Meta Implications of the 2020 Throwback Challenge

With the 2020 Throwback Challenge comes 5 pieces of time-limited special research. At the end of each stage, you get a Legendary Pokémon, some of which have special moves! For Gen 1, Psystrike Mewtwo. Gen 2 is Earthquake Ho-Oh, Gen 3 gives Fire Punch Groudon, and Gen 4 gives Grass Knot Cresselia. Gen 5 gives Genesect, but the news post makes no comment about it getting any special moves at the time of writing. So, let’s break these down!

Note that Mewtwo is nothing new, since it's still inaccessible in Great League, and it was already accessible in Ultra and Master.

For Niantic's full original post on the Throwback Challenge, check the link here!

Terminology:

"Shield Scenarios" refer to how many shields each Pokémon uses, so the 2-0 refers to one Pokémon using 2 shields, and the other using 0.

0s, 1s, and 2s refer to specific "even shield" scenarios, with 0s meaning neither player uses a shield, 1s where each uses 1, and 2s where each uses 2 shields.

Earthquake is probably gonna be a core part of Ho-Oh’s moveset moving forward. This is less due to Earthquake’s overwhelming power, and more a result of the fact that the rest of its moves kinda suck. Brave Bird is….fine, I guess, but Fire Blast and Solar Beam are massively expensive at 80 energy, which really limits their utility. Ho-Oh’s bigger issue is a really mediocre set of fast moves. Hidden Power and Steel Wing are just straight up bad, and Extrasensory just isn’t enough to carry the rest of the Pokémon. Earthquake is nice, for sure, it’s just….not nice enough. Barring any other buffs, you’re not missing anything by leaving the bird on the bench.

Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boy. This one’s major, for a couple of reasons. First: prior to this, Groudon’s cheapest charged move was Earthquake, at 65 energy. That’s a lot. Even with Groudon’s sheer amount of stats and fantastic energy gain with Mud Shot, it left the mon incredibly vulnerable to shields. Notably, even matchups you might expect it to win, like against the Steel-type Dialga, you had a pretty brutal loss if they shielded twice. So, let’s quickly go through Fire Punch Groudon’s list of new feats, because it’s very impressive.

• Beats Metagross in even shields straight Fire Punch, and can win the 0-1 with baiting with EQ. While this isn’t new (it could take even shields with Earthquake as well), it never hurts to be a bit faster about it.
• Beats Dialga straight Fire Punch in the 1s and 2s, while still keeping the 0s with Earthquake. The 2s seems a bit iffy, though, and losing even one fast move can flip the matchup.
• Can beat Togekiss in the 1s with FP, where previously it would lose all matchups that aren’t 1-0/2-0. Do note that you’re surviving with, like, 3 HP, and you still lose the 0s and 2s, but this is definitely better than before.
• Beats Melmetal straight FP in all shield scenarios, including if it shields twice and you don’t shield at all
• Picks up Snorlax in the 2s
• Picks up Swampert in the 2s (still lose the 0s though)
• Picks up Giratina-Altered in the 1s (though you still lose the 2s)
• Gives a very slight win against Giratina-Origin in the 1s (you win with 4 health). Much like Togekiss, you still lose the 0s and 2s, 
• Allows you to win all even shields against Outrage/Earthquake Garchomp, where you’d normally lose the 0s (you die before reaching the last Earthquake, but Fire Punch finishes off). You still struggle to beat Sand Tomb variants, but you stand a better chance in the 2s.
• Lets you actually take the 1-0 and 2-0 vs Kyogre, where previously you’d tie.
• With baiting, you actually pick up a lot against Heatran. In the 1shield, you end with 32 remaining health straight Earthquake, but 108 if you can bait once. This is fantastic given that you can still win straight Fire Punch.

This is likely not a comprehensive list, either. Fire Punch is more or less exactly what Groudon needed to function as a massive threat in Master League, actually allowing it to bait and apply cheap pressure. Assuming that you’ll be able to Elite TM this move onto your current Groudon, this is definitely on the upper end of things to spend an Elite on. While it’s yet to be seen if Groudon becomes meta-defining, it’s absolutely going to make it up there as a top threat. One potential impact is that Dragonite becomes stronger, since it can consistently beat Groudon in all shield scenarios, where Dialga cannot.

Bit of a step down from Groudon in terms of impact, for sure, but still very useful. Due to the general prevalence of Registeel and Giratina in Ultra League, you’re likely to want to just run the classic Future Sight/Moonblast sets there over Grass Knot. However, in Great League, this could be super impactful.

To start, the 50 energy Grass Knot is 10 energy cheaper than Aurora Beam, 15 cheaper than Future Sight, and 20 cheaper than Moonblast. This means that, even if nothing else, it will be incredibly useful as a shield bait. So, let’s briefly go over a few feats.

• With Psycho Cut/Grass Knot, you beat Azumarill in all but the 0-1 and 0-2, whereas with FS/MB you lose the 0 and the 1 and 2 are much closer.
• Beat Dewgong in all even shields, whereas without you just take the 0s, and even then only barely.
• Goes from a close matchup against Lanturn, Whiscash, Lapras, Swampert, and Stunfisk to a dominant one (notably allowing you to take the 2s against Lapras)
• Psycho Cut/Grass Knot/Moonblast gives you enough speed to take the 1s against Umbreon, which even Aurora Beam doesn’t.

While Grass Knot isn’t an autoinclude on Cresselia in the same way that Fire Punch is on Groudon, it’s still an incredibly solid option, adding a bit more versatility to a Pokémon that already had plenty of options. Do note that Grass Knot doesn't really do anything to stop Cresselia from getting walled out by Steel-types, which were arguably its most common threat in the Open Great League format.

That said, possibly the most exciting part of this whole thing is that Cresselia, coming from research, will be Lv15, which means it's automatically under 1500 CP for Great League! No more hoping you get lucky off of random special trades when trying to get a Lv20 one to roll down!

From Ho-Oh barely making a difference to Groudon potentially warping the Master League metagame, it does seem like the Throwback Challenge quests are going to be worth doing. Admittedly, so many new exclusive moves is….kinda stressful, and it feels like a major tax on Elite TM stocks. That said, expansion of movepools is exciting, and it is really cool that these Pokémon are getting boosts, so we’ll see how this all turns out.

In the final stage of this challenge, we're getting the Galarian forms for Stunfisk, Meowth, Zigzagoon, and Darumaka. That said, we don't currently know what moves they're going to get, so keep an eye out for an analysis once we know more!