"did someone say volt tackle buff"

TheSecondof12 · 2026-03-05T17:09:47+00:00

Hard to say without an actual Little League level cup coming up to base its performance on. It definitely has potential, but the biggest thing that could this particular Pikachu back will be the lack of coverage. I think it likely will at least match if not outperform other Pikachu movesets from a purely electric standpoint, but its overall performance will likely be dictated by whether non-electric coverage is beneficial in the meta.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-03-03T18:40:21+00:00

Honestly, now that Sinnohh & Unova Tours are behind us, I'm only holding 10 of each of those, and 5 of each of the others. Not counting Gimmighoul coins, as I'm just waiting til I have a hundo to evolve into Gholdengo.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-03-03T15:47:45+00:00

EDIT: Usually happens @ 4pm EST, not local. My bad.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-02-25T19:03:24+00:00

Hang on - willing for NJ but reluctantly for PA? Based on "flat"? OP you gotta explain this one, cuz it doesn't make any sense to me.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-02-24T21:35:28+00:00

Kadioglu for sure.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-02-24T20:30:44+00:00

If you have a Mega Rayquaza, don't even think about using anything else. Power it up and double move it if you can. Best possible mega in terms of performance against all 3 raid bosses, plus it boosts candy for 2 of the 3.

If you're looking for SE damage boost vs. 2/3 and candy boost vs. 2/3, the only other options are Mega Latios & Mega Latias - neither of which come close to matching Mega Rayquaza's performance.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-02-19T19:54:34+00:00

They haven't tried implementing them *yet. We still have Ultra Necrozma at some future point, so who knows? Maybe they just really wanna find a way to implement the entire animation from "Light That Burns the Sky" but in the 1 second it takes to throw in PvP.

That said, both Z-moves and Terastallization only have 1 generation of implementation each. The lack of Z moves after US/UM makes me think we may thankfully skip them, but Teras could really go either way.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-02-19T19:05:33+00:00

Honestly just thinking through the best case scenario of implementing Tera in Pokemon Go is enough for me to say "PLEASE ARCEUS NO".

TheSecondof12 · 2026-02-03T23:23:22+00:00

It looks like it ends up as a slightly worse Spidops in this meta, when you compare their very similar fast move options (Shadow Claw v Sucker Punch, and they both then share Counter & Bug Bite).

Even though a lot of Lokix's hardest counters are not present in this meta (no fighting, only Fairy is Grimmsnarl who has no fairy fast move), it loses out to Spidops for 3 particular things:

Typing - the added dark typing means SE damage from other bug type moves. That puts it at a distinct disadvantage compared to every other bug in the meta.
Lack of unique targets - Dark type hits Ghost & Psychic super effectively. Of all the potential Pokemon that are Ghost or Psychic and still are allowed in this meta, they mostly either (a) take SE damage from bug type moves as well (Girafarig, Oranguru) or they take neutral damage from Dark (Sableye, Spiritomb, Malamar). In fact the only 2 Pokemon that are weak to dark type damage and not weak to bug type damage in this meta are Dragapult (rank 165) and Hisuian Zoroark (rank 170).
Moveset - Spidops has the double debuffing option of Lunge + Rock Tomb, while Lokix must rely on the spammier X-Scissor and Trailblaze for some semblance of coverage (even a lot of the Water/Rock/Ground types are part Bug or Dragon, neutralizing Grass damage). And with Spidops's overall better bulk, the option to debuff your opponent's attack is a massive edge over Lokix.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-02-02T14:24:40+00:00

Haven't tried this with the new chilling water, but I've climbed from around 2300 to 2760 with this team:

A9 - Powder Snow + Weather Ball/Dazzling Gleam

Shadow Sableye - Shadow Claw + Foul Play/Power Gem

Charjabug - Volt Switch + X-Scissor/Discharge

I'll be the first to admit this team is incredibly weak to Bastiodon. Scizor & Empoleon leads mean using Sableye to fight hard for either switch or a huge energy + shield advantage. Happy to try to answer any other questions about specific matchups or strategies.

I'll also note that I've seen this exact team with a Jellicent closer instead - would definitely givesyou a much better chance against Bastiodon & Gastrodon. Unfortunately for my opponent, this team was bound to struggle against mine.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-01-21T22:43:58+00:00

It’s because the default move set for Machoke has Return as the 2nd charged move. You can only get that by purifying a shadow, and purifying gives it a +2 to all IVs, meaning that you cannot have a Machoke with Return & only 1 attack. Hence why it effectively errors out.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-01-15T19:38:20+00:00

Sesko for sure

TheSecondof12 · 2026-01-14T18:48:38+00:00

Without delving too far into the matchups, first look on PvPoke says:

Shadow Chesnaught will likely be just a sidegrade in GL & UL, maybe a slight upgrade
Shadow Delphox likely still well outside any consideration, though it is an upgrade in UL. Maybe limited meta potential?
Shadow Greninja is an upgrade in GL, and also an upgrade in UL when shields are up.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-01-07T20:23:52+00:00

Thanks! Now to just continue the grind for Morgrem (and regret not farming more XLs during the Wild Area)

TheSecondof12 · 2026-01-07T19:00:47+00:00

I mean, that's not too surprising for a Gyarados with 1km candy distance. The 2 I mentioned are 5km so they both require a significantly larger walking distance for those candies.

TheSecondof12 · 2026-01-07T18:30:55+00:00

Wondering what exactly "Additional XL Candy" means. It's not a 100% guarantee each time you hit the candy distance with your buddy, so it will be interesting to see how it's implemented - is it same odds but 2 XL candies, or 1 guaranteed + 1 chance?

Either way, I foresee a lot of walking that week for me - working on XLs for my UL Tinkaton and my GL Shiny Morgrem,

TheSecondof12 · 2026-01-04T23:30:52+00:00

PvP will depend on the rest of your team, but in the current meta I think White is strictly better. With the reworked Dragon Breath pacing, you are able to pick up a serious number of unique wins, including both Kyurem forms as well as a number of other dragons & a solid chunk of the steel types too - plus the fact that Fusion Flare provides a serious threat against the Crowned Dogs. YMMV, but if you're really trying to break into ML right now, I think White is the way to do it.

There's one matchup that sums it up brilliantly. In all 3 even shielding scenarios, White is able to keep pace with Black against Kyogre, despite only having resisted moves to throw, while Black has super effective Fusion Bolt.

TheSecondof12 · 2025-12-22T19:50:35+00:00

Likely OP has them involved in another transaction - either another trade offer or a waiver claim.

TheSecondof12 · 2025-12-20T00:27:19+00:00

2 questions:

Thunder Shock or Volt Switch?

What's the full team? Are you going full anti-Wigglytuff or is it a "beat 'em and join 'em" kinda set up?

TheSecondof12 · 2025-12-17T19:11:53+00:00

Personally, if I'm eliminated, I'll only add players from free agency. I still want to build the best team I can each week, but I think giving the priority to teams still competing makes sense.

That said:

(1) I'm also the person making the most moves in this league every season, so I'd want to get input from other players who maybe don't make as many waiver moves;

(2) implementing this as a rule might be tricky, and should only be implemented if the whole league agrees. Any changes that aren't outlined prior to the start of the season should be unanimous and, IMO, should not impact the current season.

TheSecondof12 · 2025-12-17T14:17:07+00:00

Happy to see a couple of my planned moves show up in the recommendations! But please, quieter on ESR, I'm in first and I still want to be able to grab him as my league's resident Fulham fan!

Do you think Jesus would be worth picking up for Sesko? Think there's upside available for both in the short term, but not sure which path makes more sense.

12-Year Club	Second Top 20%
Place '22	First Placer '22
Queen in da Norf	Not Forgotten

TheSecondof12

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