The last of the big four is perhaps the most specialized. Tricksters are pokemon that focus on doing things that may lead to damage, but aren’t usually damage themselves. Status effects and other sideways methods of winning a battle are the domain of the Trickster, and these pokemon excel at afflicting the opposing team. Tricksters are usually but not always fast, sometimes but not reliably durable, and generally have mediocre or worse attack stats. Fortunately, that’s not why they’re here- the things that make a trickster more than anything else are the movepool and the Ability.
The best tricksters have either high speed or an ability that lets them pretend they do- or ignore their lack of speed. If its stats are unremarkable, but it can paralyze, confuse, burn, taunt, freeze, throw substitutes, change the weather, litter the battlefield, restrict your opponent’s options, or otherwise just mess with how the battle is fought, it’s probably a trickster. Tricksters are usually only worried about one of two things as far as their stats are concerned: Am I going to win by messing up the enemy first, or am I going to win by enduring long enough to leave them crippled?
A few of the most cunning Tricksters are Jumpluff, Clefable, Cacturne, Cofagrigus, Venomoth, and Jellicent.
Tricksters are amazing pokemon to have on your team. The way they constantly inflict status on your opponent, afflicting them with reductions not only directly to their stats, but to their very ability to act, is often key to winning. Plentiful PP allow them to destroy your opponent’s capability over and over and over again, often swapping out of the fight to let something come in and crush whatever they crippled. Tricksters have the flexibility to mess up the function of your opponent’s team, breaking their rhythm and leaving them asking the ever-hated question: Now what do I do?
Tricksters are depressing pokemon to have on your team. Often lacking in any significant way to directly deal damage, those that can still usually don’t do a whole lot of injury. They are often themselves vulnerable to the simplest of tricks, and a powerful trickster may become utterly useless when Taunted. Few tricksters have the durability to hang around for long- except the ones whose only function is to hang around for way too long. Often, using a trickster will give you too many choices that are too different from one another, leaving you asking the ever-hated question: Now what do I do?
Jumpluff has terrible defenses, though its speed and variety of options can help it offset that. Cacturne is very vulnerable outside of sandstorms- though within them it’s practically an illusion, difficult to pin down and harder to hit. Venomoth is chock-full of nasty surprises- but it’s made of cardboard, and a solid hit will frequently take it out faster than you’d expect. For all that Jellicent is an amazingly interesting pokemon with a widely-varied set of actions it can take, its weaknesses quickly make themselves obvious and it is itself very vulnerable to poison.
Clefable is practically the be-all and end-all of tricksters, a normal type who can pull all sorts of shenanigans- Magic Guard means it can poison itself with a Toxic Orb and be immune to several more-dangerous status effects. It has access to a disturbingly large variety of tricks, from Thunder Wave/Stomp paraflinch goofiness to the amazing wonders of Heal Bell and on. It can Softboiled or Wish with its Cosmic Power to become a daunting wall, or use Thunder Beam to power up and break things down. It is probably the most durable trickster out there- but it has its problems. One solid Cross Chop will take out a huge chunk from it, and while Magic Guard and poisoning can protect it from many things, Confusion will still eat up its turns and weather still boosts appropriate attacks. Whirlwind will divest it of any boosts it lays on itself, and if you react quickly, you can almost always destroy it with a set of strong attack moves.
If you want to play around with denial, limiting your opponents actions- or if you want to enable new things for yourself, you’re looking for a Trickster- the quintessential wild card pokemon.
