Explaining Every BANNED Ability In Competitive Pokémon (Gen 9 Almost Any Ability)

[@user-iz2ik3gh2n]

Note that ice scales doesn't double your spd. It reduces the incoming special-move damage by half. The distinction matters for moves like psyshock, as it gets halved.

[@handoverthestromboli6715]

I wonder if it works like that for Photo Geyser when Necrozma has a higher Atk than special as it is also technically a special move. Frosmoth has never been in a game with Necrozma on cartridge, tho Edit: Nvm apparently Necrozma came back in one of the swsh dlcs

[@Ascera_exists]

@@handoverthestromboli6715Photon Geyser ignores abilities

[@handoverthestromboli6715]

@Light_2461 wtf why, when did gamefreak start just throwing random secondary effects on already broken signature moves. 😭

[@Ascera_exists]

@@handoverthestromboli6715 It’s not really that broken tbh

[@Dr._is_sleepy]

@@handoverthestromboli6715It’s very tame lmao.

[@limon16025]

"Imagine using Blissey with imposter" Balanced Hackmons players sadly don't have to imagine

[@dandrecollier800]

Eh, it's not that bad

[@nathaneastman5556]

Chansey with imposter>

[@2EntireLegs]

​@@nathaneastman5556blissey > because you can use other item like choice scarf

[@Crttyt67]

@@2EntireLegsChansey still gets eviolite boost even when transformed

[@2EntireLegs]

@@Crttyt67 that's what I said, you can use item other than eviolite

[@videogamahagain]

I always wondered why comatose was banned, I thought it was because of status immunity, but then wondered why purifying salt wasn't banned. Thanks for the explaination

[@MettanAtem]

Fun fact about Huge Power and Pure Power: This is a case of identical abilities with different names for the sake of flavor. The difference is more clear through their Japanese names: Huge Power is "Muscleman", while Pure Power is "Yoga Power". One is strength through muscle mass, the other is strength through meditation. Also consider that Huge Power was originally the signature ability of Azumarill.

[@DarthFhenix55]

And pure power the signature ability of Medical (and it's prevo)

[@ehx3419]

@@DarthFhenix55 You presumably meant Medicham, but got hit by autocorrect?

[@calvinanderson4245]

Well of course it couldn't be called Yoga Power, Medicham isn't Fire type!

[@ehx3419]

@@calvinanderson4245 That was actually a pretty good joke! Serious talk though, that got me wondering why they didn't call it Zen Power.

[@VessIGuess]

"Huge Power in Japanese is called 'Muscleman'" YOU KNOW WHO ELSE--

[@pwnd785]

Innards out would be insane as it instantly prevents a sweep

[@machinacheater7725]

so would neutralizing gas. Literally they ban counterplay

[@MetronaJ]

​@@machinacheater7725neutralizing gas causes a game where the only ability people have is either neutralizing gas or abilities that bypass neutralizing gas Dont believe me? Check out pure hackmons :v

[@motherlove8366]

@@machinacheater7725 They don't ban "counterplay" (which doesn't really mean anything), they ban uncompetitive abilities like innards out Neutralising gas is kind of a different beat, not only is it insanely overpowered, but it also just really defeats the actual point of the meta. Metas with neutralising gas usually end up being heavily centered on neutralising gas (take pure hackmon for example) so it would essentially turn "almost any ability" into "almost no ability" and that's just not what the idea is Innards out and neutralising gas are easily some of the most powerful abilities on this list tbh, compared to stuff like fluffy/ice scales, illusion and whatnot. They're just not stuff you want in a competitive meta

[@jotarokujo3603]

Tbf AAA isn't exactly a competitive game mode. It's a meme.

[@glacierwolf2155]

The funniest part about the Good as Gold ban is that Gholdengo was also banned for completely unrelated reasons (mainly Magic Guard + Steel Beam, but also Sheer Force, Levitate, and Well-Baked Body).

[@mandalorianhunter1]

Everyone needs Good as Gold because you are always feeling Good

[@aristotelesemblem2506]

As Gold

[@ScottE-2]

You know what's a pity? The few Pokémon that get Iron Fist. It's not too great of an ability but most sadly the Pokémon Ledian has it as its hidden ability and remains to this day without much competitive use. It doesn't even have a big enough attack stat to utilize any of those moves, the few it can learn through level up or teaching.

[@BigStrap]

Plus Iron Fist only multiplies punching moves by 1.2, not 1.5 like sharpness and (most egregiously) Strong Jaw. And it doesn't even stack with Punching Gloves!! You can't tell me that would be broken with the power creep of the last 2 gens.

[@zaclittlejohn2701]

Seeing as thunder/ice/fire fang moves and thunder/fire/ice punch both go to ~100 BP it seems on the surface like a good idea, but the other "fang" moves and with higher BP become way stronger.

[@weibot2.0]

@@BigStrap It does does it not? I've used punching glove ifist pawmot and it stacked?

[@kadabraguy9846]

Ledian getting Iron Fist is very fitting in terms of its design but it's so bad looking at its stats lmao. Its attack is so low it could run Huge Power and still be horrendous

[@ScottE-2]

@@kadabraguy9846 it isn't just ability but also move pool. It is an unfortunate support Pokemon who is too frail to take anything physically, too weak to hit hard, but also lacking in hp to endure the special attacks. Its only great stat is ironically its speed to run away. It gets a lot of setup moves that could help others but not much to save itself. Shane since its design is honestly quite nice.

[@TigeriPlaysGames]

re:speed boost - i just played the fangame infinite fusion, which like the name implies lets you combine any two pokemon to get a weighted average of their stats and, more importantly, your choice of their abilities so naturally one of the first things i aimed for was slapping yanmega with speed boost onto something like a chandelure. it was exactly as evil as you'd think.

[@kylesimone6140]

All the cursed/funny/cool custom sprites when they get over shadowed by a speedy light fixture/j

[@alicetheaxolotl]

Shedinja+Bisharp makes a Bug/Steel with Wonder Guard. Your only weakness is Fire (and because Wonder Guard sets your HP to 1 in IF, it doesn't matter that it's 4x), and you're immune to poison and samdstorm.

[@bettyunicorn6132]

@@alicetheaxolotl that’s evil

[@cradiculous]

@@kylesimone6140 Well, something's gotta kill those Miltank fusions

[@thatsabruhmoment17]

I love how Neutralizing Gas is banned because of "dude this is stupid why are you even doing this"

[@PatrickArcato]

Smogon council: THIS MAN IS HAVING FUN! STOP HIM!

[@oscen335]

​@@PatrickArcatoin this case neutralizing gas is not making ppl have fun lol

[@PatrickArcato]

@@oscen335 I quit singles in gen 7 cos smogon council simply can't handle anything

[@oscen335]

@@PatrickArcato theres a lot of councils lol, and neutralizing gas kinda defeats the whole point of AAA

[@PatrickArcato]

@@oscen335 No it doesn't, it's a superior strategy, you can't handle it as well

[@michaelasmitty]

This makes me wonder if AAA should just show what ability an opponent’s Pokémon has no matter what. Could allow a lot of these to be brought back into the game

[@Fabi3014]

I don't think that's the case tbh, since stuff like Ice Scales, Illusion and so on will still be incredibly broken The format has a pretty solid meta, where you can predict most abilities based on the team n stuff, so it isn't really like that would change alot tbh

[@mistry_collectibles]

Not knowing the ability is a whole part of Pokémon! Even in OU! Flash fire / flame body heatran is the biggest one that comes to mind- difference between clicking pyroball or u turn when you have a cinderace against it 😮

[@redtube8667]

Well, not necessarily. Knowing that your opponent has the ability doesn't mean you will be able to deal with them. Stakeout's danger, for example, doesn't come from not knowing the Pokemon has it but rather from the user applying pressure to force you to switch out. Another example is Imposter/Innards Out, knowing that your opponent has them has never really been much help. As someone who plays BH regularly Imposter is everywhere and simply knowing that its there forces you to play incredibly cautiously and it's very easy to start losing pokemon to well timed Imposters. Innards Out generally gets switched into an incoming KO so knowledge doesn't help there. Water Bubble just hits like a truck so playing around it without Desolate Land is just unreasonable.

[@kobewoods872]

​@@mistry_collectibles and? Many abilities are banned there too.

[@johnrook6627]

I’m honestly surprised triage hasn’t been banned at this point. It’s been on the radar for so long and is the cause of multiple Pokémon bans. The council keeps voting no ban or saying how they’ll keep watch of the meta and never putting out a suspect test for it.

[@Pao-vo8mf]

I always have a good laugh with "council" 😂

[@johnrook6627]

@@Pao-vo8mf wym

[@victory8928]

I think it is because of how fun the ability can be but yeah very hard to counter on belly drummers with a healing move

[@koolguy475]

Im pretty sure it got hariyama banned, at this point is actually crazy that triage isnt banned outrighg

[@victory8928]

@@koolguy475 the main problem is triage on mons that can set up to lethal levels in one turn. Belly drum for example

[@MetronaJ]

A little bit more about neutralizing gas Even if we dont consider the fact it destroys the purpose of the format It also causes a format in which you use mons with the highest stats/best move pool with neutralizing gas or an ability that bypasses neutralizing gas This is especially noticable in pure hackmons

[@DdumbaStyle]

Your Dutch accent is so strong 😂 I love it every time you say ‘Powkemom’

[@dylansnipezz8898]

Eerste waar ik aan dacht

[@lemguins7031]

shedinya

[@rudolflc1684]

To sum it up, two cases: 1) The powerful ability is locked to a mediocre mon or a mon that is strong mainly because of its powerful ability 2) The ability is uncompetitive when you don't know in preview which mon has it

[@shacolin6546]

I don't like the fact that half of these are banned just because the surprise factor breaks it. The surprise factor is what makes the format interesting. But perhaps that's just me.

[@eden3669]

from what others are saying it sounds like most (good) players can guess what the ability is based on the meta, and most of the surprise factor bans are abilities you could put on literally anything and powerful enough you lose the game on the spot if you guess wrong arguably "the surprise factor is why its fun" is part of the reason _why_ its banned, because a lot of the fun is in trying to guess which ability an opponent has, and the banned abilities make the guess not remotely interesting its the difference between "shit i misjudged their team" and "oh i lost the 50/50 om which pokemon would be using the obviously broken ability, guess i lose now"

[@Interesting_Failure]

Would be interesting for some of these abilities if their presence was disclosed in Team Preview and/or on switch-in, since a number of them seem to largely be an issue due to not being known to the opponent until it's too late.

[@cradiculous]

When mentioning how not great Stakeout Pokemon are, he didn't even mention Spidops gets it too. It's so bad it doesn't even make the Bad Pokemon list.

[@Arak_Drakoniz]

Honestly, Oblivious could have been a brilliant gimmick if it negated the effect of more moves, like swagger, flatter and follow me.

[@Karsow2054]

Mold breaker should be renamed to Gold breaker at this point

[@AmberLB93]

I'm also sure this has been pointed out before but there is a slight difference between Huge and Pure Power. when skill swapped or entrained to another Pokemon, Huge Power's raw attack boost is reduced to 1.5x, while pure power stays at 2x.

[@n0ame1u1]

Do you have a source for this? I'm not seeing anything about it on Bulbapedia or Serebii

[@boltskyline2957]

Give the man a source you phony

[@slimestudios9748]

what?

[@SoggyWaffles.]

I heard this tidbit as well, but apparently it is completely false. It randomly got tacked onto Bulbapedia or Serebii and circulated through every Pokemon reference site and forum for years before someone bothered to verify in cart.

[@NathanielAhart]

This was a very informative video! I don’t usually play in this format, so besides Wonder Guard, I wasn’t sure what and how many abilities were banned in Almost Any Ability, and it seems like quite a lot… 😅😂 Great job highlighting these issues!

[@tysondennis1016]

Noivern, Dragonite, Jugulis, and Salamence really need more Flying STAB

[@christopherroscoe145]

Give them aeriolate ability and noivern boomburst mwahahaha!

[@tysondennis1016]

@@christopherroscoe145 Aerilate needs to be given to mons that aren’t Megas.

[@potatoexe5410]

​@@christopherroscoe145you want to give dnite aeriolate STAB Espeed?

[@ArdillaAlemana]

​@@potatoexe5410yes

[@axlr8deathpls294]

One chatot aerilate boomburst please!

[@kingofcrap4414]

I don't really understand why Magic Bounce is banned, but I don't play this meta, so I'm willing to accept that it was probably for a good reason.

[@haxalicious]

Magic Bounce is for most intents and purposes just strictly better Good as Gold. Not only immune to hazards, defog, and status, but bounces them back.

[@icenovice]

Chansey with Eviolite and Imposter is actually the queen of Gen 9 Balanced Hackmons, being the only Pokémon in S Tier if I remember correctly.

[@hypphen]

i mean in a metagame riddled with no retreat, simple + victory/quiver dance, and just a ton of high power sweepers its kinda obvious its gonna be great

[@MapleLunii]

Hearing neutralizing gas is banned makes me wonder if Mummy would suffer the same fate one day

[@gwenyon4939]

Mummy is far far more conditional, so I seriously doubt it

[@motherlove8366]

No, it would never

[@Wizard_Lizard_]

The logic "you don't know what ability it has, so it's banned" doesn't make sense to me. The odds of me me knowing that a Garchomp has Stakeout is just as likely as me knowing it has Tough Claws or Adaptability.

[@mouthwide0pen]

The idea is that you can just get spontaneously fucked over unpreventably because anything could have that ability and its impossible to know til its too late. The risk would be too high to justify even running the moves that get countered, and that makes shit boring. Also afaik with the format people can usually extrapolate who has what by virtue of what the meta is, but with abilities like these, you could put them on pretty much anyone.

[@jobreau1725]

@mouthwide0pen If people want a format when they don’t get surprised out of nowhere why are they playing the format when you get to put almost every ability on your Pokemon?

[@hypphen]

@@jobreau1725ragebait comment booo shut up

[@Penrosian]

Thing is, tough claws and adaptability aren't as broken. If this garchomp has adaptability, it gets a 1.33x boost. Alright. If it has takeout and I swap in a pokemon, suddenly it takes 60 from a resisted hit. The difference is that not knowing it has adaptability vs takeout is a big difference in impact.

[@ericshun3926]

You would think an ability that nullifies other abilities wouldn't be banned because it acts as a check if someone decides to use a broken ability or problematic ability, but here we are

[@drew53768]

Mold Breaker's still there, which nearly does the same thing! I agree though, Neutralizing Gas being unbanned would open up so many interesting counterplays

[@ericshun3926]

I mean mold breaker does work similar to Neutralizing gas, but only working on defensive abilities.

[@gwenyon4939]

Ngas is out of the question. It opens up *too* many counterplays, and is just a catch-all solution to shut down literally any Pokémon so long as the ngas mon has a decent matchup. Not to mention, it’s incredibly lame to have a tier with Almost Any Ability centralized around an ability that nullifies abilities.

[@motherlove8366]

@@drew53768 Ngas is in no way shape or form at all even remotely comparable to mold breaker. It stops weather from activating, it stops regen as soon as you switch in, stops magic guard, stops sheer force, if you run it on setup it blocks primal weather from activating, prankster haze, intimidate and dauntless shield, triage, -ate priority, ruin abilities, basically yeah it stops any kind of counterplay Thing is not only is it insanely overpowered, but it also just really defeats the actual point of the meta. Metas with neutralising gas usually end up being heavily centered on neutralising gas (take pure hackmon for example) so it would essentially turn "almost any ability" into "almost no ability" and that's just not what the idea is

[@Aquilenne]

​@@motherlove8366 Almost No Ability is wildly overstating the impact it would have given that AAA has ability clause, meaning it would be limited to a single pokemon. The lack of an ability clause makes pure hackmon completely incomparable to how things would look in AAA if it was around. Neutralising Gas on everything would ruin the tier since you could just turn it into an abilitiless format by giving it to everything, but a single neutralising gas pokemon should be fine. Weathers will still activate on anything else, so requires the skill to predict exactly when the opponent will bring in their weather setter, and gets worn down if overused to deal with every ability on the team, and unless something went horribly weird in teambuilding, probably doesn't have a favourable matchup against the entire enemy team. 6 NG pokemon = No abilities for anyone 1 NG pokemon per team = A single check that can potentially stop a single broken combination from snowballing the entire game right away, but can be worn down. Sort of like how Electric Terrain + Regieleki teams played around the opponent almost always having a hard counter to their major win condition just by accident since ground was such a good type almost every team had at least one, and then would try to put their opponents in positions that would force them to bring it out and have it injured until it couldnt counter Regieleki anymore, allowing it to sweep.

[@videakias3000]

please do a video where you explain the banned pokemon. some pokemon aren't very obvious to figure out like keldeo

[@immortalmachine5839]

I feel like a lot of these abilities would be fine if they were revealed at team preview

[@gwenyon4939]

Not really. Knowing that you can’t defog doesn’t change the fact that you can’t defog, knowing that your opponent has gorilla tactics doesn’t change the fact that it’ll nuke your entire team, knowing that your opponent can magic bounce doesn’t change the fact that you can’t set up hazards (although ig know your opponent didn’t have bounce would let you set up hazards? It’s a very centralizing ability either way and would be on most teams if it were legal) I can really only see this argument working for imposter, illusion, and innards out, which would *still* be incredibly problematic if they were legal in an ability preview meta

[@DarthFhenix55]

​@@gwenyon4939Seeing Magic Bounce would be useful if you have mold breaker tho.

[@motherlove8366]

@@DarthFhenix55 not really. I'm copying a top level comment I made because the video's assessment on magic bounce was not really correct The problem is not the unpredictability of not knowing who or what can have magic bounce, the problem is mainly that it forces games to come down to the bouncer vs setter matchup. If your bouncer can switch in on the hazard setter then you win, if the hazard setter beats your bouncer then you lose, this is kind of out of your control and while you normally level out matchups with good teambuilding, you just can't do that with individual mon matchup. I have to add tho as opposed to what gwenyon said, magic bounce has been legal for every gen except this one and has never had the kind of widespread usage that regen or poison heal had. It's always been contentious, but falls much more in the realm of uncompetitive than overpowered Also you can run ability shield on your bouncer to beat mold breaker As for the other, imposter changes nothing, because imposter will always be chansey and generally any chansey you see in preview will be assumed to be imposter. Imposter is just OP and AAA doesn't have the tools and flexibility to prepare for it the way BH does. Illusion would certainly be allowed if you knew both that it was present on the opposing team from preview and if you know which mon it was from preview. But even if you know there's illusion but you don't know which mon has the ability, you have to assume that any mon can be any other mon at any point, which is absurd. But illusion was definitely one of the weaker abilities on this list Innards out shouldn't exist and If you think unrestricted innards out deserves to be legal in any kind of competitive format you have no place being anywhere near making tiering decisions tbh

[@haxalicious]

Illusion is fair if which ability each Pokemon has is revealed. Everything else is banned for other reasons though.

[@Gatebreakerglitcher]

Will you also do a video on the banned stuff in balanced hackmons?

[@rozepanter007]

Depends on what you mean by stuff. The abilities banned in that format are almost identical to this one, so if we are talking abilties I would just be repeating myself

[@N12015]

@@rozepanter007 Also, you should wait some weeks to do said video because the format got a massive shakeup recently via Smogon higher ups realizing what the rest of the community and even some members of Smogon already knew 7 months ago.

[@officersoulknight6321]

Really crazy item idea; Choice Magnet It changes a pokemon’s ability to Magnet Pull but locks them into a move.

[@kerosenoparrales5854]

Imposter also worked with interactions like pikachu and light ball

[@filipe4134]

imagine mega rayquaza with contrary and v-create btw weird that immunity abilities like water absorb, volt absorb and flash fire are not banned because they would allow for some annoying switch ins

[@tylerbarrios9762]

Oh god imagine simple power herb Geomancy 🤯

[@Mathewthechanman]

Once setup a swoobat to skill swap to xerneas simple. It was super broken

[@alicetheaxolotl]

11:35 Numel also gets Simple (but not Camerupt). Although I'm sure I don't need to explain why Numel isn't used in competitive Pokemon.

[@phonepup06]

Even if you knew what pokemon had magnet pull that wouldn’t change anything; at least if that pokemon countered your steel type. At least it would heavily discourage you from sending out the steel type.

[@pyromaniac000000]

Imagine pre gen 6, wonder guard on spiritomb! Basically a gg right there! Especially if you have some pokemon in the back with heal bell to clear up any potential statuses, and a leftovers to negate any status or weather damage, it would be damn near unkillable!

[@DarthFhenix55]

Terra electric air balloon Shedinja is basically that.

[@pyromaniac000000]

@@DarthFhenix55 i guess, but shedinja is still crap. It’s stats are god awful, and it still only has one health, so even a single turn of status or weather damage and it’s dead. Not so for spiritomb, who is a solid special attacker, and actually has health to work with, meaning it can easily prevent any and all ways of taking it down. Basically gimmick shedinja is just the dollar store version of wg spiritomb.

[@haxalicious]

There is actually counter play, but it existing forces every single team to be stall.

[@jotarokujo3603]

I feel like the most common reason for banning abilities in this video was not knowing which pokemon had the ability. Which seems counterintuitive in this particular format.

[@rogergarner5444]

In pokemon infinite fusion wonder guard also sets the max HP of the mon to 1 and thats honestly the perfect balance

[@bulborb8756]

Neutralizing Gas isn't only exclusive to Galarian Weezing, it's just exclusive to weezing in general as both forms get it

[@officersoulknight6321]

my brain says snow warning avalugg for a budget fur coat

[@motherlove8366]

Just run intimidate?

[@mattheusspoo]

7:53 There's another way of escaping magnet pull (or any other trapping move or ability) that is by using a move that switches you out like u-turn, flip turn, volt switch, chilling reception, baton pass, parting shot, etc, etc.

[@JackLeighton-uh6sl]

Well yes, but not really cuz you just get outsped and ohkoed like how corv just dies even though it has uturn. The problem with set up is that corv REALLY wants to click defog and roost, but it would have to risk an encore magnet pull mon coming in and setting up 6 dragon dances or something.

[@mattheusspoo]

@@JackLeighton-uh6sl while i get this, i dont think it should be banned because it only works with steel mons. I get steel is a predominant type and mostly every team has at least one, but doesnt change the fact that having a encore dragon dancer with magnet pull is very gimmicky and wont work half of your matches. Its also very possible to play around it with shed shell if you are super concerned about that,and once the set has been revealed, it wont work at all.

[@gillloteen9475]

Numel actually gets simple too for some reason

[@asierx7047]

Numel using Stockpile + Simple has given it a reputation as a Little Cup tank as well

[@mralexnui73]

I strongly disagree with neutralizing gas being banned. It would be the perfect check for the tier to make sure that no pokemon becomes reliant on its ability and you still have to take into account the opportunity cost of running neutralizing gas on a mon yourself instead of an ability that enables your own strategy. It would be the ultimate equalizer for AAA, I think the tier would be so much more fun to play if you had to take into account the fact that your ability can be turned off whenever you opponent wants and have to play around that potential option.

[@ezequielangelucci1263]

id just use a team with 6 neutralizing gas and just play like if it was pokemon lets go pikachu (wich doesnt have abilities)

[@jamesgiles4517]

Bruh Neutralising gas just completely makes it so there are no abilities in the game if you choose to run 6 mons with it

[@mralexnui73]

@jamesgiles4517 AAA has ability clause, you would be limited to just one NG mon

[@jamesgiles4517]

@mralexnui1919 okay in that context I guess it's okay but it would still defeat the whole point of the format

[@TwilightChomperEnthusiast]

Gastro Acid says hello (Ik it’s not completely identical, but it’s similar).

[@Rubbly]

Always enjoy hearing about odd formats and rules n stuff, fun info!

[@brieoconnor9824]

Question: why isn't no guard banned? Am i missing something? Why isn't everyone using no guard + ohko moves? I dont see ohko moves on the banlist on smogon either. Edit: the moves arent individually banned, theyre banned by the OHKO clause, in case anyone else was wondering

[@zedekiahstephens4161]

I can see why simple might be banned in 1v1 but with the move simple beam in doubles, you could give any pokemon the ability even in regular game play.

[@sheeplol2161]

alot of theese are balanced out by the mons having them being shit

[@crazylasagna3576]

I lived through Magic Bounce Blissey in Gen 8. Never again (please).

[@motherlove8366]

Your assessment of magic bounce I don't think is 100% correct. The problem is not the unpredictability of not knowing who or what can have magic bounce, the problem is mainly that it forces games to come down to the bouncer vs setter matchup. If your bouncer can switch in on the hazard setter then you win, if the hazard setter beats your bouncer then you lose, this is kind of out of your control and while you normally level out matchups with good teambuilding, you just can't do that with individual mon matchup Also you can run ability shield on your bouncer to beat mold breaker

[@Miguel_I_guess]

8:17 Probopass? Someone topped the ladder with him, iron def body press kingambit counter

[@mistry_collectibles]

Great video! Really awesome explanations!

[@dearozero3631]

such a cool video! Water bubble huh :D

[@TheLaXandro]

I think allowing those abilities on the mons that originally had them would be a fun change for the format.

[@daniellejackson6543]

6:24 or better yet eviolite chansey. Chansey/blissey are the only pokemon in balanced hackmons that only need an ability change to be broken.

[@haxalicious]

Impostor Blissey wasn't the most broken thing you could do with it even. Impostor Chansey with Eviolite was. 50% boost to both defenses while only losing 5 HP.

[@notinterested9615]

How is prankster not banned, especialy if it can be used with mkves such as spore, destiny bond and possibly other broken status moves

[@christopherroscoe145]

Moves that induce sleep are banned in the format.

[@gwenyon4939]

Destiny bond has the same counterplay as it does in every format (which is knowing which mons are going to click it), and 100% sleep inducing moves are banned because of no guard + hypnosis.

[@noamarie2072]

The fact that drizzle isn't band only prove that pelipper become good in gen 7 is because they changed is special attack from 85 to 95

[@kingofcrap4414]

Nope, it was because of Drizzle. I love Pelipper and all but it would have been garbage without that ability. 95 special attack isn't even that good.

[@doomsdoor]

@@kingofcrap4414 there are other water/flying types that were pu or untiered with better spcatk its definitely drizzle that made pelipper good, same with politoed

[@doomsdoor]

ahh wrong person to reply to but ohwell he gets a notification anyways

[@gwenyon4939]

In a meta where primordial sea and desolate land is everywhere, weather is always going to be an inconsistent & fishy strategy, so drizzle isn’t broken in the slightest.

[@joe.osullivan]

Wonder guard on pre gen 6 Sableye or spirtomb would be really fun.

[@darko-man8549]

@8:20 Probopass made it to near top of the ladder :'D

[@shadowlamp]

What made magic bounce, magnet pull, and poison heal get banned when they were fine before? I haven’t played this tier since gen 7 so I’m curious. Is it just the dex cuts and new Pokémon making these more oppressive or is there a more nuanced reason?

[@AnArmoredMarch]

The surprise factor couple with stronger mons means they're unhealthy for the meta. If something gets used so often that you have to constantly plan around it, it makes sense to ban it so that you can just focus on doing wacky strategies.

[@SuperWiggler]

@@AnArmoredMarch And yet Stealth Rock has never been banned.

[@Milesprowerthegamer]

@@SuperWigglerI personally dislike Stealth Rock, but this is a false equivalence. You generally know which Pokemon will use Stealth Rock, and countering it isn't a huge commitment (one or two moveslots on a team, or an item slot on a particularly rock-weak Pokemon). On the other hand, a powerful ability like Magic Bounce in AAA could be on any Pokemon, you don't know if your opponent even has it, let alone which Pokemon has it, until it's revealed, and once it is revealed in a lot of cases the best counter to a given ability is spending an ability slot on a specific counter ability (e.g. Mold Breaker against Magic Bounce, Water Absorb against Water Bubble).

[@gwenyon4939]

The reason is that AAA tiering has improved over the generations. The general consensus among current players is that old gens were kept “just barely playable.” Also, precedent has changed from banning Pokémon to banning abilities if said ability is broken on most Pokémon

[@skarrerx8493]

Imagine Simple Geomancy 😭

[@Noromdiputs]

Regular wheezing and Koffing have neutralizing gas too.

[@pokeballblaze9835]

Legit just skipped over why simple was banned, lol too obvious.

[@hdckighfkvhvgmk]

You could say the reasoning is quite simple.

[@marcocava268]

Imposter blissey it is a balance hackmon staple lol

[@haxalicious]

Imposter Chansey is better usually because Eviolite

[@ammymara4868]

Also with wonderguard and a pure electric type pokemon you can give it air balloon. Basically meaning that you need mold breaker or a pokemon with toxic and mycelium might to effectively kill it. (will o wisp would also work, but is just very slow)

[@Rncko]

And your opponent 1st move is : Safeguard.

[@ammymara4868]

@@Rncko I completely forgot about that possibility. Then that entirely just makes you reliant on mold breaker. I also realized that you can use this on any pokemon you can tera into electric type.

[@motherlove8366]

@@ammymara4868 partial trapping and residual also works

[@allanturmaine5496]

As someone who Nuzlockes gen 7, I can assure you random access to Innards Out is annoying.

[@jkattack2640]

I dont understand why triage is still legal. They keep hitting triage belly drum drain punch abusers instead of the ability that gives nearly untouchable priority

[@RubTheCat]

because dazzling is already used for priority but not just triage. It can be used to block sucker punch aqua jet and e speed which are common moves

[@johnrook6627]

Lol I left almost the exact same comment without seeing this. It’s because the council keeps voting no ban on it despite nearly every community survey have it as potentially unhealthy and never putting out a suspect test. The argument has been that because there are bad/checkable triage users (chesnaught, hatterene), that it’s not the ability that’s the issue, but the mons themselves. Though I don’t think that argument rlly justifies keeping it

[@bobfrank7339]

You must not know about the scarf psychic surge amourouge tech

[@johnrook6627]

@@bobfrank7339 I mean if ur running that on a team then yea that kind of highlights the issue of triage

[@davie7670]

The meta now is if your team auto looses triage cheese then it’s not a good team. I can see why it’s not immediately broken because you know which mons will run it, so you can prepare for it. It just makes team building a little harder.

[@sctproperties13]

So you're telling me no guard fissure is allowed?

[@motherlove8366]

OHKO cluase are never allowed in any of the smogon singles format except AG. Even without no guard it would be too powerful in OU and whatnot.

[@SpookerstheSpoo]

What the heck is that Kangaskhan picture at 9:47? lmao

[@The_Anonymouse_User]

Not sure how Snorlax rests (Heh) competitively nowadays but good gods, imagine one with Wonder Guard.

[@nethermaster7744]

I think it's chancy with imposter cause even when transformed it gets the eviolite boost

[@talesofthespiritwarriorand1106]

They should make a new tier called actually any ability with no bans

[@iceseic]

legit just first time make almost any ability team and all of em are banned ability when validate

[@handoverthestromboli6715]

I think Imposter is banned because thats already a top tier ability in Balanced Hackmons and its super uncreative. Just slap imposter on eviolite blissey and you have a stronger version of your opponents pokemon with no effort required.

[@EDoyl]

Is the magnezone ability actually banned for power level? I assumed they just banned all trapping abilities, even the weak one, so the "You *might* be trapped, so you won't be able to cancel a switch!" rule wouldn't be constantly active.

[@slashine1071]

interestingly fluffy isn't banned even though it's almost the exact same as fur coat

[@blinkspot2667]

Now heres a question. What is stronger? Water Bubble + Fishous Rend with Choice Band or Strong Jaw + Fishous Rend with Choice Band?

[@gwenyon4939]

Considering water bubble is not only a 2x boost (compared to strong jaws 1.5x) and *also* prevents you from being crippled by a burn, I think the answer is pretty obvious.

[@mr.jitterspam9552]

"It will raise atk by 4 stages instead" >garch only gets +3 atk

[@hypphen]

do you not know how stat raises work

[@mr.jitterspam9552]

​@@hypphenoh shit I saw it wrong my bad

[@blacktarsalmon6697]

What the actual fuck is that mega kanga art

[@vanesslifeygo]

god, how do you win against a team of everything in the description

[@sshadowzlmao]

im surprised the primal abilities are legal. is prankster not ridiculous tho? prankster spore goes hard

[@donnietidwell965]

Im pretty sure that wonder guard is mainly banned because any electric-type can use it and an air balloon to become untouchable

[@motherlove8366]

So are you saying that if wonder guard was restricted to only non-electric types, it would somehow be fine?

[@donnietidwell965]

@@motherlove8366 idk

[@99ish91]

9:48 why does it look like that

[@Woog_Lord]

actually made me google art to see if its official

[@jissus3893]

Couldn't they just ban the combination of Comatose and Sleep Talk like in National Dex BH

[@gwenyon4939]

Tiering in general likes to avoid complex bans (Although idk why this is not the case with nd bh)

[@bassman9261995]

What about moves that are tied to different forms of a Pokémon. What would Zero to Hero do on a Pokémon that is not Palafin

[@JackLeighton-uh6sl]

nah cuz its based on game code. Certain abilities have tags only allowing certain forms to use a move, including disguise and zerotohero and thank god gulp missile.

[@TheRageBaiter]

Good as gold is so broken! Good thing natdex AAA won't have it, right council, RIGHT

[@mellowmoonlight9771]

Sturdy Shedinja. Stamina Snorlax. Huge Power Zacian. Contrary Rayquaza.

[@sockosophie3132]

1:30 does that mean dreameater and nightmare would work on it?

[@vittoriostramenga5649]

Yes, It's really funny

[@zeusalternative1270]

Neutralizing gas is a counter to many strategies but that is not bad per se, if anything it would keep on check some of the most degenerate combos. I'm really surprised to see it banned.

[@gwenyon4939]

It’s banned due to how centralizing it is. It wouldn’t just check degenerate combos, it would check *everything*

[@motherlove8366]

On top of "checking degenerate combos", it's also mad overpowered when ran on offensive mons or setup sweepers For a short list of what ngas can do - It stops weather and terrain from activating - It stops regen as soon as you switch in, rendering the ability essentially unviable - Stops magic guard and can make magic guard mons auto die when you switch in - Stops poison heal If you run it on setup it blocks - Primal weather from activating - Prankster haze or prankster dbond - Intimidate and dauntless shield - Triage or -ate priority - Ruin abilities from checking you Basically yeah it's not so much that ngas is counterplay to other stuff, but more than ngas itself has no counterplay And tbh on top of all that, the fact that it would defeat the point of the meta and would be so centralising, just means that the AAA playerbase would plummet imo

[@librathebeautifulwarmonk1283]

I'm surprised Hadron Engine isn't also banned

[@daybreak5322]

I know right? Could put it on Tapu koko and it would now have electric surge AND a boost in stats

[@reneantoniorodriguezippoli7561]

The ground type helps a lot with that decision

[@witherslayer8673]

huge power slacking

[@yeasstt]

God i hate impostor blissey/chancey. My hackmons player brain will never forget the war crime that is impostor blissey/chancey. Impostor blissey with scarf is insane at countersweeping. Chancey gets eviolite boost.

[@yeasstt]

Contrary V-Create Primal Groudon too. I hate/love that thing

[@magnetsphere2872]

Why is steely spirit not banned, isnt it pretty much like water bubble?

[@motherlove8366]

Steely Spirit, Steelworker and Rocky Payload are all 1.5, water bubble is a 2x boost, makes you immune to burn and gives you a fire resist I think part of it is also that water is a much better offensive type with a much wider array of move and distribution

[@circlieyzickosphere]

skill link king's rock maushold:

[@sctproperties13]

That move is based on accuracy, so I don't think skill link will work

[@motherlove8366]

You can run no guard kings rock maushold, it's legal. It's just not very good

[@circlieyzickosphere]

@@sctproperties13 it does work,always hit 10 times for me

[@felixkoll3958]

I think we need AAA AG

[@magnetsphere2872]

Wonder guard alola muk with balloon

[@largin386]

Isn’t it weird how regenerator isn’t banned here despite being broken in vanilla? Just saying

[@hypphen]

i mean in a metagame with a million different damage amp. abilites and strong special attackers its really not that broken still a very good ability on pokemon like manaphy or primarina tho

[@ownphantomandtoy]

Klinklang with simple 💀💀💀