Pokémon GO Jungle Cup – Great League Edition: Best Pokémon

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, no trainers sleep tonight — that’s right, you’ve got duels to win! Pokémon GO Jungle Cup – Great League Edition will run from October 7 to 14, 2025, so you have one week to climb to the top of the food chain and score as many wins as you can.

This GO Battle League competition runs on a special ruleset limiting participating Pokémon to a maximum amount of 1,500 competition points (CP). It further limits the amount of Pokémon you can use by restricting you to monsters of the types Normal, Grass, Electric, Poison, Ground, Flying, Bug, and Dark. Gligar and Galarian Stunfisk are banned outright.

Welcome your enemies to the jungle with the best Pokémon for Jungle Cup – Great League Edition in Pokémon GO. based on statistics and simulations provided by PvPoke.com.

Pokémon GO Jungle Cup – Great League 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. Cradily (Acid, Rock Tomb, Grass Knot)
2. Crustle (Fury Cutter, X-Scissor, Rock Wrecker)
3. Forretress (Bug Bite, Sand Tomb, Rock Tomb)
4. Pangoro (Karate Chop, Close Combat, Night Slash)
5. Shadow Charizard (Ember, Blast Burn, Air Cutter)
6. Diggersby [S][XL] (Quick Attack, Scorching Sands, Fire Punch)
7. Shadow Hydreigon (Dragon Breath, Brutal Swing, Dragon Pulse)
8. Altaria (Dragon Breath, Sky Attack, Flamethrower)
9. Corviknight (Sand Attack, Air Cutter, Payback)
10. Shadow Piloswine (Powder Snow, Icicle Spear, Stone Edge)

Pokémon marked with [S] perform similarly in their regular and Shadow forms. Pokémon marked with [XL] require Candy XL to reach their optimal performance level.

Pokémon GO Jungle Cup – Great League 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. Crustle (Fury Cutter, X-Scissor, Rock Wrecker)
2. Piloswine (Powder Snow, Icicle Spear, Stone Edge)
3. Diggersby [S][XL] (Quick Attack, Scorching Sands, Fire Punch)
4. Drapion (Poison Sting, Crunch, Aqua Tail)
5. Shadow Qwilfish (Poison Sting, Ice Beam, Aqua Tail)
6. Shadow Crustle (Fury Cutter, X-Scissor, Rock Wrecker)
7. Shadow Hippowdon (Sand Attack, Weather Ball (Rock), Scorching Sands)
8. Shadow Hippopotas [XL] (Sand Attack, Rock Tomb, Body Slam)
9. Shadow Ursaring (Shadow Claw, Swift, Close Combat)
10. Lickilicky (Rollout, Body Slam, Shadow Ball)

Pokémon GO Jungle Cup – Great League 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 hard-hitting charged attacks.

1. Clodsire (Poison Sting, Earthquake, Stone Edge)
2. Crustle [S] (Fury Cutter, X-Scissor, Rock Wrecker)
3. Piloswine (Powder Snow, Icicle Spear, Stone Edge)
4. Altaria [S] (Dragon Breath, Sky Attack, Flamethrower)
5. Shadow Charizard (Ember, Blast Burn, Air Cutter)
6. Cradily (Acid, Rock Tomb, Grass Knot)
7. Dodrio (Peck, Drill Peck, Brave Bird)
8. Shadow Murkrow [XL] (Peck, Drill Peck, Foul Play)
9. Shadow Piloswine (Powder Snow, Icicle Spear, Stone Edge)
10. Galarian Moltres (Sucker Punch, Fly, Brave Bird)

Pokémon GO Jungle Cup – Great League 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. Diggersby [XL] (Quick Attack, Scorching Sands, Fire Punch)
2. Forretress (Bug Bite, Sand Tomb, Rock Tomb)
3. Altaria (Dragon Breath, Sky Attack, Flamethrower)
4. Corviknight (Sand Attack, Air Cutter, Payback)
5. Steelix [S] (Thunder Fang, Psychic Fangs, Crunch)
6. Stunfisk (Thunder Shock, Mud Bomb, Discharge)
7. Shadow Forretress (Bug Bite, Sand Tomb, Rock Tomb)
8. Cradily (Acid, Rock Tomb, Grass Knot)
9. Guzzlord (Dragon Tail, Brutal Swing, Dragon Claw)
10. Wigglytuff (Charm, Icy Wind, Swift)

Pokémon like Altaria and Steelix playing with the big boys is almost a blast from the past at this point, so Jungle Cup might make older players feel a little nostalgic. There are plenty of newer creatures in the mix, though, with monsters like Clodsire and Corviknight getting in on the action. Overall, the Jungle Cup meta doesn’t seem to be completely static, while retaining enough old names to minimize any required investments.

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.