SV AAA Suspect Coverage: Annihilape

By Gimmickyasitgets, Released: 2023/12/4
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SV AAA Annihilape Suspect Test

Art by Kaiju Bunny.

Introduction

In Almost Any Ability, Pokémon can enhance their offensive or defensive (or both!) utility by running, well, almost any ability! From powerful damage-boosting options like Sword of Ruin and Sheer Force to sturdy defense boosters like Intimidate, Fluffy, and Unaware to mixed-application abilities like Regenerator, Primordial Sea, and Toxic Debris, there's no shortage of unique options! With Scarlet and Violet also came two important additions: Terastallization, the mechanic that allows you to change your Pokémon's typing mid-battle, giving you STAB on coverage moves or allowing you to dodge super effective hits, and Annihilape, a similarly infamous Ghost / Fighting type with great bulk for an offensive Pokémon, a high Attack stat, and the powerful new move Rage Fist, which gained 50 Base Power whenever Annihilape was hit by an attack, with a max of 350 before any multipliers.

Annihilape was an absurdly broken Pokémon during the days of early Almost Any Ability. It was free alongside broken abilities like Poison Heal, Ice Scales, and Unburden, broken Pokémon like Iron Valiant, Flutter Mane, and Iron Hands, as well as Terastallization, but among all of these that would eventually be banned from the tier, Annihilape was among the first to go. Annihilape actively incentivized your opponent not to attack and not to make progress, lest they come face to face with an effective 525 Base Power move off of base 115 Attack. Annihilape could repeatedly heal up and boost the power of Rage Fist with Poison Heal or, if preferred, Regenerator, could turn offensive behemoths into setup fodder with Ice Scales or Fur Coat, bypass its mediocre Speed with either Triage Drain Punch or a Choice Scarf, or simply boost its power to huge levels with Sword of Ruin or Adaptability, melting even bulky Pokémon with a resistance. The metagame is a lot different than it was when Annihilape was banned, though. Fluffy Zapdos and Great Tusk are top Pokémon in the tier, Psychic Surge Azelf blocks Triage Drain Punch, and some of Annihilape's most potent tools in Ice Scales, Poison Heal, and Terastallization are no longer free. Because of this, Annihilape was suspect tested, for the community to decide if these changes are enough to make it balanced!

Sets

Triage

Annihilape

This was one of the best sets Annihilape could run, acting as a potent revenge killer and sweeper. Drain Punch is normally an unimpressive move, but the combination of amazing synergy with Rage Fist and boosted priority from Triage made it a fantastic option that forced out faster threats like Roaring Moon. Ghost / Fighting had unresisted neutral coverage, hitting nearly every relevant foe in the tier for substantial damage. Taunt provided incredible utility, shutting down Roost attempts from Corviknight or Zapdos to allow Annihilape to break them, as well as preventing Toxic from Mandibuzz to give Annihilape better longevity. Alternatively, Stone Edge could be used for a slightly harder hit against Zapdos and Mandibuzz, keeping them from switching in before Rage Fist has acquired boosts, while U-turn allowed Annihilape to act as a bulky pivot, sponging a hit and bringing in a faster teammate while boosting the power of Rage Fist.

Triage Annihilape struggled immensely versus teams with Psychic Surge Azelf, as Azelf not only OHKOed it with Expanding Force but also set priority-blocking Terrain that rendered Drain Punch useless, so it was often paired with teammates that force out Azelf like Roaring Moon, Gholdengo, and Chien-Pao. Dragonite was another particularly problematic matchup, being unbothered by Drain Punch while always OHKOing Annihilape without a Bulk Up Defense boost, so a check like Intimidate Corviknight or Fluffy Zapdos made a good pairing. Annihilape could not reliably break Intimidate Corviknight before acquiring multiple Rage Fist and Bulk Up boosts, so a teammate more equipped to beat Corviknight like Iron Moth or Zapdos was recommended.

Regenerator

Annihilape

Regenerator sets were incredibly common, as they allowed Annihilape to soak up weak hits and power up Rage Fist. The two common variants were Choice Scarf, which was a potent revenge killer, and Assault Vest, which could offensively check common threats like Iron Moth and Sandy Shocks. Close Combat was a more powerful STAB move than Drain Punch, OHKOing Kingambit and offensive Roaring Moon, while Drain Punch gave Annihilape even greater longevity at the cost of lowered damage output. With U-turn, Annihilape formed a potent VoltTurn core with other offensive threats like Azelf, Zapdos, and Iron Moth, switching the other in on resisted hits and keeping momentum throughout a match. In the final moveslot, Stone Edge 2HKOed Iron Moth and offensive Zapdos hoping to soak up Fighting-type moves, while Final Gambit was an all-or-nothing option that allowed to Annihilape sacrifice itself to take out a threat with lower HP than it such as Kommo-o, Barraskewda, or Zamazenta-C.

Annihilape's mediocre uninvested Attack meant it struggled to significantly damage walls like Corviknight, Manaphy, or Great Tusk before acquiring Rage Fist boosts. Fast pivoting teammates like offensive Zapdos and Roaring Moon were perfect teammates, being able to bring in Annihilape against a resisted hit such as Ogerpon-C's Ivy Cudgel or an opposing U-turn to boost the power of Rage Fist while also positioning Annihilape to threaten whatever was in front of it. Wallbreaking teammates like Ogerpon-C and Gengar were also a good match, softening up the opposing team so that it could effectively clean up late-game. It also struggled against opposing revenge killers such as Choice Scarf Azelf and Aerilate Dragonite, being unable to outspeed them and vulnerable to their STAB moves; defensive teammates like Manaphy, Corviknight, and Scream Tail were able to check these threats.

Purifying Salt

Annihilape

Purifying Salt, providing both a Ghost neutrality and a status immunity, rose up as a potent anti-metagame set, turning Annihilape into its own biggest counter while also checking opposing threats like Gholdengo and being a potent sweeper in its own right. The combination of Taunt and a status immunity completely shut down common counterplay like Will-O-Wisp, opposing Taunt, or recovery from Corviknight or Gholdengo. Annihilape could switch in freely against opposing unboosted Annihilape, soaking up weak, neutral Rage Fists while boosting the power of its own to still ludicrous levels. Drain Punch was the preferred Fighting-type move now, giving it more longevity, while Close Combat was an option for a more powerful hit against Roaring Moon and Heatran. With Bulk Up, Annihilape could freely set up in front of opposing Annihilape, not caring much about their weak Rage Fist and resisting its other common coverage moves, as well as against other physical threats like Great Tusk and Kommo-o. In the final moveslot, Taunt was a popular option to shut down opposing Annihilape, preventing the foe from using Bulk Up to boost the power of Rage Fist, as well as providing great general utility, shutting down hazard removal or Roost attempts from Mandibuzz and Corviknight or status moves from Gholdengo and Rotom-W, while Stone Edge was an option to hit Zapdos attempting to switch in on its Fighting-type moves, and Stealth Rock allowed Annihilape to provide greater utility, weakening opposing Pokémon over the course of a game.

Foes like Psychic Surge Azelf, Dragonite, and offensive Zapdos still proved problematic, so slow, bulky pivots like Manaphy, Corviknight, and Volt Absorb Empoleon all made fantastic partners, being able to sponge hits from these threats and bring Annihilape back in on a better matchup. Annihilape made a fantastic partner for Ghost-weak teammates like Scream Tail, Azelf, and Ceruledge, as it was relatively unbothered by now neutral Ghost-type moves while threatening them hard with Rage Fist. Hazard-weak threats like Ceruledge, Weavile, and Enamorus-T appreciated Annihilape, as it had an excellent matchup versus common spinblockers such as Gholdengo and opposing non-Purifying Salt Annihilape while also being able to prevent hazards from going up in the first place if running Taunt.

Anti Unban

Annihilape was seen as an incredibly overcentralizing Pokémon, with very limited effective counterplay. It had fantastic bulk and power, an unresisted STAB combination, and insane set diversity that meant a solid answer for one set could find itself completely ruined by another set. Very few Pokémon could prevent an Annihilape sweep, and if a team was prepared for one Annihilape set but ran into another, it was an incredibly overbearing matchup. Once it acquired boosts, either through Rage Fist or Bulk Up, Annihilape was nigh impossible to switch around, with the sheer power of Rage Fist enabling it to overload otherwise solid answers like Zapdos and Corviknight and powerful STAB Fighting-type moves allowing it to threaten the few Dark- and Normal-types like Kingambit and Blissey that tried to switch around Rage Fist, while additional options such as Taunt, Encore, and Night Shade disrupted any potential counterplay that formed while also punishing otherwise safe plays like Knock Off or U-turn.

Pro Unban

Many of the qualities that made Annihilape originally so broken are no longer present in the metagame; Ice Scales and Fur Coat are banned, as are other potent tools such as Poison Heal and Terastallization, leading many to see Annihilape as balanced with sufficient counterplay in the new metagame. Pokémon like Azelf, Dragonite, and Galarian Zapdos were all cited as solid offensive counterplay, because while Annihilape was bulky enough to take many super effective hits, these powerful threats all threatened it enough to put the Annihilape user on the backfoot. Using Annihilape was also a significant investment for many teams, as it soaked up powerful abilities like Regenerator and Triage, meaning it was hardly a free inclusion on teams. Annihilape was also seen as useful counterplay for threats like Weavile and Gholdengo, taking advantage of them to acquire Rage First boosts.

Results & Final Thoughts

Within just 12 hours of the voting process beginning, Annihilape was rebanned from SV AAA, with 27 total ban votes out of 44 eligible voters. Once all votes were collected, 30 out of 44 voters, or 68.18%, concluded that Annihilape should be rebanned. With the suspect test concluded, highly specific counterplay like Purifying Salt is likely to decline in usage, while Annihilape-weak threats such as Gholdengo and Ceruledge will remain dominant in the tier. With the Annihilape reban also came the banning of Weavile and the beginning of a suspect test for Toxic Debris. With the Toxic Debris suspect test underway, the tier awaits the conclusion of the test and the beginning of the Indigo Disk meta.

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