Metagame VGC Draft

[Lemurro]

Art courtesy of VMNunes

What is VGC draft?
VGC draft is a draft format based on the rules of the official TPCI Video Game Circuit format. There are many different variations of vgc draft, but the ruleset is generally based on the most common non-restricted VGC ruleset. For example, at the time of writing (July 2024) most VGC leagues have same ruleset and banlist of Regulation F.
Where can I play it?
Most VGC Draft leagues are hosted on Discord and links to them can be found in the Draft League Advertisement Thread. There is also a Smogon VGC Draft Tournament hosted once a year, and a VGC Slot in the Smogon Draft Champions League and Draft Farm League.
Resources:
FAQ
Sample Draft Boards and Rosters
Smogon VGC Draft Board
Whacker Prep Doc
k3ksmann and Sweet Pho Prep Doc
A Guide to Round 1 Picks(tbd)

 

[Lemurro]

League Tierlists and Rosters
Gen 9
Smogon VGC Draft III - Tier List - Drafts
DCL - 1 - 2 - 3
WBG Guardian - Tier List & Drafts
STC - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
WPF Drizzle - Tier List - Drafts
VGC Draft 2 - Tier List - Drafts - Top 8 Drafts
Gen 9 Other Tiers
WBG Regulation G (Single Restricted) - Tier List -Drafts
SCDA Regulation G (Single Restricted) -Tier List- Drafts
STC National Dex - 1- 2
WBG Low tier (2023) - Tier List - Drafts
WBG LC VGC - Tier List - Drafts 1 - Drafts 2
Smogon Doubles -Tier List & Drafts
Gen 8
STC (2024) - 1 - 2 - 3
WBG Guardian (2024) - Tier List & Drafts
SCDA Cherish Ball (2022) - Tier List - Drafts
WPF Drizzle (2021) - Tier List - Drafts
Gen 8 Other Tiers
WBG Series 5 (2020) - Tier List - Drafts
WBG Natdex (2022) -Tier List - Drafts
WPF Natdex No Max (2022) - Tier List - Drafts
STC Series 10 (Single Restricted) (2021) - Tier List
WBG Natdex Lowtier (2022) - Tier List - Drafts
Gen 7
WBG Guardian (Fall 2024) - Tier List & Drafts
STC (Spring 2024) - 1 - 2
STC (2023) - Tier List - Draft
SPS Talonflame (2022) - Tier List - Drafts
Gen 6
STC (2021) - Tier List - Drafts
Gen 5
STC (2023) - Tier List - Drafts
STC (2021) - Tier List - Drafts
SCDA (2023) - Tier List- Drafts

 

[Lemurro]

VGC FAQ​

How does synergy work in VGC?

Within VGC there are two types of Synergy between Pokemon, Horizontal and Vertical. What singles players traditionally think of as synergy, how well Pokemon switch into each other, is Vertical Synergy. Doubles introduces a new kind of synergy, Horizontal Synergy or how well your Pokemon work side by side. Sometimes Pokemon can have both Horizontal and Vertical Synergy with each other, for example Ogerpon-W can switch into Ground-type attacks aimed at Gouging Fire and can also Follow Me Ground-type attacks when it is on the field with Gouging Fire. On the other hand, Thundurus-I and Enamorus-I rarely ever switch into one another's attacks but their Prankster and Contrary ability's combine to make them a potent force when on the field together.

Horizontal Synergy is especially important when deciding on a lead
A large part of VGC draft is maximizing your horizontal synergy. All of your top mons should pair together well, and your lower tier Pokemon should all pair well with at least one of your top tiers. Let's use a draft from the most recent season of STC as an example.

Ogerpon-Hearthflame redirects dangerous moves away from Blood Moon and takes out the Grass, Water and Ice types that threaten it. Ursaluna-Bloodmoon kills Fire-types that resist all of Hearthflame's stabs as well as Rock types that hit it both in and out of Tera. Their stats also complement each other perfectly, one hits hard on the Physical end and outspeeds most Pokemon, and the other hits hard on the Special end while underspeeding most Pokemon in Trick Room. Illumise can Sunny day for Hearthflame, Fake Tears for Blood Moon, Struggle Bug for Ushifu-SS and Tailwind/Helping Hand for all three. Tinkaton clicks Fake Out and KOs Fairy-types, Urshifu stops the opponent from protecting and KOs steels. I could go on and on like this, every Pokemon on this draft can be played next to another besides maybe Scraggy and Tinkaton. This allows a user of this draft to play without the fear that if they don't position correctly, they'll get stuck with 2 pokemon who are completely useless with each other. You don't need to go this far in all your drafts, but always make sure that your next pick works with your previous ones.

How does VGC Draft handle Terastallization?

Just like regular VGC, VGC Draft imposes no restrictions on Terastallization. This creates an interesting problem, every Pokemon on the board is tiered according to its value with Tera but you can only Terastallize one of them. If you draft both Tyranitar and Volcarona, which one is going to have to stay its original typing? Additionally, you want to get as much value out of Tera-ing as possible which generally means that you'll be Tera-ing one of your top tiers. Keep these things in mind while drafting, Heatran may benefit heavily from the Tera mechanic but how often does it actually Tera? Prepping works the same way, you want your Teras to outright win you the game or swing it massively in your favor. Additionally, while no league forces Tera captains many leagues do enforce Tera Team Preview, mimicking the Open Team Sheets of the VGC circuit.

The main effect of Open Tera is eliminating the variance caused by suprise teras but it can make certain Pokemon better. For example, Regidrago becomes stronger when it knows which opposing mons can Tera-Fairy and become immune to its attacks. The same goes for Amoonguss with Grass-types, Iron Hands with Ghost-types etc.

How is bo3 different from bo1?

Bo3 tests all the same skills as Bo1 but in order to be great at it you'll have to add some new ones. First off, you'll have to account for losing the information advantage. In Bo1 when your Choice Scarf Rhyperior kills a Landorus-I having to play with a Choice Scarf Rhyperior for the rest of the game is worth it to get rid of Lando but when that Lando will be back Game 2 it's a lot harder to justify. You can play offensively with this too, planning out your strategies for Game 2 and 3 based on what your opponent reveals game 1. Keep in mind the item clause, once one pokemon reveals a Covert Cloak you can safely Fake Out the rest of their team. Another skill made more important by bo3 is Mental Resilience. Don't get tilted by a loss, don't get cocky after a win, don't get tired and stop thinking about your moves. You should strive to play well on every turn of every game.

What moves should I look out for drafting?

Fake Out: The threat of Fake Out is almost better than Fake Out itself. In game you can force your opponent to waste a turn by Protecting, and out of game you force Covert Cloak, Tera Ghost and multiple Protects onto the opponent's team. The aforementioned Covert Cloak and Terastallization nullify it, but at a significant opportunity cost to your opponent. It's also not terribly difficult to force a position in which you can Fake Out risk-free between Open Tera, Item Clause, and Best of 3. Gen 9's not Fake Out's best generation, but it's still great. PS: Fake Out in SS is also strong; your opponent only gets one Dynamax.
Tailwind: Speed is everything in Competitive Pokemon. Rampardos may have more base Attack than Rayquaza but it doesn't matter when nearly every Pokemon in the game can outspeed and OHKO it. Now imagine a world where Rampardos was faster than Dragapult. That world exists, it's created the instant your Tornadus clicked Tailwind. Gen 8 changed the way speed works, instead of being calculated at the beginning of every turn it is now recalculated with every change. This principle is called Dynamic Speed, and it's made Prankster Tailwind everyone VGC player's favorite button. However, in VGC draft only a few get to click Prankster Tailwind. Prankster Tailwind Drafts are usually very offensive with many mons that make use of Tailwind but pack enough bulk to live through a Trick Room or two. Slow Tailwind is also a viable strategy but not as reliable, you won't rely on it every game the way you would with a Prankster Tailwinder.
Trick Room: Tailwind's archnemesis, Trick Room lets you use your opponent's speed against them. If it looks like you'll be making every move second, either because your opponent has Tailwind or because their team is naturally faster than yours than yours, twist the dimensions on your adversary and watch them squirm. It's not all sunshine and rainbows; Trick Room's -6 priority means that it'll be the last move of the turn and a clever opponent can reverse it by clicking Trick Room themselves. Trick Room also has the unique drawback of requiring Pokemon that are disadvantaged outside of it to be useful, forcing you to constantly maintain Trick Room.

How the turntables...
Coaching/Helping Hand/Pollen Puff/Heal Pulse: I call these the raid boss moves because they're all about making a partner Pokemon, usually one of your higher priced Pokemon, as strong as possible. They're at their strongest in SWSH VGC drafts, but they're quite potent in SV as well.
Follow Me/Rage Powder: The best of the raid boss moves, Follow Me is best accompanied by set-up both of the boosting (ex: Nasty Plot Gholdengo) and field effect variety (ex: Trick Room Bronzong). Boosting isn't mandatory though, being able to keep a partner safe for a turn is extremely valuable in fast paced games (that's all of them). It's important to choose a redirector with strong defensive type synergy with your high tier Pokemon to keep your opponent guessing.

Do you Iron Head predicting the Togekiss to Follow Me or Hi Jump Kick predicting the Togekiss to Protect?

Rage Powder is largely the same as Follow Me, but less reliable because it can be circumvented by Tera Grass or Safety Goggles.

Why are all these babies here?

The extreme value of support moves in vgc is shown by the high rate at which the unevolved baby forms of common support Pokemon are drafted. In the recent Smogon VGC Draft II Grookey was drafted seven times, Impidimp was drafted 7 times, and Foongus was drafted 3 times. These three have an average Base Stat Total of 290 but all of them received more use than the fully evolved Gumshoos. We can see which traits are desired most in NFE's from the tiers of leagues, redirection is king, followed by Fake Out, and then useful abilities such as Prankster and Weather. You shouldn't rely too heavily on nfe's, I once drafted a Fletchling as my only speed Control and paid the price, but they're a nice way to round out a draft. One trick that I often use is going to the search function in the teambuilder and filtering for specific moves.

What are the best items?

Focus Sash : In the world of VGC where games rarely go over 10 turns and OHKOs are thrown around like confetti the Focus Sash is invaluable. So many Pokemon are buffed massively by Focus Sash, its biggest weakness is that it can't be used twice. It's good on literally everything but you'll probably want to save it for your glass cannons and frail supporters.
Covert Cloak : Occasionally useful to avoid a Snarl drop or Rock Slide flinch, but this is mainly used to avoid flinches from Fake Out. Like many of the items here it becomes much easier to play around once you know where it is.
Clear Amulet : If you've paid even the slightest bit of attention to the VGC community you know about the power of Incineroar and Landorus. These two pokemon single handedly check every physical mon in the tier, pivoting in and out until every nuclear bomb has been reduced to a coughing baby. In previous generations, this two mons had a stranglehold over the metagame forcing the use of Special Attackers or Defiant/Competitive, abilities only viable because of the way they interact with Intimidate. However, in Gen 9 Physical Attackers no longer need to fear, the Clear Amulet completely blocks Intimidate. Clear Amulet offers something to the Special Attackers as well, it can block a stray Eerie Impulse or Icy Wind.
Sitrus Berry : Focus Sash for 2HKOs, this item is great on bulkier mons. It's generally preferred over leftovers as most VGC Pokémon do not stay on the field for the five turns needed for it to be more useful. Super Berries are also not ideal (outside of USUM), the 8% hp bonus is not worth the increased difficulty of activation.
Resist Berries & Choice Scarf : Similarly to in Singles these items can catch your opponent off guard and giving you an advantage. However, keep in mind the bo3 nature of VGC while choosing these items.
Weakness Policy : Were on nearly every team during SWSH, less common but still usable now. A very common strategy is attacking your own Pokemon with either a Spread or Low BP Super-Effective attack to trigger the Weakness Policy.

Good Game

Why did an impossible damage roll just happen?

There are several differences between VGC calcing and Singles calcing. First off, levels in VGC are automatically set to 50 slightly altering damage calcs. Certain moves are also modified in Doubles, Spread moves do 75% of their original damage and Reflect/Light Screen/Aurora Veil reduce damage by a third rather than half. Finally, account for partner abilities such as Power Spot and Sword of Ruin that won't show up in the calc unless you put them there, you'll see an option to include them in the Calc right under the field effects. So, make sure to always set the mode to doubles and the levels to 50, don't go into battle with a Great Tusk EV'd to have a 92% chance to live Brave Bird and do 75% back with Rock Slide.

What's with the timer?

VGC timer gives you a minute and thirty seconds to decide your leads and a minute to decide your play on every turn afterwards. Unlike the Smogon format timer it does not give you any time back for deciding quickly, so take your time. Don't take too much time though, you only get seven minutes total to make all your moves. This rarely ever comes up in practice but keep it in mind. This may seem harsh but there is one way in which it is more forgiving, you don't lose when you run out of timer, the game randomly selects a move for you.

What is a mock?

Mock stands for Mock Battle, which is when a kind helper builds for the opponent's side and plays you. Mock battles have many uses including but not limited to, gauging the quality of your prep, visualizing future sequences, predicting your opponent's prep and testing out ideas. As such they are very important at the higher levels of draft.

How can I get better?

Like most things in life, the best way to get better at VGC draft is deliberate practice. Put effort into your games and see what you could have done better in drafting, prep, and play afterwards. This is a slow process but a reliable one. The best way to get better at playing specifically is hopping on the VGC showdown ladder, bo3 ladder has better players (in my opinion) and gets you used to bo3, but bo1 has the unique benefit of being closed team sheet.