A PvP Analysis on Regidrago and Regieleki

Learn everything you need to know about Regieleki and Regidrago in Pokémon GO’s Trainer Battles. From meta placement, optimal movesets, and best Leagues and teams to use in, we got you covered.

Alright friends, time to finally knock this one out. Time is short for me after fighting off illness and obligations throughout the week, so here we are getting the long-awaited analysis on REGIDRAGO and REGIELEKI mere hours before the former arrives in Elite Raids. But that’s okay, because uh… SPOILER ALERT! … these unfortunately don’t require a very deep dive analysis.

But let’s summarize THAT in our Bottom Line Up Front before getting to the sad tale that follows….

B.L.U.F.

  • No sugar coating it… with current moves, Regidrago is basically worthless. Yeah, no nicer way I can put it, folks. I’ll look a little at what it COULD be with a reasonable overhaul, but its current moveset is just very, very sad.
  • Regieleki is slightly better off, but still nothing approaching the usefulness of the other Regis already in the game.

Dang, that sounds depressing, doesn’t it? But as I often say, sometimes evaluating WHY something bad is bad can be just as enlightening as a glowing review of something we all already know is good. So let’s see what we can learn here.

REGI-DRAG

Regidrago Dragon

Before I get into the moves, briefly on REGIDRAGO‘s stats. The easiest and closest comparison I can make is Ultra Beast Guzzlord. Both have ridiculously high HP… Top 10 in Great League, Top 5 in Ultra League behind only Blissey and Chansey, and Top 3 in Master League, trailing only Blissey. But both also have atrocious Defense, trailing literally over 500 other Pokémon in Master League. So overall you can consider Regidrago “bulky” in the same way that Guzzlord is, but OOF, each individual hit can HURT.

UNlike Guzzlord, Regidrago has just the single typing (Dragon), leaving it famously weak to Dragon, Fairy, and Ice damage, and resisting all the Elements (Grass, Fire, Water, Electric… so basically, Color Cup 🎨). The problem is that the elements generally show up FAR less in Master League than do Ice, Fairy, and especially Dragon damage. And nearly half of the current Master League core meta consist of Ice, Fairy, or Dragon types… whereas only six are of one of the four elements (without being Dragons as well, AKA Zekrom and Reshiram). It’s an uphill battle.

And again, not wanting to sugarcoat this for you, I think it’s best to give it to you straight: Regidrago is as bad as it gets in Master League. No, you’re not imagining things… that really is a record of ZERO wins.

What’s going on here? It’s the moves, to put it simply.

For fast moves, Drago is the only Regi that does NOT learn Lock-On, the move that has become synonomous with Regis to this point. In fact, in Pokémon MSG, there are only a small handful of moves it learns that are fast moves in Pokémon GO: all three Elemental FangsDragon Breath and Bite.

Guess which one Niantic gave it.

Yeah, Bite is an okay-ish PvP move (4.0 DPT, but only 2.0 EPT), but it has absolutely zero synergy with Regidrago and what it wants to do. Doesn’t hit anything super effectively that you’d want a Dragon to hit. And lacking STAB, it can’t even overpower things it IS super effective against, like Mewtwo or the Giratinas. Part of that is also the fault of the charge moves:

  • Dragon Pulse – Dragon type, 90 damage, 60 energy
  • Outrage – Dragon type, 110 damage, 60 energy
  • Hyper Beam – Normal type, 150 damage, 80 energy

That’s right, folks. They gave something that can only generate 2.0 Energy Per Turn — only 66% of what is considered even average energy generation (3.0) — charge moves all costing 60 or more energy. And with only Hyper Beam for coverage. Now in fairness, it can’t learn Focus Blast or Zap Cannon or even Flash Cannon or the like that the other Regis are famous for. But DANG it, Niantic… it can learn plenty of much cheaper charge moves, including Body Slam, Crunch, Ancient Power, Earth Power, and of course, Dragon Claw and Breaking Swipe. In fact, Dragon Claw was actually in its movepool when it was first mined way back, and then removed. With Bite it would have still struggled, but heck, a move like that would help at least a little bit.

Heck, even giving it Dragon Breath AND Dragon Claw would still be FAR from overpowered, even with an additional good coverage move. Giving it Breath and Breaking Swipe would make it legit interesting, though far from the best Dragon around. Dragonite and others would still outpace it, but hey, at least somebody could use Regidrago then if they really wanted to.

As is now, though? I mean, if zero wins doesn’t already tell the story… then yeah. This thing is the worst Legendary to hit PvP in the history of forever. No use in other Leagues either. I guess we can hope for a move overhaul one day, but as you can see, it would have to be an extensive overhaul of both fast and charge moves.

I really don’t get Niantic’s thinking here. To editorialize for a moment, aren’t Elite Raids supposed to encourage us to get out and gather and raid together in person? I really don’t see how something like THIS is going to motivate us to get out, Niantic. I don’t think the allure of getting something new is as great as you might think it is. Not when it can’t be shiny and, frankly, can’t be used except to show off to friends. Heck, you can’t even defend a gym with the thing and show it off that way, and anyone who sees you pull it out in a raid is going to groan rather than cheer. What’s the appeal, again? We all KNOW we’ll be able to get it eventually some other way… that’s just how it works in this game. And maybe by then it will have some moves that make it actually interesting.

Until then… sorry, folks. This is a textbook example of how to build a really, really bad Pokémon. Such a shame, because it LOOKS so awesome. No shade on anyone who makes a different decision, of course, but I personally don’t see myself getting out for this thing. It’ll come around again eventually, and I can wait.

Wish I had better news. MAYBE I can on the other new Regi? Let’s look.

LOW VOLTAGE

Regieleki Electric

Good news first: REGIELEKI comes with Lock-On, so huzzah to the game’s best energy generation.

But uh… yeah, that might be it for good news, I’m afraid.

In MSG, Regidrago and Regieleki actually have pretty similar stats, with the same Attack, Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense. The difference is that their HP and Speed stats are swapped… 200 HP and 80 Speed for Drago, and only 80 HP and 200 Speed for Eleki. In the MSG, that keeps them relatively close, but with how GO’s stat calculus does things, the difference ends up HUGE. In Master League, Eleki has about 40 more Attack and 20 more Defense than Drago… but has only HALF of Regidrago’s 348 HP, and trails by about a score of about 1500 in their total stat products. (About 6200 for Dragon, and barely over 4500 for Eleki.)

To put it in simpler terms: Electric types already struggle in PvP, especially in Master League. At that level, Regieleki ranks twenty fourth among Master League Electric types in total stat product, JUST ahead of Heliolisk and Stunfisk, and trailing such powerhouses (that is very tongue in cheek, folks) as Rotom, Eelektross, and Jolteon.

Like Regidrago, Regieleki is also left wanting for coverage. It has STAB Thunder and Zap Cannon, but again, no Focus Blast or such here, and instead it’s left with Hyper Beam. Booo. And that’s true in MSG games as well, where the only coverage moves it can learn with any kind of closing power are Acrobatics and — sigh — Hyper Beam/Giga Impact. It learns a TON of Electric moves but very little else that has made its way over to go. And when I say very little, I mean basically just Ancient Power and Body Slam and I think that is literally it.

Put it all together, and while it does perform better than Regidrago… yeah, “better” is very subjective. It beats Gyarados and Ho-Oh, and uh… that’s it. Big sads. And no, not worth it in Ultra League, really. As I said earlier, Electric types have a rough go of it anyway, and when things like Jolteon are dancing circles around you, it’s time for some self-reflection.

Try as you might, adding the other moves it can learn into the mix (Thunder Shock and/or Hyper Beam), there is just no improvement to be found. And again, there is little apparent help in other Pokémon games, as they’re basically all Electric moves. Not even Acrobatics or anything else currently in GO moves the needle in any notable way. I see even less hope for future improvement than I do with Regidrago, and that’s really saying something. So this time, can’t really blame Niantic… they didn’t have much to work with. (Still not forgiving y’all for Regidrago though, Niantic… and that’s even aside from the flubs with the raids themselves!)

Regieleki and Regidrago finally arrive in a superpowered new Pokémon Go season - Dot Esports

So there you go. Rather a depressing read… sorry about that. Maybe this will save you a trip out in nasty weather this weekend… or not. The choice is yours what you do with this information. My job is just to put it into your hands and let you decide how to use that knowledge. I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you these two sully the “Regi” name, but maybe, just maybe, this is the first time you’ve seen just HOW bad these two are. There MAY be some future hope, at least for Regidrago, but the here and now… well, it is what it is. Good luck if you do go raiding, and I hope you find a good one to take some pride in!

Alrighty, that’s all I got on these two. At least now you’re forewarned and forearmed! Until next time — hopefully a more uplifting analysis! — you can always find me on Twitter with regular Pokémon GO and PvP analysis nuggets, or Patreon.

Happy raiding, Pokéfriends, for those of you who venture out… stay safe out there! Catch you next time!

Author & tags

JRE47
JRE47
PoGO/PvP Investigative Journalist, GO Hub and Silph Arena/Road Contributor, amateur cook, author of 'Nifty Or Thrifty' and 'Under The Lights' article series and #PvPfacts!

Further reading

Popular today

Latest articles

Support us

Buy GO Hub merch

Get your very own GO Hub t-shirt, mug, or tote.