"Simplified explanation of PoGo Gym meta"

#PokemonGO: There's a lot of new data and a lot of new Pokemon, but the meta landscape hasn't actually changed very much.Spreadsheets comparing DPS are useful if you use the data in context, but they can be misleading because they are rating Pokemon as neutral attackers, and you generally don't want to use a neutral attacker.It's pretty straightforward to figure out who the best defenders are, and the best attackers are simply the best counters to the best defenders.The Pokemon Go gym meta has been defined since launch by Vaporeon. Vaporeon is a very good Pokemon with a high CP rating, and it evolves from common Eevee. Everyone can get multiple good Vaporeons. Since there are so many Vaporeons, and since multiaccounting is a thing, anything that has lower CP than a Vaporeon is unlikely to be able to hold a spot in a gymGen 1 has 4 pokemon with higher CP than Vape: Gyarados, Rhydon, Snorlax, Dragonite.Gen 2 adds only 2 more Pokemon with higher CP than Vape: Blissey and Tyranitar.The vast majority of Pokemon you will see in gyms in heavily contested areas will be those 7.That means you can generally set aside complicated spreadsheets and just figure out how to beat those 7 Pokemon. This is extremely easy to do since four of the 7 have a double weakness.To counter Vaporeon you just need any kind of grass or electric-type. Exeggutor with Extrasensory/ZH and Solar Beam or Venusaur with Razor Leaf and Solar Beam do the job nicely. Ampharos and Jolteon are also good.Rhydon is double weak to grass and water. You can use your Exeggutor or Venusaur, or just use your Vaporeon.Dragonite is countered by ice, which he has a double weakness to. Cloyster and Lapras are best because their Ice/Water typing protects them from taking SE damage if Dragonite has Steel Wing.Gyarados is double weak to electric. Jolteon or Ampharos.Blissey and Snorlax are weak to fighting, and Tyranitar is double weak to it. Machamp is the best fighting type with his new Counter/Dynamic Punch moveset. Counter/Close Combat is also acceptable. Ursaring is a normal type, but he gets Counter as a quick move. His best set is Counter with his STAB Hyper Beam, but if he gets Counter and Close Combat, he still works as a specialist against these three Pokemon. Heracross is also an option if you have access to him.For whatever else might show up, it's not a bad idea to have a strong neutral attacker, and that can be your Dragonite, your Exeggutor, your Vaporeon, your Rhydon, or your Tyranitar. Snorlax is very efficient, but his attack is a bit lower than the others, so he takes longer to kill things.I attack gyms in NYC, which is one of the most competitive places in the world to play, and basically all I use on attack are: Vaporeon, Dragonite, Exeggutor, Jolteon, Rhydon, Lapras and Cloyster. My top priority for a new attacker is Machamp. After that, I expect I will spend my stardust leveling another Machamp and another Jolteon, because having a deeper lineup of counters to top Pokemon seems more beneficial than having a wider pool of attackers.The goal is to be able to switch my lineup to include more fighters for gyms heavy with Blissey/Snorlax/T-tar, more electric for gyms with lots of Gary, or more ice for gyms with lots of Dragonite. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2kEvCyj