Image Credit: Nintendo
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these historical deep dive articles. You could argue that my Fighting Games and Single Player article was one of those, but that wasn’t really historical. I’d say that my last historical article was my Chrono Trigger article, and that was almost two years ago. So let’s fix that by talking about something that upsets me!
Pokemon is no stranger to making creatures that are hilariously unbalanced for a competitive metagame. Notable examples are Urshifu, Dark Void Smeargle, Power Herb Geomancy Xerneas, Mega Rayquaza, the list could go on and on. With how many options you have at your disposal, something is bound to slip through the cracks. But for me, no Pokemon comes close to the sheer flexibility and support of Incineroar.
Today I’m going to teach you all about why this stupid cat has been the bane of so many competitive Pokemon players, and what Game Freak has done to try keeping him in check.
A couple of disclaimers before we get started. First off, I’m only going to be looking at the official VGC tournament circuit. Singles will not be taken into account. Second, when reviewing Incineroar’s accomplishments, I’m only going to be looking at the World Champion stage. If I talked about all of Incineroar’s placements from every Regional, National, International, and special event, this article would be twenty pages long, and I’d like to have this out before Thanksgiving.
Generation 7
Image Credit: The Pokemon Company
Before we can talk about what Incineroar has done to this game, we need to look at what kind of a Pokemon he is. First of all, his Fire and Dark typing is an incredible combination. Fire types are typically powerhouse attackers, while Dark types are meant to disrupt the opponent with status moves. He’s weak to Water, Fighting, Ground, and Rock, while resisting Fire, Grass, Ice, Ghost, Dark, and Steel, and is immune to Psychic damage thanks to his Dark type.
He also has insane base stats for a starter Pokemon. Its base Attack is 115, while its defensive stats are also respectable. It has base 95 in its HP, and base 90 in both Defense and Special Defense. His 80 base Special Attack is irrelevant as you won’t be using that, and base 60 Speed looks bad, but it actually helps Incineroar to be slow. We’ll get to that later.
All of this makes it look like Incineroar would be poised to be a powerful physical threat in his debut generation. However, this might come as a shock given the title of this article, but Incineroar had almost no usage during the original Sun and Moon. There might have been the occasional weirdo trying to make it work because they thought it was funny. But he was not considered to be a “meta-threat” in VGC 2017. Heck he was barely even considered. Though he did have two third place finishes. One from Ian McLaughlin at Athens Regionals. And one from 2014 World Champion Sejun Park at Korean Nationals.
And then VGC 2018 rolled out, and Incineroar’s full potential was unlocked. There was an event that distributed the starters with their three Hidden Abilities. So instead of their normal 30% type boosting abilities, they were all given different utility. From worst to best, Decidueye got Long Reach, which makes it never deal contact damage. Primarina got Liquid Voice, which turns Normal type sound-based moves into Water type. And Incineroar got Intimidate. This Ability lowers the Attack stat of your Pokemon by one stage (50%) every time Incineroar enters the field. And in Double Battles, this affects both of your opponent’s Pokemon.
Having this Ability alone would get people to consider using Incineroar. But then you look at the Moves, and you learn that Incineroar is truly suffering from success. He gets powerful attacks like Flare Blitz, Throat Chop, and Darkest Lariat, as well as disruptive moves like Taunt to stop opponents from using Status moves, and Snarl which lowers both opponent’s Special Attack stats.
He gets Fake Out, which doesn’t look strong with a Base 40 Power, makes up for it with the utility. It can only be used on the first turn that a Pokemon enters the field, and it guarantees that one of the opponents flinches, essentially stealing a turn and causing a lot of mind games.
He also has access to U-Turn, which is a move that does a little bit of chip damage and switches the user out. This lets you have the option to reset both Intimidate and Fake Out pressure, as well as bring in a more helpful Pokemon. This is also where Incineroar being slower comes in handy. See, due to his lower Speed stat, you can use U-Turn at the end of the turn and safely bring in a Pokemon that has more of an offensive presence.
Intimidate was the missing piece that Incineroar needed to become fully unlocked. And once he had that, his usage skyrocketed in the 2018 and 2019 formats. You’d typically see it floating around 60% usage on the in-game ladder, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see it on every team in top cut brackets at tournaments. Incineroar was also featured on both Worlds winning teams in 2018 and 2019. In 2018 Incineroar was used on 5/8 teams in Top 8, while in 2019 he was used on 7/8 teams in Top 8.
Part of what makes Incineroar so good is the fact that there’s no other Pokemon that does everything that he does. No other Pokemon checks the boxes of a bulky Intimidating Fake Out user with a pivoting move. Some Pokemon come close, but not quite. Hitmontop and Scrafty have Intimidate and Fake Out, but no way to pivot themselves out. Arcanine is a strong Fire type with Intimidate, and over 80% usage in VGC 17. But then when Incineroar got Intimidate, Arcanine was almost never seen again in Gen 7 VGC since it lacks the utility of Incineroar. Even Landorus Therian, the former best Pokemon only gets Intimidate and U-Turn, but no Fake Out. Incineroar just has too many good qualities to ignore. And that’s sadly not going to change as we move into the next generation.
Generation 8
Image Credit: The Pokemon Company
Sword and Shield are going to be hard games to talk about. Not because Incineroar didn’t perform well. Far from it. This might actually be his best performing Generation. No, what makes it hard to talk about is the fact that in-person events were put on hold until 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of that, there aren’t a lot of results that we can track for the game’s three year lifespan. This was also the game that removed the National Dex, so while Incineroar came later in the game’s life, he wasn’t there at the start when in-person events were still going.
But first of all, how did Game Freak address Incineroar’s dominance over the 2018 and 2019 metagames? They addressed it by buffing him. That’s sadly not a joke. They gave him a new move called Parting Shot. This is another pivoting move like U-Turn, but instead of dealing damage, it lowers a target’s Attack and Special Attack by one stage.
This gives Incineroar a lot more flexibility during teambuilding, as well as his item choice. You could go with four attacks and give him the Assault Vest to double his Special Defense stat. Or you could lean into his de-buffing with Intimidate and Parting Shot, and give him a utility item like Safety Goggles, or the Sitrus Berry to get some health back when you’re low.
I also want to mention the move Knock Off here. This 60 Base Power move does what the name implies. If the target is holding an item, it gets removed, and does double damage. This was a move that he had access to in Sun and Moon, but it was less useful there because items like Mega Stones and Z-Crystals couldn’t be removed. But with both of those mechanics removed in SwSh, Incineroar can use Knock Off with reckless abandon!
Going into Worlds 2022, there was one team on everyone’s radar. This was an archetype known as Rinya Sun, named after the team’s creator, Rinya Kobayashi. This team consisted of Zacian, Groudon, Charizard, Grimmsnarl, Gastrodon, and of course, Incineroar. If you want to learn more about this team, Wolfe Glick has a great video breaking it down that you can find here. For our purposes, you just need to know that this was a team made of the six best Pokemon in the format, while also aiming to beat the single best Pokemon: Zacian.
Zacian was a mistake. This is a Legendary Pokemon that got an Attack boost EVERY TIME it entered the field. Its signature move, Behemoth Blade did FULL DAMAGE to Dynamaxed Pokemon. Steel and Fairy is an insanely powerful type combination for both offense and defense. This was the single most dominant Pokemon in the format, and players were scrambling to find any way to possibly try and slow it down. But as we all know, cats and dogs are mortal enemies.
Incineroar descends from the top rope to keep this dumb dog in check. He’s using a lot of familiar tools. Intimidate to keep Zacian’s Attack at neutral. Fake Out and Parting Shot to try and slow it down. He also had a new toy in the form of a new move called Burning Jealousy. This move does damage, and Burns any Pokemon that had their stats raised this turn. And wouldn’t you know it, Zacian raises his Attack every time it enters the field. Burn is a status effect that deals chip damage at the end of every turn, and it cuts the target’s Attack stat in half.
Now, when the dust settled, and Worlds 2022 was over, Rinya Sun might not have been victorious, but Incineroar was! Eduardo Cunha took the win with Zacian, Calyrex Shadow Rider, Rillaboom, Thundurus, Gastrodon, and Incineroar. Incineroar himself was seen on almost 80% of teams in the Top 64, and he was again used on 7/8 teams in Top 8, while Zacian was on 5 teams.
I also want to mention the four Players Cup tournaments that Game Freak hosted. These were online tournaments that took the place of in person events. In order these tournaments were won by Santino Taquinio, Wolfe Glick, Jonathan Evans, and Renzo Navarro. The common link between their four teams? You guessed it. Incineroar! At least I hope that you guessed Incineroar. It’d be strange if you guessed something else.
Generation 9
Image Credit: Game Freak, The Pokemon Company
They buffed Incineroar again!
Sorry. I got ahead of myself. For the first year of competition in VGC, Incineroar was not available for play. Meaning that he wasn’t even a blip on the radar in Worlds 2023. But that would change with the Indigo Disk DLC when he was finally added back in. So, after everything he already has, what else could Incineroar possibly need?
Well, it’s a small buff, but still meaningful. They gave him the move Helping Hand. This move has the highest priority in the game, meaning it will go before any other move. It gives Incineroar’s partner a 50% damage increase for the turn. This buff can be the difference maker in knocking out the opponent, or barely missing it. Like I said, small buff, but it can be impactful.
What’s actually worth talking about here is the fact that Game Freak added in ways of countering Incineroar. They added in two new items. The Clear Amulet, and the Covert Cloak. Clear Amulet prevents the holder’s stats from being lowered. And if you use Parting Shot into a Pokemon holding the Clear Amulet, not only do your stats not get lowered, but the user doesn’t get to pivot out either. The Covert Cloak meanwhile prevents the secondary effects of moves. For Incineroar, this means no flinches from Fake Out. These are very welcome items to help with slowing down Incineroar, but not completely stopping what he does.
Certain abilities like Oblivious and Inner Focus were also updated to ignore the effect of Intimidate. Inner Focus also has the bonus effect of making the user immune to flinching. New Pokemon were also added to the game like Kingambit and Annihilape who have the Defiant Ability, which raises their Attack stat by two stages when their stats are lowered. Meaning that Intimidate would put them to +1 instead of -1. For the first time since it got Intimidate, Incineroar actually felt manageable.
Now don’t get it twisted, this Pokemon was still bonkers powerful, and there’s still no other Pokemon that has all of his supportive tools. He was still top-cutting and winning Regionals, Nationals, and International tournaments. But it largely felt like he wasn’t as oppressive as he was. For the first time in a long time, it felt like there was a reason to use other Intimidate Pokemon, and not just defaulting to Incineroar in the teambuilding phase.
And I can tell that he slowed down because Incineroar was not on the World Championship team in either 2024 or 2025. In 2025, Incineroar appeared on 5/8 teams in the Top 8. And in 2024, there was only 1 Incineroar in the Top 8, and they placed 8th.
Pokemon Champions
Image Credits: Nintendo, The Pokemon Company, The Pokemon Works
So they finally slowed the cat down. But what if they neutered the cat just a little bit more? Given how new Pokemon Champions is, there’s still a good chance that Incineroar makes the comeback of a lifetime. But as of writing this, we’re in the middle of Regulation M-C, and the Gdańsk Regionals in Poland just took place. Not all of the Pokemon or the Items are in the game, and the meta is still in constant flux with what’s good, and what’s not. But one thing is for certain. Incineroar got properly nerfed in this game.
Incineroar lost access to two of his most defining moves. Those being Knock Off and U-Turn. Starting with Knock Off, this isn’t too bad of a nerf, at least not in the current metagame because we’re in a Mega Evolution format. And again, Mega Stones can’t get removed. Losing U-Turn also isn’t bad now, but it will feel worse when the Assault Vest Item comes back, as now Incineroar can’t use a pivot move, and get the Special Defense bulk that Assault Vest gives, since the Assault Vest makes it so that you can only use attacking moves, meaning you can’t use Parting Shot to pivot out.
At the 2026 World Championships, there was once again only one Incineroar in the Top 8. But I don’t want you to think that Incineroar has fallen off in Champions. Pulling back the lens on Worlds 2026, Incineroar was the 3rd most used Pokemon at that tournament behind Mega Charizard Y and Kingambit (who was on 7/8 teams in the Top 8).
Also, Incineroar has continued to see success after Worlds. It’s been on four teams that came in second at Regionals in Frankfurt, Recife, Nice, and Gdańsk. And he’s on three teams that have won Regionals in Frankfurt, Recife, and Louisville. It’s also worth mentioning that the winning teams in Frankfurt and Recife were both undefeated on their way to victory. Now that says more about the players, rather than the Pokemon, but it also shows how important each Pokemon was for their teams.
I don’t know what Incineroar’s future will look like in Champions. But I do know that regardless of what other Pokemon get added in, he’s not gonna go anywhere.
I also want to say that they did my boy Scrafty so dirty in Champions. In Legends Z-A, they gave Scrafty both a Mega Evolution, and they added Parting Shot to his moveset. But when Champions came out, Parting Shot was gone! Given that Scrafty has Intimidate as an Ability in both his base form and his Mega form, letting him have Parting Shot would let him function as a (potentially) better Incineroar. With a moveset of Parting Shot, Fake Out, Knock Off, and Drain Punch for longevity would at least give Incineroar some competition for the best support Pokemon in the game.
Closing
And there you have it. The competitive history of Incineroar’s VGC career. Again, this is only a small snapshot of what this thing has done. Given how omni-present he was after getting Intimidate for an Ability, it just isn’t feasible for me to go over literally everything that Incineroar has won, or done well at.
Following VGC throughout the years, I’ve seen this wrestling heel showing up everywhere on streams. My attitude towards Incineroar has gone from hatred because of his ubiquity, to respect for what he does. I wished that I had any wrestling knowledge, because there’s probably a reference I could make here.
I want to give a shout out to three resources where all of the information that I used was sourced from for this article. First is VGCHistory which catalogues stats from every official event run by Pokemon. Second is Victory Road for being a secondary source for me to check teams. And finally, Pikalytics for keeping records on usage stats, and for not deleting info from older formats.
Join me back here next month for the annual Top 6 Games of the Year list. There’s sure to be some surprising picks on that list. Look forward to that on December 13th!