Metagame Almost Any Ability

[Iynhe]

You know what, I don't care I got beaten 3 times in a row after I thought to myself "eh, I'm at 1395, let's gain these 5 points".
I have to change a bunch of stuff on my team so.

https://pokepast.es/ad36314d0f304f98
- I wanted to build with dragonite again since it's my favourite pokemon. In this era of fire types (mainly ogerpon) I saw a fluffy corviknight fo F to that, double coverage for that crap. CB because I love the immediate power and adamant because I am going to click espeed most of the time; coverage only to catch stuff on the switch or if the answer is slower than me.
- Goodra-hisui and Corvinight are your obligatory walls. I chose Hisui over Kalos because it was not weak to ice iirc. They're boring, they work, I'd rather be creative but losing takes a toll on my mental health sometimes so what works becomes the best option.
- Zapdos is one of the mon I started loving the most competitively (Azelf is the only one, but Dragonite is on the team, so), 3A Roost has AMAZING coverage and is strong. It's not the fastest, but it's enough to break through so much stuff.
- Ogerpon-Cornerstone was one of the ideas for a spiker that does not get blocked by Corviknight. It's wet paper weak. It dies to everything. And it feels slow LMAO. It does work sometimes, but it's definitely one of the two worst pokemon here. Grass is a nice offensive/coverage type this gen, though.
- Inteleon came to be because I needed 1) a scarfer faster than azelf (only GoodraH survives an Expanding Force under terrain) and 2) a special attacker.
It is middling at both but greninja was even worse.
--
I could replace Ogerpon with Shock but that has 3 moves it can use and zero coverage so I do not really like it that much. That would make me change Inteleon with scarf Moon though.
What do you think?

 

[Greybaum]

Posting a neat lil team I built earlier today and went 19-1 on ladder with.


I wanted to use Regenerator Kommo-O but Weavile is pretty broken and its few answers like defensive Quaquaval and Infernape, and many of its softer checks like Camazenta all have too much crossover with Kommo-O for my liking, so I had to get creative. I was floating around the idea of using Color Change IDPress Garganacl a couple of months ago but decided that committing a whole ability to make Garganacl a better wincon was generally inferior to having an immunity through Water Absorb or Levitate... but in this initial meta it's actually a crazy good Weavile answer; the mon being so reliant on multi-hits means you resist everything but the first hit of both Beat Up and Icicle Spear and Low Kick doesn't do nearly enough to you either. Having a volatile defensive typing also has the upside of letting you put more investment into SpDef; as you can see I've gone for an Inverse Blissey type spread as Impish gives you enough defense to tank a neutral Flower Trick from Meowscarada into a resisted one even without Leftovers.
While I'd say it's definitely a bit worse than Water Absorb/Levitate in a post-Weavile tier, it definitely still has some upsides; turning Meowscarada into set-up fodder, for example, and making it way easier to whittle away at tanks like Great Tusk without having to click Recover nearly as often. Give it a go!

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1953902737
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1953875308

 

[ghostlike]

Posting a neat lil team I built earlier today and went 29-1 on ladder with. (Jk I built this a while ago)

Not gonna bored you with a long team analysis because this was pre DLC but I just want to share a team I'm really proud of. I was pretty disappointed of myself for not being able to showcase the full potential of Prankster Revavroom in AAAPL but oh well, what can you do about it. This post is also kind of to mourn the death of this set since Azelf is everywhere now. Alright, see you next time when I have some weird teams to share!

 

[Iynhe]

Variation on the team I posted earlier; this time I finally broke the 1400s "wall".

https://pokepast.es/68179368acff2327

I sometimes wish that Sandy's ability was refrigerate, but at that point I would either have to not use thunderbolt (and having a useful attacking type being a pivot move is something I dislike, especially if the Corviknight can somehow survive) or not use Volt Switch (and pivot moves are so amazing, plus help less good players with their switching LMAO and I know I need that).
Moon is a scarfer that outspeeds azelf. Sometimes I miss Crunch since Knock Off is useful only the first time, but it's utility is too useful. Iron Head because Stone Edge was not that useful and I can either have Zen to hit regen Tusk (40% max roll) or Iron Head to hit that damned ancient Jigglypuff (50something min roll on 252 HP 4 Def, which is much better, especially because I don't have other stuff to hit supereffectively with).

I'm having fun.

 

[Betticus IV]

I know this is a tired subject but it's just not fun to play against or build around a variant of setup sweeper + triage. It's somewhat easy to beat if you build/play right but it's just something I don't find fun to counter and limits how I build my team. I understand some of the mons that are using it aren't the best but they can snowball easy if ur checks and/or counters are weakened enough. It's been on the radar for so long and there is always some belly drum triage mon that pops up every meta (hatt/enam are a bit more consistent, but harder to actually set up). Im not saying it's an automatic win condition, but it is just not fun to build around or play against. Feel like I'm seeing it more consistently on ladder, and it's just boring.

 

[cat]

Dealing with Kommo-o: Defensive and Offensive counterplay. I'll be using the standard 252 HP / 252+ Atk and from full for calcs here, with LO as the item.

I'll start with defensive.

• Unaware Scream Tail. While it is the most "boring" counter, it is by far the most viable and the best counter Kommo-o has.
• Defensive Zapdos. Fluffy Zappy takes nothing from all of Kommo-o's bar Rock Slide, but Rock Slide isnt too common rn since you want PJab to beat non STail fairies and EQ for Pex.
• Fluffy Corv. Thunder Punch does 2HKO Corv, but it does allow you to pivot into whatever offensive Kommo-o check you have. Corv doesnt actually check Kommo-o lol
• Some form of skele that doesn't take a million from EQ. --> can will-o-wisp kommo-o but you gotta pray it isnt Rock Slide.

Offensive counterplay now.

• Azelf. Any and every Azelf completely shut down Kommo-o while also chunking it (if on screens, outright OHKO if screen-less for scarf, specs always ohkoes)
• Armor Tail Polteageist. Very HO-specific mon, lovely.

As you can see, the list of counterplay can be counted on one hand. With how easy screens are to get up, it isn't very easy to prevent it from clicking Belly Drum unless your name is Specs BoR Walking Wake but who clicks BD on wake anyways. However the counterplay (barring teapot and maybe skele who isnt super viable rn but still usable) are all very good mons.

This brings me to my next point: Kommo-o is uncompetitive.

II.) Uncompetitive - elements that reduce the effect of player choice / interaction on the end result to an extreme degree, such that "more skillful play" is almost always rendered irrelevant.

• This can be matchup related; think the determination that Baton Pass took the battling skill aspect out of the player's hands and made it overwhelmingly a team matchup issue, where even the best moves made each time by a standard team often were not enough.
• This can be external factors; think Endless Battle Clause, where the determining factor became internet connection over playing skill.
• This can be probability management issues; think OHKOs, evasion, or Moody, all of which turned the battle from emphasizing battling skill to emphasizing the result of the RNG more often than not.

Often times, especially on screens HO, you will need to bring in x mon to deal with your opponent's y mon. However, Kommo-o may easily be able to set up on x mon. This turns into a lose-lose situation, where you either find your team being heavily chipped by y mon, or Kommo-o setting up on x mon. Kommo-o being able to pick and choose what checks it makes it even more matchup reliant, amplifying the uncompetitive part of Kommo-o. Although minor, there is also the possibility of Scream Tail getting poisoned by Poison Jab, which shows that Kommo-o can just luck its way through it.

But what differs it from other setup sweepers like Gengar, Thundy, the like? Their counterplay is low too, they hit similarly hard, yet they aren't considered as uncompetitive? Unlike them, Kommo-o has bulk, artificial "speed" from Triage, access to Belly Drum which is much stronger than Nasty Plot, and the ability to self-sustain with a boosted Drain Punch. However, BD's drawback makes it a one-time do-or-die mon, while Gengar and Thundy can NP many times in a game. This difference in power and versatility separates Kommo-o and Gengar's role, Kommo-o being a (usually) one-time button clicker that heavily relies on matchup while Gengar is a more consistent, less MU reliant setup sweeper that can be used multiple times throughout the game to start breaking or to start sweeping.

The difference between banning Kommo-o and banning Triage is pretty significant. Kommo-o by itself has a lot of valuable traits: checking every Ogerpon form, Meowscarada, Cinderace, Barraskewda, list goes on. Banning Kommo-o will cause these mons to lose one of checks and may become more overbearing for the meta. Banning Triage means that some mons completely lose their niche - for now, that's Hatterene exclusively but Enamorus-T will suffer from that big hit too. Conkeldurr / Okidogi seem to be potential abusers of BU + Triage too, they will be relegated to running SoR or smth instead.

Triage is notably controversial, being able to remove progress by forcing out X mon could be considered uncompetitive as it does "limit" progress, but I haven't seen too much discussion on it. I'm interested in everyone's thoughts, what do yall think about Triage and Kommo-o? I personally feel like these two are fine and have sufficient counterplay such that they aren't broken. Competitive-wise I'm leaning towards kinda uncompetitive for Triage and Kommo-o being uncompetitive atm but maybe with meta developments I'll change my mind.

might be missing stuff since it's exam season for me rn but oh well
edit: new team: https://pokepast.es/6ae58583058a9d66, very consistent, wins against everything if you dont get 2 minrolls with lash out on corv and then missing stone edge or run into competitive sash gengar peaked like 6th on ladder or smth idk

 

[eto89]

Okay it's my first time ever writing something (not like this but anything in general here) but I need help in something I don't understand at all. Sorry if this seems strange but I really don't get it
Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Zap Cannon
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Heat Wave

Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Weather Ball
- U-turn

I don't know the sets for sure and I only speculated the ev but why are those sets so common? The no guard one I've seen only early meta both scarf and boots but the pseas one I just don't get it, first of all I never once wanted a coverage move on Zapdos without weather ball (now that I'm seeing weather bal, for the first time I finally get it even if it make me miss U-turn a little) but I always found roost useful. Also I haven't actually checked any speed tier but isn't 100 base speed scarf a bit lacking when literary anything else exists? It cant outspeed any other scarfer let alone any shell smasher. It usually doesn't have the firepower to sweep teams especially with only one move and it literally never done anything useful against me if not some annoying chip on my offensive Mon before dying.
This isn't the usual post I see here but I genuinely wanted to ask if anyone could tell me why is this considered useful (as a disclaimer, I never went beyond 1300 and I'm currently more on the 1150/1200 on the account I'm using these days I'm more of a casual player and all this could be just the proof of the hive mind of the low ladder).

 

[eto89]

Okay it's my first time ever writing something (not like this but anything in general here) but I need help in something I don't understand at all. Sorry if this seems strange but I really don't get it
Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Ability: No Guard
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Zap Cannon
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Heat Wave

Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Thunder
- Weather Ball
- U-turn

I don't know the sets for sure and I only speculated the ev but why are those sets so common? The no guard one I've seen only early meta both scarf and boots but the pseas one I just don't get it, first of all I never once wanted a coverage move on Zapdos without weather ball (now that I'm seeing weather bal, for the first time I finally get it even if it make me miss U-turn a little) but I always found roost useful. Also I haven't actually checked any speed tier but isn't 100 base speed scarf a bit lacking when literary anything else exists? It cant outspeed any other scarfer let alone any shell smasher. It usually doesn't have the firepower to sweep teams especially with only one move and it literally never done anything useful against me if not some annoying chip on my offensive Mon before dying.
This isn't the usual post I see here but I genuinely wanted to ask if anyone could tell me why is this considered useful (as a disclaimer, I never went beyond 1350 and I'm currently more on the 1150/1200 on the account I'm using these days I'm more of a casual player and all this could be just the proof of the hive mind of the low ladder).

Nevermind I hit 1400 and never seen a scarf zapdos above the 1200 (thanks to all the people that actually can do team building because in this account I didn't use any first hand team, you guys are so wonderful and help anyone to enjoy the game without thinking too much) and nothing more I'd still like to hear if someone actually knows the benefits of a scarf Zapdos but anyway thanks everyone for this moment, next step is good gxe but I don't even know the maths behind that so it'll be a problem for future me I guess

 

[Hera]

would like to add to the cat post above that gar is also good counterplay, screens or not it trades with kommo at worst after a bd with swave + rocks + lo recoil and can't be drain punched. poltea does not need to be armor tail since it already has an immunity to fighting. there's also dnite which lives a +6 dpunch if you invest in bulk (+6 252+ Atk Life Orb Kommo-o Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 168 Def Dragonite: 273-322 (84.5 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO), and tspikes which really cuts into kommo-o's hp pool. these aren't the most effective outside of a vaccum for the most part but since most of the other counterplay listed in cat's post wasn't either i just assumed we were thinking about counterplay in a vacuum.

personally i thought triage would be broken and qbed right after dlc dropped because kommo-o was coming back + we all thought they were gonna fix bitter blade, but the former has been checked by azzy, a top tier mon otherwise, and the latter never happened. the other legal triage users have never been problematic and i'm of the opinion that triage itself is healthy for the meta despite what some people on the discord seem to think. in this meta there's a decent amount of counterplay to triage users between azzy, unawares, and dazzling mons that would all see usage without triage, and it's been proven time and time again that triage is only problematic when you can insta boost to +6 with bd. idk how to handle the combo of triage + bd tiering wise, so unless the fabled belly drum policy review post ever happened, if kommo ends up being busted then triage will probably be banned.

ban gar btw that mon is so stupid and restrictive in teambuilder. using bulletproof mons sucks so the only way to deal with gar defensively is by using up your one regen slot on one of moon/goodra/manaphy/the poison bird thingy. stabs + focus + knock beats pretty much everything long-term and it has enough power to blast through teams without a dedicated check short term. very frustrating mon to deal with both in builder and in game without making suboptimal concessions and would fully support a suspect/qb inbetween aaapl and omwc.

 

[LordQuarl42]

Dealing with Kommo-o: Defensive and Offensive counterplay. I'll be using the standard 252 HP / 252+ Atk and from full for calcs here, with LO as the item.

I'll start with defensive.

• Unaware Scream Tail. While it is the most "boring" counter, it is by far the most viable and the best counter Kommo-o has.
• Defensive Zapdos. Fluffy Zappy takes nothing from all of Kommo-o's bar Rock Slide, but Rock Slide isnt too common rn since you want PJab to beat non STail fairies and EQ for Pex.
• Fluffy Corv. Thunder Punch does 2HKO Corv, but it does allow you to pivot into whatever offensive Kommo-o check you have. Corv doesnt actually check Kommo-o lol
• Some form of skele that doesn't take a million from EQ. --> can will-o-wisp kommo-o but you gotta pray it isnt Rock Slide.

Offensive counterplay now.

• Azelf. Any and every Azelf completely shut down Kommo-o while also chunking it (if on screens, outright OHKO if screen-less for scarf, specs always ohkoes)
• Armor Tail Polteageist. Very HO-specific mon, lovely.

As you can see, the list of counterplay can be counted on one hand. With how easy screens are to get up, it isn't very easy to prevent it from clicking Belly Drum unless your name is Specs BoR Walking Wake but who clicks BD on wake anyways. However the counterplay (barring teapot and maybe skele who isnt super viable rn but still usable) are all very good mons.

This brings me to my next point: Kommo-o is uncompetitive.

Often times, especially on screens HO, you will need to bring in x mon to deal with your opponent's y mon. However, Kommo-o may easily be able to set up on x mon. This turns into a lose-lose situation, where you either find your team being heavily chipped by y mon, or Kommo-o setting up on x mon. Kommo-o being able to pick and choose what checks it makes it even more matchup reliant, amplifying the uncompetitive part of Kommo-o. Although minor, there is also the possibility of Scream Tail getting poisoned by Poison Jab, which shows that Kommo-o can just luck its way through it.

But what differs it from other setup sweepers like Gengar, Thundy, the like? Their counterplay is low too, they hit similarly hard, yet they aren't considered as uncompetitive? Unlike them, Kommo-o has bulk, artificial "speed" from Triage, access to Belly Drum which is much stronger than Nasty Plot, and the ability to self-sustain with a boosted Drain Punch. However, BD's drawback makes it a one-time do-or-die mon, while Gengar and Thundy can NP many times in a game. This difference in power and versatility separates Kommo-o and Gengar's role, Kommo-o being a (usually) one-time button clicker that heavily relies on matchup while Gengar is a more consistent, less MU reliant setup sweeper that can be used multiple times throughout the game to start breaking or to start sweeping.

The difference between banning Kommo-o and banning Triage is pretty significant. Kommo-o by itself has a lot of valuable traits: checking every Ogerpon form, Meowscarada, Cinderace, Barraskewda, list goes on. Banning Kommo-o will cause these mons to lose one of checks and may become more overbearing for the meta. Banning Triage means that some mons completely lose their niche - for now, that's Hatterene exclusively but Enamorus-T will suffer from that big hit too. Conkeldurr / Okidogi seem to be potential abusers of BU + Triage too, they will be relegated to running SoR or smth instead.

Triage is notably controversial, being able to remove progress by forcing out X mon could be considered uncompetitive as it does "limit" progress, but I haven't seen too much discussion on it. I'm interested in everyone's thoughts, what do yall think about Triage and Kommo-o? I personally feel like these two are fine and have sufficient counterplay such that they aren't broken. Competitive-wise I'm leaning towards kinda uncompetitive for Triage and Kommo-o being uncompetitive atm but maybe with meta developments I'll change my mind.

might be missing stuff since it's exam season for me rn but oh well
edit: new team: https://pokepast.es/6ae58583058a9d66, very consistent, wins against everything if you dont get 2 minrolls with lash out on corv and then missing stone edge or run into competitive sash gengar

I've been laddering a lot recently with a defensive Kommo-o set, and I honestly think it brings a really unique defensive presence to the metagame. I won't write a whole essay about it, since its hella late where I am, but if action would be taken, I'd much prefer it to be either Triage, or the fabled Belly Drum+Triage complex ban.

 

[Isaiah]

In case you didn't know, the Viability Rankings is now up to date! (Check out the role compendium too, it's pretty cool)

 

[ToluTTT]

How do you guys deal with lead weavile? I build relatively good teams and end up being destroyed by Icicile spear+beat up+ low kick coverage with technician or some other really strong ability. The only mon I've been able to see check those consistently is defesive Quaquaval

 

[Uninteleon]

How do you guys deal with lead weavile? I build relatively good teams and end up being destroyed by Icicile spear+beat up+ low kick coverage with technician or some other really strong ability. The only mon I've been able to see check those consistently is defesive Quaquaval

Typically, whenever you see a lead Weavile, you should counter-lead with something that outspeeds it and OHKOs it. Mons that can do this well are:
+ Drain Punch Azelf (my personal choice since drain punch also hits steels and chien pao)
Sacred Sword Chien Pao
Barraskewda
/ Dragonite
Sandy Shocks

calc

252 Atk Technician Weavile Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Sandy Shocks: 192-228 (61.7 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO, 252+ SpA Hadron Engine Sandy Shocks Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Weavile in Electric Terrain: 306-360 (108.5 - 127.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO, 252 SpA Hadron Engine Sandy Shocks Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Weavile in Electric Terrain: 279-328 (98.9 - 116.3%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO

Other choices include:
Forfeiting
Immediately going to Intim Corv and body pressing while sacrificing 60% of your health
Praying Manapy lives 2 beat ups
Using a scarfer that doesnt ohko weavile but also doesnt outright lose to it
Using a priority mon (vacuum wave, mach punch, bullet punch, -ate speed, etc.)
Or using your own weavile to counter other weaviles

P.S.: If Weavile has Icicle Spear, Beat-up, and Low Kick, it probably wont have Ice shard, making your life easier with revenge killing it.

 

[Isaiah]

IT'S SURVEY TIME

>> TO FILL IT OUT, CLICK ON THIS MESSAGE <<

You know the drill; get in there! I'll close responses in no earlier than 1 week, maybe longer if there's a dearth of responses.​

In other news, sample team submissions are now open (on a rolling basis)! This means any team already posted in the thread + teams posted in the thread will be considered for sample teams by the council and added accordingly. As a reminder, please don't pester anyone on the council in DMs asking if your team is going to be accepted; if it is, you will see as much in the update.

 

[pannu]

sample subs!

(i hit like top 5 on ladder using this a while back idk that should be enough to back up that they're good)


Scarf azelf is very strong VS offense and a bunch of other offensive threats u see on ladder, however it kinda sucks vs dark and steel types so i built this team around pressuring those with tusk, weav, etc. Wake is a nice water resist that helps against stuff like skewda and manaphy, and can also knock regenvesters for azelf. pretty cool squad IMO


a very solid defensive core and 2 very scary sweepers. not much to say other than i find that you're able to outplay mostly everything the tier has to offer with this 6


(untested mglo tusk version)
Balance teams are my bread and butter, this one is very nice and has a lot of ways to pressure the opponent while having a lot of tools to deal with the opponent too. I also featured a quick edit and UNTESTED version i made with a MGLO tusk set i saw ghostlike run on ladder which i thought was super cool, helps a lot with hazards, especially tspikes while still being an offensive thread.

https://pokepast.es/b102214cd47dce48 this isn't the most consistent team so i am not submitting it to samples but it is very fun.

 

[Hera]

sample sub

Daredevil

very simple and beginner friendly team. cornerstone and azzy are the main offensive mons that create pressure on tp and in game, since an unrevealed cornerstone is a big threat in the meta. rest of the team is dedicated to checking the big threats in the meta (gar, opposing azzy, barra, dnite, moth, wake, etc) while giving you enough time to beat the threats this team doesn't immediately check (opposing cornerstone, low kick weav, aoa cerul). for everything else, tdebris tusk is decent at shutting them down or limiting their kills to 1-2 mons. very effective in tests and other games i've played.

threats (underline = b or below):
-if gar crits you it's basically an autoloss; also you can give knock sets too many free turns and they'll win anyway, but gar is busted so...
-offensive bu tusk with ice spinner if you get your plays wrong can also win
-hearthflame and wellspring kinda make me cry
-physical/mixed eleki
-mamoswine
-demon mew
-sflo carona
-mixed infernape

 

[cumps]

hooray sample sub!



a fairly standard, simple-to-use bulky offense team featuring prankster skeledirge. reached top ten on ladder with it.

defensive core
Intim corv doesn't need much explanation. I like rocky helmet on it when paired with pao specifically. If there's an opposing intim corv, 150 BP lash out into 75 BP lash out doesn't secure a guaranteed KO with rocks damage, but it does with a round of prior helmet chip. Prankster dirge is good for unexpected fast wisps and ruining setup, which the other two defensive mons are weak to, with encore. It resists fire ogerpon's stabs and can tenuously 1v1 it (prankster slack off is really helpful). Manaphy knocks, threatens burns, and pivots out. Energy ball is for opposing manaphy but could be replaced with take heart to cure status and increase damage output in slower games when your AV inevitably gets knocked.

offensive core
Chomp sets rocks and acts as a late-game cleaner. Corv obviously hard walls it so it needs to wait until pao can batter it down before attempting a sweep. Armor tail not only provides safety once set up, but also setup opportunities against things like triage hat and espeed dnite. Pao is pao, keep the aforementioned corv interaction in mind and note that crash is a guaranteed OHKO on all ogerpon forms. Gengar could be SFLO, but that set can't KO max HP tusk from full so I went with specs BOR (hadron could work too). If this mon gets banned, another garden variety strong special attacker could easily replace it.

threats
Defensive quaq + meloetta: this core hard walls pao and gengar in a vacuum, so it's important to get rocks up and fish for sludge bomb poisons on meloetta.
Iron moth: manaphy can tank discharges with its AV but para is annoying. Chomp always lives sun-boosted fiery dance into +1 fiery dance from timid moth, but only from full, so keep it healthy.
Ogerpon-cornerstone: corv does not beat this if it's rocky payload. Play aggressive with pao doubles, trade damage onto dirge for a burn if possible, and risk the speed tie with gengar if needed.

 

[Giagantic]

Here's a team I recently created:

Goal of team is to stack hazards to apply pressure, check what you can, play around what you can't. Scream Tail set is for the most part a set I stole from a certain person, though with Encore to abuse Corviknight that think they can use any move in front of it. Great Tusk is Toxic Debris to punish pivots and synergies with Ceruledge due to being able to block most spinning sets, it runs CC to hit most targets and Ice Spinner to hit stuff like Dragonite with a bonus that it ends active terrains. Quagsire checks most grass types like Ogerpon rock and fire and sets up spikes and toxic spams stuff that isn't effected by hazards (heavy duty boots). Goodra-Hisui and Corviknight set wise need no introduction as they are fairly obvious and well-used (not that most of the other sets are original or anything). One thing you may notice is a lack of Knock Off and this is completely intentional so that Ceruledge can spam Poltergeist freely.

Can be used as a sample, if you so wish.

 

[ghostlike]

Submitting this team when it is still hot out of the oven:


This is our winning AAAPL team. After struggling to fine a good check for Ogerpon in the first week I stumble uppon the Zama + Zap core that can check the two relevant forms. Zama is also very nice as a check to the two very dangerous threat right now being Meow and Weavile and just a strong late game wincon in general.

Zap is there for fighters too but they don't really exist and Zap is also kind of bad right now in hindsight. Still a very good fit for the team. These two basically handle most physical threats right now so we will move on to the special threats.

Water absorbs Corviknight was in one of my first post DLC team because I realised the potential of a good check to both Manaphy, Walking Wake and Barraskewda, all of which are very dangerous threats in the tier.

The only big threats right now for my team would be special fire and electric type which is where regenvest Roaring Moon comes in handy. I was messing around with RegenScarf Moon early on but then OJR told me that he want to check Gengar so I pull up the calc and made this ev spread which can live SFLO Focus Blast from full even with rocks up. With access to Knock off, Regenvest Moon is no longer passive like it used to be and is a worth considering special wall. Also bonus, unlike other regenvesters like Goodra-Hisui, Roaring Moon doesn't get knocked too often because special breakers with knock like Wake or Mana are handled by Corv.

Last two slots need to be rocker, speed control and breaker. I decided to fit both rocker and speed control into one slot and ended upon scarf Sandy Shocks. It's a very good mon right now and can break apart a lot of teams. Because of that, getting rocks up is no problem for Shocks.

Final slot is Ogerpon Cornerstone aka one of the most broken breakers right now. Not much to say about it other than how hard to wall this thing. It used to be double stab and play rough for kommo but after messing around on the ladder I find that Goodra-Hisui is very good right now as a check to Rockerpon so I decided to switch to Low Kick instead.
Overal, very solid and easy to pilot team. This team is pretty weak to toxic spikes, however, so do be careful around Toxic Debris Tusk.

About the replays, I only need one:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9almostanyability-722583
s/o to Ivar57 the goat for pilotting this team so well and the Charizzards in general for giving me such a great experience playing AAA.
Edit:

 

[Atha]

Please don't vote for a 2AC Suspect, it was awful in AAAPL I don't want to play this ever again

 

[RoFnA]

sample time: SFLO Chandelure BO



The goal of the team is to try to paralyse and knock off spdef walls like RegenVest , or and bring in Chandelure as many times as possible with pivots like Empoleon or Fezandipiti. Choice Scarf Azelf serves as a great speed control but it can also cripple mons by tricking them a choice scarf. The defensive core of PrimeSea Zapdos, Intimidate Corvi, RegenVest Fezandipiti and Volt Absorb Empoleon does pretty good job in the current meta. Haze on Empoleon to get better control of setup mons like Tail Glow Manaphy or Calm Mind Cresselia/Scream Tail if you don't really care about rocks. You can also switch up Haze for Stealth Rocks, but Haze saved me so many times.
Pain Split serves as a form of recovery for Chandelure. Most of the time it just straight up heals back to full. You can bring Blissey down to around 53% with Pain Split and then 2hko it.

Threats:
Well Baked Body is a big threat. It still takes 37-44% from Shadow Ball but with 2+Def and +2 Atk and nothing to really touch it, it can spiral out of control quickly.
can also be scary if you let Corviknight get chipped down too much. Icicle Crash only does 20% to Empoleon but Crunch 2hkos it so you have to predict on that part.

proof that I am not that bad. Atleast not as bad as Giagantic :)

replays

vs Hard Stall
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1947874258-pjn5sxz5byyydf6cc2afem7bzjj4e9qpw

vs Balance Offense
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1947880014-zvd9rctpdfdhr7p478oqa4oyspisgqupw

vs Hazard Stack
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1947886312-yqeyekke5qw8karuvbqwr8pu98hh6whpw

vs Balance Offense
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1953688337-mlkvpvp1knkgmlzsa8cer9mmm1oj7awpw

vs Balance Offense
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1963335451-9u77x25fvsh4z0r20dw8hakyetlfjzqpw

vs Salty Player on the ladder
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1963283919-d8jzoek26ljwqfq8pul7ggu77bbsq9wpw

vs the god of AAA Natcrozma himself
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1965624501-8kol4d8jmpke00thviszlk2ql87une2pw

As you can see in the replays, my main goal is always to paralyse the spdef wall and try to knock the AV or trick a choice scarf. Once the wall is paralysed or crippled by a choice scarf i bring in Chandelure savely on Corviknight, Avalugg etc. and click substitue. With a substitute up I try to fish for a para or just blow up whatever mon is in front of me.
Have Fun with the team !

 

[Hiusi guy]

Yo my first post in this thread (somehow ) but I got a sample sub
Chein-Pao w/ Encore Ogerpon Balence:


A cool balence team with the usual suspects of corv and Cheem-pao and a bit of a gimmicy ogerpon set. Corv, Fez, and Gliscor are meant to pivot into chien-pao so that it can just start killing things, whilst Heatran and Gliscor also set up hazards for chein, and corv removes hazards to get chein in safely. Pivot Ogerpon is really good at annoying and forcing out corviknight and scream tail as well as some other set up mons like manaphy with encore and strong adapt damage. Heatran helps by tanking at least one hard hit and either taking down or weakening chein checks like corv and scream tail.

The unfortunate side to this team is that it's kinda weak to azelf with nothing that really deals with it besides a risky switch to Chein or Heatran sometimes. Specs Volcanion and Walking Wake also run this team with hazards, though these can be revenged by Chein or oger pretty easily. The team hard loses to thunder punch bdrum kommo behind screens, found that out like an hour ago otherwise if it has eq then fez beats it easily. Also MGLO Luc with vacuum wave 6-0's this team but it's on a steep decline so just be warry.

The team works enough to where my only loss was against stall where I probably just played bad, otherwise I've played about 25-30 games and won all of them and made it from 1500 on ladder to 1600.

 

[cosmogii]

so i'm a complete and utter garbage player, and i want to preface this before getting into anything.
BUT, this is one of the most fun metas i've ever played, and i've been lurking in these forums since sword and shield. when i saw that gengar got unbanned, i figured i'd jump at the opportunity to try and make an actual okay team for once since its always been one of my personal favorites. so lets get into these mediocre mons, shall we?

the booger boys

Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Encore
obviously, its gengar! nothing necessarily special about the set, but i do think that ditching sludge bomb for encore is better overall since you can mess with a lot of mons and potentially get a free nasty plot up. standard ghost/fighting coverage, focus miss blast is absurdly strong with sheer force, capable of blasting holes in the opposition.

Azelf @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Expanding Force
- U-turn
- Trick
- Flamethrower
so i realized that things like cheem-pao and kingambit would be a big issue to gengar since they both have priority that can screw with gengar because of its frailty. welp, time to throw in the towel, there's nothing more we can do- oh wait, azelf exists. yeah this thing is really fantastic, it screws with the priority that would immediately threaten our squishy gengar and has a nuts stab attack in expanding force. trick is to mess with bulky mons, flamethrower is for corv, nothing too special here.


Muk-Alola @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Poison Fang
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Rock Slide
when making the team, it dawned on me- how do i deal with opposing azelf? its already a pretty good and common mon, and setting up psychic terrain myself just means gengar will be weaker to it. and thats where muk comes in, this thing is a freaking blob of pure special absorbing prowess. it can take hit after hit, and regen means it'll come back with a weird trash filled grin on its face. really good mon, but MAN does poison fang suck. i use it for the toxic chance, but if you want immediate power, poison jab all the way. i just find that muk is a bit weaker overall, and the poison spreading can help.

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Well-Baked Body/Intimidate
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- U-turn/Body Press
with all this poison on the field, we need a way to stop ground types from eating us alive, and.. yeah. that's corv in a nutshell. hazard removal, good defensive abilities, and can synergize with muk to help tank physical hits. if you're running well baked body, i'd use body press over u turn, and vice versa if you're using intimidate. i don't have a huuuuge preference, but i do appreciate having the ability to completely snuff hearthflame or iron moth out. fire types tend to have a (slightly) easier time against this team, since it can be hard to switch into.

Chien-Pao @ Choice Band
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Sacred Sword
- Crunch
- Ice Shard
this is mainly just to wallbreak. everybody knows what chien-pao does, its nothing fancy- just a butt ton of damage and the tears of any dragon type that isn't called dragonite.

Ogerpon-Cornerstone (F) @ Cornerstone Mask
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stomping Tantrum/Encore
- Ivy Cudgel
- Horn Leech
- U-turn
and this here, is our pivot! there's also nothing super neat to say, it just does really good damage consistently, good stab combination, etcetera etcetera. stomping tantrum is for steels, but if you wanna be a silly little goober you can run double encore to lock a mon into a setup move and beat it over the head with a stick. (ivy cudgel) horn leech is for a bit of longevity, but you can always swap it out for something like power whip for that extra damage. i don't personally use it cause i'm a stickler for accuracy.

THREATS TO THIS TEAM:
Dragonite- holy shit, this mon completely destroys us. no reliable espeed switch in, unless you run intimidate corv. bulky sets are moderately okay to deal with, but they still suck dogwater. stall is annoying too, albeit not nearly as much as aerilate. good luck against this thing, pray to god you can predict with your chien-pao to wear it down. KEEP CORV HEALTHY.

Priority- i know psychic terrain is there, and its literally part of why the team works, but a lot of these mons can't realistically always deal with the ice shards and sucker punches of ou. be wary, and make sure you can time your plays with terrain up.

Ogerpon- this is less of an immediate issue, but it can still really screw with you. hearthflame means you have to run well baked body on your corv, but cornerstone and wellspring mean intimidate is also a viable option to help lessen their damage. play carefully around this mon, she's no joke. you do NOT want to eat an ivy cudgel to the face.

Iron Moth: once again, less of an immediate issue, (and even less so because of azelf being on our side.) but its not to be underestimated. well baked body corv can help, but eating a discharge to the face is liable to put you on a shirt and in someone's twitter bio. just keep azelf around and you'll be fine.

if you're like me and are too lazy to read through all that, the team is here! https://pokepast.es/a8d6b13bf5d0a4bb
either way have a lovely rest of your day/night/evening, drink water, and remember: crime is legal if you don't get caught!

 

[Giagantic]

PSA! POKEMON SHOWDOWN ANNOUNCEMENT! PSA!

Hello, it is I, Gia, a sometimes competent, often incompetent AAA player who has been discussing a certain set for the last day! (I am also brutally trying to escape from certain personal circumstance by doing this)

Drum rolls please!

Iron Treads @ Terrain Extender / Life Orb / Expert Belt / Leftovers
Ability: Hadron Engine
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Stealth Rock / Knock Off / Rapid Spin

Now, I am sure those that haven't been enlightened yet will be flummoxed by this set, "A fully specially invested Iron Treads, with Hadron Engine, NANI," you may yell, disturbing your family, friends, random strangers/classmates in the starbucks, library, or school room you are in! But hold your judgment for but a moment, for this set does some interesting things.

1. It 2hko's common switchins to Iron Treads, whether that be Great Tusk or Corviknight both are dealt massive damage by the relevant move (Flash Cannon for Tusk, Volt Switch for Corv).
   Hide

   252 SpA Hadron Engine Iron Treads Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Corviknight in Electric Terrain: 204-242 (51.1 - 60.6%) -- 91.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery / 252 SpA Hadron Engine Iron Treads Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Great Tusk: 196-232 (45.1 - 53.4%) -- 35.5% chance to 2HKO
2. It sets Electric terrain meaning you can run other stuff on say, Sandy Shocks, or better yet use it in tandem with a Surge Surfer such as Hoopa who goes from pitiful speed to one of the fasted non-scarf Pokemon in the meta under the terrain.
3. It is cool, let's be real, everyone wants to use something unique unless you are boring and hold onto your Intimidate Corvs and Regen Manaphys, this set is definitely cool and unconventional to the extreme! *I use both
4. You can run other stuff with it then the aforementioned such as Steel Roller.
5. It's mixed and handles many specially defensive mons with just EQ alone such as Goodra-H, Empoleon(unless EE but then it takes massive damage from Volt Switch)
6. Running SR baits in Corvs like a fish goes after a hooked worm!

That is all!

 

[LOrd Fernado]

sample time :>

this hazard stack team features all three types of hazards, with toxic debris great tusk, spikes ogerpon-h, and stealh rock scream tail. corviknight is for the sketchy thundurus match-up with volt absorb (i'm also scared of lash out chien-pao), walking wake is a revenge killer to make the team faster due to it's well, slow nature. it also forms a desolate land + primordial sea core with ogerpon-hearthflame. scream tail is for the kommo-o and azelf match-up, and provides the team an anti-set-up mon.

this team becomes incredibly weak to kommo-o if scream tail dies, and thundurus is corvknight dies. also, great tusk is the only mon that can hit toxapex for super effective damage, and chien-pao / weavile are scary in general but can be managed with scream tail.