Pokémon pros love Ogerpon. Here’s why it smashes the competition in Scarlet and Violet

Ogerpon has been a staple in the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet metagame since its release in The Teal Mask DLC, and more recently it’s seen very impressive usage stats at the Europe International Championships (EUIC)—so we asked VGC pros what makes the ogre so strong and popular without being gamebreaking.

According to the EUIC usage chart provided by The Pokémon Company, Wellspring Ogerpon was used by 36.4 percent of the competition, while its Hearthflame form was sitting at 20.2 percent. Both Wellspring and Hearthflame Ogerpon were among the top 12 Pokémon at the event, with 56.6 percent of players including one of those forms on their team. This didn’t even include its less common forms, Cornerstone and Teal. Regardless, this technically made Ogerpon the most-used ‘mon in the entire event.

Ogerpon is clearly one of the biggest meta threats in Scarlet and Violet right now, but it’s fascinating to see players’ contrasting opinions on the ogre vs Urshifu. Most players agree Urshifu is broken with its ability to hit through Protect and guaranteed critical hits, yet EUIC saw less of Urshifu than Ogerpon. Shouldn’t that imply the ogre is more broken than Urshifu? Not quite.

When we asked pro players about Ogerpon, they all agreed the Legendary Pokémon is balanced for the most part. As it turns out, the ogre just has a lot of great qualities without being too overpowered in any area. “Its stats are distributed in a pretty unique way, its Mask forms are really cool… it has every relevant supporting move so you can build it in different ways,” VGC veteran Jeudy Azzarelli explained. “It’s never dealing too much damage, it’s never too bulky. It has to choose its role. Unlike Pokémon like Urshifu and Incineroar who are way too good at what they do, Ogerpon is good at what it does in a way that isn’t toxic to the game.”

Similarly, popular VGC creator and caster Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng and regional champ Chuppa Cross IV elaborated on Ogerpon’s duality when it comes to offense and defense. Both pros mentioned how rare it is to have an offensive Pokémon with access to a redirection move like Follow Me to support its ally. “We haven’t seen anything like that since maybe Mega Lucario or regular Lucario years ago… and those were never really close to where Ogerpon is now in terms of viability,” Cross explained. “The flexibility of using [Ogerpon] defensively or offensively, I think, makes them incredibly powerful,” Zheng told Dot Esports.

This flexibility also extends to Ogerpon’s unique masks, which determine its form and boost its attack. Regional champ Joseph Ugarte gave us a rundown of the two popular mask forms in the meta: Grass/Water-type Wellspring and Grass/Fire-type Hearthflame. “Wellspring is a pretty balanced Urshifu check. You can use Follow Me—redirection is really good. You can redirect Water moves from Urshifu, forcing it to maybe lock in Close Combat or U-turn.” After all, Follow Me and Water Absorb make it hard for Urshifu to click Surging Strikes in front of Ogerpon.

Meanwhile, Hearthflame Ogerpon is a “high-octane, big damage dealer” in a format where Ugarte emphasized the importance of having a strong Fire-type Pokémon on your team. This is because Ogerpon’s unique Tera ability, Embody Aspect, raises its Attack when Terastallizing with the Hearthflame Mask. And when you think about Fire-type ‘mons in the meta, Hearthflame Ogerpon is a bigger offensive threat than Incineroar or Gouging Fire.

Lastly, we need to address the “scariest” part about Ogerpon—its signature move, Ivy Cudgel—which Cross described as “a 100 base power move with no drawbacks” with an increased chance to crit. In a game with rolls and RNG, it makes sense for pros to be wary of the ogre’s Ivy Cudgel. North American International champ Alex Gómez Berna even said, “The crit chance is what makes Ogerpon sometimes unbalanced.” Thankfully, it’s not a guaranteed crit like Urshifu’s signature moves. So, while pros like James Baek feel that Ivy Cudgel crits are “a bit of a concern,” it’s still not as gamebreaking as what Urshifu can do.