The Funniest Ultra League Team for Pokemon Go PVP

by Doc – Owner, Founder, Just Really Hates Giratina-A

I’ve played Pokemon Go since release, and really enjoy this game for all its bizarre flaws and sortings. While I don’t consider myself a particularly hardcore PVPer having never pursued it past reaching level 35 in a season, I did accidentally stumble onto a team that seems to take a few downright terrible Pokemon and make them somewhat manageable if played correctly. This team is not only downright fun to play, it’s unexpected for the opponent and incredibly satisfying when it wins. If you don’t find yourself particularly interested in the same Swampert-Giratina-Wild Card teamset that everyone else uses, you might enjoy trying this team.

This team is not effective past being a really weird anti-meta team. Don’t expect to hit Rank 40 with this.

What the Team Does and Why

I first created this team in the summer of 2022, when I was bored to tears with Pokemon Go and hadn’t quite figured out PVP. At the time Togekiss was a pretty common Pokemon in the Ultra League, and it irritated me to no end that this stupid bird kept showing up. I had considered using a Steel-type attacker to wall Togekiss, but didn’t have anything that was worth investing stardust into, so I grabbed a Muk that happened to be around 2500 CP, gave him a Poison-type fast attack and an Electric-type charge attack and threw him in as the ideal Togekiss counter. He now runs a Poison-type fast attack, Dark and Electric type charge moves because nobody knows what Muk runs and they’ll never see those typings coming.

At the same time, Swampert had recently received his Community Day (if memory serves) and every damn opponent was starting with a Hydro Cannon-spamming Swampert. HC Swampy is one of the most broken starters in the game, probably second only to Giratina-A, for his ability to push out a very powerful Water-type Hydro Cannon after only three fast moves. It’s ridiculous that he was ever included in the game in that way but that’s what we were faced with.

So what do you do when your opponent has one type weakness? Start out with that type. I grabbed a Sceptile with a Leaf Blade charge move, which one-hit KOs Swampert and itself can be thrown out within 3 fast moves to tie Swampert, and made Sceptile my starting Pokemon. Suddenly every Swampert starter was having to face down my Sceptile at the start, and it forced an immediate switch. If Swampert switched, I could immediately respond with whatever type countered his Pokemon. If he didn’t switch, he’d have to spend his first shield and then switch.

My final Pokemon is the bulk. I knew I needed something heavy and unkillable, and out of coincidence I had a Lugia at 2470 CP. I gave him a Psychic fast move and Sky Attack for a charge move (he now has a Dragon-type fast move, which I’m finding some success with). I tossed him in in case something had come up that neither my Sceptile or Muk could handle. Lugia’s my typical “neutral switch” option because of his immense defense and HP pool.

Here’s the team:

Starter (Sceptile)

• Bullet Seed
• Leaf Blade (BS charges it with 3 fast moves)
• Earthquake (requires 6 fast moves)
• Try to get bulkier IVs over high-attack IVs

2nd (Muk)

• Poison Jab
• Dark Pulse
• Thunder Punch
• Try to get bulkier IVs over high-attack IVs

Bulk (Lugia)

• Dragon Tail (Extrasensory is pretty good, but I’ve since switched them because Sky Attack covers nearly every type that Psychic does)
• Sky Attack
• (No 3rd move for lack of candy – would consider placing Hydro Pump for type coverage)
• Go for higher-attack IVs if possible

Sceptile

Covers:

• Water – fast attack and Leaf Blade
• Ground – fast attack and Leaf Blade
• Steel – Earthquake

Gets walled by:

• Flying
• Ice
• Poison (particularly Venusaur)
• Fire

Sceptile is frail, and will often lose about half his HP to super effective fast attacks if he doesn’t immediately switch against a bad opponent. Don’t switch immediately; eat the cost of the HP to throw out one Leaf Blade if Grass isn’t resisted, or at least to pocket one before switching. Sceptile has the unique option of costing the opponent either 1 shield or about half their HP, so long as they don’t resist Grass. You’ll have to figure out as soon as you see the first opponent whether the opponent resists Grass to pull that off.

If faced with a Steel-type opponent while he’s at full health, Sceptile can often build up enough energy for a Leaf Blade + Earthquake double attack. Opponents who are using, say, Dialga will often shield the first Leaf Blade and then not shield the Earthquake, which instantly KOs Dialga. They don’t put up the second shield because they think they’re being baited into wasting their shields. Ironically, they are being baited – into not wasting their shields.

Dialga’s one of the most spammed threats in the meta, so trading Sceptile and 2 shields for Dialga is usually a good trade, but Muk can also handle Dialga with his Dark Pulse and Lugia can wear him down with Dragon Tail, so don’t jump at the chance to burn your shields if other options exist. Earthquake also cleans up Giratina-A if he’s got no shields left, but running Sceptile in that fight shouldn’t be at top of mind.

Sometimes opponents will be running the basic Swampert + Charizard + Wild Card team, and switch their Swampert into a Charizard. You can solve that by switching into…

Muk

Covers:

• Fairy – fast attack
• Grass – fast attack
• Ghost – Dark Pulse
• Psychic – Dark Pulse (though Psychic types will likely hit harder than Muk)
• Water – Thunder Punch
• Flying – Thunder Punch

Gets walled by:

• Ground
• Psychic
• Steel
• Poison

Muk really ties the team together with his bizarre and unfamiliar moveset, and his greatest advantage is the fact that nobody has ever faced a Muk, let alone knows that he can run Dark and Electric moves. Muk tends to be the core-breaker of the team unless Lugia can slip a Sky Attack through the shields.

Muk’s fast move does deceptively high damage and is relatively fast. It’s not as fast as Dragon Breath, but it can keep up with the opponent’s fast move so long as you’re both neutral to each other. It should take about 7 fast moves to reach a Thunder Punch and 8 to reach a Dark Pulse, or about 5 seconds with optimal ping and fast tapping.

Muk specializes in killing Electric-weak Pokemon (Charizard or Togekiss, for example) and Giratina-A. Muk can build his Thunder Punch fairly quickly, and if Sceptile has already knocked down one shield off the opponent they’re not as likely to shield against the notoriously weak Muk. Take them by surprise with either Thunder Punch or Dark Pulse, whichever is more effective, and get the free 50% HP off them. Giratina-A is especially weak to this: people who run Giratina-A are generally unintelligent and looking for an easy low-intellect win, and think that the Muk will be an easy feed for their super powerful Giratina-A. Spend the 2 shields if you’ve got them to get a Dark Pulse through the shields and take down the Giratina-A. I’ve earned a few dozen ragequits from Giratina-A users that think they can tank a Thunder Punch only to find that they’ve eaten a Dark Pulse – and lost Giratina-A – instead. It’s an unbeatable high.

It’s so high you can practically fly, just like…

Lugia

Covers (if running Dragon Tail):

• Dragon – fast attack
• Bug – Sky Attack
• Grass – Sky Attack
• Fighting – Sky Attack

Gets walled by:

• Fairy
• Steel
• Dark
• Ghost

Lugia’s Dragon type fast move is resisted by nothing but Fairy types (which Muk handles just fine) and Steel, but it misses out on cleaning up Poison-type and Fighting-type Pokemon by not running Extrasensory. That’s not normally an issue (Poison is a terrible attacking type and Fighting attacks can all be easily tanked) except against Venusaur, who will be a common opponent. Sky Attack should help with Venusaur, so don’t sweat it too much.

Lugia cleans up whichever Dragon-type your last opponent managed to KO you with, and can drop a mini-nuke on them with Sky Attack. Unfortunately the Steel type resists nearly everything Lugia can throw at it save for Hydro Pump, so Dialga’s still not going to fall to you. Fortunately, Giratina-A will be an easy trade (bonus points if you managed to wear him down with Muk) and Palkia practically feeds Lugia most of the time.

Ghost and Dark types present a problem for the team as a whole, but Lugia especially suffers due to those types negating his immense bulk. Those types are why I’m experimenting with Dragon Tail instead of Extrasensory.

Why Not Use Alolan Muk Instead of Muk?

Worth a shot! A-Muk is probably better considering he’s only weak to Ground moves, but he’s lacking the Electric-type attacks to kill Flying-types, and the lack of familiarity with Muk’s moveset is his greatest asset – an asset that A-Muk doesn’t have. As a general rule people assume that a Pokemon is running a move that is the same as its typing, so you’ll find that Poison-type and Dark-type attacks are predicted much more commonly and will shield accordingly. A-Muk is a better matchup against Giratina-A due to his resistance to most of what Giratina-A can throw at him, but the absence of that Thunder Punch really narrows his matchup range outside of Giratina-A.

No matter which A-Muk you run, make sure it has Acid Spray. The self-boost is immensely valuable.

How to Deal With Steel

The Steel type on its own can be handled by Muk’s Thunder Punch and Sceptile’s Earthquake; the problem arises when a Pokemon is dual-typed with Steel, which is very common. Dialga is the obvious example: Dialga resists Electric and Poison (though not Dark), double-resists Grass, and resists Dragon and Flying. The only moves in our team that aren’t resisted by Dialga is Sceptile’s Earthquake (which takes significant energy expenditure to release) and Muk’s Dark Pulse.

The best way to deal with Steel is generally Muk. Steel doesn’t resist Electric and Dark on its own, so careful attention paid to the actual resistances of the opponent can reward you with a KO. Steel-type attackers are rarely armed with Ground and Psychic, so Muk need not worry about premature death unless he’s facing Excadrill. Good luck if you’re facing Excadrill and don’t have Hydro Pump on Lugia.

How to Deal with Giratina-A

As I said above, Giratina-A users are generally low-IQ players who seek an easy win that doesn’t require them to think a lot. Your ability to handle Giratina-A depends on whether he’s running a Ghost-type fast move or a Dragon-type fast move. Giratina players almost always run a Ghost-type fast move and the absurdly spammy Dragon Claw + Shadow Sneak. Giratina-A charges Dragon Claw before Shadow Sneak, so if you’re running Muk and not Lugia then expect to get hit with Dragon Claw first.

Shielding Dragon Claw is a difficult decision and it comes down to how much HP Muk has left. If Muk’s close to full, then he need not shield. Giratina doesn’t have anything that can nuke Muk (save for Shadow Force, which takes an Elite TM and takes too much time to charge for most Giratinas to find it useful) so if the opponent Giratina has only attacked a handful of times before dropping his first charged move, don’t shield. He likely hasn’t built the energy for Shadow Force, and Dragon Claw is a tankable move the first few times.

Shielding Shadow Sneak as Lugia is a bad situation to be in. It’ll do about 30% damage in most circumstances, so you can really only afford to tank one if you’re at full HP. If Giratina’s running a Ghost-type fast move, count Lugia out. Decide right then whether you want to burn your shields to take down Giratina-A (you probably do) or if you think you can pass him off to Muk safely. Either way, Giratina-A is the best reason for Lugia to run a Dragon-type fast move, so do it!

Making Adjustments

Aside from getting Lugia a 3rd move and possibly switching out Muk for A-Muk if you’re finding more Sinnoh legendaries crossing your path, there’s really no changes that can be made to modify this team. Believe me, I’ve tried it – when I swapped out Sceptile’s Earthquake for Aerial Ace I no longer had a coverage option to deal with Steel types. When I traded Lugia for one of the Sinnoh Legendaries, I no longer had enough bulk to deal with everything that Sceptile and Muk couldn’t. It really seems to me that this exact combination of Pokemon is the only combination that can make these Pokemon work. This team isn’t the best at all (if you’re only interested in winning, and are willing to play like a low-IQ moron, just run Swampert/Dialga/Giratina-A) and probably won’t take you to the tippity-top of the ELO system, but it’s sure fun and a great way to rack up enough levels to get the Ultra League battles needed for level 44 completion.