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TPCI in San Diego hosted the first Regional-level Pokemon Scarlet and Violet tournament on January 7-8, 2023. The dates for the tournament were announced even before the games were released.
The meta-game has been in development for a while now as the first season of competitive VGC is underway. Most players were expecting to see a version of that in the tournament. However, when players brought out some interesting new pocket strats, it surprised their opponents, giving them an edge in the competition.
Some of these strategies came in the form of Pokemon that were not expected to be used, while in other cases, expected pocket monsters came with different builds than expected.
Who were the best performers at the San Diego regionals of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet?
1) Gholdengo
Gholdengo seems to be on every best Pokemon list that is being made for Scarlet and Violet, no matter the criteria. It excels in design and battle prowess, making it one of the fan-favorites of the region.
While Choice Specs has been a popular item given to this pocket monster and has proven itself to be a deadly combination, the neweer builds that players explored during the tournament also made a mark. One has to mention the bulky Nasty Plot build for Gholdengo specifically.
This build lets the Pokemon stick around the field for longer while taking proper opportunities to set up Nasty Plot before it can begin taking out opponents using power-boosted Special Attacks. Although Life Orb is a decent item in this build, Leftovers alongside Protect is better because it lets Gholdengo stay on the field for longer.
2) Glimmora
Glimmora is a Pokemon that was speculated to be a pocket pick for some people, and it turned out to be exactly that. The two were among the top players who ran Gimmora with Choice Specs, albeit with different movesets and Tera types.
Glimora's ability, Toxic Debris, is the main reason it is picked, in addition to its above-average damaging ability and wide coverage. Being able to set up Toxic Spikes gave its users a good advantage against teams that ran Palafin and the likes that benefitted from switching out and switching back in.
Thanks to the presence of Terrastalization, its type disadvantages could also be countered quite easily. Tera Grass allowed it to resist a bunch of weaknesses while letting it output STAB damage against opponents like Dodonzo and Palafin.
3) Maushold
Maushold's signature move, Population Bomb, is a mighty move, which is bound to hit all ten times with the help of Wide Lens and its Technician ability. This makes its seemingly meager 30 base power into an outlandish 300, notwithstanding STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) and Tera Normal.
A Rocky Helmet on the opponent it hit would make it so that Maushold would faint before it could even finish hitting the opponent 10 times. This called for an adaptation on Maushold users' part. Instead of having Population Bomb, having an offensive move like Super Fang and supportive Follow Me, Friend Guard, and Encores proved to be a much better tactical choice.
4) Paldean Tauros
Paldean Tauros, with the held item Mirror Herb, can take excellent advantage of its Intimidate ability. This is because when Intimidate reduces the Attack of a Pokemon with the ability Defiant, such as Kingambit, its Attack then goes up by two points. The Pokemon ends up with a higher Attack stat than it started with.
This is where the Mirror Herb comes into play. Since the Mirror Herb only copies the two-stage attack boost on the other side while ignoring the negative, Tauros only gets the two-stage Attack boost. This makes its physical attacks, such as Close Combat and Aqua Jet, incredibly powerful and gives them the ability to KO opponents in one hit.
5) Garganacl
The few people running Garganacl on their teams were running an Iron Defense and Body Press set with Salt Cure and Recover. Players soon realized that having Protect and Wide Guard in addition to Leftovers allowed the Pokemon to use its bulk to its advantage.
With the appropriate kind of defensive Tera, such as Tera Poison, Garganacl became impossible to knock out. This is an excellent counter to Glimmora's ability and Meowscaradas that can use Toxic Spikes. It also turned its weaknesses against Fighting and Grass moves into resistance.
Garganacle became a force to be reckoned with, not by being a strong attacker who knocked others out but by simply outliving its enemies while its partners took out the weakened foes.
6) Hydreigon
The Generation V pseudo-legendary Pokemon was one of the stars of the regional tournament. Players discovered that having a Hydreigon with a Scope Lens or Razor Fang and getting out of one round of Focus Energy could almost always guarantee a critical hit on their offensive moves.
Hydreigon could keep firing 2.25x Draco Meteors owing to STAB and critical hits one after the other, notwithstanding the two-stage fall in Special Attack with each use. The fact that critical attacks ignore defensive boosts on opponents is a plus against Pokemon like Dondozo that have consumed Tatsugiri.
7) Talonflame
Many teams in season one of the competitive VGC used Murkrow to set up Tailwind. However, due to its low attacking potential, the Flying/Dark type could not keep up with stronger creatures. There is a weak link in the team after Tailwind is set up; this is where Talonflame comes into play.
Talonflame has a considerably higher attacking prowess to use its dual STAB potential. Equipped with a Life Orb and having access to Tailwind, it could turn into an attacking powerhouse with Brave Bird and Overheat or Flare Blitz. This made Talon Flame a good counter to Gholdengo, a popular pick in the event.
