The “Nifty Or Thrifty” article series takes a comprehensive look at the meta for PvP Cup formats: the Season 20 edition of Sunshine Cup, in this case. SOrry for the delay of nearly two days… I’ve been having some health issues that have made it difficult to sit and work for long stints at a time, but uh… better late than never?

As is typical for the NoT series, I’ll cover not only the top meta picks, but also some mons where you can save some dust with cheaper second move unlock costs or using as little XL Candy as possible. Because for those on a stardust budget — and/or folks trying to save up some dust for the future — it can be daunting trying to figure out where to spend or not spend it. We all want to field competitive teams, but where can we get the best bang for our buck and where should we perhaps channel our inner scrooge?

A quick reminder of what Sunshine Cup is (and isn’t!):

• Great League, 1500 CP Limit.

• Only Grass-, Fire-, Ground-, and Normal-type Pokémon are allowed.

• Charizard is banned. (At this point, it doesn’t make sense as to why. Time to update the banlist, Niantic!)

And that’s it… nice and simple. Now let’s get to the analysis!

10,000 Dust/25 Candy

TALONFLAME

Talonflame

FireFlying

Incinerateᴸ | Fly & Brave Bird

In past years, it’s been Pidgeot flying high as top bird. But that was then, and this is now. That’s right… Talonflame is THE #1 pick in the entire meta, thanks to Pidgeot’s nerfs and Talon’s gain of Fly, which adds on wins versus Shadow Alolan Marowak in 1shield and 2shield, Skeledirge in 1shield, and Oranguru in 2shield. The fact that Talon has a huge leg up on every typing in the meta — especially now that double Flying charge moves elevates its performance against fellow Fire types — with the exception of Normals (and beats over 82% of the entire format straight up) makes its ranking pretty obvious. This meta is the best position Talonflame has EVER been in within the confines of Great League. You had the right idea banning a Flying Fire type in this very flammable meta, Niantic, you just banned the wrong one!

PIDGEOT

Pidgeot

NormalFlying

Gustᴸ/Wing Attackᴸ | Feather Dance & Brave Bird/Returnᴸ

Knocked off its perch with this season’s nerf to Wing Attack, Pidgeot may not be tops anymore, but it’s still very, very good in the Flying-friendly confines of Sunshine Cup with Gust. In fact, at least in 1v1shielding, it doesn’t even miss a beat with the supposedly-bad-now Wing Attack, dropping Clodsire that Gust can beat, but able to now outrace Lickilicky, Dunspace, Cradily, Abomasnow, Flygon, and Quagsire! Gust still reigns supreme in 2v2 shielding, however, beating everything that Wing Attack can plus Clodsire, Flygon, and normal and Shadow Aboma. Or if you want to get even trickier, you could even run a purified Pidgeot with Return for a move that hits very hard without the self-debuffing of Brave Bird. Just a thought if you’re feeling spicy!

NOCTOWL

Noctowl

NormalFlying

Wing Attack | Sky Attack & Night Shade

It’s been rough for Mr. (or Mrs.?) Owl with double nerfs to Wing Attack AND Sky Attack, but the big buff to Night Shade allows it to still stretch its wings in this meta with wins that Shadow Ball can’t replicate over Clodsire and… Noctowl! Despite being resisted by other Owls, Shade still comes fast enough and deals just enough damage to emerge victorious in the mirror, which is nice. This is no Pidgeot, but it’s enough of an excuse to take the old bird out for one more nostalgic flight.

I recommend it even below Noctowl, but I would be remiss to not point out that STARAPTOR is quite unique now with Sand Attack or Quick Attack. Do with that what you will!

DARTRIX

Dartrix

GrassFlying

Magical Leaf | Brave Bird & Seed Bomb

We’ll get to Tropius, a Top 10 ranked choice, much later, but would you believe me if I told you that thrifty alternative Dartrix is potentially even better? Yes, having to somewhat rely on Brave Bird skews the results a bit, but Pickle Rix has the potential to blow away things even Trop can’t like Shadow Gligar, Lickilicky, and even Rock-chucking Dunsparce! This in addition to obviously hating on every Ground type in the meta but Piloswine and every single Water type, as well as smacking aside most other Grasses too. I think Dartrix could be legit in Sunshine Cup, folks. Don’t sleep on it! It’s more threatening than even its own evolution.

SERPERIOR (and friends)

Serperior

Grass

Vine Whip | Frenzy Plantᴸ & Aerial Ace

While we’re on Grass for the moment, let’s cover the only Grass starter I really trust in this meta. Venusaur, Chesnaught, even Meganium are all fine enough, but while Naught, Meg, and Serperior all beat Dunsparce, Flygon, Shadow Golurk, and Lickilicky on top of everything Venusaur can do (Venusaur’s biggest unique wins are Serperior and Clodsire), only Serperior also takes out Shadow Gligar AND Oranguru AND Chesnaught and Meganium too. Venusaur’s Poison subtyping is more curse than blessing here with all the Grounds around, and the other two are overall improvements, but in the end it is Serperior that gets the highest win total AND stands up to the other (non-Venusaur) Grasses the best. In rough order, I would rank Meganium second and then Venusaur and Chesnaught vie for third depending on team need, but Serp stands above them all in this meta, in my book.

LEAVANNY

Leavanny

BugGrass

Bug Bite | Leaf Blade & X-Scissor

Yeah, you know that whole article I just recently wrote about the new superior of Shadow Claw on Leavanny? In THIS meta, toss that out the window… it’s Bug Bite you want here, along with X-Scissor despite that analysis generally recommending Leaf Storm instead. This is a meta where extra Bug damage does enough good things — like beating Serperior, Abomasnow, and Oranguru — to retain more relevence for another week. You CAN run with your new Shadow Claw version instead, of course, which does a bit better in 0v0 and 2v2 shielding scenarios, particularly the latter where it loses Aboma and Oranguru, but instead overcomes Clodsire, Quagsire, Gligar, and Shadow Golurk.

DIGGERSBY

Diggersby

NormalGround

Quick Attack | Fire Punch & Hyper Beam/Earthquake

Several viable ways to go with the moves here, but especially considering the Flyers and the sorta-nerf to Mud Shot, I think this is more than ever a meta where you want Quick Attack. After that, I’m going to go ahead and recommend Fire Punch for important baiting (at least 10 energy cheaper than anything else Diggs has to offer), and so the question then becomes which closer to go with. Scorching Sands may seem like a good all-rounder, but I think it may actually now be the worst of the major options in this evolved meta. Hyper Beam does everything Scorching Sands does (with the sole exception of forcing a tie in the mirror match) AND beats the OG Mud Boy trio. Earthquake drops Quagsire but retains Swampert and Whiscash, AND further adds Skeledirge, Shadow A-Wak, and even Talonflame. The key is Quick Attack… I do NOT really recommend Mud Shot in this meta.

WHISCASH

Whiscash

WaterGround

Water Gun/Mud Shot | Mud Bomb & Scald

Water Gun?! JRE, have you lost it? Just hear me out. In this particular meta, with a number of Ground-resistant Flyers and Water-weak Ground types, Water Gun may actually reign supreme over Mud Shot, beating all the same stuff AND washing away Swampert, Gastrodon, and Shadow Gligar. In 2v2 shielding, Water Gun again looks superior to Mud Shot with extra wins versus Lickilicky, Shadow Staraptor, and the mirror (Mud Shot gets only Flygon as a unique win). And with shields down, while Mud Shot can outrace Gastrodon, it is with Water Gun that Whiscash can bring down ShadowRaptor again, as well as Noctowl. And ShadowCash seems to also prefer Water Gun, with extra wins over Mud Boys, Golurk, and Flyers that Mud Shot cannot match, only being caught by Mud Shot (as a sidegrade, still not a downgrade) in 2v2 shielding. Whiscash is one of the better-known Pokémon in PvP, so why not screw up the opponent’s math with this wet curveball?

SWAMPERT

Swampert

WaterGround

Mud Shot | Hydro Cannonᴸ & Earthquake/Sludge Wave

Sticking with the traditional Mud Shot here, however… racing to those Hydro Cannons is just too good to give up… Swampie does the majority of its work that way. After that, while I understand the temptation to run Sludge Wave as an anti-Grass surprise — and I myself recommended running it last time! — Earthquake still gets the better numbers by washing away Mud Boys. (Quagsire in 1shield, and all four Mud Boys with shields down. I won’t say it’s wrong to run Sludge Wave, as I know from experience being on both sides of it that it absolutely CAN win games out of nowhere, especially for opponents that simply forget in the moment that Sludge Wave Swampert is a thing and let it through unshielded. But overall it’s hard to ignore the potential of Earthquake. Which way are YOU leaning, Trainer?

MAGCARGO

Magcargo

FireRock

Incinerate | Rock Tomb & Overheat

And now on to the Fires that hate Water and Ground, and Magcargo especially since it is double weak to both. But as it often does, Magcargo manages to carve out a role anyway. You will notice that Mags loses to Water types and MOST Grounds, though it does manage to beat some notables even there like Gligar, Flygon, Runerigus, Steelix, and the Swines… and it can come darn close to even taking out Diggersby too. Of course, it burns through all the Grasses (only those with Earthquake present a real threat), nearly all Flyers, and many notable Normals too like Lickilicky, Oranguru, Dubwool, and Lopunny. Mags occupies somewhat of a niche role, but it does it very, very well.

• Skeledirge

  FireGhost

• Blaziken

  FireFighting

• Typhlosion

  Fire

• Incineroar

  DarkFire

I feel obliged to at least mention the viable Fire starter Pokémon, though honestly none are overly impressive. SKELEDIRGE and BLAZIKEN are ranked the highest (the latter actually with Fire Spin instead of Counter after this season’s big shakeup), but they just really struggle to do anything particularly special outside of an anti-Grass role. (And heck, Blaziken even loses to Serperior!) Even TYPHLOSION is blunted a bit with so many Ground and Grass types that resist (and therefore minimize the impact of) Thunder Punch. I’ll even throw in INCINEROAR, but it too is just mid. Any of them certainly CAN work on the right team, but I mean, Talonflame and Magcargo are right there and just seem more dynamic to me, and are just as thrifty!

DUBWOOL

Dubwool

Normal

Double Kick | Body Slam & Payback/Wild Charge

The natural inclination is to go with Wild Charge for the closing move in this meta with sevwral potent Flyers. And that IS the way to beat some things like Talonflame and Staraptor. But then you’re missing out on a TON of stuff that Payback can do, like beating Diggersby, Skeledirge, Alolan Marowak, Abomasnow, Cradily, Golurk, Flygon and more. Dubstep lives on through the Season 20 rebalance!

GREEDENT

Greedent

Normal

Mud Shot | Body Slam & Trailblaze

The addition of Trailblaze (and to a lesser extent, Mud Shot) since last Sunshine Cup takes Greedent to new heights… but only to a point. Into the win column, we move big names like Diggersby, Dunsparce, Clodsire, and even Shadow A-Wak, while only Noctowl shows up as a new loss (for rather obvious reasons). Is it enough for the little chonker to rise up and (Sun)shine? We’ll see!

• Munchlax

  Normal

• Bewear

  FightingNormal

• Obstagoon

  DarkNormal

• Furret

  Normal

• Bibarel

  NormalWater

• Raticate (Alola)

  DarkNormal

A few other Normals I’ll give a mention, but they’re weaker overall options. MUNCHLAX has fallen on hard times with the Body Slam nerf and just isn’t good in PvP anymore until it gets something else to play with. BEWEAR clings to the edge of relevence but I have a really hard time thinking of a team composition where I’d feel good about Bewear hogging a spot. Same thing now, sadly, with OBSTAGOON, even in its new Shadow form. It’s not even as impactful as FURRET, for Arceus’ sake. BIBAREL sneaks in as a rare non-Ground Water type with little Fighting around to abuse its typing, but it’s more meme than meta. Even ALOLAN RATICATE struggles to break out, though out of this cluster, it’s probably the one I would trust most as a generalist.

50,000 Dust/50 Candy

CLODSIRE

Clodsire

PoisonGround

Poison Sting | Earthquake & Sludge Bomb/Stone Edge

In many ways, Clod is taking over Sunshine Cup just like it’s taking over Great League. It doesn’t put up eye-popping numbers, but it just hangs in there against a ton of things and has very few hard losses (and all of those are steady diets of super effective Ground damage). I’m going to recommend you always run Earthquake here, but after that do you want Sludge Bomb to slap Grasses (specifically beating Chesnaught and Serperior) or Stone Edge to smash Flyers (like Talonflame)? That’s up to you!

QUAGSIRE

Quagsire

WaterGround

Water Gun/Mud Shot | Aqua Tailᴸ & Stone Edge/Mud Bomb

I know people think I was crazy for recommending Water Gun on Whiscash, so they may want to have me committed for recommending it now on another Mud Boy. But again, hear me out. Mud Shot remains a fine moveset that is better at outracing things like Flygon in 0shield and Gastrodon in 2shield. But Water Gun washes away Lickilicky in 1shield, Whiscash, the mirror, and Licki again with shields down, and Noctowl, Flygon, and Mud Shot Quag in 2shield, all above and beyond Mud Shot’s numbers. Water is better with ShadowQuag as well, dropping Dunsparce in 1shield but picking up Noctowl, Licki, and Shadow Staraptor, trading away Swampert for Diggersby in 0shield, and gaining Owl, Oranguru, Shadow Golurk, and the mirror in 2shield, with NO notable new losses as compared to Mud Shot!

GASTRODON

Gastrodon

WaterGround

Mud Slap | Body Slam & Water Pulse/Earth Power

Fresh off slapping in Galar Cup, Gastroboy rolls into Sunshine Cup ready to do some more damage. As in Galar (and in what is becoming a theme in THIS analysis!), I recommend Water coverage with Water Pulse over the more customary Earth Power. Both are fine, but Water Pulse at least claps other Grounds hard and can hit Flyers with a surprise, showing most clearly with how it picks up wins over Diggersby in 1shield, Shadow Gligar in 1shield and 2shield, and Talonflame with shields down. But either way, basically its entire loss list consists of Grasses or Flyers. Gastro can at least seriously beat up just about everything else in the meta, and often emerge victorious. Get your Pepto Bismol ready!

DONPHAN

Donphan

Ground

Mud Slap | Body Slam & Trailblaze

Sort of a different flavor of Gastrodon, with the same Mud Slap/Body Slam combo, but Grass coverage with Trailblaze… and far less bulk. Donnie can scratch out some wins that Gastro cannot, like Oranguru and Gastrodon itself, but it also loses stuff like Swampert and Quagsire since, unlike Gastro, it is actually weak to Water damage, as well as Shadow Gligar and Flygon.

PILOSWINE

Piloswine

IceGround

Powder Snow | Avalanche & Stone Edge/High Horsepower

Non-Shadow is just okay, and I’d recommend running it with Stone Edge for the extra win versus fellow Ice type Abomasnow. But ShadowSwine is another story entirely. It can overpower Aboma even with High Horsepower, and while it drops Jumpluff and sometimes Quagsire, Shadow tacks on other new wins like Lickilicky, Dunsparce, Oranguru, Whiscash, and Shadow Staraptor. Stone Edge works alright for Shadow as well, but does struggle more to overcome Lickilicky specifically. I think the potential power of Pilo is being overlooked thus far… this could be your secret weapon, folks! Just remember that unlike the next entry on our list, Piloswine manages to still lose to most Grass types.

ABOMASNOW

Abomasnow

GrassIce

Powder Snow | Icy Wind & Blizzard/Energy Ball

Aboma, of course, eats Grasses for three square meals a day, and much else besides. I actually lean more towards non-Shadow in this meta, as ShadowBama struggles with Clodsire, Chesnaught, and Shadow Quagsire’s Stone Edge. If I’m going to mess around with standard Aboma in this meta, I would do it not with Shadowification, but with the charge moves. Specifically, consider replacing Energy Ball with Blizzard. Yes, it theoretically takes away coverage, but Aboma still overcomes the same Grounds and Waters without Ball, and Blizzard can tack on beefy Lickitung and Dunsparce! Aboma is one I’ve been seeing A LOT in early play. Running an expected move like that can really shake things up when folks are used to seeing Energy Ball over and over again. Use that to your advantage!

JUMPLUFF

Jumpluff

GrassFlying

Fairy Wind/Bullet Seed | Aerial Ace & Acrobaticsᴸ/Energy Ball

I am showing incredible disrespect to Energy Ball in this analysis, first recommending Abomasnow run Blizzard ahead of it, and now asking that folks take a look at running both Aerial Ace and Acrobatics ahead of it on Jumpluff. You see, you still beat ALL the same things as Energy Ball can, and add Cradily and the mirror on top of it (and things like Lickilicky, Dunsprace, even Noctowl and sometimes Abomasnow in other even shield scenarios). If you REALLY want at least some Grass damage anyway, you can run with Bullet Seed and be okay, though the ceiling is a tad lower.

LURANTIS

Lurantis

Grass

Fury Cutter | Leaf Blade & Superpower

It’s pretty easy to figure out why Lurantis is good here. Fury Cutter for Grasses (and bonuses like Oranguru), Leaf Blade for a ton of Ground and/or Water types, and Superpower to clobber most of the Normals. On the downside, you MUST avoid Fire and Flying types, along with others like Clodsire and the two Grasses covered just above. High risk, high reward is the name of Lurantis’ game. Are YOU willing to risk it?

If you happen to have one, GOGOAT can operate in a similar but slightly worse manner. This is a decent enough time to show it off if that’s your thing, though!

ROSERADE

Roserade

GrassPoison

Magical Leaf | Weather Ball (Fire)ᴸ & Leaf Storm

Rose is currently ranked outside the Top 200, so there’s an above average chance you haven’t even considered it. But you should! Not much else that can wail on Grass, Water, and Normals like she can Just keep Roserade away from Flyers. And Fire. It… doesn’t end well. But she can even overcome Clodsire thanks to her Poison side, which is of course very handy. This is not quite meta, but better than your average spice, for sure!

CRADILY

Cradily

RockGrass

Bullet Seed | Rock Slide & Grass Knot

So this one is pretty simple to explain too. Do standard Grass things with the twist of also beating most of the major Normal types (Dunsparce, Lickilicky, Oranguru, Diggersby, etc) and Flyers like Noctowl, Staraptor, Jumpluff, even Talonflame! The question isn’t so much whether or not its worth running, but HOW to run it: Shadow to overpower Flygon and sometimes Clodsire, or non-Shadow to instead outlive Oranguru and Shadow Golurk? Dilly dilly, folks.

ALOLAN MAROWAK

Marowak (Alola)

FireGhost

Fire Spin | Bone Club & Shadow Boneᴸ

It’s not dominant, but A-Wak has a lot of good going for it. Mostly just burns through Grasses, Ices, and some Fire types (to include Ninetales and Magcargo, so that’s nice), making it somewhat of a niche player, but one that can definitely work for many teams, I think. ShadoWak is pretty good too.

NINETALES

Ninetales

Fire

Fire Spin | Weather Ball (Fire) & Overheat/Scorching Sands

Scorching Sands is certainly is tempting for opposing Fire types, but don’t forget about good old beatstick Overheat. Sands wins the mirror, Skeledirge, and A-Wak, unsurprisingly, but Overheat roasts big beefy Lickilicky and even outraces scary Dunsparce. I’m not as keen on ShadowTales, however, which struggles to overcome A-Wak and Dirge.

I’m not as keen on SALAZZLE as I have been in metas of the recent past, as the rise of Ground types in general REALLY holds it back, being double weak to Ground and all. This is as good a place as any to mention that fellow Poison Fang user NIDOQUEEN may see a small return to a shadow of her former glory, though… at least in Shadow form.

DUNSPARCE

Dunsparce

Normal

Rollout | Drill Run & Rock Slide

I’ve mentioned it a lot, so let’s bring the little guy out. The overall numbers don’t look too scary, but that’s deceptive. it is WHAT Dundun beats more than how many things it beats: nearly all the Fires, of course, but also all the major Flyers, Abomasnow, and big Normals like Lickilicky and Oranguru. And while their resistances mean that most Grounds can ulimately fend Dunsparce off, they usually take a heck of a beating in the process as Dundun has huge HP and hangs around long enough to beat them up with Drill Runs.

LICKILICKY

Lickilicky

Normal

Rollout | Body Slamᴸ & Solar Beam/Shadow Ball

Here too the numbers don’t jump off the page… at least not with the standard Shadow Ball. But such is the energy gains of Rollout that you can reach for the awesome destructive might of freakin’ Solar Beam and it actually works, to the tune of beating Dunsparce, Gastrodon, Swampert, Whiscash, Flygon, and the mirror match. I mean… why not, right? And with Body Slam baiting it out, that high win percentage persists in other shielding scenarios too. Give it a try and literally nuke your befuddled opponent from orbit. Get beamed!

SHADOW URSARING

Ursaring (Shadow)

Normal

Shadow Claw | Swift & Close Combat

So I was going to just cover ZANGOOSE again, and sure, you certainly can throw it out there and still find success. But there’s a new Normal Swiss Army knife in town, because in its Shadow form and with newly buffed Swift, Ursaring is finally a PvP beast. Now yes, it’s still super glassy, and anything that is so reliant on Close Combat is hard to trust, but I mean… come on. A poential 70% winrate against the core meta? I can’t just NOT point that out, now can I?

SHADOW GIRAFARIG

Girafarig (Shadow)

PsychicNormal

Double Kick/Confusion | Psychic Fangs & Trailblaze

I mean, it just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t work in Jeffamafig wherever I can. And in this meta, I can! I’s even viable TWO ways, with Confusion or Double Kick. Confusion overwhelms Clodsire, Chesnaught, Skeledirge, and Talonflame, while Kicking can instead beat Abomasnow, Lickilicky, Flygon, and Gastrodon. All this while pretty consistently handling Whiscash and Quagsire, as well as Diggersby and Dunsparce! Perhaps more spice than meta, but I’m okay with that. Geoffamathingy is full on viable, folks!

75,000 Dust/75 Candy

And going to bullet form for the rest, as I’m out of time and running out of Reddit characters. Strap in… here we go!

Gligar

GroundFlying

Gliscor

GroundFlying

• GLIGAR and GLISCOR have been humbled with the nerf to Wing Attack (and DIg, in the case of the former), but they remain useful, and in multiple different configuration. I think the overall best might actually be Gliscor with Wing Attack and Night Slash who can beat Mud Boys Swampert and Quagsire, Clodsire, Oranguru (thanks to Night Slash), and most versions of Gligar.

  Flygon

  GroundDragon

• I’m going to go ahead and say that FLYGON does NOT want Mud Shot here. It’s just not good enough. But it IS quite good with Dragon Tail, adding on wins against Diggersby, Shadow Gligar, Talonflame, Swampert, and Shadow Whiscash, and forcing a tie with Gastrodon. I’ll be honest: I was running Mud Shot myself until I took a look at the numbers, and switched up!

  Oranguru

  NormalPsychic

• Since the last Sunshine Cup, ORANGURU has gained Trailblaze AND Brutal Swing. Its prospects are WAY up this time around. High rank IVs are recommended, as they overcome Dunsparce, Shadow Abomasnow, and Shadow Gligar. Do NOT overlook or underestimate it.

  Miltank

  Normal

• It’s not as dynamic as Lickilicky, but you CAN run MILTANK, sure. If you do, run it with Ice Beam to hammer Ground and Grass types (beating Gligar, Flygon, Diggersby, Golurk, Abomasnow, and Alolan Marowak.

  Furfrou

  Normal

• FURFROU finally has some good fast moves to work with some intriguing charge moves. Sand Attack is obviously better for Clodsire, adding it and Diggersby and Gastrodon, while Sucker Punch (now a clone of old Counter, remember) instead gets Oranguru, Ninetales, Flygon, and Shadow Gligar. Nice!

  Kecleon

  Normal

• KECLEON viable? I think it actually is! Also running Sucker Punch, it has Ice Beam for Grounds, Grasses, and Flyers, and Aerial Ace for extra Grass hate and widespread neutral coverage.

  Tropius

  GrassFlying

• TROPIUS is also sporting that Aerial Ace action, along with potent anti-Ground weapon Leaf Blade. That’s good enough to earn a spot on the right team.

  Steelix

  SteelGround

• I am not a fan of Galarian Stunfisk here, but STEELIX is the Steely Ground you want here. There was some debate on moves in the past, but now I think it’s pretty clearly Dragon Tail/Psychic Fangs/Crunch now. Psychic Fangs in particular is important to soften up and defeat Skeledirge, Chesnaught, and ShadowBama.

  Turtonator

  FireDragon

• I’ve seen a surprising number of TURTONATOR so far, but it does make sense. Grounds are obviously a BIG issue, but remove those and things like Dunsparce and suddenly the world is Turt’s oyster. Grasses, most Normal types, and even opposing Fires all turn to ash under its withering assault, aided greatly by double resisting Fire and Grass, and Dragon Pulse to wipe away opposing Fires in particular.

  Golurk

  GroundGhost

• The rise of GOLURK — finally! — this season just tickles me, as I’ve always been a huge fan. It certainly does enough in Sunshine to be viable too, and while it’s a bit worse than Gastrodon, it better handles Flygon and beats Gastro head to head too. Don’t forget that, as a Ghost, it resists Normal damage (like Body Slam), which can come in handy for sure.

  Vigoroth

  Normal

• I point out VIGOROTH not to recommend using it… no way in heck after it was triple nerfed this season. I point it out instead just to emphasize just how far it has fallen. Press F to may respects… or laugh. Either way.

100,000 Dust/100 Candy

• Ho-Oh

  FireFlying

• Moltres

  FireFlying

• Heatran (Shadow)

  FireSteel

There really aren’t any great ones in this format, though you can do a lot worse than HO-OH, if you happen to have one that’s eligible. MOLTRES is passable too, I suppose. The new Shadow HEATRAN isn’t great, but it will have more suitable metas in the future. (Just too much Ground in the meta for it to experience wide success in Sunshine.)

FEELIN’ LUCKY?

• Spinda

  Normal

• Litleo

  FireNormal

• Rufflet

  NormalFlying

• Chansey (Evil Incarnate)

  Normal

And finally, the stuff that simply HAS to be maxed out (or very nearly so) to use here. These are quite good, but the cost may simply be prohibitive to many players:

I’d be a bad analyst if I didn’t direct your attention to SPINDA, another buffed Sucker Punch user, or LITLEO the underappreciated Incinerate user. RUFFLETT dips with the Wing Attack nerf, but remains viable.

And we’ll finally close with another reminder: DO NOT RUN CHANSEY!

Alright, sorry again that this comes late to you, but hopefully still in time to give you some ideas for Sunshine Cup, especially if you’re struggling a bit! Best of luck, my friend.

Until next time (pivoting to Halloween Cup in Little AND Great Leagues!), you can always find me on Twitter for near-daily PvP analysis nuggets, or Patreon. And please, feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I’ll try to get back to you!

Thank you for reading! I sincerely hope this helps you master Season 20’s version of Sunshine Cup, and in the most affordable way possible. Best of luck, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!

The post Nifty Or Thrifty PvP: Sunshine Cup appeared first on Pokémon GO Hub.