We chatted with Bennett Piercy, the Senior Division at the National Pokémon Championships in Indiana in 2015, and got the scoop on battling competitively in Pokemon Sun and Moon.

There's no question that Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon have become runaway hits for Nintendo. The pair of titles earned the monicker of 'the most pre-order Nintendo game of all time' before going on to sell an impressive 3.7 million units in the span of two weeks following launch. Indeed, there are quite a few people enjoying their time with the latest Pocket Monster installments, which means that it's becoming progressively more challenging to be the very best like no one ever was. Fortunately, we were provided the opportunity to interact with someone that knows a thing or two about Pokemon Battles.

Nintendo recently afforded Game Rant the opportunity to interact with Bennett Piercy, the Senior Division at the National Pokémon Championships in Indiana in 2015. We asked the Calgary, Alberta native for some tips pertaining to the recently released Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, and the competitive player did not disappoint. Check out some tips straight from the champ's mouth below.


Don’t Overestimate Trick Room

"The aggregate speed stat of the Pokémon in the Alolan Pokédex (the Pokémon that are allowed in VGC 2017 competitions) is much slower than that of previous years. Many players believe that this bodes well for the move Trick Room (Slower Pokémon move first in the turn for 5 turns), but don’t get too excited about this move, because that’s not necessarily true."

"Trick Room has always been a prominent move in VGC, but it doesn’t actually benefit from a slower metagame. This is because the move doesn’t give an advantage to Pokémon that are slow, but instead benefits Pokémon that are slower than the rest. A better example of a metagame that supports the move Trick Room would be one wherein the very best Pokémon are significantly slower than the average commonly-used Pokémon, such as it was in VGC 2016."


Try Using Pokemon Types That You Haven’t Before

"There are 18 different Pokémon types, but not all of them are competitively equal; there have always been a few that are more relevant to the VGC metagame than the rest. Some types that have been very prominent in recent years might not be quite as important this year, including Flying, Ice, Dragon, and Rock, while others including Fire, Water and Fairy should remain popular."

"Other types that haven’t been in the spotlight in the past such as Electric, Poison, and Grass might be common in VGC 2017. This is partially because many of the powerful new Alolan Pokémon can showcase the power of some underrated types that we’ve missed out on in previous years."

Be Cognizant of Evasion-Boosting Moves

"VGC has always had a timer to ensure games don’t take too long, but the timer will be different in VGC 2017. In previous years, there have been two imposed timers; 1: a turn timer which limits players to 45 seconds when thinking of their move that turn; and 2: a master timer which stops the entire game after 15 minutes has passed. VGC 2017’s timer will instead work like a chess clock, allotting each player a specific amount of time to make all of their moves in a match."

"Players have speculated that the removal of a master clock will make moves like Double Team and Minimize which boost the user’s evasion stat very popular, but luckily there are a variety of other moves that can stop evasion boosting pretty reliably, including Haze, Taunt, Roar, Whirlwind, and Smart Strike. Teams that include one or more of these moves will be well equipped to play against evasion boosting Pokémon like Chansey, Blissey, and Alolan Muk."


Try Using Weather and Terrain

"Weather has been prominent in VGC for years, most notably with Pokémon that have abilities that automatically set up weather, such as the Pokémon Politoed with the ability Drizzle, which automatically sets up rain. The competitive benefits to weather are obvious, considering any particular weather boosts the stats of Pokémon of a certain type (rain boosts the attack damage of Water type moves to 1.5x, for example) and many abilities are directly related to weather (the speed stat of a Pokémon with the ability Swift Swim will be doubled in rain)."

"Terrain works similarly to weather, and although it doesn’t have a history of success in VGC, the introduction of the Tapus (Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Fini, and Tapu Bulu) are likely to boost the usage of Terrain in VGC 2017. This is because the Tapus are all highly competitive and each have an ability which automatically sets up terrain. Weather and terrain are likely going to be very important in VGC 2017, so it’s a good idea to build a team that takes advantage of them."


Don’t Worry About the Ultra Beasts Being Too Powerful

"The “Ultra Beasts”, released in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, are a group of Pokémon with relatively high base stats (570) and generally competitive stat distributions and typing. While it’s likely that a few of the Ultra Beasts will be at the forefront of the VGC 2017 metagame, they aren’t so powerful that they’ll turn it into an over-centralized metagame. Players always come up with new and creative ways to beat the Pokémon that seem to be the best."


There you have it, straight from Bennett Piercy himself. Of course, the longer the games are in the hands of fans, the more in-depth strategies are sure to surface. Meanwhile, with rumors persisting that a port of Pokemon Sun and Moon is on its way to the Nintendo Switch, it'll be interesting to see how the core game itself alters on the more powerful hardware – if at all.

In the meantime, are there any additional tips you have for aspiring Pokemon Masters? If so, feel free to chime in through the comments section below.

Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon are currently available, exclusively on the Nintendo 2DS and Nintendo 3DS.