VGC 2017 Coverage: Athens and Road to Athens Recap

The Dallas VGC Regional was the third major tournament of the VGC 17 season. Held on December 31st, 2016 and January 1st, 2017, it took place just three weeks after The London International Championship, the largest European tournament of the season, and two weeks after the San Jose Regional Championship, the first American major. The tournament being scheduled on a holiday weekend as well as a relatively central location in America gave many players who might not have otherwise been able to attend an excuse to spend New Year's Eve taking their first shot at a VGC regional. As a result, the field was relatively stacked with big names from past years who made the decision to invade the Texas tournament.

The Metagame Coming In

The Dallas metagame was heavily influenced by the top teams at the London International, as well as the San Jose Regional Championship top cut and specifically the team of Enosh Shachar. The sea slug in the room, Gastrodon, had a strong performance at London, starring on both of the finalists' teams as well as Markus Stadter's Day 1 team. Gastrodon's Storm Drain ability provided teams with a strong defensive option to deal with rain, which had performed quite well at London, and the players at San Jose took note. 13 of the 16 top cut teams at San Jose featured rain (Pelipper or Politoed along with another Water-type), a different weather to reset rain (Gigalith), or Gastrodon, with eight of the 16 players opting for the slug. Despite its popularity in top cut, Gastrodon was nowhere to be found in the finals, though. The winner, Gavin Michaels, piloted a team of Mimikyu, Porygon2, Hariyama, Araquanid, Magnezone, and Drampa, which had the straightforward goal of setting Trick Room and then beating down the opponent with strong attacks.

Enosh's Team

While he didn't win San Jose, the runner up Enosh Shachar's team was the gem of the teams in cut. With Tapu Fini, Kartana, Marowak, Krookodile, Porygon2, and Araquanid, it had quite a few paths to victory it could take, but the most notable one was the Substitute + Calm Mind + Muddy Water + Moonblast Tapu Fini, which until San Jose had been written off as the worst of the Tapu quartet (one out of 51 teams that made it to the second day of the London International had Tapu Fini; the next lowest was Tapu Bulu with 16/51 uses). Enosh showed the world that Tapu Fini was a threat to be taken seriously, as it waded through a sea of Gastrodon by setting up Substitutes on attempted Toxics, setting up Calm Minds on already resisted hits, and bypassing Storm Drain by hitting Gastrodon's partner with Muddy Water. Enosh's Kartana is also worth mentioning; it wore an Assault Vest, which after some investment allows it to take special hits more effectively than a piece of paper might otherwise be expected to. Though he wasn't the first player to use Assault Vest Kartana, it was another strong finish for a set many players had written off as a joke. Enosh has always been known as an eccentric team builder (he got second place at US Nationals in 2013 with a Misdreavus, for example), and so the main questions entering Dallas were "Are Enosh's ideas legit or was he merely running memes and outplaying his opponents?" and "Would Gastrodon continue its run of dominance?"

The Top Tables At Dallas

Players at Dallas needed to have answers to a wide variety of threats. Outside of the aforementioned Gastrodon, Porygon2 and Celesteela couldn't be ignored by anyone expecting to perform well, as both made appearances on roughly half of the teams to make it past the first day of competition at London and San Jose. All four of the Tapus deserved strong consideration and respect; Lele and Bulu both hung around 30% usage at London and San Jose, while Koko usage had spiked to 62.5% of the San Jose top cut. Fini was a mystery, as it didn't star at either tournament, but in the following days a number of high-ladder players had begun experimentation with it on both Battle Spot and Pokémon Showdown. Other threats that were high on players' checklists included the hard hitters Garchomp, Kartana, Alolan Marowak, and Gigalith, the Intimidate trio of Gyarados, Arcanine, and Salamence, and the Double "Ducks" Pelipper and Golduck. The hard Trick Room team of Gavin Michaels, which won the last regional, loomed at the back of the minds of builders as well as something that demanded respect lest they be handed a swift loss.

New Faces

The main revelation of Dallas was undoubtedly Tapu Fini. After a mere two uses out of 67 teams from the first two tournaments' cuts in the nascent format, Fini matched the usage of every other Tapu combined in the Dallas cut with a spot on nine out of 16 teams, including those of players who copied Enosh's San Jose team nearly verbatim. Players utilized both the Calm Mind set, which aims to set up multiple boosts and then sweep, as well as the Choice Specs set, which aims to hit hard off the bat and maintain its power if forced to switch out. Muddy Water provided strong spread damage for both sets, something that can be difficult to find in this format. Misty Terrain support provided an immunity to status and a resistance to Dragon-type attacks, which people collectively decided would be a useful addition to their teams for Dallas, and gave a solid foundation to base gameplans around for the high number of balanced teams that did well at Dallas.

Kartana usage also spiked significantly at Dallas, as players were quick to pick up on the utility of the Assault Vest set. In a metagame with an extremely wide variety of threats, the role compression of a fast, physically bulky and powerful Pokémon with a number of important resistances provided players with a lot more flexibility in teambuilding and a useful attacker in many matchups. The Assault Vest set in particular allowed it to use its strong defensive typing to tank resisted hits such as Tapu Lele and Koko's STAB attacks instead of folding like paper, while the Focus Sash set allowed it to guarantee it can get an attack off and enabled the use of Protect. Focus Sash Kartana was on Andrew Nowak's winning team, while Assault Vest was the more popular choice for teams in top cut.

After Tapu Fini and Kartana, the most used Pokémon mostly had seen strong usage at the previous tournaments, though there were a few picks that popped up multiple times. Metagross was a moderately surprising pick for teams in top cut, appearing on three of the 16 teams in top cut. Two of them held a Weakness Policy and were used as a powerful attacker that punished Tapu Lele on the similar teams of Sam Schweitzer and Collin Heier, who placed third and second, respectively, while Kimo Nishimura's held a Choice Band. Sam and Collin's teams as well as Alberto Lara's made use of Vikavolt, a Pokémon that was completely absent from London and San Jose's notable finishers' teams, a bulky Electric type with Levitate and a sky-high Special Attack stat. Mudsdale was used twice by Nick Navarre and Andrew Nowak, holding Rockium Z for Nick and an Assault Vest for Andrew.

Missing Faces

Gastrodon, the metagame centerpiece from San Jose, was absent from top cut in Dallas. With the two-week break in between the San Jose and Dallas tournaments, the hyper offensive rain teams that rolled over London were solved by players with more nuanced answers than merely using a Pokémon with Storm Drain to wall the archetype, and players dropped the slug for the more generally effective Tapu Fini. Tapu Bulu was similarly absent from Dallas's top cut, largely because of the large presence of Kartana, which shuts down nearly anything Bulu tries to do. Tapu Koko and Tapu Lele were both present but found their skillsets less effective in the bulky metagame of Dallas. Celesteela similarly was still used on four teams in the top cut, but it was a far cry from the 25/51 teams that used it at London.

Notable Teams

Enosh Shachar's San Jose team's influence on the top cut of Dallas can't be overstated, as Justin Burns, Caleb Ryor, and Kamran Jahadi all used near carbon copies of the team to achieve 6th, 8th, and 10th place at the tournament. Variants also performed well, with the AFK combination of Arcanine, Tapu Fini, and Kartana earning three more places in top cut, including two of the semifinalists:

Sam and Collin's teams featured four of the same Pokémon: Choice Specs Tapu Fini, Weakness Policy Metagross, defensive Arcanine, and Iapapa Berry Vikavolt. The remaining two slots on Collin's team were a Groundium Z Garchomp to provide a strong, generally useful Z-Move and a Porygon2 to provide Trick Room support for speed control. Sam used String Shot on his Vikavolt to provide speed control for his team, so he was able to add Assault Vest Kartana to his team to provide general strength and Rockium Gigalith to answer opposing Trick Room and weather teams.

Nick Navarre's top 4 team was an interesting take on the AFK core, featuring a Misty Seed Mandibuzz, a Rockium Z Mudsdale, and a Choice Scarf Garchomp alongside defensive Arcanine, Calm Mind Tapu Fini, and Assault Vest Kartana. The Mandibuzz offered an extremely bulky Tailwind setter that gave his defensive core a more threatening offensive presence, while the extremely slow and extremely fast Ground-types gave him the means to respond to a variety of hyper offensive teams and Trick Room teams while assisting with the rest of the team's vulnerability to Rock-type and Electric-type attacks.

Similarly to in San Jose, where the metagame-defining Pokémon ran over top cut but didn't win, Tapu Fini wasn't on the winning team. Andrew Nowak used a similar team to the those used by 2016 National Champions Yeray Arrivi and Alejandro Gomez at London, with a Life Orb Tapu Koko, Draconium Z Salamence, Porygon2, Sitrus Araquanid, Assault Vest Mudsdale, and Focus Sash Kartana, which takes advantage of strong offensive and defensive synergy, and diverse Speed tiers to create a cohesive unit with enough tools in the right places to win.

Looking Ahead

While the questions for reflection asked by the tournaments in London and San Jose were relatively simple, the aftermath from Dallas was more nuanced. Are FWG cores featuring Tapu Fini and Kartana as strong as a single tournament in the early stages of the format might lead some to believe? Is the duo of Porygon2 + Araquanid, which has seven out of a possible eight uses in the finals of the two American regionals, overachieving, or is it truly dominant? What kind of role performs Pheromosa, which quietly earned three places in the top cut play in the metagame, and will it continue to see success? And was Celesteela's relatively low success at Dallas an indication that top players have learned to play around it more effectively, or a blip of Kartana usage that will correct back to early levels? Players will look to grapple with these issues moving forward at the next tournaments, which will occur in Athens, Georgia two weeks later and in Leipzig, Germany.

A week after the London Internationals, the first hints of a metagame began to establish itself. From the top tables of London, two team archetypes set themselves apart. The first was Gastrodon, Celesteela, and Arcanine, a defensive core exemplifying stall that would whittle you down and lock you out through use of Toxic, Leech Seed, Intimidate, and Snarl. The second was a rain core of Focus Sash Pelipper and Waterium Z Golduck exemplifying hyper offense.

The introduction of Tapus and Terrains plays a large role in VGC, especially as it effects up to four Pokémon at a time. Following London, the top three Tapus were Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, and Tapu Bulu. Tapu Bulu found itself at home on these rain teams, acting as an important Electric-resistant Pokémon in a format where few exist. Additionally, Tapu Koko established itself as the Tapu of choice, as its speed and strength through Electric Terrain allowed it to act as a threat to many teams while also helping break through Pokémon such as Celesteela. Tapu Lele acted as an offensive juggernaut breaking through teams through its ridiculous Special Attack, acting as a most general offensive Pokémon. Tapu Fini, however, was left behind, as other Water-types such as Pelipper, Gastrodon, Golduck, Pelipper, Milotic, and Araquanid were all more appealing, as they did not take give up the extra offensive boost that the other Terrains had offered.

The Top Tables

Most of the successful teams at San Jose resembled teams that managed to find success at London. However, as the top cut advanced, very different teams began to succeed. The majority of the top 16 had used either a Gastrodon-based team or a Golduck rain-based team. 11 teams out of the top 16 were using either Gastrodon or rain. However, the players who managed to advance to top cut using neither found the most success. Three of the players that were using neither all made it to the top four, and the two that did not both lost in the top 16. In fact, the only player who won the matchup against a non-rain or Gastrodon team while using one himself was Aaron "Cybertron" Zheng, who has competed at top cut the World Championships themselves a number of times!

The finals very much went against the metagame trends that followed London. Neither Enosh Shachar nor Gavin Michaels used Gastrodon or rain. Gavin did not have a Tapu on his team, and Enosh was the only player to use Tapu Fini in top cut. Gavin was using a hard Trick Room team, and Enosh was using a more mid-Speed balanced team. And both of them brought the Porygon2 + Araquanid combination. Despite all the differences our two teams had, the general build allowed both of our teams to invest heavily in bulk to defeat offensive teams and utilized Pokémon and typing that were generally underused to create advantageous matchups against the more defensive teams.

Out With the Old

Rather than focusing on what was missing from San Jose's top cut, it's more practical to focus on what saw less success there than at London. San Jose spelled the death of certain team archetypes more than any, and it showed that the metagame rapidly adapts to threats and can shut them out. There were a number of threats coming in from London that were brought with confidence to San Jose, and while they had success there, the weaknesses of these threats were finally exposed, and this was the last great success that a number of Pokémon had.

The top threat of the London Internationals was clearly Celesteela. It was the greatest cause of concern for many players and found itself the centerpiece of teams for many of those who participated. The set used then was Heavy Slam with Leech Seed and both Substitute and Protect. Those four moves allowed Celesteela to beat entire teams single-handedly. By shutting down the rain teams through use of Gastrodon, this Pokémon was able to run through most of London. However, San Jose spelled a different fate altogether for this Ultra Beast, as offense began to be incorporated in different ways. Many teams had begun to successfully incorporate Fire-type Pokémon and moves while adding resistances to Heavy Slam. Celesteela's threat of staying on the field indefinitely was quickly taken advantage of due to its lack of damage output and coverage early on.

The "Double Ducks" of Pelipper and Golduck may have made their big splash at London, but after San Jose this notorious duo found very little success at other regionals. With the introduction of Gastrodon to the format, their primary STAB attack became useless. Alongside Gastrodon, new Pokémon found use in the metagame such as Assault Vest Kartana. These Pokémon, gaining popularity by Battle Spot players such as Sejun, quickly led to a metagame where neither Pelipper or Golduck was able to break through teams.

In spite of the loss of double ducks, an adaptation to Garchomp was made to fill their offensive void. Overnight, Assault Vest Garchomp shifted almost entirely to Groundium Z. Initially used to lock out threats through use of its speed and natural bulk, Garchomp and other Ground-types became more valuable for their ability to press an extremely powerful single-target move and break through individual threats on the opposing team.

In With the New

Despite much of what London introduced to the format being thrown aside, San Jose also brought stability to the format. The takeaway from London was that slow teams oftentimes beat faster teams. The takeaway from this tournament was that there were strong ways to beat these slower teams while maintaining strong matchups against fast teams. This, alongside the success top players found on Battle Spot, led to two cores that have since defined the format.

   Arcanine + Tapu Fini + Kartana (AFK)

This team archetype draws heavily from what Enosh had brought to San Jose, using a Fire / Water / Grass core with most importantly Tapu Fini and either Focus Sash or Assault Vest Kartana. The archetype often uses a Ground-type, which leads to the two primary variations in either Marowak and Krookodile or Arcanine and Garchomp being used together. By using the high bulk and defensive typing of each of these Pokémon, this core allows top players to more easily switch and create neutral situations. Pokémon such as Gastrodon, Porygon2, Arcanine, and Celesteela are all able to be broken through setup that this core allows, and by utilizing Misty Terrain, it can also avoid the passive turns forced by Toxic Pokémon. While these cores are not infallible, they provide a strong starting point for most teams in the current state of the format.

  Porygon2 + Araquanid

This team archetype was used by both Enosh Shachar and Gavin Michaels and has since won the subsequent North American regionals. Araquanid is an incredibly powerful Pokémon; having high base stats and an ability that doubles the power of its Water attacks is nothing to scoff at. Through its base Speed, stats, and typing, Araquanid is an offensive Pokémon that is able to break through fast teams remarkably well, as well as through any defensive team that does not use Gastrodon if Trick Room manages to go up. Porygon2 acts as the most reliable Trick Room setter in the format due to its bulk while also utilizing potential Download boosts and its wide movepool to remain an active threat under Trick Room. The absolute power and coverage of both also gives this core a strong match up against the Arcanine + Tapu Fini + Kartana core other than the Tapu Fini. The biggest issue that this core tends to face is its reliance on setting up Trick Room.

Looking Forward

Things change quickly in VGC. One week Tapu Fini was used nowhere, the next it was everywhere. Arguments over which is the best Tapu are constantly reevaluated. The metagame changes drastically from week to week as players continue to find new ways to use different Pokémon. Sometimes it looks to be a bit like the flavor of the week, but as more tournaments occur and the metagame continues to redefine itself, we begin to find individual Pokémon and teams that continue to be strong and hold the format to a new standard.

The European Internationals were held on December 9th-11th at The Excel Conference Center in London, and what a tournament it was! Players flew in from all over the world to represent their countries and try to claim both cash prizes and valuable Championship Points that would see them closer to the ultimate goal of reaching the 2017 World Championships. The event featured players from around the world from Australia to Argentina and Japan and introduced some new tournament features to VGC not seen widespread before. There was drama abound, inside and outside of the game, and by the competition’s end Miguel Marti del Torre (Sekiam) was crowned the Champion. In this article, we’re going to look at some of the new features, some of the drama, and a lot of the metagame to find out what really went on in London, and how it might shape the metagame to come.

New Mechanics and Team Sheet Drama

The big new mechanic for VGC during the tournament was the introduction of carry-over swiss, namely that all records after Day 1 would not be expunged as per usual, but they would carry over to day 2. This meant anyone with an X-2 record needed to go X-0 on Day 2 to be sure of making cut, or to lose no more than one match if they wanted to scrape in on resistance! Although met with a lukewarm reception by the players, the system worked well as it rewarded the players who had done the best in Day 1, and therefore rewarded a performance across the event as opposed to two separate days. The player’s reception to this, however, was marred by lack of information and misinformation about how this would actually work. On Day 1, very few of the judging and organized play staff seemed to know about the mechanics of the carry-over swiss or whether resistance would carry over with records. This meant that resistance not carrying over was little known throughout the players, leading to misunderstandings between the players and the judges, which ultimately marred some of the players' experience at the tournament.

There was very little drama to do with the organization and gameplay of the tournament, which is almost a first for large UK tournaments, known for underleveled Hydreigon and Water Sport Kyogre causing mass repairs throughout the tournament. However, a couple of aspects of the tournament rules caused consternation online and at the tournament itself. It became apparent at the end of Day 1 that quite a few of the top players, including three of the 2016 Worlds Top 4, had fallen foul of the rules regarding team sheet accuracy. The rule states that if a Pokémon or item does not match the team sheet then a judge should “Remove incorrect Pokémon or item from party and apply a game loss.“ This rule primarily exists to prevent people changing their battle box mid-tournament. This was proved to be easily done by a player who managed to input a whole team from VGC 2016 into his locked battle box before the tournament, although he used a legal team at the event.

Whilst the rules in this case are fairly clean cut, some of the players questioned whether all the cases were punished fairly in this way. Some cases were clean cut with players writing wrong moves and natures onto their Pokémon; however, other cases were a little closer to the knuckle with players debating whether a Miracle Seed and Meadow Plate mix-up should have been so harshly penalized considering that the item has the same effect in the game.

The Ever-Changing (Day 2) Metagame

After only two weeks of play, the metagame going into the London International was extremely volatile. The early season standard team had already been established with a core of Tapu Koko, Garchomp, Celesteela, Marowak, and Gyarados doing well at the few events before the International including winning a Premier Challenge in New Jersey and coming second in the first UK Premier Challenge. However, other teams came to the fore in the days leading up to the event. Some decided to include the Fire / Water / Grass core, and others used this meta’s variant of the rain team, “Double Duck”, a team that combined the rain-setting abilities of Pelipper with the Swift Swim ability of Golduck and an extremely strong rain-boosted Hydro Vortex.

As predicted, many people bought the early metagame standard core and many of these teams made it to Day 2; however, many of these teams had their own variants and techs for other matchups. One of these techs that did really well was the inclusion of Gigalith into the team to combat other weather. As Gigalith’s Sandstorm does not affect Celesteela or Garchomp, it gives a way to break the opposing team's Focus Sashes and neutralize their weather; a big help to many weather-focused matchups. Another surprising Pokémon used with this team was Gastrodon. Many people had written off Gastrodon in this metagame, due to the loss of the Earth Power tutor and generally bad stats. However, it found a niche on many teams helping to combat rain. Switching in Gastrodon completely neutralized the power of “Double Duck” with its Storm Drain ability making it extremely hard for those teams to do any damage with Gastrodon on the field. Gastrodon’s bulk was put to good use as well with people opting for recover to increase its survivability, as well as Toxic and in one team Z-Stockpile, a Z-Powered version which also fully recovers Gastrodon’s health on top of applying a Defense and Special Defense boost, making it even harder to take down.

Players also looked to other Pokémon to combat standard teams, including the most used Pokémon in top cut, Alolan Marowak. Alolan Marowak, though slow, has the ability Lightningrod, which allows it to redirect single target Electric-type attacks to itself and makes it immune to them, a boon to the Electric-weak Celesteela and Gyarados. This allowed Tapu Koko to use Discharge next to it. Alolan Marowak was also used on other teams to help combat the threat of Tapu Koko, Raichu, Xurkitree, and other Electric-type Pokémon. People ran Alolan Marowak in many different ways, from Jolly to try and outspeed Alolan Muk and other threats, to running very little attack power and lots of bulk to survive combos that would usually bring it down. Either way, Alolan Marowak A-Marowak was the most used Pokémon on Day 2 for a reason and one of the most effective.

Another surprisingly effective Pokémon was the Ultra Beast Kartana, which was the most used Ultra Beast in the Top 8. Trainers sought to take advantage of Kartana’s solid Grass / Steel typing and extremely high base Attack stat, while covering a very low Special Defense stat. This was done in many ways, with most trainers running Focus Sash on Kartana, while others, including semifinalist Ben Kyriakou, using Assault Vest, allowing Kartana to survive a whole host of special moves and be able to use all of its coverage moves, as opposed to having to drop one for Protect as a lot of Kartana with Focus Sash did.

The Top 8!

The top 8 in this tournament showed off two styles of teams, offense and stall. Offense just made up more of Top 8 with Ben, William, Nils, Tommy, and Michele running offensive teams while Tobias, Miguel, and Nico ran very stall-oriented teams with several bulky Pokémon including Celesteela, Porygon-2, Gastrodon, Magnezone, and Tapu Bulu. It’s interesting to note that in a lot of cases the more offensive teams fell to the teams that had more bulk. The playstyle of Miguel and Nico allowed for many more switches, safe in the knowledge that if their opponent just attacked into their Pokémon they could come away with minimal damage and make their position on the board better. The offensive teams were less able to play the switch game, and so they had to make predictions on which Pokémon would switch in and when to wrest the momentum of the game from the opponent. While there were some unfortunate automatic win conditions in the Top 8, which saw Tommy Cooleen’s Ducks paired vs Michele and his Sash Xurkitree, many of the Top Cut matches went right down to the wire, a testament to the skill of all the players involved.

Unfortunately, the finals, though an amazing tussle between two fantastic players, suffered due to the lack of offense on both teams. Even though Nico was running Psychium-Z on his Tapu Lele, which normally gives it massive stallbreaking potential, Nico was almost unable to touch Miguel in Round 1, with a lot of Nico’s stall potential wiped out by Miguel’s Toxic Gastrodon. However, Nico identified that his Celesteela was faster and was able to win the Celesteela Speed race and stall out Miguel’s own Celesteela in Game 2. This took so long that the game ran to its 50 minutes in the third game and was called into its +3 turns, with Miguel just managing to do slightly more damage than Nico and take the crown. While both players played extremely well, it was unfortunate that the final of the first big competition of the year came down to a stall war.

Surprising Moments!

We learned on Day 1 that due to the lack of Desolate Land, freeze stands to be one of the most deadly status conditions in this year. Although only a 10% chance from most Ice moves, freeze happened throughout the entire tournament. The most prominent occurred when Matt Carter managed four sets of double freeze with Blizzard against Giovanni Costa, sealing the set in Matt’s favour and helping to send Gio tumbling out of Day 1. When freeze was rearing its ugly head, poison and Toxic were also proving themselves as other extremely devastating status conditions. With Alolan Muk receiving Poison Touch and thus having a Poison Jab with a 51% chance to poison the foe, many were unlucky enough to be on the end of a Poison Jab from Alolan Muk, which soon whittled down teams and made it difficult for them to function well. Another version of the poison was Toxic. Run mainly by Gastrodon and Porygon-2, this made auto-losses in the end game turn into auto-wins, as Toxic put the opposing Pokémon on a timer whilst being able in both cases to recover 50% of its HP a turn, a death knell for most Pokémon.

Another surprising strategy we saw in high level play was the use of Perish Song Politoed. This move on Politoed allowed players to break the Celesteela wall that we saw a lot in gameplay by bringing the game down to an extremely slow and bulky Politoed vs Celesteela. In most cases, Celesteela being unable to touch Politoed as it closed out the win. While Perish Song wasn’t very common for most players due to no Pokémon in Alola having the ability Shadow Tag, it had its place and may well become a very viable technique to stop stall teams throughout this year’s metagame.