Intro to AAA

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What is AAA?

AAA, or Almost Any Ability, is an Other Metagame permaladder on Pokémon Showdown whose thread can be found here. In it, every legal Pokémon can freely change their ability from the ones they naturally get to almost any other; for instance, you could have a Latios with Psychic Surge or a Chansey with Unaware. For the most part, the metagame is based off of OU. Compared to OU, it has four unbanned Pokémon—Genesect, Landorus, Mega Metagross, and Naganadel—and a few more banned Pokémon, namely Archeops, Dragonite, Hoopa-U, Kartana, Keldeo, Kyurem-B, Regigigas, Shedinja, Slaking, Terrakion, and Weavile.

Unlike OU, however, Pokémon bans aren't enough to solely balance the metagame. While some abilities are balanced on their native user, they become wildly unbalanced when they can be applied to anything and thus must be removed from the metagame. AAA seeks to keep as many abilities as possible legal, but while even extremely powerful abilities like Adaptability can avoid the cut, some things would require extremely extensive Pokémon bans to balance or in some cases might be unbalanced regardless and must be removed. These banned abilities are Comatose, Contrary, Fluffy, Fur Coat, Huge Power, Illusion, Imposter, Innards Out, Parental Bond, Protean, Pure Power, Simple, Speed Boost, Stakeout, Water Bubble, and Wonder Guard.

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Basics of AAA teambuilding

While AAA shares many viable Pokémon with OU and very nearly shares a banlist, the viable teams and archetypes can differ vastly. Since every Pokémon can draw from the same pool of abilities, that section of the playing field is completely leveled. In AAA, Pokémon such as Clefable can no longer rise above their average base stats with an excellent ability, but at the same time Pokémon like Doublade and Alolan Muk are no longer held back by their mediocre ability options. As a result, more Pokémon are too broken to safely remain in a balanced metagame, but after they get removed, more Pokémon are readily usable at the highest level thanks to the extra freedom this increased customization allows team builders. AAA might only have four major team archetypes—offense, balance, stall, and weather—but more options do exist, and each category contains far more variety than its umbrella classification suggests.

Offense

Offense is an interesting playstyle in the Almost Any Ability metagame where abilities such as Triage, -ates (Aerilate, Pixilate, etc.), and Magic Bounce are found on many teams, hindering the playstyle's ability to effectively sweep or set up hazards. Thankfully, abilities such as Dazzling, Psychic Surge, and Mold Breaker can help circumvent the aforementioned abilities that may hold offense back from properly breaking opposing balance, bulky offense, and stall teams. Common breakers typically seen on offense teams are Noivern, Victini, Tapu Koko, Thundurus, and Blacephalon, Pokémon that can all pose a threat to more defensive teams due to their outstanding power. Almost Any Ability also supplies the playstyle with an abundance of terrifying setup sweepers as well, with the most notable examples including Volcarona, Manaphy, Naganadel, Kommo-o, and Xurkitree. Since offense is a typically momentum-based playstyle, enabling opposing threats such as Triage Golisopod, Triage Buzzwole, and Shift Gear Magearna to set up can be extremely devastating, especially if there are no priority-blocking teammates available to take on the Triage users. Offense can also rely on blanket checks to deal with opposing offensive threats in a pinch, with the best examples being Assault Vest Regenerator Magearna, Poison Heal Tapu Fini, and Flash Fire Doublade, pivots that can all deal with the majority of common revenge killers that can pose a nuisance to their offensive teammates.

Weather and Terrain

While weather (typically sun and rain) and Terrain (typically Electric) are technically different conditions, for most purposes they play identically. Both are replaced by new versions of their type on the field, both enable horrifically strong breakers or fast sweepers, and both must watch out for foes that are immune to them. For standard weather, the last of these takes the form of the common Flash Fire or Desolate Land Pokémon, such as Ferrothorn and Heatran, while Electric Terrain teams must watch out for Ground-types such as Landorus-T and Pokémon with immunity abilities like Volt Absorb Celesteela. Surge Surfer is the equivalent of Swift Swim and Chlorophyll, while other setters form reset buttons that these sweeper teams need to play around.

Balance

Balance in Almost Any Ability is superficially similar to offense, as it must keep the same threats in check without sacrificing all offensive pressure, but they play very differently in practice. Relative to offense, AAA balance teams are heavily momentum focused. Slow defensive pivots that can gain momentum for the team, like Zapdos, Gliscor, and Magearna, are all common picks to control the flow of battle and bring in offensive threats for free; similarly, Pokémon with abilities that activate on the switch rather than having to waste a turn moving, such as Regenerator, Poison Heal, and Magic Bounce Pokémon, are heavily prized. Defensive-leaning Pokémon that can fill multiple roles like stallbreaker Tapu Fini and support Ferrothon can be very helpful to keep up offensive pressure, and there's a corresponding pressure to ensure that each offensive Pokémon can make as much use of the free switches brought by pivots as possible.

Stall

Even with the banning of Fluffy and trapping options such as Arena Trap Dugtrio and Adaptability Weavile, stall still holds a formidable place in the current metagame by virtue of the availability of great abilities such as Magic Bounce, Regenerator, Unaware, and Poison Heal. Typical stall builds carry at least one user of each of the aforementioned abilities, with common bearers including Mew, Alolan Muk, Chansey, and Tapu Fini, respectively. However, wallbreakers such as Desolate Land Victini, Adaptability Mamoswine, Pixilate Tapu Koko, Normalize Gengar, and Magic Guard Blacephalon still pose a huge threat to these type of builds. Thankfully, stall has adapted to these threats by running walls such as Thick Fat Hippowdon, Intimidate Buzzwole, Volt Absorb Skarmory, and Mega Tyranitar with Regenerator as a base ability. Setup sweepers such as Magic Guard Volcarona, Calm Mind Magearna, and Bulk Up Magic Bounce Buzzwole all offer solid wincons that appreciate stall's ability to wear down opposing checks via status and hazard chip. Trapping can still be accomplished by Pokémon such as Sneasel and Tyranitar, but Alolan Muk's sustainability is generally preferred.

Other playstyles

Most other playstyles are significantly less viable than the aforementioned set, but a select few do enjoy some niche. Sticky Web and Grassy Terrain offense can be effective at enabling sweeping or wallbreaking, but the results they give usually aren't enough to justify the opportunity costs. Dual screens or Aurora Veil setters can enable setup sweepers that might otherwise have issues with their bulk to sweep, but Defog is omnipresent, and defensive walls in AAA are usually pretty good at dealing with setup sweepers.

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Closing Thoughts

Get out there! Almost Any Ability is a fascinating metagame with lots of room for creativity and originality, and it’s always exciting to learn whatever creative new team people come up with.

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