Intro
Originally this was going to be an article pertaining purely to States fallout; however, many board members professed an interest in a Vilegar update, so I decided to address both of these distinct topics.
But even if they’re distinct, they’re not mutually exclusive – knowledge about Vilegar is essential to success in almost every metagame, no matter your deck choice; and, likewise, knowledge about your metagame is essential to how a Vilegar player ought to run the list.
This is especially true since Vilegar has – after all the Lostgar hype – reemerged as the most prolific non-SP deck.
I highly encourage you to read both topics – it’s best read that way, but if only one topic interests you, then feel free to begin/cut off where appropriate.
Happy reading!
The Post-States Metagame, and What to Play at Regionals
With States having been over for two weeks, it’s well past time to look towards the future: as of writing this article, we have less than ten days until show time!!!
Be that as it may, it is our best course of action to reflect on which decks succeeded this State/Provincial/Territorial season. Below, you will find a breakdown of decks that top cut in each of the participating United States/Canadian Provincials, plus discussion of each of the resultant fifteen metagames. After this, I will cap off each region with one, two, or even three suggestions on decks to use.
As you read through, notice that I didn’t break them down into “overall” categories, or into specific states; instead, I did it according to each of the fifteen Regions you will be playing in (if you’re American or Canadian). For qualification, let me state that I agreed completely with Mike’s generalized approaches: he chose the optimal way to analyze the diversity of Cities, and he chose just as solid an approach for analyzing the short-term gap between week one and week two of States.
But now that we have some really hard numbers to work with from the entirety of the season, we have the capability to get specific here. And the more specific, the better.
[Important note: my style of prediction and recommendation will primarily be reactionary advice. I’ve found in my time playing that most metagames can be read using a reactionary approach – even if some people change, the higher probability is that most will not. This is especially true this format, where few exciting things have so far happened.]
[Still, I don’t know most metagames well enough to predict everything that could show up, so utilize my advice and information in combination with your own knowledge about the area, and you could produce a very “proactive” way to view things.]
Northwest (Washington/Oregon/Idaho):
3 Luxchomp
2 Tyranitar
1 Chen Lock*
1 Scizor*
1 Arceus*
1 Machamp
1 Vile/Lostgar
1 Dialgachomp
1 Kyogre/Groudon Legend/Feraligatr Prime
1 Dusknoir/Dialga G
1 Shuppet Donk
(Cite: the various posters of Pokegym in the “What won S/P/T…?” thread).
*Denotes winner of an event
“Diversity” is sufficient in characterizing the Northwest metagame and all that it holds. To make things even more interesting, not a single Luxchomp or Vilegar took home a medal! Most telling, though, is that Gyarados did almost nothing of note at any of these events.
Given what we know about this metagame, I would highly recommend a Dialgachomp with an appropriate mirror game (by this I mean good colorless attackers, as well as a consistency card such as Chatot or Smeargle).
Alternatively, if there’s something I’m not seeing, and I’m wrong about the Gyarados threat, run a Luxchomp with Dialga. You could even go with Machamp, standing a good chance at a deep run, or maybe even a win!
