Hey all, Tofu and Snorlax here to give you our latest thoughts on Regulation D! If I am being particularly honest, I'm not exactly having as much fun as I hoped this ruleset, but it is getting better! I noticed certain things that may be common knowledge, but it might be nice to get something compiled for newer players to prepare your perspective coming into Regulation D. I will try to update this post too!
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- Initial Thoughts
- Chien-Pao/Dragonite Hyper Offense
- Hard Trick Room
- Balance
- Honorable Mentions
- Closing
Initial Thoughts
So far I've noticed that the current ruleset at high levels have extremely similar teams. This isn't surprising due to how good the returning Gen 8 Pokémon are. Some of the Hisuian Pokémon have also provided an indirect buff to certain archetypes. Due to these power levels overall increasing, there will be a degree of stunted variety in teams as you are forced into running certain slots to attempt to check these centralising Pokémon.
However, there is still success in strong Regulation C teams, which then provides a sort of comfort safety net for newer players who fear they are forced to need the previous generations of Pokémon.
I will also be referencing some of my thoughts in my previous Tofu's Table post about the Hisuian Pokémon.
Chien-Pao/Dragonite Hyper Offense
Main core
1
2
3
4
5
https://pokepast.es/c0d3472356cb3369
I don't even know how to describe how oppressive this core is other than, if you looked up the word, you'd see these 5 next to it. This is something I see spanning from low to high elo, and players have been posting this team with a 6th slot of their choosing.
Chien-Pao and Dragonite don't need any explanation, with Dragonite running Choice Band Tera Normal Extreme Speed taking full advantage of Sword of Ruin. Urshifu also brings additional pressure due to Unseen Fist punishing any form of Protects which reduces the options for repositioning. Tornadus provides Speed Control with Tailwind for Urshifu. Flutter Mane is also an alternative offensive options and a potential way to stop Trick Room using Imprison, which can be useful for the inevitable mirror match. The 6th tends to be flexible, as 5 members of this team is already so incredibly efficient in what they do.
Alternative Team Choices
Some of the variations on this hyper offense team would be a rain version, where Tornadus has Rain Dance paired with Basculegion. A top 30 team also ran Rocky Helmet Kleavor which improved the mirror matchup.
I personally tested Wyrdeer to add Intimidate, and free up Flutter Mane to be able to run a more offensive set.
Pelipper can convert the team into the aforementioned Rain Hyper Offense archetype.
*UPDATE* I have noticed as well that the Paonite HO teams have also started to run Gholdengo/Lando/Iron Hands to deal with Thundurus Leads. Chi-Yu sun offense has also made itself apparent
Common Leads
Common leads would include Chien-Pao/Dragonite (1,2), Chien-Pao/Urshifu (1,4), Tornadus/Urshifu (3,4), Tornadus/Flutter Mane (3,5), and Tornadus/Chien-Pao (1,3). Generally this team aims to pick up very strong KOs without allowing your opponents to any resources.
Attempted Counters
Iron Defense
Corviknight, Orthworm and Hisuian-Goodra are all options into Paonite HO due to being able to set up with Iron Defense (Shelter or Acid Armor in H-Goodra's case). Both Corviknight and Orthworm has the main bonus of being able to resist both Ursaluna's main STABs while H-Goodra can still be sufficiently threatened by Earthquake/Headlong Rush. Terastalising will be required for all 3 into this matchup, as Sacred Sword Chien-Pao can still be annoying to deal with for Orthworm/H-Goodra, and H-Goodra can be threatened by a strong Outrage from Dragonite, which almost always OHKOs even max HP/Def H-Goodra.
*Hisuian-Goodra wants to use Shell Armor.
Anti-Priority
A lot of the strong offensive options on the team are priority based which means things like Farigiraf with Armor Tail or Indeedee-F with Psychic Surge can improve your matchup into this team. Indeedee-F also has the added benefit of having redirection which can help with setup.
Ghost Types
Trick Gholdengo has had success into Paonite HO as most of the time, Chien-Pao only runs Sucker Punch which is something you can lock it into if you avoid Terastalising. Flutter Mane is immune to both E-Speed and Outrage, and can threaten huge damage to their main physical damage dealers. Spectrier has access to Will-O-Wisp, which can stop the damage output.
Item Notes
Rocky Helmet is an incredibly invaluable option to at least be able to break Chien-Pao's sash or hurt Urshifu, while Focus Sash can give you breathing room for a turn.
Hard Trick Room
Main Cores
1
2 
34
5
https://pokepast.es/f4aae65edecff89e
Hard Trick Room (HTR from here on out) has gotten a huge buff thanks to Ursaluna and Cresselia being extremely good. The lack of dark types also allowed Psyspam (Armarouge-Indeedee) to thrive again. As a high-risk/high-reward team, you can close out games extremely quickly due to strong AoE and amazing speed control.
Alternative Team Choices
These can all provide some for of either extremely good coverage or utility and benefit under Trick Room. Iron Hands and Amoonguss particularly add great pivoting options, while Torkoal can be a premier offensive option. Lilligant with Torkoal as always is a common pairing.
Snow here can also be an interesting archetype making Glastrier a lot more difficult to remove.
Common Leads
So common pairings you would see would be along the lines of Cresselia/Ursaluna (1,2), Indeedee/Armarouge (3,4), Indeedee/Hatterene (3,5). Of course you can tailor your leads depending on what your 6th is such as taking advantage of Fake Out Iron Hands or using Amoonguss as your redirector instead.
Usual gameplan would just involve setting up Trick Room and sweeping, mostly as simple as that. Tera Identification would be key in understanding your matchups and key mons here.
Attempted Counters
For the Special Side of Things
Both Ting-Lu and Heatran are great into the SpAtk side of due to their typing and bulk, which covers most of the offensive options that TR would be able to use. Vessel of Ruin can fully support the rest of your team, and you also have to option to run Snarl on Ting-Lu as well. Ting-Lu can also use Whirlwind or Taunt to force the setter to switch, or stop TR from getting set assuming it has no Mental Herb, which is an item Cresselia tends to run.
Heatran meanwhile, quad-resists Fairy, resists Psychic and is immune to Fire. Important to be wary of Earth Power from Enamorous and Torkoal but otherwise, it's fine.
For Ursaluna
*PLEASE REFER TO THE ABOVE IRON DEFENSE RECOMMENDATIONS AS WELL*
Here the idea would be to use the fact that Ursaluna's main STABs both have immunities, which means you can cycle between non-grounded units such as Flying types and Ghost types to be able to stall out turns on Trick Room to attempt to recover tempo. Any combination works, preferrably one with Intimidate to at least reduce Ursaluna's damage output as well.
Air Balloon Gholdengo is also a fun option.
Imprison
I know it can be tiring to see the same choices for these options, but these are mostly just as an example. Imprisoning TR means you can prevent it from getting up in the first place, which can make it difficult for TR teams to build momentum.
Balance
Rillaboom Balance
A1
A2
A3
A4A5
https://pokepast.es/5f753d5739fdaf8f
Balance variants, be it CHALK or Rillaboom balance essentially have the same playstyle; strong bulky pivots with great offensive options to get yourself into a strong offensive position to break through the opponent's team.
Cresselia can be ran with Ursaluna here to also add an alternative Tailwind/Trick Room Hybrid mode in conjunction with Zapdos.
CHALK with no K
B1 B2 B3B4
https://pokepast.es/72ef8a5eb89afad9
Plays the same way as CHALK in the past, same idea as well to getting yourself into a position to break through the enemy's gameplan. These 4 can also be extremely hard to remove due to how they interact. There is also easily space to complete a FWG (Fire Water Grass) core, which can be a very solid base for a lot of teams.
Alternative Team Choices
These options all either add another pivot/some form of damage mitigation which allows you to try outlast the opponent, and reposition a lot more comfortably. Grimmsnarl with Reflect/Light Screen, Intimidate Gyarados, Kingambit with Defiant are just a few examples that can help build a strong board position.
The other options also include set-up options which can help wallbreak other slower-play teams.
Common Leads
Rillaboom Balance: Rillaboom/Urshifu (A1,A2) is probably your number 1 lead, since there is a lot of space for you to breathe even if you lead wrong. Into things like Tornadus, which is a non-desirable matchup for that lead, you can lead something like Zapdos, Heatran (A5,A3).
CHALK: Cresselia/Heatran (B1, B2) can be a good lead as Cresselia can either set speed control with TR/Icy Wind, and keep Heatran healthy in positions it is hard to remove with Lunar Blessing. You can even tech something like Skill Swap to give Heatran Levitate, avoiding its x4 weakness to Ground. Alternatively something like Amoonguss/Landorus (B3, B4), can be useful if you're running something like Swords Dance Landorus.
Attempted Counters
Seeing as balance is the way it is, there really isn't a real way to "counter" the team. However, you can identify key pieces in the game with respect to your own team, and focus on removing those checks to allow you to undermine the balance gameplan. It's important to notice that some of their brings will not be offensively pressuring in any way, and recognising your beneficial board states will be important for this.
Following up from this, the current Paonite Hyper Offense can really make this style of team suffer, because it can run through the resources of the team quite quickly.
Honorable Mentions
Damage is Good
Regidrago and Hisuian-Typhlosion (or regular Typhlosion) both have 150 BP STAB spread moves in Dragon Energy and Eruption respectively. Despite not having the highest of speed tiers, they are still a great threat under Tailwind. Both like their Choice items, like Specs or Scarf. Regidrago can sometimes just run Dragon Fang/Assault Vest as well.
I am Speed
Regieleki is extremely fast. So fast that in naturally outspeeds anything with less than a base 115 Speed, even if that Pokémon is using a Choice Scarf. Electroweb as a form of speed control from the naturally fastest Pokémon
Hisuian-Electrode can also be a more "unique" choice with either Choice Specs or Choice Scarf. Its Grass typing can also be very good to hit targets attempting to hide behind something like an Amoonguss, or act as a switch in to Spore. Chloroblast also hits extremely hard!
Bird is the Word
The Galarian Bird Trio actually has some neat applications due to two of them punishing Intimidate (Zapdos and Articuno), while the other makes for a potent Set-Up Sweeper.
Rain and Thunder
I have seen some very neat Thundurus-Therian play on certain Rain HO teams with Tera-Fly. We also can't forget about Palafin, despite falling off, still is an extremely potent damage dealer, especially with the added bolstering to the Rain archetype.
The Immortal Snail
Thought it could be relevant to mention, due to a metagame that leans more towards the Physical side of things, Wo-Chien can be an interesting option to bring to certain builds due to its Tablets of Ruin ability and fantastic slow-play ability. Also can't be Prankstered!
Closing
Not much else to realistically add, other than to just disclaim that this is what I have managed to remember from my own observations, and I hope this post can help you get your feet wet in Regulation D as I understand it can seem (and is) a completely different game. I do however look forward to what metagame developments occur as we approach closer and closer to the World Championships!
