Gardevoir
Gallade
Chandelure
Conkeldurr
Smeargle
Murkrow
my absolute GOAT.
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- Primarina has solidified its spot as #1 in the tier, and it is not close. Out of the 22 teams, 11 of them had Primarina, and 9 of those Primarina pushed it into top cut. 50% usage combined with a 66% winrate is ludicrous and dwarfs anything we've ever seen in Regulation H UU. It was most commonly through Mystic Water/Life Orb sets, opting to run Hydro Pump, Substitute, and Life Dew as its 3rd move. Specs Primarina and Grassy Seed Calm Mind Primarina also did well in the tournament, though I'll be honest and say I think the CM Primarina teams were too inconsistent in the meta. 
- I and a few others picked up that the meta was incredibly weak to Bisharp, too focused on the powerful Ghost-types and Torracat. Safe to say we were right with how all of them made top 8, and Bisharp achieved a disgusting 70% winrate. I can confirm it was very instrumental in my run when paired with Coaching Sneasel and Tailwind Scyther support, for a funny triple NFE core. All of the sets were interestingly different, I ran up a Life Orb 3 attacks variant to guarantee the OHKO onto Basculegion and after Coaching, Primarina. gephicka used Eviolite alongside Decorate Smeargle, which let Bisharp cover Brambleghast more effectively. Leila on the other hand dropped Protect and ran a Swords Dance Eviolite Bisharp, dropping the set up support mine and gephicka's had. - Andre used this duo and read everyone like a book for a dominant victory, Weezing messed with a lot of Pokemon in the meta, allowing him to Fake Out flinch my Sneasel, laugh at Basculegion's damage, and wall non-Hydro Pump/Water Pledge Primarina. It was used to enable Slaking but honestly Pawmot was the far scarier partner, its Double Shocks and Close Combats hit more of the meta and put me in a difficult spot, especially because of its Focus Sash. I expect to see this tried more in the upcoming Regulation F - Sizzle & Snom hates everyone else and builds the fishiest teams in the world. Espathra has earned a bit of my respect in the end as a match up fish, and his team would honestly be a lot scarier if he made the Primarina faster, at least 86 to outspeed Scarf Basculegion and Dragapult at +3, but I wouldve went up to 91 to creep Serperior at +2 as well. Same for the Metagross, how is it getting outsped by Weezing - Following up the above, Thwackey set up spam is rising, as Thwackey threatens the best cleaner in the format (Basculegion) and helps your teammate gain an immunity to Brambleghast's Poltergeist. I don't think the teams that used it were optimal but I think the Pokemon was definietly a fine meta call
- Most Kommo-o we have seen at an event and...I'm a bit dissapointed? For something once compared to Primarina, Kommo-o had poor performances and I never got the chance to face one. I personally think that Kommo-o's tera hogging has grown easy to play around, and speed control has greatly improved with Talonflame and Basculegion crowding the meta, You'll notice that half of the Kommo straightup droppoed ClangSoul since it felt specific and required a bit of babysitting
- Not sure why these two didnt appear, very comfortably top 10 Pokemon and while they did ahve abd match ups into some cores here (cough cough Weezing), I expected some people to bring them and cook a little. I'm probably high off my Serperior win at the last event, as it carried every set (except for the mirror). Brambleghast has also been problematic to a few players only a few weeks ago, yet to see none of them bother despite there being 4 Talonflame is surprising.
:
| Pokemon | Valerie | gephicka | Sinnoy | Nocturne Nugget | Andruapple | Result |
| Enamorus | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Ban | Banned |
| Kings Rock/Razor Fang | Ban | Ban | Ban | Abstain | Ban | Banned |
| Archaludon | Do Not Ban | Ban | Ban | Do Not Ban | Do Not Ban | Remains Legal |
| Annihilape | Do Not Ban | Ban | Ban | Abstain | Ban | Banned |
| Sneasler | Ban | Ban | Do Not Ban | Do Not Ban | Ban | Banned |
| Articuno | Ban | Ban | Do Not Ban | Ban | Ban | Banned |
Enamorus Archaludon Annihilape Sneasler Articuno
and with rain and you know what, the team is so good into the meta, would not sent paste right now as have to update it a bit. Last yr I was one of the worst players in there, and this yr i played well, I played almost everything perfect move but guess what. Round 1 opponent got my Archaludon 10 time flinched or para'd when I need to hit one move to win. Round 2 my opposition survived at 1hp when it was the lowest roll, round 3 turn 1 dire claw sleep, turn 2 dire claw sleep. So, Like I was screwed so much by the game even if I played nicely. And I didnt sleep till 2:30 am for this. It was a bad experience, but as a player I played very good and I feel I would have top cut easily. But unfortunately, did not. Anyways would review the tournament and in general metagame. and as no one wanted to be the villain. Gephicka did a good job explaining why are they broken in the post above. Rain did the best, and rain is the no 1 structure in metagame and is just so good as nothing can kill easily. and were the top 3 most used pokemon and they can fit so many teams they are amazing pokemon for this format. Psyspam and 
also saw quite a bit play and after these bans they are very much favoured for more play as long as they have tools to beat rain. and are the underrated mons which did quite well into the metagame. Weezing is amazing as most of the top mons were fully relied on their abilities, serperior is another contary mon able to do nice damage, and volcarona can set up in front of most things though we even saw choice specs volcarona. Mausape and Whimsicott are few other things in the meta that did amazing. So overall meta is Rain, Enam, Snow, Balance, Mausape with some common support cast like rockpon or lando-t. 
sir this was not my team, and I did swap it out after set 1, but ty
and its damage output was too overwhelming for this format. It does so much damage with Choice Specs + Tera Fairy Springtide Storm. However, once paired with 's Eerie Impulse and Scary Face, you will see that this duo will put VGC OU's famed duo Choice Scarf Chi-Yu and Choice Specs Tera Fairy Flutter Mane to shame. 
...Flinch Hax. That's it. That's all I have to say. Actually, no, there is actually something I want to say. ), this was banned for all the good reasons. Ahh, Archaludon, the Electro Shot-spamming bridge thebusinesspiggy simps for. This was the only Pokemon not banned on the ban slate. I am neutral on this decision because I believe Archaludon is a bit too bulky for the format and also a "Tera hog", since its steel typing opens it up to being smacked by 's Stomping Tantrums/Earth Powers and 's Earth Powers.'s screens, 's Hospitality healing, its own 
, and its own Stamina ability. This results in the Assault Vest Archaludon relying on its partners to stay alive. I currently think of Archaludon as a "Pseudo Restricted Legendary Pokemon", since the Assault Vest Archaludon functions similar to that a Restricted Pokemon such as Reg G OU's Calm Mind Terapagos. Let's see! Final Gambit, Bulk Up, Rage Fist. Final Gambit, Bulk Up, Rage Fist. FINAL GAMBIT, BULK UP, RAGE FIST. FINAL GAMBIT, BULK UP, RAGE FIST. Hey, you only got three things on this menu! Remember when I said Enamorus allowed DBD to win the Kickoff? Well... I was right, but DBD's win was mostly because of Sneasler. I have never seen more Dire Claw hax in my life viewing DBD's matches. Dire Claw is a disgusting move, allowing a 50% to status when used, which results in a 16.6̅6% to put something to sleep. When paired with , Sneasler can hold the Psychic Seed to boost its Special Defense and activate its Unburden ability. Sneasler deserved its ban more than all of the Pokemon on this slate. Because of this ban, merrypasta may need to resort to using Hawlucha instead. is that bird that we hate. Articuno was first discovered during Worlds 2023, piloted by Patrick Donegan. Everyone brushed it off as a gimmick. Almost one year later, it won Utrecht 2024, piloted by Nikhil Reddy, also known as Tyo online. This single result showed the VGC OU world that Articuno was a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, Articuno never caught on, as players preferred to use balance-orientated strategies such as the infamous Calm Mind Raging Bolt set-up and Gouging Fire Howl Spam. But here we are, in the big 25, and Articuno becomes the menace it was meant to be, outbulking and outlasting most of the 4v4 DUU Reg F format.
Archaludon - Larely agreed on to be the best Pokemon in the tier, exceptionally good at damage trading with the entire metagame and easy to put on your team for its Fake Out utility and great match damage against the Steel-types that crowd the tier. Drain Punch cleanly 2HKOs Archaludon despite the Stamina Boost, and the underrated Close Combat scores a kill. The common Archaludon core has a difficult time getting past Tera Grass Iron Hands, even after multiple Electro Shot boosts, since Pelipper can't stay on the field for extended periods of time to click Hurricane. - These two can run Sunny Day to bolster threats like Heatran, Volcarona, Iron Moth, Walking Wake and make it far easier to overwhelm Archaludon & Basculegion. Thundurus can also use Eerie Impulse instead to cripple Archaludon's damage output and allow for your team to ignore it longer. Whimsicott's Encore and Fake Tears are also tools that must be respected, I think hyper offense naturally has good counterplay
- Following the topic of weather, Archaludon loses a lot of value without Pelipper, and can get punished by Ninetales's Encore or take a massive 60% from Choice Band Tyranitar. Snow and Sand have plenty of lines against Archaludon, especially with Iron Bundle and Excadrill as their partners. - Using it myself, Special attacking Assault Vest / Safety Goggles Landorus is very good at forcing damage on Archaludon, many of your opponents will fail the reading check and click Rage Powder. Choice Band Landorus-T also threates a potential OHKO on Archaludon, providing your team with major potental to outplay It is bad into Basculegion but I will expand on that point in the next section, the primary conclusion is that Landorus can beat Archaludon. - Bonnet can redirect and stomach all of Archaludon & Basculegion's hits, while threatening Spore. Forcing Tera Grass is often a success as Brute Bonnet still puts in major work in the match up with Black Glasses, and the Tera type is quite exploitable. This is why only 2/8 Archaludon went for Tera Grass, and those had an unmpressive winrate of 33%. - Specifically with Tera Grass, a well supported Volcarona is able to outboost Archaludon and heal the damage it takes. Once the Pelipper goes down, Volcarona has a very manageable time taking on the rest of Archaludon's team. 
- Putting all these Pokemon together because I think they're niche and don't encourage them on most teams. The removal of rain and stamina is amazing for Weezing structures, you can then 1v1 it easily with Heatran or Slaking/Regigigas. Gastrodon can outright ignore Basculegion and force Archaludon to click Draco Meteor if it wants to damage it. Archaludon can't actually ignore it either, as it has to fear Yawn even after escaping the Earth Power weakness with Tera. Snarl Assault Vest Thundurus also mitigates Archaludon in a similar way, as it has potent electric-stab for its partners and resists every attack besides Draco Meteor. AndruApple pilted Thundurus + Gastrodon to a top 8 finish before dropping to aurafarm. 
- This is mainly a section for TW Hyper Offense / Hard TR Pokemon, where you don't need your Pokemon to have defensive utility against Archaludon. Enam-T is mainly here as an Enam/Flutter substitute that makes the match up possible from sheer damage.
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---- is honestly more bannable than Archaludon. It's just so fat, though I didn't really struggle with it due to Tera Poison Wo-Chien + Skeledirge walling it. That is this specific team though, I do understand how many players would find this restrictive in the builder to beat it. I don't think it's at bannable status, though. It's kind of like Incineroar if Incineroar didn't have Intimidate and didn't die. Maybe it's because Geph got haxed to hell and back in his own tournament, but this mon did not perform. I think that was due to a huge amount of counter-prep players did for Archaludon: Whimsicott and Thundurus Prankster Sunny Day, Fake Tears, Tera Heatran, and Choice Specs Iron Moth all did really well into Archaludon. Grasses such as Sinistcha, Brute Bonnet, and yours truly Wo-Chien also did extremely well into Archaludon as they resist Electro Shot, and also helped against the inevitable Basculegion trying to clean up endgame in the back. Redirection away from allowing Archaludon to self-proc Stamina also helped. I did vote 2 on the tiering survey--Archaludon does have some unhealthy parts to it, but it's 100% not overwhelming for your builder. Just hit it. On paper, nothing beats this that I've found. People are going to larp that Scarf Lando-T + Heatran kills this? It does not. With proper support and people realizing that Grimmsnarl / Iron Hands / Lando-T / Sinistcha is a really good core, this only gets better and better. I'm not going to say it's broken, even if I had to tech Skeledirge on my team for this. There is 100% counterplay, but volc rockpon is super strong and something I expect to see explored further (if not by the community, then by me). Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Iron Hands meta has not been kind to it. Choice Band Tera Psychic Tera Blast time? (I'm joking... maybe). It does seem to do well into most of the meta not named Iron Hands though, and it forces Basculegion to lock Aqua Jet against it in the endgame. I think it definitely has potential, just needs to be explored.
