A PvP Analysis on Community Day Meowscarada

It’s our first Community Day (and first analysis article!) of 2025, friends! And we’re back to the starters, with Meowscarada being the feature this time. How’s it look in PvP with TWO new charge moves? Well uh… no Bottom Line Up Front necessary this time… it’s not great. But WHY is Meowscarada not great? Let’s examine that together….

MEOWSCARADA Stats and Moves

Meowscarada GrassDark

Great League Stats

Ultra League Stats

Master League

Yes… but no.

So as many long-time readers surely know by now, this is the section where I primarily talk about two things: the typing, and the bulk, and what’s good or bad about those two things on the spotlighted Pokémon.

So let’s start with the… well, if not good, at least the more neutral of those two: the typing. Grass/Dark has exactly the same number of resistances as it does vulnerabilities, with six of each, and then one double resistance and one double vulnerability. Grass/Darks like Meowscarada resist Dark, Ghost, Grass, Ground, Water, and Electric damage, and double resists Psychic damage. But that it counterbalanced by weaknesses to Fairy, Fighting, Fire, Flying, Ice, and Poison, and a lethal double weakness to Bug damage (as both Dark and Grass types are weak to Bug, so that super effectiveness doubles up). Some scary weaknesses there, but at least they’re sort of balanced out by the resistances? Sorta?

However, there’s no sugar coating the other side: the stats. I wrote about some flimsy Grass types that got Community Days in 2024, like Leavanny and Tsareena. I’ve written about some other glassy starters before too, like Sceptile, Delphox, and Greninja. Well now here comes Meowscarada, who is glassier than ALL of those. Turns out the only fully evolved starters that have less bulk in all of Pokémon GO are Blaziken (same HP and about 4 less Defense) and Inteleon (4 less Defense and a dozen less HP). Heck, there are NO starter middle evolutions and only seven first stage starter evolutions (Bulbasaur, Piplup, Popplio, Rowlet, Chespin, Totodile, and Fuecoco) that have less bulk than Mewscarada. That is not good, folks. Not good at all. We’re talking less bulk than known glassy stuff like Primeape, Luxray, Galvantula, Ursaring, and Deoxys… the Speed Forme of Deoxys, that is.

So yeah, you can probably already guess where this analysis is gonna go from here, but we’re in the thick of it now and darnit, we’re gonna finish. Onward!

FAST MOVES

• Leafage – Grass type, 3.0 DPT, 3.5 EPT, 1.0 CoolDown
• Charm – Fairy type, 5.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.5 CD

Glassiness + Charm is not typically a recipe for success. But Leafage and its above-average energy generation could be. It works for stuff like Lurantis and Decidueye, and is MeowMix’s best shot at making something of itself.

And… yeah. Let’s just jump to the charge moves, shall we?

CHARGE MOVES

ᴱ – Exclusive (Community Day) Move

• Flower Trick – Grass type, 30 damage, 35 energy, Raises User Attack +1 Stage
• Night Slash – Dark type, 50 damage, 35 energy, 12.5% Chance: Raise User Attack +2 Stages
• Frenzy Plantᴱ – Grass type, 100 damage, 45 energy
• Grass Knot – Grass type, 90 damage, 50 energy
• Energy Ball – Grass type, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance: Reduce Opponent Defense -1 Stage
• Play Rough – Fairy type, 90 damage, 60 energy

Let’s cut to the chase: every move listed after Frenzy Plant is basically irrelevant now. Frenzy itself is far better than both Energy Ball and especially Grass Knot. Play Rough is interesting in theory but I have yet to find a time you’d want it over other moves. Maybe in a very Dark-heavy meta where it would find itself super effective versus a ton of things, but honestly, even then you’re probably just going to want Frenzy Plant 10 energy cheaper.

So beyond Frenzy Plant, that leaves us with two cheap bait/buff moves: existing Night Slash, which supplies MeowMeow’s only Dark damage (c’mon, Niantic.. it can learn Foul Play, Dark Pulse, and Sucker Punch in MSG… none of those in PoGO?!) and a potentially big buff, and new Flower Trick, which comes with a guaranteed buff but negligible (and more Grass) damage. The latter is basically a better Power-Up Punch (which deals 50% less damage for the same cost and same buff). It’s actually a pretty neat move in PvP… if only more things could learn it. In MSG, Flower Trick remains a signature move of Meowscarada, so there is literally nothing else that can learn it. (Yet? 🙏)

Anyway, for the purposes of this analysis, we’ll be looking at Leafage as the fast move, Frenzy Plant as the preferred closer, and either Night Slash or Flower Trick as the bait-n-buff alongside it.

GREAT LEAGUE

As we usually do, let’s set our barometer first. It’s… uh… not that good. At this point I want to remind people of another spammy Grass/Dark type that was once heralded in PvP: Shiftry. Yeah, remember him? These days you don’t see Shifty (intentional misspelling, for once!) much outside of the odd Limited meta here and there, as there are just too many things around that rip it apart before it can deal TOO much damage. Fairies, Fighters, Flyers, Poisons, Fires, Ices, and of course Bugs… it’s just weak to far too much of most metas to be worth it most of the time anymore. Despite all that, it still at least maintains a far better record than poor MeowMix, and even has the potential for a little trickery with Hurricane that Meowscarada only wishes it had with Play Rough.

But of course, that’s before the addition of Flower Trick and Frenzy Plant. And yes, both help… but only to an extent. (And Night Slash/Frenzy Plant is really no better.) Shiftry is STILL superior, with Meowscarada uniquely beating Dewgong, but Shiftry instead taking down Cresselia, Drifblim, and Serperior thanks in large part to Foul Play. Sadly, not even Foul Play would help MeowMix, but something like Sucker Punch sure would! Oh, the wasted potential.

Maybe the lack of bulk will be less of an issue in Ultra League?

ULTRA LEAGUE

Oooof, perhaps not. In fairness, it’s at least about on the same level as Shiftry now. But the performance is so meh that even Charm Meowscarada is nearly as “good”.

And uh… that’s all I have to say about that.

IN SUMMATION….

As with mostly everything that learns the Community Day starter moves, Meowscarada is better off for it, and Flower Trick is appreciated too. But this is not one I would expect to start showing up on the PvP landscape, even in Limited metas. Just turn back to Shiftry instead if you’re ever tempted to mix it up with some Grass/Dark action. That said, I would recommend at least evolving your best Floragato while you can get Frenzy Plant on MeowMeow, as it could always get more interesting with additional move tweaks, particularly Sucker Punch, as mentioned earlier.

That’s it for now! Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets or Patreon.

Good hunting, folks! Stay safe and warm out there, have some fun with your locals, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!