AAA Almost Any Ability

With the release of USUM, i feel like Magearna will only keep getting better, able to scare the living daylights out of Naganandel, and play around it with Flash Fire.
 
Maybe we will se a rise of RegenVest Meloetta, which scares Naganadel even more due to not being weak to its moves, while still being able to run Regenerator (Magearna needs Flash Fire to be immune to fire, which means no recovery outside of Pain Split) and having a super-effective STAB in Psyshock/Psychic?
 

Laxpras

One small yeet for man, one giant yeet for mankind
Laxpras Challenge #2 Results
(click name for team)
Gold: Megazard
This is what I would consider the ideal Magearna lure. Magearna resists both of Weavile's STABs, and Weavile rarely runs anything besides STABs in AAA. Therefore, Magearna will almost always come in on Weavile and then try to Volt Switch out. This allows Groundium-Z Dig to defeat Magearna, leaving a giant hole for threats like Alakazam to further exploit.
Silver
: Racool
Azumarill works as a lure because Magearna typically works as an answer to the common Perish Trap Regenerator/Poison Heal set due to Volt Switch. Now, Magearna will be prevented from escaping due to Volt Absorb. Tapu Koko and Gengar both appreciate the removal of Magearna. The downfall of the team is the extreme weakness to Zygarde.
Bronze: RNGIsFatalThis team falls to Bronze due to Heatran's somewhat ineffectiveness as a Magearna lure on account of its Fire Typing. While Magearna can somewhat check Heatran, it is typically not what the opponent will be using for its role. The set is still viable though, especially as an ideal Xurkitree check, and easy way to remove Zapdos opposing teams.

IronedSandwich, make the deadline next time :~)


Laxpras Challenge #3 - Ultra Building


  • You have 10 days to create a team, test it, and tell me why it is the best.
  • You will post your team with accompanying descriptions of why it works.
  • Replays (especially against good players - feel free to challenge me) and high ladder rankings with a Name_Challenge ("Laxpras"_ML in this case) alt will be looked on especially favorably!
  • Any willing council members and I will be the judge of teams on an extremely subjectively objective basis
  • Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention awards will be handed out
  • Award winning users will be placed in the AAA Teambuilding Hall of Fame! (Once I get help getting a new post in under the OP), the best team will be added to the samples!

USUM delivered some immediately viable threats to the AAA metagame, who can best adjust? Let's find out!

Things that judges will consider:
  • Use at least 2, ideally 3 of Blacephalon, Naganadel, and Stakataka on the same team
  • Can you come up with a creative set? I'm sure there are other ways to use these threats other than Magic Guard, Adaptability, and Steelworker, respectively.
  • What about your answer to these threats? How are you going to deal with Blacephalon on an offensive team when you can no longer just spam Magearna as a check-all?
  • Viability (Is your team good?)
  • Let us know how your team meets these goals!
Things judges don't care about:
Life

You have until December 5th
 
I have only recently gotten into other metas in general, and I am slowly learning what is good and what is not, but I love a good challenge so I did my best at making a team that meets the above goals.




When looking at the three new mons, I see three absolute powerhouses that hit extremely hard in slightly different ways, but unfortunately, share some of the same types of weaknesses. The best way I could think of putting these mons on a team together is using some good defensive pivots that can stay a live a long time and let the powerhouses work there magic. First, the stars:

Stakataka: The standard OTR set is just so good, and I also think It works extremely well in this metagame with fast stuff still being really good. My usual thinking for AAA is how can I make this pokemon's role better? In this case, how can I get off at least one trick room? Numerous abilities came to mind here. Levitate is probably the most notable, but I decided I didn't want to just depend on getting rid of one of its many type weaknesses. Filter and similar abilities sounds really good, but I have always felt that they end up really underwhelming in practice. That's why I decided to go with multiscale. Multiscale, in my opinion, is the best way of guaranteeing that Stakataka can live one hit and set up a trick room and wreak as much havoc in those 5 turns as it can.

Blacephalon: Sky high special attack stat, great typing, cool design, what's not to love? Blacephelon can just shatter a lot of opponents with its relatively unusual type coverage. Unfortunately, there are things that can take fire and ghost pretty well, and then you're kinda out of luck. Not anymore with tinted lens. A specs tinted lens fire blast is so powerful, I'm just gonna let some calcs speak for themselves, I hope they are relevant.

252 SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Blacephalon Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 64 SpD Toxapex: 210-250 (69 - 82.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Blacephalon Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Zygarde: 312-370 (87.1 - 103.3%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Blacephalon Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Fini: 240-282 (69.7 - 81.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Most of the time, Fire Blast and Shadow Ball are going to be the go to options. I have not yet found anything redeeming that is worth carrying HP ice. Instead I carry psyshock because of special walls it still can't touch like Chansey or Snorlax.

Naganadel: Another power house, it hits so hard, and so fast, how can it do those better? For speed we give it a choice scarf. For hard-hitting, I have been trying something that seems to be working so far, but will require further testing. That is Merciless abuse. Poison healers are super potent right now such as Manaphy, Tapu Fini, Zygarde, Snorlax, Mandibuzz etc. They are super bulky, give other member of the team trouble, and are generally just annoying to deal with. Merciless abuses the poison by making all hits critical hits every time. Yes, that means every draco becomes a critical hit so who cares about the drop. Unfortunately, I just could not find a way to fit t-spikes on this team while keeping ll three UBs, but you best bet I'll be making a different team dedicated to this strategy. For now, I am going to really on Naganadel's natural ability to hit hard, other poison heal mons, the 30% chance with sludge bomb (thats why I have it over sludge wave), and Tapu Fini.

Now time for the defensive glue:

Tapu Fini: The first regenerator mon I'll be running, this mon performs a few roles. First, it removes hazards. Useful for not letting Blacephalon take a lot of chip damage, also makes sure that Stakataka doesn't break its multiscale. It carries haze to stop mons from setting up. It carries toxic to aide in Naganadel's endeavor. Moonblast may be switched with Nature's Madness in the future, but we'll see.

Landorus-T: The second regenerator mon. Necessary for setting up rocks, removing items, getting other mons in safely, and providing good earthquakes when they are needed.

Snorlax: A poison healer of my own, this special wall is super useful and lasts a super long time. It also contributes the most to answering my next questions.

First, how does this team handle teams with the new ultra beasts on them? Really the answer is Snorlax. Its quite good versus all three of them really. It only needs one or two curses up to take care of stakataka, It can handle Blacephelon's coverage quite well, and psyshock doesn't even 2HKO. With Merciless active, Draco Meteor can 3HKO, but that isn't enough, I would need to play extremely well with my own snorlax or lando-T. The second question may be, what about ground types, s all my heavy-hitters are still weak to ground. I think I am more or less prepared. Tapu Fini and Landorus-T can deal with a lot of common EQ-ers. Zygarde is clearly a threat, but I did not include levitate on any of the three ultra beasts, because it doesn't matter when it comes to thousand arrows, it will hit anything. The best ways to deal with it are still to wear it down with Tapu Fini or landorus, bu there is also the lure of Blacephalon. From the outside, Blacephalon just invites Zygarde to switch in, but as the calc above shows, that is not as good of an idea. It is a great lure to use. I hope you like them team.

Stakataka @ Rockium Z
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stone Edge
- Trick Room
- Superpower

Blacephalon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Tinted Lens
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Trick
- Psyshock

Naganadel @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Merciless
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Sludge Bomb
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- U-turn

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Toxic
- Defog
- Haze

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 SpD
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Knock Off

Snorlax @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Curse
- Facade
- Earthquake
- Protect


EDIT: After testing some battles, I did replace moonblast with nature's madness, it just makes things easier to be picked off with Naganadel. Also after numerous battles, I never clicked crunch with snorlax, and aki0s's sand stakataka kicked my butt. Thanks for helping me realize that Snorlax EQ is a lot better for it's ability to deal with stakataka.
 
Last edited:
Team is still decently rough around the edges but...

Stakataka @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 120 Def / 140 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Skill Swap

Blacephalon @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Knock Off
- Calm Mind

Zygarde @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance

Zapdos @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Defog
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost

Tapu Fini @ Icium Z
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Def / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Haze

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- V-create
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- U-turn


Pretty simple; Stakataka sets sand / rocks and functions as a decent check to most annoying things in the meta (ex: Aerialate Noivern). With skill-swap it can check PH abusers like Snorlax lacking earthquake.
Blacephalon abuses sand and functions as a mid to late game breaker for the team; knock off helps get rid of Assault Vests / eviolites etc. and calm mind is for the off-chance you get to set up since Blacephalon doesn't have all that much coverage.
Moldy Zygarde serves to check weakened dazzling users and mince teams that rely on Unaware pokemon too much.
Zapdos provides general defog services and helps tentatively fix the team's ground weakness; it also serves as a status sponge once toxic orb is activated.
Tapu fini is your all round check to most things. Z-Haze allows it to refill its hp and check set-up users. Volt absorb fixes the team's electric weakness.
Victini is a decent pivot and helps weaken annoying things for the team such as Buzzwole and flash fire Ferrothorn while providing psy-surge support to help versus e-speed abusers.

[Replays to come]

That's all.
 

Ren

i swore lips were made for lies
is a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
hi i don't post here but

genesect is banned while it's holding a drive because the validator treats it as a different pokemon, regardless of if you're putting it in as the respective form or not (by respective form, i mean genesect-douse holding a douse drive or w/e is banned and so is normal genesect holding a douse drive, but regular genesect not holding a drive isn't banned)

i think this needs to be fixed, idk if it sees usage but afaik there's no reason to ban the drives on genesect, just from an outsider's perspective

if this is intentional just lmk

also i should prob tag Kris in case this isn't intentional
 

Lcass4919

The Xatu Warrior
time to bring out tha teravolt fire blast nagandel. seriously though, aaa deals with it much better then OU can. since we have viable regenvesters, really good unaware walls, and mons like snorlax and priority which makes naga a bit easier to manage. also not running speed boost/beast boost means naga's ability to threaten scarfers is completely gone. im pretty sure nagandel will be safe here. we only have to worry about tinted lens. since its speed tier is high, good spc attack, nasty plot, and draconium Z draco meteor/sludge wave has no switchins except for mmaw and klefki.

(in other news i totally called the ultra-beedril ban in ou first day it came out not trying to gloat but har har)

and actually, speaking of ultra-beedrill, my favorite naga set so far is actually sheer force. with sludge wave, fire blast, and dark pulse with nasty plot, it hits really hard and can set up nasty plots to sweep. (i use dark pulse over thunderbolt for FF ferrothorn)
 
Someone think in a magic guard mon with recoil moves?
Like Talonflame
Something like:

Talonflame @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
-Complete

Or blacephalon with magic guard and mind blown
 
Someone think in a magic guard mon with recoil moves?
Like Talonflame
Something like:

Talonflame @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
-Complete

Or blacephalon with magic guard and mind blown
Other Pokemon, like Victini and Noivern, can use their abilities to power up recoil free attacks and outclass your Talonflame set. Also, your Blacephalon idea has already been mentioned.
Naganadel and blacephelon are both scary af, and potentially could both be banned. Blacephelon will quickly turn into one of the most used special wallbrealers, with mguard lo hitting like everything extremely hard, with chansey not even able to touch the set.
 

Ryota Mitarai

Shrektimus Prime
is a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributor
So here are some sets I have been trying with Naga and Blace:

Naganadel @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Sludge Wave
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast

This set is more of a stallbreaking one as stuff like Flash Fire Magearna (not common but) and fat SpD Unaware walls like Chansey hardwall it like nothing. + It's not like 1/2/3 NPs won't make it busted enough to crush teams without Adapt/Tinted Lens.


Blacephalon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Trick

We all know the famous Magic Guard + LO + Mind Blown Blacephalon. I have always felt that Mind Guard was a bit weak and couldn't achieve some crucial OHKOes. However, Magic Guard is not the only set you can run on Blacephalon. Desolate Land is pretty good on that thing as it allows it to check a lot of Water-types really well (It is worth mentioning that it also checks Frillish really well), as well to stop non-Sun teams (since the sun benefits the sun teams for 1 more turn). If you're MLG enough, you can also run Mind Blown for maximum power. Finally, it can render a Stall member useless by tricking it a Choice Specs (The best thing is that Blace doesn't even mind having it, it benefits a lot from having it in fact).
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Niche but fun:

Smeargle @ Normalium-Z
Ability: Normalize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

- Spirit Shackle
- Entrainment
- Conversion
- Accupressure

Come in on a non-threat and use Z-Conversion to become a Ghost-type as they switch out and predict a Spore, boosting along the way, so you can outspeed next turn with Entrainment. This prevents any attack from affecting you, and allows you to trap the opponent mwith Spirit Shackle, boosting with Accurpressure to sweep the foes. Since you are maximized by the time you decide to KO the opponent, you can go first through the Speed boosts, and use Entrainment for Immunity, then trap the foe and just sweep. This is stopped by Ghost types, and priority but if you eliminate Ghost types, and if Smeargle can survive a priority hit, then you are golden.


Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Mega Launcher
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Roost

I suggest Mega Launcher because it takes both of its STAB attacks to new heights while Life Orb Boosts Fire Blast. Roost is for recovery. Vanilla, but sensible for pure damage output. Mega Launcher puts Dragon Pulse and Dark Pulse both right on par with Draco Meteor’s Base Power. Obviously contrary Draco Meteor is better, except for the first hit with Dark Pulse.
 

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