Saturday, February 15, 2014

Usage Stats of the Japanese Ganyu-Off

Hey everybody! After we already brought you the two Pyroar teams that managed to make a splash in the Japanese Ganyu-Off tournament, it is now a plesure for me to bring you the detailed usage statistics, as well as an overview over the Top4 teams. 


What comes to mind first when seeing this team is of course Pyroar, but on a second thought, it just makes a lot of sense as it is a very nice Pokémon to counter two of the most important Pokémon in the Japanese metagame, namely Aegislash and Gardevoir. I am not sure it it would work as well in Europe or the US, but I am sure it is a fun Pokémon to play! We also have a very standard Aegislash Gardevoir Salamence core, but instead of something like Rotom-W, there is Azumarill as a second fairy-type in there. I really like this choice and think that Azumarill is a very neat addition to this core, as it provides additional safety against the oh so common Garchomp and Salamence, as well as Tyranitar. Kangaskhan is what seems like the logical Mega here, as it is good against almost anything. 


Ohh whoops did I copy the winner's team twice? Nope! 4 out of 6 Pokémon were in fact identical for both teams that reached the finals! While it is not an uncommon thing for VGC formats that several Pokémon dominate, it is Azumarill and Aegislash that were able to hold the finalists' teams together - definitely not something we would have anticipated! This time, we see Talonflame and Lucario on the last two slots. A fire type and a Pokémon with a dragon resistance compared to the immunity of Gardevoir. I think that we are seeing a very nice archetype featuring Azumarill and I am looking forward to facing teams like that in the future!




And while the 1st and 2nd place teams are nearly identical, we are seeing 6 totally different Pokémon in the 3rd and 4th place teams! Good old Charizard Venusaur seems to have made it into the Japanese scene on a high competitive level as well and even Goodra which has had a lot of success in the US, but close to no usage in Japan up to that point, made a showing in the Top4 here! However, it seems as the Charizard was not a Mega, but a very creative Choice Scarf set! We still need confirmation here, though. There is also the feared Meowstic + Mega Mawile in here and I guess I am not the only player that has his very own story playing against Swagger Meowstic. This team, however, uses Meowstic to manually set up sun as far as we know. Rotom-W seems to be the glue of this team as its bulk and supportive capabilities seem to work both in the sun as well as in the Safeguard Swagger mode. 


Once again, Mega Charizard and Mega Mawile in the same team. While other players like Wolfe Glick seem to dislike two Megas on the same team, I think especially Mega Charizard-Y and Mega Mawile are very good together. What are the main matchups that Mawile is bad against? Rain and Sun. And where does Mega Charizard-Y struggle? Against Trick Room and Sand! I think you see where I am going here, as having the possibility to have your Mega in a favourable matchup is a very nice thing. Here, we see a Trick Room mode with Gothitelle, Malamar and Mega Mawile, as well as a bulky offense mode with Garchomp, Rotom-W and Charizard or Mawile. I think the Trick Room Charm Gothitelle is very difficult to play against without the right tools, as Malamar boosts itself with Superpower to +1 Atk / +1 Def and Gothitelle can make that +3 Atk in a single turn! When seeing these Pokémon in the team preview together, you should be prepared for that.


Usage Stats
(66 participants)
36 Garchomp
28 Salamence
25 Gardevoir
22 Aegislash, Kangaskhan
18 Rotom-W
17 Mawile
16 Charizard, Talonflame
15 /Tyranitar
12 Meowstic
11 Ferrothorn
10 Amoonguss
/Venusaur
Smeargle
Azumarill, Politoed, Kingdra, Chandelure, Rotom-H
/Gyarados,  Gengar
Noivern, Rhyperior, /Abomasnow,  Scrafty

Hydreigon, Greninja, Mienshao, Gothitelle, Manectric

/Scizor, Pyroar,/Lucario, Malamar, Liepard, Goodra

Hippowdon, Rotom-C, Drifblim, Bisharp

Sylveon, Lapras, Blastoise, Aggron, Vaporeon, Gallade, Aerodactyl, Lickilicky, Pinsir, Weavile, Conkeldurr, Heracross, Aromatisse, Clawitzer



Interesting things:
-     Meowstic and Smeargle are much higher than in the Western metagame
-     3 Pyroar
-     Gardevoir is the 3rd most used Pokémon
-     Far more Aegislash than Talonflame
-     Despite all the Gardevoir, Aegislash, Mawile, Azumarill... Garchomp and Salamence are still #1 and #2
-     over 50% Garchomp again

I hope you get inspiration from this and enjoyed the overview of the current state of the Japanese metagame as much as I did! Maybe we might see some Pyroar around at Regionals and Nationals as well, who knows.

-Markus