Ranked Season 31 used the Regulation Set I ruleset, allowing the use of Paradox Pokemon, Legendary Pokemon, along with a choice of two Restricted Special Pokemon per team. Read below for details on the most used Pokémon, Restricted Pokémon, and the team that won Berumotto their 1st place finish!
Rental Code: 75TC9R
The changes to the team mentioned above highlights one of the strengths of these Miraidon and Ice Rider teams — the multiple options for speed control. While most teams only run Trick Room or only run Tailwind, some teams instead opt to use both, typically being referred to as "tailroom" teams. Since you don't have to worry about outspeeding your opponents as much as other teams do, you're given the freedom to train your Pokémon's defenses further instead. This team makes great use of this fact, investing only 12 Speed EVs into Miraidon and instead giving it 236 HP EVs. Similarly, Volcarona gets to invest 252 EVs into HP and 204 EVs into Defense, and Urshifu gets 124 EVs in its HP, 84 EVs in its Special Defense, and only 100 EVs in its Speed stat.
As highlighted in Kyogre's team report, another strength of these two Pokémon is the combination of Electric and Ice-type damage. Often referred to as "BoltBeam", these two types can be very potent together, since only five fully-evolved Pokémon resist both types, none of which are currently known to be noteworthy in competitive battling, which makes BoltBeam even stronger. This also helps each Restricted Pokémon to cover for the other's weaknesses, while Ice Rider struggles to deal meaningful damage to Kyogre, Miraidon can switch in and threaten powerful super-effective damage. Since Kyogre's most common defensive Tera Type is Grass, it either stays in to get knocked out by Miraidon, or terastallizes to get knocked out by a super-effective Glacial Lance from Ice Rider. If an opposing Pokémon tries to boost its Special Defense, such as Lunala or Terapagos, Ice Rider can effectively deal physical damage to knock them out instead of Miraidon staying in and likely not dealing enough damage.
Notably, this team is almost identical to the 1st place team above, with the main distinction being Farigiraf appearing in place of Volcarona. While Volcarona is great for dealing with physical attackers, threatening Pokémon like Zamazenta and Zacian with a potential burn from its ability Flame Body, Farigiraf uses its signature ability Armor Tail to block priority, which can greatly benefit the team. Disruptive moves like Fake Out from Incineroar and Rillaboom are blocked, as well as powerful priority attacks such as Aqua Jet, Extreme Speed, Sucker Punch, and Thunderclap. Farigiraf also gets access to Trick Room, adding more possibilities to activate the team's speed control options.
The next three slots are unchanged as well, with Urshifu's Rapid Strike form taking 2nd place due to its overwhelming power. With the Choice Band and support from Pokémon like Tornadus or Kyogre, Urshifu can tear through entire teams with its signature move Surging Strikes if left unchecked. It also matches up well into the powerful Restricted Pokémon Zamazenta, which gets a Defense boost the first time it switches into battle. Not only does Urshifu threaten it with super-effective Fighting-type damage, it can also use Surging Strikes, which hits three times and always results in a critical hit, to attack through the Defense boost. Similar to Incineroar, Rillaboom takes 3rd place due to its overwhelming utility. Setting up Grassy Terrain every time it switches in with its ability Grassy Surge allows it to keep its opponents healthy and deal more damage with its powerful Grass-type attacks in Grassy Glide and Wood Hammer. Grassy Terrain also allows the former to become a priority move, threatening huge damage on Pokémon like Kyogre and Urshifu's Rapid Strike form before they can move. It also gets options for great utility in Fake Out, Knock Off, U-turn, Drum Beating, and Taunt. Grimmsnarl stays in 4th place due to its unmatched supportive potential. With the powerful ability Prankster, all of Grimmsnarl's status moves are given one added stage of priority. This allows it to set up Light Screen and Reflect before the opponent can attack, reducing incoming damage by a third. It also gets a wide array of other status moves, like Thunder Wave, Parting Shot, Fake Tears, and Taunt, that allows it to be incredibly flexible.
Tornadus moves up one place, partially benefitting from its synergy with Urshifu's Rapid Strike form, since it can use the aforementioned Prankster ability to set up the rain before its opponents can move, boosting the power of Urshifu's Water-type attacks. Chien-Pao moves up six places, similarly benefiting from its synergy with Urshifu, using its signature ability Sword of Ruin to lower every other Pokémon's Defense stat so Urshifu can deal more damage. Chien-Pao has great synergy with other physical attackers too, such as Zamazenta and Zacian, but also deals insane amounts of damage even on its own. Amoonguss climbs an impressive nine places despite its less-than-ideal matchup into Miraidon, which happens to be the most popular Restricted Pokémon. While Amoonguss loves to put its opponents to sleep with Spore, Miraidon can shut this down with its signature ability Hadron Engine setting up Electric Terrain, which disables sleep. It still has great utility and support, however, becoming especially troublesome on teams revolving around Trick Room. Raging Bolt has seen an increase of six places, likely due to the spotlight it gained from reaching the finals of the 2025 North America Internationals and winning the 2025 Bologna Special Championships. Whimsicott sees a slight increase too, possibly signalling, alongside Tornadus' higher usage, an increase in the effectiveness of Tailwind.
Despite reaching the finals of the 2025 North America Internationals, Ogerpon sees a noticeable drop in usage. Iron Hands follows suit, possibly showing us that Miraidon teams are developing, and leaving Iron Hands behind. Berumotto's team, as seen above, seems to be an example of this. Finally, Flutter Mane follows as well, with its still-impressive damage and nonexistent physical bulk proving a problem when battling against or or competing for a spot on the same team as any devastatingly powerful Restricted Pokémon.
The top spots for Restricted Pokémon remain mostly the same, with Zamazenta taking Lunala's 4th place, and Terapagos and Groudon gaining one place each over Ho-Oh. Lunala and Ho-Oh were both powerful Restricted Pokémon with great usage earlier in the format, but as more powerful teams are developed and players gain more experience with the format, they seem to have fallen out of favour. Lunala, at least, gets to remain in the top 6, being a fairly common Pokémon to battle against and likely to be a fairly common Pokémon at the 2025 World Championships, whereas Ho-Oh lands among less common Restricted Pokémon in Groudon and Eternatus.
Miraidon dominating the standings isn't unexpected either, much like Incineroar's dominance over the regular standings. It's had an incredible run in Regulation Set I, having already won three Regional-level events, three National-level events, the 2025 Grand Challenge IV, and the 2025 North America Internationals, as well as reaching the finals of two more National-level events. Its signature ability Hadron Engine is one of the strongest in the game, setting up Electric Terrain and boosting its Special Attack by 33% while on Electric Terrain. The terrain also boosts Miraidon's Electric-type damage by 30%. Many players choose to add even more modifiers, increasing Miraidon's Special Attack by an extra 50% with the Choice Specs, and terastallizing it into the Electric-type to boost its Electric-type damage even further. There are very few Pokémon who can withstand such an attack, with Zamazenta, one of the bulkiest Pokémon in the format, losing over 50% of its health to a specs-boosted, terrain-boosted, Tera-boosted Electro Drift, even with 252 EVs in its HP and a Tera Type that resists Electric-type attacks.
Both Calyrex forms are, unsurprisingly, justified in their high placements as well. While their achievements aren't as flashy as Miraidon's, Shadow Rider has still won two Regionals and two Nationals, with Ice Rider slightly outperforming with three Regionals and three Nationals under its metaphorical belt.
