AAA Almost Any Ability Resources

[Gimmicky]

SV AAA - Common Ability Index
AKA the dummie's guide to ladder cheese
Last Updated: 12/02/2024


Many people find themselves struggling to get into Almost Any Ability due to a perception of "jankiness" and being unable to immediately tell which Pokemon are likely to use which abilities. This index intends to serve, alongside our Viability Rankings, as a resource to index the most common abilities a given Pokemon will run, as well as some more niche options you may find during a laddering session. Abilities are listed roughly in order of how common they are. Bolded abilities are, according to the official VR, the most viable and generally the best to consider using for yourself. Abilities generally considered unviable or outclassed will be marked with italics. Many of the abilities listed here are not considered viable, but because they are common, they are listed here to help new players getting into the tier understand what they may be running into.

To be considered for this ability index, a Pokemon has to either:
- Be ranked on our official Viability Rankings
- Reach 3.41% usage

If a VR ranked Pokemon has under 1.8% Usage at 1500, it will not be featured due to lack of data

This index will be updated roughly every month to use the most up-to-date data possible. All data used is sourced directly from the index of stats. As a general rule-of-thumb, if something achieved over 3% usage in at least one of the monthly data sets for AAA, it is considered for this index.

Scrappy, Fluffy, Regenerator, Refrigerate, Water Absorb, Tough Claws, Mold Breaker, Magic Guard

Sword of Ruin, Magic Guard, Regenerator, Tough Claws, Fluffy


Fluffy, Well-Baked Body, Intimidate, Volt Absorb, Prankster

Adaptability, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Well-Baked Body, Magic Guard, Bulletproof, Tinted Lens, Hadron Engine

Prankster, Corrosion, Earth Eater, Fluffy, Intimidate, Regenerator

Regenerator, Sap Sipper

Sword of Ruin, Scrappy, Tough Claws

Primordial Sea, No Guard, Drizzle, Unaware

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Magic Guard, Serene Grace, Supreme Overlord

Psychic Surge, Sheer Force, No Guard, Hadron Engine, Protean

Regenerator, Motor Drive, Surge Surfer, Protosynthesis, Unaware

Pixilate, Unaware

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Prankster, Desolate Land, Surge Surfer, Sharpness, Anger Shell, Chlorophyll

Desolate Land, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Magic Guard, Water Absorb, Regenerator

Regenerator, Galvanize, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Surge Surfer, Iron Fist, Pixilate

Desolate Land, Sheer Force, Earth Eater, Hadron Engine, Beads of Ruin, Serene Grace, Mold Breaker

Bulletproof, Regenerator, Well-Baked Body, Refrigerate, Water Absorb, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Sniper, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Mega Launcher, Tinted Lens, Tough Claws

Desolate Land, Magic Guard, Drought

Primordial Sea, Regenerator, Stamina, Electric-Immunity Abilities, Punk Rock, Sheer Force, Beads of Ruin

Well-Baked Body, Intimidate, Flame Body, Fluffy, Volt Absorb

Psychic Surge, Tinted Lens

Desolate Land, Magic Guard, Mold Breaker, Drought, Sword of Ruin, Prankster

Sharpness, Rocky Payload, Sword of Ruin

Hadron Engine, Adaptability, Tinted Lens, Dragon's Maw, Sheer Force, Beads of Ruin

Desolate Land, Grassy Surge, Adaptability, Mold Breaker, Chlorophyll, Tinted Lens

Primordial Sea, Adaptability, Swift Swim, Grassy Surge, Sword of Ruin, Surge Surfer

Hadron Engine, Refrigerate

Regenerator, Fluffy, Water Absorb, Magic Guard, Prankster, Stamina

Magic Guard, Well-Baked Body, Regenerator, Stamina, Fluffy, Tinted Lens

Magic Guard, Hadron Engine

Volt Absorb, Vessel of Ruin, Regenerator, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Weak Armor, Adaptability, Technician, Anger Shell, Dragon's Maw, Regenerator, Sword of Ruin, Tinted Lens, Surge Surfer

Tinted Lens, Magic Guard, Hadron Engine, Psychic Surge, Regenerator, Well-Baked Body

Adaptability, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Tinted Lens, Dark Aura, Tough Claws, Supreme Overlord

Unaware, Magic Guard, Corrosion, Fluffy, Delta Stream, Prankster, Intimidate

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Tinted Lens, Supreme Overlord

Unaware, Magic Guard, Stamina, Regenerator, Prankster, Fluffy, Vessel of Ruin, Sticky Hold

Fluffy, Sand Stream, Water Absorb, Unaware, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Regenerator, Vessel of Ruin

Sheer Force, Normalize, Merciless, Prankster, Adaptability

Regenerator, Earth Eater, Unaware

Fluffy, Aerilate, Regenerator, Desolate Land, Mold Breaker

Tinted Lens, Adaptability, Sword of Ruin

Steam Engine, Storm Drain, Fluffy, Stamina, Beads of Ruin, Tinted Lens, Regenerator



Primordial Sea, Swift Swim, Drizzle, Mega Launcher

Fluffy, Flame Body, Grassy Surge, Well-Baked Body, Iron Barbs

Unaware, Regenerator, Prankster, Fluffy, Drought, Magic Guard

Galvanize, Punk Rock, Pixilate, Fluffy, Anger Shell, Guts, Harvest

Technician, Adaptability

Refrigerate, Pixilate, Hadron Engine, Galvanize

Prankster, Iron Barbs, Sturdy, Truant, Tinted Lens, Magic Guard

Fluffy, Bulletproof, Well-Baked Body, Prankster
Prankster, Sturdy, Weak Armor, Aroma Veil

Hadron Engine, Primordial Sea, Beads of Ruin, Sheer Force, Aerilate

Well-Baked Body, Steely Spirit, Prankster, Regenerator, Earth Eater
____
Regenerator, Well-Baked Body, Steelworker
Surge Surfer, Sharpness

Updated with the November stats!

 

[Subsonic72]

Nominating Latios for A or A- and Zarude for C or B-.

Latios with specs tinted lense has exactly 0 reliable switchins. In addition to its fair speed tier, defensive utility and neutral power, the ability to smoke the few resists that can take a boosted Draco makes it a great mon to support via pivots. Scream Tail can take one psyshock and force latios out and prim/Moon cores can force it into 50/50s but the latios is very favored in those. They need to be right all the time, you only once.

I wouldn't put it higher than A, since it does do worse against offense but it can still abuse Tusk, non scarf Ghold and the Kanto birds to get KOs.

This isn't even going into the other sets. Adp, or Hadron with Soul dew and Cm are strong progress makers into slower teams and Dragons Maw Draco is the singularly strongest attack in the format, though it has less 2hko potential than specs weatherball from strong users.

For Zarude. I assume the reason it's not ranked because Meow exists. That's a fair point but it is 1. very viable and 2. Fulfills a very different role in a team.

The only good set I found was Grassy Surge cb. It's the strongest priority in the format game with grassy glide first and foremost. It's also reasonable bulky and can thus take a few hits in a pinch and do stuff like come in on Ghold, Treads or Prim Water move or eat a +2 Pgeist shadowball after taking hazards one or two times. It's speed tier is just high enough to get the jump on the base 100 crowd and Garchomp to make the most of stabs outside of revenge killing.
Power Whip dents anything that doesn't 4x resist it hard (though a lot 4x resists it), knock is also strong into non mons and uturn let's it pivot after forcing a sweeper out.

In the tour today I won the semifinals game in part because zarude Ohko offensive Moon with a crit power whip after rocks. 156bp coming of 506 attack ain't no joke.

It's great against offense but sadly doesn't do anything as long as fluffy corv is alive. Well, almost nothing. Grassy terrain can be really good for you and annoying for the enemies if you make use of the recovery and they planned to use eq.


Got runner up in the aaa tour today using a Lati/Zarude balance team and I felt the core was doing really well with support from talonflame, Corv, Pert and treads. Sadly I forgot to put rocks on treads the whole tour and not being able to get up rocks (plus some other blunders, a really good opponent and bad Cafe wifi) cost me the win in the finals.
Especially Latios being unwallable allowed me to win an early stall mu and Zarude saved me from a cheesy Ho team. Latio should be higher yo. It's almost always the deciding factor of the game due to how well it forces KOs and how often it can come in.

Thanks for reading and if you did, considering.

 

[LordBox]

Nominating Latios for A or A- and Zarude for C or B-.

Latios with specs tinted lense has exactly 0 reliable switchins. In addition to its fair speed tier, defensive utility and neutral power, the ability to smoke the few resists that can take a boosted Draco makes it a great mon to support via pivots. Scream Tail can take one psyshock and force latios out and prim/Moon cores can force it into 50/50s but the latios is very favored in those. They need to be right all the time, you only once.

I wouldn't put it higher than A, since it does do worse against offense but it can still abuse Tusk, non scarf Ghold and the Kanto birds to get KOs.

This isn't even going into the other sets. Adp, or Hadron with Soul dew and Cm are strong progress makers into slower teams and Dragons Maw Draco is the singularly strongest attack in the format, though it has less 2hko potential than specs weatherball from strong users.

For Zarude. I assume the reason it's not ranked because Meow exists. That's a fair point but it is 1. very viable and 2. Fulfills a very different role in a team.

The only good set I found was Grassy Surge cb. It's the strongest priority in the format game with grassy glide first and foremost. It's also reasonable bulky and can thus take a few hits in a pinch and do stuff like come in on Ghold, Treads or Prim Water move or eat a +2 Pgeist shadowball after taking hazards one or two times. It's speed tier is just high enough to get the jump on the base 100 crowd and Garchomp to make the most of stabs outside of revenge killing.
Power Whip dents anything that doesn't 4x resist it hard (though a lot 4x resists it), knock is also strong into non mons and uturn let's it pivot after forcing a sweeper out.

In the tour today I won the semifinals game in part because zarude Ohko offensive Moon with a crit power whip after rocks. 156bp coming of 506 attack ain't no joke.

It's great against offense but sadly doesn't do anything as long as fluffy corv is alive. Well, almost nothing. Grassy terrain can be really good for you and annoying for the enemies if you make use of the recovery and they planned to use eq.


Got runner up in the aaa tour today using a Lati/Zarude balance team and I felt the core was doing really well with support from talonflame, Corv, Pert and treads. Sadly I forgot to put rocks on treads the whole tour and not being able to get up rocks (plus some other blunders, a really good opponent and bad Cafe wifi) cost me the win in the finals.
Especially Latios being unwallable allowed me to win an early stall mu and Zarude saved me from a cheesy Ho team. Latio should be higher yo. It's almost always the deciding factor of the game due to how well it forces KOs and how often it can come in.

Thanks for reading and if you did, considering.

The VR won't likely be updated for a while as there is quite a lull in competitive play (and thus development) as playoffs occur and the next big tour like Open won't happen until next year I believe, however I will leave my thoughts on the two nominations.

Latios can probably rise to A- (being in the same tier as Iron Boulder is weird... but I guess Boulder could potentially go down). Its offensive profile is quite good (though blowing up Stall isn't a great plus as the playstyle is in the complete dumpster) but I don't think Tinted Lens is really a great set, the majority of Latios I have seen are Hadron Engine for the larger damage boost on very common checks like Manaphy and Swampert while also retaining enough power to still threaten resists like Gholdengo and Corviknight especially with boosted TBolt if you choose to run it. I don't think it really deserves A tier though, its powerful but fairly a straightfoward mon that is limited by its ok but not great speed, sometimes fragile nature and resists can be leveraged to play around Latios, particularly STail (you can argue about Scream Tails overall viability and effectiveness as a check but it is one of the more common mons in tours and remains a steadfast check to Specs that would really prefer to spam Draco Meteors). Its Dragon-typing and Scarf allow it some flexibility that I could see make it rise but it obviously trades off a lot of pressure against the Vests and you compete with Roaring Moon in terms of similar defensive utility as a Dragon-type. Other mons in higher tiers generally have higher flexibility as defensive options or have fantastic speed-tiers (Chien-Pao, Deo-S) that let it function and fit more flexibly compared to Latios at times.

Zarude isn't great, we already did sweep through C-tier before to try to eliminate some unmons that are only barely justified in theory which you can do with a lot and Zarude even unlike some of these unique options competes very heavily with Meowscarada. Grassy Surge to make up for the extreme speed-difference isn't particularly convincing given Grass isn't a good offensive typing against many fast mons in the tier like Roaring Moon especially with the BP nerf, Grassy Surge also means your Knock Off is unboosted making you even more limited versus Corviknight and means something like Pecharunt can even check you especially with the extra recovery. The extra bulk is something but hardly anything special given the defensive typing isn't special, as a Dark-type competing against tier-king Roaring Moon and as a Water-resist competing with the many good Desolate Land users (and also RMoon still, lmao). Its speed-tier is still ok but really not important, outspeeding Garchomp (rarely used) and with Grassy Surge you still struggle to even properly threaten out something like Zapdos. In comparison, Meowscarada's speed-tier is overwhelmingly key in being able to be used, being able to threaten and pivot on Roaring Moon effectively and a myriad of other mons such as Scream-Tail, Latios, all the Ogerpons, Cinderace, Moth and more. In theory it can leverage some utility with GSurge against random ETerrain teams + SD can differentiate it somewhat but like I said before, you can make up a lot of theoretical cases and edges for random mons but I'm not particularly convinced until I see it in practice.

 

[Gimmicky]

SV AAA - Common Ability Index
AKA the dummie's guide to ladder cheese
Last Updated: 01/02/2025


Many people find themselves struggling to get into Almost Any Ability due to a perception of "jankiness" and being unable to immediately tell which Pokemon are likely to use which abilities. This index intends to serve, alongside our Viability Rankings, as a resource to index the most common abilities a given Pokemon will run, as well as some more niche options you may find during a laddering session. Abilities are listed roughly in order of how common they are. Bolded abilities are, according to the official VR, the most viable and generally the best to consider using for yourself. Abilities generally considered unviable or outclassed will be marked with italics. Many of the abilities listed here are not considered viable, but because they are common, they are listed here to help new players getting into the tier understand what they may be running into.

To be considered for this ability index, a Pokemon has to either:
- Be ranked on our official Viability Rankings
- Reach 3.41% usage

If a VR ranked Pokemon has under 1.8% Usage at 1500, it will not be featured due to lack of data

This index will be updated roughly every month to use the most up-to-date data possible. All data used is sourced directly from the index of stats. As a general rule-of-thumb, if something achieved over 3% usage in at least one of the monthly data sets for AAA, it is considered for this index.

Scrappy, Fluffy, Regenerator, Refrigerate, Water Absorb, Sword of Ruin, Tough Claws, Wandering Spirit

Sword of Ruin, Regenerator, Magic Guard, Tough Claws, Fluffy,


Fluffy, Well-Baked Body, Intimidate, Volt Absorb, Prankster, Water Absorb

Adaptability, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Well-Baked Body, Magic Guard, Bulletproof, Hadron Engine, Beads of Ruin

Prankster, Corrosion, Intimidate, Earth Eater, Fluffy

Regenerator, Sap Sipper

Sword of Ruin, Scrappy, Magic Guard, Tough Claws

Primordial Sea, No Guard, Drizzle, Fluffy

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Serene Grace, Magic Guard, Sheer Force, Anger Shell

Psychic Surge, Sheer Force, Hadron Engine, No Guard, Protean, Neuroforce

Regenerator, Motor Drive, Surge Surfer, Unaware, Fluffy, Protosynthesis

Pixilate, Unaware, Fluffy, Prankster

Sword of Ruin, Desolate Land, Adaptability, Prankster, Sharpness, Purifying Salt

Ground-Immunity Abilities, Desolate Land, Water Absorb, Magic Guard

Regenerator, Galvanize, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Surge Surfer, Weak Armor

Desolate Land, Sheer Force, Serene Grace, Hadron Engine, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Beads of Ruin

Bulletproof, Well-Baked Body, Regenerator, Water Absorb, Refrigerate, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Sniper, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Grassy Surge, Tinted Lens

Desolate Land, Magic Guard

Primordial Sea, Regenerator, Stamina, Electric-Immunity Abilities, Sheer Force, Unaware

Well-Baked Body, Volt Absorb, Fluffy, Iron Barbs, Flame Body, Intimidate

Psychic Surge, Refrigerate, Protean

Magic Guard, Desolate Land, Sheer Force, Prankster, Drought

Sharpness, Rocky Payload, Chilling Neigh, Sniper

Hadron Engine, Adaptability, Beads of Ruin, Tinted Lens, Dragon's Maw, Sheer Force

Desolate Land, Grassy Surge, Chlorophyll, Mold Breaker, Adaptability, Sword of Ruin

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Grassy Surge, Swift Swim

Hadron Engine

Regenerator, Fluffy, Water Absorb, Stamina, Tablets of Ruin, Unaware, Prankster



Magic Guard, Hadron Engine, Grassy Surge

Volt Absorb, Vessel of Ruin, Bulletproof, Regenerator

Toxic Chain, Adaptability, Weak Armor, Regenerator, Dragon's Maw, Beast Boost, Tinted Lens

Well-Baked Body, Tinted Lens, Magic Guard, Psychic Surge, Hadron Engine, Regenerator

Adaptability, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Tinted Lens, Dark Aura, Well-Baked Body, Sword of Ruin

Well-Baked Body, Unaware, Fluffy, Delta Stream, Corrosion, Magic Guard, Regenerator

Rocky Payload, Sword of Ruin, Grassy Surge, Adaptability, Sand Surge

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Supreme Overlord

Unaware, Magic Guard, Stamina, Regenerator, Water Absorb, Fluffy

Water Absorb, Fluffy, Sand Stream, Intimidate, Regenerator, Unaware

Normalize, Merciless, Sheer Force

Regenerator, Earth Eater, Unaware

Aerilate, Fluffy, Mold Breaker, Regenerator, Desolate Land, Water Absorb

Tinted Lens, Adaptability, Magic Guard, Sword of Ruin

Steam Engine, Storm Drain, Adaptability, Quick Draw, Pixilate



Primordial Sea, Swift Swim, Drizzle

Unaware, Drought, Fluffy, Prankster, Regenerator, Stamina

Galvanize, Punk Rock, Anger Shell, Supreme Overlord, Sheer Force, Pixilate, Hydration

Technician, Adaptability

Queenly Majesty, Anger Shell, Normalize, Psychic Surge

Refrigerate, Pixilate, Hadron Engine, Galvanize, No Guard

Prankster, Magic Guard, Sturdy, Truant

Adaptability, Regenerator, Sharpness, Dark Aura, Prankster

Fluffy, Bulletproof, Well-Baked Body, Tablets of Ruin, Prankster, Unaware

Prankster, Sturdy, Weak Armor

Magic Guard

Hadron Engine, Primordial Sea, Slush Rush

Regenerator, Sturdy, Steely Spirit, Well-Baked Body, Prankster

Magic Guard, Sword of Ruin, Wind Rider, Adaptability, Gale Wings
____
Regenerator, Well-Baked Body, Fluffy, Steelworker

updated with december stats, happy new year!

 

[Gimmicky]

despite making fun of chessking for this exact thing, here's a big VR noms post. i don't think we're going to be actually voting on anything for a while given a lack of tournaments, so consider this more of a guide of how I see the metagame/my votes swinging in the next few months.

Rises:

A+ to S / S-: I've been advocating for an S- tier for quite a bit, but I would genuinely consider voting S on this as well if that continues not to be an option. Gholdengo has continued to cement itself as one of the most versatile Pokemon in the metagame, with everything from Choice Specs to (Trick)Scarf to even deceptively powerful bulky sets able to consistently make progress even in the face of prominent checks like Roaring Moon and Swampert. The re-discovering of Dazzling Gleam on Hadron/Beads sets is what really makes this guy feel S worthy now, not having to flip a coin to totally eviscerate Roaring Moon is absolutely huge for it and makes even Scarf sets feel really tough to switch into bar Swampert or Treads. I would rather see it in a hypothetical S- tier, since it does have some rising counterplay both defensively in the form of Iron Treads and offensively in the form of Lando-T and the continued excellence of Ceruledge, but it's a solid step above the rest of it's A+ peers and an S rank wouldn't be totally unwarranted either. This, Moon, and Tusk very solidly feel like the "big three" of the metagame that everything else revolves around.

A to A+: This only really fell as low as it did because of an outlier vote, it's absolutely still one of the best and most versatile RegenVest users. People bring up the Swampert comparison quite a bit, but honestly it feels like it competes more with options like Iron Hands and Primarina rather than Pert (who I feel instead competes with Roaring Moon or Tinkaton for the Regen slot). The two of them both have significant advantages and disadvantages, but Manaphy's sheer versatility as a mixed wall gives it the edge alone, let alone the potent offensive Tail Glow and Stored Power sets Manaphy can still effectively don. No reason for it to still be so low

A- to A: In a tier with plenty of slow but immensely powerful wallbreakers, Ceruledge still stands out as the best among them for just how effective it is at putting your opponent in lose-lose situations. Desolate Land is really, truly trash, but Sword of Ruin is so incredibly hard to switch into. The fact people are still running absurd tech like Itemless Well-Baked Body Pecharunt or Tinkaton only to still get goobed by the rise in Shadow Claw as a 4th move is just a testament to how threatening this is. Even without damage amplification, Ceruledge can viably run abilities to patch up that low Speed like Surge Surfer or, my personal favorite, Prankster. The only reason this isn't being nommed for A+ is because it can struggle to get onto the field and importantly makes Knock Off a much harder move to click, forcing you to run weaker options like Throat Chop Moon, but those drawbacks aren't enough to stop this from continuing to be a dominant metagame presence

A- to A: Yeah I wasn't a believer at first but this guy really is fantastic. The bulk isn't amazing, but the typing and movepool is so good that it feels sturdy and consistently useful regardless.

A- to A: Skarmory feels like a really consistent mon right now, Fluffy and Intim put in so much work against so many of the tier's physical attackers, and with Iron Treads as a viable Steel-type spinner you really don't miss the Defog that normally gives Corviknight an edge. No U-turn is unfortunate, but your typing and bulk are so good that you don't really need it to still be an effective pivot. Skarmory is just a metal bird that rewards good play, rather than Corviknight which just lets you compensate for bad play. Shout out to Eject Button sets

B+ to A-: Not too much to say here, Latios is just a really consistent Scarfer that can reliably break through even would-be checks like Iron Treads with a bit of team support. Psyshock is an absolutely broken move in a metagame where the most common special walls regularly run no Defense investment and the ones that do tend to either fold anyway or dread Hadron-boosted Thunderbolt. Specs sets are also really good, especially Dragon's Maw, but CM or AoA sets feel like trolling.

B to A-: *gets booed off stage* I had this at A+ on my personal viability rankings, but I'm nowhere near gone enough off the deep end to suggest it actually deserves that ranking. Iron Crown is a really good pivot on offense teams, I've made my piece on that already and you can read the linked post if you want more detailed (though slightly exaggerated) thoughts on it. In short though, Iron Crown functions a lot like an attacker like Fluffy Great Tusk does, being an incredibly potent offensive piece that still provides significant defensive utility where it matters. That alone is already a very valuable niche, but when looking at other powerful sets like Specs, Scarf, and Double Dance, an A- ranking feels completely justified. I can only hope to see this do well in the upcoming tour season so i can say i was right all along

B- to B+: Desolate Land fell off and it fell off hard, but Fluffy and Sword of Ruin Scarf are both pretty dangerous and versatile. Glory's VR post details a lot of what I like about Landorus, though I wouldn't go as high as A given how the typing is just as exploitable as it is amazing and how common Pokemon like Earth Eater Gholdengo are. Not that it makes this mon bad at all, but it isn't quite as consistent an offensive threat as it is a Stealth Rock user.

B to B+: Adaptability is just a really consistent hazard setter, not many notes here. I've also ran sets like Surge Surfer Swords Dance and Fluffy to decent success in roomtours and friendlies, but these face really heavy competition from other offensive Ground-types. I like it a little more than Lando-T as an entry hazard setter for its better matchup into Great Tusk with Draco and not having to spend a turn using Smack Down to kill Corviknight, but overall they're roughly equal

B- to B: Better into Great Tusk, less threatening overall. Primordial Sea sets are interesting, but as far as I'm concerned they're meme territory until proven otherwise. SFLO Nasty Plot is a deceptively powerful wallbreaker that plenty of teams struggle to switch into outside of Pert, but it hasn't seen enough use for me to really consider.

C to B-: Though HO is worse than it was before, Deo-D is probably the best Screens user thanks to that juicy Speed tier and access to Teleport. Unaware sets are still kinda cool but why would you run them

C to B-: I've been a believer in this guy for a few months, I would've put it in B if you asked me a month ago, but I find the offensive pressure of the Landos to be considerably more valuable than Gliscor's good movepool. Still an underrated Fluffy user though

Drops:

A to A-: It's not as bad as people suggest, and TrickScarf is still a great ball of utility, but it's fallen off pretty hard. Could talk me down to B+ with enough effort

B+ to B / B-: I respect the people still trying to make this work, and there's some great players who still believe in it, but Cinderace is on mega fraudwatch. It's like HOME meta Pawmot; it consistently loads into matchups where it should do well then just does jack shit because the mon itself isn't that great. Offensive sets are still pretty threatening though, and there's some potential in Scarf.

B to B-: Yeah it's okay, but the role of "Mixed Stealth Rock user" is pretty contested right now and it's fallen off a lot in usage. It's never gonna be that bad, but I'm unimpressed.

B to B-: Who the fuck is still using this mon? Whoever they are, they definitely aren't winning with it. Hadron Engine sets are pretty cool but it's not enough to save it from mediocrity.

B to B-: Who the fuck is still using this mon? Whoever they are, they definitely aren't winning with it. Magic Guard sets are pretty cool but it's not enough to save it from mediocrity.

C to UR: Full stop, nobody has used these guys in months, let alone to success. C tier is insanely bloated, let's get rid of the rot.

 

[Subsonic72]

B+ to A-: Not too much to say here, Latios is just a really consistent Scarfer that can reliably break through even would-be checks like Iron Treads with a bit of team support. Psyshock is an absolutely broken move in a metagame where the most common special walls regularly run no Defense investment and the ones that do tend to either fold anyway or dread Hadron-boosted Thunderbolt. Specs sets are also really good, especially Dragon's Maw, but CM or AoA sets feel like trolling.

Hey, another Latios believer

C to UR: Full stop, nobody has used these guys in months, let alone to success. C tier is insanely bloated, let's get rid of the rot.

Don't sleep on Talonflame. The others are pretty meh, yes but flame is at least workable. The goofy semi defensive set with roost given as a sample sucks more often than not.
I got 2nd in the room tour last month and like 11 on the ladder with a tflame team using it as an offensive pivot/late game wincon.
Set was Uturn, SD, flareblitz and brave bird with max attack and max speed jolly. This becomes super spooky if it's the fastest mon alive and can still switch into some moves once or twice (notably hearthflame, flower trick, and ground moves).

 

[Subsonic72]

After getting to 5 on the ladder recently I've got some more changes I could see.

1. Corviknight Rise to S
When teambuilding this is funny enough the most restricting mon for making offensive cores. Barring stuff like mold breaker ace, there is always a viable corc set that stonewalls your (physical) attacker. This is especially hard for teams that want to be more balanced and can't include 4 different breakers to always have one that's not walled.

Unlike something like blissey, which also walls tons of attackers, corv isn't passive. Idbp sets are lategame Demons, and it's uturn is the safest way to bring it attackers. So even stuff like cb zama which could force its way through fluffy with rocks up, ends up as a free entry for a monster like ceruledge. Nothing to say of clicking a grass move on Meow or knock on Moon and instantly loosing momentum.

Lastly, it can easily fit on every single team. It's a sweeper/screens user for Ho even and can abuse its defensive profile there to great effect. Balance also loves corves pivoting and stall is not a real playstyle.

2. Inteleon rise to B

Telly plus spikes is a really easy wincon that can brute force its way through basically anything that isn't running water absorb. (Hoodra being the exception). It's notably faster than moon and can this 2hko non scarf sets on the switchin. Regenvest also looses with hazards up and doesn't really make progress by coming in.

Let me say, this shit is strong. Specs primordial sea weatherball does 40 to spdef toxapex ffs. This is dracovish levels of power.
Imo its very comparable to prim, this other prim sea weather ball spammer. Prim has defensive utility but doesn't combine breaking and cleaning the way Telly can into certain mus. Though prim is still a better breaker.

3. Brambleghast Rise to B-

What the hell is Brambleghast doing here ?
I'll tell you. It's a spiker that walls Tusk, and all the fighting types, spin blocks for itself and also spins to get hazards off. The best part is that it gets poltergeist with a decent attack stat. Thus, it's not even a bad spinner due to being able to smoke ghost types.
It obviously needs to run fluffy to wall anything and it can struggle to fit every move it wants to.
It wants to run leaf storm and shadowball to beat scrappy Tusk, it needs strenght sap to stay healthy. At the same time it need spikes and spin to be different from sinistcha and it also wants the generally stronger hit from poltergeist.
If you wanna see a good brambleghast team in action, you can check out Pokeaims video "What if Inteleon had Primal Kyogres ability ?"

I personally hit my ladder peak at around 1650 with a brambleghast balance. I ended up taking a break after loosing 50 elo to a sd swift swim Hearthflame that randomly outsped my Inteleon. (There was no rain on his team...)

 

[cat]

After getting to 5 on the ladder recently I've got some more changes I could see.

1. Corviknight Rise to S
When teambuilding this is funny enough the most restricting mon for making offensive cores. Barring stuff like mold breaker ace, there is always a viable corc set that stonewalls your (physical) attacker. This is especially hard for teams that want to be more balanced and can't include 4 different breakers to always have one that's not walled.

Unlike something like blissey, which also walls tons of attackers, corv isn't passive. Idbp sets are lategame Demons, and it's uturn is the safest way to bring it attackers. So even stuff like cb zama which could force its way through fluffy with rocks up, ends up as a free entry for a monster like ceruledge. Nothing to say of clicking a grass move on Meow or knock on Moon and instantly loosing momentum.

Lastly, it can easily fit on every single team. It's a sweeper/screens user for Ho even and can abuse its defensive profile there to great effect. Balance also loves corves pivoting and stall is not a real playstyle.

2. Inteleon rise to B

Telly plus spikes is a really easy wincon that can brute force its way through basically anything that isn't running water absorb. (Hoodra being the exception). It's notably faster than moon and can this 2hko non scarf sets on the switchin. Regenvest also looses with hazards up and doesn't really make progress by coming in.

Let me say, this shit is strong. Specs primordial sea weatherball does 40 to spdef toxapex ffs. This is dracovish levels of power.
Imo its very comparable to prim, this other prim sea weather ball spammer. Prim has defensive utility but doesn't combine breaking and cleaning the way Telly can into certain mus. Though prim is still a better breaker.

3. Brambleghast Rise to B-

What the hell is Brambleghast doing here ?
I'll tell you. It's a spiker that walls Tusk, and all the fighting types, spin blocks for itself and also spins to get hazards off. The best part is that it gets poltergeist with a decent attack stat. Thus, it's not even a bad spinner due to being able to smoke ghost types.
It obviously needs to run fluffy to wall anything and it can struggle to fit every move it wants to.
It wants to run leaf storm and shadowball to beat scrappy Tusk, it needs strenght sap to stay healthy. At the same time it need spikes and spin to be different from sinistcha and it also wants the generally stronger hit from poltergeist.
If you wanna see a good brambleghast team in action, you can check out Pokeaims video "What if Inteleon had Primal Kyogres ability ?"

I personally hit my ladder peak at around 1650 with a brambleghast balance. I ended up taking a break after loosing 50 elo to a sd swift swim Hearthflame that randomly outsped my Inteleon. (There was no rain on his team...)

Corv is not the unbreakable wall you make it out to be. The standard Fluffy sets lose to a variety of mons (pao, fires, ogers, spatkers, even stuff like cb zama if youre not careful with your hp because its very easy to get put into cc 2hko range). Intim has a better mu into pao and non-fire ogers but the missing bulk is very notable. WBB is a terrible set frankly in this day and age, you're basically just beating ceru and oger-h in exchange for being much weaker to any breaker in general. SpD Vabs is a solid check to shocks helec etc but its far from being impossible to beat. Corv is not unbreakable as it cannot run all of Fluffy / Intim / WBB / Vabs while being physdef and spdef at the same time.

IDBP means you have to drop one of defog / uturn which severely compromises how much utility corv provides to the table which is one of corv's defining traits imo. It's also not an amazing set by any means and dropping defog leaves your team much more vulnerable to hazards and dropping uturn means youre a momentum sink when youre being forced out.

Lastly i'd just like to note that corv isnt really that splashable - deo-d is a better screens setter (in my opinion, at least) with better special bulk and teleport, as well as being able to beat smeargle which is good for the webs mu. It also isnt amazing on offense since it tends to be more fast paced and corv cant really keep up with the pace.



Inteleon is an okay mon but you're not mentioning a lot of its checks. PhysDef RegenVest Manaphy can switch into it quite safely and uturn out into your speed control like scarf moon or whatever and the mana/moon player gets momentum in exchange for barely any chip even with rocks up. And god forbid its spd regenvest which you cant even beat. RegenVest prim does a great job of beating it too (does anyone even use it though?), and RegenVest moon also does a great job of scouting what move it is --> hard switching to your ice beam switchin if it clicks that or doing whatever you want with it if it clicks wball. If it uturns thats fair game, your opponent will have momentum but if they were in a position to uturn on you they already had momentum anyways. It also lacks defensive utility and tends to be very annoyed by hazards. I suppose B tier is fine? I'd lean much closer to B- if anything.


Brambleghast just isnt really a great pokemon. Sure, its a neat dedicated tusk / fighting answer that can spike and spin in theory but in practice does it really get the opportunity to stay in forever and do its thing? Even with fluffy it isnt particularly bulky and its very easily forced out by literally any special attacker except like shocks. It also just sits there and waits to be forced out which is very easily abusable and gives momentum to the opposing player. Its also dead weight into any defogger, mglo moon (i suppose its rare?), and eleki (unviable ass mon but ladder loves it so im counting it) and you cant really do much to the first 2 while they can pivot out and you dont really want to stay in on the last 2.


Have a good day. Sorry if this seems harsh; I assure you I do not mean to offend you.