★ VGC 2024 Regulation F Metagame Discussion

[PenguGuy1]

To the surprise of no one, is currently ranked #2 in terms of usage, with 48% of teams using it in bo1 and 58% in bo3. is keeping it's #1 performance, but what I find interesting is that has apparently fallen off in terms of usage, and by a lot. At one point in time the second most used Pokemon, with about 30% usage just a few months ago, now has >10% usage. In it's place is of course Incineroar but also and

Another Pokemon itching into the top of usage is Lando-I. I think now that this Pokemon has been found, it will stick. It does good into Incin, Bolt and Rilla, while it's Tera Poison helps into Fairy types like Flutter and Water types like Ogerpon. Lando-T has been seen to get the short end of the stick. Special moves help more because, well, Incin exists. But just wanted to chime in there.

 

[flutterfan]

As Charlotte Regionals is starting tomorrow, I’m gonna go over some meta adaptations and things I’ve noticed since Portland Regionals 2 weeks ago.

First off, I wanna talk about some Pokemon that are beginning to pick up in usage.

SS is a Pokémon that has insane damage potential. Wicked Blow can get up to insane base power with some multipliers that are very easy to implement on your Urshifu. These multipliers include STAB, Tera, and Helping Hand. While most Urshifu Dark tend to prefer the Focus Sash to eat a hit from an opposing . Other items such as the Choice Band and Dread Plate/Black Glasses have certainly seen success.
Next up, we have . I’ll highlight this one a little more later so I won’t spend too much time on it. But TLDR: Glimmora got access to Meteor Beam. Meteor Beam boosts your Sp. Atk. You can skip the charge turn with Power Herb. Glimmora can blow up your team now. You shake hands, and then you blow up another opponent with your own Glimmora team.
Finally, and this one I’ll be mentioning a lot. is starting to become a meta staple because of priority spam existing. Keep in mind that the team that won Portland had 4 mons with priority(Raging Bolt, Chien-Pao, Entei, and Dragonite) As a result of this happening, people are beginning to use Farigiraf to counter this. And by using it, I mean using it A LOT. It has been making Top 12 usage at many Limitless tours that have happened since Portland. And there’s no sign of it slowing down.

A Team Comp that is Picking Up:

I specifically wanted to talk about this team composition because I’ve seen it a TON from the NPA specifically. Remember how I said that I’d come back to Glimmora later? Well, here’s the time. Glimmora is currently being used on a team that many top players in the NPA are using. This Glimmora team centers around Tailwind and just doing massive damage with Tailwind sweepers. The Pokémon that are on this team are , , SS, , , and

With so many players in the NPA using this team composition, I expect it to see some play at Charlotte as well.

Top 12 usage prediction:

1.Flutter Mane - Deals too much damage. You have speed control. It’s extremely bulky on the special side. Loses to Urshifu RS, but also beats it. Will probably never leave #1 for the rest of Reg F unless Incineroar starts picking up.
2.Chien-Pao - This thing can run away with the game if you aren’t prepared for it. You could say that deserves to be in this spot. But Chien-Pao is a bit better IMO.
3.Ogerpon Wellspring - An all star redirection monster that can also deal ridiculous damage. Something unheard of from a redirection Pokemon this generation. It is definitely at its peak in Regulation F though.
4.Incineroar - Is there anything to say about it that hasn’t already been said?
5.Entei - Entei is a Pokemon that I think is really cool both casually and competitively. It has a great matchup into Incineroar and can easily take on the Flutter Manes that its best friend Chien Pao doesn’t like to face. It does have some issues with Water types which is why people are mainly opting for Tera Normal or Tera Grass as the Tera types for Entei.
6.Dragonite - The other good Extreme Speed user. I think Entei and Dragonite could easily swap places depending on how I’m feeling on a certain day. However, Dragonite has a more powerful Extreme Speed than Entei. And also gets access to the insanely powerful Outrage. Which can literally be used as an OHKO button in some cases.
7.Tornadus - I hate Prankster Tailwind.
8.Rillaboom - It just has never felt that great to use IMO. Sure, it has a great matchup into many things in the meta. But it also doesn’t have a great matchup into many things in the meta. It also loses to Chien-Pao + Entei.
9.Urshifu SS - It’s the superior Urshifu form in Reg F in my opinion. Just having such powerful tools makes it a very strong Pokémon on Tailwind comps specifically(Just like Urshifu RS)
10.Raging Bolt - It’s main niche is one shotting every frail Sp. Def Pokemon in the game with a priority move. However, it can do some great damage to bulky Pokémon as well with stuff like Thunderbolt and Draco Meteor. The Calm Mind set has also been used as a way to deal incredible burst damage with Dragon Pulse.
11.Farigiraf - Deals with priority spam. Bonkers TR setter and user. Nuff said.
12.Urshifu RS - Surging Strikes will always be solid. But Raging Bolt, Rillaboom AND Flutter Mane all cause problems for it. So I can’t really justify putting it higher than 12th. Also, it hates Pokémon that carry Rocky Helmet.

There you go, these are what I expect to see at Charlotte Regionals.

 

[LovelyLuna]

Bit tired so won't say much other than usage predictions

1. Flutter Mane (50+%) - Incredibly easy to fit onto a team and lacks any form of competition, hard to justify not using UR Pokemon honestly, unlike the others which fit on certain compositions or compete with another Pokemon in a slot, Flutter Mane never makes a team worse.
2. Incineroar (40%) - Don't expect people to get off the hype train just yet, perfect defensive Pokemon and still the best in Regulation F imo, how much it can do in a single game in comparison to Flutter Mane which lasts like 3 turns is insane.
3. Chien-Pao (35%) - I don't think it's this good personally, maybe 3 spots lower, but priority spam is really popular. Chien-Pao's Ice typing and Sword of Ruin are still great qualities, and Entei/Dragonite further boost this. More than this though, I think Chien-Pao is a very strong partner for Pokemon like Urshifu-R as the damage boost and ice coverage are again, insane. Focus Sash allows it to beat pretty much every Pokemon in an end game.
4. Ogerpon-Wellspring (30%) - On a lot of strong teams right now, helps Entei Chien-Pao not auto fold to Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, Tera Water Ogerpon can 1v1 almost the entire meta.
5. Urshifu-Rapid-Strike (30%) - I find it slightly better than Ogerpon-Wellspring but less popular, Regulation D was dominated by Amoonguss, Iron Hands, Rillaboom, and Flutter Mane, not to mention Urshifu was primarily on Balance teams, and it still managed to dominate Worlds and to an extent, Pittsburgh. They added Ogerpon-Wellspring in Regulation E, as well as more niche picks like Sinistcha and Ogerpon, and Urshifu just paired with Tornadus more and dominated that Regulation too. Regulation F is the same thing, it was Top 3 in Portland Day 2 usage. Unseen Fist Surging Strikes is an insane combination that keeps many Pokemon in check and allows for Urshifu to stay very relevant regardless of what check they add.
6. Rillaboom (25%) - Monke is hard to see any lower, good synergy with the 5 Pokemon above it and a Positive matchup into 3 of them. Wood Hammer and Grassy Glide are incredible tools that make it a very threatening nuke, while also functioning as a Fake Out pivot to bring in frailer teammates like Chien-Pao.
7. Tornadus (25%) - Everyone's least favourite Tailwind setter! Will always be a great archetype and Tornadus leads it, being a superior Whimsicott a lot of the time. Good partner for Urshifu checking the Grass types while Urshifu gets a Tailwind boost to remove Chien-Pao and Glimmora, we've been through this duo enough in Regulation E to know not to underestimate it
8. Entei (20%) - Popular with Chien Pao right now, though I think most will be focusing on countering it rather than using it. Think Dragonite just fell off in comparison though. Priority spam is hard to use with priority block being relevant, and the limitless options from Terastallization. Flutter Mane and Urshifu-R being great shut downs to the duos can be unfun.
9. Raging Bolt (20%) - Good into Tornadus Urshifu and a fantastic wincon with Calm Mind, great signature move and synergises with a lot of the top Pokemon. Not much to say other than that, still faces some issues due to how common Flutter Mane and Chien-Pao are.
10. Urshifu (20%) - Rising on a lot of compositions as an anti meta threat, Dark is a super strong neutral typing and it makes it a great Pokemon for people not using Urshifu-R, and Ogerpon-W instead.
11. Amoonguss (15%) - Still a very strong and slept on (haha) Pokemon. Spore is broken and it goes to show it through an insane conversion rate in the VR Winter Challenge (18% -> 38% from Day 1 to Day 2, which was more than Chien-Pao and as much as the top Water types). Best on Balance and Rain compositions and lets you use a supportive Grass type without dropping Urshifu-R. Some may think the Amoonguss hate is too much but there's always been strong precautions against it, even back in Regulation D where it was most dominant.
12. Landorus (15%) - Not sure why everyone is underestimating it now, meta has hardly changed and Earth Power Sludge Bomb is a combination that hits a large portion of the meta. Works great with Tornadus Urshifu as a consistent Raging Bolt check, and helps many physical attackers by pressuring Incineroar.

 

[Choruto]

Hey

Ok so I had this whole post planned out talking about a core I've been using since Reg E and that I thought was very busted, but took a break to focus on school. Come now Im revisiting the post and a variation of the core has blown up and just won the vr winter challenge, and I feel like if I finished that post Im just saying a worse version of a team everyone else knows, so Im just gonna talk about some other neat stuff instead.
(The core was and Dark . The popular team rn runs this without Torn and with BM instead. Im still very much adamant that BM is pretty mid and literally any special attack works in that slot, I mean I used Sylveon ffs and still got top 50 bo3 ladder).

Not gonna touch on Glim that much as I already did that full essay, but I think its even better now than before. Many popular comps like priority spam or Dondozo don't have many ways to deal with Glim before it wipes their team, especially with Torn handling speed control and hitting / for super effective. For example into Dondozo, Glimmora literally hits every mon (Besides Dozogiri) for super effective ( & with Meteor Beam, with Sludge Bomb and with Earth Power), resist extreme speed and with tw support outspeed their entire team. I really like Glim if you couldent tell by now :>

Dark Fu is another mon thats picking up steam, which im surprised took so long. While Flutter and other Water Fu are annoying, I've found that with experience you can pivot pretty easily around them and the sheer power of Wicked Blow totally makes up for it. Dark is a great offensive type as few mons can comfortably switch into it, especially with Band (My item of choice). Pao takes over 50% and loses the Sash , Wicked Blow ignores Incin's intimidate/parting shot and Shifu 4x resists Gambits Dark type attacks, just as a few examples.
With Sash you can mostly offset the weaknesses of Dark/Fighting, and are able to run tera Dark/Stellar for more damage. Living one hit also makes it way harder to deal with. While I personally dont use Sash I see the appeal and its very annoying to kill
Band is my item of choice, the extra damage allows for so many more kills such as a clean OHKO on non invested Lando . You can also use its surprisingly decent bulk and run a more defensive tera in Poison to stick around on the field for a long time. I'd be surprised if Urshifu-S doesen't see more usage in the upcoming regionals.

While I havent used Lando-T as much, im still experimenting with a / set, this thing feels actually really strong. Flying/Ground is great coverage, and you can never go wrong with intimidate. Lando-T was doing crazy damage and with good speed control It will do good. In my test games, Incin wasent actually really a problem, the problem was my lack of health. Im finding myself running out of health too fast as im locked into a defensive tera, and Lando was being focused down way too quickly. Im sure a better player can take advantage of it better, but rn I gotta iron out the kinks in how to play Lando properly.

I'll cap off my post with a mon that I predict will do really well in the coming weeks. Gouging Fire . At the start of the format, I believed that a rocky helmet supportive set could be good, but a speed booster variant with Howl/Burning Bulwark/Breaking Swipe/Heat Crash. Gouging has really respectable bulk, and with Breaking Swipe/Burn cast last a long time against physical attackers, and pairs well with AV users. With heat crash, gouging has a 120 bp STAB fire move against nearly every relevant mon, and just in general Fire/Dragon is a super nice typing. Playing with against it, I feel like it has tons of unexplored potential, and im not sure how much im allowed to reveal but Im friends with some of the people who made the FigHandsFish Reg D team, I'll just say theres some stuff cooking with Gouging Fire

Anyways thats the end of my thoughts on a few mons, got some other opinions but this is all for now. Till next time, see ya.

 

[PenguGuy1]

I think that Kingambit+Gouging Fire is a amazing offensive core. We see this with Luka Trejut, running Kingambit+Support Gouging Fire. Chien-Pao, Urshifu, Ogerpon and Rillaboom are all good here on this team. I think that Howl+Defiant is insane. But incin usage on day 2 was less than Amoonguss and urshifu-ss? Urshifu is really good into Flutter, incin, pao and torn. Also amazing into the meta-countering Farig, blocking the early priority spam meta.

 

[Vinc2612]

I watched Day 1 of Charlotte and what I've picked up on most importantly is Amoongus is FINISHED. Unless there is a Trick Room adaptation that features one of the bears, there is no future team in my eyes that can have Amoongus like in Worlds 2023, for example.
I see potential in Farigiraf in becoming stronger with Stellar hence why we're probably seeing a rise in Single Strike Urshifu to cover a "non tera" Farigiraf mode but more is to be discussed on that part of the meta later.

Normal Entei, FINISHED. imo
and Chien Pao could probably drop Sucker Punch against potential weather matches!

Your Amoonguss analysis is flawed by the last streamed battle, where Amoonguss player felt hopeless on a combination of bad matchup and a couple of poor decisions.

Day 1 Charlotte is actually vouching for Amoonguss, being in 18 % of day 1 teams and almost 35 % of day 2 teams.

Entei fell off. The influx of Water-Ogerpon was too much for our favourite Lion.

Speaking of Wellspring, a couple of weeks ago, I claimed it didn't feel that good. I stand corrected. It became the number 2 threat of the format and is still picking traction.

 

[PenguGuy1]

So I've been seeing stuff about Ting-Lu being good right now, and tbh, I kinda believed it. Then, I went on ladder and it was really bad. I believe that the reason it had the 5 seconds or so of fame it had was because of the success of Farig+Blood moon at Charlotte. I haven't really seen any. You still lose to Walking Wake, lose to Rillaboom, Ogerpon, and Urshifu as well. I just feel there are way better ground types. I'm not saying the team I built was a perfect showcase, but I feel it just didn't fit into the team. I tried Oger Hearthflame, but it wad OK at best. Ting-Lu could also restrain your teambuilding options, as special attackers will get needed from his ability. I ran taunt for Amoonguss, but for some odd reason, didn't encounter a single one. Maybe it was just my luck. Idk, I'd like to see others views on the forgotten legend, Ting-Lu.

 

[flutterfan]

Ting Lu is the definition of a forgotten hero.

See, without Urshifu I think Ting Lu would have almost as high usage as it did in Reg C. It does struggle into a lot of Pokémon. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple Ting Lu popped up at Liverpool.

 

[Nexmind]

Ting Lu is the definition of a forgotten hero.

See, without Urshifu I think Ting Lu would have almost as high usage as it did in Reg C. It does struggle into a lot of Pokémon. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple Ting Lu popped up at Liverpool.

Maybe in like Regulation D if Urshifu was out of the equation. Maybe. Rilla gives it trouble too along with the two higher usage Ogerpons which can just redirect its already poor damage. Incineroar also just intimitdates it, removes its Vest/Lefties and parting shots out. It does have some merits but it's way too passive as it just kinda sits there and gives some SpA reduction to its teammates.

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

At the Liverpool regionals now, while HMS Day 2 has almost certainly sailed, this has been a very fun and diverse meta, with almost every opponent having a different team style.

Game 1: bulky balance
Game 2: Tailroom
Game 3 Psyspam
Game 4: Physical hyper offensive
Game 5: Psyspam
Game 6: offensive balance
Game 7: bulky
Game 8: more psyspam!! This one had an Amoonguss…for some reason.
Game 9: leftovers from reg e.
A set I’ve ran into that gave me pause:

Tinkaton @ Clear Amulet
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly nature
- Fake Out
- Gigaton Hammer
- Play Rough
- Encore

Guy I faced who used this wanted a way to disrupt Farigaraf and nuke Flutter Mane in one.

Haven’t ran into any Dongiri teams yet, and not nearly as many Incineroars as I was expecting.

Edit: no Dongiri. Only 1 of my opponents had Incineroar. Only 2 had Flutter Mane. 4 of them had Urshifus though (2 dark 2 water).

Edit2: Archaludon is a huge threat. If you can’t kill it quickly, it can threaten huge amounts of Pokemon - Flutter, Incin (Body Press), Kingambit Watershifu (also resist Surging Strikes).

Here’s the set I used:
Archaludon @ Assault Vest
Ability: Stamina
Tera type: Bug
- Electro shot
- Flash Cannon
- Body Press
- Draco Meteor

Electro shot to boost, Flash Cannon for a reliable STAB (OHKOes Flutter at +1), Body Press to combo with Stamina, Draco Meteor for a nuke.

Final edit: if you’re wondering I won 4 lost 5, but all but one of those losses I took a game off my opponent so I like to think I held my own. Both nervous and excited for reg g, which will likely feature the restricted Pokemon.

 

[Scribls]

Tinkaton @ Clear Amulet
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly nature
- Fake Out
- Gigaton Hammer
- Play Rough
- Encore

Been messing around with Tinkaton a bit on my own using a similar set for the same reasons described. Its...okay. I think it is a decidedly anti-meta pokemon/set and the meta is not nearly settled enough for it to be good and I don't see a dominant archetype emerging right now.

I tried running it with Urshifu-SS and Helping Hand over Play Rough but only having Gigaton as an attacking move can get really awkward (though the pitiful damage from Play Rough is also pretty awkward). Encore requires some form of speed control to be most effective, Feint can be situationally good, same with Knock Off. Basically it has been a pretty significant momentum drain in the matchups where Mold Breaker Fake Out doesn't have a lot of utility though it is nice to pin a Flutter Mane with a combination of Gigaton and Wicked Blow. It does enable TR set-ups pretty well but then is kinda just in the way.

 

[JacobMR]

We've got a double header this weekend, with Knoxville Regionals in the States and Melbourne Regionals down under, here's some predictions.

For Knoxville, this will be the eighth North America regional this season, and the third of the Regulation F ruleset. While a series of unconventional teams made up top cut in Portland, six of the top eight didn't even use Incineroar, Charlotte sang a different story. We can reasonably assume that Flutter Mane will once again be included in the majority of top teams. Even now it remains the best Pokemon in the format. Incineroar will be there, certainly, though it's unlikely any team will win because of their big cat. Both Urshifu forms have been making a name for each other recently, with Rapid constantly performing at the top and Single slowly becoming a rising threat, so players need to prepare for both. Pokemon that have been on the decline recently include Tornadus and the Treasures of Ruin, with Chien-Pao, Chi-Yu, Ting-Lu, and everyones favorite tailwind setter being scarce both in recent online play and in the previous tournament. Tornadus will still make an apearence, but I predict it won't do as good. This is because of how aggressive play is becoming. More and more players are relying on things like Scarf Darkfu, Firepon, and Rillaboom to deal massive damage early, and taking passive turns to set up tailwind is becoming risky. A big sleeper pair of Pokemon that fully well could do well is Indeedee and Iron Crown, basically the Indeedee-Armarouge pair from Regulation A but better because Iron Crown can utilize Booster Energy. This pair was seen in top eight of Charlotte and has been used frequently on online play. It's really only counter is Dark Types, which are common right now only because of Incineroar, but even then Iron Crown has coverage. Other sleeper strats that can really be used to good effect are rain teams featuring Archuladon/Power Herb Archuladon, which both accomplish an Electro Shot +1 sp atk and huge damage in the same turn. Similarly, power herb Glimmora is on the rise. Landorous-Incarnate is a powerful counter to both of these, so if they rise up then likely so will the Sandsear Storms. At one point in time I said that there are ten Pokemon that made up every team. Nowadays, and what I expect from Knoxville, it feels more like there's four Pokemon (Flutter Mane, Incineroar, Urshifu, Rillaboom) That you need to have all four and you can run just about anything for the last two slots, more then often two Pokemon that work well together.

For Melbourne, I have a lot less to say. I am American, so I pay a lot more attention to the North American events. With that, we can assume very similar results from Oceana. This will be the land down under's first Regulation F tournament, so we can't assume anything region-based. Incineroar, Flutter Mane, and Rillaboom will conqure the top teams almost certainly, with both forms of Urshifu being popular. Based off recent smaller events as well as events around and out of Oceana, we can assume Water- and Firepon will be popular, and as said above, Tornadus and the Treasures of Ruin have fallen off and won't be seen as often. They are still threats, but not nearly as essential to use anymore. I have seen a lot of Indeedee-Armarouge's in Oceana events, so maybe the above mentioned Indeedee-Iron Crown will be seen with success.

Finally, top teams in both events will likely consist of Incineroar, Flutter Mane, Waterfu/Darkfu, Rillaboom, Firepon/Waterpon, and Raging Bolt, with other likely candidates for top teams including Tornadus, Gouging Fire, Indeedee, Iron Crown, Arculadon, and Glimmora.

Thanks for reading, have a good day.

 

[fyfyy]

Fyfyy's Knoxville Predictions -

1. Flutter Mane undisputed, Ogerpon-Wellspring remains second and it hurts me saying this but Incin might be 3rd/4th used mon in this regional.
2. Ogerpon Hearthflame is gonna be big in this regional, not just wolfe's team but people will try to experiment with fake out pressure and SD.
3. Double Fake out is gonna be big in this regional, Rilla is gonna make one of its biggest comeback seeing a dip in usage in the last two regionals.
4. Farigiraf stays in the top 12 usage and we might see the resurgence of Bloodmoon.
5. Gouging Fire, DozoGiri are gonna be a few team comps that do well in this regional, people aren't prepping that much for Dozo and it might have a shot in its cyclic trend for this regional.
6. Funny enough Iron Jugulis looks enticing for this regional and can do well in a few team comps.
7. We might see appearances of Okidogi as well, it seems well poised in the metagame with its AV set atm.
8. Lando-I will be a premier ground type going into this, a lot of tailwind as well as balance teams are using it more and more and we might see it getting a big result this time.
9. I am positive about Iron Hands as we progress in the format.

 

[Jesuuuus]

My weekend predictions for knoxville and melborne:
- Rilla incin double fake out teams become more popular, especially alongside setup mons like swords dance ogerpon and calm mind raging bolt
- torn glimmora continues to perform well
- p2 ting lu teams appear lots, but fail to perform well
- ogerpon cornerstone makes a top cut
- iron jugulis performs well
- amoonguss wins a regional
- psyspam remains to be good, though people prefer hatterene to iron crown

 

[flutterfan]

My predictions for Knoxville and Melbourne:

-Flutter stays as the #1 mon. With Ogerpon Wellspring in 2nd and Incin or Darkshifu in 3rd.
-Trick Room will be quite prominent, specifically Farigiraf + Bloodmoon and Indeedee + Hatterene.
-Balance teams will become more present, specifically the core of Incin/Flutter/Amoong/and Ting Lu
-Indeedee + Iron Crown will fall in usage.
-Jugulis will pick up in usage as another way to deal with Special Attackers. However, it can hog Tera in the face of Flutter.
-Rilla will become a top usage mon again
-PrioSpam will continue falling in usage, specifically the core of Pao/Bolt/Entei/and Dnite

 

[JacobMR]

BREAKING NEWS!!! THE KING HAS FALLEN!!!!
At press time, 15:00 CST, we have received word from the Pokemon livestream of Knoxville Regionals that on Day 2 of the event, Ogerpon-Wellspring as surpassed Flutter Mane and become the number one most used Pokemon!

 

[JacobMR]

I think we need to take some notes from Toler Webb's performance in Knoxville. His two Incineroar strategy is very impressive.

And the throat spray Gholdengo too. Really inventive strategy, didn't even know that Make It Rain was a sound move.

 

[JacobMR]

In all seriousness, Toler Webb has won the 2024 Knoxville Regionals with an impressive team utilizing Gholdengo.
The team consists of Gholdengo, Tornadus, Darkfu, lncineroar, Waterpon, and Raging Bolt. Incineroar is, well, Incineroar. Waterpon has risen a lot in performance recently, surpassing Flutter Mane in Day Two usage. Notably, this team doesn't have Flutter Mane. Is this the end of Flutter Mane's dominance? No, but one can dream. Tornaduse does it's job and Darkfu is a rising threat in it's own right, but the oddball is Gholdengo, a Pokemon that you never want to underestimate but certainly hasn't seen much use since Pokemon Home, having a negative matchup into major players Firepon, Darkfu, Flutter Mane, and Incineroar, plus a not good matchup into Waterpon and Waterfu. Seeing it win, and with an abnormal Metal Coat set is refreshing, considering how repetitive Regulation F teams can be. This marks the second Reg F tournament to be won by an Pokemon that could be considered out of left field for the format, with the previous one being Wolfe Glick's Farigiraf. Looking at the top eight players of the tournament, Fire may just be the new top type, as every team had a Fire type Pokemon, the Fire 'mons in question being four Incineroars, two Chi-Yu's, a Gorging Fire and a Hisuian Arcanine. Urshifu was found on five top teams, four of them being Darkfu. The premier physical water type attacker has shifted from Waterfu to Waterpon, apearing on six of the top teams. Another Pokemon appearing six times is Flutter Mane. Landorus made four appearances, all in Incarnate form, marking this the first time in over a decade that Incarnate has surpassed Therian in usage. Only two Tornadus are in the top eight, reflecting how tailwind isn't as essential for winning games, though with Toler's win using Tornadus, I wouldn't be shocked to see a return from the big green man in the cloud. The most unique team goes to 7th place Averi Biery, who had Kommo-o, Porygon-2, and Ting-Lu on their team. Other one-off Pokemon are Gholdengo, obviously, but also Gorging Fire, Glimmora, Farigiraf, and Rillaboom. That's right, the monkey only appears once in the top eight, in runner up James Evan's team.

 

[TheEeveeAnimations]

bad, good :smile:

anyways,

we saw a big increase in tera fairy on everything. instead, let’s start running to redirect dark Shifu stuff

is a top tier mon. really liking the hyper voice throat spray adaptations, gholdengo is a neat adaptation in the face of that

my goat

and sticking around with support and offensive sets, curious to see how the metagame adapts to howl teams

severely underperformed. even with less water it didn’t find the space to do well. may see more of stuff to overwhelm teams with dark damage

stop using it’s not good pls stop clicking bleakwind

did really well in Melbourne so rain is back baby

 

[flutterfan]

The more I look at Flutter's stats, the more I think it's kind of past due in its usage rate. Let me rephrase what I think you read, 55 HP is a giant overexposure for teambuilding and not addressing that weakness is costly.

As for me, and looking ahead, Gholdengo is an even bigger threat. 133 Special Attack, Steel typing, Ghost typing, a 84 speed #. This thing puts Snow teams to shame.

Gholdengo is weak to a lot of meta picks. It just doesn’t take hits well despite its solid defensive stats on paper. Also, snow isn’t currently in the meta much, so you would much rather have the Urshifu forms as an answer than Gholdengo.

And while yes, Flutter does have a pretty abysmal HP stat, you can always invest into it. And while it’s slowly falling out of favor as the #1 usage Pokemon, I think it still is #1 in the meta and you probably should be more worried about its defense stat.

 

[LovelyLuna]

The more I look at Flutter's stats, the more I think it's kind of past due in its usage rate. Let me rephrase what I think you read, 55 HP is a giant overexposure for teambuilding and not addressing that weakness is costly.

As for me, and looking ahead, Gholdengo is an even bigger threat. 133 Special Attack, Steel typing, Ghost typing, a 84 speed #. This thing puts Snow teams to shame.

This post was directed at the last Regulation but should still cover the reasons Flutter Mane is arguably the best Pokemon ever since release. But in short, Flutter Mane has pretty much 0 competition, unlike Ogerpon-W where you have to consider Urshifu-R and Ogerpon-H , or Incineroar which can't fit along with Gouging Fire and Chi-Yu , Urshifu-S faces the same Urshifu-R competition but also doesn't partner well with Chien-Pao and so on.

Now you look at Flutter Mane , what actually prevents you from using it? Little to none considering Gholdengo is both worse into the metagame and partners just fine with Flutter Mane . It prevents competiion because of how good 135/135/135 Fairy-type immune to Fake Out is, 55/55 bulk sounds horrible but because of your superb typing you are realistically only taking neutral attacks like from Chien-Pao or Ogerpon , you can invest EVs to live these relatively easily while still being fast and strong.

 

[LovelyLuna]

What do you think of Flutter having to run both Dazzling Gleam and Moonblast on the same set most of the time?

It never has to, I could run Thunderbolt and Power Gem and replace one of them, I could also run one of its many supportive tools in the slot instead, we don't do that because Dazzling Gleam and Moonblast are that good. It shouldn't be looked at as a liability when it's used because its so good. Dazzling Gleam lets you do massive chip to the other side of the field, especially helpful when one has already been damaged. Moonblast is valuable because of the power to OHKO stuff like Raging Bolt , it is 1.5x as strong as Dazzling Gleam thanks to spread reduction making for a very valuable nuke button.

 

[flutterfan]

This post was directed at the last Regulation but should still cover the reasons Flutter Mane is arguably the best Pokemon ever since release. But in short, Flutter Mane has pretty much 0 competition, unlike Ogerpon-W where you have to consider Urshifu-R and Ogerpon-H , or Incineroar which can't fit along with Gouging Fire and Chi-Yu:, Urshifu-S faces the same Urshifu-R competition but also doesn't partner well with Chien-Pao and so on.

Now you look at Flutter Mane , what actually prevents you from using it? Little to none considering Gholdengo is both worse into the metagame and partners just fine with Flutter Mane . It prevents competiion because of how good 135/135/135 Fairy-type immune to Fake Out is, 55/55 bulk sounds horrible but because of your superb typing you are realistically only taking neutral attacks like from Chien-Pao or Ogerpon , you can invest EVs to live these relatively easily while still being fast and strong.

Highly agree with Leo’s points here.

 

[Jesuuuus]

I think glimmora is good, but it suits certain archetypes. It feels incredibly strong on something like tailwind offense, but a little clunky on balance teams.

 

[Jesuuuus]

Highly agree with Leo’s points here.

I was also about to write out what leo said but he said it first