Does competitive Trapinch work?

Question

I was researching Trapinch so that I could hatch a shiny one (teehee) when I noticed that Trapinch has a max attack stat almost equal to Flygon's, and I was quite surprised. So I wondered, could a competitive Trapinch work? When looking through movesets, I came up with my own:

Trapinch @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Nature: Adamant
EV Spread: 252 Atk/252 HP/6SpD
Moves:

• Bulldoze/EQ
• Crunch
• Rock Slide
• Toxic/Quick Attack/Superpower

I'm not that good at making movesets, but does anyone think this will work?

Comments

What tier is this for?

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I'm not sure, this is just for wi-fi battles

Answer 1

It depends…

Generally, the answer is no. Trapinch, while having an amazing Attack, is pretty crummy everywhere else. It would likeley be outsped and OHKOd by any attack not named Bind. Even though it looks good on paper, competitive Trapinch is a no-go.

However…

While your poor Shiny Trapinch won't work in VGC-style battles, it does have one nice little corner where it can terrorize everything: Little Cup.
Little Cup is a Smogon tier exclusive to only the first stages of evolutions (Vullaby, Fletchling, Aron, etc.) and that kind of Attack stat is rare for a basic Pokémon. While his Speed is still a hinderance, it can function extraordinarily well on a Trick Room team. Try this set:

Trapinch@ Life Orb/Eviolite
Ability: Sheer Force/Arena Trap
EVs: 196 Atk / 236 Def / 76 SDef
Brave Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Quick Attack

Use Life Orb if you choose Sheer Force and Eviolite if you choose Arena Trap. For more on how to use Trapinch in LC, see here.