Trainers! As the Halloween loading screen and rumors had suggested, the draconic representation of Gluttony, Hydreigon’s deranged cousin, and the Ultra Beast with the most ridiculous cry is making its debut in Pokémon Go…
Yep, it’s Guzzlord.
But we all know that, right? What’s really exciting here is the fact that Guzzlord’s movepool has been revealed. And guess what? It’s mighty good!
But Niantic can still throw us a curveball and change Guzzlord’s movepool, eh?
Pssst, Niantic…. plzzz don’t. Guzzlord gonna get angrier. Also, I love dragons heh 😀
So before you get a full-blown analysis of Guzzlord, why don’t we see how the first impressions are?
Off to this Dark and Dragon-typed guzzler…
Stats
First things first, I’ma show you the stats as I’m fired up due to Guzzlord’s debut and tired of people thinking Guzzlord is as good as Hydreigon…
Now, as you Imagine these Dragons, get a load of its stats and match-ups…
Guzzlord
Dark Dragon
|
|||||
| Max CP at Level 40 2887 | Max CP at Level 50 3264 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATK 188 | DEF 99 | HP 440 | |||
| Weak to | Strong Against | ||||
| Fairy Bug Ice Dragon Fighting | Dragon Ghost Psychic | ||||
Whoa, that HP is AWESOME. And that DEF is a dud.
Ideally, you should be reminded of Blissey but Guzz is more like Wailord.
On top of that, its ATK is nothing to take home (or ultra wormhole?).
Not to mention, the type combo of Dark and Dragon does have its share of concerning weaknesses. The 2x Fairy weakness is going to hurt and Counter exists.
Movepool
Despite going topsy-turvy on the stats, Guzzlord got a fantastic movepool. Like, too good and the best it could get! 😀
| Fast Moves | Charged Moves |
|
|
Holy smoke! That’s a fine moveset to have. Like, it’s actually really good.
It can run Snarl to generate energy quickly and bait with Dragon Claw. Or, you can run Dragon Tail as a pretty good damaging move that also generates energy decently well, and get to Dragon Claw and Brutal Swing (both being cheap moves with appreciable damage values). You can also throw in a toxic surprise to those fairy things with Sludge Bomb.
The ball is in your court but Dragon Tail + Dragon Claw and Brutal Swing is the way to go!
On that note… this abomination learns Brutal Swing. Hmm, trying to impersonate Hydreigon much. OMG, er… OMArceus, it even has two socket puppet hands… or does it?
Anyway, let’s get to its meta impact…
Guzzlord in PvE
With a measly 188 ATK…
- Snarl and Brutal Swing give it somewhere in the range of Houndoom – Absol damage. But those two have mega evos… duh. Guzzlord might be an anchor in your raid line-up but Hydreigon had its CD and people have Brutal Swing Hydra. So you’re better off with other options… many other options.
- Dragon Tail and Dragon Claw don’t help. In fact, even Outrage wouldn’t have done it any favors
Basically, you have multiple legendaries and pseudo legendaries to make Guzzlord feel neglected.
Guzzlord in PvP
- Guzzlord might find some okayish play in GL (if permissible).
- It actually has close to a 50% win rate against the UL meta. So there’s that… that silver lining which makes Guzzlord interesting and worth a catch.
- In the big bad ML meta, it gets bullied. All Guzzlord gets in ML, is some spice.
To conclude
Basically, Guzzlord is Blissey or Wailord trying to cosplay Hydreigon. The moveset is excellent so it does end up getting some viability in PvP, particularly in limited formats. It’s nothing great but definitely good to have. And despite its enormous appetite, it can’t digest what fairies bring to the table or anything placed on the Counter top.
It still has an absolutely amazing design and badass typing. So do catch a good one!
For now, let’s pray that Niantic retains these moves. Or Guzz can become hot garbage.
But no matter what, we GO Hub folks will have meta analysis of Guzzlord ready.
Till then…
Dracarys.
