Massively on the Go: A practical guide to Pokemon Go gym defense

Before we go into defense, we need to talk about why many of these guides fail the community. Again, they aren’t all bad. In fact, for the bare basics, I still recommend Gamepress’ guide on the subject. Instead, our guide is for people already familiar with the basics. A simple test of whether or not you need the Gamepress guide: If you don’t know why someone might want to use a 1000CP Blissey over a 3000cp Blissey, you should head over there. If you don’t understand why people might keep feeding a new rare pokemon like Jangmo-O but not a perfect, max-level Rhyperior, you should also head over there. If you want to place Pikachu instead of a Snorlax… well, that’s your priority, and I’ll even have a good excuse for you to keep doing that later on.

As the attacker, you want to pick strong pokemon. Again, Gamepress often has you covered here, as its list of attackers is often kept up to date. Fighting types are going to be your priority, but you’ll probably want other ones too based on your local scene.

As the defender, knowing the two previously mentioned attack styles is important in picking your defender. There are other factors to consider, and we’ll discuss them later, but I’m highlighting these strategies because they’re why other guides just aren’t helpful. One thing people often do when making gym defender lists is to look at bulk. The problem, however, is that most of those pokemon are vulnerable to Fighting types.

This makes lists that overly rely on bulk create one of the biggest realities of a poorly built gym: too much vulnerability to Fighting types. This is compounded by the fact that the default attack style for casuals is “Fight’em All.” In fact, my default gym-attack team is a Shadow Machamp with Counter, Dynamic Punch, and Rock Slide, followed by a Machamp with Counter, Dynamic Punch, and the Community Day move Payback. With these two pokemon alone, I can lazily beat most gyms with the “Fight’em All” strat.

But there’s a flip side to this: creating lists that ignore the “One by One” strategy. Instead, they create lists that acknowledge that Blissey, Chansey, and Snorlax are often the best defenders (the first two because of sheer bulk, Snorlax because it has both bulk and above-average attack), and then create lists that theoretically would protect them. For a moment, we’ll forget that these same lists somehow forget that Machamp has moves to counter their picks, but keep this in mind as it’s the reason why we’ll have a different list than many others.

Our goal for today is to not only bring up stronger defense choices, but also psychologically better defenders who have factors other lists may lack.

Now, admittedly, there are out-of-game factors like connection issues, gym location, local metas… lots of things that can be hard to account for. At the moment, let’s skip over that and focus on gyms that are accessible and will be vulnerable to attack for some time in the immediate future.

The most obvious first factor is strong defensive pokemon picks. Many guides mention Blissey, Chansey, and Snorlax due to their bulk, though that’s not the only factor. The thing is, they are still the bulkiest defenders when a player is using an attacker the defender is weak to. Again, using Machamp as the most basic and accessible attacker and assuming all pokemon involved are at level 50 with their ideal movesets, Blissey lasts a full 36 seconds against ‘Champ and can kill it. Chansey lasts about 27 seconds, while Snorlax lasts about 23 seconds.

While someone can argue that, say, Dragonite can about 44 seconds against a basic Machamp, that drops to 30 seconds if Machamp has a Rock Slide as a secondary move. Even worse, Dragonite won’t even last 19 seconds against Lapras with Blizzard, a pokemon that’s been far outclassed and using the incredibly slow Blizzard as a charge move. The easily accessible Mamoswine drops that below 13 seconds. As you can see, in practical terms, Dragonite is, at best, decent against an unaware 2016 era newbie opponent. That’s not going to cut it these days, but there are other factors to consider.

How long do you suspect your gym will last before it’s attacked? A gym that’s frequently attacked will need pokemon ready to defend themselves immediately. Those are going to be ‘mon with a high CP, so the previously mentioned top three pokemon are still good in theory.

But if it’s a gym that you want to last through the night without needing to constantly feed it berries, you could use the same three pokemon listed above with lower CP or focus on pokemon that retain a lot of bulk for little CP, meaning their motivation will decay at a lower rate but still pose a threat hours later. Again, Gamepress largely has us covered. The sweet spots seem to be just below 2227CP, 1610CP, and 1281CP, depending on long you want the gym to last and how often you plan to feed.

For those who care, let’s talk about some practicality and methodology calls. Realistically, few people will have the defender ‘mon at max level, but since Machamp has had a Community Day, had two December CD round-ups, and has featured in several events all after XL candy became a thing, it’s not difficult for a daily player to have at least one maxed out. I’ve also tested many of these pokemon recently in a variety of situations and even internationally, throughout the years as a major participant in various gyms scenes. Again, the top three tiers should be good enough for all players in most situations, but the bottom two tiers have some unique uses.

The idea was to not only find something that could slow down Machamps when a player uses the “Fight’em All” method, but something that can at least leave an attacker with a few bruises when the “One by One” method is used. Time to win was judged between only statistically perfect pokemon, with the high end (slowest) being Machamp vs. Blissey both being at level 50 and taking about 35 seconds, and a “practical but bad” defense with a level 30 Jolteon vs level 50 Gyarados ending in only about 15 seconds. These two were chosen because Gyarados is easy enough to have maxed out one these days as a veteran player, is one of the common “mistake” defenders I’ve noted, and new players can easily access a level 30 Jolteon either by themselves due to the ease to achieve that level and how common Eevees are.

From there, I went through various other tier lists (not just for gyms, but bulk and overall stat products). The chosen pokemon aren’t in order or power within their tiers, simply in relation to their ability to combat the particularly the accessible Machamp vs. an equally accessible counter to their typing. Emphasis is primarily on imminent gyms attacks where you’ll need to use a Golden Razz Berry to refill defenders’ motivation, but I’ll also note when a pokemon’s max CP is low enough that it can remain a threat for longer periods of time.

There’s not a lot to be said about Blissey that hasn’t been said, but without a doubt, it is far and away still the best defender thanks to just how long it lasts against pokemon it takes Super Effective damage from. Nothing in the games now or in the future will change this without either a massive reworking of the gym system or a new pokemon being added to the main series to rival it. I do want to emphasize that Blissey’s Psychic Charge Move is generally a better option, as we tend to be planning for people to use Fighting types. While Fighting is weak to Psychic and Fairy moves, Psychic (the move) hits faster so it can surprise the attacker and actually have a shot at fainting it.

While people will often say you should use Azumaril and other pokemon that cap out with a low CP for long term gym defense, Blissey has the most psychological advantage against players. I actually have a few below 1000CP simply because if people see a Blissey at full motivation, they often won’t even notice the CP and leave the gym alone. Any time you really want to keep a gym, just choose Blissey.

The main thing about Chansey is that it has most of the defensive abilities of Blissey but at a lower CP, allowing it to last longer in gyms. Again, Psychic and Dazzling Gleam are both useful, but I still recommend Psychic because it comes out faster, putting the attacker more on the defense.

Unlike Blissey, though, Chansey is occasionally a raid boss. Putting Chansey in the last slot can camouflage your gym, making it seem like a raid is active to players who aren’t paying attention. If people are looking for Chansey, this can have the opposite effect of attracting attention, so your mileage will vary based on your local players.

Snorlax is where things start to change. Even in the old system, Snorlax couldn’t complete wall-out attackers like the Chansey family could. It can kill a weak attacker when placed towards the middle or end against Fight’em All style attackers. Admittedly, having a secondary move unlocked on a defending Snorlax and having Earthquake can occasionally help it land a faint, but the AI essentially does a coin flip when it comes time to use specials, so don’t rely on that.

For me, the inclusion of Snorlax is often a hit or miss. Too many people drop off pokemon that are vulnerable to Fighting. If there’s a single Rhydon-family member, Tyranitar, Aggron, or just plain bad pick like Pikachu, and Chansey and Blissey are already in, I’ll avoid placing Snorlax altogether. Again, many people’s default attack style is Attack’em All, and stacking the same weakness only makes their job easier. Pick Snorlax on a case-by-case basis.

This is probably the first curveball veteran players will see on our list. To note, I’d made this list before my trip to Japan earlier this year, and this was one of the Pokemon I knew would be good for defense but wasn’t seeing much in the US, but I did see a few in Japan. That’s because Florges has a lot going for it. Compared to Gardevoir which is much lower in our list, Florges lasts longer against both Machamp and its weakness, Metagross, but it also has a psychological advantage in being both unexpected and often mistaken for a Grass type.

The temptation to use the spammier Disarming Voice is high, but Psychic comes out faster and won’t be resisted if someone tries to “counter” Florges with Charizard. Florges won’t win that fight, but it will take Charizard about 32 seconds to win and most likely leave it in a weakened state, plus it protects Florges from one of its real weaknesses, Poison. It also may throw the attacker off, leaving them to google the pokemon to find a counter. It’s a one-time trick for the most part, but even then, it’ll require attackers to stop and think for a bit until/unless they grow accustomed to seeing it in gyms.

And that’s also a bit of its disadvantage. Outside of events, Florges is rare and a bit difficult to evolve, requiring 20 hearts plus 100 candy. Admittedly even I don’t have one maxed out, but I’ve used a few high CP ones to train locals to watch out, then toss in CP 1000 ones as a fake out in remote areas people often won’t have a lot of time to battle at. The combination often makes the gym I use them at get skipped over for a while.

Sylveon is quite close to Florges in terms of defensive power, and unsurprisingly, it was another Fairy I was seeing in Japanese gyms fairly often. Florges has the advantage against Machamp, but Sylveon on average will outlast it against Metagross by a second. Even better, Psyshock means players trying to use Poison types (which is admittedly rare) to take a gym will take extra damage from Sylvy, as it’s a spammy 3-bar move. While it’s easier to raise and far less candy to evolve than Florges, there are some issues.

If you thought Florges was a pain to evolve, it gets even worse with Sylveon, requiring 70 hearts outside of events to evolve from Eevee. Its best defensive move, Psyshock, is also a Community Day move. Dazzling Gleam is almost as good for Machamp, and still faints it at full motivation, but also leaves Sylveon with only Fairy moves. Last Resort is technically an option but seeing as Steel types resist that too, it’s really a far cry from Psyshock.

While Clody was nerfed before it was released, it’s typing gives traditional attackers pause. It resists most of the Fighters’ kits aside from Shadow Ball on Lucario and Dark moves from ‘Champ or Conkl, but it’s sadly weak to Water and Ice, two weaknesses we see popping up due to frequent poorly chosen ‘mon appearing in gyms. That being said, Clod has a lot of defensive stats and low top CP, making it last long and seem like an unassuming threat, similar to Toxapex and Nidoqueen. Again, someone with a good Mewtwo can still be a major threat when employing the Fight’em All Strategy like its friends below, and having a Community Day means players are less likely to be motivated to feed it, but it’s a nice curveball to have ready.

I had mentioned this as one of the Scarlet and Violet ‘mon to watch for: Machamp-like attack and Hariyama-like bulk. Less than both, but with a Fighting resistance and taking neutral damage to the Dark moves both ‘Champ and Conkeldurr bring, it’s capable of really slowing down a Fight’em All attacker. A whopping ~56 seconds when evenly matched good, but remember that most casuals aren’t maxing out there ‘mon. In a One By One situation, Anni does fall faster than we’d like, but even if the opponent is using Mewtwo, Anni here can last a whopping 17 seconds and take about 40% of its health.

Remember, though, that few people have level 50 Mewtwos, and I’d wager Psychic types in general, as it’s a fairly weak raiding type. Anni is also from the fairly common Mankey line, so ya’ll are probably swimming in candy and can invest in this beast if you can evolve one (preferably with a friend’s help or fighting Master League level Blanche). And while I encourage most people to have dedicated defenders, Anni isn’t great for raid attacking, but it can flexibly use the same defense moves in League play, so you could potentially use your PvP monkey for defense when its League is out of rotation. The biggest downside is that, like many other curveball defenders, it’s weak to Psychic. Yes, Ghost to, but Ghosts are weak to themselves so the attacker is at least at a partial disadvantage. Keep that Psychic weakness in mind when dropping it into your local gyms!

If you need ideas, here are a few:

Regionals: Heracross is a good one since, despite having a quad-weakness, has a useful upcoming Mega. Kangaskan is a fan favorite and currently has a Mega, though is less than useful. Mr. Mime, Farfetch’d, and Tauros all have regionals with varying use.

Rare Dragon-types: Whatever dragon you’re not getting a lot of is what you wanna drop in.

Ultra-rare hatches: Larvesta is a big one, costing 400 candy for a pokemon that released as outclassed and far too rare to be practically used by 99.9% of the player base, both in terms of function and accessibility. Salandit is another, being not so useful but being rare, requiring the even rarer female, and only hatching from 12k eggs.

This is another one that is probably surprising veterans. Partially this is because it’s a Poison type, which are notoriously weak to Psychic, especially everyone’s favorite Legendary, Mewtwo. Here’s the thing I’ve learned though: a lot of long-term-casuals don’t have great Mewtwos. Even at Go Fest, I was surprised to learn some people were still chasing perfects despite it having been out since 2017.

Of course, the other side of the coin is someone like me, who has multiple perfects. In that situation, well, most things are going down anyway. But again, this guide isn’t going to be able to perfectly address all attack styles but rather guard against the main ones. Toxapex doesn’t take quad damage from anything for the One by One crowd, and the Fight’em All players are going to be in for a slog. Being Poison also means that it creates a lesser chance of people having counters built into their main gym team, as even if they do switch, most of us anticipate the need to counter Normal types, Fairies, Dragons, and some Flyers. Poison shares no weaknesses with those types.

Toxapex provides a solid wall against Machamp. Lucario with a Steel move for Fairy defenders only deals neutral damage to Toxapex, and for the spicy/lucky attackers, Toxapex can take nearly half of Terrakion’s health down in simulations. That matters since Toxapex’s CP caps out below the 2000 CP mark, meaning it can last quite a while in gyms.

I can practically feel some of your confusion over this one, veteran trainers. Poison isn’t a great type, and you’ve got Mewtwos read to take this down, right? But actually, Mewtwo with Psycho Cut and Psystrike is only a second faster than Espeon, showing how resilient Muk is. I’m sure it’s part of the reason I was seeing it in gyms in Japan on my recent trip.

Muk won’t get any kills (Return trades 2 seconds of survival for a lot more damage against Machamp in simulations), but it’s got a spammy moveset that can make some players nervous, especially if placed between sturdier or harder hitters against opponents using the Fight’em All strategy. I’ll fight a Wobbuffet with my Machamp if I know the defenders are lazy, but I’ve had enough bad experiences with well-fed Muks to know I need to be careful.

Finally, there’s putting it in last slot to trick unobservant players into thinking your gym is a Muk raid. No one really wants Muk, so unlike Snorlax, the chances of that move backfiring on your is minimal. This makes Muk a sturdy gym defender capable of various kinds of intimidation and mind games that could dissuade

Nidoqueen is a lot like Muk except it sadly is half Ground and half Poison. Admittedly, Poison is theoretically worse since Psychic has much harder hitters, but you know what? My game often ends up auto-suggesting Water types to counter it even though Ice is also Super Effective against the Queen, and I’ve seen my friends do the same. Why? Because most people power up Waters more than Pyschics. It’s a more useful type in PvE. On that end, especially for newbies and people who come back from Summer 2016, they’re going to have Vaporeon, and lucky for us, Vaporeon isn’t a heavy hitter.

As with Muk, you want to avoid STAB attacks because Nidoqueen’s really not going to be fainting anything in most situations, but it can tear a chunk out of a ‘mon when properly placed. Also like Muk, Nidoqueen is occasionally a raid boss, and one no one really wants it, which once again means its bulky and capable of mind games that can deter attackers from even checking the gym out. Just watch out if you’ve got lots of ‘mon weak to Ice and/or Water in the gym already.

Jellicent shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but maybe the movesets will be for some people. While using two Ghost moves will allow for STAB damage, Jellicent’s role is to help stack against gyms that are vulnerable to Ice pokemon. Again, other guides often suggest pokemon that take double to quadruple damage from Ice, especially Dragon types. That being said, Dragon types are also often rare, so putting them in gyms can motivate people to feed the gyms if people place something rare like the Axew or Jangmo-o family.

That’s where Ice Beam can come into play, oddly. Ice Beam is the hardest move to dodge out of Jellicent’s arsenal. It does less damage to Machamp than Shadow Ball in theory, but it may have a better chance to hit in practice. But if someone is doing the One by One Method, they may use a Dark, Ghost, Grass, or Electric type pokemon to counter Jelli. There’s nothing to be done about Electric, so let’s ignore that. Ghost is good against Ghost but is also resisted by Dark. Ice, though, works against Grass and isn’t resisted by any of Jelli’s traditional counters. Again, either kit will work, so next time there are too many Ice-vulnerable ‘mon in a gym you’re dropping off at, consider putting in some Jelli.

I know. It seems weird to not use STAB moves, but this is for two reasons. First, the above moves are more annoying/difficult to dodge, especially Psychic, as it comes out much faster and is less predictable than Shadow Ball. Second, though, these moves still hit Machamps pretty hard and Gengar, which is an easy counter for veterans and new players to put in.

Admittedly, it leaves Cof very weak to Dark-type attackers, but that’s why you may want to drop it into a gym that’s maybe overstacked with Fairy types or things weak to Grass, as many Grass attackers are part Poison and thus will take extra damage from a Psychic Cofagrigus.

It also works quite well to “fix” gyms with stacked weaknesses. As you’ll see further down the list, the meta generally involves pokemon weak to Fighting, Grass, Ground, Ice, Rock, Steel, and/or Water attacks. Cofa here is weak to none of those. We do have multiple Ghosts that can potentially get us in trouble, but Cofa can add variety when smartly deployed.

What’s interesting about Drifblim is that, on paper, it sounds like it should be better than Cofagrigus and other Ghosts on this list. After all, the way POGO calculates damage due to types (no immunities, just roughly double resistance), Drifblim would seem godly. The problem we really start to see here is Machamp’s kit. Having the Dark type Payback move means a lot of people are running around with at least one Super-Effective move that works against Drify. Smart players may instead be using Rockslide, which is Super-Effective against a large chunk of the popular Do-Not-Put-Into-Gyms ‘mon.

The fact that both these moves are SE against Drify is a bad sign, made worse by the fact that Drify is also weak to Ice types, a typing that works wonders against basically the rest of the Do-Not gym list. It may be hefty, but if you see other Flying-types in the gym, or anything weak to Electric, Rock, Ice, or Dark-types, maybe consider using something else. Unless you’re dropping off in the last slot when Driflbim can be a raid boss. Then you at least have a potential psychological advantage.

Runerigus, like Cofagrigus above, may evolve from a different Yamask, but it’s also fairly different from its brother-from-another-pokemother.

It’s Ghost typing helps a bit against Machamp’s fast attacks, but just like Drify above, remember that ‘Champ has the tools to Super-Effective it. Worse, it’s part Ground. That makes it vulnerable to Ice, Grass, and Water, all of which are popular attacking types against that Do-Not-Put-Into-Gyms list.

That being said, Runey is also fairly rare. It’s most commonly caught during October, which means players (especially newer ones who know about candy feeding) may be more willing to feed it to keep it alive.

So this is a really interesting situation. Slowbro and Slowking (any of them) aren’t bad gym defenders. As long as you use Confusion with Surf or Psychic (so the CD move isn’t required) with the Bros and Kings, they can at least slow down Machamp a bit, with all but Galarian Slowking taking about 36 seconds to lose while also having the ability to faint Machamp.

What’s more interesting is that Galarian Slowking is weirdly the best of them. It lasts the longest against Machamp and is quite flexible with both its fast moves as well. Hex and Shadow Ball give you a few extra seconds against Gengar and other Ghosts that might be used as a counter, while Hex and Surf is good against most Ground types. Maybe someone out there thinks Togekiss can do better, but recall that Machamp learns Rock Slide, a 2-bar attack. Toge won’t last as long in a direct fight in the short term, and the Slow-family’s lower CP means they stay stronger longer.

The problem is that you can’t use multiple varieties. You can have a Slowking and a Slowbro, but you can’t have Kanto Slowking with Galarian Slowking. The game doesn’t allow it. Honestly, the only reason it’s not ranked up with Nidoqueen is because Gengar is much easier to build and kit out as a Slow-counter than some other water options many players would use against Nidoqueen, like the 400-candy Gyarados working best with its Community Day move Aqua Tail.

It also works as a sort of counter-counter. As a Poison/Psychic type, Slowking takes neutral damage from Psychic attacks. Alone, Slowking isn’t a bad choice at all, but if there’s a lot of Poison types in the gym, Slowking can fit the theme while also being able to handle Psychic or Ground types that would counter them, depending on its build.

Galarian Weezing is pretty interesting. While it doesn’t take a ton of damage from Machamp and traditionally won’t have to worry about Super-Effective attacks from it, being attacked by Metagross, which has gotten its Community Day move several times for several events, deflates this dapper balloon. Worse, though, is veteran players most likely have at least one Mewtwo powered up, possibly even a Shadow Mewtwo, which will make even shorter work of ol’ Weezy.

That being said, it’s not a common defender. Newer players may be unfamiliar with its typing and not bring the right counter. It’s also sometimes a raid boss, so putting it in the final position may dissuade some players from even checking the gym. Nice!

Azumarill comes up a lot in gym talks since as in PvP it gets a lot of bulky stats for its CP. The problem is that, well, its CP doesn’t get very high. It doesn’t pose much of a threat. It can be a bit annoying for anyone who only uses Machamp, but Venusaur is only the most accessible answer to it. Shave off a few more seconds if someone has access to legendaries. And that all gets worse if the gym is stacked with Rhydon’s family members, Tyranitar, or other popular-but-weak-to-Grass ‘mon.

The one nice thing is that nearly all of its moves are valid. Bubble gives STAB damage while Rock Smash helps against some lazy auto-picks from the game. Play Rough deals Super Effective damage to Machamp, Ice Beam hits Venu and the Grasses, and Hydro Pump (while slow to build) is a difficult-to-dodge, high-damage attack. I don’t really recommend using Azumarill compared to some of the other options here, especially since it’s not new and has been featured in many events by now, but you can recycle old PvP-built Azumarills as Defenders if you find a better one to use in League PvP play.

Primarina is like a squishier but harder-hitting Azumaril, but with better anti-Machamp moves. Psychic is nice because it actually helps handle many Grass types as they’re often part Poison, all of which can frighten an unprepared Attacker into slowing down an assault.

You can possibly make Prima last 2 seconds longer by using its newest move, Disarming Voice, but the trade-off is that many popular Grass types are also Poisons, which resist Fairy types. DV doesn’t extend Prima’s lifespan against most Grasses, but it also doesn’t really lose much time in theory either. I don’t normally say this, but this may be one of the few times you want two moves on your defender to keep the other team off balance. However, as many “don’t bring” pokemon take quad damage to Grass, you need to be careful in deploying Prima, as you could accidentally over-stack Grass weaknesses. I’d wager one move is fine for most players outside of cities/competitive gym areas.

Finally, keep in mind that Primarina will eventually get a Community Day move, at which point you’ll probably want to use it in raids as a Water attacker. Since it’s gotten a few events now, and will get that CD in the future, my advice is to simply evolve a Primarina into the CP range you want, rather than finding one with good stats to raise. It’s a big part of the reason I’ve put it under Azumarill here.

What’s nice about Venusaur is its typing for the most part. Someone trying to use Machamp straight through is obviously going to struggle a bit with Venusaur. The problem, however, there are a few glaring issues. If they use a Dragon like Rayquaza or Salamence, Venu won’t damage it much, and they may have a Super Effective move to take it out faster. Then there’s Mewtwo which will just tear through Venu. And then there’s the issue of if Dragons are stacked in the gym and encourage someone to blast through with Ice, which Venu can somewhat handle with its bulk and Super Effective counters (many Ice are part Water, and Ice doesn’t resist Grass).

Basically, Venusaur, like the two above it, must be carefully deployed to get value as a defender. It’s another oldie that also won’t encourage a lot of berry feeding, and you probably have at least one you may use as a Mega. However, as better Grass options for raid attackers are plentiful, you could use old Venusaurs that get raid benched as new gym defenders. Bonus points if you unlocked a second attack, especially Sludge Bomb or Return for neutral damage against some popular attackers. Japanese players seem to know it’s still useful, as I’d often see this one in major city gyms.

Wobbufett is often a higher pick as it really slows down Machamp (taking about 35-39 seconds depending on if ‘Champ uses Payback or Rockslider, in that order) and can retain its low max CP longer than other tank pokemon, but it has less damage potential than even Hypno in terms of damage, leaving Gengar unphased despite taking roughly 18 seconds to beat. That makes Wobbu either a speed bump or a Charge Attack drain on the attacker and… well, that’s sadly about it.

I will admit that Wobbu has the psychological advantage for most players and will slow down your average player more. That being said, I’m personally more cautious of Hypno when attacking because I know it has a diverse moveset and I’m willing to dodge more often during the first fight just so I know what to watch out for the next time, so Hypno also has that going for it. The only reason Wobbu is here and Hypno isn’t is that Wobbu is easier to use and deploy, while Hypno will give only gym veterans like myself pause, and we’re a rare breed indeed.

Tentacruel is quite a wild card. It’s similar to Venusaur but with more options and less bulk. Acid Spray can increase its time against Machamp by about 2 seconds by sacrificing potential damage, while Hydro Pump takes a long time to charge but can hit very hard while also being difficult to dodge. It’s quite easy to use.

There is one other nice factor though: No one wants to raid Tentacruel. It’s generally seen as a useless Gen 1 pokemon. While no one may feed it, during Tentacruel raid rotations, not many people are going to click the gym either, to the point where I’ve missed dropping off pokemon on my own team until my coin-hungry Valor friend noted there was space for me. It’s a two-edged sword, but at least if you’re a fan of the pokemon, like Niantic CEO John Hanke, it’s good to know this ‘mon can be a bit of a monster.

Without going heavy into stats, the most obvious difference between Florges and Gardevoir that an attacker is going to feel is Gardevoir’s damage. While both can faint Machamp, Gardevoir can do that a whole 23 seconds before Florges can in simulations. It also technically makes Gardevoir more deadly when its been freshly placed in a gym or given a berry. Again though, that’s in simulations and from a technical standpoint.

This matters if you’re going up against rural players who don’t have good access to revives and potions. In fact, Gardevoir was one of the reasons I created five tiers to discuss. Bulk means a lot when you’re trying to keep a gym up for a few minutes or in a rural area you plan on berry defending. However, your local meta may involve picks that run down the attacker’s supplies. I wouldn’t use Gardevoir myself at, say, a Go Fest, but there are a few gyms on hiking trails I’d drop her at when fighting spoofers who tend to easily give up (yes, my local area has those).

As Metagross is one of the stronger Gard-counters, you may want to have your defense Gard have two Charge moves unlocked, with Shadow Ball being one to deal Super Effective damage. However, it’s also a big investment for a pokemon that does see some raid use, which is why I would hesitate to go overboard here. Building a Florges is a bit more difficult, but just using a high CP one out of the box is doable, if time-consuming, but will also get fed more than ol’ Gardevoir.

So yes, Eggy here is quad weak to Bug, but Bug is so weak and so unused that it practically doesn’t matter, especially since it can actually faint ‘Champ. You should probably more worried about people using Gengar or Charizard to beat it, though Eggy can deal some good damage to them.

It can also help fix some gym weaknesses. Fighting, Water, Grass, and Ground are often common weaknesses, even among pokemon on this list. Exeggcutor is resistant to all of those, with Ice being the only common gym-weakness you need to worry about. Again, that quad-Bug weakness does exist though, and while it can deal damage and tank well enough against Fighters and some neutral attackers, it can be almost as risky as using some of the “Don’t Use” tier ‘mon against a smart player. That being said, I often saw Eggy here in busy Japanese gyms when Venu wasn’t present.

Musharna is another reason Hypno isn’t on this list. While less predictable than the yellow tapir, the pink tapir here can faint Champ with its Psyshock build, while Dazzling protects it from Dark types, especially quad-weak-to-Fairy Hydreigon some lazy players may employ. It doesn’t have the best bulk, though, and using the wrong build can really leave it hamstrung against the wrong Attacker, so it’s a bit of a gamble. Being not-so-popular or rare also means fewer berries from allies.

One of the problems with Water defenders is that, in a vacuum, they can seem quite good. However, Water, Rock, and Ground are all weak to Grass, and the latter two tend to be poor-but-popular defender choices, negating their usefulness if one isn’t careful about when/if to place them. Grass defenders, however, mostly need to worry only about Fire and Ice. Fire rarely is Super Effective against the bulk of defenders, though Ice is common because of lazy players frequently dropping quad-weak-to-Ice dragons.

Gourgeist is no different from most of these, except its Ghost typing makes it more resilient to Fighting types that have to blow their Charge moves on it. Its staying power also varies on the size, as the bigger it is (with XXL being the best) the longer it’ll last. The downside, of course, is that it basically only spawns in October events, plus Ghost means dealing with some other heavy hitters. Again, being on this list does mean a pokemon has value, and Gourgy is a curve ball, but try to stick to the higher tiers where able.

Togekiss is kind of like Azumarill and Venusaur in that you can use old ones no longer useful in PvP/raids as a gym defender. As noted above, it can faint Machamp. While some people may be tempted to run Flying moves, recall that Kiss’s Flying type, while giving STAB damage, is resisted by both Electric and Rock types, but also anyone running a Steel-type will resist the Flying moves too. It’s generally best to go with something that will do neutral damage to counters in this situation.

Aua Sphere, its Community Day move, can help against Rock and Steels, but the most popular Steels and Metagross (which will take neutral damage here) and Melmetal, so it’s usefulness feels questionable at best, unless someone uses Tyranitar. It’s a bad move, as it’ll already take Super Effective damage from Fairy types, so the quad-damage from Fighting relies on someone being very lazy/unaware and the auto-team-picker being very bad.

That being said, a second move that involves Flamethrower can help Kiss take a chunk out of both Steel and Ice attackers. Again, your pokemon will randomly pick between the two, but it’s good for throwing the attacker off. Kiss having access to Hidden Power can do the same. It’s very much a downgrade from Charm, but if you want something tricky, Fire works against the above mentioned Ice and Steels, but Hidden Power Psychic still hurts Machamp and can hurt a Poison attacker if someone tries to get cute. Again though, that’s some major meta-planning, so for the most part, just stick to Charm and Dazzling Gleam.

Again, another use for your retired PvP pokemon, and yes, Clefable can faint Machamp. I saw more than a few of these in Japanese gyms located in busy areas, so it was nice seeing more of my picks being validated in the competitive wild.

Clefable isn’t super flexible about its moves, though. Fairy Wind and Zen Headbutt will take away its ability to faint Machamp, and nothing really can be done about a Metagross counter. Clefable’s basically a one-trick pony, but one most lazy players will overlook, thinking it’s low CP won’t be a problem for their Machamp. It will be, if they’re not careful. And again, as a raid boss no one wants, you may be able to completely avoid detection if you drop it off in the last gym slot.

At this point, you’re probably noticing a lot of Fairies. Combined with the “do not bring” Rocks, Steel-stacked weaknesses can be a real problem. Vaporeon can help fix this in some situations, which was something I’d seen validated while visiting Japan. As one of the early popular defenders, it shouldn’t be too surprising it’s on this list, but there are bulkier pokemon these days. No, Vaporeon here has bulk but also resists Steel attacks.

The problem, though, is that it’s still weak to Grass, with not much of a solution. Against Machamp, Last Resort theoretically helps Vap last longer against Machamp than its Water moves, and it does neutral damage to its Grassy counters in most situations. However, against the Steels you may be worried about, Last Resort gets resisted. This is another of those situations you could use a retired PvP pokemon with two moves as a defender, but generally I use Jellicent before Vaps, as it’s far stronger against Fight’em All attackers.

Weezing is a neat pick here, especially after we discussed that issue with Steel-stacking issues. As with the Slowbros/kings, you can’t have both regionals in the same, but unlike the Slow-family, these two are quite different.

Now, again, all those players stacking bad Rock defenders are a problem, as Weezing and all those picks are weak to Ground. However, if there’s a gym with smarter players and a few weak Fairies, this Weezing can throw a neat curveball.

While you could use Acid and Sludge Bomb to hurt Machamp more, Infestation and Shadow Ball theoretically make Weezing last longer against Champ. It also deals more damage to Metagross and even Mewtwo. As a very uncommon defender, few players will see this coming, and if they attack while Weezing is at full power, they may spend more time dodging than attacking, potentially buying you and other gym-mates time to berry up.

That’s very specific, but Weezing, like the Galarian one, also is a raid boss, and unlike the Galarian one, isn’t popular, so you have an increased chance of people failing to click the gym to attack it. Sometimes being full of hot (poisonous) air isn’t so bad after all!

Last but not least is Metagross. What’s great about Gross as a defender is that you can catch a wild one and it won’t necessarily just be candy fodder. The reason we’re not using its Steel moves is because the best attackers often resist it, especially Machamp. It’s why most people fail to realize that Psychic moves Gross can faint Machamp. As we’ve noted above, Psychic comes out fast, so by the time the attacker realizes the situation they’re in, it’s too late.

This is also why Charizard is used as the potential counter, as a smart player will play it safe to take neutral damage against Gross. Even then, 19 seconds isn’t bad, especially when you recall that gyms may have Steel-stacked weaknesses, by either lazy players or even smarter ones, including those who may use this guide without reading the notes.

While Metagross can be a raid boss, it can be a popular one depending on if its Community Day move is available, so it’s a bit of a toss up on using it in the last slot. While it may be technically be part of the bottom tier, like Vaporeon, it can help fix a gym’s weaknesses when correctly delpoyed.