After dominating the second day of the Pokemon World Championships and topping the usage charts across the VGC, it’s clear that Rapid Strike Urshifu’s time in the meta is up and it needs to go, pronto.
Among the top 12 most-used Pokémon on day two of Worlds, there were few surprises. When it came to restricted Legendary Pokémon, it was Calyrex Shadow Rider, Calyrex Ice Rider, and Miraidon all came out on top for usage—to the surprise of few. Meanwhile, the likes of Incineroar, Rillaboom, and Raging Bolt are still dominating the Regulation G meta with Rapid Strike Urshifu taking the throne at 61.32 percent usage.
It’s no secret that Rapid Strike Urshifu is an absolute menace with great stats, a multi-hit signature move, and the broken ability to attack through Protect. But as powerful as it is, many VGC players actually despise the water bear. Former world champ Wolfe Glick, who used Urshifu in his Worlds team this year, has even claimed the bear has ruined competitive Pokémon. It’s just too broken for its own good.
Luckily for all the Urshifu haters, the bear will be banned in the upcoming format, Regulation H, along with all the other Legendaries and Paradox Pokémon. It’s interesting how they decided to ban a group of Pokémon, since all the previous Scarlet and Violet competitive formats had done the opposite and threw more ‘mons into the meta. Perhaps the VGC community’s general distaste for Urshifu had some influence on the Legendary bans to remove the water bear and shake up the meta.
Hopefully, the meta can get to a healthier state without Urshifu and other overpowered Legendaries like Shadow Rider and Ice Rider Calyrex. But, until Reg H officially starts Sept. 1, we’re left to watch Urshifu tear through the field and potentially take home another world championship title this weekend.
