As we finish up with the Little Cup and the end of week one of Season 5, it is time to put our focus on the Kanto Cup. The Kanto region is full of powerful and nostalgic Pokemon, which means we will have a fun Cup to play in. What makes the Kanto Cup so fantastic is that it is full of Pokemon that you are already familiar with from the open Great League. Hypno and Alolan Marowak are good examples of this, so if you're investing in these Pokemon for the first time you will be able to transition them into Great League when it returns. So let's imagine ourselves back in Pallet Town where it all began, to look through the first 151 Pokemon and seeing what the meta will look like. And as always head over to PvPoke.com for all of the information you need on Go Battle League.
The Meta
Hypno is the number one ranked Pokemon in the Kanto Cup due to its stat output and the diversity of its move set. Bronzor has shown us how devastating Confusion is as a fast move in neutral matchups and helps it as a safe switch option. Hypno has Ice, Thunder, and Fire Punches available for whatever coverage you need, with Thunder Punch being especially good in this Cup to cover Lapras and Dewgong. Hypno also has Shadow Ball and Focus Blast to KO after shields are down. These two moves provide unique coverage with Shadow Ball helping against Alolan Marowak, while Focus Blast can help cover those Normal type Lick users that counter it. The stardust investment is worth it as Hypno is a versatile Pokemon in the open Great League and can play many roles on your teams. It is worth noting that Hypno isn't the boogeyman of this Cup as Bronzor was in the Little Cup. Take the time to look through the rankings and you'll quickly notice that Hypno loses to a lot of Pokemon in this Cup.
Half of the box is made up of Pokemon that hard counter Hypno with their fantastic bulk and Lick for super effective fast move damage. Snorlax is no stranger to competitive play in Go Battle League with amazing stats and a wide move pool in its own right. For fast moves, it has Body Slam to spam neutral damage and has Superpower as the other suggested charge move. Superpower is great at going after those Ice types like Lapras and Dewgong and could catch something like an Alolan Graveler. Lickitung is a relative newcomer to Go Battle League and is getting a chance to shine in this Cup. It is quite a hefty investment as it does max out below 1500 cp and doesn't have much use in the open Great League. However, for this Cup, it has Lick and Body Slam to mirror Snorlax, and it has Power Whip as a powerful Grass type move. Power Whip will help against those water types like Lapras and Dewong, but also something like Blastoise which I suspect a lot of people to be running.
At the end of the box, we have Alolan Marowak and this is another Pokemon worth investing in. If you at least played in the Halloween Cup you'll be aware of how dominant this Pokemon can be with fantastic coverage across whatever meta you are facing. Fire Spin generates less energy than Hex but the coverage you get with Fire Spin is very valuable. It hits neutral against things like Lapras and Dewgong while also punishing people with the audacity to be running Shadow Victreebel. Hex also has the downside of getting resisted by those Normal types like Snorlax and Lickitung and even Wigglytuff. If you explore the rankings of all of the different match ups you'll see that Alolan Marowak has lots of positive match ups.
Team 1
As we talked about already Alolan Marowak has fantastic coverage on the meta which makes it a great lead. If you don't have yourself a Shadow Bone Marowak that is totally fine and Shadow Ball is still awesome and is the move I'll likely be running myself. Snorlax is on the safe switch here to spam Body Slam in neutral matches and will hopefully face down a Hypno if we win lead. Lapras is an absolute tank which makes it an ideal closer. Ice Shard is a pretty hard hitting fast move and Surf is super spamy. Skull Bash is very hard-hitting in neutral matches and can boost our defense to help withstand any fast moves. Lapras actually has winning matches against both Hypno and Snorlax and beats Pokemon like Alolan Marowak, Wigglytuff, and Dragonair which are just outside of the box.
Team 2
This team is deadly, especially with a Shadow Machamp on the lead which I will be running. Alolan Muk makes up a good core as it covers the Fairy types like Wigglytuff and Clefable, plus the Psychic types like Hypno. Snarl generates stupid amounts of energy to spam Dark Pulse like crazy in the late game as a closer. Machamp should be safe on the lead with heavy Counter damage and hard hitting Cross Chops, while Rock Slide provides excellent coverage and is a must-have. Hypno is positioned as the best safe switch option and for good reason. Confusion chunks and has a lot of neutral match ups and Thunder Punch can add some shield pressure. Snorlax counter switching is a thing to be worried about so we might start seeing Focus Blast Hypnos as the meta evolves. I did run some simulations and although Focus Blast does hit hard super effective damage you are in trouble if they shield and Lick does a lot of super effective damage back at us.
Team 3
Wigglytuff is positioned as the best Charmer in this Cup and is deadly even in neutral matches. Play Rough hits very hard and Ice Beam has decent coverage against the meta. The true strength of Wigglytuff is that it resists Lick because of its Normal typing, which allows it to beat Snorlax and Lickitung. Dragonair is a spice pick and covers Alolan Marowak which is the biggest threat to Wigglytuff. Dragon Breath and Aqua Tail apply a lot of pressure to both shields and health as we look to win the end game. A great substitute for Dragonair is Alolan Marowak as it covers the other threats like Lapras and Alolan Sandslash. Snorlax is the safe switch I'm sticking with so we can catch that Hypno and it covers opposing Marowaks. Superpower is the essential move to help fight back against Lapras.
Seeing the diversity of the Cup and no clear dominant force like we saw with Bronzor in the Little Cup, makes me really excited for the Kanto Cup. With such diversity, I would put a lot of focus on building solid cores and having widespread coverage. If you want to see these teams in action then follow us on Twitch and check out our Instagram for updates to our schedule. If you're into vlogs then check out our Community Day vlog on our Youtube Channel. Join our Discord for more Go Battle League conversations and to get in on some games of Among Us. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this article.
Comments