I have always been a player who leans towards building goodstuffs compositions because I like having the ability to pivot around and create enough space to understand my opponents’ play. I had just come out of Liverpool Regionals, where I went 1-2 and pulled it back to a respectable 6-3 record, and Charlie Donnelly (CharTheMimikyu) top cut with a balanced Garganacl team.

We wanted to carry over a similar teambuilding template, but this was difficult with Iron Hands and Iron Bundle looking to be top-tier picks. Iron Hands especially was advantageous against Meowscarada, Kingambit and potentially Azumarill if built in a particular way. We still wanted to continue using Garganacl into a new metagame against teams that might have defensive gaps in team building, and it helped create a proactive strategy of protecting it. Therefore we looked into new tools to strengthen this strategy further and deal with new threats to it.

The starting point was Arcanine and Iron Hands alongside Garganacl. Arcanine gained many new targets that, if built correctly, it could Snarl, burn and control the field very effectively. It was one of the best options to deal with opposing Iron Hands, and Fire-Tera Type Iron Hands wasn’t established yet, so burning it was a strong option to reduce its effectiveness. It also helped deal with hard Trick Room teams and gave Snarl support to stall and outlast the first wave of Trick Room’s effect, which then allowed a board clear to prevent the second from going up. Iron Hands is likely something I will not stop using for this season unless there is a major metagame shakeup. You can attempt to hard-counter it, but its stat spread in my opinion is absolutely absurd and creates little counterplay to its pivoting unless you go far out of your way to deal with it. I chose to lean towards a bulky Volt Switch Assault Vest set, creating a pivot and a means to spread stat drops with an Arcanine waiting in the back with an Intimidate.

With these three established, we tested previous options within the old core. Meowscarada and Azumarill did not translate well into the new environment. This format in general has a severe lack of strong Water types. As we didn’t want to lean towards a Dondozo archetype, we opted to try out Iron Bundle itself. With Icy Wind support, I envisioned it similar to Regieleki in previous formats, using Booster Energy to reach an uncontested speed tier and have a blanket check to control opposing fast hyper-offensive strategies using combinations of the new Paradox Pokémon. Flutter Mane worked very well as a partner to this strategy, helping our type coverage and creating fast pressure with Iron Bundle to cover Maushold + Annihilape, which we expected to continue being popular from last season.

Lastly we wanted to test out a combination of different Dragon types. Roaring Moon was an option, but I was worried about its matchups into opposing Iron Bundle, Iron Hands and Arcanine. It didn’t seem like an appealing choice at the time for this reason⁠—plus its reliance on Terastallization for Acrobatics clashed with Garganacl wanting to Terastallize for itself. Ultimately we decided to stick with what we were using before for familiarity, using Baxcalibur to create the trademark double-Ice-type core. With Icy Wind we could create setup opportunities for Loaded Dice-boosted Icicle Spear to deal high amounts of damage. It was also a proactive answer to Amoonguss which we knew would be popular going into this season. Defensively, the typing wasn’t as much of an issue as you would expect, because Iron Bundle and Baxcalibur do not share many weaknesses.

The main tech move that surprised a lot of people and probably helped me win the tournament was the use of Perish Song on Focus Sash Flutter Mane. This has since been used to great effect on more dedicated Perish Song-based teams, such as the one piloted by Wolfe Glick in the Orlando Regionals. For this team it was initially planned as a tech option for Garganacl, making sure to bring the situation into the opponents’ last two and click Perish Song. Since I was running a Relaxed Nature on Garganacl, I would often get knocked out last against a Garganacl in the mirror and win the set. However, this came in useful in grand finals in more ways than I would expect⁠—using it to force switch-outs early and put pressure on early setup. I never envisioned it being used outside of the late game, but I was very happy that I could put the move to much more creative use!