Normally when a new GBL Season begins, we get a move rebalance alongside it, some big, some small. But oh my Arceus, we have NEVER seen a shakeup like we’re about to experience in GBL Season 20! It’s SO massive and so meta-shaking that it’s fair to say the game will be completely different from all 19 seasons that came before, and it will take at least two full articles just to attempt to cover it all. Today, we start with a long list of meta-defining nerfs, and then we’ll get into the positives next time.
First our customary Bottom Line Up Front and then start eating this Donphan one bite at a time!
B.L.U.F.
- Counter and Wing Attack nerfs have the farthest overall reach, knocking many meta staples (Vigoroth, Annihilape, Gligar, Mantine, Pelipper, Pidgeot, and Charizard chief among them) in all Leagues way down the ranks, and bringing others up to replace them.
- Vigoroth and Gligar in particular saw huge falls thanks to multiple move nerfs. Don’t expect to see them anywhere near the prominence they have previously enjoyed.
- Among charge moves, Body Slam and Surf have the most far-reaching impacts. Anything with those moves lose a lot of effectiveness of what were usually their bait/spam moves, making them less threatening and often slower overall (unless they got other buffs to counteract this, which we’ll cover in the next article!).
- Other changes covered below either have more niche affects or are more of a lateral move than a stiff downgrade. Mud Shot, Steel Wing, Razor Leaf and Smack Down, and Rock Slide among them.
- Keep in mind that other things that didn’t get nerfed will still be affected by the vastly shifting metas, some for the worse! We’ll mention a handful at the end.
Alright, buckle up… here we go!
THREE STRIKES, HE’S OUT! 🙈🙉🙊
Vigoroth NormalSo I can introduce THREE nerfs at once with just one Pokémon. Can you guess who it is? I’ll give you a hint: players were perhaps more sick of it than ever the last few seasons, and it was every-freaking-where* in the majority of Great League metas… Evolution Cup, Retro Cup, Holiday Cup, Jungle Cup, Summer Cup, and now even all over Open. Ever since it was gifted Rock Slide for remarkable coverage to go along with Body Slam and the almighty Counter powering it all out.
Yep, we’re talking about VIGOROTH, which just saw all three of those moves nerfed out from under it, plunging this angry ape from its previous ranking at #30 in Great League all the way down now to Number 349 (at the time of this writing). That’s down in the same territory as perennial PvP jokes Vespiquen, Claydol, Magmortar, and Geerafirag Farigamarif Girafathingy but even lower than all of them. I haven’t seen a drop in performance THIS bad since 2024 Joe Biden in debates! (Sorry, sorry. Not getting political here, I promise! Just for the laughs. 😜)
Seriously though, this is not just a nerf… it’s a massacre. No one specific nerf of the three I mentioned may have had Vigoroth as the #1 target (as they all had several other clearly notable targets as well), but make no mistake: Niantic absolutely knew what they were doing to Vigoroth by hitting all three at once. They decided to nuke Vigoroth from orbit… it’s the only way to be sure. Of course, one could argue that was their approach to the entire meta with this update. 🙃
Anyway, is it possible that Vigoroth may STILL emerge in PvP? Sure, nothing is impossible in this game. It still does a number on most other Normal types, and it still has a combination of good coverage and a hard-to-exploit typing in many metas. But make no mistake: it is greatly diminished now, and loses ground even in its most favorable metas of the past. It won’t disappear completely, but the days of it dominating multiple metas each season are over. It’s now just one of the pack rather than king of the jungle. And to many players, that is music to their ears.
COUNTER STRIKE 🥊❌
Now let’s look at perhaps the most impactful nerf of all in more detail: that of COUNTER. It has stood the long test of time in PvP, remaining unchanged through nineteen seasons and defining not just Fighting types on the whole, but shaping entire metas. Yes, it had long been the sign of what makes a good Fighting type (just look at how Poliwrath surged once it got Counter for its Community Day), but it’s a move so powerful that even non-Fighting types like Obstagoon, Haxorus, Defense Deoxys, Wobbuffet, of course the aforementioned Vigoroth, and others have ridden it to PvP prominence. For most of the lifespan of Pokémon GO PvP, it was THE single best fast move in the game, only recently surpassed by the buffed Incinerate and sorta-kinda tied with fellow Fighting fast move Force Palm. The better Fighters come with some nifty charge moves that provide powerful coverage or just good synergy with the fast move, but nearly all of them have lived and died by Counter first and foremost.
Well folks, all good things must come to an end. Counter is now squarely behind Force Palm and arguably less preferred than the buffed Karate Chop now as well. It is by no means suddenly a crap move, still sporting the same 4.0 Damage Per Turn as ever, but its energy generation is now a merely average 3.0 Energy Per Turn rather than the 3.5 it had since my now-sophomore in high school was still in elementary school. (Or since before COVID, as that’s a great measurement anymore!) Still a very good fast move, still within the Top 10 (or so), but now trailing several others like Dragon Tail, Force Palm, and the now-buffed Sucker Punch (which now will have the same 4.0/3.5 stats that Counter used to), Mud Slap, and Astonish. (Yes, really… it’s a world gone mad this season, people!)
So will Counter users be falling off a cliff? Unless they’re named “Vigoroth”, then no, I wouldn’t go that far. The EPT nerf seems to be relatively minor, and some Counter users may barely notice the difference. But some absolutely will, especially those with 35-energy charge moves. Why them specifically? Because 3.5 EPT Counter would reach exactly 35 energy after 5 Counters (7 energy each x 5 = 35 energy), but now 3.0 EPT Counter takes 6 (6 energy each x 5 = only 30, plus one more Counter to get to 36 energy). That matters more than you might initially think, with Cross Chop (Machamp primarily), Night Slash (Annihilape, Sirfetch’d, Obstagoon), Leaf Blade (Sirfetch’d), Power-Up Punch (Scrafty and others), former Body Slam (Vigoroth) and other staple moves all now being a critical second slower, not to mention how this messes up the math of other moves. As just one crucial example, Poliwrath used to be able to reach Icy Wind and then a follow on Scald with a total of 14 Counters (7 Counters for Icy Wind, and then 7 more for Scald). Now, however, the same feat requires an additional two Counters (8 Counters to reach Icy Wind, and then another 8 to get to the energy needed for Scald). This means that while Poliwrath could beat things like, say, Talonflame in Season 19, it can no longer replicate that in Season 20 unless the Talonflame player screws up somehow.
As a sign of all of this, take a look at the Counter user shakeup before the rebalance, and what it is moving forward. Not just how far many past staples have fallen (often by triple digits in the rankings), but also in what moves they’re even using. Machamp and Primeape rise by not using Counter at all, with Primeape actually passing by Annihilape in Great AND Ultra Leagues! Lucario with Force Palm rises up quite a bit, and it and freaking Hariyama with Force Palm surpass everything using Counter in Ultra League except for Poliwrath (including Anni!). Haxous swaps to Dragon Tail. Defense Deoxys drops from the 30th in Ultra League before to not even showing up on the list now. (My condolences to those who maxed that out for Ultra or Wobbuffet for Great League. 😢) About the only one that still remains somewhat relevant while still using Counter is Poliwrath on the strength of its unique typing and coverage, but even there the drop is significant.
I could spend an entire article on just this move alone. Fighters have long been defined primarily by their fast move, and now that is going to be a bit less so. Karate Chop is on the rise now, and that will mean more Fighting threat perhaps coming now from charge moves rather than strictly fast move pressure… but that will be a discussion to continue when we get to the next article focused on buffs to Karate Chop and numerous other moves. For now, however, I think we need to acknowledge this kind of change will have ripples felt for a long time but hard to fully appreciate until we get there… and move on to other analysis for now.
WINGS CLIPPED 🦅
If not for the nerf to Counter, the hit to WING ATTACK would probably be the main headline in this article, even ahead of Body Slam, because of the number of (previously) meta Pokémon affected by it. In Great League alone, we have Gligar, Mantine, Pelipper, Charizard, Golbat, Pidgeot and more. Other than Zard (which is honestly better in Limited metas at that level than in Open), those were all ranked within the Top 50 Pokémon in Great League? And now? Nothing with Wing Attack manages to crack even the top 100!
Gligar GroundThe most obvious target with this hit is GLIGAR, who was suddenly showing up everywhere in Play! Pokémon tournaments and basically every GBL format it was available in. It was ranked in the Top 10 in Great league according to PvPoke, fell within the Top 10 in usage according to GO Battle Log, and was on nearly every team in multiple Limited metas. Now it falls outside of the Top 100 in the rankings… and not even with Wing Attack anymore, but instead Fury Cutter! (That said, I do think Wing Attack is still a bit better, but yeah… not very good. 😬) It also doesn’t help matters that Dig also got nerfed (surely with Gligar in mind as well), but it is primarily Wing Attack’s drop in energy generation that drags it down. I think Gligar will still see use, but only in Limited metas, and nowhere near the top of most of them. Perhaps that’s reason to rejoice…
…but of course, there are several others that get caught up in the wake of targeted nerfs like this, as we’ll see throughout this article. I listed several of those unfortunate collateral damage Pokémon above, but to review:
Mantine Water- Oh MANTINE, we hardly knew thee. Actually, perhaps we knew you TOO well by now. Admittedly I personally had grown to start to hate the sight of that dopey grin bringing death from above, but I still appreciated that it was a thrifty option (thanks to the Baby Discount™) that was finally getting its due after sitting on the fringe for so long. But that was then (Rank #5 in the old meta), and this is now (ranking outside the Top 200!). It will still beat many Grass and Ground types, sure, but many Water, Fire, and neutral matchups (like the Fairies) slip away. Just as with Counter and 35 energy moves, Wing Attack used to be able to hit 40-energy Aerial Ace with just five fast moves (8 energy each x 5 = 40 energy), but now it takes six (7 energy per x 6 = 42 energy). That makes a massive difference in Mantine’s effectiveness. Will it still show in Limited metas? Almost certainly. But its days of curbstomping some entire teams in Open are over.
- Fellow wet Flyer PELIPPER has yo-yo’d in and out of relevance, and now it dips back out, dropping from nearly a Top 20 pick to now barely inside the Top 200. Unlike Mantine and Gligar, it can actually still reach its spammy charge move just as quickly (35-energy Water Ball, which even nerfed Wing Attack still reaches — exactly — with just five uses), but the timing for the Hurricane it usually wants to bait out is all thrown off. So it can still overcome things like Fire types and Mud Boys that Weather Ball deals with, but MANY others for which it relied on a Hurricane closer become unattainable. Like Mantine, I expect it will stick around in a (literally) Limited capacity, but that’s about it.
- GOLBAT has long been another thrifty hero, with the Shadow version in particular parked comfortably inside the Top 50 even in Open Great League. but the good times are over now, with Golbat plummeting to nearly #350, and the performance pretty clearly showing why. Grasses and a few Fairies don’t want to see it, but that’s about it. Both of its threatening charge moves require more charging (and overcharging) and it simply can’t do what it needs to fast enough anymore, becoming clunky where its moves once flowed smoothly into each other. (Old Wing Attack yet again reaching exactly the energy needed for Poison Fang after five uses and now needing to overcharge at six is a killer.) So long for now, buddy. It was a great ride for us thrifty players.
- PIDGEOT had also become a star celebrated for its cheapness (at least in Great League), with a ridiculous win percentage approaching 80% in both Great and Ultra Leagues… if you got the Feather Dance baits right, of course. I don’t know that it will lose ALL of that… it still has good potential in Great League AND still Ultra League depending, as always, on the timing of baits. I wouldn’t go and change your Wing Attack Pidgeots to Gust necessarily (though that MAY have some merit in Ultra, at least 🤔). Rather, I think I’d hold on to what you have and see how the meta shakes up. Pidgeot is brought down from its loftiest heights, no doubt, but it may not crash as hard as many others. Wait and see with this one.
- At least for a time, Wing Attack CHARIZARD was quite scary in Ultra League, and even as recently at Season 19 was still viable, on the right side of a 50% win percentage. Not anymore. I wouldn’t go and scrap your Wing Attack ones by any means, but if you have one with Fire Spin or even Dragon Breath, they’re just better now.
- Also affected are spicy options like Bombirdier, Rufflet, Quaquaval, Staraptor, and both versions of Moltres. (Though the Moltreses {Moltresi?} at least had other fast moves upgraded in this same update.) All of them likely now drop out of even spice territory except for perhaps special Limited metas. Shame.
But hey, on the plus side, this should at least knock Ducklett off its pedestal in Little League, so… yay?
LOSING ALTITUDE 🛬
Trying to go in SOME kind of logical order, let’s briefly hit STEEL WING next. It’s a move that things affected by the Wing Attack nerf like Pidgeot might naturally slide over to… if it wasn’t also getting its energy generation nerfed, from 3.5 down to a very pedestrian 3.0 EPT. The funny thing is that when it was mentioned that Steel Wing would be buffed (from its original 2.5 EPT) at the end of last year, 3.0 EPT is what many of us expected before we were surprised with the generous jump to 3.5 EPT. So this is just a course correction, I guess?
Skarmory SteelObviously this is aimed primarily at SKARMORY, and yes, it’s successful in dragging Skarmory back down to earth a bit. Between that and the nerf to Sky Attack that we’ll talk about in a bit, Skarmory can still pretty reliably handle Fairies, Grasses, Dragons, and others like Mud Boys, but it’s become more of a specialist than a generalist. With the buffed Steel Wing, it could take on things like Sableye, Feraligatr, Clodsire, and other such neutral matchups in the past and come out the victor, but no longer. That all said, Skarm still has a favorable typing, and at least in Great League, I can see it sticking around. It’s not THAT big a dropoff, just requires a little more thought on what teammates are there to bail it out. But I’d be hard pressed to justify building one for Ultra League anymore. That meta is just not favorable at all now.
Empoleon WaterSteelOther than Birds that may have wanted to move to Steel Wing as Wing Attack dropped, the most unfortunate collateral damage here is EMPOLEON. it wasn’t knocking down the door of high level tournaments or anything, but with Steel Wing it had definitely found new life in GBL that is now being sadly curtailed. Metal Claw has been buffed and is probably actually the better option for it now, but that still leaves it a Shadow of its former self. At least in Ultra League. MAYBE there’s more promise in Great League… hmmm. I’ll look into that more in the buff-centric followup to this article.
SHOOT YOUR SHOT
So until Season 20, there was a growing group of moves with 1.5 Damage Per Turn and 4.5 Energy Per Turn: Thunder Shock, Psycho Cut, Poison Sting, Fairy Wind, and MUD SHOT. Now only those first two remain. Poison Sting and Fairy Wind both got a straight damage buff. But then there’s Mud Shot, which is a bit unclear.
It’s getting both a damage buff AND an energy nerf. Presumably, this makes it now a clone of Fury Cutter at 2.0 DPT/4.0 EPT. Ironically, those would be the same stats of popular fellow Ground fast move Sand Attack, the only difference being that Sand Attack is a one turn move, and Mud Shot is two.
But assuming that’s where things shake out… is this even really a downgrade? I’m gonna say yes… but only because of which Pokémon are famous for using it.
Most of them work best because of pure spam. SWAMPERT is flimsy but amazing because of how quickly it can throw out Hydro Cannon in multiples and race to Earthquake when needed. GALARIAN STUNFISK has also always been able to get to Earthquake deceptively quickly and throw out a ton of Rock Slides to get there. EXCADRILL has done the same with Drill Run instead of Earthquake. GREEDENT has been more annoying than ever since getting Mud Shot by being able to throw out seemingly endless Body Slams before going down. And I’m just going to come out and say it… all of them are worse off for this change. None should drop completely out of metas where they were already relevant, but none of them will be nearly as threatening as they were before. The extra damage from Mud Shot matters far less for them than the spam that they have now lost.
This will be less of an issue for particularly bulky Ground types, G-Fisk being a notable exception since it’s also absorbing the Rock Slide nerf fallout (thanks, Vigoroth!). The fall for Quagsire in the rankings (drops from Top 10 to still Top 20 in GL) is far less severe than that of Swampert (mid-teens to now hovering around Rank 50 in GL and UL, and falls outside the Top 50 in ML). Whiscash actually rises a few slots in the rankings, partly due to meta shifts around it but also because its nice bulk allows means that it has less to lose… and gains some more farm down potential as it just hangs in there in battle. Clodsire and Diggersby also rise… though in fairness, they swap to other fast moves to do it.
There are actually a few Master League options to also consider here. Therian Landorus takes a small hit, dropping from inside the Top 10 to JUST outside it (showing at #11 in the rankings currently). Even Garchomp doesn’t move more than a handful of slots down. Excadrill stays about where it was before, albeit by switching to the buffed Mud Slap. (More on that in the next analysis article.) The BIG drop is by Groudon, which drops a good 20+ spots in the rankings. I do still think it prefers Mud Shot to Dragon Tail, but it already felt a little on the slow side before, and that’s only moreso now. Farming down with a 2.0 DPT move is not something you’re going to want to plan on often in Master League, so this hurts in far more scenarios than it helps.
This is a move change that will be particularly interesting to watch. Some of the spammier Mud Shotters will surely be lesser now. But not everything. Don’t celebrate the death of things like Whiscash and Quagsire and Landorus just yet. Only time will tell.
IF A RAZOR LEAF SMACKS DOWN THE GROUND, AND NOBODY HEARS IT….
Victreebel (Shadow) GrassPoisonI think it’s only fair that before I move on to the nerfed charge moves (and there are some whoppers), I wrap up the fast moves first. RAZOR LEAF has been nerfed before, going from 11 to 10 power back in Season 6, and Razor Leafers persisted. Now it’s going down to 9 power (4.5 DPT). Yes, this is a nerf and there’s no way to sugar coat it. But will Shadow Victreebel and friends care? This may drive down all the Grass Hole teams players encounter early in the new season, but I don’t see those players packing up forever. I believe there will still be metas where Razor Leafers anger and annoy just as they always have.
Bastiodon RockSteelThen there’s SMACK DOWN, also taking a small hit in the DPT department, likely going from the old 4.0 DPT/2.66 EPT to something like 3.66 DPT/2.66 EPT. And the intended target, Bastiodon, won’t care in the slightest. It was Rank 8 in Great League in Season 19, and in Season 20 it drops a whole… one slot, to #9. Partly this is meta shifts though, in fairness, with Fighting generally shifting from high damage Counter users to low power Karate Chop users, and Ground types dropping from their spammy ways as well (as we just talked about with Mud Shot). Threats still remain, for sure, like the buffed Mud Slap. But overall, this meta is still a place where Bastie can — unfortuantely — continue to thrive, so all this “nerf” does it hurt spice like Crustle, Tyranitar, and Celesteela, and completely dash any hopes anyone ever had of Aggron finally breaking out.
GETTING BODIED
Okay, finally circling back on charge moves, starting with arguably the highest impact nerf among charge moves: the 10 damage nerf to BODY SLAM. It used to be better than the Weather Balls, but is now 5 damage less for the same cost. To put that in perspective, it’s now become Night Slash/Breaking Swipe/Cross Poison without the chance to debuff or buff like they can. Not awful, but now quite ordinary, especially considering that it will NEVER deal super effective damage. We already talked about the brutal fall of Vigoroth, so I won’t go over that again. But there are several other (formerly) high ranked Pokémon affected by this as well.
Lickitung NormalUndoubtedly the biggest one (other than Vigoroth) is LICKITUNG, which Niantic surely had in mind as part of this nerf in the first place. It was a Top 10 Great League Pokémon to this point, and that’s just in Open. In certain Limited metas, it was everywhere. Yes, it never wanted to see Fighters, but beyond that it could go toe to toe with just about anything, able to win even when it made no sense like against Skarmory (which resists both Body Slam and Lickitung’s closer Power Whip) and Annihilape. It has Top 20 bulk/stat product in Great League and could just hang in there forever. It had a 60% winrate without even trying. But now? It drops outside the Top 50, and can’t even pull a 50% winrate against the new GL meta. It no longer beats big names like Clefable, Jumpluff, or Lanturn, and now falls behind its much easier to build evolutionary big bro Lickilicky (for reasons we’ll cover more in the next article). RIP to those who invested in high rank Lickitungs. It’s not completely out the meta or anything, but it is very suddenly surpassed by several better options when it used to be Lickitung that was the gold standard.
Others like DRAGONAIR, DUBWOOL (especially in Ultra League), and ZWEILOUS are, I think, more like unfortunate collateral damage. Perhaps Niantic considered them all, but I don’t think they were primary targets in mind. Once again, RIP to those who maxed out their Dubwools for Ultra League. I’m also sad to see my enthusiasm for CETITAN die on the vine. Booooo. And of course, my kindred spirit SNORLAX cries, as does its little bro MUNCHLAX.
Now, there ARE some Body Slammers that found a way to actually get better in this new meta… but only because of other improvements, which we’ll cover — you guessed it — next time!
WINGS CLIPPED, PART DEUX 🪽
As if the nerf to Aerial Ace wasn’t bad enough, SKY ATTACK is getting nerfed again, with its damage rising from 75 to 85, but its cost also rising from 50 energy to (likely) 55. Remember that this move already had its damage reduced from 80 to 75 in 2021. and then its cost raised from 45 to 50 in 2023. Technically, it’s a better move now, but it’s not the move most things that have it want, as most of them use it as their cheapest move, often to set up a big closer. This is true of SKARMORY which set up Brave Bird with it (now those both cost the same energy!), LUGIA which really needed as cheap a Sky Attack as possible to set up Aeroblast (the poor thing is just sad in ML now), and it was the primary and often only move needed by ALTARIA and NOCTOWL, who both drop from where they used to be, likely completely out of Great League relevance except perhaps in Limited metas. This is one I really don’t understand… Skarmory was already taking a hit, and I’m not sure Altaria was bad enough to merit this. But what do I know, I guess.
SLIPPIN’ SLIDE 🪨
And finally the third strike for Vigoroth: the nerf to ROCK SLIDE. Now dealing 65 damage (10 less than before) for 45 energy, it becomes a clone of Discharge and Seed Bomb. Not at all unusable, but far less threatening than before… the kind of move you want to use more for baiting and in-a-pinch coverage than as a main beatstick.
I already touched on Galarian Stunfisk and Excadrill earlier, who are affected somewhat by this but primarily by the quasi-nerf to Mud Shot. Defense Deoxys is affected by this too, but its usefulness was already torpedoed by the nerf to Counter, so no sense bringing that up again. In theory this would wreck Machamp and Dunsparce, but they are getting other buffs that we’ll talk about next time that overcome this new downside, and then some.
So that just leaves a couple worth mentioned.
Carbink RockFairy- CARBINK doesn’t actually mind this at all. It was ranked #2 in Great League last season… and stays right there at #2 in GL in Season 20, with a very robust outlook. In fairness, this probably has more to do with meta shifts — Mud Boys being slower, Fighters shifting from more fast move damage to charge move pressure instead, Steel Wing nerf, etc. — than it does with Rock Slide. Certainly Carbink owners aren’t happy about this, and shouldn’t be. But Binkie should shrug this off just as Bastiodon looks likely to charge ahead without minding the nerf to Smack Down too terribly much.
- CRADILY has become more popular since getting Rock Slide a few seasons back. It does fall back a bit now, unsurprisingly. I think it will become a rarity in more open formats, but should remain a potent pick in Limited metas, perhaps with Stone Edge again on some teams. It drops about 40 slots in GL and 30 in UL, and is officially recommended with Stone Edge for both now by PvPoke.
- Similarly in Master League, things affected by the Rock Slide nerf DO generally fall, but not too severely. HISUIAN AVALUGG falls less than 10 spots, from #25 to #34, but that’s enough that it may be better off with Crunch or Blizzard now. TERRAKION falls about 20 spots and would probably benefit from a switch over to Close Combat. MELMETAL, if you’re still running it, looks like it probably wants Double Iron Bash moving forward. And interestingly, NIHILEGO actually rises a bit (a dozen slots, up to #75), but you probably still don’t want it.
LOW TIDE 🌊
The last wide-reaching nerf of the day is one that definitely makes some waves… SURF is getting an update similar to Sky Attack with a damage AND cost increase. No longer is it 40 energy for 65 damage, but likely not 45 energy for 75 damage, which would make it a one of a kind move in GO. Every other 75 damage move costs 55 energy, aside from the awesome Doom Desire which runs for only 40 energy (and is basically busted on anything but Jirachi). Surf is actually slightly better now on paper… but as with others we’ve looked at in this analysis like Sky Attack and Mud Shot, “better” isn’t the full story. Surf is almost always a bait or coverage move on things that use it in PvP, not a closer type, so any energy increase is working directly against what they want to do.
Lanturn WaterElectricThe most obvious example (and likely primary target Niantic had in mind) is LANTURN, who can sometimes just Surf things to death, but often uses it to soften the opponent up, remove a shield, and then zap them with Thunderbolt. That gets much harder now, especially after many Lanturns moved away from the higher energy gains of the recently nerfed Spark (just this past June!) and went to the average energy generating Water Gun instead. It had already fallen outside the Top 25 last season with Water Gun… Spark variants were wallowing down at #66. And now, even Water Gun Lanturn is down in the mid-60s. Ouch. Lanturn is still a unique corebreaker and isn’t going to drop out of any metas where it was before, to include even Open Great League, but it’s going to be more niche and less of a wide-ranging threat now. No longer can it beat some of the new meta’s biggest threats that it could before, like Carbink, Shadow Quagsire, Pangoro (yes, really… more on that next time!), and sometimes Galarian Weezing.
But as with other moves targeted primarily at a big meta threat, there are… well, ripples that go out from this beyond just Lanturn.
Jellicent WaterGhost- JELLICENT is one I’ve mentioned a few times since this was announced, and everyone is like “oh yeah, I didn’t even think about that!” Well, it absorbs this change pretty well in Great League, but in Ultra League it can no longer outrace Galarian Weezing, Talonflame (ouch!), or Grassy Ghosts Trevenant or rising-big-time Decidueye. Don’t throw them out if you’ve built them, but do consider parking it for the time being in Ultra.
- TAPU FINI had become a very popular pick in Ultra League and a prized trade for sneaking into Great League. Well, in Ultra League it now loses to Drifblim, Lickilicky, and Clefable… it’s a bit better than Primarina, but not by much. And in Great League, this nerf devastates Fini, cutting its wins nearly in half as it drops Feraligatr, Gastrodon, Azumarill, Clefable, CharmTales, Sableye, Pangoro, and even things any decent Water type should beat like Bastiodon and even Skeledirge! Yes, really… I checked. As long as Skeledirge has a shield, it can throw that at the first Surf and now outrace Fini before Fini ever reaches a second charge move. Man, I don’t love Fini. Not anymore.
- It’s been a while since LAPRAS was a big part of any meta, but as one of my long-time favorites, this and this just make me sad. Surf has long been something that set Lappie apart from other Icy Waters that have risen and fallen around it, and now that’s been changed so as to not be the bait and coverage it needs. Farewell, partner. 🫡 Perhaps we’ll have another day in the sun in the future.
- I would be remiss not to mention KYOGRE, something that many players did a lot of raiding to build up for Master League. It doesn’t completely fall off a cliff, but it does become much more “mid”, as my kids would say, dropping former wins like Reshiram, Mewtwo, and improved Florges and Sucker Punch Yveltal. (Yes, those are going to be legit players in the new ML meta, folks!)
- There are some spice options worth mentioning like the SLOWBRO/KING families (remember, Surf was their big Community Day move!), FURFROU, HAXORUS, and of course MEW who often run Surf for handy coverage. Not sure how much they’ll be affected, but they certainly WILL be negatively affected by this. As with many others above, Surf was their cheap move to set up other things. Not so much anymore.
Surf’s out, dudes.
ODDS AND ENDS
Okay, those are all the big, multi-target nerfs. Good thing too, as despite covering now even half the changes in this article, I am STILL almost out of room on Reddit! 🥵 So let’s cover the last few nerfs rapid fire style and bring this analysis home!
Registeel Steel- The nerf to ZAP CANNON clearly has REGISTEEL in mind, a Pokémon so polarizing that it has led to nerfs to all of its viable charge moves (Zap, Flash Cannon, and Focus Blast) at some point in PvP’s history. Zap Cannon was already dropped from a 100% chance to lower the opponent’s Attack two years ago to 66%. Now here we are with the percentage being lowered again. It could be 50%, it could be 33% as PvPoke is guessing. But either way, it’s hard to show the effects this will have in sims, but it’s worth noting that even with that past nerf, the Doorknob Of Doom was still ranked #1 in Great AND Ultra Leagues last season. PvPoke’s projections drop it just outside the Top 20 in GL and just barely inside the Top 10 in UL, though if memory serves that sort of drop also happened last time and Regi clawed its way back up. We’ll see how it goes this time… but it’s not going to go away.
- FUTURE SIGHT now deals 10 less damage, making it a clone of Earthquake and Hurricane. Maybe CRESSELIA will just go back to Moonblast now, but either way, it will remain in its respective metas despite being shakier to things like Clefable, Malamar, and Ampharos as they improve in Season 20. The meta shifts are far more of a concern than Future Sight’s nerf.
- And finally, the nerf to DIG drops it from 80 damage to 70, making it a clone of the very meh Heavy Slam/Iron Head twins (when you gonna tweak one of THOSE exactly-the-same moves, Niantic?). More than most things in this update, this has one and only one target in mind: GLIGAR, and combined with the Wing Attack nerf drops it WAY down the rankings, as noted much what feels like three days ago near the top of this article. 🤪 Yes, there ARE other viable-ish Dig users (Oinkologne, both Linoones, Spinda, Nidorina), but they’ve always been pure spice and will remain so. This is all about Niantic ensuring Gligar doesn’t show up in so many matches in Play! Pokémon tournaments, folks! Plain and simple.
INDIRECT NERFS
Very briefly, I’ve mentioned a few throughout this article, but here are some other things I see being negatively affected in this update without getting obvious nerfs.
Charjabug BugElectric- CHARJABUG has become quite prominent even on the biggest PvP stages, but despite seeing no direct changes, the drop of Counter and Wing Attack users means that Charj will just have less to do. It drops from a Top 50 option to #130 in Season 20, and it’s not even Charjabug’s fault! (The same is true for GALVANTULA, for wherever you’d want that.)
- There are a few Grasses actually on the rise, but ABOMASNOW is not among them. Again, it has less Flyers to hit now, and of course it doubled as a handy Mud Boy slayer and they too are moving downward. Aboma, like Charjabug, just has less to do now.
- The thinning of the Fighting field also gives Ghosts a bit less to do, and that plus some new options (again, we’ll cover them next time!) means that former staples like Sableye, Trevenant, and Froslass fall a little bit, and SKELEDIRGE in particularly falls a bit more (from inside the Top 100 previously to now barely cracking the Top 200). This is a bit more prominent in Great League than elsewhere.
- We’ll cover why next time, but Fairies are likely to be on the rise in this new meta. That means that Dragons in general all fall off a little bit in Great League specifically. In addition to Altaria, look for GUZZLORD, GOODRA, and GIRATINA to all lose a little steam. None should drop out of their respective metas, but all just got a little bit worse, I think.
Alright, that’s it for Part 1! Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets or Patreon.
Part 2 will be later this week, covering the good news from this update. I look forward to walking through all that with you, Pokéfriends. Catch you next time!