Hello Trainers!

Welcome to the fourth installment in this series! For those of you that are newer here, in this article I will break down the current ruleset for the online competitive doubles battle, which coincides with the format that official Pokémon VGC tournaments follow. Regulation H was a surprise to be sure, and it has created a very interesting meta. Let’s take a look!

Since the beginning of Scarlet and Violet, each format has slowly introduced new Pokémon, and the format revolves around how these new faces interact with the existing ones. Regulation A featured only the Pokémon found natively in Paldea, excluding the Legendary and Paradox Pokémon. Regulation B introduced the Paradox Pokémon into the fray. Regulation C introduced the four Treasures of Ruin, the sub-Legendary Pokémon of the region. Regulation D allowed the use of any Pokémon that could be transferred into Scarlet and Violet via Pokémon HOME, excluding restricted Legendaries. Regulation E brought in the Pokémon found in the Teal Mask DLC in the Land of Kitakami. Regulation added the Pokémon found in the Indigo Disc DLC at the Blueberry Academy. Most recently, Regulation G allowed us to use a single Restricted Legendary Pokémon, opening up the Pokédex in its entirety (excluding Mythical Pokémon).

Regulation H flips this pattern on its head by doing one simple thing: banning Legendary Pokémon. Not just Restricted Legendary Pokémon, but all Legendary Pokémon. In addition, the Paradox Pokémon are also banned.

Here is the list of all of the Pokémon that were legal in Regulation G but have been banned in Regulation H:

• Articuno

• Zapdos

• Moltres

• Mewtwo

• Raikou

• Entei

• Suicune

• Lugia

• Ho-Oh

• Regirock

• Regice

• Registeel

• Latias

• Latios

• Kyogre

• Groudon

• Rayquaza

• Uxie

• Mesprit

• Azelf

• Dialga

• Palkia

• Heatran

• Regigigas

• Giratina

• Cresselia

• Cobalion

• Terrakion

• Virizion

• Tornadus

• Thundurus

• Reshiram

• Zekrom

• Landorus

• Kyurem

• Cosmog

• Cosmoem

• Solgaleo

• Lunala

• Necrozma

• Zacian

• Zamazenta

• Eternatus

• Kubfu

• Urshifu

• Regieleki

• Regidrago

• Glastrier

• Spectrier

• Calyrex

• Enamorus

• Great Tusk

• Scream Tail

• Brute Bonnet

• Flutter Mane

• Slither Wing

• Sandy Shocks

• Iron Treads

• Iron Bundle

• Iron Hands

• Iron Jugulis

• Iron Moth

• Iron Thorns

• Wo-Chien

• Chien-Pao

• Ting-Lu

• Chi-Yu

• Roaring Moon

• Iron Valiant

• Koraidon

• Miraidon

• Walking Wake

• Iron Leaves

• Okidogi

• Munkidori

• Fezandipiti

• Ogerpon

• Gouging Fire

• Raging Bolt

• Iron Boulder

• Iron Crown

• Terapagos

It’s important to note that the bans include any alternate forms of these Pokémon, such as the Galarian Birds, the Therian Genies, and the fused forms of Kyurem, Necrozma, and Calyrex.

This has created an interesting power vacuum within the meta. Even without considering the Restricted Legendary Pokémon, there are plenty of others that have been legal for the majority of Scarlet and Violet’s VGC history. Many of them have been extremely centralizing, including but not limited to the likes of Urshifu, Tornadus, the Treasures of Ruin, Heatran, and Cresselia. Even outside of any Pokémon that is classified as Legendary, the Paradox Pokémon have been at the center of VGC since their introduction, such as Iron Hands, Iron Bundle, and Flutter Mane to name a few.

Many people initially assumed that Regulation H would be Regulation A with a new coat of paint. While this isn’t necessarily wrong, with many faces that haven’t been good since Reg A making their return, calling this regulation simply a new coat of paint does not do it justice. We have had three sets of non-Legendary, non-Paradox Pokémon introduced since Regulation A through Pokémon HOME and both DLC’s. Even one of these would have been enough to shake up the meta, but all three put together have made this one of the most interesting rulesets to date.

Long story short: Legendary and Paradox Pokémon are out, and this season is a race to see who will fill their spots.

With all that out of the way, let’s dive in!

The Vacuum

It would be nearly impossible to talk about Regulation H without talking about the newly banned Pokémon. I will be referring to many of these Pokémon throughout the article, so I thought it best to list them up front. Let’s take a look!

Entei

Kyogre

Groudon

Heatran

Cresselia

Tornadus (Incarnate)

Landorus (Incarnate, Therian)

Zamazenta (Crowned Shield)

Urshifu (Single Strike, Rapid Strikes)

Calyrex (Ice Rider, Shadow Rider)

Flutter Mane

Iron Bundle

Iron Hands

Chien-Pao

Ting-Lu

Chi-Yu

Miraidon

Ogerpon (Teal Mask, Wellspring Mask, Hearthflame Mask, Cornerstone Mask)

Raging Bolt

I was going to add short descriptors for each of these newly banned Pokémon, but I have a feeling this article will be long enough. With that being said, this list should show you how big of a shakeup this new ruleset will be. Of this list, the most significant bans are Tornadus, Urshifu, Calyrex, Flutter Mane, Iron Hands, Chien-Pao, Chi-Yu, Ogerpon, and Raging Bolt. However, every Pokémon on this list will leave a significant hole in the meta, and the overall power level of this regulation will be much lower, which will be exciting to watch unfold!

Now that we’ve covered the bans, let’s take a look at which Pokémon will be stepping up to try and fill their shoes!

New Faces

Typhlosion (Hisui)

Type: Fire / Ghost

Ability: Blaze, Frisk

Common Items: Choice Specs, Choice Scarf, Charcoal

Common Moves: Eruption, Shadow Ball, Heat Wave, Flamethrower, Solar Beam

Common Tera Type: Fire

Starting off the list is a Pokémon that was introduced all the way back in Regulation D, but hasn’t had an opportunity to shine until now. Typhlosion’s regional Hisuian variant has been making waves in Regulation H. It is slightly slower than its Johtonian counterpart, but in exchange has slightly more offensive prowess.

Typhlosion is making its mark as an offensive sweeper, able to fire off powerful STAB Eruption to tear holes in the opposing team, and it is built largely around this strategy. While defensive tools have seen some use, most Trainers opt for an offensive Item alongside a Tera type of Fire to further increase its damage. Choice Specs and Choice Scarf are powerful options but are very inflexible, and even the slightest bump in the road will snowball into a quick defeat. Charcoal is more flexible, but it sacrifices some of the raw offensive prowess in exchange. Shadow Ball is great for its secondary Ghost typing, and Heat Wave or Flamethrower fill out its moveset. On the online ladder, Frisk can be useful to reveal opponents’ Items, but in a tournament setting (where every match is open team sheet) then Blaze is, a bit surprisingly, the way to go, as it at least does something for you there.

There is some key counter-play to Typhlosion, most namely Wide Guard or Rain. However, many of these options are negated when paired with Whimsicott, which we will be discussing in depth later. With Sunny Day and Tailwind support, many Typhlosion choose the more flexible set with Charcoal, with offense and speed being supplemented by Whimsicott.

As a final note, Johtonian Typhlosion can pull of similar strategies, usually utilizing Solar Beam as its coverage move over Shadow Ball. While it is faster, it is always susceptible to Fake Out pressure, as well as lacking a secondary STAB. However, it is far from bad.

I don’t think anyone anticipated Typhlosion to have a place in the meta, but I’m glad its buffed Hisuian form is finally able to step into the spotlight!

Primarina

 

Type: Water / Fairy

Ability: Torrent, Liquid Voice

Common Items: Throat Spray, Mystic Water, Leftovers

Common Moves: Hyper Voice, Moonblast, Haze, Dazzling Gleam, Perish Song, Calm Mind

Common Tera Type: Grass, Steel

Primarina was introduced in Regulation G, and it has always been a strong option. However, it joined the meta when the power level was nearing its peak. Now that things have been brought back down to earth a bit, we can see it for the true threat it is.

Let’s start with Primarina’s Ability. Its Hidden Ability is called Liquid Voice. There is a less-known category of moves known as sound moves. Think of it as a subset of moves below Physical and Special, such as contact moves. Liquid Voice causes all sound moves to become Water type, giving Primarina a STAB bonus when using them. This pairs extremely well with Hyper Voice, a powerful Normal type move with 100% accuracy and hits both targets. This becomes Primarina’s go-to Water move, especially now that Scald has been removed from the learnsets of most Water type Pokémon. This option becomes even more powerful with the Throat Spray Item, which gives the holder a Special Attack boost whenever it uses a sound move. This means that Primarina can unleash a powerful attack on both targets and get stronger in the same turn!

Outside of Hyper Voice, Moonblast is another staple of Primarina’s moveset, being a no-drawback move to utilize its Fairy typing. From here, the final moves change depending on the set you’re running. Most Primarina are fairly bulky, but there is a popular set that is even bulkier and swaps the Throat Spray for Leftovers paired with Calm Mind to set up into a sweeper. For the Throat Spray sets, Trainers have the option of Haze to clear opponents’ stat buffs, Dazzling Gleam for a Fairy STAB spread move, or even Perish Song as a late game contingency plan.

Finally, Primarina’s Tera type options in Steel or Grass cover its weaknesses effectively. Grass is more popular to turn 2 out of 3 of its weaknesses into resistances while also being able to block Spore, but Steel is a great defensive option as well, with Primarina’s STAB types able to cover the Fire, Ground, and Fighting moves that would otherwise threaten it.

It’s great to see yet another starter making such a splash in the meta!

Basculegion (Male)

Type: Water / Ghost

Ability: Swift Swim, Adaptability, Mold Breaker

Common Items: Choice Band, Life Orb, Choice Scarf

Common Moves: Last Respects, Wave Crash, Aqua Jet

Common Tera Type: Water, Grass

Basculegion has again been legal since Regulation D. Unlike the others on this list, however, Trainers had recognized its strength right when it was introduced. While it has seen play ever since it was introduced, the power level was too high for it to truly dominate. It had to compete with a certain stupid bear that could hit through Protect and always crit its Water moves ever since it was introduced, which wasn’t exactly a fair matchup. It has seen play when paired with Pelipper and Politoed, and later Kyogre, as a Rain sweeper, but hasn’t really had a chance to shine until now.

Let’s back it up a bit. First of all, let’s address the different forms. Basculegion has a different stat spread depending on its gender. The male form is a Physical attacker while the female leans Special. Basculegion’s best moves are Physical, so the male (red stripe) form is the way to go.

Basculegion was gifted with three incredible Abilities. Mold Breaker is great so as not to be walled by Gastrodon, but other than that isn’t great, making it the least popular option by far. Swift Swim allows Basculegion to out speed the vast majority of the meta, but only when Rain is up. Adaptability boosts its damage output to absurd heights by doubling the bonus of STAB from 1.5x to 2x. However, Basculegion isn’t known for its speed, meaning it could be KO’d before it gets a chance to attack.

This leads to the Item choice, which will change depending on the Ability. For Swift Swim sets, it will prefer the Choice Band or Life Orb Item to boost its damage output. With Adaptability, it will likely take the Choice Scarf Item to make up for lost speed. Each set comes with its ups and downs. The Swift Swim set requires it to be paired with a Rain setter to have any use, meaning that without the Rain Basculegion is basically operating without an Ability, but it should be noted that Rain boosts its Water moves as a bonus. Adaptability allows it to be slotted on more teams, but is a lot less flexible thanks to being stuck with the Choice Scarf. Personally, I prefer the Swift Swim set, but that’s in large part due to the current best Rain setter in the format, although I’m getting ahead of myself again.

Regardless of which set you use, Basculegion’s moveset never really changes. Wave Crash is its best Water option, being super strong and never missing in exchange for taking recoil damage. The thing that made Basculegion stand out is its access to Last Respects, a new Ghost move from Generation 9 and the former signature move of Houndstone. It is a 50 base power physical move with a special mechanic: it gains an additional 50 base power for every Pokémon on your team that has fainted. This means that if you get Basculegion set up to sweep after two of your own Pokémon have fainted, it is a zero drawback 150 base power STAB move! Finally, Aqua Jet rounds out its moveset as a priority move to help clean up in certain situations.

While Tera Grass can help defensively, Tera Water is usually preferred for raw damage output, seeing as its Water type attacks are much more consistent than relying on setting up Last Respects.

Basculegion as been theorized to be strong for so long now, so it has been great to see if Wave Crash through teams in Regulation H!

Tauros (Aqua Breed)

Type: Fighting / Water

Ability: Intimidate, Anger Point, Cud Chew

Common Items: Clear Amulet, Safety Goggles, Mirror Herb

Common Moves: Close Combat, Aqua Jet, Raging Bull, Wave Crash, Protect

Common Tera Type: Grass, Steel, Water

This one was a shock to me for sure!

Early in Regulation A, there was a niche strategy going around involving Paldean Tauros’s Fire type form, which used Meowscarada’s Flower Trick to activate Tauros’s Anger Point Ability to max out its Attack stat instantly. However, Aqua Breed Tauros fills a completely different role.

Tauros, alongside Basculegion, is one of a few physical Water types attempting to fill the void left behind by Urshifu Rapid Strikes. Primarily, it has been one of the best counters to Incineroar (yes the stupid cat is still around). It is simultaneously a counter-pick for one of the most popular Pokémon in the format while also carrying the ever-useful Intimidate Ability.

Tauros is built entirely around countering Incineroar, as well as beating the things you’d expect Water and Fighting types to beat. The Clear Amulet Item is most popular to block Incineroar’s Intimidate. You’ll notice that Protect is listed here when I usually don’t list it in the Common Moves section. For most Pokémon it can be assumed that Protect is being slotted in, but it is near mandatory here to counter Incineroar’s Fake Out. While Covert Cloak is an option to block Fake Out, you’d be hitting back at -1 Attack, which is a lot less effective. From here, you hit it with Close Combat if you think Incineroar is Tera Grass or Wave Crash/Raging Bull if you think its going Ghost (haha).

Tauros naturally resists Incineroar’s STAB options, so the Tera type is to help in other matchups. Safety Goggles are a decent Item option, but Tera Grass is a better option for blocking Spore while also resisting incoming Grass moves (mostly from a certain Galarian monkey). Tera Steel is another good option, but I personally thing Grass is the way to go. If you’re feeling bold you can go with Tera Water for raw offensive power, but this usually doesn’t help Tauros fill the role it’s looking to play.

Aqua Breed Tauros is the epitome of why I think this format will be so interesting. It has been around since Regulation A but has never been more than a spice pick at best. With new faces in Regulation H that weren’t present in Regulation A, certain Pokémon from the original Paldea Pokédex are getting a chance to shine!

Decidueye (Hisui)

Type: Grass / Fighting

Ability: Overgrow, Scrappy

Common Items: Scope Lens/Razor Claw, Assault Vest

Common Moves: Triple Arrows, Leaf Blade, Haze, Sucker Punch, Upper Hand, Tailwind, Brave Bird

Common Tera Type: Steel, Fighting, Fire

Closing out the list we have yet another starter, this time a Grass type! Decidueye also received a Hisuian regional variant in Legends: Arceus, while it has been around since Regulation D, it was only ever a niche pick at best. However, it has found a unique role in the meta of Regulation H!

What makes Hisuian Decidueye so powerful is its Hidden Ability Scrappy. This allows the user to hit Ghost type Pokémon with Normal and Fighting type moves that they are normally immune to. This makes Decidueye a great counter for Gholdengo, which is the most common Pokémon in Regulation H, with relative ease. Additionally, Scrappy prevents Intimidate from working on Decidueye, meaning it is much more difficult to slow Decidueye down.

Decidueye’s signature move, Triple Arrows, is kind of insane. First of all, it’s a 100% accurate 90 base power Fighting move. Most powerful Fighting moves have some sort of drawback, so this is already a huge plus. On top of that, it has not one, not two, but three possible secondary effects that all have a chance to activate every time it is used! First off, the move has a higher chance to land a critical hit, similar to Night Slash or Leaf Blade. Next, it has a whopping 50% chance to lower the target’s Defense stat by one stage. For context, moves that have a chance to lower a target’s stat usually have between a 10 and 30% chance to do so, so 50% is pretty crazy! Finally, it has a 30% chance to Flinch the target, which can easily throw a wrench in your opponent’s entire game plan. This move is absolutely insane!

For the rest of Decidueye’s moveset, there are a few options. Leaf Blade is the go-to Grass move, being a no-drawbacks Grass move that also has a higher chance to crit. Both Leaf Blade and Triple Arrows benefit from the Items Scope Lens or Razor Claw, which do the same thing in practice. These Items increase the holder’s crit chance by one stage, which stacks with both moves’ increased chance as well. This takes the chance for a crit from the standard 1/24 chance (about 4%) to a 50% chance whenever Decidueye uses Leaf Blade or Triple Arrows, you know… the two moves it pretty much always wants to use?? At this point, it doesn’t really matter what you fill out the rest of its moveset with. More offensive options are Upper Hand, which is great for countering Fake Out from Incineroar, or Sucker Punch, which is much more consistent but makes you weak to Fake Out. More supportive options include Haze, which helps to further counter Gholdengo and has no effect on Decidueye, who isn’t boosting its stats anyway, or Tailwind to help support the team even further and make Triple Arrows’s Flinch chance even more threatening!

There is an alternative set that uses the Assault Vest to help Decidueye with its bulk significantly. For this set, in addition to it’s standard STAB moves, Trainers will usually pick either Sucker Punch or Upper Hand paired with Brave Bird for a powerful coverage option. This set is effective because Triple Arrows is still an insane move, and it gives Decidueye more opportunities to get one of its three secondary effects, although this removes any supporting move options in the process.

To be honest, Decidueye probably doesn’t need to Terastalize very often. Doing so is usually for defensive benefits. Tera Steel helps it deal with its pesky 4x weakness to Flying, although Decidueye can’t really do much to hit them back in return. It has the added benefit of resisting Gholdengo’s Make It Rain, further boosting its viability as a counter, as well as being able to resist any stray Fairy moves that get sent your way. However, you are still weak to Incineroar’s Fire moves, which is something to keep in mind. Tera Fire is nice to prevent Burns, one of the only real ways to slow down Decidueye’s offense, while simultaneously resisting both Gholdengo’s Steel moves, Incineroar’s Fire moves, and any Fairy moves. Personally, I think Tera Fire is the way to go!

I personally love Hisuian Decidueye, both in design and in its strength. I remember seeing how strong Triple Arrows was when Scarlet and Violet were released, and I’m glad Decidueye finally has a chance to show off!

Returning Favorites

Now that we’ve talked about a few of the newer faces on the block, let’s take a look at the threats from Regulation G that are still running the meta. If you’ve read any of the previous entries in this series, then this list probably won’t surprise you much.

Incineroar

Need I say more? This thing is still insane.

In Regulation G, Incineroar was actually only the 4th most used Pokémon, behind Urshifu Rapid Strikes, Raging Bolt, and Rillaboom, but it was still present on 33% of all teams. Now that Urshifu is gone, it can do its job basically unimpeded. Additionally, Incineroar was not present the last time we have a format without any Legendary or Paradox Pokémon, yet it was able to thrive alongside them and it undoubtedly would have dominated Regulation A had it been legal. However, specific counter-play is being developed to counter it, as seen with Aqua Breed Tauros and Hisuian Decidueye. Currently it is on a bit of 30% of all teams, coming in second behind a Pokémon that we will get to a bit later, but make no mistake, this thing is unfortunately still the king of VGC.

Rillaboom

Similarly to Incineroar, Rillaboom is still doing its thing. It’s a bulky Fake Out user with great offensive options, able to set up Grassy Terrain for passive healing, a damage buff on all its Grass moves, and to give priority to its Grassy Glide move. It boosts its bulk even further with Assault Vest or Sitrus Berry, although without the Legendary and Paradox Pokémon in the format some Trainers are opting for more offensive sets.

The monkey sat slightly above Incineroar last season in usage stats at #3, largely due to it hard countering Miraidon. While Incineroar has passed it this season at #2, Rillaboom is still on just under 30% of all teams, meaning you will have to prepare for it as usual this season.

Farigiraf

Farigiraf is still present in the format as well, and I’m personally ok with this one. I love that it is extremely predictable in playstyle, but it does what it wants to do so well that even well prepared Trainers can struggle to stop it.

Farigiraf excels at setting up Trick Room, while also being able to block all priority moves coming from the opponent’s team. It is actually on slightly less teams percentage wise this season, but I think that is a bit misleading. Farigiraf excels at countering the typical ways of stopping a support Pokémon, such as Fake Out or Prankster Taunt. However, last season there were powerful Restricted Legendary Pokémon spamming spread moves that could just knock it out. Classic Trick Room teams have now made a comeback, and with them comes Farigiraf, so definitely expect to see this thing on the ladder.

As a final note, Farigiraf just won its first World Championship this summer in Hawaii on Italian Trainer Lucas Ceribelli’s team! Last year it was on runner-up Michael Kelsch’s team, but this year the giraffe managed to help nab the crown!

Amoonguss

Spore and redirection are as valuable as ever, which means Amoonguss isn’t going anywhere. As mentioned with Farigiraf, there are a lot less powerful spread moves being spammed, meaning there are less options to get around Amoonguss.

There have been some innovations in how Amoonguss has been used recently, most notably a more offensive set with Sludge Bomb over Pollen Puff that was popularized by Wolfe Glick. This just served to further add to the mushroom’s viability. On top of being the annoying support Pokémon we’re all used to, it can now pick up a surprise KO when you’re least expecting it!

Indeedee

Just like every other Pokémon in this section, Indeedee is still doing pretty much the same thing it has always done. It’s able to effectively redirect moves with Follow Me, and its harder to remove thanks to Psychic Terrain blocking priority moves. With Calyrex-Shadow and Iron Crown gone, Armarouge has made a comeback, and this duo is back like it never left, now bolstered with the likes of Hatterene and Ursaluna-Bloodmoon. Expect to have more than a few of your moves redirected into this thing whenever its on the field!

Whimsicott

Rounding out this list is Whimsicott. It has access to the powerful combination of the Ability Prankster and the move Tailwind, allowing you to instantly double your team’s Speed. It is now one of only 4 Pokémon to have access to this powerful combination, two of which are Volbeat and Illumise. While I did battle a brave Trainer using Illumise on the ladder, Whimsicott is definitely topping the list of Prankster Tailwind users.

Previously, Tornadus had dominated the meta as the de facto Prankster Tailwind user, but even with it in the game Whimsicott was able to see relevance. Now that its gone, Whimsicott got a huge boost in viability. It is currently the most effective as a partner for Hisuian Typhlosion, as mentioned in its section. It can overwrite unfavorable weather with Sunny Day before Typhlosion attacks, which boosts its damage even further, or instantly double the team’s Speed to allow Typhlosion to hit first with Eruption. Moonblast is still an extremely consistent option for a bit of offense, and the rest of the moveset can be filled out with another supporting move depending on what your team needs. I’ve made the mistake of ignoring this thing for too long and paying the price, so definitely expect to see Whimsicott on the battlefield!

Taking the Spotlight

As mentioned previously, the last time we played in a format without Legendary Pokémon was Regulation A, While these two rulesets are very different in practice, there are a few Pokémon that haven’t seen prominence since Regulation A that have made a comeback. As such, this section will be a bit larger than usual, and a good chunk of this section will be made of up these Reg A threats making a return. For those who care, all entries on this list from Annihilape onward will be returning threats that saw the most prominence Regulation A. Here we go!

Gholdengo

Gholdengo is the new #1 most used Pokémon in the format, having taken the crown from Incineroar by nearly 5% in usage stats!

Gholdengo has been around since Regulation A, and in recent rulesets I think a lot of Trainers had forgotten how powerful this golden surfer is. It has incredible typing, great stat distribution, and an insane signature move in Make It Rain. With the overall power level being brought back down to earth, Gholdengo is now back to dominating the meta. It is threatening due to the variety of effective ways it can be used. Bulkier sets will use Items like Leftovers or Air Balloon with a defensive Tera type like Dragon or Water to help set up Nasty Plot for absurd damage, while more offensive sets will opt for Life Orb, Choice Specs, or Choice Scarf paired with Tera Steel for immediate damage. There are very few ways to slow Gholdengo down, and if you’re not careful it will Make It Rain all over your team until there’s nothing left standing!

Archaludon

Archaludon is another Pokémon that has never been bad, but has never had a chance to shine. It was introduced in Regulation F with the Indigo Disc DLC, but similarly to Primarina, the power level was nearing its peak at the time. Archaludon still saw use, but in Regulation H it has become much more dominant!

Archaludon has great typing in Steel / Dragon, with only 2 weaknesses to Ground and Fighting. It can become a super tank through the use of the Assault Vest Item and the Stamina Ability, which boosts its Defense every time it takes a hit. This pairs nicely with the move Body Press, which uses the Defense stat to calculate damage rather than Attack. This allows Trainers to invest fully in Defense and Special Attack, rounding out the moveset with Draco Meteor/Dragon Pulse, Flash Cannon, and its signature Electro Shot. It is one of the few Pokémon that makes great use of the Stellar Tera type, but defensive types like Flying and Fairy are great options too. Archaludon is the 4th most used Pokémon in the format, and for good reason!

Pelipper

People unfamiliar with VGC may be a bit surprised to learn that Pelipper is one of the most popular Pokémon in the format, landing 5th in usage! Pelipper saw a lot of usage in Regulation G thanks to a combination of different factors. First of all, it is easily the best Rain setter in the game. Last season it was arguably better than Kyogre! While it couldn’t compete in raw damage output, its supportive options cannot be beaten! Most importantly, it got access to Wide Guard, a move that protects your entire team against opposing spread moves. This made it a great matchup against the variety of powerful Legendary Pokémon, causing lots of Trainers to use it last season.

Pelipper’s decently high usage in the last ruleset demonstrated its strength, and it is arguably even stronger in Regulation H! First of all, it only has two type weakness to Rock and Electric, and its decent bulk means it can usually live a neutral hit. It has access to Tailwind, which is valuable on any team, especially since Regulation H has so few options for priority Tailwind. Furthermore, the Rain that it passively sets up works well with its STAB options of Weather Ball, which turns into a 100 base power Water move in Rain that also gets the 50% damage boost from Rain, along with Hurricane, which never misses in Rain. These moves are so strong that Pelipper can do decent damage even without offensive investment. Finally, while many Trainers have dropped Wide Guard for Protect this season, it is still a great option.

Pelipper makes a great partner for a wide variety of Pokémon in this format. It is most commonly seen with Archaludon, who can fire off its signature Electro Shot move in 1 turn instead of 2 when Rain is up. It’s also great with Basculegion, although all other Water types benefit. Additionally, anything that is weak to Fire appreciates the Rain for the 50% reduction to Fire type attacks, namely Gholdengo and Rillaboom.

Expect to deal with Rain in Regulation H, as even if you aren’t running Pelipper then there’s a decent chance your opponent will have it. Beware the toilet bird!

Ursaluna (Bloodmoon)

Bloodmoon Ursaluna has made a name for itself as a powerful Special Attacker since it was introduced in Regulation E with the Teal Mask DLC. It was originally only used as a Trick Room sweeper, similarly to its standard Hisuian counterpart. However, it is extremely difficult to get a minimum Speed IV on Bloodmoon Ursaluna specifically, as it is a special encounter that has to be rerolled similarly to a Legendary. Players began using it as a more flexible attacker, still naturally under-speeding things in Trick Room but also able to move first with speed control such as Tailwind. It is much more flexible than its standard counterpart due to having better spread options and being less limited in Items. Additionally, its broken Ability means that it isn’t easily walled by any singular Pokémon, as it can hit Ghost types with its Normal moves and can hit pretty much anything else with Earth Power.

Bloodmoon Ursaluna already had a solid place in the meta when Legendary Pokémon were present, and now that they’re gone there aren’t many Pokémon that can output damage to the same level that it can. Stats show that it is present on at least 20% of all teams, so be prepared to face off against the Bloodmoon Beast this season!

Annihilape

As mentioned previously, this is the start of the Pokémon returning from Regulation A. Again, these Pokémon have never been bad, but haven’t seen these levels of success since. Let’s take a look starting with Annihilape!

There was a lot of hype surrounding Annihilape in early Scarlet and Violet VGC, and this ghostly ape more than delivered! Great stats and typing, every move it could ask for, and Defiant to hinder any stat drops. With Incineroar being ever present, Annihilape is a great deterrent, as even having it on the team can cause your opponent to second-guess leading or even bringing it. What’s more, Annihilape’s Ghost typing makes it immune to Fake Out, giving even less options to slow it down, and it can hit back against Incineroar and Archaludon with STAB Super-Effective Fighting moves.

There are a few different ways to run Annihilape. In Regulation A, a popular set was Choice Scarf with max HP and Speed to use Final Gambit to delete an opponent’s Pokémon. One of the ones I’ve faced the most is a bulky set with Leftovers and Bulk Up, with Drain Punch to keep it healthy and Rage Fist as its main damage output. Rage Fist gets even more powerful when paired with…

Maushold

In Regulation A, Annihilape was almost never seen without Maushold by its side. Trainers had initially identified Maushold as a potential sweeper, with its signature move Population Bomb hitting up to 10 times, each boosted by its Ability Technician. However, this saw much more use in Singles over Doubles, which is what VGC uses.

Maushold sees much more success as a support Pokémon. Its other Ability, Friend Guard, reduces all incoming damage to its partner. It can support its teammates even further, as it is one of the only Pokémon to learn Follow Me. With Safety Goggles, it can safely redirect any incoming Spores without falling asleep itself. Tera Grass is an option that would allow you to run a different Item, but Tera Ghost will prevent Fake Out, as well as incoming Super-Effective Fighting moves.

Maushold makes a great partner for Annihilape. It can redirect incoming Ghost type moves away from Annihilape into itself, and Friend Guard pairs nicely with the ape’s natural bulk. The final piece to the puzzle is the move Beat Up, which Maushold can use to target Annihilape for 4 weak hits (assuming your whole team is alive), boosting Rage Fist to a 200 base power move with no drawbacks. Those of you who read my article on Regulation F will remember that I used a similar strategy with Whimsicott paired with Annihilape, but Maushold has been using the strategy before Whimsicott’s return was even announced.

As a final note, Maushold can pull off a similar strategy when paired with Archaludon, using its weak hits to activate Archaludon’s Stamina Ability to instantly boost its Defense to +4. If you’re feeling bold, you can sub Beat Up for Population Bomb when paired with Archaludon specifically, which is both resisted by Arch while also having a chance to boost its Defense to +4 while also being resisted, minimizing the damage you have to do to your own Pokémon.

Maushold is a surprisingly powerful support Pokémon. It is another Pokémon that can boost its team to absurd heights if left alone, so if you see this thing next to Annihilape or Archaludon, be ready!

Hydreigon

Hydreigon is much more straightforward. It’s a powerful Special Attacker, having above average stats as a Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon. It couldn’t exactly keep up to the likes of other powerful Dragon or Dark types in more recent regulations, but now it has a chance to shine.

In Regulation A, Hydreigon was recognized as a great user of Terastalization. It has a crippling 4x weakness to Fairy moves, along with weaknesses to Dragon, Ice, Bug, and Fighting. It can cover its 4x weakness effectively through use of Tera Fire, Steel, or Poison, with each coming with their own benefits and additional coverage of its resistances. These types become even stronger when you consider its Ability, which is Levitate. Its three best Tera type options are all weak to Ground moves, but in most cases this will be an immunity instead! To push this even further, for Tera Fire and Tera Steel Hydreigon has great options in Heat Wave and Flash Cannon respectively, meaning it doesn’t need to rely on Tera Blast and can take advantage of new STAB moves with secondary effects. While Tera Poison does need to rely on Tera Blast for a STAB move, this is arguably the strongest Tera type defensively. With a Ground immunity, Tera Poison Hydreigon is only weak to Psychic, but attacking a non-Terastalized Hydreigon with a Psychic move is risky since its immune as a Dark type, and even then it retains its Dark STAB offensively to hit back.

Regardless of how you choose to build Hydreigon, it will definitely be a threat to watch out for this season!

Tyranitar

Unlike some of the others on the list, Tyranitar has still seen respectable levels of usage in recent formats. On top of being a Pseudo-Legendary like Hydreigon, Tyranitar is one of only three Pokémon that can set the Sandstorm weather in the game. The other options are Gigalith, which isn’t in Scarlet and Violet, and Hippowdon, which can’t really do much in terms of offense. Tyranitar is a consistent Physical attacker that is really the only option to enable Sand teams. This was possible even in formats containing Legendary and Paradox Pokémon, and with them gone these strategies have only increased in viability. Tyranitar has seen a lot of success paired with the next entry on our list…

Garchomp

Garchomp has fallen victim to power creep in recent regulations, but it was extremely dominant in Regulation A. While I wouldn’t say its as dominant as it was back then, Garchomp is definitely a threat in Regulation H. It has great stats, giving it the offense and speed to take KO’s with enough bulk to take some neutral hits. While Rough Skin is more consistent, letting you deal some passive damage to any opponents that use contact moves, Sand Veil can create some interesting variance in the game, as dodging a crucial attack could be game winning. Tyranitar’s Sand Stream can enable this strategy, and you’re never mad about having two Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon on the field next to each other. The land shark is officially back!

Kingambit

Kingambit is in a similar boat to Garchomp, in that people seemed to have forgotten how strong it was, at least until Regulation H started. It has great stats as a Trick Room sweeper, but it can supplement its poor Speed stat with Sucker Punch to move first against bigger threats. While its signature Ability, Supreme Overlord, is definitely one of the most unique and exciting Abilities on paper, Defiant works much better in VGC, especially with Intimidate users running rampant. Similarly to Annihilape, even having Kingambit on the team can cause Trainers to second-guess bringing Intimidate to a battle. I’ve definitely lost a few games because my opponent set Kingambit up to run away with the game.

Dondozo/Tatsugiri

This duo has become synonymous with VGC, as their most effective strategy doesn’t evnen work in Singles. To keep it brief, if Dondozo and Tatsugiri are on the field at the same time and Tatsugiri’s Ability is Commander, Tatsugiri will hop into Dondozo’s mouth, and Dondozo will instantly receive +2 in every stat. This effectively turns the battle into a 1v2, but Dondozo is virtually unbeatable after combining. With more and more Pokémon introduced, especially super powerful ones, that meant there were more and more ways to counter Dondozo and Tatsugiri. While there are definitely still plenty of options to counter them in Regulation H, the absence of the more powerful Pokémon has allowed Dondozo and Tatsugiri usage to rise. If you see these two combine on the other side of the battlefield, get ready for a boss fight!

Palafin

Palafin was slept on in early Scarlet and VGC, but it quickly established itself as a threat in early formats. Palafin has a unique mechanic that is based off of Superman, where it must enter the battle in its Civilian Form (left), switch out, then re-enter the battle in its Hero Form (right). This Hero Form is extremely powerful, with stats rivaling Legendary Pokémon! Combine this with great moves like Jet Punch, a stronger version of Aqua Jet, and Wave Crash for insane damage, and Palafin can sweep through teams!

Palafin, like many of the other Pokémon in this article, fell off in usage starting in Regulation D, as it had to compete with Urshifu Rapid Strikes as the Physical Water type on the team. It was never bad, but Urshifu was better in almost every way. Now that its gone, Palafin usage has spiked again. Palafin has officially made its return from Zero to Hero!

Meowscarada

Meowscarada is yet another Regulation A threat making its return. Its signature move, Flower Trick, is a powerful Grass type attack that always results in a Critical Hit! While there are other more niche ways of using it, most of the time the strategy involves doing as much damage as possible with Flower Trick. The constant Crits allow Meowscarada to shrug off Intimidate in practice, at least while using Flower Trick. It is a great user of the Focus Sash Item, meaning it is actually one of the few starter Pokémon that want to use their base Ability in VGC, Overgrow in this case. If you’re guaranteed to live a hit on low health, its possible to boost your damage with Flower Trick even further!

Meowscarada’s Hidden Ability, Protean, got nerfed going into Scarlet and Violet, only allowing you to change types once per switch in. However, this pairs well with Choice Band sets to maximize the damage of other moves. While this set is much less flexible, the damage output can get pretty insane!

I’m glad to see so many starter Pokémon on this list, especially since they have more than just niche viability. Of all the Paldean starters, Meowscarada is definitely the best!

Dragapult

Yet another Pseudo-Legendary has made the list. Now that Regieleki and other powerful Legendary Pokémon with blazing Speed are banned, Dragapult is the fastest Pokémon in the format, at least without considering any other Speed multipliers. Combine this with great offensive stats and you have a pretty threatening offensive threat!

Most trainers opt for Tera Dragon or Ghost to further improve Dragapult’s offenses and reduce weaknesses, with Tera Ghost being popular to have Ghost type Tera Blast, which is much more consistent than the next best option of Phantom Force. However, some new tech has seen some play. Dragapult is a pretty solid option to counter Incineroar in the current format. Its Ghost typing makes it naturally immune to Fake Out, and its Clear Body Ability prevents Intimidate from lowering its attack. While it is weak to Incineroar’s Dark moves, a Tera Fighting Tera Blast will make quick work of Incineroar. While this tech is rare, basically making Dragapult a dedicated Incineroar counter, it is extremely effective.

Being the fastest Pokémon in the format is enough for Dragapult to get some decent usage, and its Speed is far from the only thing going for it. If you see Dragapult on the field, it’s safe to assume you will not be moving first that turn.

Murkrow

As mentioned previously, Murkrow is one of the only Pokémon to get access to the powerful combination of Prankster and Tailwind. This alone will give it a place in the meta, no matter how good it actually is. Murkrow is usually locked to playing a support role, as it can’t do much damage outside of Foul Play. It gets access to powerful support moves like Taunt, Haze, and Perish Song, which it can use with increased priority. However, more Pokémon in the format means more ways of knocking it out quickly. While it isn’t as dominant as it was in early Regulation A, you will definitely see Murkrow popping up occasionally this season.

Talonflame

We’ve talked a lot about the power of Prankster Tailwind, but a bit surprisingly, this is not the only way of using Tailwind with increased priority. Talonflame’s signature Ability, Gale Wings, gives it increased priority when using Flying type moves, but only while it is at full HP. When it was introduced in Generation 6, this Ability used to work regardless of how much HP Talonflame had, making it a terrifying sweeper with priority Brave Bird. After it was nerfed, Talonflame now serves as a great support Pokémon. It is able to effectively set Tailwind, then use powerful Fire and Flying type attacks to deal some decent damage afterward. While it isn’t as consistent as Prankster Tailwind, Talonflame is a unique option that can sometimes fill that role better depending on the team!

Sylveon

Again, Sylveon is pretty straightforward. It’s a powerful special sweeper, able to tear through teams with Hyper Voice, which becomes a Fairy type move and gets a damage boost thanks to its Pixilate Ability. Sylveon really couldn’t compete with the likes of Flutter Mane in terms of raw damage output, but now that they’re gone it’s a solid choice for Regulation H!

Grimmsnarl

Grimmsnarl does the same thing it has always done. It is still the best user of Reflect and Light Screen, able to use them with increased priority thanks to Prankster. From there, it will hinder your team with support moves like Fake Out, Parting Shot, or Thunder Wave, as well as dealing decent damage with moves like Foul Play and Spirit Break. Grimmsnarl saw great usage in Regulation G, helping to mitigate some of the overwhelming Legendary Pokémon damage. With the power level lower in this format, this damage reduction isn’t as required as it has been in the past, but its arguably more effective as a result!

Fallen From Grace

This section is pretty short. For the most part, the Pokémon that have fallen furthest from grace are the Legendary and Paradox Pokémon, and all other Pokémon have become more viable to help fill the void. I’m sure y’all are sick of listening to me ramble, so I’ll keep it short.

Clefairy

Clefairy had a pretty surprising amount of usage last season thanks to its unique combination of defensive and support tools, as well as the ability to redirect moves with Follow Me. While these tools are definitely still useful, there are other Pokémon that have filled that role that are more effective than Clefairy in the current meta. Maushold is the primary perpetrator, as its unique relationship with Annihilape and Archaludon cannot be replicated. Clefairy is also pretty limited in its Item, being forced to use the Eviolite to do its job properly. Again, with the power level lower this season, Pokémon that can fill this role that also have more unique tech have proven to be more effective, and Clefairy has fallen off as a result.

Mienshao

Mienshao was never dominant, but it had the most viability its ever had in Regulation G. In short, it was a perfect Incineroar counter, with its Ability Inner Focus able to negate Incineroar’s Fake Out and Intimidate, retaliating with a powerful Close Combat in return. Additionally, access to Wide Guard gave it a role on virtually any team in order to counter the powerful spread moves coming from Restricted Legendary Pokémon. Again, it isn’t necessarily useless on Regulation H. However, Wide Guard is no longer mandatory on your team, and Pelipper is definitely the best user of this type of support. Without this niche to fill, Mienshao has fallen back into obscurity.

Conclusion (kinda)

Wow, despite the smaller format, this article seems to have run longer than ever before. Sorry again for my endless rambling. This should give you a pretty good sense of what you should expect from playing/watching Regulation H. As usual, stick around if you’d like to see the team that I’ve been using this season, but otherwise I’ll see you in the next article!

The Team

If you’ve stuck with me thus far, thank you! I’ve really loved writing these articles, and I really appreciate those of you that stick with me until the end!

Just like with Regulation G, I had an opportunity to practice this format through the online battle simulator Pokémon Showdown. However, I’ve been pretty busy with work, school, and life in general, so I wasn’t able to tweak my team as much as I would have liked, and it definitely doesn’t match up against a lot of the newer innovations in the meta. However, I was still able to pilot it to Master Ball tier within the first week of the season, meaning that it’s definitely still usable.

Even despite achieving top 1500 in the world, I definitely wouldn’t say I’ve mastered the team. There are a lot of smaller improvements to make. Even writing this article has given me some time to reflect, and I think that even in its current form I could be using the team much more effectively.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself again. We’re gonna move on before I start rambling again. Let’s break it down!

Gholdengo

Gholdengo was my starting point. At the time, I had no idea it would be the most used Pokémon in the format. While I haven’t covered every format in an article, I have played every format since Regulation A. Gholdengo has been consistently strong, yet I have never actually used it for myself. I knew it would be a solid pick for Regulation H, and on top of that, the event where Shiny Gimmighoul was available in Tera Raids came back right as I was building my team. It was like it was meant to be!

I opted for a bulkier Gholdengo set rather than a hyper-offensive one. I just hate the inflexibility of Choice Specs, and a Life Orb set never feels like its doing enough damage. I have Gholdengo EV’d to survive a single opposing Gholdengo’s Shadow Ball, at least without any sort of damage multipliers on their end (to be honest, I totally forgot I EV’d for this. It definitely would have helped on my ladder climb). I went with the standard set of Make It Rain and Shadow Ball for consistent damage and Nasty Plot to set up.

As far as Tera type and Item, there are multiple viable combinations of offensive and defensive Tera Types and Items, and the different combinations can do different things. Since I opted for a bulkier set with a set up move, I chose a defensive Item with an offensive Tera type. Leftovers Gholdengo is surprisingly annoying, especially if you manage to get it on the field with Grassy Terrain active. As such, the Tera type is Steel to maximize the damage output of Make It Rain. This also helps it in its matchup against Incineroar. While not common, a decent number of Incineroar Trainers have dropped Flare Blitz, while Knock Off is much more consistently used, so Tera Steel helps defensively in more situations.

There were plenty of games where Gholdengo gets off one Nasty Plot for free and ran away with the game on its own. However, it can’t do this without ample support, which brings us to the next team member…

Amoonguss

I’m gonna be honest here: I’m still not 100% sold on Amoonguss being on the team. It definitely isn’t bad, but I found myself not bringing it to many matchups. I can usually find uses for it and it has saved me a few times, but I’m still not 100% convinced.

Amoonguss is running an extremely standard set. Pollen Puff, Spore, Rage Powder, and Protect are the most common moves. I didn’t see any need to use the offensive Sludge Bomb set that has become more popular, as I added Amoonguss to the team purely for more support. With Tera Water, it is able to cover a lot of the weaknesses of the primary offensive threats on my team, and Spore is always helpful. I initially had a Mental Herb as the Item to help deal with opposing Taunt users, but I found that it was almost never activating. Rocky Helmet can help deal some chip, and I’ve at least felt like it was useful unlike the Mental Herb.

Not to get too confusing here, but I spent a lot of time bouncing between Amoonguss and Rillaboom on this team. As mentioned previously, Gholdengo loves having the insane passive healing combo of Leftovers and Grassy Terrain. However, there are other members in the team that were actually hindered by the Grassy Terrain more than helped, but I’m getting ahead of myself. As a final consideration, Amoongus forms what has been proven to be a tried and true defensive core, which we will touch upon later.

This is all to say that while Amoonguss doesn’t feel perfect, it definitely feels better than Rillaboom, but a more skilled/experienced Trainer may find that Rillaboom works much better here. Regardless, Amoonguss was on the team that I used, hence why its here in this article.

Pelipper

As mentioned in its section, Pelipper is really good in this format. It surprised me how helpful this thing was on the team. I had built this Pelipper for a different team that ended up falling through, but it has found a home on my Regulation H team!

Pelipper is primarily here to set the Rain weather condition with its Ability Drizzle. Weather Ball, which doubles in power, turns into a Water move, and gets a passive damage boost when used in Rain. Hurricane is also extremely consistent, never missing in Rain and having a chance to Confuse the target. It can effectively support the team using Tailwind, which is pretty common on Pelipper, and Wide Guard, which has dropped off in usage significantly since Regulation G ended. The Focus Sash helps it play this support role much more effectively, and I’ve won many games due to opponents thinking they’ll get an easy KO, only for it to survive and set up Tailwind or take a suprise KO.

Pelipper is great to bring in the back paired with the Focus Sash. In a worst case scenario where I need to switch my leads, I can guarantee that Pelipper will live at least one hit thanks to the Sash, and switching it in isn’t useless because it automatically sets up Rain. Even on 1 HP it can be surprisingly annoying with Wide Guard.

Almost the entire rest of the team is built to benefit from the Rain in varying offensive and defensive ways. The best demonstration of this comes with our next entry…

Archaludon

If you look at usage stats, as well as Pelipper’s section in this article, then you shouldn’t be surprised to see Archaludon on the team. I’m running a very standard set, but that demonstrates how effective this standard set is.

With the Assault Vest Item to buff its Special Defense and its Stamina Ability to buff its Defense, this thing is pretty tough to KO in one hit. Combine this with great defensive typing, as well as the fact that it gets stronger every time it gets hit, and you end up finding yourself a lot of situations where you intentionally switch in Archaludon to take a small amount of damage, which begins the snowball of building up its defense, which actually has some application to its offense.

Archaludon’s stats are invested in Special Attack and Defense. This is a weird combination on paper, but it actually works really well. Most of its moves are Special, with Electro Shot able to boost its Special Attack and firing in one turn under Pelipper’s rain, and Draco Meteor and Flash Cannon being consistent STAB options. Body Press is where all those defense buffs come in, able to deal surprising amounts of damage while also increasing its survivability.

The one deviation I made from the standard set comes from the Tera type. Archaludon is actually one of the only consistent users of the Stellar Tera type. With such a diverse moveset and an already great defensive typing, it does benefit greatly from the increased offenses. While I initially used the Tera Stellar, I found myself losing to powerful Fighting and Ground attacks that KO’d me before I could set up enough Defense buffs. As such, I chose Tera Flying for the defensive benefits. This does have the unfortunate side effect of almost always losing the mirror match against other Archaludon after Terastalizing, but I still think it was the right choice.

We’ve now built out the team with some strong Special offense and solid support. I think it’s time to bring in a powerful Physical attacker to round out the team.

Palafin

I’m so happy that Palafin is back. I think its such a creatively designed Pokémon, and I’ve seen its strength firsthand.

I initially went with a setup set for Palafin as well, but I found it too difficult to use due to being forced to switch out Palafin in order to unlock its true potential. I opted for powerful burst damage to contrast the setup required for Gholdengo. Wave Crash is Palafin’s best option, with its signature Jet Punch to help clean up. Mystic Water and Tera Water help maximize damage output, boosted even further by Pelipper’s Rain. Close Combat hits the things that Wave Crash can’t, but with all of the damage multipliers Wave Crash can often become the stronger choice even if it’s resisted.

This may be just me using this Pokémon incorrectly, but I find myself relying on Close Combat in more situations than I had expected, and it never seems to do enough damage. To be fair, I haven’t fully invested in Attack EV’s, opting for max Speed and a good amount of HP instead. Maybe another Item could help with this, but overall I think Palafin is really solid.

As mentioned previously, Amoonguss was the start of a tried-and-true defensive core, and Palafin is the next part of this core. The final member of this core has actually changed, but this is only because a familiar face has blown the previous member of the trio out of the water…

Incineroar

Surprise, surprise. When in doubt, add the cat.

Incineroar rounds out the defensive Fire – Water – Grass core that I’ve been hinting at. For those of you that are newer to VGC, this standard defensive core is a great starting point. In previous iterations, the team had used Arcanine, but Incineroar outclasses it in every way. I’ll explain more of the core later, so for now let’s focus on Incineroar.

This is a different Incineroar to the one I have been using for a few seasons. Not that it matters, but that one is Shiny and this one isn’t. This is actually the Incineroar from the 7* Tera Raid Den event, boasting the Mightiest Mark. I really like the Incineroar build I had been playing with before, but this one fit the team better. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of resetting the original one, especially since I think that one can be useful in the future, and this event popped up just in time, so I decided to build this one.

Unlike previous iterations, I have max Speed investment on this Incineroar. This ensures that my Fake Out will go before pretty much all other prominent Fake Out users in the meta. There are a lot of other similarities to the old build, but there are a few key differences. First of all, the Item is switched from Safety Goggles to Sitrus Berry. I found the extra burst of HP to be much more useful in more situations. Since I dropped my Spore immunity, Tera Grass was next up on the changes. While I lose some tech by dropping [tera] ghost, namely the Fighting immunity, the primary reason to use Tera Ghost is to avoid opposing Fake Outs, but the max Speed stat solves this on its own. Tera Grass helps with a lot more matchups, namely Ground types that a lot of my team struggle with, and combined with the Sitrus Berry it allows Incineroar to do its job of disrupting and annoying the other team much more effectively.

I feel like I’ve been a huge advocate for Taunt on Incineroar, and this season it definitely didn’t let me down. With max Speed, it can help in a lot more situations. Additionally, although this is less prominent in Regulation H, I feel like a lot of Trainers are used to preventing priority Taunt from things like Tornadus, using things such as Farigiraf’s Armor Tail or Indeedee’s Psychic Surge to counter this approach. I’ve found a lot less tools that are equipped to stop a standard Taunt. While Flare Blitz’s presence is definitely missed, Taunt more than makes up for it, and in most neutral situations I would choose to spam Knock Off over Flare Blitz, as removing the target’s Item on a weak hit is much more useful than taking a seemingly negligible but ultimately impactful bit of recoil damage.

Incineroar is good, and this shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point. From the beginning I knew it would likely end up on the team, and I wasn’t wrong.

Team Usage

This team is largely built around the more offensive Pokémon, namely Gholdengo and Palafin. I usually make a decision on which Pokémon to bring to a battle based on who has the better matchup against the opponents between Gholdengo and Palafin. From here, I usually check to see how Incineroar matches up against the team. If there are a plethora of Special Attackers or if there are key threats with te Defiant or Competitive Abilities, then I may choose to leave Incineroar behind. If not, it is the best neutral starting option, giving Gholdengo or Palafin the most options to set up. If it’s one of the cases where Incineroar is not a great choice, then Amoonguss will usually be the alternative. Regardless, this turn is an opportunity to try and set up a Nasty Plot with Gholdengo or to switch out with Palafin.

I find myself bringing the duo of Archaludon and Pelipper to almost every match. Archaludon is a defensive beast, which also has the potential to sweep teams on its own. From there, Pelipper is a great support option for Archaludon specifically, but can set the rest of the team up for success easily. They are extremely consistent as the 3rd and 4th Pokémon brought to battle, and while there are cases where they’re strong in the lead, they actually almost perform better being switched in.

There are rare cases where there is effective counter play for all of my support Pokémon or Archaludon specifically. In these cases, I would consider bringing both Gholdengo and Palafin. This is pretty rare, but having so many offensive options is definitely a fun way to switch up this team’s playstyle, and there’s not much that can stop them if they get set up.

With that being said, I’ll explain the Gholdengo mode and the Palafin mode separately. In most matchups, I’m bringing one of the two aforementioned Pokémon, Pelipper, and Archaludon, and either Incineroar or Amoonguss depending on the matchup. I tend to prefer Incineroar with Gholdengo and Amoonguss with Palafin, although there are cases where they get shuffled.

Gholdengo needs to get a Nasty Plot set up in order to be most effective. Typically, this means trying to get as much damage as possible with Gholdengo early, with Archaludon in back to clean up. After a lot of reflection, I really like having both Incineroar and Amoonguss there to support it, and I honestly didn’t use that combination of Pokémon enough. Pelipper’s support is never a bad thing, but I honestly thing Amoonguss would be more consistent. Pelipper is so common in the meta that there will be Rain on the field more often than not, allowing Archaludon to reach its full potential. However, Harsh Sun shows up in weird places, and so Pelipper has been what I have tended to lean towards.

For the Palafin mode, you almost always need to lead it in order to get it effectively switched out. While it is extremely predictable that you will be switching out, it should be noted that Palafin has great defensive synergy with both Amoonguss and Archaludon. This allows me to switch it out relatively safely, then deal some damage with Archaludon and Pelipper. Having set up the rain, it gets very easy to clean up with Palafin in the late game in a lot of different situations, especially if the support Pokémon is alive still.

Another bit of tech that I use a lot has to do with getting Archaludon set up. As mentioned, it is a great defensive switch in in a lot of different scenarios. In poor matchups, I will switch the offensive Pokémon out for Archaludon and make a defensive move with the support Pokémon. From here, I can use Electro Shot and switch the support Pokémon out for Pelipper, thus being able to immediately fire off the move. This gets even better with Incineroar. Incineroar is faster than Archaludon, meaning that if it isn’t being threatened to be KO’d, Incineroar can Parting Shot out into Pelipper, effectively achieving the same thing while also getting a stat drop on the target. This also allows you to beat anyone who switched in their weather setter at the start of the turn, winning the weather war. However, this gets shut down pretty quickly if they predict you and Protect against Parting Shot.

As a final note, let’s talk about the defensive core I mentioned previously. Fire – Water – Grass is pretty universally consistent, but it goes even further with this team. The best part of this defensive core is that if one of the trio is in a bad spot, you have the ability to consistently have a Pokémon that you can switch in to take a resisted hit that would have dealt significant damage otherwise. This trio excels because all three Pokémon benefit from switching out, and actually have their play style revolving around it. Palafin needs to be switched out to transform into Hero form. Amoonguss gets some passive healing when it switches out, then in thanks to its Regenerator Ability. Finally, Intimidate is one of the best Abilities when it comes to switching in and out. As mentioned, this was already effective with Arcanine, but has gotten even better with Incineroar. Fake Out is reset every time it switches in on top of the Intimidate benefit, and it can even effectively switch itself out with Parting Shot.

While it wasn’t a 100% intentional decision, this team is able to safely and consistently switch to gain better field position. In addition to the defensive core, it is never a bad thing to switch Pelipper in, both for Rain and the guaranteed survival from Focus Sash. Archaludon can shrug off most hits, even getting stronger for it, so long as you can predict what’s coming. Finally, Gholdengo is immune to 3 types, meaning that it can often get switched in for free!

Having been given a chance to reflect, I realize that I haven’t been using the team as effectively as I could have been. Despite having just written a hefty paragraph about the strength of my defensive core, I almost never use it, at least not in its more effective form. I find myself relying on Archaludon and Pelipper to carry a lot of battles, and while often times they can, there are more situations in which they can’t than I’m willing to admit to myself. I also think bringing Gholdengo in the back occasionally could be more useful. Because its so popular, lots of Trainers have tools to immediately counter it. If I can remove some of these threats early, then Gholdengo can sweep later, and even if it can’t, it’s better than being forced to switch out early.

A lot of this probably means nothing to a lot of you, so I’m going to wrap it up here. Needless to say, there’s still a lot to learn about the team, the format, and VGC as a whole!

Conclusion

If you’ve stuck with me, thank you again! I don’t know how these articles manage to get longer and longer each time, but at this point it’s as if its out of my control. Regardless, I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about this new format! It’s surprisingly complex and extremely exciting for that reason! I’m looking forward to seeing what unique strategies are developed as we start seeing tournaments played in this format! However, I’ve definitely rambled enough for one article, so I’m gonna close out here. Best of luck on the battlefield, Trainers!

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