Best Great League teams to use in Pokémon Go

The Great League is the perfect place to start dabbling in Go Battle League if you haven’t tried competitive battling yet in Pokémon Go.

While the other leagues have their thrills, they can get bogged down with rare Legendary Pokémon, XL Candy requirements, and a lot of Community Day exclusive moves. 

Great League is the nearest thing Pokémon Go has to a level playing field, and while it still has its quibbles, it is a great place to learn the competitive ropes, try out some Pokémon, and enjoy some battles with friends.

We explain the best Great League team to get you started in Pokémon Go, and where the Great League meta is right now.

What is the Great League meta right now?

We’re hot on the heels of the biggest Pokemon tournament ever, and while Pokemon EUIC 2025 saw some familiar faces such as Primeape, Marowak, and Galarian Corsola leading the teams of our most famous competitors, in comes another big shake-up to add some new flavor. 

We’re now in the “Might & Mastery” season, and alongside it, Niantic has introducing a couple of refreshing changes for some Pokemon and moves, which spell great news for some, and terrible news for others. 

Two moves in very similar positions are the fairy-type attack Dazzling Gleam, and the dark-type move Foul Play, with both seeing a slight drop on their attack power, but also a decrease in energy cost. This means that it is now quicker to charge these moves so players can use them more, which is essential to break down shields quickly and force tactical swaps. 

One huge buff comes to Rock Tomb, which gets increased attack power and decreased energy cost, which is then followed up with the fact it is now guaranteed to lower the opposing Pokemon’s attack by one stage. What a turnaround — and huge for high-tier Pokemon with this in their arsenal such as Claydol. 

Finally, some other big changes include reduced energy cost for Psyshock, a huge increase in power for Aqua Jet alongside a decrease in energy cost, and Sludge has had a notable buff making it a thorn in the side for Fairy-type Pokemon everywhere. 

As always, it’s interesting to see which Pokemon come out on top of these changes, and for the moment it seems like Lapras and Sableye have had the biggest glow-up this season. Meanwhile, previous stalwarts like Primeape, Feraligatr, and Pangoro have fallen slightly from grace.

Great League best team suggestions

With the lower CP limit of 1,500, you should be able to get most of these Pokémon with little problem. Here’s our best team suggestions for the Great League:

• Clodsire, Sableye (Shadow), and Diggersby
• Lapras, Mandibuzz, and Morpeko (Full Belly)

Let’s go through them separately.

Clodsire, Sableye (Shadow), and Diggersby

Oh Clodsire, first in most of the rankings, and first in our hearts. While the new evolution of Paldean Wooper has an unassuming look in its eyes, it’s actually a huge threat. This is mostly down fantastic defensive typing and stats, as well as access to some pretty handy moves. The dual Poison and Ground-type makes Clodsire a menace for a lot of common threats like Azumarill and Drapion. 

You want to run Poison Sting as a Fast Move to generate energy quickly, then follow up with Charged Moves Sludge Bomb and Earthquake. Just like in the mainline games, Earthquake is just one of the best offensive moves across the board, only furthered by STAB bonus here. However, if you are running into problems with Pokémon like Talonflame, you can run Clodsire with Stone Edge instead of Sludge Bomb, but Earthquake has to stay. 

Sableye makes a big comeback this season thanks to one change, the addition of Dazzling Gleam. Here you want to run the Shadow form to round out it’s stats, swapping a bit of defensive bulk for offensive capabilities, which work especially well alongside this new move. 

Being dark- and ghost-type means, while Sableye has a pretty glaring fairy-type weakness, it resists very common threats such as psychic-, poison-, and fighting-type Pokemon. This gives the plucky little purple Pokemon an edge over Drapion, Clodsire, and many more. 

For its fast move you want to run Shadow Claw which helps with other ghost-type Pokemon like Annihilape. Then, while Dazzling Gleam is the star of the show, Foul Play makes use of that STAB dark-type bonus to help with some newer opponents like Grumpig and Claydol. 

Finally, Diggersby is a great bulky Pokemon that works as a fantastic wall to save for your final pick. Quick Attack does exactly what it says on the tin, with the move quickly helping to build Charged Moves so Diggersby can cause even more problems. 

While Diggersby does have a couple of glaring weaknesses, like grass- and ice-type Pokemon, it also has access to the Charged Move Fire Punch, so it can blindside opponents while also causing problems for Steel-type threats like Corviknight. 

Rounding out the set is Scorching Sands, a good STAB Ground-type move which helps to take down any Poison-type foes such as the ever-present Clodsire, Drapion, and Toxapex. 

This team’s best moves, IVs, and alternative suggestions:

• Clodsire alternatives: Drapion (Shadow), Toxapex, and Nidoqueen
• Sableye (Shadow) alternatives: Malamar, Golurk (Shadow), and Spiritomb
• Diggersby alternatives: Lickitung, Hippowdon (Shadow), and Buneary

Lapras, Mandibuzz, and Morpeko (Full Belly)

What a comeback Lapras has made this season. The bulky water-type Pokemon was never too far away from the top of the competitive tables, but some weak moves and bad coverage have kept it away from the spotlight. 

Well, no more, as Lapras now has the Fast Move Psywave, and the Charged Move Sparkling Aria, helping both with coverage and pure attack power. This means Lapras can now stand tall against major threats like Clodsire, and is a thorn in the side of competitive mainstay Diggersby. 

It does still have a few different weaknesses, with electric-, fighting-, grass-, and rock-types all causing problems. This means switching into Pokemon like Serperior can be a huge problem. But with these new move changes and its already impressive bulk, Lapras is now one of the biggest problems in all of the Great League. 

Next, Mandibuzz has been a huge threat for a while in competitive Pokemon Go, and though there have been lots of changes to the Pokemon around it, this dark- and flying-type threat is still one of the very best in the game. That dark-type STAB bonus means Snarl hits hard, causing huge problems for popular Pokemon like Annihilape, meanwhile you can round out the moveset with Dark Pulse and Aerial Ace. 

Mandibuzz will have to be careful with other competitive mainstays like Morpeko causing it some big problems, but overall it’s balance of fantastic bulk and admirable Attack stats mean that this fearsome Flying-type is ready to rise above the competition for another season. 

Finally, rounding out this team is a Pokemon that is mostly here to deal with its teammates: Morpeko (Full Belly) is one of the most recent additions to the Pokemon Go roster. Upon its arrival last season, it caused such a stir that it was temporarily banned. 

Now after some tweaks it is back in action, and despite some pretty lackluster defense, it works as a great switch-in threat with high enough attack and a decent spread of moving typings. Thunder Shock hits fast, and it hits hard, causing instant issues for threats like Lapras, Azumarill, and Feraligatr. 

Similarly, Aura Wheel will send those Water-type Pokemon packing, and it even gives Morpeko a boost to it’s Attack, setting it up to sweep unsuspecting teams. Finally, round out this moveset with either Psychic Fangs or Outrage, just to pick up the offensive blind spots. 

This team’s best moves, IVs, and alternative suggestions:

• Lapras alternatives: Dewgong, Walrein, and Feraligatr
• Mandibuzz alternatives: Umbreon, Galarian Moltres, and Honchkrow
• Morpeko (Full Belly) alternatives: Zapdos (Shadow), Electivire, and Emolga

In summary — 0ne of the most exciting things about Great League is that there are just so many viable options. We’ve picked a select few here, but there are still some massive threats such as Malamar, Galarian Corsola, Grumpig, and Togetic. It means you can experiment, and all without spending too much Candy to get them up as close as possible to that ceiling of 1,500 CP. 

Meanwhile, as mentioned, while Master League demands as close to perfect IVs as possible, here you want to find Pokémon with 0 Attack IVs and high Defence and Stamina to get your Pokémon as high level as possible before hitting the CP limit. 

Finally, keep an eye on new additions to the Pokédex, as this league is the most malleable of the bunch, and each new addition has a chance of shaking up the rankings even more. Who knows what the rest of 2025 will bring.

If you want some more Go Battle League tips, we also have some Ultra League best team recommendations.