Pachimania is running wild!

I think the question on everybody's minds as far as the new Smogon stats go was, just how much more popular did Pachirisu become on the VGC and doubles ladder? Well, now we have our answer. Based on the weighted stats, on the VGC ladder Pachirisu was used SEVEN times as much in August than it was in July, climbing from #77 to #41. But that's nothing compared to what happened in Smogon doubles, where its usage was multiplied by over 70, going from #365 to #73! Unsurprisingly, its favorite teammates on both ladders were those Se Jun Park used at the World Championships (Garchomp, Talonflame, Gyarados, Gardevoir, Gothitelle). And equally unsurprisingly, the unweighted stats are even more flattering to little Pachi, whose biggest appeal lies with the "you can win with your favorites" imbeciles.

The scary part is, the tournament took place halfway through the month! Imagine a whole month of this... we're going to need to keep a close eye on what happens in September. Will the effect of a full month boost it to even greater heights, or will the appeal wane? By the way, for the record, Pachirisu is still an insignificant blip on the radar in singles, but it was still used enough (almost 9000 times, for the record) to show up in the moveset page for the unweighted stats, and Follow Me was its fifth most popular move, at 18%. Keep in mind, this is SINGLES, where Follow Me does jack shit.

Speaking of singles, the Aegislash ban left a deep impact on the OU ladder, with Landorus-T now the new king of OU, and a huge rise for Azumarill all the way to #3. Other Fairies also rose significantly, with Clefable at #16 and Gardevoir at #25 (that last one in particular was a foregone conclusion, with Aegislash being its worst enemy). Bisharp's continued presence at #18 proves that its effectiveness against Aegislash was NOT the only reason it was propelled all the way to OU, though it definitely helped. Pinsir also rose from #30 to #20, now that with Aegislash gone it can use Close Combat's superior coverage compared to Earthquake. Yet another Pokémon that greatly enjoys Aegislash being gone is Medicham, up 12 ranks to #27. Heracross only gained 5 ranks to #36, which is less than I expected, however its usage is up 50% from last month, which is a lot more logical.

One Pokémon that's been going down down down since the beginning of the year, though, is Conkeldurr. It peaked at #5 in February, then went down to #12 in March, #20 in April, #25 in May, #29 in June, #27 in July, and finally #33 in August. Meanwhile, Keldeo followed the reverse pattern, going from #31 in February to a consistent top 10 threat, peaking at #4 in July. Terrakion also saw a regain of life, probably at Conkeldurr's expense. And Breloom completes the quartet of a type that saw itself much nerfed since last gen, proving even more that there's no way Gamefreak could have handled the inception of the Fairy type any better as far as type matchups go.