Introduction
On September 27th, 2019, Niantic pushed another Trainer Battle-centric update to the game, adding two new moves, changing a few existing moves, and giving moves to new Pokémon. A full list of the changes can be seen here. As with every other one of these updates, it will have wide-reaching impacts on every metagame in the coming future. The question, then, is “What do I need to look out for? Who’s coming out on top, and who’s going to struggle in the coming months."
Winners
The move, not the type. Psychic previously was 100 Power, 70 Energy, making it all but unusable. Now, at 90 Power for 55 Energy, (with a 10% chance to lower your opponent’s Defense by 1 stage), it’s a Psychic-type Earth Power, sharing a statline with other very solid moves like Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Flamethrower. While you shouldn’t necessarily go out of your way to run Psychic, it’s no longer just a dead slot.
The Pokémon that probably benefit most from this change are Claydol, Noctowl, Jirachi, Legacy Confusion Exeggutor, Slowbro, and possibly Alolan Raichu in the right meta. That said, every single Pokémon that learns Psychic is at least somewhat better!
In PVP, Snarl has gone from 2.6 DPT/3.3 EPT to 1.6 DPT/4.3 EPT, making it incredibly fast. Almost on par with Mud Shot’s statline (slightly more damage, slightly less energy), Snarl’s strengths and weaknesses are much more defined. That said, the move is probably much stronger on the whole now, able to power out Charged Moves significantly more effectively. Notably, this makes some already very powerful Pokémon like Umbreon and Alolan Muk even better. Umbreon now has some legitimate choice between Feint Attack and Snarl, for one. Similarly, Snarl’s speed gives Alolan Muk an alternative to its traditional Poison Jab+Dark Pulse and (Acid Spray OR Sludge Wave) set. It also makes Suicune a much more interesting Pokémon, though its actual place in the meta is yet to be seen. Probably still niche, but definitely don't count the Aurora Pokémon out just yet. For Ultra and Master League, Weavile now has access to the fastest Avalanche in the game, and that’s very exciting. The as-of-yet unreleased Pokémon Scrafty and Mandibuzz will also be able to make fantastic use of this new-and-improved Snarl. Darkrai may still be too squishy to function, but it absolutely does pick up some much-needed speed.
Mawile picks up 3 interesting new moves: Fire Fang and Ice Fang as Fast Moves, and Power-Up Punch as a Charged Move. While Power-Up Punch received a pretty harsh nerf, it’s still Mawile’s cheapest move, and gaining Fire Fang and Ice Fang give it some more diverse offense. Mawile was previously a very, very niche pick, but these new additions may give it a bit more relevance.
Not a massive change, but a VERY impactful one. Alolan Raichu picks up Thunder Shock (1.5 DPT/4.5 EPT) with this update, widely considered to be a direct upgrade to its previous best Fast Move Spark (2 DPT/4 EPT). This lets it use its Charged Moves faster and more consistently, and puts its Thunder Punch+Wild Charge set more on par with Legacy Thunder Shock Kanto Raichu, but with much more Charged Move versatility. If you have an Alolan Raichu, you will want to burn those fast TMs. The mon is just better now.
Fire Fang was previously a 3.5 DPT/2.5 EPT fast move. It was, all things considered, pretty mediocre, and was generally unused in PvP. This update not only increased its power to 4 DPT, making it a Fire-type clone of Rock Throw (4 DPT/2.5 EPT). Bite/Dragon Breath/Counter levels of damage (despite somewhat underwhelming energy gain) make this move much stronger. Additionally, Niantic added two new moves with the same statline: the Ice-type Ice Fang and the Electric-type Thunder Fang. Interestingly, Mightyena and Hippowdon both now have access to all 3 Elemental Fangs + Bite, giving them a lot of unpredictability.
Key users of these new moves are likely Hippowdon, Thunder Fang Steelix, and Ice Fang Drapion.
Pretty Much Everything Else
The Pokémon listed above are probably the most notable winners. The good Pokémon that are now better, the niche ones that are probably more generally relevant. The nice thing about new moves is, as long as you have the TMs for them, they certainly can’t make a Pokémon worse. Alolan Sandslash now actually has a cheap Charged Move. Alolan Ninetales has Charm. Golduck got Bubble Beam, Synchronoise, and Cross Chop, which gives it an incredibly unique niche, but we'll have to see where it ends up.
Losers
Power-Up Punch Users
Power-Up Punch might just be bad now. Previously, at +4 Attack (which is to say, after 4 uses of Power-Up Punch), Power-Up Punch was effectively an 80 power/35 energy move, which is blatantly incredibly powerful. Now, at +4, it’s only 40/35, and that’s pitiful. It was very rarely a good idea to shield the first Power-Up Punch. Now it’s not even worth shielding the last one. This move is so, so, so much worse than it was before, and it will likely have major impacts on Fighting-types in every metagame moving forward. It's gone from a generically good move which makes any mon that gets it better to a very niche one that you'll see only occasionally.
Undertappers
This update has removed the ability to “Undertap” your Charged Moves. While this lowers the overall skill ceiling of the game, it definitely does make the game more intuitive, which is most likely a good thing for everyone.
People Without Infinite TMs
As with every new move update, move pools are increasing, and with the current randomness of how TMs work, it becomes more and more frustrating to try to get the right Charged Moves on a Pokémon. Golduck now has 6 Charged Moves, which means on average 6 Charged TMs to get just one move you want. But it could just as easily take twice that many, and that’s scary for people without infinite resources (which is to say, everyone).
Kinda Ambiguous
Bubble Beam
Bubble Beam is a weird move. Before, it was terrible, at 45 power for 40 energy. Now, it’s...not exactly strictly better. 25 power for 40 energy is far from good, but with a 100% chance to decrease your opponent’s Attack by 1 stage, the move has some newfound utility. But it’s definitely niche, and probably only holds a small niche at that. It will absolutely require more testing to see if it has any use.
PvE: Raids and Gyms
While this update was largely PvP-centric, that's not to say that it had no impacts on PvE! Weavile got Snarl, which makes it very slightly better as a Dark attacker.
Even more importantly, though, Psychic got massively buffed, making it now the second strongest Psychic-type Charged Move after Psystrike. While, like with PvP, every Psychic user is better, there are a few key winners. Zen Headbutt/Psychic Metagross now functions as an incredibly bulky option, Latios's stock went up with the same set, and Psychic Mewtwo is much more comparable to its Psystrike version.
The Elemental Fangs aren't quite as impactful, though. Thunder Fang and Ice Fang just didn't end up on the right Pokémon to make them super relevant in the PvE metagame. However, Fire Fang did get a slight buff, which makes Entei more powerful. Additionally, the yet-to-be-released Reshiram is even more of a beast than it was before!
Conclusion
With so many moving parts, it’s difficult to predict exactly where the metagame will end up. Fighting as a type seems weaker as a consequence of the Power-Up Punch nerf. Snarl seems incredible. Alolan Marowak now has two good fast moves. All in all, this patch seems great, and it will be super interesting to see where the chips fall as everyone figures out the metagame!
