With the VGC17 season already beginning back in December, the new year doesn’t change too much for the players competing for Championship Points in Australia. In the first week of January, we’ve had 3 events already, with more strong showings from players across the country. Here we saw Luke Milligan take out Brisbane, using his Togedemaru in finals against Damon Murdoch, James Farrugia take out Melbourne, followed closely by Joshua Callister, and finally Ben Madigan defeating Wilson Quan in the finals of the PokeAdelaide event.

VGC17 Brisbane Premier Challenge | 7/01/16

1. Luke Milligan

2. Damon Murdoch

3. Matthew Burris

4. Dan Kendall

5. Mustafaa Olomi

6. Tony Nguyen

7. Graham Amedee

8. Hamish Roberts

VGC17 Melbourne Premier Challenge | 8/01/16

1. James Farrugia

2. Joshua Callister (JCalVGC)

3. Chris Kan

4. Nicholas Callister

5. Sam Hughes (sam_slugmeister)

6. Steven Tsui

7. Nicholas Bingham (ludicolopatrol)

8. Bailey Gabell

VGC17 Adelaide PokeAdelaide Event | 8/01/16

1. Ben Madigan

2. Wilson Quan

3. Ben Norman

4. Michael Baxter

Usage Statistics for Top Cut

Usage Usage % Pokémon 11 55% 9 45% 8 40% 7 35% 6 30% 5 25% 4 20% 3 15% 2 10% 1 5%

Arcanine was definitely the most dominant Pokémon this week, with the rarity of both Intimidate and Fire-Typing being the reason for its recent success. With Talonflame’s Gale Wings being nerfed, and Marowak’s low speed, Arcanine is the most consistent Fire-Type for any team. Here we see Arcanine paired with all four Tapu Pokémon, as Intimidate is valuable to survive attacks such as Poison Jab, alongside Smart Strike and Leaf Blade from Kartana.

After the surge of Gastrodon and Rain post-London, many have looked to Grass-Type Pokémon to cover this huge threat. Kartana recently has risen in usage, boasting a Super-Effective attack onto Fairy-Type Pokémon and Water-Type Pokémon, both of which seem to be invaluable this format. With very few other offensive Steel-Type Pokémon, Kartana is easily fitted onto any team, including Trick Room teams, as can be seen with James Farrugia’s Melbourne winning team.

Tapu Fini recently has had a lot of success worldwide, placing 2nd at San Jose, 1st on the Battle Spot Ladder by VGC14 World Champion SeJun Park, and being present on 9 of 16 teams in Dallas on the New Year’s weekend. In Australia, this trend hasn’t caught on just yet, with only 3 Tapu Fini across all 3 events this week. Wilson Quan, runner-up in Adelaide, used a team which recently placed in the Top 4 of Dallas Regionals to great success, however, other Tapu Fini users were only seen in the top 8 and 4 of Brisbane. As January’s PCs continue, it will be interesting to note whether Tapu Fini picks up usage across Australia, or maintains little usage as was seen in the past week.

Other interesting trends include UBs Pheromosa and Nihilego slowly rising, a minor drop in Porygon2 and Marowak continuing to drop with only one being used this past week.

Thanks for reading! We hope that this article can help everyone prepare for upcoming Premier Challenges this January!