October 2023 was unique in that it was split up into two Regulations. The first one, October Reg A; took place for the first 9 days, while October Reg B took up the rest of the month after Reg A. The reason this was done was because a large part of the community felt that the Reg A meta was very stale and boring. In response, multiple Pokemon where chosen to be voted into the roster, and there was even a "DLC" for 10 additional pokemon ontop of the standard 35. This would become Reg B. Back then the community was much smaller, so this action was in more reason and could be afforded, compared to the size of the community now. Though Reg A was considered stale, it's worth noting that this shouldn't be your immediate judgment of Reg A, and this claim might not hold up now, so definitely do try out Reg A before deciding on if it is a good tier or not.

Reg-A Monthly Roster

Oct regulation A is a metagame dominated by 4 Pokemon: Dondozo, Porygon2, Dugtrio and Bisharp. Dondozo is a wall that can easily get out of hand with curse and sits on almost every physical attacker in the tier, even itself easily making it the best pokemon this month, porygon2 is a bulky special attacker that can counter trap dugtrio and chunk dondozo thanks to thunderbolt or even tri attack, dugtrio traps a variety of mons like dragalge, bisharp, emboar or magnezone which results in an easier time breaking teams or even walling them and bisharp dealt huge amounts of damage and forced progress thanks to knock off while being very bulky thanks to eviolite. Other notable mons are dragalge, whose dracos were near impossible to switch in to, brambleghast which completely walled dondozo and dominated it, clefable which worked as a specially defensive mon that complemented dondozo or phione which has a positive MU into all of the top 4 thanks to a combination of take heart, grass knot and scald, and togekiss could set up on a lot of mons with sub nasty plot on top of giving every single mon a hard time with air slash + serene grace, and twave air slash sets were also a pain.

Written by Xungo

Reg-A Viability Rankings

/challenge gen9nationaldex35pokes @@@ -All Pokemon, +liepard, +dragalge, +clefable, +clodsire, +gigalith, +cacturne, +porygon2, +mimikyu, +scovillain, +lycanroc, +jolteon, +bisharp, +togekiss, +starmie, +shuckle, +emboar, +doublade, +phione, +lumineon, +toucannon, +mandibuzz, +rotom, +falinks, +magnezone, +dondozo, +brambleghast, +goodra, +articuno, +cinccino, +avalugg-hisui, +sceptile, +toedscruel, +hitmontop, +golem-alola, +dugtrio

Tier Maker

Phione Bulky Balance

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Analysis List

Liepard

Dragalge

Clefable

Clodsire

Gigalith

Cacturne

Porygon2

Mimikyu

Scovillain

Lycanroc

Jolteon

Bisharp

Togekiss

Starmie

Shuckle

Emboar

Doublade

Phione

Lumineon

Toucannon

Mandibuzz

Rotom

Falinks

Magnezone

Dondozo

Brambleghast

Goodra

Articuno

Cinccino

Avalugg-Hisui

Sceptile

Toedscruel

Hitmontop

Golem-Alola

Dugtrio

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Reg-A Monthly Champion

Champion Team

Game replays deleted by showdown

Shoota 3-0 Artifacts

(Block Mandibuzz was used in the finals, which apparently traumatized Artifacts)

There are no Chronicles for Reg-A

Reg-B Monthly Roster

October 2023 was the first and only time a month was split into two separate regulations. Regulation B's Roster was chosen by rerolling the two highest voted rows and adding a bonus 10 Pokemon to the roster. Meta staples include Dugtrio, Porygon-2, Clefable and Rotom-Mow. Dugtrio is amazing at being able to trap common threats (e.g. Roserade, Emboar, Clodsire) to open up teamates which would normally be checked in some way by these Pokemon. Porygon-2 is a great bulky pivot that can counter-trap Dugtrio with its ability ‘Trace’. Clefable had unlimited set possibilities, e.g. Calm Mind, Stealth Rock, Knock Off, Wish, Teleport. Rotom-Mow was a jack-of-all-trades: consistent hazard removal, revenge killer with Choice Scarf, support with Will-o-Wisp and Trick, pivot with Volt Switch, and offensive threat with Nasty Plot. Additionally, Doublade could set up Swords Dance on most of the tier, and any team lacking Mandibuzz would get swept if they weren't careful. Teambuilding has a lot of versatility with meta options such as; Hail, Sand, Veil Offense, Sticky Webs, Hazard Stack, and most notably Balance. Standard options outside meta staples include: Mandibuzz, Roserade, Toxicroak, Clodsire, Dragalge, Emboar, Doublade, Poliwrath, Cincinno, Hitmontop, Aurorus, Sableye, Orthworm, Centiskorch and Sandslash-Alola. Xatu has remained off this list due to it actually being banned post meta, reasoning includes Aurora Veil + Weakness Policy + Stored Power + Magic Bounce + Speed Tier + Coverage. The meta could not adapt to this beast and the community decided for Xatu to be banned. This meta is my personal favorite, the unlimited options you have with team building compared to other linear metas allows a breath of fresh air every time you load into a game.

Written by BigShoota

Edited by Essence

Reg-B Viability Rankings

/challenge gen9nationaldex35pokes @@@ -All Pokemon, +liepard, +dragalge, +clefable, +clodsire, +gigalith, +cacturne, +porygon2, +shuckle, +emboar, +doublade, +phione, +lumineon, +toucannon, +mandibuzz, +cinccino, +avalugg-hisui, +sceptile, +toedscruel, +hitmontop, +golem-alola, +dugtrio, +mr. rime, +ariados, +pachirisu, +ambipom, +volbeat, +centiskorch, +shiinotic, +poliwrath, +stoutland, +banette, +aurorus, +mawile, +xatu, +sableye, +orthworm, +rotom-mow, +sandslash-alola, +toxicroak, +roserade, +lopunny, +luxray, +solrock, +cryogonal, +noctowl

Tierlist Maker

Xatu Ban

Xatu was initially overlooked, not doing much in it's premier meta. However during the retro tour of October-B, people realized that Xatu could use Calm Mind stored power. This was seen as a gimmick before, but it became clear that it wasn't just a gimmick, it was a real set and a near impossible one to answer at that. Theoretical checks like Doublade and Orthworm folded to Heat wave, mandibuzz folded to dazzling gleam, and the electric type of the format rotom-mow was just set up fodder for Xatu. The entire tier was set up fodder for Xatu in general, and because of Magic Bounce it could come in on any status move and set up, and you couldn't even toxic or paralyze it for the same reason. In addition to all this it could run roost, and didn't need any other moves other than cm, roost, stored power, and heat wave/dazzling gleam, so it didn't suffer from Four Moveslot Syndrome in the slightest, which Stored Power sweepers typically suffer from. On top of all this, it didn't even need to run heavy duty boots because it only ever got in once and took no special damage, and had good enough bulk to consistently take physical hits which it could just roost off anyway. With this revelation, Xatu began running weakness policy as a way to make Stored Power even stronger, and to punish Rotom-Mow even harder. In response to Xatu people tried out niche options like Mr.Rime to not immediately die to it. Gigalith was the only real check to Xatu, as with the sandstorm Spd boost it could tank low power Stored Power easily, and resist heatwave, on top of threatning a 1-2 hit ko on Xatu with super effective rock stab. However as you can imagine, it wasn't a healthy development for every team to be on Gigalith solely to not die to Xatu, especially in a 45 Pokemon metagame, so Xatu notoriously became the second banned Pokemon in 35 Pokes.

Because Xatu was banned after October had ended, it was not rerolled to preserve the original roster as much as possible.