Pokémon Analysis – Trick Room Setters 5: Tree Room VGC!

Haven’t you ever been playing a few quiet games of VGC before stopping to look at your team, sighing “I wish I had more battling trees”… no? Really? Well you’re about to! Introducing our Tree Room 17 analysis!

The first tree we’ll be looking at is a tree which was first discovered planting its roots in the sixth generation region of Kalos, Trevenant!

Looking at its stats, you have a right to feel underwhelmed; its only real stand out stat being a fairly high 110 Atk. Unfortunately, despite a decent defensive typing of ghost/grass, 85/76/82 bulk is certainly nothing to brag about, but perhaps our spreads will help Trevenant blossom into a Trick Room powerhouse on your teams!

Tree Set 1: Never Ending Tree.

Trevenant @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 52 Def / 68 SpD / 4 Spe
Brave Nature
IVs: 1 Spe
– Trick Room
– Will-O-Wisp / Destiny Bond
– Wood Hammer
– Phantom Force

Well, with Trevenant we really don’t have too much to work with; this set intends to make use of Trevenant’s high base attack whilst using the other EVs to survive a few hits. Wood Hammer enters the spread simply because… well… we’re a tree. Can’t really have a grass type tree without Wood Hammer can we?

252+ Atk Trevenant Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Fini: 180-212 (101.6 – 119.7%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Trevenant Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gastrodon: 372-436 (170.6 – 200%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Trevenant Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Milotic: 230-272 (113.8 – 134.6%) — guaranteed OHKO

Phantom Force is the strongest physical ghost type move available to us here, you’ll want to primarily use this attack with the Ghostium Z crystal to fire off some, quite frankly, extraordinary damage…

252+ Atk Trevenant Never-Ending Nightmare (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Lele: 366-432 (206.7 – 244%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Trevenant Phantom Force vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Lele: 188-224 (106.2 – 126.5%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Trevenant Never-Ending Nightmare (175 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko: 168-198 (115 – 135.6%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Trevenant Never-Ending Nightmare (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Araquanid: 156-184 (89.1 – 105.1%) — 31.3% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Trevenant Never-Ending Nightmare (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Metagross: 234-276 (125.1 – 147.5%) — guaranteed OHKO

Well, perhaps not extraordinary but I guess Trevenant at least does more damage than the Z Mimikyu making the rounds.

The other moves are pretty straight forward, Trick Room is essential whilst the final move comes down to personal preference; Destiny Bond allows us to function in a similar fashion to the bulky Ghostium Z Mimikyu spread we recommended here previously whilst Will-O-Wisp actually allows Trevenant (with these EVs) to check a surprising number of the meta’s physical attackers:

252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 132 HP / 52 Def Trevenant: 37-44 (20.9 – 24.8%) — guaranteed 5HKO

252 Atk burned Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 132 HP / 52 Def Trevenant: 40-48 (22.5 – 27.1%) — 37.1% chance to 4HKO

252 Atk burned Kartana Night Slash vs. 132 HP / 52 Def Trevenant: 60-71 (33.8 – 40.1%) — guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk burned Muk-Alola Knock Off vs. 132 HP / 52 Def Trevenant: 61-73 (34.4 – 41.2%) — guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Life Orb burned Sandslash-Alola Icicle Crash vs. 132 HP / 52 Def Trevenant: 101-121 (57 – 68.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Whilst the EVs on the Specially Defensive side are designed for these calcs:

252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 132 HP / 68 SpD Trevenant in Psychic Terrain: 138-163 (77.9 – 92%) — guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 132 HP / 68 SpD Trevenant in Electric Terrain: 66-78 (37.2 – 44%) — guaranteed 3HKO

252+ SpA Vanilluxe Blizzard vs. 132 HP / 68 SpD Trevenant: 150-176 (84.7 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO

There’s genuinely not much else for Trevenant to offer, we could drop Ghostium Z for the Mental Herb and go with a bulkier Horn Leech variant but the additional bulk doesn’t particularly help against super effective hits as successfully as the other Pokémon we’ve covered so far, so let’s just branch out (groooooaaannnn) to the next tree!

Exeggutor is a tree which has undergone huge changes since its debut in Generation One, Alolan Exeggutor has sprouted into a… dragon? This is a dragon? O… Okay then… Exeggutor has lost its Psychic typing but, thankfully, has retained its ability to set Trick Room

A-Exeggutor’s base stats are actually fairly decent, 105/125 across offences whilst 95/85/75… isn’t particularly amazing, but we might be able to survive a few hits somewhere!

2016 World Champion Wolfe Glick has already covered Alolan Exeggutor on his YouTube channel, but we’ll add our take on the majestic palm tree…

Tree Set 2: The Tree of Sleep… and Many Faces…

Exeggutor-Alola @ Psychium Z
Ability: Frisk
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Leaf Storm
– Trick Room
– Sleep Powder
– Dragon Hammer

So this set is fairly straight forward, using Psychium Z alongside Trick Room gives Exeggutor an accuracy increase so you can proceed to Leaf Storm opposing bulky water types and Sleep Powder other offensive threats without too much fear of missing before fainting to get a free switch into something actually useful… because Alolan Exeggutor is trash. Seriously. At least it’s the second best Trick Room setting Tree currently available in VGC…

Tree Set 3: Sudo Smash.

Sudowoodo @ Rockium Z
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
– Protect
– Rock Slide
– Stone Edge
– Wood Hammer

Well, once one of your other two trees set Trick Room you need to sweep right? Look no further than Sudowoodo! With base 100 Attack and a seriously dense movepool Sudowoodo can sweep Tree Room VGC to glory!

-1 252+ Atk Sudowoodo Continental Crush (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 224-266 (113.7 – 135%) — guaranteed OHKO

-1 252+ Atk Sudowoodo Continental Crush (180 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gyarados: 228-270 (134.1 – 158.8%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Sudowoodo Continental Crush (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Marowak-Alola: 258-306 (154.4 – 183.2%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Sudowoodo Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gastrodon: 228-272 (104.5 – 124.7%) — guaranteed OHKO

Or perhaps you fancy some Special sweeping…

Tree Set 4: The Tree of Glowing… and Electricity…

Xurkitree @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Protect
– Tail Glow
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]

I mean come on, this one even has tree in its name! There’s almost certainly a more optimal spread for Xurkitree out there but this rounds off an almost usable team of four to take on the Pokémon Showdown ladder…

+3 252+ SpA Xurkitree Hidden Power Ice vs. 28 HP / 52 SpD Assault Vest Garchomp: 332-392 (177.5 – 209.6%) — guaranteed OHKO

+1 252+ SpA Xurkitree Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 44+ SpD Tapu Fini: 218-260 (123.1 – 146.8%) — guaranteed OHKO

If you, for some reason, want to take this disaster of a team onto Showdown, bur don’t want to ruin your own accounts rating, log in with this account and give the team a try… it might get a couple of wins… maybe?

Username: TreeRoomVGC
Password: treetreetree

Sudowoodo @ Rockium Z
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Protect
– Rock Slide
– Stone Edge
– Wood Hammer

Xurkitree @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Protect
– Tail Glow
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]

Exeggutor-Alola @ Psychium Z
Ability: Frisk
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Leaf Storm
– Trick Room
– Sleep Powder
– Dragon Hammer

Trevenant @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 52 Def / 68 SpD / 4 Spe
Brave Nature
IVs: 1 Spe
– Trick Room
– Will-O-Wisp
– Wood Hammer
– Phantom Force

Send me any replays you have of playing with TreeRoom and I’ll post links below!

Game 1