Team: https://pokepast.es/feb9505611961775
Latios/Weavile/Dialga/Kyogre/Palkia/Abomasnow
2nd Place
Sets: 4-2
Games: 9W-4L
Introduction
The Pokétopia Discord hosted a VGC 2010 tournament (Sinnoh Cup 5) run by oopsgtg. It took place on Pokémon Showdown on March 14th, 2026. I enjoyed the opportunity to play a fun tournament and experiment in the VGC 2010 format.
Process
I'm tired of trying hard in tournaments. I've been playing in past VGC format tournaments non-stop since last August to varying levels of success. I've gotten better at saying "no" or trying so hard in these tournaments. Desiring to play VGC 2010 again, I opted to channel Olympic Gold medalist Alysa Liu and relieve myself of the pressure to succeed. Playing should not only be about winning; it's also about the love of the game.
I decide to build a team in ten minutes that has little complexity and just lets me play the game. I based it on the successful "triple dragon" core I co-designed with Infinity.Cypher and Kenan for Gen. 5 GS Cup (5thGS). The original team had Kyurem-W, Latios, and Dialga/Palkia. It focused on throwing as many strong neutral hits as possible. I started with Choice Specs Latios (no Dragon Gem), Choice Scarf Dialga (outrun other dragons), and Life Orb Palkia (flexible fast Dragon). Infernape was my first pick to support the team. Fake Out and Taunt are necessary to handle other strategies, especially Trick Room. I threw on Kyogre for its great synergy with Dragon (Water hits the relevant Draco Meteor sponges of Metagross, Tyranitar, and Cresselia). For my last slot, I wanted to have fun and thought about how devious Blizzard spam would be. Go for the freeze! Scam your opponents! Once Abomasnow was on the team, I didn't appeciate how I could lose Infernape to my own Hail.
I then realized I could sidegrade to Weavile to keep my Focus Sash intact! Weavile had the added benefit of walling Cresselia, a pain for Infernape and Dragons. In exchange, my team had a worse matchup against Metagross. That's okay; Weavile seemed fun to use. After 10 minutes, I had a team and didn't think about it until the tournament began.
Strategy
The team only uses 252/252/4 EV spreads, so there isn't a point in explaining each Pokémon separately. The Game 1 team is Latios, Weavile, Dialga, Kyogre
. Latios outruns and threatens OHKOs and 2HKOs against all of the Restricted legendaries. Weavile assists with Fake Out to enable a positive damage trade and Taunt to prevent Trick Room. Once the opposing team is worn down, Choice Scarf Dialga and Splash Plate Kyogre clean up the game with more high-power neutral damage. It's a pure offensive sweeping team with little nuance.Palkia and Abomasnow
are reserved for matchup adjustments. While triple Dragon sounds fun in theory, it's risky in Game 1 due to the lack of Team Preview. Hence Kyogre is brought by default, which also helps deal with Sun and Sand teams. Palkia is useful over Kyogre to beat Rain teams and to bully Dialga-free teams. Abomasnow exists solely to enable Blizzard spam. Many teams can't handle multiple Ice-type hits, and a game is practically won if a Freeze occurs.The team has difficulty dealing with Trick Room, especially when the Trick Room team has re-direction. Only 1/4 Pokémon on the default team has Protect. This is easily exploitable if the opponents gets speed control. Abomasnow and Palkia can compensate for this in Games 2-3 because they have Protect, but it's difficult.
In general, you want to avoid switching unless absolutely necessary because every turn you switch is a turn your opponent is winning the damage trade war. It is fine to repeatedly click Dragon Pulse and Low Kick for 30-50%. As long as you hit for neutral, don't get double KOed, and don't let them set up speed control, you progress the board state. Trust Dialga and Kyogre to win the game.
Battle Report
Round 1 - pulvite (2-0)
/
Game 1 | Game 2
In Game 1, I realize I have a hard counter to pulvite's lead. My strategy is to never switch so that I constantly trade damage. Ludicolo under Rain gives me worries, but I eventually trade to a winning position. The same strategy works in Game 2; I lead with Dialga to avoid getting OHKOed by a possible Palkia on Turn 1.
Round 2 - hassanbouadra (2-0)
/
Game 1 | Game 2
I worry the moment I see Swift Swim boosted Ludicolo because it outruns my Weavile. Thankfully it doesn't have Fake Out, and I proceed to trade damage to a win (with a strong Protect read on Game 1 Turn 5). In Game 2, I go out of my way to prevent this mode (bring Abomasnow, target Ludicolo) so that my Kyogre has a clear path to do damage. I managed to scrape by with Abomasnow in the endgame.
Round 3 - AsuX (0-2)
/Game 1 | Game 2
This appears to be the main lead from the team AsuX used in the VGC 2010 15th Anniversary Showdown. I hard predict Detect on Azelf + Tailwind on Giratina... and I get punished with a Draco Meteor miss. Game 1 is over from there due to the finesse of Trick Room on the last turn of Tailwind. In Game 2, AsuX calls my Turn 1 play, goes for an Explosion on his Tyranitar... and gets into a material disadvantage. I then miss Draco Meteor again in an otherwise guaranteed winning position. If I had hit both Draco Meteors, I would have won this match.
Round 4 - Grimspy (2-0)
/
Game 1 | Game 2
This lead looks like it is straight from the year 2009. I know Trick Room is a problem for my team, so I go for Fake Out into Taunt onto Bronzong. Latios KOs the Giratina switch-in on an Explosion turn. When Palkia and Kyogre are sent out, I realize my Kyogre is faster due to Showdown's Gen. IV ability order glitch. Can Showdown Devs please fix this? Even without the glitch, I probably would have Taunted anyway to prevent Machamp from being useful. I In Game 2, my opponent misplays by not going for Trick Room. Kyogre proceeds to auto-win the game.
Semifinals - Potatoman29 (2-0)
/
Game 1 | Game 2
I see the leads for the "Standard Top Tier" core (these two plus Dialga and Tyranitar), and I fear Trick Room and Thunder Wave more than Kyogre. I don't remember why I opted to Low Kick the Tyranitar; in retrospect, it's dangerous to not Taunt the Dialga in case it has Trick Room. I lucked out that my opponent used Choice Specs Dialga. In spite being in a losing position, my opponent didn't get enough speed control and lost Game 1. In Game 2 I made a hard call they would click Follow Me (and not Thunder Wave... or Protect... or Air Slash... or Extreme Speed) and opted for Blizzard to bypass it. The freeze won me the game.
Finals - AsuX (1-2)
/Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
I rematch AsuX. It's our 5th or 6th time facing in a Gen. IV VGC tournament. I have never beaten him in-tournament, though our recent VGC 2009 match came down to a single luck roll (as did a previous VGC 2009 semifinals). I feel confident that Weavile locks down his team badly. We draw a fairly sizable crowd from one of the Showdown rooms.
On Game 1 Turn 3, AsuX makes a brilliant play opting for both Tailwind and Trick Room to always get speed control regardless of Weavile's target. I had opted to Taunt Giratina and hopefully KO Dialga that turn. It didn't work. In retrospect, Trick Room was a larger threat to my team beccuse Tailwind lasts for a shorter duration. I make numerous switches to try to stall Trick Room with my team that lacks Protect. On Turn 9, AsuX makes an obvious misplay by targeting my Dialga instead of my obviously Choice Specs Latios. This gives me my only win condition: get three critical hits in a row. I proceed to critical hit three times in a row.
In Game 2, I bring an incorrect lead, which auto-loses to Azelf+Giratina. I opt to sacrifice my Abomasnow instead of my Latios. In retrospect, Abomasnow might have been slightly more useful due to the chance to freeze. Once Dialga is put into Hail chip range, it is no longer possible to stall Tailwind. I put a strong attempt to hustle a win, but Dialga is simply too bulky on Turn 5. I lose the moment it sets Trick Room.
In Game 3, I correctly identify Trick Room as the issue. Unfortunate I tunnel vision into "Dialga cannot Protect, so target it down and trade risk free!" In retrospect, Dialga is not a current threat to my team. In the off-chance Tyranitar chooses to attack, I'm in a much worse spot. I should have attempted to remove Tyranitar, accept a possible Dragon Pulse, and then throw more damage with Kyogre. I believe even if Tyranitar clicked Protect that turn that I was still winning. The position gets more difficult as AsuX correctly positions Dialga + Tyranitar on the field at the same time via the threat of Explosion. On Turn 5, I once again opt against the worst case scenario of Tyranitar Protect. Given the Dialga lived the Ice Beam, I do believe Protect was the stronger play for AsuX here, so I can't beat myself up too hard for not punishing his suboptimal play. Once Trick Room is up, he has the win locked down.
Once again, I'm honored to have a fantastic and close match against AsuX. Some day I'll beat him in-tournament.
Conclusion
I believe this team is fun and offers excellent practice for players improving their offensive gameplay. Weavile is a fun anti-metagame option that forces the user and the opponent to play dangerous "50/50" mindgames. I think it and Latios (along with the unique Salamence + Infernape lead used by Japanese player stoic) show that having high speed stats can make up for the lower overall stats when attacking Restricteds with non-Restricted.
Thank you to oopsgtg for hosting this tournament and the Pokétopia Discord server for keeping Gen. IV-V VGC active! I encourage readers who have not tried this format to play it. Due to the high stats and flexibility of the Restricted legendaries, teambuilding is really easy. There are many resources and teams out there since this is the most popular in-person past Doubles format in Japan, including a 100+ page Japanese .pdf known as the "4thGS Bible".
Last edited: