For the first time ever, professional Pokémon players will have to compete in the annual World Championships in a new format. No official tournament before Worlds is taking place in Regulation D rules, which means there’s an open field for players to innovate and show off their creativity in this fresh new metagame.
But on the flip side, this also means that figuring out what’s actually good is going to be a problem for a lot of people. Testing out combinations of Pokémon on your own can be fulfilling, but knowing the pairings that actually go together like bread and butter can be a challenging task.
Through our own testing and research, however, we have narrowed down some of the best cores of Pokémon that you can use to climb the ladder and achieve newfound success in Regulation D VGC like you never have before.
The seven best Pokémon cores to use for Regulation D VGC in Scarlet and Violet
Urshifu – Rapid Strike + Tornadus – Incarnate
This duo is a very straightforward pairing, and if there’s any place that you should start from in Regulation D, it’s with this core.
Urshifu – Rapid Strike has the ability Unseen Fist that lets Urshifu’s contact moves break through Protect and similar guarding moves, which when combined with its phenomenal Attack stat makes it an indomitable foe to go up against; and this is without even considering its signature move: Surging Strikes.
Hitting three times to ignore Focus Sashes and landing guaranteed critical hits with each of the three strikes, there’s barely anything that can withstand the force of Rapid Strike. Add on Tera Water for even more offensive carnage which also helps it defensively by getting rid of its Fighting typing.
Tornadus – Incarnate perfectly enables Rapid Strike by not only setting up priority Tailwind and doubling Urshifu’s Speed, but by also having the ability to set up Rain. With its priority Rain Dance, it can boost Urshifu’s Water-type damage to unforeseen heights, making this core a meta pick in the Regulation D metagame.
Since these two are such a staple, in case you end up in a TornShifu mirror matchup, you’d have the upper hand by running a Choice Scarf on your Rapid Strike, always letting your Urshifu move before your opponent’s.
Urshifu – Single Strike + Iron Bundle
Remember how I just talked about Rapid Strike having a stellar Attack stat, an ability that lets its hit through Protect, and a signature move that always crits? So, Urshifu – Single Strike can also do all of that as well.
Rapid Strike is considered to be the better of the two brothers since its signature move hits more important types for super effective damage which can further be boosted with the help of Rain Dance, while it fits snugly in most teams as the Water component of a Fire-Water-Grass type core.
That being said, Urshifu – Single Strike’s Wicked Blow has a better neutral matchup in the metagame, meaning that very few Pokémon resist its signature move. With a Choice Band equipped along with Tera Dark, Single Strike can handily one-shot a whole array of Pokémon in the metagame.
To support it with necessary Speed control, pair Urshifu – Single Strike up with Iron Bundle and let it use Icy Wind to drop the opponent’s Speed before Single Strike goes on a rampage. Not only does this drop the opponent’s Speed, but it also chips away at their health a bit so that Urshifu can go ahead and pick up the KO that it couldn’t pick up otherwise.
This is especially noteworthy when fighting against Amoonguss, who are generally built to barely survive the Choice Band Tera Dark Wicked Blow. With prior Icy Wind chip damage, this is no longer the case.
Ursaluna + Cresselia
This core is pretty straightforward. Set up Trick Room with Cresselia and proceed to delete your opponent with Ursaluna.
With Flame Orb as Ursaluna’s held item, all you need to do is survive the first turn while your Cresselia sets up Trick Room so that from the following turn, you can Facade your opponents into oblivion with your Guts-boosted grizzly bear.
If you are under threat on turn one, you can just Protect with Ursaluna. If you’re against Urshifu that will just break through your Protect, your best bet is going for a defensive Tera like Water or Fairy.
Under Trick Room, since your Ursaluna will be faster than your Cresselia, you can end the turn with Cresselia’s new signature move Lunar Blessing to heal both of you up a little while also preventing Ursaluna from taking the chip damage from Burn at the end of the turn. Due to it still holding the Flame Orb, it will get burnt again anyways, giving you the increased damage but without the Burn recoil.
Heatran + Rillaboom + Urshifu – Rapid Strike
This is what the competitive community generally likes to call “good stuff.” It’s just a bunch of great, reliable Pokémon that do their job well and get you consistent wins even if your play is sloppy, simply because they’re incredible ‘mons.
Forming a strong Fire-Water-Grass core, these three picks have strong offensive and defensive synergy. Rillaboom—ideally holding an Assault Vest—can Fake Out the first turn to give its partners momentum, especially Heatran that would want to set up with Substitute. If it’s holding Leftovers, Grassy Terrain along with its held item will let Heatran comfortably recover any lost health as it sits behind its decoy.
Urshifu – Rapid Strike rounds this core out with its incredible offensive presence, being able to break through Protect and crit through Defense boosts, something that is only bolstered by the synergy brought through its teammates.
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Regidrago + Indeedee – Female
While Regieleki dominated all of Sword and Shield VGC, having Regidrago sit on the sidelines, the tables have finally turned. With the addition of Terastallization, surviving the nerf hammer (unlike Regieleki), and existing in a meta that favors it, Regidrago can finally have its time in the spotlight.
Being a Dragon-type Water Spout, Regidrago’s signature move Dragon Energy will comfortably one-shot both opponents if they don’t resist it. If you want the guaranteed OHKO, simply slap on a Choice Specs; Dragon Fang works as well, to a lesser extent.
If you want to one-shot even frail Pokémon that resist it, you can double down with Dragon Tera and truly cause carnage. If hyper-offense is not your thing, however, Tera Steel works perfectly to cover its weaknesses while also having the option to fire off Steel Tera Blasts to pin Flutter Mane.
Since you don’t want to incur damage on your Regidrago to keep Dragon Energy’s power at maximum, Indeedee – Female works as a great partner to redirect attacks while also stopping priority moves. Train Indeedee greatly on its Physical Defense and give it a Rocky Helmet to punish—with Follow Me—any Urshifu (especially Rapid Strike) that try to threaten its draconic partner.
Sneasler + Rillaboom
Remember Roaring Moon from Regulation C with its meta Tera Flying Acrobatics set? That’s kinda how Sneasler works, except it needs a little help to reach its full potential.
The best way for Sneasler to activate Unburden and double its Speed is by holding a Terrain Seed item and having the corresponding terrain set up for it. In this case, Sneasler will be holding a Grassy Seed and have Rillaboom as its trusty teammate to set up Grassy Terrain for it.
Not only does the Grassy Terrain make Sneasler bulkier on its weaker Physical Defense side by activating its Grassy Seed, but it also heals Sneasler up a little with every turn on top of doubling its Speed stat. This means that after activating Unburden, Sneasler doesn’t need any Speed investment able to outpace a max Speed Timid Regieleki, the fastest thing in the entire game.
Being able to majorly focus its training into bulk and Attack, Sneasler can do massive amounts of damage with Close Combat, Tera Flying Acrobatics, and Dire Claw—which can also either paralyze, poison, or put your opponent to sleep 50 percent of the time.
Furthermore, Sneasler has the option to run the ever useful Fake Out to buy its partner time and/or opportunity, or Swords Dance to drive its Attack stat through the roof and guarantee OHKOs.
Fake Out is a less tempting option to slap onto Sneasler since Rillaboom will also be running it, which is a great option to go for when you need Sneasler to set up with Swords Dance.
Basculegion (Male) + Pelipper
Speaking of an incredible Pokémon that can double its Speed under the right conditions, Basculegion has always been under the watchful eye of competitive players as to whether or not it would eventually become a strong pick in the Regulation D metagame. Well, turns out it is.
Part of its usefulness comes from its unique use case. When the best Water type in the format (and best Pokémon in general) is Urshifu – Rapid Strike, you need to have a very good reason to use another Water type instead. Being a Water/Ghost-type, Basculegion can completely wall Rapid Strike, resisting one of its STABs while being immune to the other.
With Swift Swim as one of its abilities, it is best paired up with Pelipper which can double its partner’s Speed just by entering the field through its ability Drizzle. Similar to Sneasler, this allows Basculegion to invest heavily into Attack and bulk, letting it hit hard and fast while still being tanky.
Whether you’re firing off Rain-boosted Wave Crashes or boosted Last Respects during the endgame, you really don’t want to be taking hits from this angry fish. You’ll also want Basculegion to be the Male version since it has the better stat spread.
With Pelipper, a good tip is to have its Tera type be Flying to secure the OHKO onto Amoonguss with Hurricane, as that sussy baka is one of the only ‘mons that can prove to be a nuisance for Basculegion.
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