Starting off, I think we need to talk about Incineroar
, Flutter Mane
had a 15% usage lead over it in day 1, and in day 2, it was eclipsed by 20%. Urshifu-R
and
also outdid it, and Rillaboom
tied it for 4th in usage. Is Incineroar
overrated all along, not the best Pokemon we thought it was? No.
Incineroar
fits on less teams than Flutter Mane
for sure, because unlike Flutter Mane
, Incineroar
has to face competition from Pokemon like Entei
and Ogerpon-H
. However, Incineroar
's impact on the game is on a whole different level. It's a very versatile Pokemon with an insane toolkit which allows it to positively match into almost anything. It might not be able to 1v1 Ogerpon-W
or Raging Bolt
, but neither like facing it because of its work as an Intimidate pivot.
Here, I piled the Top 30 I mentioned and as we can see, about 75% of the meta does not like handling Incineroar
. This is why Incineroar
rarely Teras, and why it is such a fantastic Pokemon. Incineroar
can switch in and out and disrupt the majority of your team really well, as its partners slowly break through your defensive core.
Overview for why they don't like Incineroar
.
Flutter Mane
hates losing its Specs or having its SpA dropped as Incineroar
pivots into something that can handle it.
Ogrepon-W
doesn't like being intimidated and facing fake out pressure, pushes you to play passively as Incineroar
switches out and then back in, mitigating the presence of your Ogerpon
.
Iron Hands
doesn't like being Intimidated, and if slow, losing the Fake Out game and dropping to -2 because Incineroar
clicked Parting Shot, Knock Off can heavily hinder it.
Raging Bolt
is annoyed by Parting Shot, which can also get a Pokemon that usually doesn't want to take on Its hits, safely in. Landorus
and Draco Meteor for example.
Urshifu
doesn't like the fake out pressure or Intimidate, as Incineroar
resists Wicked Blow. If running a Choice Item, it's especially difficult for it to play around Incineroar
's disruptive toolkit.
Landorus-T
struggles to output as much damage when Intimidated, and because it usually runs Choice Scarf, Fake Out can be dangerous for it.
Entei
is harder to see but simply by being on the field, it threatens Chien-Pao
and prevents Entei
from clicking Sacred Fire, Parting Shot and Knock Off work just as well as ever.
Dondozo
is forced to run Oblivious because of it, and is still vulnerable to a Terastallised Incineroar
which can remove its source of recovery and mitigate the Order Up boosts with Parting Shot.
Tatsugayri
just doesn't like the Fake Out pressure as a Choiced Pokemon, and relies on inaccurate means of hitting Incineroar
.
Archaludon
doesn't enjoy the consistent reset to its Special Attack, and Knock Off can be devastating for your poor Special bulk.
Pelipper
doesn't like Fake Out Pressure, only one that Day 2'd Portland was Protectless Focus Sash if a perfect example.
I assume the bottom row is obvious lmao.
I also believe that Incineroar
is a lot more splashable than Chien-Pao
or Urshifu-R
. New toy syndrome influenced Entei
teams a lot, and while they're very strong, Entei
can not compare to Incineroar
, which as I've explained is insane while also finding a place on almost every single archetype/core. The splashibility can be seen at both Portland and big Limitless tournaments.
Some other thoughts
Urshifu
is really strong right now and has more reasons to run it over its Water type counterpart now that Raging Bolt
is in the picture, Wicked Blow is one of the hardest moves to switch into right now, especially when paired with Flutter Mane
which pressures the few Dark and Fighting types we have. Also super strong into Dondozo
which I find insane right now. Unfortunately Urshifu
is still afraid of priority even when not weak to it, as it really wants the Focus Sash to function on Balance teams. I think a very underexplored idea though is using Urshifu-R
to get past its own weaknesses, Tera Grass in particular means you ignore Spore and Rage Powder, and gives you a resistance to Rillaboom
and Raging Bolt
's otherwise deadly priority. It also helps by walling Ogerpon-W
, however the Pokemon is more manageable thanks to U-turn on the Choice Scarf sets.
Going back to Dondozo
, the 6 Chuppa runs is very strong, Ogerpon
and Glimmora
have incredible synergy and can be used to cripple many otherwise Dondozo
checks. Seeing it in action and playing against it myself, definitely impressed me. Dondozo
also finds itself excelling thanks to the nature of an early format, and there being far less preparation for it, I'm not facing many issues but that's because Iron Hands
is the GOAT.
What took me by a lot of surprise is that Landorus
is no where to be seen with day 2, it looks to be one of the strongest Pokemon with its meta matchup. I imagine teams struggled to adapt against Priority spam teams which exploded in popularity at the regional. No Iron Hands
either but less surprised as people have been underestimating it a lot lately. I've brought Iron Hands to 28 out of 34 games and clicked a move with it 99 times, so I can't doubt it. For comparison, I've brought Flutter Mane
and Amoonguss
to 24 and 23 games respectively, Flutter Mane
clicking a move 48 times and Amoonguss
clicking something 85 times. Really showing how reliable Iron Hands
is into the meta and how long it can last.
Latias
seeing less usage than Farigiraf
is surprising, especially after what I said before the event. In my defense, Latias
had a better conversion rate between the two days, and it was the one that pushed through to Top 8 in the end, so it's not all black and white. I did also expect more Indeedee-F Iron Crown
but I guess its good for me since my current team's matchup into it is straight up unwinnable.
What surprised me the most though, are some of the teams which Day 2'd, like, with all due respect, they're not very good imo..
https://pokepast.es/d58d8148052821c9 - Archaludon
on a rain tram, simple enough, but wait, where is Electro Shot?? The Rillaboom
gimmick is also not great when you can run the consistent Assault Vest and a better Pokemon than Archaludon
like Flutter Mane
or Raging Bolt
. The Landorus-T
also seems a bit off here, why over Landorus
which answers Raging Bolt
better for the team, is less of a Tera Hog, and has perfectly accurate 130 BP spread damage in rain. Just synergises better with the team imo.
https://pokepast.es/06b49916ef1f7b56 - I'm not big on this team because double terrain has been notoriously bad, restricting you in what 4 you bring, and because of Trick Room, which has no abusers here. Looks like it's only for Regidrago
which has proven it doesn't need it to function.
https://pokepast.es/d8001993fcaf9581 - This Suicune
Tailwind team utilises a very weird Archaludon
set, which is just outclassed by Registeel
based on what it's doing right now, something like Raging Bolt
or Landoeus-T
would do you wonders here too.
https://pokepast.es/736eef4490d10487 - This just I will never get, Smeargle
is used in an attempt to support Urshifu
and Gholdengo
which realistically never works because of its frailty and the ever present Urshifu-R
, which in fact annihilates this team apart from Tornadus
which I wouldn't expect to stay on the field for very long. Ursaluna-B
is also used as a downgraded Landorus
here, not exploiting Tailwind and hitting significantly less harder.
https://pokepast.es/bf96de2b27f3a888 - This team looks all over the place, double redirection and Incineroar
make a very slow team, tasked with supporting Glimmora
which is arguably questionable already. As Glimmora is still attacking when it sets up. This just does not mix with Latias
' Tailwind, which isn't being exploited enough due to it being meant for faster paced teams. Going to ignore the Metagross
even though I think the Flutter Mane
matchup is fine as it is.
https://pokepast.es/e55ff22a2559a871 - We also have the aforementioned protectless focus sash Pelipper
which I mightve let slide if it was Tera Ghost, but it's a reckless Tera Flying. This inconsistently in setting Tailwind forces you to run Tera Poison Urshifu-R
and Baxcalibur
, even though the team appreciates Tera Grass and a strong Pokemon that synergises with the team like Landorus
, Incineroar
, or Raging Bolt
. Tera Dark Amoonguss
also doesn't make sense to me when you have Wide Guard and It is one of the few reasons your team wouldn't get murdered by Urshifu-R
. The unlikely Tailwind also means Flutter Mane is running Speed Booster despite being paired with Archaludon
and Choice Scarf Urshifu-R
lmao.
These teams may not be to my liking but they're not horrible, 7-2 is still a great record showcasing what the teams can do, I just find it to be really sub optimal.
.
which requires a crazy amount of speed to avoid taking huge damage from Flare Blitz in exchange of the Defiant boost. We've already mentioned Inner Focus a bit. 
