Feb 21, 2020: Ultra League Meta Snapshot - 21 February 2020

GO Battle League will soon be moving from Ultra League to Master League – but we’ve seen many competitors struggle significantly with Ultra League team-building. Fortunately, we have good news: the Silph Research Group is on the case! Thanks to their new research project “Indigo League”, data has begun pouring in to help identify the most popular picks in Go Battle League, and to give competitors better info about what to expect and how to prepare! Today, we begin the first Meta Snapshot of GBL – focused on Ultra League this round – provided by the Arena Meta Team!

The Ultra League Core: Most Popular Pokémon

As competitors “rank up” in GO Battle League and face matchups from increasingly skilled opponents, the makeup of species you’ll encounter will change. What follows is a breakdown of the most common species observed in Ultra League broken down by each GBL “Rank” – as these differ!

As expected, Giratina Altered is the most popular pick among battlers, with a 44.2% overall pick rate, which stays consistent between Ranks 7 and 10. Its tankiness, great moveset, and the chance to boost itself with Ancient Power, make it the biggest threat in Ultra League, with literally no contest. Only Charmers (Pokémon with Charm as a Fast Attack) like Togekiss and Clefable stand a chance at countering it, and even they struggle if Giratina gets the boost from Ancient Power. Swampert is currently the second most popular pick in GBL. Swampert’s great moveset allows it to take down several threats in Ultra League. With the ability to charge energy quickly, and with Hydro Cannon and Earthquake as charged moves, it can generate pressure on the opponent’s shields, even against its hard counters, namely Venusaur and Meganium. Overall it has a 35.5% pick rate, however it is almost as popular as Giratina Altered in Rank 10, while its pick rate in Ranks 7 and 8 is below 30%. Besides these two powerhouses, we have Venusaur and Togekiss, the first one as the main counter to Swampert, the second one as a hard counter for Giratina Altered. With an overall ~25% pick rate, it’s interesting to note that, while it has a pick rate below 20% in Rank 10, Venusaur goes all the way to a 30% pick rate in Ranks 8 and 9. Beyond that, multiple Pokémon share a pick rate around 10%, included in that list are Alolan Muk, Snorlax, Clefable, Registeel, and Charizard.

Interesting Facts: Differences Amongst Ranks

One of the biggest surprises is Registeel. Overall, it has a 10% pick rate, however it has a 24% pick rate in Rank 10 and a 2.7% pick rate in Rank 7, with a growing popularity as you climb through ranks. How can we explain this huge difference? Registeel is an extremely expensive Pokémon, many players may face the decision between powering up (and giving a 2nd move) a Giratina Altered or a Registeel, so in terms of cost, not everyone can invest that much stardust at once. Also, Registeel is a Pokémon which, on paper, is easy to use (it quickly charges energy and is very tanky), but in reality poor decision making and shield strategy may cost you the battle. What do you think? Why is Registeel so popular in Rank 10? If you are a Rank 10 player, what advice would you give to someone in lower ranks about Registeel?

Since the meta evolves around itself, and players look for the best counters against what they are actually encountering in play, we have to talk about Poliwrath. Similar to Registeel, Poliwrath has a 1.6% pick rate in Rank 7 but an 11.5% pick rate in Rank 10. Since Registeel is so popular, you need a good counter against it, but also, something that can put some pressure on Giratina Altered, and Poliwrath gives you exactly that. With Mud Shot as the main driver, Ice and Dynamic Punches fly all over the battleground.

Another interesting trend we can observe through data is about “Charmers.” While Togekiss is extremely popular in lower ranks, Clefable is almost as popular as Togekiss in Rank 10. While both are very good against Giratina Togekiss has some interesting resistances to both grass and ground moves, but weaknesses to electric and rock-type moves (NO Ancient Power, Nooooo!), on the other side, Clefable is only weak to what typically beats Fairy-types, and also has access to Meteor Mash to give you the chance of winning matchups against other Fairies.

Finally, let’s talk about Articuno. Many YouTubers and some of the best battlers in the world started to use it as a lead to answer Giratina Altered (even though Giratina wins in multiple scenarios), Venusaur and Swampert. With icy Wind as its core charged move, it puts a ton of pressure on almost any Pokémon it faces, forcing your opponent to make a tough decision – lose switch priority or lose a Pokémon in battle due to constant debuff on its attack. With an overall 4.6% pick rate, it has a 10% pick rate in Rank 10, which ties Articuno with Alolan Muk, Clefable, Charizard, and Poliwrath.

Team Compositions: Multiple Strategies

It is true, there is no formula nor team that can guarantee a 100% win rate in GBL. However we see some trends and interesting facts about what battlers are using in GBL.

Over 1,500 data points, we have 1,126 different teams of 3 reported, which gives us an idea of how wide the meta still remains.

Most Popular Teams

With an incredible 1.4% rate, Togekiss as lead, Swampert and Giratina Altered in the back is the most popular composition of 3. In second place, we have Venusaur, Togekiss and Swampert And closing the Top 3, Giratina Altered, Togekiss and Swampert (a variation of the most popular team). Actually, if we don’t take into account which Pokémon leads the team, Giratina Altered, Swampert and Togekiss teams represent ~3% of total teams (42).

Most Popular Lead Species

It shouldn’t come as a shock that Giratina Altered has an 11.4% rate as a lead Pokémon, followed closely by Swampert with 10.3% and Venusaur with 9.6%. Beyond that, we can see Togekiss, Snorlax and Alolan Muk as answers to Giratina, both Altered and Origin.

Just like in the last section, Registeel and Articuno get featured once again. While there are no reports of these Pokémon used as leads in Rank 7, at least 7.5% of players in Rank 10 are using them to open their matches.

Parting Words

GO Battle League has brought joy, sadness, frustration (and a bit of lag too), but more than that, excitement and new horizons to those who seek to be the very best!

The Research Group and Arena Team will continue working together to bring this series of articles to you in future installments, unveiling the picks, strategies and interesting facts for each rotation. See you next time!

– Head of the Meta Team Krydos –

Interested in joining the Research Group and contributing data to the Indigo League Project? Join here: https://discord.gg/dmvJy7X