Over the years, Pokémon battles have gotten very complex. You can breeze through the single-player campaign with ease focusing solely on type advantages, but there’s so much more to consider when diving into Competitive Pokémon. You must carefully consider IVs, EVs, stats, abilities, items, and more when fine-tuning a championship-winning team.
Before you get to that step, though, you need to decide which Pokémon you’re taking into battle with you. While you can theoretically build a team around anything, some Pokémon are going to fare better than others. Be it because they can learn a wider array of moves, have better overall stats, or directly counter a popular Pokémon, some will appear on almost every top-tier team.
Central to the Pokémon Sword & Shield Isle of Armor DLC, Urshifu has several powerful weapons in its arsenal, that made it a staple of the competitive scene since day one. Most importantly, its attack stat is a massive 130, which puts it on par with the most valuable Legendary Pokémon.
It makes great use of that power with its signature moves. Depending on whether it evolved into its Rapid-Strike or Single-Strike form, it will have a signature move that guarantees critical hits. Single-Strike is by far the most popular, as very few Pokémon can safely switch into such an onslaught.
Ever since Pokémon Black 2 & White 2, and related spin-off game unlocked Landorus Therian form, it has ruled with an iron fist over the meta every season it has been legal. This season has seen a significant drop off in usage, as some powerful counters are finally out there. That’s not to say Landorus can’t still dominate a battlefield though.
It has the Intimidate ability, which lowers the attack of an opposing Pokémon when it enters the field. On top of that, Earthquake can decimate some of the most popular Pokémon in the season, as Zacian and Incineroar are both weak to Ground-type moves.
One of the new Regis brought about by the Crown Tundra DLC, Regieleki made an immediate impact with a ludicrous speed stat of 200, making it the fastest Pokemon in the game. If that wasn’t enough, it can use Electroweb to lower the speed of any opposing Pokémon, giving their teammates a helping hand.
It has a balanced 100 in both physical and special attack, so it can make effective use of loads of offensive moves. Electric-type moves are best so it can get Same-Type Attack Bonus (STAB) on moves like Thunderbolt or Volt Switch. If you want to push it even further, give it a Magnet to hold and those Electric attacks will get another boost.
For the longest time, Charizard was useless in competitive Pokémon. Fire/Flying is an awful type combination that saw it get easily taken down by any half-decent Rock-type. However, thanks to Sword & Shield giving it a Gigantamax form, it has finally found a place. G-Max Wildfire is a fantastic move that continues to damage opponents for 4 turns after it hits.
On top of that, Fire-type has become useful again, as it’s needed to take down commonly seen Pokemon like Zacian and fellow Generation 1 starter Venusuar. Throwing in a Flying-type move lets it use Max Airstream too, which not only helps for coverage but boosts Charizard’s speed.
All-out attack power is great, but support Pokémon are always needed to stay on top. Thankfully, Grimmsnarl can do a little bit of both. Prankster is the perfect ability for this role, as it gives priority to any status move, meaning they will always go first. Grimmsnarl can use this to boost its team defence with a Light Screen or throw out a status condition with Thunder Wave.
It can play some devious tricks too. The move Trick works wonders, as you can give Grimmsnarl a bad item like the Lagging Tail or Poison Barb and give it to your opponent. Fake Out will stop an opponent from moving once, which is always helpful, and if it comes down to it, it has a Gigantamax form, so it can use a strong move like Spirit Break to dole out the damage.
For a while after Regieleki was unleashed upon the world, it seemed like Thundurus was out of a job. As a fast Electric-type with strong attacks, Regieleki outclassed it in almost every category, not to mention Tapu-Koko boxing it out of a different niche. It refused to die out, though. First it appeared as one of the best Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and then people found new ways to give it a place in the meta.
Now Thundurus is used as a support Pokemon. It has Prankster too, letting you Paralyze opponents with ease. There are a lot of status moves to choose from, Eerie Impulse is a must-have, as it lowers the target’s special attack by two stages, but Taunt, Leer, or Swagger are good choices too. Then, if it needs to, it can always lash out with a powerful Thunderbolt.
Incineroar came out as a fan-favourite Pokemon from Generation 7, but at first glance, it didn’t look like competitive had any place for it. However, things changed when its hidden ability was revealed to be Intimidate, at which point it became a permanent fixture in the meta. It has brilliant defensive capabilities as Fire/Dark gives it as many resistances as it has weaknesses.
Flare Blitz and Darkest Lariat are two powerful moves that both get STAB when Incineroar uses them, letting it easily pick apart tough opponents. It can be disruptive too, as Fake Out lets it protect its teammates, and Parting Shot lowers a target’s physical and special attack as Incineroar switches out.
The current season allows two restricted Pokémon to feature on a team. This means the box-art Legendary Pokémon are allowed to compete. Kyogre and Groudon previously dominated the competitive scene in Generation 6 thanks to their Primal forms, but even without them, they can still wreak havoc on the battlefield.
Kyogre’s 150 in special attack is enough to make anyone scared, but it gets better when you realise that a huge portion of the most common Pokémon are weak to Water-type moves; Incineroar and Landorus should be quaking in their boots. The only real threats are Electric-types like Thundurus and Regieleki, but you could turn that around by partnering them up on your team instead.
Where Kyogre goes, so too must Groudon. Although lacking a Primal form in Sword & Shield, the pair are required to counter each other, so if one gets used, it’s almost a guarantee that the other will be picked up, which is exactly what’s happened here. Groudon focuses on physical attack and arguably does it a bit better than Kyogre.
The simple fact of the matter is that very little can effectively counter Groudon in the current meta. Gastrodon does a decent job, but even that can’t withstand a Swords Dance boosted Precipice Blades. When a Groudon hits the field, you either need to bring out Kyogre or take advantage of its poor speed to KO it before it gets going.
One of the Sword & Shield box-art Legendary Pokémon, it was just a matter of time until Zacian was allowed into the competitive scene to destroy everything. Almost every high-placing team in 2022 so far has a Zacian on it, and when you look at what it has going for it, you’ll want one too.
With 148 in speed and a monstrous 170 in attack, Zacian can bring an opponent to its knees before they even know where they are. What’s more, it has the Intrepid Sword ability which gives it an immediate boost to attack. The ace in the hole is Behemoth Blade. It’s a powerful attack normally, but it does double damage to Dynamax/Gigantamax Pokémon. In a meta where choosing when/who to Dynamax is a huge deciding factor in matches, Zacian’s ability to wipe them out makes it unstoppable.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.