Garchomp still leads singles at 40% usage, but Archaludon and Primarina's late-week surge toward its Dragon and Fairy weak spots is the sharpest shift in the format as the M-5 season reset settles in.

The gap between the top of the ladder and everyone else is sharpest on Garchomp itself - it's in half of all 2000+ teams (50%) against 39% in the 1000-1999 range, and Aegislash shows the same pattern, sitting at 21% among the best but only 13% below. Basculegion is the starkest example of a genuinely skill-gated pick, jumping from 6% usage in the 1000-1999 band to 15% among 2000+ players, which reads as a tool that rewards knowing exactly when to bring it in rather than one that's simply strong on paper.

Other picks run the opposite direction. Meowscarada is actually more common lower on the ladder (21% in the 1000-1999 band) than at the top (16% in 2000+), and Raichu (12% vs 5%) and Blaziken (12% vs 6%) show the same shape - all three read as straightforward, high-power or high-speed picks that are easy to slot in and get immediate value from without much matchup knowledge. Primarina, by contrast, holds essentially identical share in both bands at 22%, making it one of the rare picks that's simply good everywhere on the ladder instead of skewing either way.

The clearest trend this week is the format building its answer to Garchomp in real time. Archaludon's Draco Meteor and Primarina's Moonblast both land as super-effective Dragon and Fairy STAB against it, and both Pokemon spiked from the high teens to about a quarter of the field by the second half of the week. Hydreigon is chasing the same lane with Draco Meteor of its own, climbing from 12% to 18%. None of them, though, are hitting Garchomp's real red flag - it takes x4 from Ice, and nothing among the current top picks is built to exploit that hole yet, so it's worth watching whether an Ice-type answer actually surfaces to punish the gap the Dragon and Fairy attackers only partially cover.

Metagross is running the same play against Mimikyu, whose sets lean heavily on Swords Dance (77%) to snowball before Disguise breaks - Metagross's Bullet Punch lands as super-effective Steel STAB with priority, cutting that plan off before it starts. Metagross itself is still down overall from last report's 22% to 16% this week, but its second-half climb (14% to 18%) suggests it's rebuilding rather than fading for good. Starmie is a smaller version of the same idea against Hippowdon, turning what should be a slow matchup into a priority answer with Aqua Jet, and it more than doubled its share of the field over the week, from 7% to 11% and still climbing.

The picks answering Garchomp actually split by speed profile rather than converging on one shape - Hydreigon (98 base, 165 at L50) can simply outrun and punish it, while Archaludon (85/150) and Primarina (60/123) lean on typing and bulk instead of raw speed. On the other side of the ladder, Corviknight collapsed from 12% to 4% within the week and Aegislash cooled from 17% to 10% intraweek even as its overall share holds flat at 15% against last report - it's just not showing up early in the week anymore. Gengar and Charizard faded the same way (11% to 6%, 14% to 9%), pointing away from the earlier Ghost and Fire offense and toward the bulkier Dragon, Fairy, and Steel answers now on the rise.

Steel leads the type charts at 79% on the back of Archaludon, Metagross, and Aegislash, with Water close behind at 78% carried by Primarina, Gyarados, and Greninja - both numbers track neatly with how much of this week's rising defensive core runs through those two typings. Dragon (75%, via Garchomp, Archaludon, and Dragonite) and Ghost (74%, via Mimikyu, Aegislash, and Gengar) aren't far off either, and with Ground (70%), Dark (69%), Fairy (66%), and Fire (59%) all still present on a majority of teams, no single typing is close to running away with the format - the top of the ladder is being built on genuine type diversity rather than everyone stacking one answer.