AAA Almost Any Ability

EV

Banned deucer.
If OU can handle Duggy, AAA can, as well. The whole metagame got better around it. Plus, hazards break its Sash. Right now, though... defense has a much better hold on the meta right now. Dugtrio is not the big part so much than Poison Heal Zygarde and Tapu Fini being powerful forces. We may need a Zygade suspect eventually....
Has your opinion changed now that OU is suspecting Dugtrio?
 
To clear up something on the Minior thing- yes I'm pretty sure it transforms. My original suspect ladder run 30-6 was done with 1 minior test team that LaxLapras originally gave to me when I was inactive, I made some tweaks on my own later on. Minior is an insanely underutilized pokemon that carves out a deadly niche in the metagame that people have taken way too long to start to abuse. It's reliance on support to get rid of hazards, break sashes, and weaken walls/unaware mons is honestly the only reason why it's still legal. If any of you guys want the team- here it is.

Thundurus @ Choice Specs
Ability: Stakeout
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

Genesect @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Iron Head
- Blaze Kick
- Extreme Speed
- U-turn

Minior @ Focus Sash
Ability: Dazzling
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Stone Edge
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Trick

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon
- Focus Blast
- Volt Switch

Zygarde @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
 
To clear up something on the Minior thing- yes I'm pretty sure it transforms. My original suspect ladder run 30-6 was done with 1 minior test team that LaxLapras originally gave to me when I was inactive, I made some tweaks on my own later on. Minior is an insanely underutilized pokemon that carves out a deadly niche in the metagame that people have taken way too long to start to abuse. It's reliance on support to get rid of hazards, break sashes, and weaken walls/unaware mons is honestly the only reason why it's still legal. If any of you guys want the team- here it is.

Thundurus @ Choice Specs
Ability: Stakeout
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

Genesect @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Iron Head
- Blaze Kick
- Extreme Speed
- U-turn

Minior @ Focus Sash
Ability: Dazzling
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Stone Edge
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake

Latios @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Defog
- Trick

Magearna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Fleur Cannon
- Flash Cannon
- Focus Blast
- Volt Switch

Zygarde @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Thousand Arrows
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage
Small problem with the team in that Stakeout is banned, so you're going to have to change the abilities for something else.
 
Has your opinion changed now that OU is suspecting Dugtrio?
A little bit, yeah. There were hushed whispers about Dugtrio being banworthy, and now they're coming to light. I understand why it's happening, but I feel that it's more so the direction that Smogon has brought their Pokémon metagame more than anything else...
As for OU, I'm neutral on banning it. Which means my AAA stance is that it can still be handled alright. It isn't exactly difficult to put hazards up and then punish the resulting defog with Defiant/Competitive...
 
About minior: anyone who sees it when it hatches or is not in battle knows, it shows up as its core form and not meteor form, similar to Aslash showing up as shield form in out of battle situation. I feel like this would lead to it showing up as a core form if it were without shields down as an ability in game, but if anyone with hacking skills wants to get a hacked minior and see what happens, it might be different than what I said, but who really knows.
 
A little bit, yeah. There were hushed whispers about Dugtrio being banworthy, and now they're coming to light. I understand why it's happening, but I feel that it's more so the direction that Smogon has brought their Pokémon metagame more than anything else...
As for OU, I'm neutral on banning it. Which means my AAA stance is that it can still be handled alright. It isn't exactly difficult to put hazards up and then punish the resulting defog with Defiant/Competitive...
but Unaware always exist in stall in AAA. they just switch in to them.
the reason why i brought Dugtrio to be suspected / banned is, yes you can play around that if you're using OU as base, but this is AAA, not OU, so they can play around that too. so many options in AAA so they can keep Dugtrio "healthy".
 

Gross Sweep

Plan Ahead
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Yes, Duggy is a great asset to stall - you can see stall teams struggling without it on the OU suspect ladder. However, it's also amazing on offensive teams, and that can't be ignored. Getting reqs during the suspect test I made my own version of Darksylvion's psychic spam team (used 3 of the same mons) but my version included dugtrio. The team has threats like psychic terrain zam and scarfed adaptability terrakion, but Dugtrio was still the teams MVP. The ability to trap bulky steels (besides skarm/cele) and pick off your opponents weakened mons is invaluable. I'm definitely in favor of at least considering giving duggy the axe, because it's one of those mons that fit on any play style and make any team it's on a lot better. Any mon that can very successfully fit on stall, balance, and offense needs to get looked at.

I'm attaching a paste of the team just for a reference of Duggy offense since so many people are use to seeing it function on stall, although its role is very similar. (also I know the skarm set isn't the best it just kinda worked for the team)
http://pastebin.com/ki9zS9T9

Personally I'm not against letting duggy stick around, but I definitely see the hindrance it provides towards team building - definitely not an issue that can just be blown off.
 
I feel like something worth pointing out in AAA is that, for offense, there are a lot of extremely strong attackers that are lacking in OU (like Noivern, Hoopa-U, MegaZam, Latios, Victini, etc., etc.) that can only be checked by either extremely tanky, passive pokemon like Chansey, or steel types like Magearna. If offensive brings dugtrio + one of these breakers, it suddenly has an almost unloseable matchup against stall teams without Dugtrio (or Weavile).
Also, because stall is much more bulky in AAA, it takes much stronger pokemon to break it, and the majority of these pokemon (like Terrakion, Victini, Latios, Hoopa-U, and even to an extent Weavile and Keldeo), can get trapped and KO'd by dugtrio, effectively making the rest of the team much easier to deal with. Also, with many more solid magic bouncers and walls, sending in dugtrio to kill things doesn't sacrifice as much pressure as it usually does.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7almostanyabilitysuspecttest-524015654 - Here, my only way of breaking walls is really tinted lens Keldeo in rain. Dugtrio traps and kills Keldeo, making the game much much more in his favor. In order to win, I had to win a bunch of 50/50s while also abusing illusion.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7almostanyabilitysuspecttest-529065941 - I know I'm demonstrating this with a jynx, but it applies to really any strong special attacker; this replay shows how I was able to find the right opportunity to get Dugtrio in to trap Magearna and easily win with a psychic terrain pokemon once the special wall was gone.
 

EV

Banned deucer.
From what I have seen of Fluffy and theory tested myself, its very difficult to overcome. Its weakness to special moves is mitigated by putting it on a very specially defensive mon or running assault vest. The fire type weakness is fixed by packing flash fire switch ins or putting it on a mon that heavily resists fire. a good example would be volcanion, who not only runs assault vest very well but is quad resistant to fire type moves, making an av volcanion with fluffy as an option pretty much insurmountable outside of toxic stall.
 
Klinklang, Cobalion, Alolan Dugtrio, Lucario, Durant... Plenty of offensive Steel-types love having double STAB on their Steel moves.
[/quote]
Kartana is OP with steelworker
 
Just wanted to share this cool set, idk if many ppl use it or anything:


Hoopa-Unbound @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Knock Off
- Fire Punch
- Drain Punch
- Psychic

So yeah, Hoopa-u actually has a pretty sweet defensive typing, being immune to psychic and neutral to everything else (pretty much), so I decided to run in as AV garbage to have a bit more power than stuff like Meloetta. It's fat and hits hard basically, like it beats magearna 1v1 for example.

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Hoopa-Unbound: 90-107 (24.7 - 29.4%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Adaptability Latios Draco Meteor vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Hoopa-Unbound: 148-177 (40.7 - 48.7%)
252 SpA Alakazam-Mega Focus Blast vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Hoopa-Unbound: 66-78 (18.1 - 21.4%) -- possible 5HKO
252+ SpA Magearna Fleur Cannon vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Hoopa-Unbound: 186-222 (51.2 - 61.1%)

Anyway it's kinda cool, try it out if you want. If you don't then don't. Have a wonderful day.
 
Actually that's a pretty cool set, I think gunk shot could be used with that set too, since it 2hkoes fini regardless of investment, making hoopa a decent check to Poison Heal fini(if it doesn't get burned that is).
Eh, Idk man, that's a sketchy check. For one Hoopa actually has a pretty hard time 2HKOing after protect (8 Atk Hoopa-Unbound Gunk Shot vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Tapu Fini: 170-202 (49.5 - 58.8%)) and on top of that hitting two gunk shot and dodging two burn isn't a particularly easy task (0.8*0.7*0.8*0.7 ~= 31%).

Gunk shot is a cool option, but idk what move you'd forgo. Koff is the best stab move, psychic is cool to be mixed attacker and OHKO fighting types, dpunch pressures mons that would pursuit you and fire punch beats magearna.

I had not played aaa for a bit actually, I had to make a new team since all my others were banned and I made it around grassy surge ferrothorn, that and PH bulu means I don't have much problem with fini most of the time.
Here's the team if you want to try it out, it's kinda decent:
Minior-Violet @ Life Orb
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave

Moltres @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Defog
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Flamethrower

Hoopa-Unbound @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Knock Off
- Fire Punch
- Drain Punch
- Psychic

Tapu Bulu @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Horn Leech
- Bulk Up
- Taunt
- Stone Edge

Honchkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Innards Out
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Roost
- Superpower
 
I also have a Hoopa-U in my team, but as a Quick Feet boosted Special Sweeper. What do you think about that Hoopa variant?

Hoopa-Unbound @ Flame Orb
Ability: Quick Feet
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Hyperspace Hole
- Dark Pulse
- Thunderbolt / Focus Miss

My AAA favourite is this Kommo-o set, which abuses the Belly Drum/Sitrus Berry/Unburden combo to get +6 attack and +2 speed after just one setup move to sweep the opposing team away if they lack a scarfed/priority check.

Kommo-o @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Belly Drum
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
 

drampa's grandpa

cannonball
is a Community Contributoris a Community Leader Alumnus
I also have a Hoopa-U in my team, but as a Quick Feet boosted Special Sweeper. What do you think about that Hoopa variant?

Hoopa-Unbound @ Flame Orb
Ability: Quick Feet
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Hyperspace Hole
- Dark Pulse
- Thunderbolt / Focus Miss

My AAA favourite is this Kommo-o set, which abuses the Belly Drum/Sitrus Berry/Unburden combo to get +6 attack and +2 speed after just one setup move to sweep the opposing team away if they lack a scarfed/priority check.

Kommo-o @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Belly Drum
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
Those look like pretty good sets in general, a couple housekeeping tips.

For Hoopa-U I don't think Hyperspace Hole actually hits much... I'd personally forget about dual stab unless you have something you need to hit with it direly.

Sky Uppercut > Brick Break. Brick Break is just pathetically weak.

On both speed EVs might be improvable, but I'm not sure. Kommo-o in particular doesn't need 252+ speed when it's going to be at +2... Just outspeed base +1 110s (or 111 or 112 or whatever you want to creep to) or Garchomp at +2. This lets you chuck some EVs into bulk, which helps Kommo-o set up more easily.
 
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if you're at +6, brick break's lower power is far less relevant than uppercut's lower accuracy
pretty much any stat spread that would be more vulnerable to sky uppercut is some combination of unlikely, impractial, and irrelevant, especially when dragon claw and eq are on the table
 
So everyone knows how Mega Launcher Hydreigon is a seriously powerful threat, right? Everyone also knows that Hydreigon can't touch PH Tapu Fini for its life.

Or can it?

Tapu Finished (Hydreigon) holding Choice Specs
Ability: Galvanize
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor / Dragon Pulse
- Hyper Voice
- filler (U-turn or coverage)

252 SpA Choice Specs Galvanize Hydreigon Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Tapu Fini: 272-322 (79 - 93.6%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

10/10 best lure. Galvanize Hyper Voice OHKOs standard Fini with just a bit of prior damage (AKA any entry hazard ever). Draco is to nuke shit, but Dragon Pulse is to keep the illusion of Mega Launcher Hydreigon. Dark Pulse is STAB. Last slot can be Fire Blast, Earth Power, U-turn, Focus Miss, Flash Cannon, basically any coverage you want.

INFINITE POWER (Hydreigon) holding Choice Specs
Ability: Technician / Merciless
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shock Wave / Charge Beam
- Dragon Breath / Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Filler (U-turn or coverage)

252 SpA Choice Specs Technician Hydreigon Shock Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Tapu Fini: 228-270 (66.2 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Poison Heal
252 SpA Choice Specs Technician Hydreigon Charge Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Tapu Fini: 190-224 (55.2 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Poison Heal

Shock Wave for consistent damage, Charge Beam if you want to snowball. Coverage options include Earth Power, Fire Blast, Focus Miss, and every Hidden Power ever. Dragon Breath can paralyze unsuspecting targets, but Draco's there for the BIG DOMMAGE. Dark Pulse for STAB, or HP Dark if you want more damage. Merciless has the same damage boost, but has the luxury of always 2HKOing no matter how many boosts Tapu Fini has, although it forces you to run a rather weak move in Shock Wave.

ultimate (Hydreigon) holding Choice Band
Ability: Strong Jaw / Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thunder Fang
- Crunch
- Fire Fang
- Ice Fang / Outrage / U-turn / Superpower / Earthquake / Iron Tail

252 Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Hydreigon Thunder Fang vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 242-286 (70.3 - 83.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Poison Heal
252 Atk Choice Band Tough Claws Hydreigon Thunder Fang vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Poison Heal

Tapu Fini can no longer switch in safely. Neither can most special walls. Even Fairies fall to Iron Tail:

252 Atk Choice Band Tough Claws Hydreigon Iron Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Togekiss: 272-322 (72.7 - 86%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Tough Claws Hydreigon Iron Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tapu Bulu: 240-284 (69.7 - 82.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Regenvest Magearna? Not a problem.
252 Atk Choice Band Tough Claws Hydreigon Fire Fang vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Magearna: 172-204 (47.2 - 56%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Hydreigon Fire Fang vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Magearna: 196-232 (53.8 - 63.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Choice Band Hydreigon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Magearna: 204-240 (56 - 65.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

FF Skarm? Non-issue.
252 Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Hydreigon Thunder Fang vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 156-184 (46.7 - 55%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
(For Tough Claws it's a bit more of an issue; Thunder Fang fails to 2HKO 91% of the time.)

Physical Hydreigon is a powerhouse.

PS: If you want to be REALLY mean to Fini, you can run this:
252 Atk Choice Band Galvanize Hydreigon Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tapu Fini: 226-266 (65.6 - 77.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Poison Heal
 
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Laxpras

One small yeet for man, one giant yeet for mankind
Innards out is now banned from AAA after a unanimous council vote.
It essentially boiled down to Innards out allowing teams to take out the largest threat fairly easily and with little counterplay. This helps stall to an extent that we consider it both broken and uncompetitive

Highlights from the conversation:

"Every impact innards out has is negative, promotes poor/reckless teambuilding and the 50/50 luckfest that is battling it the opposite of competitive. Innards out is a huge F*** you to offence and has no right to exist in a competitive metagame." - motherlove

"Remember when people wanted to get rid of MGar in Ubers because it can get rid of threats? Well the same thing applies here, except you can even have multiple attempts to do it." - jordn

"you get rid of literally whatever you want, at 0 cost, and make the score 5-5 in your favor with a vital part of your opponent's team eliminated and a small contributor to your team eliminated. It's like eliminating Japan and Germany from WWI. Obviously, both sides lost a country, but now it's way more imbalanced." - aesf

 

Laxpras

One small yeet for man, one giant yeet for mankind
So, with Innards Out and Fluffy now gone from the meta, how is the current status of stall? I'd welcome both theoretical and practical (example) discussion about it. Is there something else that makes it overly powerful for a balanced meta? What about Poison Heal?
 
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RNGIsFatal

Banned deucer.
IIRC, Pheromosa was never allowed in the OM as it was banned in the beta phase of AAA, so having it in ban history doesn't make sense. No matter, it's listed under bans. I'd like to move on from the topic.

So, with Innards Out and Fluffy now gone from the meta, how is the current status of stall? I'd welcome both theoretical and practical (example) discussion about it. Is there something else that makes it overly powerful for a balanced meta? What about Poison Heal?
Outtards In is gone to I guess 13 Def Sashed Chansey with Counter rules

... forget about it.

Perhaps more type-immunity abuses will happen, such as Metagross having Flash Fire or Levitate prior to Mega Evo, more Desolate Land from Fire types.

Speaking of Poison Heal... I think the most underrated users of Poison Heal are Golisopod and Silvally. They both have access to Swords Dance and Golisopod can spam Leech Life or OHKO Xurkitree at +4 while Silvally can spam PH + STAB Facade.
 
So I recently fought Laxpras and learned a few things.
  1. I suck.
  2. He's incredibly good.
  3. Endure + Reversal + Unburden Heracross doesn't work against good players.
If you're curious about that last set, it looks a little something like this:

ENDURANCE (Heracross) @ Liechi Berry / Weakness Policy
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Endure
- Reversal
- Knock Off
- Flail / Megahorn

If you can get it up, it floats like a butterfly on crack cocaine and stings like a bee driving an 18-wheeler. However, it's A), tough to get going, B), incredibly weak to priority, and C), hella weak before you get it going if you run Flail over Megahorn.

Still fun tho.
+1 252+ Atk Heracross Reversal (200 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 297-349 (88.9 - 104.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
 

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