"LXP: Alolan Raichu (A Spotlight Analysis for GBL)"

#PokemonGO: Underestimate at your own risk!Hello, fellow travelers! You may or may not know me, but I am a PvP analyst and Silph Arena Contributor that has cranked out tons of PvP articles over the last year over at the TSA subreddit. I have pretty much strictly written about The Silph Arena monthly Cups to this point, and that will still be my bread and butter, but I figured it was high time I start taking a good, hard look at GO Battle League. So below is my first article spotlighting a particular Pokémon in GBL, and there will likely be more to follow! It was suggested that I share this particular article here at the mothership, so that's why I'm here now! I am copying the article over directly from The Silph Arena, so apologies for folks that haven't followed me in the past and may miss an inside joke or reference or two... I have quite a history over there now. 😅Hope you find this helpful, and if so, come follow me over at TSA too. Enjoy!This mini (well, mini for me, at least! 😅) article is the first in a potential new series focused primarily on the new GO Battle League. Now I will be the first to admit: I speak Silph Arenaese and Great Leagueish, not so much Ultra or Masters or even wide open Great League. I'm studying to get smarter, but I am not and will probably never be quite the resource (at least in the upper leagues) I've at least tried to be for Silph Cups... I'm kind of set in my ways after a year of Great League play, and an old dog these days. Those new tricks are best covered by other experts... but I want to still take a stab at it! And at least for now, we're still talking Great League, so I feel I still have SOMETHING to offer.And the what I have to offer is going back to my roots. I kind of got started way back when with an emphasis on cheap and/or off-meta picks, things where "nifty" and "thrifty" met in the middle. You know, the things that "fly under the radar" but still "have breakout potential", all that jazz. So I figured I'd dip back in that well and highlight some things that you may not initially consider that is actually very potent in open Great League play. Like I said, not sure how many of these feature articles I have in me, but there are a few ideas rattling around, so let's see what shakes out!For the series, I opted to go with an under the radar film for the theme, one that was (somewhat understandably) derided, so badly that it basically drove star Sean Connery into retirement. (Come back, Sir Connery!) The film was "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", a grand idea that made for a film that was entertaining at times (and is still, in my opinion, worth seeing for Connery's performance, if nothing else), but went off the rails. It was an attempt to do what the MCU "Avengers" and even recent CW "Arrowverse" (Crisis on Infinite Earths) successfully pulled off--big film universe building--without properly building up the characters first. The characters didn't really resonate and we as moviegoers didn't truly care about them, for the most part, and so the film fell flat. (In other words, they DCEU Justice League'd it up.)All that to say: my mind reached back to the cheesy name and logo of the film when it came time to start this series (at least in part because of the prominent inclusion of "league" 😉), thus you get an equally cheesy (even MORE cheesy, in fact, thanks to my astoundingly bad--albeit intentionally bad, this time--photoshop skillz!) logo and name. Just as they abbreviated that film as "LXG", welcome to the "LXP"... The League of Extraordinary Pokémon!(Seriously, though... if someone wants to take a more professional crack at that logo, I'm open to submissions. LOL)We're starting it with one of the first Pokémon I featured in my "Under The Lights" series: Raichu! More specifically this time, Alolan Raichu. Might seem an odd choice as a competitive Great League pick, but let's see what this little guy can do!ALOLAN RAICHUElectric/Psychic TypeAttack: 134 (133 Maximized)Defense: 111 (112 Maximized)HP: 109 (112 Maximized)(Maximized/High Stat Product IVs: 1-15-15, 1496 CP, Level 24.5)I DO want to keep this article brief, so I'll spare you my normal UtL-esque comments on the bulk and all that. The one thing I DO feel it's important to highlight is the typing. You are looking at the only Electric/Psychic Pokémon in the entire franchise. Those two typings don't seem to do anything complimentary for each other, with no overlap whatsoever. In other words, AhChu has all the same resistances (Electric, Flying, and Steel from its Electric side, and Fighting and Psychic from its Psychic side) and vulnerabilities (Ground from Electric, and Bug, Dark, and Ghost on the Psychic side) as its two typings would have on their own.I particularly want to highlight that Alolan Raichu resists Steel AND Fighting moves, as there are not many things that do both... A-Wak, Zard, Zapdos, Tentacruel, and a small handful of others like them, but not many. And yes, that will be important later....Fast Moves:Thunder Shock (Electric, 1.5 DPT, 4.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)Spark (Electric, 2.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.0 CD)Volt Switch (Electric, 3.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 2.0 CD)Again, in the interest of time, I'll just say that Spark is out, and while Thunder Shock is still good, we're mostly going to be looking at Volt Switch below. You'll see why soon.Charge Moves:Thunder Punch (Electric, 55 damage, 40 energy)Wild Charge (Electric, 90 damage, 50 energy)Grass Knot (Grass, 90 damage, 50 energy)Psychic (Psychic, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance to Decrease Opponent Defense -1 Stage)And finally, I'll shave time here too by saying that, while Wild Charge and Psychic are fine moves, they are not ideal for open Great League play. You want the spam of Thunder Punch, but the move to pair with it is, somewhat surprisingly, Grass Knot, the only non-STAB move AhChu has in its arsenal.Because you see, it's not about what moves are best in a vacuum. The first few games you play in GO Battle League will be (or were) likely already pretty varied: people playing around with their favorite Pokémon and not thinking super competitively. Once you advance past, say, Level 5, suddenly you start to detest things like Azumarill and Whiscash and Registeel that show up ALL. THE. TIME. The vacuum is gone... you can start to expect the same sort of thing each time you play, and you need to start honing your own team to address the big threats or it's going to become un-fun in a hurry. Such is life in Open formats like GBL, because the dirty little secret is that, without additional restrictions put in place (like GO Stadium's "Cliffhanger" format) they're really NOT "open"... a small group of core meta Pokémon emerge, and eventually, they're everywhere, every time. I am curious to see if GBL in its current and planned form can continue to flourish, and I still personally much prefer The Silph Arena's rotating and well-thought-out monthly formats... but I digress! GBL is what it is, and so we need to play it (or not!) as it is now.That means finding answers to those core meta picks that an increasingly large majority of teams are built around. As they typically do, the wonderful folks at PvPoke.com have already narrowed down the entirety of Great League into a "core meta", which you can see listed here. (And as an aside, how hilarious is it that Pikachu actually gets a win there? LOL) You'll notice big names like Azumarill and Registeel, as already mentioned, plus things like Altaria and Venusaur and Alolan Marowak and Skarmory and Hypno and others that probably make you nod your head. No big surprises on that list... they're the best of the best, and have consistently headlined my own "Nifty Or Thrifty" articles each month in the various Silph Arena formats where they've been eligible.So, how does Alolan Raichu measure up? Well, like this. I know, I know... looks pretty mediocre, right? But stay with me here, because there's more to it than a tepid 50% win rate.Look at what wins are there. Azumarill, probably the single most used Pokémon of all, not surprisingly is high up on the list: it REALLY doesn't appreciate the pressure of Volt Switch and Thunder Punch, and obviously isn't a fan of Grass Knot either. Other big Waters like Mantine and Lanturn and Lapras detest AhChu as well, for rather obvious reasons. So too do big Flyers like Skarmory and even Tropius, again not surprisingly at all. A decent Electric SHOULD win those battles (well, Tropius can get a little dicey, but you get my point). Heck, AhChu even takes down Altaria with just a single Volt Switch's worth of energy lead (and even with some health missing)... Altaria CANNOT switch in on AhChu and hope to win the way it can against many Electrics.But again, that's all really just focusing on Alolan Raichu as an Electric type. But it is so much more. Remember its resistances? AhChu beats all Fighting types head to head except the two with Dark moves (namely Scrafty and Primeape and... uh... that's all that's in the game!), and pseudo-Fighter Vigoroth too. It beats the vast majority of Psychics, including DDeoxys (in fairness, more of a Fighter anyway, but still), Cresselia, Mew (even with Shadow Claw), and even Bronzong, and while Hypno typically escapes with a win, it takes everything Hypno has got to barely crawl away and die immediately to whatever follows next (and if AhChu shields the right way, even that result can flip). The Psychic typing of Raichu, even without it utilizing any Psychic moves, gives it some extremely unique utility among Electric types.And it wins matchups that other Psychics usually have no prayer in too, like Sableye and Probopass, thanks to dealing neutral damage back whereas most Psychics have, at best, one charge move that can deal non-resisted damage and maybe turn the tide if it gets through unshielded. Raichu just wails away and simply outslugs these traditional Psychic-slayers, even able to outrace Froslass that is also the bane of Psychics with its Shadow Ball.\But more than all that, and the main thing that prompted me to want to highlight Alolan Raichu, is what it does to the most annoying Pokémon in GBL at the moment: Registeel. Remember, AhChu resists Fighting AND Steel moves, and conveniently, the two big crushing charge moves Regi typically runs are Flash Cannon (Steel) and Focus Blast (Fighting). Other Psychics don't resist Flash Cannon, and other speedy Electrics don't resist Focus Blast.AhChu simply Thunder Punches Registeel to death, and there is nothing Regi can do about it. It can't brute force it with Cannon OR with Blast... AhChu can tank one of either and finish Regi off before it reaches a third. It can't even win if it burns both shields... Raichu STILL kills it before it can reach the necessary third charge move. As long as AhChu has a shield to burn, Registeel cannot realistically hope to beat Alolan Raichu without an energy AND shield advantage.Again, other Psychics can't do this. Other Electrics cannot replicate this either, not even AhChu's Kanto cousin: it loses if it tries to Thunder Punch to victory or even use super effective Brick Breaks... since it doesn't resist Focus Blast, Registeel just has to bide its time, as it so often does, for the final, killing blow. Alolan Raichu is quite unique in how it handles massively meta Waters like Azumarill, AND Registeel, AND Fighters and Psychics and even prominent anti-Psychic counters.But you may be wondering... why Grass Knot? Yes, it lands the killing blow in several of these wins, but wouldn't Wild Charge or even Psychic do that too AND be a bit better since they're both STAB moves? Well, for most of those, yes, the STAB moves would be just as effective and even a bit better. But Grass Knot does the job, and also answers a massive threat that, again, most Electrics and even Psychics struggle with: the looming Mud Boys. Now, full disclosure, AhChu is likely still going to lose against your Whiscashes and Swampert(s) of the world in even fights. Even the power of Volt Switch and Thunder Punch cannot overcome the resistance of Ground types. But that's where Grass Knot comes in and can be so huge. If the opponent chooses not to shield (or HAS no remaining shields), AhChu actually one shots them with a single Grass Knot. Swampert may not even reach a charge move, and Whiscash does but STILL loses. At best, you steal a win. At worst, even the wisest opponents know they can't just farm you down and are forced to burn a shield. For an Electric type, either of those outcomes is a HUGE win that only AhChu can really boast.Okay, I said I'd keep it short and I kind of... um... didn't. 😂 So... sorry about that! I'll just close it here with a reminder: Alolan Raichu takes down the two most popular Pokémon in GO Battle League (Great League)--Azumarill and Registeel--consistently and without them being able to effectively fight back. (It feels REALLY good to make those two squirm for once!) It also takes down several other commonly encountered and juicy targets in Great League, and can flip the script on even the Mud Boys and other things no Electric or Psychic type has any business winning. I strongly recommend giving AhChu a look if something (or, more likely, SEVERAL somethings) from the listed Pokémon above are giving you fits. It's quite a versatile little guy that people are still overlooking right now, by and large, and I have personally had great success with it in my last couple rounds of battling. Little dude has done some good work!And perhaps best of all: it's dirt cheap, and doesn't require any Legacy moves. You can build one from scratch (even with raid-level IVs, it still does the same stuff, so you don't even have to chase a crazy stat one in trades) by just leveling up a freshly raided one to Level 24ish and adding the cheap 10k second move. That's a drop in the bucket compared to what prepping, say, an Azumarill or Registeel runs for!Alright, hopefully this successfully gave you some good ideas for GO Battle League. See, I'm TRYING to branch out! 😄Thanks as always to my buddies in the GO: Stadium PvP Discord and the MD PvP Alliance for playtesting and bouncing a few ideas for this very article, as well as the good guys at The Silph Arena for all they do for us and for PvP. I couldn't do any of this without all of them... and without all of you!And as always, the simulated battles above from my go-to simming resource at PvPoke.com are a good start to the story, but they are certainly not the whole story. Run some sims yourself, try AhChu out in GBL yourself, and please: discuss! I always love to hear your feedback and any discussions that come out of these deeper dives.Thanks for reading, and I sincerely hope this and my other writings are able to help you in your own PvP journey! Until next time, good luck out there!P.S. - At the insistence of several folks here on Reddit and elsewhere, I am now on Patreon, for anyone interested in that sort of thing:https://ift.tt/3bnEjUH I'm also on Twitter with near daily PvP tidbits as well!https://www.twitter.com/JRESeawolf/ via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2SjsdTG