With the Pokémon World Championships less than a month away, one VGC professional player shared a current state of play rankings, citing five Pokémon that could be key to success.

Things have been pretty quiet on the VGC side of Pokémon lately. The North America International Championships (NAIC) wrapped up in June, leaving Worlds in Hawaii (August 16-18) as the last major event of the 2024 season. During the two-month break, Worlds invitees have been busy building their teams and practicing the current Regulation G format, featuring legendary threats like Calyrex, Miraidon, and Terapagos.

Of course, limited Legendaries only take up one of the six slots on Reg G teams, so we have to factor in the rest of the threats in the meta as well. These days, it’s pretty standard to see Incineroar, Rillaboom, Rapid Strike Urshifu, and Raging Bolt on most teams, as we saw at NAIC. The real “key to the strongest Worlds teams,” though, may lie in five different Pokémon, according to a tier list posted by VGC pro Jeudy Azzarelli over on X (formerly Twitter). The five ‘mons are Smeargle, Clefairy, Farigiraf, Grimmsnarl, and Ditto, all of which are carried by their useful Abilities or unique traits.

For example, Clefairy, Farigiraf, and Grimmsnarl have Abilities that help them protect their allies. Clefairy’s Friend Guard mitigates incoming damage against allies, while it can also redirect attacks with Follow Me. Farigiraf’s Armor Tail blocks priority moves like Fake Out and Aqua Jet, making it especially useful against the most popular ‘mons in the meta—Incineroar, Rillaboom, and Urshifu. Meanwhile, Grimmsnarl gets priority status moves with Prankster to quickly set up Light Screen or Reflect for the team.