What's the thing with VGC 2013?: A 2025 Perspective

With the closure of Regulation H many players got a taste of a more down to earth, low power ceiling format which many enjoyed. While not everyone was happy, mostly due to Sneasler, generally I can say Regulation H was one of the more enjoyable formats for the casual players. However with the return of Regulation G unfortunately many players might be wanting a more pure Pokémon experience. That is where VGC 2013 comes in! While there are many differences between VGC 2013 and Regulation H, there are a quite a bit of similarities: From how similar Gem's function to Terra or how similar the metagame is, after all Wolfe Glick himself just won a regional with a Perish Rain core. Or perhaps just even the relative power ceiling is similar. Fore Reg H enjoyers VGC 2013 will not be out of your comfort zone. VGC 2013 was the official competitive format Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 and was the format for the 2013 season. In those times the competitive scene was significantly smaller and information was more scarce, however I would like to compile most of my knowledge and experience of the format from having played and practiced it for the last half a year and show you all how you can play it, and play it well.

First let's start with the game mechanic changes from now to then.
-Critical Hits do 2x damage instead of 1.5x
-Weather is permanent when summoned by Drizzle, Drought, Sandstream or Snow Warning unless removed using a move or a different weather condition is summoned
-Hail exist and not snow, and does not grant a +1 Def buff to Ice Types and also does 1/16th chip damage per turn like Sandstorm
-Speed Order is determined at the beginning of the turn. because of this Prankster + Tailwind does not provide and immediate speed boost nor does switching to a weather setter mid-turn adjust the speed
-Electric-Types can be Paralyzed, and Grass-Types are affected by Spore and Rage Powder
-Dark Types are not immune to Prankster Status moves
-Ghost types can be trapped by Shadow Tag and Mean Look
-Terrastalization doesn't exist, instead Type Gem's exist which when held by a Pokémon give a single 1.5x damage boost the first time an attack of that same type is used Gem's are not burned when attacking into protect.
-There are certain move and ability differences between gen 9 to gen 5 to consider, Hidden Power is the most significant

Next is the rules.
-Flat Double Battle Rules, all Pokémon above level 50 will be set to level 50
-You must have at least 4 Pokémon in your party, but up to 6
-You cannot use Wonder Launcher
-All Pokémon must be legally obtainable in an actual physical game
-You cannot use two Pokémon of the same species determined by the Pokémon's Dex number
-You cannot use two Pokémon which are holding the same held item
-You cannot use Pokemon with the moves Dark Void or Sky Drop, Sky Drop is banned because of a glitch that exist on physical cartridges of Black 2 & White 2
-You cannot use the item Soul Dew
-You cannot use the following Pokemon:
-Mewtwo
-Mew
-Lugia
-Ho-Oh
-Celebi
-Kyogre
-Groudon
-Rayquaza
-Jirachi
-Deoxys
-Chatot
-Dialga
-Palkia
-Giratina
-Phione
-Manaphy
-Darkrai
-Shaymin
-Arceus
-Victini
-Reshiram
-Zekrom
-Kyurem
-Keldeo
-Meloetta
-Genesect

So with all of that out of the way we can perhaps start to discuss teambuilding, Metagame Discussion, and other anecdotes. However if you just want some sample teams here you go:
Mean's 2013 World Champion Team
Gegebo's 2013 World Championships 2nd Place Team
Cybertron's 2013 World Championships 3rd Place Team
Benjamin Gould's 2013 World Championships 4th Place Team
Sejun Park's 2013 World Championships Top 8 Team
Ray Rizzo's 2012 World Champion Team
Wolfe Glick's 2012 World Championships 2nd Place Team
Kingofkongs' 2013 United States National Champion Team
Ben Kyriakou's 2013 United Kingdom National Champion Team
Matteo Gini & Alberto Gini's 2013 Italian & German National Champion Team
Sejun Park's 2013 Korean National Champion Team

While certainly these team are constructed well and will probably yield some form of results, it is important to mention that many of them represent team building logic, metagame trends and format quirks that existed in 2013 and often do not represent optimal teams in 2025. There are notable differences between now and then. First being that battle timer is not a real win condition in 2025, this is due to battle timer only being available at real-life events and through online ladder play on physical cartridge and since battle timer cannot be done on a physical cartridge in 2025 it is no longer necessary to optimize your team for winning via battle timer, and often times in the past players made team decisions based on the timer. Next being information was a lot more scarce, finding team sheets from back then was difficult, over here in the west it was hard to figure out what the Japanese metagame was like due to non-existent translation, and because of this more players now know how to EV and what metagames trends make the most sense more than they did back in 2013. Lastly there are differing metagame trends, around the time of the 2013 World Championships there was an over representation of Heatran and the Genies that misrepresents the true viability those Pokémon have and therefore can skew your perspective on what Pokémon and strategies are optimal. In hindsight I can safely say Rain teams were far stronger than their representation would suggest. Speaking of the metagame lets start our detailed Breakdown of it (This will be VERY long).

Rain:
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Rain is the most Metagame defining team type in the 2013 Metagame. Rain is a strategy which abused synergies between the Rain weather condition and abilities, moves and types. The most prominent synergy is the combo of Swift Swim & Rain. Swift Swim gives a Pokemon a +2 Speed while in Rain giving Kingdra up to a 300 speed stat at Timid nature 252 Spe EV. There is nothing and I really do mean nothing that can reach that number within Rain that is worth playing. Pair this lightning fast seahorse with 140 Base Power Stab Draco Meteor and 95 Base Power spread Muddy Water in Rain, and you have arguably the most offensively threatening Pokémon that exist in the format. Politoed is also a really good support Pokémon since it gets access to Helping Hand for extra damage, Icy Wind for speed control and encore to punish Protect. Kingdra is most normally ran with Life Orb, with Lum Berry being also really common however Kingdra can be ran with a bunch of different items so I would hold back from assuming the item if you get matched up against it. Politoed is most commonly ran with Wacan Berry, but Sitrus Berry, Water Gem and Choice Specs are not incredibly uncommon. Rain was meta relevant in 2013 however, due to small tournament's hosted after the fact Rain has been seen to consistently get around 30% representation across all of them making it the most common weather team as well as the most common team type in general.

Balanced Rain:
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Balanced Rain is the most common variant of Rain since it just abused the natural synergies Rain provides, this is usually in the form of Grass and Steel types that benefit from the reduced Fire Damage, and Electric types which can use Thunder instead of Thunderbolt for Extra damage. The most common options for this team style are Thundurus-Incarnate and Breloom since both do a good job preventing Trick Room and Spore, both of which can be difficult to deal with otherwise, as well as covering for Rain's weakness against bulky Water-Type Pokémon. Breloom is nice because it threatens Spore itself as well as gives you an out against Ferrothorn. Thundurus-incarnate gives you can alternative form of speed control in Thunder Wave.

Perish Rain:
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Perish Rain is less common but probably stronger since instead of using Breloom and Thundurus-Incarnate to deal with Trick Room, This variant sets up a combo of Perish Trap used by Politoed and Shadow Tag by Gothitelle to lock the opponent's front two Pokémon on field and secure a double KO. This variant was used as a superior cover for Rain's fundamental weakness to Trick Room. The Combo requires you lead in Kingdra and Politoed and if your opponent lacks a way to KO Gothitelle or Politoed you can switch Kingdra out for Gothitelle and use Perish Song with Politoed to put them on a timer. Then all you need to do is stall until the final turn of Perish Song where you can either switch and preserve Gothitelle and Politoed turn the game into a 2v2 but you have Kingdra in the Rain. Landorus-Therian is essentially mandatory in this team type since it gives you a way to deal with Thundurus-Incarnate who prevents the Perish Trap Combo and Remove Tyranitar who is another Pokemon that stops Perish Trap. Gothitelle is always ran with Sitrus Berry or Chesto Berry, however occasionally trainers prefer Gothorita with Eviolite since it has more bulk even if it is prone to getting double up on. Landorus-Therian is always ran with Focus Sash or Choice Scarf depending on the usage.

Trick Room Rain:
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Trick Room Rain Typically opts for an overall slower team usually build around the tank that is Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn provides a good option against Bulky Water-Types and Tyranitar both of which are common to face as a Rain Pilot. Ferrothorn also gives you a good switch in against Draco Meteor and can totally wall certain Latios sets. This is paired with a Trick Room setter such as Jellicent, Bronzong, Cresselia or even Gothitelle and allows for Ferrothorn to either slowly win with leech seed, or set up with Curse. Ferrothorn is usually ran with Leftovers.

Rain Counters:
Amoongus.png
Magmar.png
Togekiss.png
+
Hydreigon.png
Latios.png

Redirection + Dragon: Unfortunately for Rain team essentially every Variant struggles against Redirection + Draco Meteor user. This is because on most Variants of Rain your primary way to deal with Dragons is with Kingdra, Bulky Redirection Pokemon can completely survive a Draco Meteor, and Muddy Water will no do a lot against a Hydreigon or Latios which both resist Water. While Thundurus-Incarnate can be used to get a taunt off on the redirector, this can be negated with a mental herb, or exploited with a Draco Meteor Targeting the Thundurus-Incarnate instead.
Suicune.png
Rotom-Wash.png
Empoleon.png
Gyarados.png

Bulky Water-Types: While a Bulky Water Type itself is not impossible to deal with the issue is that it will force you to bring an out for it, which can make your team much more predictable than otherwise. Suicune is probably the worst since it can reduce your special attack with Snarl, and nullify Swift Swim with Tailwind, It also does not help that it has awesome defensive stats that make it difficult to even two shot. Rotom-Wash is another common counter, It has the ability to set up Light Screen to Negate the Rain Boost, has enough bulk to survive Draco Meteor and can hit Politoed for super effective damage with Thunderbolt. making Rotom-Wash a no brainer for Balanced Rain teams. Empoleona and Gyarados are less common but similarly difficult options as they both offer something unique, Empoleon Resist Water, Ice and Dragon the only attack types Politoed or Kingdra use. Gyarados offers an additional out to the Perish Trap combo in the form of Taunt and can cripple Kingdra's speed with Thunder Wave.
Abomasnow.png

Abomasnow: Abomasnow destroys you, from removing Rain, to doing chip damage with Hail, hitting Politoed super effectively and threaten freezes with Blizzard Abomasnow is a match up nightmare since Rain teams rarely ever run a Fire-Type attack let alone a dedicated Fire-Type Pokémon. While a Steel-Type can help this matchup, Abomasnow is usually paired with a Trick Room setter requiring you a bring a Trick Room counter usually being Breloom, Amoongus or Thundurus-Incarnate who are all weak to Blizzard. Perish Rain fairs well into Abomasnow but Balanced versions really struggle into it.
Gastrodon.png
Ludicolo.png
Ferrothorn.png

Counter Teaming: Since rain is so common it is by far the mostly likely to be hard counter teamed. The Three most likely candidates are Gastrodon, Ludicolo and Ferrothorn. Gastrodon completely removes the threat or Muddy Water with the ability Storm Drain, Icy Wind is a support move which can lower your speed and nullify the speed boost from Swift Swim. Lucicolo as Swift Swim itself making it faster than everything besides Kingdra, It also Double resist Water as well as has fake out for support and takes neutral to Electric and Grass attacks which are most commonly used as the move type to out bulky Water types. Ferrothorn is the most likely since like Empoleon it resist all Attack Types Politoed and Kingdra typically run and Rain teams not using a fighting type have an impossible time trying to out it.

While considering all the counters to Rain is important for non-Rain players, it is even more important for Rain players to understand what makes it difficult to win. However Rain is not the only Weather condition that often gets abused.

(This Thread will Be continued in Follow-Up Post Stay tuned!)
 

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Sand:
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Sand is an alternative weather condition that trades a little bit for power for a superior Rain match up, and a strong matchup against the format's defining Dragon being Latios. Sand Teams use Excadrill with Sand Rush to give it double speed which at Adamant 252 Spe EV equates to a 280 speed stat leaving everything in the dust. The primary benefit to this team type is that you get to use Tyranitar over Politoed who was a vastly superior Pokémon and that Excadrill gives you a Dragon Resist on your team while also being immune to Thunder Wave which cripples Kingdra. Tyranitar is usually ran with Chople Berry, but some variants of sand opt for Choice Scarf, and Excadrill is ran with either Life Orb, Ground Gem or Focus Sash.

Balanced Sand:
Latios.png
Amoongus.png

Balanced Sand is the primary Sand Variant since it surrounds Excadrill with Levitators like Latios, and Ground and Water resist like Amoongus. This team gives a varied offensive approach giving the team the ability to use either Excadrill or Latios with Amoongus for a turn of set-up or a hyper offensive combo of Excadrill and Latios which can tear holes in unprepared teams. Latios and Amoongus are by far the most necessary options since it gives you a pretty hard out to Rain teams. Latios is ran with either Dragon Gem or life Orb depending on usage, and Amoongus can be ran with a bunch of different items including Lum Berry, Mental Herb, Sitrus Berry, Rocky Helmet or Eject Button.

R-Inanimate's Fake Sand:
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This is a common variant of Sand.. or is it? Randy Kwa A.K.A. R-Inanimate throughout the 2013 season piloted a Balanced team that ran Excadrill and Tyranitar but instead of the normal Chople Tyranitar with Sand Rush Excadrill, he opted for Mold Breaker Excadrill. This difference helped his team's natural weakness to Rotom-Wash and Cresselia and made his team much less predictable and therefore harder to counter. Often times opponents might over predict the Sand Rush play that they lead trying to hard counter it, however R-Inanimate's version allowed him to still lead Excadrill into matchups most players would not consider. Togekiss was his choice of Redirection instead of Amoongus, since it was immune to Earthquake even with Mold Breaker. Furthermore he opted for Breloom as his grass type option as it was strong into Rain but a lot more offensive than Amoongus. This version also normally runs Latios, but the major difference is Choice Scarf Tyranitar who can stun opponents who expect to outspeed.

Sand Counters:
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Ground-Types: Landorus-Therian and Garchomp pose a significant issue for Sand. Landorus-Therian can cripple Tyranitar an Excadrill's attack while also completely walling Excadrill in the process and threatening Earhquake to both. Garchomp is similar, however instead of having the Intimidate it has a chance to dodge attacks with Sand Veil which can make a single unlucky turn game over for Sand Teams. While Ice Beam on Tyranitar can mitigate this issue it is just a bandaid solution to a deeper issue to the team.
Amoongus.png
Breloom.png

Grass-Types: Similarly to Rain, Grass-Types generally pose an issue since they resist spread Earthquake and in the case of Breloom it can threaten your Excadrill and Tyranitar badly and can even put your Amoongus to sleep before it can move. Amoongus itself is a problem because of it's tankiness, because of your weakness to it, it almost necessities using Life Orb Psyshock Latios which can constrain team building.
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Levitate: For Obvious reasons Levitate can be a major problem, It can stop your Excadrill from dealing damage which eliminates most of the payoff for Excadrill. Furthermore levitate users do not take super effective damage to Rock Slide unlike flying types. R-Inanimate's Balanced Team does not have this problem but Sand Rush Excadrill does badly.
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Intimidate: Hey! Landorus-Therian is back. Well Intimidate is a problem for Sand as your main lead of Tyranitar, Excadrill both get crippled by Intimidate, furthermore the users of Intimidate all matchup well against you Gyarados is immune to Earthquake and deals super effective damage to both Tyranitar and Excadrill. Hitmontop offer Fake-Out and Feint support while also being able to OHKO both Tyranitar and Excadrill. Landorus-Therian just oblitorates you for all the reasons mention earlier, Salamence is also immune to Earthquake but can also counter you Latios when holding a Choice Scarf, and Scrafty can deal with Excadrill, Tyranitar and Latios Easily while tanking their hits and healing up with Drain Punch.

Unfortunately for Sand teams it often feels like your biggest limitation is matchups and while you can make the Rain matchup easy, it is hard to do that and make the matchup against Landorus-Therian easy, meaning that is often feels like you must pick and choose what you lose too which is a bad mentality to have for a tournament.

(This Thread will Be continued in Follow-Up Post Stay tuned!)
 
Before we continue, I want to give a thanks to the team running the RoA for making an actual ladder for VGC13 possible as well as the 300+ Players who have given the format a shot. Since staring my return to Pokemon I would never think so many people from different places and backgrounds would be playing a relatively niche classic format as VGC13 and I thank every one of you for playing with us and I hope that we can give this format more life as time goes on.
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I also want to say grinding ladder is tough mostly because of the incredible skill many of these players have that far surpasses my own, but I will keep trying my best and improving as time goes on. I was about a win away from being top Rank for a moment but Oopsgtg had other plans... That guy is an incredible player so if you face him you are probably not going to win. There were plenty of interesting team concepts on Ladder however I do wish to say for everyone playing a sample team; I'd recommend building something of your own. Everyone has a different playstyle and team types that they feel the most comfortable with so please do experiment and test around it will make the ladder experience for everyone a much better experience. So with that out of the way let us return to our regularly scheduled Metagame breakdown.

Trick Room:
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Cofagrigrus.png
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Slowking.png

Trick Room really isn't a team but more of a general strategy to build around a bunch of slow Pokémon who are balanced around the fact that they are slow. Trick Room itself is a very low priority move that changes the move order in the battle so that the Pokémon with the lowest speed stats go first and it last for the next 4 turns. While for newer players this may seem convoluted, experienced player understand the payoff is huge, and furthermore Trick Room allows you to generally have a good matchup against otherwise dominant Pokémon such as Kingdra. Cresselia is the most common Pokémon that learns Trick Room, mostly because of it's monstrous defenses, but also because of it's mono-Psychic typing and ability Levitate with Otherwise negates strong spread attackers like Landorus-Therian, Garchomp and Excadrill. Cresselia has the benefit of also being able to be used outside of dedicated Trick Room Teams which can sometimes make your team less predictable. Jellicent is also common due to being immune to Fake-Out, having Stab Water Spout and Scald, and getting the move Will-O-Wisp to cripple physical attackers, a move that Cresselia does not get. Bronzong offers a superior typing to Cresselia and Jellicent as well as Levitate and is often picked with Politoed to make Bronzong have 0 weaknesses when in Rain. Porygon2 only have a single weakness to Fighting, has a diverse move pool and better Special Attack when compared to Cresselia or Jellicent. Cofagrigus and Misdreavous like Jellicent are immune the Fake Out however are pure Ghost-Type, because of this the primary reason to use either of them would be because they both offer superior bulk, Cofagrigus is much more Physically Bulky than Jellicent and Misdreavous is significantly more Specially Bulky. Slowking is another rogue option that gives you both Water and Psychic STAB, a horrifically slow base 30 speed and a 100 SpA. Now while ANY team can have a Trick Room mode, there are some team builds that prioritize the Trick Room mode more than their weather abuser, or Tailwind mode.

Gegebo's Team:
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Tyranitar.png
Conkeldurr.png
+
Thundurus-Incarnate.png
or
Rotom-Wash.png

Kind of the precursor to the 2015 World's dominating CHALK, Heatran Trick Room is an incredibly common team that exist in VGC13. The Team concept involves setting up Trick Room with Cresselia and then using Fire Gem boosted Eruptions and sweeping through the opponent's entire team. While the specifics of an "optimal" Heatran Trick Room team are often debated most people have used Cresselia, Heatran, Landorus-Therian, Tyranitar, Conkeldurr and an Electric type most because of the infamous 2013 Worlds Semi-Finals matchup where Gegebo and Cybertron matched up against one another. Both teams do have minor differences, Cybertron's Cresselia was running Chesto Berry and Rest, while Gegebo was Sitrus Berry Helping Hand. Cybertron's Heatran was using Hidden Power Grass instead of Earth Power, Gegebo was on Iron Ball Fling Tyranitar, while Cybertron had the standard Chople Berry Tyranitar. However the primary difference was Thundurus-Incarnate VS Rotom-Wash. Thundurus-Incarnate was a Leftovers Bulky set with Taunt, Thunder Wave and Swagger with Leftovers that helps against the Perish Rain Team, Other Trick Room Teams and gives the team an alternate form of speed Control. Rotom-Wash instead improves your matchup against Physical Attackers like Scrafty, Conkeldurr, Landorus-Therian and Mamoswine. Furthermore It's serves as a Water Resist that Gegebo's team completely lacks. Furthermore the playstyle is a little different, on Gegebo's Team the Leads are almost Always, Cresselia + Landorus-Therian. Cresselia + Thundurus-Incarnate, or Landorus-Therian + Thundurus-Incarnate. The Leads for Cybertron's team are almost always Cresselia + Rotom-Wash unless Cresselia + Landorus-Therian would be better.

Abomasnow Trick Room:
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+
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or
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Abomasnow Trick Room was a popular team type for the World Championship format since it abused metagame trends. Back in 2013 many players used Thundurus-Incarnate and Tyranitar as band-aid solutions for a bad Trick Room matchup. However a Trick Room team with this composition of Abomasnow, Jellicent, Scrafty, and a Lightning Rod user; makes it incredibly hard for teams to stop Trick Room from coming up. since The Ground Types suck up Thunderbolt from Thundurus-Incarnate, and can threaten significant damage onto Tyranitar. Furthermore Scrafty offers Fake-Out Support and Abomasnow gives you guaranteed Blizzards for a rougly 19% Chance every turn for a Freeze and because fo Giga Drain can make it hard for an opponent Water-Type to stay on field for long. When building this team the main question to ask is who is your Eviolite user. Magmar was the option Sejun Park chose since it offers a way to redirect Hidden Power Fire, Meteor Mash and Bug Bite away from Abomasnow However this means that you cannot use Rhydon meaning you are forced to use either Marowak or Rhyperior who do offer superior Offense but don't survive Latios Draco Meteor unless you are Sassy 252 HP 252 SpD. Rhydon does allow you more freedom however you then miss out on Redirection support from Magmar, and while Togekiss, Electabuzz, and Amoongus can do that for you, none support Abomasnow nearly as well.

Lum Berry Metagross:
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Metagross.png

This is not so much of a team as it is a concept that many balanced teams use. Lum Berry Metagross is a common Pokémon since it is immune to intimidate, gives you a way to prevent sleep, burn or paralysis, but most importantly it allows you to prevent confusion. Because of this in 2012 Ray Rizzo won the World Championship using a team with Lum Berry Metagross with exactly 82 speed so that within Trick Room he could Swagger his own Metagross with his Cresselia and give his Metagross a +2 Attack allowing it to OHKO essentially anything that was not Cresselia, Scizor or Focus Sash'd. This combo was sometimes used with Latios to form a Psyspam core that abused the fact that most players used only a single Pokemon to out Psychic-Types. While Ray Rizzo's Metagross Strategy can be used on any team, It is important to consider the possibility of the combo for any team so being able to out Metagross in Trick Room is important.

(Next Post will be Trick Room counters, Hold Tight!)
 

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Trick Room Counters:
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Amoongus: Let's start with the elephant in the room, Amoongus completely obliterates Trick Room, from being able to Spore Trick Room setters, to being able to redirect attacks, and having a mere base 30 speed stat only being under-sped by tech options like Escavalier or Ferrothorn or Torkoal. Amoongus can be lead or switch in against Trick Room and can drop Spore's as the fastest Pokemon on field. While Trick Room teams can run Amoongus themselves, generally all it will do is buy you a turn with rage powder and it can be difficult to maneuver and Attacker + Amoongus in Trick Room since pretty much none of the Trick Room setters are the most offensively threatening Pokémon.
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Perish Trap: Perish Trap Combo is a big limiting factor Trick Room teams as it forces them to play outs for it or hard-lose. Since no Trick Room setter can offensively threaten an OHKO on Politoed or Gothitelle, it requires that you bring a Pokemon that can, which can make your team building process a lot more difficult. While yes Thundurus-Incarnate can function as a band-aid solution being able to Taunt Politoed or Gothitelle; It can also be brute forced by Kingdra or Hard countered by a Landorus-Therian lead.
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Taunt Users: Taunt itself poses a problem since it can prevent Trick Room from coming up on the board, this can be fixed one of two ways. Either by leading in 2 Trick Room setters which poses a problem for you since you struggle to exert offensive pressure, or you have to run mental Herb on your Trick Room setter which means you can't run Lum Berry or Chesto Berry to prevent sleep and you also cannot run Sitrus Berry to prevent being double up on. Furtunately, as you might notice Landorus-Therian counters essentially all of the most common Taunt Options in the game since almost all of them are weak to either Stone-Edge or Earthquake. However do keep it mind if you are forced to lead Trick Room Setter + Landorus-Therian to disrupt their Taunt Pokémon, that can become incredibly predictable and in a Bo3 tournament setting that can be exploited Games 2 & 3.
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Counter Teaming: Do Keep in mind that as a Trick Room player, other players will often run bizarre Tech Choices so they can have a Pokémon with the speed edge in Trick Room while Amoongus is by far the most common Hard-counter it is not the only one people can play. Conkeldurr is the most common since it under speeds Heatran, Metagross, Tyranitar and Abomasnow while being able to hit all but Metagross for super effective damage. Furthermore because of Mach Punch is can prevent Eruption's coming out from Heatran. Hammer Arm poses another issue since it can further decrease the speed of Conkeldurr while Drain Punch can allow Conkeldurr to heal itself. Gastrodon is another common choice since it can hit Metagross, Tyranitar, and Heatran all for super effective while being slower than all of them, can offer speed control in Icy Wind Outside of Trick Room and can punish players for not running any Grass attacks. Escavalier is another Tech that abuses the fact that Cresselia is the most common Trick Room setter and can damage it with Megahorn for serious damage. 20 Base speed also means that Escavalier under speeds even Amoongus in Trick Room. Torkoal is the least common but gives teams an out to Amoongus in Trick Room, Ray Rizzo himself tried using this as a way to prevent Amoongus inside of Trick Room.
 

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Balanced:
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Let's finally talk about Balanced teams. Balanced teams (Sometimes called Goodstuff) are teams with a "Balanced" Offensive gameplan. I think the better way to define it is teams that choose the best 6 Pokémon available and try to win by saying to their opponent "HAHA I have better Pokémon" obviously that is an egregious underrepresentation of what goes into Balanced Teambuilding but I also think it gets the point across. Most of them use predetermined gameplans for specific matchups in the Metagame rather than a general gameplan for all matchups. The main strength of balance is that you have a lot of flexibility with your play as well as your teambuilding compared to playing Rain, Sand, Perish or Trick Room centered teams which can often make your team much more difficult to counter. However this also can make your team a lot more underwhelming since you lack the overpowered synergies that exist in the previously mentioned strategies. No combo you have will be as generically strong as Politoed + Kingdra. Furthermore It can also become much more difficult to play since your strategy becomes matchup dependent which can often make your team feel like multiple separate teams instead of a single core group.

Tailwind + Generics:
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Tailwind + Generics is an incredibly common way to play Balanced because it can fix a lot of the underwhelming Power concerns by giving you a superior form of speed control in the form of Tailwind. Typically these teams will focus on leading Tailwind Setters in every matchup besides against Trick Room. Tornadus-Incarnate is the most common Tailwind setter since it can do so with priority in Tailwind due to Prankster, and while this is not nearly as overpowered as it in in later generations due to the way speed is calculated within Black 2 & White 2 having the priority Tailwind can be completely impossible for an opponent to stop outside of Fake Out. Suicune is also an incredibly common Tailwind option since it offers levels of bulk only Cresselia can achieve while also being able to offer a Water resist and Water STAB which can be a good cover for Steel-Types. Togekiss Offers Redirection with Tailwind, and also impressive bulk overall. Latias offers Draco Meteor STAB while having incredible speed and Special bulk. Whimsicott can also set Tailwind with Priority but also offers little to no offensive utility. Latios is well, Latios and can be tech'd to run Tailwind, same goes for Zapdos who is sometimes preferred over Thundurus due to it's access to Tailwind as well as better bulk. Hydreigon and Salamence also can learn Tailwind which can be important to remember in the matchup against either Pokémon.

Latios Balanced:
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Latios is the most commonly built around Pokemon in Balanced since it offers the single strongest single target attack in the 140 Base Power Draco Meteor which can punch holes straight through a team, furthermore Latios also offers a base 110 speed which is only beaten by Choice Scarf users and Tornadus-Incarnate. The Only Dragon which can outspeed Latios consistently is Kingdra who require Rain and can be countered easily with redirection support leading to Amoongus being an obvious choice since it also resist Water as well as offers Rage Powder Support. Typically this combo is tech'd for Rain with the third move on Latios being either Substitute or Sunny Day so it can avoid being beaten by an opposing Dragon-Type such as Kingdra. This combo is also good into Trick Room teams especially Cybertron's since Modest Dragon Gem Latios can OHKO Rotom-Wash and Amoongus can remove the pesky Chesto Berry from Cresselia and forced Cresselia to attack on the first turn since Trick Room will allow you speedy Spores. the only complaint about this combo besides the Poor Abomasnow matchup, is that it can often be hard countered by certain lead combos and is generally bad into Metagross.

TopMoth:
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TopMoth is a lead combo very popular in 2012 that still exist in 2013 since if it does not get countered it can result in an automatic victory. The gameplan is usually simple you Fake Out Whatever threatens Volcarona, and Click Quiver Dance for the +1 SpA SpD & Spe boost. Hitmontop is generally the best pair with Volcarona because it offers you Helping Hand, Wide Guard, and Feint moves that the alternatives do not get, as well as having an easy way to OHKO Tyranitar with Fighting Gem Close Combat. Scrafty or Ludicolo can both be tech'd to fix matchups against certain Pokemon like Jellicent or Landorus-Therian which match up well into this lead combo. Overall the real power of TopMoth is not that it is necessarily unbeatable, but rather that it forced your opponent to bring outs to the combo which can make their leads predictable.

Korean Liepard:
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Korean liepard is a combo that abuses the interaction of Fake Out and Spore, where you can Fake Out any fast Pokemon which can threaten Breloom, and Spore any Pokemon that is either slower than Breloom or that does not threaten you. While you normally can protect yourself from this with Protect, Liepard with Encore can trap you into the move essentially nullifying any Pokémon that has the misfortune of using Protect on the first turn. Focus Sash can prevent Breloom from being OHKO'd by the other non-Fake Out Pokémon. This lead is often countered by any Pokemon with Lum Berry or Chesto Berry, however against teams that do not run any direct counter to this, it can be difficult to deal with.

(This thread will be continued in the future!)
 

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VGC 2013 Ladder Results
https://pokemonshowdown.com/ladder/gen5vgc2013

Screenshot 2025-02-01 075311.png

Screenshot 2025-02-01 075414.png

Screenshot 2025-02-01 075427.png

1: Radio Free C-Side
:Landorus-Therian::Rotom-Wash::Cresselia::Metagross::Volcarona::Tornadus:
2, 4, 5, 6, 30: contra92
:Landorus-Therian::Thundurus::Cresselia::Metagross::Heatran::Amoonguss: (2, 4, 6)
:Landorus-Therian::Thundurus::Cresselia::Tyranitar::Heatran::Amoonguss: (5, 30)
3, 7: Jaden_Copeland
:Rhydon::Politoed::Kingdra::Metagross::Volcarona::Breloom: (3)
:Landorus-Therian::Thundurus::Cresselia::Metagross::Suicune::Hydreigon: (7)
8, 13, 28: MosquitoVGC
:Landorus-Therian::Thundurus::Cresselia::Metagross::Suicune::Tyranitar: (8, 13)
:Landorus-Therian::Thundurus::Cresselia::Metagross::Tyranitar::Amoonguss: (28)
9: Prismatic Evo
:Hitmontop::Tornadus::Hydreigon::Tyranitar::Volcarona::Amoonguss:
10, 14, 26: Lucien Lachance
:Landorus-Therian::Rotom-Wash::Cresselia::Metagross::Volcarona::Tornadus: (10, 14)
:Landorus-Therian::Rotom-Wash::Cresselia::Metagross::Magmar::Hydreigon: (26)
11, 21: Zubola
:Landorus-Therian::Tornadus::Cresselia::Tyranitar::Heatran::Amoonguss: (11, 21)
12. nerd of now
:Conkeldurr::Thundurus::Cresselia::Kingdra::Politoed::Amoonguss:
15. eewww
:Landorus-Therian::Rotom-Heat::Cresselia::Tyranitar::Gastrodon::Tornadus:
16. I Am a Rookie
:Terrakion::Thundurus-Therian::Kingdra::Scizor::Politoed::Amoonguss:
17. thomas iron train
18. gengargoons1
19. bidoofutopia
:conkeldurr::rotom-wash::cresselia::bisharp::volcarona::latios:
20. gnezze
22. UsausaBallonVGC
:Landorus-Therian::Thundurus::Cresselia::Tyranitar::Heatran::Conkeldurr:
23. BOTWspeedruns
24. timetosaygoodboy
25. jkimjkim1
27. joej m
:Landorus-Therian::Thundurus::Latias::Scizor::Chandelure::Gastrodon:
29. april32

Thank you to everyone on the Pokétopia server for helping compile the teams. Most of the players on this list are part of our server, and we encourage you to join if you're interested in VGC 2013!
 
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