Antonio Sanchez Cervan didn’t just have one
Pokémon that was unique to his team…or two…or three… He actually had four Pokémon that no other finalist used—Gastrodon,
Corviknight, Grimmsnarl, and Dracozolt. He shocked the world on stream with a
fantastic play in Week 2’s broadcast, using Will-O-Wisp on his own Gastrodon to
prevent it from being put to sleep by an opposing Amoonguss.
Antonio’s team is much more defensive than the
average Series 5 team—his Pokémon outside of Dracozolt don’t have much
potential to pick up big one-hit knockouts. However, it is also incredibly
difficult to knock out Antonio’s Pokémon in one hit due to their excellent
bulk. In this metagame, players often gain a significant advantage if they can
Dynamax after their opponent without losing too much in the meantime. Many
teams struggle to do so because they are frail, but Antonio’s team can hold off
on Dynamaxing far more effectively.
Antonio is a veteran with this team
composition, having used the team’s core since Series 3. Antonio made one of
the deepest runs out of all competitors in the Region Qualifiers—after losing
in the third round, he won nine best-of-three sets in a row to qualify for the finals.
His experience with this team shows, and we should expect to see him use a
similar team for the finals this weekend.
One Final Show
Our players have had a couple of weeks to rest and recharge between the qualifying
stage and the finals. They’ve also had some time to think about what team they
want to bring and how to prepare against their fellow competitors. Let’s take a
deeper look at some of the Pokémon and strategies we should expect to see this
weekend!
Individual Pokémon
The most common Pokémon from the qualifying
teams were Incineroar (75% usage), Togekiss (62%), Rillaboom (50%), Dragapult
(50%), Porygon2 (37%), Tyranitar (25%), and then Excadrill, Amoonguss, Ferrothorn,
and Primarina (18% each). Going into the finals, we should expect to see these
Pokémon frequently due to their general strength and consistency.
Ferrothorn’s performance was surprising and
impressive, making it through on three separate teams (Gabriel Agati and Caio
Romanini from Latin America, and Alister Sandover from Oceania). When asked
about Ferrothorn, Caio said, “It is one of the most underrated Pokémon right
now and makes a great core with Primarina and Incineroar... I’m trying to shape
out the rest of my team to complement this core [for the finals].” Ferrothorn
is often able to win games single-handedly through the combination of Iron
Defense, Leech Seed, and Body Press, and it’s likely that players will continue
to use it as a late-game win condition in the finals.
Overall, 34 unique Pokémon made it through the
qualifying stage. Of those 34, 15 appeared on only one team. This pool of Pokémon
included picks such as Santino’s Coalossal, Ben’s Araquanid, Geovanni’s
Drapion, and Antonio’s Dracozolt. It will be interesting to see if these
players continue to stick with their signature Pokémon and strategies going
into the finals.
General Strategies
Sun:
While only one player, David Koutesh, used a Sun team to qualify for the finals,
this strategy is still incredibly strong. Sun teams typically use Torkoal to
set up harsh sunlight, enabling powerful attackers such as Gigantamax Charizard
and Gigantamax Venusaur. In addition, they often have a Trick Room component
with Pokémon such as Tyranitar and Dusclops, making open team lists incredibly
challenging; it’s difficult to cover both the harsh sunlight and Trick Room
components with one lead. Sun teams have already been dominant throughout the
VGC 2020 season, and the inclusion of Gigantamax Venusaur has made them even
stronger.
Sand:
The combination of Tyranitar and Excadrill has been a staple since the start of
VGC 2020, and it continues to thrive due to Excadrill’s capability to speed
past and do heavy damage to major threats such as Togekiss and
Cinderace. Dragapult is often seen with this core—both Edoardo Guinipero
Ferraris and Nico Davide Cognetta expressed their belief that Dragapult is one
of the best Pokémon in the current metagame due to its incredible Speed and
damage output. Three players qualified for the finals with the exact same six
Pokémon—Tyranitar, Togekiss, Excadrill, Amoonguss, Incineroar, and Dragapult.
These Pokémon have worked exceptionally well with each other all season, and it
is likely we will see some version of this core in the finals.
Hyper
offense: This strategy typically revolves around
enabling several of the strongest attackers in the game, such as Porygon-Z and
Cinderace. Alessio Yuri Boschetto gave viewers a masterful performance in the Pokémon
Players Cup Kickoff Invitational, showing just how powerful the lead
combination of Bisharp and Cinderace can be. Jiseok Lee also went undefeated
through the North American Region Qualifiers with a hyper offense Porygon-Z
team. Hyper offense teams typically include redirection users such as Clefairy,
Togekiss, or Amoonguss to help protect their main sweeper (the Pokémon whose
role it is to deal most of the damage). They are also often paired with Pokémon
that know Tailwind, such as Whimsicott or Talonflame, to further enable their
sweepers. Whimsicott, however, had a surprisingly poor performance in the Region
Qualifiers—while 18% of teams used one, not a single advancing player had one
on their team. Similarly, despite being considered one of the best Dynamax Pokémon
in the format, only three players qualified with Cinderace. Despite this, hyper
offense is still an immensely strong option and cannot be underestimated.
Trick
Room: One of the best counters to the hyper
offense strategy is Trick Room. Hyper offense cores typically use Pokémon that
are very fast and frail. As a result, these Pokémon struggle immensely under
Trick Room, as they often rely on knocking out opposing Pokémon before the
opponent can attack. Trick Room was on most qualifying teams and was often used
by Pokémon such as Porygon2, Dusclops, and Hatterene to enable slower attackers
such as Tyranitar, Torkoal, Ferrothorn, Araquanid, and Primarina. One thing to
note is that none of the qualifying teams rely solely on Trick Room, giving
them flexibility in how they can play. European qualifier Edoardo Guinipero
Ferraris notes that “Porygon2 is probably the best Trick Room setter for teams
that do not rely on always setting up Trick Room… [I]t gives the option of a
slow mode.” This slow mode is effective “in the late game after having dealt a
lot of damage with faster Pokémon.” Going into the finals, it’s likely that
players will continue to incorporate a Trick Room mode onto their teams while
also using faster Pokémon.
Comfort Is Key
In preparing for the Pokémon Players Cup
Finals, many players are focused on finding a team that they are comfortable
with and understanding how that team matches up against the other qualifying
teams. Given that players will have access to their opponent’s team lists
before each match, there is less value in catching an opponent off guard with
surprise strategies. Antonio Sanchez Cervan thinks that “players will opt for
safe teams going into this tournament as opposed to trying to break the metagame
with some niche choices.”
Alessio Yuri Boschetto stated that since “the
field is large and varied enough this time, being generally comfortable with
the team is very important,” and he doesn’t expect to see too many similar
teams since the finalists have different play styles.
Joseph Ugarte, one of the North American
qualifiers, believes that he will use a Sun or Sand team because his focus has
“always been [on] using teams that give [him] plenty of opportunities and are
low-risk given how consistent they have proven to be.” He also pointed out that
customizing a proven team/strategy to one’s personal playstyle is incredibly
valuable.
It’s clear that the majority of competitors
value comfort and experience with their teams. I am personally eager to see if
anyone decides to push the metagame by bringing a completely new Pokémon and/or
strategy that no one was preparing for. While it’s difficult to pull off, I
think it could potentially carry a player all the way to the top! Two players
to watch out for with regard to creative team-building are Geovanni Polanco,
who we profiled earlier, and David Koutesh, who is one of the most innovative
team-builders in the VGC 2020 format.
Closing Thoughts
This weekend is sure to be packed with incredible
Pokémon action. Our 16 finalists include several VGC International Champions,
such as Alessio Yuri Boschetto and Christopher Kan, as well as many players who
have made the top cut of the Pokémon World Championships before, such as
Gabriel Agati. Most of these players are still looking for their first major
win, and with Series 5 being such a fresh format, it will be especially
exciting to see who comes out on top after three months of incredible play!
Again, remember that you can catch action from
the Pokémon Players Cup Finals on Twitch.tv/Pokemon and YouTube.com/Pokemon
August 21 and 22.
Aaron Zheng
Aaron is a VGC competitor, commentator, and content creator. He has been competing in the Video Game Championships since 2008. Since then, he’s won five Regional Championships and two National Championships. He has also qualified for eight World Championships and placed third at the 2013 World Championships. In more recent years, Aaron has been focused on creating online content. He joined the live commentary team for VGC streams in 2016. Outside of Pokémon, Aaron is completing two undergraduate degrees in Economics and Applied Mathematics.