Virizion PvP IV Deep-Dive

With the addition of Double Kick to Virizion’s movepool, Virizion can finally effectively use its Charge Moves in the Ultra League. Given that Virizion has recently returned to Raids, now is a better time than ever to put Virizion’s PvP IVs under the microscope. The Virizion PvP IV Deep Dive aims to highlight Virizion’s most important stat checks and their associated IV spreads for the Ultra League. It also breaks down the amount of trades you’ll likely have to do to further improve your Virizion’s IVs beyond the Raid IV floor. The good news is, Virizion has excellent Raid IV spreads for PvP and trading to improve them is far more forgiving than most other species! 

Note: this guide discusses the hidden true stats of Pokemon in Pokemon GO. In order to see these true stats you need to use an IV checking app (CalcyIV, Pokegenie) or an IV checking website (GOStadium, PvPIVs.com, or PvPoke itself). To make things simple, the guide also features standard PvP IV tables. 

If you’re not familiar with PvP IVs, check out this PvP IVs Simplified video:

The tables below feature the IV spreads that meet some of the more important stat checks highlighted in the article. It’s important to review the guide itself to make sure you’re getting what you want out of your Virizion. For example, you may want a slightly higher Atk or HP weight for more consistency.

Raid Cut (176.73 Def, 160 HP)

• Slight Atk, Def, and HP variations can have their own advantages

Trade Raid (147.42 Atk, 176.73 Def, 160 HP)

• Atk can be lower

Slight Atk + Bulk (144.42 Atk, 178.86 Def, 162 HP)

• Def can be lowered if you’re not concerned about Walrein’s Breakpoint

Unlike most Legendary Pokemon, Virizion comes out of the box already well equipped for the Ultra League meta. Optimized Raid IV spreads like the 11/15/15 and 10/15/10 cover the majority of Virizion’s stat goals, and can catch Breakpoints on Deoxys Defense Forme (2-2), the mirror (0-0 potential), and can get Charge Move Priority against Poliwrath (1-2). That said, trading for higher bulk can fortify Virizion better against Charmers, Walrein, and other threats in general. The question is, how many special trades are you willing to do to get this benefit?

To help you decide which Virizion to choose, below are Virizion’s more relevant stat checks (based on the Rank 1 opponent unless stated otherwise). 

Virizion’s relevant Atk Breakpoints include: 

• 147.4+, Poliwrath CMP 1-2
• 147.37, Deoxys Defense Forme 2-2
• 147.01, Aurorus, no matchup changes aside from CMP
  • 144.3+ gets CMP for 0-1 & 1-2
• 147.35, Escavalier, no matchup changes
• <146, Virizion 0-0 baseline
  • CMP is also needed to secure the even energy 0-0
• 144.42-145.73, Gyarados 0-1
  • Based on Rank 1-Rank 32 (0/15/5)
• 144.37, Drapion 1-2
• 144.69, Snorlax, no matchup changes

Virizion’s relevant Def Breakpoints include:

• 179.73, Poliwrath 1-2
  • An alternative route to winning by CMP
• 178.86*, Walrein 2-2 & Shadow Walrein 1-1
  • For the Shadow 1-1 and non-Shadow 2-2, if Walrein has a higher Atk weight you could still win without the Def check provided you have at least 160 HP and their Atk isn’t high enough for a 62 or 74 damage Icicle Spear (which could be covered by higher HP, etc).
• 176.73, Escavalier 0-1
• 175.94, Sylveon 1-0 w/ 162 HP
• 174.02, Alolan Ninetales 1-0 w/ 162 HP

For the bulk check, in general 160 is pretty safe, but more HP can be safer. 162 is a notable early HP check, as it can enable Virizion to overcome Sylveon and Alolan Ninetales in the 1-0 shield scenario and Atk weighted Shadow Granbull in the 0-0 & 1-0 shield scenarios.

Trading Legendary/Mythic Tier Pokemon to improve IVs has 2 complications: 1) You can only do 1 special trade per day 2) You’re never guaranteed to get what you want. Usually this is a pretty baleful process; however, Virizion is quite forgiving with its trade probability. 

To help better gauge your expectations, here are the amount of trades to have a 50-75% probability of getting the higher bulk weighted IVs: 

• Good Friend, 15-31
• Great Friend, 16-33
• Ultra Friend, 18-36
• Best Friend, 38-76

Combining both the Bulk and Trade Raid tables:

• Good Friend, 11-22
• Great Friend, 11-22
• Ultra Friend, 11-22
• Best Friend, 15-30

Given the results, it appears trading with Ultra or Best Friends gives the best probability vs stardust cost, and isn’t even terribly unreasonable to accomplish (compared to other Legendary Pokemon). If you’ve reached the end of your Virizion Raids and still don’t have a desirable IV spread, hit your friends up!

Double Kick did a lot to enable many Pokemon in PvP. In the Ultra League, it has enabled Virizion and Cobalion to finally use their powerful Sacred Sword effectively. Given that they’re Raid Only type Pokemon, it can be difficult to get “better” IV spreads. Thankfully Virizion is of the bunch that aren’t too Breakpoint sensitive to perform well. Here’s hoping Cobalion has a similar circumstance!