Post-worlds trends

[Pyritie]

Now that worlds is over and the top cut wasn't dominated like big 6 like we had all feared, what sort of trends do you think will continue throughout the rest of the year until the format changes in january?

Besides the obvious rush of everyone copying wolfe's team I mean.

 

[fragor87]

I think we will see a drop in usage of Xerneas by top tier players and teams. I probably bring Xerneas 10-15% of my games these days. Prior to worlds I had thought about swapping Xerneas out for a different restricted Pokemon due to the sheer amount of counters/checks that every team runs but now with the success of Ray/Ogre I think we'll see much less of the fairy deer.

 

[Psynergy]

Definitely more people realizing RayOgre was always amazing and spamming Wolfe's team, though I also think as a result we'll probably see some more of Raichu and Hitmontop usage. Unless I'm mistaken we didn't see a ton of use from those two before Worlds but Hitmontop in particular had a strong showing overall. Definitely more Dialga in response to Rayogre though I can see RayOgre teams starting to run stuff that can handle Dialga as a result (CB Lando-T and stuff). At the same time I wonder how long that will last since Dialga teams usually have a not fun Xern/Groudon matchup by default (or opposing Groudon in general).

By extension I definitely think we'll keep seeing plenty of Xerneas/Groudon but possibly with more interesting developments like we saw from teams like Eduardo's Xerneas/Groudon. And in a similar vein to RayOgre I think the trend of the other Rayquaza archetypes (X-Ray, RayDon) will stick since they both had decent showings in Top Cut, X-Ray in particular is cool and abuses Rayquaza's flexibility that a lot of teams don't really take too much advantage of (stuff like Boyt's AV Ray with Icy Wind) and I think we'll continue to see it.

Oh and Dual Primal, getting 2nd at Worlds is no joke so I'm sure Dual Primal will still see plenty of use, though I guess that's not really a trend.

 

[Bright Size]

RayOgre won Juniors and Masters Worlds (the same variant going T4 and T8 in Masters and T8 in seniors though the Juniors victor had a different variant), so I'm sure we'll see a spike in usage for it. Duals too with it winning Seniors and getting 2nd in Masters as mentioned. Dialga will pop up to counter RayOgre I'm sure; I've even made a new Kyogre/Dialga team that I'm quite fond of actually. I'm sure Hitmontop will spike in usage along with Raichu.

Honestly I think one of the big things people should look into countering is Bronzong; it's a huge threat that was on 7/8 of the Top 8 Masters Worlds teams. It counters Xerneas so well that I never even want to bring it to my matches anymore as fragor87 mentioned. Big 6 is an amazingly strong core, though I feel like it really needs to work on its Bronzong match up for these last few months. Honestly, I want Bronzong on basically all of my teams these days.

Even without the RayOgre core, Rayquaza has been seeing a bigger spike in usage. It's been paired with Primal Groudon and Xerneas lately (both of these types of teams cut Worlds) and I can see the trend continuing with its ability to hit just about everything hard. Pretty surprised that its usage wasn't too incredibly high. I never expected it to be the most used restricted or anything but I certainly thought it'd be used more.

 

[megagen10]

I think ray-ogre will see a rise in play,

also dialga will make a return

 

[R-B-Y]

I always couldn't use rayogre at all. The play style just didn't match with me. Always felt too offensive and not bulky enough.

 

[HibikiVGC]

I think we're doing it wrong. People keep talking about bringing Dialga back, but I think we should look at Palkia instead.
Remember how people were hyping it up early in the season? I think right about now is the time we should seriously consider it again. I think Dialga is a bit too passive in dealing with the RayOgre stuff, whereas with Palkia you have way more damage output, and despite losing the convenient resistance to Dragon Ascent and immunity to Sludge Bomb, you gain the advantage of not getting hit as hard by Hitmontop, and you wall out the water type attacks from Kyogre more easily. You also don't have the problem of being weak to Precipice Blades, which means Palkia can be a lot more useful in the Dual Primal matchup, as opposed to Dialga. There's also some still untapped potential with Palkia, such as being able to set up Gravity for Groudon or foregoing Trick Room for a fast Palkia, as it's sitting at a very comfortable base 100 speed.

I wonder if we'll see somebody make a splash with something like Groudon+Palkia at some of the remaining VGC 16 ruleset Regionals.

 

[ProjectTitan313]

I think we're doing it wrong. People keep talking about bringing Dialga back, but I think we should look at Palkia instead.
Remember how people were hyping it up early in the season? I think right about now is the time we should seriously consider it again. I think Dialga is a bit too passive in dealing with the RayOgre stuff, whereas with Palkia you have way more damage output, and despite losing the convenient resistance to Dragon Ascent and immunity to Sludge Bomb, you gain the advantage of not getting hit as hard by Hitmontop, and you wall out the water type attacks from Kyogre more easily. You also don't have the problem of being weak to Precipice Blades, which means Palkia can be a lot more useful in the Dual Primal matchup, as opposed to Dialga. There's also some still untapped potential with Palkia, such as being able to set up Gravity for Groudon or foregoing Trick Room for a fast Palkia, as it's sitting at a very comfortable base 100 speed.

I wonder if we'll see somebody make a splash with something like Groudon+Palkia at some of the remaining VGC 16 ruleset Regionals.

I was planning on Ogre + Palkia at the beginning of the season (since they're the only "ubers" I have, lol), but neglected to get it past Ogre + Palkia + Ferrothorn. Giant Yveltal+Thundy problem killed my hopes and dreams.
Palkia hits fantastically hard in favorable weather but also gets outright demolished by Dialga, Rayquaza, and Xerneas and is largely dependent on low-acc moves (Draco, Hydro Pump). Speed has always been good for Palkia though, Timid outruns every restricted mon bar post-Mega Rayquaza which is beautiful in itself.

Also wants Intimidate, which is hard to add without a cringeworthy Xerneas problem. I do like Palkia though, I agree on having some untapped usage.

 

[Bright Size]

I was planning on Ogre + Palkia at the beginning of the season (since they're the only "ubers" I have, lol), but neglected to get it past Ogre + Palkia + Ferrothorn. Giant Yveltal+Thundy problem killed my hopes and dreams.
Palkia hits fantastically hard in favorable weather but also gets outright demolished by Dialga, Rayquaza, and Xerneas and is largely dependent on low-acc moves (Draco, Hydro Pump). Speed has always been good for Palkia though, Timid outruns every restricted mon bar post-Mega Rayquaza which is beautiful in itself.

Also wants Intimidate, which is hard to add without a cringeworthy Xerneas problem. I do like Palkia though, I agree on having some untapped usage.

Mega Mawile could help here. It hurts Yveltal and Xerneas a lot and under the right conditions Rayquaza (I'm thinking no Overheat and what not on it). It gets the Intimidate pre-mega. That leaves Dialga as being an issue, you could try something like dual mega with Mega Kangaskhan on the team to hit it hard. I dunno, something to consider. Palkia might even get Aura Sphere though I doubt that's very viable. Something to consider.

 

[ProjectTitan313]

Mega Mawile could help here. It hurts Yveltal and Xerneas a lot and under the right conditions Rayquaza (I'm thinking no Overheat and what not on it). It gets the Intimidate pre-mega. That leaves Dialga as being an issue, you could try something like dual mega with Mega Kangaskhan on the team to hit it hard. I dunno, something to consider. Palkia might even get Aura Sphere though I doubt that's very viable. Something to consider.

Earth Power AND Aura Sphere, actually.
I did not consider Mawile though, that is worthy of thought.

Of course, I only play on cart, so this meta is essentially dead to me now... xd

 

[Pyritie]

Does mawile have more potential now than it did in the past?
+ Kyogre is more prevalent, removing its fire weakness
+ Yveltal is gaining popularity, as well as other dark and fighting types like weavile, scrafty, and hitmontop
+ Excellent partner to yveltal if you have one on your team
+ Rayquaza's are starting to favor swords dance over a fire move
+ Ferrothorn, amoonguss, and lando-t are less popular
+ Loves trick room
- Will-o-wisp talonflame is becoming more of a thing, and it's also popular on all the gengars running around
- Still bodied by primals and can't do much to primal groudon outside of sucker punch
- Can't really touch bronzong outside of sucker punching a gyro ball
- Still hates smeargle because of dark void and follow me redirecting sucker punches

 

[coR.]

Complementing what Pyritie said.
+ Mawile have access to Intimidate before mega-evolution, and because of his bulk it can take some damage from mons like Xerneas, Kangaskhan and Salamence.