This Pokémon won Japan’s biggest Scarlet and Violet tournament without any held item

With the Japan Nationals taking place June 10 – 11, players had to bring their best techs onto the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet competitive battlefield. Only one could emerge victorious, however, with Kaito Arii taking home the title of the 2023 Japan National Champion, using a team that showed off a Talonflame with no held item, along with some unusual move choices.

Day One of the tournament had closed team sheets, and Day Two had open team sheets, but closed Tera types. While this mostly closed team sheet-style format for the whole tournament has been a controversial decision for a lot of the official Asian competitive circuits, it led to players bringing unorthodox teams to catch opponents off-guard.

Arii’s team boasted a lot of questionable choices, but the standout pick was his Talonflame which had no held item. It was running the move Acrobatics, which doubles in power when used by a Pokémon that has no held item. While Pokémon that usually want to run Acrobatics enable its doubled power by quickly using an item, Arii decided to forgo one entirely; a bold choice.

The other Pokémon on Arii’s team included the often overlooked Maushold-Annihilape core, but the over feel seemed too passive for most players’ tastes. However, these were carefully put into place to give Arii the success he ended up achieving in his country’s biggest tournament.

Related: Play! Pokémon breaks silence on champion after antisemitic accusations

Annihilape @ Safety Goggles  
Ability: Defiant  
Level: 50  
Adamant
– Rage Fist  
– Protect  
– Bulk Up  
– Drain Punch  

Maushold-Four @ Focus Sash  
Ability: Friend Guard  
Level: 50  
Timid
– Beat Up  
– Protect  
– Follow Me  
– Taunt  

Talonflame  
Ability: Gale Wings  
Level: 50  
Adamant
– Acrobatics  
– Tailwind  
– Protect  
– Quick Guard  

Ting-Lu @ Leftovers  
Ability: Vessel of Ruin  
Level: 50  
Impish
– Sand Tomb  
– Ruination  
– Heavy Slam  
– Protect  

Grimmsnarl (M) @ Light Clay  
Ability: Prankster  
Level: 50  
Sassy
– Spirit Break  
– Reflect  
– Light Screen  
– Misty Terrain  

Iron Hands @ Sitrus Berry  
Ability: Quark Drive  
Level: 50  
Adamant
– Detect  
– Swords Dance  
– Thunder Punch  
– Drain Punch 

Commonly touted as the MVB—Most Valued Bird—on any team it’s on, Talonflame will usually run the moves, Brave Bird, Tailwind, Taunt, and Will-O-Wisp.

This gives Talonflame priority Speed control as long as it is at full health while also being able to nerf any Physical Attackers with Will-O-Wisp. Taunt stops opposing Pokémon from setting up and using Status moves, while Brave Bird provides strong, consistent damage.

There’s just one problem with the common set though: Brave Bird causes recoil to Talonflame, breaking Talonflame’s Gale Wings ability in the process and making it so that its Flying moves—most importantly, Tailwind—do not possess increased priority anymore.

The way that Arii decided to fix this problem is by running the move Acrobatics without a held item, making it so that Acrobatics almost nearly rivals the damage of Brave Bird while not inflicting recoil on Talonflame and subsequently making it lose its Gale Wings.

While Arii could have also used a consumable item to make sure Talonflame gained the benefits of an item while also receiving the doubled damage boost from Acrobatics, this would entail him fitting another Pokémon on his team such as a Terrain-setter to proc Talonflame’s item, ruining the rest of the synergy that the team possessed.

With no item, Arii’s Talonflame could safely fire off a strong priority Acrobatics while keeping his Gale Wings intact, subsequently being able to set up a priority Tailwind whenever needed without having to worry about the opponent outspeeding and knocking out his Talonflame.

Apart from these moves, his Talonflame also runs the moves Quick Guard and Protect. While these are two very solid moves to run in VGC, they are not commonly seen on Talonflame. 

Other than the MVB, Arii’s Ting-Lu is quite interesting as it is running an Impish nature, a Defense-boosting one. This was a choice reflected by several top-performing players for a variety of Pokémon at Japan Nationals, which means that there is something that the Japanese metagame is accounting for that the rest of the world’s players are not currently privy to.

Related: Pokémon Worlds 2023 may see a legendary player return after 6 years on the sideline

Looking at Arii’s team as a whole, we notice that there is no real immediate offense pressuring the opponent, with every Pokémon either needing to set up to deal damage first, or just being present for damage mitigation. 

You would usually not expect such a team to do well, let alone win a huge tournament such as Japan Nationals, which further cements the complexity and depth of competitive Pokémon and the viability of different team archetypes, even ones that aren’t popular with the majority of the playerbase.

This win for Arii earned the Japanese player a Day Two invitation to the 2023 Pokémon World Championships to be held in Yokohama, Japan later this year in August, letting Arii completely skip the Day One competition in competitive Pokémon’s biggest event. 

Not only that, but Arii also received a Travel Award for his win, having all his travel arrangement costs to Yokohama for the 2023 World Championships covered by The Pokémon Company.