Video Games

Pokémon Go Master League Premier: Best Pokémon

Find out how to build a premier team for this heavyweight competition

Marco Wutz

Niantic

If you want to experience heavyweight battles in Pokémon Go, but don’t have access to many of the game’s Legendaries, then Master League Premier is your time to shine, as it sets the focus on monsters that are more widely available and don’t need to be raided for.

Table of Contents

  1. Master League Premier: Best Leads
  2. Master League Premier: Best Safe Switches
  3. Master League Premier: Best Closers
  4. Master League Premier: Best Attackers

Master League Premier will run from November 5 to 12, 2024, and features quadruple Stardust rewards for every win.

This Go Battle League competition runs on a special ruleset without any competition point (CP) limits. You may not field Legendary and Mythical Pokémon as well as Ultra Beasts in this tournament. 

Since this is a Master League competition with unlimited CP rules, having Pokémon upgraded with Candy XL is the best course of action without exception. As such, you won’t see our usual [XL] markings behind Pokémon names in this guide. Simply assume that Pokémon with Candy XL power-ups are the standard in this format.

Show your opponents that having many Legendaries is not necessary for becoming a great trainer with the best Pokémon for Master League Premier in Pokémon Go based on statistics and simulations provided by PvPoke.com.

Master League Premier: Best Leads

These Pokémon aggressively pressure your opponent right from the beginning of a duel and can survive even tough battles for quite a while – they are perfect to open a match up, enabling you to score an early knockout or set up a strong counter play.

  1. Florges (Fairy Wind, Disarming Voice, Moonblast)
  2. Dragonite [S] (Dragon Breath, Dragon Claw, Superpower)
  3. Goodra (Dragon Breath, Aqua Tail, Thunder Punch)
  4. Gyarados [S] (Dragon Breath, Aqua Tail, Crunch)
  5. Dragapult (Astonish, Breaking Swipe, Shadow Ball)
  6. Shadow Magnezone (Volt Switch, Wild Charge, Mirror Shot)
  7. Feraligatr (Shadow Claw, Hydro Cannon, Ice Beam)
  8. Rhyperior [S] (Mud Slap, Breaking Swipe, Rock Wrecker)
  9. Shadow Machamp (Karate Chop, Cross Chop, Stone Edge)
  10. Ursaluna (Tackle, Swift, High Horsepower)

[S] = Regular form and Shadow form perform comparably.

Master League Premier: Best Safe Switches

If the opening pairing is to your disadvantage, you should consider switching out your lead for another Pokémon. This is where this class comes into play. They are either strong leads themselves or are specialized in countering some of the most popular leads. In any case, a switch will preserve your original opener to fight later on in the battle and perhaps force your opponent to also adapt their strategy on the fly.

  1. Gyarados [S] (Dragon Breath, Aqua Tail, Crunch)
  2. Rhyperior [S] (Mud Slap, Breaking Swipe, Rock Wrecker)
  3. Feraligatr [S] (Shadow Claw, Hydro Cannon, Ice Beam)
  4. Florges (Fairy Wind, Disarming Voice, Moonblast)
  5. Goodra (Dragon Breath, Aqua Tail, Thunder Punch)
  6. Ursaluna (Tackle, High Horsepower, Ice Punch)
  7. Shadow Hippowdon (Sand Attack, Weather Ball (Rock), Earth Power)
  8. Golisopod (Shadow Claw, Liquidation, X-Scissor)
  9. Mamoswine (Powder Snow, Avalanche, High Horsepower)
  10. Shadow Ursaluna (Tackle, High Horsepower, Ice Punch)

Master League Premier: Best Closers

These Pokémon are particularly useful when there are no shields left in play on either side – they are incredibly tough themselves or end battles quickly thanks to powerful charge attacks, which can’t be deflected without a shield.

  1. Florges (Fairy Wind, Disarming Voice, Moonblast)
  2. Garchomp (Mud Shot, Outrage, Earth Power)
  3. Rhyperior (Mud Slap, Breaking Swipe, Rock Wrecker)
  4. Dragonite [S] (Dragon Breath, Dragon Claw, Superpower)
  5. Shadow Feraligatr (Shadow Claw, Hydro Cannon, Ice Beam)
  6. Shadow Mamoswine (Powder Snow, High Horsepower, Avalanche)
  7. Shadow Sneasler (Shadow Claw, Close Combat, Aerial Ace)
  8. Gholdengo (Astonish, Shadow Ball, Focus Blast)
  9. Goodra (Dragon Breath, Aqua Tail, Thunder Punch)
  10. Baxcalibur (Dragon Breath, Avalanche, Dragon Claw)

Master League Premier: Best Attackers

These Pokémon perform best when fighting a trainer who still has shields, while you no longer have shields yourself. They combine important resistances and strong fast attacks to compensate for this disadvantage. For this reason, you rarely see Shadow forms in this role – they take more damage than their regular counterparts, making them a risky card to put on the table.

  1. Goodra (Dragon Breath, Aqua Tail, Thunder Punch)
  2. Florges (Fairy Wind, Disarming Voice, Moonblast)
  3. Dragonite (Dragon Breath, Dragon Claw, Superpower)
  4. Gyarados (Dragon Breath, Aqua Tail, Crunch)
  5. Hydreigon (Dragon Breath, Brutal Swing, Flash Cannon)
  6. Annihilape (Counter, Night Slash, Shadow Ball)
  7. Snorlax (Lick, Body Slam, Superpower)
  8. Shadow Dragonite (Dragon Breath, Dragon Claw, Superpower)
  9. Rhyperior (Mud Slap, Breaking Swipe, Rock Wrecker)
  10. Kommo-o (Dragon Tail, Close Combat, Dragon Claw)

Any Master League format is very costly to get into due to the required Candy XL amounts, but the Premier version at least opens things up a little bit by banning Legendaries and other rare Pokémon categories that are even more difficult to power up. The meta has changed at least somewhat compared to last year’s edition of this event, so you can expect some fresh battles and match-ups. Overall, though, you best expect a Dance of the Dragons-type showdown.

For more Pokémon Go, check our overviews for the weekly Spotlight Hours and 5-Star Raids.

Published |Modified
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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