Pokémon Go Holiday Cup – Little Edition: Best Pokémon

Holiday Cup – Little Edition returns as a limited format in Pokémon Go’s Battle League in time for the festive season. Running from December 17 to 24, 2024, the event grants quadruple Stardust rewards for your victories.

This Go Battle League competition runs on a special ruleset limiting participating Pokémon to a maximum amount of 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, Ice, Flying and Ghost. Interestingly, this edition of the format removed the requirement for participating creatures to be base forms in evolutionary lines.

Show your opponents that size matters not with the best Pokémon for Holiday Cup – Little Edition in Pokémon Go based on statistics and simulations provided by PvPoke.com.

Holiday Cup – Little 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. Smeargle [XL] (Incinerate, Flying Press)
2. Amaura (Powder Snow, Weather Ball (Ice), Ancient Power)
3. Alolan Marowak [S] (Fire Spin, Shadow Bone, Bone Club)
4. Miltank (Rollout, Body Slam, Ice Beam)
5. Togedemaru (Thunder Shock, Wild Charge, Fell Stinger)
6. Pachirisu (Volt Switch, Thunder Punch, Thunderbolt)
7. Wigglytuff (Charm, Swift, Icy Wind)
8. Shadow Alolan Ninetales (Charm, Weather Ball (Ice), Psyshock)
9. Shadow Litwick (Ember, Mystical Fire, Flame Charge)
10. Cetoddle (Powder Snow, Avalanche, Body Slam)

[S] = Regular form and Shadow form perform comparably; [XL] = Pokémon requires XL Candy to reach optimal performance level.

Holiday Cup – Little 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. Smeargle [XL] (Incinerate, Flying Press)
2. Fletchling (Quick Attack, Fly, Swift)
3. Diggersby (Quick Attack, Fire Punch, Scorching Sands)
4. Joltik (Sucker Punch, Cross Poison, Discharge)
5. Walrein (Powder Snow, Icicle Spear, Water Pulse)
6. Amaura (Powder Snow, Weather Ball (Ice), Ancient Power)
7. Buneary (Quick Attack, Swift, Fire Punch)
8. Alolan Marowak (Fire Spin, Bone Club, Shadow Bone)
9. Cetoddle (Powder Snow, Avalanche, Body Slam)
10. Pikachu (Libre) (Thunder Shock, Flying Press, Thunder Punch)

Holiday Cup – Little 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. Smeargle [XL] (Incinerate, Flying Press)
2. Pikachu (Flying and 5th Anniversary) (Thunder Shock, Wild Charge, Fly)
3. Electivire (Thunder Shock, Wild Charge, Ice Punch)
4. Togedemaru (Thunder Shock, Fell Stinger, Wild Charge)
5. Bewear (Shadow Claw, Superpower, Stomp)
6. Pikachu (Libre) (Thunder Shock, Flying Press, Thunder Punch)
7. Alolan Sandslash [S] (Shadow Claw, Ice Punch, Drill Run)
8. Pikachu (Regular and Shaymin Scarf) (Thunder Shock, Wild Charge, Surf)
9. Hisuian Electrode (Thunder Shock, Wild Charge, Swift)
10. Lurantis (Fury Cutter, Leaf Blade, Superpower)

Holiday Cup – Little 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. Smeargle [XL] (Incinerate, Flying Press)
2. Shadow Litwick (Ember, Mystical Fire, Flame Charge)
3. Aerodactyl (Rock Throw, Rock Slide, Earth Power)
4. Shadow Alolan Ninetales (Charm, Weather Ball (Ice), Psyshock)
5. Wigglytuff (Charm, Swift, Icy Wind)
6. Litwick (Ember, Mystical Fire, Flame Charge)
7. Alolan Marowak [S] (Fire Spin, Shadow Bone, Bone Club)
8. Ceruledge (Incinerate, Flame Charge, Shadow Ball)
9. Cottonee (Charm, Grass Knot, Seed Bomb)
10. Shadow Lampent (Ember, Flame Burst, Energy Ball)

Holiday Cup – Little Edition definitely got a bit of a refresh since it was available last time, but not radically so: Various Electric-types still dominate the Closers, old-school charmers and ghostly glass cannons remain at the top of the Attackers, and Smeargle thrones above them all – though getting specific configuration will be quite a task.

For more Pokémon Go, check our overviews for the weekly Spotlight Hours and 5-Star Raids.