +2 Hyper Voices. With Pelipper Hurricane as the only realistic way to get confused, Technician was optimal for the extra damage.

The EVs on Smeargle don't really matter because its stats are so bad, but we opted to go with maximum special bulk because it makes Pollen Puff from Amoonguss only a 3% chance to 2HKO if they call you to Tera Grass, so that Smeargle is able to Fake Out the partner and still get either a Decorate or Spore off the next turn, without being redirected by Rage Powder. Unfortunately, Sludge Bomb Amoonguss became popular, but in general, the special bulk is nice to have for strong special spread moves, so that Smeargle can survive to get one Decorate or Spore off. Smeargle's speed stat is just over it’s min-speed, with 73 stat instead of 72 because in the case of a double Bleakwind Storm speed drop with 73/74 (Smeargle/Farigiraf), Farigiraf and Smeargle will not speed tie with -1 speed drops, whereas with 72/73, they will speed tie at -1. This was changed after watching Wolfe's Charlotte video, where he wanted the same interaction with his Incineroar and Farigiraf, thanks Wolfe. 

Torkoal (M) @ Choice Specs  

Ability: Drought  

Tera Type: Fire  

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD  

Quiet Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe  

Eruption  

Heat Wave  

Weather Ball  

Earth Power

Alright, this one will be nice and simple, here we go. Eruption - the move you're clicking 90% of the time, big damage. Heat Wave - backup spread move. Interestingly, this team has no inaccurate moves except for Heat Wave, which is 95% accurate. It was very comforting having a team so dedicated to offense that only included one inaccurate move. Earth Power was good coverage. Weather Ball is a reliable single target move that does a lot of damage, and also can become a Water, Rock, and Ice type move, which is cool. Weather Ball is really important against Rain teams to keep consistent damage while bypassing Wide Guard Pelipper. Choice Specs for all or nothing on damage, no time to switch moves. Spread is for bulk and damage, nothing fancy here. Tera Fire. :) 

Urshifu (M) @ Choice Band  

Ability: Unseen Fist  

Level: 50  

Tera Type: Grass  

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  

Brave Nature  

IVs: 0 Spe  

Wicked Blow  

Close Combat  

Iron Head  

Sucker Punch

This Urshifu is slow. Very slow. The biggest complaint that you probably hear from people running Trick Room is either Rock Slide flinches or opponents getting a timely double protect to win the game. This Pokemon throws one of those options out of the window completely. We've been using this slow Urshifu as a primary Trick Room sweeper for a while now, and I'm not sure why people haven't realized how insane of a Trick Room sweeper this thing is; the opponent is not allowed to click Protect. Tera Grass is a precautionary measure for Amoonguss (noticing a trend?) and a generally good defensive type for Urshifu. Choice Band pushes Wicked Blow damage over the edge and really throws off calcs for opponents who are covering for non-Choice Band, and can be amplified further with Helping Hand and Decorate. Wicked Blow, Close Combat, and Sucker Punch are mandatory on Urshifu like every other common set, but the 4th move is up to preference. Iron Head was mine and Ben's choice because it secures an OHKO on Flutter Mane regardless of whether they Tera Fairy or not, as well as get solid damage into other Tera Fairy Pokemon if needed in a pinch. Poison Jab is another option to OHKO Tera Fairy Flutter Mane, and is generally a better move to lock into given the meta-relevant Pokemon - you can still do solid damage to the Ogerpons, Rillaboom, Raging Bolt, Incin, etc. whereas Iron Head doesn't cover those options as well. U-turn and Rock Slide are the only other two options worth considering for pivoting and an extra spread move, respectively. Ben and I just decided that we would rather reliably OHKO a well-preserved Tera Fairy Flutter and cover for Tera Fairies in general, but it's a move that should never be clicked anyways so it didn't necessarily save or lose any matchups. Full HP Urshifu gets you some pretty impressive bulk in general, surviving hits that your opponents aren't used to given the usual Urshifu spreads, and maximum attack is just for full damage output. 

Common Gameplan:

There was a lot of preparation that went into making this team so successful. We ran practice sets into roughly 20 of the most common teams, finding the most optimal gameplans into each of them. Adrien Hurley, aka ColdingLight was a massive help in piloting these teams and giving us good reps for our preparation. It would take an entirely separate report to cover each gameplan into every team, but the majority of gameplans can be summarized with the four gameplans below.

Farigiraf + Smeargle Lead, Torkoal + Urshifu Back

This is the default gameplan against anything that has any sort of priority control, such as Rillaboom, Ice Spinner, etc. There's also certain combinations of spread moves that Hatterne and Indeedee cannot withstand, such as Choice Band Landorus-Therian Earthquake next to Bleakwind Storm, that Farig Smeargle can handle with just a simple Fake Out. Many of the gameplans consist of using Smeargle to set Trick Room safely, then Decorating Farigiraf to soften the opponent’s team for Urshifu or Torkoal to clean up. The pressure Spore puts on opponents allows for Decorates to be effective, punishing passive plays that respect Spore. There are also some really cool plays you can make that punish passive play like switching in Torkoal or Urshifu while Decorating, which lets them KO practically anything the following turns. Sporing a target and switching in a sweeper is a really nice option to preserve Fargiraf and advance the game as well.

Hatterene + Indeedee Lead, Torkoal + Ursh Back:

This is the default lead for teams with no priority control, and especially good against teams with Amoonguss and Follow Me Ogerpon. Follow Me gives Smeargle a tough time because it can redirect its Spore and Decorates, making it effectively useless. Depending on certain leads, the optimal play is to Healing Wish and Trick Room turn 1, as Ben did on stream in Orlando. More practical uses of Healing Wish are on turn 2, where the best thing Indeedee can do after helping set Trick Room is to get off the field. In practice, it was perfectly fine to let Hatterene go down the same turn Indeedee knocks itself out, because Torkoal and Ursh are that oppressive in Trick Room. 

Farigiraf + Indeedee Lead, Torkoal + Ursh back: 

This lead is quite situational, but is very effective at getting Indeedee off the field early, then setting up Torkoal next to Fargiraf to fire off Helping Hand Tera Fire Eruptions. This is effective when you just need a reliable TR setup, as Farigiraf is much bulkier than Hatterene. Farigiraf is often bulky enough to allow the Tera to be saved for Torkoal, so the Helping Hands can pay off huge. I often used this lead as an adjustment into Cresselia and Ursaluna teams, because generally Cresselia’s are able to tank a Tera Fire Eruption, so I needed to have Helping Hand active to secure the knock out and prevent Trick Room reversal. Again, this is a niche lead but prevents Indeedee from getting stuck and allows a safer Trick Room.

Hatterene + Indeedee Lead, Torkoal + Farigiraf back: 

The surprise adjustment. This was typically used in a game 3 scenario against teams with terrain control and priority that have something that makes the Smeargle and Farigiraf mode difficult - usually random non-Prankster Taunts. James Evans’ Vancouver winning team is a great example of something we might use this against. What this allowed us to do was position Torkoal next to Hatterene early to make dents to the opponent’s team, and when they bring in Rillaboom to Fake Out (with Indeedee presumably knocked out) we could swap in Farigiraf to catch them by surprise and continue clearing out their team. Most opponents after seeing Hatterene and Indeedee assumed Farigiraf was not in the back, which is very reasonable considering we usually needed the two sweepers, so we were able to surprise them. This was more of a specialty of Ben’s, as he used it perfectly in his Top 8 set in Orlando, but I did use this in a few sets at EUIC to success. 

CONCLUSION

This concludes the team report for “Paintspam”, the best Hard Trick Room team of Regulation F.  I wanted to give a huge thank you to Ben Grissmer for helping me with this team, and hanging out with me during EUIC, one of our best teams and trips thus far. Thank you as well to all the Lilypad Boys, especially Adrien, Nate, and Ryan for their help in preparing Ben and I with this team and support in general. I wouldn’t have been able to do so well in this tournament, as well as have the success I’ve had in VGC without you guys. And a big thank you as well to Team Ireland for being so kind and supportive throughout the weekend of EUIC, you guys are the best and I’m so glad I was able to finally meet you all. I’m still blown away at how amazing this game is, allowing me to travel all over the world and make so many amazing friends. I hope this report shed some light on what it takes to make a successful Trick Room, and gain some respect for the archetype. I hope you all enjoyed reading. Thank you!

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