Inside the Pokémon GO Baltimore Regional and What It Reveals for 2025 Tournament Circuit

Good day, Pokémon Trainers! GO Battle League Season 20 has brought about quite a substantial update to Pokémon GO’s PvP roster. Not only did we get a faster switch timer, but we also got a huge move update as well. And there has been no shortage of speculations and analyses of how these changes will shake up the meta. Many are testing out some previously ignored Pokémon or strategies to see who are the biggest winners and losers of the new season.

But perhaps one of the best indicators of what actually does and doesn’t work in the current meta is the official Play! Pokémon Pokémon GO tournament circuit. Where Trainers from around the world compete for the eventual title of World Champion. As such the stakes are high and trainers are incentivized to quickly get a sense of the best strategies each season.

With that being said the 2025 season of this official tournament format is already underway with the Baltimore regional. And I thought it’d be interesting to see the early trends in the tournament season in hopes of getting an idea of what the future of GO Battle League and Pokémon GO PvP, in general, might look like. 

Let’s GO, Johto! Battle icon

Something that immediately caught my eye watching the Baltimore regionals is the strong presence of two out of the three starters from Johto, Feraligatr, and Typhlosion. Feraligatr is a no-brainer. The big blue gator was already getting popular by the end of the 2024 season after it got Shadow Claw, one of the best fast attacks. With which it can now spam out Hydro Cannon‘s super super fast.

What was a pleasant surprise was how far Typhlosion went in Baltimore as well. It also got an update recently, getting access to Thunder Punch. Thanks to which it can actually do decently well against Water types despite being a Fire type. Which includes Feraligatr. In fact, it was fun to see how many times people sent out Typhlosion against Feraligatr specifically. They can go toe-to-toe and who wins largely depends on shield investment and energy management.

As the resident Johto fan and a big big fan of Typhlosion, I’m quite happy with this. Now to wait for the Meganium update so we can have the entire trio!

Toxic Plays? Battle icon

So I said Feraligatr was already getting popular by the end of the last competitive season right? Well, Clodsire won 2nd place at the 2024 World Championships. Though to be fair, Clodsire was not on the rise. Only really being used by Inadequence, who is well known for using spicier Pokémon in tournaments. Nobody else was bringing Clodsire.

Oh, how times have changed. We got some substantial Poison type move updates this season. And Clodsire is now the most popular at the start of the 2025 competitive season with around 75% usage on both days at Baltimore!

Clodsire isn’t the only Poison type to get some attention at Baltimore though. As Drapion made a pretty decent showing as well. Having a respectable 18.8% usage on day 2. Though of course, in practical use Clodsire and Drapion could not be further from each other. Clodsire is a reliable tank, being able to take multiple charged attacks even from types it’s weak against. On the other hand, Drapion is a frail, heavy damage dealer that’s typically used in its shadow form.

What’s Old Is New Again Battle icon

Serperior

Before we go on to look at the other new stars of the 2025 season I think it’s worth taking a look at the Pokémon that did well at some point in the 2024 competitive season starting with, Serperior. Serperior was a unique pick by the player OutOfPoket back at the start of the 2024 Championship series. It did so well there that it became a mainstay in the competitive scene for a while. However, it eventually got phased out due to the many many viable Flying types that eventually entered the meta.

Well,  it seems Serperior is back with a vengeance now that a lot of those Flying types are gone. It had a place in multiple top-cut teams, OutOfPoket included. There was even some variation in whether or not trainers opted for Leaf Tornado or Aerial Ace, with both having their uses. So if you have this superior slithery snake lying around with its legacy move, Frenzy Plant, it might be time to bring it out to play again.

Alolan Sandslash

Another Pokémon that did really well early on in the 2024 season only to later fall off is Alolan Sandslash. Alolan Sandslash was really solid as it could do well against both powerful Flying types such as Gligar, along with the aforementioned Serperior. But its double weakness to Fighting type made it very risky to run after Annihilape came into the picture and Skarmory came into the mainstay. Which is a Flying type that is not weak to Ice.

Alolan Sandslash is once again back and on a winning team at Baltimore. Though there were limited numbers of Fighting types at Baltimore. If they start getting popular again we’ll have to wait and see A.Slash’s position in this new meta.

Creesselia

Cresselia did really well all the way to the end of the 2024 season. However, at the start of this season, with some of Cresselia’s best matchups being nerfed, it seems trainers somewhat underestimated this legendary from Sinnoh. However this bulky legendary can still hold itself up really well. So much so that each of the top 3 teams at Baltimore had a Cresselia. 

Something I’m somewhat torn on is Cresselia’s charged attacks in this new meta. Everyone at Baltimore was running Moonblast. And considering how important the Moonblast debuff was for Wdage’s victory at Baltimore I can see why. But with Poison types such as Drapion and Clodsire being popular I am genuinely wondering the viability of Future Sight.

Azumarill

I have to be honest, over time I’ve really come to love our resident bulky blue bunny. Azumarill has seen nerfs, it has seen buffs, it has seen metas rise and fall, yet it hangs on. And Baltimore is no different. As Azumarill was the fourth most used Pokémon on Day 1 and second most used Pokémon on Day 2. So in a strange way, Azumarill has become the face of Pokémon GO PvP for me. I hope Azumarill quietly continues to succeed in GO!

Anything But Normal Battle icon

Speaking of bulky bunnies, Azumarill is certainly not the only one. Lickitung was the bulky Normal type safe swap of choice on the 2024 circuit. But Lickitung has been nerfed allowing for other Normal types to take its place now.

Dunsparce seems to be the first choice. Since its fast attack of choice, Rollout has been buffed. But the other bulky bunny, Diggersby was also in the top 10 in usage for both days at Baltimore as it can actually hard check Dunsparce.

Here Comes A New Challenger Battle icon

Now while talking about Alolan Sandslash I mentioned that there were fewer Fighting types to go around. And this is still true. There are less Fighting type than what we’re used to seeing. But this might not be the case for long.

This is because when we look at Day 2, four out of the five finalists had a Fighting type on their teams. Shadow Machamp seems like the clear winner, being used by multiple top-performing trainers. Though when it comes to actually winning, wdage seems to have preferred the Kalos starter Chesnaught. Even Pangoro saw some play being used by the European trainer TomahawkUK. In fact, Pangoro and Shadow Machamp felt like they filled a similar niche.

Season Of Darkened Skies Battle icon

So the last Pokémon GO season was called the “Season of Shared Skies”. So quite fittingly, there were quite a lot of Flying types that were at the top of the meta during that season. So much so that certain trainers were running multiple Flying types on the same team at worlds!

But now to account for this Flying types have been largely nerfed. This doesn’t mean Flying types can’t succeed, however. Especially if they have a secondary typing. In this case, Dark types are doing rather well. Mandibuzz was already called the Umbreon of the skies because of its substantial use of Dark type attacks and immense bulk. And a Mandibuzz was on the second-place runner-up’s team.

However, what really stole the show for me was the recently unbanned Galarian Moltres. G. Moltres is quite the opposite of Mandibuzz in the Great League format. It’s a glass-cannon Pokémon relying on its newly buffed fast attack Sucker Punch for damage. It’s charged attacks of choice are also quite the gamble as Brave Bird nerfs G. Moltres’s defense by two points, whereas Ancient Power has the chance to buff both its attack and defense. This makes for some really risky and exciting matches to watch!

Conclusion Battle Friend icon

And there you have it. Quite the substantial change to the meta! The battles at the start of this season are already bringing the hype as these newly buffed Pokémon and the faster switch-timer make for some very dynamic plays. I can’t wait to see how this meta evolves as more trainers put everything on the line in these tournaments.

Goodbye for now, Pokémon trainers. Priom-out!

Author & tags

Priom
Priom
Pokémon fan since as early as object permanence allows. Me and my Pokébuddy, PoppyGO are here to hopefully help you with all of Pokémon GO's going-ons!

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