You thought we were done? Oooooh no. Niantic didn’t hear no bell!
Earlier this week I celebrated the conclusion to an epic trilogy of analysis covering the nerfs, buffed fast moves, and finally the buffed charge moves in the largest, meta-redefining move rebalance ever to hit Pokémon GO PvP.
Well, it turns out that even three massive articles wasn’t enough. The trilogy, as it turns out, has a post credits scene! 🎥 Three more moves to cover that saw even more improvement than expected, and thus require yet One. More. Article.
Here we go!
NEW WAVE 🔊
So back in Part 2 of the rebalance analysis, I briefly mentioned PSYWAVE, but I knew then this would be one to revisit if Niantic pulled the trigger on a +2 energy buff rather than the tepid +1 that I expected. Sometimes Niantic can still surprise, and they chose to do so here by giving the +2 energy buff, literally double what it used to be. This takes it from a completely unusable 3.0 Damage Per Turn/2.0 Energy Per Turn move to now 3.0 DPT/4.0 EPT, a clone of Volt Switch and Shadow Claw, except that unlike 4 turn Switch and 2 turn Claw, Psywave is a one turn move. That’s a big deal too, as there is NO energy loss if you’re racing to a charge move… no cooldown to have to wait for. You hit the energy needed for a charge move, you can fire it off immediately. That’s really nice in battle, as anyone who has been waiting for the cooldown of, say, a Volt Switch to finish can tell you. It just feels good to use one turn fast moves. Frankly, this is partly why I expected a mere 3.0 DPT/3.0 EPT move, as it would then a clone of other one turn fast moves like Water Gun, Lick, Tackle, and Bug Bite.
Malamar DarkPsychicAnyway, where does that leave us? What even HAS Psywave? The main one that everybody is hyping up (and for good reason!) is MALAMAR. Many have probably not used this thing outside of Psychic Cup (which is returning in a couple weeks, BTW), as its only viable fast move in the past was Psycho Cut, which does great in terms of energy gains (4.5 EPT!) but deals very little damage (only 1.5 DPT). That left it on the outside looking in on the meta. But now? Now that all changes. In addition to beating stuff that Psycho Cut already could with its combination of Foul Play (like Cresselia) and Superpower (Lickilicky, Dunsparce, Dewgong, A-Slash, Bastiodon, and such), now it still beats ALL of those and adds on Fighters (Machamp, Chesnaught), Ghosts (Alolan Marowak, Skeledirge), and other meta threats like Goodra, Diggersby, Feraligatr (regular and Shadow), and big bad Clodsire. Those are some GOOD names to have on your winlist this season. Indeed, Malamar is showing as #7 in general usage in Great League so far, and #7 among trending Pokémon, per GO Battle Log (shout-out to one of the best resources out there, if you haven’t checked them out before!). It’s VERY early in the season, yes, but that is a very encouraging start.
But perhaps even better is the potential of Ultra League Malamar. Again, with Psycho Cut, there would be very little to talk about… just a couple Ghosts and Ghost damage-dealers (Giratina-A, Golisopod, Feraligatr) and some randos like Venusaur and Ampharos. But now it’s one of the best things in Ultra League, with all these added wins (in order, for simplicity): Cobalion, Cresselia, Decidueye, Dragonite (regular and Shadow), Shadow Drapion, Greninja, Lickilicky, Machamp (regular and Shadow), Poliwrath, Registeel, Skeledirge, Tentacruel, Trevenant, and Virizion! No wonder it’s suddenly ranked #3!
So Malamar is obviously a big winner, but anything else? Here’s the entire list of what even has Psywave in GO right now: Mr. Mine, Misdreavus, Mismagius, Lunatone, Solrock, and of course Malamar (and Inkay). What stands to benefit?
Inkay DarkPsychic- Interestingly, Malamar’s little cousin INKAY suddenly has the looks of a Little League beast! Though it’s held in check in Little Galar Cup (seeing as how it falls to Bronzor AND Shuckle and a large number of relevant Dark types), I do think we’ll see it flying high in Little League formats in the future.
- The fact that LUNATONE picks up seven new wins (Carbink, Charjabug, Chesnaught, Goodra, Guzzlord, Alolan Marowak, and Skeledirge) and still come out looking this bad should tell you about everything you need to know about Lunatone in PvP. (It’s really not much better in Ultra League either.) And SOLROCK is really no better.
- Similarly, it’s not that there isn’t notable improvement for MISDREAVUS or MISMAGIUS — there absolutely is — but they remain not quite good enough in any Open format.
- MR.
MEMEMIME likes this, but it’s still useless in Great League and strictly in true meme territory in Ultra. You can do better.
And uh… thaat’s it! That’s the list. So this is really just something that matters for Malamar (and Inkay) in any significant way. And that’s okay!
HIDDEN GEM? 💎
It was widely expected that with POWER GEM getting buffed from 80 power to 85, that a teased energy cost reduction would take it from the old 60 down to just 55, making it a clone of (the newly nerfed) Sky Attack. In other words, viable enough but very unexciting.
But lo and behold, Niantic was feeling generous and dropped the cost all the way down to 50, making Power Gem instead a clone (stats-wise) of Oblivion Wing, Scald, and Crabhammer. That’s actually really good.
The issue, as with Psywave, is that the distribution is rather limited….
Sableye DarkGhost- The clear #1 target of this buff has to be SABLEYE. It has long operated as a Great League linchpin, but with a major catch: it basically HAD to have Return for threatening closing power and coverage, and that requires a purified specimen. Not purified? Instantly worse. You want to run Shadow Sableye? That means no Return, so also instantly worse. Power Gem was so mediocre that in those cases you’d usually see the also mediocre Shadow Sneak, if you saw any second charge move at all beyond Foul Play. The good news for those who build purified Sableye is that it is still just as good, and overall still slightly preferred to Power Gem even now. The difference in 1shield (Return beats Lanturn, Gem beats Talonflame) and 2shield (Return adds on Azumarill) is very small. It’s only with shields down that Return clearly pulls ahead of Power Gem, nearly doubling the win total with things like Feraligatr, Malamar, Machamp, Drapion, Quagsire, and Chesnaught. About the only advantage for Power Gem in that spot is knocking out Mandibuzz, which isn’t nothing but certainly is no comparison to what Return can do. The BIG change, however, is for Shadow Sableye, and here I have only good news. Power Gem is now a clear, almost strict upgrade over Shadow Sneak, gaining Drapion and tying Jumpluff in 1shield, adding Azumarill and Dewgong in 2shield, and Charjabug and Talonflame with shields down, though also suffering its only notable new loss, to Shadow Machamp. Sableye’s biggest problem is the further rise of Fairy types this season, but overall it’s better than it was, at least in the case of Shadow Sable. This is a welcome new twist.
- The better stats for Power Gem mean that CARBINK may now want it over the just-nerfed Rock Slide, at least in theory. In practice? Eh, it depends. Rock Slide still has advantages in 1v1 shielding by outracing Lanturn and Jumpluff that Power Gem struggles with, but Gem has more avenues to win the mirror in 2shield, and in general, frankly. I would probably stick to Rock Slide just for a bit more flexibility, but this is more of a judgement call now. Ditto with DIANCIE if you ever find yourself using that in Ultra League or something.
- NIHILEGO learns Power Gem, and it may actually want to run it alongside Rock Slide for a couple new wins like Skeledirge (and a tie with Venusaur) in Ultra League, and Origin Giratina in Master League. But with only 10 wins in each of those respective core metas, you’re not going to see a sudden surge of Legos or anything.
- Sorry, but this is STILL not going to make VESPIQUEN happen.
- That really just leaves AMPHAROS. However, there’s not much to see here, simply because Ampharos has SO many options with things like Trailblaze, Brual Swing, Focus Blast, Dragon Pulse and others. it doesn’t help that Power Gem and Amphie’s Electric damage overlap in Flying coverage, and there aren’t any tpings that resist Electric that Rock provides particularly good coverage against. Improved as it may be, I still don’t see Power Gem muscling aside two other, better options anytime soon.
SHADY BUSINESS 👻
And finally, NIGHT SHADE got a bigger cost reduction than expected. We knew it was going from its previous 60 damage up to 80, but the expectation was for a cost reduction of only 5, from the original 55 down to 50, making it a Sludge Bomb/Dark Pulse/Hyper Fang clone. Instead it dropped down to 45, which gives it the same stats as universally lauded PvP moves Drill Run, Shadow Bone, and Fly. This move now has a Damage Per Energy (1.77 DPE) comparable to the mighty Shadow Ball (1.81 DPE). Long a laughingstock (its old 55 energy for 60 damage is the same as moves you will NEVER see like Air Cutter, Flame Wheel, and Draining Kiss, and also the same as Mirror Coat which is only ever used by Wobbuffet and Wynaut because they literally has nothing else), Night Shade is LEGIT now, folks.
The issue, as it a bit of a theme in this article, is that not much of consequence has the move at all, and even fewer things that have it actually want it, even now.
Noctowl Normal- NOCTOWL once ruled the skies, and it did so with Night Shade as its big coverage move… basically the only thing that could ever get away with considering Night Shade in the past. Then it got Shadow Ball and Night Shade was left in the dust, and then, of course, Sky Attack got nerfed for the 13th time (or at least it feels like it!) and Wing Attack did too, and Noctowl plummeted. The irony of the timing is that new-fangled Night Shade is once again a better coverage move for Noctowl than Shadow Ball (picking up wins over Ferrothorn and Shadow Feraligatr), but in its hobbled state, Noctowl is grounded anyway. C’mon, Niantic… give my boy Fly or Swift or something and let him recapture at least a little of his former glory!
- HISUIAN TYPHLOSION and HISUIAN DECIDUEYE both have Night Shade in their moveset. But uh… neither seem to want it, in any eligible League. They both remain mostly PvP irrelevant and this does nothing to change that.
- Interesting, it seems the only things that may stand to actually benefit are in Little League. GOLETT is currently a nice anti-meta option in Little Galar Cup, and while it also has tempting (and buffed this season) Shadow Punch, Night Shade gives it nice closing power it lacks otherwise, and offers its best shot at taking down Shuckle. While Noctowl may have fallen off, HOOTHOOT is still pretty good in Little League, and Night Shade is a preferred move since its other charge moves are both Flying (Sky Attack and Aerial Ace). It appreciates this buff! But a very underrated Little League option that greatly benefits is simple DUSKULL. Similar to big bro Dusclops before it eventually got Poltergeist, Duskie Jr. has had to rely on being purified and getting Return to have ANY real KO power in the past, and was held back a bit as a result. But now, it is unshackled, with new wins against G-Fisk, Onix, Barboach, Seel, and even Cottonee! And of course, Shadow Duskie Jr. now gets some closing power too, since Return was never an option there. I suppose I should also briefly mention FRILLISH, which sees similar gains (can now beat Wooper, Walrein, Seel, and Scrafty now that it can leave Ominous Wind behind and upgrade to Night Shade), it’s just that it remains a bit less exciting overall.
- And I would be remiss to not close out with that is still coming, and has recently had their movesets datamined: GALARIAN CORSOLA and its evolution CURSOLA. They both come with the buffed Astonish, Power Gem, and Night Shade, and G-Corsola in particular looks amazing in Great League! Just be prepared for a bit of an XL grind.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Okay, this is finally, FINALLY our last look at this season’s massive move rebalance (I hope?!). Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the ride, and while these final few moves don’t offer a TON of new excitement, new and improved Malamar, Shadow Sableye, and the coming attraction of Galarian Corsola are certain to be intriguing new players in PvP.
And so, until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon if you’re into that.
Thanks for your faithful readership and encouragement, Pokéfriends. All the best in this young season, and I’ll catch you next time!
…right after I go catch a long nap. 😉