How Do You Stop Trick Room in Pokémon? A Comprehensive Guide
The Trick Room strategy can be a formidable force in Pokémon battles, turning the usual speed dynamic on its head and allowing slower Pokémon to strike first. If you’re facing a Trick Room team, understanding how to counter it is crucial for success. In short, there are several effective methods to stop Trick Room, ranging from outright negating it to disrupting its effectiveness: using your own Trick Room, employing moves that force switches, utilizing Imprison, and understanding priority and terrain mechanics. Let’s dive into the specifics of each counter-strategy and explore some common questions.
Countering Trick Room: Key Strategies
Here’s a breakdown of the most effective ways to stop Trick Room:
1. Mirroring with Your Own Trick Room
One of the most straightforward approaches is to use Trick Room yourself. When Trick Room is already active, using the move again will cancel the existing effect. This can effectively nullify the opponent’s strategy, restoring the standard speed order and giving your faster Pokémon the advantage. This is especially potent when a predicted Trick Room is not launched by the opponent, allowing you to utilize the move in your favor.
2. Forcing Switches with Phazing Moves
Moves like Roar and Dragon Tail are known as phazing moves, which force the opponent’s Pokémon to switch out. These moves have a negative priority and are usually executed before Trick Room, meaning that if your opponent’s Trick Room user is vulnerable to them, they can be removed from the field before Trick Room is even set up. This can significantly disrupt the opponent’s strategy. Note that they move before Trick Room is set, and not during an active one.
3. Imprison: The Ultimate Trick Room Lockout
The move Imprison is a powerful counter to Trick Room teams. When a Pokémon uses Imprison, it prevents any opposing Pokémon from using any moves that it also knows. By using Imprison with Trick Room, you essentially prevent the opposing team from setting it up. For example, a Pokémon like Farigiraf, which can learn both Imprison and Trick Room, becomes an excellent counter for Trick Room strategies. Using Imprison first on turn one and can lock the opponent out of using Trick Room while it’s on the field. This method also provides a valuable turn of disruption.
4. Utilizing Priority and Psychic Terrain
Understanding move priority is crucial. Trick Room has -7 priority, meaning it almost always goes last. This means faster Pokémon are able to act before the setup of trick room. Moreover, moves with positive priority, such as Quick Attack or Extreme Speed, will always go first, even under Trick Room. This opens up opportunities to get important damage or status off. If you are using a priority-based strategy, Psychic Terrain can offer excellent support to such a team. Activating Psychic Terrain will prevent enemy priority moves while also boosting psychic moves for your team. Using Tapu Lele’s Psychic Surge ability can offer you such an advantage, as well as stop Prankster priority. This makes it harder for the opposition to set up Trick Room and allows you to act safely.
5. The Importance of Protect and Stalling
A simple yet effective strategy is to use Protect in order to waste turns within Trick Room. Trick Room only lasts for four turns, and by using Protect every other turn, you can effectively waste half of your opponent’s Trick Room duration, reducing their offensive window. This is a good, generic way to handle a predicted Trick Room and waste turns.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are 15 frequently asked questions about Trick Room, designed to deepen your understanding and refine your counter strategies:
1. Does Trick Room always go last?
Yes, Trick Room has a -7 priority, which means it’s among the slowest moves to execute. Abilities like Prankster will only increase priority by 1, so Trick Room goes last in most situations. This means you can still use fast attacks before it’s activated, though not on the same turn as Trick Room is set.
2. How long does Trick Room last?
Trick Room lasts for five turns, but effectively its duration is only for four turns of reversed turn order, as the turn it’s set takes place before the effect is active.
3. Can you extend the duration of Trick Room?
No, there’s no item or ability that extends the duration of Trick Room. Some items, such as Light Clay, can extend the duration of other moves like Reflect and Light Screen, but Trick Room’s duration is fixed.
4. What Pokémon items can counter Confusion?
The Covert Cloak is an item that protects the holder from additional effects of moves, including confusion.
5. Does Trick Room affect Gyro Ball?
Trick Room does not affect Gyro Ball. Gyro Ball’s power is calculated based on the user’s speed compared to the opponent’s, but Trick Room does not change speed, only turn order. This is important to keep in mind for Gyro Ball users in Trick Room.
6. Does Psychic Terrain stop Spore?
Yes, Psychic Terrain prevents grounded Pokémon from being affected by status-inducing moves, such as Spore. However, it doesn’t block status moves such as Taunt or Encore.
7. Does Tailwind negate Trick Room?
No, Tailwind does not negate Trick Room. Tailwind will double the speed of the user and their allies, which would typically allow them to move first, however the Trick Room effect makes it so that they will act last.
8. How slow should a Pokémon be for Trick Room?
Generally, Pokémon with a base Speed stat of 85 or slower are ideal for Trick Room teams. Having low speed lets them capitalize on the reversed turn order. With a negative speed nature and no IVs, these Pokémon can be much slower than those typically seen in competitive play.
9. Does Trick Room affect moves with increased priority?
Trick Room does not affect move priority, it only reverses the turn order within each priority bracket. Moves with higher priority will still be performed first, regardless of Trick Room.
10. Does Trick Room work with paralysis?
Yes, Trick Room interacts with paralysis. The speed reduction from paralysis is factored into the move order of Trick Room, meaning that if paralyzed, a Pokémon will move even faster in Trick Room. Lower speed goes first under Trick Room, so paralysis effectively makes you faster.
11. Is Confuse Ray better than Supersonic?
Generally, Confuse Ray is better than Supersonic. It has a higher accuracy of 100% compared to Supersonic’s 55%, making it a more reliable source of confusion, even if it has less PP.
12. Does Psychic Terrain prevent Prankster?
Yes, Psychic Terrain blocks moves boosted by the Prankster Ability as long as the user is grounded.
13. Can you cheat in Pokémon Scarlet?
While there are no official cheats for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, there are several glitches and workarounds that can help players get extra items and money.
14. What are the slowest Pokémon?
Some of the slowest Pokémon include: Shuckle, Munchlax, Pyukumuku, Trapinch, and Bonsly, among others. Their low speed stats make them excellent Trick Room candidates.
15. Does Trick Room affect Roar?
Phazing moves like Roar and Whirlwind move before Trick Room due to their negative priority. This lets you disrupt a Trick Room setter before it’s up. Using Taunt can prevent the move from being used, however.
Conclusion
Stopping Trick Room requires a strategic blend of understanding priority, move interactions, and team composition. By employing the counter strategies outlined above, you can significantly reduce the effectiveness of Trick Room teams and gain a major advantage in battle. Whether it’s mirroring with your own Trick Room, using Imprison to lockout the setup, or disrupting with phazing moves, there are a variety of effective ways to handle this tricky strategy. Knowing the ins and outs of this strategy will help you become a more seasoned Pokémon trainer.