(Image via The Pokémon Company)

Staff Writer: Brian Galindo

Email: bgalindo@umassd.edu

Pokémon is a topic that needs no introduction. Competitive Pokémon is one way that the very popular game franchise is played. Though it is not a particularly famous aspect of the game franchise, talking about the competitive format shows the different ways one can play.

Every generation of Pokémon has a unique set of rules applied to its competitive tournaments, and most generations have multiple rulesets within them.

The most recent games, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet have seen a number of changes in their rulesets. These rulesets, officially called regulations, define which Pokémon can be played at a competitive tournament.

These regulations have decided the eligibility of Paradox Pokémon, a class of Pokémon known as the Treasures of Ruin, and others.

The current regulation, Regulation H, is unique in that all legendary, mythical, and paradox Pokémon are completely banned.

While every ruleset has banned Pokémon, it is typically standard for those banned Pokémon to be a class of legendary known as “restricted” – very, very powerful Pokémon, typically those found on the cover art of games.

Banning every legendary Pokémon has never been done before and creates a unique metagame filled with uncommon teams.

One of the most common Pokémon in every other regulation thus far has been Urshifu. Urshifu is fast, powerful, and can break through protection moves with its signature ability, Unseen Fist.

Urshifu, however, is a legendary Pokémon and is therefore banned in Regulation H.

Taking the place of Urshifu as a strong, fast, Fighting-type Pokémon is Sneasler.

Sneasler is a Poison- and Fighting-type Pokémon with a signature move, Dire Claw. Dire Claw is a Poison-type move that has a 50% chance of enacting a volatile status effect, with an even chance of inflicting the Poison effect, the Paralysis effect, and the Sleep effect.

Sleep is notably strong in competitive Pokémon, as it guarantees one turn where the Pokémon that falls asleep is unable to attack. Moreover, it is an incredibly uncommon status effect with counterplay that does not work against Dire Claw.

Sneasler also has the Unburden ability, which can double the user’s Speed stat if their item is consumed. A popular way of activating this is in conjunction with the already popular Rillaboom.

Rillaboom’s ability, Grassy Surge, summons the Grassy Terrain effect by giving Sneasler the Grassy Seed item. The Grassy Terrain causes Sneasler to consume it, both increasing its Defense stat and its Speed stat due to Unburden activating.

The rise of Sneasler in Regulation H is likely the biggest shocker, as many other Pokémon that are currently popular were already popular in the past.

The most famous Pokémon in competition is Incineroar due to its incredible ability and moveset, and it continues to be so.

Incineroar is so powerful because the official competitive Pokémon format, known as VGC, uses double battles, meaning there are two Pokémon out on each side at a time.

Incineroar’s ability, Intimidate, lowers both opponent’s Attack stats at the same time. It also has many utility moves, such as U-Turn and Parting Shot, both of which allow it to switch out in the same turn it uses.

One Pokémon used to counter Incineroar in Regulation H is Kingambit. Kingambit’s ability, Defiant, causes its Attack to be boosted when its stats are lowered.

When Intimidate activates on a Pokémon with Defiant, the boost from Defiant is larger than the decrease from Intimidate, meaning it gets a net gain to its Attack stat.

Other powerful Pokémon in Regulation H are:

• Primarina, a Water- and Fairy-type Pokémon who uses its Liquid Voice ability in conjunction with the move Hyper Voice to do powerful damage on both opponents;
• Ursaluna, a Normal- and Ground-type Pokémon who can boost its Attack while having a status condition due to its Guts ability;
• Gholdengo, a Ghost- and Steel-type Pokémon with a signature ability, Good as Gold, which makes it immune to status moves, as well as a typing that makes it immune to Sneasler’s Dire Claw;
• Archaludon, a Dragon- and Steel-type Pokémon with a signature move, Electro Shot, which is incredibly powerful when rain is on the field;
• Pelipper, a Water- and Flying-type Pokémon, is used in conjunction with Archaludon due to its ability to Drizzle, setting rain up on the field.

The great thing about Pokémon is that there are so many unique creatures that it would be impossible to talk about all of them.

Regulation H is a unique ruleset that will be fun to keep up with during this year of the VGC competition.