Hello there! SS AAA is a tier I spent a lot of time playing, so much so that some have mistakenly called me an AAA main (I main PU). It's definitely a fun tier at times, and one that has taught me a lot about how to play the game and has helped me grow as a player. However, I will be the first to say I really hated the state the tier ended up in. I won't go super in-depth with my complaints as I've stated them before here and here, but it boils down to that I believe SS AAA, at the end of the gen, was a tier that was ultra-centralized around the teambuilder due to the many offensive threats in the meta that lack common checks, making it shit to build in, and force you to prep for them lest you be 6-0ed, making it shit to play in if you have a bad MU. Looking at AAA replays from OM Championships, it is extremely easy to tell who won based on team preview alone (e.g the team with ZyDog beats the team without a ZyDog switch-in, the team with Inteleon beats the team without a sturdy Water resist, etc) because of how influential having a good/bad MU is in this tier, which I believe is detrimental to the meta. Unfortunately, Gen 8 is an old gen now so it's highly unlikely that the tier will be made better anytime soon. Regardless, I still wanted to send off the tier I spent so much time playing with my personal favorite team I built, Colors Flying High, and increase the amount of RMTs for a tier that otherwise has very little.
Awakening Personas
So my usual building formula is to start with Funny Button Clicker with a pivoting move + fast mon that also has a pivoting move. I already knew I wanted to build around a breaker that lacked immunities. Due to AAA giving Pokemon immunity abilities, there are effectively only 7 types with immunities in the tier: Flying, Rock, Ice, Bug, Dark, Steel, and Fairy. Corviknight is king in AAA, so Flying, Bug, and Steel are out; none of them have really good abusers with high BP moves that don't rely on some other STAB to make progress (e.g Galarian Zapdos, Cobalion), and if I had to give up a damage amp ability for Tinted Lens, then the breaker would be weaker vs the majority of the meta. Fairy had already been thoroughly explored as an offensive typing, and using the broken Tapu Koko didn't sit right with me at that point. This left me with 3 types: Rock, Ice, and Dark. Rock and Ice's highest BP moves could miss so I felt that relying on Stone Miss or Misszard to hit in an endgame scenario for the win was too stressful. That left me with Dark, so I gravitated towards Hydreigon as Mega Launcher Dark Pulse sounded really good on paper. Its switch-ins were few but easily abused by a Scarf Mienshao that provided speed control, Knock support, and a powerful CC for blobs, and suddenly this offensive core seemed unstoppable.
CorvMewPex is probably the most flexible defensive core in the whole meta. Pex is usually Prankster (VA sucks, fake Koko check), so that can't really be changed, but Prankster Pex is a great mon regardless and hard to take down without dedicated support. Corv and Mew, however, can run whatever they damn well please and get away with it. This makes for a dilemma early game: is that Corv in front of me with the unrevealed ability Flash Fire or Volt Absorb? What about the Mew? Guessing wrong can lead to a loss of momentum, which is huge in a tier with tons of powerful breakers and a matchup issue. They're also valuable for checking top-tier breakers like ZyDog, Tapu Koko, and Cinderace.
The final spot was weird because looking at the team, there was a clear weakness in special breakers. However, Regen blobs were easy to exploit by some special breakers at the point I built this team, and I was worried heavily about well-played Volcaronas and Heatrans making progress. The issue is that you cannot cover those, Psychic Surge users like Azelf, and Triage users like Tapu Lele all at the same time without leaving yourself severely weak to something else. Thus, I decided to focus on the Fire-types more and found that Dragalge, a relic from Blace meta, was a satisfactory pick for the team. Now I had a more solid switch-in to Fire-types, counterplay to Prankster Taunt setup sweepers, and another TSpikes absorber.
The Phantom Thieves
colors flying high (Hydreigon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Mega Launcher
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Dragon Pulse
- U-turn
- Flash Cannon
An underrated but powerful breaker, Hydreigon is great at tearing apart cores that lack one of its 3 switch-ins. Mega Launcher + Dark Pulse gives you basically a special Dark-type CC that can flinch instead of dropping your defenses. The other moves are honestly unnecessary, barring U-turn for obvious reasons. However, Flash Cannon fries Tapu Bulu, which otherwise can come in on Hydreigon. Lots of games revolve around giving Hydreigon as many turns as possible to break, as teams without the blobs or Tapu Fini quickly fall to Hydreigon + hazards chip. AV Swamp can get 2HKOed after a small amount of chip and can't do much other than pivot, since Hydreigon's bulk is good enough to live one of anything unless your opponent is running Superpower Swampert for some reason. I have, more than once, just mindlessly clicked pivoting moves until I got into a good position with Hydreigon, which led to me taking a mon and starting the pivoting process all over again. Positioning is absolutely key in AAA, and the strongest your breaker is, and the more momentum you can gain for it, the better.
(there aren't any high-def Mienshao sprites)
your alibi (Mienshao) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Tinted Lens
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- High Jump Kick / Poison Jab
The most common Fighting-type in AAA is Terrakion, and it's not hard to see why. Band CC causally 2HKOs soft checks like Intimidate Corviknight after minimal chip, it's got a great speed tier, and a powerful secondary STAB to boot. However, I'd argue that Terrakion's dominance is what makes Mienshao a great anti-meta pick. Most Terrakion switch-ins like Toxapex or Mew enjoy their items quite a bit, and also do not expect to be U-turned on by what they're supposed to switch into; Mienshao does both. Beyond that, thanks to TSpikes from Toxapex, Knock turns from mildly annoying to a big deal if the opposing team lacks a TSpikes absorber/Corviknight. This is also how the team wears down Tapu Fini and other Faries: remove its item, get it into either Tinted CC range or Dark Pulse range via hazards + poison, and 2HKO it. It's also good at pivoting out of DShield Mew, a top-tier mon that Hydreigon easily forces out. The best part about this is how unexpected Scarf Tinted Lens Mienshao is, so people will bring in their Tapu Kokos and Talonflames in to revenge kill it...only to die at 65 to a STAB move. With proper bluffing, you can keep Mienshao's Scarf hidden until the right time arises, which means harding out of every unrevealed Mew in case they're Regen Scarf.
give it all (Corviknight) @ Leftovers
Ability: Primordial Sea / Volt Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 152 Def / 108 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
- Brave Bird
Honestly, it wouldn't be an understatement to say that a majority of balance and bulky offense teams absolutely NEED Corviknight to be effective. That's not to say you can't build a good team without Corviknight, but Corviknight's role in the meta is almost unparalleled. Its two weaknesses can be canceled out with immunity abilities, its great mixed bulk makes it capable of running most viable defensive abilities very well, and it has a solidly slow pivot that allows it to bring it a myriad of threats on most foes. This set takes advantage of Corvid's mixed bulk and different viable abilities to essentially have two sets depending on who you're up against and what you're afraid off. If you're worried about Moldy Heatran and wanna give yourself insurance vs other non-DesoLand Fire-types, go PSea. If you're worried about Zapdos and Electric Terrian, I would suggest Volt Absorb. Personally, I started off with PSea because when this team was built, Moldy Heatran was at its highest point in a while, but when it started to die down again, I switched to Volt Absorb and alternated between the two abilities whenever I felt like it. EVs tank 2 things: 2 Specs Shadow Balls from DesoLand Chandy if PSea and 2 Weather Balls after Rocks from Zapdos if Volt Absorb. The extra SpDef also helps vs Psychic Surge users.
your virtue (Mew) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magic Bounce / Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Def / 240 Spe
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Ice Beam / Psychic
- Trick
Like Corviknight, Mew is pretty damn good on a whole ton of balance and bulky offense teams, with the greatest movepool ever, an insane amount of flexibility, and lots of role compression for the team. A trend I have is making Mew my Rocker if I can't really fit another mon on the team, and that started here when I first realized that leading with Mew could consistently get Rocks up. I usually lead with Mew, as it is the safest lead, and abuse the fact that I haven't revealed my ability to either get Rocks up, pivot out, or Trick away my Scarf if I don't need it. U-turn + Ice Beam make Mew a great switch-in to Dragons like Garchomp and the broken ZyDog, although I did run Psychic a bit when ZyDog wasn't as relevant. Trick and Scarf may seem weird, but this ensures I have solid counterplay to Choice Band ZyDog and other fast threats in a pinch as long as I keep my Scarf intact. The EVs are so I outspeed base 85s after Tricking away my Scarf, which includes max Speed ZyGod; it's rare, but better to be safe than sorry, especially since the investment is relatively minimal. As for abilities, I loved using Magic Bounce Mew with Rocks, as it was super good at denying hazards as well as bouncing back Glares and Toxics for antsy ZyDogs, but after it got banned, I settled for Regenerator as a default option.
staying true (Toxapex) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Recover
- Scald
- Haze
Prankster Pex is a very straightforward mon: set TSpikes, fuck over HO that doesn't prep for it, and be a general nuisance with Scald + Prankster Recover. It's excellent at stopping random ladder cheese like Stamina Stored Power Chansey or Harvest Starf Berry Corviknight, just to name a couple of random things I remember seeing. However, it's also a good physical check-all into mons like Talonflame, Barraskewda, Terrakion, and Galarian Zapdos. It and Mew can handle a majority of the meta's physically offensive threats long-term, and for the ones it can't, it can at least put Hydreigon/Mienshao in a position to win fast enough so they aren't as big of an issue as they should be. Not having Boots sucks though, so be sure to watch out for hazard stacking and keep Spikes off as consistently as you can.
by the by (Dragalge) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 24 Spe
- Scald
- Flip Turn
- Dragon Tail
- Sludge Bomb
Despite being (unfairly) unranked on the SS AAA VR, I only consider this to be the 3rd most unique pick on the team, as I can count the number of Hydreigon and Mienshao I've seen combined with only one hand. It kinda fits all the niches I needed for a 6th mon. Regen user so you have a late-game win condition even if Hydreigon/Mienshao are dead? Check. Specially defensive mon that covers for the fact that this team is heavily physically defensive? Check. A solid and consistent Heatran switch-in that can force it out even if it's DesoLand? Check. A very slow pivot that underspeeds most of the other slow pivots? Check. Everything else about Dragalge is just a bonus, from the phazing move that lets me hack up hazards damage and force out annoying setup sweepers that Toxapex can't beat, to the status spreading via Scald and Sludge Bomb, to being another Zapdos check in case Corvid gets haxxed. It can't really switch into most Tapu Lele or Psychic Surge users, but that's something I knew I'd be giving up if I went Dragalge. The IVs underspeed Toxapex, which, surprisingly enough, has been useful on a handful on occasions to claim a mon with Hydreigon. Toxapex usually doesn't want to stay in on Dragalge for long anyway; they can both fish for burns, but since Dragalge has Regenerator, it ultimately wins any interaction with Knockless Toxapex in a vacuum.
Threatlist
Triage users
Strangely, what I consider to be the most dangerous variants of two of these mons (SFLO and SD Boots Regen, respectively) are manageable. SFLO Lele usually doesn't run Psychic, meaning Dragalge can come in, force it out with Sludge Bomb, and then pivot out. So long as you manage Regen well, it's pretty easy to deal with. SD Boots Regen Tapu Bulu's main weakness is being Tricked a Choice Scarf, so keeping Mew's Scarf intact and removing Bulu's Boots with Mienshao (for TSpikes) goes a long way in dealing with it. However, as you can see, this team's breakers are weak to Draining Kiss, while +2 LO Bulu cleanly 2HKOs Toxapex and Mew after minimal chip, and Triage Lele often runs Psyshock to immediately get rid of Dragalge. Your best bet is using TSpikes and making sure they don't get a chance to boost by playing aggressively with Pex; without any chip, it can just barely live 2 unboosted Psyshocks for Triage Lele after Recover and a +2 Horn Leech into a Horn Leech from Bulu. If you get lucky, LO chip + Poison damage will eventually wear them down. Togekiss, however, is just a straight-up 6-0 if you're VA Corv, and it can probably muscle past PSea Corv as well. Luckily, it's rare, so you usually won't run into it.
Psychic Surge users
As stated many times above, Psychic Surge users are quite difficult for this team to handle. Dragalge can kinda switch into Scarf Azelf since it usually doesn't run Psyshock, but only a couple of times, and Mew is nowhere near a sturdy check for them considering all the other stuff it might have to deal with. Corvid is your only real answer to them, as the SpDef investment lets it live quite a few Expanding Forces (and Fire Blast Azelf is a myth). Not horrendous and can be played around, but annoying to deal with and you need to keep Corvid healthy enough to take hits while still being able to check the Heatran/Zapdos in the back.
Adaptability LO Latios
This mostly comes down to a 50/50 in builder, as it usually runs STABs + Roost. If you run into Mystical Fire/Thunderbolt and you're the relevant immunity ability, then there's nothing to worry about. However, if you're not the relevant immunity ability, it's an immediate loss, no questions asked. Mienshao can technically force it out but it can only do so much, especially if they have a sturdy Fighting switch-in like Tapu Fini It will just come in, take a mon, Roost off chip damage as you flail around, and eventually win. If you really wanna try and beat it, TSpikes are your go-to option as always. Aggressive play with Mienshao and the dreaded "predicting what it will click" also helps in limiting its presence. It can also run 4 Atks and make your life a living hell.
Alolan Marowak
Everything gets 2HKOed by a STAB, it's probably on a Trick Room team so it will always go first, and even with TSpikes + Rocks, that's at least 3-4 turns of Marowak clicking buttons. In fact, it doesn't even need its Fire STAB; Poltergeist or Shadow Bone 2HKOs the whole team. You really need to think about what you wanna sac to it when you see it on team preview; even if it doesn't outright win, it might take out a mon that something like, say, Steelworker Stakataka would love to see gone.
Replays
These are replays I gathered from using the team over the past year or so, either in tours or on ladder vs good players. These are mostly showcases of how powerful Hydreigon is in the right matchup, as even with a fucking Bisharp on one of these teams and Blissey on a couple, Hydreigon was able to seamlessly tear through most of them with Mienshao + TSpikes support. They also give an idea of the general gameplan of the team. You may also notice that the nicknames are different from the ones used in the below importable. That's because, for 4 out of 5 of these teams, I had no plans of making this a RMT until recently. As for the 5th replay, I originally planned to use this song as the title and dedicate it to Kingdom Hearts, and although it's an absolute banger (I'm a sucker for violins and pianos), Persona 5 Royal is a better game than Kingdom Hearts, one that I ultimately enjoyed more, and the game that motivated me to continue writing this RMT, as I had already written part of it by the time I finished P5R a few days ago.
Importable
These are replays I gathered from using the team over the past year or so, either in tours or on ladder vs good players. These are mostly showcases of how powerful Hydreigon is in the right matchup, as even with a fucking Bisharp on one of these teams and Blissey on a couple, Hydreigon was able to seamlessly tear through most of them with Mienshao + TSpikes support. They also give an idea of the general gameplan of the team. You may also notice that the nicknames are different from the ones used in the below importable. That's because, for 4 out of 5 of these teams, I had no plans of making this a RMT until recently. As for the 5th replay, I originally planned to use this song as the title and dedicate it to Kingdom Hearts, and although it's an absolute banger (I'm a sucker for violins and pianos), Persona 5 Royal is a better game than Kingdom Hearts, one that I ultimately enjoyed more, and the game that motivated me to continue writing this RMT, as I had already written part of it by the time I finished P5R a few days ago.
Importable
Thanks for reading, and have a happy New Year! s/o to Persona 5 Royal for being an amazing game
