The 2023 Pokémon World Championship is very quickly approaching, and fans in the U.S. can officially draft their own Worlds fantasy teams for a chance to win a bunch of cool prizes. And, by no coincidence, everyone has already started predicting the same set of Pokémon to take out the Worlds crown.
From now until Aug. 10, Pokémon fans can submit their fantasy lineups on the Pokémon Worlds site for both the TCG and VGC sides of the event. Prizes include adorable plushies and boxes of the Obsidian Flames trading cards. If you’re one of the first 10,000 participants in the online competition, you’ll also receive a Mystery Gift code for a free Stretchy Form Tatsugiri that can be redeemed from August 10 to 31.
Paul Chua, one of the top VGC players who is set to attend Worlds, shared his Scarlet and Violet fantasy team, but he’s far from the only one who believes in those six Pokémon; others have chimed in with the same exact team or very similar ones today.
The list, which has popped up a lot, includes:
- Gholdengo
- Flutter Mane
- Chien-Pao
- Rapid Strike Style Urshifu
- Incarnate Forme Tornadus
- Amoonguss
Chua’s draft picks sum up the top Pokémon that have been performing well throughout the season as well as some strong ones that were introduced at the beginning of Regulation D. This gives us a glimpse of where the meta is at right now.
When it comes to popular picks prior to Regulation D, everyone knows how good Flutter Mane, Amoonguss, Chien-Pao, and Gholdengo have been. Fans are occasionally swapping other Pokémon in for Amoonguss, Chien-Pao, and Gholdengo, but pretty much the entire VGC community is sticking with Flutter Mane. It makes sense, considering the Fairy/Ghost Paradox Pokémon’s tournament usage stats nearly reached 80 percent at the Europe Championships while consistently topping the usage charts.
Meanwhile, Urshifu and Tornadus are new additions to the Scarlet and Violet meta, but they’ve already become one of the most popular and powerful duos in Regulation D. It’s no surprise everyone is adding them to their fantasy teams, although a few Heatran and Rillaboom are also getting some love.
Even though these are just predictions, it gives us a pretty good idea of which Pokémon to look out for at Worlds. That being said, anyone could pull up to the tournament with the wildest off-meta team and win—if the 2014 World Champion Sejun Park could do it with the tiny Pachirisu, anything is possible.
My hot take is Palafin, the dolphin hero who vanished in Regulation C, but I’m also hoping to see another big Pachirisu-esque victory with the most unlikely of Pokémon. We’ll find out when it all goes down in Yokohama from Aug. 11 to 13.
