Transcript
William Dunphey: Welcome into the Show 6 podcast, where we break down the championship series for Pokemon Go. It's hard to believe, but we are entering our third season of the show, and we have so much to talk about leading into the 2026 competitive season.
William Dunphey: We'll start off with talking about some of the new meta updates for Tales of Transformation, then the myriad of changes that have come to the championship series, that and much, much more. So if you're ready, lock in, good luck, and have fun.
William Dunphey: Welcome in everyone to a brand new episode and a brand new season of the show six podcast. We're heading into a monumental year for the game for the championship series and everything and beyond. And honestly, the hype is palpable. I'm really excited for this season. It's easy. I couldn't do with it without you, my friend. Welcome in How are you feeling?
zzweilous: Welcome in, everybody. Thanks for having me back again for yet another season. There was no was no changes behind the scenes, guys. It's still the same two dudes.
William Dunphey: No.
zzweilous: And yeah, it's it's the season, ah Tales of Transformation. I do feel like a new man, unwashed, ah ready to tackle the next season of Play Pokemon. And yeah, I'm certainly excited for the things to come and for the things that are already here.
William Dunphey: Awesome, awesome. Well, as I alluded to in the intro, we're going to talk about the Tales of Transformation update first, because we do have a couple of tournaments happening this weekend, I believe. We've got Frankfurt and Monterey.
William Dunphey: ah But as of right now, we're kind of working with a ah limited information, if you will. We've seen some practice tournaments. There was Zygarden stream just this past weekend. Martijn released the the results of all his practice tournaments, which I saw you actually post about as well, ZZ.
William Dunphey: There's a lot to talk about there. ah But let's just go ahead and dive in and give our impressions of the meta. I've been playing all my Go Battle League battles. I've been maxing out all my games for the first time in quite a while, to be honest.
zzweilous: Holy.
William Dunphey: But um let's go ahead and start start things off here. In terms of the updates, I got to ask you, knee-jerk reaction, is it good? Is it bad? do you have any surprises or any disappointments?
zzweilous: So I will say that overall, I feel really good about this update. And I wasn't initially on board with that notion because I saw what was revealed at Worlds in Anaheim.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And I was comparing it to what we saw the season before in Honolulu.
William Dunphey: Oh, yeah.
zzweilous: And the season before, we saw ah complete reinvention of the meta with 14 nerfs back in the day, and most of them were really substantive, were really shaking up the meta as we knew it.
zzweilous: think the counter nerf was in there. There was like the entire gutting of Vigoroth and just like a lot of stuff that really turned the meta upside down.
William Dunphey: oh yeah
zzweilous: We didn't quite have that, but we still had a huge update that not really it didn't really um take many Pokemon out of the meta entirely. um But instead, it just lifted up even more options, giving people so much versatility in team building. And you talked about ah me reposting one of my time's tournament graphics um in the first week of practice.
zzweilous: 38 different species won a practice tournament and I think like 12 practice tournaments overall. So yeah, you can you can essentially extract from that where we are right now.
zzweilous: It's kind of the Wild West, but it is the Wild West in a way that feels fun and non-toxic. like Creativity gets rewarded and it's not as RPS as I originally thought it may be.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I agree. i feel like, again, we're kind of, and we'll talk about this in a moment, we're kind of moving in a direction where we're getting more and more buffs and more and more boosts to Pokemon, but not really that kind of like straight up ah assassination that we saw with Rockside getting nerfed, Body Sam getting nerfed.
William Dunphey: ah in the example of Vigoroth. So it kind of feels like there are certain Pokemon that have been sticking around that could force this meta into being RPS. ah One Pokemon in particular keeps jumping to front of mind for me. That's Dedenne.
William Dunphey: It feels like that Pokemon is a real kind of thorn in the side of the overall health of the meta. ah But I want to say, just in terms of general vibes, in terms of general updates, one of the biggest changes that really rocked my world was the changes to dragons.
William Dunphey: Seeing Dragon Breath and Dragon Tail both kind of be restructured. And in ah in a funny way, they're actually identical, right? You're going to be getting three damage and four energy per turn, whether it's Dragon Breath or Dragon and Tail.
William Dunphey: But it just changes the whole dynamic on how these Pokemon are played. Suddenly, they're spammier. They're not dealing as much faster. attack pressure it's kind of like the the change we saw with counter where not not everything was getting immediately countered down anymore once counter got nerfed medicham fell out of the meta now we're seeing dragons actually become charge attack oriented pokemon in my mind which is really wild
zzweilous: Yeah, and you mentioned power creep, Speedy. I think one way this expresses itself is through the change in pacing over the years.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: um For the longest time, something like getting to Hydro Cannon in 10 turns was considered like almost broken. And right now, I feel as if for a medium bulk Pokémon, reaching your first charged attack in more than 10 turns
William Dunphey: Yes. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: already makes it unviable. Like if you have the bulk to stick around, it's not as important, but for many Pokemon that was just like disqualify disqualifying from the from the get-go. And every is single Dragon-type fast attack user fell into that category because even a 35 energy move could not have been reached before 12 turns.
zzweilous: So by shifting the Dragon Breath and Dragon Tail para parameters to essentially the inverse of what they were,
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: um
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: even nerfing Dragon Tail slightly, but that's neither here nor there. I think that really is more valuable than the raw damage output. There was like a niche for Dragon Breath users. um like i was a big Shadow ah Dragonite enjoyer because that was just forcing Swap and the two shields a lot.
William Dunphey: yes
zzweilous: That playstyle is kind of outdated now, but instead, dragons have become a lot more flexible, lot faster, and I think they synergize with the 45-second switch timer pretty well now as well, because You want to spend most charge attacks to get your clock back up.
William Dunphey: Yeah, exactly. I think I noticed this last season when it came to Glyzopod with Fury Cutter and the Fury Cutter buff, ah because then you're getting to your Aerial Ace, your Aqua Jet, your X-Scissor in 10 turns every single time.
William Dunphey: Now we look at a Pokemon like Dragonite getting to its Thunder Punch in 10 turns, its Super Power in 10 turns. ah The Dragon pacing has honestly been a big wake-up call for me. For example, Dragonair, it used to be 12 turns to the Aqua Tail or to the body stamp. Now it's only nine.
William Dunphey: It's literally faster than Hydrocan for Alligator than an Aqua Jet Fury Cutter Glycopod. It's so fast and you have to be ready for it. ah And then there's other updates as well that I think are really important, like Ember.
William Dunphey: Ember on Charizard and Ninetales in particular seems to be a real game changer for those two fire type Pokemon. um And this just goes to what you're alluding to about the 45 second switch timer. I adore it.
William Dunphey: I love it. I think we finally found the sweet spot for Great League. ah Just all those matchups where I wish I could have swapped out just a few seconds earlier. Those are happening now. Those are happening for me and I feel so good. The battle mechanics feel so much more fluid. I don't know if you agree or disagree, but um I adore it.
zzweilous: I think that was the perfect change. And I remember that last season when we moved from the 60 seconds to the 50 seconds, a lot of competitors were like, OK, I like this. 50 seems odd to me because a lot of people just classify like a minute in a bracket of four times 15 seconds, essentially.
William Dunphey: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
William Dunphey: yep
zzweilous: um So yeah, I think now you are guaranteed to reach your switch time again after four charge attacks have been fired, essentially. And in many cases, if there's a couple of fast attacks in between, it may even come up after three charge attacks.
zzweilous: So it makes the game even more dynamic and it's not over tuned, which I think is also very healthy for the game because we did have like a weekend or so couple of years back around April 1st when weather ball spam was the meta and we had a 30 second switch timer.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: And that was just like, I guess like, and was still like There was still skill expression, but it it felt weird. It felt weird in a fun way, but not in a way that you want your entire championship series to be.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: So I think, yeah, we we arrived at the sweet spot and I'm happy for it.
William Dunphey: Exactly.
William Dunphey: The 30-second switch timer, I believe that was like an April Fool's Day joke that was pulled by Niantic. That was the the moment of Psycho Boost, ah Defense Form Deoxys, Super Power Metal Metal, and anything with Wild Charge. And you just basically spam off these moves, switch, spam off these moves, and switch.
William Dunphey: And that was a little bit too fast. it Honestly, it it felt like we were going to start to run out of game clock before we actually had a decisive winner in some situations.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: Yeah. I agree with you. I think that the 45 second switch timers is best.
zzweilous: Oh, man. I haven't heard the name Defense Deoxys in a while. That used to be a Pokemon. Yeah.
William Dunphey: I know. i mean, you remember when Kimmy Sui won a regional in North America?
zzweilous: Yeah,
William Dunphey: I believe he took on Arrow in the grand finals. And that feels like ages ago. But yeah.
zzweilous: yeah, yeah. This has me all nostalgic. um But, yeah.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: I guess, like, the future is now. and Even old men like us have to adapt.
William Dunphey: Yes.
William Dunphey: ah One more change I wanted to talk about just briefly in terms of fast attacks is the change to confusion. Confusion now going to generate energy more quickly. That means that your Hypno and your Jirachi are going to get to their elemental punches and doom desires in kind in only three confusions, which is 12 turns, which is, again, much more on par than the 16 or 20 turns, it it it usually took a confusion user ah to get to their move.
William Dunphey: I have a really diabolical idea. ZZ, I'll drop this on you. if ah If status effects ever come to Pokemon Go, one of the ideas that I had to buff confusion into relevancy was after every confusion, there was a percentage chance to confuse the opponent that is hit by it.
William Dunphey: And what that what that correlates to is, let's say you have a Charizard with a Blast Burn and a Dragon Claw loaded, and your Pokemon's confused because it just got hit by a Hypno.
zzweilous: man
William Dunphey: It triggered the Confusion status effect. No matter which charge attack button you press, there's a 50-50 chance that that charge attack will actually go off once you activate it. So that was my idea, to buff Confusion and to add some chaos into Pokemon Go, but we haven't seen that yet.
William Dunphey: And we're going to have to deal with our energy gain.
zzweilous: While we're at it let's add abilities as well so that Jirachi gets access to Serene Grace and every confusion just has a higher chance of confusing the opponent and nobody will be able to play the game anymore.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: That would be the perfect way to make Jirachi meta.
William Dunphey: Oh my gosh.
William Dunphey: How annoying would that be? I mean, just reminds me of like Aaron Zhang and the Will-O-Wisp and just missing them over and over again.
zzweilous: Oh no.
William Dunphey: Could you imagine, could you imagine like a Charizard lined up against a Tinkaton and you press the Blast Burn and you Dragon Claw and you shield and then you press the Blast Burn again and you Dragon Claw a second time for whatever reason, if you're confused a couple times, but.
zzweilous: Oh no. Yeah.
zzweilous: think it was jirachi that used to be like this flinch machine that where every vgc player was molding about it um but yeah we don't have that in go yet i don't know whether they'll ever change it but yeah speaking of uh attacks that have a secondary effect um speedy i'm just like moving through our notes and there's a surprise section moves that surprise you because at the end of the day
William Dunphey: Yeah.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
William Dunphey: Sure.
zzweilous: Move updates are like a box box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get until the switch is flipped and we actually find out um what the moves are looking like in JBL.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: And we had like two weeks to sit with the announced move changes without getting the energy values and breaking swipe.
William Dunphey: yeah yep.
zzweilous: um It's now a guaranteed ah attack debuff, whereas previously it was a 50% chance, but it also is no longer a 35 energy move, but a 50 energy move. um
William Dunphey: ye
zzweilous: That was a thing that surprised me a lot, but it was a pleasant surprise because if we had a cheap guaranteed debuffing breaking swipe, I think Steelix may have gotten out of control. And Steelix is already viable even without breaking swipe.
zzweilous: It just became a world champion without breaking swipe.
William Dunphey: Yep.
zzweilous: So I don't really believe we need an even more powerful Steelix. So good on them to undertake drastic measures here and make breaking swipe less compelling.
William Dunphey: Agreed. You can either have your cake or you can eat it, but you can't have both. And I feel like in this in this particular instance, I'm glad that Breaking Swipe was adjusted the way that it was. ah we We adore and we admire Peavey Poke quite a bit for all the work that Kakuna does.
William Dunphey: But it was really kind of funny to me seeing the energy values that the community was guessing, that Peavey Poke was inputting, and then what it actually turned out to be. ah People saying, oh, it it would be absurd if Ember was 9 energy, or it would be crazy if Breaking Swipe was more than 40 or 45.
zzweilous: Yeah. Yeah.
William Dunphey: But they did make those changes, and I do feel like there's a lot of balance there.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: It's almost like over the seasons, as Niantic has, or Scopely, has has gotten more ambitious with the moveset updates, they've kind of learned on the go about what actually works and what could actually balance things. I i do get that feeling, that the the updates are getting...
William Dunphey: just better holistically in terms of what they're changing.
zzweilous: yeah Yeah, there's definitely more more deliberation, not just we slap boomers on everything, but actually ah having an idea behind the changes.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: and yeah Another thing that I think nobody guessed before it was actually implemented is Aurasphere.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: And I think that makes so much sense because Aurasphere was essentially introduced as a signature move of Lucario.
William Dunphey: Yes.
William Dunphey: yes
zzweilous: And like by extension through Community Days also to Togekiss, which now is actually a viable option.
William Dunphey: exactly.
zzweilous: And yeah, Orosphere I think used to be, was it like 50, 55? It was like a fairly, it was like a nuke move as as we like to call it.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: It was like um high energy cost, big damage.
William Dunphey: exactly
zzweilous: Now they moved the damage down to 80, but they also ah changed the energy cost to 40. This is as good as Hydro Cannon and it makes it so that
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: A lot of Pokemon are now able to pace to Aura Sphere with just um five two turn fast attacks. So that is the exact 10 turn pacing that I talked about earlier, which is like the cutoff of viability.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: And a bunch of Pokemon, I think most prominently Togekiss, benefited from that adjustment. And I don't think it's broken. I think it's an ambitious change, but it served a purpose.
William Dunphey: I think that the threshold for really, really good charge attacks, if you're over two DPE, you're in a really good place. Then you're you're talking about things like Ice Burn, Mega Horn, Dynamic Punch, Avalanche.
William Dunphey: ah Those are all two. And then when you go above two, you go into like the 2.2 range. You're hitting Blast Burn, Close Combat, Aura Wheel, all these really strong charge attacks set that we know about.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: And I agree with you. I think that for being a signature move, it finally has like a signature vibe to it. It's got the damage. It's got the energy requirement. It doesn't feel like, oh, I'm going to run Aura Sphere on Lucario, but it's so bad that I can only do it for raids or something like that.
William Dunphey: You know, I'm never going to get there in a real battle.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: So I agree. One more thing I wanted to just gloss over really quickly. There was a big update to flying types that I think our our lovely co-host might be very excited about.
William Dunphey: Peck. got changed here. What the heck was that about?
zzweilous: i was I have been the biggest proponent of a peg buff for the longest time because I think flyers were, like, they weren't entirely missing from a competitive play, but I think flyers are so diverse in terms of their coverage, their secondary typings, like, it's just like a base type that allows for a lot of different strategies.
zzweilous: So after the wing attack nerf, we didn't really have a flying fast attack anymore that was able to get the most out of those flying types. And now with Peck essentially even eclipsing what Wing Attack used to be and mimicking Shadow Prow with its four damage four energy per turn and three damage per turn, this is a new fast attack, like one that hasn't seen competitive play before.
William Dunphey: Agreed. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: It was in the game already, it was just overlooked because it was so bad. But it is on a lot of Pokemon that now now are actually viable, whereas previously there were jokes.
zzweilous: Murkrow, for example, it won a practice tournament, and it is a real Pokemon now.
William Dunphey: ye Yes. Yeah.
zzweilous: It's a glass cannon. um But yeah, it's it's your Moltres at home. If you don't have ah the big legendary bird, the Galarian Moltres, there's another Dark Flyer out there.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: And we need more Dark Flyers because Mandibus is no longer with us. I think the Aerial Ace nerf straight up took it out.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I made a video about Murkrow the other day, and I called it the runt of the litter when it comes to the dark and flying types. You got the Mandavas, the Glare Moltres, and Murkrow somewhere down below.
William Dunphey: ah Some of the Pokemon that that gained ah this really, really prominent fast attack Togekiss, which I know we're going to talk about. That's definitely going to be a future topic of discussion. Malamar can still learn Peck, although I think Psywave is probably the way to go.
William Dunphey: Murkrow, as you mentioned. Dodrio. Altaria can learn Peck, although does have Dragon Breath as well. Seaking with Peck might be a really interesting tech. I know that Tauntaun Batus is probably looking at that one.
William Dunphey: Firo, which I've tried. Dartrix. And this is just the sheer power of this update. I tried to make two cannon works easy. I tried. I tried before the Peck update when it had Bullet Seed. It was ranked like 460 on PvPoke.
William Dunphey: It jumped over 300 spots to 121 overall with Peck, Drow Peck, and Rock Blast. So that's the power of this Fast Attack update, and I'm here for it.
zzweilous: like you imagine imagine a flying cup comes back and you have an actually viable two cannon with rock blast i i guess like if people run aerodactyl it just vanishes within like three rock rock throws but
William Dunphey: Oh, man.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: Still, i think, um yeah, the PEG buff opened up a lot of avenues. I think the PEG Learn set also encompasses a decent amount of extra Pokemon in the main series games that i haven't received the move just yet.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um think, like, even, like, stranger stuff ah such as Escavalier could get it in the future. um so yeah, I wonder where PEG takes us, but it certainly has taken us into a world of, um,
zzweilous: More interesting flying types again and I'm definitely here for that.
William Dunphey: Absolutely. I am as well. i'm trying I'm trying all the peckers, and I'm doing my best to not have a tier list ranking the peckers, because that just sounds so sus. But ZZ, let's go ahead and dive into some individual picks. We've got some categories here.
William Dunphey: ah Biggest overall surprises, 2025 Championship Series picks that are still in the top meta list. New instant impact championship series Pokemon. Good for PVP, but only in GBL.
William Dunphey: we We also have appear to be good for play Pokemon, but are overhyped, which I'm excited for that that segment there. Losers from the 2025 championship series meta. And then finally, unchanged, but better.
William Dunphey: Environmental buffs to 2026 Pokemon. So unless unless unless there's anything else you want to say about the overall meta, I would love to get into our individual picks.
zzweilous: Yeah, I think we can we can get it to the individual picks. I'll just try and fight my way through my notes document, but I'm pretty sure I have a lot of ah lot of thoughts written on here.
William Dunphey: Okay.
William Dunphey: All right. I'll start us off while you're sorting through your notes there. When we go to biggest overall surprises, I've got three at the top of my mind. That's going to be Ember, Shadow, Charizard as number one.
William Dunphey: That Pokemon might be back for real. ah Number two is Togekiss. With Peck, this Pokemon with its legacy Aura Sphere, as well as Psy Shock, Ancient Power, Dazzling Gleam, kind of dealer's choice of what you want to run as the second charge attack.
William Dunphey: But that Pokemon with Peck has been really impressive to me. And then finally, Altaria with Dragon Breath. i didn't I didn't know what it was going to take to bring this Pokemon back, but the Dragon Breath buff helped it quite a bit to become more relevant. And then Flamethrower can can cook a Alolan Sandslash, which used to be its worst nemesis.
zzweilous: That is true. Like Altaria, I have feelings about Altaria, but we may be um getting into that a little later because, okay, I'll save it for later, but like Altaria is viable.
William Dunphey: Okay.
zzweilous: I personally am a little bit of an Altaria daughter, but that may just be me.
William Dunphey: fair
zzweilous: I think its performance in practice tournaments was just fine. My biggest surprises were um number one, Togekiss, Again, like I think there are things that hold Togekiss back.
zzweilous: I think sometimes you want um some more anti-ghost utility from your flying type. um But one thing that is so interesting about Togekiss is that with its Aura Sphere coverage, it is able to hit steel types that are notoriously difficult to overcome.
zzweilous: Also, it hits Cradilly for super effective, but like Togekiss and Empoleon, they can really go toe to toe against each other.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: And especially if the Empoleon is not shadow, Togekiss has a ways of winning that in essentially every shielding scenario. um What needs to be kept in mind is that Togekiss and Empoleon, if you want your Togekiss consistently um beat the Empoleon,
zzweilous: you may be interested in running it with a tiny amount of attack weight just because both of those Pokemon come out within like 0.1 attack of each other.
William Dunphey: Yes, exactly.
zzweilous: So they're like almost identical in terms of stat distribution. So the the charge attack priority is going to be determined by IVs. And yeah, you need to be conscious of that. um One thing that will always win charge attack priority, we talked about it, it's Murkrow, it's another pack user.
zzweilous: um I have been impressed with how Murkrow has performed, but yeah, it's incredibly glassy Pokémon, but one that paces in a way that it is even able to overcome the Azuril matchup despite being Darkfire, just because the Drillpack spam is real and in the two shields you will eventually outpace the Azur.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: on And yeah, my last ah positive surprise, actually, It's a Pokémon that I didn't think, like, I didn't really trust it to rise again, um but it's Gastrodon.
William Dunphey: Oh.
zzweilous: Gastrodon benefits from Water Pulse, now being 50 energy rather than 55.
William Dunphey: ah
zzweilous: fifty five So a lot of Gastrodon have opted to run Water Pulse over Earth Power. And what is nice about Gastrodon in this current meta is that with Empoleon around, ah the Shadow Canto Marowak, which is otherwise the top dog of Mud Sleppers,
zzweilous: um runs the risk of losing either the zero or the one shield scenario to Empoleon depending on whether it's a shadow or non-shadow whereas with Gastron you tank a Hydro cannon just fine so I think there is some decent utility for Gastron and also you don't have to fear the matchup against flying fire types as much anymore because
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
William Dunphey: ah
zzweilous: um The main damage source of Charizard is resisted fire type damage rather than unresisted flying type damage like it was with Talonflame.
zzweilous: And also if you're up against the Talonflame still, you now have an actually super effective move to hit it with. So yeah, Castrodon, I think definitely a beneficiary of the update.
William Dunphey: I noticed Yanku Jean's moveset cards that Earth Power was 6-5 and the Water Pulse is 5-5 every single time. So yeah, if you're playing against a Gastron and you have a Talon Flame or if you have, like you said, a Charizard and you feel safe, you feel like it might only be the Body Slam, think twice because the the slug is is coming for you.
zzweilous: Yep. yep
William Dunphey: I agree with you. I think that Mud Slap is something that was not touched in this update or the last and it will continue to be very prominent. I've seen... ah Honestly, dude, i i played i played, I think it was two days ago, and the day before that, basically two straight days, 48 hours of GBL games, and I saw a Gastrodon, I swear, on every single team.
William Dunphey: And of course, I posted about this online, and Lou replied, ah Lou said, I don't see any problem with Gastrodon being everywhere. And...
zzweilous: ah Typical.
William Dunphey: Yeah, to be fair, to be fair, it is is a cute Pokemon. But yeah, seeing it all the time so annoying. I feel like going weak to ground is a death sentence in this meta.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: Absolute death sentence.
zzweilous: Yeah, yeah. Especially in the Go Battle League, where I think the um more fast-move-heavy strategies are a little bit more prominent than in Show 6.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: Yeah, you definitely don't want to... Like, you need your Cantor Malorak contest, Gaston Wong contest.
William Dunphey: Exactly, exactly right. ah Let's go ahead and move on to the 2025 Championship Series picks that are still top meta. I think there are three big dogs that are not going anywhere. We see them all over the practice tournaments. We see them all over scrims and everything like that.
William Dunphey: It's going to be Cradilly, Shadowcanto Marowak, and Glaring Corsula. I don't know if you have any arguments, but I feel like those are the big three.
zzweilous: ah That is the exact top three that I have also. And if we look at the chemical practice tournaments, we see all of those three Pokemon above 50%.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: They're the only Pokemon that are on more than half of the teams. They just feel like the... Like and like sometimes they feel unique. I think something like Cridily just... It has such a unique coverage, essentially being one man Grass Soul with its rock and grass coverage. That's can you replicate that?
zzweilous: um And then Kanto Marowak, I think the ground-type role, as we just went over, is incredibly important. Mudslab is just a neutrally, a very oppressive fast attack.
zzweilous: And also, you do want to have those options that reign in Dedene, which we identified as a Pokémon that may have very RPS relationships ah but within the meta,
William Dunphey: yes
zzweilous: and having Cradilly and Kento Marowak on your team um just really helps protect you there and makes it so that matchups may not come down to shenanigans as much like very non-attractive gameplay if you just play alignment-based Pokemon such as Dedane.
William Dunphey: Yep. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: So yeah, those two discourage Dedane usage. Whereas Galar and Kosoda, this is interesting because... um It used to be dust globs in that role.
zzweilous: Remember NAIC?
William Dunphey: ye
zzweilous: Everybody was on the dust globs train? Not anymore. I feel as if a gathering costler, even though it's less accessible, unfortunately so, only being available through 7kmx and um really desiring to be traded away for an IV reroll, it is just the most potent ghost type generalist.
zzweilous: There's not a ton of Pokemon that really a hard punish ghosts. I have seen some for it. I have seen some Galarian Moltres, but against four to five Pokemon on every team, Galarian Corsola just has great play.
zzweilous: um yeah Therefore, it it reigns supreme, currently the most used Pokemon in practice. And um I don't really mind it beyond the accessibility because I think it makes for a lot of balance and neutral play overall.
zzweilous: Like having play into everything without really dominating too many things, I think that is what we want from a meta staple.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
William Dunphey: I agree with you. I think that um what i what I personally have seen with the rise of, or the increasing rise of Glaring Corsula, is the lack of dark types in the meta. I'm looking here at the winning practice teams from the Candle Cult.
William Dunphey: It looks like, honestly, out of the 12 teams, four teams had at least one dark type. And then we see three Furrits as well. So seven out of 12 had at least one direct answer to g Glaring Corsula.
William Dunphey: But outside of that, it's really tough. I mean, there's not a whole lot here that just absolutely walls its energy and shuts it down. And I think that that's a big reason for it as well. It feels very comfortable to safe switch Corsula, to lead it, to put it in the back, wherever you want to wherever you want to put that Pokemon. It doesn't really feel threatened right now. And I do think that is a correction that we will see as the meta develops. Maybe some more answers to ghost types, whether it be dark or whether it be normal, something else.
William Dunphey: I think, honestly, Furret, Stonks are just going to continue to rise. That Pokemon, I think, is actually pretty solid in the current meta, especially if you can ah steer away from the steals.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: But yeah, I agree with everything you said. I feel like Shadowcannon, Marowak, Top Dog with the Mud Slappers, Cradilly, the one-man grasshole, which I have not heard, but it's hilarious. I agree with you on that one as well.
William Dunphey: I think you really have your dealer's choice of Bullet Seed or Acid if you want to do better against Fairy types, you run Acid. If you want to do better against the Mud Slappers, you run Bullet Seed. So you have a lot of options there.
William Dunphey: um New Instant Impact Championship Series Pokemon. ah These are Pokemon, at least in my list, that I picked that got new moveset updates that feel new or feel like they've got a new look to them.
William Dunphey: I'm going to go ahead and lead in with but one that we've already touched on before. That's Togekiss. I feel like Togekiss is an instant impact Pokemon. I do think that, to your point, you want a little bit more ghost coverage in your flying types. I do agree with you on that. I have paired up against a couple of Galarian Corsula in GBL, and when my last Pokemon was Togekiss, it just felt so sad because I had no way to really fight back against it.
William Dunphey: But I will say that its ability to roll compress, to beat grass, to beat fighting, ah To throw the Psyshocks, to throw the Aura Sphere into Steels is so good. And you're exactly right about the attack stat as well. ZZ wasn't kidding.
William Dunphey: It's literally 0.1 attack difference between a rank 1 Empoleon and a rank 1 Empoleon at 123.8 and Togekiss at 123.9. So make sure to get little bit attack on your Togekiss.
William Dunphey: so make sure
William Dunphey: My second pick, something that you might actually like a lot, is going to be Shadow Gyarados. I feel like the buff to Aqua Tail and to Crunch via the increased pacing of Dragon Breath is going to help that Pokemon a lot.
zzweilous: Oh.
William Dunphey: Right now, it doesn't look that great because there is still a lot of electric in the meta, whether it's Dedenne or the occasional Morpeko in Go Battle League. But I feel like as the season goes on, that Pokemon will become more and more prevalent. I think Gyarados will be better in Pittsburgh than it will be in Frankfurt, for example.
William Dunphey: And my third Pokemon, speaking of Pittsburgh, is actually going to be Aircutter Corviknight. I think we finally have a Corviknight moveset that is fast enough, dynamic enough ah to actually...
William Dunphey: ah has see real competitive play on on a consistent basis, more so than last season. But there's a catch. There's an asterisk here, ZZ. Because everyone is playing payback Corviknight.
zzweilous: Catch this.
William Dunphey: And I think that that is going to fall off. I think we're going to see Ironhead, Corviknight.
zzweilous: Oh.
William Dunphey: Ironhead, Aircutter. Because you want to boost up your attack. You want to hit him with a stab Ironhead. It feels so bad to lose to Pokemon like Cradilly to the occasional fairy type without Ironhead.
William Dunphey: I think that that is the shift we're going to see. I don't know if you agree or if you think I'm just out of my mind.
zzweilous: I think it's like a little bit of three moves, like like two moves, like syndrome where you want to fit three attacks in, but you cannot really do that.
William Dunphey: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um Yeah, I do have opinions on Corvie. They're not the strongest opinions because I think it's overall a very well balanced Pokemon. I don't believe it's going to be that meta sweeping staple. I think it's going to slot right in there with the Togekiss, with the Charizard, with the Galarian Mortrisses.
zzweilous: in terms of the very diverse array of flyers that we now will have. um It's not going to be, like, Corby is going to be legal in Frankfurt, but not with air-cutter just yet, so ah we'll probably not see it as much.
zzweilous: um What I like about payback is the play that you had into the top three, where you um have a decent enough matchup into Marivac by virtue of resisting ground-type damage, where have payback coverage for the Galarian Corsola,
zzweilous: and where you still at least resist the fast attacks from the Cradilly, and you should be able to tank two Rock Tombs just barely. um So yeah, i I can see the argument for payback, especially with like Pokemon such as Empolidon still in the meta where you really want to hit it for something. But yeah, it gets awkward in a matchup like the Togekiss matchup where you would throw two air cutters and you're surprised that those don't knock out.
zzweilous: So yeah, CorvU is going to be a little bit of a work in progress.
William Dunphey: Yep. Totally fair.
zzweilous: People will find ways of making it work for sure, but I don't think it's just going to dominate the meta the way it's PVPoke ranking would suggest. um
William Dunphey: totally fair
zzweilous: But yeah, what's my top picks here? let me Let me check. Oh yeah, well, while we were at it. I think in terms in terms of instant impact, you can't be much more instantly impactful than Empolion.
zzweilous: I think the addition of Metal Sound, it gave it that pacing. It gave it good play into Credily. um The energy is really nice into Marowak. It hangs with Togekiss. That's an interesting matchup.
zzweilous: um It doesn't love the Korsola matchup, but it can do something there. And also with um more meta trends, like the return of Azumarill as an actual contender,
zzweilous: um just walling off that energy is really, really nice. And one thing that Shadow Empoleon can do, which regular cannot, is that if it leads into edit edit despite um having a having negative type matchup there with Electric being super effective, in the two-shield scenario, you will actually be able to win that matchup because you win Charge Attack Priority, and after doing enough Metal Sound chip damage, your Hydrocan will knock out the Dedene.
zzweilous: So this is with, like, the tiniest amount of deviation from rank one versus rank one. So a little less bulk on Dedene, a little attack on Empoleon, then that matchup is yours as the Penguin.
zzweilous: So yeah, I think Empoleon, it's probably going to be among the top six most used Pokemon in Frankfurt.
William Dunphey: i have I have very strong opinions on Empoleon. I won't get into it right now, but ah yeah, I totally i totally disagree with what you said.
zzweilous: Oh, okay, okay, okay. i I smell a Fraudwatch contender, but um yeah, let's let's move to another consideration of mine.
zzweilous: And I think this one is less controversial because we have just seen it take um a big grassroots tournament in the Zygarden, Tales of Transformation event, where RGR, the, I think, Swedish person who um made a pretty solid run at any IC, if I'm not mistaken,
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um actually managed to take it all with a fairly unique team composition.
William Dunphey: Correct.
zzweilous: We'll probably have it on the screen, right? that's what That's what YouTube is for. If anybody's just listening to it, we have a YouTube video of this. It hopefully is up already and we should have um the team just to show it to you.
zzweilous: um And yeah, I think Shadows are mostly with Ember. I was like curious about Dragon Breath, but I don't think there's that many name sure dragons in the meta that would justify it.
zzweilous: um And yeah, with Ember, you get to a Blast Burn in just 12 turns. um And the Blast Burn is essentially a delete button for most Pokemon. so ah So if your delete button is 12 turns away and you have an option of baiting with an air cutter and potentially even boosting your attack, um yeah, that just leaves you in a really good spot.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: So I think Shadow Zard is going to do bids. And yeah, another Pokemon that I classified as
William Dunphey: Yep. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: buffed, it is technically buffed even though not much has changed. It also featured on the tournament winning team that we're talking about and that is Charjabug to me. Because Charjabug does a few things that are very Dedenne-like and that it has the core breaking potential that electric types possess.
zzweilous: But it also has some counterplay against Crudilly taking the zero shield scenario. And also it benefits from buffed world switch, which is just really good fast move pressure. And even if your opponent has shield side behind, um you will be able to put in some work with Jojo.
William Dunphey: Chargerbug almost made it onto my list. I really feel like, it and to your point, not only about the grass coverage, the electric coverage, but also the dark type coverage. If you're up against something like a Greninja, for example, that's really, really rough. Any dark flyer doesn't want to see the Chargerbug either. i think Chargerbug, we did see it on two, I believe, of the 12 winning practice tournament teams. I think we're going to see it a lot more, especially in the immediate weeks after Corviknight becomes eligible.
William Dunphey: ah with Air Cutter, I think well we'll see we will see a lot more Charjabug. um Yeah, so your picks are Empoleon, Shadow Emperor, Charizard, and Charjabug. I only strongly disagree with one of those.
William Dunphey: And um I think we should just go ahead and and slide over to another section called appear to be good for play Pokemon, but are wildly overhyped. I think this segues perfectly because my number one pick in this category is Empoleon.
zzweilous: Yes.
William Dunphey: If you are weak to electric, if you're a weak to ground, if you're weak to fighting, what are you doing in the current championship series meta? You're losing to Marowak. You're losing to Gassargon. You're losing to Annihilate. You're probably losing Primeape in most situations as well.
William Dunphey: And you're losing to Electric-types, unless you're an even energy, even shields, or something like Dedenne, right? That Pokemon looks solid. It looks fun. it's ah It's a very imposing Pokemon. Great design. I really do like playing Empoleon.
William Dunphey: Way back in the day, I fond memories of playing Empoleon, Double Dragon, and Ultra League and hitting number two on the GBL leaderboards, highest ranking of all time. But I don't think that it has what it takes to succeed in this meta.
William Dunphey: There's just too many threats to it, and you can run the shadow for the additional potency, but I feel like you also get farmed down. Basically, the ah shadow annihilate shields one time, and it just eats your Empoleon.
William Dunphey: Marowak shields one time, and it muttaps all the way through. It's a really rough for Empoleon.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: in my opinion, right? I think it's the hot thing right now, but I think it's going to fall out of favor. The second Pokemon, I think...
zzweilous: I will say like to your point,
William Dunphey: Go ahead.
zzweilous: And adding to what you just said about Empolion, it did win three practice tournaments. All of those practice tournaments took place on September 3rd. We have had eight practice tournaments since, and Empolion didn't win anymore.
William Dunphey: Hmm.
zzweilous: So you may be onto something there, and I think it's really unfortunate that Empolion is kind of caught in the crossfire of people running mudslippers to prepare for the Dene. So yeah, i think I think there's good reason to believe.
William Dunphey: yeah Yeah.
zzweilous: that Napoleon may be a little bit overrated, but I still think it can do well. I still think it can do well.
William Dunphey: I think in in the right hands, it can do well, but you you essentially put yourself in a position where if you want to play Empoleon, you have to pull out the Mud Slapper. You have to pull out Annihilate.
William Dunphey: You have to avoid those matchups unless you're up massively in terms of energy. And Metal Sound is is great for pacing. It's great for... ah getting to the charge stacks, but I don't feel like it's farm down move that you're going to see very often.
William Dunphey: You're not farming down a Lapras with Metal Sound.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: You're not farming down a Togekiss with Metal Sound unless you want to take an Aura Sphere on charge stack priority. There's just so many obstacles. I think if Metal Sound did a little more damage and was a farm down move, maybe, but ah to me, i'm not I'm not sold.
William Dunphey: I don't know if anyone wants to leave a comment on the YouTube version or or drop a comment on the wherever we post this on socials, but I want to hear your opinion.
zzweilous: Oh.
William Dunphey: My second fraud watch candidate is actually going to be Talonflame. I know a lot of people were talking about this Pokemon as being a fire and flying type that might be ah prominent, but I just feel like it gets outmaneuvered by Charizard. It's already difficult to run fire in this meta with as much rock and water as we have, and I just don't see it being a hard check to something like the bug steals like it was at the end of last season.
William Dunphey: And the third pick that I have, I'm sorry, Martyn, it's the Shadow Giratina Altered Form. And if he's listening to this, he's probably saying, what the heck?
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: I just beat you in the September Joust with this Pokemon, and it was insane.
zzweilous: Mm.
William Dunphey: And I agree, but as I was telling ZZ, my only fairy type was Dedenne. I committed to the mouse against my better judgment, and it did fail me. I should have gone with Tinketan for my team composition.
William Dunphey: But Shadow Giratina in the simulations, if you look at Phoebe Poke, it beats up heavily on the off meta. Anything that's like a grass, a water, an electric type, it just beats it up, right?
William Dunphey: But against the top meta picks, the things that you see the most often, the fairies, the glaring corselos, the dark types, it gets folded up like like a wet paper towel. It absolutely does not hang as well as you would like.
William Dunphey: So, Empoleon, Townflame, and Giratina are my three that I think look good on paper, but we won't be talking about them in two or three months.
zzweilous: i think I agree with most of them. Giratina is just a Martijn thing, right? like No sane person would ever consider this, but yeah this man is built different.
zzweilous: So I think like it just has to compete with Kosovo for the Ghost-type role, and that's not the competition you want to be in.
William Dunphey: Yeah. Okay.
zzweilous: um Whereas Talentflame, I actually see a niche for Shadow Talentflame specifically. because that Pokemon is able to take the two shield scenario against Cradilly.
zzweilous: So if if that's like their best answer to Talonflame, maybe there's there's something there. um
William Dunphey: okay
zzweilous: And also something that I just recently found out, if you have a certain IV spread, I cannot recite it off the top of my head, but it's essentially just tiny amount of attack, a lot of defense, respectable HP,
zzweilous: um But the defensive bulk point is the most important. You are able to win the two-shield scenario against an Azumarill straight fly with a Talonflame. So if you see Fletchling in the wild, catch it, save it, check the IVs later.
zzweilous: There's like very special Talonflames out there. I'm still on the hunt myself.
William Dunphey: Wow.
zzweilous: um I don't really believe in it. I think Charizard is going to just take its its spot essentially.
William Dunphey: Okay.
zzweilous: ah yeah.
William Dunphey: Fair enough.
zzweilous: I guess I have overhyped candidates, right?
William Dunphey: Go ahead.
zzweilous: I haven't actually set them yet. I was like, they're not worth talking about.
William Dunphey: No.
zzweilous: like Everybody knows sorts are bad, but yeah. ah feel I I'll just get right into it.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: This Pokemon top cut worlds. That was a very big surprise. And if it top cuts again, it would still be a really great surprise, even though it got like multiple updates.
zzweilous: And that is Turtonator. Trotinator people were really excited about because um essentially and was always Mon with an interesting moveset like it had Incinerate but it didn't really have a cheap bait move and now they were giving it Dragon Claw and Brutal Swing.
William Dunphey: Oh.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: The problem is Brutal Swing is fairly inefficient being 35 energy like you get there but the residual will only matter after you throw like 4 Brutal Swings.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: um So yeah like it's It's just like a low impact move in terms of what it does for like its own sake. And Dragon Claw ended up being reworked to a 50 energy attack.
zzweilous: I think if you had a 45 energy Dragon Claw, that would be so much more helpful for Shirtinator to reach that attack because then you would have a 35 energy Rural Swing and 45 energy Dragon Claw combining to 80 energy, which would be exactly for Incineraids and therefore super efficient.
zzweilous: You cannot do that. Dragonclaw is too expensive. So I think Turtonator is still too plucky, and it's also just like caught in the crossfire of people going anti-Dedani because doesn't want to take Rock Tombs and it doesn't want to take Mudslaps.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: So it is not even the third strongest turtle, i would say.
William Dunphey: Agreed.
zzweilous: I think Torquo is minially minimally better, still bad. I think Torterra is... somewhat better, still not great, and I think Blastoise is pretty decent.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um So yeah, we rank the turtles. There's no more turtles in my...
William Dunphey: Turtle to your list.
zzweilous: that would be so fun, honestly. That's a content idea if I've ever seen one.
William Dunphey: Heck yeah.
zzweilous: We have what is essentially like a wannabe turtle because this Pokemon ironically featured on the same team as Turtonator and Worlds, and it shares a typing with another turtle in Torterra,
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: But it's Toadscrewl. It is a grass and ground type. Toadscrewl is essentially the Kanto Marowak if you aren't that into buffed Rockslide and would rather completely demolish every other Mud Slapper out there.
zzweilous: um And yeah, Toadscrewl benefits from Seed Bomb being reached in four Mud Slabs now. So it's a pacing buff and it likes a pacing buff, but I just don't believe it's enough.
zzweilous: um And the reason why I don't believe it's enough is because Flyers are more around now, and you want to have a way to get around those Flyers, even as a Ground-type.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And there's a bunch of Ground-types who can do that, but Toadscrew is not one of them, and therefore I don't believe Toadscrew will be part of the meta. um And lastly, Pokémon that I think will be part of the meta, but will not dominate the way people are projecting it to dominate, is Altaria.
zzweilous: I think it is usable, but I think it's going to be a B-tier Pokémon.
William Dunphey: and
zzweilous: There's nothing wrong with being a B-tier Pokémon, and it may even win a championship, but I think 50 energy as its cheapest attack is still too slow and exploitable, especially because you're so defensively vulnerable still.
zzweilous: There's Rock Tombs that are coming from Cradilly. There's Rock Slides that are coming ah from Cantomarowak, and you want to be able to outspam those Pokémon. to make up for that type disadvantage.
zzweilous: Like obviously you still have the better typing into KWAC, but you get two shot by a rock side.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: That's not great. um You get power gem by Galarian Corsula. Azu is on the rise again and you win you lose the zero to two shield scenario.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: um right The Azu has zero and you have two. It doesn't help you. um And therefore I believe that even though Altaria is in a better spot,
zzweilous: um it's not going to be a staple pick. It's a Pokemon that people will also use, um if that makes sense.
William Dunphey: Yeah. No, I think ah you make a really valid point. As much as Altaria wants to succeed, the flamethrower is not going to help it against Azumarill, right? It's definitely very, very niche. Turtonator, I tried. I made a video on that with Corlash's team that he recommended.
William Dunphey: And I just feel like the Brutal Swing damage, the Dragon Claw damage, it's so underwhelming. I was thinking about teching my Turtonator to Flash Cannon and Dragon Claw because having that surprise for the fairy types is super rewarding.
zzweilous: oh If they counter swap the card ink, they will not see it coming.
William Dunphey: ah
William Dunphey: Exactly. And I did actually lead into a couple of Carbinks, and I was thinking, man, if I had the the Flash Cannon here, I would just shred this Pokemon. um And to your point about Toadscroll, I agree.
William Dunphey: It's really funny kind of how the net of Mudslipers has widened. You know, we've gotten the Shadow of Torterra, we've gotten the Toadscroll, but it does still feel like Canto Marowak and Gastrodon are cut above most of the other Mudslipers. So...
William Dunphey: I don't know. I also feel like grass and ground is a piss poor defensive typing. It's so bad.
zzweilous: That's fair.
William Dunphey: and You're so weak to so many things.
zzweilous: that's
William Dunphey: I played Turtonator in GBL this season and almost getting one shot by a Shadow Swampert Hydro Cannon feels awful. I mean, that is rough when you're a grass type Pokemon, even though it's got one of the best designs, I think, in all of Pokemon.
William Dunphey: The world turtle, as they say, is just such a sick design. But... That being said, I agree with all your picks, Turtinator, Toadscroll, and Altaria. I agree with what you said there. ah Let's move on to losers from the 2025 Championship Series meta.
William Dunphey: Pokemon that used to be hot, and now they are not. I hate to do it to him, because it's my favorite Pokemon since I was a kid. I hate to do it, it's easy, but Blastoise.
William Dunphey: I don't know how prominent Blastoise is going to be.
zzweilous: Oh.
William Dunphey: just feel like it's... Its rollout pacing and damage output was awkward, but I just don't... But some players can make it work, whether it was Dilap Axon were able to make it work.
William Dunphey: I just don't feel like there's as... I don't feel like this meta is as forgiving as the previous meta was. So maybe Blastoise with Energy could do some things. As I look at these practice tournament teams, I do see a spot for it.
William Dunphey: but I just haven't seen it really show what it's capable of as of yet. The second Pokemon that I have is It's Shadow Drapion. ah Despite seeing it on, I believe, two or three of these winning practice teams out of 12, I just feel like the environment is not good for it right now. It might come back. It might resurge, but I just don't feel like Drapion's that hot.
William Dunphey: And the third Pokemon that I... i just mentioned earlier on actually in passing, is going to be Tinkaton. And I think that Tinkaton also just, I don't see as many openings as it used to have.
zzweilous: oh
William Dunphey: And I don't see as many hard targets either. So that might change. I don't know. But at the current first blush and impressions for Frankfurt Monterey, I think Blastoise, Shadow Drapian, and Tinkaton are going to be pretty low on the usage charts.
zzweilous: I think Tink is actually a good shout because like don't know why it trended upwards but It just became a thing in the middle of the world's preparation cycle, essentially.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um But yeah, that was before Mendbus got taken out of the meta and Shadow Charizard was propelled into the meta. So i guess like the type of flyers that it can now swing for with its big hammer, they're not as and honest forgiving to its defensive capabilities.
zzweilous: And also, like this isn't super relevant for Frankfurt, but as soon as Corvy is back in the meta, Tinkerton is probably not going to have a good time.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um To your to other points, Dropion, I think the Ryze and Azu may help it, because of those two just formed such a good pairing, and it did win the Zygarten tournament, which was a pretty large, pretty competitive one, so I don't believe it's going to be as common, but
William Dunphey: Agreed. Hmm. Hmm.
zzweilous: It is a way of dealing with ghost types and people will be looking for those. um And it can at least hit Cantomerowak back for some Agua Tales.
zzweilous: So I think Dropion is mostly unchanged. I actually did play Blastoise in a practice tournament earlier today and I wasn't super impressed, but I also wasn't let down by it.
William Dunphey: hmm. Yeah.
zzweilous: I feel like Blastoise is also in a position where it's relatively unchanged and if somebody like Axan picks it up again,
William Dunphey: Totally fair.
zzweilous: I think it could still make a decent run and maybe take a Medlow too. But yeah, overall overall, I don't mind the Pokemon you selected either.
William Dunphey: totally fair
zzweilous: My losers, um I mentioned it couple of times already, Medibus is just not a thing anymore. um It really needed, like, even though Aerial Ace wasn't a good move in the first place, now it's just a straight up abysmal move.
William Dunphey: but
zzweilous: And Medibus is not able to make up for it despite its great stat product, but having two bad fast attacks to choose from and your coverage move becomes worse. Like, it's like at some point you just have to wait for, yeah yeah, you have to give it up.
William Dunphey: You have to give it up.
zzweilous: You have to wait for more love in future move updates. I know I learned one of those bone-themed moves. Is it like Bone Meringue or something? um It's not in Pokemon Go just yet, but I kind of like, if they bring back Mandibus, they should try to give it like an expensive middle-of-the-road ground-type move, so it becomes less RPS and maybe a little better into stuff like Tinkerton or other steel types that currently give it trouble.
zzweilous: um That would maybe be a way of making Metabus a thing again. but
William Dunphey: So you're actually,
zzweilous: Also, I don't need Metabus to be a thing.
William Dunphey: Yeah. ah ah yeah I'm thinking back to, to a couple of grand finals you were in this past season. And yeah, I think Manda buzz was an issue. um Bone rush.
William Dunphey: You're, you're, ah you're close. Bone rush is a ground type move that it can learn.
zzweilous: Oh, yes, yes, yes.
William Dunphey: It learns it in Scarlet and Violet. And I do think that ah yeah, having ground type coverage on Manda buzz could be a nice, a nice twist.
zzweilous: Yeah, if anybody's listening to us, I know they're so hesitant about adding new moves. I guess there is Chilling Water Community Day for Flapaybay coming up.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: That is a new move. But yeah, just like...
zzweilous: Menobus's obituary ah featuring potential ways of resurrection. um But yeah, that's not it for now. Another Pokemon, another bird that has gotten just outclassed, I would say, Talonflame.
zzweilous: You went over it already.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um Yeah, it's Shadow Charizard time, and that's fine. and The last Pokemon that I think has really not much going for it right now, it's kind of surprising, but i selected Golisopod.
zzweilous: Golisopod, you would think that with KWAC and Crudily being so prominent, Golisopod would do things, but I just haven't really seen it pop up in practice at all.
William Dunphey: Oh. Yeah.
zzweilous: It just hasn't really been doing anything, and I don't know whether people are afraid of getting walled by Empoleon or whether it's the increase in pack users, but um yeah maybe even Azu's comeback where all the energy is walled
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: um Yeah, i feel as if the, like, mostly the flying types that have come in made it so that Golisopod's defensive vulnerability as a bug type has been exposed one too many times. And, yeah, I don't think it's going to make a grand final anytime soon.
zzweilous: I know it featured at Worlds, but, yeah, it may not be at the season for Golisopod.
William Dunphey: Right now, the hot thing seems to be flying types. I do think the Peck buff was part of that, but I also think that Pokemon like Galarian Moltres have stuck around and are just not going anywhere anytime soon.
William Dunphey: So if you're a Bugwater, whether you're Glysepod or Raquinid, and you're entering into a rock heavy meta, a flying heavy meta, and an electric type meta, it's really not a good not a good spot to be. And even again, if you look back at these practice tournament winning teams, I don't see that many targets for a Glyzopod. I mean, the softest team might be that September 4th team where you've got a Charizard, a Kray Dilly, and then you have neutral matchups into Glyzod.
William Dunphey: Lapras and Dusclops, but that might be one of the softest teams to Glycebot that I even see on this graphic. Otherwise, it just looks very inhospitable for the bug water, very ah turbulent waters for those those types. But yeah, I think all your picks are good.
William Dunphey: Mandibuzz, got to give up the ghost sometime. Downflame Glycebot, I agree. ah Let's hop over to good for PVP, but only in the Go Battle League. And we only have two more sections left, this being one of them.
William Dunphey: And then we're going to jump into our Play Pokemon Championship Series updates, which I think are all really exciting too.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: So I can't wait to get into that.
zzweilous: Yes.
William Dunphey: Good for PVP, but only in Go Battle League. I'll rattle them off real quick. Morpeko, Basidon, Shadow Kanto Ninetales. Those Pokemon are good in blind threes, but I do not think we're going to see them ah winning a tournament or or even top fouring anytime soon.
zzweilous: Oh man, I'm like, I'm agreeing more than I thought I would. I didn't even think of those Pokémon, like especially Morpeko and Kanto Nightails. But yeah, those Pokémon are great in JBL.
zzweilous: and not essentially non-existent outside of it. um I also put Bastiodon and Carbing, who are like the poster-childs of GBL strats.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: right like And they did get buffed with Rockside being more damaging and Smackdown also getting a damage increase.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: So yeah, you you have the yeah have the potential to do that some more. um One Pokemon that I wrote down, then used it, And now want to take off that list is Wigglytuff.
William Dunphey: Oh.
zzweilous: I originally thought that Wigglytuff would just be like essentially a partner to Basti. But i see I see the utility um because we were talking about, oh we need ghost answers.
William Dunphey: Me too. Yep.
zzweilous: We don't have ghost answers just yet. um And some of those may be Furit, which is a Sucker Punch user. Others may just be dedicated dark types. And what beats ghosts and those common answers is Wiggly.
zzweilous: And I did use it in the same practice tournament I used last season. And I was impressed by it because Charm got this rework where everybody was like a little nervous, like, how good this is this going to be?
William Dunphey: ye
zzweilous: Is it going to be 9 Energy Charm? No, it's going to be 8 Energy Charm. It's doing a little less damage. It's generating energy faster. And now you're pacing to the Swifts and Icy Winds. It's actually kind of nice.
zzweilous: It feels like a Pokemon that plays into the opponent rather than a Pokemon that is reliant on alignment. um And yeah, actually being able to utilize Wigglytuff as a Pokemon that regularly gets to like three charge attacks in a game has been really refresh refreshing.
zzweilous: And I think it's unique type combination of fairy and normal.
William Dunphey: Yep.
zzweilous: It's still delicate, but I think it has some play. And if I look at some of the teams, like this is September 6th teams. and There's obviously a Claude's Eye that one has to be afraid of.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: but there's also a Primate, a Furret, and an Altaria. That's like three great matchups for Wigleytuff, and then two neutral matchups in Dead End and Quackstyle.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: So yeah, i think I think that Pokemon, I wanted to say it's only good in GBL. i want to say it's good in GBL and interesting in Show 6.
William Dunphey: Fair. Fair.
zzweilous: And lastly, had Corviknight as a Pokemon that will be really good in GBL, maybe less so in Show 6,
William Dunphey: fair
zzweilous: um just because in Show 6, essentially everybody will have filled their position of flying type. um And it's just the flyer that loses to flyers, which may lead to people opting for different options.
zzweilous: um I still think Corby will be around, but I think it will be a lot better in GBL, because GBL is where the bus neurons, the weekly tufts are more at home. And there, I think, the combination of being standard tag user that resists charm and also has pretty unique coverage.
zzweilous: I think that's going to go really far. So I think Corby is going to be a great GBL option, very flexible Pokemon, and slightly decreased in power level for play Pokemon, even though it's still viable.
William Dunphey: Team building around Corviknight is really tough, especially in a Dedene-heavy environment, because you want to be able to beat electric types, you want to be able to beat rock types.
William Dunphey: And whereas if you try to lean towards a more neutral option, like a dragon, for example, then you're double weak to Dedene and you absolutely get get walled off with all your energy. So kind of forces a lot of team builders to go with a Steelflyer and a Mudboy, which is something we've seen ever since the predictable go battle league days of Skarmory, Whiskash way back when.
William Dunphey: And I feel like once you lock in Corviknight on your team, due to the other factors in the meta, it kind of forces you to play a ground type on your team, whether it's a Quagsire or whether it's a Canto Marowak.
William Dunphey: And then it becomes pretty predictable what your trio is going to be once you DC the Corviknight. So I think that kind of gives away what ah what trainers are trying to do. And to your point, I think that does make it more difficult to run in show six.
William Dunphey: So we'll see. We'll see what happens in Pittsburgh once air cutter is legal and and maybe people are teching to Ironhead. um I will say, if you look at the flat PVPoke Sims and you just compare Payback Corviknight to Ironhead Corviknight,
William Dunphey: The Iron Head does significantly worse in the one shield matchup, even shields, even energy. But once you give them both 10 energy, which is you know a switch in, few sand attacks, they actually have an identical win-loss record.
William Dunphey: So maybe switching Corviknight with Iron Head might be the way. we'll We'll see. Last category before we go into championship series stuff. Let's talk about Unchanged but Better.
William Dunphey: Pokemon that benefited from environmental buffs and we think will be significant in the 2026 season. I've got two strong picks, ZZ, and then I've got one cope. And I wanted to end it on this one because I knew it would be controversial.
zzweilous: Okay, okay.
William Dunphey: All right My strong picks. First off, Trevenant. I think if you're a grass type with ghost and you're able to shadow ball Corsolas, you're able to C-bomb through the mud slappers, and you have neutral play against a lot of other picks in the meta, I think Trevenant, I don't know.
William Dunphey: There might be something there. I think depending on how the rest of things shake up, I think it's got potential.
zzweilous: and I'm very curious about your other picks given that that was one of the two real ones. but
William Dunphey: Yeah, it's not Cope. Not yet. um My second pick, which I think you are going to agree with this one heavily. i saw this constantly in my my battles yesterday. think we're going to see it in the championship series.
William Dunphey: I believe Dylab was playing it in the Zygarnan tournament. Unova Stunfisk. We had so many buffs to flying types, and then there's so many other targets for it.
zzweilous: Oh.
William Dunphey: An occasional poison here or there, but I do think there are some targets for ground type damage. I think the pancake is going to be prominent. We are going to see it in Frankfurt and Monterey, and we're going to see it probably even more in Pittsburgh once Corviknight is entered into the meta.
William Dunphey: My final Pokemon that might be Extreme Cope is I think Lantern has a tough time against Mud Slappers, but its water subtyping, its water gun pressure, and its electric typing with Thunderbolt, I think can really close out matchups if it has a shield or energy advantage.
zzweilous: I think Lantern is the least cope of your three picks.
William Dunphey: I just inverted the list on accident.
zzweilous: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
William Dunphey: Let's say that.
zzweilous: I think i think like you became less and less cope the more you progress to your list. um yeah I think like I have some teammates that have been experimenting with Lantern and they like it a lot.
zzweilous: It's just like so bulky.
William Dunphey: Yep. Yep. Yep.
zzweilous: It even has play into supposedly negative matchups. It resists Heck, it can fight back against just about everything. um It's a great answer to Azumarill. It's essentially the hardest world we have to Shadow Charizard.
zzweilous: um It really scares away those Empolion. Those will disappear quickly if there's a Lantern on the team.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: um So yeah, Lantern the fish. I could see that. I think Trevenant needed a Seed Bomb to go to 35 energy rather than 40.
William Dunphey: Fair.
zzweilous: That would have given it a 5-4 pacing, I think. um Whereas right now, like, it pace is fine, but and what it's not enough to make up for its lack of bulk.
zzweilous: And Ufisk, I can see, but I will say that it struggles a little bit into the top picks currently with Cradeli and Marowak being there to scale away Dedene.
William Dunphey: fair
zzweilous: And even though, know, when Sunfisk has some wins that are very unique to it and has some utility that did any doesn't have um it still has to kind of survive in that same environment and don't know whether like it's it's going to be around i don't think it will ever break into top 12 usage this season on it's no top 12.
William Dunphey: Wow, no top 12. Hold on. Let me make this note. We'll
zzweilous: but like i don't know whether that we ever had a unobin sunfisk in top 12 so it's not really like i think the
William Dunphey: see. I'll
William Dunphey: ill tell you.
zzweilous: The more out there ah prediction would be that it now breaks into top 12. um Especially because if we look at the um successful teams from practice so far, I don't believe we see Unova and Stunfisk on there just yet.
zzweilous: So it remains to be seen. I'm not technically against Unova and Stunfisk. And I think it can't even beat Acid Cradilly in some sharing scenarios, but
William Dunphey: Yeah. Yeah.
zzweilous: Yeah, it it doesn't feature in my list of environmental buffs. um The very first of these Pokemon that I have, I think it's a little bit of a too obvious one. It's just Azu.
zzweilous: Dragon Breath is a thing, again, you want a check to Kenton Marowak, your Ice Beam at least has some counterplay against Cridily.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: You're bulky enough to spawn some energy if a Pokemon gets a farm down, like Galarian Corsara, you just shrug off those Nightshades. um and Again, like very helpful in dealing with Shadow Charizard, you do want to have one Pokemon that doesn't mind eating on a Blast Burn from Shadow Charizard, which is essentially just meaning to want one bulky water type.
zzweilous: I'm probably not Lapras because that's not really a water type in this context, thanks to the secondary type of ice. um But yeah, Azu is going to be a thing. It's not going to be the... It may even even become the top usage Pokemon. I wouldn't even...
zzweilous: i would I wouldn't even rule out that we will have like a regional where Azus is top one or top two or three.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I agree.
zzweilous: um It's just... It's the poster child of Pokemon Go PvP, what can I say? um
zzweilous: Similar, yet still a very different. um Another water type that I think is going to excel in the right hands. An old favorite of mine, Greninja.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: Because Greninja... is an anti-ghost Pokemon, which again we talked about needing some of those. um It's also good against other darktaps that may come into the meta as a response to Galarian Corsair.
zzweilous: It struggles a little bit more than it should with Cantumarowak, but as long as you get like one shield down you are fine in that matchup. Against Acid Critelli you can take the two shield matchup.
zzweilous: um and Even against Togekiss, which is like um one of the more prominent fairy types right now, you just straight up win the 2-shield because you outpace and eventually the Water Shurikens plus the Hydro Cannon is going to be enough to take that out.
William Dunphey: wow
zzweilous: um I did try it in practice alongside its trusty companion Shadow Scissor, which I also believe is still a very strong Pokémon. And yeah, they did well. The good old NAIC duo, I think it's still very viable because at the end of the day, this meta just builds on the meta we already saw.
zzweilous: um in interesting new ways, but yeah old strategies may still be plenty viable. The last Pokémon, it did win a Practice Tournament as well. um I think Dugong is going to be a little better than it used to be, um because Lapras is not really as around anymore, um and Dugong just has this way of dealing immediate Ice-type damage to a lot of things, like the new Flying-types,
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um theredili the Credily, the Kentumarowak, obviously they hit it back, but Dugong is tanky enough to hold on. And it can, I think it's a Pokemon that is going to be very good at desyncing Switch Cloaks just because it makes it so the matchups are a little more drawn out.
zzweilous: It slows the play down with Diceuance. And yeah, if you maneuver a Dugong well, I think that can be ah real competitive advantage in this upcoming season.
William Dunphey: Yeah, and also, um I don't believe you mentioned this explicitly. Forgive me if you didn't, but Dugong being able to shut down dragons is going to be a really, really big deal. Altaria, of course, does not want to see it at all.
William Dunphey: Gudra doesn't want to see it. Guzzlord doesn't want to see it. No matter what moveset you're running, it's going to be tough for that Pokemon to to overcome something like Dugong.
zzweilous: Exactly.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And also, we did see in the World's Grand Finals how difficult it is to take out a Galarian Mordris if your Ice type is a Lapras that does sidewave damage. It's going to be a little easier if you do Ice Shards, like with the Dugong. So, yeah, that's another reason to maybe opt for the more classic.
zzweilous: Like, I don't know, like, both are Gen 1. um But, yeah, like, ah Dugong used to be good even when Lapras... was far from what it is today. And I think it may still be decent enough.
William Dunphey: Yeah, very fair. I think all three of those are really good. Shoutouts. Azumarill, yeah, as much as we wish for it to go away, the only way that we've been able to vansh ah vanquish Azumarill in the past was through a bubble nerf.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: And until we get that again, it's just it's just going to stick around no matter what.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: Greenwich is interesting.
zzweilous: I also don't have any hard feelings against Azumarill. I know it's like
William Dunphey: Yeah. Yeah.
zzweilous: We know its face. We've seen it a lot of times. But I also don't think it's evil. It's just like a neutralizing force.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: And I think it is a Pokemon that is needed in the meta just to balance things out. like I'm kind of glad we have it still.
William Dunphey: Agreed. Agreed. it's um i remember in my sets, I think two days ago, i had a Shadow Annihilate, and I was able to beat Azumarill in the ones because I had a bit of an energy lead. And i was like, you know what?
William Dunphey: Even though this is a a really tough Pokemon, you really would hate to see a fairy type coming into your fighter. At least it's not freaking Dedenne, right? At least I can do something in this matchup, and it just doesn't feel super hopeless.
William Dunphey: Yeah. I agree with you. I think Azumarill's fine. It can stick around. I was calling for a nerf for it last season, ah but i I have since changed my mind. I think it's fine where it is.
William Dunphey: I'm not sure if you have any other thoughts about the meta. I think we dived into a lot of of individual picks that I think will be really strong. We'll learn a lot more about the show six team building after um this weekend, ah which I would love to to dive more into that as we move into our third seasons of the show.
zzweilous: Yes. Yes.
William Dunphey: That that is some of the feedback that I have been hearing is that – viewers and listeners want more breakdowns of teams and they would love to see even pee-pee poke simulations or even like structures of teams and how things work.
William Dunphey: Because I do think there's a lot of mistake around how these teams actually come together. And we could talk about individual picks all day in isolation. That's easy. But I feel like talking about how teams actually function and work is is really critical.
zzweilous: yes How do cores emerge? um What makes a team balanced? And just like diving into the ingenuity of our competitors. Yeah, I think that will, like, I love that we got that feedback because it's very actionable and also think that I am always very interested in.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: So yeah, we can definitely look forward to some of that in our Frankfurt and Monterey episode.
William Dunphey: Stay tuned, everybody. Leave a review on the show if you haven't already. We announced it on social, so we're doing a Grim Snarl giveaway. ZZ and I are each gifting a ticket to the Wild Area Global event coming up in November. all you have to do All you have to do to enter is leave a review for the show. It can be an honest review. It doesn't have to be a glossy five-star review. Just leave an honest review and then reply to our post so that we know that you wrote it and you're entered for the contest.
William Dunphey: I think we only have two entries so far, so we basically have two winners. The field is not very big.
zzweilous: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Be be quick, guys. there There's no extra requirements. Anybody can can take part. You don't need to be legend to enter. it It's fine.
William Dunphey: Exactly. Exactly. There's room for everyone. So make sure to get those reviews in. We'd really like to get those reviews because it boosts the show and it probably will recommend it to more people who we think will also enjoy the show. So thank you for listening and get involved, get into the contest.
William Dunphey: ZZ, unless you have any other thoughts, I think we can dive into the changes coming to the championship series. There's, I believe, six different ones that I wanted to talk about.
zzweilous: yeah Yeah, there's a lot coming our way.
William Dunphey: And yeah, there's a lot.
zzweilous: I'm here for it.
William Dunphey: So ah yeah, if you're ready, we can go ahead and knock that out.
zzweilous: Yeah, let's do it.
William Dunphey: All right. So I'm just going down the list here. If you want to ah read about these changes, if you type in the keywords, championships, Pokemon, 2026, season changes, that will surely bring up the webpage where you can read through all of them, but we will have the visual component on the YouTube version as well in case you want to follow along.
William Dunphey: The first one. is related to travel awards. So the travel awards for ICs has been increased from the top four on the leaderboards to the top eight. So the top eight trainers at the at the time of of pulling the numbers, right, will be able to receive that award, $1,000, to help them travel to the upcoming international championship, whether it be LAIC, NAIC, or EUIC.
William Dunphey: I think this is a big change for top players. And whereas most general PvPers who are just trying to qualify for Worlds probably wouldn't care as much, this is going to add a lot of these big regional names to these other ICs. You're not just going to see Dunebug, Ryze, and maybe Axin going to EUIC. You're going to see maybe Elim is going, maybe Pocket's going as well. Maybe you're going to see Sceptile Ice or some other trainers from NA going.
William Dunphey: And the same rule applies to LATAM. you'll see more trainers from LATAM going to these ICs. So I don't know what your thoughts on this. This is probably much more prevalent to you being a high CP achiever.
William Dunphey: What do you think, ZZ?
zzweilous: So this has already impacted me because i was eighth place on the European leaderboard for the LAIC Travel Award.
William Dunphey: What?
zzweilous: um i So that essentially gave me a free $1,000 to travel to Sao Paulo in November. So I'm obviously a big fan of this change, but in general, I think this is really nice, um especially also for
William Dunphey: Wow.
zzweilous: just like turnout for tournaments because I think it's a lot more attainable for many competitors that are like somewhat frequently top cutting like if you need a top eight to get there it's it feels more doable than if it's just a top four and I can only speak for myself but um I really wanted to go to a lifetime event at one point like
William Dunphey: Nice.
zzweilous: It hasn't manifested yet, but it will very soon. so um yeah, this this really helped me to to get there.
William Dunphey: nice
zzweilous: And I love that this change will do the same for a lot more people now. And at the end of the day, it's always just like a big, big net positive if we get a little bit of a bigger slice of the cake.
zzweilous: There's a lot of Pokemon cake to go around and um Pokemon Go participating a little more now. It's just straight up great.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I think it's great that that the Championship Series and Play Pokemon are investing all this money as well. I mean, this is an extra $4,000 per region three times a year, right?
William Dunphey: so this is a lot of money that they're throwing at these these competitors to try to get them to travel.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: And I think that this this sense of like, a regional invasion is just going to increase in intensity, right? When you've got eight North Americans showing up to LATAM or you've got eight Europeans coming to NAIC all on travel awards, I think it's going to be really, really hype. So um but late in the season for NAIC, this is probably going to be reserved again to our top performing players that have just grinded the whole season.
William Dunphey: But early on, If you finish the the previous season strong, maybe you do qualify for the LAC award. EUIC is going to be very interesting. That's like a mid-season checkpoint. I think we will see a lot of of really good players so traveling to this event, which I'm really excited for. So I'm happy to hear you're going to Latam ZZ for this event. LAIC in Sao Paulo.
William Dunphey: Once you experience the crowd in Sao Paulo, no crowd will feel the same. I'm just telling you that. ah And we need to bring more of that energy to Europe and to North America because we need the hype.
zzweilous: I need them to adopt me because I know like some people have gotten their little LNDS shirts and just that support that ah those groups of trainers provide to their friends.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: That's always so heartwarming to see. um
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: So yeah, definitely only bringing my adoption papers. They just need to sign and I'll be LNDS these while going forward.
William Dunphey: Hey, clip it, clip it. I know the Resilience would love to add you to the roster. They already have such an incredibly stacked roster as it is, but they're always open to new talent, I've heard. So I hope you do get the jerseys easy. You deserve it, man.
William Dunphey: Let's go ahead and jump into probably the most controversial change coming to the championship series. That is championship points awarded from Go Battle League leaderboard placement.
William Dunphey: This is hot.
zzweilous: the Chake rule.
William Dunphey: but that The Chake rule is is coming to a Go Battle League leaderboard near you. um Two questions. How many points do you think it will be? And is this the right time for this?
zzweilous: So given the comparison between the different games, I feel as if that may not be super substantial. I think it will probably be more than a cup win, but less than a top card at a big event.
William Dunphey: Fair.
zzweilous: My guess would be like 75 points, but maybe mistaken. I also don't know whether it's just going to be the number one top person or whether it's like, oh, the first place gets 75, the second place gets 50, and then we get like 32, 28.
zzweilous: thirty two twenty eight Is it like like that?
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: Or we don't have that many details about this change just yet. I don't believe we even know whether it will apply from the start of this season onwards or with a it's reserved for a later time when they'll be able to sort out potential infringement of terms of service or however certain people manage to climb the leaderboards and put like a 400 point gap between themselves and the next person um it doesn't feel terribly legitimate but i i just have to hope that they'll figure it out um i've always been on the team of yeah please incentivize
zzweilous: GBL a little more, not only for like regular players, but also for top players, even though I think that beginners should be more of a focus.
zzweilous: But that's for Niantic slash Scopely to assess and not for play Pokemon, a Pokemon obviously caring about ah the very best.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: And I think that's overall a good change. I think it's overall a good change. And we just need the implementation to stick the landing. If that can be achieved, I think this is just definitely the first step into the right direction. I feel like more steps may be needed with the overall GBL incentive structure, but that may be a long-term project.
zzweilous: Yeah, that's my initial thoughts, but again, a lot of it is still up in the air and things may change.
William Dunphey: Well, as you know, I keep my ear to the ground on a lot of things that happen within the community. And I did see Chake and a few others online complaining about being banned at the conclusion of the past season.
William Dunphey: And I did see Home Size Henry post a GIF of Stephen A. Smith smoking a cigar and laughing ah maniacally into the camera.
zzweilous: Oh, I did see that.
William Dunphey: So...
zzweilous: did see that.
William Dunphey: So this might be yeah this might be an example of a situation where where Play Pokemon's involvement in something actually pushes the lever in the right direction, if I may say so.
zzweilous: Yeah. so
zzweilous: The question that I have is whether we stopped the bleeding or not. Like, did we solve the problem that enabled them to do whatever they did? Or did we just ban the account for the next account to pop up in a week or so?
zzweilous: So...
William Dunphey: Fair.
zzweilous: That is a question that I cannot answer, but I'm glad that steps have been undertaken. ah yeah
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: Competitive integrity is difficult to enforce in a remote environment, but I'm glad that they're doing the best they can.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I mean, just look at the other games. Look at games like Pokemon Unite. They have a history of dealing with issues with people multi-accounting, with people smurfing, whatever it might be. ah Any remote environment, it's tough.
William Dunphey: But I still stand by my mantra that I've said over the years. Let them cheat and let them show up to an actual tournament and get their butts kicked on stage for everyone to see.
William Dunphey: Because honestly, that's they're going to get what they deserve when they go up against some of the best, right?
zzweilous: Yep.
William Dunphey: I do want to add a caveat here.
zzweilous: yep
William Dunphey: As ZZ alluded to, we don't have the total information. We don't know how many points. We don't know if it's page one of leaderboards, if it's top eight from the leaderboards. We don't know that yet. ah There's one quote I wanted to read off ah verbatim.
William Dunphey: Quote, may be eligible to earn championship points from their final leaderboard placement at the end of some Pokemon Go seasons. So may eligible.
William Dunphey: Some, and there's a lot of words here. If you speak legalese, you can see what they're trying to do here. There's a lot of, um I guess, like caveats built into this.
William Dunphey: But it sounds like at the conclusion of Sun Go Battle League seasons, there's going to be a lot of of people pushing for that leaderboard placement to get those points. And with our BFLs being four cups and four challenges each, it does feel like getting that one extra ah cup worth of points can make a big difference. So a lot of trainers will be grinding the leaderboards in.
William Dunphey: I'm excited to see it. I'm excited to see Go Battle League and the Championship Series becoming more and more aligned. I think that's really super important to to increase the overlap of the Venn diagram that we have here.
zzweilous: Yes.
zzweilous: Yeah, just integration of the one thing that we are so excited about and the thing that every Pokemon Go player gets exposed to. So that it's about the funnel, right?
zzweilous: Like we want more people to be interested in going to those in-person events a little more.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: And yeah, I think like even though this is just impacting the top players, it just is a step into the right direction and more may follow.
William Dunphey: Next up is the Pokemon Go age of eligibility change. This is not a ah major one for us because we are old heads, but I do think this is a bit interesting. Pokemon Go does not use age divisions for its official competitions, but traditionally competitors must still meet age requirements to compete in the Go championship series.
William Dunphey: Competitors who don't currently satisfy the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, age of digital consent in their home country may participate in Pokemon Go Championship Series events so long as they utilize Niantic Kids account.
William Dunphey: So this is going to be good for younger trainers who are just getting into it. Maybe parents or guardians who want to bring their young one to a tournament and maybe they want to compete in the trading card game or VG or even go whatever it might be. And their their younger one wants to compete in Pokemon Go. So there is a way to do that.
William Dunphey: um I don't know if this is like inappropriate or if I should say it. I think enough time has passed. I have in my notes here, I wrote the Cookshack rule question mark. Because I know Cookshack was young when he won his event, and then there was like this whole fallout about not being old enough to actually get the world's qualification to get the prize money or whatever it might have been.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: So, yeah. Positive change, I guess.
zzweilous: I hope this, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, this will definitely make it so that issues are less plentiful. um But yeah, I think it was like mostly, and like like like it didn't affect that many players, but I'm glad that it will affect fewer younger players in the upcoming season.
William Dunphey: Yeah. Me as well. Again, not as bring them along with you and they can actually get the get some tournament experience as well.
zzweilous: It is true.
William Dunphey: Let's jump to probably the second hottest topic of debate here ah next to the Go Battle League leaderboard rule. We're going to talk about limited metas coming to tournament play.
William Dunphey: Some people are rubbing their hands together like mosquitoes, so excited for this. And other people are furious. They're like, no, this is bad. This is stupid. i hate it.
William Dunphey: I feel like there's two sides of the spectrum here, and we have people on on both ends.
zzweilous: Yeah, and I understand them both. so What does it mean, limited metas coming to tournament play? um What I personally believe it means, and I am inferring this from the GBL blog post that we saw, is that my theory is that the LAIC may be played in a meta that is focused around like Ice, Psychic, Dragon, just like a couple types, like any regular themed meta with targeted bets.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: Because if we look at the Grobat League update, um There is a championship series cup that is happening during the week of the international championship.
zzweilous: And after that, we got the announcement limited metas may be coming to tournament play. So this like connecting the dots, I just suspect that we get to have this themed meta for a big event and the big event that alliance would be LAIC.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: How do I feel about this? I love it. I love crazy matters. I love non-conventional Pokemon and I love the challenge of figuring out the puzzle before everybody else.
zzweilous: But I can also see how somebody, or maybe it's just honing their skills in Open Great League, um preferring some more conventional strategies, maybe doesn't even have all the Pokemon that may be necessary for that matter because Pokemon Go is just like a walking talking accessibility problem with all the spawns being seasonal.
zzweilous: with like raid rotations, rocket rotations. I guess rocket rotations don't actually matter because in that theme cup, shadows are not eligible. So that helps.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um But yeah, like there were talks about um just like, oh, I want my open great league. Oh, I may not have the Pokemon. And I think that's valid, especially if it's like a big international event that you do travel for.
zzweilous: You want to travel to tournament that happens in a competition where you feel comfortable in. um and maybe if you earned your Traveler Award, you did earn it in Open Great League, so it makes sense that you may be interested to keep that meta.
zzweilous: My counter-argument would be that as long as they announce it in time, this is not that different from any regular meta update that happens every three months.
zzweilous: What if they nerfed everything into the ground with the exception of Pokemon of the Eligible Types?
William Dunphey: oh
zzweilous: Like, um that would essentially result in the same. Like, the challenge is similar, too, because new things are viable. You have to prepare for a new course. And you do have the time. I really hope that they do an official announcement as to when and how those theme metas will be implemented so people actually get to be really certain and start their prep early on.
zzweilous: But as long as that happens, I think it's not that big of a change. And I think it will not result in completely different names reaching the top ranks because the fundamentals of the game stay the same.
zzweilous: And this may just be a way of giving the spotlight to Pokemon that are unusual, but maybe fun to see broadcast in such a way.
William Dunphey: That, I don't know, that's a very that's a very interesting ah perspective there, ZZ. That it's basically like if they just turn the whole meta on its head and and essentially just nerfed everything into the ground and then gave us a brand new meta.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: I don't know if I completely agree with that. I think that's that's ah a little bit to one side of things. um but i But I have been thinking while you were giving your spiel, I think that um or giving your insights, I should say. I do think that this is a very interesting development into how they're constructing the meta. ah Open Great League has been the norm since 2022, right? That's all we've ever played.
William Dunphey: And there's nothing wrong with Open Great League, but I do feel like it can constrain some people.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: It can make it feel like, oh, if I don't want to play in the Claude Sire for Alligator meta, then I just am not going play. Or if I don't want to play... Nidoqueen, Trevenant, Walrein, then I'm just not going to play.
William Dunphey: Or the worst example, if and if I don't want to play Lantern, Trevenant, and Octowl, then I'm just not going to have a fun time.
zzweilous: the way.
William Dunphey: So I do think the changeup is interesting. I wanted to dive in just a little bit closer on the specifications that's list that are listed in the blog post, because I actually saw something just now that I didn't realize. so So this limited-time meta is going to be running in Go Battle League.
William Dunphey: And it overlaps with LAIC, as you mentioned, which is very interesting. Might be more than a coincidence. Only ice, flying, psychic, ghost, and dragons are eligible.
William Dunphey: Legendaries, mythicals, shadows, and ultra beasts are all banned. And then there is a select list of banned Pokemon, 12 in total.
William Dunphey: And when you look at this meta, I was just running some sims in the background to see what PvPoke could come up with. It looks like Pokemon like Shadow Gyarados, Shadow Seelio, Raikou, Aurorus, Abomasnow, Dusclops, Charizard, all those Pokemon could be top meta.
William Dunphey: in this limited meta. So I don't know. This looks like a really exciting twist on the championship series. And I can't wait to ah to team build and and watch watch you team build if that turns out to be the case ah for this upcoming tournament.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: That's going to be crazy.
zzweilous: Yeah. Some of my teammates have been like talking about how would you construct a meta in which Smoochum is viable? Because one of my teammates has a Shando and I think it even has like a bow in its hair or something. It's like a very exciting Smoochum.
zzweilous: And then everybody started to like theorycraft a meta in which Smoochum is actually good. Very difficult. Smoochum, not a good Pokemon. And now this meta comes along. And it looks almost identical to the meta we concocted, where Smoochum is all of a sudden at least the top 30 threat, which is like the best you can do with Smoochum. But yeah, i wonder like I cannot guarantee it. I do have handle on Smoochum. I could build it.
zzweilous: um Will it come to LAIC with me? We'll have to wait and see for the meta announcement.
William Dunphey: We'll see.
zzweilous: um but yeah
William Dunphey: it's It's not even listed in PvPoke when I search the rankings.
zzweilous: yeah Yeah, rightfully so.
William Dunphey: ah But I will say, at number seven overall, and I'll post this graphic up in our our YouTube version so you can actually see it. At number seven overall on this mock rankings, without any waiting so far, number seven overall is actually Zylus with Dragon Breath, Body Slam, and Dark Balls.
zzweilous: It's a very good Pokemon.
William Dunphey: Wow.
zzweilous: Oh man.
William Dunphey: Interesting. Interesting.
zzweilous: Maybe it's time for another IC grand finals. But yeah, let's wait, let's see.
William Dunphey: We'll see. We'll see if again, we're working off a hunch here, just looking at at the tea leaves, so to speak, and trying to see how things line up. ah We see a specific ban list in Go Battle League.
William Dunphey: This cup overlaps with a IRL tournament, and then there's this talk of limited metas coming to the championship series. So again, it's all speculation. We're going to see what actually turns out, but it sounds pretty interesting.
William Dunphey: ah There's two more things we want to touch on before we wrap up. ah The first is if you want to listen to your actual sound effects when you're playing at a tournament, you have to bring USB-A headphones in order to do so.
William Dunphey: USB-A is not something that we are very familiar with. um It's kind of an older connection style, but... I do think there are going to be tons of people with converters and with whatever other adjustments that they can make.
William Dunphey: And there are USB-A to USB-C adapters. I will say that. But um yeah, if you want to if you like game sounds, bring your USB-A headphones. That's all I'm going to say about that. And then finally, this is probably the third hottest debated topic.
William Dunphey: Swiss at Select Go Tournaments. This feels like, if I could sum this up, I would say that Swiss is good for players, but not necessarily that good for viewership.
William Dunphey: I don't know if you agree, disagree, or what do you think?
zzweilous: yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think like with the Swiss um announcement, I think this is also one of those may, could eventually, legalese type of non-committal, just like teaser of a thing that may be coming.
zzweilous: um I don't think there's anything concrete as to when we will see Swiss implemented for Pokemon Go.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: But yeah, I would be with you there. I think it's very easy and very exciting also for the viewer to just always know what's at stake and a double elimination bracket just provides that.
zzweilous: whereas Whereas like, oh this person is now five and one in Swiss. Like that's pretty good, but what does it mean?
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: i feel as if that kind of may get lost in that change. So I think at the end of the day, the players come first and I know a lot of the players have been um calling for Swiss with some urgency for a couple of years now.
zzweilous: So I think it's overall a positive change. But again, it's a challenge for you guys, like for the casters to still keep it exciting. I'm sure you're up to the task, but it's, I don't know whether this is something that we'll see this year or this season even, but um yeah, I think overall it's something that the player base wanted.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And therefore it's a good change.
William Dunphey: Yeah, just to give you an idea of what production is like for one of these regionals, um we have a very ambitious producer. Obviously, a lot of people in the community already know Daniel Ziniri.
William Dunphey: He's very um eclectic, right? Can be outlandish at times. But he always sets really big goals for the stream. For example, at Worlds, he was saying, i want to set a new record for the number of battles that we show on stream in a single day.
William Dunphey: And I think it was either like 27 or 29 different pairs or something like that. Something gargantuan in terms of of actual battles played. And with double elimination, we're able to do that because we're able to just kind of pull pairs that are ready to go and then just kind of move move through them.
William Dunphey: But when you're looking at something like a Swiss tournament where rounds kind of move in lockstep together, it becomes a lot more difficult because then you have to have everyone finished before you can go to the next round.
William Dunphey: And essentially, the best way that I've seen that we can actually execute that is to have two pairs for each round. And you you budget about 30 minutes each for each of those pairs to get on stage, to battle, to conclude, to switch over, ah get on stage, battle, conclude, and then you move to the next round.
William Dunphey: But logistically, it is a bit of a tougher challenge. And you would get... Well, if you have if you have seven rounds in a single day, I guess that'd be 14 pairs. ah You wouldn't get nearly as many pairs as you would for double elimination, but I do think it would be a lot better for the players. So if you're attending a smaller event, whether it's Puerto Rico or if you're attending an event in South Africa or any of these other smaller ones that are in the growing phase, you might be in a Swiss-style bracket. So definitely keep an eye out for that this season.
William Dunphey: ah Final things, ZZ. What regionals have already been announced and how may the schedule for the regional ah tournaments have meaningfully changed from last season? There are a couple locations I'm really excited for.
William Dunphey: Las Vegas in November, from November 14th to the 16th. Reva Las Vegas. That is going to be the same weekend as Wild Area ah Global, which that's going to be a crazy event.
zzweilous: Oh.
William Dunphey: if you're If you're in the tournament playing Wild Area, in the tournament playing Wild Area, no sleep.
zzweilous: Yeah.
William Dunphey: ah in Nevada that weekend. I'm also interested see that Mexico has three regionals. um And I have a hard time pronouncing this one all the time.
William Dunphey: Queretaro is in April from the 4th to the 5th. And we also have Merida in Monterey, if I'm not mistaken. Plus, in Mexico, we're getting a sort a ah safari zone in Cancun, if I'm not mistaken. So there's so many things going on in Mexico.
William Dunphey: Are there any events or schedule changes that you think are meaningful?
zzweilous: So one another and North American one that I want to shout out is that um the but Pacific Northwest is getting Seattle this time or around.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: So I guess this may replace Portland, but it's certainly a location um that it feels like a destination, a place that people would travel to. i know a lot of folks that are really excited about Seattle coming like becoming a place where Pokemon is played.
zzweilous: um And yeah, even though I will not be there, like my NA tournament this season is going to be Pittsburgh. um I love that all of those, like without wanting to disrespect any of the previous host cities of these tournaments, if the city itself has some character, I feel like the event itself is kind of easy to model around that a little bit.
William Dunphey: Yep.
zzweilous: Like in in a similar fashion as we have on just like the themed merge for world competitions. um We can have like casters leaning into the vibe of a place.
zzweilous: And I feel like with Las Vegas, especially, but also with Seattle, a bunch of big names are being ticked off in North America.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: um And there's also changes in Europe that I personally really enjoy. For example, nothing against Dortmund. It was very convenient convenient for me to get to it. but that has been replaced with Frankfurt, which is um the very first regional of the season and one that I will attend.
zzweilous: um Then we are getting the Prague Regional Championship. We are getting going to the Czech Republic for the first time in April. And another change that has been made to the European schedule is so that the previous Utrecht special event is no more.
zzweilous: Instead, we get the Utrecht Regional Championship, So upgraded from a special event, we can earn prize money in the Netherlands now.
William Dunphey: Oh. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um So yeah, that's another positive change made to the European calendar. And I'll not be at all of the events, but I'll probably be at most of them. So it's going to be an exciting season for sure.
William Dunphey: Interesting. I didn't even realize that, but that's such an important distinction ah because these special championships, to your point, did not award prize money in previous iterations. So, wow.
William Dunphey: All right. That's a good that's a good upgrade. ah One last thing i did I did want to mention about the regional schedule. ah We've seen Perth. We've seen Melbourne. We've seen Brisbane. But we are actually getting a regional in New Zealand for the first time in a while.
William Dunphey: going be Auckland, New Zealand from January 24th to 25th. I just looked at Flight ZZ and for a cool $1,000, I could fly to Auckland. And that is so, so tempting because that is the location where Lord of the Rings was filmed.
zzweilous: i was I was genuinely considering it because like i when I travel, then I also like and travel with people to people and this would be another destination where like I know I would have company if I went there.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And yeah, I don't i would know whether it's worth it. It would not be just for the event. It would be for New Zealand and using the event as an excuse to go there.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um But yeah, let's let's see where where people will find me this season. It's certainly going to be multiple continents.
William Dunphey: Exactly. And if you listened to last week's episode, you remember that ZZ said he's going to every single regional this year. So every single one, you'll see him in in Frankfurt, and then he'll fly over to Monterey to compete there.
zzweilous: Every single one. Yes.
William Dunphey: And then he'll fly back to Frankfurt for Championship Sunday, and then back to Monterey for Championship Sunday there as well.
zzweilous: Yes.
zzweilous: I really hope I have a late call time in Monterey because otherwise ah I may be cutting it close, but I'm optimistic.
William Dunphey: Well, I do think that um this year, i know we always have a a pretty good vibe. We we also have a pretty good energy going into the new seasons, but this season really does feel special. I mean, this is the 10-year anniversary of Pokemon Go, five years in the championship series, 30 years for for Pokemon as a brand.
William Dunphey: I mean, this is a big, big year, and I can't wait to see what other changes come because... Things are moving in the right direction. It takes time. It's gradual. Things like Swiss, GovAtaLeague leaderboard points, limited metas, um meta updates that are actually meaningful and not just boom bursts slapped on everything, to quote my friend ZZ.
William Dunphey: These things are all happening, and it takes time. It's slower than we would like, but I do think progress should be recognized where it is present. But that being said, it's been a really good episode. We're about an hour 45. So if you've listened to all this so far, thank you so much.
William Dunphey: Make sure to join our Grim Smorrow giveaway. And I guess we can open it to closing thoughts. Anything that we forgot to mention or that ah we should point out before we close things up.
zzweilous: think I think we actually got through a lot today. and We may have to revise some points after the first events have been played, but that is something for next week to do.
William Dunphey: I agree. I agree. So we're getting right back into the swing of things. This is episode one of season three of the show six podcast. We will have our Monterey and Frankfurt recaps where we will talk about meta team building, how things actually shook out. And as ZZ alluded to, make some revisions on some of our predictions because we're never exactly right as much as we would like to be.
William Dunphey: But ZZ, it was incredible. Always a pleasure, my friend. I'm really excited for this upcoming season of the Championship Series. It's bigger. It's better than ever. i already have my sights on Worlds. And um yeah, maybe next time we'll talk about some personal goals as well.
William Dunphey: After we get this first tournament under our belt, we'll talk about ah what you and I are going to set out to do this season, which I think is going to be really exciting for people to hear as well. So sounds good, my friend.
zzweilous: Yes, yes.
William Dunphey: Great work as always. And we'll see you all in the next one. Thank you for listening.
