Get ready for a slooooooooow Community Day, with not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Pokémon receiving a new exclusive move during March Community Day! It’s approaching fast, so no time to slow down… let’s jump right into our Bottom Line Up Front and then the analysis behind it!
Related reading – Pokémon GO March 2023 Community Day – Slowpoke and Galarian Slowpoke, Community Day Mega Slowbro as a Raid Attacker, Take a GO Snapshot of Slowpoke and win V-Battle Decks and Pokéball Tins
B.L.U.F.
Keeping this very simple and to the point, here is how I rack and stack the Slows coming out of this Community Day event!
- Get a good Surf Kanto Slowbro for Ultra League, where it sees significant improvement and MAY break out a bit moving forward. You could do the same for Slowking, but the flexability of Slowbro (switching back and forth between Psychic and Ice Beam as needed for team coverage and perhaps Limited metas) wins out in my mind.
- Get a good Kanto Slowbro with Surf for Great League. You can spring for a Slowking instead but, again, better flexibility with KantBro.
- Get a good Surf Galarian Slowking for Great League, as it’s a unique standout in certain Limited metas (Psychic Cup especially).
- Get a Surf Galarian Slowbro for Ultra League. A few notches below Kanto Slowbro in Ultra in my mind, so if you have enough XLs to build only one, in my mind, go with Kanto. If you have enough XLs for two, then I’d go for G-Bro.
- Galarian Slowbro in Great League has had some use in the past, just not sure it wants Surf over existing moves. Get one with Surf just in case with any extra candy you have left over, even if you don’t build it just yet. Love Cup will probably be a good place for it, if nothing else.
- Very last priority, in my mind, is Galarian Slowking in Ultra League. Sure, spring for one if you can, but I don’t see this raising its stock much at all.
Oh, and don’t forget to also try and hunt down good Slowpokes for Little League if you need them.
Oh, and one last summary right from the get-go: a handy infographic I partnered with ThePokeGOHunter on! Enjoy!
Alright, still here? Cool… let’s dive in to the detailed analysis!
SLOWBRO/SLOWKING
Slowbro
WaterPsychic
Slowking
WaterPsychic
GREAT LEAGUE:
- Attack: 113 (112 High Stat Product)
- Defense: 121 (122 High Stat Product)
- HP: 143 (146 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-13-15, 1500 CP, Level 22.5)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
- Attack: 147 (145 High Stat Product)
- Defense: 155 (159 High Stat Product)
- HP: 186 (188 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-14-14, 2500 CP, Level 45.5)
That’s right… for those who don’t already know, Slowbro and Slowking have the exact same stats. Literally the only functional difference between them is their moves, which we’ll get to in a minute.
Both are Water/Psychic types, two typings with absolutely no overlap. That means the Kanto Slows get all the good and bad that comes with each typing, resulting in resistances to Water, Fire, Ice, Steel, Psychic, and Fighting damage, and vulnerabilities to Grass, Electric, Dark, Ghost, and Bug moves. Quite a wide array on both sides.
Thankfully, even against things that deal super effective damage, the Slowboys do not just fold like a cheap chair. They’re relatively tanky, very close to things like Obstagoon, Scrafty, Guzzlord, Aurorus, Politoed, and Walrein in terms of Attack prowess and overall bulk.
But I know… you’re here for the moves and to see how much they improve. Let’s get right to it!
Fast Moves
- Confusion – Psychic type, 4.0 DPT, 3.0 EPT, 2.0 CoolDown
- Water Gun – Water type, 3.0 DPT, 3.0 EPT, 0.5 CD
Again, shared by Slowbro and Slowking. On paper, the easy winner would appear to be Confusion, having a very clear damage advantage over perfectly average Water Gun. The issue, however, is the typing. Psychic is resisted by notable Steel, Psychic, and Dark types that fill the Great and Ultra Leagues where the Slows come to play. Yes, Water is also resisted by several notable Pokémon (Water, Grass, and Dragon types), but you may be surprised how well Water Gun holds up in the places you’d be using the Slows.
We’ll come back to that and I’ll show you what I mean. But first, we need to cover the charge moves, including the first divergence we have between Bro and King.
ᴱ – Exclusive (Community Day) Move
Charge Moves
- Surfᴱ – Water type, 65 damage, 40 energy
- Psychic – Psychic type, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance to Decreases Opponent Defense by 1 Stage
- Slowbro: Ice Beam – Ice type, 90 damage, 55 energy
- Slowbro: Water Pulse – Water type, 70 damage, 60 energy
- Slowking: Blizzard – Ice type, 140 damage, 75 energy
- Slowking: Fire Blast – Fire type, 140 damage, 80 energy
As you can see, the problem for the Slows has always been… well, they’re slow. No charge moves costing less than 55 energy (and in Slowking’s case, only one of those and all other moves costing 75 energy or more!). That CAN work for some Pokémon, but not when both of your fast moves generate only the average 3.0 Energy Per Turn. Pokémon like this need something to throw out faster.
Thankfully, Community Day exclusive move Surf is just what the doctor ordered in several respects. Not only is is very affordable (coming as much as 5 turns/2.5 seconds faster than Psychic or Ice Beam), but it provides something the Slows have both been sorely lacking: true Water-type coverage. Water Pulse is a dreadful PvP move for Slowbro, and Slowking doesn’t even have a Water charge move, good or bad. Well, it hasn’t until now, that is!
So two key questions: what do you want to replace with Surf, and what does doing so get you? AKA, how much better are the Slowboys with this move?
KANTO SLOWS: GREAT LEAGUE
Starting with Slowbro. Again, Water Pulse is SO bad that you basically just do not want to run it. That leaves us with Ice Beam and Psychic. One can run those with Confusion, but Water Gun is arguably a bit better, giving up Azumarill and Toxicroak, but gaining Defense Deoxys and more obvious (and popular) Galarian Stunfisk and Charizard. I think you get a bit better bang for your buck with Water Gun, though obviously the overall win total is pretty poor.
So why not more than double that win total with Surf? Not only do Azumarill and Toxicroak both reenter the win column, but so too do (in alphabetical order) Bastiodon, Alolan Marowak, Charm Alolan Ninetales (regular AND Shadow), Obstagoon, Swampert, Talonflame, Vigoroth, AND Shadow Walrein. (You already beat non-Shadow Wally.) I mean… wow. Amazing what a difference one little move tweak can make, eh? That all said… you lose much of that with ShadowBro, giving up Azu, DD, A-Wak, CharmTales, Swampert, Toxicroak, AND Shadow Walrein. Slowbro really wants the bulk that the Shadow version lacks.
As for Slowking, its current problem is about the same on paper. It also runs Psychic (the move), but its two coverage moves are very expensive, and thus it basically never uses any charge moves except Psychic. With the addition of Surf, as with Slowbro it seems to most want to run Water Gun/Surf/Psychic, and thus it is an exact clone of Slowbro’s results above. Same stats, typing, and now moves.
And unlike Slowbro, which can at least switch from Psychic to Ice Beam for certain metas like the ongoing Psychic Cup, Slowking isn’t as flexible since Blizzard and Fire Blast are far less affordable than Beam. Long story short: if you have to pick just one of the two to build for Great League, I think Slowbro gets the nod. It just has a bit more potential in Limited metas.
But either way, it’s worth noting that the Kanto Slows resist ALL of Medicham’s moves, and now easily hold down the anti-Galarian Stunfisk/Bastiodon role while also blowing up most Fighters, Fires, and other big names like Walrein, Swampert, Dunsparce, and Alolan Ninetales. While it still has plenty of flaws, Slowbro (or even Slowking) with Surf could be a spiffy new corebreaker even on the big stage of Play Pokémon regional tournaments on the right team.
KANTO SLOWS: ULTRA LEAGUE
The Ultra League meta presents more things that resist Psychic damage (seven major Dark types, six prominent Steel types, and a couple of Psychic types) than Water damage (seven major Water types — one of which is Swampert that takes neutral from Water — and only 3-4 Grasses), so generally Water Gun is again the way to go here. The problem, however, has been the same issue as in Great League… Ice Beam and Psychic just don’t do enough.
So yet again, the best solution seems to be inserting Surf in place of Ice Beam, and voila… another BIG improvement. New wins over Charizard, Cobalion, Escavalier, Gliscor, Shadow Machamp, Scizor, Scrafty, Swampert (regular AND Shadow), and Walrein.
Only two of those (Gliscor and Charizard) actually take super effective damage from Water, but the extra baiting and/or neutral damage spam pushes Slowbro over the edge with all of them, and without giving up ANY wins that were achieved with Psychic/Ice Beam. You COULD run Surf/Ice Beam, but then Walrein and Shadow Swampert escape.
I really do think the wider neutral coverage of Psychic (the move!) is just better. And gets it above a 50% win rate, which is always nice! (But again, Shadow seems to be a step down and is not generally recommended.)
And as before, since Surf/Psychic is the recommended charge move combo, Slowking is a clone of Slowbro. You CAN try and go with Blizzard, which performs very similarly to Slowbro’s Surf/Ice Beam, though with a twist: Slowbro can freeze out Altered Giratina (with Dragon Breath) with Blizzard, whereas Slowbro with Ice Beam can’t… it beats Shadow Swampert instead. So there we finally have some difference between the two. Still though… even with shields down, Psychic plays better and more reliably than Blizzard or Fire Blast, so generally Psychic is still the way to go. That all said, I guess if I WERE to build a Slowking, I’d lean more towards an Ultra League one than Great League, as it has more time to bring its big Ice and Fire closing moves to bear at this level.
So long story short, I think I WOULD recommend working on one or the other for Ultra League, and make it an XL grinding target during Community Day hours. (They have to be pushed into the mid-40s.) I still lean Slowbro personally, but wouldn’t have any issue with someone who wanted to chase King and that potent Blizzard it has instead.
NOW, though, let’s get to the OTHER Slow family. And this time, I need to split them up, as stats are NOT shared.
GALARIAN SLOWBRO
Slowbro (Galarian)
PoisonPsychic
GREAT LEAGUE:
- Attack: 119 (118 High Stat Product)
- Defense: 108 (110 High Stat Product)
- HP: 145 (147 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-14-11, 1499 CP, Level 23.5)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
- Attack: 153 (152 High Stat Product)
- Defense: 140 (142 High Stat Product)
- HP: 188 (189 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 1-15-11, 2500 CP, Level 48.5)
GALARIAN SLOWKING
Slowking (Galarian)
PoisonPsychic
GREAT LEAGUE:
- Attack: 118 (116 High Stat Product)
- Defense: 116 (119 High Stat Product)
- HP: 139 (140 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-14-13, 1500 CP, Level 21)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
- Attack: 152 (150 High Stat Product)
- Defense: 152 (154 High Stat Product)
- HP: 178 (181 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-15-15, 2500 CP, Level 39.5)
Got all that?
So first off, I want to point out that Galarian Slowking does not dip into XL territory even in Ultra League, so keep that in mind for XL grinding… focus on the others you want to build with any XL Candy accrued!
Anyway, the next point of interest is the typing. No Water, and a bit more overlap between the replacement typing of Poison alongside Psychic (the type). Psychic resists Psychic, but Poison takes super effective, so in the end they’re left neutral. Same result with Bug, which Psychic is weak to, but Poison resists… it is cancelled out and left as neutral damage.
The Psychic vulnerabilities to Ghost and Dark remain, along with Poison’s weakness to Ground, but that’s it. On the resistance side, Poison/Psychic resists Poison, Fairy, Grass, and has a 2x resistance to Fighting damage (since both Poison AND Psychic resist it). So yeah… quite different than their Kanto cousins.
The other more subtle difference is in bulk… the Galarians have notably less than the Kantonians, especially in terms of Defense. Instead, the Galarians have a higher Attack stat, which CAN be good with the right moves.
Speaking of, we have some key differences between Bro and King here as well….
Fast Moves
- G-Slowbro: Poison Jab – Poison type, 3.5 DPT, 3.5 EPT, 1.0 CoolDown
- G-Slowking: Acid – Poison type, 3.0 DPT, 2.5 EPT, 1.0 CD
- G-Slowking: Hex – Ghost type, 2.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.5 CD
- Both: Confusion – Psychic type, 4.0 DPT, 3.0 EPT, 2.0 CD
Confusion remains… and is once again, will often be left on the outside looking in.
Poison Jab is hands down Galarian Slowbro’s best fast move. Not only is it far less awkward to use than Confusion due to having only half the cooldown time, but it applies plenty of pressure on its own AND gets to charge moves notably faster. It just flows better.
As for Galarian Slowking, the uniqueness of Hex more than anything else is what pushes it over the top. Not only does it make it truly unique and very potent in formats like the ongoing Psychic Cup, but it offers the highest energy generation among any of the Slows, and that helps when you consider that G-King is also the flimsiest of the Slows.
So what charge moves do you want to use these higher energy gains to get to anyway?
ᴱ – Exclusive (Community Day) Move
Charge Moves
- Both: Surfᴱ – Water type, 65 damage, 40 energy
- G-Slowbro: Psychic – Psychic type, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance to Decreases Opponent Defense by 1 Stage
- G-Slowbro: Sludge Bomb – Poison type, 80 damage, 50 energy
- G-Slowbro: Focus Blast – Fighting type, 150 damage, 75 energy
- G-Slowking: Shadow Ball – Ghost type, 100 damage, 55 energy
- G-Slowking: Sludge Wave – Poison type, 110 damage, 65 energy
- G-Slowking: Future Sight – Psychic type, 120 damage, 65 energy
As you can see, between the above average energy gains of Poison Jab and the cheaper-than-55-energy cost of Sludge Bomb, Galarian Slowbro has had arguably the greatest chance of success to this point out of all the Slows. The awkward part has been the second charge move. Usually Focus Blast has edged out Psychic for the handy coverage against Steels and Rocks (and even Grounds) that plague other Poison types, but even with the 3.5 EPT from Jabbing, the 75 energy requires is awfully pricy.
As for G-King, it’s a bit better off than its Kanto counterpart, with THREE charge moves costing 65 energy or less. It usually prefers to run with Sludge Wave for Poison damage (since Acid is not a move you really want to be running) and the awesome Shadow Ball for wide neutral coverage that also conveniently slams the door on fellow Psychic types, though even Future Sight is worthy of consideration too with its raw power.
We’ll get into HOW good those are in a moment, and then add Surf into the mix to see how it helps.
GALARIAN SLOWS: GREAT LEAGUE
Starting again in Great League, and again with Slowbro. Here it is pre-Community Day, with a win percentage similar to KantoBro (KantBro? 🤔), but a different way of getting there. Gone are the wins KantBro (yeah, gonna stick with that moniker) can get versus stuff like Galarian Stunfisk, Diggersby, Dunsparce, and of course Charizard, replaced with wins G-Bro achieves versus Fighters like Toxicroak, Scrafty, Vigoroth, and Obstagoon, Fairies like Azumarill and CharmTales, Grasses like Venusaur and Victreebel, and even Bastiodon for good measure (thanks entirely to Focus Blast).
So what happens when we mix in Surf… and where do we slot it? Paired with Sludge Bomb to maintain fastest moveset and pressure on things like Obstagoon, Vigoroth, and Shadow Walrein? Focus Blast to keep Bastiodon and gain Dunsparce and Umbreon (but too slow to beat Goon, Viggy, or Wally)? Or maybe bring Psychic into the mix for an all-around threat that brings Vigoroth and Walrein (including the non-Shadow version now) into the win column and adds on Toxapex (but obviously has no real shot versus Bastie, Umbreon, Obstagoon and others)?
Honestly, it may just depend on which Limited meta you’re in… because unlike KantBro, Surf does NOT greatly elevate G-Bro’s position. It already works about as well with the moves it has, and as you can see by the tradeoffs in those various scenarios, it only… well… muddies the waters of which two moves out of G-Bro’s varied arsenal to go with. You CAN bring in Surf as another option, and it DOES help in some areas… but any move you leave out means shedding certain other wins, and even Surf is not a clear-cut favorite, must-have move.
The improvement IS slightly more noticeable with Galarian Slowking. Mixing Surf and Shadow Ball brings in new win potential versus Ghost types Alolan Marowak, Cofagrigus, and Froslass. Surf and Sludge Wave is overall even slightly better, instead beating Fairies (Azumarill, Alolan Ninetales) and overpowering Venusaur, Talonflame, and Shadow Walrein with its higher-than-Shadow-Ball damage (plus STAB on top of it).
And Surf alone is enough to take down Charizard, regardless of second move. But of course, none of those end up with overly impressive numbers. If I had to pick one it would probably be Sludge Wave just for the way it can disrupt things like Medicham, Walrein, Alolan Ninetales, Zard, and Azumarill all together… but then again, new and improved KantBro already does that and more, so….
The one shining spot for Galarian Slowking in the here and now is Psychic Cup. I already wrote about this in my Psychic Cup meta analysis, but Galarian Slowking with its full Ghost moveset and now Surf in the mix is a holy terror for other Psychic types. Probably a bit of a “no duh”, but I DO think I’d consider building one if you’re able just for any Psychic Cup repeats (or other similar formats) in the future. And thus we can end this section on a high note and move on to Ultra League and bring this analysis home!
GALARIAN SLOWS: ULTRA LEAGUE
PvPoke currently recommends Surf/Psychic for Galarian Slowbro at this level, but I think that should (and likely eventually will, as PvPoke is always improving on itself) stick with Focus Blast instead, which adds on wins versus Dubwool, Snorlax, and Obstagoon. Heck, even existing Sludge Bomb/Focus Blast outperforms Surf/Psychic by beating everything it can PLUS Obstagoon.
So yeah… I recommend Poison Jab/Surf/Focus Blast moving forward to threaten Fairies, Grounds, Steels, Ices, Grasses, Fires. Fighters, and even some Psychics all at the same time. It’s obviously not perfect at blowing through any of those categories, but it CAN rather uniquely keep all of them on their toes and force shields, and that has value in and of itself.
As for Galarian Slowking, Surf IS an improvement… just not a very significant one. Escavalier flips to a win, and that’s really about it. G-King continues to hover around a lowly 30% win percentage. Big sads.
IN CONCLUSION
I’m out of time, so gonna wrap it up right here, but to reiterate: go back to the BLUF for a rough “ranking” of the Slowdudes coming out of Community Day. Good hunting, and good luck!
Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with near-daily PvP analysis nuggets or Patreon, if you’re feeling extra generous.
Good hunting! Stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!
