The best Pokemon in Champions’ Season M-1

Today, we’re going over some of the best Pokemon in Pokemon Champions Season M-1, and what each one does. We’ll also be covering both singles and doubles.

The first season of Pokemon Champions is still ongoing until May 12, and surprisingly, a lot of players really like the current format – it doesn’t allow for any Legendary or Mythical Pokemon, and many power-boosting items are strangely absent from the game. Inconvenient as the latter may be, it means the power level of the metagame is probably the lowest it’ll ever be. That means it’s a great time to get involved and build your own team.

The best Singles Pokemon

• Garchomp is highly versatile, and can run all sorts of attacks. You’ll almost always see Earthquake and either Dragon Claw or Outrage, but from there, Garchomp can run whatever your team needs. It can be Stealth Rock to take down half of Charizard’s health, Rock Tomb to lower the opponent’s speed, Poison Jab to hit Mega Floette, Scale Shot or Swords Dance for setup, or Fire Fang for coverage. Choice Scarf, Lum Berry, White Herb, or Focus Sash are all viable items here.
• Corviknight is very strong into lots of common Pokemon, including Sneasler, Kingambit, and others. Its typing is excellent, and it can use moves like Iron Defense, Body Press, Brave Bird, Roost, or Iron Head. It’s not super powerful, but it has solid defenses and can boost up and heal itself, making it very annoying to play against.
• Primarina usually runs Sparkling Aria or Surf, Moonblast, Aqua Jet, and Encore. But there are more moves it can use, too – Ice Beam and Psychic work too! Primarina is specially defensive, and is good into Garchomp, Dragonite, and Hydreigon.
• Charizard is the most powerful Mega Evolution in singles. Specifically, Mega Charizard Y, which can run Weather Ball, Flamethrower, or Fire Blast and Solar Beam to hit Water and Ground-types. For the last two moves, any combination of Scorching Sands, Focus Blast, or Roost works great. Just keep an eye out for Rock-type Pokemon, or any Pokemon with Rock Slide or Stone Edge – they will take out Charizard in a single hit.
• Meowscarada is absolutely fantastic online with a Choice Scarf. Run Knock Off, Flower Trick, Triple Axel, and U-turn, and you’re now capable of dealing with Garchomp, Primarina, Dragonite, and many others. Meowscarada’s Protean ability causes it to change its type to the type of attack it’s about to use, which in turn increases the power of that attack.
• Gengar is great too, especially when Mega Evolved. Mega Gengar’s Sp. Attack increases to fearsome levels when paired with Nasty Plot, and using Shadow Ball, Sludge Wave, and Focus Blast as attacks completes Gengar’s coverage nicely. It also gets Will-O-Wisp, Hex, and Thunderbolt, which are all viable as well. Mega Gengar’s ability, Shadow Tag, prevents opponents from switching out.
• Archaludon is extremely difficult to take down thanks to its high Defense, powerful attacks, and Stamina ability. You’ll usually see it run Draco Meteor, Flash Cannon, Thunderbolt, and Stealth Rock. But it also sometimes runs Electro Shot in rain, which can get extremely dangerous. You can run Leftovers or a Magnet as an item on it.
• Finally, we’ll list a few more viable Mega Evolutions. Mega Lopunny is fast and can hit Ghost-types with Close Combat, Mega Venusaur is bulky and can utilize Leech Seed to great effect, Mega Delphox is powerful and fast, and Mega Victreebel, while not all that powerful, has the ability Innards Out. That means if Mega Victreebel is KO’d from full health, it’s taking the opponent down with it. This forces your enemy to either slowly whittle down Mega Victreebel and get hit with Strength Sap and Sleep Powder, or to KO it outright but lose one of their Pokemon.

The best Doubles Pokemon

• Incineroar takes the top spot, in classic Pokemon fashion. It’s actually a support Pokemon, despite its appearance, and it runs moves like Fake Out and Parting Shot. If you don’t know this already, Fake Out has priority and causes an opponent to flinch, which means Incineroar’s teammate is much more likely to be able to fire off its own attack. Incineroar also runs attacks, most often Flare Blitz, but sometimes you’ll see Throat Chop or Darkest Lariat instead. Items are fairly limited right now, but Incineroar almost always runs Sitrus Berry for recovery. Incineroar always runs its signature Intimidate ability, too.
• Sneasler is terribly frail, but you can patch that up with a Focus Sash – its offensive prowess is very impressive. It pretty much always runs the same four moves: Fake Out, Protect, Close Combat, and Dire Claw. Dire Claw is Sneasler’s signature move, and it has a 30% chance of paralyzing, poisoning, or sleeping the opponent. That chance can win you games all on its own, if you get lucky! Some players run Focus Sash and the Poison Touch ability to spread status, but others run White Herb as an item with the Unburden ability. With this, Sneasler will activate White Herb after using Close Combat, which in turn activates its Unburden ability and doubles its speed. No wonder this thing is such a threat!
• Charizard is one of the most popular Mega Evolutions this season, if not the most popular one outright. You’ll only see Mega Charizard Y on ranked battles because its sun-boosted special attacks are far superior. For moves, it just about always runs Heat Wave, Solar Beam, Weather Ball, and Protect. Weather Ball becomes a strong 100 base power Fire-type move in sun, and it’s a single-target attack whereas Heat Wave targets both opponents but deals less damage. Mega Charizard Y’s sunlight can activate Venusaur’s Chlorophyll ability to double its speed, making it a solid teammate.
• Eternal Floette is probably the second strongest Mega Evolution right now, but it’s a bit one-dimensional. You’ll usually see it run Calm Mind, Dazzling Gleam, Moonblast, and Protect, and its Fairy Aura ability makes its attacks extremely powerful. Floette doesn’t get a ton of attacks that aren’t Fairy-type, which makes resists like Corviknight and Charizard really strong into it. Still, do your best to never give this Pokemon a chance to get a Calm Mind boost – it’s extremely powerful even without one.
• Garchomp is a bulky attacker that generally runs White Herb, Lum Berry, or Choice Scarf as its item. You don’t see a ton of variance with its moveset, either – Dragon Claw, Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Protect. It’s important to note, Garchomp and Mega Floette have the exact same speed tier, so you might want to make sure your Garchomp has max Speed so it can at least speed tie with it.
• Whimsicott is really annoying to face, which makes it a great candidate for your team. Its Prankster ability means its Tailwind and Encore always go first. Tailwind doubles your team’s speed for a few turns, and Encore forces the opponent to use the move they previously used over and over for three turns. This means you can’t safely click Protect or boosting moves in front of Whimsicott, because it might lock you into it and prevent you from attacking. Whimsicott runs Moonblast as its sole attack, but it’s not very powerful.
• Sinistcha is another strong support Pokemon, and a big part of that is its ability, Hospitality. When Sinistcha switches in, it restores the health of its partner Pokemon by 25%. It also has access to helpful support moves like Strength Sap, Life Dew, Trick Room, and Rage Powder. If you don’t know this already, Rage Powder is a redirecting move. When Sinistcha uses Rage Powder, the opponent is forced to target Sinistcha instead of its teammate. This can allow Sinistcha’s teammate to set up boosts or fire off attacks. Just remember, moves that target both opponents will still work even if Sinistcha uses Rage Powder.
• We’re lumping Pelipper and Archaludon together here, because you’ll often see them as a group. Pelipper’s Drizzle ability sets rain, which in turn powers up Archaludon. Its signature move, Electro Shot, takes two turns to complete. On the first, it charges energy and increases its Sp. Attack stat. On the second, it unleashes a powerful Electric-type attack. If it’s raining, Electro Shot executes in one turn instead of two. Archaludon also has access to Flash Cannon and Draco Meteor, plus its Stamina ability raises its Defense every time it takes a hit. This thing can spiral out of control really fast, so try to hit it with a powerful Ground-type move before it gets going. But be careful, because Pelipper can block Earthquake with Wide Guard. These two can rip you apart if you’re not prepared for rain teams!
• Kingambit no longer has access to Tera from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, but it does have tons of power and great abilities. You usually see Sucker Punch, Kowtow Cleave, Iron Head, and Protect on Kingambit. Its whole thing is that Sucker Punch always goes first, but only if the opponent is attacking, so it can play mindgames by making the opponent wonder if it’s clicking Sucker Punch or Kowtow Cleave. You generally would want a Chople Berry or Black Glasses as the item here.
• Basculegion is another Pokemon that’s strong on rain teams, but it’s completely functional without rain, too. Players can choose between Swift Swim as its ability, which doubles its speed in rain, or Adaptability, which greatly increases the power of its Water and Ghost-type moves. You usually see Aqua Jet, Wave Crash, Last Respects, and then Protect or Flip Turn here. For an item, Choice Scarf or Mystic Water is most common.

Which Pokemon have you been using most often in Pokemon Champions? Feel free to let us know in the comments down below.

If you’re wondering what lies ahead for the game, rewards for Season M-2 were previously leaked. We have that information here.