Ability Shift

[Halliday]

Approved by Treecko

Ability Shift
​

Ability Shift is a metagame with one simple rule - all abilities are replaced by the next one alphabetically. This means that any Pokemon with Adaptability instead has Aerilate, and so on, all the way down to Zen Mode, which gets replaced by adaptability. This leads to Pokemon's roles changing completely with their ability, ruining top tier threats, and bringing out new ones.

Rules:
- All abilities are replaced by the next one alphabetically.
- Blaziken, Blazikenite, Lucarionite, Shaymin-S, Kangaskhan Mega, Genesect, and Gengar Mega are unbanned.
- Standard Clauses
- Regigigas, Slaking, Torkoal, and Greninja are banned.
- All move combos are legal.
- When choosing your abilities, you skip over flower gift, forecast, stance change, zen mode, shadow tag, moody,

http://www.psypokes.com/lab/abilities.php

 

[AWailOfATail]

*cough* wonderguardtorkoal *cough*
But seriously, this is pretty cool.
Imposter Snorlax.
Parental Bond Assault Vest Slowbro.
Poison Heal Ampharos.
Protean Aerodactyl, Raikou, and stuff.
Simple Vivillion.
Adaptability Darmanitan.
Aerilate Porygon-Z.

Probably stuff I missed, but this will be interesting.

 

[Kit Kasai]

So if a pokemon has multiple abilities, do all the abilities get replaced? or can they only use their first one?

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Speaking of Parental Bond, Lilligant and Ludicolo get it. From damage calcs, Parental Bond Petal Dance from Lilligant OHKO's Specially Defensive Rotom-Wash and it KO's with Giga Drain after Stealth Rock. Ludicolo is a bit weaker, but hey, the ability to OHKO or 2HKO all of the XY OU S-ranks with it's moveset is a decent accomplishment. These two may not see as much use as Slowbro, but hey, still pretty niche mons in this format.

Wow, Mega Blaze and Mega Heracross will suck in this meta. Gardevoir and Pory2 have to use other abilities now, no more Trace, you get Truant now. Also, how the fuck would Stance Change Sableye work?

 

[Arhops]

Magcargo gets Magnet Pull, which kinda beats Jirachi.
Hera, Gyarados, Salamence, Scrafty, and more now get Multiscale so they can set up in peoples faces.
Parental Bond Lilligant just murders everything.
Linoone now gets Pixilate to get a Extreme Speed with no immunities.
Excadrill gets Sand Stream and Mega Garchomp gets Sand Rush, great...
SIMPLE VENOMOTH
Mr. Mime is has a new Niche on Baton Pass teams for being a Speed Boost Calm Minder.
Chatot gets Technician Chatter
Aerodactyl gets Victory Star to help with Rock-type move accuaracy.
Fur Coat Dusclops gg.

Looks like a pretty fun meta. :]

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

How about Magnet Pull Specs Camerupt? Decent way of beating steels bar Aegislash (Who gets Static LOL). Bulletproof Delphox is interesting I guess.............. Gourgeist gets amazing abilities in Intimidate and Fur Coat, and also No Guard Starmie Blizzard and Hydro Pump.

 

[Shaymin :D]

Download Thundurus/Bisharp

Drizzle Thundurus >_>

Drought Politoed .-.

Guts Gogoat .-.

Harvest conk >_>

Huge Power Teddiursda D:

All Huge Powers get Hustle :I

Intimidate Gorgeist is cool

Levitate Jumpluff .-.

Magic Guard Magic Bouncers

Moody Mold Breakers

Motor Drive Bibarel gg

Starmie with no miss Thunder, Blizzard, Hydro Pump

Pixilate Dedenne

Protean Weavile ,0,

Regen Aurorus

Shadow Tag Chansey ._.

Speed Boost Exploud. That is all.

Tinted Lenses Snorlax .-.

Volt Absorb Delibird ,-.

Wonder Guard Heatmor/Torkoal .-.

 

[Halliday]

So if a pokemon has multiple abilities, do all the abilities get replaced? or can they only use their first one?

Yeah, they get all of them replaced.

 

[En Passant]

• Stance Change, as well as Multitype and Zen Mode, only works on the Pokemon it was tailored for. Sadly, Multitype Dragonite will not be a thing.
• Defiant Archeops, the new anti-Defogger and ass-kicker.
• Tough Claws Feraligatr, making up for the Sheer Force it never got.
• Due to Moody Clause, Ampharosite has to be banned as well.
• Solid Rock Mega Houndoom can be used for something, I hope.
• Gastrodon manages to keep Storm Drain. Wat.
• One of the Intimidate --> Iron Barbs or Shell Armor --> Shield Dust mons have gotta be useful somehow.
• Barbaracle gets more power with Toxic Boost, although forcing a sweeper to get Toxic'd probably isn't a very good idea.

 

[Kit Kasai]

Alright some ideas coming through:

Arena trap Ferro sounds interesting.

Illusion Starmie :D

IMPOSTER SNORLAX :O

Moxie electivire?

Poison heal ampharos :D

Sap sipper golem lol

Shadow tag Skymin ._.

SIMPLE VENOMOTH. QUIVER-PASS FOR DAYZ this is like my favorite thing ever. Thank you. XD best meta N/A gonna vote for this for OM of the Month.

Tinted lens mamoswine. yum.

Edit for more stuffz:

Protean Deo-s for all the revenge killing

Scrappy bouffalant maybe

Moxie dragonite is the new salamence

 

[eriados]

Drizzle Thundurus >_>

only porygons and genesect get drizzle

this meta will take a lot of fixing. so many viable shadow taggers as well as fur coat dusclops and imposter snorlax make a lot of mons unviable. imposter snorlax is about as close as any other metagame will get to bh imposter blissey, so expect to see it on every team.

refrigerate mienshao and parental purugly are also kinda cool. no guard roserade w/ grasswhistle is the fastest 100% acc sleeper so thats something, and grasses/overcoaters aren't immune to it like spore or sleep powder. chans/bliss also get no guard sing. prankster toxicroak is sorta interesting because it gets torment. muk also does, and it gets prankster haze/memento. seismitoad gets prankster rocks. protean raikou could be a threat w/ aura sphere but forced rash nature is crappy. snow warning glaceon/froslass are sorta notable.

dmg calcs for reference
252 Atk Life Orb Parental Bond Purugly Fake Out vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mew: 96-112 (23.7 - 27.7%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Parental Bond Purugly Frustration vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mew: 240-282 (59.4 - 69.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

very respectable damage

 

[Halliday]

Honestly, I doubt snorlax will get to anywhere near the prominence of chansey. A defining part of chancey's use is eviolite, which allows it to be almost unbreakable (to the point where STAB belly drum SE moves barely ohko it).

 

[Golemman]

Sap sipper golem lol

Dude you seriously do not know how happy you have made me :o :0 :O :( )
How do specific abilities for specific mons work? For example: Stance Change and Zen mode?

Illusion Starmie/Lanturn and huge power Combee :I

 

[TM13IceBeam]

#heatmorandtorkoal4ubers

#banheatmorandtorkoal

i like how zygarde goes from a useless ability to a... not-as-useless-but-still-very-useless ability because it doesnt get a sleep move

also drought politoed

also yeah bulletproof fire starters rofl (Blaziken is pretty much going to use bulletproof now because roflstall)

humorously zard-y gets a free water immunity in exchange for his fire resist... somewhat (not that it existed in the first place). octillery and bibarel shed their electric weakness while getting a free speed boost in the process. multiscale salamence is oddly arousing

how about freeing yveltal? yeah it sounds weird but its ability is now defeatist... maybe a decent enough tradeoff? idk

and finally... wait what the fuck pbond lilligant

 

[Kit Kasai]

Honestly, I doubt snorlax will get to anywhere near the prominence of chansey. A defining part of chancey's use is eviolite, which allows it to be almost unbreakable (to the point where STAB belly drum SE moves barely ohko it).

It'll still be insanely bulky. Unlike BH, this'll be run off normal evs, so it'll have much more bulk than whatever it's impostering.

 

[mezomi]

Magic Bonce Tentecreul

Multitype Dragonite (if it works)

Legendary birds and dogs get Protean

Refrigerate Staraptor and Mienshao

Tough Claws water staters.

Solid Rock Mega Houndoom and Helioisk

Thick Fat Kuryum-B

Levitaters are pretty much screwed.

This metagame will be awesome.

 

[eriados]

Honestly, I doubt snorlax will get to anywhere near the prominence of chansey. A defining part of chancey's use is eviolite, which allows it to be almost unbreakable (to the point where STAB belly drum SE moves barely ohko it).

recall that the way imposter works is by copying all the targets stats (including boosts) barring HP. snorlax has massive HP so it will be able to come in on a boosted thing, copy its boosts, and probably beat it one vs one, unless the boosted pokemon wins the speed tie and has a move that hits itself very hard. so yeah, snorlax will be very very good.

sub seed speed boost abomasnow sounds like it could be very irritating, especially given the lack of good magic guard mons. a simple set protect/sub/seed/ice beam could be a huge pain for unprepared teams. thick fat kyu-b definitely has defensive potential

 

[Aragorn the King]

* Teddiursa has an attack stat of 568 with huge power :O
Too bad its other stats aren't too pretty, but with Eviolite it could be pretty good.

* Poor Mega Alakazam and Mega Heracross :( They gets upgraded with........ Truant and Slow Start.

* I also think Yveltal should be unbanned. Defeatist is pretty terrible. Also, what about Kyogre? It now has very weak STAB + a 50% accurate Thunder. And it can't even learn Solar Beam.

* Other interesting stuff: Poison Heal Ampharos, Speed Boost Bouffalant, Speed Boost Exploud, Fur Coat Eviolite Dusclops...

252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Fur Coat Dusclops: 132-156 (46.4 - 54.9%) -- 62.9% chance to 2HKO

Oh my god...

* Tintend lens Mamoswine. OMG

* All ex-Serene Grace pokemon now have... Shadow Tag. Maybe Skymin is still broken?

* There are now 0 unaware users :( Set up sweepers will dominate.

* Defiant Archeops! Download Thundurus/Bisharp/Empoleon

* Also, lol, Gastrodon still has Storm Drain!! Gale Wings Furfrou!

 

[canno]

Where's the love for Adaptability Darmanitan? If you thought Adaptability Crawdaunt was powerful, Darm has a hefty 140 base attack. Here's a comparison between Aadaptability Darm's Flare Blitz vs Victni's V-Create:

252 Atk Adaptability Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mewtwo: 302-356 (72.5 - 85.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mewtwo: 268-316 (64.4 - 75.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Damn, and Flare Blitz doesn't lower your stats either, although the recoil is nasty.

Another cool mon is Protean Aerodactyl, who can run a set of Stone Edge / EQ / Crunch / SR or something similar. Doesn't even need Stone Edge thanks to Protean.

Thick Fat Kyurem-B is really cool too, although it no longer can beat Rotom-W. What is cooler though is Protean Kyurem-Normal

 

[SpartanMalice]

Actually, it can still beat Rotom-W. All the Rotoms are losing Levitate, remember ?

Too bad the Rock Head pokes in the game are outclassed by most of the new threats. Luxray, and well, Nidoking (after losing Sheer Force or Shell Armor, Rock Head Smash is its closest best tradeoff).

Oddly, Galvantula loses Compoundeyes and gets the similar but less effective Victory Star. Similarly, Electivire loses Motor Drive but gets Volt Absorb. Jolteon does get an added Water immunity though, as does Raikou but Protean will probably outclass that. Downloading Tornadus and Thundurus are quite useful I'd have to say. I used Download Thundy-T in Ability Exchange some time back, but this is even better. Sticky Web helping espeed Genesect to a free +2 is pretty nice. Maybe Shift Gear or CB Genesect could make use of that.

Toxicroak looks like a semi-decent fairy trapper with Arena Trap.

Protean is probably something Absol only dreamed of. It's speed is still average and all it stats except attack are bad, but it still has one of the largest movepools in the game, so it could be useful in that regard. That being said, if only Mega Absol had it and not normal Absol. Protean Deoxyses look fun, speed's probably gonna get banned too.

The only regenerators are Amaura and Aurorus. Lol. Adrian and other stall players are gonna hate this. Rhydon gets a semi-useful Rough Skin over a Rock Head that has not much use for it besides like, Double-Edge? Excadrill keeps Sand Rush and also trades in its old Sand Rush for Sand Stream. Funny. Victory Star is gonna be Ttar's preferred ability now since Sand Veil is banned.

Shadow Tag: Chansey, Blissey. Jirachi, Dunsparce, Togekiss. On the bright side, the last three lose Serene Grace but the blobs can stall you forever if you lack Psyshock and you are a special attacker.

With all the talk about Snorlax, Gligar is a decent alternative. Low HP, but eviolite, and can stand up to some physical attackers if the opp prevents Imposter by subbing up. Snorlax does the same job but with special attacks, and more of an offensive presence.

 

[Age of Kings]

Do you have a plan for abilities tied to species? i.e. Zen Mode and Stance Change.

Arena Trap Ferrothorn is actually quite significant; with its great typing and stall movepool up the ass, it can make great use of it. It helps that every Pokemon that gets Levitate is Grass type which a) means it can trap several more threats and b) it straight up walls all that lack HP Fire.

Deoxys-S gets Protean which should be banned imo. It's one of the best revengers and utility mons in the game without it, with it and a Life Orb and it can tear through pretty much everything; it has slightly lower offenses, but it's not as fragile as Greninja, has access to a far greater movepool, and can viably run a mixed set. Actually I'm concerned about nearly everything that went from Pressure > Protean which includes quite a few good Pokemon such as Raikou, Absol, Weavile, Bisharp, and Kyurem. Scarf Kyurem with Protean and mixed 130/130 offenses to benefit its coverage e_e

 

[Albacore]

Great metagame! A few things caught my eye :

-Simple Vivillon. Gemoancy anyone?
-Speed Boost Mr. Mime, Exploud, and Bouffalant, for passing or just sweeping.
-Technician Chatot for a 90 BP Confusion move.
-Arena Trap Ferrothorn. Finally, a bulky trapper that can actually do things!
-Multiscale Gyarados. Also, Salamence now pretty much becomes the new Dragonite. Multiscale+DD seems like a pretty common combo.
-Meloetta gets PerishTag. Gulp. And the Ghosts it can't trap can't really touch it either.
-Tentacruel becomes our first good defensive Magic Bouncer.
-And finally, Imposter Snorlax. Anybody who plays Hackmons knows how broken this could be.

Edit : Imposter Snorlax has already been pointed out, but I really think that we need to emphasize how good it is. If there a Pokemon that will be banned (and there almost certainly will), it's this one

 

[Aragorn the King]

Great metagame! A few things caught my eye :
-Technician Chatot for a 90 BP Confusion move.

Edit : Imposter Snorlax has already been pointed out, but I really think that we need to emphasize ow good it is. If there a Pokemon that will be banned (and there almost certainly will), it's this one

Chatter is 65 BP, and doesn't work with Technician. It can now use Round instead of Hyper Voice... but aren't they the same in singles?

 

[Albacore]

Chatter is 65 BP, and doesn't work with Technician. It can now use Round instead of Hyper Voice... but aren't they the same in singles?

Huh, for some reason, I thought it was 60 BP. And Chatot has no reason to use Hyper Voice now that it has Boomburst.
Still, it gains Hidden Power, so it's not completely worthless.

 

[Golemman]

Rhydon gets Refridgerate and Rough Skin now. Not terrible optionsat all, because instead of 75 BP ice punch he can use a 132 BP ice return, or defensively run Resttalk and damage the opponent with recoil.
Lots of fighting types get Justifies which is cool. Also Gourgeist is going way overboard on the physical defense. If his stats weren't already enough he now gets intimidate or Fur Coat lol!