Level irrelevant for PvP? IVs too. Inital meta picks.

Basically my thinking is that the level of the mon will be irrelevant for PvP if the current stats system is used (outside of Master League).

Why?

Well because each league is CP capped and CP is of direct relation to stats.

For example lets take a Lv 40 mon and compare to a Lv 14 mon.

The CpM at 14 is roughly 50% while lvl 40 is 79%.

So essentially we take a high Atk mon (Mewtwo) with 300 attack, and at level 14 it would have 150 attack (assuming 0 IV), 157 attack (14 IV). So that would be the same attack stat as a Lv 40 mon with 190 base attack (0 IV) or (9-10 IV) respectively.

I fail to see how a Lv 40 would gain any advantage over the Lv 14 based on the current system. Furthermore, as others have stated, Atk is weighted twice as much as Def and Sta so it will be the least useful PvP stat. From here, PvP becomes solely about move value and typing with on Pokemon without double weaknesses.

I feel like Cresselia and Lugia will be a standout performers as well as the Regis. Registeel is probably only viable in great league whereas the other 2 have have a place in both.

If we look specifically at the 5 Mons as the meta definers it would stand to reason that Registeel would be king. Now, again, its only really viable in Great League as a Lv 40 Registeel doesn't even hit 2500. The costs are quite prohibitive to using it in Ultra League. Regice essentially only has weaknesses and no resistances so I would imagine that Cresselia and Regirock are the top 2 performers in Ultra League. Lugia has the unfortunate weaknesses of Ice and Rock, while not getting any super effectives. Cresselia again is somewhat cost prohibitive so the use of Lugia might be more desirable in Ultra League but with weaknesses to both Ultra League Regi's its very unlikely. Poliwrath is the only fighting type that seems worth considering, but its pretty cost prohibitive for Ultra and would be doomed against Lugia or Cresselia.

So my top 3 picks for Ultra are gonna have to be Regirock, Cresselia, and Regice. With 4th place going to Milotic, though Suicine with a water moveset might surpass it. Steelix and Registeel warrant some consideration but the cost of getting them to anywhere near 2500 is quite high and 2500 is unachievable in both cases. Given Regice's lack of utility against the top 2 and those just behind it plus clear weakness to one of the two locks and potential replacements...Id say it falls out. Thus the top 3 initial mons would end up including one of the water mons instead. Milotic is the simple choice and cost effective (relatively), but Suicine with Snarl is a sneaky choice as it would ultimately perform better against itself (or Milotic) and Cresselia while still being good enough against Regirock, thus Snarl Suicine makes my top 3. This lineup begs a counter picker to take a grass mon instead of Suicine, but the only one that really fits the profile is Meganium as Venusaur is weak to Cresselia. Torterra begs for Regice to make a reappearance. Though, Leafeon may be the simplest choice for the role even with its low Sta.

My top 3 picks for Great would be

Registeel, Umbreon, Poliwrath. With 4 place going to Togekiss perhaps but it would be a distant 4th due to its lack of a fairy fast move. Steelix is also a consideration but like Togekiss lacks the fast move typing it needs. Forretress might be another solid choice but lacks the bug charge move you would like to see. If rock tomb was replaced with a bug move then it would be quite strong. Its place in the meta would necessitate something like a Torkoal or Ninetails.

Of course as I said, move value will play an important role in all of this but movesets being equal I think these are reasonable picks for the initial meta. Ive suggested some counterpicks but their value doesn't seem as high so I would expect these to hold relatively consistent. Ultra League clearly has a few more wrinkles. But I think that Regirock, Cresselia, Suicine provides the best balance. The natural counter pick is to bring a grass attacker instead of Suicine, and the natural counter counter pick is to bring Regice instead of Suicine. But ultimately the counter to that is to bring Suicine. So I think we end up with those 3 mons because the Grass mons don't quite have the stat profile to compete with the others thus negating Regice. Again, though, Registeel is a really great choice too but Suicine's performance against Registeel would be the best of the 3 main picks and Registeel's costs are quite quite extreme so I don't see it replacing Regirock.

One note I will make in regards to this analysis is that it doesn't really account for the second charge move. The second charge move could elevate Milotic over Suicine for example as it can blast away with a blizzard if need be while Suicine only has water charge moves so the second one is unlikely to be useful. This also hurts Umbreon who is dark only. It really elevates Poliwrath though, as it is really only there for its fighting prowess but can throw a water move out if a fire mon appeared. Lugia is also boosted by this and it can drop a flying, psychic or even water move. This would help it combat one of its counters in regirock. Though it would still likely lose that fight. All of the regi's having access to a fighting move will be quite useful for them. With Poliwrath and Registeel having fighting charge moves it might be enough to completely remove Umbreon and open the door for Cresselia/Lugia. Cresselia has a pretty useful secondary charge move typing in fairy as it could hit Psychic's best counter, Dark types for SE. Personally I think the case for Cresselia is better than Lugia in terms of secondary charge attacks. Truthfully it really does likely replace Umbreon whose presence was mostly to deter Cresselia or Lugia. Registeel is already strong against them and Umbreon really shuts them down. But with access to a fairy move Cresselia can do some damage to Umbreon even though it would ultimately still lose. Umbreon's weakness to Poliwrath further compounds its situation. Id say that these factors move Cresselia into Umbreon's place and hurts Poliwrath. Im unsure about the status of Suicine though. Milotic is the most likely replacement for it but Suicine may still perform better as it has the better stat line, would still win the head to head, would perform better against Cresselia, and really only gets surpassed by Milotic in the case of a grass attacker. I would say that the most likely replacement for Suicine is a grass attacker which would force Cresselia in Ultra league to seriously consider not running Future Sight at all.

So my final final vote:

Ultra:
Regirock - Rock Throw + Stone Edge/Focus Blast
Cresselia - Confusion + Aurora Beam/Moonblast
Flex: Suicine (probably over Milotic every time...), Torterra/Meganium, Giratina, Regice

Great League:
Registeel - Metal Claw + Flash Cannon/Focus Blast
(Cresselia - Confusion + Future Sight/Moonblast) [pointed out that Cresselia is usable if received in a trade with low enough IVs]
Steelix - Dragon Tail + Earthquake/Crunch
Poliwrath - Rock Smash + Dynamic Punch/Hydro Pump

But it seems that Cresselia is minimum 1555 until they have a research breakthrough version so I guess its not an option here yet. Which changes the lay of the land a bit. So that probably moves things to using Steelix instead.

Anyways, what do you think? How would you counter said teams?