Pok Mon Go Weather Cup Best Team Recommendations

In a break from the recent past, the rules of the Ultra League in Pokémon Go apply here. This means that instead of the usual 1500 CP cap, we’re moving up to a limit of 2500 CP. On top of that, we have the usual type restrictions, although the term ‘weather’ is a little vague. In reality this means that only fire-, water-, ice- and rock-types are allowed. If you’re looking for other Go Battle League recommendations, see our Ultra League page. On this page:

Things to know about putting together a Weather Cup team in Pokémon Go

The best thing about the 2500 CP limit is that, like the Ultra League, the pool of strong and eligible Pokémon goes up is fairly deep. And with not one but four legal types in the pool, the pool is around 200 strong. The downside is that putting a team together isn’t as cheap as the Great League, both in terms of Candy and Stardust, so make sure this is a cup you want to play if you’re unsure as to whether to use up your resources. Of course, if there’s overlap between the Weather Cup and your Ultra League team - if you run a Swampert, for example - you have to spend less resources to be competitive. So, how do you pick Pokémon for an element-based cup? With so many different options, the trick isn’t necessarily to look at the four eligible types, but what Pokémon are available that are one of those types. Watet types are extremely common and powerful in this meta, so we need to look at what beats water, and what you can pair with your water types to get around this weakness. Swampert is a prime example here, as a water/ground type that loses its weakness to electric-type attacks due to its to second typing. It is, however, crushingly weak to grass-type attacks, which is where Cradily comes in. This rock/grass type is perfectly eligible as it has one of the required types, but thanks to its Bullet Seed/Grass Knot combo, it makes short work of the water-type Pokémon at the top of this meta. Understanding and maximising this kind of coverage is the key to turning the tide in the Weather Cup. Thanks to the increased CP limit, there are more Legendary Pokémon for you to consider at the top of the meta than usual, although Tapu Fini is really the only one we’d highly recommended. That said, if you happen to have a solid Regirock or Regice, they are reasonable contenders for your team - the former also joining our list - but are not Pokémon we feel you should go out of your way for for a week-long meta. Remember, although there are specific Pokémon that dominate this meta, with the Go Battle League (and player-versus-player battles in general) you’ll be going in blind; so even if you cover yourself with a wide range of offence and defence options, no team is invincible. Still - even with a few of the below Pokémon in your team, you should be able to fare better than if you just selected those as close to the 2500 CP cap as possible. The Season of Mythical Wishes continues with the Winter Holiday event, which has brought Mega Glalie to Pokémon Go. Don’t forget to partake in the new Go Battle League season. Elsewhere, be sure to use Daily Adventure Incense for the chance of encountering Galarian Articuno, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Moltres.

Our Pokémon Go Weather Cup recommendations

There is no single ‘best’ team you can choose - since, as mentioned previously, you don’t know what you are up against - and not everyone has access to every Pokémon species. Instead, here is a general list of recommended Weather Cup Pokémon to build a team from, with a wide range of sources that should suit all players, whether you’ve been collecting creatures since day one or just started playing. Plus, even if you don’t have any Legendary Pokémon, you can still be very competitive in this cup. Remember you are only allowed one of each in the Go Battle League, and ideally you’d want to build a team with different type strengths and defense. Our previous example of Cradily, covering rock’s weakness to water with its grass typing once again shines through. It’s also worth noting that if you want to really compete, each of your Pokémon need two Charged moves. If you want to skimp on Stardust and only run the one move, do so at your own peril - you have been warned. Our Pokémon Go Weather Cup team recommendations in order of their appearance in the National Pokédex – while there is some overlap with the Ultra League guide, make sure you read the full entry as we may be recommending some move changes: Tentacruel Type: Water / Poison Weakness: Electric, Ground and Psychic Moves: Poison Jab (Fast), Scald (Charged), Acid Spray (Charged) Are you tired of seeing fairy-type Pokémon? What about Pokémon that try to buff themselves? Tentacruel is clearly the Pokémon for you. The extremely bulky Tentacruel is a great choice as a lead Pokémon for your team, thanks to Acid Spray guaranteeing to drop the opponent’s defence by two stages. Scald can drop the opponent’s attack by one stage, but it’s far less reliable at only 30% of activation. Still, this is a great way to force your opponent into an early switch, which can often decide the battle on the spot by handing you the advantage on a silver platter. These poison-type attacks naturally make short work of Alolan Ninetails and Tapu Fini, but also take down Abomasnow, Samurott and Cradily, which is a good chunk of the meta. However, it’s worth noting that Swampert and Lanturn will get past Tentacruel’s defences, and make it crumble like jelly. Lanturn Type: Water / Electric Weakness: Grass, Ground Moves: Spark (Fast), Surf (Charged), Thunder Bolt (Charged) With water types being incredibly common in this meta, grass types are incredibly strong - Lanturn shows this in its own weakness to grass-type attackers. However, Lanturn also leans into attacking water types with its electric-type attacks, helping it take down the likes of Tapu Fini, Samurott and Poliwrath. Lanturn also has that sought-after combo of being both bulky and spammy, and can applying a great deal of shield pressure between the fast-charging Spark attack and the Surf attack to bait out their shields early on. The problem, of course, is a recurring theme in this meta - weakness to grass. Cradily and Abomasnow will make short work of Lanturn, and Swampert’s ambivalence to electric-type attacks means that for all its bulk, Lanturn loses pretty quickly in that match-up. Blaziken Type: Fire / Fighting Weakness: Flying, Ground, Psychic and Water Moves: Counter (Fast), Brave Bird (Charged), Blaze Kick (Charged) Given how wet this meta is, a fire-type Pokémon is clearly a bold choice. The reason the fighting fire chicken makes the list is purely because we expect a lot of people to lead with Cradily or Abomasnow, or if they want something more left-field, Alolan Ninetails or Regirock. Blaziken will earn you easy wins against these. And if they immediately switch to a water-type to counter your Blaziken, you swap to Cradily, Abomasnow or Lanturn to take back the advantage. On paper, it’s a solid plan. However, as fast and spammy as the big birb is, it has glass-cannon status and a move that absolutely annihilates your own defence – Brave Bird – making it a difficult Pokémon to use well. If you can bait out shields with Blaze Kick and then drop the Hail Mary Brave Bird just before being knocked out, you’re using Blaziken properly. Just be aware that if you leave it out in the rain, you probably won’t get round to getting your ultimate attack off. Swampert Type: Water / Ground Weakness: Grass Moves: Mud Shot (Fast), Hydro Cannon (Exclusive Charged move), Earthquake (Charged) It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that Swampert and Shadow Swampert are just good. With a single weakness to grass types and a resistance to rock types, it’s a solid pick in this meta. Mud Shot and Earthquake, just as in Ultra League, are a great combo - one is very fast and other hits like a truck. But the real secret tech (that absolutely everyone knows about) is the Community Day move Hydro Cannon, which hits incredibly hard for how much energy it costs. But, for all its spamminess, there’s a lot of grass at the top of this meta, so you should expect to run into (and lose quickly to) the likes of Cradily and Abomasnow. Ludicolo Type: Water / Grass Weakness: Bug, Flying and Poison Moves: Razor Lead (Fast), Leaf Storm (Charged), Ice Beam (Charged) Despite being a relatively slow Pokémon, Ludicolo hits hard enough to be worth considering in the Weather Cup. Razor Leaf does heavy damage to anything weak to it, including the likes of Swampert, Tapu Fini and the other water-type Pokémon flooding the meta. The trick with Ludicolo is knowing when to use which move, with Leaf Storm dropping your attack by two stages. Where possible, you should use Ice Beam until you need to risk your big attack. Ludicolo, sadly, loses to Cradily, Alolan Ninetails and Abomasnow, mostly because it just doesn’t hit fast enough. Cradily Type: Rock / Grass Weakness: Bug, Fighting, Ice and Steel Moves: Bullet Seed (Fast), Grass Knot (Charged), Stone Edge (Charged) Cradily is widely agreed to be the strongest Pokémon in this meta, thanks to the combination of its extreme bulk and the lack of meta-relevant weaknesses. The fact that it has an incredibly spammy Fast move, a solid, high-damage Charged move to apply shield pressure with and a very high-damage nuke in the form of Stone Edge is all just proverbial gravy. And the fact that this Pokémon gets to level 50 with perfect IVs at 2499 CP just keeps adding to the pile of reasons why you should run Cradily in Weather Cup. When it comes to matchups, Swampert, Samurott, Tapu Fini, Lanturn and Regirock all fold pretty hard to Cradily, but you need to watch out for the ice attacks of Alolan Ninetails and Abomasnow, and the fighting attacks that a Blaziken can send your way. Regirock Type: Rock Weakness: Fighting, Grass, Ground, Steel and Water Moves: Lock On (Fast), Stone Edge (Charged move), Focus Blast (Charged) If you’re big on Ultra League, there’s a reasonable chance you have a solid Regirock just lying around. If so, you’re in luck because even though it is extremely vulnerable in this meta, it does also have a good number of matchups that you can exploit. This is mostly because of the same reasons that make it a great choice in Ultra League. Lock On is a nightmare with how fast charging it is (despite it doing virtually no damage), and Stone Edge / Focus Blast do disgusting amounts of damage. This means that this extremely bulky and spammy Pokémon can help strip a few shields, and may even one-shot a Pokémon if it comes out late in the battle, giving the kind of versatility that we all know and love. This helps it win against the likes of Abomasnow and Shadow Cradily (though it will just lose to a regular Cradily in a fair match). The issue, of course, is that no matter how bulky it is, a drop of water will simply erode your defences, with Tapu Fini, Samurott, Swampert and Lanturn all squarely beating Regirock. Abomasnow Type: Grass / Ice Weakness: Fire, Bug, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Rock and Steel Moves: Powder Snow (Fast), Energy Ball (Charged), Weather Ball (Charged) Weather Ball Abomasnow is a demon in Ultra League, so it stands to reason that it’ll be a scary Pokémon in the Weather Cup, too. But, of course, the real terror here isn’t the icy weather ball or even Powder Snow – though that does devastate Cradily at the top of the meta – it’s the sneaky grass-type Energy Ball that will utterly devastate Tapu Fini, Swampert and Lanturn. As ever, this spammy, dynamic Pokémon that applies a lot of shield pressure is just a great choice whenever you get to use it. The downsides, really, are that the Shadow variant is the better option, which makes you all the more vulnerable to its wide range of weaknesses. Abomasnow loses to some more of the left-field options in this meta, including Mr Rime and Regirock, though it also loses pretty hard to Samurott, Blaziken and Alolan Ninetails. Samurott Type: Water Weakness: Electric and Grass Moves: Fury Cutter (Fast), Hydro Cannon (Exclusive Charged), Megahorn (Charged) Samurott is one of those Pokémon where it’s easy to forget that it’s a mono water-type. It’s also got a bit of a bizarre moveset, which makes it a really interesting choice in Pokémon Go’s Go Battle League. The reason for that is that this water-type starter runs two bug-type moves, which help it turn the tables on two of the grass-types at the top of this meta, roundly beating both Abomasnow and Shadow Cradily. That said, the bulk of a regular Cradily is still an issue, and its grass-type attacks will happily shred Samurott’s defences, so make sure you’re aware of that going in. And this is all before we get to Hydro Cannon - the move which makes Swampert such a house in Ultra League. The combination of how fast-charging Fury Cutter is with how strong Hydro Cannon hits will surely catch many players’ eyes. Having Megahorn as a coverage nuke for the matchups where it matters is clearly just upside. Tapu Fini Type: Water / Fairy Weakness: Electric, Gras and Poison Moves: Water Gun (Fast), Surf (Charged), Moon Blast (Charged) If you want a Legendary Pokémon that’s been making waves in Ultra League, Tapu Fini is the way to go. With an incredible defence stat and more than reasonable attack and stamina, Tapu Fini is a great defensive choice, and can tank a fair few hits in Ultra League. The Water Gun/Surf combo makes it very agile and dynamic in battle, and the back-up Moonblast is a great nuke once the shields go down. Should they tank the hit, this fairy-type attack may even drop the opponent’s attack by 1 stage, helping you gain the edge in the match. The problem with Tapu Fini is the same problem that a lot of Pokémon in this meta face - weakness to grass and electric attacks. That said, while it loses quite obviously to anything capable of slapping it with a leaf, it does beat Kingdra, Poliwrath and Samurott quite nicely. One match-up to be aware of is Swampert. While you should just about beat a regular Swampert in a fair match, a Shadow Swampert hits hard enough that it makes short work of Tapu Fini. Bear this in mind if this Pokémon makes the cut!