Scarlet and Violet’s most popular restricted Legendary Pokémon follow 2 key trends

Restricted Legendary Pokémon have finally entered the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet metagame, and the usage chart of the first major Regulation G event—this weekend’s Indianapolis Regionals—points to two interesting VGC trends.

Pokémon VGC players were especially hyped for Indianapolis Regionals with beloved world champ Wolfe Glick joining the caster team and a brand new format to play: Regulation G. The new regs added restricted Legendary Pokémon to the meta, but it’s clear which ones players are leaning toward. According to the usage data from day one of the event, both of Calyrex’s rider forms topped the chart, followed by Kyogre, Koraidon, Miraidon, Terapagos, Zamazenta, and Groudon.

Among these eight restricted Legendaries, there are two common trends: Weather and terrain control, and ‘mons from more recent generations. Excluding Kyogre and Groudon, who were introduced in Gen III, all of the top Legendaries originated from Gen VIII or IX—and it’s not a coincidence. Newer Legendaries usually have more going for them like signature moves, Abilities, or gimmicks. 

For example, Shadow Rider and Ice Rider Calyrex have 120 base power spread attacks with zero drawbacks as their signature moves, vastly superior to the likes of Mewtwo’s signature move Psystrike, which is only 100 base power and cannot deal spread damage. To top it off, Calyrex’s rider forms can have Mewtwo’s ability, Unnerve, in addition to Chilling Neigh or Grim Neigh. In this way, it’s very hard for old-school Legendaries like Mewtwo to compete with newer ones.

That said, Kyogre and Groudon still perform well today despite being around since Gen III. That’s because their Abilities give them weather control—another trend in the Regulation G meta. Out of the eight most popular restricted Legendaries at Indianapolis, five of them can control either weather or terrain.

Koraidon and Groudon can set up the sun for Fire-types or past Paradox Pokémon, Kyogre sets up the rain for popular Water-types like Rapid Strike Urshifu and Wellspring Ogerpon, and Miraidon finally gives us a viable Electric Terrain setter for future Paradox ‘mons. Then there’s Terapagos, whose Stellar Form ability removes any weather or terrain effects on the field. 

Even with all of these overpowered Legendary Pokémon, we still see non-Legendary terrain and weather setters like Rillaboom and Pelipper. That just goes to show how much influence weather and terrain control have on the current meta and why certain restricted Legendaries are thriving over others.