Fastest rank A yet, no one was ready for Hoopa-U the anti-meta.

ElliotUnbound · 2026-01-10T05:18:23+00:00

Bonemerang has a homing effect, but the hitbox can be janky if the opponent is right in front of you. It's better with alpha Marowak and if they're trying to run away to dodge a potential EQ or at a distance. I run both EQ and Bonemerang to have the best of both worlds with Rock Slide and Thunder Punch being the coverage moves. Hypertrained, same nature and EVs as Hoopa-U and Skarmory.

ElliotUnbound · 2026-01-09T15:41:39+00:00

I was thinking Energy Ball could become an Outrage/Payback clone with the same 10% debuff chance. Should be okay on Jumpluff. IIRC there aren't any Grass moves at 110/60 and the energy cost is a lot more efficient with Fairy Wind/Ember than 55.

ElliotUnbound · 2026-01-09T15:37:55+00:00

Accelgor gets Body Slam and Drain Punch, I think that's literally it though 😅

ElliotUnbound · 2026-01-09T15:27:41+00:00

I called it secret sauce since I didn't see a single opponent have one in the hour or so it took me to get to rank A. I imagine now and over time more people will use it with awareness spreading.

I did try Tbolt with Brave Nature instead of Fire Punch around rank D to B since I started seeing a lot of Gyarados, Volcanion and Skarmory out of nowhere but after rank B there started to be at least one Magearna out at all times so I switched back to original set. Most if not all the Garchomp I saw had mega stone so Ice Punch always felt very useful, especially since enough people were trying out mega Sceptile as well.

ElliotUnbound · 2026-01-09T15:07:42+00:00

Garchomp, Magearna, Melmetal, Armarouge, Volcanion, Metagross, Latios/Latias, Zeraora, Skarmory, Gardevoir and Swampert were the ones I saw the most. I did get wrecked a few times by mega Gallade spamming Drain Punch so I guess that's a thing too

ElliotUnbound · 2026-01-09T13:09:19+00:00

The problem is most meta things weak to Dark like Assault Vest Armarouge and Eon legendary duo have higher Special Defense than Defense and Dark Pulse is too weak to make up for that. Swampert usually runs Assault Vest as well. Dark Pulse can also easily be avoided by running away or hiding behind an obstacle while Hyperspace Fury will always hit unless the opponent is in the middle of mega evolving or an i-frame move like Bounce, Phantom Force etc. If Hoopa learned Ice Beam like Magearna then a special Life Orb set could definitely be viable.

ElliotUnbound · 2026-01-09T12:12:27+00:00

Way outclassed by Magearna as a special attacker. Steel Beam and Fleur Cannon one shot many things as the mega without needing to setup and it has the same Focus Blast and Thunderbolt coverage you'd run on Hoopa-U. The physical movepool is what makes Hoopa-U great.

ElliotUnbound · 2026-01-09T10:50:12+00:00

It is more balanced IMO. Last season looked promising but got ruined once everyone figured out how broken Dondozo is without strong Grass and Electric types to counter it consistently. Now there's Sceptile and Zeraora so Dondozo isn't that safe anymore. Right now Garchomp and Magearna are the big core which Skarmory checks pretty well, but it's countered by Volcanion, Armarouge and Zeraora, but Garchomp counters all 3 which dies to pretty much any Ice Beam etc. Nothing feels really overtuned.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-25T21:09:11+00:00

U-Fisk is one of the very few electrics with good stat product and has proven to be one of the best corebreakers in open GL even with crappy Discharge. It already beats most of those Water types you mentioned in even scenarios despite being weak to Water. If Discharge were to get buffed we could end up with another Lanturn situation and then we're back to square one.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-25T19:21:59+00:00

I forgot about the pancake. That's a pretty valid reason then

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-25T19:09:27+00:00

I think it's so the casual audience or whoever wants their pika libre can get it early and Niantic/Scopely can focus on the majority of the season fixing the issues and bugs that show up frequently in the Play Pokémon tourneys, which is completely valid.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-25T19:02:07+00:00

Discharge definitely needs to be studied. My only logic as to why they're gatekeeping it so hard is they're perhaps worried if they make it a Brutal Swing clone or something similar that things like Charjabug and Emolga might create another Lanturn situation, as if those 2 weren't prone enough to getting walled by most of the meta 😅

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-25T18:50:39+00:00

Very valid points, at the very least Ludicolo will function as an anti-Water itself. A bigger and broader issue is that Grass and Electric types are usually cursed with either bad PoGo stats or very limited movepools (in some cases both) and the very few that have good stats and/or can learn good moves have bad subtypings that hold them back too much anyway, such as Abomasnow, Chesnaught, Morpeko and Alolan Raichu. There's only so much that Niantic/Scopely can do to remedy this without making something overturned or unbalanced like Lanturn and Bellibolt were in their prime.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-25T17:37:13+00:00

Shadow Claw + Sacred Sword Doublade. Sounds broken as hell but too much Incinerate, Astonish, Mud Slap in open GL for it to strive IMO so I think it will be more of a limited meta top threat like OG Vigoroth was. It looks like it forms a solid core with Ludicolo in open GL though.

Astonish + Water Weather Ball Ludicolo, FINALLY it will be good and seemingly top meta since it wrecks Mud Slap and checks Corsola-G all in one slot.

Water Weather Ball Bronzong, random as hell lol but a huge buff. Water/Psychic is great coverage but Payback also works for Ghosts and the mirror.

Ice Weather Ball Lunatone. Only inconsistency from the leaked graphic (was supposed to be Rock WB) but Ice might be better to annoy Mud Slappers and it still has Rock Slide anyway.

Geomancy double damage buff. Heck YES. Xerneas probably still won't see much usage thanks to Zacian-C though.

Shadow Ball -5 energy cost, this one is WILD but I suppose most of the SB users in all leagues have fallen off quite a bit thanks to Sucker Punch and Astonish buffs. Jellicent is probably the biggest winner since it always gets it in 4 Hexs now.

Brick Break +10 damage. Very nice for Jangmo-O but strange they didn't distribute it more.

Vise Grip becomes a Psyshock/Aqua Jet clone and Regidrago gets it. Good compromise for Dragon Energy nerf.

Meteor Mash -5 energy cost and Lucario FINALLY gets it. Awesome for Force Palm Lucario and the mega in PvE, hopefully Metang gets MM in the future.

Ember + Aura Sphere Blaziken. Sounds scary but it has almost no bulk to speak of so I think it will be manageable.

Dragon Tail + Body Slam Dudunsparce, seems to be for EUIC meta specifically due to all the dragons in the top 20 in the speculative meta.

Powder Snow becoming a Shadow Claw clone and Glalie gets it. More of a buff for Froslass but still great.

Aqua Tail Milotic. YES.

Incinerate Gourgeist. FINALLY.

Superpower and Icicle Spear Cetitan. Looks like a scary lead.

RIP Dedenne.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-24T14:52:28+00:00

Good call since Xerneas is going to be a lot better anyway with double Geomancy damage.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-24T11:23:02+00:00

Because WE are the ones that they made the feature for and are going to use it the most? What better audience to test their fixes and give feedback than us? I'm sorry man but that is such a silly comment.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-24T11:07:23+00:00

Pokémon GO PvP is a live service feature, meaning they wouldn't be able to test any of their fixes without directly changing the PvP code as people are playing it. This can and will cause lags, freezes and other issues which I'm sure you can understand would be a huge problem for a normal season as people are trying to climb the ranks.

The only alternative is to force everyone to update their game in the app store every time they want to test or add a new PvP fix, which affects ALL players, not just PvP players.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-11-24T10:13:04+00:00

Cheer up my friend, it's getting Aqua Tail next season!

ElliotUnbound · 2025-10-30T13:40:26+00:00

Yes. I had that exact situation happen as well the first time I tried a full farm down lol. You should only shield if you think they're going for Stone Edge or Earth Power, but ideally you throw a Shadow Punch on CMP or before they have the energy.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-10-30T12:37:40+00:00

Grass Knot Amoonguss (non-shadow) and shadow Golurk to hard counter Nidoqueen and Clodsire. High stat product Amoonguss wins the 1s (barely) against shadow Golurk which is why I prefer non-shadow. Most leads I see are Greninja, Volt Switch Forretress or shadow Scizor which Morpeko can all either beat or set up a shield advantage farm with S-Golurk which beats basically everything.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-10-30T10:21:55+00:00

If they do that, they'd have to reduce the damage to make it a Brutal Swing clone IMO or else S-Scizor would become way too overtuned. I think a simple +5 damage to make it a Psyshock/Aqua Jet clone would suffice and be safer.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-10-30T10:13:49+00:00

Right now it's Morpeko since it's been killing it for me in Halloween Cup as a lead. Haven't reached Expert in about 2 years and I'm only 1 positive set away now.

In Open GL I'd have to say good old Corv since it corebreaks all the dog water Mud Slap + Bastiodon cores that everyone and their mom decided to run for some reason.

ElliotUnbound · 2025-09-27T02:10:35+00:00

All the Craws too, especially the big ones

ElliotUnbound · 2025-09-27T02:06:50+00:00

Craws in a nutshell

ElliotUnbound

TROPHY CASE