Metagame Almost Any Ability

[LordBox]

Something being able to come in on the hazard setters and other pokemon and get off defogs, does indeed make them a reliable defogger. I didn't mention any sets for them, refresh my memory if I did. I prefer not to spoon feed, providing the slither wing option is already overstepping my generosity in that department as people tend to be too lazy to explore other options. What are you talking about, talonflame is indeed a notorious magic guard user as it uses it to fire off recoilless moves and come in on hazards. If you call removing hazards, halving attacks, or getting KO's and having longevity useless ... I do not really know what to tell you. Brave Bird and Flare Blitz are 120 Power moves, they are indeed doing damage when used by a pokemon with no EVs. You are attempting to downplay something you admittedly do not use. "it can technically run willow-wisp" ... the word technically does not need to be there. People are not using many old mons because once again this is a new gen and everyone is experimenting. You keep using the word useless but I do not think it means what you think it means. Magic Bounce does not get rid of already set hazards and one pokemon cannot check everything.

You do not seem to comprehend that pokemon can be used for various reasons and purposes and are not just limited to what you Google or see on YouTube videos. You say they lack bulk, yet I do not any world where a hazard setting tusk, treads, tien-lu, gastrodon kills Hawlucha. You say the term defog bot yet Corviknight in his essence is a defog bot, you switch it in on hazards setters to try and stall out their hazards, on things that aren't obvious nukes, and on certain choice locked moves you expect to happen. Skeledirge isn't a prime good as gold abuser, the set farther above was just made as an example and they thought it walled corviknight, and someone had to advise them to use lick of all moves. Its bulk is nothing to something that would come in and kill it, it's not a perfect pokemon those being. Riiiight, palosand why by your same logic doesn't exist.

Knock is there ... on primarily the hazard setters, the things you switch the birds in on. Corviknight isn't the only option, it's the most common option used, one that everyone expects.

Corv Defog bot??? Literally the most common special wall in the tier + slow pivot fym Corvknight is a defog bot. And that set isn't just an example, it is the set I've seen most commonly on ladder, for a GaG abuser. Also non-invested Talonflame even with the power of 120 BP isn't doing jack to anything defensive, case in point 252 Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 114-135 (22.1 - 26.2%) -- 9.2% chance to 4HKO and that's a non-defensive Ting-Lu with an invested Talonflame while Ting-Lu has no physical investment. Also like I said, it isn't a "notorious" user this generation because literally no one is using Talonflame (for good reason), although I'm not saying it wouldn't like MGuard, hell I used MG Talonflame on probably half my teams last generation. This isn't countering the fact the mons and sets you bring Defog on will end up having no use other than being a Defog Bot. Hawlucha isn't doing much offensively with its pathetic 92 attack and limited moveslots with Defog/Roost and its speed isn't great this generation either, same case with Talonflame although at the least that can get more usage with Wisp. Even setting up with those mons doesn't do much as you will still do little and get Whirlwinded out. Skeledrige has fine bulk to switch on Corv the most common Defogger and can take a Treads EQ and threaten with Torch Song, and if a mon comes in to revenge, well it can leave easily since its job as a GaG mon is already done, you've forced the Defogger out. Also yes bulk is important for a defogger, you even acknowledge that partially in your opening statement as Talonflame and Hawlucha has little bulk to survive throughout the game and ever come in anything remotely offensive.

 

[LordBox]

On another note, this move is fucked up bruh.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1728448377-8098rqlnqjbv9qamj4wkhtb9pvgn74jpw

Being able to revive mons is just... inherently very powerful and this battle is a prime showcase of how broken this move can be against more passive balance teams at least. In many battles you'll find yourself having to break through key walls or get rid of key threats, which can take great resources or sacrifices of mons, in fact some team styles capitalize on breaking through key walls with specific strategies or through overloading them with things it need to handle. Revival Blessing can absolutely destroy any and all progress you made trying to break these things, which can be reaalllyy annoying, case in point this battle. Firstly I do something pretty stupid by killing my Corviknight for the Valiant, and now the Pult whenever it comes in can threaten my whole team except for coming in on Flutter, but nope get off the Revival Blessing on a passive mon. Now they go through great effort to kill Corv, in fact they Tera-Electric just to secure the Corv kill which is fair. Well I just deny them by getting in Pawmot on a passive mon and boom Corvs back and up again to be a pain in ass, and if Corv stayed dead well I would've probably just lost then and there. Hell I end up killing off my Valiant and I end up getting that back again which isn't too important as I can always sack Corv by the very end but still, getting 3 mons back really highlighted how powerful this move can be. In another battle I also have trouble against a Quiver Dance Volc which starts getting set-up and have to sacrifice my Flutter and put my Corvknight low to kill it but boom they get a Revival Blessing off and now I'm back to square one but I'm missing a Flutter and Corv is low.

I haven't really put much thought into the team and just slapped Pawmot onto a random balance team I had lying around and it worked decently well, and Pawmot on either Stall or HO could prove to be very powerful but I haven't tested it out yet. It can prove a bit useless at times against teams which dont give you the opportunity to get the Revival Blessing off like HO teams, although an interesting idea would be putting scarf of Pawmot for HO teams. Really for a HO team, you're probably not gonna need too many Revival Blessings and reviving problematic offensive mons for the enemy sounds enticing, while the Scarf more reliably ensures you can get off a Revival Blessing. Ban-worthy? Probably? I haven't tested it much but it definitely can be very abusable, although Pawmot (or Rabsca) isn't too useful outside Revival Blessing so I guess that's a limiting factor along with less usage against HO teams.

 

[Hera]

Something being able to come in on the hazard setters and other pokemon and get off defogs, does indeed make them a reliable defogger. I didn't mention any sets for them, refresh my memory if I did. I prefer not to spoon feed, providing the slither wing option is already overstepping my generosity in that department as people tend to be too lazy to explore other options. What are you talking about, talonflame is indeed a notorious magic guard user as it uses it to fire off recoilless moves and come in on hazards. If you call removing hazards, halving attacks, or getting KO's and having longevity useless ... I do not really know what to tell you. Brave Bird and Flare Blitz are 120 Power moves, they are indeed doing damage when used by a pokemon with no EVs. You are attempting to downplay something you admittedly do not use. "it can technically run willow-wisp" ... the word technically does not need to be there. People are not using many old mons because once again this is a new gen and everyone is experimenting. You keep using the word useless but I do not think it means what you think it means. Magic Bounce does not get rid of already set hazards and one pokemon cannot check everything.

You do not seem to comprehend that pokemon can be used for various reasons and purposes and are not just limited to what you Google or see on YouTube videos. You say they lack bulk, yet I do not any world where a hazard setting tusk, treads, tien-lu, gastrodon kills Hawlucha. You say the term defog bot yet Corviknight in his essence is a defog bot, you switch it in on hazards setters to try and stall out their hazards, on things that aren't obvious nukes, and on certain choice locked moves you expect to happen. Skeledirge isn't a prime good as gold abuser, the set farther above was just made as an example and they thought it walled corviknight, and someone had to advise them to use lick of all moves. Its bulk is nothing to something that would come in and kill it, it's not a perfect pokemon those being. Riiiight, palosand why by your same logic doesn't exist.

Knock is there ... on primarily the hazard setters, the things you switch the birds in on. Corviknight isn't the only option, it's the most common option used, one that everyone expects.

On the subject of breaking special walls ... with a special attacker. 90% of the time you won't break that special wall with a stab psyshock because ... that is the purpose of a special wall. Even if you were to trick one that doesn't mean it cannot still wall you, until it is dead you have only really slowed it down. Last gen it seems that no one realized that bullet proof stunfish was nigh unbreakable and one of the best special walls possible.

Since you've made like 4 posts defending these mons, do you have any replays that prove that these mons are decent defoggers? It would definitely help your case more rather than going back-and-forth with people in this thread.

 

[Eiden]

Corv Defog bot??? Literally the most common special wall in the tier + slow pivot fym Corvknight is a defog bot. And that set isn't just an example, it is the set I've seen most commonly on ladder, for a GaG abuser. Also non-invested Talonflame even with the power of 120 BP isn't doing jack to anything defensive, case in point 252 Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 114-135 (22.1 - 26.2%) -- 9.2% chance to 4HKO and that's a non-defensive Ting-Lu with an invested Talonflame while Ting-Lu has no physical investment. Also like I said, it isn't a "notorious" user this generation because literally no one is using Talonflame (for good reason), although I'm not saying it wouldn't like MGuard, hell I used MG Talonflame on probably half my teams last generation. This isn't countering the fact the mons and sets you bring Defog on will end up having no use other than being a Defog Bot. Hawlucha isn't doing much offensively with its pathetic 92 attack and limited moveslots with Defog/Roost and its speed isn't great this generation either, same case with Talonflame although at the least that can get more usage with Wisp. Even setting up with those mons doesn't do much as you will still do little and get Whirlwinded out. Skeledrige has fine bulk to switch on Corv the most common Defogger and can take a Treads EQ and threaten with Torch Song, and if a mon comes in to revenge, well it can leave easily since its job as a GaG mon is already done, you've forced the Defogger out. Also yes bulk is important for a defogger, you even acknowledge that partially in your opening statement as Talonflame and Hawlucha has little bulk to survive throughout the game and ever come in anything remotely offensive.

See this is what I mean.

You didn't even go an attack boosting nature. You purposely went the lowest offensive. The real calc on that would be:

252+ Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 126-148 (24.5 - 28.7%) -- 99.6% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 132-156 (25.6 - 30.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

This means its brave birds literally to just as much damage as max offensive corviknight's. And therefore a none investment brave bird does as well. Does corviknight have weak useless brave birds? No, it actually picks up quite a lot of kills with the move when used against the mons it supposed to be used against.

Second. You quite literally chose the dark type equivalent of Avalugg. Tien-lu one of the best walls possible. Also giving it HP is a defensive investment.

Lol, you keep ignoring the reason no one is using it. You say those mons would get whirlwinded out ... but doesn't that mean corviknight would get whirlwinded out too? And if they need to be whirlwinded, then does that not mean they're actually useful?

252+ Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 132-156 (29.2 - 34.5%) -- 5.3% chance to 3HKO (a 4hko)

Sp. Def Corv
4 Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 98-116 (21.7 - 25.7%) -- 0.8% chance to 4HKO (a 5hko)

0+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ting-Lu: 174-206 (33.8 - 40%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Doing what the other two need max attack for and has access to flying press (a move that counts as flying type as well and has more pp than body press ... another move it has access to). At max atk it 2HKO ting-lu. Almost like Hawlucha's pathetic 92 attack stat deals more than corviknight's 140 defense stat, who would have guessed.

252+ Atk Iron Hands Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 362-428 (80.2 - 94.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO this is just to point out that not even the strongest fighting type in the game game can OHKO a non-invested ting-lu.

Not to mention that because of Hawlucha's fighting type, it is actually the best suited to take on tusk and treads hazard setters because it resists dark type moves.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 153-180 (38.2 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Sp.Def Corvknight is easily 2 shotted.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 138-162 (38.3 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Mind you, unlike corviknight this Hawlucha has no EVs in defense or any nature. Defensive EVs are virtually twice as effective as hp EVs.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hawlucha: 93-111 (25.8 - 30.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO If anyone is curious. Tusk would need everything in its arsenal.

Unlike the other 3, Hawlucha can actually afford to have an offensive ability, heck Hawlucha can even just run its regular ability to garantee defogs. Unlike Corviknight and maybe Hawlucha, Talon and Noivern can afford to have offensive items. They all serve various defogger roles and are not limited to being all out offense. Both talon and Hawlucha can opt to use bulk up as well. 2 of them get taunt. 1 gets willow. All 3 are naturally faster than corviknight who itself is not known for its great speed, however that does not matter because we aren't looking at them as offensive threats, we are looking at them as defoggers.

By your standards, corviknight is a defog bot. Unless it ditches defog and goes for the power trip load out, it is a defog bot. They all serve various defogger roles, are not limited to being all out offense, and switch in on different things. Corviknight steel typing lets it come in on psychic and fairy. "Cannot switch in on anything remotely offensive" except they can. Corviknight can only wall what its ability allows it to. It's highly risky for it to switch in on any paradox Mon other than fluttermane. Just like every other healer, Corviknight's healing pool got nerfed too and something like iron bundle could force even ice scales corviknight to use up all it roosts very quickly. Corviknight would have to pray for a miss. Valorant, moth, tinkaton, most things with taunt, etc. If someone wants to kill a corviknight, it will die. The issue is Corviknight is supported by 5 other teammates that the opponent has to worry about.All switch in on certain things. All force out certain things. All use defog to enable their teammates.


and now we have 2 necromancers

 

[Uninteleon]

These need to go!

Iron Hands
Hariyama 2.0 has lots of tools in available to it, however, one that stands out the most is its Belly Drum Unburden set, which turns it from a slow sweeper to a fast sweeper that can end a game in an instant. Iron Hands also has access to Fur Coat and Poison Heal, making it bulkier than it already happened to be.

Dragonite
Extreme Speed + Aerialite + Dragon Dance + Flying STAB, need I say more?

Revival Blessing
Now, I haven't seen any Rabscas lately but I have seen a bunch of Pawmots being ran, and let me say, this move is completely unfair & uncompetitive, not to mention how annoying it makes certain playstyles. I hope to god this move gets quickbanned from OU soon because being able to revive your pokemon in the midst of a battle without revives or max revives is stupid.

 

[blastablasta]

See this is what I mean.

You didn't even go an attack boosting nature. You purposely went the lowest offensive. The real calc on that would be:

252+ Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 126-148 (24.5 - 28.7%) -- 99.6% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 132-156 (25.6 - 30.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

This means its brave birds literally to just as much damage as max offensive corviknight's. And therefore a none investment brave bird does as well. Does corviknight have weak useless brave birds? No, it actually picks up quite a lot of kills with the move when used against the mons it supposed to be used against.

Second. You quite literally chose the dark type equivalent of Avalugg. Tien-lu one of the best walls possible. Also giving it HP is a defensive investment.

Lol, you keep ignoring the reason no one is using it. You say those mons would get whirlwinded out ... but doesn't that mean corviknight would get whirlwinded out too? And if they need to be whirlwinded, then does that not mean they're actually useful?

252+ Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 132-156 (29.2 - 34.5%) -- 5.3% chance to 3HKO (a 4hko)

Sp. Def Corv
4 Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 98-116 (21.7 - 25.7%) -- 0.8% chance to 4HKO (a 5hko)

0+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ting-Lu: 174-206 (33.8 - 40%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Doing what the other two need max attack for and has access to flying press (a move that counts as flying type as well and has more pp than body press ... another move it has access to). At max atk it 2HKO ting-lu. Almost like Hawlucha's pathetic 92 attack stat deals more than corviknight's 140 defense stat, who would have guessed.

252+ Atk Iron Hands Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 362-428 (80.2 - 94.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO this is just to point out that not even the strongest fighting type in the game game can OHKO a non-invested ting-lu.

Not to mention that because of Hawlucha's fighting type, it is actually the best suited to take on tusk and treads hazard setters because it resists dark type moves.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 153-180 (38.2 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Sp.Def Corvknight is easily 2 shotted.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 138-162 (38.3 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Mind you, unlike corviknight this Hawlucha has no EVs in defense or any nature. Defensive EVs are virtually twice as effective as hp EVs.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hawlucha: 93-111 (25.8 - 30.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO If anyone is curious. Tusk would need everything in its arsenal.

Unlike the other 3, Hawlucha can actually afford to have an offensive ability, heck Hawlucha can even just run its regular ability to garantee defogs. Unlike Corviknight and maybe Hawlucha, Talon and Noivern can afford to have offensive items. They all serve various defogger roles and are not limited to being all out offense. Both talon and Hawlucha can opt to use bulk up as well. 2 of them get taunt. 1 gets willow. All 3 are naturally faster than corviknight who itself is not known for its great speed, however that does not matter because we aren't looking at them as offensive threats, we are looking at them as defoggers.

By your standards, corviknight is a defog bot. Unless it ditches defog and goes for the power trip load out, it is a defog bot. They all serve various defogger roles, are not limited to being all out offense, and switch in on different things. Corviknight steel typing lets it come in on psychic and fairy. "Cannot switch in on anything remotely offensive" except they can. Corviknight can only wall what its ability allows it to. It's highly risky for it to switch in on any paradox Mon other than fluttermane. Just like every other healer, Corviknight's healing pool got nerfed too and something like iron bundle could force even ice scales corviknight to use up all it roosts very quickly. Corviknight would have to pray for a miss. Valorant, moth, tinkaton, most things with taunt, etc. If someone wants to kill a corviknight, it will die. The issue is Corviknight is supported by 5 other teammates that the opponent has to worry about.All switch in on certain things. All force out certain things. All use defog to enable their teammates.


and now we have 2 necromancers

I agree for the most part about talon and hawlucha being good alternatives, at least talon can potentially force out skeledirge, there is usually a way around something most people won't think about

me personally I made a stall team but I needed to keep hazards up and the donphan bros particularly great tusk can nuke basically everything with band, so I did the unthinkable, took a shitmon brambleghast, gave it fur coat, and it turns out it's more than viable got me to the top of the ladder and blocks the spin from any great tusk or iron treads set that isn't bulk up poison heal, and will pretty much never be able to be koed, most people would say hey brambleghast is shit, and yes it was until I gave it fur coat, and it's been walling iron hands, great tusk, and anyone who thinks they can body press to victory, it also gets spikes rapidspin strength sap giga drain

it will come to a point where people are tired of being smacked by skeledirge with roar or whatever combo of moves it has and they will be forced to adapt, one of those adaptations will have to probably be talonflame or noivern unless good as gold is banned

roar skeledirge is such a problem it might just have to an opposing good as gold goldfish to counter fire ghost coverage

 

[Isaiah]

Haven't seen a team post in a while so figured I'd post this before Tera (hopefully) gets banned:


https://pokepast.es/f38b1922db734d87

Literally 0 thought process except that I thought it would be fun to put together a team where you just spam espeed and hope the opposing team folds. Probably flops into stall, but that's not really a common playstyle rn anyway, and in testing this ate up a lot of offense for breakfast (which is actually a common playstyle). MAKE SURE YOU TERA FOR FAIRY ARCANINE, otherwise in theory you can tera Dragonite to do ten billion damage. I usually hate putting effort into EVs, but 20 SpA on Cyclizar lets you OHKO 0 HP Dragapult, which is cool.

Note: You can probably slot Howl onto Arcanine somehow if you feel like it; wisp is primarily to try and permanently cripple Fur Coat Hippowdon/Avalugg/Salt Curer.

 

[Grim_Blazer]

See this is what I mean.

You didn't even go an attack boosting nature. You purposely went the lowest offensive. The real calc on that would be:

252+ Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 126-148 (24.5 - 28.7%) -- 99.6% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 132-156 (25.6 - 30.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

This means its brave birds literally to just as much damage as max offensive corviknight's. And therefore a none investment brave bird does as well. Does corviknight have weak useless brave birds? No, it actually picks up quite a lot of kills with the move when used against the mons it supposed to be used against.

Second. You quite literally chose the dark type equivalent of Avalugg. Tien-lu one of the best walls possible. Also giving it HP is a defensive investment.

Lol, you keep ignoring the reason no one is using it. You say those mons would get whirlwinded out ... but doesn't that mean corviknight would get whirlwinded out too? And if they need to be whirlwinded, then does that not mean they're actually useful?

252+ Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 132-156 (29.2 - 34.5%) -- 5.3% chance to 3HKO (a 4hko)

Sp. Def Corv
4 Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 98-116 (21.7 - 25.7%) -- 0.8% chance to 4HKO (a 5hko)

0+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ting-Lu: 174-206 (33.8 - 40%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Doing what the other two need max attack for and has access to flying press (a move that counts as flying type as well and has more pp than body press ... another move it has access to). At max atk it 2HKO ting-lu. Almost like Hawlucha's pathetic 92 attack stat deals more than corviknight's 140 defense stat, who would have guessed.

252+ Atk Iron Hands Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 362-428 (80.2 - 94.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO this is just to point out that not even the strongest fighting type in the game game can OHKO a non-invested ting-lu.

Not to mention that because of Hawlucha's fighting type, it is actually the best suited to take on tusk and treads hazard setters because it resists dark type moves.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 153-180 (38.2 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Sp.Def Corvknight is easily 2 shotted.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 138-162 (38.3 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO Mind you, unlike corviknight this Hawlucha has no EVs in defense or any nature. Defensive EVs are virtually twice as effective as hp EVs.

252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hawlucha: 93-111 (25.8 - 30.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO If anyone is curious. Tusk would need everything in its arsenal.

Unlike the other 3, Hawlucha can actually afford to have an offensive ability, heck Hawlucha can even just run its regular ability to garantee defogs. Unlike Corviknight and maybe Hawlucha, Talon and Noivern can afford to have offensive items. They all serve various defogger roles and are not limited to being all out offense. Both talon and Hawlucha can opt to use bulk up as well. 2 of them get taunt. 1 gets willow. All 3 are naturally faster than corviknight who itself is not known for its great speed, however that does not matter because we aren't looking at them as offensive threats, we are looking at them as defoggers.

By your standards, corviknight is a defog bot. Unless it ditches defog and goes for the power trip load out, it is a defog bot. They all serve various defogger roles, are not limited to being all out offense, and switch in on different things. Corviknight steel typing lets it come in on psychic and fairy. "Cannot switch in on anything remotely offensive" except they can. Corviknight can only wall what its ability allows it to. It's highly risky for it to switch in on any paradox Mon other than fluttermane. Just like every other healer, Corviknight's healing pool got nerfed too and something like iron bundle could force even ice scales corviknight to use up all it roosts very quickly. Corviknight would have to pray for a miss. Valorant, moth, tinkaton, most things with taunt, etc. If someone wants to kill a corviknight, it will die. The issue is Corviknight is supported by 5 other teammates that the opponent has to worry about.All switch in on certain things. All force out certain things. All use defog to enable their teammates.


and now we have 2 necromancers

I don't really know/care if either of these mons are good defoggers but if you really think they are then I would love it if you could provide some replays of them being good defoggers so I can actually see them in action instead of seeing calcs of talonflame getting a 4hko on ting-lu (one of the most prevalent defensive spikers in the meta) which isn't even good for what's supposed to be an offensive defogger. And if you're not using it as an offensive defogger then please explain why you'd use it over corv as a defensive one, wisp is alright but the only thing it has going for it other than wisp is that it can 3hko GAG skeledirge with attack investment. Also if you go + attack instead of + speed on talonflame it's outsped by so much, which you really don't want with an offensive mon like talon so it's actually much more realistic that you don't run max attack imo. I also find the whole bit you did where you tried to compare talonflame to max attack corv either intentionally ignorant or you're just misinformed as to what corv wants to do so I guess I'll just put this out there, corv is never seriously running max attack outside of low ladder. Tbh I feel like you're kinda guilty of doing the same thing you accused the other guy of doing, that is to say you're molding the calcs to look more favorable for you. One example is the corv max attack thing I just mentioned but another example is this "252+ Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ting-Lu: 132-156 (29.2 - 34.5%) -- 5.3% chance to 3HKO (a 4hko)" #1 this is still a pretty bad calc and #2 who may I ask is running 0 hp and 0 defense on a ting-lu outside of low ladder? Moving on though to hawlucha, which seems like a fun mon to play around with, what does it do to GAG skeledirge? Unless you run stone edge you can't really hit it hard enough for it to matter much, and even if you hit it with a max attack adamant stone edge you still only have a 5% chance to 2hko it. That's assuming it didn't already burn you with wisp too cause if you do get burned ever it becomes essentially a 5hko, all the while skeledirge 2hko's hawlucha with a torch song with 0 investment and at +0 so that's not too fun for you. It also feels like I'm doing you a favor too by not even mentioning the calcs on palosand so do with that what you will.

Feel free to try and rebut some of what I said since I didn't test either of these mons out, but also please if you have any replays of defog talon/hawlucha doing well vs a GAG hazard stack team please post them cause me and a lot of other people on here will be more inclined to agree with you if you actually can provide replays of them being good.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

The other day, I fought a team that led with a Toxic Debris Alomomola that used Skill Swap. At first, I was confused about why they'd set themselves up to be poisoned, but it turns out a couple of their other Pokémon had Poison Heal. Kudos to them for the creativity.

 

[ljsdnlsdln]

Please ban revival blessing. Or atleast leppa berry, since harvest allows its users to keep spamming the move. In the replay i have attached, i outplayed the opponent early game but they could afford to keep throwing their mons at me since they had unlimited revives. If this isnt uncompetetive idk what is.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1730671824

Also id like to bring attention to an extremely underused mon:
Quaquaval @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wave Crash
- Close Combat
- Rapid Spin
- U-turn

amazing mg user that also threatens the most common spin locker ive seen, the croc. Also deals with hippowdon and non furcoat corv pretty well.

 

[LordBox]

Please ban revival blessing. Or atleast leppa berry, since harvest allows its users to keep spamming the move. In the replay i have attached, i outplayed the opponent early game but they could afford to keep throwing their mons at me since they had unlimited revives. If this isnt uncompetetive idk what is.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1730671824.

To be fair, the earlygame could've gone a lot differently with another mon that actually fit well onto the team, but yeah Revival Blessing is probably worth banning. It can kinda feel useless at times but the amount of times I've managed to abuse it and get like 3 or more Revival Blessings on passive mons or teams is enough to make me feel this shit is stupid (the replay shown and my old replay from my last post about Revival Blessing show it well enough). Also apparentally Pawmot according to some has some offensive usage as well, so you could run something like the set below on balance teams to get some usage outside spamming Revival Blessing, just an interesting idea.

Pawmot @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Harvest / ???
Tera Type: Electric / ???
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Double Shock
- Revival Blessing
- Nuzzle / Volt Switch

 

[100%NoobJuice]

So this is my skeledirge set for gen 9 aaa. I think it's good. Gave it specs for you to spam torch song. Isnt fast but it really doesnt need to be especially when you tera water.
Hmmmm (Skeledirge) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Punk Rock
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Torch Song
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Voice
- Tera Blast

 

[Bandit Babe]

Ok new heat.

Anyone see Emvee's Last Resort Dragapult from gen 8?
LETS SLAP AERILATE/PIXILATE/ ON THAT

Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Aerilate/Pixilate
Tera Type: Flying/Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Disable
- Dragon Dance
- Last Resort

This mon is crazy! I know I'm just a low ladder scrub but this thing can just power through so many resists!!

Heres the OG Tech

Flying:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1731373566
Here's one where this pult gets 5 kills, through resists all the while- EVEN WITHOUT TERRA!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1731507455
Fairy:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1728720331-73qtadtgho2fn99xqqvf6t1sg7tqc7qpw

Edit: Ignore my prankster pysdops I haven't changed it to mold breaker yet


Edit 2: I bet this isn't even pults best set, don't see how this mf will stay in the tier

 

[Giagantic]

Okay folks, time to enlighten you all to a Pokemon even I was skeptical about, Sandy Shocks. Isaiah rated it very poorly initially on their cursory VR list but in all honesty it is far, far, far better then that.

85/81/97/121/85/101 Ground / Electric

First off, let's talk about it's use in a metagame that basically makes anything below 135 speed seem slow. Sandy Shocks is slow in this regard and while it's bulk isn't bad per-say it certainly isn't anything to write home about either, however, when equipped with Choice Scarf, it outspeeds the entire metagame by far. On top of this, it's typing is only resisted by grass, meaning with proper predictions few things can handle the following set:

Sandy Shocks @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Hadron Engine
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon

This set packs a ton of firepower, Hadron Engine boosts it's Spa to nearly choice specs levels, and the electric terrain boosts its stab electric moves, if you tera electric on top of this you will tear through even resists as Iron Hands can be 2hko'd by tera electric Sandy Shocks. Ground types are unable to take Earth Power on the switch-in meaning a game of prediction plays out and Ice Scale Corviknight is unable to take much from Sandy Shocks electric moves. The set is fairly simple, the final move is entirely filler, and will basically never be clicked, heck you could throw SR onto it to fool people into thinking it isnt scarf. Overall, this Pokemon is highly slept on and a potent threat in the metagame due to its typing.

 

[100%NoobJuice]

These need to go!

Iron Hands
Hariyama 2.0 has lots of tools in available to it, however, one that stands out the most is its Belly Drum Unburden set, which turns it from a slow sweeper to a fast sweeper that can end a game in an instant. Iron Hands also has access to Fur Coat and Poison Heal, making it bulkier than it already happened to be.

Dragonite
Extreme Speed + Aerialite + Dragon Dance + Flying STAB, need I say more?

Revival Blessing
Now, I haven't seen any Rabscas lately but I have seen a bunch of Pawmots being ran, and let me say, this move is completely unfair & uncompetitive, not to mention how annoying it makes certain playstyles. I hope to god this move gets quickbanned from OU soon because being able to revive your pokemon in the midst of a battle without revives or max revives is stupid.

I absolutely agree. Espcially when Iron Hands runs a Belly Drum set, it can end the game very quickly if you dont have a counter for it.
Ive used Pawmot to great effect with Sturdy. It is overpowered because you essentially fight a 7v6 pokemon battle. You know how painful Volo was right? I dont think the mons themselves are the problem. It's the move. Please ban Revival Blessing.
I havent experienced this Dragonite set. The dragonite has a 100 bp flying type move with +2 priority and STAB. Only answer is Sucker Punch or Fake Out. Is banworthy

yay, double posting, but why the heck is adaptablity in this meta? This set could potentially delete anything that doesnt resist grass or has sap sipper
Meowscarada @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flower Trick
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Sucker Punch
I enjoy the increased power level but essentially forcing people to have certain mons to counter the meta seems quite ridiculous. I know this stuff takes time to decide if it's healthy for everyone, but this is just silly having Iron Hands BDrum Gluttony running around cleaning up games. It's like Linoone 2.0, but it's actually bulky enough to take a hit. AND I saw a ice scales eviolite primeape that rivals Blissey in special walling. It also had screens up. Plus it can hit back with a Rage Fist. Fun for evreyone.

 

[Bandit Babe]

Haven't seen a team post in a while so figured I'd post this before Tera (hopefully) gets banned:


https://pokepast.es/f38b1922db734d87

Literally 0 thought process except that I thought it would be fun to put together a team where you just spam espeed and hope the opposing team folds. Probably flops into stall, but that's not really a common playstyle rn anyway, and in testing this ate up a lot of offense for breakfast (which is actually a common playstyle). MAKE SURE YOU TERA FOR FAIRY ARCANINE, otherwise in theory you can tera Dragonite to do ten billion damage. I usually hate putting effort into EVs, but 20 SpA on Cyclizar lets you OHKO 0 HP Dragapult, which is cool.

Note: You can probably slot Howl onto Arcanine somehow if you feel like it; wisp is primarily to try and permanently cripple Fur Coat Hippowdon/Avalugg/Salt Curer.

I'm loving this team... Once i slapped that aerliate pult on it. It's even better with cylizar support!!!
Another crazy 6-0 for the dumbest set of all time.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1732283610-x73qd5ga632d46uoqybf74e79utgietpw

ban pult before I get a tattoo of this set or something

Edit: Here's another! I'm actually getting high ladder with this thing! (Now that I have a competent core i swiped from Isaiah lmfao)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1732396739

Edit: Last replay I'll post from this team and set, guy was so impressed he desalinized. Goodbye terra
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1734729140-cpox9g1odkadon6496b2fe0ulnvhu5jpw

 

[aguyyouknow]

Some (rather gimmicky) move sets I've been working on:

Primeape @ Eviolite
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rage Fist
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Taunt

Ice scales plus eviolite makes primeape insanely tanky on the special end - I've tanked non-terra'd moonblasts from specially oriented IV taking only about 20% damage. Switching in on a special attacker and getting off a bulk up or two makes this thing almost impossible to handle without a lucky crit. Even if they switch out into a ghost type, your rage fist will make quick work of it, even with only 1 or 2 boosts.
The significantly lower spread of knock off in this gen makes this kind of incredible, since it's really telegraphed if your opponent is going to go for it to remove your eviolite. Annihilape may be gone, but he's still here in spirit.


Roaring Moon @ Leftovers/(???)
Ability: Wind Rider
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Tailwind
- Crunch
- Iron Head
- Earthquake

I haven't decided on the item yet, but I've been playing around with this concept. Wind Rider essentially makes tailwind into a shift gear that also leaves the 2x speed behind for your next mon if Roaring Moon dies, which is really REALLY tempting to make use of. Obviously, the downside is that you're gated by only having a few turns to work with, but considering that you should be able to rip through the opposing team pretty easily during that time, I don't expect this to be a problem.
You could also theoretically run this build on Dragonite as well, or any other physically oriented tailwind user, but I haven't tested it out there yet. I like Moon for the build because it's the fastest physical tailwind user and has a sky high attack stat to start with.


EDIT: And then the gimmick masterpiece of the century:

Pawmot @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Comatose
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Talk
- Revival Blessing

This is almost certainly an awful build, but it's a hilarious one. Sleep Talk with Comatose ensures that you will always hit Revival Blessing, guaranteeing a total of 16 uses of the move. If Pawmot learned a few moves that couldn't be called by sleep talk (like Focus Punch), I think this build would be significantly better, but as it is, I think it's too squishy to actually use a gimmick build like this. Still a hilarious idea, though.

 

[100%NoobJuice]

ive fought you on the ladder! It was a Fairy Aura Iron Valiant that was EV into SpA.

EDIT: You mentioned that, i am silly

 

[UT]

why the heck is adaptablity in this meta

Adaptability, while certainly a good ability, has been a healthy part of the meta for generations. It's slightly stronger than most of our other damage amp moves, but has the tradeoff of offering no amp on coverage moves. This makes it still very good of course, and it's a top ability! But generally not viewed as broken. Additionally, when you compare the 33% amp to the 100% amp offered by FurScales, or even just 50% from Intimidate or Assault Vest, defense gets some tools to handle it as well.

This set could potentially delete anything that doesnt resist grass or has sap sipper

While it is true that Adapt Flower Trick has good power, Grass resists aren't exactly uncommon. Corviknight is once again one of the best defenisve mons in the meta, the top of the threatlist includes guys like Dragonite and Dragapult, and Meowscarada isn't all that fast by AAA standards. Can still hit hard in the right situations though!

Primeape @ Eviolite
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rage Fist
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Taunt

Make it Tera Ghost to get STAB on Rage Fist and I'm interested.

Pawmot @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Comatose

Comatose is banned, fortunately, or else this would be an absolute nightmare lol

 

[aguyyouknow]

Adaptability, while certainly a good ability, has been a healthy part of the meta for generations. It's slightly stronger than most of our other damage amp moves, but has the tradeoff of offering no amp on coverage moves. This makes it still very good of course, and it's a top ability! But generally not viewed as broken. Additionally, when you compare the 33% amp to the 100% amp offered by FurScales, or even just 50% from Intimidate or Assault Vest, defense gets some tools to handle it as well.

While it is true that Adapt Flower Trick has good power, Grass resists aren't exactly uncommon. Corviknight is once again one of the best defenisve mons in the meta, the top of the threatlist includes guys like Dragonite and Dragapult, and Meowscarada isn't all that fast by AAA standards. Can still hit hard in the right situations though!

Make it Tera Ghost to get STAB on Rage Fist and I'm interested.

Comatose is banned, fortunately, or else this would be an absolute nightmare lol

Aaaah, should've checked the banned list a little more closely. Darn, too bad. Back to gimmick sets I go.

And the main reason I did tera water is to go for the resistances that you get, since the damage is pretty high after a few hits even without STAB, but considering that you're not trying to lose the ghost weakness like annihilape does, it definitely would be worth considering. On the other hand, there are a lot of fast ghosts out there right now, so changing your type into something that is hit SE by them is a bit rough. I think it all comes down to the calcs more than anything else, which I haven't done yet. I've also been considering fire for the burn immunity too.

 

[cat]

These need to go!

Iron Hands
Hariyama 2.0 has lots of tools in available to it, however, one that stands out the most is its Belly Drum Unburden set, which turns it from a slow sweeper to a fast sweeper that can end a game in an instant. Iron Hands also has access to Fur Coat and Poison Heal, making it bulkier than it already happened to be.

Dragonite
Extreme Speed + Aerialite + Dragon Dance + Flying STAB, need I say more?

Revival Blessing
Now, I haven't seen any Rabscas lately but I have seen a bunch of Pawmots being ran, and let me say, this move is completely unfair & uncompetitive, not to mention how annoying it makes certain playstyles. I hope to god this move gets quickbanned from OU soon because being able to revive your pokemon in the midst of a battle without revives or max revives is stupid.

yeah, bellyburden ihands needs to go (https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/almost-any-ability.3710568/page-3#post-9413409) i can only see it getting better if tera gets banned by removing tera fairy avalugg (a set i find quite common) id prefer if unburden was banned tho, cos ihands has a good defensive role too

aerilate dnite is also walled by avalugg ( +1 252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Avalugg: 82-97 (20.8 - 24.6%) -- guaranteed 5HKO ) ( +1 252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Avalugg: 61-73 (15.4 - 18.5%) -- possible 6HKO ), but it does have the power to break thru a corviknight after a while (+1 252+ Atk Dragonite Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 192-228 (48 - 57%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery ). mons that use queenly (polteageist my beloved) can outplay the dnite with good predicts (or hope your opponent doesnt know that your priorimmune mon has priorimmunity)

revblessing: hizo why did you do this

 

[SonOfDusk]

ok last night I was 1 point away from the top spot and I encountered something so sinister it could perhaps ruin the whole meta, so now I'm going to share it, roar skeledirge, that is all

Bahaha! I didn't realize that caused you so much damage! Sometimes you gotta fight fire (stall) with fire, and stall causes ME psychic damage. So I gotta bring the pain somewhere.

The Traumatic but Hilarious 6-0

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1726990439

I'd like to share said team though, which I used to peak at 7 with my alt and 10 with my main, though now they're 12 and 15 respectively as I haven't played in a few days. I tried to use Pokemon that offered a lot of role compression to tackle as many threats as possible, and I'll go more in depth below. Yes everything has boots because hazard stack is annoying (hence why I'm using it lol).

Ladder Proof

AAA Hazard Stack Balance/Semi-Stall

Flutter Mane @ Leftovers
Ability: Dazzling
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hex
- Moonblast
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave

This is a slot I'm sort of torn on. I was using AV Regen Treads (I miss Rapid Spin ngl) here at one point, but I settled on this because I got tired of getting pressured by opposing Dragonite and Mold Breaker Tusk, the former which Garganacle can deal with but can still overwhelm by doubling out to a check, and the latter which utterly destroyed me whenever I saw it. I also like having another spinblocker. Damage is way lower than SFLO but TWave crippling Corv and stall, and Dazzling preventing Dragonite and Sucker Punch from working is just too good utility for my team. Does what you'd expect. Sub on switch, attack or TW, spam sub until full para hax if you'd like. Shadow Ball and CM over TW Hex is also great, but loses harder to Scales Corv.

Iron Valiant @ Life Orb
Ability: Download
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 40 SpA / 216 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Moonblast
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance

I've been using this exact set since day 1 and I haven't ever felt compelled to take it off. Puts in work damn near every game and demolishes defensive cores. Clod and Skeledirge give it issues but other than that it's an extremely solid sweeper and revenge killer. Always OHKOs Flutter with Sneak with tera or at +1 no tera, always OHKOs Avalugg with +1 Moonblast, can OHKO SpDef Corv at +1 and always does at +2, etc. Ofc Dnite is a huge problem for this mon but I love this thing both in design and in battle so every team I make will use it lol.

Meowscarada @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magic Guard
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flower Trick
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Trick

I was using Dnite here, but I needed something that could pressure not just fast/frail offense, but also stall, and here it is. Knock and Trick work wonders vs stall and defensive mons, and MG Scarf makes it an excellent fast offensive pivot and revenger. Really good to lead as it nearly always can bait Corv into getting Tricked and OHKO Flutter/Pult leads, just Turn on all else. Flower Trick is also great for taking down non Fur Coat variants of Tusk, Ting, and Garg, especially since it doesn't take passive damage from Salt Cure. It doesn't always hit as hard as I'd like, but it serves its purpose very nicely.

Garganacl @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Fur Coat
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Salt Cure
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Recover

This thing is a demon. I had it used against me once when I was in a Fur Coat crisis, and I immediately picked it up and haven't looked back since. No physical attacker breaks this. You HAVE to toxic it or send in a special or Mold Breaker attacker, and at that point it's the prediction game as you can do major chip to special attackers switching in if you predict the switch and Salt Cure. I know Ice Scales is the most common set, but it's just so unbelievably bulky, and with tera there's almost nothing on the physical side that can take it down and it is a potent wincon, especially since Cure will force switches and subsequently hazard damage.

Gastrodon (Gastrodon-East) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Earthquake/Liquidation
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Recover

I was also torn on an Ice Scales mon. I like Corv but I found Hadron Shocks and Desolate Moth were becoming increasingly common, so I wanted something that could handle EVERYTHING while actually providing some utility to my team and not just being a useless wall, as Corv does still have U-Turn and Defog. It sets up hazards, walls things, and can attack. Unfortunately, you only have room for 1 attack and both have drawbacks. You NEED a physical attack for CM Sub Flutter, Liquidation gets blocked by Moth and EQ gets blocked by Flying mons like Kilowattrel. Fairy tera let's it switch in on a Bundle Freeze Dry, tera, live a second one, and Recover.

Skeledirge @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Flying/Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Torch Song
- Roar
- Slack Off

Here it is, the SINISTER, META-RUINING MONSTER ITSELF... Standard GaG Skeledirge lol. The only difference being Roar over wisp. I felt this was good for phasing setup, but ALSO for getting extra hazard chip. EVs are to outspeed Corv (I did this after my battle vs blasta) and opposing Skeledirge. Does exactly what you expect. Flying tera for living EQ and opposing ghosts, but Ghost is also an option if you want to live EQ and still spinblock. As you saw, vs blasta this thing 6-0d their stall with minimal support. Vs jrdn... Idk what demonic force is controlling them but I cannot break their stall team and it truly does damage my psyche lol. #1 on ladder for a reason.

I'll share the Dragonite and Treads sets I dropped as well, because they are still very good and I have a REALLY cool and creative tech on Dnite that on the right team I believe is busted.

TERA BLAST DRAGONITE

Dragonite @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Aerilate
Tera Type: Fire/Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 44 SpA / 212 Spe
Naive/Hasty Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Tera Blast
- Dragon Dance

I may be overhyping this but it's such a cool set and when I was using it I had several people ask me how it was achieving certain calcs vs their physical walls. The star is Tera Blast. Dragonite is as we all know, busted. But it has a couple of answers, namely Corviknight and Fur Coat (especially Avalugg). How do you deal with this? Running a Fire move to hit both is sound, but if you run physical then you get walled by Fur Coat, while Special gets walled by Corv. Tera Blast is the answer. Prior to terastalizing, it's a *Special* Normal attack affected by Aerilate! AFTER terastalizing, it's a *Physical* Fire attack! This allows you to get the jump on Avalugg by 2HKOing it on switch pre-Tera, and OHKOing Corv post-Tera. It's like having a secret 5th move. Though it does lack the longevity of roost sets and sacrifices some power from losing Flying tera, it does something other Dragonite sets just don't do without sacrificing what makes it so powerful in the first place. Electric is good tera too to take opposing Espeeds and hit Baked Corv, though it won't live Fairy or Ice moves as easily. EVs are to outspeed Flutter at +1 so you don't have to risk Dazzling blocking you.

AV Regen Treads

Iron Treads @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch

Pretty standard, but reliable. EVs are to always make Shadow Ball from SFLO Flutter a 3HKO after Rocks, the rest in Def. Knock obv fits my team very nicely. I might put this back on just because it works so damn well with the team as a whole from a role compression and utility standpoint, but Flutter is just so easy to use and strong lol. Tera Ground hits harder but a defensive tera into Flying helps vs MB Tusk.

Hope you all got something out of this! Maybe I'll try to make a busted HO team with Dnite and ladder with that assuming tera isn't banned, and the MGLO Ghold set I posted because the short time I used that it was insane (and hard counters Garg), but this is all I have for now.

 

[UT]

With reqs now closed and voting ongoing, AAA council held a small voting slate on concerns that we thought would be minimally impacted by the result either way.

Unburden and Revival Blessing are now banned from AAA!
​

Quick Ban...	UT	Isaiah	The Number Man	beauts	Total
Unburden	BAN	BAN	BAN	ABS	3-0-1 BAN
Revival Blessing	BAN	BAN	ABS	BAN	3-0-1 BAN

Unburden, so recently freed, has been quick banned for much the same reason it was last generation. Speed boosting abilities are very difficult to answer when combined with setup, as traditional revenge killing is invalidated and their tendency to have good bulk and/or draining moves makes priority unreliable. While the chief offender so far is clearly Iron Hands, as we saw last generation, banning the principle offender was not enough to balance Unburden; Houndstone and Gholdengo can also fully take advantage of it, and Charizard recently got released as well. Outside of Prankster Haze, which is on the decline this generation as well, reliably checking Unburden sweepers without resorting to hard stall is burdensome.

Revival Blessing was dropped on us very recently and has caused quite a large ruckus. Especially in combination with Leppa Berry + Harvest, it proved possible to fairly reliably get multiple revives per game, absolutely warping the definition of progress. Wallbreakers and sweepers could trade themselves with their checks and then come right back to terrorize the opposing team. Revival Blessing also heavily punishes defensive teams, as if they have even one teammate that allows Pawmot or Rabsca in, they cannot reliably keep opposing mons KOed. The council did consider other options, such as banning Leppa Berry, Harvest, or just Pawmot, but the nature of Revival Blessing having such a large payoff and the fact we might actually need Leppa Berry this generation (thanks Gamefreak) let the council to decide on banning the move outright.

We are fully aware that there are a number of mons and abilities that people want to see action on (Flutter Mane, Iron Bundle, Dragonite, Iron Hands, FurScales, Poison Heal, and Magic Bounce to name a few), and rest assured we will vote on those sooner rather than latter. However, they are all much more directly impacted by Tera vs no-Tera, so we want to see the results of the suspect test and the meta's reaction before considering action on those.

As always, thanks for contributing, thanks for reading, and looking forward to playing even more AAA with y'all soon!

Tagging Kris to implement.

 

[avyrie]

here's my personal watchlist for the meta assuming tera goes

roughly from the most problematic to less problematic


Poison Heal has always been broken, no explanations needed. This gen we got several even more broken abusers in Dondozo, Ting-Lu, Scream Tail, (and Iron Hands, more about that below) and its recovery is made even more valuable with the recovery PP cut. These 4 abusers are able to force an insane amount of progress every single game in almost any matchups — it is extremely difficult to stop Ting-Lu from setting up Spikes when all your attacks deal negative damage after two turns of pheal recovery, Magic Bounce is mid now + gets Ruination'd anyway, and Spinners don't beat it; Dondozo and Iron Hands make use of their insane bulk to force out and set up on the majority of threats in the meta way too efficiently, often bringing down 2-4 mons with it (or 6 if you may); Scream Tail might look more like a gimmick but it will auto win when you don't have something to 2HKO it when it is at +1.


Undeniably top revenge killer and top 3 wallbreaker, with numerous viable Ice Scales users (and regenvest ig, but there are like 1.5 viable regenvest users) Mane feels fine, and I have thought so until I did my suspect run yesterday. I think there are a whole lot of varieties between its sets and it can tech for basically anything in the meta, which is what makes it borderline unhealthy. Hadron Engine Specs 2HKOs Scales Corv, Dazzling beats revenge killers, Fur Coat CM + Pain Split 1v1s Corv lol which is incredibly dumb.


This isn't #1 on my list mainly because I brianlessly spam FC Garganacl and I don't think Dragonite can ever break that; however in another sense Dragonite is the only reason why I have FC Garga on every single team. There are some fringe checks on offense teams like FC Oricorio but that also gets 2HKO'd by boosted Double Edge and cannot 2HKO back, and I don't think there is a way for HO to maneuver past Dragonite without resorting to Screens. Any other normies in the meta are heavily pressured by Dragonite as most of them get 2HKO'd by boosted ESpeed and the ones that don't cannot KO back.


With FurScales this is honestly fine, but other things like AV Kingambit and Tinkaton are super good at checking pult too. Teams rn cannot afford not using Corviknight anyway, so they will naturally come with a great Pult check


Bundle has been really easy to handle for me, and without Tera it will only be easier because it cannot 2HKO Chansey or Scales Corv anymore. A well-played U-turn bot can cause some problems but its best attack is Hydro Pump which misses 7/8 times — again with FurScales this is fine. It also doesn't have access to Weather Ball so Desolate Land users like Ceruledge and Iron Moth are easy checks.

-----------------------

some very good things but probably not broken


Man I am in love with this mon. I put this icon to talk about Good As Gold but I actually find vanilla Gholdengo as one of the best abusers of its own signature ability. With a sky high special attack, decent speed, godly typing, Trick, Recover, NP etc. this thing is a super good role compressor and has put in work every single game. I've been using this scarf set which acts as an excellent revenge killer for the broken ghosts, spinblocker (for tusk too! surely I can hard on the spin and get the roll and ohko tusk with make it rain), stallbreaker, and just a really annoying attacker after Scarf is tricked away. Other sets like Earth Eater/Flash Fire NP are also very effective, overall a super splashable mon.

Back onto Good As Gold: I've seen a few other mons like Corv and Skeledirge use it and I must say that the ability puts in work on any mon with decent longevity. I think there are tons of innovation spaces with this ability and spinblocking, but will it get unhealthy? who knows


I don't know how uncompetitive Salt Cure is but it's so annoying lol and could potentially be discussed on
also note: magic guard and covert cloak exists


Without Unburden and probably pheal this ends up in a similar situation as Kommo-o last gen, while Triage Belly Drum was a bit controversial last gen, with FurScales this will be fine now


I think Orichalcum Pulse is insanely strong, you can slap it onto any attacker and get free Adaptability on top of Sun, and for Fire-types this means a free super-effective boost on their STAB attacks. The only abusers I've come across are Ceruledge and Fire Tauros, which is what I think holds the ability in place rn; if DLC arrives with all the good Fire-types like Cinderace then I can possibly see this getting out of hand. Ceruledge is insanely good tho don't get me wrong, being able to 2HKO FC Garga with non-STAB is crazy strong


I think this guy will be the king even after Tera ban, idk what the Fairy Tera Blast craze was all about cus classic SD Adapt does its job extremely well already. This guy is stronger than offensive Yveltal lol and its typing matches super well against the meta. I've also messed around with Tinted Lens which gets even more funny OHKOs

Meta feels fine with all these guys around, I just don't feel too well building because you have one FC and one Scales slot while prepping for everything here + 8 PP recovery makes me so uncomfortable. Defensive Tera actually helps with this but that will be gone and I will be stuck with my skill issue in the teambuilder forever

 

[LordBox]

TERA BLAST DRAGONITE

Dragonite @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Aerilate
Tera Type: Fire/Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 44 SpA / 212 Spe
Naive/Hasty Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Tera Blast
- Dragon Dance

I may be overhyping this but it's such a cool set and when I was using it I had several people ask me how it was achieving certain calcs vs their physical walls. The star is Tera Blast. Dragonite is as we all know, busted. But it has a couple of answers, namely Corviknight and Fur Coat (especially Avalugg). How do you deal with this? Running a Fire move to hit both is sound, but if you run physical then you get walled by Fur Coat, while Special gets walled by Corv. Tera Blast is the answer. Prior to terastalizing, it's a *Special* Normal attack affected by Aerilate! AFTER terastalizing, it's a *Physical* Fire attack! This allows you to get the jump on Avalugg by 2HKOing it on switch pre-Tera, and OHKOing Corv post-Tera. It's like having a secret 5th move. Though it does lack the longevity of roost sets and sacrifices some power from losing Flying tera, it does something other Dragonite sets just don't do without sacrificing what makes it so powerful in the first place. Electric is good tera too to take opposing Espeeds and hit Baked Corv, though it won't live Fairy or Ice moves as easily. EVs are to outspeed Flutter at +1 so you don't have to risk Dazzling blocking you.

Cool Dnite set, although you could always slap FBlast and be done with roasting Avalugg. That being said it can't afford to run 3 attacks anymore lest losing to Scales Corv and Tera Electric has interesting defensive utility, but Tera Flying is just insanely powerful on DNite so it's kind of a hard trade for me. On topic of Dnite sets I've found myself gravitating towards using Banded Dnite more and more, mainly on teams where it's my main speed control, with Band it can pull OHKO's on a lot more mons without Tera or with Tera can act as a one man sweeping machine against some team or weakened cores.

Band Calc Dump

252+ Atk Choice Band Aerilate Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 349-412 (99.4 - 117.3%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 378-446 (101.8 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Tera-Flying)

252+ Atk Choice Band Aerilate Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Bundle: 237-279 (93.6 - 110.2%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Aerilate Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 213-251 (84.8 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO (Tera-Electric)

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dragapult: 222-262 (70 - 82.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (Tera-Electric vs Tera-Flying)

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Valiant: 192-227 (66.4 - 78.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (Tera-Electric vs Tera-Flying)

Also, another funny DNite set that I've tested a bit is MBounce Dnite, full credit to DeepFriedMagikarp for the set.

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail / Thunder Wave
- Roost

MBounce is just a good ability and sits on a lot of passive mons like Ting-Lu. Dragonite specifically was picked as an MBounce mon for its immunity to Ground, which is the most common sole attack of a lot of mons which spam Hazards use (Ting-Lu, Hippowdown, Clodsire) and also for its decent bulk and Roost. SpD bulk allows DNite to handle Fire types like Iron Moth and Skeleridge and can synergise with IceScales Corv fairly nicely. IceBeam and EQ threaten previously mentioned hazard stackers as well and DTail can force chip from hazards while TWave can provide some nice utility. Main issue here is that you're not using Aerilate Dnite, but hey MBounce is cool and the main other alternative (IceScales Corv) is also extremely valuable on a lot of teams. I've also tried MBounce Slither Wing, which was on one of Isaiah's old stall teams and it was half decent as well and MBounce Salamence is also an idea? Although I haven't tested it.

RIP Unburden and Revival Blessing, fun to abuse while they were still around. I'm sure Grim_Blazer is loving the bans. On another note I've also seen some bulky Gholdnego NP sets either with Sub and Well-Baked Body or even IceScales/FurCoat which can abuse Corv being able to do nothing to it. In terms of the post above I'd honestly switch Flutter and Bundle in terms of how annoying they are to handle, but without Tera they will both probably be fine (but only because of FurScales).