Who won the Pokemon VGC Championship at EUIC 2024? Winner's team explored

With a 2-0 victory in the Grand Finals, Nils Dunlop became the Pokemon VGC Masters Champion at EUIC 2024 against Tim Edwards. The Swedish competitor has made appearances in the World Championships dating back to 2017, and the 2024 EUIC marked his first international title thanks in part to the team he utilized to push him through the Top 8 with 2-0 records against each opponent.

Having already faced off against Edwards earlier in the Pokemon VGC EUIC bracket, Nils came prepared against Edwards' well-balanced meta team with a counter team of his own. It was a little unconventional when looking at the overall Scarlet and Violet meta since it included lower-tier options like Ursaluna and Porygon2.

Whatever the case, let's take a look at Nils Dunlop's team composition for the Pokemon VGC at EUIC 2024 and see just why it was so formidable on his championship run.

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Breaking down Nils Dunlop's Pokemon VGC EUIC 2024 championship team

Nils' championship-winning team at EUIC 2024 for the Pokemon VGC Masters competition (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Although Nils certainly utilized more than a few meta picks in this Pokemon VGC Masters championship, the addition of Porygon2 and Ursaluna was an intriguing one that provided Trick Room setups that proved to be a lot to handle for Tim Edwards. The full roster of Nil's team is as follows:

Pokemon	Tera Type	Held Item	Moveset	Ability
Rapid Strike Urshifu	Water	Choice Scarf	Surging Strikes, Close Combat, Aqua Jet, U-Turn	Unseen Fist
Porygon2	Flying	Eviolite	Tera Blast, Ice Beam, Recover, Trick Room	Download
Ursaluna	Ghost	Flame Orb	Facade, Headlong Rush, Earthquake, Protect	Guts
Amoonguss	Ghost	Rocky Helmet	Spore, Rage Powder, Sludge Bomb, Protect	Regenerator
Incineroar	Grass	Citrus Berry	Fake Out, Flare Blitz, Knock Off, Parting Shot	Intimidate
Flutter Mane	Fairy	Booster Energy	Moonblast, Shadow Ball, Substitute, Protect	Protosynthesis

This Pokemon VGC Masters team begins with the meta darling Incineroar on point but also brings along Porygon2 thanks to its ability to use Trick Room, allowing slower Pokemon to move first for five turns. If an opponent has a counter for keeping Porygon2 in play against its will (as Edwards did courtesy of the Taunt move from Flutter Mane), Ursaluna can be brought in to even the playing field.

By holding Flame Orb, Ursaluna immediately gives itself a burn status effect. However, this works to Nils' advantage in the Pokemon VGC as the effect increases the damage of the move Facade from 70 points to a whopping 140 points. Ursaluna's Guts ability also increases its Attack stat by 50% when afflicted by a status effect, making Headlong Rush a devastating move that can one-hit KO.

Like on many Pokemon VGC teams for Scarlet and Violet, Amoonguss serves as a sturdy support Pokemon by using Rage Spore to force opponents to attack it, proccing Rocky Helmet and causing the opponent to take damage for each successful hit. Spore can put problematic team sweepers to sleep, and Protect can negate attacks that are redirected to Amoonguss.

A Terastallized Amoonguss can throw a major monkey wrench into an opponent's VGC team (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Meanwhile, Incineroar serves as a bulky attacker that can lower opponents' Attack stats thanks to its Intimidate ability. Moreover, access to Fake Out allows Incineroar to stun its Pokemon VGC opponents for a turn and pressure opponents to switch out or risk taking damage or allow Incineroar's teammates to set up vital moves like Trick Room from Porygon2 or Rage Spore from Amoonguss.

All the while, there's the Terastallization angle to consider. Thanks to Ursaluna and Amoonguss having Ghost Tera Types in this Pokemon VGC lineup, they can remove most of their weaknesses and also negate opponent Fake Outs that can potentially stun and hinder them. Meanwhile, Incineroar can Terastallize into a Grass-type to counter Water and Ground-types that would ordinarily counter it.

Porygon2 also has a Tera Type of Flying, keeping it safe against its lone weakness (Fighting-types). With its high durability and ability to avoid the one natural elemental counter it has pre-Terastallization, Porygon2 has a ton of flexibility to activate Trick Room and make this Pokemon VGC team capable of attacking first regularly, making it a major crux of the team.

Porygon2's Trick Room can turn the tide or add even more momentum to a winning team (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Since Double Battles only allow for four Pokemon in a battle, Rapid Strike Urshifu and Flutter Mane are typically held in reserve and can be swapped between matches. Urshifu can serve as a heavy hitter along the lines of Ursaluna, bypassing moves like Protect with the Unseen Fist ability and the guaranteed Critical Hits from Choice Scarf powering up Surging Strikes and Close Combat.

Flutter Mane can be utilized as a heavy-hitting Special Attacker thanks to attacks like Moonblast and Shadow Ball. Taunt allows it to keep setup-needy Pokemon from exiting the battlefield, making them prime targets. Additionally, Protect can be used to spare Flutter Mane from devastating attacks or attacks that it attracts via Taunt.

All in all, Nils' team proved to be the perfect counter to deal with Tim Edwards' balanced meta approach. Amoonguss proved to be invaluable at drawing Edwards' attacks as Porygon2 worked to activate Trick Room, giving Nils' Pokemon the ability to attack first and seize the advantage until Edwards was left with few options on the table, leading to Nils' VGC Masters EUIC title.