In recent Pokémon Scarlet and Violet tournaments under the Regulation E ruleset, the meta has been evolving with an emphasis on the Grass/Fire/Water core and less dominance from Flutter Mane. Both of these shifts have opened up the door for dragons to thrive once more.
At Toronto Regionals this weekend (Oct. 27 to 29), some of the best VGC players were crushing the competition with crafty teams no one expected. In the top eight alone, we saw Raghav Malaviya with Regidrago, Justin Tang with Salamence, and not one but two Roaring Moons from Jamie Boyt and finalist Paul Chua.
That’s a lot more Dragon Pokémon than we’ve been seeing in past Scarlet and Violet tournaments. Sure, there’s been a fair amount of Dragonite and a couple of huge wins at international championships from the likes of Dragapult and Roaring Moon. But seeing more Dragon Pokémon than Flutter Mane in the top eight is pretty wild.
It isn’t a coincidence, though. This sudden rise of the dragons has everything to do with more Grass, Water, and Fire Pokémon and less Flutter Mane in the meta.
Just think about it. A dragon’s biggest weakness is Fairy, and the Ghost/Fairy-type Flutter Mane was the single best Pokémon in VGC for a long stretch of time until Regulation E finally came around. Now that Flutter Mane isn’t consistently topping the usage charts at every tournament, Dragon Pokémon can feel a little bit safer.
At the same time, the current meta is filled with Grass, Water, and Fire Pokémon due to how strong that core is. If you need an easy answer for these three types, Dragon naturally resists all of them. In other words, dragons have favorable matchups against popular meta picks like Rapid Strike Urshifu, Rillaboom, and Ogerpon’s Wellspring and Hearthflame forms.
To take it one step further, we even saw a rare Dragon Tera Type come out from Gholdengo on Raghav Malaviya and Justin Tang’s teams. Defensive Teras like Steel or Ghost are common in VGC, but a Dragon Tera was the last thing anyone expected. If anything, it’s usually the other way around with a dragon like Dragonite Terastallizing into a different type to remove its natural weaknesses to Flutter Mane and Chien-Pao.
But the meta is shifting, and times are changing. We can’t forget about the underrated Dragon/Fighting Kommo-o, who absolutely crushed the competition at Sacramento Regionals earlier this month. Perhaps that moment was what sparked the rise of all these dragons in Toronto.
If we start to see more dragons at the next major events, we’ll know why.
