Stats from the 2013 International Challenge — March
The 2013 International Challenge — March is over and with the results, we also received statistics showing what Pokémon, moves, items, natures, and abilities were most commonly seen by strong players. We aren’t quite sure what the sample size is so hopefully percentages suffice! This is based on the strongest of the 14,531 players who completed at least 5 battles in the Masters division during the tournament.
If you’d like to see what was used during the 2013 International Challenge — January, check out our last article! Special Thanks to Team Rocket Elite for calculating how many of the counted teams each Pokémon was on.
1. Cresselia (544)
Common Teammates:
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Ice Beam | 70.7% | Sitrus Berry | 44.8% | Sassy | 31.9% | Levitate | 100% |
| 2 | Trick Room | 50.5% | Leftovers | 21.6% | Bold | 21.1% | ||
| 3 | Psyshock | 47.2% | Lum Berry | 7.1% | Modest | 18.3% | ||
| 4 | Helping Hand | 36.5% | Expert Belt | 6.8% | Calm | 17.4% | ||
| 5 | Psychic | 34.9% | Psychic Gem | 4.9% | Timid | 4.9% | ||
| 6 | Swagger | 34.0% | Chesto Berry | 3.4% | Relaxed | 3.3% | ||
| 7 | Thunder Wave | 27.0% | Mental Herb | 2.9% | Quiet | 2.2% | ||
| 8 | Hidden Power | 22.9% | Choice Specs | 2.7% | Impish | 0.3% | ||
| 9 | Icy Wind | 21.8% | Rocky Helmet | 2.0% | Jolly | 0.1% | ||
| 10 | Safeguard | 9.1% | Macho Brace | 1.1% |
2. Metagross (503)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Meteor Mash | 87.2% | Lum Berry | 51.6% | Adamant | 87.4% | Clear Body | 100% |
| 2 | Protect | 74.9% | Normal Gem | 9.5% | Brave | 8.1% | ||
| 3 | Zen Headbutt | 68.7% | Occa Berry | 9.5% | Jolly | 2.1% | ||
| 4 | Bullet Punch | 56.2% | Choice Band | 7.1% | Careful | 1.3% | ||
| 5 | Earthquake | 54.4% | Psychic Gem | 3.9% | Impish | 0.3% | ||
| 6 | Hammer Arm | 17.4% | Sitrus Berry | 3.3% | Hardy | 0.1% | ||
| 7 | Explosion | 15.5% | Shuca Berry | 2.5% | Sassy | 0.1% | ||
| 8 | Ice Punch | 10.9% | Steel Gem | 2.1% | ||||
| 9 | Rock Slide | 4.1% | Air Balloon | 1.7% | ||||
| 10 | Trick | 3.3% | Persim Berry | 1.5% |
3. Tyranitar (422)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Rock Slide | 93.1% | Chople Berry | 44.5% | Adamant | 44.3% | Sand Stream | 98.5% |
| 2 | Crunch | 84.5% | Choice Scarf | 17.5% | Brave | 24.1% | Unnerve | 1.4% |
| 3 | Protect | 75.1% | Dark Gem | 9.2% | Jolly | 23.9% | ||
| 4 | Low Kick | 58.2% | Focus Sash | 7.8% | Careful | 2.3% | ||
| 5 | Fire Punch | 28.4% | Iron Ball | 4.9% | Modest | 1.1% | ||
| 6 | Ice Punch | 17.2% | Lum Berry | 2.3% | Sassy | 1.1% | ||
| 7 | Superpower | 4.7% | Tanga Berry | 2.3% | Timid | 1.1% | ||
| 8 | Earthquake | 4.0% | Leftovers | 2.1% | Quiet | 0.4% | ||
| 9 | Fling | 4.0% | Choice Band | 1.1% | Bold | 0.2% | ||
| 10 | Fire Blast | 3.7% | Expert Belt | 1.1% | Hasty | 0.2% |
4. Hitmontop (369)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Fake Out | 97.8% | Fighting Gem | 77.5% | Adamant | 50.6% | Intimidate | 98.1% |
| 2 | Close Combat | 93.7% | Dark Gem | 7.8% | Careful | 38.7% | Technician | 1.8% |
| 3 | Wide Guard | 46.6% | Eject Button | 6.2% | Sassy | 6.2% | ||
| 4 | Sucker Punch | 44.9% | Sitrus Berry | 2.9% | Brave | 3.7% | ||
| 5 | Helping Hand | 34.1% | Lum Berry | 1.6% | Jolly | 0.5% | ||
| 6 | Feint | 24.6% | Life Orb | 0.8% | ||||
| 7 | Stone Edge | 14.3% | Chesto Berry | 0.5% | ||||
| 8 | Mach Punch | 13.0% | Persim Berry | 0.5% | ||||
| 9 | Detect | 10.5% | White Herb | 0.5% | ||||
| 10 | Rock Slide | 6.7% | Fist Plate | 0.2% |
5. Rotom (363)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Thunderbolt | 81.5% | Choice Specs | 29.4% | Modest | 77.4% | Levitate | 100% |
| 2 | Hydro Pump | 75.2% | Electric Gem | 21.4% | Calm | 12.9% | ||
| 3 | Hidden Power | 60.8% | Sitrus Berry | 18.1% | Timid | 8.2% | ||
| 4 | Protect | 47.1% | Choice Scarf | 14.0% | Bold | 0.5% | ||
| 5 | Trick | 26.9% | Leftovers | 2.7% | Quiet | 0.5% | ||
| 6 | Volt Switch | 24.2% | Water Gem | 2.7% | Adamant | 0.2% | ||
| 7 | Thunder | 23.4% | Grass Gem | 1.9% | ||||
| 8 | Thunder Wave | 12.9% | Life Orb | 1.3% | ||||
| 9 | Overheat | 9.9% | Fire Gem | 1.1% | ||||
| 10 | Blizzard | 7.4% | Expert Belt | 0.8% |
6. Thundurus (353)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Thunderbolt | 76.4% | Sitrus Berry | 26.3% | Timid | 42.2% | Prankster | 64.3% |
| 2 | Hidden Power | 65.7% | Electric Gem | 22.0% | Calm | 33.4% | Volt Absorb | 35.1% |
| 3 | Thunder Wave | 55.2% | Choice Specs | 18.6% | Modest | 18.1% | Defiant | 0.5% |
| 4 | Taunt | 38.8% | Focus Sash | 5.6% | Bold | 1.6% | ||
| 5 | Swagger | 34.2% | Leftovers | 4.5% | Naive | 1.4% | ||
| 6 | Thunder | 26.3% | Choice Scarf | 3.6% | Hasty | 0.5% | ||
| 7 | Protect | 24.3% | Flying Gem | 2.8% | Adamant | 0.2% | ||
| 8 | Grass Knot | 23.7% | Life Orb | 2.8% | Brave | 0.2% | ||
| 9 | Volt Switch | 18.6% | Yache Berry | 2.8% | Gentle | 0.2% | ||
| 10 | Focus Blast | 13.8% | Expert Belt | 2.5% | Hardy | 0.2% |
7. Politoed (339)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Protect | 80% | Water Gem | 28.6% | Modest | 46.0% | Drizzle | 99.7% |
| 2 | Ice Beam | 74.2% | Wacan Berry | 22.1 % | Quiet | 20.6% | Water Absorb | 0.2% |
| 3 | Hydro Pump | 44.5% | Sitrus Berry | 19.7% | Calm | 11.2% | ||
| 4 | Scald | 42.1% | Leftovers | 7.0% | Bold | 8.8% | ||
| 5 | Helping Hand | 35.3% | Iron Ball | 5.3% | Sassy | 7.9% | ||
| 6 | Perish Song | 28.9% | Choice Scarf | 4.7% | Timid | 3.8% | ||
| 7 | Hidden Power | 20.0% | Choice Specs | 2.0% | Relaxed | 1.4% | ||
| 8 | Surf | 18.8% | Eject Button | 1.7% | ||||
| 9 | Encore | 12.0% | Rocky Helmet | 1.1% | ||||
| 10 | Focus Blast | 8.8% | Expert Belt | 0.8% |
8. Latios (303)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Draco Meteor | 93.0% | Dragon Gem | 41.5% | Timid | 91.0% | Levitate | 100% |
| 2 | Protect | 61.7% | Life Orb | 19.4% | Modest | 6.9% | ||
| 3 | Psyshock | 52.1% | Choice Specs | 12.5% | Mild | 0.6% | ||
| 4 | Hidden Power | 39.6% | Choice Scarf | 11.8% | Bold | 0.3% | ||
| 5 | Psychic | 27.3% | Focus Sash | 5.9% | Hasty | 0.3% | ||
| 6 | Trick | 17.4% | Light Clay | 1.9% | Quiet | 0.3% | ||
| 7 | Dragon Pulse | 13.5% | White Herb | 1.9% | Rash | 0.3% | ||
| 8 | Ice Beam | 12.5% | Haban Berry | 1.6% | ||||
| 9 | Thunder | 11.8% | Expert Belt | 0.6% | ||||
| 10 | Thunderbolt | 10.2% | Lum Berry | 0.6% |
9. Scizor (294)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Bullet Punch | 100% | Flying Gem | 15.9% | Adamant | 75.8% | Technician | 98.6% |
| 2 | Bug Bite | 90.4% | Steel Gem | 15.6% | Brave | 19.7% | Swarm | 1.3% |
| 3 | Protect | 76.5% | Lum Berry | 14.6% | Jolly | 1.7% | ||
| 4 | Swords Dance | 38.7% | Occa Berry | 14.6% | Careful | 1.0% | ||
| 5 | Acrobatics | 29.2% | Bug Gem | 13.9% | Impish | 0.6% | ||
| 6 | Superpower | 15.6% | Choice Band | 9.5% | Relaxed | 0.6% | ||
| 7 | Aerial Ace | 14.9% | Life Orb | 5.7% | Sassy | 0.3% | ||
| 8 | U-Turn | 11.5% | Focus Sash | 2.0% | ||||
| 9 | Quick Attack | 5.1% | Sitrus Berry | 2.0% | ||||
| 10 | Feint | 3.0% | Choice Scarf | 1.0% |
10. Kingdra (274)
Common Teammates
| Moves | % | Items | % | Natures | % | Abilities | % | |
| 1 | Protect | 72.9% | Life Orb | 45.9% | Modest | 70.0% | Swift Swim | 99.2% |
| 2 | Muddy Water | 69.7% | Choice Scarf | 12.0% | Timid | 27.0% | Sniper | 0.7% |
| 3 | Draco Meteor | 68.9% | Dragon Gem | 9.8% | Adamant | 1.8% | ||
| 4 | Hydro Pump | 44.8% | Lum Berry | 9.8% | Jolly | 0.3% | ||
| 5 | Dragon Pulse | 39.7% | Haban Berry | 5.8% | Naughty | 0.3% | ||
| 6 | Ice Beam | 29.5% | Choice Specs | 4.3% | Quiet | 0.3% | ||
| 7 | Substitute | 26.2% | Water Gem | 2.9% | ||||
| 8 | Surf | 14.2% | Focus Sash | 2.1% | ||||
| 9 | Hidden Power | 5.4% | White Herb | 1.8% | ||||
| 10 | Blizzard | 4.0% | Absorb Bulb | 0.7% |
About the Author
Firestorm is one of the co-founders of Nugget Bridge and the Community Manager for eSports Tournament Platform Battlefy. He has been playing Pokémon since 1999, competitively since 2007, and attending tournaments since 2010. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with a degree in Interactive Art & Technology + Communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @rushanshekar.
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24 Responses to Stats from the 2013 International Challenge — March
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So rain is the new black.
Usage numbers from “top” players:
1 – Cresselia – 544
2 – Metagross – 503
3 – Tyranitar – 422
4 – Hitmontop – 369
5 – Rotom – 363
6 – Thundurus – 353
7 – Politoed – 339
8 – Latios – 303
9 – Scizor – 294
10 – Kingdra – 274
My full opinion on the matter: Semi-Rain is the dominant team of the current format (as was VocaTop, TerraCotta, TopOgre, and ZapChomp before it). I think this is the first time Kingdra has ever made the top 10. Thundurus-T is becoming more popular, probably because of Rain. Teams should really be preparing ways to beat Rain, just because it looks so omnipresent.
Cresselia: Ice Beam has jumped from 54% to 70% between December and now. Whereas Icy Wind has dropped from 32% to 21%. I’m guessing with all the Rain, Icy Wind isn’t as useful a speed control as Trick Room (which oddly enough has remained around 50%). Thunder Wave has also dropped usage O.o
Metagross: Always in the Top 2 since the beginning of VGC 2012, Zen Headbutt is more popular than it was in December. IT’s pretty much the same otherwise.
Tyranitar: This thing is everywhere. Nothing changed much here….
Hitmontop: This has moved from 9th to 5th to 4th since December. People stopped using Life Orb Top…. Not many major changes, besides Mach Punch lessening in use…
Rotom: Still in the 4th to 5th range. Not much change again. This thing stopped using Water Gem.
Thundurus: More Thundurus-T usage, and the increase of Choice Specs is another good indicator of this. It’s a good Pokemon to use with all this Rain…
Politoed: WHY ISN’T ICY WIND IN THE TOP TEN? That really surprised me, because I feel like Icy Wind would see at least some usage as an alternative to Ice Beam… nope, like Cresselia, Icy Wind is dying. Helping Hand is another story – high usage, and it’s a move that gives Politoed some worth when it’s walled offensively.
Latios: Between December and January, Substitute disappeared. It might be because of Japan and Korea…. Not much change between January and March.
Scizor: He’s baaaaaaack! Between December and March, Acrobatics use has increased and Superpower has decreased. Aerial Ace is a new alternative to Superpower/Acrobat/SD.
Kingdra: Ah, Semi-Rain has come to stay. I’m surprised Ice Beam sees more usage than Substitute. The high usage of Muddy Water in comparison to Surf shows less pure-Rain teams and more semi-rain. Choice Scarf usage is interesting, since it makes Kingdra viable out of rain.
Hydreigon, Gastrodon, and Garchomp seem to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. I’m surprised what happened to Hydreigon, since it makes a good counter to SemiRain….
Is that just thundurus-I or thundurus-T too?
I guess Gastrodon’s usage dropped because Breloom was starting to become more popular.
Also, looks like Water Gem Politoed is the new standard thing.
Hydreigon vanishing is good news, maybe I finally get to use my precious again around Nationals… :3
I was running rain before it was cool
Back in the days, all the cool rain teams ran Absorb Bulbs and Surf on everything.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the latter 3 are all clustered in the 11, 12, 13 spots. Kingdra was probably lurking just outside the top 10 in the previous tournaments but the increased usage of Rain has pushed it into the limelight.
Looks like roughly a 2:1 ratio in favor of the Incarnate form, judging from the breakdown of abilities.
When was terracott ever dominant?
I must have been sick that day
i want to say something witty about terracott and canada nationals but i can’t think of anything right now
My record against scizor: this tournament: 28-4 (88%)
My record against scizor: last tournament: 23-5 (82%)
My record against the rest of the top 10 this tournament: 255 / 351 (73%)
My record against the rest of the top 10 last tournament: 234 / 329 (71%)
My teams have been called “Scizor fodder” too, apparently. Judge for yourself:
Had terrakion, heracross, amoonguss, and lum kingdra on the last team
Had breloom, togekiss, scarf kingdra, and Tyranitar on this team.
I’ve said it before and will say it again: scizor is extremely overrated
Well anyone think that the rise of Politoed and Kingdra was because japan was also playing? I mean it seems like more than half of them run it, and not to mention its been catching on in the west by a lot of players.
To be fair, using Thundurus (which walls Scizor pretty hard) effectively will mitigate a Scizor weakness.
I hope that Quiet Kingdra was Sniper and Rain Roomed all over some Thunder Wave spamming Thundurus-Is.
Also 3.3% Trick Metagross is super manly
It’s a weird thing to say on this forum, but I kind of really hate seeing that Thundurus’ second most common move is HP at an almost 2/3 usage rate, considering it is a gen 5 Pokemon. Wish we would stop getting Pokemon that require HP to work competitively and increase the barrier to entry to play the game. Even 40% on Latios is awfully high and it has a pretty good movepool.
Of the other 9 in the top 10, 7 have Cresselia as their leading partner. Wow
I’m sure this is stating the obvious but I was looking over the January and March stats and noticed that the top 8 is virtually identical between the two months. The only change is that Hitmontop’s and Rotom’s positions in the 4 and 5 spots are switched. The moves/items/natures were all pretty much in line with one another as well – only a few percentage points of a difference in most cases. I knew the metagame has gotten stale but I didn’t realize it was this bad.
I wonder how many people are just using the same team in each tournament out of laziness or simply because they want to keep their cool “tech” for live tournaments.
I’m doing it out of laziness! And I think it’s a little disingenuous to see the Top 8 remain the same and say it’s stale based off that. Battles are done with a team, not one individual Pokemon. Just because something like Cresselia fits on pretty much any team doesn’t mean both teams are the same or are even trying to meet the same win condition.
I’d love to see some alternatives to Pokemon like Cresselia in the next generation, but just based off some of the videos I’ve seen of our players, I can see there’s a lot of room for thinking outside the box.
I’m sure there’s a not insignificant number of players that just copy Ray’s or Aaron’s Worlds teams, which helps make the GBU Top Ten what it is, but there is a reason why those Pokemon are as popular as they are. And as Firestorm said, it’s not like people are solely using the mons in that list. Even on my more unorthodox teams I find I end up including one or two off the list to stablize my team and give my more gimmicky stuff a solid base to work off of.
In every metagame some Pokemon are going to wind up as the best. There wasn’t much turnover in the top 10 for these events last season either and I think as time has gone on the top 10 list has done a good job of refining itself into basically being the 10 Pokemon it should be… the best, most versatile, and most irreplacable of Pokemon. Pokemon that fit well on many teams are always going to be the most used because they have the most opportunities. Tricky rogue Pokemon are never going to end up on lists like this because by definition they don’t fit on every team and usually won’t work correctly if they have shifted the metagame already.
The top three, Cresselia, Metagross, and Tyranitar are definitely the three safest Pokemon in the game. They’re all good offensively and defensively. Cress is the best bulky support mon, Metagross is the most balanced bulky Steel, and Tyranitar may overall be the best Pokemon overall because of the combination of its offensive typing, stats, and Sandstream, allowing it to help counter Rain, support Sand, and be individually powerful. All three also survive all Draco Meteors, an important trait for all teams to have.
Thundurus and Rotom have inflated numbers because of their formes, but Thundurus offers the best Prankster support and is also among the strongest long term special atacking power in the game, while Rotom fits many teams due to its versatility and having good defensive typing in most of its formes, fitting on most teams like Cress and Meta do and providng pivot switches and decent coverage. Hitmontop is the easiest Fake Out mon to fit in most teams because it has the most utility and decent offense to go with it. That’s 6/10 that fit on the list because they have awesome utility and fit in many teams.
Latios is the easiest Dragon to fit on most teams because its Speed makes it require the least support, so it probably isn’t surprising it’s the one generic attacker on the list now, supplanting Hydreigon, which requires a lot more finesse due to its low Speed and had inflated usage from Dim and Ray using it at Worlds until recently. Kingdra and Politoed make the list due to Rain being more accepted as a style that isn’t just for non-VGC friends(as well as the whole Toed/Kingdra/4 random mons thing) and have no alternatives other than Ludicolo for Kingdra. The only sketchy member of the top 10 to me is Scizor, who is a less versatile alternative to Metagross, though it doesn’t surprise me with how many teams I see Scizor on that probably shouldn’t be using Scizor. Not surprised it snuck in over unmentioned Team Ray member Garchomp, though, who feels a little dated on most teams due to Landorus-T existing. The ability to kill Hydreigon in one hit instead of two and not be weak to Water is all Garchomp has going for it now.
This is a good point. It’s plausible that most top teams are using a core composed of 3 or 4 of the top 8, with less heralded Pokemon filling out the remaining spots.
Though I wonder how fringy/gimmicky those remaining spots would have to be to be totally drowned out by the rest of the top 8 in the “commonly used partners” stat. Cresselia, Metagross, Tyranitar, Hitmontop, Rotom, Latios – 5/6ths of the common partners to these Pokemon are from the top 8. Only Thundurus/Politoed are seeing a little more variety (3-4/6 instead of 5/6) since those Pokemon are found on Rain teams as well as Goodstuffs and even then it’s Pokemon like Scizor, Kingdra filling out the rest of the partner list.
I don’t know how many people are copying complete teams but I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a handful of “top” players are doing so.
I agree that all of the Pokemon making the top 8 deserve to be there. Only looking at the usage statistics from the “top” players will strip away all the Electivires and Charizards. But if there’s a consensus on what the 8 best Pokemon are in the metagame, is that not a big step towards a stable (probably a less inflammatory term than stale) metagame?
I guess it all depends on how varied the moving parts are that fill out around a core composed of the most solid Pokemon in the metagame. Wish we had more stats to work with.
The most commonly used Pokemon are going to be the most common partners just because they show up the most in general. The most common Pokemon being the most common partners should be the expected result for most Pokemon. It’s the deviations from this that are interesting. Deviations are only going to show up when there is a strong reason two Pokemon are together or a strong reason two Pokemon don’t show up together. The big example we can see here is Politoed and Kingdra. If you have one, you frequently have the other and it’s a strong enough factor to overcome Cresselia’s advantage in overall numbers. I imagine teams with Latias are far less likely to also run Latios. Maybe Cresselia is less common on teams with Musharna.