Beating the Box is an important team building strategy, especially when we get to those higher ranks later into the season. The concept of beating the box is to have each of your Pokemon being able to line up well against the four best Pokemon in the meta. Zyonik over on Youtube is where I first heard of this method. Last week we covered beating the box for the Great League meta. This week we're going to take a look at the top meta Pokemon in the Ultra League and its Premier Cup. Check out PvPoke to help you check rankings and use their team builder, as it is the best resource for Pokemon Go pvp team crafting. Check out Part 1 as well if you want to look into the Great League meta.
Although the premier cup appears to be more popular at the moment, I am a huge fan of the traditional ultra league format. Cresselia and Giratina Altered are problematic if your team doesn't build with them in mind, but I found the league to be an enjoyable challenge with them in it. The top four meta Pokemon at the time of writing this article are Cresselia, Giratina Altered, Shadow Swampert, and Registeel. Shadow Pokemon are not very popular so I expect regular Swampert will see more play, even though it is ranked lower. With that said, the teams I prepared will be keeping Swampert with no shadow variant in mind.
Cresselia in my opinion is the best Pokemon in the Ultra League by quite a bit. Its bulk is outstanding and it has amazing coverage with fairy and psychic type moves. It can put a bad beating on almost all of the meta and its bulk can make it stay in fights and trade blows even with Pokemon that counter it. Giratina has been a constant at the top of the meta even after the Ancient Power nerf. Like Cresselia, its bulk makes it a problem to deal with and it can pivot according to the meta by using either Dragon Breath or Shadow Claw. Dragon Claw can spam like crazy and helps win those neutral matchups. Swampert and Registeel are solid as well. Registeel has serious bulk and lots of resistances and Swampert gets to charge moves very quickly to deal tons of damage, even though it is on the squishier side.
Teams That Beat The Box
Gyarados Lead Team
Gyarados was my go-to lead in season two when it ran Hydro Pump. Aqua Tail from community day is a serious improvement because it is quicker to charge and still puts out great neutral damage. Dragon Breath offers coverage for those dragons such as Giratina and Crunch can take out the Cresselia and Armored Mewtwo. It even has close wins against Swampert and Registeel with those neutral charge moves. Charizard is our hard Registeel counter and it covers those grass types that might challenge our Gyarados. Cresselia is a great closer with its nice bulk and hard-hitting charge moves and is a solid way to round out most teams.
Typhlosion Close Team
This team is looking to set up a #getbeamed to close out the game. Solar Beam and Blast Burn hit super hard and a beam can one-shot most Pokemon if it goes unshielded. The game plan, of course, is to get shields down early and try to beam our way to victory with Typhlosion. Articuno is a very annoying lead to deal with as we will Icy Wind our opponents Pokemon to start lowering their attack stat. They will be pressured to shield early if they want to hit enough charge moves or they will switch out into something that can quickly deal with Articuno. Armored Mewtwo is also great at getting shields as it has hard-hitting charge moves that have a lot of neutral matchups, plus its bulk keeps us from needing to shield ourselves so we can keep them up for Typhlosion later. Cresselia is a common closer and Typhlosion can win that match up by having access to Shadow Claw. It can also one-shot Swampert with a single Solar Beam and melt down a Registeel with Blast Burn.
Suicune Cover Team
Suicune has solid bulk, decent coverage, and has access to Snarl to charge moves quickly. We can counter switch into a Charizard if our opponent loses lead and brings one in, but it can be brought in to neutral fights as well. Bubble Beam is good to spam and it lowers the attack on the opposing Pokemon. Ice Beam can take out Giratina and get shields on grass types that come in to farm for energy. Meganium is our answer to Swampert and helps against Registeel with its Earthquake. Alolan Muk rounds up our team and is specifically here to take out Cresselia and Armored Mewtwo.
The Premier Cup definitely seems more popular among other content creators at the moment, and everyone seems to be having fun and testing out whatever Pokemon they want. With that said I'll be sharing some teams that I think will be a lot of fun but won't be going into a lot of detail. Shadow variants of Machamp, Venusaur, and Swampert hold the top positions of the meta but as I did in the Ultra League box, I will be ignoring the shadow variants and focusing more on the regular versions. The meta is shifting around as people discover what they like playing with and here are the teams that I'll be trying out.
Honchkrow Lead Team
Honchkrow eats Venusaur's lunch and can even take out Swampert with sheer damage. Gallade needs to come in and take out Machamp or anything that threatens our Honchkrow. Lapras is our bulk to help us when we fall behind and can take out opposing fliers that Gallade can't beat.
Electivire Closer Team
Electivire is Pokemon that I am excited to play with as it is not very viable in the traditional Ultra League. Wild Charge hits like a truck and if shields are down can sweep the end game. Venasaur is a solid lead and we have Aggron to cover Charizard and Honchkrow. Aggron is a spicy pick and pet favorite of mine but does make us potentially vulnerable to Machamp if we aren't careful.
Flygon Safe Switch Team
This is another team that is super spicy. Flygon does fantastic against those steels like Magnezone and Excadrill which makes it a very solid safe switch option in the premier cup. Togekiss hard counters Machamp and Honchkrow. Having access to Flamethrower and Aerial Ace helps it pressure a Venusuar that is trying to hit Sludge Bombs. Escavalier can clutch up some wins as well if it lands that Megahorn against Venusaur.
The Premier Cup is an exciting space to explore in its early stages and the traditional Ultra League is a fantastic test of skills. I hope this article was useful in some way and that one of these teams sparked some interest. Next week I'll be taking a look at the Master League Premier Cup Box and build some teams that I think will be fun to play and help you climb the ranks.
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