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Foreword | Strategy Overview | Support Options | Credits
Foreword
Hi! Welcome to my very special thing. This is where I dump all the information I can find about Perish Trap because a switch turned on in my brain that made me so hopelessly enthused about anything and everything about it. Do note while reading that I'm a casual spectator fan. As such, things may not be accurate (sorry). The content here focuses on the VGC/doubles format for the most part, also.
Please do visit this url for my personal thoughts on the subject matter of the site as well!
For web stuff specifically
This thing is set to be formatted differently than the more decorated version, since the features of Rentry are different than what Fluffle offers (mainly because the latter has HTMLCSS support).
Strategy Overview
Perish Trap is a strategy that revolves around the status move Perish Song and the ability Shadow Tag.
Perish Song is a status move that makes every pokemon that's on the field faint after 3 turns have passed. The effect can be removed by switching out the pokemon affected by it.
- Pokemon that already have a Perish timer on them or have the ability Soundproof are immune to the status inflicted by the move, although most battles won't see an appearance of the latter.
Shadow Tag is an ability that prevents all opposing pokemon from fleeing and switching out normally, unless if they're a Ghost type or use a move that switches a pokemon out, like U-Turn.
- There are other abilities that are similar to Shadow Tag, namely Arena Trap and Magnet Pull. They aren't regularly used in Perish Trap teams because Arena Trap has a larger amount of pokemon that aren't affected by it (Flying types, pokemon that have the ability Levitate) and Magnet Pull only affects Steel types.
- There are moves that also prevent opposing pokemon from switching out (Mean Look, Block and Spider Web) but they're almost always disregarded as options since dedicating a move slot to a move that has little utility outside of one or two use cases is not ideal in many teams.
As you might expect, most pokemon who want to switch out to get rid of the Perish counter can't when a Shadow Tag user is on the field.
There are some cases where the usage of Perish Song without Shadow Tag has some merit, namely forcing out opposing threats that may or may not have stat boosts and/or other beneficial effects - basically as a kind of pressuring tool that disrupts the enemy's positioning.
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Support Options
Perish Trap teams have the main strategy centralized around 2/3 Pokemon, so it's in the best interest of people to have the remaining team slots help with keeping them alive and disarming any opponents that aren't as easily handled by the Song.
These are just some of the kinds of support I've seen used on Perish teams and teams that have a Perish mode. Protect and Fake Out are the most common, due to the importance of the utility they bring to the team. The rest are I think dictated by the Pokemon choice to a certain extent, but they all have benefits in their usage, generally.
Protect (+ Detect, King's Shield, Spiky Shield, Baneful Bunker, Obstruct, Silk Trap, and Burning Bulwark) is a move that makes you immune to your opponents' moves for one turn and usually goes first before any other move is cast.
Fake Out serves a similar purpose in preventing an opponent's move from taking effect as it makes the target flinch.
Both are especially helpful at helping stall out the turns between Perish Song's use and the counter ticking to zero, for obvious reasons. Fake Out's caveat of only being able to use it on the first turn of a Pokemon being switched in is lessened due to the more positioning-and switching-heavy play style of Perish, and it allows a teammate to use a move more safely than if both opponents were to attack.
Disarming moves like Encore (makes the target use their last used move for 5 turns), Taunt (makes the target only use attacking moves), and Disable (prevents the target from using their last used move) are also used quite a bit to hinder a lot of the threats to the Perish core.
Trick Room is a move that reverses the turn order for 5 turns, making it so that Pokemon with a lower Speed stat go first and vice versa. It's been used to give more leeway when it comes to subsequent Perish Songs along with making sure that slower teammates are more effective in their respective roles.
Credits
This is actually a collection of links to stuff I've referenced or thought I'd referenced while writing this thing. Please do look into them if you think this strategy is great or if you want to know more about other things regarding competitive Pokemon, especially because quite a few of the people that made them are much much more experienced.
- This video is literally the patient zero of my interest in this strategy and competitive play in general. Please watch it. Please. Pleaaaaase
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6mBovHhwlw I don't have much to say about it other than its a nice intro to a aspect of the game I was a bit confused about while writing this.
- https://victoryroad.pro/2019/08/28/differences-singles-doubles/ lorem ipsummmmmmmmm
- https://www.vgcguide.com/ put this here as well
- https://www.reddit.com/r/VGC/comments/v3ofza/a_couple_of_questions_about_vgc_history_and_usage/
- https://www.youtube.com/@VGCStrategy/videos
- https://limitlessvgc.com/ and https://www.nimbasacitypost.com are great for getting information about team builds and such especially in the earlier years of competition! Can't do all this without them...
- https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Appendix:Metagame_terminology
Special thanks to the people in the r/VGC discord for helping me get information and insight :-)