The Regionals

Mega Garchomp Z was written off, us included. Then it won two Regionals in one weekend.

· MetaRoll

We got this one wrong. When Regulation M-C arrived, plenty of players wrote off Mega Garchomp Z, and so did we: our own report called it Levitate and not much more. At the Baltimore Regional it looked like we had a point — 8 of the 155 teams on day two brought it, and the best of them finished 27th. Eight days later it won the Brisbane Regional and the Frankfurt Regional on the same weekend. In Frankfurt it was part of the only unbeaten run of all three events, Eric Rios’s 17–0, and the final he won was Garchomp Z against Garchomp Z. What changed in between was the set: Earth Power, on one Baltimore Garchomp Z out of eight, was on eighteen of Frankfurt’s twenty-one.

Three Play! Pokémon Regionals · doubles, Masters Division · every day-two team list: Baltimore (18 September), Brisbane and Frankfurt (26–27 September 2026)

Day two only: the 365 players who made the second day of the three events — 155 in Baltimore, 47 in Brisbane and 163 in Frankfurt — are the teams counted here. A team that went out on day one is in none of these figures, so every share on this page is a share of the teams that were already doing well.

What we said

On 3 September, before anyone could play it, we published a report on Mega Garchomp Z and titled it Mega Garchomp Z gets Levitate, and not much more. The stone takes away Garchomp’s Ground typing and forty points of Attack, and hands back 141 Special Attack, Levitate and 151 Speed. We ran the numbers and thought that was a poor trade. On social media, people put it less politely.

The ladder wasn’t convinced either. A week into M-C, five of the six new stones were on nearly every Pokémon that could hold them. Garchompite Z was on 42.5% of Garchomp — the one new stone players hadn’t rushed to.

Day two, three Regionals

How many of each event’s day-two teams brought Mega Garchomp Z, and how far the best of them got.

In Baltimore it was a curiosity: 8 of 155 teams, and none of them higher than 27th. In Brisbane only 3 of 47 teams had it — and two of those three finished 1st and 7th. By Frankfurt it was on 21 of 163 teams, and they finished 1st and 2nd. You can watch players catching on in the Garchomp themselves: the share running the Z stone went from 28% in Baltimore to 33% in Brisbane to 51% in Frankfurt.

Share of day-two teams carrying Mega Garchomp Z

  1. Frankfurt: 12.9% (21 of 163 · finished 1st and 2nd)
  2. Brisbane: 6.4% (3 of 47 · finished 1st and 7th)
  3. Baltimore: 5.2% (8 of 155 · best finish 27th)

Brisbane and Frankfurt were played on the same weekend, 26–27 September, eight days after Baltimore opened.

The move it picked up

How many of those Mega Garchomp Z carried Earth Power.

Baltimore played it as a Dragon attacker with fire for coverage: seven of its eight Garchomp Z carried Flamethrower or Fire Blast, and only one had Earth Power. A week later the fire was mostly gone and the ground was in. All three in Brisbane and eighteen of twenty-one in Frankfurt carried Earth Power, and only six of the twenty-one kept a fire move.

That’s the part our September report missed. We looked at a Garchomp that had lost its Ground typing, and we were right that the stone takes it away. What we didn’t weigh properly is that Earth Power gives the ground back as coverage. It has no STAB now, but on a Pokémon with 141 Special Attack and 151 Speed, it doesn’t need it.

Share of day-two Mega Garchomp Z sets carrying Earth Power

  1. Brisbane: 100% (3 of 3)
  2. Frankfurt: 85.7% (18 of 21)
  3. Baltimore: 12.5% (1 of 8)

The two titles

Brisbane. Kiran Singh took the title with Garchomp Z alongside Mega Charizard Y, Pelipper, Archaludon, Grimmsnarl and Venusaur — a team that could set both the sun and the rain. Keigo Tanizawa finished 7th with another Garchomp Z, and the two of them ran exactly the same moves: Draco Meteor, Earth Power, Power Gem and Protect.

Frankfurt. Eric Rios (@riopaser) won it without losing a match, 17–0, with Garchomp Z alongside Gholdengo, Volcarona, Incineroar, Rillaboom and Mega Raichu Y. His opponent in the final, Sebastian Liu Li, had brought Garchomp Z too, so the title was settled in the mirror. Eric ran Dragon Pulse, Earth Power, Power Gem and Protect; Sebastian’s was the only one of the four top-eight Garchomp Z without the ground move, with Flamethrower in its place.

All four were Modest, and all four carried Power Gem and Protect.

17–0

Frankfurt had 1,129 players and seventeen rounds: thirteen of Swiss and four of top cut. Eric won all seventeen matches. Across the three Regionals nobody else got through unbeaten — Baltimore’s winner went 15–2 and Brisbane’s 14–1 — and the next best record in Frankfurt was 14–2.

What stands out about his team is how much of it is there to give the Garchomp Z room to work. Volcarona is mostly a helper: Rage Powder to draw attacks away, Tailwind for Speed, Struggle Bug and a Rocky Helmet, with Overheat as its one big hit. Three of the six carry Fake Out — Incineroar, Rillaboom and Mega Raichu Y — and Incineroar’s Parting Shot and Rillaboom’s U-turn let him switch around without wasting a turn.

The damage comes from three places. Gholdengo holds a Life Orb and sets up with Nasty Plot before firing Make It Rain and Shadow Ball. Mega Raichu Y carries two moves nobody would normally trust, Zap Cannon at 50% and Focus Blast at 70%, and its ability, No Guard, makes both land every time. And Garchomp Z picks off what the other two can’t reach with Earth Power and Power Gem.

Team lists don’t include spreads, so we worked his out from his match videos, reading every HP change on screen against the damage calculator. Eric has since published his own: his official spreads are here. Our estimates stay up for comparison: they had Mega Raichu Y to the point, Incineroar within two on every stat and three of the six Speeds exactly, and missed most on Gholdengo.

What else the three Regionals share

Garchomp Z wasn’t the only thing the three events had in common. Counting identical sixes — the same six Pokémon and the same Megas — across every day-two list:

Where it stands now

On the ranked ladder, at our reading of 28 September, Garchomp is 9th in season M-6 and 45.3% of it holds Garchompite Z, up from 42.5% on 16 September. The ladder has barely noticed. The Regionals are clearer: the stone was underrated, but what won wasn’t the stone on its own. It was one particular way of building it, on teams made to look after it.

Method and limits