AAA Almost Any Ability

[Enderevilherobrine]

I've been fooling around with a few sets and found some I would like to share:

Blastoise @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam

Basically bootleg Kyogre, you click water spout and it does a lot of damage. The other moves are coverage/when running low on health. I went with scarf Over specs for the fact that water spout loses power when your health is lower.

Xurkitree @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Zap Cannon
- Energy Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Volt Switch

Zap Cannon is a devastating move with terrible accuracy and no guard fixes that problem. The reason I choose Xurkitree was because it was the strongest electric stab there was. With guaranteed paralysis it can cripple any mon that isn't ground or has an electric absorbing ability. Energy Ball is Ground coverage and the other 2 moves are just kind of there.

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Iron Head

Garchomp has proven to be a versitile mon in this meta. With this specific set you click hone claws and fix the accuracy issue and boost your already high attack even higher. Earthquake and Outrage are stab while I choose Iron Head for flinch hacks and Fairy coverage.

Celesteela @ Power Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fly
- Heavy Slam
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake

The physical cousin of Meteor Beam Unburden Celesteela. You click Fly to get the Unburden Boost and hopefully sweep. The advantage this set has over it's special counterpart is the base power of the moves are higher meaning is is somewhat powerful even if it has to switch out.

 

[CadmusRhodium]

I've been fooling around with a few sets and found some I would like to share:

Blastoise @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam

Basically bootleg Kyogre, you click water spout and it does a lot of damage. The other moves are coverage/when running low on health. I went with scarf Over specs for the fact that water spout loses power when your health is lower.

Xurkitree @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Zap Cannon
- Energy Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Volt Switch

Zap Cannon is a devastating move with terrible accuracy and no guard fixes that problem. The reason I choose Xurkitree was because it was the strongest electric stab there was. With guaranteed paralysis it can cripple any mon that isn't ground or has an electric absorbing ability. Energy Ball is Ground coverage and the other 2 moves are just kind of there.

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Iron Head

Garchomp has proven to be a versitile mon in this meta. With this specific set you click hone claws and fix the accuracy issue and boost your already high attack even higher. Earthquake and Outrage are stab while I choose Iron Head for flinch hacks and Fairy coverage.

Celesteela @ Power Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fly
- Heavy Slam
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake

The physical cousin of Meteor Beam Unburden Celesteela. You click Fly to get the Unburden Boost and hopefully sweep. The advantage this set has over it's special counterpart is the base power of the moves are higher meaning is is somewhat powerful even if it has to switch out.

...was the Blastoise set a mistake? That’s not how AAA works. Can change the ability, but no giving Water Spout to everything to just tear up teams.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

...was the Blastoise set a mistake? That’s not how AAA works. Can change the ability, but no giving Water Spout to everything to just tear up teams.

Blastoise has learned Water Spout through breeding since Gen 5. That said, it is still strange in the sense that it's a completely vanilla Blastoise set. I mean I guess Torrent is nice to make Water Spout less useless at low health, but it doesn't take direct advantage of AAA's special mechanic (maybe it's just good in the meta at large; I have no idea).

 

[Isaiah]

I've been fooling around with a few sets and found some I would like to share:

Blastoise @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam

Basically bootleg Kyogre, you click water spout and it does a lot of damage. The other moves are coverage/when running low on health. I went with scarf Over specs for the fact that water spout loses power when your health is lower.

Xurkitree @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Zap Cannon
- Energy Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Volt Switch

Zap Cannon is a devastating move with terrible accuracy and no guard fixes that problem. The reason I choose Xurkitree was because it was the strongest electric stab there was. With guaranteed paralysis it can cripple any mon that isn't ground or has an electric absorbing ability. Energy Ball is Ground coverage and the other 2 moves are just kind of there.

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Iron Head

Garchomp has proven to be a versitile mon in this meta. With this specific set you click hone claws and fix the accuracy issue and boost your already high attack even higher. Earthquake and Outrage are stab while I choose Iron Head for flinch hacks and Fairy coverage.

Celesteela @ Power Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fly
- Heavy Slam
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake

The physical cousin of Meteor Beam Unburden Celesteela. You click Fly to get the Unburden Boost and hopefully sweep. The advantage this set has over it's special counterpart is the base power of the moves are higher meaning is is somewhat powerful even if it has to switch out.

It's quite unusual to run that kind of Blastoise set without at least giving it Primordial Sea or something to prevent getting checked by Desolate Land Heatran (and for the obvious reason of boosting water spoutpower). Also, without an setup move for physical attacks that Celesteela seems like it's probably not the strongest attacker/sweeper.

The Garchomp reminds me of Hustle Zygarde [without broken Thousand Arrows] in that it gets even more damage amp from 1.5x, but I honestly don't know if I'd be willing to deal with 80% accuracy on EQ and Outrage before a Hone Claws—it just seems really risky. Speed control Xurkitree is neat, and being able to fish for paras with No Guard Zap Cannon is an interesting alternative to just running Electric Surge, I think.

 

[Enderevilherobrine]

It's quite unusual to run that kind of Blastoise set without at least giving it Primordial Sea or something to prevent getting checked by Desolate Land Heatran (and for the obvious reason of boosting water spoutpower).

Yeah Torrent was a typo, I meant to put Primordial Sea.

 

[Suepac]

Don't know if anyone's posted this yet but LO kyurem with chlorophyll on a sun team is really fun and unexpected. It has amazing coverage with freeze dry, earth power and weatherball and hits 578 speed under sun.

Kyurem @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
- Weather Ball

 

[Isaiah]

With the 60% pro-ban majority being hit, Kyurem is now banned! If you still haven't voted, you will still be able to until Thursday, February 11th.

Edit: RIP the Chlorophyll set post above this one, it's a cool idea ;-;

 

[Isaiah]

What?! Another?!
It's time to clear the Heat Haze (if you get what FPS game I'm referencing you're a beast)! The AAA council has unanimously decided to BAN Victini.



There should be no question about Victini's power in AAA. While 100 across the board in [fairly respectable bulk and] offenses aren't usually touted as impressive, Victini more than makes up for it with powerful coverage moves such as V-create and Bolt Strike. When enabled by a variety of offensive abilities such as Desolate Land, Tinted Lens, Magic Guard, and even Sheer Force Victini goes from a reasonably strong attacker to a nearly unstoppable force. Would-be fire resists such as Tapu Fini, Swampert and Garchomp find themselves in danger of a 2HKO from Choice Band-boosted V-creates, not to talk of super effective damage from Bolt Strike and Glaciate. Victini also has the option of running Final Gambit on Regenerator sets in order to retain the option to nuke an opposing Pokemon, and as added utility in general Victini can run moves like Trick or even Toxic on Choiced sets to further cripple attempts at checking it. All of these tools make Victini extremely difficult to answer defensively without an immunity to its STAB. Last but certainly not least is the fact that U-Turn enables Victini to quite easily monopolize momentum even when it can't get a kill versus something like a Primordial Sea Zapdos, and if it's Magic Guard or Heavy Duty Boots entry hazard damage is a non-factor. With access to such a wide array of tools each equipped to handle virtually all of its answers, Victini is certainly too much for the AAA meta and is definitely deserving of a ban.

The AAA council will continue to observe the threats on the watchlist as follows:

Gengar
Blacephalon
Tapu Bulu
Noivern

Tagging The Immortal and Kris for implementation.

 

[electraviolet]

Does anybody have any good counters for Tapu Fini, specifically Poison Heal Fini. My only answer for her is SFLO Gengar. Thank you!

 

[Atha]

Does anybody have any good counters for Tapu Fini, specifically Poison Heal Fini. My only answer for her is SFLO Gengar. Thank you!

Poison Heal Fini is pretty hard to counter, as you noticed. Gastro Acid Toxapex, Poison Heal Snorlax, Desolate Land Heatran/Rotom-Heat, Tapu Bulu, Ferrothorn, Water Absorb Gengar/Excadrill are the most common counters. SFLO Gengar is very unreliable, as it risks coming in on Scald, and Fini lives at +1 SpD ( 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Gengar Sludge Wave vs. +1 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Fini: 283-335 (82.2 - 97.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO).

 

[STEELDRAGON]

I have to say I have had a lot of fun in this metagame. Desolate Land CB Darmanitan absolutely wrecks almost anything that switches in, even sturdy resists like Garchomp are getting OHKOed with a little prior damage. Another threat is Swift Swim CB Arctovish which 2koes Ferrothorn in Rain. I have really been enjoying priority users as well such as Fake out+ES Galvanize/Refrigerate Pikachu, Prankster Xuriktree+nature power+Electric Terrain, Prankster+Nature Power Drampa, Belly Drum Kommno+triage+drain punch and a few others. Gale Wings Hurricanes are fun spamming to. I have so many ideas to try out haha. Weakness Policy+Unburden seems like it can be a potent combination on certain pokemon.

Edit:
Serene Grace is a very underrated haha.

Tornadus-T+Airslash+Focus Blast+Nasty Plot+Substitute can be a huge threat. I also like Exadrill, Moltres-G, Darmanitan-G, Durant, Azelf, with it.

Mega Launcher Hydreigon absolutely obliterates almost anything slower than it.

 

[Ivar57]

I have been playing this metagame for a while now and I want to propose a stall team, I have been getting a lot of succes with it and I thought I would share it here. Stall is not yet represented in the Sample Teams so I would like to see it end up there

The team

Me rambling about the team

When I started playing this meta I could not help but notice the meta was overrun with offensive threats, so I was intrigued how a stall team would do. After my first team doing well but ultimately not getting me high up on ladder I decided to have a look at some different Poison Heal mons for my team, and I found Gourgeist. This mon matches up well vs almost all physically offensive threats in the metagame and forces them out with Will-o-Wisp. This was the missing piece for my team. Stall needs fat mons that are hard to force out and this mon is perfect for that.

Tapu Fini was a main stay in the team from day one, it is usually my late game wincon with calm mind and it does well vs a vareity of physical attackers. With a standard set of Calm mind, Scald, Moonblast and Protect it can stand in the way of many threats and get back health with Poison Heal

Heatran finishes my Fire Water Grass core and is there to sponge special attacks that Blissey does not appreciate. With how fast Blissey can get worn down with volt turn, a regenerating special sponge is a great safety net. Heatran also functions as a trapper of many different pokemon, it can afford getting to low health while performing a trap due to Regenerator. The main thing you want to watch out for is the low pp of the move Magma Storm, which gets amplified with it missing around1/4th of the time (I swear it is more then that, especially when you need it to hit)

For the 4th slot I chose Hippowdon for the simple fact it has rocks, phasing and an instant recovery move. This was the final mon on the team and I needed to round the team out covering this. I also like its Ground typing over a mon Like Skarmory. With magic bounce you can often set your opponents rocks against them. Not much interesting, just a very useful mon.

Zapdos is there for weather teams and Desolate land users, with Victini gone the need for this mon has declined a bit but it is still highly useful. Primordial sea helps with Hurricane accuracy and makes it highly spammable. When your opponent gets hazards being able to defog those also helps greatly. Volt Switch and Roost round out the set.

And last but not least, Blissey, this mon is there for almost every boosting sweeper, it is a great special sponge but it can also take a great deal of phsical hits. I chose it over Chancey Because Chancey tends to get worn down a lot faster by hazards. Heavy duty boots Negates this issue. I needed Unaware, since the team would be very weak to Special setup sweepers. For moves I decided on the ubiquitous Soft Boiled, Skill swap to force out Poison Heal mons, Seismic Toss for a reliable source of damage, and teleport to get momentum.

The most notible threats to the team are Phisical Poison Heal boosting mons like Snorlax, and certain variants of Belly Drum Kommo-o. With solid play both those matchups are certainly not unwinnable though. This team has gotten me to 1500 on ladder on 3 seperate accounts, with a win-loss ratio of around 8-1. Thanks for reading my essay, I hope you will Like the team

Also, I would like to nominate Gourgeist-Super for the Viability rankings.

 

[Isaiah]

I have been playing this metagame for a while now and I want to propose a stall team, I have been getting a lot of succes with it and I thought I would share it here. Stall is not yet represented in the Sample Teams so I would like to see it end up there

The team

Me rambling about the team

When I started playing this meta I could not help but notice the meta was overrun with offensive threats, so I was intrigued how a stall team would do. After my first team doing well but ultimately not getting me high up on ladder I decided to have a look at some different Poison Heal mons for my team, and I found Gourgeist. This mon matches up well vs almost all physically offensive threats in the metagame and forces them out with Will-o-Wisp. This was the missing piece for my team. Stall needs fat mons that are hard to force out and this mon is perfect for that.

Tapu Fini was a main stay in the team from day one, it is usually my late game wincon with calm mind and it does well vs a vareity of physical attackers. With a standard set of Calm mind, Scald, Moonblast and Protect it can stand in the way of many threats and get back health with Poison Heal

Heatran finishes my Fire Water Grass core and is there to sponge special attacks that Blissey does not appreciate. With how fast Blissey can get worn down with volt turn, a regenerating special sponge is a great safety net. Heatran also functions as a trapper of many different pokemon, it can afford getting to low health while performing a trap due to Regenerator. The main thing you want to watch out for is the low pp of the move Magma Storm, which gets amplified with it missing around1/4th of the time (I swear it is more then that, especially when you need it to hit)

For the 4th slot I chose Hippowdon for the simple fact it has rocks, phasing and an instant recovery move. This was the final mon on the team and I needed to round the team out covering this. I also like its Ground typing over a mon Like Skarmory. With magic bounce you can often set your opponents rocks against them. Not much interesting, just a very useful mon.

Zapdos is there for weather teams and Desolate land users, with Victini gone the need for this mon has declined a bit but it is still highly useful. Primordial sea helps with Hurricane accuracy and makes it highly spammable. When your opponent gets hazards being able to defog those also helps greatly. Volt Switch and Roost round out the set.

And last but not least, Blissey, this mon is there for almost every boosting sweeper, it is a great special sponge but it can also take a great deal of phsical hits. I chose it over Chancey Because Chancey tends to get worn down a lot faster by hazards. Heavy duty boots Negates this issue. I needed Unaware, since the team would be very weak to Special setup sweepers. For moves I decided on the ubiquitous Soft Boiled, Skill swap to force out Poison Heal mons, Seismic Toss for a reliable source of damage, and teleport to get momentum.

The most notible threats to the team are Phisical Poison Heal boosting mons like Snorlax, and certain variants of Belly Drum Kommo-o. With solid play both those matchups are certainly not unwinnable though. This team has gotten me to 1500 on ladder on 3 seperate accounts, with a win-loss ratio of around 8-1. Thanks for reading my essay, I hope you will Like the team

Also, I would like to nominate Gourgeist-Super for the Viability rankings.

Cool team! It's definitely worth giving some consideration to as a sample team. As for Gourgeist-Super being added to the VR, I've never seen it used with much success outside of [seemingly] your team, but its niche as a decent wall to certain meta threats is definitely noteworthy. We'll see what happens with the next VR update :]

That being said, it's time discuss...

The WAAAtchlist

Pokemon

Tapu Bulu
Set(s): Triage
Why: Triage Horn Leech is the truth. Enabled even further by Swords Dance, Tapu Bulu is able to break through much of the meta by utilizing outstanding coverage like Close Combat, Darkest Lariat, and Stone Edge to deal with most of not all of it's would-be checks and answers. Faster pokemon are often unable to reliably revenge kill it due to the threat of +2 or even +4 boosted Horn Leeches and slower, bulkier pokemon tend to become setup fodder for it. That being said, a lot of things that can switch into an attack from Tapu Bulu tend to threaten it with super effective STAB (Corviknight, Zapdos, Mandibuzz, Doublade), so while Bulu is a powerful cleaner it isn't always able to outright break through teams from the get-go.


Gengar
Set(s): Sheer Force | Adaptability | Triage
Why: Gengar with damage amplification is a force to be reckoned with. With just Shadow Ball and Focus Blast alone, Gengar boasts virtually perfect coverage [versus anything that isn't Bulletproof], and when combined with STAB Sludge Wave/Bomb it retains the ability to 2HKO the vast majority of the tier. With the option to also run Trick Choice items as well, blobs like Snorlax, Blissey, and Chansey can be crippled at the expense of a Gengar that still remains a lot of its breaking potential (and a chance to poison). Even though 110 base speed means Gengar is amongst one of the fastest viable pokemon in the tier, it's still very susceptible to scarfers and lacks any bulk whatsoever, making it difficult to find opportunities to actually bring it in and get to wreaking havoc on opposing teams. Of course, with its Triage set Gengar is able to overcome even that obstacle, making it even more of a nuisance to deal with at team preview—a wrong prediction about what set it's running can be disastrous.


Blacephalon
Set(s): Magic Guard Sash | Choiced Magic Guard | Magic Guard Life Orb
Why: Blacephalon is easily one of the most frustrating pokemon to try and deal with, period. Magic Guard means it can't be chipped by hazards or the recoil it would be subject to from repeatedly firing off Mind Blown, and teching status like Toxic doesn't do anything to it on the switch, either. Offensively, Blacephalon's ability to Knock Off things like Assault Vest and Eviolite means it singlehandedly cripples its own walls, softening them up to be blasted by Mind Blown and Shadow Ball later on in a game. The Focus Sash set in particular deserves a special note, as it turns Blacephalon into a nearly unbeatable 1v1 pokemon versus offensive threats, easily trading its sash for OHKOs or irreparable chip on targets like Noivern, Zarude, Gengar, [opposing Blacephalon], Weavile, and even Garchomp given the right situation. All of that being said, Blacephalon shares a lot of weaknesses with Gengar—they're both fast and frail, meaning they lose to scarfers and can't really risk eating any attacks.


Noivern
Set(s): Boomburst
Why: Does it even need to be said? Noivern boasts a bass-boosted [by Choice Specs] Boomburst that blasts through anything not specially bulky. Nearly every neutral pokemon without special defense investment is either completely unable to eat a Specs Boomburst, or risks an unfavorable roll in a 1v1. This leads to a practically inevitable conundrum in the builder, as pokemon who can survive multiple Boombursts comfortably aren't exactly in large supply—steel types like Corviknight, Jirachi and Heatran are all susceptible to Magnet Pull, and even the "old reliable" blobs of Blissey and Chansey are heavily crippled when poisoned or switched a Choice item. Noivern is by no means an infallible breaker: It is prone to taking repeated Stealth Rock chip and has zero counterplay for opposing priority (-ate Extreme Speed, Triage Draining Kiss, etc.) or anything that just plain outspeeds it, but it more than covers for this by being such an extreme pain to switch into.

Abilities

Poison Heal (ph;pheal) ()
Notable users: Garchomp, Tapu Fini, Snorlax, [literally anything that can take advantage of passive recovery and/or protect scouting]
Why: Poison Heal is a subject of recurring controversy in AAA. It enables virtually any non Steel-type/Poison-type pokemon to gain passive recovery and an effective immunity to Knock Off [once its active] and non-volatile status. Additionally, this means pokemon with Poison Heal + Toxic Orb can take advantage of Protect to scout would-be dangerous moves—particularly when used by Choice-locked foes. That being said, there are certainly counters to poison heal: Ability-changing moves like Skill Swap and Gastro Acid make it possible to reverse the healing effect entirely, and with enough offensive pressure it's possible to prevent pheal pokemon from recovering too much. In practice, however, it's often extremely difficult to successfully pressure a pheal user due to their ability to force 50/50s just by having Protect, leading to situations where the opponent has to guess at whether the pheal mon will protect, attack, switch out, or possibly even just click a setup move. When escalated up to having 2 pheal users on the same team alongside potential regenerator users, it can be hard from both a teambuilding and playing perspective to find ways to penetrate cores that feature things like VoltTurn + Poison Heal + Heavy Duty Boots spam. A recurring theme in AAA is wearing down a poison heal pokemon to below 50% HP through repeated correct predictions, then losing nearly all of that progress after one wrong guess on protect scouting—a mistake which often proves fatal for the player who makes the wrong play.

What does everyone think about the things mentioned above? Are they suspect test/ban-worthy in your eyes, or not even worth mentioning? Is there anything else you'd like to see addressed, and if so why?

 

[Quantum Tesseract]

I think there's an argument to be made for Bulu and Blace. Bulu can be really just a nightmare for offense, when it outspeeds and ohkoes so much and is similarly hard to switch into; there are stuff like Noivern and Gene that are great and force it out, but they don't switch in and they don't need that much chip before horn leech starts to be an issue, and defensively the only real answers that doesn't give up like a million momentum are Corvi, which can be teched on by Bulky SDLO, especially ones with synthesis, and zapdos, which can be taken down by Edge. I think pre Tini ban it was ultimately just this side of fine, but now it's not. Blace hasn't really changed much, it's super dumb to switch into and fast enough to be really obnoxious, plus it gets tools for dunking on all the would be answers like psyshock for bliss, knock / trick for chans, etcetera. It's even worse for balance since trick lets it beat a lot of the same defensive pokemon that specs would dump (because the exceptions don't fit on your team) and it outspeeds basically everything you have, so it has plenty of opportunities to chase things out and fish.

Noivern and Gengar are fine atm and PH isn't really that much of an issue. There are some good PH mons, but we have a lot of tools to answer them and non of them feel all that difficult to build against, even if they are sometimes obnoxious in play.

 

[Osake]

I mostly agree with what you’ve said for the Watchlist, especially for PH which is in my opinion rly annoying in the meta atm, not ‘broken’ but unhealthy in order to have a good tier. But I’m really really surprised that Genesect is still not on the watchlist. I think that it’s probably the most dangerous Pokémon rn, it’s like a magearna, thousands of sets, physicals, special, mixed, scarf, SFLO with shift gear, serene grace, regenvest, etc and like it’s so hard to handle, one mistake and you are sweeped by Genesect, his pressure is insane and like what are the reliable counterplays ? Bulky fire with healing/regenerator, like Volcarona/Heatran/Incineroar, and that’s all I think ? Otherwise it’s always a 50/50 and if you lose it, you lose a mon, or he’s rly low life. For all that reasons, and probably others that I’ve forgot, I think that Genesect should be watchlisted because it’s really powerful

 

[Atha]

Seconding QT on everything he said. Bulu is so, so hard to account for in the builder, and depending on its set it can beat almost all the available counterplay. This one is quite clearly a ban/suspect I think. Blace is a bit more manageable so I’m not entirely sure if it should remain or not, but the sheer amount of options it has to cripple its answers combined with Mind Blown being so strong make it a pain to deal with. The one thing that makes me hesitate is that Fire immunities are common right now, so spamming Mind Blown is rarely free.

Speaking about spamming for free, Noivern keeps clicking Boomburst. This mon is probably the most meta-defining of all, and I even think it’s a bit underrated somehow ; as we saw a surprising amount of teams that were destroyed by it in the Open. However I don’t think it’s that unhealthy, due to it having 1 or 2 viable sets, that can be answered by generally good mons. Gengar might become a problem in the future but its less spammable stab moves make it less appealing than Blace, Noivern and even other special attackers in the builder. Poison Heal is no problem right now imo.

Also totally seconding Osake on Genesect. Not only does it deserve to be on the watchlist, but I think it deserves a ban.

 

[Mellow1004]

I wanted to take the time to thank you for all your research and the work you do to make the format much more interesting and efficient. It is with great regret not to be able to contribute my contribution because I do not know the format well enough so once again thank you very much for your help.

 

[The Number Man]

Abilities

Poison Heal (ph;pheal) ()
Notable users: Garchomp, Tapu Fini, Snorlax, [literally anything that can take advantage of passive recovery and/or protect scouting]
Why: Poison Heal is a subject of recurring controversy in AAA. It enables virtually any non Steel-type/Poison-type pokemon to gain passive recovery and an effective immunity to Knock Off [once its active] and non-volatile status. Additionally, this means pokemon with Poison Heal + Toxic Orb can take advantage of Protect to scout would-be dangerous moves—particularly when used by Choice-locked foes. That being said, there are certainly counters to poison heal: Ability-changing moves like Skill Swap and Gastro Acid make it possible to reverse the healing effect entirely, and with enough offensive pressure it's possible to prevent pheal pokemon from recovering too much. In practice, however, it's often extremely difficult to successfully pressure a pheal user due to their ability to force 50/50s just by having Protect, leading to situations where the opponent has to guess at whether the pheal mon will protect, attack, switch out, or possibly even just click a setup move. When escalated up to having 2 pheal users on the same team alongside potential regenerator users, it can be hard from both a teambuilding and playing perspective to find ways to penetrate cores that feature things like VoltTurn + Poison Heal + Heavy Duty Boots spam. A recurring theme in AAA is wearing down a poison heal pokemon to below 50% HP through repeated correct predictions, then losing nearly all of that progress after one wrong guess on protect scouting—a mistake which often proves fatal for the player who makes the wrong play.

What does everyone think about the things mentioned above? Are they suspect test/ban-worthy in your eyes, or not even worth mentioning? Is there anything else you'd like to see addressed, and if so why?

As Thinkerino already mentioned, Poison Heal is a mainstay of high level AAA play because of the immense utility granted by the combination of passive recovery, status immunity as well as ability to protect-scout, easing prediction and sometimes completely nullifying choiced breakers that rely on coverage as opposed to absurdly powerful moves to break down their checks. After some additional discussion, the council has decided to very strongly consider a Poison Heal suspect test in the near future. However, a second option is available to us. Instead of suspecting Poison Heal, we could implement 1 ability clause (ie, you can only use one copy of each ability on your team), as we think that this is a solution that should solve most of the issues banning Poison Heal solves while possibly encouraging diversity and creativity in team compositions. For an in depth explanation of what we seek to achieve and why 1 ability clause is a viable alternative to banning PH, check the below box titled "Explanation and replays".

TLDR: The council is considering one of the following tiering actions: A Poison Heal suspect test, or the implementation of a single ability clause and we would like to hear the community's opinions on each of them.

Explanation and replays

Ever since DLC 2 dropped, giving us access to alot of high BST pokemon with good defensive typings - such as Zygarde (pre ban), Garchomp, Tapu Fini, Zarude and even Glastrier, PH has been an absolute mainstay on AAA teams. While it was nowhere near rare in the previous metas, it was generally limited to Primarina, Snorlax (setup) and Golisopod (hazards). Teams also didn't tend to stack PH as there weren't that many stellar users of it. The increased number of viable PH users means players tend to face PH more frequently, have to prepare for a larger variety of abusers and sometimes face teams with 2 PH users. This can be extremely taxing on the teambuilding portion of AAA as a bad matchup versus a Poison Heal sweeper is virtually insurmountable due to the already mentioned residual recovery and immunity to status. You can't toxic them and you can't sac a mon in order to chip them into range as approximately 1/3 to 2/3 of the chip damage will be healed off using protect stalling.

I think these data points shine light on some crucial aspects of Poison Heal:
1) While PH is a very good ability in a vaccum, it needs the right abusers to be pushed into borderline broken territory
2) PH exacerbates bad matchups because it makes pokemon so incredibly resilient

But Poison Heal is not the only ability that offers passive recovery. We also have access to regenerator, which while perhaps not as obnoxious as PHeal, also contributes to the inability to meaningfully chip switchins in the AAA metagame. There is also something to be said about Regenvest/Regen Blissey holding the tier together vs the plethora of special breakers which would otherwise dismantle teams with their supercharged attacks.
But I think it has become clear that the most influential aspect of both PH and Regen is giving recovery to a variety of extremely strong bodies that are supposed to be held back by their lack of reliable recovery. Terrakion and Garchomp are mons with stellar statlines that can at times use their BST advantage in conjunction with SD to muscle past supposed counters at the expense of a reasonable chunk of damage. In standard play this means your Chomp/Terrak is now most likely sac fodder, however with the addition of PH/Regen you can just switch out or protect stall and get most of your HP back - allowing you to repeat the process. Because their stats are already so good, they don't really need damage boosting abilities nor do they need bulk augmentation, so passive recovery is the perfect addition to their ability slot. Something similar can be said for Fini and Lax, which are both notorious for sweeping weakened teams after they have accumulated enough CM/Curse boosts.

In order to illustrate the way these abilities play out in game, I'm gonna be sharing a few replays:
QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Garchomp - in this replay my Garchomp has an very good matchup vs QT's team, with Bulu being the only pokemon that beats it 1v1. This means it can freely set up SDs on pretty much any other member of QT's team, repeatedly forcing Bulu in. As a ground type with PH it's practically immune to hazard damage, whereas Bulu is forced to take SR chip everytime it comes in, which means that once Bulu is chipped into +2 range, Garchomp can try to 1v1 it due to the SD attack boost. This replay is a perfect example of the residual PH recovery making a bad matchup vs its user almost insurmountable.
EDIT: QT pointed out that Barra was running Ice Fang, which means that he had additional Chomp counterplay.

QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Fini - this replay features a PH fini on both sides, however QT's Fini is running Taunt in order to win mirror matches as well beat would be counters like Desolate Land Volcarona and Skill Swappers without Magic Bounce. It wins basically as soon as it gets the PH off, as my designated Fini counterplay is Volcarona, which would beat Fini by boosting alongside it, but is prevented from doing so by Taunt.

QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Glastrier - QT is using a team built by Flaming Victini that features a Poison Heal Glastrier. Glastrier's immense bulk as well as access to solid coverage options in Horsepower and CC lets it pressure most checks by virtue of living their super effective moves and koing back at +2. Additionally, its extremely low speed means the usual method of "slowpivot into offensive counterplay" is almost impossible, which makes it a menace for teams without an Unaware or Dauntless user with skill swap. Glastrier takes a number of rounds of rocks chip throughout the game, but is able to regain enough HP through protect stalling to stay a relevant threat throughout the game, almost running away with the game due to a Magma Storm miss at the end.

jrdn vs TNM: Regen core of Silvally + Garchomp - this game showcases the power of regen cores and how well two regenerators complement each other in order to make chipping switchins pretty much impossible. In the words of stresh:

Triage Hat merchant02/18/2021
jrdn when he does 350 percent to the elecvally + chomp with his gengar
but forgets to do it all at the same time

SFLO Gengar, an otherwise terrifying wallbreaker is unable to make meaningful progress in the face of AV Silvally and Scarf Garchomp, since they can both switch in repeatedly, forcing it out and regaining chip damage. This is further exacerbated by Blissey's passivity, which lets Silvally and Chomp freely switch around on it, regaining any damage they took from a mispredict or overextension on my part. After turn 6, where Corviknight's Mummy removes Kommo-o's unburden eliminating its cleaning potential this game turns into a game of attrition (which is where my two regen mons give me an immense advantage), where I slowly accumulate chip onto jrdn's team in order to let Noivern win with Boomburst while preserving HP on Garchomp as its my main way of staving off a Volcarona win once screens are set up.

The existence of two passive recovery abilities in Poison Heal and Regenerator in conjunction with 2 ability clause means that players have the option of running up to 4 statsticks with passive recovery abilities that let them bruteforce through supposed checks in long, drawn out games as the defensive pokemon that can stomach hits from these statsticks don't do meaningful damage back and eventually get worn down due to their own lack of passive recovery. In the interest of not banning a large number of pokemon in order to fix this issue, the council is looking at reducing the amount of slots players can run passive recovery abilities on. This can be accomplished both by banning (through suspect test) Poison Heal or by implementing single ability clause.

 

[Megapot125]

Does anyone have a good idea for a Haxorus set? I was thinking maybe Dragon's Maw of Sheer Force...

 

[alaserdolphin]

As Thinkerino already mentioned, Poison Heal is a mainstay of high level AAA play because of the immense utility granted by the combination of passive recovery, status immunity as well as ability to protect-scout, easing prediction and sometimes completely nullifying choiced breakers that rely on coverage as opposed to absurdly powerful moves to break down their checks. After some additional discussion, the council has decided to very strongly consider a Poison Heal suspect test in the near future. However, a second option is available to us. Instead of suspecting Poison Heal, we could implement 1 ability clause (ie, you can only use one copy of each ability on your team), as we think that this is a solution that should solve most of the issues banning Poison Heal solves while possibly encouraging diversity and creativity in team compositions. For an in depth explanation of what we seek to achieve and why 1 ability clause is a viable alternative to banning PH, check the below box titled "Explanation and replays".

TLDR: The council is considering one of the following tiering actions: A Poison Heal suspect test, or the implementation of a single ability clause and we would like to hear the community's opinions on each of them.

Explanation and replays

Ever since DLC 2 dropped, giving us access to alot of high BST pokemon with good defensive typings - such as Zygarde (pre ban), Garchomp, Tapu Fini, Zarude and even Glastrier, PH has been an absolute mainstay on AAA teams. While it was nowhere near rare in the previous metas, it was generally limited to Primarina, Snorlax (setup) and Golisopod (hazards). Teams also didn't tend to stack PH as there weren't that many stellar users of it. The increased number of viable PH users means players tend to face PH more frequently, have to prepare for a larger variety of abusers and sometimes face teams with 2 PH users. This can be extremely taxing on the teambuilding portion of AAA as a bad matchup versus a Poison Heal sweeper is virtually insurmountable due to the already mentioned residual recovery and immunity to status. You can't toxic them and you can't sac a mon in order to chip them into range as approximately 1/3 to 2/3 of the chip damage will be healed off using protect stalling.

I think these data points shine light on some crucial aspects of Poison Heal:
1) While PH is a very good ability in a vaccum, it needs the right abusers to be pushed into borderline broken territory
2) PH exacerbates bad matchups because it makes pokemon so incredibly resilient

But Poison Heal is not the only ability that offers passive recovery. We also have access to regenerator, which while perhaps not as obnoxious as PHeal, also contributes to the inability to meaningfully chip switchins in the AAA metagame. There is also something to be said about Regenvest/Regen Blissey holding the tier together vs the plethora of special breakers which would otherwise dismantle teams with their supercharged attacks.
But I think it has become clear that the most influential aspect of both PH and Regen is giving recovery to a variety of extremely strong bodies that are supposed to be held back by their lack of reliable recovery. Terrakion and Garchomp are mons with stellar statlines that can at times use their BST advantage in conjunction with SD to muscle past supposed counters at the expense of a reasonable chunk of damage. In standard play this means your Chomp/Terrak is now most likely sac fodder, however with the addition of PH/Regen you can just switch out or protect stall and get most of your HP back - allowing you to repeat the process. Because their stats are already so good, they don't really need damage boosting abilities nor do they need bulk augmentation, so passive recovery is the perfect addition to their ability slot. Something similar can be said for Fini and Lax, which are both notorious for sweeping weakened teams after they have accumulated enough CM/Curse boosts.

In order to illustrate the way these abilities play out in game, I'm gonna be sharing a few replays:
QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Garchomp - in this replay my Garchomp has an very good matchup vs QT's team, with Bulu being the only pokemon that beats it 1v1. This means it can freely set up SDs on pretty much any other member of QT's team, repeatedly forcing Bulu in. As a ground type with PH it's practically immune to hazard damage, whereas Bulu is forced to take SR chip everytime it comes in, which means that once Bulu is chipped into +2 range, Garchomp can try to 1v1 it due to the SD attack boost. This replay is a perfect example of the residual PH recovery making a bad matchup vs its user almost insurmountable.
EDIT: QT pointed out that Barra was running Ice Fang, which means that he had additional Chomp counterplay.

QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Fini - this replay features a PH fini on both sides, however QT's Fini is running Taunt in order to win mirror matches as well beat would be counters like Desolate Land Volcarona and Skill Swappers without Magic Bounce. It wins basically as soon as it gets the PH off, as my designated Fini counterplay is Volcarona, which would beat Fini by boosting alongside it, but is prevented from doing so by Taunt.

QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Glastrier - QT is using a team built by Flaming Victini that features a Poison Heal Glastrier. Glastrier's immense bulk as well as access to solid coverage options in Horsepower and CC lets it pressure most checks by virtue of living their super effective moves and koing back at +2. Additionally, its extremely low speed means the usual method of "slowpivot into offensive counterplay" is almost impossible, which makes it a menace for teams without an Unaware or Dauntless user with skill swap. Glastrier takes a number of rounds of rocks chip throughout the game, but is able to regain enough HP through protect stalling to stay a relevant threat throughout the game, almost running away with the game due to a Magma Storm miss at the end.

jrdn vs TNM: Regen core of Silvally + Garchomp - this game showcases the power of regen cores and how well two regenerators complement each other in order to make chipping switchins pretty much impossible. In the words of stresh:

SFLO Gengar, an otherwise terrifying wallbreaker is unable to make meaningful progress in the face of AV Silvally and Scarf Garchomp, since they can both switch in repeatedly, forcing it out and regaining chip damage. This is further exacerbated by Blissey's passivity, which lets Silvally and Chomp freely switch around on it, regaining any damage they took from a mispredict or overextension on my part. After turn 6, where Corviknight's Mummy removes Kommo-o's unburden eliminating its cleaning potential this game turns into a game of attrition (which is where my two regen mons give me an immense advantage), where I slowly accumulate chip onto jrdn's team in order to let Noivern win with Boomburst while preserving HP on Garchomp as its my main way of staving off a Volcarona win once screens are set up.

The existence of two passive recovery abilities in Poison Heal and Regenerator in conjunction with 2 ability clause means that players have the option of running up to 4 statsticks with passive recovery abilities that let them bruteforce through supposed checks in long, drawn out games as the defensive pokemon that can stomach hits from these statsticks don't do meaningful damage back and eventually get worn down due to their own lack of passive recovery. In the interest of not banning a large number of pokemon in order to fix this issue, the council is looking at reducing the amount of slots players can run passive recovery abilities on. This can be accomplished both by banning (through suspect test) Poison Heal or by implementing single ability clause.

Frankly, I’ll say: please try at least a suspect test on PH to start. In just the past few AAA tours I’ve been in, every single time, the whole thing was held up by PH + double regen. I've had more than one finals match where the two of us had to coin flip via !pick in order to settle the game.

I think AAA probably could benefit from a Single Ability Clause (or at least a test run with it), but I'm not sure if it truly solves any issues.

It was being discussed on the discord what teams would probably look like under a clause like that, and they archetypally boiled down to:

Offensive: Tough Claws, Adaptability, MGLO/SFLO, and maybe Moldy

Defensive: PH, Regen, Unaware, Dauntless, Magic Bounce

With some non-negligible amount of the following for teams in between: Queenly, -ate, Prankster, Triage, Mummy/Wandering Spirit, Volt Absorb/FF, etc.

These are not hard and fast categories/picks by any means, but I think most teams would be pretty similar to their current state, but with some ability shuffling. Teams might not be able to have double regen and double PH, but they can have one of each and then give the two remaining mons bounce/unaware and be (all things considered) unaffected.

If I were to have to make a suggestion purely on instinct right now, I think it'd be worth implementing SAC (I still find it weird it wasn't that way to start - allowing two of X isn't really a Smogon OM standard when it comes to "free pick" metas). In addition, I think there should also be a suspect test for PH. Not necessarily at the same time.

I don't know if it's all indicative of being broken, per se, but I think it'd be a massive boon to the long-term health of the format to formally look into both and it'd discourage future new players from throwing their hands in the air and going "yep this meta sucks time to move to something else".

TL;DR: I'd Suspect Test PH and at least try some semi-informal testing with building teams under SAC

 

[Iynhe]

I think a Single Ability clause would benefit AAA. I would literally implement it every gen from the get go, since we ALWAYS end up talking about it. I can't remember a gen in which this discussion was not present.

 

[iapt]

I think that the best option here is to implement a single ability clause and let the meta play out for a while to see what the meta settles into once players have gotten a chance to play with the restriction of having no duplicate abilities. I agree with alaserdoplhin that a single ability clause would not change anything too hugely while also increasing the diversity of abilities in the meta. The single ability clause might not only help the poison heal situation but also help decrease the "stalliness" and amount of lengthy matches in the format, specifically with regenerator in mind. If the single ability clause is implemented but after the meta has settled down, poison heal is still having a similar impact on the meta, then a suspect test should be considered. I know I haven't really said anything here that hasn't been said before, but I thought I should at least share my thoughts on the situation.

 

[Slikkles]

As Thinkerino already mentioned, Poison Heal is a mainstay of high level AAA play because of the immense utility granted by the combination of passive recovery, status immunity as well as ability to protect-scout, easing prediction and sometimes completely nullifying choiced breakers that rely on coverage as opposed to absurdly powerful moves to break down their checks. After some additional discussion, the council has decided to very strongly consider a Poison Heal suspect test in the near future. However, a second option is available to us. Instead of suspecting Poison Heal, we could implement 1 ability clause (ie, you can only use one copy of each ability on your team), as we think that this is a solution that should solve most of the issues banning Poison Heal solves while possibly encouraging diversity and creativity in team compositions. For an in depth explanation of what we seek to achieve and why 1 ability clause is a viable alternative to banning PH, check the below box titled "Explanation and replays".

TLDR: The council is considering one of the following tiering actions: A Poison Heal suspect test, or the implementation of a single ability clause and we would like to hear the community's opinions on each of them.

Explanation and replays

Ever since DLC 2 dropped, giving us access to alot of high BST pokemon with good defensive typings - such as Zygarde (pre ban), Garchomp, Tapu Fini, Zarude and even Glastrier, PH has been an absolute mainstay on AAA teams. While it was nowhere near rare in the previous metas, it was generally limited to Primarina, Snorlax (setup) and Golisopod (hazards). Teams also didn't tend to stack PH as there weren't that many stellar users of it. The increased number of viable PH users means players tend to face PH more frequently, have to prepare for a larger variety of abusers and sometimes face teams with 2 PH users. This can be extremely taxing on the teambuilding portion of AAA as a bad matchup versus a Poison Heal sweeper is virtually insurmountable due to the already mentioned residual recovery and immunity to status. You can't toxic them and you can't sac a mon in order to chip them into range as approximately 1/3 to 2/3 of the chip damage will be healed off using protect stalling.

I think these data points shine light on some crucial aspects of Poison Heal:
1) While PH is a very good ability in a vaccum, it needs the right abusers to be pushed into borderline broken territory
2) PH exacerbates bad matchups because it makes pokemon so incredibly resilient

But Poison Heal is not the only ability that offers passive recovery. We also have access to regenerator, which while perhaps not as obnoxious as PHeal, also contributes to the inability to meaningfully chip switchins in the AAA metagame. There is also something to be said about Regenvest/Regen Blissey holding the tier together vs the plethora of special breakers which would otherwise dismantle teams with their supercharged attacks.
But I think it has become clear that the most influential aspect of both PH and Regen is giving recovery to a variety of extremely strong bodies that are supposed to be held back by their lack of reliable recovery. Terrakion and Garchomp are mons with stellar statlines that can at times use their BST advantage in conjunction with SD to muscle past supposed counters at the expense of a reasonable chunk of damage. In standard play this means your Chomp/Terrak is now most likely sac fodder, however with the addition of PH/Regen you can just switch out or protect stall and get most of your HP back - allowing you to repeat the process. Because their stats are already so good, they don't really need damage boosting abilities nor do they need bulk augmentation, so passive recovery is the perfect addition to their ability slot. Something similar can be said for Fini and Lax, which are both notorious for sweeping weakened teams after they have accumulated enough CM/Curse boosts.

In order to illustrate the way these abilities play out in game, I'm gonna be sharing a few replays:
QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Garchomp - in this replay my Garchomp has an very good matchup vs QT's team, with Bulu being the only pokemon that beats it 1v1. This means it can freely set up SDs on pretty much any other member of QT's team, repeatedly forcing Bulu in. As a ground type with PH it's practically immune to hazard damage, whereas Bulu is forced to take SR chip everytime it comes in, which means that once Bulu is chipped into +2 range, Garchomp can try to 1v1 it due to the SD attack boost. This replay is a perfect example of the residual PH recovery making a bad matchup vs its user almost insurmountable.
EDIT: QT pointed out that Barra was running Ice Fang, which means that he had additional Chomp counterplay.

QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Fini - this replay features a PH fini on both sides, however QT's Fini is running Taunt in order to win mirror matches as well beat would be counters like Desolate Land Volcarona and Skill Swappers without Magic Bounce. It wins basically as soon as it gets the PH off, as my designated Fini counterplay is Volcarona, which would beat Fini by boosting alongside it, but is prevented from doing so by Taunt.

QT vs TNM: Poison Heal Glastrier - QT is using a team built by Flaming Victini that features a Poison Heal Glastrier. Glastrier's immense bulk as well as access to solid coverage options in Horsepower and CC lets it pressure most checks by virtue of living their super effective moves and koing back at +2. Additionally, its extremely low speed means the usual method of "slowpivot into offensive counterplay" is almost impossible, which makes it a menace for teams without an Unaware or Dauntless user with skill swap. Glastrier takes a number of rounds of rocks chip throughout the game, but is able to regain enough HP through protect stalling to stay a relevant threat throughout the game, almost running away with the game due to a Magma Storm miss at the end.

jrdn vs TNM: Regen core of Silvally + Garchomp - this game showcases the power of regen cores and how well two regenerators complement each other in order to make chipping switchins pretty much impossible. In the words of stresh:

SFLO Gengar, an otherwise terrifying wallbreaker is unable to make meaningful progress in the face of AV Silvally and Scarf Garchomp, since they can both switch in repeatedly, forcing it out and regaining chip damage. This is further exacerbated by Blissey's passivity, which lets Silvally and Chomp freely switch around on it, regaining any damage they took from a mispredict or overextension on my part. After turn 6, where Corviknight's Mummy removes Kommo-o's unburden eliminating its cleaning potential this game turns into a game of attrition (which is where my two regen mons give me an immense advantage), where I slowly accumulate chip onto jrdn's team in order to let Noivern win with Boomburst while preserving HP on Garchomp as its my main way of staving off a Volcarona win once screens are set up.

The existence of two passive recovery abilities in Poison Heal and Regenerator in conjunction with 2 ability clause means that players have the option of running up to 4 statsticks with passive recovery abilities that let them bruteforce through supposed checks in long, drawn out games as the defensive pokemon that can stomach hits from these statsticks don't do meaningful damage back and eventually get worn down due to their own lack of passive recovery. In the interest of not banning a large number of pokemon in order to fix this issue, the council is looking at reducing the amount of slots players can run passive recovery abilities on. This can be accomplished both by banning (through suspect test) Poison Heal or by implementing single ability clause.

I am a big fan of AAA and for me just poison heal should be banned.
I think that poison heal is uncompetitive for the reasons that were mentionned + it runned the metagame giving all viable team the need to use it or have a specific tactic like skill swap to counter it. I think that only bannig the fact to use the same ability more than once is also a good idea so I think that the 2 option could be done. And maybe for a futur suspect regenerator if still broken ?

 

[Achelexus]

Merciless Gengar with Venoshock/Hex has ~200 effective BP. Should easily deal with Poison Heal spam.

 

[alaserdolphin]

Merciless Gengar with Venoshock/Hex has ~200 effective BP. Should easily deal with Poison Heal spam.

The problem with this is that if they don't run a PH mon, you're absolutely screwing yourself over by wasting an entire slot on your team. Even more than that, Pokémon like PH Snorlax exist (and aren't rare), and they're not going to die all-too-easily to a Gengar, especially when they could literally change just the ability and hit for meaty damage with +2 no-miss focus blast/zap cannon, etc.

The other thing is that even if you make a dedicated merciless team (which I am going to admit I have tried to do more than once), you're still depending on something that can get really easily stopped by something as simple as an enemy poison mon.