A History of Triage in AAA

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Introduction

In Almost Any Ability (AAA), Pokémon are given a plethora of unique and diverse options to enhance their offensive and defensive utility. From powerful offensive enhancers like Sheer Force, Hadron Engine, and Sword of Ruin, to defensive options like Regenerator, Intimidate, and immunity abilities such as Volt Absorb and Well-Baked Body, to dual-application abilities such as primal weathers, Magic Guard, and Psychic Surge, there's no shortage of options to diversify and optimize your team! One of the most seemingly straightforward of these options was Triage, an ability that increases the priority of healing moves, including draining move such as Drain Punch, by 3—allowing them to outspeed even Extreme Speed. Effectively, this allowed Triage users to almost always attack regardless of their Speed stat with the caveat of using draining moves, which usually had middling Base Power.

Triage is an ability that's very clearly designed with one Pokémon in mind. Comfey is a Pokémon with average, if not middling, Special Attack and slightly above average Speed, along with respectable special bulk and middling physical bulk. Comfey is a Pokémon designed to trade raw power for utility, while still maintaining some level of offensive pressure with Calm Mind and Triage-boosted Draining Kiss—but what happens when you give Triage to a Pokémon not designed around it? What happens when you give Triage to a Pokémon with 130 Special Attack or 139 Attack, allowing them to completely bypass low Speed, or to a Pokémon with better setup moves like Nasty Plot or even Belly Drum? To the surprise of nobody, it's been a somewhat controversial life for Triage, but it hasn't always been the beacon of controversy that it is in SV AAA. This article will be looking into the history of Triage in AAA, from the early days of Golisopod in SM to the eventual ban in SV.

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History of Triage

SM AAA

Triage was among the first of Gen 7's new toys to be played with, but it took some time for its users to come to the forefront of the metagame. The early days of SM were dominated by the ridiculously overpowered Simple, Contrary, and Speed Boost, all of which were commonly used to amplify Speed, filling a similar niche to Triage without the restriction of primarily using draining moves. Priority-nullifying Psychic Surge users such as (Mega) Alakazam and Dazzling users such as Minior and Volcarona were also quite common, throwing a wrench into the plans of any Triage user. Triage had notable users during the first half of the generation, and teams needed to be prepared for it, but it wasn't at all seen as controversial quite yet.

Other notable users during SM AAA included Conkeldurr, the most powerful Drain Punch user with a ludicrous base 140 Attack; Tapu Bulu, which was unique in its ability to threaten Tapu Fini with STAB Horn Leech; and Buzzwole, which still lacked Drain Punch and competed heavily with Golisopod while also preferring other sets such as Intimidate, Tinted Lens, and Flash Fire. Chesnaught and Kommo-o, which would both come to be familiar faces, were also notable for pioneering the combination of Belly Drum and Triage Drain Punch, but both also had better things to be doing in Flash Fire and Unburden, respectively. Overall, Triage had a notable place in SM AAA, but it wasn't quite at the forefront of the metagame. Any team unprepared to deal with the wrath of Golisopod could be torn apart after a single Swords Dance, but many teams came packed with natural counterplay to Triage.

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USUM AAA

The release of USUM brought many notable changes to the AAA metagame. On top of powerful new additions such as Blacephalon and Naganadel, existing Pokémon received a levy of moveset additions. One of the most consequential move changes was Buzzwole finally gaining the coveted Drain Punch, allowing it to effectively compress the niches of both fellow Triage users Golisopod and Conkeldurr. Buzzwole was an instant day-one threat, and it would come to be known as the best Pokémon in USUM AAA. This all coincided with a slight decline in Dazzling on teams, as ability slots became even more important in fending off the fierce threats or enabling your own, leaving little room for an otherwise useless ability. During USUM came the first calls from the playerbase to ban either Triage or Buzzwole, but these were by far a minority of players.

Aside from Buzzwole, Golisopod maintained its niche as a powerful Swords Dance cleaner, often sporting the same Waterium Z that defined it in SM AAA. Familiar faces such as Conkeldurr maintained some level of viability defined by Drain Punch, while other Triage users such as Tapu Bulu and Chesnaught tended to gravitate towards different options such as Tinted Lens and Flash Fire. Towards the end of the generation, Celebi emerged as another powerfully diverse Triage user, greatly threatening physical walls such as Tapu Fini and bulky Buzzwole that usually checked Triage users. USUM saw Triage come to the forefront of the metagame for the first time and also saw the first calls to take action against the ability.

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SS Pre-DLC + Pokémon HOME

The early stages of Sword and Shield were dominated by some of the most absurd threats the tier has ever seen, even to this day. From ludicrously broken damage amplification in the form of Gorilla Tactics and pre-nerf Intrepid Sword, to nearly game-breaking abilities like Neutralizing Gas and the infamously broken Dynamax, the early stages of the SS AAA metagame gave a unique niche to Triage users, with them being among the most reliable revenge killers in the tier at the cost of little to no damage amplification. This was a significant trade-off, as Triage users went from among the most powerful attackers in the game to often feeling subpar or even weak versus a team that wasn't sufficiently weakened, especially in comparison to threats as devastating as Dracovish and Noivern. Common Triage users during this early stage of the metagame included Hatterene and Gardevoir, as well as Golisopod, which reprised its powerful niche as among the best revenge killers in the tier.

With the release of Pokémon HOME came, among other changes, redistribution of balance staples in Defog, Toxic, and Knock Off, turning the AAA metagame on its head and pulling the tier standard closer to balance or bulky offense, which were both team styles that Triage could thrive on. In addition, a powerful new Triage user in Primarina was reintroduced, giving these teams even more tools to play with. Triage users still had to contend with counterplay in the form of Psychic Surge setters such as Mew and Polteageist as well as Queenly Majesty users like Hydreigon, Terrakion, and Dragapult (before its eventual ban), but these were usually relegated to hyper offense teams, which Triage naturally fared well against. Triage types were, now more than ever, very easily resisted, with many teams packing at least one Pokémon with a resistance to the most common Triage moves in Drain Punch, Leech Life, and Draining Kiss, meaning that Triage users had to work hard to get into a favorable position.

Golisopod also remained among the best revenge killers in the tier, running either a Swords Dance set reminiscent of its SM set or a Choice Band cleaner set that relied on surprise value and raw damage output. Primarina and Grimmsnarl were both also very viable options, with Primarina leveraging high bulk, powerful Water STAB moves, and a fantastic defensive typing to garner Calm Mind boosts, while Grimmsnarl used Nasty Plot and Sucker Punch to run an effective mixed priority set. Conkeldurr and Kommo-o remained excellent choices for spamming their powerful Drain Punch with the boosts from Bulk Up and Belly Drum or Swords Dance, respectively. Gardevoir and Hatterene both had viable use cases reminiscent of their pre-HOME dominance, and Celebi remained a viable option as well. This era is arguably the peak of Triage—several high-tier Triage sweepers were similarly viable, but none were overbearing enough to be considered for a ban.

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The Isle of Armor

The Isle of Armor DLC brought a bevy of changes to the AAA metagame, from reintroducing powerful threats like Volcarona and Alakazam to defensive staples like Blissey and Skarmory. New move tutor moves such as Flip Turn and Triple Axel brought the power level of the tier up a notch, shooting threats like Barraskewda and Weavile to the forefront of the metagame. Among the most notable new additions was Magearna, which leveraged its absurdly diverse movepool, a ludicrous stat spread, and the best dual typing in the game to be an absolutely dominant force in the Isle of Armor metagame. Magearna succesfully ran anything and everything from Shift Gear sets to bulky RegenVest, but among the most dangerous sets was its Calm Mind Triage set, threatening to sweep teams on the turn of a dime with priority Draining Kiss. Magearna was banned via suspect test near the end of the Isle of Armor metagame for its overwhelming versatility.

Aside from Magearna, Triage took a minor hit in this era. Aside from a small niche on Volcarona, Triage gained no more notable users while at the same time gaining several hard checks. Skarmory fended off quad-resisted Leech Life and neutral Drain Punch effortlessly, while Blissey stared down Giga Drain and Draining Kiss without a second thought. The introduction of Expanding Force Alazakam didn't help either, making things even more difficult for Triage users. Triage was still a solid part of the metagame and still among the best abilities in the game, but it was slightly worse than in the HOME metagame.

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The Crown Tundra

With the release of the Crown Tundra came even more changes to shake up the metagame, rendering it almost unrecognizable. Dozens of legendary Pokémon poured into the tier, from the Kantonian legendary birds to their new Galarian counterparts and from Latios to Tapu Fini. Alola's powerful Ultra Beasts were also reintroduced, along with nuclear additions in Dragonite, Genesect, and Garchomp. Magearna was allowed back into the tier with the release of the DLC, but was quickly re-banned. Not long after came the ban of Buzzwole, which lacked reliable defensive counterplay, as even Skarmory was blown away by Drain Punch after several boosts, while Tapu Fini was nuked by boosted Thunder Punch. Buzzwole's only reliable counter was itself, leading to Buzzwole often resorting to Magic Bounce and Toxic to beat opposing Buzzwole.

Triage soon began to come under scrutiny, with many of its most common users being cited as uncompetitive or overpowered. Common users such as Tapu Bulu, Golisopod, and Tapu Lele were able to steal away games on the turn of a dime, shredding unprepared teams without mercy. Gengar, while not often running Triage, was able to run everything from Sheer Force and No Guard to Normalize and Water Absorb, allowing Triage to rise as an anti-meta set, being able to one-up revenge killers such as Barraskewda and Weavile with priority Giga Drain.

Gengar was eventually banned for its ability to beat, well, pretty much everything, even if not all at once. After a chaotic period of bans and metagame shifts, a tiering survey was held that found 41% of users would support tiering action on Triage—a number that would later drop to only 10.6%. Towards the tail end of the tier's time, Kommo-o was also banned due to the combination of Unburden and potential Triage and Galvanize sets. Later, though, Unburden (which heavily competed with Triage for the speed amplification slot) and Magic Bounce were both banned from the tier, leading to a period of stability for the end of the generation. This led to a mini-resurgence for Triage, as many viable users, both old and new, found themselves in a place to take advantage of the vacuum left by Unburden's ban.

Tapu Bulu was commonly accepted as the second best Triage user, with powerful coverage moves such as Close Combat, Darkest Lariat, and Stone Edge to power past common Triage answers such as Corviknight, Mew, and Volcarona. Togekiss remained a powerful threat, leveraging potent move diversity to power through almost any of its answers depending on the set. Conkeldurr and Kommo-o both remained powerful setup options with Bulk Up and Belly Drum or Swords Dance, respectively, making them excellent cleaners. Triage Kommo-o in particular skyrocketed in popularity after the Unburden ban, as it no longer had to pick between the two abilities, allowing it to freely click Belly Drum-boosted Drain Punch even after being forced out once. Primarina and Diancie were alternative Draining Kiss users, with powerful Water-type STAB attacks alongside great bulk and tantalizing bulk with Body Press to beat Blissey, respectively. Triage ended SS AAA as a powerful ability with many viable users. It had its share of controversy and bans, but overall it was a positive influence in the tier.

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The End of the Road: Scarlet and Violet

SV Pre-DLC + HOME Meta

The early days of Scarlet and Violet were hectic and perhaps the most powerful the tier has ever been. Single ability clause was implemented for the new generation, and as a result, many powerful banned abilities such as Unburden, Poison Heal, and FurScales were all unbanned. Terastallization ran amok in the tier, allowing any Pokémon to transform into any type, gaining a STAB damage bonus on moves of the new type while retaining the boost on moves of your original type. Powerful new threats like Annihilape, Iron Bundle, and Flutter Mane were also free to wreak havoc on the tier, meaning Triage took its time to find its footing. Ceruledge was the first toy people attempted to play with, with Bitter Blade being significantly more powerful than the 75 BP typical among draining moves; however, due to Comfey not being in the game, Triage was not coded to boost the priority of Bitter Blade, meaning that it was a useless ability on it.

Iron Hands emerged as the first truly broken Triage user of the generation, with a ludicrous HP stat of base 154, an Attack stat rivaling Zekrom's, and access to the rare Belly Drum, beginning a trend that would span the rest of Triage's time in the generation. Iron Hands was nearly impossible to effectively revenge kill behind screens while functionally outspeeding everything with max Attack Drain Punch. Iron Hands could also run incredibly potent Sword of Ruin sets to make Close Combat nearly impossible to switch in on (barring the rare Ghost-types that couldn't hope to tank a Thunder Punch), or, alternatively, it could run unbreakable defensive sets with Regenerator, a type immunity ability, or either of FurScales before they were banned, making it an unstoppable user of Swords Dance. Iron Hands was banned less than two months into the tier's existence, with Triage as the primary culprit.

It was not the only broken user of the ability, however. Hariyama too would soon be banned for largely the same reasons as Iron Hands, but this time, only the combination of Triage and Belly Drum was to blame. Many users began to call for Belly Drum to be banned, citing it as the primary reason for both Triage and Unburden being seen as broken. This argument was soon shut down, however, as OM tiering policy demanded that, unless circumstances were extreme, Other Metagames should restrict tiering policy to the concept of the metagame; Almost Any Ability, as an ability-centric metagame, should focus tiering action on abilities and users of those abilities, and Belly Drum was not deemed an extenuating circumstance. This left two options on the table: Banning Triage, or banning broken users of the ability. A tiering survey was held, and Triage received a 3.71 out of 5, indicating that a firm majority of the playerbase considered Triage broken and would support action against it or its users.

As far as non-banned users go, Hatterene and especially Enamorus-T were powerful users of Draining Kiss, with Hatterene having Psyshock to beat common special walls, while Enamorus-T had greater coverage and fantastic bulk boosted further by Iron Defense and Calm Mind. Chesnaught also saw usage once Ursaluna left the tier, leveraging the combination of Belly Drum, Triage, and STAB Drain Punch to great effect. Sets like Galarian Slowbro were experimented with, but ultimately they failed to catch on due to underwhelming power and difficulty in setting up. Another tiering survey was soon held, and Triage would receive a 3.27, indicating that it was still seen as unhealthy to the tier.

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Teal Mask

The Teal Mask DLC brought with it many changes to the tier: Ogerpon and all of its formes were introduced to the tier to wreak havoc, moves like Roost, Flip Turn, and most importantly Knock Off regained their distribution or even got new users, and several new Pokémon were either introduced or instantly shot into viability, notably including Psychic Surge Azelf, which was up to the same priority-nullifying tricks as usual. Among the scariest new arrivals was Kommo-o, which near-instantly rose to prominence with the same old trick of Triage + Belly Drum + Drain Punch. Other users like Poliwrath, Okidogi, and Conkeldurr found use as well, but the writing on the wall was clear: Kommo-o was the new offensive threat to beat. Kommo-o's effective counterplay was very, very limited, effectively only extending to Psychic Surge, Scream Tail, and Fluffy Zapdos.

The arguments to ban either Kommo-o or Triage started before the Teal Mask was even playable. Many thought that Kommo-o was one in a long line of uncompetitive Triage users, and that it was time for the ability as a whole to go. Alternatively, many people pointed to non-broken users of Triage like Enamorus-T and Okidogi as proof that the ability wasn't inherently broken, calling for action on just Kommo-o, just Belly Drum, or even no action at all. Annihilape was briefly suspected back into the tier, only for Triage to be one of many reasons the community chose to keep it banned. Two prominent Triage users in Ursaluna and Hariyama were also voted on internally by the AAA council (twice, actually), but neither received enough support for a quick unban.

Enamorus-T remained a prominent, consistent user of Triage, excellent for its ability to fit on most team styles and keep offense at bay with a powerful Iron Defense + Calm Mind crit-me-not set. Conkeldurr retained its niche as a powerful Bulk Up user, now joined by the similarly viable Okidogi, which traded raw damage for a powerful STAB-boosted Gunk Shot to nail Scream Tail with. Sinistcha could use an effective Calm Mind set, as even though Matcha Gotcha did not have the Triage flag, Giga Drain still did. Triage Slither Wing also saw minor usage, leveraging its Buzzwole-level Leech Life to threaten common Triage answers like Cresselia and Flare Blitz to threaten Gholdengo.

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The Indigo Disk

With the release of The Indigo Disk DLC came several meta-warping changes. Raging Bolt and Gouging Fire were both introduced and later banned, while Pecharunt, Iron Boulder, and Archaludon cemented themselves as staples in the metagame; Pecharunt in particular happened to be a fantastic check to many TriageDrum users, especially with Earth Eater. Extremely hardy walls such as Skarmory, Swampert, and Deoxys-D returned alongside powerful threats like Latios, Expanding Force-wielding Deoxys-S, and a new Triage user in Primarina. Among the new returning Pokémon was humble Comfey, which itself wouldn't find even a shred of viability but enabled an entirely new beast: with Triage now in the base game, Bitter Blade and Matcha Gotcha both received the Triage flag, meaning they could now be boosted by the ability. The Ceruledge set that had been theorized since day 1 was now free.

The calls to ban Triage were now louder than ever. Kommo-o was still shredding through some teams on the turn of a dime even with the new so-called checks like Pecharunt and Skarmory, and the already-borderline Ceruledge was now nearly impossible to consistently check without Psychic Surge combined with a traditional check to Sword of Ruin sets. Triage itself had gained a reputation as an unhealthy matchup fish that was too difficult to consistently counter without sacrificing a team's consistency versus the rest of the metagame. Many also complained about the inconsistency in the banlist, as Kommo-o was objectively more powerful than the previously banned Hariyama ever was yet was still freely roaming the tier. The community had strong supporters of a ban and equally strong supporters of no action at all. Similarly, the AAA council also couldn't come to a clear consensus, so it was decided to give the vote to the community in the form of a suspect test.

Pro Ban

Many saw Triage as inherently uncompetitive due to its reliance on matchups, as Triage users could be either impossible to answer by certain teams or be completely trivial to beat at the cost of a worse team into any other matchup besides hyper offense. Ultimately, Triage was thought to lead any opponent into a lose-lose scenario even for making a choice that would otherwise be correct, and this was argued to be incredibly unhealthy. Teams were forced to adapt to Triage users in new, often incredibly restrictive ways, such as including Gengar, Azelf, or Deoxys-S on teams that would otherwise prefer other Pokémon, or using otherwise near-useless abilities such as Armor Tail to block opposing priority. Other forms of potential counterplay such as Unaware had their own flaws, either being broken through with specific coverage or being overloaded by multiple setup sweepers, allowing Triage users to clean up once they were weakened.

Anti Ban

Triage wasn't universally viewed as uncompetitive, though. Many found that Triage was quite easy to prepare for and that these options were ubiquitous enough to be reasonable. Triage users were inherently weak, especially without setup moves, as not only are the moves low power, they also couldn't run amplification abilities like Adaptability and Sword of Ruin. Many of the best teams packed one or more ways to handle sweepers like Kommo-o, rendering them threatening at best and useless at worse. The common answers to Triage were already quite common, including but not limited to Unaware, Fluffy, and anti-priority abilities such as Psychic Surge, and many argued that these were reasonable expectations to have on a team. To some, it was also seen as an amazing anti-cheese tool in its own right, with powerful priority from the likes of Ceruledge and Enamorus-T able to outprioritize many of the assorted gimmicks and cheese strategies the tier's ladder is known for, and many viewed this as reason enough to keep it in the tier.

The Results

With an incredibly tight vote, Triage was banned from Almost Any Ability, surpassing the 60% threshold to ban by just 0.9%. 28 out of 41 eligible voters chose to ban Triage, in one of the closest votes in the tier's history. With Triage banned from the tier, the AAA council voted on many of the Pokémon banned in part due to their Triage shenanigans. Iron Hands, Ursaluna, and Hariyama were all unbanned with Triage gone, while Magearna remained banned. Iron Hands found itself as a fantastic defensive and offensive threat in the tier and continues to be a staple on fat and balance to this day. Ceruledge is still fantastic with its Sword of Ruin set, and users have called for it to be banned. Other former Triage users like Kommo-o and Enamorus-T found minor niches, while others like Sinistcha and Hatterene fell into obscurity.

Final Thoughts

Triage has had a long and complicated history throughout the years, ranging from banworthy in Scarlet and Violet to its fledgling days in Sun and Moon, but it has always been an important part of the tier and a major part of its identity. Though the tier has elected to ban Triage, the ability and the users it had have left an unmistakable impact on the tier, and the tier might have looked completely different if it was never introduced. One thing is for certain, though: Triage will always be remembered as one of the best abilities in AAA history.

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