KINGDOM CUP EARLY META-ANALYSIS

Written by John Gill and Assisted by Joe McMahon

From the moment Kingdom Cup was announced, there was an extreme amount of excitement with it being a cup themed from Game of Thrones in all but the exact name. Regardless of if you’re a fan of the series or not, no one can deny how intriguing the idea is of a pseudo-medieval fantasy theme with knights, magic, and of course, dragons being crossed with Pokemon. With the types of ice and fire also doing battle with those of steel and dragon, this has the potential to end up being one of the fan favorite cups of the year. But that’s enough of my long-winded introduction. I don’t want this article to end up longer than one of the actual books by George R.R. Martin. So for this article, I’ll stick to titling each section by naming the category in a way that best represents it to me while trying to help all of you understand this meta how I and Joe do. Then underneath each title, I will have the specific Pokemon listed with their desired move sets. Okay, here we go.

LUCARIO “The Paper”

Lucario – Counter/Power-Up Punch/Shadow Ball

Yes, that’s the title on this section. Why? Because Lucario, that’s why. It really stands out that much as one of the most powerful raw DPS forces in this cup by a large margin. As the roll of “the paper” it covers up a ridiculous amount of the Kingdom Cup mons, not letting them see any use.  Counter is still an oppressive fast attack with high damage and high energy gains. And now it’s being paired with the new Power-Up Punch Lucario. As time passes the damages snowballs, sweepings away entire teams with its fighting moves. We believe it is a must-have on every team. The main counters to Lucario are anything flying type, ghost type, or fire type. These will give it the most trouble, but even then, if there is an opportunity to save some energy it can win some and barely lose others. This is due to it carrying Shadow Ball. This forces every mon to constantly consider shielding every charge attack because of how much of a high damage nuke it is in PVP. So make sure to find a friend to trade swap Riolu with to get a good Lucario for the Great League. Also please don’t forget to unlock that third charge attack while it is still Riolu to save yourself some stardust and candy.

BASTIODON “The Rock”

Bastiodon – Smack Down / Flamethrower / Stone Edge

This behemoth is the Hodor we all desire. Seemingly designed to cover almost 100% of Lucario’s weaknesses in this cup, these two are a metagame pair made in heaven (or hell depending on how many rare candies you may or may not have). Bastiodon makes sure it holds the door open for Lucario to try and sweep trainer’s entire teams. Using the move set Smack Down/ Flamethrower/ Stone Edge keeps you covering other steel types, fire types, and anything airborne. The important thing here is it beating almost all of the fire and airborne Pokemons since those give Lucario a lot of trouble. I believe Bastiodon solidly earns its place as a must-have on all teams being paired with Lucario. They’re a dream sword and shield pairing for sure. As a side note, if we also get the Pokemon Probopass sometime during this meta, players could potentially use that as more of a budget substitute. Now let’s move on to some more undefined categories.

THINGS THAT COUNTER LUCARIO

“The Scissors”

Altaria – Dragon Breath / Sky Attack / Drago Pulse 

 

Charizard – Fire Spin / Blast Burn / Dragon Claw

 

Alolan Marowak – Hex / Bone Club / Shadow Ball

 

 

This is what we believe to be the third main pillar in this Lucario defined meta. These mons are the standouts for things that excel against Lucario, AKA ‘the scissors’ to cut ‘the paper’ –  even though at some points the scissors feel a tad dull when considering the attack is Shadow Ball (which I mentioned previously forces you to always consider having a shield). We all know about Altaria. Standard Dragon Breath abuse paired with Sky Attack and Dragon Pulse. Nothing we haven’t seen here before. Then you have Charizard which I think takes a lot more nuance to use successfully. Using it strictly as a revenge killer, or as a switch in Counter to trap in a Lucario or anything else you can beat with only your Fire Spin fast attack allows you to store a lot of energy. This in turn either lets you take all of your opponents’ shields or just rip apart the next Pokemon with multiple Dragon Claws and Blast Burns. This makes Charizard a very dangerous weapon. You also can’t forget Alolan Marowak since its unique ghost typing helps vs the fighting attacks, and because it carries two potent charge attacks. It’s a rare ground attack in this meta, with Bone Club as well as the previously mentioned nuke Shadow Ball. Just watch out for the Bastiodon protecting the Lucario and you’ve nearly got yourself a cut and dried paper, rock, scissors format. Well, almost. Let’s complicate things.

 

FLEXIBLE ANTI-META

Blaziken – Counter / Brave Bird / Focus Blast (Stone Edge?)

 

Flygon – Mud Shot / Earthquake / Dragon Claw

 

 

Steelix – Dragon Tail / Earthquake / Crunch

Melmetal – Thunder Shock / Rock Slide / Thunderbolt

 

Bronzong – Confusion / Heavy Slam / Flash Cannon

 

These Pokemon listed above all deal with specific partial components of the paper rock scissors trio meta proposed above. They also don’t define any singular role other than this strange flexible pseudo anti- meta mentality. I’ll start with Blaziken as it was the early hype mon with everyone talking about how amazing it would be with its legacy move Stone Edge. After I ran some sims it was pretty surprising. It turns a few important match-ups into wins instead of just ties. So if someone has Blaziken with Stone Edge you should DEFINITELY use it. But let’s talk about the other 99.999% of the world. Blaziken’s unique situation is due to the fact that it barely beats Lucario and Bastiodon by only using Counter as its fast attack. It is in a very unique situation no other mon is in for sure. You also have Flygon doing similar things. Notably, it beats Bastiodon. It also (depending on what potential previous energy it was able to save up) has a similar nuanced play style as Charizard with its Earthquake or multiple spammed Dragon Claws. This also lends itself to strong bluffing potential with saving energy until you have enough for Earthquake and then picking Dragon Claw to steal an opponent’s shield. Steelix doing its job as a dragon slayer will always be great to consider. Sporting the nuke Earthquake, it could late game single-handedly one shot a Bastiodon without shields if you were able to save the energy up from its previous fights. Melmetal has this strange place in this cup where it counters many things that counter it. Ultimately, this leads it back to being similar to Blaziken, where it mostly ties against a lot of mons. This brings us to the odd ball Bronzong. This sleeper pick doesn’t do anything fancy. It just endures while using the hard-hitting Confusion. If you have this mon with at least 1 shield it will beat, or tie, almost every legal mon in this cup. That is some scary flexible anti-meta stuff. I think this is one of the most important categories where trainers will be able to have strategies to call their own. Definitely include your favorite one or two picks from this list to help take the edge off.

THE NEUTRAL GROUND

Lapras – Water Gun / Ice Beam / Surf

 

Dragonair – Dragon Breath / Aqua Tail / Wrap

 

Sealeo – Water Gun / Body Slam / Water Pulse

 

Shelgon – Dragon Breath / Twister / Flamethrower

This section is filled with Pokemon we believe are very flexible in the meta. They’re extremely versatile as leads or closers depending on what you see during team preview. All of these mons can hit the meta with neutral damage in some way whether it be through tap attack pressure with Water Gun or Dragon Breath, or with one of their low-energy charge attacks like Surf, Body Slam, or Twister. We are almost thinking of these as the “mud boys” or “shield bullies” roles that we have seen in the previous few months of Silph formats. The play style and thoughts are really that simple. Tap your screen while pressuring your opponent with whatever low energy cost attack you have. You can also save some energy up and spam two charge moves back to back mixing up the game’s tempo into something you’re setting the pace for. This allows you to keep your brain relaxed while your opponent has to stress a bit more giving you a chance to watch for mistakes, habits, or specific fears you can maybe exploit. While these mons are all mostly weak to what Lucario does, they still hold their own against most everything else in the format. My personal favorites here are Lapras and Dragonair, while Joe has been wrecking trainers like me with his Sealeo and his Dragonair. Having one or maybe even two of these on a team will allow for a much less linear team for your opponent to decipher. It will cause them to lean more heavily on their Lucario, and no matter how strong it may be, even that mon can’t carry every trainer in every round in every tournament worldwide on its shoulders.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This cup gives every trainer a strong starting point for team building with Lucario, something to beat Lucario, and a Bastiodon to beat that. Comparing this to paper, rock, scissors may be a tired old trope, but this easy to understand basic comparison for the meta simulates this more than any other format we have had yet. The real wow factor here will be trainers adding their own personal flair to their teams with the anti-meta and neutral damaging categories. This will separate personal play styles and keep everything fresh all month showing how different someone can play an extremely similar looking team. I have always been a fan of a good triangle meta like this in other competitive games, and I hope you will be too. Like I said in the beginning, I think this cup has the potential to be remembered as one of the favorites this year.