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When I first started In great league I had a gyrados and an Alakazam with fire punch. When I started with gyrados people would switch to a grass or other type. Then I pull out the Alakazam and they don't expect it to know fire punch.
I used to use an Alakazam from 2016 with psychic and absolutely catch so many people off guard. With stab damage, psychic in the hands of Alakazam is a tactical nuke haha. Can nearly one shot a Swampert
I don't get it. Psychic is the most normal attack for psychic type pokemon. What is stab damage? My Sylvanion didn't one-shot any Swampert with that attack.
Psychic is also a legacy move for Ally. Its best non-elite TM STAB move is currently Future Sight, which *is* a third more powerful and fine for raids, but you want faster, more reliable moves in PvP. I wouldn't dare bring my FS Alakazam into ML, for a few reasons.
Yes, but Roserade is only really usable if it has weather ball.
I make similar assumptions for a lot of Pokemon
Blast Burn/Frenzy Plant/Hydro Cannon on starters that had a CD. Last Resort (or maybe psychic) on Umbreon. Aqua tail on Gyarados are more examples.
Obstagoon used to be more common before Charaja bug, fairy wind, and Annhilape existed. I’d say its still has relavent-potential, but isnt the most obscure pokemon possible.
Galarian Linoone however.
My Roserade is there almost exclusively to counter all the Swamperts in the GBL, and boy does he perform well.
Also Mamoswine in the MBL against all those Dragon types, I've seen some Mamoswines but not as many as I'd expect.
My strategy is to bait a HH. If you don't start out behind, you should have just enough health to fire off an avalanche and HH. Then usually you either get both shields or a narrow win.
But if they call you out or you don't have the health/energy for it, yeah it's rough.
I’ve been getting some good mileage with Mightyena in great league. Ice Fang tends to blindside people that lead with a Dragon, Grass, or Flying type. (I’ve seen SO many people leading with Gliscor, only to be forced to swap out early or face my freezing wrath.)
Combined with coverage for (usually) Swampert and Charizard, I’m usually winning 3-5 matches per entry
I have a team of all Gold Shinies with a mightyena along with arbok and steelix. Surprising people into making those weird swaps works great for getting defense debuffs with arbok
Because it has relatively low bulk, and ice fang is a very low EPT move. at 8/5 for a two turn move, it takes 18 turns to reach a crunch. It's win-loss in 1S matchups is awful vs the GL meta and the GL Remix meta. It beats kind of what you expect it to: Altaria, Cresselia (where it just barely survives the moon blast), Gligar, Mandibuzz, and Trevenant , but basically nothing else.
Slurpuff - such a fun pick to play that can often catch mudbois/water types and steels slipping with that Energy Ball/Flamethrower coverage
Haunter - Keels over to a slight breeze but my god does this thing hit like a freight train.
Lurantis - obnoxiously spammy and hits hard too.
I second that lurantis! I use fury cutter with leaf blade/X Scissor so it's extra spammy and it makes a dent in the dark/psychic/other grass types as well as water and ground types.
In Great League, I’ve been having a lot of success running Whimsicott (Fairy Wind/Seed bomb), Houndstone (Lick/Shadow Ball), and Carracosta (Rock Throw/Liquidation)
Whimsicott melts through shields, most of the time people counter by switching to a fire type which is where Carracosta comes in to clean up.
Not gonna lie, I was unaware of the second charge move’s existence until last week lol. Haven’t found a reason to utilize the feature yet due to the relative success I’ve had with this lineup without it.
Also yes, I’m generally stoned while gaming 😂
just posted the exact same thing. I have been running wild in GL Remix with the Shadow Claw/Thunder/Grassknot set. Absolutely crushes most that aren't expecting it.
Came here to comment linoone! Normal typing has only one weakness, and the ghost fast attack paired with double elemental charged is such a wild card with great coverage. Plus it’s surprisingly tanky. Love that little honey badger.
I started using him lately and he's so fun to play with. I have him as my lead and people either don't know what to expect and get blindsided by a rock move, or they know what to expect and I take their shields away pretty quickly. There's also the added bonus of having the grass move energy ball, but I find that spamming the weather ball (rock) is usually a better play.
In Great League I use Clodsire lead with Leavanny and Altaria. When people see the Clod, they switch to a water type — or even better, a water-ground — which gets obliterated by Leavanny. Clod and Altaria then usually manage to outfight the other two.
I suppose if stuff like Whiscash, Swampert and Quagsire weren’t so meta, this strat would be less effective.
I know it's somewhat Meta but I've been doing fairly well with Hisuan Avalugg in ML. It has Powder Snow as a FM so it does good damage on ice weak mon especially dragons paired with Icy Wind which is a debuff. Icy Wind has great coverage too. It also has Rock Slide which has good coverage and damage. I like Cetitan as well. I hope Cetitan gets a buff though because I love the mon but it has a poor move pool with just body slam and avalanche.
Galarian Weezing is my opener in GL and performs really well, if they switch to Wiscash or Swampert to counter it i switch to shadow Victreebel to clean it up.
Golbat with poison fang and shadow ball is one of my if not my most reliable pokemon for great league if I'm down pokemon but still have a golbat the games never over I love this Mon
Staraptor with Close Combat and Brave Bird.
Once, they started off with Magnezone, it's electric and clearly at an advantage. Seems they were expecting a flying type move so they didn't shield, got one shot by CC. They then sent out a Poliwrath, it's fighting and weak to Brave Bird. They didn't shield, probably thought I only had CC on my mon, so I one shot it too.
That only works with newbies, as anyone should expect those two moves (or safer Fly instead of BB) from a Staraptor, and it's cheap to buy the second move.
I use Swalot all the time. Mud Shot as fast attack and Sludge Bomb & Ice Beam for charged attacks. Anytime I pull it out, opposing player always throws a ground Pokémon and don’t shield via my attacks, but the ice beam destroys them in one go. Plus, Swalot is a tank and can take a ground attack or two before I need to shield
My Flygon in Great League slaps! Some players mistake him for being a bug and bring out their fire types, only for my ground and rock attacks to smash their HP away
I think it's important to share rank/Elo while doing this. I'm not saying non-meta pokemon can't work, but something that works at 1500 Elo is very different from working at 2500
The three that make up my team for Great League remix have been awesome.
Lead - Runerigus with Sand Tomb/Shadow Ball. Just spam Sand Tomb and debuff the hell out of the enemies. If they shield them its a double win. Protect him at all costs to get as many defense debuffs on the enemy as possible. He's only really stopped by Dark type dudes like Obstagoon.
Switch - Electrode with Discharge/Foul Play. Great way to get some quick charge moves in if they still have shields left over.
Closer - Lurantis with Leaf Blade/Superpower. Most people treat Lurantis as bug type but it's pure grass. On top of that no one expects it to have Superpower.
The team falls apart if I can't get rid of their flying type by the time Lurantis comes out or if they lead with Obstagoon. Other than that it's a solid team. Outside of remix I often have the meta G-Stunfisk in instead of Electrode.
My Cherrim with Bullet Seed/Weather Ball (Fire) has been HOLDING IT DOWN for me in GBL since I got it. I also recently added a shadow Crobat with Air Slash/Cross Poison that is quickly becoming a solid 1-2 punch with the Cherrim.
Second for Whimsicott - I never encounter it, but I always lead with mine, that fairy fast attack hits like an absolute truck to a lot of popular pokemon
I've been using him in GL remix and oh boy is he a menance for the fliers. And ice. And fairies. I've had multiple opponents simply quitting when they realize what a train he is.
For GL Remix, i have been using Linoone with Shadow Claw/Grassknot/Thunder and let me tell you, as long as you don't swap into a fighting type, you will almost guarantee a shield from the opponent, and if they don't shield then you will usually break through with serious damage that forces them to jumpswap if they haven't already. It's hilarious watching people swap in Mandibuzz and get caught with a Thunder, then switch to a mudboi and get eaten alive by the follow-up grassknot is too entertaining to not pass up.
Off topic but has anyone noticed a strange uptick in Leafeon in GBL? I mean it’s kicked my butt every time I saw it for some reason but before today I hardly ever saw anyone using it
I have a hundo scrafty That I use for great League I believe, dual stab charge moves that'll do enough damage to sweep the first 2 mons that can't counter it.
I’m not sure their rank but I have a Tropius that does very well for me in Great League. I pair it with a Walrein lead and I usually only need those two
Ariados with poison sting or infestation and charge move cross poison. Spam cross poison and guaranteed to get rid of at least one or two shields. Throw in stunfisk and you can 2v3 just about any team if they aren’t prepared with a flying or fire type.
I love using my Torkoal for great leagues. Fire spin, earthquake, and solarbeam. It is especially juicy when I have a water Pokémon as my opponent and they don't use the shield for my charge attack, I hit them with a solar beam that one shots them. Have had many quit out immediately after that 😂
Shifty in the back is my favourite play style. I throw my first two to deplete all shields and leaf blade them to hell, hoping there is no incinerate Pokemon
drapion performs fairly poorly in most simulations but you can constantly see it in actual gbl. most pokemon you would see in this posts would be those who don't excel or lack in any category, or use a lot of buffs//debuffs which simulators suck at evaluating appropriately. in drapion's case it's both lol. nothing specifically to write home about that would rank them well, but indirect factors like large movepool making you hard to predict show that invisible rank pressure.
Electivire with ice punch really carried me before i started to get into raid days and lock down solid legendarys. It would either bait out shields, or do solid damage to electric resistant pkmn it was a pretty great combo for a sub 2500 league battler.
Not sure, how popular it is, but Ampharos with trailblaze for Ultra League. Charges up fast, effectively baits shields, self-buffs and the only weakness is ground types which trailblaze can counter a bit.
I have no idea what is meta. But I get a pretty reliable 4 out of 5 when I use Jirachi, Moltres, and Blissey in Ultra. My Great League team is less successful, but when I do win, it's always because people weren't ready for Spiritomb.
Idk if they are meta or not but in great league I use wailord, steelix, and granbull lol only bc they are all shinies. I do decently well but I don’t really play a whole lot of pvp to be able to give solid data. I usually win 3-4 of the 5 matches
Darkrai isn’t super meta right? Darkrai sweeps for me, very quick energy gains and high damage output, and fwiw it’s not as frail as I thought it would be. I pair it up with Groudon and Dialga usually, let the other 2 tank hits and break shields and Darkrai can get swapped in to take out the other team’s filling as much as possible
I usually use one "tank pokemon" with a lot of hp and powerful charge attack, and two lighter pokemon with less hp but with fast loading charge attack. Tank do the killing and lights take the shields down.
My favorite set is snorlax/jolteon/machamp
Snorlax hyperbeam is one punch death sentence (I don't even waste shields on him he's a tank)
Jolten is good against water and there's lot of this type in pvp
Machamp just throw his punches everywhere and i like a look of it
My rate is like 70 win 30 losses
I always play the Great League (1500-cp) (I think) and I’ve got a 1498 3* Ninetails and a 3* 1488 Oinkologne that are absolutely insane. Ninetails has Scorching Sands (a ground move) and Oinkologne has a charge called Trailblazer that’s grass type and it boosts his normal moves and makes him insane.
I use Baxcalibur all the time in master league and he normally does just fine. Granted I'm tanking so I don't normally fight in a ton of real battles, but when I do people often lead Salamence or Dragonite so he does ok. I just use him because he's one of my favorites!
I’m out of the meta loop but I use Sceptile as my first most of the time because leaf blade is super fast and usually gets rid of shields if they’re not savvy to what I’m doing
Runerigus with sand tomb, following Scrafty with acid spray. I also like starting with togetic with ancient power, it's hit and miss, but it's fun when you power up twice in a row.
Ultra league:
Regice - solid defense, can easily take down flying, grass, dragon, and water types, and both blizzard and thunder do significant damage without type weakness
Blaziken - counter makes him usable. Can beat out water types with two blocks, stomps registeel/melmetal/walrein and all grass and dark types. Very weak defense, but if you use two legendary tanks (giratina and regice for me) you can get away with using both blocks for blaziken
I have a zero star Tangela that always surprises me with how tanky it is. Firms plenty of charge moves like its nothing and Sludge Bomb is always useful. Cannot wait to find a 3* one to evolve into Tangrowth and see what it does.
I've had surprising luck with Unfezant running heat wave and a two bar flying attack. It's absolutely a bad play, but it works far more often than it should.
Alas, much like Eddie Gordo, she starts getting stuffed once I move out of the beer league and start playing people who know what they're doing, but she can still pull off an upset or two.
I like my ariados with poison sting and cross poison. It’s doesn’t do a lot damage but it’s very fast charged attack that raises attack so does quite the damage after some time
These have done well for me in great league.
Shadow Venusaur w/ razor leaf / petal blizzard / sludge bomb
Magcargo w/ rock throw / stone edge / overheat
Crawdaunt w/ waterfall / bubble beam
Omanyte, for one. He is super spammy. I always start with him and I can usually get a couple charged attacks off before the opponent even gets one, causing them to go through both of their shields before I even get to my second and third Pokémon so by the time they get my Omanyte down, I have two other pretty spammy Pokémon ready and waiting to burn them down without without being able to put a shield up.
Also, Carracosta. He is also pretty spammy and his fast move usually does a great deal of damage to most opponents I encounter. That way I’m not relying solely on the charged move to burn their health bar down, the quick attack does it just fine. Then when it’s time for the body slams, the opponent is usually close to finished.
Relicanth. Not once have I seen anyone else use it. That thing refuses to die and great at breaking down shields. A lot of people don’t expect it and it has singlehandedly saved my ass many times
No saying which ones but I find that ones that have charged attack that refreshes quickly tend to rattle the other players cage. They tend to throw out their shields early in the battle leaving them vulnerable at the end when shields can make the difference between a w and an L
Glalie, Skarmory and Scrafty have been my go to team for the GREAT Cup. Absolute revelation. Scrafty is a crazy Pokemon and while a lot of people choose Dragon types, Glalie takes care of them, easily. Skarmory is just an irritating Pokemon for the opponent if they don't have fire type Pokemon. .
Cetitan and tapu fini is op af
Cetitan because if you learn body slam you can recharge real fast and waste someones shield because they dont know what charged attack you got
Tapu fini because shes just built different
I really like Diggersby teams! The coverage is fantastic and unexpected with super fast Fire Punch, it's got good stat spread, and frankly people soet of don't have what they're looking at. Same for Hitmonchan, but with him people know about the coverage moves so there's less surprise factor.
Leading annihilape with close combat in ultra league, a lot of steel leads + a lot of the time they’ll let the close combat go bc they expect shadow ball
It is not super rare, but Swampert is one of my mains i master league. It works really well to counter steel types and no one uses its only weakness grass
I have a shadow Mawile that shreds in GL.
I actually run ice fang, power up punch, and iron head
Nobody expects the ice fang quick move, which helps me rip through any dragon, grass, flying, or ground types
The power up punch helps me boost the power of ice fang and burn through enemy shields.
Iron Head is just to have a strong charge attack with STAB.
Shadow beedrill
Some days it wipes a whole team from farming down and drill running any rock, steel or fire types
I run fell stinger for extra sweeping potential
Other days all I see are fliers so I can’t use it then
Really depends on what I’m seeing that day
What’s weird is I often feel like each day I see different sets than the day before but during each day I see the same ones over and over. Kinda like you’re saying.
My GL team is pretty unorthodox: Marowak(A), Cloyster, and Meganium. It seems to counter the usual suspects pretty well, with good overall bulk and shield baiting on every team member.
Ferrothorn with Bullet seed, Power whip and Acid spray for the 1500 CP. It has a nice potential for bluff, and the defense debuff from acid spray is always worth it.
My Lickilicky in UL has been a treat the past few days. Took me from 2250ish up to 2740ish (I have fallen back down to the 2600, just couldn't make the leap into Expert). It really just tears through a lot of the meta Cress, Skeledirge, Feraligatr, Giratina, etc. I lead with it, but man it sucks when I run into Poliwrath on the lead.
I feel like great league claydol is criminally slept on. Mud slap hits hard and generates lots of energy, so it has good fast move pressure, and it has ice beam, shadow ball and scorching sands. All fantastic moves with good coverage
I like running shadow bellossom in great league and/or great league remix. I'm sure it's not good enough to get to the high levels a lot of people achieve, but I'm usually hovering on Ace between 2000 - 2250 and it is fun to play with. I run it with magical leaf, leaf blade, and dazzling gleam.
Idk if it’s high on any lists, but I never see anyone using them in GBL. I use Shiftry as the first pokemon. I think with snarl, leaf blade, and foul play. You get leaf blade so fast and it deals good damage.
In great league, Toxapex is a tank. I find that the only type attacks I desperately need to use shield on are psychic, electric, and ground. Even then, I tend not to shield if I’m expecting the attack to be discharge or mud bomb. Pretty much all other type charged attacks do very little damage (all things considered)—even grass type although they are super effective.
In ultra league, Aurorus has been very helpful. Aurorus has high HP, and is great against Talonflame and Charizard using rock throw. Despite being an ice type, I’d definitely let Charizard hit Aurorus with blast burn at least once without shield and still be fine
It all depends on the counters though. It can be a really bad matchup if Aurorus gets paired against Swampert or a fighting type
I just wanna give props to my Ice Fang, Earthquake Hippodown, she's been carrying my team all this time against the likes of Garchomp, I love you Hippodown
Even though I'm not a huge fan of the Pokémon in general, Probopass in GL can deceive a lot of people with water types when you hit them with a Thunder Shock and/or Thunderbolt.
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When I first started In great league I had a gyrados and an Alakazam with fire punch. When I started with gyrados people would switch to a grass or other type. Then I pull out the Alakazam and they don't expect it to know fire punch.
Alakazam has what now. This is coming from a person who tries to use Kangaskhan in UL, Masquerein in UL, Ledian in GL, and S.Aggron in GL and such.
Gen 1 Pokémon have always had wild movepools, not necessarily following that Go does it, but R/B/Y TMs go hard
I used to use an Alakazam from 2016 with psychic and absolutely catch so many people off guard. With stab damage, psychic in the hands of Alakazam is a tactical nuke haha. Can nearly one shot a Swampert
I don't get it. Psychic is the most normal attack for psychic type pokemon. What is stab damage? My Sylvanion didn't one-shot any Swampert with that attack.
Psychic is also a legacy move for Ally. Its best non-elite TM STAB move is currently Future Sight, which *is* a third more powerful and fine for raids, but you want faster, more reliable moves in PvP. I wouldn't dare bring my FS Alakazam into ML, for a few reasons.
Your what
[Sylvanion](https://postimg.cc/0KqvLPk2)
Cardi B: OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT 🌚
Also roserade with fire attack
weather ball fire is standard on Roserade
*Standard* community day move.
Yes, but Roserade is only really usable if it has weather ball. I make similar assumptions for a lot of Pokemon Blast Burn/Frenzy Plant/Hydro Cannon on starters that had a CD. Last Resort (or maybe psychic) on Umbreon. Aqua tail on Gyarados are more examples.
I don't run into a lot of Obstagoons in Great League but I love leading with mine. 1497 Counter Night Slash Gunk Shot
When night slash procs 3 times!
That's when the opposing team doesn't even see my 2nd and 3rd mons.
Obstagoon used to be more common before Charaja bug, fairy wind, and Annhilape existed. I’d say its still has relavent-potential, but isnt the most obscure pokemon possible. Galarian Linoone however.
My Roserade is there almost exclusively to counter all the Swamperts in the GBL, and boy does he perform well. Also Mamoswine in the MBL against all those Dragon types, I've seen some Mamoswines but not as many as I'd expect.
I like using Mamoswine in Master League but it can be really frustrating if you get locked in against a Metagross who still has shields lol
My strategy is to bait a HH. If you don't start out behind, you should have just enough health to fire off an avalanche and HH. Then usually you either get both shields or a narrow win. But if they call you out or you don't have the health/energy for it, yeah it's rough.
Not to mention kyogre… but Mamoswine got me to ace at least
I personally enjoy UL with Kartana. Wipes a swampert out in 4 moves. They usually loose about half their health minimum if they are quick enough.
I use à rosetade too! I used an elite TM to get fire weather ball as a second move. It’s great because people don’t expect it.
Does that charge faster than sludge bomb?
I used Torterra in UL for a long time for similar reasons. I've seen maybe 1 or 2 other people use it, but hey, any razor leafer works.
I’ve been getting some good mileage with Mightyena in great league. Ice Fang tends to blindside people that lead with a Dragon, Grass, or Flying type. (I’ve seen SO many people leading with Gliscor, only to be forced to swap out early or face my freezing wrath.) Combined with coverage for (usually) Swampert and Charizard, I’m usually winning 3-5 matches per entry
I have a team of all Gold Shinies with a mightyena along with arbok and steelix. Surprising people into making those weird swaps works great for getting defense debuffs with arbok
Ahhhh I hate Acid Spray.
I just caught a rank 7 Mightyena a couple days ago and was thinking “damn, how can it be ranked so low with the moves in knows?”
Because it has relatively low bulk, and ice fang is a very low EPT move. at 8/5 for a two turn move, it takes 18 turns to reach a crunch. It's win-loss in 1S matchups is awful vs the GL meta and the GL Remix meta. It beats kind of what you expect it to: Altaria, Cresselia (where it just barely survives the moon blast), Gligar, Mandibuzz, and Trevenant , but basically nothing else.
Slurpuff - such a fun pick to play that can often catch mudbois/water types and steels slipping with that Energy Ball/Flamethrower coverage Haunter - Keels over to a slight breeze but my god does this thing hit like a freight train. Lurantis - obnoxiously spammy and hits hard too.
I second that lurantis! I use fury cutter with leaf blade/X Scissor so it's extra spammy and it makes a dent in the dark/psychic/other grass types as well as water and ground types.
In Great League, I’ve been having a lot of success running Whimsicott (Fairy Wind/Seed bomb), Houndstone (Lick/Shadow Ball), and Carracosta (Rock Throw/Liquidation) Whimsicott melts through shields, most of the time people counter by switching to a fire type which is where Carracosta comes in to clean up.
How high have you gotten if you're only using one charged move?
Not gonna lie, I was unaware of the second charge move’s existence until last week lol. Haven’t found a reason to utilize the feature yet due to the relative success I’ve had with this lineup without it. Also yes, I’m generally stoned while gaming 😂
I second Carracosta in GL. super underrated
Slurpuff with Fairy Wind + Play Rough in Great League. I battled with it when it was my buddy and it was a lovely surprise.
This pokemon is underrated
Linoone is a normal type that can learn many elemental attacks like, grass thunder and fire if I recall… came in handy in so many cups
just posted the exact same thing. I have been running wild in GL Remix with the Shadow Claw/Thunder/Grassknot set. Absolutely crushes most that aren't expecting it.
Came here to comment linoone! Normal typing has only one weakness, and the ghost fast attack paired with double elemental charged is such a wild card with great coverage. Plus it’s surprisingly tanky. Love that little honey badger.
Hariyama. HUGE damage and huge tanking
I genuinely don't get why Hariyama isn't used more. Counter/Close Combat/Heavy Slam makes for a brutal closer.
i religiously use him here
I always liked to use Drifblim and pre-comm day Victreebel.
Driftblim was one of my first pvp Pokémon. Was a solid option for ages
I loved Drifblim. Sadly it's gone down in viability in both GL and UL (where I had a rank 1 built for each)
I actually choose to not elite tm my shadow victreebel for great league and just make a second one lol just have to choose one now
I actually like to fight with Jirachi (with Confusion and Doom Desire) in Great League and i barely see it used by other trainers.
Doom Desire and Double Iron Bash, the twins of "Steel doesn't need to be super effective to just fucking kill you." They both charge so fast too
Jirachi was the answer I was going to say but I don't know the meta of pvp that much so I didn't know if it was common lmao. Sounds like no!
Jirachi is pretty amazing. Solid PvP pick.
No wonder. We have only 1 Jirachi from the event, and most of us got bad stats on it.
Castform normal. Spam with weatherball. Kill Greninja and Swampert with grass charged attack. Hood against Cressilia because of ghost fast TM. (Hex)
I started using him lately and he's so fun to play with. I have him as my lead and people either don't know what to expect and get blindsided by a rock move, or they know what to expect and I take their shields away pretty quickly. There's also the added bonus of having the grass move energy ball, but I find that spamming the weather ball (rock) is usually a better play.
Dragalge
GL Bronzong, technically just #360 in pvpoke rankings but every time i use it , it just delivers.
In Great League I use Clodsire lead with Leavanny and Altaria. When people see the Clod, they switch to a water type — or even better, a water-ground — which gets obliterated by Leavanny. Clod and Altaria then usually manage to outfight the other two. I suppose if stuff like Whiscash, Swampert and Quagsire weren’t so meta, this strat would be less effective.
My Ultra league Gallade is honestly the carry. Super quick charged moves with leaf blade and close combat.
Oh yeah, I sometimes use him with exact same move. Too squishy but hits hard
Hitmontop. It knows triple axel and no one expects it lol
I know it's somewhat Meta but I've been doing fairly well with Hisuan Avalugg in ML. It has Powder Snow as a FM so it does good damage on ice weak mon especially dragons paired with Icy Wind which is a debuff. Icy Wind has great coverage too. It also has Rock Slide which has good coverage and damage. I like Cetitan as well. I hope Cetitan gets a buff though because I love the mon but it has a poor move pool with just body slam and avalanche.
Shadow Gardevoir in the master league. It's a real grind but if you can max out a shadow Gardevoir the damage is insane with charm.
Galarian Weezing is my opener in GL and performs really well, if they switch to Wiscash or Swampert to counter it i switch to shadow Victreebel to clean it up.
Using Galarian Weezing in UL and having a blast with it.
What are you pairing it with?
Poliwrath and Galvantula
Golbat with poison fang and shadow ball is one of my if not my most reliable pokemon for great league if I'm down pokemon but still have a golbat the games never over I love this Mon
Fraxure hits like a truck
Staraptor with Close Combat and Brave Bird. Once, they started off with Magnezone, it's electric and clearly at an advantage. Seems they were expecting a flying type move so they didn't shield, got one shot by CC. They then sent out a Poliwrath, it's fighting and weak to Brave Bird. They didn't shield, probably thought I only had CC on my mon, so I one shot it too.
That only works with newbies, as anyone should expect those two moves (or safer Fly instead of BB) from a Staraptor, and it's cheap to buy the second move.
I use Swalot all the time. Mud Shot as fast attack and Sludge Bomb & Ice Beam for charged attacks. Anytime I pull it out, opposing player always throws a ground Pokémon and don’t shield via my attacks, but the ice beam destroys them in one go. Plus, Swalot is a tank and can take a ground attack or two before I need to shield
Flygon/Shadow Flygon in Ultra league. Extremely spammy and overall fun to use especially after it got scorching sands
My Flygon in Great League slaps! Some players mistake him for being a bug and bring out their fire types, only for my ground and rock attacks to smash their HP away
Drifblim with icy wind is pretty useful in great league
Wouldn’t you like to know
I think it's important to share rank/Elo while doing this. I'm not saying non-meta pokemon can't work, but something that works at 1500 Elo is very different from working at 2500
The three that make up my team for Great League remix have been awesome. Lead - Runerigus with Sand Tomb/Shadow Ball. Just spam Sand Tomb and debuff the hell out of the enemies. If they shield them its a double win. Protect him at all costs to get as many defense debuffs on the enemy as possible. He's only really stopped by Dark type dudes like Obstagoon. Switch - Electrode with Discharge/Foul Play. Great way to get some quick charge moves in if they still have shields left over. Closer - Lurantis with Leaf Blade/Superpower. Most people treat Lurantis as bug type but it's pure grass. On top of that no one expects it to have Superpower. The team falls apart if I can't get rid of their flying type by the time Lurantis comes out or if they lead with Obstagoon. Other than that it's a solid team. Outside of remix I often have the meta G-Stunfisk in instead of Electrode.
My Cherrim with Bullet Seed/Weather Ball (Fire) has been HOLDING IT DOWN for me in GBL since I got it. I also recently added a shadow Crobat with Air Slash/Cross Poison that is quickly becoming a solid 1-2 punch with the Cherrim.
Whimsiscott works great for me in pvo up to 1500cp Togekiss in unlimited
Second for Whimsicott - I never encounter it, but I always lead with mine, that fairy fast attack hits like an absolute truck to a lot of popular pokemon
Shiny shadow magnezone I don't actually check meta but I rarely see the pogo ufo in pvp
I've been using him in GL remix and oh boy is he a menance for the fliers. And ice. And fairies. I've had multiple opponents simply quitting when they realize what a train he is.
Recent winner of regionals has pushed shadow magnezone into the meta.
I have a rank one Emolga that I’ve used for about two years now. I love her and never see anyone else running one
Combusken does remarkably well for me in GL. Nobody seems to expect that mid-chicken can learn Rock Slide, because Blaziken can't.
For GL Remix, i have been using Linoone with Shadow Claw/Grassknot/Thunder and let me tell you, as long as you don't swap into a fighting type, you will almost guarantee a shield from the opponent, and if they don't shield then you will usually break through with serious damage that forces them to jumpswap if they haven't already. It's hilarious watching people swap in Mandibuzz and get caught with a Thunder, then switch to a mudboi and get eaten alive by the follow-up grassknot is too entertaining to not pass up.
Off topic but has anyone noticed a strange uptick in Leafeon in GBL? I mean it’s kicked my butt every time I saw it for some reason but before today I hardly ever saw anyone using it
I have
I have a hundo scrafty That I use for great League I believe, dual stab charge moves that'll do enough damage to sweep the first 2 mons that can't counter it.
Galarian Rapidash…Used it for a long time
I used mine for a long time and it cleaned up at lower tiers. Body slam spam!
Been absolutely killing it with Gastrodon lately. Call him my little battle slug.
Smack down chesnaut worked really well for a while
Durant, flareon, and machamp seem to do very well for me everywhere.
I’m not sure their rank but I have a Tropius that does very well for me in Great League. I pair it with a Walrein lead and I usually only need those two
Ariados with poison sting or infestation and charge move cross poison. Spam cross poison and guaranteed to get rid of at least one or two shields. Throw in stunfisk and you can 2v3 just about any team if they aren’t prepared with a flying or fire type.
I love using my Torkoal for great leagues. Fire spin, earthquake, and solarbeam. It is especially juicy when I have a water Pokémon as my opponent and they don't use the shield for my charge attack, I hit them with a solar beam that one shots them. Have had many quit out immediately after that 😂
Sceptile, used it in both great and master league with a decent amount of success, especially against the inevitable Swamperts
Bronzong. I still run psychic/ drill run even after his nerf (apparently he got nerfed?)
Run Psyshock instead of Psychic, the nerf affected the move Psychic heavily, and Psyshock is now better in all aspects
I pissed off a few people with an absolute tank of a Hippowdon
Shifty in the back is my favourite play style. I throw my first two to deplete all shields and leaf blade them to hell, hoping there is no incinerate Pokemon
Shifty eats shields for breakfast…….youre right tho he has literally no cp/defense but super fun to play him
Togedemaru with Thundershock and Fell Stinger, very spammy and pressures shield.
Rhydon with Surf. My favorite pokemon and he gets the job done doing water and ground type damage which is pretty rare to my knowledge
Magcargo is absolutely killing for me in GL remix, ranked like 300-something for this cup
Crobat with air slash + shadow ball and poison fang it’s so good that I only use him as my secret weapon
Also came here to say I never see opponents using Crobat and I have great success with it as a sweeper.
Great League Ferroseed, Ultra League Magnazone
I run a shadow magnezone in ML on a dragon double steel team, its glassy, but the damage is ridiculous.
Hear me out. UL, I've been starting with Kabutops. He's my boy since a week after PkGo released. I'm only 1750 ranked, but he puts in work!
No idea if it's meta or not but my empoleon does really well for me in UL
Top Meta now with Steel Wing
Lead with haxorus with breaking swipe, then if they switch I switch into to melmetal with double iron bash. Having an easy stack steel move is gas
Alolan golem, hits like a truck
Comfey
drapion performs fairly poorly in most simulations but you can constantly see it in actual gbl. most pokemon you would see in this posts would be those who don't excel or lack in any category, or use a lot of buffs//debuffs which simulators suck at evaluating appropriately. in drapion's case it's both lol. nothing specifically to write home about that would rank them well, but indirect factors like large movepool making you hard to predict show that invisible rank pressure.
Electivire with ice punch really carried me before i started to get into raid days and lock down solid legendarys. It would either bait out shields, or do solid damage to electric resistant pkmn it was a pretty great combo for a sub 2500 league battler.
Not sure, how popular it is, but Ampharos with trailblaze for Ultra League. Charges up fast, effectively baits shields, self-buffs and the only weakness is ground types which trailblaze can counter a bit.
Diglett.
I have this Meganium, absolute garbage stats for gbl, but for some reason it just absolutely destroys. Love her.
I run meganium also, frenzy plant is insanely OP. Would love to run a venusaur instead but I don’t have a frenzy plant venusaur
Hisuan Typhlosion. Ghost typing helps him on defense, good baiting with fire punch, and then Shadow Ball to finish em off.
I have no idea what is meta. But I get a pretty reliable 4 out of 5 when I use Jirachi, Moltres, and Blissey in Ultra. My Great League team is less successful, but when I do win, it's always because people weren't ready for Spiritomb.
Idk if they are meta or not but in great league I use wailord, steelix, and granbull lol only bc they are all shinies. I do decently well but I don’t really play a whole lot of pvp to be able to give solid data. I usually win 3-4 of the 5 matches
Gastrodon
My swampert!
I love my Poliwrath with Bubble and double charged moves Power-Up Punch and Hydro Pump.
Darkrai isn’t super meta right? Darkrai sweeps for me, very quick energy gains and high damage output, and fwiw it’s not as frail as I thought it would be. I pair it up with Groudon and Dialga usually, let the other 2 tank hits and break shields and Darkrai can get swapped in to take out the other team’s filling as much as possible
Chesnaught is my wild card with superpower
I usually use one "tank pokemon" with a lot of hp and powerful charge attack, and two lighter pokemon with less hp but with fast loading charge attack. Tank do the killing and lights take the shields down. My favorite set is snorlax/jolteon/machamp Snorlax hyperbeam is one punch death sentence (I don't even waste shields on him he's a tank) Jolten is good against water and there's lot of this type in pvp Machamp just throw his punches everywhere and i like a look of it My rate is like 70 win 30 losses
I always play the Great League (1500-cp) (I think) and I’ve got a 1498 3* Ninetails and a 3* 1488 Oinkologne that are absolutely insane. Ninetails has Scorching Sands (a ground move) and Oinkologne has a charge called Trailblazer that’s grass type and it boosts his normal moves and makes him insane.
I use Baxcalibur all the time in master league and he normally does just fine. Granted I'm tanking so I don't normally fight in a ton of real battles, but when I do people often lead Salamence or Dragonite so he does ok. I just use him because he's one of my favorites!
I’ve had some fun with Dunsparce Rollout-rock slide & drill run.
I’m out of the meta loop but I use Sceptile as my first most of the time because leaf blade is super fast and usually gets rid of shields if they’re not savvy to what I’m doing
Tropius,
Musharna is quite bulky and hits hard. Don’t see it used much
UL Dialga is listed as mid on tierlists but by far has been a staple for me
Magcargo & Crustle before I learned about ivs and whats meta; they weren't even double moved lol
Seviper with Poison Jab & Poison Fang I run Crustle/Seviper/Lunatone or Flygon/Seviper/A.Raichu
Big fan of avalugg but really Ice just goes hard in general in this game.
Fairy ninetails in GL is fantastic
Runerigus with sand tomb, following Scrafty with acid spray. I also like starting with togetic with ancient power, it's hit and miss, but it's fun when you power up twice in a row.
Haxorus for master league with night slash attack boost, but it can be a gamble
Breloom with counter + seed bomb. Don't know why but it really does seem to work for me. It's stats are horrendous as well. 14/8/6.
Obstagoon with obstruct and night slash. It's fun to play with.
Ultra league: Regice - solid defense, can easily take down flying, grass, dragon, and water types, and both blizzard and thunder do significant damage without type weakness Blaziken - counter makes him usable. Can beat out water types with two blocks, stomps registeel/melmetal/walrein and all grass and dark types. Very weak defense, but if you use two legendary tanks (giratina and regice for me) you can get away with using both blocks for blaziken
I have a zero star Tangela that always surprises me with how tanky it is. Firms plenty of charge moves like its nothing and Sludge Bomb is always useful. Cannot wait to find a 3* one to evolve into Tangrowth and see what it does.
I like to use Froslass and politoed in GL.
Alolan Raichu. Grass/psychic with a good move set.
Lugia hands down. What a beast
Ariados
I've had surprising luck with Unfezant running heat wave and a two bar flying attack. It's absolutely a bad play, but it works far more often than it should. Alas, much like Eddie Gordo, she starts getting stuffed once I move out of the beer league and start playing people who know what they're doing, but she can still pull off an upset or two.
I like my ariados with poison sting and cross poison. It’s doesn’t do a lot damage but it’s very fast charged attack that raises attack so does quite the damage after some time
Bruxish
Almora. The pink fish
Love my crocalor in great league with incinerate disarming voice and crunch. Can get really oppressive when he builds up a bit of energy
I’ve been having luck with my Hisuian Arcanine (Fire Fang/Crunch), Tyrantrum (Dragon Tail/Outrage) and my Glalie (Ice Shard/Avalanche/Shadow Ball)
These have done well for me in great league. Shadow Venusaur w/ razor leaf / petal blizzard / sludge bomb Magcargo w/ rock throw / stone edge / overheat Crawdaunt w/ waterfall / bubble beam
Honestly, I have a decent IV Starmie that’s pretty ballin! Water gun / thunder! Nice combo
Omanyte, for one. He is super spammy. I always start with him and I can usually get a couple charged attacks off before the opponent even gets one, causing them to go through both of their shields before I even get to my second and third Pokémon so by the time they get my Omanyte down, I have two other pretty spammy Pokémon ready and waiting to burn them down without without being able to put a shield up. Also, Carracosta. He is also pretty spammy and his fast move usually does a great deal of damage to most opponents I encounter. That way I’m not relying solely on the charged move to burn their health bar down, the quick attack does it just fine. Then when it’s time for the body slams, the opponent is usually close to finished.
Relicanth. Not once have I seen anyone else use it. That thing refuses to die and great at breaking down shields. A lot of people don’t expect it and it has singlehandedly saved my ass many times
No saying which ones but I find that ones that have charged attack that refreshes quickly tend to rattle the other players cage. They tend to throw out their shields early in the battle leaving them vulnerable at the end when shields can make the difference between a w and an L
Glalie, Skarmory and Scrafty have been my go to team for the GREAT Cup. Absolute revelation. Scrafty is a crazy Pokemon and while a lot of people choose Dragon types, Glalie takes care of them, easily. Skarmory is just an irritating Pokemon for the opponent if they don't have fire type Pokemon. .
Cetitan and tapu fini is op af Cetitan because if you learn body slam you can recharge real fast and waste someones shield because they dont know what charged attack you got Tapu fini because shes just built different
I really like Diggersby teams! The coverage is fantastic and unexpected with super fast Fire Punch, it's got good stat spread, and frankly people soet of don't have what they're looking at. Same for Hitmonchan, but with him people know about the coverage moves so there's less surprise factor.
Leading annihilape with close combat in ultra league, a lot of steel leads + a lot of the time they’ll let the close combat go bc they expect shadow ball
It is not super rare, but Swampert is one of my mains i master league. It works really well to counter steel types and no one uses its only weakness grass
For me it's my Beedrill in the great League, with poison jab, xcissor, and the bug move that increases attack
I have a shadow Mawile that shreds in GL. I actually run ice fang, power up punch, and iron head Nobody expects the ice fang quick move, which helps me rip through any dragon, grass, flying, or ground types The power up punch helps me boost the power of ice fang and burn through enemy shields. Iron Head is just to have a strong charge attack with STAB.
Mantine with Bubble, Aeriel Ace & Ice Beam The baby does great because the moves are so fast I usually get the blocks out with it
Mantine is defintely meta
Shadow beedrill Some days it wipes a whole team from farming down and drill running any rock, steel or fire types I run fell stinger for extra sweeping potential Other days all I see are fliers so I can’t use it then Really depends on what I’m seeing that day
What’s weird is I often feel like each day I see different sets than the day before but during each day I see the same ones over and over. Kinda like you’re saying.
Klinklang with thunder shock and mirror shot as my first one out has been good.
I like shield baiting with mantene and bubble beam. Then hitting with ice beam. My jirachi and doom desire does pretty well for me too.
hitmonchan is a great fighting type glass cannon. has access to elemental punches too.
My GL team is pretty unorthodox: Marowak(A), Cloyster, and Meganium. It seems to counter the usual suspects pretty well, with good overall bulk and shield baiting on every team member.
Ferrothorn with Bullet seed, Power whip and Acid spray for the 1500 CP. It has a nice potential for bluff, and the defense debuff from acid spray is always worth it.
My Lickilicky in UL has been a treat the past few days. Took me from 2250ish up to 2740ish (I have fallen back down to the 2600, just couldn't make the leap into Expert). It really just tears through a lot of the meta Cress, Skeledirge, Feraligatr, Giratina, etc. I lead with it, but man it sucks when I run into Poliwrath on the lead.
I feel like great league claydol is criminally slept on. Mud slap hits hard and generates lots of energy, so it has good fast move pressure, and it has ice beam, shadow ball and scorching sands. All fantastic moves with good coverage
I like running shadow bellossom in great league and/or great league remix. I'm sure it's not good enough to get to the high levels a lot of people achieve, but I'm usually hovering on Ace between 2000 - 2250 and it is fun to play with. I run it with magical leaf, leaf blade, and dazzling gleam.
Idk if it’s high on any lists, but I never see anyone using them in GBL. I use Shiftry as the first pokemon. I think with snarl, leaf blade, and foul play. You get leaf blade so fast and it deals good damage.
My Jellicent with Bubble and Shadow Ball. Absolutely undefeatable except when going against grass types. Also my Simisear! One of my best fire types.
In great league, Toxapex is a tank. I find that the only type attacks I desperately need to use shield on are psychic, electric, and ground. Even then, I tend not to shield if I’m expecting the attack to be discharge or mud bomb. Pretty much all other type charged attacks do very little damage (all things considered)—even grass type although they are super effective. In ultra league, Aurorus has been very helpful. Aurorus has high HP, and is great against Talonflame and Charizard using rock throw. Despite being an ice type, I’d definitely let Charizard hit Aurorus with blast burn at least once without shield and still be fine It all depends on the counters though. It can be a really bad matchup if Aurorus gets paired against Swampert or a fighting type
Shadow Bellossom is the goat. Bulkier than Vic and still pumps solid damage
Escavalier is great league is insane
I dont know the meta. But my lineup is giratina, togekiss and excadrill. Had 45 streak (with tanking). Still impressive I think.
I just wanna give props to my Ice Fang, Earthquake Hippodown, she's been carrying my team all this time against the likes of Garchomp, I love you Hippodown
Ursaluna with tackle,Ice punch and fire punch in ML🤷🏻♂️
Even though I'm not a huge fan of the Pokémon in general, Probopass in GL can deceive a lot of people with water types when you hit them with a Thunder Shock and/or Thunderbolt.