Metagame Almost Any Ability

Osake · Jul 6, 2023

I faced Atha at the first pairing of an AAA tour in the OM room yesterday and we joked in voc a few days ago that we might bring dumb HO against each other for OMPL with the 5 dumbest sets of HO, so I decided to build an HO in 3 minutes featuring Belly Drum Chesnaught bc as long as dumb fish is allowed I might as well use it.

So I made this team which became this bc one BD user isn't enough, and I managed to defeat him and actually won the whole tournament with this team. I then decided to ladder with it to see how good a 3-min build could do against the ladder since I never use HO, and I reached quite easily the top 50 with a GXE of 77.6 which, while not good, is still better than a lot of players and is normal when you're using this kind of team.

I saved a bunch of replays during my run and, guess what, many of them feature a Belly Drum win. Were my opponents good ? Not really, it's ladder. I did beat some great players though, and I've been told that Electrify was banned cuz Helioptile was used on the ladder so I'm doing the same.

I know that a Belly Drum ban isn't happening, but well I'd like to at least get rid of the preominent abusers that can actually do work and be dumb fish. Yeah, regular Slowbro prob won't be used as Belly Drum user and I guess you can let that happen, and I find it very sad to ban fine mons that are only broken bc of that combo, but I believe that it's better than having them freed bc it's the most uncompetitive way to lose. This post also advocates for a Quick Draw + Quick Claw ban, because it's also uncompetitive and it also has enough potential to win (nearly 50% chance to attack in first is way too much). It's obvious with Belly Drum sets, but Nasty Plot or Swords Dance on anything are also obnoxious, even if you have more outs because you aren't suddenly OHKOing everything.

Quickly saying than thinking the unhealthy part is something else than Belly Drum is something I can't understand. I def understand the policy thing, I regret it, but then we aren't debating on the same field and it's logical that we can't agree, it's fine. But saying or thinking that Triage is the problem when literally all the abusers that were problematic with Triage, now or in the past, were using Belly Drum and when we have perfectly fine mons using Triage without Belly Drum is just not solving the right issue. One can't compare belly drum to any other move (outside of Shell Smash and Fillet Away I guess): clearly belly drum is the broken part in a Belly Drum + Drain Punch combo lol (if we're looking at moves), and you can't compare a regular attacking move like Drain Punch or Shadow Ball with a +6 instant boost. It's just not the same thing.

Anyway I don't have much to say, you can just look at the replays (you just have to skip to the end and you'll most of the time see a +6 mon alone on the field) and figure out that after Ursaluna ban Belly Drum fish still exists (it doesn't even need Drain Punch on Slowbro-G, even though it's obviously a nice add, but you could argue that QDQC is the most unhealthy part in that set. I disagree, but I could hear it), so yeah I guess this post advocates for Chesnaught ban and QDQC ban (will I use Triage Drain Punch GBro then ? maybe..)

They aren't good Pokemon, I know it. But most of the teams can easily fold if they don't carry Scream Tail (and gbro wins the 1v1 vs Scream Tail anyway), and it is annoying to have that kind of fish in the tier, both BD and QDQC.

have a nice day everyone

GlalieGoesBoom · Jul 7, 2023

Zangoose @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Anger Shell
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Power Trip
- Fire Punch
- Close Combat
Add this to the list of viable belly drum abusers. After one turn of setup, Zangoose ends up with +6 attack, +1 spa, and +1 speed, giving power trip (which it learns for some reason) 180 base power. Anger shell in itself seems like a pretty broken ability that I haven’t seen anyone use (probably bc everyone forgot about it). Fire punch/power trip ohkos fluffy/WBB corv and close combat ohkos physically defensive ting lu.

ghostlike · Jul 7, 2023

GlalieGoesBoom said:
Zangoose @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Anger Shell
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Power Trip
- Fire Punch
- Close Combat
Add this to the list of viable belly drum abusers. After one turn of setup, Zangoose ends up with +6 attack, +1 spa, and +1 speed, giving power trip (which it learns for some reason) 180 base power. Anger shell in itself seems like a pretty broken ability that I haven’t seen anyone use (probably bc everyone forgot about it). Fire punch/power trip ohkos fluffy/WBB corv and close combat ohkos physically defensive ting lu.

No one use anger shell bc it is bad. You don't need more boost if you are already using a belly drum mons. It just makes you lose harder to Scream Tail. Use an actual good set instead like Mold Breaker.

GlalieGoesBoom · Jul 7, 2023

ghostlike said:
No one use anger shell bc it is bad. You don't need more boost if you are already using a belly drum mons. It just makes you lose harder to Scream Tail. Use an actual good set instead like Mold Breaker.

The speed boost is what makes it worth using. There are so little abilities that give speed, and the ones that do depend on unreliable circumstances. The whole point of unaware scream tail is to wall setup sweepers, and even without factoring the atk boost, 180 bp power trip does 30-35%

Also i realized that anger shell doesn’t activate on self inflicted damage so zangoose would have to setup on something it’s faster than

ghostlike · Jul 7, 2023

GlalieGoesBoom said:
The speed boost is what makes it worth using. There are so little abilities that give speed, and the ones that do depend on unreliable circumstances. The whole point of unaware scream tail is to wall setup sweepers, and even without factoring the atk boost, 180 bp power trip does 30-35%

Also i realized that anger shell doesn’t activate on self inflicted damage so zangoose would have to setup on something it’s faster than

Quick attack already destroys most things that is faster than you and even at +1, you are still outspeed by plenty of things.

cat · Jul 7, 2023

On another note, playing this meta just feels like a competition of who can bring in their breaker safely when not running HO / Stall. I know this is how AAA has been for a while now, but honestly it just feels like the same thing over and over. Level 99 Corv, U-turn out into Slither Wing / Gapdos / Volcanion / etc, it does huge damage, pivot out into defensive pivot, repeat. I'd be down to see a 2AC suspect / FurScales resuspect, although those have their drawbacks.

BandAI · Jul 7, 2023

this is not a sample submission, but rather just a fun team i use on the ladder. it features pixilate boomburst scream tail as a offensive "wallbreaker". (yes i know it has 65 base spatk but its just has high base power) when you see scream tail at preview, you always assume its a defensive ability like unaware and what not(especially when you see ting-lu and corv next to it and think its balance), but Scream Tail either messes with special walls by tricking them with the glasses or just straight up beating "traditional" fairy checks. The team especially revolves around messing with popular Corv Sets as much as possible. Before you say anything, yes this team is single-handled dissected by IDBP Zam-C , but hey, "just play around it bro".

(click on sprites for team)

edit: you can also sub kilowattrel for zapdos is you really wanted more speed on the team

aaa politics section:

2AC is a certaintly a MAYBE option.
NAC is a bad choice.
Chien Pao, Gapdos, Slither Wing are potentially unhealthy cause they do funny stuff with power.
Triage is potentially unhealthy, but Rampardos Theorem applies blah blah blah.

GlalieGoesBoom · Jul 9, 2023

I am noticing a lack of full stall teams in this tier so I made one for sample submission.

I started with moltres. Fluffy is one of the most valuable defensive abilities, only being held back by its weakness to fire and non contact moves. By giving it to moltres, it nullifies the fire weakness and provides an immunity to the most common contactless move earthquake. Moltres also gets access to reliable recovery in roost, status in willowisp, and decent enough bulk and typing to barely be able to wall the tiers physical wallbreakers. Ancient power is the only coverage option it has to chip fire types.
Next I needed something i counter physical fire types that moltres can’t burn. Corviknight is pretty much a staple on every team, so I added it with WBB. With two flying types, I needed an electric answer. I chose to go with regen iron treads. Knock off and rapid spin are both valuable rare utility, and since most electric mons are special, I eved max hp and spdef. I wanted spikes, and TingLu is pretty much the only viable setter. I chose to go unaware to help with bulk up talonflame and polteageist. Blissey is the blanket special wall, and leppa berry harvest allows it to spam soft boiled and seismic toss in front of other walls and special attackers. It also sets up along other cm sweepers, and can tank stored power, barring crit. Utility umbrella toxapex walls desolate land sweepers such as cinderachi and ceruledge, but more importantly beats specs primordial sea which blissey can only do if it avoids a burn. It also sets and absorbes toxic spikes.

FishSucksAtPKMN · Jul 9, 2023

I had a dumb idea for a set

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Opportunist
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swagger
- Acrobatics
- U-turn
- Brick Break

Tornadus-T is one of the fastest viable pokemon with Swagger. So naturally, pairing it with Opportunist + Mirror Herb can lead to some saucy sweeps. Especially since you have a powerful move in Acrobatics. And the opponent has a harder time retaliating, because they have to deal with Swagger's confusion.

+4 252 Atk Tornadus-Therian Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Fluffy Garchomp: 234-276 (55.7 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Isaiah · Jul 9, 2023

GlalieGoesBoom said:
I wanted spikes, and TingLu is pretty much the only viable setter. I chose to go unaware to help with bulk up talonflame and polteageist.

You mention Unaware in the description, but the actual pokepaste has Intimidate. Which ability is Ting-Lu meant to have?

Atha · Jul 9, 2023

Won't comment my ompl teams and games but here are my teams and thoughts.

My teams

Week 1 vs Ivar57 & Week 7 vs Osake :

Week 2 vs Shiloh :

Week 3 vs Tier :

Week 4 vs MZ :

Week 5 vs The Number Man :

Week 6 vs Hariyana Grande :

And thoughts

Throughout the tournament (with the exception of Week 2) I tried to maintain the style I like best at the moment, i.e. offensive: overloading the defensive cores and relying heavily on soft checks defensively. Given my results, it's obvious that this isn't the right way to build at the moment (to everyone's surprise we can scrap the Siamato theory of "maybe we're wrong to stick to this defensive approach to deal with things and we should go for a more offensive approach"), and that the right way to build is more or less, to my dismay, check off the boxes on your threat list until you have a defensive response for each pokémon, and possibly add a breaker and speed control at the end if you have the space (you can try to start with the breaker, but there's no guarantee that the team will be possible to finish). Osake and TNM have applied this policy with great success. The benefit/risk balance of an overload type of build is (I think) heavily unfavorable, because you create defensive holes in your own team and still crash into a lot of defensive cores. For example, my week 1 team has Kingambit + Chien-Pao to overload intimidate Corv, but it's basically screwed into defensive Quaquaval + Corv ; and I don't think there's a way to make up for that. My week 6 team has Will-o Volcanion + Specs Chi-Yu to pressure regenvesters, but they might have a Volcanion counter like Desoland Moltres, in which case you just can't break (also I ended up not being able to cover Thundurus, which is basically an unwinnable matchup, ran into it and lost). AAA players are used to this and I don't think the meta is fully developped yet but we're clearly heading towards a meta centered around this type of team : :corviknight:

+ Regenvester ( :goodra-hisui:

or

or

or

) + Fast pivot ( :electrode-hisui:

or

or something else) + Immunity (mostly to Fire) + Breaker or additional wall (Fluffy or other immunity). I personnally dislike it a lot cause it's extremely counter heavy (I'd like to try 2AC at least) but it's maybe just a sign I'm not disillusioned enough about AAA yet. See you in AAAPL hopefully.

GlalieGoesBoom · Jul 9, 2023

Isaiah said:
You mention Unaware in the description, but the actual pokepaste has Intimidate. Which ability is Ting-Lu meant to have?

Oh sorry I was testing with intimidate for hisuian arcanine, it should be unaware

Uninteleon · Jul 10, 2023

Chad-Yu (

) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Nasty Plot
- Will-O-Wisp

BRING HIM BACKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Chi-Yu Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Unaware Blissey: 265-312 (37.1 - 43.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO (unaware, leftovers negated b/c burned)
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Chi-Yu Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Blissey: 526-620 (73.6 - 86.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (magic guard)
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Chi-Yu Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Vessel of Ruin Blissey: 395-465 (55.3 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (vor, leftovers situation is same as unaware)
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Chi-Yu Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Goodra-Hisui: 247-292 (67.8 - 80.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after burn damage
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Chi-Yu Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Muk-Alola: 329-387 (79.4 - 93.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after burn damage
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Chi-Yu Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Meloetta: 400-476 (99 - 117.8%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO (no reason to even go melo on chi yu lmao, if melo is ur only spd wall ur in big trouble)

outside of the now dead garganacl i cant find anymore spdef walls

the team i currently use with this chi yu set, heres a quick rundown:

:Chi-yu:

Main breaker, kills everything on sight. Burns swap-ins with will-o-wisp then swaps out, comes in again then fucking murders them

:Garchomp:

SR Setter, also helps with answering random threats and blocks volt switches from a variety of mons that shouldnt get it

:Electrode-Hisui:

Fast pivot, leech seed also pairs very well with will-o-wisp's burn chip and can deny regenerator healings in a simple 2 turns

:Goodra-Hisui:

standard 4mss induced regenvesters

:Corviknight:

run-of-the-mill fluffy corviknight (body press edition)

:Quaquaval:

amazing secondary hazard remover that i use to deal with harca and chien pao

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-1901441582 vs cjw's team in friendly match

...

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Chi-Yu Fire Blast vs. +6 252 HP / 252+ SpD Abomasnow with an ally's Aurora Veil: 140-166 (36.4 - 43.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO

nvm this thing sux

BandAI · Jul 10, 2023

Uninteleon said:
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Chi-Yu Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Muk-Alola: 329-387 (79.4 - 93.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after burn damage

i remember laddering against you and i watched in horror as goldfish completely removed my av muk-alola from the game.

feesh is truly an underrated mon in aaa, overlooked by the 700 million others breakers in the tier.

BandAI · Jul 12, 2023

imma be real i have no idea how i climbed top 100 on ladder without a single "actually real" fire resist on the team, but sure why not make it a sample submission.

SFLO Hoopa Balance : ft. Scarf Gapdos
:zapdos-galar:

-

-

-

(click little guys for team)

short desc: all you do on this team is remove the generic core of :corviknight:

,

and obligatory regenvester ( :landorus-therian:

,

, etc) by abusing (aggressive double switches & knock off from :muk-alola:

) the absurd power of Nasty Plot SFLO & BoR .
Then you clean up with :choice-scarf:

. Admittedly this strategy is kinda hard if the regenvester is named :roaring-moon:

but it's certainly playable. Also I forgot this isn't ho, you also have the defensive core of :corviknight:

&

to switch into many attacks.
~~(that is also weak to volcanion, but no one needs to know that)~~

ok i usually have fluffy on :palossand:

because im paranoid of Scrappy :zapdos-galar:

ruining my day, I'm changing it to Well-Baked Body for the sample submission cause I want players to actually have fun and playable match ups. Also I would've probably used :Goodra-hisui:

as my regenvester if my OCD brain didn't disliked how the type overlapped more than once.

edit; ive literally only changed :hydreigon:

to specs.

GlalieGoesBoom · Jul 12, 2023

BandAI said:
imma be real i have no idea how i climbed top 100 on ladder without a single "actually real" fire resist on the team, but sure why not make it a sample submission.

View attachment 533936

SFLO Hoopa Balance : ft. Scarf Gapdos
-----
(click little guys for team)

short desc: all you do on this team is remove the generic core of , and obligatory regenvester (, , , , etc) by abusing (aggressive double switches & knock off from ) the absurd power of Nasty Plot SFLO & Nasty Plot BoR .
Then you clean up with . Admittedly this strategy is kinda hard if the regenvester is named but it's certainly playable. Also I forgot this isn't ho, you also have the defensive core of & & to switch into many attacks.
~~(that is also weak to volcanion, but no one needs to know that)~~

ok i usually have fluffy on because im paranoid of Scrappy ruining my day, I'm changing it to Well-Baked Body for the sample submission cause I want players to actually have fun and playable match ups. Also I would've probably used as my regenvester if my OCD brain didn't disliked how the type overlapped more than once.

Some things:
-The team is pretty slow outside of gapdos and lacks immediate offensive pressure
-Adaptability is better on gapdos when not clicking uturn
-Hydreigon doesn’t beat unaware scream tail

252+ SpA Black Glasses Beads of Ruin Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Scream Tail: 199-235 (45.8 - 54.1%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

-Hoopa doesn’t come close to ohkoing muk

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Hoopa Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Muk-Alola: 259-305 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

-Hoopa gets outsped by iron treads with no speed investment
-scarf gapdos hits like wet tissue paper
-I think a special cleaner is better since the point of the team is to weaken all the special walls.

(Also i have seen this team before I rmb muk nickname)

BandAI · Jul 12, 2023

GlalieGoesBoom said:
-Hydreigon doesn’t beat unaware scream tail

252+ SpA Black Glasses Beads of Ruin Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Scream Tail: 199-235 (45.8 - 54.1%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

on my experience laddering, i just went for the flinch hax to beat :scream-tail:

, and tbf thats really unreliable.
from now on: changing it to :choice-specs:

on

to actually beat :scream-tail:

GlalieGoesBoom said:
-Hoopa doesn’t come close to ohkoing muk

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Hoopa Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Muk-Alola: 259-305 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

while yes it does lose the 1v1 in a vaccum, muk-alola just losing "regenerator profit" is good enough to let :hydreigon:

take over the game.

GlalieGoesBoom said:
-The team is pretty slow outside of gapdos and lacks immediate offensive pressure

as I've said above ive changed :hydreigon:

to

and imo i think i can afford to be slow on a team style like balance since im trying to remove slower bulky mons and I'm confident in my defensive core.

Isaiah · Jul 12, 2023

Brush the dust off your expired Gen 6, 7, and 8 AAA teams (or consider building new ones)...
There is a non-zero chance that signups go up after OMPL :]

AnimaticLunatic · Jul 15, 2023

Isaiah said:
(In case you didn't know, Ursaluna is banned now)

JULY MINI SURVEY TIME

You know the drill. Share what you think about the meta! Will be up for at least 1 week.

>> Click for survey <<

Is there any place where I can read why Ursaluna was banned?

Isaiah · Jul 15, 2023

AnimaticLunatic said:
Is there any place where I can read why Ursaluna was banned?

That's a harder one to answer since it was a suspect test (i.e. people in the community laddered for reqs and voted on it based on their opinions). So, the best I can give you is the suspect test thread itself, which has discussion/arguments for both sides.

Isaiah · Jul 15, 2023

Survey results time!

Thanks to everyone that pitched in to share their thoughts! We were able to collect over 70 responses this time around :]
This and the results of any voting slate posted within the next few days will definitely be the last before AAAPL. Any other tiering/survey (including whether or not we hold a 2AC suspect test) will depend on how SV AAA develops during the tour.

Anyway, moving on:

On average, metagame enjoyment is rated as 6.81. This is a slight drop from the last survey, which had an average of 6.84, but this can likely be attributed to the low outlier ratings (2 and 4) as well as the survey having more total respondents this time around.

On average, metagame competitiveness is rated as 6.62. Again, we see a slight drop since the last survey.

The next part of the survey had a section dedicated entirely to ability clause. It's no secret that a majority of the council (and some portion of the community) is in support of at least suspect testing a change to the current Single Ability Clause. Since a change of this magnitude would significantly alter the tier, a similarly impressive amount of support would be necessary to even consider a suspect test.

Here are those results:

The graphic isn't very helpful but I posted it just to be transparent. The breakdown is as follows:
> 78% of users rate SAC as "healthy".
> 14% of users rate SAC as "unhealthy".
> 8% of users were either unsure or chose neutral ground.

> 58% of users are interested in a suspect test of 2AC.
> 32% of users are NOT interested in a suspect test of 2AC.
> 10% of users are neutral/unsure.

> 21% of users are interested in a suspect test of NAC.
> 73% of users are NOT interested in a suspect test of NAC.
> 6% of users are neutral/unsure.

Almost 80% of respondents consider SAC to be healthy. Almost 60% of respondents are interested in at least suspect testing 2 ability clause. NAC seems to lack sufficient support for a test with over 70% of players expressing their disinterest.

Chien-Pao was rated at 3.41 on average. This means Chien-Pao is at minimum considered to be potentially unhealthy (leaning more towards unhealthy), so the council will internally discuss how best to proceed.

Galarian Zapdos was rated at 2.95 on average. This is still below the threshold for what could be deemed as action being necessary, but is still worth continuing to monitor.

Zamazenta-Crowned was rated at 3.52 on average. This means Zamazenta-Crowned is at minimum considered to be potentially unhealthy (leaning more towards unhealthy), so the council will internally discuss how best to proceed.

Triage was rated at 3.27 on average. This means Triage is at minimum considered to be potentially unhealthy, so the council will internally discuss how best to proceed.

Other notes:
> There were a few mentions in support of suspect testing Zamazenta-H into the tier.
> In terms of banned abilities, there were some mentions of retesting Poison Heal and Magic Bounce. Each of these totaled less than 10 responses, so it's unlikely that such action will be considered in the near future.
> Great Tusk and Gholdengo received 5 mentions each, which is notably less than in the last survey. Considering most of the council's position on them, honestly unlikely that either of them gets a suspect test until either another significant metagame change (e.g. ability clause changing or DLC).
> Gengar/Zoroark-H were mentioned with examples of RegenVest Meloetta and Alolan Muk as counterplay. It's unlikely that these will be retested soon simply because teams shouldn't require such a small pool of answers to handle them.
> Fluffy: This hasn't seen a ton of debate on the forums or even Discord, but several responses mentioned its similarities to Fur Coat as potentially problematic.
> Sword of Ruin/Beads of Ruin: There were a couple of responses looking to bring down the tier's power level a bit by banning some offensive abilities, and these were the two mentioned.
> Corviknight: ?

AAA is in an interesting place now where we actually have the ladder activity to opt for suspect tests rather than quickban votes for controversial elements. In practice, this means it might take more time to address these elements than in the past (since suspect tests take no less than 14-21 days, whereas a quickban decision either way can be wrapped in less than a day), but you can be assured that all of your feedback is being heard and addressed :] AAAPL HYPE

If you have thoughts about any of the survey results, please post them in this thread (even if you're also discussing in Discord)! I don't really want to sift through hundreds of messages just to find out that you "told [me] so".

Isaiah · Jul 15, 2023

Double posting because I forgot to include this bonus webs team :P

ghostlike · Jul 16, 2023

I like double explosion but my previous team is kind of like a stall team after you have exploded so I decided to take an offensive approach to it. I used Azelf as a hazard lead which is quite effective in setting hazard and doing a decent chunk into the steel type like Tread or Hoodra. This team doesn't want rocks to be up on your side so Regieleki is my choice for hazard remover. After the Azelf exploded, you can go into this to get fast pivot or just boom for damage. In some match up you might want to keep this for speed control.

After that I decided to throw in some strong sets that I get swept by on the ladder. First is the Ceruledge set. It is nothing crazy but it is really hard to check and can catch many people off guard because of life orb. Next is Quaquaval. I knew when I built an HO team I wouldn't have a reliable switchin against most threats but I still like having double weather to give me some out. Quaquaval set is also pretty basic but as with the Ceruledge, Wave Crash damage in rain with mystic water can do a lot of damage to unsuspecting victims. However, be careful when using these sets as either can't do anything if it gets counter weather (Zapdos and Iron Moth). Most people don't bring both so you are probably safe. My probably favourite mon in this team is Polteageist. I was playing a game where I had Alola-Muk against my opponent's Polt. I thought it was dazzling or something but was kind of shock when I found out. I ended up have to sack Scream Tail and losed from there. I don't think this set is super good or something but it can do a lot against team without priorities (Also funny interaction if you skill swap Regen you can heal up the chip and save you Focus Sash for next time). I won't talk much about Zam because I hate it but I also need some type of speed control on my team and a mon that is decently bulky. You could replace it with Garchomp if you don't care about that.

Overall a fun team if you want to turn off your brain. I feel like I keep Scream Tail in mind way too much when building HO but ended up didn't encounter that much on the ladder and all of the encounters were on stall so I lost anyway. Looking forward to AAAPL.

Isaiah · Jul 18, 2023

I added a couple more sample teams :D go and take a look
More likely coming soonTM

Oh yeah, also:

Isaiah said:
This and the results of any voting slate posted within the next few days will definitely be the last before AAAPL. Any other tiering/survey (including whether or not we hold a 2AC suspect test) will depend on how SV AAA develops during the tour.

After internal discussion in council, there was general consensus on allowing the metagame to develop further during AAAPL before voting on any tiering action. Obviously, if something ends up being horrifically broken then we'll have no choice but to do something about it, but otherwise, any suspect tests or quickban slates will pretty much be put on hold until after the tour :P (and even at that, it's likely that a 2AC suspect test will happen before anything on individual Pokemon, since a complete mechanics change would mandate re-evaluating parts of the banlist regardless).

LordBox · Jul 18, 2023

OMPL Team Dump

Well the W Virrizions have officially been knocked from the first round of playoffs and I thought well, might as well make sure the 20k messages and many teams we spent within cooking in our team prep wouldn't go to waste. So here's a team dump of all the teams/concepts I think are actually half-decent post-Home + the W1/2 pre-Home teams because why not.

Week 1 vs tieracid -

by LordBox

We had a few concepts flying around before this but never anything we were that satisfied with. The pre-Home meta was admittedly pretty static and given the fact tier we knew had pretty barebones AAA knowledge and support we were aiming for a pretty solid team with some sauce maybe. Eventually it came to fruition that Tinted Lens Gambit was cool, and while I usually use more solid defensive cores, decided to take a page from Ivar's book and run Regen ChainChomp to help lure in Corv + win the hazard war. Rest was pretty standard for the time and led to a fairly clean win.

Week 2 vs The Number Man by LordBox

Again we had a few concepts lying around. Originally this began from the fact I thought Sword of Ruin physical Fires were kinda broken asf. We worked on it a bit and then we had another team ready along with other teams, including this one. I did feel more comfortable with this loading into TNM given I saw their usage of Rotom-Wash which was irritating into our other so I convinced our pilot FrankJosh to switch it up. Lo and behold TN did not bring Rotom-Wash an incredibly irritating MGLO Hawlucha which trolled long-term with no Intimidate Corv + a very sketchy Ceruledge MU ourselves which taught me... a lesson for the future on any balance team.

Week 3 vs cumps

by Isaiah

I was unfortunately busy this week so Tranquility and Isaiah mainly took the reins. From what I can tell there were a few ideas flying around like Samurott-H and MGLO Heatran but eventually decided on the fact that screens is broken asf and decided to load this. All pretty broken stuff crammed into one team. We were originally Sub on Zama-C but I hated Sub on Zama-C I always preferred SEdge and we changed to Taunt on the Enamorus to prevent Ting-Lu from setting up rocks on us first turn and GG.

Week 4 vs shiloh

by Isaiah

We knew that at this point that shiloh had inclined to bring some crazy and wacky offense given the teambuilding style of Career Ended up to ths point so we from the start had a very clear direction to bring very safe balance or fat/stall. A few ideas floated around although a few ended up being invalidated since I accidentally leaked a few. Eventually we decided to bring one of Isaiah's fairly safe teams which focused on sitting there and eventually let Talonflame wear down the enemy, or chip and hazards.

Week 5 vs MZ

by hariyana grande

Tbh, in hindsight, we lost this week because I think we were a bit confused on what our concept should've been and bringing an ultra-safe balance or stall like from last week could've won but shrug. We had prepped a pivot offense team that was performing nicely in tests but ultimately we all grew too uncomfortable with our matchup into stuff like Zama-C to load it and prepped this last second I believe. It was somewhat similar pivot offense but a bit less loaded on the offense side but still pretty sketch on the defensive side of things with a Fluffy Lando to amend our sketch Zama-C mu from before and thus our loss to MZ.

Week 6 vs atha

by hariyana grande + LordBox

From the get-go, we wished to push something far more offensive onto the table vs atha. We looked at atha's scout and noticed a pretty clear weakness in all of atha's team beforehand and that they didn't like to use RegenVest mons and preferred more cope methods to answer the enemy's offense. What really annoyed me was that pivot-offense team from before could've been cool but we had already tested it into atha... but whatever. Eventually we made this pivot spam offensive with Cinderace + Regieleki forming a fierce pivot spam core and Thundurus as our main breaker which ended up making the money work. TDebris Chomp is odd but served as a nice physfire check and also way to steal momentum by forcing a break of the stalemate. Originally it was Thundy-T i think but guaranteeing the outspeed onto Chomp and also Iron Moth was the reasoning behind the change by Greybaum I think.

Week 7 vs Ivar57

by LordBox + Taka

We originally had a bunch of generic ass Chien-Pao balance teams to spam into Ivar57 which I didn't particularly agree with Chien-Pao being that broken as people adapted to playing around it and its support but whatever it ended up not mattering. Since we had already guaranteed playoffs before our AAA player even had the chance to play, I decided to say fuck it and they let me sub in for the week. Built this really dumb Explosion bait spam HO team with Surge Surfer Hoopa and Triage Enam was backup speed control for annoying stuff like Chien-Pao and scarfers + could take advantage of RegenVest being removed. Ultimately regretted making the Azelf Tinted Lens over even -Ate Explosion or Protean as it would've won me the game most likely and also lost to a timer loss so lmaooo but the team showcased it nicely anyway. Useless if the opponent knows what's coming... and I'm making this public so lol.

W1 Playoffs vs Osake

by Greybaum + Fiora (astralydia)

Fiora joined the party this week and brought some interesting concepts to the table which will discussed at a later point in this point. However the one thing we did agree on was that MGLO Heatran (and Chomp by some extension) were kinda broken for their ability to continously set hazards, with MGLO Heatran being a scary breaker in its own right which exploited the ultra-passive STail without doubles, although our own hazard removal was kinda oof. Main issues were that bringing MGLO Heatran really slows down the team and we were without real speed control so we had to cope with our defensive core. Also malding since we knew DGleam Moth would be a pain but were like who even uses that and behold.... not made better by the fact I suggested Goodra over RegenVest Hydreigon before to help against our Thundy-T and Volc issue but shrug, what can you about it.

Chien-Pao Balance Teams

by Greybaum

by Tranquility

by hariyana grande

by LordBox

by Isaiah

I obviously won't comment on all of these teams, and heck there's even more versions but they're too similar to be put in here. The main idea was obviously well supporting the big Chien-Pao to break as we thought it was broken. Iron Treads is a very common theme within these teams for its ability to chip down Corv and support with Rapid Spin removal or even SR if we could fit in. EE was preferred usually as that way it could usually reliably remove hazards against the setters. Generally I preferred big offense to support Chien-Pao tbh as good players had either supremely solid checks to Chien-Pao or were very conservative with their Corv if Chien-Pao was really the only real breaker on the team (see Slither Wing or Dark spam teams). These teams probably have holes in them, we had yet to settle on a concept before we decided to meme, but they are probably usable so I decided to make sure they weren't going to waste. Some other funny concepts, vanilla Slowking was to check Volcanion and physfires I think? But I don't think it did anyway. Fluffy Glowking is a quad fighting resist with pivot, no explanation needed and Utility Umbrella Pex was to cope against Volcanion as well as Physfires + Zama-C.

HO

by LordBox + Taka

by LordBox

by Greybaum

The webs team was made after we got into playoffs and wanted to build some dumb shit. Yes I am aware only 2 mons on team actually abuse webs, but in fairness, it really was made at 4am. Thundurus was used to outspeed HDB Moth. The screens is pretty generic, used to be Ursaluna but replaced. SFLO Volc is kinda broken I'm NGL I 6-0'd Osake and TNM multiple times with that thing I think. Fun fish. The STail was a warping of an ideas designed to be bulkier HO with STail that could continously replenish screens. Ursaluna is banned, you could replace it with like Gapdos or smth idk. Quick Claw on Ursa is.... cursed but genuinely saved me a few teams and pissed off a few LOL so if it works it works.

MGLO Heatran Balance

by Fiora (astralydia)

by LordBox

by Fiora (astralydia)

by LordBox (I think?)

by LordBox

My teams were definitely not in the best form they could've been in and I was in the process of refining them until we settled on the W1 Playoff team but shrug I'm just dumping everything here in case people want some ideas to take. Intim STail was wacky and originally Fluffy but its physbulk is actually better than Corv + quad fighting resist so there's your appeal even if passive AF. My teams were meant to be fat considering I saw not much way out given Heatran was super fat but it resulted in some wacky jank in order to make these defensive structures work. The first team was a team that Fiora was very happy about but our player veto'd due to our only removal being RegenScarf Quaq lol (idea by Greybaum). That being said it did quite well in tests so... try it out for yourself! Zarude was an idea I didn't particularly like but it did work. The idea was a offensive Chomper punish as Chomp was kinda broken. Intim Corv is annoying but +1 Crunch did around 60 and you could Synthesis off the U-turn damage later and its speed meant it didn't let it some breakers like Volc to go brrr. Diancie was a fun idea as it had the broken moves Spikes and a decent defensive profile. Samurott-H is cool as well but GF please give it like +20 more SpDef I don't believe in offensive Samurott-H.

Talonflame Balance

by LordBox

by LordBox

Talonflame is a fun mon! Both ideas were to just be FAT and eventually Talonflame can break through its checks and win long-term. Again Diancie is broken mon with spikes with fun defensive utility and NatCure is here to help check Physfires, even removing their annoying burns. Quaq was filler as the second team was actually unfinished but works to check Kingambit while providing nice offensive power. I am also of the opinion lately that Goodra > Goodra-H due to its Fire resist and also lack of Fighting weakness so it can better check stuff like Volcarona and Thundy but maybe that's just me. Sylveon is probably better replaced by STail tbh I was just paranoid of big Hydreigon.

Pivot-based Offense

by LordBox

by LordBox + Tranquility

by LordBox

by LordBox

I swear there was more... but honestly going trying through the entire 20k messages to find a team you think existed is a great way to waste time. The first team was in contention for using against atha, although the 2nd was the aforementioned one we originally planned to use against MZ but paranoia got to us. That being said tests for the team went pretty well so shrug. EQ on Slither Wing was intentional as otherwise Desolate Land Dirge was really annoying and TDebris Chomp was our cope physfire check while also trolling to disrupt momentum if it got out our hands. I swear Physfire breakers when they aren't using Desoland are broken, Tinted may be better on Ace tbh. Eleki served as nice speed control and hazard removal + pivot in RegenVest mons for our physbreakers. Azelf could potentially be replaced by another fast pivot, the last team suffers from kind of of enough breaking power tbh and it was kinda only there for Triage Ursuluna (now banned) and Zapdos can deal with Chesnaught on the last team although 3rd idk.

Stall

by LordBox

by LordBox

Stall was a cool idea that we thought of bringing multiple times but never quite following through. These teams are all most likely somewhat flawed given they were never the final polished version but shrug, I think they work mostly fine. One big concern would probably be no real water immunity which could make the Volc MU iffy.

Other Balance Teams

by LordBox
by Isaiah

by hayedenn + Isaiah

by Greybaum + LordBox (modified)

by Fiora (astralydia)

by LordBox

by hayedenn

The rest of the random scattered balances I found (there are probably more but there are so many pastes here I cannot be bothered going through every single paste to find all the teams here because LOL there are 370 of them...) WBB Clodsire is probably replaceable. Very passive mon and Garchomp is really probably better even without reliable recovery. The teams are a bit slow so you're kinda coping there with a bit of priority but shrug what can you do. Desoland Heatran served as a Water Immunity and Talonflame check + progress maker but tbh it doesn't actually work as an immunity for Volc so may be replaceable. MGLO Zapdos on the 2nd last team can probably be replaced to MGLO Heatran as well as it is THE broken mon. The Zama-C on the last team is probably replaceable by a better progress maker that's fast enough (or bulky enough) to deal with Talonflame.

Fiora's Concept and Team Dumps
https://pokepast.es/e6438a14d21ec8d3

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About 42 teams here and that's excluding all the Ursaluna ones we made, teams that are a bit too wack (or unfinished), pre-Home and Enam meta teams and also I'm probably missing more than a few teams because sifting through the 370 Pokepast.es mentions in our AAA channel was honestly burning my brain out. From what I can tell from the ones we excluded... there are around 50-60 (somewhat) unique teams here in the channel. Honestly I was thinking taking a break from AAA for a bit... but the NDAAA kick-off tour and AAAPL are starting soon so I suppose I'm stuck eternally on the AAA grind (Isaiah you should add NDAAA to AAAPL :3)

Honestly I didn't know what I was going into when I signed up for this. This was my first big team tournament and I had only really been involved in the money tour before this. However it ended up being tons of fun with a based team, even if we didn't manage to end up winning the whole thing which was sad but hey we still made playoffs at least. Not good at doing individual shoutouts but for the AAA department, massive shoutouts to Greybaum Tranquility Isaiah Fiora (astralydia) hayedenn for their massive help and contribution and of course our GOAT pilot hariyana grande for playing the games (which I probably would've ended up throwing all of them LOL) and cooking skills as well. The credit given is generally based off my memory of who made the main base of finished product of the team but should be noted we all generally had our own inputs when looking over the team and creating it (and also feel free to kill me if I forgot your credit or team you think is viable). Also big shoutouts to pannu sylvi Taka city and Stareal for making the tour really fun and enjoyable and of course massive shoutouts for the rest of team and helpers!

Metagame Almost Any Ability

AHOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

melancholy

melancholy

:3

melancholy

Banned deucer.

Here today, gone tomorrow

melancholy

melancholy

Here today, gone tomorrow

I COULD BE BANNED!

Here today, gone tomorrow

Here today, gone tomorrow

Here today, gone tomorrow

Here today, gone tomorrow

slave to desire