Beastcoast held its Safari Zone Tournament this weekend with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s new Regulation E ruleset, and one of the most surprising shifts in the VGC meta involves signs of weakness from Gen IX’s most dominant Pokémon—Flutter Mane.
Prior to Regulation E, Flutter Mane had been winning tournament after tournament, consistently being the most-used Pokémon in the format. As a Paradox Pokémon, the Ghost/Fairy ‘mon was blessed with naturally high stats. Combined with a strong typing and a great move pool, Flutter Mane had practically become a necessity on VGC teams, reaching as high as 79-percent usage at the Europe International Championships last season.
Flutter Mane was still the most-used overall at the Beastcoast Safari Zone Tournament, but when you take a closer look at the stats, you can see cracks starting to form in its performance. The most obvious sign was neither of the finalists had Flutter Mane.
In fact, most Pokémon from Grant Laird and James Evans’ teams were hard-hitting physical attackers like Urshifu, Landorus, Iron Hands, and The Teal Mask’s beloved new Legendary, Ogerpon.
In addition to that, Flutter Mane was finally dethroned from the top of the usage chart once top cut came around, falling below Landorus and tying with fellow Paradox Pokémon Iron Hands.
With Regulation E throwing in Pokémon and TMs from The Teal Mask DLC, Flutter Mane now has to deal with new or rising physical threats like Ogerpon and Rillaboom.
Ogerpon, for example, has four powerful forms to account for, while Rillaboom received a nice buff with the return of its favorite priority move, Grassy Glide. Flutter Mane doesn’t have the greatest Defense or HP stats, so facing all of these strong physical attackers has been proving to be a bit of a challenge.
Flutter Mane wasn’t the only Pokémon losing momentum in this new meta either. These powerful Grass-type Pokémon are also overshadowing everyone’s favorite mushroom, Amoonguss. Like Flutter Mane, Amoonguss had been a staple on many winning VGC teams last season, but it wasn’t even in the top 10 most-used Pokémon at this tournament. Right now, there are just too many strong Grass ‘mons to compete with, and it’s honestly refreshing to see.
Of course, Reg. E has just begun, so the meta is bound to keep shifting. Whether this means Flutter Mane and Amoonguss will climb their way back up or continue to fall, we’ll find out soon with plenty of regional tournaments happening this month.
