The 2023 Pokémon World Championships showcased a wide variety of Pokémon, from Paldea natives like Gholdengo to old favorites like Amoonguss and the Legendary genies. But among the hundreds of different options, two specific Pokémon defined the whole Regulation D meta—Flutter Mane and Urshifu.
On Aug. 13, the new 2023 World Champion, Shohei Kimura, utilized both Flutter Mane and Rapid Strike Urshifu on his winning team in a very dominant finals match to close out the tournament. This doesn’t come as a surprise, given how consistent Flutter Mane has been since its VGC debut earlier this year and how broken Urshifu’s Unseen Fist ability is.
To put it into perspective, 71.7 percent of the competition ran Flutter Mane at Worlds, making it the most-used Pokémon in the tournament. This was also the case at the North America and Europe International Championships as well as countless regionals throughout Regulations B and C. At this point, the Ghost/Fairy Paradox Pokémon seems unstoppable despite other Ghost Pokémon like Dragapult attempting to steal its spotlight.
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Unlike Flutter Mane, Urshifu only entered the Gen IX meta a month ago with the Regulation D ruleset. Still, it didn’t take long for its impact to be felt—Rapid Strike Urshifu was the second most-used Pokémon on day two of Worlds, tied with Iron Hands at 46.9 percent. Its other form, Single Strike, was 12th in usage at 15 percent, meaning it was also a threat to watch out for. Both forms come equipped with the Unseen Fist ability, which allows Urshifu to hit targets through Protect. However, more players opted to use the Rapid Strike form to better fit their team composition.
And even though the World Championships might be over, Flutter Mane and Urshifu will continue to dominate Regulation D at the upcoming regionals next month before we’re hit with a possible new format change in October.
