We’ve made it. The JRE Trilogy (as one of my readers has taken to calling it 🤣) is complete!
Today is the final of three full analysis articles on the massive, game-altering mother of all Pokémon GO PvP move rebalances. We’ve gone through the nerfs. We’ve gone through the buffed fast moves. And now, the epic conclusion to our saga, with the buffed charge moves. And I tried to leave just enough room for a brief Bottom Line Up Front to summarize before we dive in. Here we go….
B.L.U.F.
- Swift is the new Body Slam… basically. It helps most everything that gets it, but the only thing it lifts to totally new prominence is Ursaring. Clefable, Wigglytuff, and perhaps Ursaluna stand to benefit greatly too.
- Trailblaze is a pretty great buffing move now, but the only thing that gets it that I haven’t already discussed at length and that WANTS it is Skuntank. Really nice for it, though! 🦨
- Brutal Swing is a favored move now on everything that has it, besides being more of one of several viable choices for Tropius and G-Bro. All the rest that either had it or are now getting it appreciate the change and are better for it.
- Shadow Punch is MUCH better than the sad state it used to be in, and elevates everything that can learn it, including some things that have never seen relevance into overnight stars!
- Similarly, Bone Club goes from kinda lame bait move to legit good damage move in its own right. Alolan Marowak likes that, of course, but it’s not the only thing that learns Bone Club, nor the biggest beneficiary….
- The other charge moves that have been buffed, newly distributed, or both are alright, but nothing groundbreaking like the others mentioned. They all get a shout-out and some analysis at the end, so do check that out, but stuff like Night Shade, Power Gem, and Parabolic Charge are more interesting case studies than stuff to get all excited about. They can’t ALL be big winners!
And now.. the conclusion to the trilogy. 😊 Strap in!
SWIFTIES 💨
In the Part 1 analysis on nerfs, I spent a good part of the beginning of the article talking about the nerf to Counter, the move that largely defined Fighting types in PvP through its first 19 seasons. Basically everything with Counter drops in the rankings.
Wigglytuff NormalFairy- I already highlighted the potential of Swift on CLEFABLE in Part 2, so let’s talk about another Fairy that stands to benefit: WIGGLYTUFF. It’s just gotten better and better over time, getting Disarming Voice to replace Play Rough, Icy Wind to replace Ice Beam, and now Swift to… replace what? Probably Disarming Voice, honestly, which is a bit superfluous with Charm doling out so much Fairy damage already. The improvement isn’t all that big, but it is there, with new win potential against Lickilicky and Galarian Weezing, two big risers this season. Both Icy Wind and Voice require 45 energy, whereas Swift being only 35 means that Wiggly can reach it TWO Charms faster. For a Charm user, that’s positively hasty! And Wigglytuff, unlike other Charmers, gets STAB damage on top of it. Nothing but good news here for your reigning best Charmer in Great League.
- I hear a lot of folks talking excitedly about what Swift could now do for Shadow URSARING, and I mean, the numbers show you why, with a huge number of potential new wins that include Feraligatr, Alolan Sandslash, Alolan Marowak, Skeledirge, Talonflame, Goodra, Gastrodon, Guzzlord, and Umbreon! But man, it’s one of the glassiest of glass cannons that relies completely on self-nerfing Close Combat to finish off most of its opponents. The ceiling is high, but so is the floor. Tread carefully. And when it comes to Ultra League, Swift doesn’t even help all that much… it looks consistently as good or often better with Close Combat and Trailblaze instead.
- There might be some more intrigue with Ursaring’s evolution, URSALUNA. Yes, it still really likes having Ice Punch in an Ice-weak Master League with which it can beat things like Zygarde and Yveltal, but there IS a case for the sheer speed and bait potential of Swift, giving it more consistent wincons versus Dialga and Dialga Origin, for example, and a better shot in the mirror match. Personally I’d probably stick with Ice Punch still, but it’s never a bad thing to have legit new options.
- I was hoping this would help UXIE out more, but alas. I was also excited to see what it could do for HISUIAN ELECTRODE, and while that could MAYBE be interesting alongside Energy Ball if Electric Cup ever returns (I’d be okay if it didn’t, honestly!), I think it just needs both Ball and Wild Charge too much to give either up otherwise.
🎼 ON THE TRAIL AGAIN…. 🎶
I don’t recall for sure at this point (my poor brain is mush after this week LOL), but I feel like I’ve been talking about TRAILBLAZE a lot in recent rebalance analyses. For one of the game’s more recent additions, it has spread like wildfire, learnable by 44 Pokémon (of varying degrees of relevance). And it was fine enough move before, at 50 energy for 65 damage and a guaranteed Attack buff for the user… an exact, type-swapped clone of Flame Charge. But now the cost drops, and at 45 energy, it becomes a clone instead of Discharge and Seed Bomb… while retaining the guaranteed Attack buff. That’s awfully nice!
So what things that have it (and actually want to use it in comparison to their other moves) become particularly interesting now?
Skuntank PoisonDark- The biggest riser in Ultra League and especially Great League isn’t even a Grass type: SKUNTANK. it rises 50 slots in Ultra (up to #31 for Shadow and #36 for non-Shadow), and nearly 200 slots in Great League, up to #83. That may seem a particularly notable spot, but you have to consider not just how many things it beats (which is still a decent list), but what it beats. Thanks primarily to its Poison side (and Poison Jab), Grasses and Fairies generally all falter. Its Dark-side resistances to Ghost, Psychic, and Dark mean it beats Lickilicky, Cresselia, Feraligar, Umbreon, Mandibuzz (a notable new win with this update), Malamar, and more. Then Trailblaze comes into play and adds on things like Lanturn. Tack bonuses like Charjabug and Goodra on, step back and admire the names on the winlist, and yeah… this makes sense. You even have some options, with Crunch being the de facto second charge move (and one that’s needed to outrace some things, like Mandibuzz despite being resisted), but there is a case for Flamethrower too for maximum coverage, and for beating things that resist Dark and/or Grass like Drapion. As for Ultra, the ranking doesn’t move as impressively, but the results do, with new wins versus a slew of Water types like Swampert, Greninja, Gastrodon, and Tentacruel. Stank is looking like a very strong option in these new metas.
- PERRSERKER is another one that sees only a modest climb in the Ultra League rankings, but a nice set of new wins that includes Swampert, Golisopod, and interestingly, Venusaur, benefitting from that faster damage buff from Trailblaze rather than Trailblaze direct damage.
- I actually already indirectly highlighted what the improved Trailblaze can do for things like Ursaring, Ursaluna, Donphan, Lokix, and Ariados in Part 2 of the rebalance analysis. And other things that get it just don’t want it, with things like LURANTIS benefitting more from Leaf Blade and Superpower, and the RAICHUS usually preferring Wild Charge and a bait move (Thunder Punch or Brick Break). But yes, in metas where they WOULD perhaps want Grass coverage, obviously this is better now. Other things like CACTURNE get better, but even with this AND the improved Sucker Punch, still not enough.
- ORANGURU and AMPHAROS both get TWO moves buffed this Season, Trailblaze and one other we’ll talk about next. So just come with me to the next section and we’ll break them down there….
BRUTALITY!
Alright, this is probably the widest reaching charge move update we’ve got. BRUTAL SWING is one of those moves in this rebalance getting both its energy cost and damage changed at the same time. While others like Surf and Sky Attack are seeing both go up, Brutal Swing has them both going down, with a 10 damage reduction (from 60 down to 50), but also an energy cost reduction, surely to 35 from the old 40, seeing as how no charge move in the game costs less than that. But that’s not what I meant by wide-reaching. Currently there are six Pokémon with at least some degree of PvP relevance that have this move, and with this update there will be six more having it added, the most of any move being newly distributed in this update. Ampharos and Oranguru were already mentioned above, with the former already having the move and the latter getting it starting in Season 20, one of those six Pokémon to get Brutal as a new move. Let’s start with the new recipients, and then go down the list from there.
Oranguru NormalPsychic- So let’s wrap up the discussion on ORANGURU with the buffed Brutal Swing AND Trailblaze. The important thing to note here is that it’s never had a change move costing less than 45 energy, and with each Confusion (really its only usable fast move) generating 12 energy, that meant you had to slog through four of that slooooow “fast” move (remember, it’s a 4 turn move, so it takes two full seconds of real time per Confusion) before you could throw any charge moves at all. Brutal costing 35 energy now greatly speeds that up, as only three Confusions are required for it, and there is practically no extra energy burned. (3 Confusions = 36 energy, literally just 1 more than Brutal Swing will now cost.) Perhaps even better, Dark damage is exactly the sort of thing Oranguru often wants to be doling out, as Psychic and Dark combine for excellent coverage. Between those two, that means new wins in Great League over Feraligatr, Dewgong, Shadow Quagsire, CharmTales, and sometimes Dragonair. And in Ultra League, the new wins come against Feraligatr (again)< Swampert, and Dragonite. The sims show a loss to Skeledirge, but that’s actually also a win as long as you throw an early Trailblaze, boost your damage out, and THEN finish off with Brutal Swing. Going straight Brutal Swing leaves Skele alive just long enough to reach a third, fatal DIsarming Voice (or Crunch) instead. The mo’ you know….
- The other double beneficiary is AMPHAROS. Now in this case, the needle doesn’t actually appear to move all that much. In Ultra League, where it’s made a bit of a name for itself, it only gets one notable new win, over Poliwrath. Down in Great League, some weird stuff happens. The good news is new wins over Carbink, Lanturn, and Charjabug thanks to being able to race to more charge moves than before. The bad/interesting news is that the reduced power that comes with the “buffed” Brutal Swing means that a former win over Trevenant now flips to a potential loss, with Trevor firing off a final KO Seed Bomb with one HP remaining. And that’s a great example of how even a clear buff like this can still come with drawbacks as compared to how Brutal Swing was before… sharing little details like this are what I live for in these analyses!
- Another one we’ve already looked at in a previous part of this article triad that definitely bears a mention here is GALARIAN WEEZING. Last time I noted its improvement with the buffed Fairy Wind and that it climbs to Top 40 in Great League and Top 20 in Ultra League, and all of that is still true and good. It’s actually the highest ranked Brutal Swinger (no, not like that, you weirdos! 😝) in each of those Leagues, if that tells you anything. If not, this and this tell the story. And yes, I continue to advocate for Overheat rather than the standard recommendation of Play Rough, because the coverage and ceiling it brings are fantastic, but especially this season when Fairy Wind it dealing more Fairy-type damage anyway. Overheat beats things like Clefable, Wigglytuff, Trevenant, Venusaur, and A-Slash (in Great League) and Registeel, Drifblim, Drapion, and Venusaur (in Ultra League) and the mirror match into the win column, giving up only a couple things like Mandibuzz and Umbreon (in GL) and Mandi, Greninja, and Tapu FIni (in UL) to get there. Its wins against Regi, Drifblim, and Clefable in Ultra are all new with the buffed Brutal Swing, as is a successful race against Skeledirge in Great League, reaching an extra Swing it couldn’t in the past for the KO. And I’m pleased to point out that in Ultra, you can max out a hundo and lose out on literally nothing (and in fact you gain a win over Greninja), and save yourself a couple levels’ worth of XL Candy and dust.
- Believe it or not, Brutal Swing isn’t mere coverage for everything… there ARE a couple actual Dark types that learn it too, for a change of pace. 😛 One of them actually seems to get a tad worse this season, though it’s not really its fault: GUZZLORD. In previous seasons it ran with Dragon Claw and Crunch, but now I think it instead wants Brutal Swing and probably Sludge Bomb for a hail mary to throw at the rising Fairies. Preferred fast move Dragon Tail reaches Brutal after four Tails now as opposed to the 5 Tails it needs to get to Crunch, and Crunch deals only 5 more damage… Brutal is just better now overall, and pairs better with Dragon Tail than does Dragon Claw for the same cost. As for Sludge Bomb, as I said, Fairies are definitely on the rise, and deal DOUBLE super effective damage to Guzzie, so having that potential direct answer now has far more value than chip damage from Claw or doubled-up Dark damage from running Brutal and Crunch together. In the end, Guzzlord’s position doesn’t really change in Great League, and rises only ever so slightly in Ultra League with a new win against Drifblim. Guzzlord’s rankings drop but it’s really not moving all that much in the new metas, up or down. There’s also HYDREIGON, which moves UP in the rankings but also doesn’t really change much. It has some value as an anti-meta pick, handing Ghosts, Psychics (including Solgaleo and Dawn Wings), and (some) Darks, as well as Lando, Kyogre, Garchomp, and Mamoswine, and like Guzzie, has (at least theoretical) coverage versus Fairies with Flash Cannon. But I dunno… personally I feel its new #33 ranking seems a little high. Just me? 🤷♂️
- Just wanted to take this opportunity to pour one out for CONKELDURR. In an article full of things mostly moving up, it didn’t deserve this fate. The Brutal Swing adjustment would have been awesome for it had Counter not also been nerfed. It’s gone from the potential best Fighter in Master League as I wrote about to just a chump that can no longer overcome Reshiram, Dawn Wings, Yveltal, or even Zarude as it could before. The highest or highs brought low again, all in less than a month. Ooooof, this one is a gut shot.
- On the flipside, TYRANITAR had its fast move (Smack Down) nerfed as well, but Brutal Swing manages to (slightly) raise its performance anyway. with new wins over Metagross, Mamoswine, and Focus Blast Mewtwo. So there’s that? You can even run Bite now if you want to and it’s a viable sidegrade, trading away Mamoswine and Reshiram to instead chomp through A-Giratina and Dusk Mane.
- Among new recipients (other than Oranguru), we come first to RUNERIGUS. We noted in Part 2 that things like Runie with both the newly buffed Astonish and Shadow Claw probably want to stick with Claw, but the larger point now is if there’s any reason to retain Sand Tomb, its only Ground move, or just go with the higher damage (but lower coverage) Brutal Swing now. Well, im sims, Sand Tomb and Brutal Swing are basically sidegrades to each other in Great League, with Sand giving Runie a shot versus G-Weeze and Gastrodon, but Brutal instead taking out scary Ghosts Trevenant and Shadow Alolan Marowak. I think I’d still lean Brutal Swing but there’s a case for not doing that. In Ultra League the choice is a bit more clear, with Brutal Swing taking out Cresselia, Gastrodon, and Tentacruel in addition to everything Sand Tomb can do, but that’s one very UN-thrifty project that I still have trouble recommending. Especially with another FAR less expensive Ghostly Ground type rising through the ranks that we’ll get to in a bit.
- TROPIUS also now learns Brutal Swing, its first true coverage move. Not a bad idea except that Trop already has the incredibly OP Leaf Blade at 35 energy, which deals so much damage that even when going against something that is weak to Dark and takes only neutral from Grass, both Leaf Blade and Brutal Swing deal nearly identical damage (like, MAYBE 1 or at most 2 extra damage for Brutal, but that’s it). And its other move is Aerial Ace, which is pretty key to the advantage Trop has versus other Grass types. Overall there’s very little difference here, with me only really seeing that on Razor Leaf Trop (generally less preferred than Air Slash anyway), Brutal Swing is needed to beat Trevenant and Aerial Ace being required for Whimsicott. But that’s really about it. Different Limited metas will call for one or the other.
- Similarly, GALARIAN SLOWBRO will certainly appreciate this in the Limited meta of Psychic Cup (not Psycho Cup as I mistakenly put in the Part 2 article, probably at 1am while in a writing stupor 🙃) later this season. But it has so many charge move options between Surf, Scald, Sludge Bomb, and Focus Blast that Brutal Swing is more situational coverage than a must-have.
- PASSIMIAN and MIENSHAO learn Brutal Swing now. But uh… neither of them really matter.
And that’s finally it with Brutal Swing! Let’s move on….
A PUNCH FROM THE SHADOWS 👊
For a long time now, SHADOW PUNCH has just been the worst of the many _____ Punch moves in PvP, and one of the worst 35 energy moves too, dealing the same low damage (40) of Psychic Fangs without the Defense debuffing benefit that comes with Fangs. That equates to a pathetic 1.14 Damage Per Energy (DPE), worse than things you never see used like Psybeam, Submission, Brine and others, and far worse than Fire/Ice/Thunder Punch that deal 55 damage for 40 energy (1.37 DPE).
But that was then, and this is now: without getting any increase in cost, Shadow Punch now deals the same damage as those other Punches… making it suddenly the BEST Wolverine Punch! 35 energy for 55 damage is equivalent to the Weather Balls, Cross Chop, Aqua Tail, and the new stats for Brutal Swing and Swift that we’ve already covered. In other words, Shadow Punch just went from a strict bait move to a legit move all on its own!
This is good news for some admittedly spicier picks like DUSCLOPS (who gives up Jumpluff by moving away from Ice Punch, but picks up stuff like Registeel, Galarian Weezing, and Azumarill instead) and HAUNTER (with the Shadow version gaining Regi, Charjabug, Talonflame, and even Shadow Quagsire), but there are some more meta options I’d like to take a few minutes to really highlight:
Gengar GhostPoison- GENGAR is generally just a better Haunter in Great League now. I can’t fully explain it, but it’s slightly better bulk gives it wins Haunter cannot readily replicate, such as Feraligatr, Goodra, Shadow A-Wak, and then either Shadow Dragonite for non-Shadow Gengar or Dewgong for Shadow Gengar. It’s a little more inconsistent than Haunter versus Charjabug and Quag, but overall I rank it a bit higher, as does PvPoke. And Gengar, of course, can compete in higher Leagues too, putting on an impressive showing in Ultra League and having at least spice potential in Master League Premier too.
- There’s another long-neglected Ghost that has an ever higher ceiling though, at least in Ultra League: DUSKNOIR. I once basically criticised Niantic for giving Dusknoir Shadow Ball on its Community Day and not Dusclops, who seemed much more deserving. Until this point, Dusknoir’s cheapest charge moves have been pure bait move Ominous Wind (45 energy) and Dark Pulse (50 energy). So a 35-energy move like the new Shadow Punch is JUST what the doctor ordered. Does it work, though? Can that alone help Duskie finally become PvP relevant? Well again, at least in Ultra League, the answer would seem to be a resounding YES! This one is worth a screenshot, but compare that simulation (22 wins!) to Season 19 Dusknoir… a pitiful eight wins versus the same core meta as the new Season 20 lineup. New wins include (in order) Clefable, Decidueye, Dragonite, Drifblim, Feraligatr, Altered Giratina, Registeel, Swampert, Talonflame, Tapu Fini, Tentacruel, Trevenant, Venusaur, and Virizion! Yes yes, this is actually two move improvements contributing, as Astonish got a big buff as well, but still. I would dare say no single Pokémon sees quite as much of a zero to hero story in this entire move shakeup than Ultra League Dusknoir. Now will it actually perform that well? Hard to say, but the potential gets two thumbs up from me as a worthy new project to build. Thankfully you don’t have to completely break the bank to do it… a Level 44 near-hundo does the same job without much issue, and saves you 4+ levels of excess XL Candy and tons of dust. Good luck! (I lean towards non-Shadow BTW, as it’s just better overall, so thankfully there’s another cost savings too.)
- Finally, we get to one of my favorite Pokémon designs that I have tried to force as a spice pick to limited (often disastrous, if I’m being honest 😅) effect in the past: GOLURK. This thing comes with a very unique moveset of Ground (Mud Slap, Earth Power), Ghost (Shadow Punch, Astonish), and Fighting damage (Dynamic Punch), but has been hindered in the past by Mud Slap, Astonish, and Shadow Punch all being meh at best. But obviously as the fortunes of all of those moves are on the rise, so too are the fortunes of Golurk. In a reverse from Dusknoir, Golurk remains rather middling in Ultra League (and better as a Shadow), but rises to new stardom in Great League. (For comparison, here is Golurk with pre-buffed Mud Slap and Shadow Punch.) It already took down a group of Rock, Steel, Poison, and/or Fire types as a Mud Slapper should, and Fighters as a good Ghost type should, but now it adds a bunch of more impressive wins like Lanturn (even with Water Gun), Dewgong, Dragonair, Goodra, CharmTales, Sableye, Alolan Sandslash, Trevenant, and Venusaur, despite ALL of them having super effective moves to throw at Ground/Ghost Golurk. In so doing, it rises 400 slots up in the rankings, becoming a truly disruptive threat in this new meta. Short of a heavy Water or Grass assault, a solid Dark type, or a top notch Fairy or Normal, there’s not much that Golurk doesn’t have an answer for now. This thing is gonna be FUN, folks. And similarly GOLETT in Little League!
WHEN THE BONES ARE GOOD… 🦴
So BONE CLUB was in the exact same boat as Shadow Punch until now: 35 energy for a measly 40 damage. And now it gets the same treatment in Season 20: a big damage buff up to 55, giving it the exact same stats now as Shadow Punch, Brutal Swing, and Swift. Somebody over at Niantic really likes those stats, apparently!
The distribution in GO (and MSG) is limited to just three Pokémon total. Let’s check them out and see how this helps!
Marowak (Alola) FireGhost- The only one that has really made inroads in PvP to this point is ALOLAN MAROWAK, mosrly in the pre-Skeledirge days, as the fiery croc has mostly surpassed A-Wak over the last couple seasons. While meta changes around it mean that A-Wak stays in basically the same place it was before (with new losses to Malamar if Psywave gets a rumored +2 energy buff rather than just +1, and Machamp as it now Karate Chop races its way to Stone Edge), it does pick up a nice win over Bastiodon thanks to the increased Bone Club damage… and in fact, can get the vast majority of its wins with Bone Club alone. (Shadow Bone or Shadow Ball are really only needed for Talonflame out of this core meta list.) Sadly it still loses the head to head with Skeledirge, but note that while A-Wak basically remains rooted in place as compared to last season, Skeledirge slides backwards (dropping Malamar, Pangoro, and G-Weezing) without any new gains, so this is still overall good news for Alolan Marowak… they’re on more equal ground now. A-Wak can beat G-Weeze AND Pangoro, which are likely to both be pretty big this season, as well as Bastie, which Skeledirge cannot handle. Conversely, Skele overcomes Guzzlord and, as stated before, beats A-Wak head to head. Which one might YOU run, dear reader?
- The real story with the Bone Club buff isn’t Alolan at all, though. It is instead Original Recipe KANTONIAN MAROWAK, or of course just “Marowak” for short. A complete afterthought in past seasons lurking in the 300s in the rankings, both its regular and Shadow versions suddenly find themselves in the Top 30, the latter all the way up at #15! This despite having primary coverage move Rock Slide nerfed pretty hard. Turns out the buffs to Bone Club AND Mud Slap more than make up for it. One big factor is that change to Mud Slap, more so the energy gains. Each Slap used to generate 9 energy, but now it’s 10. What’s the difference? With Bone Club costing 35 energy and Rock Slide sitting at 45, both new and old Mud Slap would reach the first charge move at the same time (4 Mud Slaps to the first Bone Club, or 5 to get to Rock Slide if going for that first). But then things change drastically. Mud Slap of Season 20 will have 5 energy left over (4×10 or 5×10), whereas Mud Slap of previous seasons will have only 1 energy left over if Bone Club was used, and NO leftover energy if it went on to Rock Slide instead (4×9 = 36 for Bone Club with 1 left over, 5×9 = 45 exactly for Rock Slide). Therefore, the new Mud Slap can then string charge moves together much more easily… either 7 total for back to back Bone Clubs (4 Slaps for the first Club, 5 energy left over, and then just 3 more Slaps to get to 35 energy for the second Club), or eight total for a combination of Mud Slap and Rock Slide. No matter what, previous season Mud Slap will have to go one Slap further, and will be overcharging the second charge move slightly to do it, wasting energy. ANYway, the end result of that plus the damage buff to Bone Club means that new and improved Marowak can now bury Skeledirge, Umbreon, Pangoro, Guzzlord, Lickilicky, Water Gun Lanturn, and Dragonair where it couldn’t before. ShadoWak is even a bit more impressive, adding on Skeledirge, Umbreon, and Dragonair as its non-Shadow form does, but then a new group of wins, several of which would rightly be assumed to have the upper hand: Venusaur, Alolan Ninetales, Alolan Sandslash, Goodra, Cresselia, Shadow Quagsire, and Machamp. And finally, just to quickly stack them against each other, ShadoWak’s unique wins are A-Slash, S-Quag, Venusaur, Cress, and Goodra, while non-Shadow Marowak’s unique wins are instead Pangoro, Talonflame, and Guzzlord. Pick your pleasure and enjoy your new Great League Ground star.
- Last one to mention is pre-evolution CUBONE. While it lacks the Rock Slide coverage of Marowak, it definitely makes good use of the buffed Mud Slap/Bone Club combo and should make some waves in Little League Cups moving forward.
ODDS AND ENDS
That’s right, folks… the light at the end of the tunnel is ahead! We have officially reached the part of the article where down to moves that either only affect just a couple of Pokémon (or even just one!) and/or don’t have any noticeable positive affect. Let’s smash through these and finally, FINALLY, bring this grand article trilogy to a close!
- POWER GEM has always been a very blah move in PvP at 60 energy for only 80 damage, the same as Aurora Beam, Gyro Ball, and Bulldoze… usable moves when you badly need the coverage they can provide, but never something you really feel good about being forced to rely on. Now it goes up to 85 damage and probably down to 55 energy, which is… okay, I guess? Same stats as newly nerfed Sky Attack, and again… that was after a nerf, which tells you that Power Gem would still be kind of mid. (Dangit, my kids have that becoming part of my regular vernacular now. 😖) IF it happened to drop to 50 energy, we might have something, as that would be a clone (in stats) of Oblivion Wing, Crabhammer, and Scald, and would require me to issue an addendum. But going with the 55 energy assumption, CARBINK still wants Rock Slide despite its nerf, and SABLEYE is still better with Return (though it’s down this season anyway with rising threats around it). I suppose Shadow Sable appreciates this? But no, sorry… VESPIQUEN still isn’t happening. Stop trying to make it happen, Niantic. Just take the L. (Again, I blame my kids for me using these phrases! Send help! 😂)
- SPIRITOMB can use ROCK TOMB now, AND gets Sucker Punch buffed. But uh… no, it’s still not good, sorry. Poor Spiritomb.
- NIGHT SHADE has always been awful, at 55 energy for only 60 damage. Now it might be actually okay, jumping to 80 damage and likely 50 energy, a clone of decent PvP moves Sludge Bomb, Hyper Fang, Dark Pulse and others. That would be a pretty big deal… if anything that HAD the move actually wanted to use it. HISUIAN TYPHLOSION and HISUIAN DECIDUEYE now learn it, but have Shadow Ball and Aura Sphere/Aerial Ace as overall better moves already. NOCTOWL comes with Shadow Ball too. ZOROARK now gets it but is still pretty awful in PvP. So then we’re looking at… what? CHATOT? C’mon, give this to something that could do something with it!
- Speaking of weird distributions, several things can now learn DRAINING KISS. Unfortunately, unless Niantic forgot part of the announcement, it retains the awful 55 energy/60 damage statline that Night Shade used to have, and nothing that had it before or gets it now will ever realistically want to use it. Perhaps Niantic is just setting it up for a future buff à la Night Shade. But until then, it helps nothing and often actually hurts. Hard pass on this one.
- PARABOLIC CHARGE is undergoing several changes that are unfortunately left vague. We know for sure that its damage is going from 65 up to 70, but the reduction in cost and now-added chance of buffing the user’s Defense are unknown. PvPoke is guesstimating a final statline of 50 energy for 70 damage and a 30% chance of Defense buffing, which seems reasonable. If that’s what ends up happening, then I am sorry to report to SwagTips and everybody else that no, DEDENNE is no better, and jn fact would likely still prefer Discharge! As would BELLIBOLT. And HELIOLISK wouldn’t want it either. Let’s hope Niantic has a bigger cost reduction and/or greater chance of self-buffing in mind.
- And finally we come to the very last move to mention: SPARKING ARIA. ‘Wait, JRE, that’s not even part of this update!’ I know, but it’s worth mentioning now that it’s in the game that while it does nothing for PRIMARINA, which had the strictly better Hydro Cannon now, there IS another Pokémon that can learn Aria in MSG that WOULD stand to benefit: LAPRAS. It still likely wouldn’t take it back to its former glory days, but it’s at least better now than the just-nerfed Surf. Pleeeeeeeease, Niantic. You owe Lappie this much! 🙏
FINAL THOUGHTS
Honestly my brain is quite mush now haha. Between all three articles that it took to get through the largest single update we have EVER seen to PvP — and very likely the largest we will ever see to come — that was about 120,000 characters’ worth of writing, and that was only after some trimming down! But as always, this was a labor of love for you, my dear readers and fellow players. I hope it all serves you well as you venture forth into what will feel like a whole new PvP landscape in GBL Season 20.
I’d like to take a brief moment to do what I don’t do enough of: thanking others. So thank you to my colleague and friend Matt from PvPoke, the rock on which all these analyses are built and the only reason I can do what I do for you. (And in particular for getting both the old and new metas running concurrently in support of these 120k characters’ worth of analysis!) Thanks to GO Battle Log for all the wonderful analysis they do and will now to do all over again in these new metas. Thanks to my colleagues at GO Hub for their support and for graciously hosting these and my last 300+ analysis articles on their site. Thanks to the Silph Road, Silph Arena, and GOBattleLeague subreddits and their mods for keeping this going and helping slay the overzealous automods when they get uppity about my character counts and such. 😅
And of course, thanks to YOU, dear reader. I would keep doing this even if there were far fewer of you, but having your continuing encouragement, gratefulness, support, and loyal readership for these last five and a half years really does help keep me going. Rarely are my analyses as grueling as the last week and a half have been just trying to get through all this, but even when they are, helping you and being fed by your positive feedback and love right back helps keep it rewarding and FUN. Thank you all, and may this be as rewarding for you as it continually is for me.
That all said, no rest for the weary! I still have analysis to do on the first Cup of Season 20 — Shuckle & Bronzor Little Galar Cup — and then the Galarian starters and Dragapult! And I got like 2 days to do it before they all arrive! So right back to it! ✍️
Until then, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon if you’re into that.
Thanks again, Pokéfriends. Good luck as we venture forth together, and catch you next time!