CONTROVERSIAL TAKE INCOMING
I wanted to make this post a while ago but I thought posting this after OMWC ended would be the best way to get a better look of the meta at high level. At last, here we are. This post is going to talk about the main problem I have with the meta and why I and some others think that the meta is not in a good state at all. It pains me to make this post since AAA is my favorite meta but right now, playing AAA is such a terrible experience that I would rather play BH for fun (no hate to the meta, I like BH but I’m bad at it). I know this might be an unpopular opinion right now as I’ve seen a lot of people say they enjoyed the meta as it is but I still want to voice my thoughts about the meta. This is going to be a long post but I hope you stick with me through it.
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Looking at these two images and maybe from your experience with the meta, I don’t think it is hard to see what’s the problem with the meta right now: It’s very centralizing. The 4 mons at the top of the usage (

,

,

,

) will find their way onto most of the balance teams even if you don’t want them and balance teams are just so happen to be to most dominant team style right now so those 4 mons are basically running the tier. It is hard to make a good balance team without including at least 2 or 3 mons out of the four. If you just try to build a normal standard team, you will almost guarantee to have a combination of those four on your team even if you didn’t intend to do so. That doesn’t even mention the very good glue mons that you will see on almost every team like

,

,

,

.
With how centralizing this meta is, it is now not hard to see the roots of my hatred for this meta. The problem with this meta is that the mons at the top of it do their jobs better than any other and competition doesn't really exist. Let’s go through each one individually.

This is the mon I hated the most out of the big four. It is probably the most centralizing mon right now and the reason is very apparent: This mon just does everything for your team. Its amazing typing in combination with immunity abilities can fill a lot of holes on your team. The most common set right now is WBB with the ability to take advantage of fire type threats like

,

,

or even something like

to spread thunder wave. Earth eater set is a great spinblock tool and fits well on hazard stack team since

is the most common hazard remover right now. Gholdengo can also form good defensive cores with other mons, especially regenvest. Water immune

+

and electric immune

+

are two good core even if they are not very popular to the general player base. Looking at the move sets, it is commonly used as a support mon with the ability to paralyze defensive walls like Manaphy or Roaring Moon helps its teammates like Walking Wake and Gengar to do their jobs as breakers more easily. Being mainly support with defensive evs doesn’t take away from the fact that it is still a fearsome offensive threat. Even on a defensive set, hex still does a lot of damage and Ghold can still run Nasty Plots for late game wincon. This is elevated by the fact that paralyze is a broken status condition, giving otherwise would-be checks to Ghold like

or

a tough time. Offensive sets fit better on offense teams which are not very popular right now but with the right move set, Gholdengo can still get out of hand.

Among the reasons for the dislike of some players for this meta, Mana is one of the most popular ones.
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Before I wrote this post I’d had conversations with Ojr and a few others who also didn’t like the meta to understand others’ problems with the current meta. In a post in the OMWC shoutouts threat, Osake also seemed to have a problem with Mana too. Personally, even though I don’t fully agree with Mana being the problem, I still understand where this opinion comes from and will try my best to explain it. If you’ve played a decent amount of this meta, it is not hard to see why Mana is one of the best mons in the tier, some might even argue it is the best. No matter how you see it, mana without a doubt is the best regenvest right now. The utility it provides is simply unmatched by other regenvest. Pure water is a great defensive typing and 100/100/100 bulk allows mana to be a great wall on both physical and special side. Assault vest is the go-to item to maximize its bulk while taking the full advantage of its great support moves like scald, knock off, u turn. These three moves alone are why mana is better than other regenvest. And yes, like Osake said, the Mana on Mana interaction is stupid, it’s only a matter of time until level 99 Mana becomes the norm. Mana isn’t just good because of the regenvest also since without regenvest, mana has access to two of the strongest set up moves in the game (take heart and tail glow), making it a fearsome sweeper. The full cheese sets like prankster double dance or booster speed are hard to fit on teams but other sets like offensive primordial sea or physdef regen take heart definitely have a spot in the meta.

I won’t talk much about these two because they are quite easy to deal with and not as big of a problem as Mana or Ghold. Corv is still corv and is still very abusable, tusk doesn’t run regen so it doesn’t have reliable recovery and can be chipped down easily. The reason why they are this high on usage is just because they are the two best hazard removers while providing amazing utility for the team. Tdebris Tusk is unhealthy imo but enough people have talked about it and I don’t really want to sound like a broken record. (By the time this post has gone up, Tdebris is already suspect tested so good job council)
Siamato's take on this subject because he's the goat:
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After reading my thoughts on

and

, you might see a trend between the two of them: They are just too good at their job that nothing can compete with them. To me, there is no good way to resolve this problem without banning one of the two. These mons are good not because other options are bad, Hoodra is still good as a regenvest, can tank a lot of special hits and even has access to knock off now and yet it is still a mediocre mon. You have to have a good reason to use it over Mana just because it has so many utilities. Even if you ban broken offensive threats like

or

to make more mons viable, nothing will change, Mana will still be on top of the food chain. Let’s make a little comparison to make it clearer. Pre-dlc, the best regenvesters are

,

and

. Each has its own niche over each other. Muk-A, while being the weakest defensively, makes up for that by the fact that it is one of the rare mons that have access to knock off which allows it to make a lot of progress. Meloetta is the only one that has access to u turn. Hoodra is the bulkiest one. And all of the sudden, Mana came out and just had all of the combined traits of each regenvest. There is little to no reason to use any other regenvest than Mana (Regenvest moon popped up recently but needs more support against strong breakers like Wake while Mana still blanket walls most special threats). Ghold is a different case and it is harder to say how it outperforms others because what it does is so unique that only it can do that job. Ghold’s most common set aka WBB fulfills the role of defensive chomp pre-DLC and while Ghold can’t set up hazards, it still has its own utility. (You can also say the EE set outcompete spinblockers like

or

but I don’t really count it)
More Siamato's take even if you don't like it:
With all that said, I doubt there will be any action taken against Ghold or Mana. It is hard to make a case to ban a defensive in such an offensive meta like AAA but I want to bring up my final point:
Embrace the offensive meta
With all the change made in gen 9 like limited hazard remover option, recovery pp nerf, many good defensive pieces being dexited (most notably

), 1AC, offense huge power creep, … our defensive options are very limited and you find yourself using a same few defensive cores again and again. If you have played AAA in gen 9 for a while, you certainly know that this is not the first time the meta seems very centralizing. Pre-DLC, a lot of people viewed the meta as overcentralizing and unfun, even calling for 2AC to come back. It was understandable because back then the options were also very limited. From Chien Pao forcing every team to run either Corv or Quaquaval to strong fighters making Fluffy almost mandatory on balance team, a lot of people had very bad experiences with the meta (I liked it but I’m not ready to explain another controversial take). In the present day, the problem still remains but just in a different shape. That’s why I proposed making the meta more offensive because you won’t have to stick to the same defensive core as with a balance meta. I know a lot of people will disagree with me, offense meta is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I don’t even know if the offensive meta will work out or will just turn into a mess with HO being everywhere. I’m uncertain but at the very least I still want to try it out, I will take everything over the meta that we are having right now. Maybe this is not the time for it since DLC 2 is coming out soon but I just want to bring this up as something to consider.
If you made it here, thanks a lot for putting up with my rant. That’s all, have a good day!