The Love Cup is a special GO Battle League (GBL) format that will take place during the Lunar Year and Valentines Day events on February 8th, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. PT local to February 15th, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. PT, meaning it will last six hours.
This will be done in Great League and the only rule is players can only use Pokémon that are red or pink. For a full list of eligible Pokémon, please see our other post regarding the Love Cup.
Now, let’s dig into the best core picks for this cup and some wildcards below, then we will look at some team compositions that are being run right now by some top players. This pool of Pokémon is relatively small, so let’s dive in.
Best Pokémon to use in The Love Cup
| Pokémon | Best Fast Move | Best Charge Moves |
|---|---|---|
Medicham
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Counter Fighting |
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Alomomola
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Waterfall Water |
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Clefable
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Charm Fairy |
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Charizard
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Wing Attack* |
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Electrode
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Volt Switch Electric |
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These top Pokémon are not listed in any specific order, as you can see that they counter each other. It will be up to you to build a strong team with a mixture of these top picks and other wild cards listed below.
Medicham
Medichamis an awesome pick and its something that you likely already have powered up. Medicham has been a powerhouse since the beginning of PVP introduction and if you don’t already have one, use this opportunity to build one. In fact, you may need to build a new one anyways due to the introduction of lvl 50.
We are still at the beginning of people building XL Pokémon, so I don’t imagine you will find many in battles. It doesn’t benefit you to take Ice Punch in this cup, so take Power-Up Punch or Dynamic Punch instead.
Alomomola
Alomomola is an interesting pick for this cup and is probably only going to be useful in this cup or maybe future special cups. So, it is up to you if you want to spend the stardust to power one up or not. It’s super strong against the fire and rock types in this meta and defeats the other strong water type in this meta.
Just beware of the electric and grass types that run in the meta as well. A well planned Psychic can take out those poison and fighting types as well.
Clefable
Clefable is the preferred “charmer” choice and shreds through the fighters and dark types. It also does massive neutral damage and wins matchups against other common picks. You’ll just want to watch out for the fire and poison types that resist you. Charm is definitely a power fast attack in this meta and will likely be very common in battles.
Charizard
Charizardis a very strong pick in this meta because it resists charm. You will want to go with Wing Attack in this meta if you have it because its good against the fighters and actually has better energy gains.
You will need to watch out for rock types like Magcargo and the pesky water and electric types. Charizard is a high risk, high reward type Pokémon in this meta.
Electrode
Electrode is a very strong pick with great energy gain and charge moves that can take advantage of it. It counters the strong fire, flying types in the meta, as well as the water types. You will want to look out for grass types and the charmers in this meta. The fighters will beat you as well, but you should be able to chunk some damage before they take you down.
Wildcard picks
Magcargo
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Talonflame
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Scrafty
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Vileplume
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Cherrim (Sunny)
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Lickitung
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Wigglytuff
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Scolipede
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Wormadam (Trash)
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These wildcard picks are to supplement the core picks above. It may be the case that you are substituting one of the core picks for one of these wildcards based on your availability, but generally the ones of the same typings in the wildcard are weaker than the ones in the core picks.
The obvious exception to this is Magcargo and Charizard, where Magcargo smacks down Charizard pretty hard, but may not be as good in other matchups. It is up to you to pick a team of three that works for you and your play style.
An honourable mention is Seaking, if you happen to have a triple legacy. You can make one, but it would be awfully expensive (in terms of real money) if you don’t have elite TMs just laying around.
Love Cup Meta
Now that the pros have had a day to battle in the Love Cup meta, it is pretty much a game of rock, scissors, scissors. Let me explain, you may have seen team compositions in regular PVP of double grass and Bastiodon, or double charm and Snorlax. Well there are multiple permutations of this strategy with this meta. The examples below will make this more evident.
You could go double grass with a water lead, double charm with a Magcargo lead, or double fire with grass lead. Basically, it can throw off your opponent who is unprepared for the double use of one type, but it could also cost you if they happen to counter you pretty hard. I wouldn’t feel too bad if you are losing a lot because it seems to be luck of the draw.
Experiment with this concept and let people know in the comments what is working for you. You absolutely do not have to follow this strategy. Feel free to build a “balanced” team from the available Pokémon as normal and post your best combos in the comments.
Example Team Comps
- Alomomola, Vileplume, Cherrim
- Cherrim, Alomomola, Slowbro
- Vileplume, Charizard, Talonflame
- Slowpoke, Slowbro, Slowking
- Charizard, Scrafty, Medicham
- Chairzard, Rotom(wash), Electrode
- Magcargo, Clefable, Wigglytuff
- Alomomola, Wormadam(trash), Scolipede
- Vileplume, Magcargo, Crustle
- Clefable, Lickitung, Lickilicky
- Alomomola, Blissey, Chansey
- Cherrim, Alomomola, Electrode
Author’s Team
3kkology here, and let me tell you my team. I am using a newly made Talonflame because it is still pretty new and people aren’t really familiar with it. It has great charge move bait and a hard hitting charge move that takes people by surprise.
Paired with Talonflame is triple legacy Seaking, because I actually had a double legacy that was pretty cheap to turn into triple legacy. It’s able to take care of other water types and even grass types. Paired with Clefable to take out fighters and resist bug and do solid neutral damage in switch.
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Talonflame
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Seaking
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Clefable
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Credit to PvPoke.com and GO Stadium for the simulation data.
