Pokémon Go Halloween Cup – Great League Edition: Best Pokémon
The spooky season is in full swing in Pokémon Go, which naturally applies for Go Battle league in the form of Halloween Cup: Great League Edition, another limited format for the mobile title’s PvP mode.
Halloween Cup will run from October 20 to November 3, 2023, alongside the Ultra League and Master League for one week each. Starting from October 27, 2023, you’ll be able to earn quadruple Stardust rewards for winning battles – now that’s a treat everyone wants to have in their basket!
This Go Battle League competition runs on a special ruleset limiting participating Pokémon to a maximum amount of 1,500 competition points (CP). Since this tournament is all about the spooky Halloween fun, only Pokémon with the types Poison, Bug, Ghost, Dark, and Fairy may be fielded.
Give your opponents nightmares with the best Pokémon for Halloween Cup – Great League Edition in Pokémon Go based on statistics and simulations provided by PvPoke.com.
It's time for the annual Halloween Cup.
Niantic
Pokémon Go Halloween 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.
- Golbat (Wing Attack, Poison Fang, Shadow Ball)
- Carbink(XL) (Rock Throw, Rock Slide, Moonblast)
- Greninja (Water Shuriken, Hydro Cannon, Night Slash)
- Shadow Golbat (Wing Attack, Poison Fang, Shadow Ball)
- Shadow Scizor (Bullet Punch, Night Slash, Iron Head)
- Toxapex (Poison Jab, Brine, Sludge Wave)
- Jellicent (Hex, Surf, Shadow Ball)
- Galarian Weezing (Fairy Wind, Sludge, Overheat)
- Mandibuzz (Snarl, Aerial Ace, Dark Pulse)
- Runerigus (Shadow Claw, Sand Tomb, Shadow Ball)
(XL) = Pokémon requires Candy XL to reach optimal battle performance.
Pokémon Go Halloween 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.
- Shadow Golbat (Wing Attack, Poison Fang, Shadow Ball)
- Golbat (Wing Attack, Poison Fang, Shadow Ball)
- Overqwil (Poison Jab, Aqua Tail, Shadow Ball)
- Hisuian Overqwil (Poison Jab, Aqua Tail, Shadow Ball)
- Shadow Skuntank (Poison Jab, Crunch, Flamethrower)
- Toxapex (Poison Jab, Brine, Sludge Wave)
- Drapion(S) (Poison Sting, Crunch, Sludge Bomb)
- Nidoqueen (Poin Jab, Poison Fang, Earth Power)
- Shadow Alolan Grimer(XL) (Poison Jab, Crunch, Sludge Bomb)
- Shadow Galvantula (Volt Switch, Discharge, Lunge)
(S) = Regular form and Shadow form perform comparably.
Pokémon Go Halloween 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.
- Carbink(XL) (Rock Throw, Rock Slide, Moonblast)
- Toxapex (Poison Jab, Brine, Sludge Wave)
- Galarian Moltres (Wing Attack, Brave Bird, Ancient Power)
- Froslass (Powder Snow, Avalanche, Shadow Ball)
- Azumarill(XL) (Bubble, Ice Beam, Play Rough)
- Forretress (Bug Bite, Mirror Shot, Earthquake)
- Shadow Mawile (Fairy Wind, Iron Head, Play Rough)
- Shadow Skuntank (Poison Jab, Crunch, Flamethrower)
- Escavalier (Counter, Megahorn, Drill Run)
- Shadow Golbat (Wing Attack, Poison Fang, Shadow Ball)
Pokémon Go Halloween 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.
- Carbink(XL) (Rock Throw, Rock Slide, Moonblast)
- Toxapex (Poison Jab, Brine, Sludge Wave)
- Golbat (Wing Attack, Poison Fang, Shadow Ball)
- Mandibuzz (Snarl, Aerial Ace, Dark Pulse)
- Jellicent (Hex, Surf, Shadow Ball)
- Azumarill(XL) (Bubble, Ice Beam, Play Rough)
- Forretress(S) (Bug Bite, Mirror Shot, Earthquake)
- Shadow Golbat (Wing Attack, Poison Fang, Shadow Ball)
- Runerigus (Shadow Claw, Sand Tomb, Shadow Ball)
- Mawile (Fairy Wind, Iron Head, Play Rough)
Carbink’s typing makes the rocky little fellow into a powerhouse in Halloween Cup, which, frankly, features a little too few strong Ghost-types to really feel appropriately like a Halloween event, but what can you do? Overall, though, Halloween Cup features a fairly accessible line-up of fighters you may already have prepared from other formats: Pokémon like Toxapex, Jellicent, Mandibuzz, Forretress, Golbat, and Azumarill have been mainstays in several competitions for a while now.
Halloween Cup doesn’t necessitate too many fresh investments, making this a refreshing format to go alongside the more expensive Ultra and Master Leagues.
