Urshifu might be the weakest Pokémon in UNITE despite being one of the most dominant forces in the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet VGC meta—and it’s freaking out former world champion Wolfe Glick.
In a July 1 post on X (formerly Twitter), Pokémon UNITE caster Jake “spragels” Sprague opened up a discussion about the weakest Pokémon in the game. “I don’t know if there is any Pokémon as underwhelming as Rapid Strike Urshifu,” he said. “It’s just so much weaker than every all rounder.”
At first glance, this sounds wild to VGC players—especially if you don’t know the context. The post didn’t specify which game, so you might’ve initially thought this was an extremely hot take about Urshifu’s place in the Scarlet and Violet VGC meta. Since Urshifu’s addition to the meta, it’s been an absolute menace, to the point where some VGC players hate it with a passion.
That’s why 2016 world champion Wolfe Glick responded to spragels’ post, admitting it almost made him “burst a blood vessel.” After all, the beloved VGC veteran has been very vocal about Urshifu ruining competitive play with the unique tools it has, including its ability to hit through Protect.
But spragels wasn’t actually talking about Rapid Strike Urshifu in the context of VGC. Instead, he was talking about UNITE, where he placed the water bear at the very bottom of his most recent tier list. “The Pokémon that’s set up the worst to win right now in the game might be water bear,” he explained in the video. “I’m sure some people can still pop off on it, but I just don’t think this thing is crushing it right now.”
As wholesome as this exchange was, it’s also just interesting to see how Urshifu can be so broken in one game and so underwhelming in another. One fan compared it to Munkidori, who proved to be a threat on the TCG side after failing to shine in the VGC ever since its release in The Teal Mask DLC.
Honestly, it’s quite refreshing to see a different variety of Pokémon thrive across different games. Though VGC players probably wouldn’t be mad if Urshifu received a huge nerf in the mainline games like it did in UNITE. But until any nerfs or changes happen, Urshifu will likely continue to dominate the VGC meta alongside Incineroar and Rillaboom like they did at NAIC.
