“Pokemon Let’s Go” recently launched on the Nintendo Switch, and it has taken the Nintendo community by storm. While the game itself has been ridiculed somewhat for being too casual and easy, as a competitive gamer myself, I recognize that this game has a huge amount of competitive potential. However, websites dedicated to offering advice on competitive usage of these Pokemon, such as Ranked Boost, have not been helping at all, offering misleading and in some cases blatantly wrong information, or information which will very soon be outdated and doesn’t suggest as such. The intent of this write up is to talk about the advantages of this game competitively, as well as general rules-of-thumb on how to be a decent competitive player. It will also highlight why, presently, some forms of media have been a bad source of information for how to optimize yourselves.
Starting with the broadened game, competitively:
Pokemon Let’s Go is trying to be Pokemon Go, but better. The best addition to this game, by far, has been the re-introduction of important utility moves, such as recovery moves, Stealth Rock, and status moves. This takes the brainless ‘fire and forget’ style of Pokemon Go, retains the simplistic engine of combat, but gives more leeway for creativity when teambuilding, while also making more Pokemon usable and battle-worthy as a result.
However, the best part about Pokemon Let’s Go is that it’s a happy medium between mainstream Pokemon games and Pokemon Go. In actuality, it is very, very easy to be a good competitive player in Pokemon: Let’s Go. EV training is gone, which has been a very tedious albeit necessary aspect of competitive mainstream Pokemon. You still need good IVs, and unlike Pokemon Go, you need the correct nature for your Pokemon, but these are both quite easy through hatching eggs and usage of Madam Celadon to dictate the nature of a wild Pokemon that you need. The difficulty of obtaining candies to power your Pokemon up has been watered down significantly, and improving their level is much easier. Combining this with the re-introduction of utility moves, and this game has some legitimate competitive metagame potential.
Many aspects and archetypes of mainstream Pokemon, competitively, carry over here. Starting with team archetypes. It is not enough to simply throw all your favorites, collect six Pokemon with really high base stats, or even collect Pokemon based on typing alone, if you want to build a good competitive team. Your team has to be founded around an ‘archetype’. In mainstream Pokemon, there are several different archetypes which the player has the liberty of choosing from. The most commonly used types of teams are hyper-offense, bulky-offense and the infamous stall. Beyond those common three, there are also the rarer balanced and semi-stall teams. The individual viability of each type can be debated, but generally if you make a well-founded team of those archetypes, you should have a team that can at least compete with someone else on a pretty consistent level.
Now, if you want to craft these archetypes, proper role compression is important. You will need the following, depending on your archetype of choice:
Hyper-offense:
A suicide entry hazard lead to begin your games is necessary. As the name implies, this Pokemon is armed with a hazard setting move, usually Stealth Rock, and the intent of it is to, in a nutshell, set Stealth Rock and then faint very shortly thereafter. The best types of suicide lead are fast, frail ones with either high offensive presence, access to Rapid Spin or access to Taunt so you can prevent the opponent from setting their own entry hazards in your face. Given what Pokemon we currently have access to at the moment, your best choice for this role is probably Aerodactyl, a super fast, frail Pokemon with access to both Stealth Rock and Taunt. Other usable options for this position would be Nidoking, Onix, possibly Golem. Note that Mega Aerodactyl should be avoided in this role, as wasting your Mega slot on a Pokemon who will want to be going down within two or three turns is a bad idea. Beyond that lead role, you need a wallbreaker and an end-game sweeper. You will also want a stallbreaker in the future, when stall becomes better with the addition of Skarmory, Blissey, Umbreon and other bulky Pokemon. Wallbreakers are exactly what the name would implies; a Pokemon who can muscle their way through a defensive Pokemon designed to stop your end-game sweeper. Having access to a boosting move, such as Calm Mind or Swords Dance, is often helpful, but a Pokemon with the raw power, like Dragonite, can also fulfill the role if it comes with a good enough moveset. Beyond Dragonite, Mega Pinsir (no abilities sadly means no Aerilate), Gengar, Moltres, and of course, the Mega Mewtwos and base Mewtwo are all solid options. Finally, your end-game sweeper is the Pokemon who will, as the name befits it, come in to finish the game and clean up the opponent. For this, a boosting move is necessary. You also want to have high offensive stats, including Speed. The best sweeper in the game right now without a doubt would have to be Mega Mewtwo-Y. The highest Speed, Special Attack, access to Calm Mind and a number of other terrifying special attacks make it the best fit for this role by far. Beyond it, base Mewtwo is clearly inferior, but is the second best choice for this role in the game, and should be used if your Mega slot is taken up elsewhere. After that, Mega Pinsir, Scyther (outclassed by M-Pinsir, use it over M-Pinsir only if your Mega slot is taken up already), Agility-Moltres, down to even Venomoth and Butterfree among others are usable options. In general, if it has a boosting move which raises its offenses and has good speed or a speed-boosting move, it’s probably good enough to fit this role. Last but not least, like any team, you’ll need an entry hazard removing option. With no Defog in this game, Rapid Spin is the only option to remove entry hazards with. Thankfully, Gengar and Mega Gengar are the only Pokemon capable of blocking it, and they are far from bulky enough to be switching straight into attacks, so Cloyster is a capable option. Hitmonchan is too, but with Gengar being immune to Fighting, you run the risk of having Gengar ruin your plan if your opponent has one. Sandslash would be a much stronger option if it didn’t completely suck as a whole, as it could heavily threaten Gengar with its super effective Ground type attacks. Oh well. Starmie can threaten Gengar with Psychic type attacks, but unlike Cloyster, Starmie’s offenses aren’t too great in general, so your opponent could trade allowing your Starmie to remove their hazards in exchange for a turn to use a boosting move with a Pokemon on the field. You could be in real trouble at that point.
For stall teams, the build is simple; you need a physical wall, a special wall, a bulky entry hazard setter and an entry hazard remover. You also need an end-game sweeper to finish the opponent off after you’ve slowly worn down the team via attrition. Physical and special walls are just that—Pokemon who can adequately endure repeated physical and special attacks and heal off the damage, respectively. Zapdos has decent bulk and a good defensive typing, so it could fill the physical wall role if needed. Gyarados is capable as well. Mega Slowbro is the absolute best choice for a physical wall, though you may be wary of giving up the opportunity to use a Mega Mewtwo-Y as your sweeper to use Mega Slowbro in this capacity. For special walls, there are simply no better options than Chansey and Articuno. Chansey is even capable of being your entry hazard setter, thanks to its access to Stealth Rock, while Articuno has the added benefit of being a wall who can hit back pretty hard as well. You need to prioritize having good type synergy here. For example, it is not advisable to run a Mega Gyarados over normal Gyarados because Water/Dark conveys less useful resistances than Water/Flying does, from a physical standpoint. Chansey also typically tends to beat out Articuno because it is not weak to Electric type attacks the same way Articuno and probable teammate Gyarados are. This is a straightforward concept, but an all too necessary one as well. The general goal is to set entry hazards early, keep them up as often as you can, and to try and spread harmful status, usually Toxic, around the opposing team so you can wear them down. Once countermeasures to your sweeper have been removed or too heavily weakened to put up a fight, find a safe opportunity to bring said sweeper in and proceed to win the game. Liberally switch your walls in on attacks they’re supposed to take, and as a general rule, don’t try to out-predict your opponent; stall works at its best when predictions are simple and straightforward. The longer the battle lasts, the better position you’ll be in, so you don’t want to jeopardize this by trying to make a flashy play if it can be helped.
As the term implies, balanced teams are mixtures of stall and hyper-offense. Generally, you want to avoid suicide leads and defensive type synergy is still important. You don’t necessarily need dedicated walls, but being able to switch a Pokemon in on an attack they can take is helpful, so having decent bulk somewhere is nice. You still want an end-game sweeper as well.
In conclusion, websites such as Ranked Boost have been less than helpful and gathering second opinions, ideally from human sources or someone who can actually have a conversation with you about the game, is helpful. Let me show you some examples of the many pieces of poor advice Ranked Boost has given. Direct your attention toward the natures they recommend you use:
The reason why a Lonely nature is terrible for Mega Mewtwo X is because this is a Pokemon who shouldn’t be running mixed attacking sets, and should also be trying to be as fast as it can. Jolly or even Adamant are better options. You’re better off with Jolly for the increase in speed, but you should never run Lonely under any circumstances. If you feel the need to say, equip Ice Beam so you can better deal with Dragonite, Naïve is still better than Lonely. Hasty is a bad idea, and even Hasty is better than Lonely. With the best attacking moves in this game being physical and Swords Dance being the best boosting move in the game, it is important Mega Mewtwo-X and any other offensive Pokemon retain their physical defense if possible. Additionally, Mega Mewtwo-X is not bulky enough to be wanting to move second and have to take a hit before dishing one out, so maximizing its speed is better than further inflating its already sky-high Attack stat.
Excuse me, but on what god damn planet is Moltres ever running a physical attack?! What, do you want this thing to be an HM-whore with Fly and have competitive utility at the same time? This is ridiculous, I don’t need to stay anymore that wasn’t covered in the last paragraph. Timid or Modest is the way to go for Moltres. Modest has slightly more merit because Moltres’ bulk is decent and it’s not terribly fast to begin with, but you certainly shouldn’t be running Rash. Or Mild, or Naïve or Hasty.
Ummm… my offensive Pokemon should be running a nature that reduces its offenses? Skarmory doesn’t exist yet, there’s absolutely no reason Dragonite should be running a special attack. Even if you just have to run Thunder to try and get past Gyarados or Mega Slowbro (not recommended) you can still run Adamant and pick up the KOs you need. I even ran a calculator on the damage Dragonite with an Adamant nature does to Gyarados and Mega Slowbro with Thunder:
0-SpA Dragonite Thunder vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Gyarados: 288-340 (87 – 102.7%) — guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
0-SpA Dragonite Thunder vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro-Mega: 170-202 (51.3 – 61%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Both of those calculations assume Stealth Rock is in play, Gyarados and M-Slowbro were at full health as they came in, and that Dragonite is running an Adamant nature. As you can see, Mega Slowbro is still 2HKOed even without Stealth Rock, so running Naughty would actually not change your ability to 2HKO it at all. Gyarados, meanwhile, can’t really do anything back to Dragonite, so even if it survives Thunder, Dragonite can easily finish it off with a follow-up attack. Even if your strategy is contingent around Dragonite netting that OHKO, run Naughty or Naïve instead of Brave.
For this next picture, keep an eye on where Mega Beedrill is ranked:
Really? Arbok, Haunter and IVYSAUR are ‘better’ than Mega Beedrill? Mega Beedrill may miss its amazing ability, Adaptability, but it still hits much harder than the aforementioned three, has incredible speed and retains access to U-Turn, which the mediocre aforementioned three simply cannot stand up to. With its amazing speed and access to U-Turn, Mega Beedrill can come in and consistently move before its opponent can. Even if your opponent brings in a Pokemon who could defeat Mega Beedrill one-on-one, Mega Beedrill can simply move first 95% of the time, U-Turn off the field, and bring in a teammate who is more adequately equipped to deal with the opponent. While not a very good sweeper, Mega Beedrill also does have access to Swords Dance, which could be used to sweep if its trainer desired. The only real downside to Mega Beedrill is that running it costs you the ability to run a better Mega, but seeing as how it is not at all outclassed in what it does (on the contrary, it has a unique niche that is virtually exclusive to itself) this is not as big a deal as it would seem. What the hell can Arbok, Haunter or Ivysaur even do? Maybe someone thought Mega Beedrill’s ugliness hindered its competitive usability? Maybe they have apiphobia? Or maybe Ranked Boost is simply incompetent and doesn’t know what they’re talking about, despite the fact that they’re currently the most popular ‘competitive’ Pokemon: Let’s Go website on the internet. Seriously, don’t pay attention to this. Abort mission.
If this website’s goal was to cause as many people as possible to fail to catch Mewtwo, then I would say it served its purpose. I’m sure Gengar has all day long to sit there and tank Psychic type attacks while your Ultra Balls fail to catch Mewtwo time and time again. Clearly, Scyther’s bulk is second to none, so it falls under a similar distinction. It’s not like you actually want to save Revives, right? It’s not like Articuno or Chansey exist to sponge Mewtwo’s attacks, right?
What a joke.