With the talonflames out of AAAPL this season, I thought I would post some teams for AAA Ubers and give some shoutouts. This post has been on the back burner for a while and AAA Ubers stuff is technically supposed to be posted in the OMM Megathread (
), so I have been delayed with this post.
Shout out
a fairy for drafting me twice in back-back tours,
SammyCe123 for telling a fairy to draft me,
cat for co-managing and team prep,
Gambit_Gamin and
BoingK for their support, and
FadedCharm for covering me and helping me with prep in the last...
Check out my post above with team dumps and brief explanations! In this post, I will be covering my opinions on the AAA Ubers Metagame. This post has been influenced by Nat who has shown me the ropes throughout the tour and by Racool's paragraph
here which breaks down his thoughts on the meta.
AAA Ubers Metagame thoughts:
I'll preface this by saying that AAA Ubers is pretty centralised around a few key Pokemon and abilities. I don't this solely due to dexxit or a smaller dex, though they do play a role. I'm envisioning what a full dex version of this meta looks like and frankly, it would have a lot of the same faces with similar sets. The biggest upside of a full dex (or hell, even a Gen 8) version of this metagame is that Yveltal would be freed. But there's a catch. Even though Yveltal checks Deo-A decently well and provides additional counterplay to Necrozma Dusk Mane, every team is forced to run an answer to Triage Oblivion Wing sets.
This leads me to my main point: I think that the metagame would be inevitably centralized around a specific threat since there are so many more offensive abilities compared to defensive ones. Gen 9 bumps up this level of power creep since abilities strong like Protean and Libero are legal (albeit nerfed), and with 1 ability Clause, we can't double up on furscales for defense. The dex cuts rob any additional Pokemon that can plug gaps in the builder/meta like what Corv, Mandi and Ting-Lu do.
I'll start with the big three that Racool mentioned: NDM, Miraidon and Deoxys-Attack. I think Miraidon is annoying but manageable. Necrozma Dusk Mane, in my mind, is teetering on being broken but I think we have the tools to keep it at bay. Finally, I think Deo-A should be looked at.
Miraidon sort of forces a Ground-type on every team because you need to block Volt Switch. However, I do think for a Ubers metagame this is an adequate concession to make given that there are multiple viable ground types in the metagame like Groudon, Arceus-Ground, and even Ting-Lu that can stomach hits whilst still volt-blocking + serve a niche beyond Miraidon gatekeeping. Specs Hadron Draco hits incredibly hard, but there are midground in Fairy-types and certain Ice Scales Arceus Formes that can help alleviate the guessing games. I can see why people would find this thing broken, but I'm fine with it right now.
Necrozma Dusk Mane IMO is a lot more polarising mon. I think this Pokemon forces you to be more careful with your fur coat users than Miraidon is with Ice Scales users. NDM has 2 moldy moves with superb coverage in this metagame. A lot of conventional answers like Ho-Oh and Fur Coat Waterceus don't like Photon Geyser and I'm sure this goes the other way around for Sunsteel Strike into dark-types. This is also compounded by the abilities NDM can run like Tinted Lens, SOR, Adaptability, FurScales, Earth Eater, and Well-Baked Body which all further complicate responding to it. I think Ability Shield is an underrated item in this metagame especially on a Pokemon like Corviknight that can be flexible with its item slot. Additionally, I've been seeing comps respond to NDM with techs like Wisp WaterCeus, more physically defensive-inclined grounds, Mandibuzz, and Arceus-Dark. All of these mons check other prominent threats while still providing outs vs NDM.
The thing that's pushing me over the line with NDM is that it's always ahead of the curve. It's far easier to make adjustments to NDM to get ahead of the meta than it is to adjust your team to be sturdier vs NDM.
Deoxys-Attack barely has any switch-ins and the best response I could fine that doesn't burn Ice Scales or an Arceus slot is Regen Vest Magearna. Even then, Protean Low Kick sets annoy the crap out of that mon. Similar story on the offensive end. Either you're staring down Mixed Attacking Protean which can overwhelm a lot of traditional offensive answers like other Regenvest mons, or you;re staring down Psysurge Deo-A which shuts down Rayquaza and E-Killer revenge killing attempts. Deo-A has paper thin defenses which means if you do connect, it's going down. However, I'm not a fan of the way I have to tip-toe around it both in-builder and mid-game. If NDM is XY Xerneas, then Deo-A is more akin to SS Ubers Calyrex. Like yeah, it could be technically balanced, but I'm not a fan of it lol.
Other stuff
I have plans to explore this meta a little more post-AAPL. There are so many awesome poison heal mons and I want to build with all of them. Likewise, I saw some cool Orichalcum mons while prepping. I have an entire box of whacky AAA mons I want to spam the living daylights out of in friendlies or room tours.
Before I list off random stuff, I gotta praise the lawd. Racool mentioned that this is the 2nd best mon. I agree, but I would also argue that Arceus is the best
collection of Pokemon in this tier. I would say that having an Arceus is about par with having a FurScales mon on your team. FurScales is a lot broader so it edges Arceus out, but the gap between the two isn't all that much (esp considering you can get away without FurScales for some HO teams - and most of those teams end up having Pixie-killer).
I think the viable Arceuses here are Normal, Fairy, Ghost, Ground, Water, and Dark. I think Fire
may have a niche thanks to Orichalchum (which I hope to test) and I'd like to explore Steel sometime to see what's popping. Other than that, the other Arceus forms are outcompeted by a fellow Uber or just suck (Bug/Ice). A lot of the Arceus forms can pull double duty as both an offensive mon and a utility mon which makes it exceptional in patching up holes while not being completely passive -, for example, WaterCeus is incredible versus Rayquaza.
Playing vs some of the less defensively inclined Arceuses is also a gamble. Arceus-Ghost and Arceus-Dark e.g. can easily slot Magic Bounce or Prankster and that has a completely different pool of answers than a FurScale CM'ing Arceus. From Week 2 onward, I tried proofing vs Magic Bounce Arceus by changing the way I play and running techs like Dragon Tail RegenAV Dialga and Psych Up Ho-Oh. Imprison CM Arceus was also a cool tech I saw in some games. I assume Mold Breaker + status could work for teams that can afford to slot it which conveniently nails any random GaG sets as well.
This and Fairy + Normal E-Killer are the tetrarchy that rules over AAA Ubers priority. Bring a gameplan vs these, especially Rayquaza (have a back-up to Corv!).
I think these Pokemon are surprisingly good despite NDM being king in the metagame. Coincidentally, they both have ways to 2HKO or OHKO NDM after setup. Caly OHKOs offensive NDM at +2, while Loaded Dice Technician KyuB can 2HKO at +1.
These two hit hard and have a ton of different sets. Unburden and Hadron engine are perhaps two of the scariest and have completely different modus operandi meaning that you'll have to improvise against these two. Doesn't help both get Psychic + Ghost moldy moves on top of it.
Lots of special attackers I could shout out, but Eternatus is a pretty cool one in this metagame thanks to its blistering speed. Plus it has a pretty diverse pool of moves, sets, and abilities it can choose from. Unburden was a cool set to try out, but Dragon Maw, Beads and MGLO all have their perks as well. Scales is also a nice soft-check to a lot of stuff provided it has the right 4 moves.
Calyrex-Shadow
LordBox 
Chessking345 
DeepFriedMagikarp 
Glory 
Yeah. Trapping is dumb.
Last Respects on the other end.... With more meta developments undergoing, natural answers to Last Respects has started popping out (Regigigas, Arceus-N) while the users tend to not hit hard enough to make them overbearing. We still will be keeping a close eye on Last Respects, however.
- V1
- V2
- Misty Clod V1
- MPull Groundy + MG KyuB
