AAA Suspect Coverage: Gholdengo

By Tea Guzzler and UT. Released: 2023/03/22.
« Previous Article Next Article »
Art by in the hills

Art by in the hills.

Introduction

Almost Any Ability is an Other Metagame where Pokemon can run, well, almost any ability! Powerful abilities like Sword of Ruin, Regenerator, Aerilate, and Well-Baked Body are free to use on Pokemon like Roaring Moon, Ting-Lu, Dragonite, and Corviknight. With the ability slot freed up, stats, movepool, and typing take on a greater importance; some OU-level threats like Iron Valiant and Dragapult have shed their mediocre abilities and risen all the way to AAA Ubers.

Another OU star is on the radar right now, and ironically, it's a threat with an amazing native ability as well: Gholdengo! With its amazing typing, tailor-made movepool, and versatile stats, Gholdengo has become the poster child for the do-anything AAA titan; but, does it do everything too well? It can turn revenge killers into setup chances with an immunity ability, obliterate common walls like Garganacl and Scream Tail with its attacks, cripple the few it can't outright KO like Blissey with Trick, and slot in Dazzling Gleam or Focus Blast to ruin the day of any Dark-type that thinks it can switch in. Sure, it can't do all of these things at once, but is it still too potent? That's what this suspect test aims to find out!

What does Gholdengo run?

An early version of the AAA viability rankings, which includes a column for viable abilities, included this helpful description:

Gholdengo Abilities

While it may seem flippant, it is very true. A non-comprehensive list of Gholdengo's viable abilities includes: Magic Guard, Regenerator, Well-Baked Body, Earth Eater, Levitate, Bulletproof, Water Absorb, Good as Gold, Adaptability, and Beads of Ruin. Gholdengo was also a premier Fur Coat and Ice Scales user, before those abilities were banned. Even with its wild versatility, there are still a few main sets we can pull out.

Gholdengo

This is the closest thing to a standard Gholdengo set; dual STAB moves with good power and great coverage, a fantastic defensive typing, recovery, setup, and the ability of your choice. Well-Baked Body, Bulletproof, and Earth Eater all turn weaknesses into setup opportunities, Magic Guard enables Life Orb + Steel Beam without recoil and turns Garganacl into setup fodder, and Adaptability provides extra oomph to Shadow Ball. Those first abilities are especially sinister; usually whacking a Pokemon with a super effective move is the best way to deny it a setup opportunity, but Gholdengo can viably turn most of its weaknesses into immunities, and it is very difficult to scout without trying... and risking the free turn. If forgoing setup, it can also equip Dazzling Gleam or Focus Blast to nail checks like Roaring Moon and Kingambit.

Gholdengo

Gholdengo is also a fantastic defensive glue, as it can use its amazing defensive typing, Recover, and proper immunity ability to patch up almost any hole in a defensive core. Thunder Wave + Hex gives Gholdengo a great combination of status spreading and power, Make It Rain or Nasty Plot can provide extra coverage or power, respectively, and of course Recover provides longevity. For almost any weakness your team had, be it Baxcalibur, other Gholdengo, Great Tusk, Iron Moth, or Kilowattrel, there was a Gholdengo set that could patch it right up. The EVs are also exceedingly flexible here, especially if you want to Speed creep a specific threat - the current 32 EVs outrun 0 and 4 EV Great Tusk.

Gholdengo

Gholdengo is also a great Choice item user thanks to Trick. It can serve as a potent revenge killer with Choice Scarf or a powerful wallbreaker with Choice Specs. This may shock you, but the ability slot is extremely flexible; the main addition here is Regenerator, allowing Gholdengo to pivot aggressively and even drop Recover. Trick cripples its few switch-ins like Blissey and specially defensive Corviknight if the Choice item is not needed, and it has no shortage of options in the last slot to ruin Kingambit or Roaring Moon's day.

Pro-Ban arguments

The majority of pro-ban arguments revolved around Gholdengo's immense versatility - the sheer amount of abilities Gholdengo could run was the main reason why it was a problem, as it can be argued that Gholdengo was almost too versatile and unreliable to handle. Many teams would simply have to accept that one particular Gholdengo would be an incredibly tough matchup and would have to rely solely on offensive pressure to check it, and even if the opposing Gholdengo didn't completely brick a threat with an immunity ability, it was still an offensive menace that could easily spiral out of control. This is only with the ability choice, which wasn't Gholdengo's only customizable option; Nasty Plot, Trick + Choice Scarf, Substitute, and Thunder Wave + Hex were all viable movesets that created additional unpredictability, and even uncommon item choices like Covert Cloak and Shuca Berry contributed. Another issue that could be argued was that, well, Gholdengo is just a really good Pokemon. A strong BST spread, great typing, strong STAB attacks in Make It Rain and Shadow Ball, and a boosting move in Nasty Plot were simply too strong for the tier given the option to run an offensive ability. This can be exemplified by the fact that Gholdengo only had one really consistent answer that was usable on a wide variety of teams, being RegenVest Roaring Moon (which Magic Guard sets could still out-damage with Life Orb Steel Beam).

Anti-Ban arguments

While Gholdengo was incredibly strong, it did have reasons for staying in the tier. Perhaps the most common argument was that of Gholdengo not being "all sets at all times" - essentially the idea that running into the perfect Gholdengo to counter your team was realistically not happening in the majority of games. This typically meant that the opposing Gholdengo would still be a threat (just based on Gholdengo itself, irrespective of the ability) but progress could still be made against it fairly reliably. Another argument was that, while Gholdengo excelled at mauling stall teams, it was very difficult to use against offense - many sets simply wouldn't be allowed to stay on the field long enough to have a significant impact, with only Choice Scarf and Magic Guard's extra Speed and burst damage, respectively, fixing these issues. Gholdengo also suffered with an average-at-best Speed tier in a relatively fast metagame, meaning it could be hard-pressed to find opportunities without the opponent being caught off guard by a surprise immunity. A final reason was that Gholdengo could fit on many defensive cores and ease the burden of walling the plethora of offensive threats in the tier.

Outcome and Final Thoughts

With a final voting outcome of 70.2% in favor of ban, Gholdengo is banned from AAA! Several other threats were immediately quickbanned as well, namely Great Tusk, Baxcalibur, and Houndstone; all three could rip apart unprepared (or even prepared!) teams. With two of the top Pokemon banned and two of the most restrictive offensive threats removed as well, the metagame has been transformed overnight. With AAA more popular than ever, now is a great time to jump in and learn the metagame; what broken combination will you find and take advantage of?

HTML by Quite Quiet.
« Previous Article Next Article »