Two unexpected Pokémon took home the trophy at the Europe International Championships (EUIC) this weekend despite not being regarded as among the biggest party threats in the Scarlet and Violet metagame.
Throughout EUIC weekend (April 5 to 7), it was clear who the most popular Pokémon were on the VGC side. The event was dominated by the usual suspects in Regulation F: Incineroar, Flutter Mane, Urshifu, Amoonguss, and their friends. Flutter Mane did fall off a bit by day two, but the Ghost/Fairy-type still remained relevant until the very end. These four popular Pokémon were unsurprisingly part of the winning EUIC team, but it was the two other ‘mons on Nils Dunlop’s team that stood out—Ursaluna and Porygon2.
When you see Ursaluna, the first thing you think of is Trick Room because it’s pretty slow. In previous regulations where Pokémon players tried out Ursaluna, it was common to pair the bear with Cresselia, a historically good support ‘mon in VGC. The idea was to have Cresselia set up Trick Room to help slower offensive threats like Ursaluna move first. Once Trick Room was up, Ursaluna could safely use Earthquake without hitting its ally thanks to Cresselia’s Levitate ability.
But instead of using Cresselia as Ursaluna’s Trick Room setter, EUIC winner Nils Dunlop brought Porygon2, and that totally paid off. Like Cresselia, Porygon2 can be quite bulky if you give it the Eviolite to hold. The difference is their offensive capabilities. Cresselia isn’t super threatening on the offensive side, but Porygon2 naturally has a higher Special Attack stat, which can be boosted further by its Download ability. It can also take advantage of STAB Tera Blast even when it doesn’t Terastallize. And if you’re wondering how Ursaluna can use Earthquake next to Porygon2, Dunlop had the perfect solution—give Porygon2 the Flying Tera Type to make it immune to Ground-type moves when necessary.
While Trick Room is a strong mode to use with this team, it’s not always a win condition, as seen in the finals match between Dunlop and finalist Tim Edwards. Dunlop only ended up bringing Ursaluna and Porygon2 to one of two games, and Trick Room was only set up at the very end before Edwards threw in the towel. In the second, Ursaluna and Porygon2 sat on the sidelines as their faster, more popular teammates closed out the victory.
Following Dunlop’s victory, the new champ accidentally cursed live on stream during his interview but also left players feeling optimistic about Ursaluna. If we’re lucky, the next Mystery Gift giveaway for the North America International Championships (NAIC) could be Nils’s Ursaluna, as pointed out by VGC veteran Fiona Szymkiewicz. This would be great since Ursaluna is one of the harder ‘mons to obtain outside of Scarlet and Violet. Plus, it’s just a super cute bear that can destroy the competition in the right hands.
