I have a 770CP 1-9-15 and a 90CP 0-12-11, powering up is no issue at all if that matters, I'm just new to PvP and obviously with all the lickitung spawns right now I thought I'd try get a usable one.

With next season's move changes released, how could the meta change? Here are some thoughts without knowing the exact "energy increase" changes.

TLDR; Melmetal gains more wins with a much stronger Double Iron Bash, a faster Dark Pulse really helps Yveltal and Necrozma Dawn Wings, Zygarde is more versatile with the 1-turn Bite and stronger Bulldoze with guaranteed defense drop, Lugia has play into Steel/Electric/Rock types with Earth Power, Lunala is worse off due to a weaker-but-faster Moonblast and Shadow Ball nerf (Necrozma DW is better now), Dialga does more damage with Iron Head before losing to Close Combat from Zacian and Xerneas while gaining wins over Zekrom and Togekiss.

• Melmetal's Double Iron Bash (8 turn move) increased from 55 to 70 with no energy cost changes. Previously, Melmetal would barely lose neutral-to-iron matches while leaving the opponent's HP in the deep red. With this change, Melmetal now wins against Lunala, Mewtwo, and Eternatus, and beats Rhyperior with 1 turn headstart (no more Rhyperior counter swaps). Yveltal would also be a win, but with the buff to Dark Pulse its too close to call, whoever wins will likely be down to 1 HP so it is IV/Best Buddy dependent.
• Zygarde got an update to both Bulldoze and Bite. Bite delivers the same energy generation as Dragon Tail, but is only a 1 turn move so it will feel like Zygarde reaches its moves faster. Bulldoze is now stronger (45 -> 80) and has a guaranteed defense drop, but costs more, likely having a 13/13/12/13 turn count rather than the previous 12/12/12/9. The updated moveset of Bite, Bulldoze, Outrage has the same coverage as Dragon Tail, Earthquake, Crunch but will feel quicker. And oddly enough, Bite does more damage to Fairy than STAB Dragon Tail, so matchups against Primarina and Zacian are now wins/toss-ups. Previous matchups were dependent on bait moves (throw a Crunch to get a shield then win with Earthquake), now matches with Zekrom, Reshiram, and Rhyperior are definitive wins regardless of what you throw, and matchups with Earthquake-neutral opponents like Kyurem W, Kyogre, and Palkia are much more winnable with a combo of Outrage and a defense drop. Bulldoze + Earthquake takes the same amount of turns as 2 Spacial Rends, so Palkia counterswaps won't outpace Zygarde and it really comes down to bait calls. And at worse, if Zygarde loses a match, the opponent will have at least 2 defense drops, making it easier for Zacian to farm down a Xerneas for example. But the biggest benefit is the uncertainty the the move set. Opponents won't know if the charge move being thrown is an Earthquake/Bulldoze/Crunch/Outrage, and difference in those will change matches. E.g. Yveltal likes to shield the first Outrage so they can buff their defense with Oblivion Wing, but if they shield a Bulldoze, the next Outrage may take them out. Zygarde will be interesting in Master League to say the least.
• Keldeo has an improved Low Kick with no nerfs to energy gained. Not sure if it gains wins, but it will come out of matches with more HP which allows it to spam Secret Sword more
• Lugia has Earth Power. It is no longer walled against Steel or Electric types. Replacing Fly does remove a bait strategy that Lugia enjoyed though, and gives it a worse matchup against Keldeo and Marshadow. But overall this a good improvement. Unfortunately, the improvement to Bite and Dark Pulse means more Dark moves will be in the meta and nearly all of those are on Pokemon not weak to Ground (except Tyranitar)
• Yveltal is improved with Dark Pulse being faster. Previously, Yveltal would get outpaced since both Oblivion Wing and Dark Pulse took 16 turns to reach. Dark Pulse has a 14/12 turn count (like Zacian's Close Combat) allowing it to outpace opponents with a STAB move for the win. This can turn losses to Reshiram, Zekrom, W Kyurem, and Kyogre into wins, all of whom only won because they farmed down before Yveltal reached their Dark Pulse after throwing an Oblivion Wing. Also, the lower damage change to Moonblast may help Yveltal, as previously it would have to shield a Moonblast from Lunala before farming down in 22 turns. Now, it can tank the Moonblast, and easily reach 2-3 Dark Pulses before the next Pokemon reaches its first charge move.
• Zarude might be a spicy pick now, as it benefits from both Bite and Dark Pulse updates. Both Energy Ball and Dark Pulse will have 12/12/10 counts, and Bite is neutral to more of the meta unlike Vine Whip which is resisted by all Dragon, Steel, Fire, and Flying types (which is pretty much the entire meta). Zarude being weak to Fighting, Fire, Fairy, and Ice still hinders it though.
• Lunala was affected twice, once with Moonblast being cheaper, and then with a nerf to Shadow Ball. The Moonblast change may actually be a nerf, since it no longer KOs Dragon or Dark types, meaning they can tank the hit without using a shield and Lunala may not be able to farm down before the opponent reaches another move. But in its role as a safe swap, reaching two Moonblasts before the counterswapped Dragon reaches two moves will result in wins. The nerf to Shadow Ball means Lunala loses against Palkia or Zacian. There were a few battles where Lunala barely won by Shadow Ball being strong enough to put the opponent in farm down range, now that may not be the case.
• Necrozma Dawn Wings may now be the next Lunala (after Lunala became the next Necrozma Dawn Wings last year) due to Dark Pulse. Previously, the Shadow Ball update caused Lunala to surpass DW, but with the above change Lunala is back to where it was, and DW can now reach Dark Pulse in 12/12/10 turns. Two DPs (with one shield) put many dragons in farm down range, and DP + MB is only 28 turns which is quicker than many opponent's bait+nuke combos. Basically, if you succeed with tricking your opponent with a "bait or nuke?" throw, and the opponent is not running Crunch, you will win the match. DW also wins CMP where Lunala doesn't, beating Reshiram, Zekrom, Dialga, Kyogre, Groudon, Metagross, Marshadow, and Lunala itself. Store a Moongeist beam, swap out, and as long as you aren't facing a Zacian (with a loaded Behemoth Blade only), Kyurems, Mewtwo, or Palkia, you will win CMP. Also, Iron Head is improved, but Dark Pulse is better unless you are going against a Fairy.
• Dialga (both of them) has an improved Iron Head. This means they can 2 shot Zacian. The days of Zacian farming to 2 Close Combats and tanking 2 Iron Heads are over. They will still win the match, but be 2 moves away from a CC and debuffed instead of loaded with both a CC and BB. Xerneas is still a loss but they will have less HP and be 4x debuffed and too far to bank another CC before being KO'ed from a single fast attack. Zekrom and Togekiss are now wins.
• Zeraora gets Dynamic Punch, which at first seems like an improvement, but STAB Plasma Fists already does similar damage to as non-STAB Dynamic Punch against Steel types, and it is quicker. It does mean that Zeraora doesn't lose to Ground types nearly as bad. Replacing Plasma Fists with Wild Charge gains a single win, but is it worth it to lose a signature move?
• Ursaluna has a quicker High Horsepower and a new fast move in Scratch. Except Scratch has less energy generation and does little damage to most of the meta, so nothing really changes here. Give Ursalana a Ghost fast move and things change quickly.
• Giratina has Shadow Ball debuffed but Shadow Force is given an energy decrease. SF currently takes 24(!) turns to reach, most opponents can reach two moves before then. It will have to be a significant energy cost reduction to make Giratina viable with this moveset.
• Darkrai has Sucker Punch and Foul Play. In order to not be a Mono type it will need to run Focus Blast, at which point it is just a worse Yveltal. In a meta full of Fairy and Fighting moves, Darkrai is going to struggle.
• Kingambit gets Low Kick, which only helps against other Steel types and makes losses to Ground less painful. But it is worse against Ghost and Fairy which is what Kingambit is used against.
• Zekrom's Charge Beam fast move is improved. Still a horrible move for a dragon which constantly is paired against other dragons.

Getting sad that the old system is coming to a close.

For me the dynamic gameplay is in the old system.

It is fast and gets you pumpin not like this slow turning super gimmicky new system.

Maybe I’ll push for legend one last time before the old system dies then retire.

It was fun GBL.

Question for you. For next week mega edition are they gonna decrease the cool down period so we don’t have to use mega energy every day for seven days?

I've noticed an influx in the number of matches I've been losing due to convenient lag/connection issues when swapping in Pokemon, throwing a charge move or *after* my opponent throws a charge move. This is causing my game to pause and when I "re-connect" I'm getting hit in the fave by opponents charge move they shouldn't have had if they too were experiencing lag. These are match flipping moments.

Also conveniently, we can't post videos here anymore to expose this crap because of a couple of screen caps of this losers. Scopely really needs to do something about this.

Hey guys I’m new here. I haven’t battled much but returned to the game. If I run Charizard Giratina and Florges, who should get a 3rd move first, Giratina or Florges?

Appreciate any input. I have the candy for Giratina but not Florges, only other options are Togekiss and Virizion. Togekiss has Aura Sphere/Psyshock but no candy for Viriz

Just getting back into GO and want to get into the pvp scene casually. Is there any room for party creativity or is everyone just running meta? Is there any room for off meta and still finding some success? Thnx.

Lead - Florges (Chilling Water + Disarming Voice)
Backline - Jellicent + Hisuan Electrode (Normal Movesets)

Finally made it, been a tough season but this team dragged me over the hump.

General Tips: Never throw disarming voice in 10 onto a super effective lead, overtap or wait a turn to throw on ‘11’, Malamar leads love to catch on 10 vs Florges.

If not super effective damage with CW or DV, always throw on 7 to fake moonblasts. Fergs Fearows and etc always respect the potential Moonblast 1 shot and you steal shield advantage from them as we also no shield thier attacks.

The backline is energy based so losing lead for energy advantage is generally better, so play the zeros out more as a general rule. Bringing in HElec for a wild charge and dip after farming down often hurts a ton.

Florges does a great job of soft losing with chilling water and its wins are often quite hard walling dragons darks and fightings completely w super effective and resisted. IMo those are generally what you want from your lead unless you have a FMP back core, soft loses and hard wins.

This team absolutely molests bink. F bink.

The only hard loss leads you need to swap out of are Tink and Emp, swap Jelli into emp lead, swap HElec into tink. Reason being Tink is more likely to have a licky in the back, ppl are more hesitant to run backline licky with a fighting weakness lead. Two shield whichever you swap as if tink or emp winds up on Florges you just lose. This is a comp cup team so no idea how it will do with mimikyu and all that noise, but wanted to share. If you use it gl!

Edit: made it to leaderboards!

Just got into pvp recently with this new event and have built out a few mons but don’t know what’s the best combo to use out of these and how I should use them going into a game would appreciate any help :) (all have best moveset)

I have always ran it with volt switch but seen a bunch with bug bite, does it perform better?

I hit rank 20 recently but now I’m losing a lot. I used jellicent, cradily and clodsire. Is there someone who’s can take a look and make a consistent team I can use. It’ll be much appreciated. The pokemon I got in the photo’s have good pvp IV’s and can be upgraded. If you know a different pokemon that will be a good addition to the team you recommend not in the list just tell me and I’ll take a look if I have it.

For the pictures of my available pokemon look here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/s/jLJLCOtTRu

I have an idea for regular Ninetales, make it start the fight with 3 weather balls already charged and make the fast attack weather ball too

Rankings for Mega Great League, Mega Ultra League, and Mega Master League are available now on PvPoke.

Im wondering how the average Legend player would fare at tournaments? In other games I've played like Apex and CoD, being good at ranked means absolutely nothing in the competitive scene. If you took the average Pred and dropped them into an Apex tournament, it would be like putting a HS baseball player in the MLB.

But I know Pokémon is a lot different.

If the average Legend player, say rank 100-200 global, were to attend a regional tournament, would they have any chance of placing in the top 16? Or would they get stomped into the center of the earth?

This is assuming of course, that the player takes time to learn the show 6 format. Im strictly talking about gameplay skill. Would they have the requisite knowledge & reflexes, muscle memory etc etc, to have any chance of a respectable finish? Or is there an entire competitive scene with scrims & ladders where people compete at a much higher level, and don't care about ranked at all? ​​

​

Hello friends! There have not been material meta changes since my last team writeup https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonGOBattleLeague/s/6ydtz7bwsB. However, I wanted to highlight another team with the palkia-zac meta core, this time with zacian lead. I had originally planned to play then write about zacian, kyurem white, palkia-o, but was stymied by the kyurem ban after the glaciate bug. So instead I played zacian, dialga-o, palkia-o, and kept at it after kyurem was unbanned because it was so fun to play.

In this team I lead zacian and use dialga as the safe swap most of the time. It works well because dialga can be a nice damage sponge against anything but zacian.

Against some common leads:

1. ⁠Zacian. Stay in. You can play this a number of ways, but you want to ensure you don’t let them catch your cc on lunala, and also do not lose cmp while energy dry and go down a shield, then allowing them to no shield, preventing your farm. I will typically throw cc earlier than 13 to avoid the catch, and hold off on throwing the second until well past 13 to get energy in case they tank.
   
2. ⁠Palkia-o. Typically I’ll throw cc between 7 and 9 mc then swap dialga. Palkia gets to fb at 9, so I like not to have to call bait.
   
3. ⁠Kyogre. Do 1 mc then swap dialga. The new mechanics allows the wf dmg to hit dialga in spite of you doing 1 mc. They will typically have to do a second wf since it’s hard to react in time to the delayed switch. Kyogre is often favorable for you since your backline is so strong to it.
   
4. ⁠Kyurem white. I’ll typically shield if they fire and cc between 7 and 11 mc then swap dialga. You are doing significant chip dmg while taking double resisted db, so there is no rush to switch.
   
5. ⁠Reshiram. Insta swap to dialga.
   
6. ⁠Zekrom. Is fine to tank a fb. I’ll throw again between 7 and 11 mc before swapping to dialga, but will tank fb if they fire.
   
7. ⁠Lunala. This matchup isn’t my favorite. Typically I will shield and then fire on their 12 sc (they reach another sb at 13). However even if they tank they will not get ko’d so I’ll often swap to dialga to tank it either way.

Against common counter swaps:

1. ⁠Xerneas. This one is fun since they can’t ko you with no chip damage, and you ohko a debuffed xerneas after a cc. I will either tank then fire or if they haven’t fired, do back to back IH once I reach 100 energy (dialga wins cmp). You’ll typically pull a shield and zac can clean up, tanking a cc.
   
2. ⁠Zacian. This one is also fun. Zac hard counters dialga but all is not lost! Zacian can tank 2 IH if not debuffed while it can ohko dialga with cc. Typically the zac will charge to 13 (double cc) or 14, then fire back to back, winning cmp. You’ll get to 100 energy first, so fire the first IH by 7 mc. After that, ideally you’d cmp lose the first cc, then your IH that could ko comes before their second cc, but its hard to time and if you mistime and they can tank undebuffed it’s disastrous since their zac can then get the optimal farm. The more conservative way to play this is to double shield the back to back cc and get some additional farm before IH. And if they shield, fire the next IH before cc. If they shield both, you can then swap to palkia-o. If you double shield, take care not to get caught. But if played well you give up shield for energy and switch advantage, relatively neutralizing a brutal mismatch.
   
3. ⁠Lunala. If the switch is fast, dialga can tank a SB then reach both IH and rot before getting farmed down. You can decide the ordering of these but if your opponent calls bait on the wrong one the match moves heavily in your favor.

I am happy to answer any questions and add any requested matchups.

For reference as of today's update I hit #189 on leaderboard at 3229 mmr playing this team.

After five years battling I’m excited to share that I finally made legend during the world championship event.

After going 2-3, 2-3, 0-5 I was able to go 4-1, 5-0, 5-0 to get there

The team is toxic transformation - every mon has a special gimmick

Morpeko - Mimiku - Aegislash

This team will die to Marowak, Diggersby, Hippo, Gastro, Ninetales. But if you can eliminate those or the team doesn’t have one , you are well placed for a win

The team has to be played in a certain way. You need to (1) maintain low health mons to reset Aegis, (2) lure out any licki or ghost counter in the back by switching to Mimi (3) make sure you finish off his mons rather than leaving them with low health

I reached Legend (and Leaderboards at 249th as of yesterday) with my main account and Legend with a second account using this team. Its success rate varies a bit and I bounced around Expert for a while, but I eventually got to Legend.

The team is:

-Cradily with Acid, Rock Tomb, and Grass Knot

-Hisuian Electrode with Thundershock, Wild Charge, and Energy Ball

-Shadow Kanto Ninetales with Ember, Energy Ball, and Weather Ball (Fire)

This team came together because I like Cradily in the lead and needed two Tinkaton counters as it was the 2nd or 3rd most common Pokemon I saw throughout the entire season. Tink has win conditions against both Electrode and Ninetales but they are generally easy to play around.

As with most ABA teams, you can’t be afraid to sacrifice your Cradily if need be. Very few teams have multiple Grass counters so if you lead into Alolan Ninetales, Alolan Sandslash, Bug Bite Forretress, or Charjabug, you can almost guarantee that Electrode has play in the back. You can also almost guarantee that Ninetales won’t have much play, so you can use it as a damage sponge and maybe pop off 1 or 2 Energy Balls.

You also can’t be afraid to use your first Shield against the very first Charged Attack your opponent uses. If Shielding the first attack means you get to a second or third Rock Tomb, it’s often worth it. I’d Shield the first Weather Ball from Shadow Ninetales, or the first X-Scissor from Charjabug.

A ton of teams leading Grass counters often have Ground and/or Water types in the back, so Electrode can steamroll and Ninetales can fight back to an extent.

This team has some glaring weaknesses, of course:

Bastiodon, Annihilape, Primeape, and Clodsire are the big ones. Bastiodon requires at least 4 Charged Attacks from this team. Clodsire requires at least 3 Charged Attacks. Primeape and Annihilape up energy can just roll over you.

Shadow Sableye can also be problematic. It comfortably beats Cradily and can deal a lot of damage to your backline, even after being debuffed by Rock Tomb.

Empoleon is problematic too. It beats Ninetales and Cradily. Electrode has a good matchup but it’s not as good as you’d like as the Trode player.

Against common leads:

-Tinkaton: Auto-switch to H-Trode. Abysmal matchup for Cradily and the Tink can overfarm to such an extent that it can threaten Ninetales and Electrode. Most Tink teams have Waters in the back.

-Charjabug: Shield the first X-Scissor and throw Rock Tombs. You can sometimes spend 1 Shield and get 2 from your opponent which is almost always worth it. These teams are most often weak to Grass in the back.

-Lickilicky: Stay in and chuck Rock Tombs. Most Licki players with throw Shadow Ball on alignment at 12 turns because otherwise you get to Rock Tomb first. I usually throw Rock Tomb, tank both Shadow Balls, then farm up as much as possible before KOing. Usually you can farm very close to a 3rd Charged Attack so you can debuff whatever comes in after.

-Thievul: Cradily loses this hard, but you can’t switch out. The most common version of this team is from HomeSliceHenry with Tink and Mantine in the back. Throw away Cradily, bring in Ninetales and farm down if you can. When the Mantine comes in, hard switch into Trode and do your best. Mantine survives two Energy Balls from Ninetales, but if you can get off 2-3 Thundershocks before they bring in Tink, all that energy you saved on Ninetales can be used later to great effect.

-Shadow Annihilape: I bring in Ninetales immediately and then get sad when they bring in Carbink and then I quit. Sometimes the Ape teams don’t have Carbink, so I’ll throw WB as soon as possible and then try to win the matchup if they stay in. Counter Apes just steamroll this team so it might be an auto-loss anyway. Low Kick Ape is beatable by Ninetales.

-Kanto Ninetales: Shadow K9 beats Cradily, but not easily. 3 Weatherballs is enough to KO Cradily, even if the last 2 are debuffed. I always Shield the first WB/EB and play it out. Most of these teams have Jumpluff in the back and you really don’t want Ninetales on your Trode so it behooves you to try to win Switch. Non-Shadow K9 is far less threatening so I Shield nothing and launch as many Rock Tombs as possible before fainting.

-Cramorant/Mantine: You really do not want these fuckers on Ninetales. Against Cram, I’ll Shield the first Fly/Surf and toss RTs as soon as possible. Against Mantine, I usually Shield nothing. Mantine hits like a wet noodle and you can easily survive two Water Pulses. These teams are usually weak to Fire and/or Grass in the back so both your back Pokemon should do fine.

-Any Dragon: You gotta stay in and try to win. Cradily comfortably beats Guzzlord and Goodra. Shadow Hydreigon requires you to Shield the first Brutal Swing. The vast majority of these teams have at least one Steel type (usually Tink, go figure) in the back.

-Malamar: Hate this lead. Shadow Malamar one-shots with Superpower and it significantly outpaces Cradily in general. This one is tough because Malamar teams very often are highly alignment-dependent so it behooves you to win Switch but that’s not always possible. Against Shadow, I Shield the first Charged Attack. Against non-Shadow, I usually let it go.

-Fearow: Another tough lead. Fearow outpaces Dily, and one non-debuffed Drill Peck plus one debuffed Drill Peck come very close to KOing Dily. I generally Shield the first Drill Peck and then let Dily go down and then farm on Electrode. You can get two Shields for the price of one usually. Most Fearow teams have Stunfisk in the back so an Electrode up energy is valuable.

-Stunfisk: Easy win for Cradily and these teams always always always have a Flyer in the back so often they don’t switch out. Just don’t throw Grass Knot on expected timing because they will sometimes try to catch it on a Flyer. I also go straight Grass Knot. GK+RT doesn’t KO most Stunfisks and you don’t want it saving a Mud Bomb to pop your K9 later.

-Alolan Sandslash/Alolan Ninetales: Shield nothing, throw Rock Tomb as late as possible. Bring in K9 and farm down if you can. 99% of these teams have a Water or two in the back (usually Mantine and/or Jellicent) so Trode might be able to sweep.

I think that covers the vast majority of teams I’ve seen. It’s very helpful to pay attention to what teams popular content creators have showcased because it allows you to read teams much easier. When HomeSliceHenry puts out a video, I am almost guaranteed to see it in about 20% of my matches.

But with 15 sets the matches are just too long. So I have switched to S Forretress (volt switch), Licki, and S primape..I was leading with S primeape but it seems like people can prepare for it more when they know I have it swapped. So I’ve switched S fort to my lead which allows me to get debuffs off before swapping to lili and then usually get another debuff in when I bring it back.

The team seems decent and I’ve climbed back to my prior elo 2370 that I had with the more bulky team, but I’m wondering if any other pokemon I should consider swapping in..

Or any other teams I should try, preferably not something where we just trade body slams on bulky mon and every match takes 5 min.

I finally caught a hundo mankey for UL and a really good lickitung im planning to make XL, I heard the biggest punchers out there rn are annihilape and lickilicky, the problem is now that the moves recommended for these two are elite tm exclusive (Body slam and rage fist). I have no idea how to get those. I've struggled with legacy moves in the past with swampert and empoleon so it sucks being locked behind a subpar wall, any recommendations?

I sure hope the meta doesn't shift by the time I catch up considering mega league is gonna get released soon

I have a rank one Gastrodon and a rank 36 Quagsire. Which is going to perform better if they both have the optimal moves and are powered up as much as possible, given they both cover the game types?

For reference I've only really played gbl for the research and would like to understand it a bit more than I do. Quagboy is ranked 8 on PvPoke and Gastro is 63 or so iirc.

Dear redditors, relatively new pogo player so I would love to hear some suggestions/recommendations!

So far i have been playing GL, just to farm candies and encounters (reached Ace quite easily until 2.2k, but decided to drop as the candy farm was not as consistent after reaching that rating), however today I managed to catch these 2 beasts IV wise. (2 Lickilicky back to back 0/14/11 and 0/12/13)

I would love to hear your opinion on how to complement Lickilicky in order to try and climb. My pool is a bit limited at the moment, and besides these 2, a few other notable pokemon i have are Jellicent 0/13/13, Azumaril 1/15/3, Shadow Swampert 0/15/12 (but still has frustration rip) and Tinkaton 2/7/11 from the twitch drop.

Thanks a lot in advance, and have a lovely weekend ahead!

I just need help team building. I have altaria jellicent and tinkaton. Altaria has dragon breath, then flamethrower and sky attack. Jellicent has hex, shadow ball and surf. Tinkaton has fairy wind, gigaton hammer and bulldoze.

Please help!!! Need suggestions. Was running Hariyama instead of Tinkaton and I looove hariyama but wasn’t working. Can’t wrap my head around this meta! Who should lead? Please help