VGC's New #1 Team: Mega Raichu-Y & Staraptor Dethrone the Big 6 Meta

A New #1 Team Dethrones the Big 6

For the first time since Pokémon Champions' competitive scene took shape, the long-reigning "Big 6" archetype (Garchomp , Whimsicott , Mega Floette , Mega Charizard Y , Kingambit , Basculegion ), the closest thing this format has had to a default, no-gimmick answer for every matchup, has been pushed off the top spot. According to QuickDraw's team rankings, which weigh both usage and winrate across the current top 30 compositions, a new squad now sits above it: Mega Raichu Y , Mega Staraptor , Arcanine Hisuian , Farigiraf , Sylveon  and Kingambit .

The team currently posts a 56.72% overall winrate at 3.79% usage, and it has been showing up consistently at the top of recent tournament results, including a first place finish this past week. This is not a one-off spike. It is a squad that beats the format's most established teams head to head, and that is worth breaking down. Here's the most effective build for this team according to tournament data :

A quick note on the numbers: all winrate, usage and matchup figures in this piece come from QuickDraw's tracked tournament results, top 32 finishes only, over a rolling 30-day window. They reflect the current state of the meta, not an all-time average.

Matchups: Winning Where It Matters

Across QuickDraw's top 30 tracked compositions, this team holds a positive record against 10 of the 19 opponents it has faced with meaningful sample size, going 109-95 overall (53.4%). What stands out is not just the raw number, but who those wins come against.

Most notably, the team has a winning record against the Big 6 itself, taking that matchup 13-10 (56.5%). Losing the head to head against the team it just dethroned would have made its #1 spot look like a fluke of usage and sample size. Instead, the data backs up the claim.

Other standout results include :

• 76.5% winrate (13-4) against a Farigiraf , Mega Aerodactyl , Mega Charizard Y , Sylveon , Kingambit  and Garchomp  
• 71.4% winrate (5-2) against a Pelipper  based rain team built around Mega Venusaur , Archaludon , Grimmsnarl , Basculegion  and Mega Charizard Y 
• 62.5% winrate (20-12, its largest sample against any single opponent) against a Mega Froslass  and Kingambit  oriented team.

The Verdict

This is a team built to beat the format's other strong, generalist compositions rather than to farm easy usage against weaker builds. That is precisely what has allowed it to climb past a team as established as the Big 6.

The Mega Raichu Y and Mega Staraptor Core

The engine behind the team is the pairing of two Mega Evolutions rarely associated with each other outside this specific build.

Mega Raichu Y trades Raichu's base kit for the No Guard ability, and this team puts it to immediate use with Zap Cannon, an Electric move that hits for huge damage but normally has poor accuracy. Under No Guard, Zap Cannon becomes a guaranteed hit, turning Raichu into a nearly unavoidable special nuke. Fake Out and Focus Blast round out the set, giving it tempo and coverage against the Dark and Steel types. It is worth noting that on QuickDraw's general tier list, Mega Raichu-Y itself sits in the B tier with a 49.72% overall winrate. On its own, it is a middling pick. Inside this specific shell, it becomes a genuine killer, which says a lot about how much team context matters in this format.

Mega Staraptor is the more consistently strong half of the pairing, sitting in the A tier on the general list with a 51.39% winrate. Its ability, Contrary, is what makes it dangerous here: Close Combat normally lowers the user's Defense and Special Defense after use, but Contrary flips those drops into boosts. Every Close Combat this team's Staraptor lands makes it tankier as well as harder hitting, on top of Dual Wingbeat for a reliable secondary STAB and Tailwind for the speed control that lets both Raichu and Staraptor threaten to move first. Intimidate on the base form also softens incoming physical damage before the mega evolution even triggers.

Only one Pokémon can Mega Evolve per side in a single game, but this pairing still has flexibility over this part. When Raichu takes the Mega slot, Staraptor simply stays in its base form and still pulls its weight through Tailwind and its Intimidate ability. When Staraptor Mega Evolves instead, Raichu stays in as a base-form Lightning Rod user, drawing in and absorbing Electric-type attacks that would otherwise threaten Staraptor, on top of Fake Out for extra tempo. Either way, the player can bring both Pokémon and gets to pick which Mega Evolution the matchup actually calls for.

Together, these two megas give the team a rare identity: a guaranteed-hit special nuke and a snowballing physical wallbreaker that only gets scarier the longer it survives.

Arcanine Hisuian: The Glue Piece

If Raichu-Y  and Staraptor  are the team's win conditions, Arcanine Hisuian is what keeps the rest of the plan alive. Currently ranked in the A tier on QuickDraw's general tier list, it posts a 59.09% overall winrate, one of the highest of any Pokémon in the current format, despite sitting at a modest 5.64% usage. That kind of winrate at that usage level is a strong signal that Arcanine Hisuian is being underused relative to how good it actually is.

Its Fire and Rock typing, paired with the Rock Head ability, is what makes it work. Rock Head removes recoil entirely, which lets this build run both Flare Blitz and Head Smash, two of the hardest hitting recoil moves in the game, without any downside. Extreme Speed adds priority for picking off weakened threats or outracing faster attackers, and Focus Sash guarantees it survives a hit to get a move off even against strong offensive pressure.

Against the specific teams this squad already beats, Arcanine Hisuian is doing a lot of quiet work. Its Fire and Rock STAB combination punishes the Flying, Steel and Ice type pieces that show up across those matchups (Charizard, Aerodactyl, Corviknight style Steel/Flying attackers, and Basculegion), resisting several of their most common attacking types while threatening a genuine two-hit knockout back. It is the Pokémon on this team most responsible for turning close matchups into comfortable ones.

Where the Team Struggles

No team wins everywhere, and this one has a clear pattern to its losses. Its worst results come against teams that lean heavily on Ground and Water type pressure, and the reason is written directly into its type chart.

• Arcanine Hisuian  is quadruple weak to both Water and Ground due to its Fire/Rock typing, making it one of the most exploitable pieces on the team once its Focus Sash is gone.
• Kingambit , as a Dark/Steel type, is doubly weak to Ground and Fighting, and shares a Fighting weakness with Arcanine Hisuian's Rock typing.
• Raichu Y , being a pure Electric type, adds a third body on the team that takes extra damage from Ground attacks.

That shared weakness shows up clearly in the results. The team's toughest matchup is a 20% winrate (1-4) against a Charizard Y , Venusaur , Incineroar , Sylveon , Garchomp  and Toxapex  squad that runs Earthquake, Stomping Tantrum and Earth Power across multiple members. It also struggles to a 36.4% winrate (4-7) against a Mega Swampert-based  rain team, and to 33.3% (4-8) against a team pairing Sneasler's  Close Combat with Mega Blastoise's  Water Spout, both of which land super effectively on Arcanine Hisuian. A sand team built around Excadrill  and Mega Tyranitar , whose Ground and Rock coverage lines up the same way, holds it to a 40% winrate (8-12) as well.

Any team looking to beat this composition has a clear blueprint: bring a hard hitting Ground type, ideally one that also threatens Kingambit  and Raichu, and be ready to punish Arcanine Hisuian the moment its Focus Sash is gone.

Conclusion

This team's rise is not a fluke of the usage stats. It has a winning record against the Big 6 it dethroned and against several of the format's other top compositions, built around a Mega Raichu-Y  and Mega Staraptor  core that few other teams are running, and anchored by an Arcanine Hisuian that quietly posts one of the best winrates in the format. Its Ground and Water weakness is real and well documented in its matchup spread, but for now, it is the team every other top composition has to answer to.