[RATE MY TEAM] Gyarados's Bizzarre Adventure: The Room (VGC17 Trick Room team)

[Wolfoxy]

Hey guys! This is my first team I'm posting here in hopes of getting some constructive criticism or whatever on it, before I jump into breeding The thing is that I started researching the VGC17 metagame here in the forums, and I came across the Gyarados-Alola-Marowak core, which immediately caught my eye as Marowak is one of my favorite Alola Form pokemon. There are two things I like to have while playing competitive pokemon: one is field control. So far, I've made mostly weather-based teams, now I decided to give Trick Room a try, as I found it a good way to make Alola-Marowak, one of my favorite Gen 7 pokemon shine and to put it on almost equal terms in sweeping potential with the mighty Gyarados. Altough I'm still inexperienced in team building, I feel that this team can work (maybe in more experienced hands than mine). So, let's get started (and prepare, because it'll be very very long: I tend to ramble on about small details!):

 The Team


Gyarados @Lum Berry
Brave Nature
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 128 HP / 68 Sp. Def / 62 Def
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Crunch
-Protect
 Yeah, I just put a Dragon Dance Gyarados in a Trick Room team. I have a good reason for it: the Brave nature and zero Speed investment allows Gyarados to underspeed many pokemon, and when not in Trick Room, a Dragon Dance can help it by raising it's speed along with it's attack. The ability is just a nice Intimidate, to help the team's survivability against Physical attacks. Waterfall is Gyarados's strongest STAB and it has a lot of OHKO potential with max attack investment with or without Dragon Dance. As I wanted Gyarados to be slow enough to function in Trick Room, I didn't invest any EVs in Speed, but instead I tried to put more into bulk. I chose Crunch over Ice Fang so that Gyarados can cover Alola-Marowak's Psychic and Ghost type weakness.

 Possible changes:
-I'm thinking about putting Waterium-Z instead of Lum Berry, because during my test runs on Showdown, I haven't really encountered status conditions.
-I still have my dilemma about Crunch/Ice Fang, as apart from Mimikyu, this team is can't do anything to basically any Dragon type as they resist both my core attackers' STAB. 


Alola-Marowak @Thick Club
Adamant Nature
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
-Bonemerang
-Flare Blitz
-Shadow Bone
-Protect
 Alola-Marowak fits perfectly into Trick Room with it's 45 base Speed, and with it's Thick Club-boosted, maxed out Attack, and it can also absorb Electric attacks targeting Gyarados with it's Lightning Rod ability. This feat is also useful when not in Trick Room, as opponents generally consider a +1 Gyarados a bigger threat (who doesn't?) than an unboosted one, so they will try harder to KO it, but when Marowak is on the field, they can't use their 4x effective Electric attacks. Trick Room actually only enables Alola-Marowak to fully utilize it's attacking potential, as it is too slow to do it on a normal field. It's STABs are Flare Blitz and Shadow Bone, and Bonemerang is here for coverage.

 Possible changes:
-Sadly, Alola-Marowak's base 80 Attack is not that great, even with Thick Club and max EVs, so I'm thinking about replacing Protect with Swords Dance, but I'm not sure I can find room for it to set up.
-I might replace Bonemerang with Rock Slide for the Flying type coverage.


Metagross @Air Balloon
Brave Nature
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 116 HP / 48 Def / 92 SpD
-Meteor Mash
-Zen Headbutt
-Earthquake
-Bullet Punch
 Now here is the pokemon I'm not sure in. I know it has many problems: I already have more than enough physical pokemon on the team, I have more than enough Dark and Ghost weakness, but I felt that it should be there. Again, I gave it no Speed EVs in order to get some bulk, and I gave it Air Balloon to make it immune for Earthquake and other Ground moves for one time. The moveset is pretty standard I guess... Anyway, I'm not sure if Metagross actually has a place in this team.

 Possible changes:
-I actually thought about replacing Metagross with this guy here: 


Tapu Bulu @Assault Vest
Adamant Nature
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk/ 252 HP / 4 Def
-Nature's Madness
-Horn Leech
-Megahorn
-Superpower

While Tapu Bulu is not an especially Trick Room pokemon, I feel that it can contribute greatly to the "fast mode" of the team: it helps Alola-Marowak by lowering Earthquake's (the most common Ground move in VGC) power with it's Grassy Terrain (while also providing a pseudo-Leftovers recovery for the whole team), and it makes Alola-Marowak's job easier by weakening enemies with Nature's Madness. It also helps dealing with bulky Water pokemon, which essentially wall my whole team Otherwise, this set is very basic: max Attack, max HP, Adamant nature. Horn Leech is a STAB move which also helps in sustain, Nature's Madness is a kind of support option, and Superpower is for the Steel types that threaten Tapu Bulu. Megahorn is for the Dark and Psychic types, which mainly threaten Alola-Marowak.


Mimikyu @Mental Herb
Relaxed Nature
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 Atk / 220 HP / 32 Def / 4 Sp.Def
-Trick Room
-Taunt
-Shadow Claw
-Play Rough
 Mimikyu is the main Trick Room setter on the team. It's abillity, Disguise pretty much guarantee that Trick Room will be up. This pokemon has reasonable defenses (altough not much HP), THREE immunities and only two weaknesses. It is immune to Fake Out, can fight off Taunt with it's Mental Herb, and it's EV spread allows it to dish out some damage with it's STAB Play Rough and Shadow Claw.

 Possible changes:
-If Tapu Bulu is on the team, I will make Mimikyu a dedicated Trick Room setter, replacing Play Rough/Shadow Claw with support moves, like Thunder Wave or Toxic. 


Reuniclus @Life Orb
Quiet Nature
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk / 220 HP / 36 Def
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Energy Ball
- Flash Cannon
 The team's secondary Trick Room setter: Reuniclus can set up or abuse the Trick Room with it's reasonable bulk, base 45 Speed, and maxed Special Attack. The moveset is pure special to make use of Reuniclus's best attacking stat, as it is the only dedicated special sweeper on the team: Psychic is STAB, while Energy Ball and Flash Cannon are here to give wide coverage to Reuniclus.

 Possible changes:
-As Reuniclus's base HP is 110, I think it can live without that much HP investment, so I might change it's EV spread by investing a bit more in it's defenses.If I decide to put Tapu Bulu in the team, I'll replace Energy Ball with something like Focus Blast or Shadow Ball, as I think that Tapu Bulu can handle the bulky Water types this team struggles with.


Lucario @Expert Belt
Naive Nature
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk / 220 Spe / 36 Atk
-Quick Guard
-Aura Sphere
-Bullet Punch
-Dark Pulse
 Lucario sort of acts as the "glue" to the team: I chose Justified to make use of the team's heavy Dark type weakness, and the reason why I chose a mixed set was that I didn't want that Attack boost go to waste, but I also wanted another special attacking pokemon besides Reuniclus. It has (of course) max EVs in Special Attack, and 36 EVs in Attack, as it mainly uses the STAB Aura Sphere and Dark Pulse (against Ghost types). Quick Guard is here to protect the team from priority moves, for example Alola-Marowak from an Aqua Jet. I chose Expert Belt as an item because I didn't want to rely on Choice items, and Life Orb was already taken. Lucario is generally more useful outside Trick Room, than inside it.

 Possible changes:
-In order to make Lucario more useful inside Trick Room,  I'm thinking about changing it's nature to Brave or Quiet, and reorganizing it's EVs from Speed to Attack.

 So, basically, this is it. If you had the patience to read the whole thing, then: congratulations :D  I put a lot of thought into this team, and I know that I'm not really good with things like creating good synergies, cores, movesets or EV spreads, so I'm aware of the fact that this team might has serious flaws that I didn't notice. Any criticism and/or suggestions are welcome!