Pokémon Go Summer Cup – Great League Edition: Best Pokémon

Melt the competition with these Pokémon

Contents

1. Summer Cup: Best Leads
2. Summer Cup: Best Safe Switches
3. Summer Cup: Best Closers
4. Summer Cup: Best Attackers

Remember to fight in the shade when you’re participating in Pokémon Go Summer Cup – Great League Edition in the coming days, because the sun’s out in full force and your phone is not the only thing that easily overheats. Be sure to grab a hat and stay hydrated before making your way onto your next adventure. This edition of the Summer Cup will run from June 1 to 8, 2023.

This Go Battle League competition runs on a special ruleset limiting participating Pokémon to a maximum amount of 1,500 competition points (CP). In addition, you may only field Pokémon of the Normal-, Fire-, Water-, Grass-, Electric-, and Bug-types.

Show your opponents that size matters not with the best Pokémon for Summer Cup – Great League Edition in Pokémon Go based on statistics and simulations provided by PvPoke.com.

Summer Cup: 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. Pidgeot (Wing Attack, Feather Dance, Brave Bird)
2. Diggersby(XL) (Quick Attack, Fire Punch, Earthquake)
3. Luxray(S) (Spark, Wild Charge, Psychic Fangs)
4. Dubwool (Double Kick, Body Slam, Wild Charge)
5. Shadow Magnezone (Spark, Wild Charge, Mirror Shot)
6. Cradily(S) (Bullet Seed, Rock Slide, Grass Knot)
7. Shadow Charizard (Wing Attack, Blast Burn, Dragon Claw)
8. Munchlax (Tackle, Body Slam, Bulldoze)
9. Toxapex (Poison Jab, Brine, Sludge Wave)
10. Lickitung(XL) (Lick, Body Slam, Power Whip)

(S) = Pokémon performs comparably well in its regular and Shadow variants. (XL) = Pokémon requires Candy XL to reach its best performance.

Summer Cup: 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. Dubwool (Double Kick, Body Slam, Wild Charge)
2. Vigoroth (Counter, Body Slam, Bulldoze)
3. Munchlax (Tackle, Body Slam, Bulldoze)
4. Diggersby(XL) (Quick Attack, Fire Punch, Earthquake)
5. Galvantula (Volt Switch, Discharge, Lunge)
6. Shadow Charizard (Wing Attack, Blast Burn, Dragon Claw)
7. Miltank (Rollout, Body Slam, Thunderbolt)
8. Shadow Beedrill (Poison Jab, Drill Run, X-Scissor)
9. Zangoose (Shadow Claw, Close Combat, Night Slash)
10. Cradily(S) (Bullet Seed, Rock Slide, Grass Knot)

Summer Cup: 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. Victini (Quick Attack, V-Create, Psychic)
2. Togedemaru (Thunder Shock, Fell Stinger, Wild Charge)
3. Staraptor(S) (Wing Attack, Brave Bird, Close Combat)
4. Diggersby(XL) (Quick Attack, Fire Punch, Earthquake)
5. Cradily (Bullet Seed, Rock Slide, Grass Knot)
6. Toxapex (Poison Jab, Brine, Sludge Wave)
7. Buzzwole (Counter, Superpower, Lunge)
8. Emolga (Thunder Shock, Discharge, Acrobatics)
9. Shadow Swampert (Mud Shot, Hydro Cannon, Earthquake)
10. Hisuian Electrode (Thunder Shock, Wild Charge, Energy Ball)

Summer Cup: 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. Razor Leaf users, as seen below, are a bit of an exception to this rule, as the immense attack speed of the move makes the usage of glass cannons a worthwhile risk.

1. Toxapex (Poison Jab, Brine, Sludge Wave)
2. Mantine (Wing Attack, Bubble Beam, Aerial Ace)
3. Pidgeot (Wing Attack, Feather Dance, Brave Bird)
4. Pachirisu(XL) (Volt Switch, Thunder Punch, Thunderbolt)
5. Diggersby(XL) (Quick Attack, Fire Punch, Earthquake)
6. Lanturn (Spark, Surf, Thunderbolt)
7. Noctowl (Wing Attack, Sky Attack, Shadow Ball)
8. Lickitung(XL) (Lick, Body Slam, Power Whip)
9. Araquanid (Bug Bite, Bug Buzz, Bubble Beam)
10. Tropius (Air Slash, Leaf Blade, Aerial Ace)

Summer Cup is a little less affected by the balance changes introduced with the Hidden Gems update than regular Great League, so many of the Pokémon needed to do well in this cup are unchanged and somewhat familiar anyway from both the standard formats and recent limited competitions such as the Spring Cup.

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