Ability Exchange (AE)

[-Sparkbeat-]

Approved by Arcticblast and Joim
Welcome to the Ability Exchange metagame! In this metagame, you can swap around the abilities of your team in any way you like to create the best team possible. Magic Guard Kyurem-B? Its possible! Sheer Force Metagross? That too! Levitate Heatran? It could happen but only on the hub! This meta is supposed to test your teambuilding skills and creativity with swapping abilities. Here's how it works. Say you have Gengar and Heatran on a team. You can give Heatran Gengar's ability, Levitate, and give Gengar Flash Fire. You must be using each Pokemon's ability on the team. An example of this is you can't give Gengar Flash Fire and another teammate Flame Body, because you would not be using one Pokemon's ability at all. Pretty simple, right? Below you can find a banlist of abilities that through prior testing with some friends, have proven to be very broken and unhealthy for our meta.
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Standard OU banlist
Slaking
Regigigas
Adaptability
Arena Trap
Contrary
Huge Power
Imposter
Pure Power
Prankster
Serene Grace
Shadow Tag
Simple
Speed Boost
Tinted Lens
Wonder Guard
Drought + Chlorophyll
Sand Stream + Sand Rush

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The following list is made of legal abilities, but need more testing before they are deemed broken or not.
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Drizzle
Drought
Download
Magic Bounce
Magic Guard
Moxie
Multiscale
Regenerator
Sand Stream + Sand Force
Sand Stream
Sheer Force
Snow Warning
Solar Power + Drought
Unburden

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Well, that's the tier, and I hope everyone will help make it as good as it can be by testing out strategies, keeping a healthy discussion, and keeping it an active OM. When I find out how to hide thing with this forum, I'll put in an example team for anyone who still needs some help with how the tier works. Also, a banner should be done within the week, so stay tuned for that. I'll also add a threatlist to the OP if this thread gets enough activity. Good luck to everyone who wants to help make this OM a great one, and lets get started!

Now playable on Joim's Lab​

 

[Harbinger of Peace]

I actually think this is a pretty cool metagame idea, a very interesting concept. Gives you a lot to play around with without giving you too much. Oh, and did you get this approved by Birkal or ArcticBlast? If so, you should put it in the OP. If not, you should go check with one of them ASAP.

 

[-Sparkbeat-]

^ Yeah, lemme put that in the OP real quick. Thanks for reminding me to put it in xD

 

[BlankZero]

Unburden Kyurem-B with Dragon Gem Outrage might be a tad bit OP.

Unburden anything can be a bit much. The only reason Hitmonlee is so low usage is its stats I think, so giving something with middling speed but high power can be devastating. Chandelure would love this, and any bulky Mon with fake out (Hariyama would trade Guts or Thick Fat) would love it as well.

Now some ideas.

Levitate Heatran/Flash Fire Cress/Unburden Kyurem-B/Drought Ninetales/Teravolt Hitmonlee could be a fun team.

Do the abilities have to be straight swapped? Or can you juggle a few abilities between mons on the same team? Leviate Heatran/Iron Barbs Cress/Flash Fire Ferrothorn would be pretty fun on a Sun team if that's the case.

 

[Snaquaza]

Lol, this was actually approved by Joim too :)

back to the topic, this seems cool, although it is too bad so much abilities had to be banned, but yea, some things with those abilities would be incredibly OP
what seems nice are mostly the immunity ones, Flash Fire Escavalier or Sap Sipper Swampert, yes please
Also abilities like Moxie and Magic Guard seem amazing, altho they still need to be tested

 

[Harbinger of Peace]

Yeah, if swift swim, sand rush, etc. are banned, then I think unburden should be, too. It's almost just as abusable

 

[-Sparkbeat-]

Do the abilities have to be straight swapped? Or can you juggle a few abilities between mons on the same team? Leviate Heatran/Iron Barbs Cress/Flash Fire Ferrothorn would be pretty fun on a Sun team if that's the case.

Yeah, you can juggle abilities between the mons. And since so far Unburden is being brought up, that'll be the first thing to test out. I'll be on Joim's if anyone wants to test things out.

 

[Harbinger of Peace]

Guys, I just thought of something: Scrappy Rapid Spin. And there are a few more I'm gonna keep to myself for now... ;)

 

[Snaquaza]

hmm Lunatic Lies, what is your username, I'm always on joim's so I guess I could make a team :)

 

[-Sparkbeat-]

Guys, I just thought of something: Scrappy Rapid Spin. And there are a few more I'm gonna keep to myself for now... ;)

Even in STABmons I've never really found Scrappy Spin to be all its cracked up to be :/ It's definitely an attractive idea, but lots of teams don't even use Spin Blockers, and just rely on offensive pressure to prevent spinning.

hmm Lunatic Lies, what is your username, I'm always on joim's so I guess I could make a team :)

I'll be on as Contrail, since I just use that name for everything now (Didn't when I made my account here though x_x)

 

[Champion Steve]

So, Walls wouldn't care much that they have Slow Start, right? So Regigigas could see some use here.

 

[Harbinger of Peace]

So, Walls wouldn't care much that they have Slow Start, right? So Regigigas could see some use here.

Oh no. That will probably be banned... Slaking and Regi are too good without their abilities...

 

[BlankZero]

Oh no. That will probably be banned... Slaking and Regi are too good without their abilities...

I could see Regi getting banned since Slow Start has mons that don't care as much about the speed/attack drop (Porygon2 could trade Trace which could get hilarious for Regi.

Slaking has to give somebody else Truant though, which makes games a bit more 5v6. Unless you really wanna run PorygonZ with Hyper Beam or something else with a Recharge Turn and Bulk to use it. Although Analytic Slaking Return will be OMFG powerful.

Also, Imposter needs to be banned or Imposter Chansey will be a thing with Natural Cure Ditto running around in Tandem.

 

[Champion Steve]

Well, you do have to offload Slow Start onto another Pokemon. Huh, an Ubers version of this could be interesting, considering the general mehness of Pressure, though it would likely end up as 3 Super-Ubers and 3 cannon-fodder.

 

[-Sparkbeat-]

I could see Regi getting banned since Slow Start has mons that don't care as much about the speed/attack drop (Porygon2 could trade Trace which could get hilarious for Regi.

Slaking has to give somebody else Truant though, which makes games a bit more 5v6. Unless you really wanna run PorygonZ with Hyper Beam or something else with a Recharge Turn and Bulk to use it. Although Analytic Slaking Return will be OMFG powerful.

Also, Imposter needs to be banned or Imposter Chansey will be a thing with Natural Cure Ditto running around in Tandem.

I knew I was forgetting one ability from my orignal list x_x

Regi is really the only mon I can see being broken. If you guys do some battles with it and share replays it'll help get some of the kinks worked out ^_^

 

[Harbinger of Peace]

Adaptability, Illusion, and Imposter are some stuff I wanna play around with. However, I think Chansey with imposter could break this metagame.

 

[youngjake93]

If tinted lens is banned, so should adaptability. Adaptability Keldeo in rain or Kyurem Black, etc would destroy every thing with hydro pump or outrage with no thought needed.

 

[-Sparkbeat-]

If tinted lens is banned, so should adaptability. Adaptability Keldeo in rain or Kyurem Black, etc would destroy every thing with hydro pump or outrage with no thought needed.

^This is true, like I said before, some abilities I missed from my original list. Added along with Imposter, since it would certainly break the metagame (Chansey). I'll do some testing with Unburden and Regigigas tomorrow.

 

[BlankZero]

I'll some testing tonight if I can. I love this idea, and really any meta that even remotely resembles BH.

Edit: I would love to test some of these "banned" abilities, other than Wonder Guard and Huge/Pure Power. After all, if your opponent is going to run Magic Bounce, they have to run Espeon or Xatu, meaning you'll be ready.

If it isn't a problem in BH, it shouldn't be a huge issue here, especially since you already let your opponent know just by team preview. If anyone wants to test abilities for actual brokenness, I'm game. I'll be around sparingly on #othermetas and #doubles, and much more so after this week.

Edit2: Trace is going to be the best Scouting tool ever.

 

[noknuckles]

Can I get clarification on Sand Stream + Sand Rush ban?

So let's take Ttar and Stoutland as an example. This combo is legal, however I'm not allowed to swap either ability, so I can't for example have a Sandstream Salamence with an Intimidate Ttar, nor can I have a Sand Rush Terrakion with a Justified Stoutland.
If I have Sand Stream, but not Sand Rush, I'm allowed to swap, so I can have my Intimidate Ttar if I so choose.

Is that how the weather bans work?

I'm curious as to what Politoed/Ninetales sets are gonna look like

 

[Snaquaza]

Maybe Volt Absorb Politoed?

 

[BlankZero]

Levitate Tales? I don't think you're forced to ability swap, so Drought Tales will still see use I think.

 

[-Sparkbeat-]

Can I get clarification on Sand Stream + Sand Rush ban?

So let's take Ttar and Stoutland as an example. This combo is legal, however I'm not allowed to swap either ability, so I can't for example have a Sandstream Salamence with an Intimidate Ttar, nor can I have a Sand Rush Terrakion with a Justified Stoutland.
If I have Sand Stream, but not Sand Rush, I'm allowed to swap, so I can have my Intimidate Ttar if I so choose.

Is that how the weather bans work?

I'm curious as to what Politoed/Ninetales sets are gonna look like

Yeah, that's my bad. You can change the weather inducing, but not the speed boosting ability. This is to stop teams from running things like Sand Rush Hydreigon and things like that. You can use these abilities on any Pokemon as long as you don't have its weather ability on your team (Unless you're using SS Tar and SR Stoutland, which is legal.)

Levitate Tales? I don't think you're forced to ability swap, so Drought Tales will still see use I think.

I could see weather abilities being moved to Pokemon with reliable recovery, and more bulk. Beware the Drizzle Jelli...

 

[Snaquaza]

I think Drizzle Ferrothorn would be interesting too, or Drizzle Keldeo maybe

 

[bobbyvaporeon]

Moxie sounds really good here.
Pokemon with either high speed or priority could be dominant.
Lucario with Moxie could possibly be broken with 2 powerful priority moves.