As Season 6 of Go Battle League comes to a close, Niantic has decided to bring back the Kanto Cup. The Kanto Cup is an easy cup to invest in as a lot of the top Pokemon in the Meta transfer over to open Great League. Today we'll be taking a look at two teams I'll be running and offer some insight into how to play them. Like always we'll be using pvpoke.com for team building and for checking out the rankings. Team 1
Hitmonchan is a Pokemon that I quite enjoyed as a beginner player before the Go Battle League officially launched. This team is actually a different take on the team I ran last time we had the Kanto Cup, but it utilized Shadow Machamp in the lead. The reason why I still enjoy Hitmonchan now is that it can cover similar things to Hypno with access to all of the punches. For this meta, you want to be running Ice Punch for Dragonair, Venusaur, and Pidgeot, and Thunder Punch for Lapras and Dewgong. Counter is still one of the best fast moves in the game to charge up those punches while putting out fast move pressure. We also hard counter things that are weak to the Counter damage such as Snorlax and Alolan Sandslash. Combine this with the punch coverage and you have yourself a solid lead. In the back, we have Alolan Muk as our closer and Hypno on the safe switch. Alolan Muk covers Hitmonchan against charmers such as Wigglytuff with Sludge Wave, and Psychic types like Hypno with Dark Pulse. You get the added bonus of taking out Alolan Marowak and Mew, but you do lose to those thick water types in Lapras and Dewgong, as well as Snorlax. Hypno still remains the best safe switch option in the meta with impressive bulk and just sheer stat output. Confusion is a very devastating move in neutral matchups and charges up to hard-hitting Shadow Balls. Like Hitmonchan we get coverage in Thunder Punch as the move of choice. It is worth noting that Alolan Muk and Hypno have almost identical key losses so it is important to catch these bad matchups on the lead with Hitmonchan. Team 2
I decided to have some fun with this team and play with some Pokemon that I didn't get to run during the first Kanto Cup run. Alolan Marowak is a trusted lead of mine and I feel comfortable running it whenever it is legal. Bone Club is decent coverage and is good at shield baiting to help you land those Shadow Bones. Fire Spin helps get these moves going quickly and has very relevant coverage over Hex in this meta. Fire Spin Alolan Marowak walls Shadow Victreebel and allows you to take down Lapras and Dewgong. We beat Wigglytuff and absolutely delete Alolan Sandslash. There aren't too many counters to Alolan Marowak but you do need to look out for Hypno, Snorlax, Shadow Machamp, and Dragonair. Most of these are actually very close matches so if your opponent lets you get ahead on energy then you can flip these games.
Thanks to the Kanto event going on right now I can finally get access to Venusaur with Frenzy Plant. We'll be using it as a closer and we have Electrode on the safe switch. Venusaur has great typing and Vine Whip plus Frenzy Plant puts out tons of damage, and Sludge Bomb deals massive damage across the meta. I also invested in an Electrode recently for the Love Cup and found a lot of success with it on the safe switch. Volt Switch allows us to spam Discharge and Foul Play like crazy which makes Electrode very dangerous when ahead on energy. Besides slapping those water types it doesn't have too many dominant match-ups so use your shields carefully and try to get ahead on energy whenever possible.
I hope you enjoyed these teams and if you want to see these teams in action then check us out on Twitch where we stream Go Battle League every Tuesday. I also battle viewers and have a blast playing some auto rec battles. If you're looking for more pvp content then we also have a podcast on our YouTube channel where we discuss Go Battle League. Thanks again for reading and for joining the Fellowship. Good luck in your Kanto Cup battles!
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