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Love these sets and they have lots of power! But what annihilates this core is any kind of Pixilate Extreme Speed / Fake Out or Triage Draining Kiss set. Maybe something to deal with impending attacks like these? Cool sets though! :)
Partner Pokemon can easily help them in that regard. I usually don't see pixilate extreme speed, but you can experiment with different defensive partners like Ferrothorn to patch the weakness. Then you can throw in fighting resist(hence why I think noivern prob better then drei in hindsight) Flashfire Ferro is prob best, to beat all triage toges, and extreme speed(if u run over bulle punch) on luke can seriously dent most triage draining kiss users seriously.
Luke (Lucario) @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Blaze Kick
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire / Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock/Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Iron Head/Gyro Ball
With this post I might as well share something fun I have enjoyed using-Weavile!
Weavile @ Wide Lens
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Triple Axel
- Ice Shard
- Beat Up/ Knock Off
- Swords Dance/Knock Off
This weavile probably isn't the best, but 99% technician triple axel. (However I have missed way too many times for this to really be 99%) If you are an rng god, you could replace wide lens with HDB for more longetivity, or just run a stable defogger/pivot to help bring this in. Beat-Up can actually be insane early game if you run high base attackers on your team, such as lando and haxourous (Which in my humble opinion, is pretty good on dragmag) And there you have it lol just gave you a team idea, Offensive Magnet Pull heatran on a corv opens up great ways for aerialate lando, and Choice Band Tough Claws Haxourous to put a lot of wholes. And Ofc, beat-up weavile. You could figure out the last 2 :).
I've been running this mon for a while now and I was wondering if I could get everyone's thoughts on this bad lass:
Mandibuzz (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Delta Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Defog
- Knock Off
- U-turn
I know the general consensus is to run Mandibuzz with unaware, volt absorb, regenerator, etc., but what if you could give yourself neutral resistances to all your weaknesses, (except for fairy) AND screw over weather-dependent mons? (Looking at you, Primordial Sea Barraskewda). I've been using this baby as a pivot and its been working fantastic so far along with Regenerator Tapu Fini.
Hey folks. New curious individual just scrolling through. Just wanted to point out what I observed, namely that the AAA Viability Rankings that you have there still shows Poison Heal as being one of the most "viable" abilities. Just saying, it might be worth showing the new situation post-PH ban.
Hey folks. New curious individual just scrolling through. Just wanted to point out what I observed, namely that the AAA Viability Rankings that you have there still shows Poison Heal as being one of the most "viable" abilities. Just saying, it might be worth showing the new situation post-PH ban.
Yeah, a temporary mini VR update is currently in the works! As there hasn't been much time since the Poison Heal ban, it's not totally clear how the ranks should change—however, the update should give some perspective on that when it's released.
Delta stream Mandi seems odd as the added resistance doesn't seem to help it beat any additional threat.
Rock types such as Terrak and Archeops still beat you.
Ice types such as Weav and Mamo still beat you.
Electric types such as Xurk and Koko still beat you.
Could work as a Genesect check but without Foul play it's setup bait.
I don't really know what else it brings to the table.
I much prefer Delta Stream Corv/Skarm as they now actually resist rock and ice and can take on Weav and Archeops.
Delta stream Mandi seems odd as the added resistance doesn't seem to help it beat any additional threat.
Rock types such as Terrak and Archeops still beat you.
Ice types such as Weav and Mamo still beat you.
Electric types such as Xurk and Koko still beat you.
Could work as a Genesect check but without Foul play it's setup bait.
I don't really know what else it brings to the table.
I much prefer Delta Stream Corv/Skarm as they now actually resist rock and ice and can take on Weav and Archeops.
Mini VR Update
This isn't a full Viability Rankings update or anything, but I figured it would be a good idea to give a preview on what the meta looks like now that Poison Heal is banned. The Pokemon are separated into Top, High, and Mid Tiers respectively, with "Viable" referring to usable Pokemon that still need more representation in order to determine where they belong in the rankings. Remember that this is by no means exhaustive nor conclusive! In the future, expect a return back to form with a full on VR update :]
Samples
Since it's still a bit early in the new meta, sample submissions aren't open quite yet. HOWEVER, if you feel that you already have a good enough grasp on things to create a sampleworthy team, feel free to post it and I'll add everything to the council channel for consideration later on!
As usual, we really only ask for two things:
1. A working PokePaste link to the team
2. A brief description of the team highlighting what you think makes it a team worth recommending to newer players—or simply those not experienced enough with AAA to build a team of their own.
Mini VR Update
This isn't a full Viability Rankings update or anything, but I figured it would be a good idea to give a preview on what the meta looks like now that Poison Heal is banned. The Pokemon are separated into Top, High, and Mid Tiers respectively, with "Viable" referring to usable Pokemon that still need more representation in order to determine where they belong in the rankings. Remember that this is by no means exhaustive nor conclusive! In the future, expect a return back to form with a full on VR update :]
Samples
Since it's still a bit early in the new meta, sample submissions aren't open quite yet. HOWEVER, if you feel that you already have a good enough grasp on things to create a sampleworthy team, feel free to post it and I'll add everything to the council channel for consideration later on!
As usual, we really only ask for two things:
1. A working PokePaste link to the team
2. A brief description of the team highlighting what you think makes it a team worth recommending to newer players—or simply those not experienced enough with AAA to build a team of their own.
This is a stall team that makes use of scarf garchomp to revenge kill a bunch of the fast offensiev threats that are usually a GG for stall once they get properly going, like Gengar and Terrakion. EVs on chomp let you live a +4 LO Giga from gengar, which means you can pivot out with chansey to revenge kill it without having to worry as much about scouting; it also helps with using Chomp to switch into Blace or Heatran. Mew covers generic physical threats, especially drum and bulu, Corv handles the rare fast dlariat bulu, Archeops, and adds a secondary defogger and generic physical wall in case Mew dies early or needs to stay healthy for smth specific. Fini is one of the absolute best progressmakers around and really saves the Latios MU; haze fini + toxic chansey lets you take on any Togekiss that outrun Heatran, plus it's super useful to stop skewda from generating momentum from nothing. Heatran sets rocks, blocks flip turn, and makes progress against other fat teams - especially once Fini's been spreading knocks and scalds - while checking stuff like Togekiss and enemy Fini.
It's a very reactive team but a very forgiving one; you very rarely need to make any kind of hero predicts or cold reads to make it work, you just go out to whatever your answer is, and of the team archetypes in that style it does an above average job of dealing with blace and has a solid ability to cope with the loss of any one mon in most MUs.
Bonjour chers amis,
Thinkerino is no longer able to assume the role of Tier Leader for various reasons, so I am taking over from him as AAA head. Goodbye Think , and thank you for your good and loyal service ; you really helped us to improve the tier and we will certainly miss you. Also thank you for changing the thread's name to welcome me ;)
As for the rest of the operations, a reorganization of both the council and the tier in itself is necessary. I do not wish to completely overturn AAA, as this is not a coup ; only to make the changes that are necessary.
- Genesect is banned taking effect now. This pokemon has been a problem since DLC and we don't see a reason why it would be less dangerous after the Poison Heal ban. Sheer Force, Tinted Lens, Regenerator, No Guard, Flash Fire, Galvanize, Magic Guard and Refrigerate are all abilities that it can use on special, physical or mixed sets to beat any counterplay.
- Buzzwole will be unbanned, and likely suspect tested soon. With all the changes, we are not sure if the current meta could handle Buzzwole well, but we consider worth giving it a shot ; since it was a close call when it was banned some months ago (fun fact : it was Think's first action as TL).
Tagging The Immortal to implement the Genesect ban and Buzzwole unban.
Et? C'est quoi le problème avec la francophonie dans une communauté internationale ?
Anyways back to English, I am curious to see how this new shape of the metagame will pan out under new leadership.
Side note: the ban list of some Pokémon/abilities are linked, while others are not. I suspect that this is partially because some were banned in previous generations of this metagame while others were banned here. Would it be possible to either get them all linked up, or a quick links sheet showing the history and justification of each ban/unban?
Et? C'est quoi le problème avec la francophonie dans une communauté internationale ?
Anyways back to English, I am curious to see how this new shape of the metagame will pan out under new leadership.
Side note: the ban list of some Pokémon/abilities are linked, while others are not. I suspect that this is partially because some were banned in previous generations of this metagame while others were banned here. Would it be possible to either get them all linked up, or a quick links sheet showing the history and justification of each ban/unban?
Not all of the bans listed in the banlist have a corresponding post--some of them are historical bans that don't change or aren't worth testing in each new meta (see: most of the high BST ubers Pokemon that are banned) and others are abilities that are just too mechnically broken to even consider freeing (see: Huge Power, Illusion). I already went through and linked anything that has a post relevant to gen 8--if you have questions about specific abilities though, I'd be happy to explain the ban reasoning to you.
Bonjour chers amis,
Thinkerino is no longer able to assume the role of Tier Leader for various reasons, so I am taking over from him as AAA head. Goodbye Think , and thank you for your good and loyal service ; you really helped us to improve the tier and we will certainly miss you. Also thank you for changing the thread's name to welcome me ;)
As for the rest of the operations, a reorganization of both the council and the tier in itself is necessary. I do not wish to completely overturn AAA, as this is not a coup ; only to make the changes that are necessary.
- Genesect is banned taking effect now. This pokemon has been a problem since DLC and we don't see a reason why it would be less dangerous after the Poison Heal ban. Sheer Force, Tinted Lens, Regenerator, No Guard, Flash Fire, Galvanize, Magic Guard and Refrigerate are all abilities that it can use on special, physical or mixed sets to beat any counterplay.
- Buzzwole will be unbanned, and likely suspect tested soon. With all the changes, we are not sure if the current meta could handle Buzzwole well, but we consider worth giving it a shot ; since it was a close call when it was banned some months ago (fun fact : it was Think's first action as TL).
Tagging The Immortal to implement the Genesect ban and Buzzwole unban.
Not all of the bans listed in the banlist have a corresponding post--some of them are historical bans that don't change or aren't worth testing in each new meta (see: most of the high BST ubers Pokemon that are banned) and others are abilities that are just too mechnically broken to even consider freeing (see: Huge Power, Illusion). I already went through and linked anything that has a post relevant to gen 8--if you have questions about specific abilities though, I'd be happy to explain the ban reasoning to you.
Yeah, there are a couple abilities in there that I am surprised by. Fluffy seems like it would be an ability with enough of a major flaw that it wouldn't be broken. The other ones I am surprised by are Innards Out, Stakeout, and Illusion. I would not have thought that any of them would be game-breaking in any way.
Yeah, there are a couple abilities in there that I am surprised by. Fluffy seems like it would be an ability with enough of a major flaw that it wouldn't be broken. The other ones I am surprised by are Innards Out, Stakeout, and Illusion. I would not have thought that any of them would be game-breaking in any way.
The council said they were working on adding explanations in the resources, but in the meantime I thought I'd answer that briefly.
- Comatose is banned because of its sleep talk interaction. Comatose + Sleep talk + Phasing move (dragon tail or whirlwind) means you have a phasing move without the negative priority. So for example Scarf Garchomp with Dtail + Sleep talk can damage and phase out mons before they can attack themselves or heal in the case of defensive mons. paired with hazards it means you can get shuffled around without any way to retaliate and just lose. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7almostanyability-494027164 https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7almostanyability-494092918
(This was more of a comatose showcase, it actually it way more broken when you just have a single comatose late game cleaner)
Comatose mainly qualifies as Uncompetitive
- Illusion is essentially a lure, but completely unreasonable.
Lures: Always in the realm of possible things to use and therefore can be considered and played around with midgrounds, while also being possible to discern from team structure. For example there's Kommo-o in front of Chansey, you have a Toxapex in the back, you know Kommo-o learns Boomburst and could be Galvanize, the opponent has Triage Golisopod as its main wincon so you realize they need offensive pressure on Skarmory and Toxapex. Because your pex is too important you're gonna scout by going into your Latios directly since it's less useful in the matchup.
Illusion: Any pokemon on the field at any given moment could be any of the other 5 pokemon. You switch Nihilego on Noivern but Noivern is actually a banded Terrak and uses Close Combat. You have three things to do at any given time.
1. Predicting whether the mon in front is actually the mon in front
2. If you predict it's an illusion, what mon is behind the illusion (You could predict a banded terrak behind Noivern and go into a midground such as doublade but then it's actually Victini and you still die)
3. If you actually predict when illusion is used and what mon is hidden, and you successfully switch a physdef mew into Noivern. Now you have to repeat the same mind game every single time Noivern is in. You cannot afford to get it wrong a single time because you're dealiong with Phys attacker/special attacker cores that can OHKO their checks
4 (Yes there's a hidden 4) Illusion is impossible to play against when you know you're playing against it. Now imagine the same garbage but you never know if Illusion is even present on the team, so you're switching Physical walls on Noiven for no reason
Here's a passage Laxpras wrote a while ago:
Ok with this. So yeah, you can technically predict an Illusion. But in reality, this just doesn't happen. If any competent player is using Illusion, they will take full advantage of it early-game, and realistically you are not predicting an Illusion, for a couple reasons.
One, it just isn't the logical prediction. If you see a Lucario, your first concern is not Illusion. Also, when there's a Lucario, Victini and Tyranitar on the same team, you erally have no chance of guessing it right. Motherlove exemplified this pretty well, both you and I only got 25% accuracy when we were specifically searching out for Illusion in teams. GoS wouldn't even try to guess because he knows damn well that there is no accurate method for attempting to predict Illusion. With Thundurus being Knock Off, you can at least look to its teammates for help predicting this - "Oh he also has a Volcanion, Thundurus having Knock Off would really help this out." With Illusion, Lucario will help out a special attacker with Illusion or not. More flatly, almost every offensive team will have a physical and a special attacker, you cannot use this to predict an Illusion.
More importantly, you cannot take the risk. With the chance of predicting an Illusion being so small, you cannot leave, for example, a Chansey in on a Lucario praying that the Lucario is really a cheeky Illusion. This is MUCH too big of a risk.
What you said about Illusion after you figure out who is using Illusion is right, then its not a problem, just like Zoroark is not a problem. The issue is that any competent player has a ridiculously big advantage and can abuse Illusion early game and there's nothing you can do about it. This idea of "guessing" an Illusion is pretty ridiculous to me, you even admit yourself its a very low percentage shot, and it just gives a player a huge disadvantage to no fault of their own. I would keep going but I feel like Imas, Motherlove, Klang, and I have pretty exhaustively showed our thoughts on this.
-----------------------------------
For reference these were the teams I posted at the time so people could prove that Illusion could be predicted:
The best players at the time couldn't at all predict which mon was the illusion on each team
- Fluffy in practice is basically fur coat. It's also not announced such as Dshield so you could get cooked by a mon you thought you could revenge Kill, such as Barra trying to rk Volcarona.
It didn't stay for very long but here's a notable replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/customgame-483317438, Mew lives a Protean LO Night Slash from Adamant Kartana and burns it, completely shifting the tide of the battle.
- Innard out: Innards out is the dumbest, most uncompetitive garbage that has ever existed in this game. Every impact innards out has is negative, promotes poor/reckless teambuilding and battling it is a 50/50 luckfest shitshow. It's completely unpredictable and there is no disadvantage to bringing an innards out mon to a game, because it patches up holes on literally any team. Innards out has no right to exist in a competitive metagame.
I haven't been able to find replays (at least for AAA, it was the same garbage in BH and I think I can find replays for that) but just imagine a game where at any point when you click a move, your mon could die. This is 100% in favour of the IO user as they have control on which of your mons die.
Innards out Chansey in particular could take down any mon with a physical move, your Corv or Elecvally is clicking uturn? Boom it's dead. You need to rk this Volcarona before it sets up further? Boom your Barra / garchomp is dead. it's complete garbage, in my opinion it's the dumbest ability on the entire banlist because of the ridiculously negative repercussions it has on both teambuilding and play.
Considering that not every banned Pokemon/ability has a hyperlink explaining the reasoning behind said ban(s), I figured it would be a good idea to compile everything that's missing into a single post. What follows will be a list of each relevant Pokemon or ability followed by some short blurb saying why it's banned from AAA:
Moving on, it should be clarified that some of the bans made in AAA are based on extrapolations/theorymonning. Examples of this are things like Zacian-Crowned or Huge Power, which are banned largely on assumption that none of the tools available equip the meta at large to prepare for them.
Pokemon
These are Pokemon with extremely high BSTs who are banned to prevent the metagame from being too inevitably centralized around them. Many of them have abilities like Pressure normally, meaning that when given a chance to replace those relatively mediocre abilities they'd easily become too much to handle. Imagine having to prep for a Sheer Force Life Orb Kyurem-White, a Calyrex-Shadow with Adaptability/Tinted Lens, or a Regenerator Ho-Oh.
Marshadow: Ghost/Fighting is effectively perfect coverage because we don't have a Normal/Ghost Pokemon yet and this isn't Camomons. Amplified by Adaptability or even Tough Claws assuming it's trying to take advantage of coverage moves like Ice Punch, Poison Jab, or even Blaze Kick for things like Corviknight, there isn't much that Marshadow cannot either OHKO or 2HKO—and that doesn't even consider its respectable 125 speed tier and decent 90/80/90 bulk. Lastly, because its offensive pressure tends to force switches, it can afford to run Bulk Up and become even more daunting of a threat.
Regigigas: This one is very simple. Regigigas with a [good] ability dismantles nearly everything. Poison Heal is banned now so we wouldn't have to worry about that, but Regigigas can still take advantage of Tough Claws to boost all of its physical coverage, or even Sheer Force if it opts for an elemental punch heavy moveset. With its incredible 110/110/110 bulk, it easily eats up non-super effective attacks, meaning that revenge killing it is hardly an option either.
Shedinja: Sturdy + Shedinja (now with Heavy Duty Boots to avoid hazards) is broken. For those who aren't aware, with its HP stat having Sturdy means that it can't be KOed by direct attacks.
Abilities
Shadow Tag/Arena Trap: Indiscriminate trapping means that unlike Magnet Pull, there isn't really room to play around it. Guessing which of the opposing Pokemon are potential trappers doesn't give much of an advantage when even the switchins are at risk of being trapped themselves, and removing the ability to switch causes games to become stale very easily.
Contrary: Enables moves like Draco Meteor to be spammed with virtually zero drawback, and allows Pokemon like Hydreigon and Latios to boost their special attack without having to sacrifice any turns for setup.
Huge/Pure Power: Double attack with no repercussions is a nightmare. Defensive abilities like Intimidate and Dauntless Shield don't even come close to dealing with the large amount of physical attackers this would enable if it was allowed.
Fur Coat/Ice Scales: Put simply, things become too tanky and the meta becomes excessively bulky/stall-prone. Unlike Balanced Hackmons (BH), AAA doesn't enable Pokemon to run high base power moves to break through super bulky threats, so an AAA with FurScales is one that is absurdly difficult to break offensively.
Imposter: I'll use BH as an example again here. In a meta where you don't really have the freedom to imposter-proof your Pokemon, things like Imposter Blissey/Chansey and maybe even Light Ball Pikachu become oppressive and can hardly be said to have counterplay. Double Imposter
Libero/Protean: STAB bonus on coverage moves is overbearing when virtually anything can run it. Unlike Sheer Force, Tough Claws, or Adaptability, this entails a 1.5x damage boost to any given attack and any Pokemon with a decent amount of coverage moves can act like a different Pokemon entirely—this makes prepping for threats more of a headache than a fair challenge.
Moody: Removes skill from the game and can reduce entire matchups to RNG over the course of just one or two turns.
Parental Bond: Moves like Seismic Toss, Super Fang, and Nature's Madness remove a flat 200 HP in the case of Seismic Toss or 75% of the target's HP per use.
Power Construct: Even with all the damage amplification and passive recovery options in AAA, there isn't really much that can consistently deal with a Zygarde-Complete once its HP bonus is activated, and if it gets a Substitute up there isn't a whole lot that opposing teams can do to stop it.
Simple: Setup moves like Nasty Plot and Swords Dance become an immediate +4 boost, meaning that barring unaware not very much can counter setup sweepers enabled by SImple.
Stakeout: Already powerful physical and special attackers effectively can't be switched into because switching gives them a damage boost. This creates a conundrum where the attacker nearly always gets a kill if it's in front of a Pokemon weak to it: if they switch they get blasted by a doubled attack stat, and if they stay in they're weak to the incoming attack anyway.
Speed Boost: Makes setup sweepers incredibly difficult to revenge kill without priority or very fast Pokemon, and barring [Prankster] Haze there isn't really a way around the continuous speed boosts from the perspective of the defending player.
Water Bubble: Gives every user a resistance to fire, an immunity to burns, and double damage on water attacks without a single drawback. Water-type attackers like Barraskewda, Gyarados, and Volcanion would more or less plow through anything that isn't immune, and one could even make a fair argument for non-STAB users to run water moves as coverage with this ability.
Wonder Guard: This turns any pokemon using it into Shedinja without stat limitations—very problematic and not at all balanced. Teams without the combination of coverage needed to deal with opposing Wonder Guard just autolose at lead or if their should-be counter faints in battle.
I felt like making an "ability ranking" of sorts that categorizes each of the relevant abilities and give examples of noteworthy Pokemon that can use them to some success [primarily in a competitive setting]. It's now viewable under the Pokemon Viability Rankings.
Link: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/almost-any-ability.3656414/post-8287132
Splashable - Reasonably easy to fit onto most if not all teams/Pokemon Adaptability: Free damage amplification on both STABS (~1.33x) without any drawbacks--what more can one ask for? A decent amount of powerful attackers benefit from getting extra damage without any conditions like Life Orb or Choice Band attached (although several of them will run those items regardless)
Magic Bounce: A lot of the appeal with Magic Bounce is its utility. It's a quick way to deter hazards/status without having to click a move, and in some cases it prevents defensive Pokemon from being trapped (think Magic Bounce Blissey or Chansey vs. a Magma Storm + Taunt Heatran).
Magic Guard: Hazards? Dodged. Damage-over-time effects? No thanks. Avoiding some of the most standardized forms of chip damage means a lot of pokemon can opt for Magic Guard Life Orb (MGLO) without having to worry about recoil, or even a Choice item for speed control. Magic Guard also patches up type matchups versus Stealth Rock for Pokemon who are weak to it and enables others to use moves they wouldn't normally be able to run comfortably (see: Steel Beam, Head Smash, Mind Blown)
Regenerator: 1/3 max HP on switchout is amazing. This is probably overall the most valuable ability to have on any non-HO team--it enables a lot of things that don't innately have recovery and also allows threatening breakers/setup sweepers to keep coming back to wreak havoc over the course of a game.
Tough Claws: Allows Pokemon to boost their non-STAB coverage moves--that's pretty much the only reason to run this over Adaptability. (It's also slightly weaker, being 1.3x whereas adaptability is 4/3x)
Offensive Users: Weavile Zarude
Defensive/Utility Users:
N/A
Triage: +3 Priority on what are typically STAB moves (unless we're talking about Giga Drain Gengar) is very valuable, especially since most if not all Triage-enabled Pokemon seem to get Swords Dance or Nasty Plot respectively. Triage also allows its users to opt for bulkier EV spreads because their priority bracket is so much higher than everything else.
Viable - Several Pokemon cycle through using these, but they aren't exactly team staples Desolate Land: (replaces Delta Stream and Primordial Sea) Effectively a water immunity and extra STAB boost to fire-type moves. Singlehandedly dominates matchups versus [regular] weather teams and deprives potentially Tinted Lens water-type attacks from causing too much pain.
Offensive Users: Entei Volcarona
Defensive/Utility Users: Heatran Moltres
Dauntless Shield: Is especially valuable in situations where a defensive Pokemon is expected to not only switch into physical attackers, but be able to stay in and deal with multiple of them on an opposing team. The main difference between this and Intimidate is that DShield allows the user to check multiple physical attackers without having to switch. Additionally, Body Press users really appreciate the extra damage.
Intimidate: Being able to temporarily weaken a physical attacker so that one can pivot into a more offensive solution can be worth having. This also has the utility of being able to repeatedly switch an Intimidate user into a physical attacker to prevent them from picking up too many boosts.
Primordial Sea: (replaces Delta Stream and Desolate Land) Effectively a fire immunity and extra STAB boost to water-type moves. Singlehandedly dominates matchups versus [regular] weather teams and deprives potentially Tinted Lens fire-type attacks from causing too much pain.
Offensive Users: Barraskewda
Defensive/Utility Users: Ferrothorn Zapdos
Tinted Lens: Gives Pokemon with already powerful stab options the ability to completely upend the type chart in certain matchups, meaning they can blow back would-be resists. Realistically, any Pokemon with good offensive stats and at least one really powerful STAB option can take advantage of Tinted Lens--it's just that they often prefer the raw damage amplification from abilities like Adaptability, Tough Claws, or Sheer Force
Unaware: Works as a decent deterrent to especially terrifying setup Pokemon (i.e. Tapu Bulu, Garchomp, Volcarona), but can make its users weak to damage boosts that Unaware can't protect from (i.e. Adaptability, Sheer Force, Tough Claws, -ate abilities, etc.).
Viable, but niche - Strong when used, but should really only be used on specific team comps or by a very selective group of Pokemon -Ate Abilities that aren't Aerilate (Galvanize, Pixilate, Refrigerate): These are grouped together because they share many of the same issues. While they do an excellent job of cracking down on whatever type matchup they're meant to cover, they typically require the use of Pokemon that either aren't considered viable or are ranked [significantly] higher in the Pokemon Viability Rankings for using other abilities that are more consistently effective (i.e. Galvanize Weavile hits flying-types really hard with Double-Edge, but Adaptability or even Tough Claws lets it score OHKOs it can't get with its STAB moves otherwise, and Magic Guard lets it switch in repeatedly even with hazards up).
Offensive Users: Entei Genesect Tapu Koko Weavile: Weavile
Defensive/Utility Users:
N/A
Aerilate: Being able to give Flying STAB to Pokemon that desperately want/need it is amazing, but it's not exactly a long list.
Offensive Users: Landorus-Therian Noivern
Defensive/Utility Users: Corviknight
Delta Stream: (replaces Desolate Land and Primordial Sea) The 0.5x super effective damage to flying-types is convenient, but not exactly highly sought after.
Offensive Users:
N/A
Defensive/Utility Users: Corviknight Skarmory
Electric Surge Allows Rising Voltage users to get free damage amp. [versus grounded opponents] and enables Surge Surfer. Realistically though, every competitive team will have a Ground-type or at least some hard counter to Electric-type moves, so that makes electric surge not the most sought after ability.
Grassy Surge: Allows Grassy Glide users to benefit from the +1 priority and allows for stacking several Pokemon that are weak to ground-type attacks, but can be shortlived when stalled out. (also enables Unburden builds)
Offensive Users: Dhelmise Zarude
Defensive/Utility Users:
N/A
Immunity Abilities (Flash Fire, Water Absorb/Storm Drain, Lightning Rod/Volt Absorb): There isn't typically much reason to use these unless it's to patch up a type matchup weakness on a pokemon/team, or to an enable a setup sweeper with an obvious weakness or weaknesses.
Magnet Pull: Just like in standard play, gives breakers/setup sweepers who struggle against certain Steel-types the means to break them down, but can fall short if the opposing Steel-types have any immunity abilities.
Psychic Surge: Allows Expanding Force users to get free damage amp. and protection from priority [if they're grounded], and also opens up opportunities for unburden builds.
Offensive Users: Alakazam Latios
Defensive/Utility Users: Jirachi Mew
Queenly Majesty/Dazzling: Because they aren't announced until an opponent attempts to attack, users of these abilities tend to be able to take advantage of surprise factor versus common priority users like Triage Pokemon--basically preying on the expectation of a more commonly run ability.
Serene Grace: Probably the ability that is most synonymous with gimmicks. Frankly, there is but one reason to run Serene Grace over damage amp or even regenerator, and that is to flinch the opponent into oblivion.
Offensive Users: Excadrill Genesect
Defensive/Utility Users:
N/A
Sheer Force: Same reasoning as Adaptability for the most part, only in this case it's usually maximizing the damage amp through what is [more often than not] the combination of Sheer Force and Life Orb (SFLO). Some of the would-be users of Sheer Force tend to opt for more splashable abilities [like Magic Guard] that might do a better job of patching up weaknesses, but when it comes to pure damage, it doesn't get a whole lot better than this.
Sticky Hold: Nice for avoiding Trick/Switcheroo shenanigans and also makes the user effectively a Knock Off counter.
Offensive Users:
N/A
Defensive/Utility Users: Chansey Porygon2
Technician: No real reason to use this over the more splashable damage amp. unless there's a specific calc you want to hit or the user doesn't have a lot of high base power moves to begin with.
Offensive Users: Weavile
Defensive/Utility Users:
N/A
Unburden: Because Triage is so common and many offensive Pokemon have their damage amplified so high, Unburden Pokemon are hard-pressed to find opportunities to set themselves up--nonetheless, it still gets the job done once an opening is found.
Offensive Users: Kommo-o Nihilego
Defensive/Utility Users:
N/A
Weather (Drought, Rain)/ Weather abilities that boost speed (Chlorophyll, Swift Swim):
Because of the existence of permaweather abilities in the meta, it's difficult to find success with weather-based teams since the risk of running into a permaweather ability that just cancels out the entire strategy is relatively high. That being said, weather teams are very much capable of blowing teams without explicit counters sideways--it's mostly just a matter of risk vs reward.
Do not use -In [very] obscure situations they can work, but realistically these won't produce consistent results in a competitive setting Weather (Sand Stream, Snow Warning)/ Weather abilities that boost speed/evasion (Sand Rush/Sand Veil, Slush Rush/Snow Veil):
These forms of weather are largely inferior to the more popular rain/sun due to the fact that there aren't really any noteworthy abusers and the forms of weather themselves don't give as many benefits (Hail doesn't even boost Ice-type attacks, Sand doesn't boost Rock or Ground unless the user has Sand Force). As an extension, using up ability slots on the weather-dependent evasion abilities is often a waste because there are more consistent options out there and permaweather just cancels them out completely anyway.
Soul Heart/Moxie/As One (Glastrier/Spectrier): Snowball abilities don't tend to perform well in AAA due to the fact that they require scoring a knockout to get started. In a meta where it's both possible and viable to run things like Unaware, Intimidate/Dauntless Shield, Prankster Haze or even just bulky Regenerator pivots who can easily bring in offensive threats, it can be extremely difficult to get away with offensive abilities that aren't straight up damage amplification.
Skill Link: In many situations, Skill Link users have one STAB that's great with Skill Link while the other isn't affected by it and thus remains unboosted. Because of this, it's typically better to just opt for damage amp. unless it's for a specific strategy (i.e. Skill Link + King's Rock users)
Stamina: Realistically, bulk that only activates on hit is not very appealing. Oftentimes physical attackers are running enough damage amp. to blast through a Stamina user anyway, and in many situations abilities like Intimidate or Dauntless Shield offer better immediate protection.
Is there an ability you believe deserves a [higher] place on this list? Is there an ability you think is overrated? Is there an ability you don't see on here that you believe deserves a place? As always, thoughts and discussion are definitely welcome :]
EDIT: The Pokemon VR and Sample Team sections are planned to get an update sometime after OMGS ends, so be on the lookout for that :]
Seeing the abilities listed here, my one question is the possible viability of Misty Surge. It is the only terrain-setting ability that is not listed there, and I am curious if there is any potential for it. I mean sure, the reduction of damage from Dragon-type attacks is very mediocre, but the ability to prevent status could be a useful thing to have.
Granted, there are other ways of preventing status or status damage, including Magic Guard or Magic Bounce That being said, this way you could have a Misty Surger come in, set up the terrain, and then teleport out at the end of the turn to bring in someone more offensive, who would be protected from burn, toxic or confusion while they set up and prepare to sweep. Sure it may be niche, but it seems a lot more common of a useable situation than the Electric Terrain scenario you describe.
Seeing the abilities listed here, my one question is the possible viability of Misty Surge. It is the only terrain-setting ability that is not listed there, and I am curious if there is any potential for it. I mean sure, the reduction of damage from Dragon-type attacks is very mediocre, but the ability to prevent status could be a useful thing to have.
Granted, there are other ways of preventing status or status damage, including Magic Guard or Magic Bounce That being said, this way you could have a Misty Surger come in, set up the terrain, and then teleport out at the end of the turn to bring in someone more offensive, who would be protected from burn, toxic or confusion while they set up and prepare to sweep. Sure it may be niche, but it seems a lot more common of a useable situation than the Electric Terrain scenario you describe.
Misty Surge probably could’ve had a niche in Poison Heal meta to prevent the users from getting their poison, but it wasn’t explored at all. I built with Misty Surge Toxapex back when Naganadel was everywhere, it was a pretty cool team. Right now this ability is impossible to justify however.
I agree with Atha is very much depends if the meta calls for it or no (preventing PH was actually somewhat used in BH last gen). Misty surge is similar to magic bounce in that it's pure utility, but you have to sacrifice either passive recovery or more immidiately useful defensive abilities such as DShield or immunity abilities. In a meta where it's already mad hard to cover every threat, people usually decide that they can live with rocks up and would rather opt for not being 6-0d by Blacephalon.
The only real use I had found for Misty Surge was for defensive Buzzwole back when Mixed adapt was rampant. As you could take on Mixed adapt Zygarde or Garchomp as well as Toxic Band Zygarde which is how these mons were getting past Hippo, Buzz and other fats. Mixed adapt dragons is not a set this gen. And with Zygarde being banned there is less incentive to run Ground resists other than Corv or Skarm.
Misty terrain is also kinda lame because it's the only terrain ability that doesn't provide a boost, it doesn't have a broken move to go with it (expanding force, grassy glide / Rising surge) and it doesn't have abilities that banefit from it (Surge surfer).
Saw some others (tnm and atha) posting their teams after aaa open ended and now that omgs is over, I'd like to join in. Ive been laddering at like crackhead hours the past couple weeks and made these so here u go (i like mew lol)
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Teams that were used in tour
Panda BO (AAA Open)
This one got screwed over by PH ban but it gets a special mention for being probably my favorite AAA team ive built this gen. I've toyed around with replacing lax with prank twave flamethrower blissey and mummy corv with intim corv but the team definitely feels alot worse and I felt like I might as well just post the original lol
I built the skeleton for this team (which had subnp sflo spec > koko and adapt grimmsnarl > panda) back in WcOM after my team was eliminated, and it was probably my favorite team then especially cause it was probably my first build w scarf trick fini so I got a fair amount of games of people just not expecting that and losing instantly to spectrier
The reason why I liked this team so much was that it featured double regen, poison heal, magic bounce, pivots, good speed control, solid and non-standard immediate breaking power, multiple setup mons, rocks, fog, trick, and active PH counterplay in mummy corv. Getting all of those on one team while not autolosing to common threats kinda just requires the stars to align and I gotta say I got lucky w this build. (for the current meta, imagine replacing the ph parts w knock / status absorbers)
The chomp EVs kill bulu with poison jab while maximizing defense but tbh it's definitely the weakest part of the team cause u get walled by corv and fogged on all day lmao. Mbounce expert belt koko is a mon i really love on this team. I feel like offensive mbounce isn't super explored but it definitely works well. Especially when corv reveals mummy, people always automatically assume there's no bouncer on this team so I've doubled my koko in on many a chomp / tran / pert, bounced rocks, and got put in an amazing position because of it. The coverage was kinda broken cause people were only really running pert / chomp as ground resists so it just generates free volts on special walls into panda to start clicking shit.
Priority spam HO(AAA Open)
Old version (pre PH):
New version (post PH):
During WcOM I noticed alot of teams were forced to trade mons when playing vs bulu. At one point I started playing around with double triage (bulu + pod) teams with the idea that one triage is generally able to trade for the other triage to break and win. Unrelated, I also came up with emergency exit latios as an HO mon and got to work making this team and ended up with this.
I guess the latios set stands out so I should explain it. First off it really eases prediction with magnet pull. The worst part of using magnet pull is not getting doubles exactly right, getting uturned on or popped on the switch, and not trapping the steel until you reach the point in the game where it doesnt matter anymore. This latios is cool cause it lures in steels in a way that makes your opponent think they're making progress when in reality they're not doing anything productive and just getting their steel trapped. Rocks stay off cause u just attack and then fog; if they attack you they're probably not ohkoing and you just trap it, if they uturn and youve already hit them on the switch, that's also a free trap. Aside from that you can hard it in on stuff like chomp / pert and keep rocks off which is very important for this team. Theres only a few situational differences between running this and running adapt eject button but cmon you get to run emergency exit lol
Regen corv saves this team from losing all games over 20 turns. I gave up triage for tinted pod on this team cause the extra revenge killing ability with tinted first imp is too valuable across all mus. Bulu lacks CC cause cinder traps almost all mons you want cc for.
Lost my last aaa open game w this team cause I loaded into psychic terrain when corv was still wandering spirit too but other than that I think it's a pretty solid team although much of that is because magpull is probably just busted rn. Wouldve brought the new version if I played QT in AAA in playoffs.
MGLO Arc + Corrosion Weav BO (OMGS Playoffs R1)
This is another one of my favorite teams I've made this generation. I started out really wanting to use MGLO arcanine; looking at replays in AAA open, this guy kinda destroyed the standard builds of the meta and not only that, it offensively checks heatran (very important!!), toge, bulu, volcarona, and a bunch of other threats that are very specifically checked by fire types. Arc + Pert is an extremely strong pair to start with; as fire resists, they cover each other by checking tran and blace respectively. Pert is incredibly good as a status absorber and blanket check just no one uses it cause they dont wanna figure out how to beat tran lol. Whirlpool was my 4th here and I honestly think it might be the best 4th on pert, just cause you can rock safely (not that this didnt prevent me from clicking hazard on bouncer x 2 in my game anyway lmao) and get kills / chip that you really shouldn't be able to (I've trapped fini, pex, and corv with it). Corrosion weav was another idea I had just based on the pools of checks people were running. Intim/Dshield Corv, fini, and prank pex seemed to naturally rise in popularity with PH ban as the meta's weav checks, and you really do just get free toxics on those. Combined with arc and pert that's a ton of pressure on those 3 guys. It's still great speed control and fairly strong. The mew set might seem weird to those who don't know that I have an irrational obsession with running scarf mew in tournament games but it's just ridiculously good mon, especially if you don't expect scarf. I figured my opponent, who wasnt like an aaa professor or anything, wouldnt expect scarf mew and I could get away with getting a cheeky burn on a weavile/skewda or a psychic on a gengar. Even without surprise factor though, it's still here as something faster than koko, an insurance mon with trick, and an amazing pivot for arc and weav with teleport. EVs let it live a vern boomburst from full and outspeed koko. Ferro and Corv kinda just round out the team as checks to various threats + rocks and fog. You'll see me use this ferro set a ton in the coming teams, it just checks so much rn. I put flash fire on corv lowkey as a countermeasure for magpull with the idea that theres not really a common magpuller that can trap both steels, but it also helps with vern and with toge/tran, since arc doesnt always wanna be coming into the latter two. Pretty fun team though.
Psychic Surge Azelf BO (OMGS Playoffs Finals)
Unlike the teams above I'm not AS confident in this one but that's more because the 3 teams above are outliers than that this team is bad. After getting smoked by psychic surge in aaa open and on the other side playing around with LO Archeops, I figured I could combine the concepts to make magpull + psychic surge azelf a thing. This team kinda depends on magpull + azelf breaking, but azelf is pretty good at what it does so there's that. Most of the threats are pretty self-explanatory, although theres a few things to dissect. No rocks on nihilego as personal preference (I am a thunder wave clicking degenerate) although you could probably go spikes mew and rocks > twave on nihi if you really wanted to. Eject button is to turn tran from unwinnable mu to easily dealt with (nihi easily tanks max spa earth power). The nidoking set is kinda cool, it compresses magpull and a koko check. Vs corv you click tspikes, then if they defog you just smack it down and kill it, otherwise LO eq prevents grounded poisons from coming in so you can usually somewhat abuse tspikes. Got lucky w secondary effects in my actual game but i think it showed off how even if azelf doesnt break this team can still kinda do its thing.
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The other teams
LO Regen Chomp Balance
This was my first team after PH ban and admittedly it was just me wanting to try out everything that got buffed by ph ban (esp mew / ferro / silv / arch). Pretty simple team, play the long game and win w oppressive LO chomp by setting spikes tricking things and statusing things early on
Skill Link Kommoo BO
This is the same team as above except different scale shot mon, different water, different trick / speed control flying mon lmao (that being said this one is definitely better at breaking and worse at playing longer games). The Mews kinda funny cause it actually 1v1s most tran, who knew. Kommo-o gives you basically a 44% chance to win any game its kinda sick
NP Mew Semistall
The idea of this team was to support NP mew with heal bell and moldy rocks as a long term wincon versus almost any type of team. Theres some glaring threats (gengar, mglo weav) to this team that can make life pretty hard, but other than that I think it's pretty solid and mew works well in practice. Not a fan of heal bell bliss cause its just so damn passive (could prob go twave over teleport on bliss) but its necessary here. Moldy tran cause moldy rocks are great and teams that pack ff steels (the main checks to the mew set) often get destroyed by it.
Weatherman
I remember looking at the vr and saw primsea on volcanion and thinking it sounded kinda broken so I made a team w it lol its kinda basic but volcanion is cool
Heres a version of the above team with galvanize weav instead I dont know how it got here but there you go
High IQ HO
I cant seem to win w this team i think im too dumb
Oh and boomspam is still viable but im not posting that again
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Other sets that Ive tried on like 1 minute shit teams but the sets carried:
With the rise of intimidate as well as pexless teams just not being ready for +3 LO genesect hits, Ive gotten quite a few games where I just double this on a fog and instantly win it's kinda dumb
Eruption tran is cool cause you after a bit of prior chip you kinda just smash blissey and other non prim sea switchins after a magma. You can definitely run timid on this to trap spdef chomp better but the loss of firepower does sting
Ok theres pretty much nothing that beats this guy long term and head smash is nuking everything. Knock + tox + uturn on a chomp is big enough chip that it probably just cant come in twice, so pair this w a helmet mon for pert and youre suddenly breaking all teams. Head smash is a garbage move tho only reason why i didnt bring it in tour, also its kinda hard to build w.
dumbass set that wins wayyy too much from when i was using it on ladder (top 10 ways to PUNISH uturning spamming aaa players???)
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Other thoughts on AAA
Finally I would also like to say I could get behind ban genesect (think its a bit dumb that once it gets its free shift gear u kinda have to pray its not the wrong one of tc / tinted / sflo usually) but that being said magpull is way way unhealthier for the meta rn imo imo (as it has always been since gen 6 eyes emoji) - basic reasoning is that steels are necessary to check a huge part of the metagame, they're very easy and consistent to remove w magpull, shed shell is not viable on half the steels and significantly nerfs the others, and with certain mons removed, most teams just crumble to fast breaker + a couple regens / fat guys in the back. Its just an uncompetitive abil that skews mus immensely and given the additional freedom in slots compared to older versions of this meta, the overall trend toward more steels, and more threats walled by steels, its gone in the direction from dumb mu fish to actual reliable strategy that might just autowin 50% of the time.
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I'm including a stabmons section here cause i just wanna dump teams but dont wanna write explanations for an extra post https://pokepast.es/7c3520406affb525
Note: Submissions are still open. We will be accepting teams until the end of the week (4/25), so if you have one you think is worthy feel free to post about it either here in the thread or in the AAA channel in the OM discord :]
Scizor (Flash Fire, Regenerator) 
Zygarde-10% (Adaptability)
Entei (Desolate Land, Refrigerate, Galvanize, Pixilate)
Necrozma (Unburden, Magic Bounce)
Genesect is banned taking effect now. This pokemon has been a problem since DLC and we don't see a reason why it would be less dangerous after the Poison Heal ban. Sheer Force, Tinted Lens, Regenerator, No Guard, Flash Fire, Galvanize, Magic Guard and Refrigerate are all abilities that it can use on special, physical or mixed sets to beat any counterplay.
Buzzwole will be unbanned, and likely suspect tested soon. With all the changes, we are not sure if the current meta could handle Buzzwole well, but we consider worth giving it a shot ; since it was a close call when it was banned some months ago (fun fact : it was Think's first action as TL).
Marshadow: Ghost/Fighting is effectively perfect coverage because we don't have a Normal/Ghost Pokemon yet and this isn't Camomons. Amplified by Adaptability or even Tough Claws assuming it's trying to take advantage of coverage moves like Ice Punch, Poison Jab, or even Blaze Kick for things like Corviknight, there isn't much that Marshadow cannot either OHKO or 2HKO—and that doesn't even consider its respectable 125 speed tier and decent 90/80/90 bulk. Lastly, because its offensive pressure tends to force switches, it can afford to run Bulk Up and become even more daunting of a threat.
Regigigas: This one is very simple. Regigigas with a [good] ability dismantles nearly everything. Poison Heal is banned now so we wouldn't have to worry about that, but Regigigas can still take advantage of Tough Claws to boost all of its physical coverage, or even Sheer Force if it opts for an elemental punch heavy moveset. With its incredible 110/110/110 bulk, it easily eats up non-super effective attacks, meaning that revenge killing it is hardly an option either.
Shedinja: Sturdy + Shedinja (now with Heavy Duty Boots to avoid hazards) is broken. For those who aren't aware, with its HP stat having Sturdy means that it can't be KOed by direct attacks.
Gengar 
Grimmsnarl 
Latios 
Mamoswine 
Tapu Koko 
Terrakion 
Weavile 
Zarude 
Blissey 
Chansey 
Corviknight
Mandibuzz 
Regieleki 
Slowbro 
Skarmory
Arcanine 
Archeops: 
Blacephalon 
Cobalion 
Talonflame 
Volcarona 
Zapdos-Galar
Jirachi
Garchomp
Landorus-Therian 
Heatran 
Nihilego 
Silvally-Electric 
Swampert 
Tapu Fini
Golisopod 
Kommo-o 
Tapu Bulu 
Togekiss
Moltres
Hippowdon 
Ferrothorn 
Mew
Zapdos
Shuckle 
Barraskewda
Tapu Lele
Noivern
Dracozolt 
Xurkitree 
Rotom-Wash
Dhelmise 
Gyarados
Excadrill 
Toxapex
Rotom-Heat
Alakazam 
Hydreigon 
Thundurus 
Porygon2
Arctovish 
Inteleon 
Primarina 
Volcanion 
