Creating a Trick Room team in Pokemon Sword and Shield can be quite the task and it can be hard to find the best Trick Room attackers. This is because you need to find the slowest Pokemon possible for your team to give you the best advantage. You will want a mix of physical and special attackers on your team, in order to not get walled by any defensive Pokemon.
This article will be focusing on the physical attackers you can use in your Trick Room teams in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
1. Conkeldurr
Conkeldurr has a massive attack stat at 140 and access to two strong abilities, which afford some flexibility. Its first ability is Iron Fist, which increases the power of punching moves by 20%. The second ability Conkeldurr can use is Guts, and it boosts the Pokemon’s attack by 50% while afflicted by a status condition.
In order to activate Guts, you should have Conkeldurr hold a Flame Orb. Another benefit of Guts Conkeldurr is that you do not have to worry about getting put to sleep or paralyzed, since Pokemon can only have one status condition at a time, excluding Confusion and Attraction of course. If you are using an Iron Fist Conkeldurr, then having it hold a Life Orb or Assault Vest are great options.
Along with a strong attack stat, Conkeldurr is also slow, with a base speed of 45, making for the perfect Trick Room physical attacker. The best nature is Brave if you want to have maximum attack, and the least amount of speed. Another viable option is Adamant if you want to find tune some of Conkeldurr’s stats, and give it some speed to work outside of Trick Room.
As for EV spreads, for Brave Conkeldurr you want 252 Hp, 252 attack, and 4 special defense. If you have an Adament Conkeldurr, then you want to spread the EVs a bit more. Put 212 in HP, 252 in attack, and 44 in special defense.
Now onto the moveset. If you plan on running Protect on Conkeldurr, run Detect instead. It works like Protect, but it is a fighting type move and helps you avoid your opponent using Imprison to prevent you from using Protect. The other moves you run will depend on Conkeldurr’s ability. If you are running Iron Fist, you will want all punch moves such as Mach Punch, Drain Punch, Ice Punch, and Thunder Punch. If you are running Guts you can run Rock Slide, and other coverage moves such as Close Combat or Poison Jab. Guts Conkeldurr has a lot more options so do what fits best with your team.
2. Snorlax
Snorlax is another great physical attacker because it has a base attack stat of 110, and access to the move Belly Drum. If you do not know, Belly Drum cuts the user’s HP in half, but maximizes attack. This works especially well on Snorlax because of its hidden ability Gluttony, which makes Snorlax eat berries at 50% health instead of at 25% health.
Use a Figy Berry if your Snorlax is Adament, and an Aguav Berry if your Snorlax is Brave. If you do not want a Belly Drum Snorlax, you can have it hold an Assault Vest, Leftovers, or just stick to the berry. Whatever works best with your team is what you should use.
Another advantage Snorlax has is access to a special Gigantamax move, G-max Replenish. This move can restore berries that have been eaten, allowing Snorlax to get more usage out of its berry. Snorlax’s other ability, Thick Fat, can be useful as well, as it reduces the damage Snorlax takes from fire and ice type moves by half. However, Gluttony is the most commonly used ability right now.
Snorlax has a lot of flexibility when it comes to training, but you will want a Brave nature. As for the EVs, you have lots of options. You could do 252 hp, 252 attack, and 4 special defense. However, Snorlax already has high base HP, so you can choose to instead boost its already high special defense. This spread would be 4 HP, 252 attack, and 252 special defense. You could also split the EVs evenly between HP, defense, and special defense.
Snorlax has quite a diverse move pool, so you can go for whatever moves you want. If you want a Belly Drum build, make sure to have some high damaging moves such as Double-Edge. Having Wood Hammer can be a life saver for Snorlax since it lowers the user’s speed, allowing Snorlax to outspeed everything in Trick Room. Other coverage moves you can run are Darkest Lariat, Iron Head, High Horsepower, Yawn, Curse, Recycle, Façade, Seed Bomb, Heavy Slam, and Fire Punch to give you some ideas.
3. Escavalier
Escavalier is another amazing option and surprisingly not used that often for how powerful it is. Escavalier is super slow with a base speed of 20, and has an attack stat of 135. It also has amazing typing as a Bug Steel type, with tons of resistances and only a 4x weakness to fire. Not only that, but Escavalier has defenses to back it up, with a base defense and special defense of 105. So you can see this Pokemon has so much potential.
Escavalier has many items to choose from. You can go all-out damage with a Life Orb, or increase special defense with an Assault Vest. If you are worried about getting Burned or getting put to sleep with Yawn, then use a Lum Berry. Escavalier can also hold hp restoring berries such as a Sitrus Berry.
Along with the stats and typing, Escavalier has access to a helpful ability Overcoat. This ability protects the Pokemon from all powder moves, spore moves, and weather effects. Considering the popularity of Amoonguss and Venasaur that rely on powder and spore moves to cripple teams, this is an amazing counter. Alternatively, you can Shell Armor to protect yourself from critical hits, or Swarm to power up bug type moves at low health. But Overcoat is by far the best ability of the three.
For natures you will once again want to go Brave. As for EV spreads, you can go 252 HP, 252 attack, and 4 special defense. Alternatively you can try to split some EVs into Escavalier’s defenses, but be aware that Escavalier only has 70 base hp. A good split EV build is 244 HP, 140 attack, 76 defense, and 44 special defense.
Escavalier has a lot to choose from in terms of moves. One of the most interesting moves to run is Fell Stinger. This move only does 50 damage, but if you knock out a Pokemon with it, Escavalier’s attack will be raised by three stages, which is a huge boost. Not many players run Fell Stinger, so using it could catch your opponent off guard. Other great moves for Escavalier are Iron Head, Megahorn, Razor Shell, Drill Run, Iron Head, Knock Off, and Protect.
4. Alolan Marowak
At first glance Alolan Marowak and its 80 base attack stat look underwhelming. However, there is an item only Marowak can use called The Thick Club, and it doubles Marowak’s attack stat. So with its slow base speed of 45 it can be a threatening physical attacker in Trick Room. Make sure to run the Rock Head ability if possible, because this prevents Marowak from taking recoil damage from any moves. Alternatively you can use it with the ability Lightning Rod if you have any water types that could use redirection.
Alolan Marowak will want a Brave nature with 252 Hp, 252 attack and 4 special defense. As for the moves, you will want Detect if possible instead of Protect. Be aware that Marowak can only learn Detect as an egg move, but you cannot breed Alolan Marowak in Pokemon Sword and Shield. So you will need a Marowak from Sun and Move that has Detect, and then you can pass Detect on to your own Marowak through the daycare. For its other move slots you will want to choose from Flare Blitz, Poltergeist, Bonemerang, Shadow Bone, Brick Break, or Stomping Tantrum.
5. Ferrothorn
Ferrothorn has a lot of power even though its attack stat is only 94. Ferrothorn’s Grass and Steel typing gives it a lot of resistances, and it has an amazing defense of 131 and special defense of 116. It is also incredibly slow, with a speed stat of 20. You will want to make sure you use a Ferrothorn with Iron Barbs, because Anticipation is a worthless ability.
For nature you will want Brave for a max attack Ferrothorn, or Relaxed for max defense. As for the EV spreads, you will want 252 HP, 252 attack, and 4 special defense for a Brave Ferrothron. With a Relaxed Ferrothorn you want 252 HP, 252 defense and 4 special defense. Another option for this nature is to do 252 HP, 172 defense and 84 special defense.
The two best moves for Ferrothorn that make it so strong are Body Press and Gyro Ball. Body Press does damage based on your defense stat rather than the attack stat. Since Ferrothorn has such a high defense stat, this makes Body Press massive. Gyro Ball deals more damage based on how slow the user is compared to the target, and Ferrothorn can take full advantage of this move.
To fill up your last two move slots, you have a few options. You can go for Protect and Power Whip or Knock Off. Ferrothorn also has a lot of support potential as well, given its defenses, so you can also go for Leech Seed and Iron Defense. As for items to run on Ferrothorn, you can go Assault Vest, Leftovers, Iron Ball, or a HP restoring berry.
Those are my top 5 Trick Room physical attackers that you can use for your teams in Pokemon Sword and Shield. If you are looking for good Trick Room setters, then check out my guide. Stay tuned for an article going over the top 5 Trick Room special attackers!
I hope this article has helped you out and good luck with your team!
