GamePress

Initial Metagame-Shift Summary of CP Adjustment Patch LEGACY

by PEEFSmash, Gamepress Researcher

This morning we woke up to quite a shocking and exciting CP shakeup. After a couple hours of simulation and metagame analysis, not a great deal changes in the grand scheme, believe it or not. A few more Pokemon enter the sphere of relevance, including Alakazam, Kangaskhan, and Chansey. A few are knocked down a bit, such as Slowbro and Arcanine. However, Vaporeon, Snorlax, Dragonite, and Lapras’ continued strength will keep the metagame centered. Ironically, Vaporeon may be even – more - central to the metagame due to the notable nerf to the big grass types, and the impending increase in Rhydon usage, who Vaporeon counters handily.

One particularly interesting fact is that Snorlax now has a counter. Rhydon, due to his Rock typing, will resist Body Slams and Hyper Beams, but will deal full damage to Snorlax. Because of the new boost in CP, Rhydon has roughly equal CP to Snorlax. All said, Snorlax finally has a losing matchup. Rhydon with a moveset like Mud Slap + Earthquake will beat Snorlax 1v1 without dodging, something that no other Pokemon can claim.

Chansey becoming an incredible tank with by far the highest effective health in the game opens up the possibility of gym timeout strategies, which is a potentially massive impact of this balance patch that has been completely overlooked.

More general info here
Analysis

Snorlax now has a counter! Rhydon is the first Pokemon in the history of PoGo that will defeat Snorlax 1v1 with no dodging! Rhydon now incredibly powerful, nearly identical CP-growth as Snorlax. Ultimately his tier placement will be hindered by his weak typing. Less of a problem on attack when he can choose his fights, though.

Alakazam attack power massively boosted, now equal offensive power to Mewtwo! Just make sure you dodge...

Gengar attack greatly boosted. Still weak defensively. If you can dodge accurately, your new Gengar is quite useful, especially with Shadow Claw + Sludge Bomb.

Chansey finally made into a monster tank. Now 45% higher effective health than Snorlax! The possibility exists for gym timeout strategies. This will be a key point of exploration.

Dragonite receives small buff, enough to holds his relative position among the top few Pokemon for attack and defense.

Vaporeon, similarly to Dragonite, maintains relative position due to small buff. Snorlax still sits at the center of the metagame as a top attacker and defender.

Slowbro quite seriously nerfed, will not remain as highly rated. Though the nerf to his CP may seem minor, it comes from his effective health, and makes many of his matchups flip from favorable to unfavorable, especially considering the wide range of buffed Pokemon.

Lapras remains very strong on defense, though was not buffed. Potential to fall to Tier 1.5 on attack.

Gyarados soars in relevance as an attacker, now likely to be Tier 1 or 1.5.

Poliwrath slightly nerfed. Still relevant defender.

Arcanine crushed by this update! No longer high tier attacker or relevant defender. Not only was he nerfed, but the nerf came out of his effective HP, and some of his strongest counters, such as Vaporeon, Rhydon, and Golem were buffed.

The Big Grasses (especially Vileplume and Victreebel) all nerfed moderately. Venusaur mostly untouched.

Machamp boosted in CP, still not very good due to moveset.

Jolteon is still worse against Vaporeon than Vaporeon is. However, Jolteon's attack is now huge, so with perfect dodging, he will serve as a quick and efficient counter to waters. Jolteon leaves the other top electrics far behind, now.

Kangaskhan with Stomp is now a very viable defender.