Pokémon GO Retro Cup - Best Picks, Rules, And More

With the Fossil Cup at an end in Pokémon GO, it's time for a new GO Battle League Cup to take its place and that's the Retro Cup. This cup will be available for a little over a week and will round out the rest of June, so be prepared to build a new team.

Most of the new or limited Go Battle League cups have a set of rules that remove types from the roster. Whether they are removed or required it changes the dynamic of the teams chosen and the current meta. The best part is that they will still count towards your ranking and XP, so they aren't like typical party games.

What are the rules of the Retro Cup in Pokémon GO?

There's a reason that the Retro Cup has that name in the Pokémon GO Battle League, and it has to do with the typing that used to exist in Pokémon. In the original release of Pokémon, there were only 15 types that could be used, and that was changed later on in Generation II. 

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Eventually, Pokémon would have 18 types, but the Retro Cup brings it back to the original 15. So the rules dictate that Steel, Fairy, and Dark-types are all eliminated from selection in your team. This won't get rid of every meta Pokémon, but it certainly removes some of the strongest picks, and Trainers need to adapt.

The other rule brings the Retro Cup to the Great League level, which means Pokémon can't be any higher in CP than 1,500. Great League is the lowest base league, and it is usually the most competitive due to candy requirements in the other leagues. Little Cups will bring CP down to 500, but these are more limited.

The best picks for the Pokemon Go Retro Cup

Because of the restrictions in the Retro Cup, many of the meta picks in the Great League will be missing from the roster. Options like Registeel and Azumarill will be unavailable. This opens up the chance for Ice and Ghost-types to dominate the show. At least eight of the best Retro options are listed below with optimal moves.

• Walrein - Powder Snow (Fast) and Icicle Spear/Earthquake (Charged)
• Lickitung XL - Lick (Fast) and Body Slam/Power Whip (Charged)
• Trevenant - Shadow Claw (Fast) and Seed Bomb/Shadow Ball (Charged)
• Froslass - Powder Snow (Fast) and Avalanche/Shadow Ball (Charged)
• Cofagrius - Shadow Claw (Fast) and Shadow Ball/Dark Pulse (Charged)
• Altaria - Dragon Breath (Fast) and Sky Attack/Moonblast (Charged)
• Regirock - Lock On (Fast) and Stone Edge/Focus Blast (Charged)
• Araquanid - Bug Bite (Fast) and Bug Buzz/Bubble Beam (Charged)

It's important to keep in mind that having two charged moves on any of these Pokémon will make a world of difference in your matches. Much of the time they serve as a way to create two types of damage.

But even more important is the ability to burn shields or nuke depending on the situation. Having just one move may change the rankings in some situations.

And that's all. For more awesome content, check out our section dedicated to Pokémon GO news, guides, updates, and more!

Featured image courtesy of Niantic.