Massively on the Go: Pokemon GO’s Might and Mastery Season is looking weak for March

By
Andrew Ross
-
    
0

Pokemon Go’s still in the middle of its Unova’s Global Tour this weekend, but we’ve also been warned of the March 4th start of the spring season, Might and Mastery, which is heavily advertising the legendary Kubfu and its two forms of Urshifu. There’s a lot to unpack there, but so far, the season is something you may want to be more leery of instead of hyped for, especially given the recent rumors of Niantic selling out.

Just the same, Massively on the Go is here to review the season changes and March events, providing commentary, predictions, and potential warnings – good and ill.

First, let’s start with the move shakeups via the PvP update, especially Blastoise and Rollout. This would have been nice before for the legendary birds, and it will be if we get nothing else for their return, but that’s about it, if that, since in certain cases, Inteleon and Toxtricity still perform better in a double Rock-weakness scenario. That’s rough.

Some of you may be eyeing Mamoswine with Icicle Spear, but this is strictly a PvP enhancement, as the PvE stats for Icicle Spear are less efficient than Avalanche. Same goes for Sludge Bomb Dragalge, though even with the argument that it’s a faster two-bar move than Gunk Shot, it’s just not raid relevant as a pokemon or a typing. Conversely, Sparkling Aria is a Water upgrade for Lapras in PvE but, like Dragalgae, we don’t really use it for PvE since it’s more of a tank. That being said, Lapras is looking like a strong contender for league play, which may be why Dynamic Punch is getting some kind of buff via an energy decrease, but for whatever reason, Niantic hasn’t given us a numerical update on this yet.

So, what’s going on this season? First, the research breakthroughs are shaking up. Furfrou’s probably gone so Niantic has less evidence that it forgot to include its Heart cut during the Valentine’s event, ugh. But in all seriousness, while it’s different (yay for Charcadet and its newly released shiny that looks the same as its base coloring), it’s hard to be excited about much. I love me some Baxcalibur, but getting its baby form when we just got Kyurem Black and White, which are legendaries with the same typing, is pretty deflating. It’s like being offered a steak sandwich from the grocery store after having already eaten a steak from a good steakhouse.

The bonuses aren’t terrible though. Extra XL candy from 5-star raids during raid hour is fine (if not a desperate move to sell more raid passes), but the trade (XL) candy is where it’s at, especially for new players. You’ll want to save your Timburrs and other ‘mon you want candy for from the Unova event until after the season starts.

Sadly, this season’s eggs and spawns aren’t anything to get excited about, aside from Beldum and the Alola starters for Southern Hemisphere players. Another season of Shadow Regis every weekend isn’t great either, as I don’t think I even did one of each in the time we had. There are simply better options out there that don’t require in-person raiding, and after the raids we got as part of Unova, I can only hope that this decision was made to give players some time to rest, as I saw a lot of burnout last year after the Sinnoh Tour.

We also know that we’re getting the legendary beasts as Dynamax ‘mon this season, which isn’t terrible. Granted, only Raikou is somewhat relevant and only in Dynamax battles unless you’re a new player. While Suicune is the bulkiest Water type we’ll have, it doesn’t have any great fast moves, and it’s soundly beaten by Lapras in terms of HP (which is the stat Max Spirit uses to determine the heal amount). Entei is similar, as its a bulkier Fire type, but Fire isn’t a good defensive typing so having it as a tank or healer isn’t advised in general. At the very least, Niantic isn’t releasing them for Max Mondays as it did the last round, and we have some good counters for these three already, but more on that later.

While new pokemon have been teased, the big one is a season-based special quest for Kubfu, a legendary pokemon that evolves into one of two fighting types. For those who didn’t play the main game, you’ve probably heard or seen that Kabfu’s final evolution has a Gigantamax form, and feel cheated about “only” the Dynamax form coming out, but there may be some good news on the horizon, especially for those of you who have gotten good Dynamax ‘mon who have Gigantamax versions. In the main games, you actually have to feed Kabfu’s evolution, Urshifu, Max Soup to get its Gigantamax form. It’s a one-per-game legendary with two forms (same stats), so having both is super rare and probably something The Pokemon Company may prefer kept that way.

So, on the one hand, it may mean we don’t see Urshifu raids at all, or that they may be rare. It also may mean the Gigantamax form in particular won’t be in raids and that, to fix that, Niantic may add Max Soup so Dynamax ‘mon with GMax forms can “grow up.” It could be like Elite TMs, where they’re not common and sold in expensive bundles, which is better than nothing. It’s hard to say, but I am personally leaning towards Max Soup (at least for Pokemon that are already of the Dynamax variety) being a thing at this point and having little to no Urshifu raids. Use that opinion as you will.

Finally, we see the original Kanto Gmax ‘mon will be back for March 8th-9th, but honestly? The G/Dmax system best rewards veteran players who go all in at the start to get the rewards and get out. Its uses outside that gated community are are dubious at best unless you’re a very new player. While getting one or two will be good for new players, Gmax ‘mon lack event moves and many were long ago replaced in the raid meta, if not also the PvP meta, so whatever we may hear later, I will suggest not investing in event tickets for them.

Now let’s get into March-specific content, starting with raids. The legendary birds are basically just candy fodder unless you have a good Shadow or Dynamax Moltres or a Galarian variant you want to show off in raids without being a total drag on the team. That being said, during that time, you could also be raiding Mega Lucario. It’s a tough call, as Lucario is potentially soloable and desirable but has been in raids and eggs as a meta-relevant ‘mon while, again, the birds are generally for duos but with limited uses not including variants.

I will also note that, for the immediate future, none of the birds will help you for the upcoming Dynamax raids unless you miss out on Dynamax Raikou later this month. 3/3 Update: They will help with Gigantamax raids though: Articuno if you lack Lapras/tanks for Venusaur, Zapdos for those needing DPS against Blastoise, and Moltres for damage against Gmax Machamp and to a MUCH lesser extend, Gmax Venusaur, though Dmax Darmanitan.

Tapu Koko with Nature’s Madness is in a similar position against Mega Swampert, one of the top Megas to invest in. There are just very few raids where Koko makes sense, but Swampert is a good Mega and useful in various leagues, though it will require an Elite TM to reach its full potential. Koko is probably the better choice just in terms of the reward preference from 5-star raids, but if neither is that appealing, this could be a good POGO rest period.

Following this theme of Legendary vs. Mega raid choices, Heatran often gets overlooked but Magma Storm Heatran is a top non-Mega, non-(legendary) Shadow raider. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve used Mega Pinsir as a utility ‘mon more often lately, as we’ve had some Flying types in raids and worthy bugs to catch. Still, this is the one area that I think it’s pretty easy to say stick with the Legendary once you have the energy to Mega a Pinsir.

Max Mondays should be pretty calm this month. It’s more of a catch-up thing. Drilbur doesn’t want to tank Entei when it arrives, serving just in a DPS position, but it’ll do well as tank and DPS against the upcoming Raikou DMax raids. If you didn’t already invest in one, use March 10th and the follower week to stock up on them.

March 17th is interesting because Chansey/Blissey will be the best healer we get unless Niantic does something wild. As I often play tank or heals, I’ll probably hit this one hard for Gmax raids as a good generalist, but I don’t think we’ll see too much content where it’ll really be necessary as, like most POGO content, Dynamax raids are more about damaging the opponent as fast as you can, especially thanks to enrage mechanics making the slow-and-steady route not entirely viable.

Caterpie and Scorbunny have limited use, but both get Gigantamax forms. Again, if Max Soup is a thing, you could grab good ones and potentially invest in them later, but I’d say stick with the Gigantamax raid releases when we see them, just so you don’t have to bother with more soup (again, if that’ll be a thing).

Now let’s look at monthly events. Powerful Potential from March 5th-10th is a new event, but the announcement is also why I think we shouldn’t expect a ton of Kubfu raids soon, as they can’t be transferred to HOME yet. Obviously that could change, and we have tons of Origine Dialga/Palkia that can’t go HOME, but Kubfu evolves into two forms, so it’s more similar to Cosmog, which we also can’t raid. Charcadet in all eggs in addition to their normal contents is more funny than anything else, though I appreciate the half to one-fourth rates depending on your quest status.

Gigantamax Kantos from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the event weekend (March 8th-9th) really assume locals are going to organize for these, and honestly, I’m tired just writing about it, just as I’m sure attrition so soon after the Unova Tour will be affecting the general playerbase around this event’s time. These Gmax raids are mostly zerg content for a system that doesn’t seem to know what it wants beyond your wallet. If you’re short-manning it, Blastoise or (for those with deep pockets) Articuno work as good tanks, as do the other starters in certain match ups, to a lesser extent. Those are also good picks for the actual raid, but what’s best is to just bring stuff you’ve actually invested in. Don’t go with Charmanders and Wooloos and expect success unless you’re brand new to the game. Otherwise, yeah, this event and weekend are basically just about hatching.

Interestingly, we have a third event happening on March 8th: Fuecoco Community Day. As a raid ‘mon it’s nothing to write home about as it’s more of a tank, but getting Torch Song as a non-Community Day move makes it a nice PvP pick. Combined with triple Stardust, it could be the day to tackle Gmax Kantos, though it would also distract from Community Day’s featured ‘mon. Weird times we’re living in, but Niantic seems desperate to make its community work in a specific way we aren’t already functioning.

Then we have Festival of Colors coming March 13-17, which historically involves colorful pokemon releases and/or availability. Nothing’s been teased in particular, though Niantic could make Shroodle more available as it’s evolution is known to paint with – *shiver* – color-stained saliva. As always, though, this is just a guess.

3/3 Update: We now have official details on the event and Niantic’s really phoned this one in. It’s nearly identical to last year’s except Bruxish can be shiny, no new Mega, and no Oricorios, so even our rather low-balled prediction was off.

During that we have Catch Mastery: Archen on March 16th. Historically, catch mastery events have you doing catch tasks for the featured ‘mon, not having it in the wild. Archen is probably due to its colorful appearance. I wouldn’t be surprised if Burmy is one of those ‘mon if its not used for the Festival of Colors proper, but we’ll update this as we learn more.

3/11 Update: While I was hoping for a curveball, Niantic’s official event details that the other spawns are just Kabuto and Omanyte. They have striking shinies, which is nice for new players, but there may be limited interest for POGO vets.

We’re once again not done with stacking events, as Niantic also is putting out Max Battle Weekend: Dynamax Raikou for March 15th-16th. Like the Kantos, they’re from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and I’m guessing they hope people use the Catch Mastery event to find other people to play. However, Catch Mastery events are often ones people skip, as I know I play them minimally and often only so I have some experience when writing about them for this column.

3/10 Update: While the particle rewards from the prep event have increased, I will remind trainers that this is coming off of the Gmax weekend event. Most likely, Niantic is doing this after it saw how burnt out players were when we went weeks of being pushed to min/max our particle supply with little/no opportunity to save some for the next day’s event start. It’s a nice bonus, but still barely makes a dent in doing tasks that are inefficient for players who are already highly invested in the system.

Again, all communities are different, but my major communities have often been barely active during these, and my personal circles weren’t super motivated to come out. Luckily, DMax battles are just for four players, so this shouldn’t be the struggle GMax raids are if you have anyone in your local community to play with.

Also, starting March 10th until the start of the event, there’s a 3/4 discount on unlocking and powering up Max moves, which should be nice but hopefully won’t be tied to cheesy quests that push min/maxing your particle usage, which is nearly impossible to avoid as the base system already makes you choose between raids and powering up. It’s hard for Niantic to win here, but it also built the system in the first place, so it’s hard to feel too bad for the company. The fact that it hasn’t even discussed a revamp as it did for Megas is concerning, but that’s just the state of the studio now.

March 19-24th is Deep Depths, which could be an event about Rock, Ground, Water, or combination of the three types. As usual, we’ll wait and see what Niantic reveals.

3/4 Update: As predicted, the event details reveal that this at least partially a Water event, but also a Dark event, probably since Urshifu can be either part Water or Dark type. It’s also sadly an egg event, as new pokemon Nickit is locked behind 7k eggs but luckily doesn’t have much PvE use.

March 22nd is Community Day Classic: Totodile, which is part of the reason I’m thinking Deep Depths will at least be partially Water-themed. Totodile’s final form, Feralagatr, is a good PvP pokemon and this is a 1/4 egg hatch event, but also Totodile will be one of the new Pokemon Legends: Z-A starters, so you may wanna save a good one if we’re ever able to evolve them into whatever new monstrosity it can become.

For whatever reason, the 23rd becomes Mega Absol Raid Day from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. It’s not a good Mega (even if we could raid Lunala it wouldn’t break the top 15), and as a mono-type it has no utility, plus it’s not new, so this is mostly for new players, Absol fans, people with time to kill, and probably people genuinely addicted to the game. If you fall outside those groups, you can probably skip this event unless Niantic announces something of interest, as Absol is the disaster pokemon so maaaybe something fun could happen. Or not. Let’s keep expectations low, though.

3/7 Update: We now have official event details and, well, still nothing interesting really. It does do better damage in raids, but it’s still outclassed by others, and due to its mono-typing, it lacks one of the big things about Megas: xp and candy catching utility. Enjoy the event if you’re an Absol fan, check it out to see if anything happens at the end (we’ll post spoilers should we hear anything), but overall, it’s a lackluster event that at least allows you to Charge TM your best Absols to be more useable, if they were getting any use in the first place. 3/22 Update: Ah, the Niantic we remember is back: the blog has been updated, reneging on the Charge TMs and making it an event-only move that requires and Elite Charge TM. Again, Absol isn’t very useful so don’t feel like you suddenly need to buy the event ticket or use Elite Charge TMs.

March 26th-30th is a Bug Out event. As you probably guessed, it historically involves Bug pokemon. It would be nice if Niantic released Blipbug’s line for kicks, but we don’t see a ton of new ‘mon these days, especially in the wild, and we’ve seen no hints that it’s coming, so don’t get too excited. I would probably keep XXL Bug-type pokemon, though, as Bug-Catching contests were a big thing in the series and showcases are the closest Niantic gets to those. Again, we’ll update as we learn more.

3/11 Update: We have official event details and it’s actually a bit interesting. First, the new ‘mon, Sizzlipede, has a Gigantamax form. It probably won’t be super useful because we have better Fire options and Bug is weak, but it’s still there to harvest candies for. Kleavor is back, but the raid restriction is a bit of a downer. However, the lure modules are where we get our spice. Not only will they attract Sizzlipede, but if enough people catch ‘mon off the lure, it’ll spawn more stuff. We haven’t seen this mechanic before, though sadly there won’t be any other events to stack this with beyond whatever the Fuzzy Buddy event below will be.

Interestingly, there’s a Fuzzy Buddy Research Day on March 29th, during the Bug Out event. I’d like to think it would serve as a Larvesta Community Day lite, as it’s fuzzy and a bug, plus it’s not super useful at the moment so I feel it should finally see a mass release. As you’re probably sick of me saying though, let’s keep expectations low and wait for updates.

3/13 Update: Well, from the official details, we can see that not only is this not a Larvesta event, it’s not even bug related. It’s just bears and bear-like creatures. They didn’t even add any bee pokemon to help marry the two events thematically. Worse, despite being featured, Slakoth won’t be able to evolve to get Body Slam, a Community Day move that hasn’t been available since December 2020.

Finally, as always, we’ll wrap this up with the Spotlight hours. March 4th is basically trash day: anything you didn’t like from the Unova Global Fest can go. Again, especially for new players, we’re looking at Timburrs. March 11th’s Roselia is still useful for new players but there probably won’t be anything neat to evolve for the bonus xp that night. March 18th is something to be excited for though, as double stardust and Shellder, which grants bonus stardust anyway, should make it a nice night to restock your stardust supplies. Cutiefly closes the month out on the 25th right before the Bug Out event, but the double catch xp is a bit funny here since it’s such a small target to hit.

As always, check back for updates as Niantic brings them out round by round, and stay safe out there, trainers!

Massively OP’s Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo like he does! His Massively on the Go column covers Pokemon Go as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!
Pokemon Go studio Niantic is considered a controversial gaming company owing to multiple scandals and deceptions, starting with the Wi-Spy privacy scandal; over the years, it’s repeatedly failed to secure player data, endangered players during the pandemic, and refused to address documented stalking in POGO. It also rolled back popular accessibility features to incentivize data collection, faked data, and lied about event results. Following 2021’s community-driven Pokemon No boycott, Niantic vowed transparency and communication; it has not delivered.
Previous articleThe MOP Up: Elder Scrolls Online lays out its March plans
Next articleMMO Week in Review: Stars Reach, Undermine(d), and BNS NEO

No posts to display

Subscribe
Subscribe to:
0 Comments
Inline Feedback
View all comments