Berserk: Increases the Pokémon's Special Attack by one stage when HP reaches 50%.
Not much to say about this until the mechanics are more concretely known. If it trips the second you drop below 50%, and will never do it again until you switch, it's pretty limited, but okay for, like, Special sashes. If it trips at the end of every turn you are below 50% HP, then it can be used to seriously pressure stall teams, and can potentially even secure a sweep against offense teams when combined with stalling tactics (That don't raise HP) like using Protect.
Comatose: The Pokémon can only be affected by the Sleep status condition.
My understanding is actually that the Pokemon is
always asleep if they have Comatose?
Gonna need to know more concretely what it's actual mechanics are, in any event. If it either renders the Pokemon immune to non-Sleep statuses
or forces them to always be Asleep while allowing them full functionality even while Asleep, then it's an
amazing status absorber -like Poison Heal, but able to directly switch into Will O Wisp, Thunder Wave, etc, without first needing to get a turn to trigger Toxic Orb. I can see this radically altering Balanced Hackmons and AAA.
On the other hand, if it forces the Pokemon to always be asleep while retaining normal sleep mechanics, then its effect is going to be a lot more limited, particularly if no new sleep-usable moves are introduced. (And even if they are, if they're not widely spread, it'll still be very limited in AAA, forcing gimmicky Sleep Talk sets that aren't reliable if you want to use something like Cresselia as your Comatose Status Absorber)
Corrosion: Allows the Pokémon to inflict the Poison status on Steel or Poison-type Pokémon.
I suspect this will also let the user bypass Steel's immunity to Poison type attacking moves, but even if it doesn't, being able to drop Toxic onto Skarmory or other Steel type walls is a huge change to AAA and, to a lesser extent, Balanced Hackmons. If it
does let the user bypass Steel's immunity to Poison type moves in
general, then it's a notable stealth buff to Poison type moves -it might be worth using stuff like Corrosion Gengar at that point to have an anti-Fairy check/counter that doesn't care that Klefki or Mawile (Or new Steel/Fairies) tried switching into Sludge Wave. Having Sludge Wave never worry about immunities would actually be a big help to AAA Gengar -though it wouldn't really help it beat Chansey, so it would probably not be the most desired Ability to run. Sheer Force Life Orb is probably still one of its better sets in that scenario.
Dancer: If another Pokémon in the field uses a dancing move, then the Pokémon uses the same move immediately afterward.
Current moves that are probably "dance" moves:
Swords Dance, Petal Dance, Dragon Dance, Lunar Dance, Quiver Dance, Fiery Dance.
I went to
Bulbapedia's page listing moves in other languages, compared against moves listed under "dance moves" by Bulbapedia, and checked for a commonality -the use of "no mai" is what I found. I then ctrl+f searched for "no mai" and found the above six moves were the only ones that contained the phrase. Since Pokemon has consistently held to using the Japanese names as the foundation for whether a move is, for instance, a "ball/bullet" move, I'm assuming this will be true in Dancer's case as well -sorry, you can't switch into Feather Dance to punish the enemy with a Feather Dance of your own. (Probably)
Notably, two of these are attacking moves, one of which locks the user in, and one is a suicide move. This raises questions about the exact mechanics of Dancer.
In any event, just the ability to mimic Quiver Dance, Dragon Dance, and Swords Dance is liable to be significantly influential on any number of metas. A Dancer switching into a Quiver Dance will
always remain
exactly as normal a check on the Quiver Dancer as if neither part boosted at all, aside from crits making things a bit more RNG-based, while Speed-based checks to Dragon Dancers can run Dancer and, if they win the predict, remain a check that threatens to counter-sweep. In those cases it's kind of an Imposter-lite.
But for the other Dancing moves it's harder to make good predictions. If Lunar Dance being imitated includes the suicide part, Dancers are at risk of being baited into a well-timed Lunar Dance (I'm mostly thinking Balanced Hackmons here) to get them off the table if they're particularly relevant to the meta. If it instead does something like "switch without fainting and heal the target", then that double knockout tactic isn't available and instead Dancers become a way to
punish surprise Lunar Dances.
Dazzling: Prevents moves with an increased Speed Priority from hitting.
There's a number of ambiguities at work here -to the best of my awareness we don't yet know whether Dazzling simply blocks increased priority moves that target the user are blocks increasing priority moves of
any kind- but this unequivocally goes a
long way to hurt -atespeed 'mons. Traditional Balanced Hackmons sets running something like Fake Out/Extreme Speed/Boomburst/Magma Storm can be outright hard stopped by the right kind of Specially bulky Dazzling wall, for example. Priority abusers are likely to be forced to diversify in Balanced Hackmons as a result.
Similarly, AAA might be able to unban Aerilate once Gen VII hits.
My personal guess is that, same as Quick Guard gained the ability to block Prankster-assisted moves, that Dazzling will block moves with increased priority regardless of
why they have that increased priority. Under that assumption, I also see Tail Glow Gale Oblivion Wings Mega Rayquaza becoming a much less notable force in Balanced Hackmons, and things like birdspam Gale Wings teams in AAA taking a hit in viablity.
A notable aspect of Dazzling, if Balanced Hackmons unbans Assist in Gen VII, is that it's a complete shutdown to gimmicky Assist V-Create teams. In general, priority-based gimmicks -such as Gale Wings Chatter- take a big hit by Dazzling coming into being. That's all positive, in my opinion.
I'm personally hoping we get a Dazzling Mega for Mix & Mega.
Disguise: Allows the Pokémon to escape damage from an enemy’s attack just one time.
I'm personally guessing this is "once per switch-in" and in general I'm guessing it's like a Substitute in various respects -not necessarily in terms of being bypassed by Infiltrator, but in terms of preventing secondary effects like Scald's Burn from having a chance of going off. If it is, that's a pretty amazing boon to many fast, fragile checks (In AAA, potentially in BH, potentially in other metas too) -being able to switch a fast Physical attacker into a Scald and take no damage/only hazard damage is a dramatic increase in the ability of fast checks to beat various otherwise difficult-to-switch-real-checks-into Pokemon, such as Keldeo, potentially turning those checks into
counters.
I'm also interested in if it has any other implications. If it functions
exactly like a 1 HP Substitute, including providing immunity to moves like Will O Wisp, it's an incredible effect in general with wide-reaching implications on
any meta in which Abilities can be spread around.
... assuming it's not hard-coded to the one Pokemon, at least.
Electric Surge: Activates Electric Terrain when being sent out.
The obvious utility is bolstering your Special Electric attackers. AAA Mega Manectric running Electric Surge as its base Ability is a pretty straightforward improvement to its initial offensive pressure.
I'm more interested in its potential to provide safe switch-ins into Sleep attempts, however. Electric Terrain prevents grounded Pokemon from falling asleep. No Spore for you! Not only that, but this includes
Rest. As such, with good prediction, one can wear down a Resttalk abuser and then simply switch in an Electric Surge Pokemon the turn you're expecting Rest. AAA Suicune getting you down with it's Resttalk? Yeah, not anymore, especially since if you're running Electric coverage and aren't Flying type yourself it's getting a noticeable boost in damage. Frying Suicune with Electricity is already one of the things you like doing, right?
I suspect its influence on Balanced Hackmons will be limited, unless Surge Surfer proves influential. I see it as being a lot more relevant to AAA.
Fluffy: Halves the damage taken from attacks that make direct contact, but in return it also doubles the damage taken from Fire-type moves.
There's a question here as to whether the effects merely cancel out, or if the Fire vulnerability overrules the protection. If it's the former, Fluffy is a a solid boost to Physical bulk all around with Mega Charizard X being less affected by it, but not
unaffected by it. If it's the latter, Mega Charizard X laughs at your Fluffy Physical wall.
Potentially more balanced on stuff like Eviolite Chansey than Fur Coat, too, so it might not end up banned in places like AAA, which would be cool.
I doubt it'll have much of an impact on Balanced Hackmons unless Fur Coat gets banned, though. (Or was it banned sometime when I wasn't looking?)
Full Metal Body: The Pokémon’s stats will not be lowered by the effects of an opponent’s moves or Ability.
This appears to be Clear Body/White Smoke under a different name. If it is, whatever. It's not like AAA teams want to run 6 Clear Body/White Smoke Pokemon, so the relevancy to Ability Clause is pretty nil. If it's more significant than that... well, we'll have to see.
Innards Out: Inflicts the same damage taken on the opponent if the Pokémon faints.
Who needs Destiny Bond when you can switch in Innards Out Giratina?
I can see people running an Innards Out Pokemon as a last-ditch check to out-of-control setup sweepers. Maybe Dazzling setup sweepers prove difficult to stop?
But it's a bit niche overall. Only being useful if you faint, and only
maybe fainting the opponent, is not ideal. There's also mechanics questions -if it only counts the last hit on multi-hit moves, then it's not going to stop rampages from Skill Link abusers. (Cloyster after a Shell Smash, say) That kind of thing.
Power Construct: Changes Zygarde's form to Complete Forme when its HP is less than 50%.
Notably, this
heals Zygarde to full HP. Focus Sash Zygarde may well be a thing, either abusing the time this buys it to get up more Dragon Dances/Coils, or just straight-up killing something that was expecting to check Zygarde by OHKOing it with Ice Shard or whatever. Depending on the mechanics of the transformation (eg does Zygarde stay in Complete Form after a switch, or does it have to switch back in and drop below 50% HP again, and then gets healed again?) it might even be run in its 50% (or 10%) Forme in Balanced Hackmons with this Ability!
This is almost certainly a species-locked Ability, and so will probably have a fairly limited impact in metas like AAA.
Shadow Shield: The Pokémon will take less damage from an attack that lands when the Pokémon has full HP.
Multiscale under a different name. Mildly significant, in theory, in the context of Ability Clause.
Only really matters in metas like Ability Unity. (Where Hoopa-Confined will pick up Shadow Shield)
Soul Heart: Raises the Special Attack by one stage when a Pokémon on the field is knocked out.
Special Moxie. Arguably scarier than Moxie in metas like Balanced Hackmons, because a Special attacker can run Psystrike/Secret Sword to turn Soul Heart into letting them break
everything.
Stakeout: Deals twice the normal damage if the opponent just switched into battle.
Reverse-Pursuit, the Ability.
Notably, this is a way to punish overuse of volturn, including stuff like Regenerator volturn. Go ahead, switch. You've just doubled my damage. Keep doing that. I appreciate your support.
We'll have to see what's considered to be the window for "just switched into battle", though. If it's restricted to "The enemy switched when I was about to perform an attack", that's a lot less impressive than if it works on a foe that volturned out after you attacked. (That is: you attack, they volturn, and then next turn you do doubled damage to what came in via volturn)
This can also place opponents in no-win situations where either they stay in and get KOed or they switch something into your terrifying Stakeout attacker and... get that thing KOed instead. Band/Specs Stakeout seems potentially quite nasty.
Stamina: Increases the Pokémon's Defense by one stage when it's hit by an attack.
This seems like an incredible Ability on a number of levels. It's a fairly hard stop to Skill Linkers, as each hit weakens the following hits and indeed makes the Pokemon potentially very terrifying, and can be used as a sort of Intimidate-like Ability in terms of turning 2HKOs into 3HKOs, only it won't trigger Defiant and isn't blocked by Clear Body. (But is ignored by Unaware, admittedly) It punishes Fake Out directly, tt can go on Physical walls to bolster their effectiveness at that job, it can go on Special walls to make it harder for checks/counters to act as checks/counters... say: Chansey switches into Volt Switch, gets +1 to Defense, and suddenly Physical attackers that were expecting to come in and finish off or scare out Chansey don't necessarily hit hard enough -especially each hit they make boosts Chansey's Defense!
252 Atk Mega Lopunny High Jump Kick vs. +1 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 390-458 (60.7 - 71.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Mega Lopunny High Jump Kick vs. +2 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 290-344 (45.1 - 53.5%) -- 38.7% chance to 2HKO
Note those numbers. Say Chansey is missing 10% from the Volt Switch. If Mega Lopunny skips Fake Out (They
did see Stamina trigger, after all) and goes straight to High Jump Kick, and Chansey uses Softboiled? Chansey may well be in a position to survive the
second High Jump Kick. (Depending on rolls and all) Keep High Jump Kicking, and eventually Chansey has enough HP remaining after a hit to actually do something to Mega Lopunny! Mega Lopunny better run Swords Dance so it can get the OHKO, unless it wants to fish for crits. In any event, if Chansey can get to that +2
somehow, Mega Lopunny will be unable to break it by spamming High Jump Kick -we're talking 130 BP STAB super effective off of 136 Attack here!
Stamina is an amazing Ability, is what I'm saying.
Also worth noting is that it has an overall similar effect to Intimidate (As regards helping defensive 'mons like AAA Skarmory) while being carried forward even if the foe switches out, and indeed will punish effects like U-Turn. This can buy a Pokemon time to heal before switching. Also notable is that Stamina does a lot to restrict Bands -a Pokemon that can boost and
then smack the Stamina wall can break things like Stamina Hippowdon. A Banded Pokemon is just going to make things harder on itself every turn it spends not switching, if it fails to KO the Stamina Pokemon by the second hit, barring a lucky crit.
It's also a nice way to punish Fake Out attempts, turning them from some free damage into a momentum loss.
Surge Surfer: Doubles this Pokémon's Speed in Electric Terrain.
Gen VII seems to be giving Electric Terrain, at least, more support, rather like Gen III did for weathers, so this might be notable. On the other hand, Electric types tend to run fast anyway -I guess AAA Magnezone might appreciate it, when backed by an Electric Surge ally?
Triage: Makes restorative moves gain the highest priority.
I'm personally guessing this means +3 priority. (Even higher than that would only really be notable for the somewhat silly effect of letting you Triage heal in the face of Fake Out -more significant to things like Doubles than to most Singles metas) If it does mean that, this is another effect that takes a lot of the bite out of priority sweepers, particularly the ones that don't use setup moves. Something like Banded -atespeed doing 50~% to you? Yeah, Triage Recover right through that until their PP runs out or they switch.
Not sure how influential it will be, though. Depends in part on what the list includes. I'm personally guessing it
won't include attacking moves like Oblivion Wing, but if it does that actually means you'll be seeing shenanigans like Mega Rayquaza dropping Gale Wings for Triage and Triage Drain Punch being a thing. If it includes Lunar Dance, Triage Lunar Dance sounds like a cool thing.
We'll basically have to see what it actually benefits to have a good guess on its effect.
Wimp Out: When this Pokémon's HP drops below half in battle, it will run away or swap out for another Pokémon.
Seems a useful trick for certain kinds of leads -drop a Stealth Rock, and then instead of having to faint, use Memento, or otherwise try to keep momentum manually, the foe smacking you and triggering your Focus Sash (Or Sturdy, in Enchanted Items) itself causes you to switch.
We'll have to see what it's actual mechanics are, though. Does it trigger
anytime you're below 50% HP, or only immediately after taking damage that leaves you alive but below 50%? Does it only trigger once a battle? We don't know.
