Miraidon’s Big Day Out! Indianapolis Regionals 2024 Top 8 Team Report

Team report art by my sister, Amanda

Hi there! I’m Aaron Traylor, and this is the story of how I got 8th at the Pokémon VGC Indianapolis Regionals 2024 using a team that I built alongside my friends Rajan Bal (who won the tournament) and Evan Latt (who couldn’t attend).

This success is meaningful to me for many reasons. Among others, I loved working with Rajan and Evan, I had a great time at the tournament with my friends, and I got to use a pivot-heavy Ditto team which felt awesome to play. This report will largely go into the process of how the team came together, as Miraidon was for the most part generally overlooked before this event.

Thanks to Scarlet (@17catsinatrenchcoat) for her help with design and editorial advice!

Leadup to Regionals

Indianapolis Regionals was not only the first event of a new regulation, but was the first event of an entirely new style of format for the IRL circuit– where players can use one restricted Pokémon on their team. When a tournament features a format as new and unknown as this, the primary factor to be concerned with is time. VGC players are great at looking at a ton of existing teams/tournament results and learning what they’re likely to play against, but when time is low and there’s limited tournament data to learn from, that skill becomes much harder to execute. Players only have so long to work out which strategies are likely to succeed and which will fail.

I am not a stranger to panic and desperation. In fact, I was dearly enjoying their company in the weeks prior. Although Regulation G was announced 34 full days ahead of the tournament, I only had about a 3-week window to prepare, and grew increasingly distressed as the event drew closer.

Initial Format Thoughts

Here are my initial ratings for Miraidon that I made on 4/12. All scales are out of 5 and based totally on vibes.

At the beginning of the format, I had rated each of the new restricted Pokémon (link here). I scored them on five axes based on my gut instinct: overall strength, interest in use in May, interest in use long-term, room for innovation, and “honesty”. When pressed, I defined a dishonest Pokémon as “something extremely strong that you can consistently execute even if your opponent is very prepared for it” (see additional fighting game term definition, h/t Jake). I knew that I wanted to lock in something dishonest and strong for this Regional that would force my opponents to react to me.

Commitment Issues

After making my list, I struggled to settle on an archetype to commit to. Calyrex-Shadow occupied a lot of my mental energy and testing cycles at first, because it seemed like it would be overwhelmingly strong– but when the dominant teams began to look like Fire-Water-Grass teams from Regulation F with a Calyrex-Shadow slapped on, I got skittish. High offense Terapagos teams also interested me but its Speed stat made me nervous. I knew Calyrex-Ice would perform well, but I was worried that if I ran it my intuitions wouldn’t be correct during the tournament when relying on hard Trick Room.

I did very much spiral emotionally when deciding between these team options and more before the tournament, and flip-flopped on the hour as to which one I thought that I was going to bring. This period of indecision lasted for about two of my three weeks of preparation. In hindsight, this is because I hadn’t yet really committed to my own perspective on the format and was trying to be opportunistic. I was really just a tourist trying out other peoples’ pastes, and not understanding how the pieces worked together, and that’s not how I like to pick a team for a tournament. That meant that I never went below the surface level of any of the other teams that I was trying. I hadn’t yet found one thing that I really believed in being able to execute at a level high above the other players, or that I thought was so strong that it could not be denied.

Here is how Rajan and Evan and I found something so strong that it could not be denied.

Teambuilding process

This is the complete timeline of events of me, Rajan, and Evan working together on the Miraidon team, with some guest stars along the way. For screen readers, automatic translation, or any other reason you wouldn’t want this in image format, you can access a PDF version with highlightable text at this link.

Retrospective on Team Choice

Any time spent on a team is a gamble. Strategies that are already proven to work are a safer bet, and working on something new is much higher risk; and the more time you have to sink into it in order to get it to work, the higher the risk becomes.

Rajan and I were reluctant to commit to Miraidon over other alternatives for this reason. Although we both recognized its strength early on, we knew that a lot of work needed to be done to get it over the line– and even with all that work, it might not be consistent enough to get us where we wanted to go for the Regional. We were both of the opinion that we wanted to work from concepts that were already proven to be strong and might end up centralizing the metagame, and that we wanted to be the ones to develop that strength further, especially in a restricted metagame.

Retrospective on Teambuilding Dynamics

One thing that Rajan and I do well together is develop ideas and listen to the other person, but refuse to accept their answers as our own truth. This dynamic is perhaps within the process most clearly highlighted by Ditto. Ditto was an answer to our team’s problems that leveraged my experience in ways that I was on a personal level comfortable with, I could motivate why it was a strong choice to round out the team, and I was excited by it. Ditto is an exciting Pokémon. It is “heat”. There’s a world out there where Rajan uses Ditto at the Regional instead of Ogerpon because he blindly trusted that judgment from me and signed off without doing the hard mental work to justify it himself. But we don’t live in that world. He trusted his own answers more than mine, and he is the champion. I think this is a very hard thing to do, especially because in our scene there is a lot of emphasis in a social sense on working together, and presumably you work closely with people that you trust and look up to. It’s certainly something I struggle with.

Ego Jinpachi from the sports manga Blue Lock. The central theme of this manga is developing your own strength without relying on others, and while it’s a little hammy at times, I think it’s a pretty good read.

Rajan and I have worked in parallel in this manner several times before. Most notably for me was in 2016, when I really wanted to run Xerneas and Groudon, the dominant team at the time, and he was adamant about not wanting to use it, so he ran his own Rayquaza and Kyogre team, which I never fully understood how to use. This dynamic worked out well for both of us at Nationals and Worlds that year. Indianapolis Regionals was the first time that we worked together on the same team that we brought to an event, though. And the markers of us refusing to settle for each other’s answers are all over this report and this process; really, Miraidon is the only constant between the two teams.

So is the answer to never listen to anyone else? Well, no– as you can see throughout the timeline, we did listen to each other at many points, as well as to Evan, and Jake, and Wolfe, and others, and I’m sure Rajan listened to his friends too. I think the real answer is that you as a teambuilder need to have truth(s) that you believe in when it comes to the 6 Pokémon that you are going to bring to a tournament that are motivated by you and you alone. This ties in to the indecision I had picking an archetype before we settled on Miraidon– I didn’t have a point of view when I was playing Calryex-Shadow or Terapagos other than blindly believing in their strength, so absolutely none of the teams that I played felt good in practice. It was only when I committed fully to a perspective and stopped considering other teams that I was able to make progress and develop the team into something that worked out for me.

Once again I’ve come to the conclusion that intentionality is everything.

Rental, paste, and spread details

The Poképaste is right here.

Miraidon

Miraidon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Hadron Engine
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Electro Drift
- Draco Meteor
- Volt Switch
- Discharge

I saw no reason to go below 252 Modest. Many people thought we were Timid, but the KOs get so much less nice, especially with Discharge and Volt Switch. I really wouldn’t want to run Timid in the future unless I was forced to. Rajan wanted to underspeed Whimsicott so it could Moonblast and break Tera Shell, but I convinced him that we didn’t want to lose Speed ties to other Miriadon. I spent the weekend winning speed ties against Adamant Chien-Pao, so it went OK.

Farigiraf

Farigiraf @ Electric Seed
Ability: Armor Tail
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 204 HP / 164 Def / 140 SpD
Bold Nature
- Helping Hand
- Tera Blast
- Trick Room
- Foul Play

Made by Jake.

Tera Blast and Foul Play are both necessary in my opinion. The issue with Psychic/Foul Play is that you have no way to hit Dark-types, and Dazzling Gleam/Foul Play has no way to hurt Pokémon like Amoonguss for more than 10%. Farigiraf needs to do something useful other than clicking Helping Hand or sitting there blocking priority.

• 252+ Atk Calyrex-Ice Rider Glacial Lance vs. +1 204 HP / 164+ Def Farigiraf: 66–78 (29.8–35.2%) — 13% chance to 3HKO
• 252 SpA Choice Specs Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 204 HP / 140 SpD Tera-Fairy Farigiraf: 186–220 (84.1–99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Orichalcum Pulse Tera-Fire Koraidon Flare Blitz vs. +1 204 HP / 164+ Def Farigiraf in Sun: 153–180 (69.2–81.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 204 HP / 140 SpD Farigiraf in Rain: 195–231 (88.2–104.5%) — 25% chance to OHKO

Ursaluna

Ursaluna-Bloodmoon @ Life Orb
Ability: Mind’s Eye
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Blood Moon
- Hyper Voice
- Earth Power
- Protect

Timid vs. Modest vs. slow Modest is the big concern here. I went with Modest and it did help me to underspeed a Calyrex-Shadow in Tailwind + Trick Room. Slow Modest makes the team way too weak to Koraidon variants in my opinion but it might make the Trick Room mode stronger against Incineroar.

Incineroar

Incineroar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 116 Def / 60 SpD / 76 Spe
Impish Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Fake Out

Also made by Jake. It always outspeeds Tornadus when in Tailwind. After hitting defensive benchmarks, I wanted as much Speed as possible so that I could win Fake Out wars.

• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hadron Engine Miraidon Electro Drift vs. 252 HP / 60 SpD Assault Vest Incineroar in Electric Terrain: 169–201 (83.6–99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Calyrex-Ice Rider High Horsepower vs. 252 HP / 116+ Def Incineroar: 124–148 (61.3–73.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Calyrex-Ice Rider Glacial Lance vs. 252 HP / 116+ Def Incineroar: 44–52 (21.7–25.7%) — 1.7% chance to 4HKO

Whimsicott

Whimsicott @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Moonblast
- Tailwind
- Encore
- Protect

This is the same Whimsicott I won Dallas Regionals with in 2020!

Jake made a spread that survived Tera Water Surging Strikes in Rain, but I got fed up on the plane when I couldn’t find EV reducing berries and just used my old spread. It also survives either Tera Water or Rain-boosted Surging Strikes when you Tera to Ghost, which seems important.

Here is that spread: EVs: 28 HP / 44 Def / 180 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Ditto

Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Transform

Ditto always needs Max HP as it keeps it when it Transforms. Tera Ghost lets you dodge Fake Out and boost Astral Barrage if you copy Calyrex-Shadow.

I’ve been asked some questions about whether it would be better to go slow Choice Scarf Ditto, so that Imposter activates after opposing Incineroar’s Intimidate, thus dodging the drop when led. I ran max Speed so that if it Imposter ever failed, I could Transform into my partner safely before getting attacked. (This came up in practice.)

There are some notes on how to play the team at the bottom of the tournament section.

At the tournament

Me, Rajan, and Collin Heier, sitting down for our matches early on in the tournament Day 1

The atmosphere at the tournament was electric, pun intended. Rajan and I figured out very quickly on that the majority of the players that we faced were totally unprepared for Miraidon and its strength. Many players lacked Electric-type resists outside of errant Amoonguss or Tera Grass Pokémon, and Miraidon dealt over 300% of opponents’ total team health in most of our games. I remember Rajan literally bouncing up to me between rounds after crushing an opponent and nearly shouting “This team is SO GOOD!”

I took an early loss versus Lugia, but otherwise Rajan and I sailed through Day 1 at 9–0 and 8–1. My opponents and teams can be viewed in the image below or at this link.

My opponents and their teams, thanks to Stalruth for making the website

It wasn’t until Rajan went on stream at 6–0 and showed the world the Tera Electric Volt Switch KO onto Incineroar that we both came to a realization: this team was so good that it would warp the metagame after the tournament, and Miraidon would never feel this good again. We had accomplished every teambuilder’s dream, to take the entire field entirely unprepared, and all we had to do for the rest of the weekend was battle well enough to bring it home.

Me on stream Round 14! I’m holding one of my sister’s homemade Ditto plushies. Ironically, Luka (my opponent) was one of the people I had brought ice cream for, but I was never able to give him it. Next time…

Stream match

I was streamed for Round 14 against Luka Trejgut. Ever since Knoxville Regionals, we’ve gradually become closer friends through the game, so despite the stress of playing in a high-stakes situation, it was cool to get to challenge him under the lights. It was doubly cool to have my match casted by Wolfe and Aaron. You can watch the stream match here.

Loss in Top 8

I lost to Justin Burns in Top 8– he was running a Calyrex-Ice team similar to many of the other popular builds, although he was perhaps the strongest pilot of the composition. He also had the benefit of playing Rajan earlier and the preparation time for Top 8, and at the end of the day he played much better than I did. He also made the matchup more volatile for me than the other matches I had played up until that point. I’m mostly sad that my play ultimately couldn’t measure up to how I felt about the team.

I had a great time with my friends at the event! We had a fun time on Mass Ave in Indy after the event ended, and Wolfe cast his first event ever :D I brought ice cream for them but it alllllll melted. Left to right: Dillon, Aaron, me!, Wolfe, Yuki

At the tournament – wrapping up

Rajan won, of course. He didn’t really need my help for matchups in Top 4 or Finals, as frankly I didn’t understand how to use Ogerpon in the same way that he did. I was very happy that he won in the end.

At the end of the weekend, Rajan and I played a total of 17 and 15 rounds respectively, and lead Miraidon in every single game in every round. I’ve never done that before in my 13 years of playing in tournaments.

How to play the team going forward

Bluntly– for anyone who is trying this team in the time between May and August of 2024– I am fearful that it might not be easy or straightforward. The metagame has adapted to account for Miraidon, and the Pokémon did so much of the heavy lifting for us during the tournament that I’m afraid the same play patterns might not work for you.

Here are some strategies I used at Team Preview:

• Miraidon / Whimsicott front, Bloodmoon / Farigiraf back

This was the standard 4 for me. Choosing this strategy lets you deal damage with Miraidon and Bloodmoon in Tailwind and then you can use Bloodmoon and Farigiraf together in the lategame and abuse speed control as necessary.

• Miraidon / Incineroar front, Whimsicott / Bloodmoon back

You can really give Miraidon a lot of room to Volt Switch and pivot with this core, but be careful because Whimsicott and Bloodmoon can’t take too much damage when they come in on an attack.

• Miraidon / Incineroar front, Whimsicott / Farigiraf back

I only brought this to beat Calyrex-Ice teams. They’re very weak to Encore, and Farigiraf did a lot of work on its own, but this matchup was really volatile when they were prepared.

• Miraidon / Incineroar front, Whimsicott / Ditto back

I used this to beat Kyogre teams, and prioritized Tera Grass on Incineroar– Tera Grass Kyogre takes a lot of damage from U-Turn and can’t do much back.

Lastly, in general– Miraidon’s best move is Volt Switch, so click it early and often. Set up Discharge KOs in the lategame when you can by dealing small chip damage to the other 4 Pokémon.

Conclusion

After the weekend was said and done, I felt very lucky to be a part of this run. It’s not that Evan and Rajan and I found a concept that everyone else underestimated by sheer luck alone– we worked hard to develop it– but rather that I could have never predicted how far under the radar Miraidon truly would be relative to its strength prior to this event. I’ve run teams that my opponents were unprepared for at tournaments before, and that’s certainly given me advantages, but I’ve never had Volt Switch one-shot an opposing Pokémon without my opponent expecting, or Discharge clear a field from full. There will always be teambuilding advantages for the people who find them, but this run was special. I’m so glad that I could be a part of it, and I’m very proud of Rajan for winning.

Thank you for reading!

Shoutouts of course to Rajan and Evan, as well as Jake, Wolfe, Dillon, Yuki, Aaron, as well as to everyone who played practice sets with me, and all of my friends who couldn’t make it to the event. Special shoutouts to Amanda for all her support and great art 8)

I love writing team reports, although it’s been a long time since I’ve written one! You can check out the rest of my Medium articles for more.

After this one, if I still have time, I’m going to publish two more from this season, covering my Pittsburgh Top 4 and Vancouver Top 16 runs. Stay tuned, and thanks again!

Thank you to all of the Pokémon that were on our teams but didn’t make it to the final version!