Wolfe Glick takes home Regional Championship with one of Pokémon’s strangest teams

The former World Champion didn’t follow the meta game to top his competitors

Winner of the 2016 Pokémon World Championship, Wolfe Glick, has taken home his first win of the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet season at the Orlando Regional Championship. While it wasn’t a surprise that a top level player could take home the tournament, Pokémon fans were stunned by the team that Glick was running.

Paradox Pokémon are now available in the format for the first time, and there are a couple of these strong Pokémon that a lot of players are using. Flutter Mane is very popular as it has a lot of Speed and Special Attack as well as good Special Defense. Iron Bundle is currently one of the strongest and fastest special attackers in the format, and Iron Hands works as a great counter to a number of popular Pokémon. Great Tusk and Roaring Moon are two more Paradox ‘mons increasing in popularity.

Glick's team at the tournament defied meta expectations / The Pokémon Company

Paradox Pokémon have stats that are comparable to Legendary Pokémon that are currently banned in competition. There is also no restriction on how many Paradox ‘mons you can bring, with many of the most popular teams bringing three or four of them. However, Glick turned the competition on its head by including just two of these on his team.

While Glick brought a number of popular Pokémon including Flutter Mane, Amoonguss and Arcanine, his last three picks were far less popular. Scream Tail worked as the core of his team, despite seeing almost no play during the tournament that had 800 players competing for the title. This is the past version of Jigglypuff, and offers strong defenses, but almost no offensive pressure.

What was interesting about Glick’s Scream Tail is the use of Perish Song. This is a move that takes down all the Pokémon on the field within three turns. This can be countered by switching out, which is why Glick also brought Gothitelle, which prevents the opponent from leaving the field with its Shadow Tag ability. This trick is called a Perish Trap, which hasn’t seen popularity since Generation 5.

Scream Tail was one of the keys to Glick's success at the tournament :: The Pokémon Company / Nintendo

The last Pokémon on Glick’s team was Palafin, who has dropped off in popularity due to how common Iron Hands and other Paradox Pokémon are in the competition. However, due to how Perish Trap could knock out strong opponents quickly, Palafin was able to come in and finish off the game. The Perish Trap team countered the Dondozo and Tatsugiri combination which has dominated a lot of online play.

Glick’s team could be considered a gimmick, and is unlikely to work once other players understand how to counter it. However, the win in Orlando will likely mean that we will see more interesting teams in the future, rather than similar meta-style teams.