"LXP: Dewgong"

#PokemonGO: Ice ice, baby!I intentionally left Dewgong out of my recent Elite TM article, mostly because I thought it was TOO obvious and that approximately 96.7% of players would be spending their first Elite TM(s) on making one anyway (assuming we CAN get Legacy moves back) But still, I got many questions in comments and private messages and on Discord about Dewgong and my thoughts on it. So I decided to give it its own little feature. After all, I think everyone just "knows" it's good because everyone says it is. Does it really live up to the hype? How good is it, really? Let's take a look with a return to the League of Extraordinary Pokémon series.And heeeeeeeeeeere's Dewgong! All stats are at Great League level. (We'll discuss a little bit of Ultra League later.)DEWGONGWater/Ice TypeAttack: 103 (101 High Stat Product)Defense: 134 (137 High Stat Product)HP: 158 (161 High Stat Product)(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-12-15, 1498 CP, Level 29.5)Well, you can see one reason Dewgong works well in PvP right off the bat... it's thicc. Most Pokémon in Great League have something on the order of 120 Attack, which is all fine and good, but drives down its bulk to compensate and keep it under 1500 CP. Take Swampert, for example, with its 123 Attack... and only 110 Defense and 132 HP, both stats about 25 points lower than Dewgong's Defense and HP. (For those who don't know, the CP formula is heavily Attack weighted.) Some of the very top of the line PvP options out there are as good as they are partly because of moves, yes, but in very large part because of their bulk: Whiscash (109 Attack, 108 Defense, 174 HP), Azumarill (99 Attack, 127 Defense, 183 HP), Registeel (95 Attack, 196 Defense, 125 HP), Bastiodon (85 Attack, 236 Defense, 133 HP), and others.It's good that Dewgong is bulky, because the typing doesn't do it a lot of favors. Water/Ice isn't an entirely mismatched typing, as Water negates Ice's weaknesses to Steel and Fire (both deal neutral to Gong), but Dewgong's Ice side remains vulnerable to Fighting and Rock moves, its Water side is still vulnerable to Grass and Electric, and while the combination leaves Dewgong resistant to Water and double resistant to other Ices, those two typing are the extend of its resistances... and even those are rendered pretty much moot since opposing Waters and Ices resist Dewgong's move anyway.So once again, weak to Fighting, Grass, Electric, and Rock, resists Water and double resists Ice. We good?Good, because it's time to get to the moves:ᴸ - Legacy MoveFast Moves:Ice Shardᴸ (Ice, 3.0 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)Frost Breath (Ice, 3.5 DPT, 2.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)Iron Tail (Steel, 3.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.5 CD)I think everyone and their grandmother understands by now that you want Legacy Dewgong for it to be a true consideration for PvP, and here's where it starts. As you can tell just by looking at the fast moves all put together, Ice Shard is clearly the best. It blows the other two moves in terms of energy generation while dealing sufficient (albeit average) damage. Frost Breath will deal more fast move damage overall of course, but what makes Dewgong really work it how spammy it makes its own charge moves with the high energy gain that only comes from Shard. Everyone talks about Ice Shard being a must, and if you didn't understand why before, hopefully this makes it clear.Charge Moves:Icy Windᴸ (Ice, 60 damage, 45 energy, Decreases Opponent Attack -1 Stage)Aqua Jetᴸ (Water, 45 damage, 45 energy)Water Pulse (Water, 70 damage, 60 energy)Aurora Beam (Ice, 80 damage, 60 energy)Blizzard (Ice, 130 damage, 75 energy)So let's start this simple. The Legacy move everyone is scrambling for here is Icy Wind, and this is why: with JUST Shard and Wind, Dewgong beats nearly 50% of the Great League core meta. The full list, in alphabetical order: Altaria, Azumarill, Clefable, Cresselia, Defense Deoxys, Froslass, Haunter, Mantine, Meganium, Mew, Sableye, Shiftry, Skarmory, Stunfisk, Togekiss, Tropius, Umbreon, and Whiscash. Oh, and the mirror if the opposing Dewgong uses any charge move except straight Icy Wind. That's a good list, no? And it's accomplished, to reiterate, with only Ice Shard and Icy Wind. The very best it can do with any other single charge moves isn't even half of what Wind can do. Icy Wind is strictly required, as much as Ice Shard is. Now hopefully it is abundantly clear why you really need that elusive DOUBLE Legacy Dewgong in PvP.But of course, we don't want to stop there... while they can't function too well on their own, there ARE four other charge moves that should be able to tack on to Icy Wind's success, right? Well, in theory. However, adding on Aurora Beam or the other Legacy move, Aqua Jet (and yes, triple Legacies WILL be possible now with the introduction of Elite TMs, for those who missed the memo) add little to nothing to Dewgong's record. It still uses Icy Wind exclusively with Aurora Beam as a second move, as it should, because Beam is just not good. Aqua Jet at least adds a potential win over Alolan Marowak and hurts Fires more in general, but that's the extent of it.Water Pulse is such a putrid PvP move that it can't even reliably beat A-Wak, with the only win Pulse gains over straight Icy Wind being an odd one versus Bronzong (and BARELY a win anyway).So in the end, unlike Lapras with its GOOD Water move (Surf) and other mixed moves giving it more versatility, Dewgong is at its best doing what it does best: being an Ice damage machine. Its best second move is the slow but brutal beatdown stick Blizzard. Now we have a significant jump in win percentage, with new wins over Swampert, Hypno, Galvantula, Cherrim, and even Steely Ferrothorn, among others.This continues in other shielding situations as well. With no shields being used on either side, Dewgong has a lower but still robust record, still bringing the hurt to Flyers, Grasses, Fairies, Grounds, and somehow even finding a way to top Ice-resistant Azumarill! None of the other charge moves help... I won't post them all here, but I checked and none of them really move the needle, including the slow Blizzard. Just spam Icy Wind to victory unless you already have an energy lead (in which case you still want Blizzard for its closing power).If both Dewgong and the opposing Pokémon burn both shields, Dewgong maintains its 1v1 shield success, again with Icy Wind alone. Most of the now-familiar wins are still there, but note that Azu is again on the list, as well as Lanturn, Froslass, and Vigoroth. (Yes, COUNTER-wielding Vigoroth!). Turns out even things that resist Ice get worn by the constant debuffing of Icy Wind, and even things that should deal grievous harm to Dewgong like Counter go from 8 damage per use all the way down to just 5 per Counter after a couple Icy Winds. Dewgong even does okay with a 1v2 shield disadvantage!So I think we can answer thw question of whether or not Dewgong is worth the crazy amount of hype... and the answer is YES, yes it is. Even with no coverage moves, even when everyone knows what's coming, it can beat a wide swath of the Great League meta, including in matchups where Ice types shouldn't have a snowball's chance in... well, you know where. 🔥But why stop there? Is Dewgong perhaps even viable in Ultra League? Well, kind of. The list of core meta things it beats is notably smaller, but it's a GOOD list: Dragonite, both Giratinas, Shiftry and Sceptile, Togekiss, Articuno, Swampert, Steelix, Granbull, Kingdra, and the popular Ice Fang Feraligatr. It can also beat Alolan Muk if A-Muk sticks with just Dark Pulse and dies with the winning Icy Wind charged up versus Snorlax, meaning that one could go either way too. I'm not saying I'd recommend maxing out a Dewgong for Ultra, but if you DID, it's at least viable and could actually work very well on the right team as a bodyguard that handles Dragons and Flyers and the others I mentioned.Dewgong has been the first, second, and tenth thing people have mentioned when it comes to using their Elite TMs. If you have an Ice Shard one, and if Legacy moves can indeed be brought back with Elite TMs, you're just one end-of-GBL-Season-1 or Community Day box purchase away from getting yourself a top-notch Great League PvP weapon. If you need Icy Wind AND Ice Shard, the wait might be a bit longer, but as least it's achievable now without having to hit up every Pokémon GO player you meet in hopes that they have a double Legacy PvP monster they just happen to be willing to trade to you. Trust me when I say that's no way to live. I've been there, for a looooooong time now.Hopefully this helped you better understand why everyone is talking about Dewgong, and why it is a no-brainer consideration for Elite TMing (and why it seemed SO obvious that I left it out of the last article).Before I sign off, shout-outs as always to my buddies in my local playgroup and in the GO: Stadium PvP Discord and the MD PvP Alliance for their guidance and brainstorming. 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, test with Dewgong yourself (if you can!), and please: discuss! I always love to hear your feedback and any discussions that come out of these deeper dives!For more tidbits, you can find me on Twitter for near-daily PvP analysis nuggets or Patreon if you're into that sort of thing.Stay safe, Pokéfriends, and hope to see you again soon! via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/3eHqimk