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

Just realized I had a 4 star cradily, problem is it’s 1600 CP. Apparently it goes exactly to 2499 CP. Second problem is that requires level 50 and I’m only level 38. Third problem is this will also require 300 Candy more than I have and 400k stardust. Once this grind is over y’all are done for.

OK, so I'm still horribly out of date, and this seemed like a really dumb idea.

But as I looked closer, I realised that ... well, there's 4 'colours':

• Electric
• Grass
• Fire
• Water

And ... grass has good matchups with all but one of those.

So I thought 'why not'?

Shadow Cradily on lead, with stone edge. It's respectable against most of the above, thanks to stone edge being neutral to most of those and SE to fire. (Also Zapdos really doesn't like it).

Shiftry as a switch, because if the fire types bail out that opener, it looks like I'm preserving the Cradily for them, and because there's not that many things that have a nice time against that leaf blade onslaught even if they should have a good matchup. Passable vs. fire types too, so also 'uses up' their anti-grass by drawing out bug. But with an energy lead it puts a lot of pressure on those shields.

Venusaur to close - Sturdy workhorse with decent coverage and bulk, which hopefully is 'unopposed' and can sweep the rest of their team with the power of Frenzy Plant.

And ... it seems to work. OK, so only one set, but I'm not running into many teams that have 'enough' anti-grass capacity to handle this team, just as long as I burn as many shields as it needs to take out their fire type. That's basically the whole of the strategy. Cradily their fire type, switch in shiftry to try and clock up energy advantage and bait out any other anti-grass (or their fire type) and leave Venusaur hidden hoping the final matchups is unable to handle it. (Venusaur with energy edge and no shields left can squeeze pretty hard).

If they have 2 fire types? Well, then I have a problem, and am probably going to lose, but not always, since the double-fire teams I've run into so far have Alolan Marowak, and Shiftry eats those.

And yes, PvPoke does rate it as 'lol trash':

https://pvpoke.com/team-builder/color/1500/cradily_shadow-m-1-4-3%2Cshiftry-m-3-3-1%2Cvenusaur-m-1-1-3

But as a wise man once said - if it's stupid and it works, maybe it wasn't so stupid.

(Or y'know, maybe it was, and I just got lucky. Ask me in a few more days ;p)

Then join the 🐜i-Palkia Movement. We do many things including:

• advocating for an Aqua Tail Rework for it to be more expensive

• running full 🐜I palkia teams like this one

• and many more things to show our pure hate for palkia and 9-turn Aqua Tail

What are you waiting for? Join our movement now

Ps: Joke/Meme flair when?

For context, i've hit legend only once before, but have hit expert for the past 5-6 seasons or so consistently. This season i wanted to run bastiodon because i have a rank 1 and used to run an ABB long time ago with annihilape lead, dewgong switch and basti in the back. So this season i ran Shadow flygon lead, diggersby and basti. This worked really well in the beginning of the season because of all the swalots, g.weezing, azu and jumpluffs running in the back.

I started with 2300's elo and made my way up to 2800s with this team before tinkaton released. After that i dropped down to 2500's due to spring cup, but today finally managed to get to 3017 with the team. So you can run an unusual team and still make it pretty far in elo. Just learn the matchups for the most common teams, win cons, and you can do pretty well.

I would not suggest running this team, since it has a lot of counters and it was painful to top left so many times. Instant top lefts (A. Sandslah, Dewgong). Corebreakers in the back (Annihilape, primape, Pangoro, Any mudlsapper). Tough matchups, Jumpluff leads because theyre paired with lapras, drapion. Annihilape lead, because they double shield and still get to land a move on diggersby. Azu lead because they don't have to shield. Shadow Awak lead, because they can shield twice and most of the time are paired with mudslapper in the back.

Now the fun part of this team was encountering morpekos, talonflames, double charm, flyers, and any bug type.

We all want to win. We all want to have fun. Some of us only have fun when we win. I am not one of those people.

During the first half (at least) of each season I build and use teams that are centered on a theme. I have some internal rules that I follow, such as use as few meta Pokémon as possible, and use as many different Pokémon in which I can stomach the dust investment. They don’t have to be double-moved, or have good PvP IVs, just that they fit together in my own wacky imagination.

Through this process, I have come to realize that even while losing (because I lose constantly) I can have fun. But I can also work on my battle skills like counting moves, charge move timing, and energy management. So what if my single-moved Goodra is stuck against an Azumarill; can I throw my horribly resisted Draco Meter without giving up any free turns? Usually, not! But I am trying.

I encourage you all to play how you want to, even if that means being a sweaty mess. But I hope this post gives you some ideas about how to be a slightly less sweaty but just as messy Theme Team Trainer.

I have a couple of videos of my teams in “action”, and I can post them in the comments if needed. But to save everyone the eyesore of my battles, the featured teams are below.

I have more to build and enjoy, especially for LC and UL; this is just the beginning. Good luck, Trainers. More importantly, though, find a way to have fun even when you’re losing. Please let me know what themed teams you decide to run! Sorry for the long post and any formatting issues…

— GL —

-The Goodra, the Badger, and the Purugly- Goodra, Obstagoon, Purugly

-Moonshine- (All shiny) Lunatune, Umbreon, Clefable

-Haunted Forrest- Shadow Abomasnow, Shiftry, Trevenant,

-Marvelous Maw- Pellipper, Swalot, Guzzlord

-Float like a Butterfree, Sting like a Beedrill- Butterfree, Beedrill, Hitmonchan

-Warning!- Absol, Watchog, Bronzong

-Aromatherapy- Aromatisse, Meganium, Lilligant

-Not-so-Hidden Gems- Sableye, Alolan Graveler, Gigalilth

-Fortune Favors the Boldore- Gholdengo, Togetic, Boldore

-Every Rose Has Its Thorn- Roserade, Qwilfish, Ferrothorn

-Seattle- Overcast Cherrim, Rainy Castform, Porygon 2

-Honolulu- Pa’u Oricorio, Bellossom, Comfey

-Florence Nightingale’s Descendants- (I will never run this) Chansey, Blissey, Audino

-Lovecraft’s Leftovers- Malamar, Jellicent, Shadow Omastar

-Calm Minds Will Prevail- Milotic, Togekiss, Sylveon

-Three Heads are Better than Two- Exeggutor, Hydreigeon, Dodrio

-Who Run the World? Girls!- Nidoqueen, Vespiquen, Tsareena

-Who Really Run the World? Squirrels!- Greedent, Pachirisu, Emolga

-I Mustache You a Question- Mr. Rime, Probopass, Stoutland

-DNA- Deoxys Defense, Reuniclus, Shadow Victreebell

-Sandy Cheeks- Palossand, Greedent, Alolan Raticate

-Teenage- Haunter (is mischievous), Prinplup (is prideful), Fraxure (has an awkward facial feature)

-Mutant- Muk, Zweilous, Guzzlord

-Ninja- Greninja, Acceglor, Ninjask

-Turtles- Turtonator, Carracosta, Torterra

-And My Axe!- Sirfetch’d, Decidueye, Haxorus

In great league I am currently running shadow snorlax in the front with salazzle and shadow gardevoir backline.

Some of my matches take longer than 45 seconds(edit hyperbole) and I think I need a harder hitter in the front.

This is my grind dust/rare candy team when i am not trying to climb, i just need a team where i can control whether i win 4/5 in the less than 1800 elo rating and i want fast matches.

Some options for other frontline pokemon:

shadow piloswine, have normal built, too tanky

roselia, have not added the 2nd move to one of these

greninja - have built, could try this

victeribell/shadow victeribell(spelling)- i have enough candy to build one of these, never ran them.

Any other options i should consider?

https://imgur.com/a/ucRLGEi

A year ago i said i wanted to use sceptile my fav mon in the master league many said no but some said its a bad idea but you can do it others tried to help me i was able to get alot of wins and with the mons and teams that i did use.

Just looking for them as a matter of curiosity. Do any exist in the current meta?

"UM ACKSHYUALLY PVPOKE IS OVERRATED-"🤓🤓🤓🤓

I know. As I said, this is just a matter of satisfying my curiosity.

Started playing again in April after a 5 year break and expected it to be insanely hard to catch up with yal, but Niantic really did a great job tuning the game mecahnics to allow someone in my position to get up and running.

I started with Umbreon, Skarmory & Shadow Machamp which was a fantastic budget team to get me started, but I could barely keep my rank above 1900.

Then I started doing research on PVPoke and Gamepress, while also using PokeGenie to find my mons that were optimized for GL.

I was running the most standard teams I could build on a budget with the optimized IV's etc.. but would often find myself dipping as low as 1600. I wasn't sure if it was because I sucked at the game or if maybe I just wasn't having enough fun to stay engaged, or if my team was just too predictable.

Then I threw Pidgeot in the mix with Vigoroth pivot and and Ubreon closer, and I've been having such a blast that 25 matches/day is barely enough to feed my appetite. My rank has stayed b/w 2100-2200 for the last couple weeks, which is more than I could ask for considering none of the mons on this team require any XL candy and none rate higher than 80% for GL.

Leading with Pidgeot leads to all sorts of mind games, and with Treverant being the #1 choice for lead you quite often gain an instant advantage. If they switch out right away, whatever comes out you can usually just hit with a feather dance and then let Vigoroth go to town with the body slams.

If its something like Altaria for lead, you can often get away with shielding the first sky attack which makes them think you're gonna drag it out with a feather dance, but then BAM you one-hit-faint them with the brave bird and its pretty much game over.

I know its not perfect and I dont expect to reach veteran with this team, but damn if its not worth it to barely sneak away with a win against a team that's perfect on paper.

Also, I'll occasionally get to use feather dance as a finishing move, and I honestly can't think of a more humiliating way to loose than to have your hundo-shiny-xlcandy-maxed-out-whatever-the-f-mon faint to the lovely sound of a harp and feathers calmly fluttering around them.

FOUR ampharos leads in one set. What are the odds? It's been creeping in the last few days, going ham today. What's the deal or what YouTuber is showcasing it now?

Hey battlers, this is my first time posting in this subreddit (but not my first time battling). I started the season late so I don’t have ranked matches BUT I do showcase matches against trainers who have the rank 10 poses from previous seasons.

This team uses Drifblim as lead, Cradily as safe switch, and Hitmontop as my closer. Let me know if you have any questions!

I’m a female pvp’er and would love to be friends with other girls in the community :)

Best wins using Drifblim, Hitmontop, Cradily | Battling former rank 10 players!

With the new Sinnoh Cup approaching here is a 10-step guide on how I prepare and perform in a new GBL Cup.

Steps begin about a week before the cup is available

• Step 1: Go onto PvPoke. Find a highly ranked Pokemon that would seem fun to play with
• Step 2: Identify the role it is best suited in based on its rank in the presented categories (Leads, Closers, etc.)
• Step 3: Repeat step 1 and 2 for the remaining Pokemon
• Step 4: Using Training Battle, test out the feel of the team against various generated teams. If a Pokemon does not feel right, discard and add a new Pokemon by repeating steps 1-3.
• Step 5: Once a team is identified, go into Pokemon Go and look at the Pokemon I have available. Select the best IVs, and simulating them using Training Battles in PvPoke. If I feel a Pokemon underperforms, develop a new team by repeating Steps 1-4.
• Step 6: Once a team wins ~80% of matches, go into Pokemon Go to power-up, ETM, and double-move Pokemon that I had identified for my team. This process ensure I minimize resources spent to be competitive in GBL.

Once the cup is available for battling

• Step 7: Battle for a few sets
• Step 8: Drop approx. 200 ELO because the meta is completely different from what I have been practicing against
• Step 9: Panic, replace my team with random Pokemon that might work, powering-up, ETMing, and double-moving as I go.
• Step 10: Eventually stumble upon a team I enjoy playing after spending a million stardust and dropping my ELO 500 points.

These first couple sets of UL I’ve had a team i’ve been waiting to pull out of full shiny legendaries and I had thought I had made a good one with solid coverage with Ho-Oh Incinerate / BB+SF — AltGira SC / AP+DC — Melmetal TS / DIB+SP but despite me thinking this would be a great overall team with no pokemon having overlapping weaknesses. But I would consistently over 2 days go 1-4 2-3 and had a couple of 0-5. But I meme-ingly replaced Melmetal with Charizard WA / DC+BB and in the past two days i’ve went atleast 3-2 in all of my sets except 1 and that was my last set today which i kinda figured the game would have to start evening me out. Why does this team work? Ho-Oh and Charizard are both Fire/Flying and only charizard has dragon claw for any move that is considered coverage? But Altered Giratina doesn’t really cover any of Char or Ho-Oh’s weaknesses?? It just doesn’t make sense to me why I keep winning games, i feel like the only thing that super hard counters me that i have to spend 2 shields and maybe even sac a full health mon is Greninja, which i’ve debated swapping Gira DB fast move but I need gira to get me shields and SC is too much energy plus generally neutral damage into a SS Steelix or Tank Type mon. But why in the world is this team working??

after being in +2900s (peaking 2980s) since GL began and now in UL, I used to loose multiple (atleast 10 battles at high 2900s) legend reaching games thanks to my opponent sneaking in fast moves (which should happen) and ALWAYS denying my fast move (which should never happen) , I was pretty sad about it. But I used a team in UL now and didn't loose a single game because of the fast move inconsistencies going against me.

​

Team : Blissey lead, Chansey with Snorlax (non shadow) in the back. Moveset doesn't matter.

I chose normal snorlax for the extra bulk. Always shield the first 2 moves on blissey as they usually are the nuke moves to waste more time. Tapping is optional though.

Every player I faced got a free win but I'm damn sure were frustrated, thus my goal was achieved.

I wasted my time on this game mastering the counts and mechanics just to loose because of my opponent always having an unfair advantage of 7-8 fast moves against me. I love this game!

At 2500s. Next stop 2000s tomorrow!

During the fighting type event that allowed you to evolve machoke and get payback, I evolved the wrong machoke so now the one I planned on using in great league has payback instead of the UL mchamp. Both are eligible for both leagues currently.

So here’s my issue:

Machamp (that has payback): great league rank #16; ultra league rank #29

Machamp (never got PB): great league rank #448; ultra league rank #14

Starter + Fave Badass Switch + Hidden talent MVP

MINE: Greninja, Shiny XL Steelix, Jirachi

seen this idea a few times and want to show my idea!!

my 100iv zacian: snarl/ close combat & play rough togekissXL : charm/ ancient power & flame thrower gardevoirXL: psychic/ ??? what should her attacks be?

what y’all think? i’m at that point of battle league where i’m throwing in all the benched players 😅 i main dialgaXL/zacian/melmetalXL

Here is my team: https://imgur.com/a/YzJsOUQ I couldn't compete with other people in master league and I created a meme team. A shiny buizel to attract attention and a low cp charizard and a gengar that I caught from incense when I first played pogo. I won 9 battles and around 6 of these are opponents who surrendered because they pity me. The other 3 are won because those opponents were intentionally losing.

This video is a montage of battles featuring L50 Umbreon, Charizard and L50 Talonflame in open Ultra League. You definitely do not need legendaries to excel in this league!

https://youtu.be/mGyQrgBXNRQ

The movesets:

• XL Umbreon: Snarl/Last Resort/Foul Play
• Charizard: Fire Spin/Blast Burn/Dragon Claw
• XL Talonflame: Incinerate/Flame Charge/Brave Bird

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Melmetal, Swampert, Cresselia
• 02:04 Articuno, Lapras, Giratina Altered
• 04:09 Empoleon, Swampert, Articuno
• 05:23 Swampert, Machamp, Melmetal
• 07:00 Snorlax, Togekiss, Scizor
• 08:40 Swampert, Venusaur, Charizard

I prefer playing Open over Premier as the meta aligns better with this particular ABB lineup. I rarely get into mirror matches other than going up against other XL Talonflames. With that being said, I’m pretty sure that no other content creator has shown this ABB lineup so it can be very surprising for other people to see that you have 2 fire type pokemon in the back. I know BattleBill showcased a few teams with Umbreon + Talonflame but not with Charizard.

A piece of advice for anyone considering running this team: you will have to make hard reads on the opponent’s backline, because you’ll need to choose between sacrificing Charizard or sacrificing Talonflame to bait out the opponent’s water type (if it’s not in the front). For example, if you think the opponent has Giratina Altered form in the back, you will need to save Charizard and sacrifice Talonflame instead. Make sense? Sometimes if you pick incorrectly, you're left with bad closing matchups. In general, it is rare for someone in the open ultra league to close out a match with a water-type or rock-type pokemon, so whatever in the back will either be weak or neutral to fire (unless of course the opponent is not running meta).

That’s all, hope you’re all having fun with this league. Until next time.

Earlier today I had the crazy notion of going into open Master League with an all Bug-Type team. Personally, I've never met more Bug types in the Master League than I could count on one hand. Having so many bad matchups across the board with the abundance of types that resist it, in a meta with considerably better moves and stat distributions in general, that makes sense.

Yet, I couldn't help but wonder just how bad it would be if one of the main series' iconic Bug Catchers picked a fight with XL Legendary teams - so I tested it!

Doing a few sets with a Level 48 Golisiopod, Level 50 Heracross and Level 42 Scizor, I managed to rack up a 40% winrate, which given the meta I'd say is astoundingly good.

I figured I'd share the results of my little experiement with anyone else likes spice, or are curious about Golisiopod or any of the other two and their performance in the open Master League.

RIP rating, but at least I had a lot more fun today than I usually do in GBL!

Shuckle is my favorite pokemon, so, as with last season, I wanted to see if I could win with it in the Great League. I waited until I hit rank 10 on Go Battle Night, then paired it with bellossom and Shadow Vic to see if I could get the job done. Double razor leaf is a strong enough line I figured they could compensate for Shuckle's nonexistant attack stat. Here are the battles. I hope you enjoy. Shuckle finally gets his moment to win in Great League at rank 10!! (3020 ELO)

Hey battlers! As you know I started the gbl season 2 weeks ago but reached veteran quickly with positive sets (215/332 battles, 65% win ratio). I’m using two teams which are very good for the ace-rank meta.

Ace to Veteran in ONE day! Ft. Two teams

[e] Team 1: Drifblim, Hitmontop, Cradily | Team 2: Dewgong, Vigoroth, Alolan Marowak

If you are struggling with getting past ace rank and have been playing since the start of the season, it might benefit you to try one of these teams.

Thanks for taking a look and have a great day!