VGC Reg H Spotlight

By zee. Released:2024/12/12

Introduction

Towards the beginning of August, the VGC community received some shocking news: the format that would be used for competitive play following the World Championships was not the double Restricted Legendary format that almost everyone had assumed it to be, but instead something entirely different. All Legendary and Paradox Pokémon would be banned from the game's newest ruleset, Regulation H. Obviously, this is a massive shakeup; Paradox Pokémon have been allowed since February of 2023, and most of the game's common Legendary Pokémon like Tornadus, Urshifu-R, and the Landorus formes were introduced in July before the 2023 World Championships. Many players seemed excited at the possibility of playing a "low power level" format for the first time since January 2023's Regulation A. Would this be the return of Palafin? What lessons have we learned after a year and a half of experience with Gen 9 VGC? Let's talk about it.

Pelipper and Archaludon

Pelipper is a Pokémon that has maintained usage all throughout Scarlet and Violet and found continued success despite its incredibly low BST; it won the first International Championship of the generation, earned a top 8 finish at the 2023 World Championships, was on the winning team from the North American International Championships this past June, and recently finished 2nd at the 2024 World Championships. All of these finishes have been in metagames where the power level was higher than it is now. While in those past performances, Pelipper partnered up with Palafin, Urshifu-R, and Calyrex-I, in Regulation H, it has joined forces with Archaludon. The two share loads of natural synergy beyond just the mechanic of Electro Shot getting to forego the charging turn while rain is active, as Archaludon can power through Water- and Dragon-types that are difficult for Pelipper to remove (including punishing something like a Tera Water Amoonguss by double targeting the slot with Hurricane and Electro Shot), and Pelipper can hunt down Fighting- and Ground-types with its STAB combination.

Archaludon also has a whopping 600 BST, and an incredibly optimized one at that, as an Assault Vest patches up its low Special Defense and makes it much more offensively and defensively menacing than the vast majority of the format. Additionally, its biggest checks from the earlier Regulation F format, such as Landorus-T, both Urshifu formes, and Sunny Day Tornadus + Chi-Yu are all absent from this metagame. Archaludon's Stamina ability forces most players to prioritize taking it out quickly as to not give it too many Stamina boosts, but ignoring Pelipper next to it could also be quite dangerous, as its deceptively low Special Attack stat is balanced out by its hard-hitting Hurricane and rain-boosted Weather Ball. This duo won the Baltimore Regional Championship, the first major tournament of Regulation H, and has continued to see top placements as the metagame progresses.

Porygon2

Porygon2 has had some of the most turbulent rises and falls in VGC's history; it was practically nonexistent in high level play in Generations 5 and 6, then became the de facto best support Pokémon in VGC 2017 and saw continued success in VGC 2018, then fell off again harshly in VGC 2019 and returned only as a niche option in VGC 2022. When it was rereleased in the Indigo Disk DLC, it saw a few solid results in Regulation F before once again vanishing in Regulation G. This brings us to present-day Regulation H, where the digital duck has come back with a vengeance. Thanks to the format's lower power level (and the very noticeable banning of Iron Hands and Urshifu), Porygon2's usage has skyrocketed, being on 5 of the top 8 teams from the Baltimore Regional. A lot of this resurgence in usage comes from the fact that Porygon2 can actually withstand the damage being thrown around, as well as having the ability to support common Pokémon on semi-Trick Room teams like Ursaluna, Primarina, and Tyranitar. Indeed, it is virtually impossible to remove in one hit bar strong Fighting-type moves like Sneasler's Tera Stellar Close Combat or a +6 Make It Rain from Gholdengo. Porygon2 also can be a decent threat offensively, as a lot of common Pokémon in the format such as Garchomp, Archaludon, Kingambit, and Pelipper have higher Defense stats, which leads to Porygon2 getting Special Attack boosts from Download often. Porygon2 is also one of the best users of Tera Blast, as it has a STAB boost on it before Terastallizing and can run a variety of Tera types to offensively and defensively suit a team's needs such as Fighting, Fairy, Ground, Poison, Ghost, and Electric.

Starter Pokémon

When you think of starter Pokémon that are strong in VGC, you probably think of Incineroar, Rillaboom, or maybe Charizard if you have some knowledge of past formats. In Regulation H, however, many more starter Pokémon have seen tournament success, thanks to their BSTs being much more appropriate for the power level of the metagame and some unique elements of their toolkit allowing them to shine. After Incineroar and Rillaboom, Primarina has taken the spotlight as the next most common starter in the format. The Water / Fairy typing is among the best in the game, and in this format, it allows Primarina to stand up to common threats like Swords Dance Kingambit (which almost always runs exclusively Dark-type coverage) and Dondozo, which Primarina often also carries Haze for to eliminate the boosts from Tatsugiri's Commander activation. Offensively, it's also able to pressure a wide variety of the metagame with the aforementioned STAB coverage, including Garchomp, Dragonite, Dragapult, Incineroar, and Magmar.

Hisuian Typhlosion and Delphox are the other two Fire-type starters that have been making waves in the metagame, with both of them being featured on hyper offense cores where they want to spam spread moves: Whimsicott and Typhlosion (Tailwind / Sunny Day + Eruption) and Indeedee-F or Indeedee-M and Delphox (Helping Hand / Follow Me + Expanding Force or Imprison / Trick Room + Expanding Force). Hisuian Typhlosion recently finished 2nd at the Louisville Regional piloted by Joe Ugarte, and though Delphox is still awaiting a breakout performance, it has seen numerous day 2 finishes.

Meowscarada and Quaquaval have also seen a slight uptick in usage (though unfortunately, Skeledirge seems to be left behind for now). Meowscarada's niche comes from it being one of the fastest viable Pokémon in the metagame, and with Flower Trick's automatic critical hit bypassing Intimidate and a wide array of coverage moves (potentially boosted by Protean), it becomes a threatening glass cannon. Quaquaval's access to Moxie + Aqua Step can allow it to snowball through games just by taking one KO. It's seen use on rain teams as an alternative to Basculegion-M, and it saw day 2 placements at the Baltimore regional and finished 3rd in the Grand Challenge, a large official online tournament ran by The Pokémon Company International.

Blaziken, Empoleon, and Hisuian Samurott have had limited usage but have managed to reach top cut in regionals, with the first 2 two being used on the same team to reach top 32 at the Louisville Regional and Hisuian Samurott making top 8 at the Lille Regional piloted by former world champion Eduardo Cunha. Other starter Pokémon that we've seen in day 2 of various regionals include Greninja, Hisuian Decidueye, and Charizard.

Magmar and Electabuzz

Magmar and Electabuzz both have historically been niche users of Follow Me, with Magmar's claim to fame being a top 8 placement at the 2013 World Championships piloted by Sejun Park and Electabuzz's most notable performances before Regulation H coming at the hands of dedicated Trick Room teams in Regulation G. However, the lower power level of the format and the surge of Amoonguss usage has propelled both into mainstream usage. Other Follow Me users like Maushold, Indeedee-F, and Clefable all have to dedicate Safety Goggles to stop Spore or use some other forms of counterplay like Tera Grass and manually setting Misty Terrain. Additionally, Rage Powder users can't redirect Spore and can be bypassed by Safety Goggles holders.

This is where Magmar and Electabuzz shine, as they come with built-in Spore counterplay thanks to Vital Spirit and can only be bypassed by spread moves or abilities that circumvent redirection. This has given room for powerful setup Pokémon, most notably Black Glasses Swords Dance Kingambit, to safely boost next to their partner in front of Amoonguss and other threats like Safety Goggles Incineroar. When it comes to choosing which of these Kanto solo-stage-turned-middle-evolutions is right for a given team, it's important to weigh their pros and cons. Magmar can burn foes with Will-O-Wisp, has stronger offensive pressure with Overheat, and has some key resistances including Grass, Fire, and Fairy. On the other hand, Electabuzz can offer speed control with Electroweb and pivoting with Volt Switch and has less weaknesses; crucially, it doesn't have a weakness to Water, making it much more usable in the rain matchup.

Sleep

Amoonguss is probably the most dominant Pokémon in the collective history in VGC and certainly needs no introduction among even casual followers. Its excellent bulk and access to the perfectly accurate Spore make it the most consistent way to put foes to sleep, not to mention the other great components of its toolkit like Rage Powder, Pollen Puff, and Regenerator. However, Amoonguss does have its downsides. Most obviously, it's one of the slowest Pokémon in the format, and not every team can afford to slot Trick Room to help remedy this problem. It also doesn't have the greatest offensive pressure in the world, as even STAB moves like Sludge Bomb and Leaf Storm often fail to scare anything that isn't being hit super effectively.

These problems have been remedied by some other sleep users in the metagame. For one, Vivillon's base 89 Speed and Compound Eyes-boosted Sleep Powder gives it a 97% chance to land a Sleep Powder before a considerable portion of the format can even move. This is often combined with Hurricane and a powerful Earthquake from Garchomp, which means foes have to respond to not only sleep but also a powerful vortex of Ground- and Flying-type coverage as well. Breloom saw some use at the Baltimore Regional, as a Spore off of its relatively fast base 70 Speed and respectable offensive pressure made it a great fit for Nick Navarre's Tailwind hyper offense team. A different Spore user might have stolen the show in Baltimore, however, as Wolfe Glick managed to snag a top 16 finish with Toedscruel of all things, using Galarian Weezing's Neutralizing Gas to get around the lowered priority drawback of Mycelium Might. In addition to threatening with Spore off of a whopping base 100 Speed, it also was able to play a supportive role with Acid Spray and Rage Powder, enabling more offensive partners like Choice Specs Galarian Weezing and Choice Scarf Hisuian Typhlosion. Lastly, an honorable mention goes to Sneasler, which is certainly not a "reliable" sleep spreader, but certainly one that is rapidly gaining an infamous reputation thanks to the 1/6 chance to do so from Dire Claw nonetheless.

Conclusion

A lot of players felt like Scarlet and Violet's Regulation A, the original format that banned Paradox and Legendary Pokémon, ended too quickly before a bunch of optimized high-BST creatures entered the mix. Now we've gotten to see what that's like with two rounds of DLC and Pokémon HOME compatibility thrown into the mix. Perhaps one of the most fascinating parts of following a developing metagame in a fresh ruleset like this is seeing what strategies develop and wondering what we can learn from them. Regulation H seems to be a format primed for exciting developments, and surely more of them are bound to come to light even after this article has been written, but that's just the thrill of teambuilding and metagame development for you!

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