Introduction
I will be honest and admit that, like many, I was a bit underwhelmed at the announcement of the evolution event. I’m not a big fan of the Burmy shiny and the raid day is a bit puzzling (why would I want to raid Venusaur without Frenzy Plant a week before I can evolve one WITH frenzy plant? Niantic please). Still, with disappointment comes opportunity, and there is plenty of opportunity for all you #battlers out there during this event. Some of the mons that “evolve in special ways” and/or their pre-forms are great options for Great League PvP. In this article, we will cover some of the more relevant ones, what IVs and levels we are shooting for, and what conditions are needed for their evolution. With a few exceptions, you will usually want low Attack and high Defense and Stamina IVs for your PvP mons. This concept is explained in greater detail here. Let’s dive into the list!
Priority Pokemon
One of the first mons to rock the new Steel typing in generation II, Steelix evolves using the special item Metal Coat. Steelix has been relevant in several Silph Arena Cup metas. In addition to its steel typing, which negates it weaknesses to Grass and Steel, it has a great energy-generating fast move in Dragon Tail (which is just the Dragon version of Ice Shard) and good coverage charge moves. Add in a solid stat distribution and there is a reason this mon can be a factor in any meta where it is allowed.
The best possible stat product for Steelix happens at level 24.5 with IVs 0/14/15, hitting 1500 CP.
You will generally be looking for Onix below level 25. 650 CP and below is a good rule of thumb here.
Another solid Steel type. It is important to note that Nosepass evolves using a Magnetic Lure. Go to a PokeStop that has a Magnetic Lure running and give the stop a spin. While you are there you should be able to evolve your Nosepass into Probopass. Now, Probo mustache you a question. Do you like beating fliers while beating Bastiodon AND being able to threaten Water-types? Well, then Probopass might be exactly the Steel mon you are looking for.
The highest possible stat product Probo hits 1497 at level 28 with 0/15/15 IVs. You will be looking for Nosepass under level 28. Stay below 670 CP with your Nosepass and you should be fine.
This one is pretty important with the December Community Weekend event fast approaching. The exclusive move Last Resort is recommended for all of the Eeveelutions so this event is a good opportunity to get some last second Eevee prepping in. The way the Kanto evolutions are handled is an absolute nightmare, so I would recommend having multiple good IV Eevee for each form ready and then slip Lady Luck a fiver before you hit the evolve button. Luckily, the most important Eeveelution is one you can and need to be prepared for. Umbreon, with the buffed fast move Snarl, is a titan of Great League, both in open play and themed Silph Cups. Last Resort Umbreon defined the recent Ferocious Cup meta. Does this sound like a Pokémon you want to have at your disposal? Of course it does! Here’s the thing, you have to walk 10km with the exact Eevee you are evolving as your buddy (consecutively) and then evolve it at night while it is your buddy (you can make it not your buddy after you walk it but don’t forget to put it back before you go to evolve). This means some preparation is needed. Two super important notes:
- Make sure that Umbreon is the Pokémon on the evolve button when you do it. We used to have to just trust that we had done it right and hope the ? icon turned into an Umbreon when we hit the button. No more! It now tells you when you are evolving into gen 2+ Eeveelutions so look before you leap.
- Thanks to ZoeTwoDots it has been confirmed that Eevee evolved DURING the Community Weekend event will get the exclusive move Last Resort (and so many thanks to her. We were all pretty anxious about it.) During is a pretty important word here. Not this week, not in a month when you finally get around to walking an Eevee...DURING THE EVENT. Find an Eevee, walk it, evolve it that Saturday night, snarl, profit.
Don’t be that trainer who has to ask around for an Umbreon later. Yes, some people like me will have walked extras or shinies, but the IVs won’t be as good as it you picked and prepped one. Also, Arceus will doom you to lag and switch glitches for the rest of your PvP life.
If there is one thing to take away from this article, it’s this: Make sure to find and prep an Eevee to become an Umbreon during the CD weekend event.
It is worth noting that to get a Glaceon and Leafeon with Last Resort you will have to evolve them at an Ice and Mossy lure, respectively, during the December Community Day Event.
The best possible Umbreon by stat product hits 1500 CP at level 27.5 with 0/15/15 IVs. I would shoot for 700 and lower on the Eevee. The other evolutions all want similar low attack high def/sta IVs but will hit 1500 at much lower levels. A quick rundown of the Eevee CP cap I would use when hunting for specific Eeveelution candidates, mostly from my experience of catching and checking tons of Eevee. Jolteon/Leafeon: 500. Flareon/Vaporeon: 475. Glaceon: 460. Espeon: 450. Be sure to consult your IV website or app of choice when planning out your Eevees and BlessRNG on the Kanto ones.
I have zero clue how Dragonair fits the theme of the week, but we’ll take it! Useful in themed tournaments like Kingdom Cup and the current Timeless Cup, it’s a good generalist for Great League PvP. While most people would advise you to use a purified version, 1) finding a purified version with good IVs (or at all) could be a problem and 2) it’s still a pretty big investment, requiring well over 100k dust to power up, not to mention the cost to unlock a second move. If you are able to catch a Dragonair at or above level 30 you would be able to significantly cut costs. Dragon Pulse is viable and Wrap performs similarly enough to Return that the significant savings of using a Dragonair caught this week in the wild may very well be worth it for you dust strapped trainers out there.
Viable in the current Timeless and in Rainbow Cup from season one of Silph Arena, Kingdra is a solid generalist with the amazing fast move Dragon Breath and the punishing charge move Outrage. Requires a Dragon Scale to evolve from Seadra. Bonus points for shiny.
Kingdra’s best possible stat product is achieved with the IVs 0/15/13, hitting 1498 CP at level 21.5. Aim for Horsea 570 CP and below.
Its dual Water/Fighting typing often allow Poliwrath to be a mold-breaker, doing things that neither a pure Water-type nor a pure Fighting-type could do. Sometimes you will want the legacy Mud Shot variant but the ever obtainable Bubble variant was viable/preferred as recently as October’s Sinister Cup. Another bonus is that Poliwrath doesn’t require any special evolution item.
The highest possible stat product Poliwrath hits 1498 CP at level 22 with IVs 0/14/15. Look for Poliwags at 450 CP and below.
The Burmy family’s overall impact on PvP has been underwhelming, but with solid typing and movesets, I wouldn’t be surprised if they found a strong place in future metas. I would especially focus on the Trash variant (the pink one), but as long as there are so many of them out and about it can’t hurt to find a good version of each. One major note, only the female versions evolve into their respective Wormadams. The males all evolve into Mothim, regardless of what cloak they started with. I think it’s unlikely that Mothim will ever be good, so I would focus on finding female Burmys with good PvP IVs. That being said, I wouldn’t transfer a male with preferred IVs if I happened to find one.
Due to Wormadam Trash (the pink one) maxing out at 1593 CP your desired IVs are little different than normal. The best possible Trashadam hits 1500 CP at level 40 with 7/14/15 as it’s IVs. It’s actually not possible to catch a Pink Burmy that evolves into a Wormadam above 1500 so catch them all and look for the best IVs.
The other Wormadams want the more normal PvP IVs with the best possible version of each hitting 1500 CP at level 35.5 with IVs 0/15/15. It is very hard to catch a Plant or Sandy Burmy that evolves above 1500 but focusing on Burmy at 400 CP and below should work.
There have been plenty of chances for you to find a good Dusclops, but if you haven’t, here is yet another chance. Great bulk and spammy charge moves tend to make Dusclops a great switch-in and help smooth out team compositions. If you don’t have one, go get one!
Like Trashadam, Dusclops maxes out just above 1500 so it’s preferred PvP IVs for Great League are 8/15/15 where it hits 1500 CP at level 39.5. It is not possible to catch a Duskull in the wild that evolves into a Dusclops above 1500 so no worries there. Dusclops is an expensive mon but it puts in work when used correctly in trainer battles.
Conclusion and Advice
As a general rule of thumb, the best PvP version of a Pokémon will be one you catch. Many mons benefit from 0 attack which is much easier to acquire via catch than via trade. That being said a 3/15/15 is usually preferable to a 0/0/0 nundo, so don’t hesitate to reroll Pokémon on this list with your trading partners. Even trades at the Best Friend level can result in solid enough PvP IVs. For Trash Burmy, trading with best friends is actually preferable for finding the ideal IVs.
Go out. Catch. Evaluate. Trade. Evaluate again. And for the love of Arceus, walk an Eevee before the 14th.
A quick recap of CP limits to streamline your evaluations:
- Onix: 650 and below
- Nosepass: 670 and below
- Eevee: 700 and below
- Dragonair: 1500 and below
- Horsea: 570 and below
- Poliwag: 450 and below
- Burmy Pink: N/A
- Burmy Green and Sandy: 400 and below
- Dusclops: N/A
Have a great event and may the IV luck be on your side.
One more thing. Don’t forget to walk an Eevee!
