Worlds Championship 2016 was met with much fanfare, and after three gruelling days of elimination, renowned player Wolfe Glick emerged as Champion. In such a testing metagame, it was the less commonly seen Pokemon that stole the spotlight. From Kecleon to Arcanine; from Mega Manectric to Hitmontop, it was indeed a refreshing sight to behold. In a way, Worlds 2016 itself was the best answer to the fiercest critics of the season’s metagame.
A quick breakdown of the metagame would show 4 dominant restricted Pokemon that ruled from start to finish:
Primal Kyogre
Primal Groudon
Mega Rayquaza
Xerneas
Primal Groudon + Xerneas and Primal Kyogre + Mega Rayquaza were the two most commonly seen cores at the turn of the year. From there, different cores emerged, leading to the rise of Yveltal, Dialga, Palkia, and Kyurem in Usage Statistics. Within weeks, most players had settled on a dominant team core:
Primal Groudon
Xerneas
Mega Salamence
Mega Kangaskhan
Smeargle
Talonflame
Big 6. A team core arguably suited for the fast pace of VGC 2016, where the sheer offensive powers of the “newly available” restricted Pokemon made it such that most battles ended in less than 10 turns.
This was an extremely balanced team, with no real glaring weaknesses, adequate Speed Control, amazing(ly annoying) support, and capable of handling most threats with ease. It was the new CHALK. By the time the Mid Season Showdowns rolled along, the teams that made top cut were either Big 6 themselves, or revolved around breaking down Big 6 specifically.
This birthed two major complaints:
- The metagame became too stagnant. Big 6 was everywhere.
- Dark Void OP
Many people claimed that the metagame became too toxic. Add in the fact that most of the metagame deciding restricted Pokemon shared the same base Speed of 90, like Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon, many games came down to a Speed Tie. RNG, as it would later be called, drove many players to leave the scene, whether it be permanent or temporary.
Those who stayed quickly came up with solid alternatives to break the so called deadlock. Cue Bronzong, a specific counter to Xerneas with Trick Room and Gyro Ball crippling and even outright smashing through the Life Pokemon respectively. Levitate allowed it to ignore Primal Groudon’s chief form of STAB, and its bulk (including typing), made it a very good anti-meta(game) Pokemon. With Gravity and Skill Swap, which helped with the notorious accuracy of Precipice Blades (more affectionately known as Precipice Miss) and resetting Desolate Land respectively, Bronzong became an invaluable members to most teams.
Another alternative came in the form of Thundurus Incarnate, usually replacing Talonflame. While unable to scratch Primal Groudon, Prankster with Thunder Wave and Taunt meant that it either crippled or paved the way for the rest of the team to barrel through. More specifically, Thunder Wave undoes the Speed increment from Geomancy, and was instrumental in hindering Mega Salamence and Mega Kangaskhan. On the other hand, Taunt could prevent Xerneas from setting up Geomancy in the first place, or most importantly, stop Smeargle from unleashing the dreaded Dark Void.
As the metagame matured, new cores emerged – Primal Kyogre + Primal Groudon (usually known as Dual Primal), and nearer to Worlds, Mega Rayquaza and Xerneas (commonly abbreviated to X-Ray). Out of the two, Dual Primal was the most successful, and had a significantly longer time in the spotlight. While still not as popular as Big 6, it was nonetheless still a very solid combination. Honorable mentions to Primal Kyogre + Xerneas, as well as Mega Rayquaza + Primal Groudon, both achieving varying levels of success.
By the end of Nationals, Primal Groudon became the Pokemon to beat. Almost omnipresent, it seemed as though Continent Pokemon would rule the proceedings of the then upcoming annual flagship event. Most would have expected Big 6 galore in the Top Cut.
Sure enough, 4 out of the Top 8 in the Junior Divisions ran Big 6, or variants of it (2:2). 6 teams out of 8 packed Primal Groudon. However, there was only two Big 6 users in the Seniors Division who reached the Top 8. Things looked even worse for Big 6 in the Masters Division. Out of the 8 Big 6 users who reached Top 24, all of which variants of different degrees (one only had 3 members of Big 6), only 2 managed a Top 8 finish. While 5 out of the Top 8 ran Primal Groudon in the Seniors Division, only 3 (in the Top 8) did so in the Masters Division.
Just looking at the Top 8, the representation of Primal Groudon was, surprisingly, the exact same as that of Primal Kyogre, when combining all three divisions. While not by much, there were more Primal Kyogre than Primal Groudon in the Top 8 of both the Seniors and Masters Divisions. (It should be noted that there were still 15 Primal Groudons in the Top 24 of the Masters Division, paired with either another member of the Weather Trio, or in one case, Yveltal.)
At the business end of the season, all 3 Champions brought Primal Kyogre. Only 1 packed Primal Groudon. Similarly, only one carried Mega Kangaskhan, the undisputed Queen of Generation VI, VGC wise. This result was certainly a far cry from what most originally expected to happen.
Instead of a Big 6 Champion, we saw a throwback to VGC 2010, with the Hitmontop + Kyogre combination emerging victorious in both the Juniors and Masters Division. We saw Infernape, Scrafty, Volcarona, Terrakion and Aegislash, fallen greats from VGC 2014 and 2015 grace Top Cut. Worlds 2016 turned out to be filled with more variety then we expected it to be.
On a side note, shout out to Corey Yuen of Singapore, who was not only the sole player to make Top Cut with a Kyurem (White), but also the only one who made Top 8 without using 2 of the “Big 4” mentioned at the start of this article, both across all divisions.
Of course, Corey Yuen’s team was not the biggest surprise of Worlds 2016. 4 insanely similar teams that were completely unrelated to the infamous Big 6 reached Top 8 (3 in Masters, 1 in Seniors). Aside from Haze over Taunt on Mega Gengar for the Seniors representative, the rosters were exactly the same, down to the Held Items and Moves. Followers on Stream and those present in San Francisco would have seen the team in action, winning Wolfe Glick a long awaited triumph. Cue the champagne.
In Part 2 of this multi part Post Mortem, we’ll take a look at the Winning Team Roster, analyze the possible EV Spread, and see if it can be the new autopilot team. Until then, feel free to look around the site!
MYSVGC 