Walrein is still very decent in the Great and Ultra Leagues – but having its community day moves is a non-negotiable. The exclusive fast move Powder Snow allows Walrein to power out its exclusive charged move Icicle Spear quickly, and being able to hit flyers for at least neutral damage is valuable, particularly in the Great League. If you’ve been sitting on a shadow to evolve, now is absolutely your time to take advantage of its exclusive moveset availability.
Ursaluna is actually pretty decent in the open Master League. Getting access to High Horsepower is genuinely really tough, because outside of a full moon, you can’t evolve Ursaring, and even then you won’t have access to the exclusive move when you do. Don’t sleep on this opportunity!
Chesnaught is a bit of a sleeper pick across all 3 leagues (including Master League Premier Cup), and is one of my sneaky faves. Frenzy Plant is objectively better than Grass Knot, so now is a good time to upgrade your Grass type output. It can get a bit caught out against Flying and Fire types, but in the right team it can be a fantastic fit.
Tyranitar with Smack Down is honestly, only ok in most PvP situations. However, it’s not a bad idea to take advantage of access to the move so that you’ve got access to both a good Smack Down variant and a Bite variant. This is because Mega Ttar is pretty awesome on the PvE scene, coming in at #3 for Rock type attackers and #1 for Dark types! I know this is a PvP analysis… but it’s hard to ignore those numbers. If you are yet to get a good Smack Down TTar for your roster, now is the time.
Alolan Sandslash prefers to run Shadow Claw as its fast move, so if you want to build one with Shadow Claw and one with the non-exclusive Powder Snow, then now’s your chance. I personally think the shadow variant is way better. So if you are able to hunt some down from the Ice and Steel Rocket Grunts in the short term, you can still take advantage of the opportunity to get its exclusive move through evolution (as Frustration only prevents you from getting access to charged moves, not fast moves). Given A-Shrew won’t be in the wild for this event, I think the shadows are the way to go.
Haxorus has recently been the unlucky recipient of this season’s nerf to its main weapon in its arsenal, Breaking Swipe. This isn’t the time to go into the disappointing flow on effects from Niantic trying to nerf Steelix… what I would say is that Haxorus with Breaking Swipe is still decent. It’s always going to play the glass cannon role, and it is now a coin flip whether it will get the attack drop in battle, but Breaking Swipe is still a strict upgrade from the alternative Dragon Claw. I would evolve one for each league if you don’t yet have them built, and see how the meta plays out.
Blastoise isn’t necessarily meta anymore, and it really needs Hydro Cannon to have any play whatsoever. Although you don’t see many around, the high bulk Blastoise is actually a bit of a menace in the Ultra League, withstanding an insane amount of damage and getting to its Hydro’s with surprising speed. Also, Mega Blastoise is still really good in PvE, currently #3 for Water type attackers.
Poliwrath with Counter is new meta. Having just received access to Icy Wind and the buffed Scald, Poliwrath is going to be absolutely everywhere powering through teams. The shadow is also really good – and like A-Slash, you don’t need to have removed Frustration to win out here.
Greninja’s community day was only in August, so even new players should have access to the exclusive move Hydro Cannon. Even so, you need Hydro on your Greninja, period. The numbers don’t lie – in the Great League, Greninja in an even shield scenario is very good, and with a shield advantage is almost unbeatable. One day we might even get Ash Greninja, so it’s not a bad idea to be saving your 4 stars for the future.
I was personally surprised at how impactful Volt Switch has been for Charjabug in the Great League. Although it feels like it doesn’t change its winning matchups, the extra damage output helps it out quite a lot. Although the community day was very recent, you can take advantage of the opportunity to get one now.
Alright. If you’ve been playing PvP over the past few seasons, you’ll know just how crazy good Charizard has become in the meta. While you would think this is because of Blast Burn, it’s really because of the buff to its non-community day but other legacy move, Wing Attack. Wing Attack’s increased energy gains allows Zard to reach its Blast Burns with lightning pace, threatening shields early or sweeping teams in a closing role.
Annoyingly, you’re going to end up with Dragon Breath as the fast move this weekend, so you’ll need to spend a Fast TM of some kind (unless you want the DB variant, which isn’t really viable anymore). Without going into all the sims, let’s just say that:
YES you do want to use an Elite Fast TM for Wing Attack;
