Turtle Power: A VGC 2024 Terapagos Retrospective

By zee. Released:2024/10/12
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Turtle Power: A VGC 2024 Terapagos Retrospective Art

Art by Fusion Flare.

Introduction

Regulation G was announced at the beginning of April 2024, confirming that the next VGC format would, for the first time ever, permit the use of only one Restricted Pokémon. Historically, any time Restricted Pokémon have been allowed in VGC, players were allowed to use two of them. Technically, this one-Restricted Pokémon ruleset was used in Generation Eight when live events were put on hold, but with this being the first time the ruleset was in place for live events, combined with the massive growth the game saw under Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, players were surely going to have approach this format differently than any other.

Generation Nine added three new Restricted Pokémon into the mix: Koraidon, Miraidon, and, most recently, Terapagos. Terapagos came with a unique set of mechanics. When it's not Terastallized, it has the Tera Shell ability, serving as a better version of Multiscale where all hits are resisted, including all hits of multi-hit moves like Urshifu-R's Surging Strikes. When it Terastallizes, it gains a flat 65-point boost to its current HP stat as well as 25 additional base points of Special Attack. Its Tera Starstorm also turns into a spread Stellar-type attack, hitting any Terastallized Pokémon for super effective damage. Additionally, Terapagos can infinitely use the Tera Stellar boost for its moves, which is limited to one boost per type on any other Pokémon. Lastly, it clears any active weather or Terrain effects upon Terastallizing, which can flip the matchup against other Restricted Pokémon like Kyogre, Miraidon, and Koraidon and can clear Pelipper's rain, which was a major presence in the metagame. As this Pokémon has such an emphasis on Terastallizing to reach its full potential, it cannot be understated how beneficial the limit of one Restricted Pokémon was for it. Having the freedom to Terastallize multiple Pokémon is generally seen as a strong resource, but since Terapagos would be the only Restricted Pokémon on any teams it's used on, it wasn't having to compete for the resource with another crucial Pokémon.

As players were preparing for the format to switch to Regulation G on May 1st, many different Terapagos teams saw use in online play: Calm Mind + Leftovers teams attempting to go all in on sweeping with boosted Terapagos; Choice Specs Terapagos aiming to output strong, unresisted spread damage and punish foes for Terastallizing; and even Meteor Beam, a set that gives Terapagos the ability to use Protect and position itself safely while also being able to step on the gas with a Tera Stellar Meteor Beam, usually aided by additional modifiers such as Fake Tears and Chi-Yu's Beads of Ruin. The Calm Mind set was by far the most common of the three, with some players even going as far as adding Comfey to support Terapagos's setup with Triage-boosted Floral Healing.

May Regionals

The first regional of Regulation G was in Indianapolis, Indiana in early May. Of the 62 players to make it into the second day of the tournament (finishing the nine Swiss rounds on day one with only two or fewer losses), nine of them were using Terapagos, giving it a day two usage rate of 14.5%. All of the aforementioned sets made it into the second day of play, with six of the nine Terapagos being Calm Mind sets, two using Choice Specs, and one running Meteor Beam. Interestingly, the Choice Specs users both made it to top cut, with Nick Navarre finishing fifth and Andrew Zheng finishing second, while Tommy Rolfing's Meteor Beam Terapagos was the only other one finishing in the top 16. The high Terapagos usage in the tournament could be seen as a contributing factor to the relatively middling performance of Calyrex-S, as five of the nine Terapagos players finished top 32 or higher, while only two of the ten Calyrex-S players finished in the top 32 and had no representatives in the top 16. Terapagos is seen as the worst matchup for Calyrex-S, as it is the only Restricted Pokémon immune to its Astral Barrage and bulky enough to withstand its other attacks as well.

Andrew's Open Team Sheet:

A week later in Stockholm, Sweden, Terapagos would see a similar fate: it finished second in the regional piloted by Joji Kaeda, and Nils Dunlop also secured a top-8 position with it. Interestingly, these were again both Choice Specs sets, which two of the other three Terapagos teams that finished top 32 in the event also used. The Santiago, Chile regional would also see two Terapagos make top 8, this time both of them being Covert Cloak + Calm Mind variants supported by Incineroar and Clefairy. The Los Angeles regional, in contrast, was a very quiet event for Terapagos, as it only had a usage rate of 9% in day two and no representatives in the top 16 or higher. Terapagos would see its first win at the Lima special event, where Dorian Quinonez was able to take it home with his Calm Mind Terapagos team that got knocked out of the semifinals of the Santiago regionals. The final major event before NAIC was the Bologna special event, which saw three Terapagos in the top 8, though the highest placing player, Antonio Sanchez, was eliminated in the semifinals. Terapagos would see its day-two usage return to a much more expected 13.5% in this tournament, so perhaps the previous week in Los Angeles was simply an outlier.

Dorian's Open Team Sheet:

Japan Nationals and NAIC

Japan Nationals also took place the week of the Bologna special event. This tournament uses a slightly different format than many tournaments in the west do, as Japan Nationals is played in a closed-team sheet, best-of-one environment until the top 8 where it then switches to an open-team sheet and a best-of-three ruleset. The event was won by Hyuma Hara using a Rock Polish + Meteor Beam Terapagos set. This would be the last time Terapagos would win an event in Regulation G.

Hyuma's Open Team Sheet:

The stage was now set for the North American International Championships, the largest and most prestigious event of the year barring the World Championships. Terapagos had spent the month of May earning a solid resume of achievements, including a few wins, and was certainly one of the top picks to win the tournament. At the end of the first day of competition, 16 of the 82 total players advancing to day two had a Terapagos on their team, netting it a usage rate of just under 20%, the highest it had been all season. After six additional Swiss rounds on day two, Antonio Sanchez and Aurelien Soula were the last two Terapagos players to advance to the top 8, with Antonio using a Calm Mind set on a balance team and Aurelien using a very aggressive Choice Specs Terapagos on a team featuring Chi-Yu and Flutter Mane. Antonio would fall in the top 8, but Aurelien made it to the grand finals, falling to Patrick Connors in a tense set that went to game three.

Aurelien's Open Team Sheet:

Worlds

With NAIC ending in mid-June and the World Championships not taking place until mid-August, players were going to have a lot of time to sit and think on the metagame. This period from NAIC to Worlds was even longer than the stretch from Indianapolis regionals to NAIC. But surely after Terapagos's incredible string of performances, including being a game away from winning NAIC, it would be on everyone's radar going into Worlds. This was true; in fact, perhaps it was a little too true. Large online grassroots tournaments were run by the community in the buildup to Worlds. Notably, Terapagos was either absent or under-represented in the list of top-placing teams. One reason for this is that basically every team had a Fighting-type, if not two, at this point in the metagame, with Urshifu-R being top 3 in usage no matter where you looked, Urshifu-S not much further behind it, and even Iron Hands climbing in usage with and without Miraidon. Zamazenta also increased in usage from its drop-off in late May/early June, which was Terapagos's worst matchup. The dialogue surrounding Terapagos soon began to shift to a question: "Is Terapagos washed?".

As the World Championships began, several top players were confirmed to be using Terapagos; Eric Rios and Alex Gomez of Spain were using a maximum-Speed Calm Mind Terapagos build, which is notable, as it outspeeds Adamant Urshifu formes, which was the much more common nature for them than Jolly. Hyuma Hara was also revealed to be using a Calm Mind Terapagos balance team, leaving behind the Meteor Beam set from his victory at Japan Nationals. All three of these players advanced to day two, along with seven other players from around the world. With a total usage rate of 10/106 teams in day two, Terapagos fell below the 9.5% usage mark, behind Calyrex-S, Calyrex-I, Miraidon, and Zamazenta. However, two players still managed to find their way into the top 24 cut: Hyuma Hara and China's Wang Yuxiang. Hyuma had a bye into the top 16 but was then defeated by South Korea's Seongjae Jeong. Wang made it past Keanu Inosanta of America and Marco Silva of Italy to advance to the top 8, but he came up short against Yuta Ishigaki of Japan, the eventual runner-up.

Wang's Open Team Sheet:

Conclusion

So in the end, Terapagos didn't become a world champion. However, it was a consistent top pick from start to finish in Regulation G, a metagame where it will likely be the best it ever will be thanks to the interactions between its Terastallization mechanics and the nature of a single-Restricted Pokémon format. Regulation G has been confirmed to be the official format again from January 1st to April 30th in 2025, so Terapagos will have a few more chances to add to its stacked list of accomplishments. The question on everyone's mind going forward is simple: can anyone find a way to make Terapagos work in a two-Restricted Pokémon format? It'll have to compete with whatever Restricted Pokémon it's being paired with for Terastallization, and Calyrex-S teams can partner up with Zamazenta or Koraidon to break past Normal-types like Terapagos that are immune to Astral Barrage. So while the future for Terapagos looks somewhat uncertain, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there.

Sources: Top Cut Explorer, Victory Road

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