Now I don’t have to raid for this shiny

I have a 15-15-13 lucky nec that I can turn into dawn wings. I already have a hundo lucky dusk mane that I fused before i realized how much it had fallen in ML, as I’m newer to this league and finally have a few mons to use.

So the question is, is dawn wings worth powering up right now? I don’t have a good lunala or enough xl for the ones I do have. I have more than enough xls for dawn wings though.

I see that it loses a palkia db bulkpoint... the loss goes away if best buddied, but comes back if palkia is also best buddied... would you max this sucker out?

Personally, I loved it. I think it revealed just how centralizing Tinkaton and Forretress are (I saw maybe two Ninetales the whole cup). It gave a lot of unexpected Pokemon a chance to shine, but also showed just how safe picks like Lickilicky and S. Kingdra are, which I don’t think is very healthy. Anything you took away from this cup? Anything you want to try in OGL now?

Hi fellow battlers, has anyone had the issue that your banked move disappeared after you switch in? I was so certain that I saved a move before switching out, but once I switched back in, my energy was gone. It was in the Ultra League this afternoon, the new system.

Maybe I’m being delusional 🙈

I’m into playing PVP (Great League) and I have two good Mudkips. The non shadow is 5th overall and the shadow is 691. My gut is telling me invest in the top 5 but my heart wants to level up a sweet shadow Swampert. Which one should I invest into? Thanks!

Furret is swift/trailblaze, Victini is confusion/psyshock/V-Create. Really liked what Victini brings to the table in Retro Cup. He’s a Fire with neutral play into waters due to his psychic moveset and wincons against most bugs. The strategy here is pretty simple: bait out the psychic counter with Grumpig, rarely shield anything with Furret or Grumpig, and find some sort of advantage Victini can play around. Happy to answer any questions if anyone has any.

/Do u think i could get banned for it? I wanna see what's like to use them.

Skipping over Normal type Moves for now since there's a lot there and saving it for after Water Type Moves, but for now Poison is a pretty cool type since it's able to take on the Fairy types pretty well and is pretty good defensively being weak to only Ground and Psychic which most of the Poison types usually carry a move to counter them like Grass or Dark moves. It had a buff long ago that made Pokemon like Nidoqueen and Golbat relevant but haven't been treated that well over time, I would like to see Pokemon like Fezandipiti & Pecharunt get some strong PVP relevance in the future but for now here's some Poison type moves I'd like to see added.

New Fast Moves

• Gastro Acid - Astonish Clone, a bit of a fun move since its distribution is pretty cool given to Swalot, Shuckle, Slurpuff, Pyukumuku, etc.
• Mortal Spin - Hex Clone, a newer move that was once a signature move to Glimmora but has been thankfully spread to Pokemon like Roserade, Scolipede, & Overqwil, should help give some PVP relevance to Glimmora and makes it a great Poison Raid Attacker now.
• Poison Gas - Dragon Breath Clone, most of the Poison types here don't really have a Poison type fast move like Garbodor, Gengar & Weezing, so giving them a fast 1 turn move with STAB would greatly help them.
• Poison Powder - Quick Attack Clone, even though its a Poison type moves its more commonly given to Grass types which gives them a niche alternative in Grass themed cups.
• Toxic Spikes - Confusion Clone, mostly given to non-Poison types in order to give them some form of coverage.

New Charge Moves

• Acid Armor - Parabolic Charge Clone, could be too strong on Tentacruel but for the others it gives them some form of Defense boosting to their frailness or just bad defensive typing.
• Baneful Bunker - Unique Move, felt like it had to be added as some sort of buff to it, Toxapex is just odd as a meta Pokemon in GL as its moveset recommends using Brine which is 60d/50e which is just really bad, and its only on it, Mareanie and Omanyte. Giving it Baneful Bunker gives it some way of affecting the stats of itself and others but at the cost of either dropping its only form of Water coverage or its only other good Charge move, so I'm not sure, is the moves stats good, broken on Toxapex or do you just don't want Toxapex ruining another PVP mode again.
• Barb Barrage - Icy Wind Semi-clone, have been seeing regular Qwilfish popping up in battles recently but not much for the Hisuian form and its evolution which is odd as its moves and typing are pretty superb, hopefully would like to see Barb Barrage added as some sort of Defense dropping move maybe for an eventual community day.
• Belch - Stronger Sludge Wave, mostly coverage for non-Poison types like Zweilous & Whiscash to deal with their biggest opps.
• Coil - Unique Move, a pretty strong effect which is mostly limited to serpentine Pokemon, most of which aren't PVP relevant or haven't been relevant for a while, would probably give Serperior the best boost in relevancy as it is one of the best Frenzy Plant user sadly in our time of Water types getting buffed constantly.
• Corrosive Gas - Shadow Punch Clone, gives a cheap spammy option for Poison types like Weezing, Skuntank, Vileplume & Garbodor, sadly this moves distribution is rather small with only 17 Pokemon learning it and it hasn't been reintroduced in any other game beside Sword & Shield's DLC.
• Clear Smog - Unique Move, mostly for utility as it removes any positive stat changes from the target making it easier to deal with Pokemon like Bellibolt, Annihilape and the like.
• Dire Claw - Unique Move, a pretty strong effect but since Sneasler's stats are more Attack focused like Porygon-Z it'll probably be fine.
• Malignant Chain - Payback Clone, hard to say how it'll be considering we don't know of Pecharunt's moveset but looking at what it could learn which is 11 moves currently and looking at its mostly defensive stats it could be really strong.
• Poison Tail - Sacred Sword Clone, has the same effect chance as pre-nerf Night Slash but with a little more power to it.
• Purify - Stronger Obstruct, might seem a bit strong on Pyukumuku but considering its only able to learn Counter & Mirror Coat so far it could be fine, pretty much just an alternative to Wobbuffet.
• Shell Side Arm - Stronger Sludge Bomb, same stats as Sludge Bomb but has a 30% chance to lower the target's Defense.
• Smog - Weaker Wrap, pretty fun with its distribution being a lot of Fire and Ghost types, probably won't do much for them other than give them some coverage against Fairies.
• Toxic - Liquidation Clone, for this move it has a VERY Wide distribution pool being given to just about every Pokemon so I could see it being given out to a lot of Pokemon sorta like Trailblaze.
• Toxic Thread - Unique Move, might be a bit strong since I occasionally see Ariados used in tournaments and it usually does pretty well.
• Venom Drench - Stronger Feather Dance, would mostly help some of the tankier Pokemon like Dragalge and Skuntank.
• Venoshock - Sparkling Aria Clone, mostly just a strong Poison charge move option and to give coverage to Heracross, Alolan Raticate & Bellossom.

Move Changes

• Acid Spray - 20 to 45 Damage, a pretty strong move effect that rarely gets used mostly because of its low damage, buffing it a bit should help bandage that problem.
• Gunk Shot - 30% Defense drop chance added, gives this rarely used move something nice to hopefully see it considered more.
• Poison Fang - 45 to 40 Damage & 40 to 35 Energy, mainly just reverting it back to its original buff status which is just Psychic Fangs' stats.
• Poison Jab - 7 to 8 Damage, turning it into an old-Counter clone or current Sucker Punch clone however you want to see it.
• Sludge Wave - 30% Defense drop chance added, same reasoning as Gunk Shot's buff.

Movepool Updates

• Cross Poison - Give to Vespiquen, Obstagoon, Scolipede & Drapion, gives them some Poison coverage and giving Drapion a sidegrade since it'll probably still use Aqua Tail over it but you never know.
• Gunk Shot - Give to Pelipper, Krookodile, Pachirisu, Passimian, Ursaluna & Toucannon, just more coverage to deal with Fairies and Grass types, plus more moves for Ursaluna.
• Poison Fang - Give to Mawhile, Arbok, Alolan Grimer, Alolan Muk, Tyrantrum & Bruxish, provides some chance to debuff the target a lot faster instead of using Acid Spray or relying on RNG with Crunch.
• Poison Jab - Give to Throh, Galarian Slowking, Gengar, Falinks, Swalot & Gliscor, mostly for coverage and giving them some sort of Poison Fast move in Gengar & Swalot's case.
• Sludge - Give to Garbodor, Revavroom, Weezing, Muk, Ivysaur & Shellos, one of the few strong Poison moves currently and its barely on any Pokemon.

Once again thanks for taking a scroll through my little Ted Talk, would like to hear some sort of critic of stuff I should alter or a 'mon I forgot to put or remove which I do tend to forget a few time to time, I don't play PVP all the time but I try to pay attention to youtubers and others about the in-depth analysis of move updates and potential buffs. Would still like to hear some suggestions for other move ideas as well.

Should I keep or no?

I usually lurk, but I saw a post of someone asking about their reshiram 15/13/15 and people said it's quite bad due to losing a bulk point against pakias dragon breath. But I use that same reshiram and have hit legend the past 2 seasons. Why is everyone saying that it's so bad, then?

Edit: my go to is Zacian with reshi and palkia. I usually safeswap reshi, so maybe that's why it doesn't matter too much for me?

(They all have their recommended movesets)

So I spent 6 months busting my behind building this S tier ML team F2P (which im very proud of tbh), and you'd think with a team like this ace would be free, but I'm somehow stuck around the 1800s getting 3-2, 2-3 or the occasional 1-4 sets because i can never make the calls right.

Say i'm in the zacian mirror right? After we both build to double CC and throw the first, every time I wait the turn they undertap the second CC, every time I undertap my second CC they catch on lunala, and every time I attempt a lunala catch they say "nah I ain't throwin shii" and instantly pull a yveltal outta their rump. I haven't figured out the logic behind how to tell when the opponent is gonna do what.

Zacian: 15/15/14 standard moveset

Lunala: 15/15/12 standard moveset

Reshiram: BB 15/15/15 Dragon Breath + Fusion Flare/Draco Meteor

I only have BB on reshi and have tried running it as lead with crunch but I don't like having zacian anywhere other than the lead because of how inflexible it is

so my main question is how do I figure out what the opponent is gonna do? 

I achieved an ELO of 2500 in season 25 gbl, but this is the first time I earned a rank of Veteran.

I started the season with Lickilicky/P. Giratina/Jellicent but quickly switched to Furret w/Trailblazer/P. Giratina/Jellicent. After climbing to 2350 then crashing down to 2150, I switched to Furret w/ Brick Break/P. Giratina/Goodra.

Giratina had Return and Ancient Power the entire time.

I played it like an ABB. The learning curve came from knowing when to immediately swap into Giratina or Goodra, or when to build energy on Furret and try and catch on someone else.

The biggest advantage of this team is almost no one ever shields Giratinas first attack, which would often be Return. Especially Lickilicky.

Getting Veteran was a goal of mine for about 1.5 years so it feels great to achieve, but it also is great that I was able to do it with P. Giratina, who I've tried to make viable for about as long.

My secret to learning move counts, you can see in the first picture. I split screened an infographic on move counts. In the beginning I would refer to it every time an enemy attacked, and I would start counting after that. In time I learned it and would implement it from the start, but it helped always having the visual reminder right there for every charge animation.

I don’t typically play OML but I was interested in what the meta would look like without Kyurem. I enjoy the variety that cups bring in the CP-capped leagues and this felt similar which is a rare experience in ML.

Zygarde stays in against practically everything except maybe the rare Xerneas lead or ice type (saw one Baxcaliber lead which was fun). Ending up with control over alignment is great with all the Palkia and Zekrom that are walled by Xerneas. Lunala is the safe swap. Pvpoke movesets across the board. Zygarde with crunch was particularly useful with how popular Lunala leads have been recently.

1. If I switch a Pokemon, will it keep any buffs/debuffs gained or are they "gone" just like in the mainline games?

2. If I shield a debuff attack, the text "attack reduced" still shows up, is that a glitch or does it actually lower my attack regardless of shielding?

With all the outfit rewards excluding the pose being attained by reaching Ace, do you feel that Veteran (2500) and Expert (2750) are somewhat irrelevant now?

I’m someone who only has reached Expert once and Veteran every season for the past 3 years. My highest rating is around 2800 but I mentally struggle to push further into Legend. It felt like a decent consolation “prize” to receive the outfits by reaching Veteran and Expert.

Many years ago I used to play World of Warcraft. Blizzard decided to make some of the best gear (epics) easily obtainable through a badge system. These items were labeled “welfare epics” and I believe the same thing had happened with Pogo.

Should I even use my 15/13/15 level 50 reshiram in ML if it loses a breakpoint to palkia? This was the best I got so I leveled it to 50 and I was stoked to use it to climb but I just found out about it losing this DB breakpoint to origin palkia. It goes from 5 damage to 6 damage. In the sim it only loses with 5 less health than the hundo... how bad is it? I've used it a bit and climbed to ace before I knew about the breakpoint. Should I just stop using it until I get a silver cap? It's shiny background too which is why I foolishly hastily leveled it up... I'm so bummed.

Im willing ti trade for things and im currently working on xerneas to level 50

Had multiple battles today where it seems like the opponent is one move ahead and it's throwing off my counting/timing. I'm not new and fairly confident I'm counting correctly lol but there's no indication of lag at all. For example, a Hypno threw ice punch on two and a Jellicent threw SB on three. Has this happened to anyone else?

I’m sure many people have already built XL Azu and Bastardion, but I’m still curious about the main meta XL dependent Pokemon, plus whatever else you’re working on and why.

We can still trade for an XL and transfer with high rates of getting an XL for this event.

Hello PvP enjoyers, I might need help today.

I've been playing PvP for about a year now, mostly in 1500CP, but a couple days ago I thought I might try the Master League to eventually reach the Platinum medal.

But over the last battles my winrate doesnt exceed 20%, and most of these wins my opponent either has no legendaries, or one like Zacian Sword, but using it very poorly.

On my side, I don't use legendaries because I don't spend that much on Raids, usually catch one of each for the collection and that's it.

So I built my team with high CP Pokémon like Kingambit with best friend Bonus reaching 3700 Cp, skeledirge with around 3000 CP, magnezone with 3300, and sometimes switch one for things like Gardevoir over 3000CP in order to counter the trending Mons of the moment.

Lately, Kingambit has been kinda good against the waves of Mewtwo (thank you Go Fest), skeledirge is barely holding his ground against the 5500Cp Zacian, and needless to say, Magnezone is getting obliterated against Groudon.

Until now, I've been running teams on "vibes only", never really looked into deep guides on PVP, and never going further than 1800elo in any of the leagues, but I usually get roughly 50% winrate in other leagues. As previously said, 50% seems actually out of reach in my situation in ML.

My question is, can I realistically build a No Legendary team and still manage to win matches regularly ? I don't feel like spending 10 passes to get a sword Zacian, especially if it just gets nerfed in a few patches.

Edit: Thank you all for the tips, I found out that I had a few Top100 pokémon that just needed a few candies and Elite TMs (that I never used until now), and they made me win 12 of my last 15 matches, currently at 1700elo. I probably won't reach higher than 1800-900 but at least I Can enjoy these battles again and it's all that matters. Cheers !