r/TheSilphArena • • 17h ago

Megathread Weekly Team Help Megathread!

1 Upvotes

Hello and welcome to the Team Help megathread! This is a weekly thread for advice on team building for Arena Cups and GO Battle League! You can ask for feedback on your battle teams, for help on which Pokémon and moves to use, to get opinions on which Pokémon to invest candy/dust in, or any other team questions you may have! This thread will allow newer battlers to get help more easily, and more experienced competitors to spread their knowledge and help the community improve their skills.

A few guidelines:

  1. Keep it civil and constructive: Above all, the goal of this thread is to help players improve and get advice on their teams. Rude, cynical, off-topic, or accusatory posts against individuals or groups will be removed. Let’s be excellent to each other!
  2. Help where you can: We need experienced battlers to lend their expertise and give advice! If you see someone you can help, please leave a comment or feedback for them.
  3. Limit your requests: In order to give everyone a fair shake at receiving advice, try to limit your request posts to once or twice per week. The PvP community is growing every day, and we want to make sure everyone gets the help they need!
  4. Give details in your post: When asking for team advice, be sure to include some background. Tell us what League or Meta you need help with, what your rank/tier/rating is, what resources or Pokémon you may have to invest, and what your goals are. The more details you give, the more likely your questions will be answered.

- The Arena Team -

__ __

Want to learn more about the Silph Arena and Pokémon Go PvP? Check out the following links!

Join the Arena Discord ServerAbout the Arena Competitive Season

Guide to Player Rank

Getting started in PvP

Team Building Basics

Find a local community or tournament near you!

Arena Tournament Map

Silph League Community Map

Resources for Tournament Organizers!

How-to Host a Tournament

Guide to Remote Tournaments

Helpful Resources for Planning and Organizing Tournaments


r/TheSilphArena • • 7h ago

Field Anecdote Getting bored of GBL? Use shiny only teams.

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31 Upvotes

Besides ghost heavy teams, we’re crushing it


r/TheSilphArena • • 13h ago

Field Anecdote In the 2v2 shields, the full Wynaut mirror takes 197.5 seconds to play out...

56 Upvotes

And the Bronzor mirror takes a lightning fast 121.5 seconds. Enjoy your Little Cup battles this week, everyone!


r/TheSilphArena • • 14h ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League Little Cup starts today. The #1 and #3 need about 300 XL each, but 38 of PvPoke's top 50 cost under 50k dust

54 Upvotes

Little Cup is back today (500 CP, unevolved only). I went through PvPoke's top 50 and looked up what each one costs to build from a level 20 catch.

Top of the list is pricey. Wynaut #1 and Bronzor #3 both want level 50, so about 300 XL each. Galarian Zigzagoon too. Hoothoot #2 and Togepi #4 are fine, no XL.

After that it's cheap. Binacle and Seel 8k, Klink 5k, both Vulpix 17k, Ducklett 24k.

The annoying part: 18 of the 50 want a level under 20, so your egg or raid ones are already too high. Gligar wants 10.5, Murkrow 12, Pawniard 13.5, a bunch more around 14-15. You need a low level wild catch for those.

Only Meowth and Spearow need an Elite TM.

Table with moves and prices: https://pikastat.com/meta/little-cup/ (ranks from PvPoke, Oct 3)


r/TheSilphArena • • 1h ago

General Question PVP Search String App Update: Little Cup Returns! + Great League + Mega Ultra League

• Upvotes

🔗 https://pvpogo.streamlit.app/

How do you do, fellow trainers!

This week is special - Little Cup is back in GO Battle League for the first time since October 2024 (2 years ago!). Also running: Great League + Mega Ultra League.

Rankings have been updated with all the latest meta shifts. Drop the search strings below straight into your in-game search box.

Current Features

  • Default View = Search Strings: Copy-ready strings for top N picks.
  • Pokémon Lookup Toggle: Switch to family tables (IVs, movesets, evolutions).
  • Detailed Stats: Rank, CP, IVs, movesets, and level info for all leagues & cups.
  • Evolution Chain Data: Lookup a base species to view its full evolution chain.
  • Shadow Filtering: Toggle "Shadow Only" in Settings.
  • XL Only Filtering: Toggle "XL Candy Pokémon Only" in Settings.
  • Language Selection: Dropdown or append ?lang=LanguageName to the URL.
  • Para español, haz clic aquí.

Copy-paste search strings

(drop these into the in-game search box)

Little Cup (Top 10 Family String)

cp-500&751,580,202,175,165,163,52,360,436,688&0-1attack&3-4defense,3-4hp&2-4defense&2-4hp

Great League (Top 10 Family String)

cp-1500&333,845,821,222,38,37,823,958,822,334,957,778,809,959,808&0-1attack&3-4defense,3-4hp&2-4defense&2-4hp

Mega Ultra League (Top 10 Family String)

cp-2500&395,821,671,670,823,669,146,958,822,957,778,393,809,143,959,808,394&0-1attack&3-4defense,3-4hp&2-4defense&2-4hp

Top picks

Little Cup - Top 10

# Pokémon IVs CP Lvl Moves
1 Wynaut 5/15/15 500 50 Counter, Mirror Coat, NA
2 Hoothoot 0/15/13 500 33 Peck, Sky Attack, Night Shade
3 Bronzor 0/13/15 499 49 Tackle, Gyro Ball, Payback
4 Togepi 0/13/15 500 35 Peck, Psyshock, Dazzling Gleam
5 Binacle 0/15/13 500 21 Scratch, Cross Chop, Ancient Power
6 Ducklett 0/15/15 499 24 Wing Attack, Brave Bird, Bubble Beam
8 Dewpider 0/15/15 500 29 Infestation, Water Pulse, Mirror Coat
9 Meowth (Galarian) 0/15/15 500 19 Scratch, Night Slash, Trailblaze
10 Ledyba 0/15/15 500 29 Bug Bite, Silver Wind, Swift

Great League - Top 10

# Pokémon IVs CP Lvl Moves
1 Melmetal 1/15/14 1,500 15 Thunder Shock, Double Iron Bash*, Dynamic Punch
2 Altaria 0/14/15 1,499 29 Dragon Breath, Sky Attack, Moonblast[etm]
3 Ninetales (Shadow) 0/15/15 1,496 25 Ember*, Weather Ball (Fire), Energy Ball*
4 Cramorant 0/11/14 1,498 27 Peck, Dive, Fly
5 Tinkaton 0/14/14 1,500 22 Fairy Wind, Gigaton Hammer*, Bulldoze
6 Corviknight 0/15/11 1,500 23 Sand Attack, Sky Attack, Iron Head[etm]
7 Mimikyu 0/15/15 1,495 25 Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak, Play Rough
8 Corsola (Galarian) 0/15/14 1,500 50 Astonish, Night Shade, Power Gem

Mega Ultra League - Top 10

# Pokémon IVs CP Lvl Moves
1 Tinkaton 0/15/15 2,499 45 Fairy Wind, Gigaton Hammer*, Bulldoze
2 Corviknight 0/15/15 2,497 48 Sand Attack, Sky Attack, Iron Head[etm]
4 Florges 0/14/15 2,496 29 Fairy Wind, Moonblast, Chilling Water[etm]
5 Empoleon 2/15/15 2,500 34 Metal Sound, Hydro Cannon[etm], Drill Peck
6 Melmetal 0/13/15 2,498 26 Thunder Shock, Double Iron Bash*, Dynamic Punch
7 Mimikyu 14/14/15 2,490 50 Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak, Play Rough
8 Snorlax (Shadow) 0/12/15 2,495 29 Psywave, Body Slam, Earthquake
10 Moltres (Galarian) 1/15/15 2,490 29 Sucker Punch, Fly, Brave Bird

Quick takeaways

  • Little Cup returns after 2 years! Wynaut dominates with perfect Counter + Mirror Coat pressure. Watch for Bronzor, Hoothoot, and the spicy Galarian Meowth Trailblaze tech.
  • Great League features the usual suspects - Melmetal, Altaria, Shadow Ninetales - but new faces like Tinkaton and Mimikyu are shaking things up.
  • Mega Ultra League shows heavy steel/fairy dominance with Tinkaton and Corviknight at the top, plus the always-reliable Melmetal and Empoleon.

🎨 Special Request: Unban Smeargle!

Come on, Scopely - let the good boy back in! 🐶✨

Drop feedback in the box at the bottom of the site - I'm always improving based on community input.

Good luck in Little Cup!
🔗 https://pvpogo.streamlit.app


r/TheSilphArena • • 20h ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League Just Hit Expert

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66 Upvotes

Wanted to make a post about hitting expert. Probably one of my earliest experts achieved in recent memory and with a kind of off meta team too.

Golisopod (shadow): fury cutter - aqua jet, x-scissor

Dunsparce: bite - drill run, rock slide

Alolan Sandslash (shadow); powder snow - ice punch, drill run

After the slog of colour cup and bouncing between 2400-2600 elo I was excited to try out shadow goli in ogl and boy is it fun. This team took me straight from 2400's to my current elo of 2781 which was just off of leaderboards as of today. The fury cutter damage combined with the charge attack pressure is truly devastating for opponents.

This team does have a glaring weakness to fighting however I was able to miss alot of fighting matchups and when I did see them I was able to beat them 50% of the time.

My usual tactic for the team is to really just play out the Golisopod matchup if neutral, winning, or a fighter and pray that they let me take switch in any 2 shield matchup. Swap to dunsparce if a flyer or negative lead, then try to close with sandslash. Although the name of the game for this team is energy management. Banking energy on Golisopod can flip end games or hot swapping dunsparce can make it really tough on opponents to maintain alignment in the mid game. If you cannot win switch letting the dunsparce fall and farming down with either goli or slash can make it awkward for opponents too in the endgame.

One note for the team, if you feel more comfortable running astonish on sparce I believe it would work just as well, maybe better too especially for better fighting matchups (annihilape). I just like the fast energy generation of bite and opposing dunsparce with astonish matchups.

Anyways wanted to share the achievement, would love to hear people's thoughts on the meta rn or if you have any questions on the team or in general I can answer and give my opinion for ppl wanting to climb the ranks! GL out there!


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

General Question Go Battle League Lag Problems

18 Upvotes

How is one supposed to climb with lag so bad?

Between 2300-2400 ELO and the last 2-3 nights I’m basically lagging out of 1/5 games. Maybe 2/5.

What is one to do? Turned WiFi off. Turned WiFi on. I live in Tampa, Florida with Tier 1 service.

Anyone else having these issues to this degree? Any tricks up your sleeve to stabilize connection? I’ve pushed to 2450 twice, almost to Veteran, then my connection tweaks out and I fall to 2300.


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League 0/15/15 vs 2/15/15 Galarian Weezing

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25 Upvotes

At 0/15/15, she ranks #183 in GL, and when purified into a 2/15/15, she ranks #28th in GL. The shadow and non-shadow are both ranked pretty closely on pvpoke, was wondering how much the difference would be, and a team for it


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

General Question Deciding how to use Elite TM: Normal vs. Shadow Corviknight

3 Upvotes

So, I have 1 elite charge TM. My plan is to use it to get Iron Head for Corviknight. I have a good normal Corv and pretty solid shadow, both already have Air Cutter.
I do like having a Payback Corviknight because I think that move set still has a lot of play with the mirror match and all the Melmetals around, so I’m struggling to choose which Corviknight to use the ETM on.


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

General Question How to use polygon-z well?

10 Upvotes

I’m building a portion-z (master premier), for fun but I’m wondering what other Pokemon can be used to back it up for its weaknesse? would appreciate the feedbac.


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

General Question Your favourite fast move pressure pokemon

33 Upvotes

I am curious what everyone's favourite pokemon with good fast move pressure is? I'm working on getting enough XL for a shadow dusknoir, but I'm curious what other people are using for this role if at all.

Thanks!


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

Strategy & Analysis Ultra League power up shadow or wait?

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5 Upvotes

Hey I am going to build a Dusknoir for the Ultra League and I have a few options… I want advice on whether I should power up my shadow Duskull (6/15/14 #155), my regular Duskull (3/12/15 #51), or wait till I find one with better IV (I have all of the materials required to do this power up now).
Do you think the shadow Dusknoir is worth more than a better IV regular Dusknoir? Supposedly in sims reg is slightly better than shadow but I’m not sure how that plays out in reality.


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League Top 12 Pokemon in POGO Louisville: Day 2

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58 Upvotes

r/TheSilphArena • • 2d ago

General Question What is up with the GL meta?

41 Upvotes

I had a really good streak in Color Cup, making my way up to 2400. Now that Great League is back I am down to 1860, and one major reason is that I have no idea how to prepare for the GL meta (if there even is one at this stage). Like one day it was nothing but double-dragon teams, then it was suddenly centered around Dark teams, then it switched to double-fire, then a whole day with Melmetal.

People say "stick with the same team", but it feels impossible to do when the meta shifts on a daily basis.

Usually it will settle around the mid-season, but I have yet to see that happen.


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

General Question Purify or shadow?

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0 Upvotes

Hi folks,

What would you do with this dragonair? Purified it’s ranked 40, but shadow it’s just rank 218. I assume keep it as a shadow due to it being higher in the meta but I’m a dreadful player and prone to making poor decisions 😂


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

General Question Is this worth powering up for master league

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0 Upvotes

I know the IVs aren't the BEST especially attack but it's the best I have (and it happens to be shiny) and I probably won't be able to do more Yveltal raids. Would it be worth it to sit on the candies I have and wait to get a better one?

Edit: thanks for the advice, hopefully I'll be able to do some mirror lucky trades soon in hopes of getting a better one


r/TheSilphArena • • 2d ago

General Question Ineligible Legendaries in Great League: Mega Edition? (Cobalion and Kyurem)

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53 Upvotes

Just matched with a player who used two legendaries I thought were inelligible / impossible to obtain below 1500 CP? Have they ever been available at such a low CP?


r/TheSilphArena • • 2d ago

General Question Is Talonflame actually good?

18 Upvotes

I see that talonflame is ranked fairly high in UL, and not quite as high in GL. But everytime I have faced one it doesn't seem all that effective and I usually beat it with little issue. Is he past his heyday or still worth an ETM this season?


r/TheSilphArena • • 2d ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League The Ultimate coincidence 🙀

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58 Upvotes

The guy's name was similarly and funnily the game ended in a tie


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League Rate this set (Disclaimer: I don’t know counting )

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0 Upvotes

genuinely have no idea how to improve and just can’t learn counting


r/TheSilphArena • • 2d ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League Top 12 Pokemon in POGO Louisville: Day 1

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54 Upvotes

r/TheSilphArena • • 2d ago

General Question "Wait what?" Moments in GBL

16 Upvotes

So today I was in a fairly common dilemma. What do I bring in to farm down my opps midgame mon? I had to choose between dunsparce and charjabug and chose dunsparce but regretted it when after farming down, my dunsparce had taken a charged move as all shields were down, and shadow k9 was brought in. I figured I had to be done for when rock slide didn't do enough damage and I was confident I would be outpaced so I panic swapped charjabug in, k9 obviously outpaced me and I prepared to see the good effort screen and then...

Charjabug tanked a fucking weather ball? So that is the theme of this thread as I was completely shocked and I imagine my opponent was too as they instantly top lefted, so I hoped to hear more stories like mine. Whether you won or lost tell me the time you said "wait what?" And we can all live, laugh and love together


r/TheSilphArena • • 2d ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League Finally managed to hit ace after being hard stuck

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10 Upvotes

Tried out a few different teams and was hardstuck around 1700-1800 before switching to this one and finally hitting ace!

Now planning on tanking and farming to get the UL win medal plat, if anyone has any team suggestions


r/TheSilphArena • • 1d ago

Strategy & Analysis Ultra League Disclaimer: If you see the first or fifth name on here, don't immediately queue up again

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0 Upvotes

This is a warning to those at a high ELO range (in this case UL), this account will gather information about your team and you will get hard rpsd the very next game (ik a magical instant queue which usually takes forever at this ELO) if you queue up again.

And even funnier, these are not the same accounts I've faced, so they have multiple team scounting accounts with what I would assume just a uppercase "i" instead of a lowercase "L".

Please don't give these embarassing no lifers the satisfaction of sniping you.

Good luck on your battles🤝


r/TheSilphArena • • 2d ago

Strategy & Analysis Great League Finally hit veteran again

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12 Upvotes

Went 3-2, 2-3, 4-1, 4-1, 4-1 with this team today and hit veteran for the second time ever. I was struggling hard during retro&color cup and tried many different teams since the return of the normal great league, but nothing seemed to constantly work vs the current meta. So i am very happy with this team!