By Joseph Ugarte, contributing writer

With Regulation Set G returning to Pokémon Video Game Championship (VGC) competitions in the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games, it’s a particularly tricky time to anticipate what we’ll see in the upcoming Regional Championships and European International Championships metagame. After spending months in Regulation Set H since the 2024 Pokémon World Championships (Worlds) concluded in August, January’s shift back to that tournament’s format—Regulation Set G—is sure to feature the return of established teams, but with room to innovate as well. How will the 2024 Pokémon World Championships influence upcoming tournaments using Regulation Set G? Let’s break it down as we return to this old (but new) format.

Will Miraidon Continue Its Reign of Dominance in Regulation Set G?

We witnessed a historic win for Italy at last year’s Masters Division World Championships by Luca Ceribelli, utilizing a powerful Miraidon team that had seen success both online and in grassroots tournaments leading up to the World Championships. The team featured some of the strongest Pokémon that Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet have to offer, including Miraidon, Iron Hands, and Hearthflame Mask Ogerpon. Luca was able to pilot this team to a hard-fought win over Yuta Ishigaki, who used a much more unconventional Ice Rider Calyrex team featuring a Life Orb Pelipper and Choice Scarf Incarnate Forme Landorus, along with the totally unexpected Iron Valiant.

The real question is: How will this team impact the metagame going forward? Will it continue to dominate, or will the format adapt to its presence? The answer might be a bit of both. When players return to tested formats, they usually have more experience as competitors and a better understanding of the metagame, meaning that certain teams or archetypes are optimized faster than before.

However, there are still opportunities for adaptations that haven’t been explored, especially for players finding new ways to prepare for Luca Ceribelli’s team. Although they’re versatile and threaten lots of offensive damage, Miraidon teams can struggle against powerful Ground-type spread moves, terrain changes through top Pokémon like Rillaboom and Indeedee, and dedicated Trick Room teams. Trainers looking to improve their matchups with this team might reconsider the Choice Scarf Incarnate Form Landorus featured on Yuta Ishigaki’s team, and there’s clear potential for Groudon to perform better than it did in the first cycle of Regulation Set G. Similarly, Ice Rider Calyrex with Rillaboom will likely have continued success—Ice Rider Calyrex’s Glacial Lance threatens the knockout on Miraidon, while Rillaboom helps reduce Miraidon’s damage to a controllable level by removing the Electric Terrain set by its Ability. We could also see copies of the World Championship–winning team with tweaks aiming to gain an advantage in the mirror matchup.

Miraidon also had other unique builds perform well at the World Championships. Chenyue Zeng’s team—featuring Dondozo, Tatsugiri, Miraidon, Gholdengo, Dragonite, and Chi-Yu—was able to catch a lot of the competition off guard. Chenyue Zeng utilized an Assault Vest Miraidon, which was different enough from the most common Miraidon loadout—Choice Specs and the Fairy Tera Type—that it typically required different gameplans to defeat. Although the Choice Specs, Fairy–Tera Type version of Miraidon seems to be its most consistent build, there is still room to develop and explore new sets further, like we saw at the World Championships. Life Orb Miraidon has also shown some potential due to the fact that it can switch between moves freely while also maintaining a higher damage output.

What’s New with the Ice Rider Calyrex Teams?

Ice Rider Calyrex has been a consistent staple in Regulation Set G. The High King Pokémon’s incredibly versatile toolkit, which exerts heavy pressure with Glacial Lance and High Horsepower, enables it to flexibly fit on many different team compositions. The item Clear Amulet is almost exclusively given to Ice Rider Calyrex, allowing it to stack Chilling Neigh Attack boosts without being slowed down by Intimidate from Incineroar.

Surprisingly, in the Top 8 of the World Championships, every Ice Rider Calyrex team notably deviated from the more standard team compositions that had been established earlier in the format. The teams leaned into newer trends and meta developments with their picks. One of the picks featured on two of the three Top 8 Calyrex teams was Incarnate Form Landorus, with finalist Yuta Ishigaki’s team utilizing the aforementioned Choice Scarf to allow Landorus to outspeed Miraidon and pressure it directly. In contrast, Navjit Joshi’s Top 8 team featured a Life Orb Incarnate Form Landorus next to Regieleki, prioritizing strong pins with Earth Power and Electroweb over immediate Speed, synergizing with a relatively speedy Ice Rider Calyrex’s Glacial Lance.

The final Top 8 Ice Rider Calyrex player, Diego Ferreira, used a team archetype commonly referred to as the “Hard Trick Room.” A Hard Trick Room team completely dedicates its resources to setting up a Trick Room and maximizing its Pokémon’s offensive value during the turns that Trick Room is active. Diego utilized unconventional sets on his team, such as an Ice Rider Calyrex that knew Imprison, giving himself an edge into opposing Ice Rider Calyrex teams and making it harder for opponents to utilize their own Trick Room to counter Diego’s main strategy. Although the team performed well, this team will likely carry over the least into the second cycle of Regulation Set G due to the linear nature of Diego’s build.

Ice Rider Calyrex doesn’t run many unique sets, with Trainers preferring to give it a Clear Amulet and teach it Glacial Lance, High Horsepower, Protect, and Trick Room. Typically, the biggest variations on Ice Rider Calyrex come through its Tera Type. Normal, Fire, Water, Grass, and Dragon all see play, with each Tera Type having different benefits and drawbacks defensively. The Tera Type choice is usually dependent on the partners surrounding Ice Rider Calyrex. You might also see specific teams using unique items such as the Assault Vest, a strategy that makes Ice Rider Calyrex even more difficult to remove from the field, which allowed it to place second at the Japan National Championships. Never Melt Ice was another item adaptation, allowing Glacial Lance to output even more damage—with the trade-off of becoming vulnerable to the Attack stat reduction from Incineroar’s Intimidate Ability.

The Future of Shadow Rider Calyrex

Shadow Rider Calyrex was one of the greatest threats going into the Pokémon World Championships, with most Trainers having dedicated their time towards finding effective ways to beat it. Despite this, it still received multiple Top Cut placements, though none made it to the Top 8 of the tournament. Although it didn’t perform as well as expected, it is still a powerful threat that must be respected. Shortly before the World Championships, Shadow Rider Calyrex was more frequently paired with Hearthflame Mask Ogerpon, which allowed it to set up terrifying situations wherein opponents had to take both an Astral Barrage and a Fire-type Ivy Cudgel in the same turn. Incineroar and Rillaboom are also phenomenal partners to this core, allowing for safe switches and leveraging Fake Out to set up Shadow Rider Calyrex. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues or if players will try to create new builds to bring out Shadow Rider Calyrex’s potential.

It’s worth mentioning that before the North America International Championships, Mienshao was commonly paired with Shadow Rider Calyrex, but by the World Championships it was generally outclassed by a rival Fighting-type Pokémon: Rapid Strike Style Urshifu. It will be interesting to see whether that was a one-event exception, or if Mienshao will see a resurgence at the next events of Regulation Set G. Shadow Rider Calyrex has some opportunities to continue developing; it is versatile and works well alongside the most powerful, meta-defining Pokémon.

You can expect to see Shadow Rider Calyrex players show bias toward a Nasty Plot setup strategy, leveraging the insane snowball potential from the effects of the Grim Neigh Ability, which grants an additional Sp. Attack boost per knockout as it continually fires off Astral Barrage into the opposing team. It can run a variety of items, most frequently Covert Cloaks, Sitrus Berries, Life Orbs, and Spell Tags. Covert Cloaks and Sitrus Berries are both defensive options that work well next to partners that enable Shadow Rider Calyrex to set up Nasty Plot more safely. Life Orbs and Spell Tags also synergize with Nasty Plot but trade survivability for higher immediate damage output, allowing Shadow Rider Calyrex to play offensively from Turn 1 and naturally get stat boosts through knockouts.

Other Meta-Defining Restricted Pokémon to Look Out for in Regulation Set G

Although the main focus for players was on Miraidon, Shadow Rider Calyrex, and Ice Rider Calyrex, it is worth noting that other restricted Pokémon options will still have a big impact in the return of Regulation Set G. Other notable restricted Pokémon options include Terapagos and Zamazenta, both of which had strong performances in the World Championships, placing in the Top 8 and Top 4 respectively.

Terapagos is a versatile Pokémon that takes advantage of a unique Stellar Tera Type mechanic involving its powerful signature move, Tera Starstorm. When Terapagos Terastallizes and uses this move, it generally hits all opposing Pokémon for neutral damage—and deals supereffective damage to opposing Terastallized Pokémon. Even without Terastallizing, Tera Starstorm is still a powerful move that functions as a single-target, Normal-type attack with high base power and no drawbacks.

Terapagos is typically given Choice Specs, a Power Herb, or Leftovers. Choice Specs and Power Herbs are offensive items, allowing Terapagos to snowball with its damage output faster. Leftovers sets featuring Calm Mind instead slow down the pace of the game, threatening a long-term setup option next to Rillaboom and Incineroar or Amoonguss and Iron Hands. Terapagos also has an Ability that clears all weather and terrain effects upon Terastallizing, giving its Trainer a lot of control over the board state.

Zamazenta is more straightforward in its role, receiving an immediate boost to its Defense stat when sent out for the first time. Zamazenta deals insane damage with its Defense-boosted Body Press, and it can deal even more damage when paired with Chien-Pao’s Sword of Ruin Ability. Sword of Ruin reduces the Defense stats of all adjacent Pokémon, but does not impact the power of Zamazenta’s Body Press, making for a seemingly unintuitive yet extremely potent combination.

Zamazenta is arguably the most “fair” out of all the restricted Pokémon, with a balanced toolkit that functions well when it’s in a position to throw out Body Press multiple times into the opposing team. Heavy Slam is a great secondary option to pressure Pokémon like Flutter Mane as well. Zamazenta can further boost its damage through utilizing Iron Defense, which can make it virtually impossible for physical attackers like Ice Rider Calyrex to break through. Zamazenta also gets access to Wide Guard, giving it ways to support its teammates by blocking Astral Barrage, Water Spout, Terastallized Tera Starstorm, and Glacial Lance.

Which Uncommon Teams or Restricted Pokémon Could Find More Success in Regulation Set G’s Return?

There are still other unique builds that performed well at Worlds that have room for development, with one of the main standouts being Justin Knox’s team of Dondozo, Tatsugiri, Galarian Weezing, Shadow Rider Calyrex, Female Indeedee, and Rapid Strike Style Urshifu. This team uses Poison Gas and Toxic Spikes to wear the opponent down, eventually building toward using a boosted Dondozo or Shadow Rider Calyrex to close out the game. This concept will likely have some more innovations throughout the format.

Zacian is a restricted Pokémon that has seen some decent success in the format, having one Top Cut at the Pokémon World Championships and also placing in the Top 4 at the Los Angeles Regional Championships. Grant Weldon’s Zacian team featured Regidrago, a Pokémon whose signature move, Dragon Energy, can threaten big spread damage without taking up the restricted Pokémon slot on its team. Regidrago is great at forcing Fairy types on the field, which Zacian can capitalize on by hitting them with a supereffective Behemoth Blade. Kian Campbell’s version of Zacian was a bit more of what you might expect from a Tailwind Zacian team, using conventional, metagame-defining partners like Rapid Strike Style Urshifu, Rillaboom, Chien-Pao, and Tornadus. The team also had a unique pick of Umbreon to give it a better matchup into Ice Rider Calyrex. Zacian likely still has some potential to perform even better in this second run of Regulation Set G, with its main draw being that it can pressure Miraidon before and after it Terastallizes.

Kyogre was able to secure Top 16 at the Pokémon World Championships through a run by European top player Oliver Eskolin. His team used a Calm Mind, Leftovers Kyogre next to Roaring Moon, giving it useful options to pressure opposing Shadow Rider Calyrex. Kyogre has a solid position in the Regulation Set G metagame, with a reliable matchup into Zamazenta, Ice Rider Calyrex, and Shadow Rider Calyrex. Kyogre typically has issues against Rillaboom, meaning that it normally is forced have Grass as its Tera Type, which can be exploited by stronger players. Despite this drawback, Kyogre’s ability to control weather and pressure strong Water-type spread damage with Water Spout and Origin Pulse makes it a fierce contender for the restricted Pokémon slot.

Groudon and Koraidon are also restricted Pokémon worth discussing. Groudon has serious anti-metagame potential due to the rise of Miraidon at the World Championships. It will need to deal with the inaccuracy of Precipice Blades, but we have already seen that it’s possible for Groudon to perform well, as Japanese top player Yuma Kinugawa ended up just one win short of Top Cut with it at the World Championships. Koraidon also just barely missed Top Cut by one win, with the highest-placing Koraidon piloted by Spanish player Carlos Cabal. Carlos’s team featured Ditto, another Pokémon with a lot of potential in this second cycle of Regulation Set G. Ditto’s Imposter Ability allows it to copy the opposing restricted Pokémon when sent out, essentially giving its team access to two restricted Pokémon for the price of one.

Regulation Set G’s return is a chance for players to shake things up, try out new ideas, and maybe even give their World Championships team another shot. The real excitement will come through seeing how players approach these new tournaments. Will players stick to the strategies that worked at Worlds, or will they surprise viewers with something completely unexpected? (You can find the Top 8 teams at Pokemon.com.) Either way, the first Regional Championships are just around the corner, and they’re bound to have some awesome matches. Stay tuned!

For more Pokémon video game strategy and analysis, visit Pokemon.com/Strategy.