Flock Together Research Day: PvP Quick Guide

G’day PoGO lovers! The Flock Together Research Day is coming up this weekend, and… well it’s an event! A flight of feathers will abound with a range of Flying type mons featuring throughout the event. Let’s take a quick look at some options for you to consider prioritising.

Flock Together Research Day

Date & Time 📅

• Starts Saturday, May 11, 2024, 2:00 p.m local time
• Ends Saturday, May 11, 2024, 5:00 p.m local time

Bonuses 🎁

Infographic

Priority 1: PvP Wild Spawns

Pidgey

I almost can’t believe I’m spotlighting this mon, but let’s start with the best wild spawn option for this event – Pidgey!

Pidgey’s final evolution, Pidgeot, is an excellent pick for PvP in the Great League and the Ultra League (as a hundo), and doubles up as a decent Flying type attacker (#14 overall) in the PvE side of the game. Pidgeot can be a bit of a sim hero, with an astonishly high win-loss ratio in PvPoke which is ultimately dependent on your opponents shielding decisions. If you can land an unshielded Brave Bird, or grab shields with the attack-debuffing Feather Dance, it will set up the big bird for success. Overall, Pidgeot sees a fair amount of play in the higher CP capped Ultra League, where there are a few more Ghost types around (hi Giratina) and it can max out its stat product.

Pidgey is also currently rotating through Flying type Rocket grunts, and shadow Pidgeot does perform quite well overall! Although you want to sub in Aerial Ace for Feather Dance, as the shadow boost makes those AA’s hit with decent enough power to threaten shields, which isn’t really the case for the non-shadow.

If you don’t yet have the XL candy for your UL build, now is a great opportunity to mega evolve a Flying type and find yourself a kit of Pidgey’s to catch!

Wingull

Wingull’s evolution Pelipper is one of those polarising mons that tends to dominate certain limited cup formats to the point where it is pretty much mandatory to have one built! Blessed with some incredible moves, Wing Attack allows it to reach its spammy Weather Ball Water in only 5 (then 4) turns, and its nuke move Hurricane can threaten to inflict heavy damage when unshielded. Pelipper has a more than decent win-loss rate in the open Great League, and has even started popping up a lot more often in the Ultra League – with a really decent record to boot! If you find yourself blessed with the hundo, this is a great opportunity to prioritise a short, sharp XL grind for this spicy Ultra League build.

The main challenge with using Pelipper is it’s relative lack of bulk – in terms of stat product, it has less bulk than Pidgeot, which is already so-so, and wayyy less than other Water–Flying types such as Mantine, which has become a lot more present in the open meta. Thankfully its speed and power do a lot to compensate for this, but it can be hard for it to overcome its unfavourable matchups. Still, I wouldn’t fly away from the colony of Wingull’s – take this opportunity to hunt for a good stat product Great League variant (the bulkier the better), and the hundo!

Fletchling

Fletchling has 2 viable evolution options for PvP – its middle evolution Fletchinder, and its final evolution Talonflame. 

Let’s start with the more meta evolution – Talonflame. Talonflame burst onto the PvP scene following its community day, with receipt of the legacy fast move Incinerate. Incinerate is a very slow 5-turn fast move, but hits hard and allows Talonflame to reach its charged moves with decent pace. The introduction of Fly into its movepool has also been a welcome addition, presenting a cheaper charged move to work alongside Flame Charge. Brave Bird is a viable alternative and ridiculously powerful nuke move (particularly when boosted by a preceding Flame Charge), but it’s a bit slower to reach than Fly, and has slightly worse pacing. Although Fire types are a little bit tricky to use in the open meta today with the abundance of Water types getting consistently buffed, Talonflame still has a more than decent run at the Great League, and the Ultra League (as the hundo). This big scorching bird can definitely be challenging to use and does tend to struggle in its bad matchups, but in the right meta and team composition it can be absolutely devastating!

It is worth noting that Incinerate is a legacy move, so it would be a good idea to hang onto these for a future event which enables you to obtain this through evolution. It’s definitely a viable use of any spare Elite TM’s you have, but I’ll leave that up to you trainer.

A brief inquiry into Fletchinder. It’s definitely an option for the Great League, but it needs a fair XL candy investment and its win-loss rate in the open meta leaves a bit to be desired. However, it’s definitely viable in various limited metas and as a sidegrade to its evolution. It’s also received Steel Wing into its arsenal, which allows it to reach its charged moves pretty quickly, and it does have pretty much the same stat product as Talonflame too – not the bulkiest, but not terrible!

Make sure you save your blushes and find a bobbin of Fletchling to catch!

Priority 2: PvP Wild Spawns

The rest of the wild spawns are very meh, although Staraptor and Honchcrow have their time and place in certain situations.

• Staraptor hits so so hard with its charged moves Close Combat / Brave Bird and Fly, and reaches those moves super quickly with access to Wing Attack. Keeping it on the field is the main challenge! Staraptor is buildable for the Great League and Ultra League, and it does win some key matchups in both formats! It just requires insane skill and clear game plans to be effective in battle. If you come across any congregations of Starly, then hang onto one for each league.
• Honchcrow is the definition of a glass cannon. I can’t in all honesty vouch for building one, as it is so hard to use (I have tried). Even resisted damage hits absurdly hard because its defense stat is almost non-existent! Common meta threats such as Clefairy have better stat product… thankfully Honchrow’s attack stat is almost the highest in the Great League, so it will demand shields, if you can reach your charged moves before being knocked out! If you find a murder of Murkrow on your journey, then consider hanging onto a few for a spice build!
• Let’s be honest – when did you last see an Unfezant in GBL? You might want to consider instead its pre-evolution Tranquil, which although still middling at best, puts in a half-decent performance against many Grass and Fighting types in the Great League! You do have to power it up to Level 50 to do so, but if you’re looking for a new project…

Priority 3: Research Spawns

There is the option available to spend $1USD to receive a timed research line with access to additional encounters with the above mons. I have personally had awful success with these ‘boosted’ options in the past, so I absolutely take it with a grain of salt that is the case, but if you’re desperate for some additional encounters and potential shinies, then go for gold!

From a PvP perspective, Hoothoot’s evolution Noctowl is the only real viable option here, but even then you want one for the Great League with higher defence than you will get from the research tasks (which have a 10-10-10 IV floor). From a PvP (and PvE) perspective, these mons just aren’t worth prioritising at all for open meta play, except for some absolute spice play! Even so, you would want to prioritise stat product for them all, which isn’t possible as task research rewards.

Summary

Overall, this is probably the definition of an event that you could skip over if you don’t need any of the shinies. Most of these spawns have been commonly found in the while with a degree of frequency over time, and the idea of paying for this event feels, well, just plain wrong. If you’re super keen on the potential boosted shiny chance, go for gold! But there is nothing in the paid research line that is particularly enticing for this PvP writer. My advice would be to mega evolve a flying type and have fun catching a few birds, keeping an eye out for some with decent stat product for PvP.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the collective nouns and that this quick guide has helped you prioritise your hunting for this event! As always, you can find me on Twitter or Instagram for more analysis.

See ya later,

JTizzle