Adventures Abound Move Rebalance: A PvP Analysis (Part 2)

“plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

– Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

For those who don’t recognize the phrase in the original French, the translation is “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I imagine that one you’ve heard of. Heck, even Quark on Deep Space Nine — from an entirely different race and planet, mind you! — quoted it over 500 years after it was originally written. But uh… I digress. The reason I bring up that famous quote is that today we cover the second major component of this GBL season’s massive move rebalance… the actual rebalancing part, where exisiting moves have been buffed or nerfed in Niantic’s attempt to balance the various metas and some of the top (and most used) Pokémon therein. And as you’ll see, that attempt at shuffling the top of the meta was… uh… not entirely successful.

For an analysis on Pokémon recieving new-to-them moves (including a trio of moves entirely new to the game), you need look no further than this legnthy analysis from the season’s opening day. But for this, Part 2 of my overall analysis, and thoughts on how much or how little the major metas may change as a result, let’s get started!

BLUE(S) SKIES

Let’s start right off with Pokémon GO’s big birds, some of whom are elated at newfound relevance… and some which are most definitely now feeling the blues.

First up is Sky Attack, which in my opinion is probably the change in this article with the biggest ripples. The change doesn’t actually look all that significant, as Sky Attack’s power is remaining at 75 and its cost goes up by only 5 energy, from former 45 to new 50. That’s still a perfectly acceptable 1.50 Damage Per Energy (although notably lower than its former 1.67 DPE), and a more than viable move in the grand scheme. Perhaps more importantly, things relying on fast moves Wind Attack or Air Slash (as big Sky Attack users Noctowl and Skarmory do) now take one extra fast move (that’s two extra turns/one second for Wing Attack and three turns/1.5 seconds for Air Slash) to reach the necessary energy. Six Wing Attacks are required to hit 48 energy, or five Air Slashes to get to exactly 45 energy, which were both enough (exactly enough, in Air Slash’s case) for former Sky Attack and flowed well. Now, both will require more delay. Even Altaria with speedy 1-turn (0.5 seconds( fast move Dragon Breath requires two extra fast moves (2 turns/1 second) to reach the energy necessary for new Sky Attack, as each Breath generates 3 energy. (15 Breaths for 45 energy, but 17 needed to exceed 50 energy.)

Noctowl NormalFlying

NOCTOWL undoubtedly takes a hit, and indeed already has. Not only has it fallen about 100 spots in the rankings since last season (all the way down at #122!), but it’s fallen outside the Top 20 in usage (per the awesome GO Battle Log) just two days into the season, down 37% at the time of this writing and likely to keep dropping. It is NOT as drastically worse (at least in GBL) as some have lamented, still holding a decent record and only dropping a couple of meaningful matchups (like Toxicroak). It DOES still generally beat Medicham, Sableye, Lickitung, and most of what it beat before. But many of those matchups and others like Scrafty, Cresselia, and Obstagoon are now much closer and starting to fall within the range where a slight energy disadvantage can flip them entirely. This leads to Noctowl losing much of the “safe” in the “safe swap” it’s been for many competitive players, and that is why I think many in the Play! Pokémon circuit have quickly soured on it. On the right team, it CAN absolutely still be potent, and I think its massive drop in the rankings is perhaps a little too harsh. But having to delay those Sky Attacks a little definitely knocks it down several pegs, and all evidence points to a meta that is actively moving away from it.

Altaria DragonFlying

ALTARIA might be the one actually more directly affected in the win/loss columns, though both its usage and ranking, while not great, are less harsh thus far than those of Noctowl. Altaria now typically loses to three things it could beat previously in 1v1 shielding: Sableye and Pelipper, against which it dies very shortly after absorbing a Return or Hurricane (respectively) JUST as it reaches the 50 energy necessary for a second, match-flipping Sky Attack, and Registeel, one of those wins you’d never expect but 45-energy Sky Attack Altaria COULD pull off. Now it falls one Sky Attack short and loses. I also looked at 2v2 shielding, and similarly, Altaria now loses Toxapex and Lickitung, falling again just a turn or two short of the extra Sky Attack it needs (and used to be able to reach) to turn the tide.

Skuntank SteelFlying

But SKARMORY… I think Skarmory might be toast in fully competitive play now, dropping things like Walrein, Sableye, Toxapex, and sometimes even Lickitung. And others like Diggersby, Dunsparce, Pelipper, Vigoroth, and especially Medicham get WAY too close for comfort now (Medi bringing Skarm into remaining HP in the single digits!). Even Venusaur can now hang in long enough to drag Skarm down to only about 40 remaining HP, and that’s about as favorable a matchup as Skarmory could hope for. And Shadow is even worse, actually losing to Medicham now, as one glaring example. A staple of PvP from the very beginning, the sun may finally be setting on Skarm. Corviknight when?

Lugia PsychicFlying

There are several others that rely on Sky Attack, many of them more spice than meta. (See: Moltres, Swellow, Honchkrow, etc.) But the biggest name outside of those three champions of Great League is LUGIA. More of a Master League option than anything, formerly in th Top 5, and now outside the Top 20. In the process, it drops Excadrill, Gyarados, Palkia, and Xerneas, and escapes with less than half the HP it used to have in wins over Dragonite, Reshiram, Ho-Oh, Mewtwo, Ursaluna and others, still winning but by a MUCH smaller margin. I think it will still hang around, but for those who built it up in its heyday… you have my sympathies. Your big birb is very unfortunate collateral damage of an attempt to push Flyers down in Great League for… reasons? I dunno, still not sure why THIS Is where Niantic spent most of their nerfing energy, honestly. More on that later….

For now, we have the flipside, a buff to another OG Flying move: Aerial Ace. Long derided as a viable but extremely dull and boring move by yours truly, to the point of being called Aerial… uh… the word “glass” but lacking the first two characters by many other players, Ace now goes the opposite direction of Sky Attack by shaving 5 off of its energy cost. Might this bring other Flyers up to fill the Noctowl/Altaria/Skarmory void?

Gligar GroundFlying

If it does, it would seem that perhaps the likeliest candidate may be humble GLIGAR. In fairness, it gets the rare double buff in this update, with its STAB closing move suddenly becoming viable as opposed to… well, a move so bad in the past that Gligar much preferred purified move Return instead. So as to not spoil the other buff now, let’s stick for the moment with just Wing Attack/Return/Aerial Ace as the moveset to compare. And with that, Gligar used to pull only 10 wins versus the Great League meta. And now, it’s twice that, with new wins that include Noctowl (of course, that’s also in large part due to Owl’s nerf, but still), Swampert (including Shadow Swampie), Talonflame, Charm Alolan Ninetales (normal or Shadow), Defense Deoxys, Dunsparce, Cresselia and more, as well as massive improvement in wins versus Venusaur (barely escaping with about 10 HP before, and now running away with about 90 HP), Toxicroak (40 HP before, and again has about 90 left now), Drapion (less than 10 HP before, and almost 60 now) and others. BOTH Shadow and regular Gligar suddenly find themselves as Top 10 options in Great League, and I think they will be one of the new stars even on the biggest stage of Play! Pokémon tournaments. And players are already catching on, with Gligar being the second most trending Pokémon in this very early season (per GO Battle Log). But more on this little dude later when we pull in its other buffed move.

Before that, let’s briefly review some other Aerial Ace users whose stock is on the rise. There are now a dozen of them that rank higher than Noctowl, though only a handful are Flyers, and some still prefer to run moves other than Ace even after this buff. Most the time, anyway.

• Notable Flyers that actually want to run Ace include Gligar’s evolution GLISCOR (Shadow: Rank 28, non-Shadow: Rank 39), who may now prefer Ace over Night Slash but both are pretty good…. MANTINE, who has long been reliant on Bubble Beam baits, is now freed to just go for the throat with Ace costing the same 40 energy as Bubble Beam, enjoying new wins that include Cresselia, Froslass, Drapion, Vigoroth, and CharmTales… though it’s worth noting that it loses the ability to beat Galarian Stunfisk, as it could by softening it up with Bubble Beam. Overall though, this is a BIG win for Mantine, who gains ground (and remaining HP) in wins over Medicham, Swampert, Quagsire, Venusaur, Trevenant, Azumarill, and most everything else it already handled. I don’t know that Gliscor will suddenly start cropping up like Gligar will, but I think Mantine has a real shot at that…. I also see a potentially bright future for TROPIUS, who has always been a little underrated. With a cheaper Ace to go alongside already super cheap Leaf Blade, it has a better chance of defending itself in bad spots…. And while it didn’t really need to get any better, MANDIBUZZ gets a bit more consistent, and I think this settles it with Snarl/Aerial Ace/Dark Pulse being the best moveset, picking up wins over Obstagoon, Scrafty, and even Umbreon now, that last one being the biggest deal. It also beats Umbry now in Ultra League, along with Nidoqueen, Alolan Muk, and Shadow Machamp!

• As for NON-Flyers, the biggest beneficiary is probably SERPERIOR. I was one of several folks that advocated for Leaf Tornado as its second move, but I won’t be doing that anymore. Now that Ace is cheaper than Frenzy Plant, Serp can overcome Scrafty and this little thing you may have heard of named Medicham. And as with Mandibuzz, it’s better in Ultra League as well, now overcoming Scrafty, Trevenant, Buzzwole, and Defense Deoxys (thanks to better baiting ability on that last one)…. ESCAVALIER has long been at its best with Drill Run and Megahorn in Ultra League, but Ace may be emerging now as a legit alternative to either. Drill Run is still required (with either Ace or Megahorn) to beat Cobalion and emerging Steelix, and Megahorn is still needed (with either Ace or Drill) to guarantee punching out Swampert, Gyarados, and emerging Golisopod. But Ace with either can now pull in wins versus Scrafty, Buzzwole, and very emerging Greninja. It couldn’t do any of that when it cost 45 energy…. GOLISOPOD and GRENINJA themselves learn Aerial Ace, though I think they likely want to retain their current recommended movesets (which don’t include Ace). Same with PIDGEOT, EMOLGA, JUMPLUFF and others. But it is certainly possible that any of them could suddenly emerge with Ace now in the right meta, or potentially even in Open, so watch out!

VERY LONG STORY SHORT, yeah, this section was almost an article unto itself! But the nutshell is that Noctowl, Altaria, and especially Skarmory all take hits with the energy increase of Sky Attack, and while they will surely still pop up after their long history in PvP, they are all lesser for it. Big winners of the Aerial Ace buff include Gligar (likely to emerge as full-on meta), Mantine, Mandibuzz, and Serperior, with Tropius and Escavalier perhaps getting more interesting in places where they already popped up.

But the big winner, perhaps, doesn’t have ANY Flying moves at all….

THE LAST LAUGH

No, not the last section of the article (“you’re welcome” or “sorry!”, whichever is more appropriate! 😝), but definitely a bookend to the Flying section above. One of the biggest winners of this entire move rebalance is one that was actually, on paper, nerfed… MEDICHAM.

Medicham FightingPsychic

“But how can that be?”, you ask. “It had its best closing move, Psychic, nerfed by dealing 5 less damage!” Very true. And it DOES lead to a couple formerly close wins flipping to losses, such as Pelipper (which Medi could just finish off with Psychic previous and instead falls just short now) and Azumarill (same story, basically). But in this new meta, Medicham picks up a win over Spark Lanturn (more on the changes to Lanturn that cause this shortly), which brings it to a very similar place to where it was before. And as I’ve mentioned above, many of the Flyers that beat it before still do now, but Medicham gains ground on ALL the Sky Attackers and have legitimate paths to victory over all of them, especially with a slight energy lead, thanks to the Ice Punch (and Counter) it needs to beat them remaining completely untouched. A slight nerf to the power of Psychic (the move) does very, very little to Medicham’s place in the meta, as it is often still sufficient to help it dig out of holes it might find itself in (with just the couple exceptions I mentioned) and its other moves are often enough to overpower many of its opponents anyway. I suppose it’s possible that players may move away from Psychic as Medicham’s closer and turn to either Dynamic Punch or go the other direction with Power-Up Punch, focusing on Medicham’s Counter damage to overpower things. Both of those are viable alternatives for those who want to branch out, but honestly, Medicham can stick with the tried and true Ice Punch/Psychic and barely miss a beat even after the nerf. The meta around Medicham has shifted into a more favorable position for it to do its thing, not less.

And don’t just take my word for it. Check out Medicham on PvPoke’s rankings… it’s now Number 1 in the Great League meta. Or check [GO Battle Log]() and you’ll see that literally no Pokémon is used more in Great League, even still, than Medicham… its usage has actually gone UP 19% in this young season. And check basically any screenshot from GO Battle Log I posted earlier in the article and you’ll see Medicham’s big red graph leaving everythijng else in the dust.

If Niantic’s goal was to nerf Medicham in this update, I think they have failed spectacularly. In fairness, I myself have played around with Psychic (the move)’s cost, and even some with Ice Punch (which admittedly would have many more detrimental effects across the meta), and the effect on Medicham was still rather minor. Unless Niantic chooses to go with the nuclear option of taking moves away from Medicham, I think we’re just kind of stuck with it now, for better or for worse.

Instead, the way to curb Medicham is to control it with the meta itself. Just to editorialize for a moment, I don’t understand the Sky Attack nerfs. Yes, Altaria and Noctowl especially had become very potent in P!P tournaments, but I don’t think they were really the big problem, were they? Medicham is the one that was already seeing 80+% usage, and now it has even fewer roadblocks to success. The ways to control is are with things that keep it from getting out of control. Flyers do that. Ghosts do that. Heck, to at least some degree, Bugs and Poisons can do that too thanks to their Fighting resistance.

I worked directly as part of The Silph Arena’s Meta Team during what turned out to be their second to last season, an honor and a fulfillment of a years-long dream. Prior to that, I had worked around the Meta Team and many of Silph’s top brass as they graciously brought me aboard as their first outside “Contributor” and writer, my meta analyses featured prominently on their website. But actually being ON the Meta Team was an eye-opening experience. It’s easy to come in with fresh ideas and throw them at the wall to see what sticks. We all had ideas, but not all of them stuck. Many of my own didn’t, and while it was still a rewarding experience that I am forever grateful for and don’t regret, it ended up not being nearly as good a fit as I thought and hoped it would be. At the time, I thought the team was too ban-happy in certain metas, I came to realize that analyzing a meta is one thing, but putting one together — much less many metas — is hard work. I can sympathize with Niantic’s own team that has to put together these metas, because to some degree, I lived it myself. It doesn’t all work out as planned.

Niantic, if you’re reading this, I DO appreciate the effort. You tried. But it isn’t working, and perhaps has even backfired completely, with Medicham. I hope you will stop trying to tinker with the individual Pokémon and instead look at the overall meta. Perhaps bring Trevenant back (and/or other Ghosts, and return some prominence to Flyers you just nerfed to keep it AND Medicham more at bay. Maybe actually release Gen8 sometime (instead of dancing around it) and bring us things like Cramorant and Orbeetle and the aforementioned Corviknight to hold Medi down a bit more. I don’t know the best answer, but there ARE answers beyond trying, probably in vain, to nerf Medicham itself. Take this, learn from it, and keep trying.

But this ain’t it. Sorry.

As for other Psychic (the move!) users, I think this only further solidifies them using other moves. Perhaps UMBREON will still want it sometimes for anti-Fighting coverage, or VICTINI just to have some non-Fire damage to throw out there, but CLEFABLE already preferred Meteor Mash and Moonblast, COFAGRIGUS generally wanted Dark Pulse for relative speed anyway, and even most Psychic types like Mewtwo and Hypno have better movesets available to them. This really does seem like something that will only affect Medicham, and that was surely the primary (and likely sole) intent.

I don’t think much of a summary is needed for this section, so moving on to the next….

IT ALL STARTS WITH A SPARK….

Another “nerf” that was clearly centered on one particular top meta option was levied on fast move Spark, and this time the clear target was LANTURN. And as with Medicham, I’m not sure this one landed quite as it was intended to.

Lanturn WaterElectric

Spark’s energy generation was lowered… but only by 1. It used to generate 8 energy per use, and being a two-turn move, that came out to 4.0 Energy Per Turn (EPT). The drop takes it down to a still-above-average 3.5 EPT. But that was’t all. Niantic also raised its damage, this time by 2, resulting in a jump from the former 2.0 Damage Per Turn (DPT) to now 3.0 DPT, a 50% increase as opposed to the mere 12.5% drop in energy generatuon.

Yeah, this is no nerf.

I mean, the record remains unchanged against the core meta… but there ARE key differences. Lanturn now picks up two wins versus DDeoxys and Shadow Alolan Sandslash, owing to its ability to grind them down with fast move damage. However, there are two losses to counterbalance that: Medicham (as mentioned before) and Lickitung, two staples of P!P tournaments. So it is entirely possible (perhaps even probable) that between those key losses and Lanturn likely having less Flying targets in big tournaments, its usage will actually go down more dramatically on the Play! Pokémon than it will in generally-less-condensed GBL. And I think we may already be seeing that. Again turning to GO Battle Log, Lanturn usage is down by 8%, BUT it remains very popular overall, trailing only Medicham itself. (At the time of that capture, which again is still VERY early in the season.)

This will be one of the more interesting things to track this season, as Lanturn remains good — and arguably even better — after this “nerf”. In short, it gets better against things you’d want an Electric to beat (Water, Flying) and gains thw ability to farm things down much moreso than before. But it also gets worse against things weak to Water (since it won’t be reaching Surf as often anymore) and the Mud Boys in particular. The fairest way to view all this is as a very good sidegrade.

It is possible we’ll see the rise of Water Gun Lanturn now, as it was A.) completely untouched by this rebalance, and B.) it might be better for the new meta anyway, washing away new threats like Gligar and Carbink and old threats like G-Fisk. What you miss out on without Spark are things like Mandibuzz, Walrein, Obstagoon, Medicham, and enemy Spark Lanturns.

LONG STORY SHORT, despite a widely touted nerf to Lanturn, the actual story goes much deeper than that. Lanturn usage IS likely to drop overall, particularly in big tournaments, but it should remain a fixture in Great League this season and beyond, continuing to run more damaging Spark or perhaps shifting over to Water Gun. Both still have a lot of good going for them!

DIGGING OUT

As with Flying, there are two moves to mention here, one nerfed and one buffed.

Let’s start with Dig. It has long been basically unviable, costing a whopping 80 energy to deal only 100 damage. To put that in persepctive, not only are other Ground moves all better (the only ones with worse Damage Per Energy than the 1.25 DPE Dig had are bait moves Bone Club and Sand Tomb), but no other move in the game that deals 100 damage costs more than 60 energy. And for even MORE persepctive, every other charge move that cost 80 energy (and there aren’t many) all deal at least 140 damage. Dig was basically unusable, so much so that GLIGAR never even ran it despite being desperate for a closing move and would always run purified with Return instead (130 damage for only 70 energy… comparatively a bargain!).

Gligar GroundFlying

That has all changed now, and rather drastically. The damage has been brought down to 80, but the energy cost has come WAY down to only 50, driving the DPE up to a robust 1.60 DPE. That’s the exact same damage and energy cost as new Scorching Sands (though minus the potential debuff that comes with Sands, of course). As I mentioned in Part 1 of the rebalance analysis, that does put it in an awkward spot between Drill Run and Earth Power, both of which has slightly higher DPE and are just better moves in a vacuum. BUT, things that get Dig generally don’t have access to those better Ground options anyway, so for them, this is most definitely something to celebrate.

As mentioned before, the biggest winner by far is Gligar. Not only does it get the Aerial Ace buff we went into earlier, but now Dig as well! This means that we don’t have to run purified Gligars anymore, and Shadow Gligar (who never could have Return) moves way up in viability… as mentioned earlier, both find themselves suddenly ranked inside the Top Ten in Open Great League. The best cases for Dig are, of course, Steels and Rocks like Registeel, Bastiodon, and Carbink, all of which Dig beats but Return cannot. (Along with Cofagrigus.) Return is better versus Flyers and certain neutral targets, enjoying its own unique wins versus Swampert, Cresselia, Noctowl, and the mirror match. Overall pretty even, so if you can avoid it, I would recommend NOT TMing Return away from any Gligars you already built! It very much still has a place. The improvement with Shadow Gligar, however, is clear and immense, jumping from this all the way up to this. 👀 New wins include (but are not limited to) Registeel, Galarian Stunfisk, Bastiodon, Sableye, Swampert, Spark Lanturn, Cresselia, Drapion, CharmTales, and a partridge in an Appletun tree. Gligar, in either form, is about to rock Great League, folks.

Beyond Gligar, though… just not much has it. This could be a shot in the arms of the Linoones, KISS fan Galarian Linoone especially, who will surely want to shed Gun Shot for the new Dig now and the new wins over G-Fisk, Bastie, Drapion, A-Slash, and Lanturn (with either Spark or Water Gun) that come with it. That’s looking like a nice spice pick now, wouldn’t you say? And yes, Galarian Zigzagoon likes it a lot in Little League, too! Just about everything else that has it still has better moves though, like Diggersby, Dunsparce, Zangoose, and others. I dunno… maybe people who built Nidorina will want to go back to it now?

Stunfisk (Galarian) GroundSteel

The other Ground news to discuss is Earthquake, getting a straight nerf by going from 120 damage down to 110. This may have been inevitable, as all the other 65-energy moves in the game (besides the basically-never-seen Future Sight) only deal 110 damage as well. This is most clearly targeted at GALARIAN STUNFISK, and while it does lose some notable things with this nerf (like Cresselia, Diggersby, and Water Gun Lanturn), it’s still a very good meta option, and remains so in the GL rankings too. I don’t see any hueg changes in Ultra League either, with the occasional Jellicent and such getting through now, but not much else of particular note. G-Fisk is a little weaker today, but I don’t see it really going anywhere.

Swampert WaterGround

The other big one to discuss with Earthquake is SWAMPERT. Considering it’s viable in all three Leagues (four, if you count Little League) AND has Shadow versions AND another viable closer (Sludge Wave) to compare it to, and after the last few days of hectic writing my brain is a gooey, bruised blob, I am going to openly cop out here and just say that we’ll have to see how this affects things moving forward. Yes, I could see Sludge Wave rising up a bit, as it and Earthquake now deal the same damage (without STAB considerations) for the same 65 energy, and the anti-Grass surprise CAN be very, very nice. I could also see many just sticking it out and counting on Hydro Cannon to do 90% of the work and Quake to still do its thing when needed. For example, it still beats all the major Steels, it would seem, with the sometimes exception of something like Ultra League Escavalier. Overall, while it may be a little less dynamic in climbing out of bad spots now, I don’t see Swampert going anywhere either.

And most other Earthquake users either got enough other buffs that they don’t mind (see: Steelix) or have new alternatives to Earthquake and no longer really need it anyway (see: Diggersby). So let’s wrap this section up.

LONG STORY SHORT, Gligar was looking a lot better with the Aerial Ace buff, but it’s the BIG improvement to Dig that makes it really soar now. It’s a huge winner in this round of updates. Galarian Linoone (and Zigzagoon) appreciate this change as well, but the list does kind of stop there. As for Earthquake, the intended targets (G-Fisk and Swampert) take small hits, but should be sticking around anyway. Rest easy, Ultra League G-Fisk owners… your investment appears to still be safe.

ODDS AND ENDS

• I probably should devote a larger section to the changes to X-Scissor, which goes from a former 35 energy for only 45 damage to now 40 energy for 65 damage, a Surf/Dtill Peck/Brutal Swing clone. But I’ll be honest with you… I’m just fried at this point, folks. Even I have my limits! I will say that BEEDRILL may actually be unhappy about this change and might switch to more baity Fell Stinger alongside Drill Run, as X-Scissor was only ever really a pure bait move with the Big Bee anyway…. GENESECT is unlikely to welcome this change either. I think there WILL be spots where it’s happy to just spam X-Scissor as much as possible, but I think it more preferred being able to more easily set up Techno Blast. We’ll see how that one plays out…. CRUSTLE is probably okay with this, but we might now see it go with Fury Cutter as its fast move and both Rock charge moves more now…. I think X-Scissor straight up replaces Iron Head on Scizor (mostly in Ultra League) now. Iron Head was also a bit superfluous with Bullet Punch in use anyway, and now X-Scissor offers a better energy-to-damage ratio (and better coverage) anyway…. Sneasler and Hawlucha now likely prefer Aerial Ace, so not much to talk about there…. I would be remiss not to mention GOLISOPOD, who got Liquidation not long ago and gets buffed Aerial Ace and X-Scissor now. It is undoubtedly better, but HOW much better, and which two of those three moves to run with? My gut says Liquidation/Aerial Ace, just for the coverage it provides, but absolutely I can see X-Scissor finding its way into the mix depending on team and meta. With high-charging Shadow Claw as its fast move, it won’t mind the slightly higher cost on X-Scissor one bit, I don’t think. The way it charges, it reaches only 32 energy after four Claws and hits exactly 40 energy after five Claws anyway, so at least for the charge move, it literally can’t even tell the difference between X-Scissor’s old 35 energy and the new 40 energy. It’s more versatile and scary after this rebalance, no doubt.

Dusclops Ghost

• Poltergeist went up by 10 damage and Boomburst dropped by 5 energy. If they had done those in reverse that may have been more interesting, as Poltergeist’s biggest issue is just being SO expensive. Things like DUSCLOPS can still run Poltergeist, but even with its tankiness, it’s rough charging it up. Boomburst remains useless to anything that has it… move along.
• The “buff” to Astonish is so minor and so disappointing that I refuse to even acknowledge it beyond this mention. Way to get a guy all excited and then dash their hopes, Niantic.

And there it is… BOTH long parts of the most comprehensive GBL Season 16 move rebalance are now complete! Now this is the part where YOU, dear reader, point out all the stuff I missed. 😜 Throw ’em in comments below!

And now I move on to analzying the first batch of Generation 8 Pokémon! Wait wait… you mean we’re skipping them and going straight to Paldea? What, did a Rillaboom stomp on Hanke’s foot or something? Sheesh. Well, look for a PvP review of Quaquaval, Skeledirge, Meowscarada, and fan fave Lechonk (and Oinkologne) next time! Until then, you can find me on Twitter or Patreon. Or please feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!

Stay safe out there, Pokéfriends. Best of luck this season, and catch you later!