By: Andrew Lister; January 9, 2024

Welcome to my brand new article series, Casual VGC. I’ll begin with a few caveats. I am not a full-time Pokémon player. I have never won any major VGC tournaments. Heck, I’ve only officially competed in two in-person tournaments–Milwaukee and Peoria in 2023. However, I have been playing Pokémon since Red and Blue came to North America while I was in high school, and I started dipping my toes into competitive Pokémon starting in Sword and Shield. One of my favorite ways to pass the time when not grading my students’ essays or podcasting is following official Pokémon events.

The most recent Pokémon VGC Regional took place in Portland, Oregon from January 5th-7th. Being the first official tournament under the new Regulation F ruleset, fans were curious which Mons would make a bigger splash than Magikarp. Some of the same strategies held over from the previous season, but the inclusion of the new Pokémon from the Indigo Disk shook up the meta like a Ground Terastalized Earthquake.

Here are some of the major takeaways and meta developments coming out of Portland.