Toronto Winning Perish Trap Team Report

Hey everyone! This is the team I used to win the Toronto Regional Championships last weekend. I started working on this team in October, originally intending to use it in the November Grand Challenge (which I later learned does not exist). Because it was intended for best of 1 closed team sheet, I intentionally used some unorthodox sets to gain an edge - however, because the team was so fun to play and because I didn't have time to practice the week before Regionals, I took the team unchanged (except for Gothitelles EV spread which I optimized) to Toronto, and ended up winning the whole thing. Here's the team and why I made the choices I did, it's very difficult to use but a lot of fun when it works.

General notes: Ghost type Pokemon in general are really hard, but Gholdengo in particular was a nightmare due to it being immune to both Perish Song and Shadow Tag. When I saw Gholdengo, I always made sure to bring 3 Pokemon that could hit it, being Incineroar, Politoed, and one of either Kingdra/Archaludon. Archaludon was a problem as well, as the only way to get rid of it was Perish Song. Other problem Pokemon include Basculegion, Annihilape, Amoonguss, and Electabuzz. Politoed came to every single game, and you can't really use the team without it IMO.

Team export: https://pokepast.es/72b0e1c453a49df1

Politoed: I needed a Perish Song user, and the options were limited. Politoed has not had success in recent years, but I believe it is a good Pokemon, especially in a lower power level format. It's struggled a lot because it lost access to Scald, but I thought that with weather ball it could be used. It's my belief that Protect is the most important move to have access to on a Perish Trap team, as you need it to stall out the timer, so every Pokemon on this team will have it. Perish Song is self explanatory here as the central part of the strategy - while in the past I wanted two perish song users on my Perish trap teams, there wasn't a good secondary user (though I tested Gengar) and so I decided to rely fully on Politoed. Lastly, I chose Encore - this was in part because in best of 1 I thought it could be a good surprise move, but also it worked quite well in best of 3. I could use it to force Fake Out users to attack again, to prevent a Pokemon from protecting, and to catch opponents off guard in trick room when they were trying to stall by switching Politoed in. The other option was Helping Hand which would heavily enable Kingdra and partially enable Archaludon, but because the primary goal of the team was to stall, I thought Encore made more sense. In the end, I'm confident this was the right choice. Tera Grass is amazing on Politoed - it gives resistances to Archaludon and Rillaboom, two main threats, and makes it immune to Spore/Sleep Powder.

The EVs on Politoed are very specific. I maxed out HP as it's most efficient to increase survivability - and then I invested heavily in speed. Initially I had only 4 speed EVs, but I wanted to get Politoed to 105 speed stat in order to outspeed Modest Ursaluna Blood Moon, a Pokemon that threatened a KO on many of my Pokemon. This would open up both weather ball and encore pressure. I then gave Politoed enough defense to survive two Sneasler Close Combats after an Intimidate, and put the rest in Politoeds special defense, getting it to exactly the place where it receives one additional stat point thanks to its nature. Lastly, the item on Politoed took me a lot of time to figure out - Politoeds most intuitive item is Sitrus Berry, but I knew I wanted this on Gothitelle. My first thought was mental herb, but getting taunted happened so rarely that it seemed like a waste. Finally, I settled on Leftovers. Politoed ends up sticking around so long that this played a huge role in keeping it alive and capitalizing on its great natural bulk, and it could also use opposing Rillabooms Grassy Terrain against it as the combination of Leftovers and Grassy Terrain heals a ridiculous amount.

Gothitelle: The next Pokemon I added was the Shadow Tag user, the other half of the Perish Trap strategy. Gothitelle is the only Shadow Tag user in the game, so I really had no alternative here - but I like Gothitelle so that's okay too. For the moves, Protect is a given. Fake Out is one of Gothitelles best moves when it comes to Perish Trap because it allows you to stall for a turn with a pseudo-protect. If you use Perish Song and switch Gothitelle in during the same turn, the counter will be at 3. You can then Fake Out, putting the counter to 2. Then protecting puts the counter at 1. Now your opponent faints - without fake out, you need to leave Gothitelle exposed for a turn. Fake Out also created nice synergy with Incineroar, giving me two fake out users to support Archaludon and Kingdra. I chose Psychic as my damaging move - it might seem unintuitive for a Perish Team focused on defense to choose an attacking move, but in my experience it's very important to have a way of doing damage, and I liked that psychic could one hit KO Sneasler and also hit Pokemon that were frail generally for good damage. Lastly, I chose Trick Room. The last time I ran Perish Trap I chose to use Heal Pulse in this slot, but I realized that Trick Room could open up safer avenues for a second perish song with Politoed, allow Incineroar and Gothitelle to actually threaten certain Pokemon offensively, open Amoonguss up to Spore before the opponent attacked, reverse opposing trick room, and act as a counter to faster teams like psyspam and tailwind centric teams. I chose tera dark to prevent prankster taunt and encore as well as give me resistances to Ghost and Dark, and it worked great.

I maxed out Gothitelles HP because it's the first stat to train to ensure survivability (this is true generally on any Pokemon with high defenses and medium/low HP). I knew I didn't want any speed or special attack, so I split the rest of my points between the defenses. I gave Gothitelle enough defense to survive Kingambit Kowtow Cleave without a boost (I expected Safety Goggles Kingambit to be the most popular set), as well as Rage Fist from Jolly Annihilape after taking one hit, and put the remainder in its special defense. Gothitelle naturally has higher special defense and with Intimidate on the team, I could effectively increase my physical bulk. I decided to intentionally lower Gothitelles speed stat, to make it as slow as possible. Doing this allowed me to outspeed Pokemon like Ursaluna in Trick Room (at least all the ones I played in the tournament), but the main reason is because if all Pokemon faint to Perish Song, the slowest Pokemon faints last, meaning the player with the slowest Pokemon wins. This seemed relevant enough that dropping the speed made sense. Sitrus Berry is Perish Trap Gothitelles best item, because its primary goal is to survive three turns of burst damage, so I chose to use it here.

Incineroar: I needed support for my Perish Trap team, so I chose Incineroar. It is, in my opinion, the best Pokemon ever, and its toolkit is especially well suited for this type of team. Intimidate weakening both opponents every time Incineroar switches in is essential on a team where the primary goal is to stall, and why I used Arcanine on my last two Perish Trap teams. Protect is unusual on Incineroar, but this is Perish Trap, and with Rain on the team I didn't feel like I needed Flare Blitz. I tried taking Protect off of Incineroar briefly and immediately missed it, so I added it back - and it ended up being essential. Fake Out allows me to more easily stall Perish turns or position my Pokemon safely, and works with both offensive pieces and defensive ones. Parting Shot is already an amazing move, but it's even better on this team. Lowering the opponents stats while preventing them from switching can be really difficult to deal with, but arguably more important is the switch. Incineroar switching out in the middle of the turn, allowing me to bring Gothitelle in safely, is massive. Incineroar can even use Parting Shot in the same turn that Politoed uses Perish Song, meaning Gothitelle wont be affected by the counter. I can also switch Gothitelle out and use Parting Shot to bring it back in on the same turn, keeping my opponent locked while resetting the Perish Counter and Protect on my Pokemon. Knock off is a great utility move, and I wanted it in part to deal with Gholdengo and Ghost type Pokemon. Knock Off + Psychic could KO most Ghost types (Gholdengo, Basculegion, tera Ghost Sneasler, etc.) I chose Tera Ghost on Incineroar for immunities to Close Combat and Fake Out primarily, and because it doesn't overlap any weaknesses with Incineroars original typing.

I chose to train Incineroar almost completely in special bulk, running even less physical bulk than I'm used to. I chose to do this because I thought that without any attack or speed investment, I could afford to be especially bulky, and rather than having an Incineroar with above average bulk in both stats, it was better to have Incineroar be EXTREMELY bulky on one side and just average on the other. Specifically, I EV'd Incineroar to have a 75% chance of surviving Modest Life Orb Ursaluna Earth Power - which also gives it a 100% chance to survive Timid Pelipper Weather Ball in the Rain. I put the few remaining points in bulk. Having this much special bulk caught opponents off guard throughout the GC and Toronto, and allowed Incineroar to survive attacks that my opponents expected to KO. Like Gothitelle, I chose to make Incineroar as slow as possible. This is because I knew I wasn't going to be faster than opposing Incineroar anyway, and by going slow I could be more effective in Trick Room, using Knock Off before Gothitelle used Psychic. This also allowed me to use Parting Shot after Politoed used Perish Song and after the opposing Incineroar used it, letting me react to their switch in or bring in Gothitelle without being affected by the song. The final benefit was of course that the slowest Pokemon wins in an end game where all Pokemon faint to Perish Song. I gave Incineroar Safety Goggles in order to provide an Amoonguss immunity to my team, as I always want two if I can get them.

Amoonguss: I wanted one more support Pokemon, and selected Amoonguss. Redirection in the form of Rage Powder, healing from Pollen Puff and Regenerator, and disruption from Spore are all great fits for this team, which really wants to keep its key players safe and disrupt the opponent. Protect was the final move, selected for obvious reasons. The most unusual thing about my Amoonguss is the item: Eject Button. This is an EXTREMELY unpopular item with very, very limited tournament results - but I've used it twice to win tournaments (including Worlds), so I know how strong it is. I initially tried Mental Herb on Amoonguss, but like on Politoed it rarely came up. The best general item on Amoonguss is Sitrus Berry, but that was taken on Gothitelle. I considered Covert Cloak, but my Sneasler matchup is good, and I wasn't so worried about Shadow Tag, so I ruled it out. And then I thought about Eject Button, the item I used on Amoonguss during my first Perish Trap win.

Part of the reason Eject Button is so uncommon is because it can completely backfire. Eject Button switches out the holder when its hit with an attack - so if you wanted to use spore, or pollen puff your opponent can completely deny it - and ejecting a Pokemon cancels the rage powder effect, meaning every move Amoonguss uses can be shut down by its own item. However, this item allows me to safely switch my Pokemon around without needing them to take a hit. For example, I won a set in Top 32 because my opponent used Kowtow Cleave into my Amoonguss, trying to predict my Gothitelle switching in - but Eject Button activated, letting me bring it in risk free. I could also use Eject Button to switch Gothitelle out and bring it back in the same turn, just like with Incineroars parting shot but a bit harder to spot. Eject Button has good synergy with Regenerator, which heals Amoonguss every time it's switched out. Eject Button also cancels out the effects of Flip Turn/U-turn, so I KO'd a few Basculegion with rage powder and electro shot as they tried to use Flip Turn to switch in the GC. Eject Button meant that Amoonguss couldn't play like a normal Pokemon most of the time, but giving me a free switch on a team like this one was worth it.

I trained Amoonguss to always survive Annihilape Final Gambit, and to survive Rage Fist after 4 stacks from Jolly Annihilape. In truth this never came up, and this is the one EV spread I think was likely suboptimal on this team, but ultimately it never ended up biting me. I chose Tera Fairy for Amoonguss because I was having some trouble with Dragapult, and I liked that it also gave me an immunity to Scale Shot Dragonite. Like Gothitelle and Incineroar, I chose to make Amoonguss as slow as possible for more impact in Trick Room and the Perish end game.

Archaludon: I needed a Pokemon that could handle Gholdengo, as it fully counters my main strategy. Since I already had rain, I tried putting Archaludon on - but with a normal, assault vest set. Unfortunately, this felt really bad - it was clunky and without protect or real speed control, it just didn't work. I wasn't sure what to do, until I considered a different set - Power Herb Sturdy. This is EXTREMELY unintuitive as Power Herb isn't even needed in the rain, but I realized it could work here. Power Herb meant I couldn't be shut down by opponents changing the weather (or stalling it out), and sturdy allows Archaludon to invest fully in its speed and offense. This is relevant because Archaludon is exactly one point faster than Gholdengo - and with maxed out special attack and tera electric, electro shot is a one-hit-KO on almost every one (only one Gholdengo survived my electro shot in Toronto). Sturdy also meant I didn't need to worry about the abysmal defensive synergy tera Electric provides Archaludon. I hate missing, so I chose Dragon Pulse as my Dragon move of choice - and went with Flash Cannon as my 4th move. I originally had Thunderbolt but Whimsicott and Alolan Ninetales were giving me issues, and I realized I didn't need Thunderbolt with both Rain and Power Herb. I played a lot of Gholdengo in the tournament, and Archaludon was my primary way of handling them.

Kingdra: Lastly, I knew I wanted a Pokemon that could do damage and work outside of the Perish Mode. Specifically, I wanted a Pokemon I could use when Perish Trap didn't work - as if it did work, I had a fully fleshed out mode. I tried Gengar but it didn't do enough damage, and eventually began considering Swift Swim Pokemon. The question I've been asked more than any other is "Why not Basculegion?" - but there's a good reason. Bascuelgion is strongest in the end game, when Last Respects has been boosted - before then, its strongest move is wave crash. I needed this slot to work in the early game, when Perish doesn't work - and Basculegion KOing itself with Wave Crash (and not having reliably coverage moves) doesn't do that. So I started looking at other swift swim users.

I saw that Kingdra got Weather Ball, when in the past it was forced to use muddy water or hydro pump - and I also saw that it got Hurricane. I added it to the team with Helping Hand on Politoed allowing Hurricane to KO Amoonguss - and even though I ended up dropping both moves, I kept Kingdra. I unfortunately had to use Draco Meteor, a move that cost me multiple games in the Grand Challenge, as Dragon Pulse wasn't strong enough - I wanted a move that could one-hit-KO Jumpluff with a boost from tera Stellar, and no other option consistently worked. With Protect, Draco Meteor, and Weather Ball figured out, I tried a few last moves - first Hurricane, then Disable. I eventually settled on Muddy Water as the final option - while I hated missing, I'd realized that the combination of Electabuzz and Ursaluna Blood Moon was basically impossible for me to deal with. However, with Muddy Water Kingdra could actually completely turn the tables here (until it inevitably missed) - Tera Stellar Rain Boosted Life Orb boosted Muddy Water KOs 0 bulk Ursaluna Blood Moon even if they tera to Normal.

Kingdras stat points are the simplest possible, maximizing speed and power. Life Orb is important in getting specific damage calcs (Weather Ball KOing Maushold without tera for example), and Stellar gives you an additional damage boost to get another set of Pokemon (Annihilape with Weather Ball, Jumpluff with Draco Meteor). Stellar could also give a boost to weather ball when it turned into a fire, rock, ice, or normal type move (though this came up infrequently). I heavily considered dropping Kingdra from the team the week before Toronto because it kept missing all its moves, but I couldn't think of anything better - and in the end it ended up being completely essential, even though it missed a lot of its moves in Toronto.

Anyway I think this was my longest team report ever, but I hope I covered everything and gave you all some insight into this team I spent quite a long time working on. If you give it a try yourself, good luck!