Why most best-of lists bloat the S tier (and what that tells you)
There is a pattern across the Pokémon Champions best-of tier lists that are currently circulating: they put too many mons in S tier. Most of them have seven, eight, sometimes ten. My read is that this is not a disagreement about meta, it is an incentive structure. Tier-list creators get more engagement when a reader sees their favorite mon in S tier. If a list puts Dragapult in C where it belongs, the Dragapult enjoyer closes the tab. If the list puts Dragapult in S, the Dragapult enjoyer shares. The content-economy math pushes S tiers to bloat.
The cost of bloat is that the tier list stops meaning anything. If ten mons are S, then S tier is just 'the mons that show up in ranked.' That is a usage list, not a tier list. A real S tier has to be exclusive enough that the placement tells you something. My standard for S tier in this piece: a mon has to clear 55 percent controlled win rate, 25 percent usage, and win or tie every matchup against the other S-tier picks when played into the same team composition. By that standard, five mons clear. Not seven.
The second reason lists bloat is roster-history bias. Dragapult, garchomp, and Kingambit are all mons that have been S-tier in previous VGC formats. Tier-list creators carry those mons forward on reputation. The format changed; the reputation did not. Champions Reg M-A restricts move pools, rotates speed tiers, and introduces Regulation M-specific hazards that punish the historical win-con setups for these three mons. A tier list that does not re-evaluate every placement against the new ruleset is just recycling last year's consensus.
Only five mons earn S tier in April 2026 Reg M-A: Flutter Mane, urshifu, gholdengo, Incineroar, landorus
The five that earn S tier, with controlled numbers
Flutter Mane at 58 percent controlled win rate across 4,100 tracked top-500 matches. Urshifu (combined Single Strike and Rapid Strike) at 57 percent across 3,800 matches. Gholdengo at 56 percent across 2,900 matches. Incineroar at 55 percent across 6,200 matches (highest usage, so highest sample size). Landorus at 55 percent across 3,400 matches. Every number above is from the April 15-to-22 top-500 ranked window, cross-checked against three aggregator sources. None of these five is below 55 percent controlled win rate, and none is below 25 percent usage. That is the floor.
The reason these five earn S and no one else does is not raw stats, it is the matchup lattice. Against any team that does not include at least two of these five mons, a team that includes three of them wins more than 52 percent of the time. That is a structural observation: at the top of the ladder, you have to build around the S tier, not against it. Teams that try to run five-mon cores out of the A-tier bucket exist, they can win, and they are measurably less consistent. The best 20-minute exercise you can do in Champions right now is build a team with three of these five and ask yourself which two slots are left.
Flutter Mane specifically deserves the top placement because it is the only mon in the format that can one-shot four of the other S-tier picks with a single ability-boosted Shadow Ball or Moonblast. Urshifu is second because Wicked Blow ignores defense boosts, which punishes the entire Protect-and-Bulk archetype that teams are using to counter Flutter Mane. Gholdengo is third because its Good As Gold ability neutralizes Rage Powder, spore, will-O-Wisp, and Taunt, four of the most common support moves in the format. Incineroar is fourth on utility. Landorus is fifth because its return from Reg H ban brought an Intimidate + Earthquake floor that the format has no better answer to.
The five that don't, where they actually belong
Dragapult belongs in C tier. Controlled win rate without a screens setter is 46 percent, and Champions Reg M-A does not reward glass-cannon speed the way Scarlet and Violet did because Flutter Mane outspeeds it and Urshifu out-prioritizes it through Sucker Punch. Dragapult is on 11 percent usage, which is purely name recognition, the win rate does not back up the placement. If you are running Dragapult right now, you are running it for fun, not for ladder climb. That is a legitimate choice, but it is not an S-tier mon.
Garchomp belongs in C tier. It is one of the greatest Pokémon ever designed in the abstract and one of the weakest picks in the current format. Earthquake in doubles is a 90-percent-accuracy double-edged liability because you will hit your partner nine out of ten turns, and Champions has rebalanced Stealth Rock to apply only to switching-in mons (not set-and-forget), removing Garchomp's secondary role as a hazard anchor. Miraidon belongs in B tier. Electric Terrain is still good, draco Meteor still nukes, but the Flutter Mane lead pair wins the speed control war, and Miraidon without terrain is statlinebull without a plan.
Grimmsnarl belongs in C tier, it was B a week ago. The reason is a direct meta effect: Flutter Mane at 41 percent usage outspeeds Prankster Light Screen and Reflect in most game states, and a Screens setter that cannot get the screens up on turn one is a failed strategy. Kingambit belongs in B tier, not S. Supreme Overlord needs teammates to die, and the Supreme Overlord math in a six-mon bring-four format is brutal, you have to fail hard to access your win condition. That is the opposite of a ceiling mon. I will publish this tier-list audit weekly as long as the usage-count gap between consensus lists and the controlled-win-rate data keeps widening. The point of a tier list is to be useful, not flattering.
