Cetitan and Wyrdeer in PvP

We’ve got TWO new Pokémon arriving this week, one out now and one coming in a Christmas Eve Eve Raid Day event. How do they stack up in PvP? Worth grinding for? Well, let’s let our Bottom Line Up Front answer that and then get into the deets. Here we go!

B.L.U.F.

• Cetitan is “fine”. It’s a solid enough Ice type with solid enough moves that even has play (its best play, actually) in Master League. You can grind for it if that sounds like something you could use, and it’s honestly just one small move tweak away from potentially being far more interesting.
• Wyrdeer is something I’ve been looking forward to, and while Niantic did not totally destroy it with their move selections, the moves it has frankly don’t mesh very well together. Grab a couple while you can, but don’t expect to do much with it barring its own move shakeup.

Alright, if you’re still here, let’s dive into the facts and figures.

CETITAN Stats and Moves

Cetitan Ice

Great League Stats

Ultra League Stats

Master League Stats

Yes, I said I want to be brief, but I think it’s worth covering the stats for Cetitan, because they’re pretty interesting. Decent Attack, ridonkulously high HP, but with Defense that trails even things like Haunter/Gengar and such. Its stat spread overall is similar to other things with crazy high HP and low HP, such as Wigglytuff (which has the same Defense but a bit more HP) and Guzzlord (which has a lot more HP but about a dozen less Defense). So there are things similar to it, but nothing quite like Cetitan with its unique stat distribution. It has a bit more Attack than those two examples and slightly less overall bulk, but it would be fair to call it “bulky” overall. Actually, here you go: the closest comp I can find is Drifblim (on average, 120 Attack, 75 Defense, and 208 HP in GL, and 155 Attack, 96 Defense, and 272 HP in UL.)

Anyway, the typing is… unfortunate. Ice is arguably the WORST defensive typing in the entire game, resisting only other Ice damage and being weak to Steel, Rock, Fire, and Fighting damage. As I’ve noted when I’ve reviewed other Ice types like this, it’s a typing that is often somewhat masked by other secondary typings on many of the better Ice types in PvP, with Water (Dewgong, Walrein, Lapras, etc.), Steel (Alolan Sandslash), Grass (Abomasnow), and Ghost (Froslass) being some of the ones that grant it helpful resistances to help cover its flaws.

I will, however, skip a rundown of all the moves and just focus on what’s relevant.

Recommended Moveset: Ice Shard | Body Slam & Avalanche

Your only other options are Tackle and Heavy Slam, and while I suppose it’s possible that the latter could see some use in Ice-heay Limited metas (like the current Holiday Cup meta), even there the sheer power of Avalanche and spam of Body Slam are likely to continue to win the day.

And that’s even moreso in Open formats….

GREAT LEAGUE

Cetitan isn’t terrible in Open Great League or anything, but it’s certainly far from great. In what will become a theme, I think it’s worth comparing to Avalugg, another mono-Ice type with the same charge moves (Body Slam and Avalanche) and the advantage of slightly better bulk, but also having a worse overall fast move in Ice Fang, which deals higher damage but has much worse energy generation (4.0 DPT/2.5 EPT, as compared to Ice Shard‘s 3.0 DPT/3.33 EPT). Ice Fang just doesn’t have the energy necessary to make the charge moves as threatening as they need to be, which leaves Avalugg slightly worse off than Cetitan in Great League, uniquely outracing Whiscash, Mantine, and Powder Snow Alolan Ninetales, but losing to things Cetitan can beat instead, including Pelipper, Shadow Charizard, Shadow Whiscash, Sableye, and Umbreon.

Of course, neither hold up to the scrutiny of being compared to established Ice types like Dewgong, Walrein, Alolan Sandslash, Abomasnow and others.

Maybe the higher we go, the better we’ll find?

ULTRA LEAGUE

Well, not so much in Open Ultra, where it again tracks very closely to Avalugg. Flyers, Dragons, Grasses, and a couple Grounds go down, but honestly not much else. Yet again, there are far better Ice types to use with more varied wins outside of the standard Ice role.

However, most of those fall away in the one place where things like Cetitan can shine out brighter….

MASTER LEAGUE

NOW… now we might be talking. As I’ve pointed out in several past analyses, Ice types are at their most potent in Master League, where many of their hardest counters (Fighters, Fires, and Rocks especially) are few and far between, and things countered by Ice (Dragons, Flyers, Grounds) make up nearly half of the established Master League core meta. And so any Ice type that can break into Master League is in for at least a decent time. There ARE still Ice types that leave Cetitan and Avalugg behind, but only a small handful: Kyurem and the new Baxcalibur (though the latter is more down on the same tier as Cetitan overall), long-established Mamoswine (which has the added benefit of handling Steels, including the elusive Dialga), Avalugg’s Hisuian cousin now that it comes packing Icy Wind this season.

Still, though, you may find that building a Cetitan is MUCH easier than those mostly rare and/or Legendary options. And of course, should Niantic ever decide to bring back Master League Premier (as they promised several seasons ago… cough, cough), then Cetitan gets much more interesting with the Legendaries being left out. Even moreso than other options. HMMMMM.

So if you’re going to build a Cetitan at all… this might be the time to REALLY grind for a Master League specimen. I don’t anticipate it really breaking out otherwise, though of course you never know what moves the future may hold. It can learn basically every Ice move out there in MSG, and adding the right one could very suddenly make it MUCH more interesting. 👀

LITTLE LEAGUE…?

Cetoddle Ice

And before I forget, as I know folks will understandably ask, what of pre-evolution CETODDLE? As with Cetitan, it’s fine enough in Little League, just rather unremarkable and with better equipped Ice types to contend with. But it’s okay and worth holding onto if you find one with good Little League IVs, sure.

For now, though, on to the other cold weather debut of the week….

OH DEER, OH DEER….

Wyrdeer NormalPsychic

The good news is that WYRDEER is potentially Great League eligible right from the raids it will be initially coming to us in… as long as you get 10 Attack and low Defense and HP IVs. (Something like a 10-12-11 fits just inside the Great League CP cutoff.) The bad news is that, even at the best possible best friend trade IVs {6-15-15, BTW), it’s just not very good. Similar to the Stantler that it evolves from, it’s just a hodgepodge of moves that are good on other Pokémon, but just don’t work well together on something with the same (not very good) stats as things like Rhyperior, Swoobat, and Purugly. (Ugly is right.) Wild Charge, Megahorn, even Confusion are all good in a vacuum, but thrown together on something that gets STAB only on Confusion, and it just doesn’t work. So bad is it that Wydeer needs the mediocre Stomp (40 energy for 55 damage, basically Normal-type Ice/Thunder/Fire Punch) to even achieve its highest potential ceiling.

And while Wyrdeer gets to Ultra League size without having to dip into XL candy, the situation is even worse, with most of its wins coming only against things critically weak to Wild Charge or Confusion, the only exceptions bring stuff like Skeledirge, Trevenant, and Golisopod (as Wyrdeer happens to be a Psychic type that resists Ghost damage thanks to Normal’s 2x resistance) and a couple random Fairies (Granbull and Alolan Ninetales). But that’s about it. Not anything to write home about, I am sorry to say.

As with Cetitan, there ARE ways to make it quite a bit more interesting, using moves it can get in MSG like Lunge (which would be truly unique!) or of course Body Slam, or possibly the future introduction of signature move Psyshield Bash (which inflicts damage and raises the user’s Defense in MSG, and is literally found on only Wyrdeer and Stantler). So sure, go ahead and grab a couple while they’re available, because Niantic sometimes has looooooooooong gaps in availability on things like this, and you never know what crazy move rebalance may suddenly bring it to fore. I feel compelled to point out, however, that we already HAVE other Psychic/Normals types in PvP, covering Master League AND Great League, that are better already. (The latter of which has a future evolution) that will surely be coming to GO before too long and will likely hold down the fort in Ultra League as well. 🦒) I forget how you say its name, though… isn’t it Geeriffarag or something? Faragamariff? Geoffamafig? Something like that. 🤷‍♂️

Alright, that’s it for this “quick” look. Wish I had better news, but hey… at least now you know, right?

Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets or Patreon.

Good hunting (and raiding)! Stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!