Trick Room Strategy in Pokemon Champions

Trick Room is the most disruptive playstyle in Pokemon Champions Doubles. The move reverses turn order for five turns, meaning slower Pokémon move first. Champions inherits the mechanic untouched from main-series VGC: any Pokémon can learn it via TR, the duration is exactly five turns, and a second Trick Room cancels it back to normal.

What Trick Room does

In a normal Champions Doubles match, Whimsicott (108 base Speed) outpaces Garchomp (102) outpaces Incineroar (60). Under Trick Room, the order flips: Incineroar moves first, then Garchomp, then Whimsicott. Slower attackers with high Attack or Special Attack become the fastest in the format for those five turns.

The teams built around this are designed to be slow on purpose. Setters keep their Speed at 0 SP (and often run a Brave or Quiet nature for further reduction). Attackers run base 50 or under. The result is a six-Pokémon roster that looks bad on paper and dominates inside the TR window.

The standard setters

Three Pokémon set Trick Room consistently in Champions: Indeedee, Hatterene, and Porygon2.

Indeedee-F brings Psychic Surge, which blocks priority moves like Sucker Punch, Fake Out, and Extreme Speed. That's a major advantage on top of TR — the slow attackers now also can't be priority-KO'd before they act.

Hatterene has Magic Bounce, which reflects Taunt back to the user. The single biggest weakness of any TR team is Taunt on the setter; Hatterene removes that line of play entirely and threatens Dazzling Gleam back into Fairy-weak teams.

Porygon2 is the bulkiest setter in the format with Eviolite. It eats every common attack, sets TR, and threatens with Tri Attack into Ice Beam coverage. If you want a TR team that survives turn-one mispredictions, Porygon2 is the safe choice.

The closers

The Pokémon that win games inside TR are slow and hit hard. Hatterene doubles as a setter and an attacker. Other strong options include Mega Camerupt (base 40 Speed, hits like a truck under Sun + TR), Stakataka (base 13 Speed), and slow Trick Room mainstays like Eviolite Dusclops or Reuniclus.

Pair them with redirection and item slots that lean into the slow plan: Iron Ball for borderline-fast Pokémon you want to put inside the TR speed bracket, Life Orb for raw output, Eviolite for whatever can use it.

Playing against Trick Room

The single best counter is Taunt on a Pokémon faster than the setter. Whimsicott (Prankster Taunt) threatens any setter that isn't Hatterene. Encore on a setup turn is also strong — TR setters lock themselves into the move on the turn they use it, which means a free Encore from your partner removes their only useful action for four turns.

If you can't deny the setup, the second-best plan is to set your own Trick Room and out-attack them. The third plan is to play out the five turns by switching, stalling, and protecting until normal speed returns. None of these are as clean as Taunting on turn one.

Speed tiers matter more under TR

Trick Room flips speed tiers, but they still matter — just inverted. The "fast" Pokémon in TR is whoever has the lowest Speed. Knowing whether your slow attacker actually outpaces an opposing slow attacker decides which one acts first. A Stakataka at 0 SP outpaces a Camerupt at 0 SP under TR; a Hatterene with no Speed investment beats both. The numbers compress at the bottom and small differences decide turns.

The Speed Tier Checker compares exact Speed values with Trick Room mode toggled on, including SP investment effects, before you finalize your build.