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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
+
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.
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: 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.
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!)
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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: 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.
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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