Pokemon Go player thrilled by “fantastic” Great Battle League loss

Pokemon Go’s Battle League is often dominated by a select few ‘mons, but this player’s GBL experience shows why you shouldn’t be afraid to branch out.

One Pokemon Go player’s story about a recent Battle League experience makes a compelling case for building interesting teams over the most competitively viable ones.

As Reddit user fraggle_captain shared, they recently fought an opponent with a Meowstic, Bombirdier, and Swalot in the Great League. These Pokemon aren’t considered the best options for the format, but according to the poster, that contributed to the experience.

“It was fantastic because I had absolutely no idea what charged attacks to expect,” they explained.

Considering Pokemon Go’s fairly simplistic combat mechanics and limited movesets, it’s pretty easy to predict what your opponent is going to do once they send out their Pokemon. However, an unexpected team like this could take you by surprise.

“Who knew the Meowstic (a psychic cat) had a charged grass attack?” the player said, revealing that Meowstic was able to handily take out their Swampert. “It made things a lot more fun when I had no idea what was coming next instead of seeing the same 10-15 mons constantly.”

Even though the player was defeated, they admitted, “I didn’t mind the loss at all because I think I had a smile on my face for the entire battle!”

The story has other players lamenting that the Pokemon Go Battle League experience is often hurt by repetitive teams and movesets. “Ultra League is not fun anymore because of Cressilia and Giratina,” said one commenter.

While some Pokemon and moves are clearly better suited to battles than others, this story makes it clear that the “ideal” team isn’t always the best option. In fact, taking your opponents by surprise with an unexpected Pokemon or move might be the key to victory.