The Regulation H ruleset was just announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Ranked Battles, and VGC players were pleasantly surprised to learn what’s in store for the metagame.
From Sept. 1 to Jan. 5, 2025, Regulation H will take over Scarlet and Violet Ranked Battles, removing all Legendary Pokémon and Paradox Pokémon. This will no doubt cause a huge shift in the meta since many Legendary and Paradox ‘mons have been dominating Regulation G. Urshifu, Calyrex, Miraidon, Raging Bolt, and Iron Hands, for example, are some of the most popular ‘mons right now—and they’ll all be banned once Reg H begins.
Naturally, this will open the door for other strong Pokémon to emerge as the next meta threats, and VGC players couldn’t be more stoked. Many, including former world champion Wolfe Glick, are celebrating some much-needed time away from Urshifu, one of the most broken ‘mons in the game. And with the Legendary bear out of the picture, everyone is setting their sights on Palafin, who went MIA in VGC about a year ago.
Like Rapid Strike Urshifu, Palafin is a powerful Water-type physical attacker, so it’ll serve as a nice substitute in the popular Fire/Grass/Water core with Incineroar and Rillaboom. Plus, it’d be awesome if we saw top players like Wolfe Glick, Justin Tang, Paul Chua, and Gavin Michaels run it back with the adorable dolphin hero that helped them win major events in the earlier era of Scarlet and Violet. “We are so back,” Tang commented with a gif of Palafin in its Hero form.
Outside Palafin, players like James Evans have also predicted an increase in usage for two popular Scarlet and Violet duos: Dondozo with Tatsugiri and Armarouge with female Indeedee. Dondozo and Tatsugiri are infamous for joining forces with the latter’s Commander ability to boost the former’s stats. Meanwhile, Armarouge and Indeedee have great synergy with Psychic Surge and Expanding Force.
In other words, we may see the return of certain ‘mons that had previously lost their place in the meta as stronger Legendary and Paradox threats were thrown into the mix.
Between the removal of strong threats and the revival of others, the VGC community is now very excited for the 2025 season. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), pro Alberto Lara admitted he wasn’t even planning on playing VGC until January. But after the Reg H announcement, he’s ready for every event until January, when Reg H is set to end.
Everyone better enjoy this meta without Legendaries and Paradox Pokémon while they can because restricted format Reg. G will be making its return from Jan. 5 until April, according to the official Pokémon Scarlet and Violet site.
