Metagame premise: Auto-Boosts Banned (ABB)
In a line: Boosting abilities that are activated
exclusively before or after the 'Turn' are banned (with the 'Turn' beginning with the use of one Pokemon's move, and ending with either the other Pokemon's move or a Pokemon fainting following a direct attack).
The objective of this meta is to encourage teambuilding based on movesets, not on passive boosting abilities, which has been an ever-growing part of the OverUsed singles tier (OU) since RSE. By that note, it is expected and hoped that this metagame remains significantly different from OU, and that the definition of this metagame remains straightforward and not complex.
Potential bans and threats:
A list of banned abilities by Metagame's definition ( and Pokemon who are banned as a result of having no legal ability):
- Intimidate (Mega Manectric, Landorus-T, Gyarados, Salamence)
Intimidate can be considered not as an auto-lowering of the opponent's attack but also as an auto-boost to the user's defence.
- Speed Boost (Mega Blaziken)
Note: This means blaze regular Blaziken is legal, but Speed Boost regular Blaziken is still banned.
- Moody (N/A);
Imposter (N/A)
i.e. No Pokemon with this ability are banned as they have other abilities that they may run.
- Rivalry (N/A)
(And I doubt anyone will miss this one anyway)
- The Four Surge Abilities (Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Fini)
The four island guardians would be banned only until Telepathy is released on each of them.
All four surges boost the power of certain moves.
- Drought (Charizard-Y)
Drought automatically boosts the power of fire moves (and boosts evasion versus hurricane)
- Drizzle (N/A)
Only Kyogre would be banned , if weren't already a restricted Pokemon(see below for uber banlist and potential bans).
Same reasoning as Drought, as well as additional automatic accuracy boosts to Hurricane and Thunder,for example.
- Sand Stream (Mega Tyranitar)
Sand stream automatically boosts the special defence of rock types.
- Snow Warning (Mega Abomasnow)
Snow Warning automatically boosts the accuracy of Blizzard, for example.
- Download (Genesect)
- Moxie (Gyarados, Salamence)
- Beast Boost (Nihilego,Buzzwole,Pheromosa,Xurkitree,Celesteela,Kartana,Guzzlord,Poipole,Naganadel,Stakataka,Blacephalon)
- Battle Bond (Greninja-Ash)
- Soul Heart (Magearna)
Bans to Ubers
- All restricted mons (not including mythicals)
All the "box legend" ubers and their associated forms, including Kyurem's base form, Kyurem-Black, Necrozma's base form.
Other potential bans:
In brief, all non-restricted mons that have been previously suspected in the OU metagame and banned to Ubers.
- Aegislash
Has been shown as banworthy in the past, it being over-centralising in past metagames due in big part to its effective base stats and ghost steel typing.
- Mega Gengar
Trapping abilities such as shadow tag and arena trap are still deemed uncompetitive.
- Mega Kangaskhan
- Landorus-I
- Mega Lucario
- Marshadow
- Mega Metagross
- Mega Salamence
- Shaymin-Sky
Abilities that were not banned:
- Unburden
It can be made to activate within the turn (e.g. when taking damage and holding a sitrus berry)
- Quick feet,guts,toxic boost and poison heal
aren't affected by the ban because they are not 'automatic',requiring items to activate (and may also activate within the turn in the case of guts and toxic boost).
- Harvest
Is not banned because a stat boosting berry can be consumed within the turn,not just after the turn.
- Note: No terrain effect or weather effect is banned completely : they must be activated using their corresponding moves within the 'Turn' instead : using electric terrain, rain dance etc.
- Aftermath
Activates immediately before its user faints,thus before the turn ends and is therefore legal. Additionally,it cannot be interpreted as a boost in any sense, as it deducts the opponent's HP.
Potential Threats:
In a sentence: fast and /or powerful sweepers that can obtain setup opportunities, reliable hazard setters, or Pokemon effective at neutralising setup sweepers in this new environment.
The Unban of baton pass and the loss of intimidate could positively impact the viability of physical setup sweepers, and make games faster, and more about high damage over as few turns as possible. It will negatively impact team types that relied on Intimidate to keep physical attackers at bay. Toxapex and other Hazers/Phazers (including red card users) should see a rise in usage, and different hazard setters will be explored to replace the vacuum that the loss of Landorus-T may cause, as well as the other team roles that Lando often fills. Unaware users may well see usage.
Simultaneously, the loss of Moxie, Beast Boost etc. will prevent sweepers from simply 'snowballing', through teams, and thus sweeping through defensive teams may still prove difficult.
Different electric types would see usage with the departure of two significant ones in Mega Manectric (one of the more significant offensive electric types among electric types, if not OU) and Tapu Koko. The strengths of these electric types will be detrimental to how effective Toxapex and other bulky water types remains as a hazer in the metagame.
Fire/Ice types might see more usage if stealth rock setup becomes any harder.
Experimentation with weather and terrains would be seen, and without abilities to automatically override them, preventing full-on sweeps will be harder after weather is setup. But it won't necessarily be easy to set up in the first place.
Strong weather sweepers such as Sand Rush Excadrill will either lose at least two turns waiting to capitalise on weather set up for them, or be forced to set up sandstorm themselves if the extra turns are deemed worth the loss of coverage.Some mons might run a weather / terrain moves to halt weather/terrain sweepers.
Strong priority users will likely see more use to combat faster sweeping threats more consistently than before with more opportunities for sweepers requiring a turn to take damage.
Protean (greninja) may be very effective, and its quick-banning is a point of discussion below.
Questions for the community:
- Do you think protean should be a blacklisted ability above, and should the definition of the 'Turn' starting be marked strictly by "Greninja used Grass Knot" or the move's animation? Or does a protean ban open up the door for the ban of acceptable abilites that activate immediately after the turn begins?
- Do you agree that the abilities above are justifiably banned according the definition of a 'Turn'?
It occurred to me when writing this post that an initially ban-worthy ability in Regenerator (a HP-boosting ability) is a legal ability since it can be activated during the Turn using U-turn, Volt Switch etc.So thoughts on any you folks have doubts with would be appreciated.
- What other bans and clauses implemented to standard OU would be implemented / to this metagame where automatic boosting is banned? For example, does the batonpass clause hold any weight in a metagame without free speed boosts from speed boost?
