VGC 23 rules were just announced with confirming that series 1 excludes the use of ruinous legendaries as well as all the paradox Pokémon which seemed to be the focus of every team when the official rules were not announced yet.
This series seems very rich so far where many new gen 9 Pokémon came to the forefront of the metagame being given a lot of tools for success in competitive play. Today’s blog is going to be about these Pokémon so let us get to discuss them first and then I will go over a team that I built what success with tons of inspirations for the new team… so if all this sounds interesting to you keep on reading!
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I will be discussing the higher tier mons here in relatively more detail than the lower tier ones. Without further ado let us get started!
Hydreigon:
Hydreigon as a Pokémon is one of the biggest threats in VGC right now. Its ability to hit a lot of Pokémon like Indeedee, Armarouge, Skeledirge, Garchomp, Gholdengo, Dragapult, Ceruledge, Farigaraf and others by just its STAB boosted attacks alone. If you are to factor in the terastal types; tera steel and tera fire hydreigon are extremely popular. These terastal types are able to mitigate its fairy and dragon weaknesses all the while providing it ground type immunity due to the levitate ability. These types are able to provide it further stab options allowing to hit more Pokémon within the game with greater damage.
Annihilape:
Another one of the biggest threats in this game is the newly introduced evolution of Primeape; Annihilape. What’s great about this Pokémon is its amazing diversity within this game. It can run fast and offensive set with choice scarf and take out a big threat in the game with its final gambit given its base 110 hp stat.
Moreover this Pokémon can run extremely threatening bulk up sets in combination with drain punch for longevity and its newly introduced signature move rage fist; which increasing in base 50 power each time this Pokémon gets hit. It is the premier threat to pack counters for in the teambuilding. Often paired with Maushold with beat up it can start picking up KO’s right off the bat.
Garchomp:
A great pseudo legendary Pokémon has gotten a further been boosted by terastaizing. Its best tera type by far is tera ground which boosts its ground type attacks further. The most popular way to run Garchomp right now is paired with a ground immune tailwind setter (Murkrow, Kilowatrel, Hydreigon) and set up to sweep.
Maushold:
By far my single favorite design this generation is of Maushold. What’s even better is its amazing competitive viability in this game. By far the ideal way to run this Pokémon is give it a wide lens item paired with tera normal typing and population bomb which has a 99% chance to hit ten times further boosted by technician to have an almost 300 BP. It will also run amazing support move options such as follow me and encore or even super fang for utility.
Most Maushold do run technician but the friend guard variants are also not too uncommon; they allow for a bigger support role for these partners. I would like to make a note here that many strategies such as frost breath + anger point (froslass + tauros) combination are beaten by click of a follow me greatly increasing its utility in the game.
Meowskarada:
Definitely the most competitively viable starter this generation. The ability protean greatly complements its offensive coverage and sometimes assisting in defensive maneuvering. Its signature move is of particular interest combined with its great speed and attack state; a base 70 power move in flower trick that always critically hits when backed by a grass type terastal can deal insane amounts of damage to Pokémon that would even resist it otherwise. The ability to have strong stab dark coverage and priority in sucker punch and other coverage moves including play rough and u turn make Meowskarada another premier threat to watch out for.
There are those Meowskarada that might run moves such as trick room or other disruptive choices to surprise opponents but by far its most viable options are choice band or focus sash offensive sets.
Gholdengo:
As tough as it may seem to get this Pokémon in game gives an equally rewarding result as it is quickly becoming a big vgc threat. Running items such as choice specs or choice scarf or even air balloon always with its signature move make it rain ( a base 130 power 100% accurate steel type move that drops 1 stage spa on each use) makes it a big threat in the format. Its best terastal type has to be steel but a case for defensive tera types; particularly flying can also be made.
Paired with moves for coverage on choiced sets like thunderbolt, shadow ball, dazzling gleam, focus blast or more or having a nasty setup with the move nasty plot can make this Pokémon steamroll entire games if left unchecked. Its secondary ghost typing also means it can’t be stopped by fake out or the menace that is Maushold.
Initially thought as something that would just be a gimmicky mon to run has quickly been recognized as one of the biggest threats to look out for in this format.
Tatsugiri’s ability commander allows it to jump into the mouth of dondozo allowing a +2 boost to all of its stats. Dondozo is a Pokémon that doesn’t have a terrible movepool either and can, in many cases fair well in a 2v1 against its opponents. Most of the Dondozo in this current format are physical attackers with the ability oblivious making it immune to intimidate attack drops with moves like wave crash, earth quake, order up or liquidation. Movesets that are semi defensive with substitute + leftovers are also in use. Moreover passive sets like rest-talk Dondozo is also a good option to run. Another surprising yet viable way to use dondozo is with a specially based moveset ran with the ability unaware which ignores its opponents (particularly ran for stall Pokémon or opposing Dondozo) stat boosts all the while providing great coverage options with moves like surf and tera blast.
Speaking of tera blast: dondozo can run a variety of tera types with great success as well: it can have tera electric or tera grass on its special movesets and on the physical sets will run tera dragon, tera water, tera fairy or tera ground to further give it the ability to provide utility in both staying power and offenses.
An initial gimmicky way to run Tatsugiri on Dondozo teams was to give it a toxic orb + endure set and use your Annihilape to final gambit into this slot so you can faint it immediately in the following turn that Dondozo gets the boost; allowing a partner Flamigo to take the second slot with a +2 stat boosts given its hidden ability in costar. While certainly viable; Tatsurgiri and do more than that. With a not so bad of a speed stat and a base 120 special attack stat it can fire of powerful moves like draco meteor, muddy water or hydro pumps, especially when paired with stat boosted items such as choice specs, choice scarf or even a tera type to further power up its STAB attacks. Running it outside of the toxic orb sets; it can provide a great mon for some late game sweep ups.
Another note on tatsugiri: since the color depends what kind of stat boost it will get, most physically offensive dondozo go for red one which raises attack stat.
Torkoal:
This Pokémon has been the definition of a glow up throughout the generations. Now getting its sun powered eruptions further boosted by a terastal fire typing, being the slowest Pokémon in trick room and having the ability to fire off that attack twice in tandem with an Oranguru; Torkoal is the Pokémon to put on your team when designing it around trick room. It is simple and it does tons of damage given a simple but correct setup.
Armarouge:
This Pokémon has a slot of tools going for it which makes it one of the best Pokémons in this format right now. Being immune to strong eruptions or other tera fire types’ moves with its ability flash fire all the while having the ability to counter water and ground types by becoming a terastal grass type makes it quite amazing.
It can also be paired with an indeedee and a tera psychic type to launch super powered expanding forces into its opponents
Amoonguss:
Amoonguss didn’t gain many new tools but it didn’t lose any either. It is one of the best returning Pokémon with the added ability to terastalize defensively mostly into a water type. It is simple and a great counter to trick room and can spread sleep around accurately with spore. The power of redirection support has been discussed with Maushold already and Amoonguss enjoys this privilege equally if not more.
In the current state of the format where there isn’t a Pokémon to outright set up electric terrain or misty terrain to block the sleep status; Amoonguss feels like it is in good hands.
Grimmsnarl:
This Pokémon got a new tool in the move parting shot further adding to its great supportive movepool. With terastalizing mixing up the things I wouldn’t be surprised to see some niche offensive grimmsnarls either. A Pokémon that stood its ground last generation with the biggest power creeps is surely going to do well to support its allies.
Murkrow:
Murkrow is checking all the boxes for the metagame as an ideal support Pokémon right now. It gets priority tailwind, is a dark type which means it is immune to strong expanding forces, is immune to prankster based taunts as well as strong earthquakes going around the metagame. Furthermore it gets access to haze which slows down the attack drops on Garchomp and removes the make it rain drops from partnering Gholdengos. Getting access to foul play also ensures opposing Garchomp, Dondozo and Cerulege are not setting up to sweep.
Kingambit:
Another new Pokémon with tons off tools. It brings back everything that Bisharp did but better. It will most likely defensively terrastalize into a water or a flying type with moves like sucker punch, kowtow cleave and iron head with protect. Defiant makes sure that it counters any intimidate Pokémon that are going to threaten its physical damage output. It is a Pokémon that can wall Hydreigon and Gholdengo very well further adding to the reason to be using it on your teams.
Tyranitar:
Sand is going to provide great disruption for all the other weather types running around right now. Tyranitar’s potential can be further powered up by terastalizing and can provide excellent utility on a wide range of teams.
Dragonite:
The main usage of Dragonite comes from its ability to fire off choice band + normal terastal boosted extreme speeds into its opponents. One thing that can limit firing off these attacks is Indeedee. Dragonite feels very strong and at the current state of the metagame a bit unexplored so its usage may rise even more once more ways to use it get discovered.
Skeledirge:
Another great fire type Pokémon is Skeledirge. Its main selling point comes from its signature move torch song paired up with the throat spray item which gives it a +2 special attack in a single turn all the while dealing good damage. Support moves like yawn with coverage of something standard like shadow ball can be a great set on this Pokémon.
Arcanine:
Everyone expected arcanine to become of the most used Pokémon this generation but due to the newly introduced item of clear amulet its use is somewhat limited now. It fits really well into a variety of teams but challenges of clear amulet (garchomp, ceruledge), oblivious (dondozo), inner flinch (dragonite), competitive (kilowattrell) and defiant (kingambit and Annihilape) are quite effective ways to deal with what once was a menacing threat of VGC.
Kilowattrel:
Although not as popular as Murkrow as a Tailwind setter it can provide a great ‘disquake’ combination when paired up with Garchomp. It getting the competitive boost from moves like icy wind, snarls or intimidates further powers up its attacks although people are in favor of running wind power to boost its electric attacks further. It is naturally the fastest Pokémon in this format being able to outspeed the likes of Maushold and Meowskarada which are the top threats of this format.
Sylveon:
Sylveon was already a great Pokémon throughout the formats but terastalizing gives it a new boost. Mostly boasting the throat spray item with hyper voice, protect, yawn/quick attack with the tera blast of tera fire greatly helps it cover for its steel type weaknesses. It can stick do a great chunk of damage into tera types like steel Hydreigon.
Garganacl:
In this format iron defense + body press has some good potential as a combination. Further being boosted by its ability to run wide guard for the many spread attacks in this meta and salt cure to deal great passive damage makes it one of the best Pokémon for providing such utility. It also has an amazing ability in purifying salt making it immune to ghost attacks and providing status immunity which becomes even more useful when defensive tera types are factored in.
Orthworm:
Getting the new ability earth eater with the new move shed tail, also carrying the ability to iron defense and body press makes it second to Garganacl in this type of defensive utility of the format. It pairs particularly well with mons like garchomp or other earthquake users of the format.
Hariyama:
It is another top tier attacking Pokémon under trick room. It also gets the fake out and wide guard utility to defensively help out its team.
Talonflame:
Somewhat on par with Kilowattrel for setting up tailwind this Pokémon also provides very high offense priority brave birds at full hp.
Weather Shenanigans:
I will try to sum up the weather based mons of this format altogether:
A lot of people are testing out the newly reworked ‘snow’ weather with Abomasnow or chilly reception Slowking as the setter with Cetitan’s slush rush of Rotom frost in the back. Abomasnow usually keeps tera water to turn its 4x resistance into a resistance, cetitian can also carry tera water or tera ground.
Lillikoal combination can be quite killer in this metagame. The addition of Lilligant into the mix of a slow torkoal team provides a fast disruption; the combination of after you + eruptions is also a great option to keep by your side.
Pelliper is usually being used with Pokémon like Palafin to further boost up its wave crashes or its jet punches, Pelliper also having the ability to learn wide guard and tailwind makes it highly useful in this format.
A few people are trying out Lycanroc or Houndstone in combination with Tyranitar to pick up quick KO’s whereas Lycanroc applies direct pressure, Houndstone with ‘last respects’ needs to be position into the late game to provide higher damage outputs.
A relatively fast spore user with access to good STAB attacks makes Breloom a viable Pokémon to use in this format so better pack your counters for it!
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Froslass/Cryogonal + Tauros:
This strategy revolves around crocking your own anger point with frost breath of a partner Pokémon. Follow me or rage powder is a surefire way to make sure that this team lead doesn’t get this strategy off. The variety in tauros forms between the fire or water sub type can make this combination challenging to go against so watch out for both!
Coalossal:
A rather gimmicky Pokémon at this time further benefits from terastalizing. It can change into many different types allowing a partner Pokémon to do a small chip to its hp in exchange of a steam engine and weakness policy activation setting it up to sweep.
Glimmora, Arboliva,
Toadscreul, Pawmot:I am summing up these Pokémon at this point because I feel like they belong in the same sort of category. These have tools to make them have viability but I feel like there is more proof needed to ensure if they are really good or bad in this format.
Glimmora is a great special attacker almost consider it as a slower Nihilego with an ability that really doesn’t translate well into its own offensive nature or the VGC format’s faster pace.
Arboliva has a really nice base 125 special attack getting stab on both normal and grass type attacks + great coverage in dazzling gleam, earth power, weather ball and terrain pulse. It also gets the unique ability seed sower which is almost a watered down version of grassy terrain but can help overwrite the prevalence of psychic terrain in the current format. It also gets a variety of support moves like encore, strength sap and pollen puff which can make it the correct niche on the correct team.
Toadscreul has rage powder, trick room and spore but its ability mycelium might slows it down significantly. It gets good coverage in grass and ground stab but still needs to be explored more.
Pawmot gets the theoretically overpowered move in revival blessing but at the current state of the format feels unexplored. Time will tell if it integrates itself into the metagame or rolls out of it.
 Garchomp @ Clear Amulet Ability: Rough Skin Level: 50 Tera Type: Ground EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Earthquake - Swords Dance - Protect - Brick Break |
 Kilowattrel @ Focus Sash Ability: Competitive Level: 50 EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Electro Ball - Tailwind - Discharge - Air Slash |
 Hydreigon @ Expert Belt Ability: Levitate Level: 50 Tera Type: Fire EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Dark Pulse - Draco Meteor - Flamethrower - Protect |
 Armarouge @ Life Orb Ability: Flash Fire Level: 50 Tera Type: Grass EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Armor Cannon - Expanding Force - Tera Blast - Wide Guard |
 Gholdengo @ Air Balloon Ability: Good as Gold Level: 50 EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Make It Rain - Shadow Ball - Nasty Plot - Protect |
 Indeedee-F @ Psychic Seed Ability: Psychic Surge Level: 50 Tera Type: Grass EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Follow Me - Helping Hand - Trick Room - Imprison |
This team started out with the experience of me being swept by playing poorly against a Garchomp and Murkrow lead; then I added on a Gholdengo and Arcanine and synergistically it made the most sense to me. having no deeper knowledge of the format I rounded the team off with meowskarada and palafin.
The next iteration of the team came with adding a Hydreigon which sits really well on the team and covers weaknesses with a tera steel typing + Maushold because I genuinely love the Pokémon and wanted to try out this family of menace.
Giving more thought to this team I added on the combination of Indeedee + Armarouge to cover my much felt trick room and Amoonguss weakness, afterwards I changed murkrow to Kilowattrel feeling that the former was feeling like dead weight at times and team could benefit from slowing down a bit. I made the changes of swapping out life orb from Garchomp into a clear amulet, Gholdengo’s item was changed to air balloon from choice specs, Hydreigon after much testing became a tera fire type, whereas Armarouge changed to adapt to counter Dondozo and water types with a tera grass type.
For the final team:
Garchomp:
I love the simplicity and effectiveness of this Pokémon, although troubled by wide guard at times this Pokémon can carry games on its back when set up under the right conditions. Earthquake boosted by swords dance and a ground tera type does big damage to anything that doesn’t get an immunity to it. I packed brick break as a tech against steel type Hydreigons as well as Grimmsnarls setting up screens. Clear amulet helps it be protected against any icy wind speed drops or intimidate attack drops which can end up being a huge detriment.
Kilowattrel:
This Pokémon is the partner in crime of Garchomp. Naturally outspeeding Meowskarada allows it to land super effective air slashes on it. Moreover special flying type coverage makes sure matchups like bulk up Ceruledge and Annihilape are well covered. I chose competitive in the end to offset people using snarl Hydreigon and the ones who took their chances with Arcanine into the Garchomp + Kilowattrel lead.
Gholdengo:
I changed Gholdengo to an air balloon variant to help it sweep alongside Garchomp with tailwind being set up. In many games I won because y opponents wanted to be safe and scout with protects only to be punished by me setting up a nasty plot and sweeping their teams.
Hydreigon:
Truly one of the best Pokémon in this format right now, I felt like it covers so many Pokémon in this format extremely well. On this team it provides a great dark and ghost resistance for the 3 Pokémon weak to them. Moreover it covers for water types defensively for Armarouge and a tera ground Garchomp. Throughout majority of the team’s testing I ran a tera steel Hydreigon but I felt like Sylveon with tera fire was a big threat against it, it covered for that in addition to providing strong stab fire attacks where Armarouge couldn’t be brought. Having tera fire type also allows to have the upper hand against tera steel Hydreigons.
Indeedee + Armarouge:
This duo patched up a lot of the team’s weaknesses for me. Although I still feel like this is not the ideal placement for it. Indeedee female getting access to the combination of trick room + imprison is a surefire way to get rid of a trick room setup from your opponents. On the side Armarouge is covered well and can fire off very strong attacks into its opponents particularly when they lack resistances to expanding force.
Armarouge is a great Pokémon having very direct answers into Amoonguss and Torkoal, any steel types of this format as well as the far and few fighting types. I kept life orb on this Pokémon to maximize my damage output which yielded great results.
I could improve on the team by:
I could only get it as high as mid 1400s on showdown which is telling that the team could use a rework or more optimization including me playing it much better on the ladder. Following are the weaknesses I observed here:
1. Maushold was a Pokémon I needed to maneuver carefully around. Many times I found having to switch in Gholdengo or Garchomp to position against it which could have cost me to lose some momentum throughout the game. A solution that is in my mind right now has to be keeping a tera ghost type on my Indeedee to bait Population Bomb into an immunity.
2. I felt like playing poorly with the tera type costs me many games, many a times I will feel like ‘if I had preserved it for now’ the outcome could have been better.
3. Letting my opponents set up was a big mistake almost all of the times. I need to balance the decision making to ensure better plays and avoid granting my opponents a setup sweep.
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