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Tofu's Table: Regulation G-Goods

WoodTofuVGC

Greetings everyone! Not long ago Regulation G had been announced allowing a single Restricted Pokémon to be used on your teams. This introduced a whole new dimension to consider, and an entirely new metagame, when teambuilding. It may seem extremely daunting, especially for players who are new to VGC, with such high-powered Pokemon suddenly entering the game.

This is where this article comes in.

I am here to give you my barebones thoughts and analysis into some of the currently available Restricted options, such as sets and teams, to hopefully give you some sort of footing when Regulation G officially begins. 

Initial Thoughts

  • Restricteds, First Choices

    • Terapagos, The Tera Pokémon

    • Calyrex, The High King Pokémon

      • Shadow Rider

      • Ice Rider

    • Miraidon, The Future Paradox Pokémon

    • Koraidon, The Ancient Paradox Pokémon

    • Groudon, The Continent Pokémon

    • Kyogre, The Sea Basin Pokémon

    • Zacian, The Sword-Warrior Pokémon

    • Zamazenta, The Shield-Warrior Pokémon

    • Lunala, The Moone Pokémon

    • Kyurem-White, The Boundary Pokémon

  • Restricteds, Runner-Ups

    • Ho-Oh, The Rainbow Pokémon

    • Lugia, The Diving Pokémon

    • Palkia, The Spatial Pokémon

    • Dialga, The Temporal Pokémon

  • Honorable Mentions

    • Mienshao, The Martial Arts Pokémon

    • Ditto, The Transform Pokémon

  • Acknowledgements

Initial Thoughts

Regulation F has given us a strong variety of teams and archetypes that can easily be transitioned and converted for Regulation G. Some examples are:

  • Rain Archaludon -> TornOgre Rain

  • Japan Balance -> Literally anything

  • P2/Ting-Lu -> Calyrex-Ice Rider/Zamazenta

  • Blizzard Spam -> Kyurem-White

  • Gouging Fire Howl -> Zacian-Crowned Howl

  • Psyspam -> Calyrex-Shadow Rider/Lunala

  • etc

Restricted formats also come along with their own version of challenges, with the margin of error for play to be less forgiving. However, with the aforementioned examples, it should be fairly simple to find a decent starting point.

Alongside the above transitional team compositions, we also have buffed archetypes such as:

  • Groudon/Koraidon Sun

  • Vertical Quark Drive [Miraidon + Future Paradox]

  • Eternatus Stall

Other thoughts going into this are that certain utilities will be very important, which I will discuss further down in the post.

Restricteds, First Choices

Terapagos, The Tera Pokémon

Terapagos @ Power Herb  
Ability: Tera Shell / Teraform Zero   
Tera Type: Stellar  
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 15 Atk  
- Meteor Beam  
- Tera Starstorm  
- Protect  
- Calm Mind

Calcs:

  • 252+ Atk Choice Band Orichalcum Pulse Tera-Fighting Koraidon Helping Hand Collision Course vs. 252 HP / 36 Def Tera Shell Terapagos-Terastal: 171-202 (84.6 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

  • SpA bump

  • Speed dump

[The above set is mostly just because I like overkill calcs, they make me laugh]

This is my personal set that let me hit Rank 1 on Showdown in the first 24 hours of the format with 70%+ GXE.

The reason I am running both Meteor Beam and Calm Mind is because:

  • I value being able to OHKO Incineroar/Calyrex-Ice Rider/Gouging Fire/Tornadus

  • Calm Mind lets me compete with the more popular Calm Mind set

  • I am not concerned about coverage due to how Stellar Tera Starstorm works

Alternatively, you can run Brady Smith's (@VGCCorner) Terapagos set:

Terapagos @ Leftovers  
Ability: Teraform Zero   
Tera Type: Stellar  
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpA  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 15 Atk 
- Calm Mind  
- Tera Starstorm  
- Earth Power  
- Protect

You can read the full breakdown here.

I think Terapagos is incredibly strong for the following reasons:

  • Teraform Zero is great. It allows you to do things like remove Psychic Terrain to allow Fake Outs T1 agaisnt HTR, even in Indeedee switch-ins due to Tera happening after switches. This also allows you to weaken Weather-based teams.

  • Normal-type providing immunity to Astral Barrage from Calyrex-Shadow Rider, and can force it to Tera when paired with Incineroar, opening up a weakness to Tera Starstorm.

  • Tera Shell is also incredibly good, and it can be recycled via healing. Clefairy, Comfey, Amoonguss, and Sinistcha, all work for this purpose.

  • Its Stellar form gives you an incredible stat boost as well, and heals you a bit of HP, approximately 20%.*

  • Being able to just generally punish any Tera is incredibly good.

*This has been more thoroughly investigated in this post here:

Tofus' Table 9.5, Terapagos Teachings - WoodTofuVGC

Team Examples

My early Rank 1 team. Conceptually you use Clefairy to recycle Tera Shell + provide additional bulk via Friend Guard. This keeps Terapagos incredibly safe, particularly against Fighting-types. Surrounding it is a standard Balance scaffold allowing you to really position comfortably around the opponent.

Flutter Mane with Thunder Wave simply bypasses a lot of popular Clear Amulet Pokémon for Speed Control. This was particularly key against Koraidon.

Alternatively, a screens mode with pure setup can also work quite well, leveraging Amoonguss to help provide recovery and control with Knock Off Incineroar.

Counterplay

  • Snarl is incredibly good, allowing you to potentially break Tera Shell and prevent any sort of momentum build-up from Terapagos.

  • Tera Shell is lost upon Terastalisation, opening up stronger super-effective hits to be able to 2HKO/OHKO post-chip. This also means that the main damage source becomes Spread, with Wide Guard being able to prevent a lot of damage output.

  • Physical damage is favored due to Terapagos only boosting its SpDef.

  • Terapagos retains the 1.2x Stellar boost to its moves 100% of the time, but "loses STAB" on Tera Starstorm, meaning it only receives the 1.2x boost. (It retains the 2x STAB bonus on all other normal moves except for Tera Starstorm).

  • Zamazenta and Koraidon are both incredibly good choices for Terapagos. Zamazenta is able to threaten a lot of Terapagos' common partners, while access to Wide Guard + STAB Body Press lets you threaten Terapagos constantly without being Intimidated. Koraidon is conceptually the same.

Calyrex, The High King Pokémon

Shadow Rider

Calyrex-Shadow @ Life Orb / Focus Sash 
Ability: As One (Spectrier)  
Tera Type: Fighting / Fairy 
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Timid Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Astral Barrage  
- Expanding Force / Psyshock 
- Tera Blast / Draining Kiss / Nasty Plot / Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Calyrex-Shadow Rider (Caly-S or Shadowrex) is the new face of HO at the moment. With spread Ghost STAB with no drawback, and access to Expanding Force if it wants. With incredible snowball potential and improved coverage thanks to Terastalisation.

Being able to naturally outspeed every Pokémon barring Regieleki means you have a great min-maxxed sweeper.

I think Psyshock can be a great option over Expanding Force to be able to threaten Flutter Mane regardless if they Tera or not, with Astral Barrage being your only source of Spread move. Once boosts get going, you can generally 2HKO most resists as well.

It's also not necessary to go all on full damage, as Calyrex-Shadow Rider has been known to run utilities such as Will-O-Wisp and Snarl. I have also seen a Calm Mind set:

Calyrex-Shadow @ Leftovers  
Ability: As One (Spectrier)  
Tera Type: Fairy  
EVs: 220 HP / 36 Def / 100 SpA / 4 SpD / 148 Spe  
Timid Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Calm Mind  
- Astral Barrage  
- Draining Kiss  
- Protect

Calcs:

  • 252+ Atk Calyrex-Ice Rider Helping Hand Glacial Lance vs. 220 HP / 32 Def Calyrex-Shadow Rider: 174-205 (85.7 - 100.9%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

  • Outspeeds Timid Iron Bundle/Timid Flutter Mane/Modest Calyrex-Shadow.

Team Examples

Here we have Indeedee-F as Calyrex's usual partner, with methods of Speed Control in Tornadus/Flutter Mane. I opted for Chi-Yu's odd set here as an alternative to simply running Specs, which is completely viable as a choice as well, and to be able to face off against other SpAtkers more comfortably with Snarl support.

Urshifu-Rapid Strike also allows me to remove Incineroar without necessarily wanting to use up my Terastal, and the Tornadus-Urshifu also creates another mode, particularly against Sun.

Two alternative modes: Psyspam or the use of Calyrex-S as a setup sweeper. Essentially using strong threats like Swords Dance Ogerpon and Psyspam to reduce opponent resources to finish the game with a strong setup in Calyrex-S. I like Armarouge here to have additional access to Wide Guard.

(I admit, I was a bit unsure how to structure this one.)

Ice Rider

Calyrex-Ice @ Clear Amulet  
Ability: As One (Glastrier)   
Tera Type: Fire / Water 
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Atk / 52 Def / 108 SpD  
Brave Nature  
IVs: 0 Spe  
- Glacial Lance  
- High Horsepower  
- Trick Room / Swords Dance 
- Protect

[Yes, I am aware there are 4 EVs being wasted here]

Calcs:

  • 252+ Atk Black Glasses Urshifu-Single Strike Wicked Blow vs. 252 HP / 52 Def Calyrex-Ice Rider on a critical hit: 174-206 (84 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • 252 SpA Life Orb Calyrex-Shadow Rider Astral Barrage vs. 252 HP / 108 SpD Calyrex-Ice Rider: 174-205 (84 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • 92+ Atk Calyrex-Ice Rider Helping Hand High Horsepower vs. 236 HP / 100 Def Incineroar: 188-222 (94 - 111%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

  • ATK dump

Initially, I began with just standard 252/252/4 to maximize general bulk and offensive capabilities to allow Icerex to snowball. I also depended on other Trick Room setters, if not depending on the natural bulk to play out of it.

I soon realized I felt like I had hits I should be living, hence my bulk calcs. I never felt I really missed the damage output, with the bulk allowing me to live certain double-ups as well, which felt good.

I also started out with Swords Dance, making the swap to Trick Room to be able to self-set and start that snowballing as well, especially after chatting and getting confirmation from both Brady Smith and Tyo (Nikhil Reddy).

Tera-Fire allows me to dodge wisps while removing key weaknesses such as Steel and Fire. Unfortunately, you do retain the Rock-type weakness, hence you can alternatively go Tera-Water, which also gives you that additional Water resistance.

Team Examples

A solid core of Calyrex-Ice Rider/Incineroar/Amoonguss/Farigiraf at the suggestion of Brady, rounded out by Flutter Mane and Ogerpon-W.

Ogerpon really assists in the Kyogre matchup, while Incineroar and Amoonguss with Tera-Dark is helpful for opposing Calyrex-Shadow Rider. Incineroar also has heavy SpDef investment to allow it to live HH Tera-Fighting Tera Blast from Life Orb Shadowrex.

Alternatively, using Screens to further augment the bulk of Icerex is also possible as an option, either Grimmsnarl or Ninetales-Alola (Snow helps a lot too). Grimmsnarl just acts as another Dark resist + assists against opposing Calyrex-Ice and Shadow Rider, with Foul Play being really good this format.

Due to Screens access, I did not feel the need to use the previous bulkier set.

Gholdengo with Trick also provides you with another control option, especially with how popular the setup is at the moment.

I personally once ran Grimmsnarl with Trick + Lagging Tail, while Tyo ran an Iron Ball variant, with Iron Ball Grimmsnarl being able to underspeed Calyrex-Ice in Trick Room to hit it with Foul Play.

Another variant that utilises the overwhelming damage potential of Psyspam, with a slow Urshifu to punish Protects that attempt to stall the Trick Room turns.

With all of the above teams, Mienshao makes for a particularly good partner, with access to Wide Guard, Coaching, and Fake Out.

Counterplay

Generally:

  • Wide Guard is incredibly good against both Calyrex forms.

  • Shared weakness to Dark-types.

  • Prevent them from taking free KOs if possible. Once they snowball, they can get out of hand

For Calyrex-Shadow:

  • Normal types being immune to Astral Barrage is extremely useful! Terapagos makes for a good pick due to the typing, bulk, and damage potential.

  • Snarl mitigates damage + deals x4 SE damage.

  • Will-O-Wisp can mitigate Calyrex-Ice's damage, while Snarl can hit Calyrex-Shadow for x4 SE damage (Thank you Incineroar).

For Calyrex-Ice:

  • Will-O-Wisp can mitigate Calyrex-Ice's damage.

  • Denial of Trick Room can put you in a good position against Calyrex-Ice.

  • Gholdengo can threaten Calyrex-Ice, with SE spread damage, or use Trick + Choice item to lock Calyrex-Ice into undesirable moves.

  • Bronzong is actually a great check into Calyrex-Ice, being immune to High Horsepower and resisting Glacial Lance while threatening great damage with Body Press after setting up using Iron Defence.

Miraidon, The Future Paradox Pokémon

Miraidon @ Choice Scarf / Choice Specs 
Ability: Hadron Engine  
Tera Type: Electric / Fairy / Stellar
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Timid Nature  
- Volt Switch  
- Electro Drift  
- Draco Meteor  
- Power Gem / Dazzling Gleam / Overheat / Tera Blast

The above set utilizes Miraidon's immense offensive prowess stemming from Hadron Engine-boosted power + an additional terrain-boosted STAB allows it to be a swift sweeper that can help teams wallbreak while retaining the ability to pivot around.

Electric Terrain is also really great to stop Sleep! So keep that in mind.

With multiple coverage options, sets can be tailored to your team’s needs. Something particularly interesting would be that Choice Specs Overheat in Sun can OHKO Groudon.

If something this offensive isn't particularly to your tastes, bulkier options are also available.

Miraidon @ Assault Vest / Leftovers 
Ability: Hadron Engine  
Tera Type: Fairy  
EVs: 108 HP / 148 Def / 80 SpA / 24 SpD / 148 Spe  
Timid Nature  
- Volt Switch / Calm Mind
- Electro Drift / Parabolic Charge 
- Draco Meteor  
- Dazzling Gleam / Protect

Calcs:

  • 252 Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Icicle Crash vs. 108 HP / 148 Def Miraidon: 158-188 (83.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • 252+ SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 108 HP / 24 SpD Assault Vest Miraidon: 158-188 (83.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • Speed creeps 187 +3 (for those other creepers)

Either Assault Vest or Calm Mind works, essentially treating this like a Raging Bolt on steroids. A Calm Mind set would give you the flexibility Choice Specs wouldn't give, and access to Protect which Assault Vest prevents, while retaining the best of both.

Team Examples

Miraidon team that leverages an Iron Bundle and Iron Jugulis that actually get to use their abilities. Ditto here acts as a revenge sweeper as necessary while Incineroar gives you some control elements.

Just to note, Miraidon definitely fits the bill for a splashable SpA hitter on most HO teams. You don't necessarily have to run it with Future Paradox Pokémon either.

Counterplay

  • Snarl can be helpful to mitigate some of Miraidon's damage output.

  • Rillaboom both acts as a resist into Electro Drift/Volt Switch while removing Electric Terrain, deactivating Hadron Engine + the Electric STAB boost.

  • Choice items being a common set means Miraidon is open to Fake Out pressure

Koraidon, The Ancient Paradox Pokémon

Koraidon @ Clear Amulet / Choice Band / Choice Scarf 
Ability: Orichalcum Pulse  
Tera Type: Fire  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Flare Blitz  
- Collision Course  
- Dragon Claw / U-Turn / Breaking Swipe
- Protect / Flame Charge / Iron Head

First-line set for the new sun-setter on the block, Clear Amulet allows you to retain your full offensive capabilities and avoid Icy Wind speed drops. Breaking Swipe can be used for spread damage and utility, while U-Turn allows you to reposition your board smoothly.

Alternative moves as well that can be notable are Taunt or Flame Charge, which can help compete against Speed Boosting Flutter Mane, and do respectable damage still:

  • 252 Atk Orichalcum Pulse Tera-Fire Koraidon Flame Charge (Tera 60 BP Boost) vs. 212 HP / 132 Def Flutter Mane in Sun: 138-163 (87.8 - 103.8%) -- 25% chance to OHKO

If opting for Choice items, obviously replace Protect with an alternative coverage move.

Speaking of speed boosts:

Koraidon @ Loaded Dice  
Ability: Orichalcum Pulse  
Tera Type: Fire  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Flare Blitz  
- Collision Course  
- Scale Shot  
- Protect

Identical to the above set, but instead using Scale Shot for an effective 100 BP move (at least), 150 with STAB (at least). Personally, I dislike this set since I believe Clear Amulet is extremely good on Koraidon, plus the added frailty from the -1 Def drop from Scale Shot.

If a bulkier set is something you'd prefer:

Koraidon @ Assault Vest  
Ability: Orichalcum Pulse  
Tera Type: Fire  
EVs: 172 HP / 52 Atk / 4 Def / 156 SpD / 124 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Collision Course  
- Flare Blitz  
- Scale Shot / Flame Charge 
- U-turn

Calcs:

  • 252 Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Icicle Crash vs. 172 HP / 4 Def Koraidon: 164-194 (83.2 - 98.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • 252 SpA Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Dazzling Gleam vs. 172 HP / 156 SpD Assault Vest Koraidon: 168-200 (85.2 - 101.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

  • The above calc is the same as Protosynthesis-boosted Flutter Mane

  • Outspeeds 187 (Adamant Chien-Pao/Modest Flutter Mane)

The calcs are probably more relevant within OTS, where you can gauge certain things in case you need to make a brave play. Personally, I always use these higher damage, almost unrealistic calcs, to be able to feel confident in gauging whether or not I can take a hit.

The only thing here is that Assault Vest tends to be desired

Team Examples

Essentially a modified balance, you can definitely move some pieces in and out. Walking Wake attempts to take Urshifu-Rapid Strike's place as well, and Amoonguss can be replaced by Rillaboom if Fake Out cycling is more desirable.

There are also HO variants with Tornadus/Whimsicott as well.

Counterplay

  • Leverage Koraidon's x4 weakness to force it to Terastalise into it's preferred Tera type, allowing you to perform a pin.

  • Altering the Weather deactivates Orichalcum Pulse, and reduces Flare Blitz damage. Kyogre can play into this when paired with a Flutter Mane.

  • Thunder Wave can be an alternative method of Speed Control, bypassing Clear Amulet.

  • Walking Wake ironically threatens Koraidon pre/post-Tera.

Groudon, The Continent Pokémon

Groudon @ Clear Amulet  
Ability: Drought  
Tera Type: Fire  
EVs: 228 HP / 156 Atk / 124 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
- Heat Crash  
- Precipice Blades  
- Swords Dance / Rock Slide 
- Protect

[If you can click Bleakwind Storm, you can click Precipice Blades]

This is my personal set on one of my tech teams. Groudon here is faster, allowing you to outspeed Adamant Chien-Pao/Modest Flutter Mane after an Icy Wind drop. The attack is EV'd to hit the second bump, with a bulk dump.

I don't think you need Rock Slide, with Heat Crash doing more than enough damage particularly with Tera-Fire, opting for the damage increase with Swords Dance. Heat Crash in Sun from Groudon also KOs even the bulkiest Flutter Mane, with only a 1/8 chance for them to live (2/16 roll).

With Tera-Fire, this allows you to lose that Grass weakness, and avoid Will-O-Wisp, with Sun covering for the Water-type weakness.

Groudon's strength as an alternative over Koraidon is that it doesn't have shared Fairy weaknesses with other common Dragon-types the Sun archetype likes e.g. Raging Bolt, Walking Wake. Strong AoE Ground coverage is also extremely appreciated, particularly into things like Incineroar and, again, Raging Bolt.

A bulkier alternative is Assault Vest:

Groudon @ Assault Vest  
Ability: Drought 
Tera Type: Fire  
EVs: 228 HP / 188 Atk / 92 SpD  
Adamant Nature  
- Heat Crash  
- Precipice Blades  
- Rock Slide  
- Stomping Tantrum

Calcs:

  • 252+ SpA Choice Specs Protosynthesis Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 228 HP / 92 SpD Assault Vest Groudon: 158-186 (77.4 - 91.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • 244 SpA Life Orb Walking Wake Hydro Steam vs. 228 HP / 92 SpD Assault Vest Groudon in Sun: 172-203 (84.3 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stomping Tantrum here can be used in case Precipice Blades misses either on one or both of it's targets, or have boosted BP when flinched by a Fake Out to punish the next turn.

Team Examples

Simple Screens team with bulkier Flutter Mane to support Groudon with Icy Wind, while Screens + Foul Play Grimmsnarl assists against Calyrex-Ice. Light Clay can be swapped out for Iron Ball, while running a Trick set, to remove Clear Amulets from key Intimidate targets.

Ogerpon-Wellspring is also an appropriate option over Rillaboom to provide an alternative method to dealing with Kyogre.

Ogerpon-Hearthflame can also be a choice for a more offensive variant, benefiting from Sun-empowered Ivy Cudgel.

Chlorophyll users such as Hisuian-Lilligant + Venusaur can add another dynamic to the team with fast Sleep Powders, and Torkoal could also be indicated to perform in Trick Room matchups as well.

Counterplay

  • Altering Weather. Historically, Kyogre has been Groudon's main opponent, with Water-type covering both pre/post-Tera typings. Manually setting Weather also works.

  • Groudon being fairly slow is liable to getting outsped by a lot of the metagame. Things like Chien-Pao can deal strong SE damage, while Calyrex-Shadow can deal powerful Neutral damage.

  • Ground-type being neutral to Fire-type means that Groudon can be damaged heavily by opposing Fire-types due to the Sun. Grass types also still threaten Groudon quite well.

  • Precipice Blades is pretty inaccurate, play to that out if you have to.

  • Certain Groudon sets I've seen lack coverage against Flash Fire + Tera-Grass/Tera-Fly. Heatran/Armarouge could be considered.

Kyogre, The Sea Basin Pokémon

Kyogre @ Choice Specs / Choice Scarf / Mystic Water
Ability: Drizzle  
Tera Type: Water / Grass / Flying 
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  
Timid Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Water Spout  
- Hydro Pump / Origin Pulse 
- Ice Beam  
- Thunder / Tera Blast / Protect

Kyogre comes in as a premier Rain sweeper AND setter rolled into one. Tera-Water comes to mind to essentially 2HKO or even OHKO certain resists. The problem with this is you retain all of your original weaknesses. This brings me to my next options for Tera-types:

  • Tera-Grass gives you a better defensive Tera-type, particularly into all of your common threats.

  • Tera-Flying is an off-the-wall option, to potentially threaten some of your common threats, but still retain a weakness to Electric-types.

I put Hydro Pump over Origin Pulse to provide strong Single-target damage while bypassing Wide Guard.

A preference for Timid is leaned towards due to the fact you can outspeed Adamant Urshifu, as even Urshifu-Rapid-Strike can 2HKO Kyogre with Surging Strikes when boosted by Tera-Water and Rain.

An alternative set is Calm Mind with either Safety Goggles or Leftovers.

Kyogre @ Leftovers / Safety Goggles / Mystic Water
Ability: Drizzle  
Tera Type: Grass 
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 76 SpA / 36 SpD / 140 Spe  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Calm Mind  
- Protect  
- Origin Pulse  
- Ice Beam

Calcs:

  • 252+ Atk Ogerpon-Wellspring Horn Leech (1.2x Mask Boost) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Kyogre: 174-206 (84 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • 252+ Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Single Strike Wicked Blow vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Kyogre on a critical hit: 172-204 (83 - 98.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

  • 252+ SpA Protosynthesis Tera-Electric Raging Bolt Thunderclap vs. 252 HP / 32 SpD Kyogre: 176-208 (85 - 100.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

  • SpA Bump

  • Outspeeds 126 Spe +2

Setup is still incredibly good, and probably one of the preferred methods of play in Regulation G, so I wouldn't count Kyogre out yet. Ice Beam is necessary to at least be able to deal neutral damage to Ogerpon-Wellspring and deal SE damage to Raging Bolt.

Team Examples

One way of creating a TornOgre team. Flutter Mane helps with a lot of matchups, particularly into Sun. Alternative options for team members could be Incineroar + Knock Off to enable Amoonguss better, without using Flare Blitz due to Rain being our main focus, (or do, it's fine, just personally not a fan).

Tornadus here also adds some degree of insurance against other Weather teams.

Farigiraf ensures some form of anti-priority against Fake Out and Thunderclap.

Standard Japan Balance-style team, with Kyogre taking Raging Bolt's spot here. Gholdengo works as an alternative SpA Pokémon, benefitting from Rain's reduction of Fire-type damage. Both Landorus-Incarnate and Chien-Pao help threaten opposing Raging Bolts.

Counterplay

  • Wide Guard is incredibly useful against Water Spout/Origin Pulse.

  • Altering Weather, preferably to Sun, helps halve Kyogre's damage output.

  • Raging Bolt and Ogerpon-Wellspring are particularly good resists into Kyogre while simultaneously threatening SE damage. Rillaboom also works here due to added priority in Fake Out pressure or the use of Grassy Glide.

  • Choice items make Kyogre susceptible to Fake Out.

Rayquaza, The Atmosphere Pokémon

Rayquaza @ Clear Amulet / Choice Band 
Ability: Air Lock  
Tera Type: Steel / Normal 
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
- Dragon Ascent  
- Extreme Speed  
- Protect / Outrage 
- Swords Dance / U-Turn

[I'll admit, I have a bit of bias for Rayquaza, so disclaimer, I suppose?]

A lot of players currently believe Dragonite is a more efficient slot over Rayquaza for the Extreme Speed niche, particularly when paired with Chien-Pao. What improves Rayquaza over Dragonite is Air Lock, and access to the strongest Flying STAB in the game, Dragon Ascent.

Air Lock prevents all Weather effects and stops Protosynthesis from activating (but will not deactivate it if it has been triggered).

This is also particularly key against Sun, which is one of the methods a lot of teams use to check Urshifu-Rapid Strike's Surging Strikes.

Team Examples

Conceptually similar to a team built by Dillon Kleinvehn featuring Farigiraf and Bloodmoon-Ursaluna, Rayquaza and Urshifu both benefit from the anti-priority provided by Armor Tail while the pair are able to be fielded together to help deal with Sun modes. Alternative picks on the team are Chien-Pao to perform with Rayquaza and Urshifu together or Rillaboom over Amoonguss.

Counterplay

  • Anti-priority is key to denying Rayquaza's Extreme Speed spam. This forces it to lean on its slower speed tier to try and deal damage.

  • As previously mentioned, Rayquaza being slower means it is liable to get overwhelmed by a lot of the faster metagame.

  • Gholdengo, Zacian, Zamazenta, or any Steel-type for that matter, is a good consideration for Rayquaza due to its limited coverage.

  • Do not let Rayquaza set up.

Zacian, The Sword-Warrior Pokémon

Zacian-Crowned @ Rusted Sword  
Ability: Intrepid Sword  
Tera Type: Stellar / Ghost / Water 
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Sacred Sword / Play Rough / Close Combat / Tera Blast
- Behemoth Blade  
- Swords Dance / Substitute
- Protect

The King of Gen 8, Zacian-C makes its return to Gen 9 with a couple of nerfs. First, Intrepid Sword only triggers once per game, and a nerfed Attack stat from 170 to 150. Despite this, Zacian's speed tier still brings a strong presence to offensively pressure a lot of squishier targets on the field.

Substitute allows you to dodge both Fake Out and Intimidate while using your superior speed to potentially take less damage than you're supposed to against slower opponents. Fairy/Steel is also a great defensive typing for this purpose.

Tera-Ghost allows you to retain momentum in front of Fake Out pressure, while Tera-Water is a good defensive Tera-type. Tera-Stellar allows you to dish out some strong Neutral damage while also boosting Behemoth Blade as well. A bulkier version of the above set would be:

Zacian-Crowned @ Rusted Sword  
Ability: Intrepid Sword  
Tera Type: Stellar / Ghost / Water  
EVs: 220 HP / 76 Atk / 4 Def / 44 SpD / 164 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
- Sacred Sword / Play Rough / Close Combat / Tera Blast
- Behemoth Blade  
- Swords Dance / Substitute 
- Protect

Calcs:

  • 252+ Atk Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 220 HP / 4 Def Zacian-Crowned: 168-198 (86.1 - 101.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

  • 252+ SpA Life Orb Calyrex-Shadow Rider Helping Hand Astral Barrage vs. 220 HP / 44 SpD Zacian-Crowned: 165-196 (84.6 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

  • Attack bump

  • Outspeeds Jolly Roaring Moon / Modest Flutter Mane / Adamant Chien-Pao

Team Examples

A heavily physical team that uses Howl to up the damage output of nearly every member, Zacian here can thrive and sweep taking advantage of a lot of the tools available supporting it:

  • Ting-Lu to reduce the damage taken from SpA moves

  • Chien-Pao assists in damage output with Sword of Ruin

  • Gouging Fire adding Howl support with Breaking Swipe utility to mitigate physical damage

  • Landorus-Incarnate and Wellspring-Ogerpon to threaten any Fire types that try to check Zacian-C (mainly Incineroar)

A modified version of Wolfe Glick's winning Charlotte team, with a standard Balance scaffold of Incineroar/Rillaboom/Urshifu-RS. Armor Tail is useful to avoid those Fake Out cycles while Mold Breaker Hearthflame-Ogerpon provides offensive pressure against Kyogre teams that use Tsareena or Farigiraf to deny priority.

Counterplay

  • Zacian's Intrepid Sword only activates once per game. Intimidate can be extremely annoying for Zacian to work around due to not having access to Clear Amulet.

  • Incineroar in general is a great check against Zacian-C, either threatening heavy Flare Blitz damage or using Will-O-Wisp to cripple it.

  • Zacian struggles against Pokémon that it cannot threaten a KO on while being threatened by significant damage (Groudon, Kyogre, etc).

  • Zacian has no access to spread moves. Redirection can be good against it. Unorthodox choices like Magmar or Hearthflame-Ogerpon (as a redirector, usually it's Wellspring-Ogeropn) can resist both of Zacian-C's STABs.

Zamazenta, The Shield-Warrior Pokémon

Zamazenta-Crowned @ Rusted Shield  
Ability: Dauntless Shield  
Tera Type: Ghost / Water / Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD  
Impish Nature  
- Iron Defense  
- Body Press  
- Behemoth Bash  
- Wide Guard / Snarl / Howl / Protect

Calcs:

  • 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hadron Engine Miraidon Electro Drift vs. 252 HP / 156 SpD Zamazenta-Crowned in Electric Terrain: 168-198 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • 252+ Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Sacred Sword vs. +1 252 HP / 100+ Def Zamazenta-Crowned: 90-108 (45.2 - 54.2%) -- 43.8% chance to 2HKO

  • 252+ Atk Mystic Water Tera-Water Urshifu-Rapid Strike Surging Strikes (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 100+ Def Zamazenta-Crowned in Rain on a critical hit: 168-198 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Zamazenta, in my personal opinion, is currently better than Zacian. Despite getting hit with the same type of nerfs Zacian received, but relevant to Zamazenta, receiving Body Press is a huge boon.

Access to Wide Guard also makes Zamazenta incredibly attractive as a team member. If not Wide Guard, it has access to other utilities that can add to its longevity, or further support the team in a more offensive sense.

The above set can also be altered to improve the Sacred Sword roll from Adamant Chien-Pao, at the cost of being weaker on the SpDef side. This however is preference based as my personal picks for common partners fielded alongside Zamazenta are Ting-Lu and Incineroar, both of which mitigate Special and Physical offenses respectively.

Team Examples

Zamazenta here replaces Kommo-O as a setup IDBP win-condition on the P2-Ting Lu comps. Alternative ways to run this team would be fielding Ursaluna (Regular) over Ting-Lu, or Flutter Mane over Gholdengo. Amoonguss here provides us with some form of Recovery for Zamazenta.

Counterplay

  • Tera-Ghost avoids a lot of the damage Zamazenta can deal out due to Fighting-Type immunity. Gholdengo in particular can wall a Zamazenta.

  • Sacred Swords users like Chien-Pao, Gallade, or Zacian-C can deal consistent damage through the Iron Defense boosts. Urshifu can also do this using its signature guaranteed-crit moves.

  • Using strong SpA users such as Flutter Mane, Miraidon, or Chi-Yu can really make it difficult for Zamazenta to have staying power.

  • Zamazenta has no recovery options, which opens it up to being chipped down.

Lunala, The Moone Pokémon

Lunala @ Power Herb  
Ability: Shadow Shield  
Tera Type: Fairy  
EVs: 116 HP / 188 Def / 180 SpA / 20 SpD / 4 Spe  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Moongeist Beam  
- Meteor Beam  
- Trick Room / Tailwind / Expanding Force
- Wide Guard

Calcs:

  • 252+ SpA Beads of Ruin Chi-Yu Dark Pulse vs. 116 HP / 20 SpD Shadow Shield Lunala: 192-228 (84.5 - 100.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

  • 236+ Atk Urshifu-Single Strike Wicked Blow vs. 116 HP / 192 Def Shadow Shield Lunala on a critical hit: 192-228 (84.5 - 100.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

  • SpA bump

  • +1 180+ SpA Lunala Meteor Beam vs. 236 HP / 156+ SpD Incineroar: 188-222 (94 - 111%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

Lunala is incredibly bulky despite its x4 weakness to Dark-types and Ghost-types thanks to Shadow Shield. This, combined with Meteor Beam and a strong STAB in Moongeist Beam, allows Lunala to be a great slot that adds a lot to teams when you also consider its utility with Trick Room, Tailwind, Will-O-Wisp, or Wide Guard.

Meteor Beam is also particularly key to threatening Incineroar!

Team Examples

I personally like having Wide Guard access in Balance teams. With Trick Room access against faster teams, you can make use of Rillaboom, Incineroar, and a slower Urshifu to work your way through the opposing team.

Defiant is also nice for opposing Incineroars. I opted for Zapdos over Kingambit since I prefer Zapdos' coverage, but Kingambit's Dark typing is also pretty nice. SableyeVGC (Ryan Loseto) also made a Lunala team hitting Top 4 in The Wide League #45, with a Youtube video going through it here.

Counterplay

  • Once Lunala uses up Meteor Beam, Incineroar can simply wall it, amongst other Dark types.

  • Shadow Shield can only mitigate so much damage against strong weaknesses. You can also easily break Shadow Shield with weak chip damage.

  • Snarl is also really good against Lunala, applying pressure with x4 SE damage and reducing its damage output.

Kyurem-White, The Boundary Pokémon

Kyurem-White @ Choice Specs / Assault Vest
Ability: Turboblaze  
Tera Type: Fire / Ice 
EVs: 196 HP / 4 Def / 156 SpA / 148 SpD / 4 Spe  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Blizzard  
- Freeze-Dry  
- Fusion Flare  
- Earth Power

Calcs:

  • 252+ Atk Koraidon Collision Course (Super Effective) vs. 196 HP / 4 Def Kyurem-White in Snow: 187-224 (83.1 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

  • SpA bump

  • SpDef dump

    • 252+ SpA Pixie Plate Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 196 HP / 148 SpD Kyurem-White: 188-224 (83.5 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Kyurem-White fulfils a niche by playing in Snow, replacing Articuno in the Snow team popularised by Nikhil Reddy for winning the Utrecht Special Event. With Snow now giving Kyurem-W a Def buff, Blizzard spamming has never been easier.

Other players can opt for Assault Vest if they desire flexibility over power.

I think Kyurem-W is also pretty straightforward, in both design and coverage. Freeze-Dry access is also really great here, threatening popular water types like Wellspring-Ogerpon, Kyogre, and Urshifu-RS. (Although, with Urshifu, you can just as easily spam Blizzard).

Team Examples

Utilizing Snow's potential to set Aurora Veil, I attempted to craft something that would have somewhat decent answers into Calyrex-Ice as well, particularly with Bronzong. Alternatives here include running Incineroar just for added Fake Out pressure + Intimidate, and having a true resist into Calyrex-Shadow.

With Hearthflame-Ogerpon, I also wanted a Pokémon that can nuke a target. Alternatively...

A 2-2-2 concept featuring Dondozo with Unaware (against the amount of setup in Regulation G, very useful).

Counterplay

  • Denying Snow is useful to neutralize the bulk, prevent Aurora Veil, and decrease the likelihood of Blizzard hitting.

  • On Choice Specs sets, Kyurem is susceptible to being forced to switch out due to its limited coverage with Fire-types covering 3/4 of its moveset.

  • Both AV and Choice Specs sets open Kyurem-W up to Fake Out pressure.

Restricteds, Runner-Ups

I'm not going too in-depth with them following Pokémon as I haven't generally seen much of them despite a few hundred games.

Ho-Oh, The Rainbow Pokémon

Ho-Oh @ Clear Amulet  / Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator  
Tera Type: Water 
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Atk / 100 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
- Sacred Fire  
- Brave Bird  
- Tailwind / Earthquake
- Recover / Safeguard / Life Dew / Iron Head

Calcs:

  • Outspeeds Choice Scarf Jolly Urshifu in Tailwind

  • Attack and bulk dump, with ATK hitting a bump

I have seen Ho-Oh used around Screens teams, making use of it's heavy bulk and Regenerator to comfortably chip around teams while spreading Burn. Essentially, it's like an Entei that can set Tailwind and recover HP.

Alternatively, a full coverage set using Assault Vest can work.

Lugia, The Diving Pokémon

Lugia @ Leftovers  
Ability: Multiscale  
Tera Type: Fairy  
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SpA / 20 SpD  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Calm Mind  
- Aeroblast  
- Psychic / Tera Blast
- Protect / Recover

Lugia is used as a bulky set-up Pokémon taking advantage of Multiscale. It's coverage is not necessarily the best, but it can still deal out respectable damage. I just fear it gets out-performed by other common set-up users.

Palkia, The Spatial Pokémon

Palkia @ Life Orb  
Ability: Pressure / Telepathy 
Tera Type: Steel  
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA  
Quiet Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe  
- Spacial Rend / Draco Meteor 
- Hydro Pump  
- Earth Power / Ice Beam 
- Trick Room

Palkia, interestingly enough, is a Trick Room Pokémon. Since the speed tiers have increased, the options for Trick Room have improved. It has great defensive typing and is able to take Water Spout from Kyogre or Zacian-C's Behemoth Blade comfortably. Trick Room can also be used to counter Trick Room against slower Pokémon such as Calyrex-Ice.

Telepathy can potentially let you be paired alongside something like Ursaluna to Earthquake-spam safely.

A faster variant would be using Palkia's Origin Form:

Palkia-Origin @ Lustrous Globe  
Ability: Pressure / Telepathy 
Tera Type: Steel  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Spacial Rend / Draco Meteor 
- Hydro Pump  
- Earth Power / Ice Beam 
- Protect

With a base 120 Speed, essentially working the same way as the previous Palkia set.

Dialga, The Temporal Pokémon

Dialga-Origin @ Adamant Crystal  
Ability: Pressure / Telepathy   
Tera Type: Fairy  
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA  
Quiet Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Roar of Time / Draco Meteor 
- Flash Cannon  
- Earth Power  
- Trick Room

I am more inclined to use the Origin form due to the increase in Special Defense it gets, without having the rest of it's stats altered. Conceptually works the same as Palkia above, but I opted for Telepathy

Roar Of Time is also an incredibly respectable Dragon STAB, despite the inability to move next turn, being more efficient than Draco Meteor in a single-turn for those key KOs where necessary.

Honorable Mentions

These are non-restricted choices that I personally want to highlight for Regulation G.

Mienshao, The Martial Arts Pokémon

Mienshao @ Focus Sash  
Ability: Inner Focus  
Tera Type: Fighting  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Wide Guard  
- Fake Out  
- Close Combat  
- Quick Guard / Feint / Protect / Coaching

Mienshao is a great rising star in Regulation G due to Wide Guard/Fake Out access, Inner Focus to allow you to ignore Flinch/Intimidate, and threaten Incineroar with Close Combat.

The 4th move can be context-dependent, with Quick Guard potentially being useful against Priority, Feint to break Protects, or Coaching in particular (usually paired with Calyrex-Ice Rider) to improve both bulk and offense.

Ditto, The Transform Pokémon

Ditto @ Choice Scarf / Focus Sash 
Ability: Imposter  
Tera Type: Ghost  
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe  
Serious Nature  
IVs: 30 Atk  
- Transform

The only stat that realistically matters here is HP, with the rest of the EVs being wasted. Ditto copies the base stats, IVs, EVs of the opposing Pokémon, allowing Ditto to become a great revenge-killer. Choice Scarf here allows you to outspeed the Pokémon you just copied, while Focus Sash gives you some measure of flexibility.

END

Thank you for reading this beast of a post. I hope you've gained some useful information to put to use in your Regulation G process.

Acknowledgments

  • Terapagos Sprite - Kiriaura [Base Sprite] and Mangalos810 [animation]

  • Calyrex and Koraidon sprites - Kiriaura

  • Miraidon sprite - Nebaku

  • Lunala sprite - Falgaia

  • Palkia-Origin and Dialga-Origin - Hellfire0raptor and KingOfThe-X-Roads

  • All other sprites are credited towards Smogon's Sprite Project, or found within publically available game assets.

Disclaimer: The opinions/stories expressed in the blog post are those of the author's and not necessarily reflective of the platform or its affiliates.