As usual with these cups, the rules of the Great League in Pokémon Go apply here - but with the usual twist hinted at in the name. Not only do you have to come up with the most effective team possible at 1500 CP and under, but: only psychic-type Pokémon are allowed, with the only other ruling being that Mew is banned. If you’re looking for other Go Battle League recommendations, see our Ultra League page. On this page:
Psychic Cup end date in Pokémon Go
The Psychic Cup will run until Thursday, 15th September and finish at the following times:
The obvious downside to this specific cup is that the pool of eligible choices is only 87 Pokémon deep – and that’s including the utterly useless ones like Spoink. Do not run Spoink. Spoink is bad.
So, how do you pick Pokémon for an element-based cup? It starts and ends with what that type is weak and resistant to. Psychic-types are resistant to fighting and psychic-type attacks, so don’t bring those – you’ll be fighing an uphill battle. As a result, your Psystrike Shadow Mewtwo is actually pretty awful in this cup.
Next we need to look at what weaknesses we can exploit. Psychic types are weak to bug, dark and ghost-type attacks, but with bugs being so spectacularly weak in the game, it’s really just the dark and ghost attacks you need to consider. This means that your ideal team will either be resistant to those, thanks to a dual typing, or lean into them with their attacks – Bronzong and Malamar are great examples of these.
There is only one Mythical Pokémon to seriously consider here: Victini. This is an incredible Pokémon in this meta, but, to date, there’s only one you could have picked up, and that’s if you completed the Investigate a Mysterious Energy special research quest.
Beyond that, the Legendary Pokémon Cresselia, Shadow Lugia are and Shadow Latios are usable, but they don’t quite make the top 10, so don’t worry about them if you don’t have them. You can easily be competitive in this meta without any rare Pokémon at all.
Remember, although there are specific Pokémon that dominate this meta, with the Go Battle League (and player-versus-player battles in general) you’ll be going in blind; so even if you cover yourself with a wide range of offence and defence options, no team is invincible.
Still - even with a few of the below Pokémon in your team, you should be able to fare better than if you just selected those as close to the 1500 CP cap as possible.
The Season of Mythical Wishes continues with the Winter Holiday event, which has brought Mega Glalie to Pokémon Go. Don’t forget to partake in the new Go Battle League season.
Elsewhere, be sure to use Daily Adventure Incense for the chance of encountering Galarian Articuno, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Moltres.
Instead, here is a general list of recommended Psychic Cup Pokémon to build a team from, with a wide range of sources that should suit all players, whether you’ve been collecting creatures since day one or just started playing. Plus, even if you don’t have a Victini, you can still be very competitive in this cup, as (for once) none of our picks have any exclusive or Community Day moves. As long as you have the Pokémon and enough resources to power it up, you should be good to go!
Remember you are only allowed one of each in the Go Battle League, and ideally you’d want to build a team with different type strengths and defense. For example, if you build a team with all mono-psychic types, anything with a move like Foul Play will just destroy your team.
It’s also worth noting that if you want to really compete, each of your Pokémon need two Charged moves. If you want to skimp on Stardust and only run the one move, do so at your own peril - you have been warned.
Our Pokémon Go Psychic Cup team recommendations in order of their appearance in the National Pokédex — while there is some overlap with the Great League guide, make sure you read the full entry as we may be recommending some move changes:
Alolan Raichu
Type: Electric / Psychic
Weakness: Bug, Dark, Ghost and Ground
Moves: Volt Switch (Fast), Wild Charge (Charged), Thunder Punch (Charged)
Alolan Raichu, the answer to ‘What if Raichu used Surf?’, is a surprisingly strong choice in this meta, especially given its move set, with wins against Victini, Galarian Slowking, Galarian Rapidash and Bronzong. The upside to running triple-electric is that, with the notable exception of Claydol, nothing is particularly resistant to this move set, helping you get neutral STAB at the very least.
Looking to the quality of the moves, Volt Switch is decent, and the combo with Thunder Punch means Alolan Raichu applies both fast move pressure and shield pressure. Throw in the self-debuff Wild Charge ‘hail Mary’ for the win, and you have a decent contender in the Psychic Cup meta.
Of course, this Pokémon is not without its drawbacks: for all its spamminess, it’s also very glassy and has long attack animations, making it a little clumsy to use. Add in an ill-timed Wild Charge, which will massively drop your defence, and you can see why Alolan Raichu can be difficult to use correctly.
Galarian Rapidash
Type: Psychic / Fairy
Weaknesses: Ghost, Poison and Steel
Moves: Fairy Wind (Fast), Megahorn (Charged), Body Slam (Charged)
Despite Galarian Rapidash being a bit of a glass cannon, the combo of the spammy, Fairy Wind fast move, which charges the bug-type nuke Megahorn very quickly, this psychic pony is an excellent pick in this meta.
This bug-type attack may be a little left-field, especially given how under-represented bug-types will be in this meta, making it a great move that can catch opponents unaware.
If the opponent still has shields to burn, make sure you spam body slam to burn through them as quickly as you can. With this combo of attacks, Galarian Rapidash is a force to be reckoned with.
Galarian Slowking
Type: Poison / Psychic
Weaknesses: Dark, Ghost and Ground
Moves: Hex (Fast), Shadow Ball (Charged), Sludge Wave (Charged)
Galarian Slowking is an excellent closer in this meta. Assuming you’ve burned through at least one shield, hitting the opponent with either a ghost or poison-type nuke in this meta will make for a short match.
And even if they have a shield up, Hex will help quickly rebuild your charge to fire off another charged attack.
The only real downside to the king is that Hex doesn’t hit particularly hard, so if it comes down to a close match, furiously tapping the screen and hoping for the best, you probably won’t be winning that match.
Gardevoir
Type: Psychic / Fairy
Weaknesses: Ghost, Poison and Steel
Moves: Charm (Fast), Shadow Ball (Charged), Dazzling Gleam (Charged)
There are two levels to the metagame. The first level is bringing Pokémon to counter the strongest Pokémon – in this case, dark-types to beat the psychic-types.
Then there’s the second level, which is bringing Pokémon to beat the Pokémon brought in to beat the psychic-types. Fairy beats dark, which beats psychic. Gardevoir, with its double-fairy attacks, is therefore an excellent choice for Psychic Cup.
The obvious upside is that Charm is phenomenal. It hits hard, applying a lot of pressure. If you run into something that isn’t weak to fairies, Shadow Ball will destroy most other Pokémon you’ll run across.
The downside is that Gardevoir is slow while also being a glass cannon, which is not ideal to say the least. Still, when it destroys Malamar, Galarian Rapidash and Alolan Raichu it’s a solid pick for this cup.
Claydol
Type: Ground / Psychic
Weaknesses: Bug, Dark, Ghost, Grass, Ice and Water
Moves: Mud Slap (Fast), Shadow Ball (Charged), Rock Tomb (Charged)
With a bunch of Victini, Bronzong and Alolan Raichu running around, what is going to become much better? Ground-types with huge defence stats.
Like Bronzong below, Claydol is bulky, but slow, applying low shield pressure thanks to its slow-charging charged attacks. However, it’s a solid third choice for your team if you’re looking for a tank that will help prop up your other two picks.
Bronzong
Type: Steel / Psychic
Weakness: Dark, Fire, Ghost and Ground
Moves: Feint Attack (Fast), Payback (Charged), Heavy Slam (Charged)
The double dark-type moves on Bronzong, coupled with its incredible defence stat, make this a very bulky, very defensive Pokémon that can both hunker down and nuke the opponent at the same time. While it may not be the fastest Pokémon, this matters far less when you can take this many hits.
Needless to say, this combo takes down pretty much all of the mono-psychic types, though it loses to Malamar, Victini, and even Alolan Raichu.
Victini
Type: Psychic / Fire
Weakness: Dark, Ghost, Ground, Rock and Water
Moves: Quick Attack (Fast), V-Create (Charged), Overheat (Charged)
You either have a Victini or you don’t; either way, it’s the highest-rated Pokémon in the Psychic Cup, so you should strongly consider running it if you do.
Although it doesn’t run any moves that psychic-types are weak against, the fire-type attacks make short work of Bronzong and Metagross – two Pokémon you should expect to see in this meta – and the spammy quick attack coupled with two fast-charging Charged moves applies enough shield pressure to take down Gardevoir, Galarian Rapidash and even Malamar.
The real downside here isn’t the inflexibility of having two charged moves – it’s trying to get two charged moves and power it up enough to be usable. Being as rare as it is, you probably won’t have the candy to unlock a second charge move, making it a tricky choice for an already technical Pokémon. Do you run V-Create, which will drop your defence by three stages, or Overheat, which will drop your attack by two stages? Your call, but be aware of the self-debuff going in.
Malamar
Type: Dark / Psychic
Weakness: Bug and Fairy
Moves: Psycho Cut (Fast), Foul Play (Charged), Hyper Beam (Charged)
This spammy, volatile Pokémon is both great in this meta, and likely to make a showing purely because its shiny was just debuted last month. Either way, Malamar is just good – with spammy, dynamic moves that apply a lot of shield pressure, it is going to be great in this meta.
The only thing to be wary of is the extreme weakness to bug-type attacks (though this is unlikely to come up), and its weakness to fairy-type attacks, making it fold pretty hard to Gardevoir and Galarian Rapidash (which runs the only bug-type move on this list). Still, it’s a great closer, with Psycho Cut’s fast charging helping you get that last Charged move in for a sneaky win.
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Good luck in Psychic Cup!
