An Analysis of the Largest VGC Tournament Ever! #pokemon #vgc #metagame

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]Welcome back to Zero to Hero. Today we're taking a look at the results from the Grand Champion Festival, the largest online nonlatter tournament in VGC history. With incredible prizing and a free entry, as well as a number of big names supporting this event, it's no surprise that the turnout was so incredible. This tournament also ran open team sheets in a best of three format, which is the same as official tournaments and is a departure from the closed sheets best of one ladder that we've been playing in game in Champions so far. Today, we're going to take a look at the top 12 Pokémon in the metag game, as well as discuss some other Pokémon that didn't quite make the top 12. And using data from labmouse.net, we can also pick out Pokémon specifically that had high win rates, as well as Pokémon pairings that had high win rates and entire teams that had high win rates. This can help a lot with team building as it can give you specifically good pairings rather than just individual Pokémon. Of course, we're also going to discuss why the Pokemon at the top of the metag game are at the top of the metag game and how they've had quite an impact on each other. Just before we get into it, make sure to leave a like and subscribe. The Pokémon Champions Metagame has developed quite a bit from the launch of the game and even from its first week. Many of the top Pokémon are as expected, but there are a solid amount of Pokémon that were unexpected that have risen to the top.

[00:01:16]Sneezler, Garchomp, and Sinar and King Gambit lead the charge as the four mostused Pokemon, and all of these really were expected to do well.

[00:01:24]Although King Gambit at least might not have been expected to reach the number four spot, which is quite high. We'll go through these very common meta picks relatively quickly unless there's a significant departure from their normal sets. Sneezler was still running its most standard set for the most part, but Garchomp landed in second place over Incinor, and Garchomp has seen a significant variety in its sets. So, let's dive into that for a bit. Most Pokémon have one or two items that make up the vast majority of their move sets, but Garchomp has five items above 10% usage and a sixth item at 9%, giving this Pokémon quite a bit of set variety.

[00:02:00]While it's a move set is quite standard, running protect, earthquake, rock slide, and dragonclaw, as well as stomping tantrum on scarf sets, the EV spreads and items are where we see the diversity. Again, choice scarf was the most common item, followed up by citrus berry, white herb, habanberry, soft sand, and lumbberry. White herb gives Garchomp an even better matchup into Incinor, allowing it to ignore one intimidate and hit it hard with ground attacks. While these other options like Haven and Citrus Berry are likely seen on bulkier Garchomp sets, despite being a fast physical attacker, with some defensive investment, it can be incredibly bulky, even surviving many fairy attacks and even non-stab ice attacks. Citrus Berry gives it solid general bulk, and Havenberry gives it an incredible matchup into opposing Garchomp, allowing it to easily survive a dragonclaw and return with its own.

[00:02:50]Lumbberry has also seen significant use on both defensive and offensive sets as it can cure a burn status condition that can absolutely physical attackers. And burn is a status we've seen quite a rise in lately or it can also shake off something like a sleep powder from a Venusaur. Soft sand is also a very solid item as even when intimidated, Garchomp can hit very hard with its ground attacks. And choice scarf being the most common item is no surprise as it allows it to outspeed many of the very fast Pokemon that outspeed it Pokemon like Alola Ninetailes Frostlass Aerodactyl and other very fast Pokemon as well when running a choice scarf. It also allows it to run the adamant nature allowing it to hit harder than jolly non-scarfed Garchomp. Incinor stats were the most standard with the main variety only being the defensive item with some running citrus chel and shookberry.

[00:03:39]really depending on team comp and if any of those berries were already taken on other members of your team. King Gambit saw a 50-50 split between black glasses builds with multiple dark attacks and sucker punch and cowtow cleave and tropberry sets with things like swords dance and low kick to deal with fighting weak Pokémon like incinor pyranitar and opposing king gambit. Despite Incinor falling to third in usage, we can see the immense impact it's had on the metag game. With both Sneezler and Garchomp seeing white herb usage to prevent and intimidate, and things like King Gambit running low kick to hit Incinor super effectively, all three of these top physical attackers have some specific way to deal with Incinor, which is part of what puts these physical attackers on top, as opposed to other physical attackers that will just completely get crippled by Incinor. Sinisjet comes in at fifth place as the premier redirector of the format, and it's no surprise that it performed well, too. In sixth place, we see Baskil Legion. While not unexpected, it's very interesting to see the most common move set on this Pokémon being choice scarf adaptability, which is quite a departure from the Swift Swim sets we saw in Regulation H. This makes a lot of sense as adaptability sets can hit very hard on a variety of teams and is not completely reliant on the rain like swift swim is. As Swiss Swim needs the rain not only for a damage boost for the water attacks, but also to double its speed in the rain. Swiss swim sets also made incredible use of terrestalization back in Scarlet and Violet as it could use terra water for a further damage boost to its water damage without significant damage boosting items like a choice band or life orb.

[00:05:12]Adaptability in this format is much more reliable, giving Baskil Legion the damage that it needs. And with a choice scarf and Jolly, it can still outspeed pretty much everything that it needs to.

[00:05:21]Our seventh place Pokemon is the rising star of the format, Aerodactyl. A very anticipated Pokemon with its base speed of 130. It's one of the fastest in the format, notably outspeeding Sneezler, the most used Pokémon, and being able to one-shot it with a dual wing beat, making this a very potent counterpick to the top of the meta. Rocklide also allows it to hit Incinor even after an intimidate and easily one-shot mega char. with access to a fast tailwind. It also plays a supportive role on the team. Focus ash is its most common item due to its frailty, but an Aerodactylite is also seen on 20% of them. Mega Aerodactyl hits incredibly hard with a higher attack on its stab rock slide, a tough claws boost making a dual wingbeat deal even more damage, and an even faster base speed of 150, allowing it to outspeed other very fast Pokémon like Mega Gengar, Mega Low Punny, and Dragapult. It also pairs very well with Pokemon like King Gambit and Garchomp, which again are at the top. Being a flying type, it can allow Garchomp to click Earthquake next to it. And running King Gambit with it can dissuade the opponent from using Intimidate, trying to weaken Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl Sun matchup is also incredible as it can oneshot Venusaur with dual wing beat and it can one-shot Charizard with a rock slide. As long as Sun and Sneezler stay relevant, which I suspect they both will, Aerodactyl will continue to perform very well. Last thing to note on this Pokemon is its ability unnerve as there are many berries in the format. So being able to disable those just by being on the field is a very nice benefit. Charizard is the eighth most used Pokémon. And while Mega Charizard Y does remain supreme at 80% usage on all Charizard. Very interesting to note is the development that 20% of Charizard are now running Mega Charizard X.

[00:07:03]Running a move set of something like Flare Blitz, Dragon Dance, Dragonclaw, and Protect. Thunder Punch hasn't seen a high usage, but it is a tech I think could have some success. So, why are people running Mega Charizard X over Mega Charizard Y? Well, Mega Charizard X is a setup Pokemon with access to Dragon Dance. In addition to its higher base attack and tough claws, after just one Dragon Dance, its flare blitzes and Dragon Claws hit incredibly hard. And unlike Mega Charizard Y, Mega Charizard X is able to boost its speed as well with Dragon Dance, giving it access to some speed control of its own.

[00:07:37]Additionally, there are many many rocktype attacks in the metag game with again things like Aerodactyl and Garchomp running rock moves and even Pokemon like Sneezler teching specifically rock moves just for Mega Charizard Y. So being able to run Mega Charizard X, a Pokemon that isn't four times weak to Rock, it can survive most rock attacks in the format, seeing as it's not four times weak to Rock, and respond with a setup or big damage right away. The next most used Pokémon is Rom.

[00:08:03]There are two main ROM wash sets, bulky citrus berry and fast choice scarf. The citrus berry sets tend to run something like hydropump, thunderbolt, protect, and willow-hawisp, while the choice scarf sets tend to run something like volt switch, electro webb, trick, and again, willowisp, as well as the other options like hydropump and thunderbolt.

[00:08:21]This Pokémon has a very good matchup into the overall metag game as there's many physical attackers at the top of the meta, so being able to hit them with a willowisp can really set them back.

[00:08:31]And with its water and electric coverage, it can hit many other top Pokemon like Baskil Legion, Melodic, Charizard, and Incinor for super effective damage. Again, if it's running a bulky set, it can easily take one of these physical attacks and respond with a willow-hisp. Or if it's running a scarf set, it can often willowhisp these fast physical attackers before they can even move, completely neutering them for the whole match. The choice scar sets can also aid in speed control using a fast electro web to slow down your opponents. And it can even have significant disruption using trick to put a choice scarf on a Pokemon that doesn't want it. Next up is another bulky water type in melodic. In the same vein as ROM, bulky waters are poised to do very well in this metag game with limited grass and electric damage to go around. Along with competitive, it can often get a two time special attack boost when facing down opposing incinor allowing it to hit them very hard.

[00:09:21]Again, Melodic has two different sets that it tends to run, and leftovers is the most common item on both. The first one is more of an anti-inccinor/ speed control, support, running protect, scald, icy wind, and recover. And the other set is more of a setup set with coil, recover, hypnosis, and muddy water. The second set with coil allows it to boost its defense, making it incredibly physically and specially bulky. and coil raises melodic's accuracy, allowing it to make muddy water hit much more frequently and even a hypnosis hit very frequently with that accuracy boost. Our next mostused Pokemon is Flet. It's no surprise that we see Flet at the top of the metag game, but there is a little bit of a divide again between two sets that it likes to use. Our first one is a fast offensive set with Light of Ruin and the second one is a slower, bulkier set with calm mind. It seems like calm mine sets are just slightly more common than light of ruin sets at this point. And I really do expect that we'll see Flet trend to more bulkier sets going forward. And our last Pokémon in the top 12 is Tyranitar.

[00:10:22]Interestingly enough, only 75% of Tyranitar are running the Mega Stone.

[00:10:26]The other most common items are Scarf and Focus Ash, both of which have significant utility. Choice Scarf and a max speed Tyranitar can outspeed a surprising number of Pokemon and hit them very hard with its stab rock and dark moves as well as take out very specific threats with attacks like ice punch, thunder punch or high horsepower.

[00:10:45]A scarf Tyranitar really can throw opponents off and I expect in a closed team sheet format scarf Tyranitar would be incredibly good. But again, most are running Mega Tyranitar as it allows Tyranitar to set the sand on Switchin and on Mega Evolution. Instead of choosing a specific sleeper pick of a Pokemon that is underused and I think will have a very good matchup into the metagame, we're going to briefly look at which Pokemon had a strong conversion into day two of this event, meaning that they saw more usage on day two than they did on day one. And most of the top of the metagame had a very positive day 2 conversion, meaning the Pokémon at the top of the metagame do deserve to be there and they will likely continue to see strong usage. The one exception to this rule is Incinor had a negative conversion rate of aboutgative -6%. This means there was less inciner on day two of this event than there was on day one.

[00:11:36]And again, this is likely due to the immense amount of anti-inccinor tools that we're seeing in the metag game.

[00:11:41]Again, Pokémon like melodic and King Gambit with straight up anti-intimidate tools, as well as the other hard-hitting physical attackers like Sneezler and Garchomp running white herb to get around this intimidate. One Pokemon we saw that had an incredibly positive conversion rate was Flette. As again, we see its immense power increasing its usage in the metag game. There are a few Pokemon that didn't see huge usage in day one that had a very positive conversion rate. And these were Aegis Slash, Dragonite, and Caesar. And again, there's no surprise that these Pokémon saw an increase when Fuette also saw an increase as Aegis Slash and Seaor can both deal with it very well. Dragonite, however, is weak to fairy. So, why did it see a good day 2 conversion rate? And we'll get to that in a minute. First, we're going to look at two pairs that had the highest win rate of the overall event. And these pairs were Mega Charizard Y and Flette and Flet and King Gambit. Mega Charizard Y and Flet have such incredible synergy. Although they're both mega Pokémon and you're not going to bring them both to the same match, but it gives the team very good flexibility as the Pokemon that Mega Charizard Y have trouble dealing with, like dragon types, Flet can easily deal with. And the Pokemon that Flet have trouble dealing with like poison and steel types, Mega Charizard Y can deal with. So although opponents might heavily prep to deal with Charizard Y or with Flet, it can be very difficult to deal with both. So having access to both on your team and being able to choose which one is best in any given matchup gives this pairing incredible flexibility and power. And the next highest win rate pair was Fulette and King Gambit. And unlike Flet and Charizard, which have very strong offensive synergy, these two Pokémon have incredible defensive synergy, allowing them to switch into attacks that the other one doesn't want to take, while also threatening Pokémon that threaten the other one of them. Although they have amazing defensive synergy, they still have pretty good offensive synergy. For example, Flet is weak to steel and poison attacks, whereas King Gambit resists steel and is immune to poison, making it a perfect switch in.

[00:13:38]whereas King Gambit is four times weak to fighting and Fuette resists that allowing it to switch in on King Gambit's fighting foes. Lastly, we're going to look at two teams that had very high win rates overall. Although there are players that may have placed very high in the event, and only looking at their team would have had the highest win rate. These two teams that we're looking at had at least 10 players playing this team while still maintaining a very positive win rate with them. This first team is one of those Mega Charizard Y and Mega Flowette combo teams that we saw. So it has both of those megas on the team as well as four very common meta picks otherwise running King Gambit, Focus Aerodactyl, White Herb Sneezler, and Choice Scarf Garchomp. Choicecarf Garchomp has two flying allies that it can click Earthquake next to. And again, we see that very strong Fuette and King Gambit defensive synergy while still having access to strong speed control with Tailwind and fake out support on Sneezler to slow down opponents and easily deal with Incinor. This other team we saw that also had a very high win rate is also likely part of the reason why Dragonite saw a strong day two conversion. It's a very unorthodox snow team running Mega Frostlass, Choppberry King Gambit, a standard Sneezler, Focus Sash Bask Legion, Citrus Berry Melodic, and Dragon Fang Dragonite. This team really is unlike anything I've seen in the metag game so far. It's running two water types and has access to weather with Mega Frostlass. Mega Frostlass is in fact running Aurora veil. So I suspect that these Pokemon on the team in melodic Dragonite and King Gambit are quite bulky and will significantly benefit from having Aurora veil set up. And this Dragonite set is one that I did not expect in a million years in Pokemon champions. Dragon Fang Multi-cale Dragonite. A dragon fang boosted dragonclaw will hit very hard and it hits many things in this metag game neutally. And having access to low kick also lets it deal with Pokemon like King Gambit and Tyranitar as well as Incinor hitting them super effectively. Having access to a priority attack and extreme speed is something that not a lot of teams have access to. And this Dragonite is running Tailwind giving this team some solid speed control as well. We see other priority moves in Sucker Punch on King Gambit and Aqua Jet on Bask Legion while running more speed control with icy wind on melodic. So overall, this team has very incredible bulk with Aurora on Mega Frostlass and these other bulky Pokémon. Solid speed control with Icy Wind and Tailwind and access to strong priority damage with Sucker Punch, Aqua Jet, and Extreme Speed. A very interesting take on a balance team that I suspect might see some more usage if players were to pick it up. Leave a comment of your take on this very unique snow team. I'd like to say a huge thanks to all the patrons for supporting the channel and thank you for watching.