Hello coaches,
With all the GO Fest hype in the air, it’s easy to forget that GO Battle League Season 2 will come to an end on Monday, July 27 at 1 p.m. PDT. Despite the long lag during the Ultra League rotation, this season he introduced the Premier Cup, where Metagross and Dragonite are kings, and perfected Drill Run, changed Wild Charge and Moonblast to be possibly better, and made Palkia relevant with the move of cheap charge Aqua Tail. Of course, there are more meta changes throughout its execution, but I don’t want to drag. Let’s get into season 3, shall we?
Calendar
- Great League – July 27, 1 p.m. PDT to August 10, 1 p.m. PDT
- Ultra League + Ultra Premier Cup – August 10, 1 pm PDT to August 24, 1 pm PDT
- Master League + Master Premier Cup – August 24, 1 pm PDT to September 7, 1 pm PDT
- All Leagues and Master Premier Cup – September 7, 1pm to September 14, 1pm PDT
- Season 4 begins September 14, 1 pm PDT.
What’s left
- You won’t have to walk to unlock battle sets.
- You can fight against good or superior friends.
- The Pika Libre outfit will continue to be a rank 7 reward.
- The battle, victory, and qualification requirements for each rank will remain the same.
What’s new in season 3
You may have noticed something new in the schedule; Season 3 features the much sought-after Ultra Premier Cup! This is great for trainers who feel the level was too heavy, with Pokémon like Cresselia, Registeel, Articuno, Giratina-Altered, and Armored Mewtwo ubiquitous in the level. The power imbalance will likely be less extreme than Master Premier, where certain Pokémon were required, due to the CP limit.
There’s also a provocation of a unique Flying-type mug! There’s not much to talk about other than that, like what level it is, but it will appear in a future event, so stay tuned!
The guaranteed rewards for this season will be different! See the list below:
- Pidgeot at rank 1
- Galarian Zigzagoon at Rank 4
- Galarian Farfetch’d at Rank 7
- Rufflet at Rank 8
- Scraggy at Rank 9
- Free Pika at rank 10. There will also be a new pose and avatar costume at rank 10!
There are a handful of mechanical changes, such as the elimination of the “battle until you win” feature. While it was meant to give you a chance to win at least 1 battle per set, many coaches viewed it as the opposite of a victory lap and a bit humiliating (at least that’s what my local PvP group had to say about it) .
For the Premium track, the Rare Candy reward will move to 4 wins instead of 5. To balance this out, you will receive 6 rare candies instead of 8.
End-of-season rewards will include an Elite ChargedTM this time.
Move changes
Amateurs
This is the good part! Everyone loves movement buffs.
- Drill Deal more damage. This will make Zapdos a great force to be reckoned with. The change also applies to PvE.
- Brave bird deals more damage, but also reduces user defense in 3 stages. This will give Skarmory a last chance attack when the shields are down, and it will give Staraptor and Braviary something to work with. Blaziken and the Sirfetch’d not yet evolutionary will appreciate the coverage. Damage boost also applies to PvE.
- Infestation Insect Build more energy. Enough has already accumulated, so this is impressive. Accelgor and Venomoth are notable users of STAB, but the energy gain will come in handy for Pokémon like Muk, Garbodor, Swalot, and more.
- Hex Ghost Build more energy. This will help Drifblim, Froslass, Chandelure, Alolan Marowak and Mismagius en masse. Depending on how good the energy buff is, Gengar may prefer him to Claw in the Premier Cup. The change also applies to PvE.
- Powder snow Ice Deal more damage. As a 1-turn attack this can be brutal as you will see at least a 20% increase in DPT. Piloswine, Mamoswine, Abomasnow, Froslass, Snow Castform, Sealeo, and Beartic could be terrifying, and Alolan Sandslash is probably not as angry as he lost in Shadow Claw.
- Snow storm Ice Deal more damage. It’s still an expensive move, but it should be worth more now.
Nerfs
Nerf time. Love or hate them, they help balance the game, and these particular nerfs seem particularly directed.
- Flash cannon Steel It costs more energy. There are no prizes for guessing what this is attacking. Yes, poor Registeel. However, Skarmory lost its cover move in crossfire! Maybe use the polished Brave Bird instead.
- Focus Burst Fighting Deal less damage. Again, poor Registeel. Darkrai and Mewtwo also enjoyed this move in Master to deal with the oppressive Dialga, but that may be more difficult now.
- Moon jet Fairy it now has less chance of weakening the attack. This is not as bad as the other 2, but Cresselia is still sad about this.
Movepool additions
It’s time for some careless Pokémon to get a little love! There are a handful of them this season.
- Braviary have Melee combat Fighting, a somewhat reliable option to deal with the Rock or Steel types who would otherwise match it. The first especially, since Heat Wave is still bad.
- Abomasnow have Weather ball Ice, which together with the Powder Snow benefit makes Abomasnow the strongest type of ice in the Grand League, with Energy Ball covering types of water and rock. It is meant to be an oppressive force.
- Pelliper have Weather ball Water. His other moves are still pretty bad, and you can use Mantine instead, but hey.
- Empoleon I have the polish Drill Which is the coverage that Empoleon really needed. He fought with the grass types, and now he can make the fight less safe. This will certainly help Empoleon become more prevalent, which as a big Empoleon fan personally is great news.
In conclusion
With the introduction of the new Ultra Premier Cup, an upcoming Flying Cup, numerous movement improvements and additions, and the dethronement of Registeel (regis means ‘of the king’ in Latin), Season 3 looks extremely interesting. It will be difficult to say exactly what the goal will be like in the future, but it will definitely be different. Have a lot of good battles, coaches!
