Flutter Mane is once again reigning at the top of the usage charts for a major Pokémon Scarlet and Violet tournament, the European International Championships—and it’s not even surprising at this point. Players have already come to the conclusion that this Ghost and Fairy dual-type Paradox Pokémon is the best Pokémon to exist in the current VGC metagame.
Ever since Regulation B went live for Scarlet and Violet on Feb. 1, Paradox Pokémon have been legal for players to use on the ranked ladder as well as official TPCI tournaments. Paradox Pokémon are all stat beasts, boasting either 570 or 590 stat totals, making every one of them viable to use in competitive play.
That being said, some Paradox Pokémon were identified from the beginning to be more threatening than the rest. And the most notable pick was the omnipresent, ever-threatening Flutter Mane.
Flutter Mane has been in the top spot in usage rates for every major tournament—Regionals and Internationals—since Regulation B started, apart from the first Regulation B tournament.
In the Orlando Regional Championships, Flutter Mane was the second-most used Pokémon for day one of the tournament, boasting a 41.92 percent usage rate, only being beaten out by Iron Hands in first place with a usage rate of 51.28 percent. That was the first Regulation B tournament, though, so it makes sense that players hadn’t exactly figured out what reigns supreme.
Dominating the usage rate charts of every major tournament ever since then, Flutter Mane is currently showing an unprecedented usage rate of 79.0 percent for day one of the ongoing European International Championships, comfortably sitting in first place and beating out the second place Amoonguss by over 20 percent—the sussy mushroom sits at a 58.1 percent usage rate.
But why exactly does this Paradox Pokémon have such a tight chokehold over the competitive scene of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? What makes it so consistently good over numerous formats and why can’t other Pokémon replicate its success? Let’s figure that out.
Flutter Mane analysis
To understand what gives Flutter Mane the basis to perform so well, let’s take a look at its typing, ability, stats, and relevance to the competitive VGC metagame.
Typing
Flutter Mane’s dual typing of Ghost and Fairy is one of the biggest contributors to its success. The only other Pokémon with this dual typing is Mimikyu, and it has been and currently is a strong pick in the VGC metagame as well.
Flutter Mane has a plethora of good things going for it, but its typing alone is incredible in more ways than one. First of all, Ghost and Fairy coverage cannot be resisted by any Pokémon currently legal in Scarlet and Violet VGC, which means that if a Pokémon resists its Ghost moves, it won’t be able to resist its Fairy moves, and vice versa.
And even if Flutter Mane is only doing neutral damage, it can easily two-hit knockout or even one-hit KO Pokémon due to its overpowering offensive presence.
Secondly, Ghost and Fairy is an amazing defensive dual type as well, especially for a format like VGC. In any Doubles format, Fake Out is going to be incredibly prevalent, so Pokémon possessing the Ghost type have an advantage as they simply cannot be flinched through Fake Out by opposing Pokémon.
Moreover, the two types cover each other’s weaknesses incredibly well. The Ghost type takes away Fairy’s weakness to Poison moves, while the Fairy type takes away Ghost’s weakness to Dark moves, leaving Flutter Mane weak to only two types: Steel and Ghost.
If that wasn’t enough, this dual typing gives Flutter Mane a whopping three immunities to Normal, Fighting, and Dragon moves.
Ability
To be honest, Flutter Mane’s Protosynthesis ability is probably the worst aspect of this overpowered Pokémon, but it’s more of a “worst of the best” situation here. Protosynthesis is an ability that boosts Flutter Mane’s highest stat in harsh sunlight, or if Booster Energy is its held item.
Since Flutter Mane wants to run so many other items that it needs to pick from, such as the Focus Sash, Life Orb, and Choice Specs, it seldom has the freedom to choose a hit-or-miss item like the Booster Energy to make use of its ability, since once you switch Flutter Mane out, you lose the boost from the item.
There are, however, teams that enable Flutter Mane to stick on the field where running Booster Energy would be the right call. Apart from this, running a Torkoal on your team to activate Flutter Mane’s Protosynthesis can work, and has worked in the past as well. One notable team was Abdullah Mohayuddin’s Regional-winning LilliKoal team that was originally built by veteran VGC player Nick Navarre.
Stats
- HP: 55
- Attack: 55
- Defense: 55
- Special Attack: 135
- Special Defense: 135
- Speed: 135
Now with a quick glance at Flutter Mane’s stats, you can analyze that this Paradox ‘mon fits into the glass cannon archetype—and for the most part, you’re not wrong. This is precisely why Focus Sash was the premier item for Flutter Mane back when it was first legal and continues to be a relatively popular choice for it.
It hits fast and it hits hard, but it isn’t meant to take a lot of hits. Or is it?
With a Special Defense stat of 135, Flutter Mane can take a few hits on the Special side of things before keeling over and fainting. With max HP investment, Flutter Mane is now living tons of hits on the Special Defense side, and its surprisingly living a few Physical hits as well.
If you now add in a bit of Defense EVs on top of this, Flutter Mane can actually have a usable Defense stat while being incredibly Specially tanky. With not a lot of EVs to dump into its Special Attack, simply slap on a Choice Specs or even a Life Orb to patch up its offense and you now have a bulky, hard-hitting Flutter Mane—the best of both worlds.
Since this bulky Flutter Mane also won’t be very fast, it adds in just a bit of Speed investment to outspeed Garchomp and can take advantage of a Tailwind or Trick Room user on its team to give it the necessary Speed control.
Regulation C’s indirect buff to Flutter Mane
Flutter Mane was already incredibly dominant throughout the lifespan of the Regulation B format, being able to one-shot each of the other overpowered Paradox Pokémon such as Iron Bundle, Iron Hands, and Roaring Moon—not to mention all of the other regular Pokémon that fell prey to this Ghost and Fairy dual-type.
And with the dawn of Regulation C, Flutter Mane just got more prey to feast on since all four of Scarlet and Violet’s new Legendaries from the Treasures of Ruin quartet are part Dark-type.
Chien-Pao, Ting-Lu, and Wo-Chien are three of the four Ruin Pokémon that Flutter hits for super-effective damage, making its usage soar even higher. Even though Chi-Yu isn’t necessarily threatened by Flutter Mane—since it is part Fire-type and takes neutral damage from Fairy moves—it still makes Flutter Mane even more popular in the format.
Chi-Yu’s Ability, Beads of Ruin, lowers the Special Defense stat of every Pokémon on the field. This ability enables Flutter Mane perfectly since it can use Chi-Yu as its partner to use its ability, boosting Flutter Mane’s Special Attack damage output to unprecedented heights. This makes the pairing of Chi-Yu and Flutter Mane incredibly potent.
Other Pokémon like Iron Bundle have always been neck and neck with Flutter Mane in terms of usage rates during the entirety of the previous format, Regulation B—and for good reason. Iron Bundle is an amazing Pokémon that is fast, offensive, and frail like Flutter Mane while also being able to play a competent supportive role for its team if needed.
Yet Iron Bundle is currently 12th in popularity on day one of EUIC with a usage rate of 15.7 percent, as opposed to Flutter Mane, who sits in the No. 1 spot on the usage chart with a usage rate of a whopping 79.0 percent—a gargantuan difference between two Pokémon who were basically friendly rivals at one point.
The truth of the matter is, Iron Bundle has a bad matchup with a few of the Ruin Pokémon, especially Ting-Lu, who it can barely manage to four-hit KO with Freeze Dry—which is a super-effective move into Ting-Lu—if it’s carrying the very common Assault Vest item, causing Iron Bundle to plummet in usage rates.
Iron Bundle is still a phenomenal Pokémon, which is precisely why it has managed to at least stick around in 12th place in usage rates. This also points us to the fact that Flutter Mane—other than through its merit of being incredibly strong—is also getting lucky with how the meta is developing through upcoming formats.
Flutter Mane’s continued dominance can, in large part, be attributed to the meta fortunately evolving in ways that are beneficial for players to continue using this Ghost and Fairy dual-type Pokémon.
So this then begs the question: When will we see Flutter Mane’s fall from grace? Will we, ever?
