Under The Lights: Jumpluff with Acrobatics

Hello again, fellow PvPers! As I’ve done many, many times before, I’m here to take a close look at this month’s Community Day spotlight Pokémon and its brand new move and examine their merits in PvP. So let’s get straight to it and put JUMPLUFF with the all-new move Acrobatics… under the lights!

No beating around the bush… just gonna dive right in. Let’s start with the Pokémon itself….

JUMPLUFF STATS & MOVES

Jumpluff GrassFlying

Great League Stats

(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-14-14, 1499 CP, Level 43)

Alright, keeping this brief… very good bulk, even better than Tropius, as well as Dewgong, Diggersby, DDeoxys and others that DON’T begin with ‘D’, and in the same ballpark as Azumarill and Cresselia. Its overall Attack and bulk are in very close alignment with Registeel, actually. So no worries in that department… Jumpluff is built for PvP!

As for the typing, the pros are being a Flyer that is not weak to Electric, and a Grass that is not weak to Bug, and a combination that gives it a double resistance to Grass and a triple resistance to Ground (plus single resistances to Water and Fighting).

That’s all the good, but there are still flaws to point out. Other than Electric and Bug, Jumpluff retains all the other vulnerabilities that come with Grass and Flying, so it is left weak to Fire, Flying, Poison, and Rock damage, and doubly weak to its Achilles’ heel: Ice. None of that is AWFUL — Tropius has been downright oppressive at times despite all the same vulnerabilities — but let’s just say it’s a good thing that Pluff is bulky, because otherwise it would have a very hard time shrugging all of that off in the Great League meta. That thiccness really is a saving grace.

Fast Moves

• Bullet Seed – Grass type, 1.67 DPT, 4.33 EPT, 1.5 CD
• Infestation – Bug type, 2.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.5 CD

So Jumpluff is off to a good start here with Bullet Seed, which gets STAB and has ample energy generation. But even Infestation is no slouch. It lacks STAB and has slightly less energy gains, but provides coverage that could be more ideal in certain metas. (Read as: make sure if you evolve Jumpluff during this event, try and get at least one extra with Infestation too.)

ᴱ – Exclusive (Community Day) Move

ᴾ – Purified-exclusive Move

Charge Moves

• Aerial Ace – Flying type, 55 damage, 45 energy
• Energy Ball – Grass type, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance to Decrease Opponent Defense -1 Stage
• Acrobaticsᴱ – Flying type, 110 damage, 60 energy
• Dazzling Gleam – Fairy type, 110 damage, 70 energy
• Returnᴾ – Normal type, 130 damage, 70 energy
• Solar Beam – Grass type, 150 damage, 80 energy

So I actually want to start with humble — one could even say boring — Aerial Ace. It DOES work as a passable PvP move, but is so unremarkable, so dull, that you really never WANT to use it. It’s so plain and underwhelming that even things you would think might want the Flying coverage it provides don’t really want it: Togekiss is content to just stick with the more expensive Flamethrower and even the slight boost chance of Ancient Power, Serperior usually wants Leaf Tornado’s debuff chance instead, Escavalier has two clearly better options and seems to run even Acid Spray more than Ace, and the list goes on.

Some Pokémon, like Jumpluff, are basically stuck using it though, as they have no better alternative. Just check out the costs of Jumpluff’s moves and you’ll see why it’s basically been a must on Jumpluff (and Tropius, for that matter) to this point: it’s the cost. Every other move Pluff has is at least 10 energy more. With the awkward way Bullet Seed builds up energy (13 energy per Seed), after its first four Bullet Seeds, Jumpluff has the energy to fire off a 50-energy move (52 energy available at that point)… but the only move it has that works is boring old Aerial Ace. It needs only 3 more energy to afford the next cheapest move, Energy Ball, but by then it’s three turns later and it’s now WAY overcharged to 65 energy. Awkward.

And it gets MORE awkward. The typical strategy for using Jumpluff today is charging enough energy for Energy Ball (so five Bullet Seeds for 65 energy), and then attempting to bait with Aerial Ace, leaving 20 energy left over. From there, only three more Bullet Seeds are required to charge up for Energy Ball, getting it to 59 energy, a more “reasonable” overcharge. This allows you to squeeze in two charge moves with eight total Bullet Seeds. And then, with the mere 4 leftover energy you have after, it takes “only” four more Bullet Seeds to reach another Energy Ball (4 + 13 + 13 + 13 + 13 = 56 energy). So going either AA-EB-EB or EB-AA-EB is typically the way to play your Pluff.

Now we get to the new move. The cost of Acrobatics JUST came in late on Thursday (or early Friday, for some folks!), only like 24 hours before the beginning of Community Day in parts of the world, and the grand reveal is: 60 energy. That makes Acro a decent move in a vacuum, identical to Outrage, Moonblast, and Machamp’s own Community Day move, Payback, with a pretty good energy-to-damage ratio (1.83). But the problem is that it’s incredibly clumsy to try and work on Jumpluff because of that 60 energy cost.

Take the scenario I described above. You charge up 65 energy with your first five Bullet Seeds and go for the Aerial Ace bait again. But even if you get a shield out of that, remember what three more Bullet Seeds nets you? 59 energy. You are left ONE lousy energy short of being able to use Acrobatics, needing 3 PvP turns (1.5 seconds) to WAY overcharge at 72 energy. Maddening! Heck, you could fire off a slow Dazzling Gleam or Return by then! Instead, if you use Acrobatics as you likely planned, you now have 12 leftover energy. Now you’re already down one extra Bullet Seed of time, and it STILL takes four additional ones to get to the energy required for the next Acrobatics. Even with a whopping 12 energy hanging there, you STILL need four more Bullet Seeds’ worth of energy to generate enough for a second Acrobatics.

And perhaps worse still… this is assuming we’re running the only “bait” move Jumpluff has — Aerial Ace — alongside Acrobatics. If that’s the case, Jumpluff is left dealing only Flying-type damage with its charge moves, with the only Grass damage now coming from the very light-hitting Bullet Seed. By switching up Energy Ball for Acrobatics instead, Jumpluff potentially becomes much more limited in its contributions… in what it hits hard.

GREAT LEAGUE, 1v1 SHIELDING

Now finally, some numbers. Here is what Jumpluff with Acro/AA does in Great League in 1v1 shielding. It IS an overall improvement over the old AA/Energy Ball, with new wins over Medicham, Toxicroak, Ferrothorn, and fellow Flying Grass Tropius (with Air Slash and Aerial Ace of its own) thanks to the effectiveness of all that Flying damage, and Pluff also now beats Defense Deoxys and Hypno thanks to the raw power of Acrobatics. That’s all good, and yes, Acrobatics makes Jumpluff “better”, but it does give up former wins that Energy Ball could bring in versus Whiscash and Jellicent, very clearly showing the downside of dealing so little Grass damage anymore. (It does still beat things like Swampert, for what that’s worth, but it goes for a blowout previously (Pluff flying away with over 2/3 of its starting HP) to now limping away with less than a third of its original hitpoints.

So what about keeping the strong Grass damage by running Acrobatics alongside Energy Ball? Well, it doesn’t work out particularly well. Running with two bombs like that leave Jumpluff a little hobbled. As compared to AA/Acro, it can no longer beat DD, Medicham, Tropius, or Shadow Machamp, and while it gets better versus a couple things like Stunfisk, it doesn’t pick up any actual wins it didn’t get before. (Things like Jellicent and Whiscash are still losses, for example, without the relative speed of Aerial Ace to bait shields and set up Energy Ball.)

Now, partly because the final cost had NOT yet been confirmed as I did my analysis, I played around a little at home and ran Acrobatics with the 60-energy cost, but then also another version that costs the same 55 energy as Energy Ball. There are places where that does make Jumpluff even better, of course, but run alongside Energy Ball in 1v1 shielding, the difference is minor, with DDeoxys coming back into the win column, but that’s the extent of it. Which just reiterates that, even with a high-energy fast move like Bullet Seed, Pokémon that rely on running two expensive “bomb”-like charge moves generally don’t work out. (Unless your name starts with “Regi-” or something, at least.)

Since we already pulled on that thread, what would a 55-energy Acrobatics look like alongside Aerial Ace? Remember that 60-energy Acrobatics brought in some wins against Fighters, Tropius, and big tanks like Hypno and DD. A theoretical 55-energy Acrobatics would be a rather significant improvement, adding four new wins versus Galvantula, Umbreon (which counts as two wins, since sims check both the Last Resort and Psychic {the move} versions of Umbry), and hey! Jellicent comes back into the win column, which is very nice to see. As a reminder, this would be a total of eight new wins as compared to Jumpluff’s former best of Aerial Ace/Energy Ball, and now with Whiscash being the only new loss (AKA the only thing Energy Ball is needed to beat). Here’s hoping Niantic perhaps “rebalances” Acrobatics to cost only 55 energy down the road, because THAT would be much more worth celebrating.

GREAT LEAGUE, 0v0 SHIELDING

Before we wrap up, a quick peek at other shielding scenarios. With shields down, and with Aerial Ace in the mix, 60-energy Acrobatics is a mere sidegrade, arguably even a slight downgrade, as compared to Energy Ball. Ball once again beats stuff like Whiscash and now Azumarill that make sense with the Grass-type damage, but it also beats things like Shadow Hypno and Mew where the lower cost of Energy Ball (especially with that AA 45 energy cost + EB 55 energy cost synergy, as I described earlier, and how 60-energy Acro requires an additional, agonizing Bullet Seed) means the difference between landing the final blow or letting the opponent beat you to the punch.

And yet again, a 55-cost Acrobatics would be a BIG boon, bringing in new wins over Charmers Wigglytuff and Sylveon, Likcitung and Medicham (who reach an extra charge move versus 60-energy Acrobatics but never live to get there with the cheaper 55-energy Acrobatics), and even brings Shadow Hypno and Mew back into the win column (again, thanks to the cost now matching the 55 energy that Energy Ball requires). The gap is significant enough to leave one pining for that mere 5 energy discount. Amazing the difference such a small tweak could make!

So what of running Energy Ball/Acrobatics in the no shield scenarios? Surely having both bombs should lead to some exciting results with shields out of the way, right? Right? Yes and no. Having Energy Ball back is enough to bring in the Azumarill and Whiscash wins again, and Acrobatics is still enough on its own to take out Galvantula and DDeoxys, but without the cheaper Aerial Ace getting in some additional damage, Pluff cannot beat Ferrothorn, Mew, or big cousin Tropius now. 55-energy Acrobatics IS fast enough to still beat Tropius and Ferrothorn, and while Mew is still tricky, it also brings in an all-new win over Cresselia, which is swell. If only Acrobatics was 55 energy, but alas, that has turned out not to be the case.

GREAT LEAGUE, 2v2 SHIELDING

And finally, in 2v2 shielding with Aerial Ace, Acrobatics IS again an improvement over Energy Ball, with new wins over Drapion, Ferrothorn, Mew, Sableye, Toxicroak, and Trevenant… all VERY nice pickups, admittedly. (There is only one new loss: Unovan Stunfisk.) But yet again, I’m left wishing Acrobatics was just a little cheaper, as 55 energy would enable it to still beat U-Fisk, as well as now-familiar names DDeoxys, Galvantula, and Hypno. C’est la vie.

Somewhat surprisingly considering their high costs and relative lack of shield pressure, the best results in 2v2 shielding actually come with Energy Ball/Acrobatics. It does fail to overcome names mentioned above like Drapion, Galvantula, Toxicroak, and Hypno (as well as Cofagrigus that the other move combos can beat), but it picks up DD, Ferro, Mew, Sable, Trevor, U-Fisk, and even Umbreon. And that’s with the 60 energy cost for Acro, too. Even 55-energy Acrobatics would add only one new win (Toxicroak). So I guess you can say that Acrobatics, even in its current form, IS better than you may expect if the battle blows through everyone’s shields on both sides.

Alright, I feel like I just knocked you over with a firehose of numbers and wins/losses, so let’s try and summarize.

TL;DR

• Yes, Acrobatics at 60 energy cost is an overall improvement for Jumpluff, just not one that I have confidence will raise its stock enough to start showing up where it didn’t already. Overall I still say Tropius does its job better and more reliably (less bait reliance), but this DOES give those without Trop a new toy to play around with in at least limited formats.
• While calling it “better”, the full truth is that running Acrobatics requires either running two relatively expensive moves (Acro + Energy Ball) to maintain meaningful Grass damage output (needed for things like Whiscash, Azumarill, and Jumpluff across various shielding scenarios), or running double Flying charge moves (Acro + Aerial Ace), which runs smoother but leaves Jumpluff unable to truly threaten many things weak to Grass.
• What Jumpluff really needed, in my opinion, was an inexpensive Flying move (50 energy at most, but ideally something in the 40-45 energy range) better than Aerial Ace (not hard, as that move is SO average) that would better synergize with the Energy Ball already in place. THAT would be interesting. Instead, we get another big fat “bomb” of a move. Not what Pluff really needed to take off.
• So to summarize the summary 🙃, yes, it IS worth grinding for a good PvP specimen with Acrobatics. It’s better, and if you’re ever to use Jumpluff, you likely WILL want Acrobatics in the mix. I’m just not sure this will make you want Jumpluff a lot more than you did (or likely didn’t) already.

Now while this may not be a great fit for Jumpluff, there ARE other Pokémon that could benefit from a big fat closing Flying move like Acrobatics. Things like  EMOLGA, GLIGAR, MANTINE and many others that get it in MLG would get a BIG boost. But we’ll hold off on THAT analysis for another day.

Alright, that’s it for now. Now I go to analyze the suddenly interesting Sacred Fire and Magical Leaf on their way to the game! 🔥🍃 Until then, you can always find me on Twitter with near-daily PvP analysis nuggets or Patreon.

Continued thanks to my PvP friends, local and around the world, who have lent their own ideas and suggestions over the last nearly three years now of PvP play, and helped teach me to be a better player and student of the game. And thank you for reading… I appreciate your attention and encouragement.

Catch you next time. Stay safe out there, Pokéfriends!

P.S. – Shadow Jumpluff is worth building as well if you have one ready to go without Frustration… better in some of the fringier matchups like Jellicent, Galvantula, Mew, and Umbreon, but worse versus stuff like the Charmers, Shadow Hypno, Cofagrigus, and Tropius. I didn’t burrow into that with the cost of Acrobatics still being up in the air, but as with non-Shadow, if you think you might ever use Pluff, THIS would be the time to build a Shadow one. Go for it!