Pokemon GO: GBL meta for Memories in Motion

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines — After learning that my good Pokemon GO friend Jerwin “Scombort” Bague qualified for the Pokemon GO Asia Championship Series 2026: APAC Qualifiers Playoffs, of course, I congratulated him. Then, I took a quick gander at his team and asked myself: “Is this the current Pokemon GO meta now?”

As a former competitive Pokemon GO player with one school intramural trophy in my bag, I used to keep up with the game’s meta. But, after a long time away from the scene — as I write articles like this these days — I have a lot to catch up on.

So, if you are like me, hoping to reignite the competitive embers, or someone looking for good Pokemon to climb the rank ladders or dip your toes in the competitive scene, we’re breaking down this season’s Pokemon GO meta.

Pokemon GO Memories in Motion

Just like how it was for the Pokemon Champions meta breakdown, let’s talk about the status of the game. Specifically, what changed in Pokemon GO for this season?

Related Story: Review: Pokemon Champions simplifies VGC but comes with annoyances

Currently, the GO Battle League (GBL) — Pokemon GO’s in-game ranked player-versus-player (PVP) battles — is in its Memories in Motion season. 

For this article’s purpose, we’re only going to talk about the Great League and skip the Ultra and Master Leagues. That is because most players skip those leagues due to accessibility, and official Pokemon GO tournaments are only held in the Great League format.

As with all GBL seasonal changes, several moves were tweaked, which translated to some Pokemon getting buffed or nerfed, respectively. Here are the buffed and nerfed moves for this season:

Buffed Fast Moves

• Low Kick
  • Power increased from 4 to 5
  • Generates more energy
  • Big buff overall; now much spammier
• Mud Shot
  • Power decreased from 4 to 3
  • Generates more energy
  • Slight damage nerf, but better energy gain; overall a buff for fast charge users
• Psycho Cut
  • Power increased from 3 to 4
  • Direct damage buff
• Waterfall
  • Power decreased from 12 to 11
  • Energy generation increased
  • More flexible despite slightly lower damage
• Wing Attack
  • Generates more energy
  • Makes flyers noticeably faster

Buffed Charged Moves

• Drain Punch
  • Power doubled from 20 to 40
• Heat Wave
  • Power reduced from 95 to 75
  • Energy cost heavily reduced
  • Becomes much more usable/spammable
• Sand Tomb
  • Power increased from 25 to 40
  • Big damage boost
• Twister
  • Power increased from 45 to 70
  • Lower energy cost
  • Huge glow-up from meme move to potentially viable
• Volt Tackle
  • Energy cost reduced
  • Faster access in battle

Nerfed Moves

• Bullet Punch
  • Power decreased from 8 to 7 
• Mud Slap
  • Power decreased from 12 to 11 
• Smack Down
  • Power decreased from 12 to 11 
• Mud Bomb
  • Power decreased from 60 to 65
  • Tweaked to have a higher energy cost
  • Slightly harder to spam
• Night Slash
  • Attack-boost effect weakened
  • Less snowball potential
• Rock Tomb
  • Power decreased from 80 to 75

Additionally, some Pokemon also gained access to certain moves. As such, here are some standout additions:

• Gliscor finally learns Acrobatics.
• Camerupt gets access to both Scorching Sand and Rock Tomb.
• Heracross can deter Flying-types with Rock Tomb.
• Scolipede can douse Fire-type opponents with Aqua Tail.
• Moltres can now Fly.
• Volcanion gets Scald (appropriate for this volcanic Fire and Water-type Pokemon).
• Marshadow now has Shadow Claw.
• Flygon and Garchomp get Twister.

Now that’s all out of the way, let’s dive into the Pokemon GO meta. Speaking of a verb that is associated with water…

Still Too Much Water

Pokemon’s GBL meta, at least for the Great League, remains very much wet as Water-types still dominate the competitive landscape. In fact, Scombort, along with fellow Filipino Pokemon GO player SweetRica03 (who also qualified for the APAC Qualifiers Playoffs), had two Water-types in their team.

Diving into this meta, the mud boys are still at the top of their game. In case you have no idea what it is, the mud boys is the community-appointed nickname for the dual Water/Ground-type Pokemon. 

Although the mud boys are desperately weak against Grass-types, their immunity to Electric-types (a huge weakness for Water-types) and sheer bulk (for most mud boys, at least) more than make up for their grassy woes. Plus, some of them can learn Poison-type moves, which makes for good team coverage. 

For this season, the king of the mud boys is none other than Quagsire. Both Quagsire’s base form and Shadow variant are competitively viable, with the base form edging the Shadow variant just a bit, as Shadow Pokemon are inherently weak to Purified Pokemon. 

Quagsire sees key wins against Lickilicky, Tinkaton, Empoleon, Foretress, and Feragligatr. However, it loses its matchup against Altaria, Togekiss, Wigglytuff, Jellicent, and Galarian Corsola.

For both forms of Quagsire, the most effective moveset uses the Fast Move Mud Shot to spam its Charged Moves Aqua Tail — a Community Day (CD)-exclusive move you can still learn via Elite TMs — and Mud Bomb. 

Alternatively, you can swap out either Charged Move for coverage with the Rock-type move Stone Edge, the Fighting-type move Drain Punch, Poison-type moves Sludge Bomb or Acid Spray (a good counter for those weedy Grass-type woes), or deal huge damage with Earthquake.

Besides Quagsire, other viable mud boys in Pokemon GO include Gastrodon and Swampert (including the Shadow form). Unfortunately, despite its years of competitive viability back then, Whiscash has fallen off, though you can still use it to teach newbies (and baptize them with Scald).

Moving on from the mud boys, Feraligatr enjoys the meta spotlight ever since it learned the Ghost-type Fast Move Shadow Claw (which shreds the ever-present Ghost types in the GBL meta). Although it has a Shadow form, most players prefer running the base form over its Shadow counterpart.

Regardless, Feraligatr is a spammy and dynamic Water type that can put Shield Pressure thanks to its high-energy Fast Move Shadow Claw. Running Hydro Cannon and Crunch is the best moveset for Feraligatr, but you can replace the latter with Ice Beam should you wish coverage against Grass-types (as well as Flying, Ground, and Dragon-types).

In head-to-heads, Feraligatr wins against Altaria, Annihilape, Tinkaton, Togekiss, and Jellicent. That said, it loses against Wigglytuff, Forretess, Quagsire, Galarian Corsola, and Lickilicky.

Up next, Jellicent is the next best Water-type in this season. With its excellent stats, Jellicent is bulky, flexible, and a dynamic centerpiece for a three-Pokemon team.

With its available Fast Moves, both the Ghost-type move Hex and the Water-type move Bubble generate high energy per turn. Thus, Jellicent is quite spammy, which forces opponents to shield up or take damage consistently.

For Charged Moves, you can run Shadow Ball and Surf for its prime moveset, swap a move to Ice Beam for coverage, or choose Bubble Beam for an Attack debuff towards your opponent’s Pokemon.

The last Water-type we’re going to talk about (for this section, at least) is Azumarill. For the longest time, Azumarill was always around in the GBL. You could say, Azumarill is one of the mascots of the Great League, an anchor in a constantly changing tide (meta-wise).

Azumarill is extremely hard to remove from the field due to its sheer bulk and defense. Matchup-wise, it triumphs against Togekiss, Altaria, Lickilicky, Quagsire, and Galarian Corsola. However, it loses to other top meta picks like Jellicent, Forretress, Tinkaton, Wigglytuff, and Feraligatr.

For its prime moveset, I suggest using Bubble over Rock Smash as the Fast Move, considering the latter only has meager energy output. For Charged Moves, you could never go wrong with its reliable Play Rough and Ice Beam combo. 

That said, as it has been around the meta for a long time, Azumarill can be predictable. So, you’ve got to master the fundamentals if you want to use this adorable yet formidable Pokemon.

Steel is Strong

From one solid type to another, let’s talk about the Steel-types. 

In case you haven’t noticed it yet, most of the meta Pokemon in the game rely on their ability to take more hits. More hits survived means more damage dealt over time, a pretty easy concept to grasp. With that in mind, Steel-types are also meta this season just because they naturally have high defenses. 

Honestly, we’re still not done talking about Water-types. This time, though, the next Pokemon is about to be much more solid, literally!

Empoleon’s dual Water and Steel typing makes it a defensive sweeper. This emperor penguin is quite spammy and flexible in its offense, and can also take hits thanks to its incredible defensive typing.

Meta-wise, it wins against Wigglytuff, Tinkaton, Lickilicky, Feraligatr, and Altaria. Unfortunately, due to its dual-typing’s weaknesses, it loses to Annihilape, Jellicent, Quagsire, Galarian Corsola, and Forretress.

As a spammer, you’d want Metal Sound as your Fast Move. However, you can also opt for Water Fall or Steel Wing should you trade spamming capability for outright heavy damage.

For Charged Moves, Empoleon’s CD-exclusive Hydro Cannon is a must-have. Pair it with either Drill Peck, Blizzard, or Flash Cannon, and you’re good to go coverage-wise.

With Empoleon being a part Steel-type, let’s talk about how solid Steel-types are in this meta up next.

Kicking things off for the other Steel-types, Tinkaton hammers its way from Paldea to Pokemon GO. As both a Fairy and Steel-type, Tinkaton’s dual typing is scary (although Fire and Ground-types can still delete this Pokemon from the field). 

As a top pick this season, Tinkaton dominates Wigglytuff and Togekiss and sees wins against Altaria, Galarian Corsola, and Lickilicky. For its losses, Tinkaton would find it difficult to win against the watery meta, as it loses against Quagsire, Empoleon, Jellicent, and Feraligatr, as well as against Forretress.

From its recent Community Day, Tinkaton dominates the meta with Gigaton Hammer. Besides Gigaton Hammer, Tinkaton ideally runs Fairy Wind for its Fast Move and Bulldoze for the 50% chance of a Defense debuff on opponents.

Although Tinkaton literally preys on this Pokemon, Corviknight swoops into the meta as a viable Flying/Steel-type. Corviknight replaces Skarmory as the Flying-Steel ruler of the skies (guess you could say they’re airplanes), as the latter has massively fallen off from the GBL meta.

Funny enough, Corviknight can actually win against Tinkaton, even if its predator has two shields to burn. This Flying/Steel avian can also win against Wigglytuff, Jellicent, Lickilicky, and Quagsire, but unfortunately loses to Stunfisk, Forretress, Altaria, Togekiss, and Azumarill.

Offensively, Corviknight struggles, but its defensive prowess more than makes up for it. 

For its moves, two of its Charged Moves, Air Cutter and Iron Head, are Community Day-exclusive and a Legacy move, respectively. Thus, you need to invest in Elite TMs should you want either or both, if you don’t have specimens with those moves. 

Sand Attack is the ideal Fast Move for Corviknight, but Steel Wing is also good, especially against the Fairies in the meta. Corviknight also has the Dark-type Charged Move Payback as a nuke and Sky Attack as an alternative to Air Cutter.

Finally, it’s time to talk about Forretress. Forretress enjoys being a bulky, defensive, and spammy Pokemon. However, it requires considerable technical mastery to bring out its best. Contrary to Quagsire and Feraligatr, most players prefer Forretress in its Shadow form over its non-Shadow, capitalizing on its spammy nature to deal huge damage.

Unlike previous seasons, Volt Switch has taken over Bug Bite as the Fast Move choice for Forretress. Furthermore, Forretress technically got even better this season thanks to the Sand Tomb buff.

With Volt Switch, it zaps the wet meta and those pesky Flying-types that threaten Forretress. Sand Tomb also makes it a great counter for Tinkaton. Unfortunately, Forretress desperately loses to Altaria, which resists its Electric and Ground-type moves, and also gets defeated by Galarian Corsola, Quagsire, Annihilape, and Lickilicky.

It’s Normal to Have Normal-types

In Pokemon GO, at least in the GBL, most Normal-types are great safe swap options considering their bulky nature and great anti-Ghost matchup. As such, it’s pretty normal to have Normal-types in a party.

First up for the Normal-types, Lickilicky. Lickilicky is widely considered to be one of, if not the best, meta Pokemon in the Great League. In fact, its previous evolution, Lickitung, is also a viable pick, which goes to show how dominant this Normal-type evolution line is.

Thanks to its sheer bulk, spammy movesets, and, unironically, its Normal typing, Lickilicky stands tall against top Ghost-types Galarian Corsola and Jellicent, as well as it’s able to dominate Altaria, Forretress, and Feraligatr. That said, Lickilicky finds itself helpless whenever it faces Annihilape, Quagsire, Empoleon, and other Fighting-types.

For its movesets, Rollout overtakes Lick as the latter has been brought to the ground with its previous nerfs. Meanwhile, its Charged Moves remain the same, with Body Slam for spam and Shadow Ball to exorcise ghosts.

Gone are the days when, just like this season’s wet meta, Charmers used to dominate the battlefield. In case you have no idea, Charmers refer to the Pokemon, usually Fairy-types, that can learn the Fast Move Charm, a busted move back in the day. Despite the Charmers’ bygone era, Wigglytuff is here to stay.

Wigglytuff is part-Normal and part-Fairy type. As the lone Charmer left in the meta (as other Fairies moved on to other Fairy-type moves), Wigglytuff cleans up Galarian Corsola with no problems, even without shields. Besides Galarian Corsola, Wigglytuff also does well against top meta picks Feraligatr, Quagsire, Lickilicky, and Jellicent. 

Unfortunately, Wigglytuff can easily be negated by its Fairy-type weaknesses (Poison and Steel). Thus, Wigglytuff only works if you’ve got safe switches that can deal with its weaknesses. 

For movesets, Charm is a no-brainer for Wigglytuff’s Fast Move. As for its Charged Moves, Swift is a good move for shield baiting, while Icy Wind can further deal with the few dragons like Altaria still present in the meta. Additionally, Icy Wind also drops an opponent’s attack by one stage, so stacking multiple Icy Winds to set up for a safe switch is a viable tactic. 

Other Meta Picks

With this article already running long (and still heavily trimmed down), let’s switch to rapid-fire mode and talk about some of the other viable Pokemon shaping the current meta.  

First up, Altaria continues to dominate the skies thanks to its dual Flying and Dragon typing. Dragon Breath remains a busted Fast Move, able to melt most opponents with ease and offering great energy yields. Altaria gaining access to Flamethrower means it can now face Ice-types, but it still fears Fairies. 

With so many Pokemon weak to Fighting-types in this meta, Annihilape is the premier Fighting-type in the GBL. Annihilape’s part-Ghost typing also helps, especially when facing Body Slam spammers like Lickilicky. 

One of the best additions from the more recent generations, Galarian Corsola spooks the meta in Pokemon GO. Although its moveset is lackluster, Galarian Corsola is bulky enough to survive enemy onslaught (and return some damage). That said, considering it’s a pre-evolution of Cursola, an XL version is needed should you wish to use Galarian Corsola.

Although Ground is traditionally weak to Water, Stunfisk doesn’t fear the wet meta as it’s part-Electric typing shocks its opponents (provided it’s not a mud boy). It’s quite bulky with spammy Fast Moves. Besides Mud Bomb and Discharge, a surprise Muddy Water Stunfisk (which has a 30% chance to debuff an opponent’s attack) may get opponents off guard.

Greedent is yet another Body Slam spammer. More than that, though, Greedent’s got great coverage as it learns Mud Shot, Bullet Seed, and Bite for Fast Moves and Trailblaze (which comes with an Attack buff) and Crunch for Charged Moves.

Conclusion

To be honest, though, there are a lot of other Pokemon that were skipped in this article. Great Pokemon like Medicham, Talonflame, Malamar, Lapras, Oranguru, Sableye, and even Guzzlord.

Alas, we only have so much bandwidth to break down a meta as diverse and massive as the GBL Great League. Perhaps a part two someday. Maybe even do the Ultra and Master Leagues.

For now, I hope you consider the Pokemon I’ve talked about in your next GBL adventures or in future tournaments. With that, I bid you good luck, and may you train well to become the next Pokemon Champion!