Pokémon GO Fossil Cup – Great League Edition: Best Pokémon

Shake off the dust and get those rusty old bones back in fighting shape: Fossil Cup – Great League Edition is the next Pokémon GO competition on the schedule.

Running from June 10 to 17, 2025, this format runs on a special ruleset limiting participating Pokémon to a maximum amount of 1,500 competition points (CP). In addition, you may only field Pokémon of the Water-, Rock-, and Steel-types.

Show your opponents that size matters not with the best Pokémon for Fossil Cup – Great League Edition in Pokémon GO based on statistics and simulations provided by PvPoke.com.

Fossil Cup – GL Edition: Best Leads

These Pokémon aggressively apply pressure on your opponent right from the start of a duel and can survive even tough battles for a long time – they are perfect to open a match up, enabling you to score an early knockout or set up a strong counter play.

1. Gastrodon (Mud Slap, Body Slam, Earth Power)
2. Togedemaru (Thunder Shock, Fell Stinger, Wild Charge)
3. Scizor [S] (Fury Cutter, Night Slash, Trailblaze)
4. Jellicent (Hex, Surf, Shadow Ball)
5. Ferrothorn [S] (Bullet Seed, Power Whip, Thunder)
6. Magnezone (Volt Switch, Wild Charge, Mirror Shot)
7. Poliwrath (Counter, Scald, Icy Wind)
8. Steelix [S] (Thunder Fang, Psychic Fangs, Breaking Swipe)
9. Paldean Tauros (Aqua) (Double Kick, Aqua Jet, Trailblaze)
10. Shadow Quagsire (Mud Shot, Aqua Tail, Stone Edge)

Pokémon marked with [S] perform similarly in their regular and Shadow forms.

Fossil Cup – GL Edition: Best Safe Switches

If the opening pairing is to your disadvantage, you should consider switching out your lead for another Pokémon. This is where this category comes into play. They are either strong leads themselves or are specialized in countering some of the most popular leads. In any case, a switch will preserve your original lead to fight later on in the battle and perhaps force your opponent to also adapt their strategy on the fly.

1. Gastrodon (Mud Slap, Body Slam, Earth Power)
2. Scizor [S] (Fury Cutter, Night Slash, Trailblaze)
3. Golisopod (Shadow Claw, X-Scissor, Aqua Jet)
4. Shadow Samurott (Fury Cutter, Hydro Cannon, Megahorn)
5. Poliwrath (Counter, Scald, Icy Wind)
6. Barbaracle (Fury Cutter, Cross Chop, Gross Knot)
7. Feraligatr [S] (Shadow Claw, Hydro Cannon, Ice Beam)
8. Jellicent (Hex, Surf, Shadow Ball)
9. Lapras (Psywave, Sparkling Aria, Skull Bash)
10. Shadow Politoed (Mud Shot, Weather Ball (Water), Earthquake)

Fossil Cup – GL Edition: Best Closers

These Pokémon are particularly useful when there are no shields left in play on either side – they are incredibly tough themselves or end battles quickly thanks to powerful charge attacks.

1. Registeel [S] (Lock On, Focus Blast, Zap Cannon)
2. Togedemaru (Thunder Shock, Fell Stinger, Wild Charge)
3. Ferrothorn [S] (Bullet Seed, Power Whip, Thunder)
4. Magnezone [S] (Volt Switch, Wild Charge, Mirror Shot)
5. Jellicent (Hex, Surf, Shadow Ball)
6. Forretress (Bug Bite, Rock Tomb, Earthquake)
7. Perrserker (Shadow Claw, Close Combat, Trailblaze)
8. Lanturn (Spark, Surf, Thunderbolt)
9. Whiscash [S] (Mud Shot, Mud Bomb, Scald)
10. Lucario (Force Palm, Thunder Punch, Shadow Ball)

Fossil Cup – GL Edition: Best Attackers

These Pokémon perform best when fighting a trainer who still has shields, while you no longer have shields yourself. They combine important resistances and strong fast attacks to compensate for this disadvantage. For this reason, you rarely see Shadow forms in this role – they take more damage than their regular counterparts, making them a risky card to put on the table.

1. Ludicolo (Razor Leaf, Scald, Leaf Storm)
2. Ferrothorn (Bullet Seed, Power Whip, Thunder)
3. Gastrodon (Mud Slap, Body Slam, Earth Power)
4. Araquanid (Bug Bite, Bubble Beam, Bug Buzz)
5. Poliwrath (Counter, Scald, Icy Wind)
6. Jellicent (Hex, Surf, Shadow Ball)
7. Kartana (Razor Leaf, Leaf Blade, Night Slash)
8. Shadow Ferrothorn (Bullet Seed, Power Whip, Thunder)
9. Steelix (Thunder Fang, Psychic Fangs, Breaking Swipe)
10. Forretress (Bug Bite, Rock Tomb, Earthquake)

Another iteration of Fossil Cup from which fossils are sadly absent — the poor Rock-types get utterly dominated by the other Pokémon this ruleset allows. There have been a few changes in comparison to the last time this format was in rotation, but many of its mainstays were able to weather the meta and remain top options, such as Ferrothorn, Gastrodon, Togedemaru, and Jellicent. Most impressive of all is Ludicolo, which is rarely seen in any Battle League format but kept its place on top of the ranking for the attackers by replacing Icy Wind with Scald, which has been buffed in the meantime.

If battling other players isn’t your thing and you’d rather beat up Team GO Rocket instead, check out our complete guides with the best counters to Giovanni, Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra.