Pokémon Go Jungle Cup – Little Edition: Best Pokémon

Welcome to the jungle, Go Battle League’s got fun and games! Pokémon Go Jungle Cup – Little Edition will run from January 28 to February 4, 2025, so you have one week to score as many wins as you can to maximize your rank as we enter the final month of the ongoing season.

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, Poison, Ground, Flying, Bug, and Dark. Gligar and Galarian Stunfisk are banned outright.

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

Jungle 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. Fletchling (Quick Attack, Swift, Fly)
2. Swinub (Powder Snow, Icy Wind, Body Slam)
3. Cubone (Mud Slap, Bone Club, Dig)
4. Miltank (Rollout, Body Slam, Ice Beam)
5. Steelix [S] (Dragon Tail, Breaking Swipe, Psychic Fangs)
6. Ducklett (Wing Attack, Brave Bird, Aerial Ace)
7. Pangoro (Karate Chop, Close Combat, Night Slash)
8. Abomasnow (Powder Snow, Weather Ball (Ice), Energy Ball)
9. Skorupi (Poison Sting, Cross Poison, Aqua Tail)
10. Inkay (Psywave, Night Slash, Psybeam)

[S] = Regular form and Shadow form perform comparably.

Jungle 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. Fletchling (Quick Attack, Swift, Fly)
2. Shadow Skorupi (Poison Sting, Aqua Tail, Cross Poison)
3. Diggersby [S] (Quick Attack, Fire Punch, Scorching Sands)
4. Miltank (Rollout, Body Slam, Ice Beam)
5. Skorupi (Poison Sting, Aqua Tail, Cross Poison)
6. Swinub [S] (Powder Snow, Icy Wind, Body Slam)
7. Drapion (Poison Sting, Aqua Tail, Cross Poison)
8. Buneary (Quick Attack, Fire Punch, Swift)
9. Farfetch’d (Fury Cutter, Leaf Blade, Aerial Ace)
10. Steelix [S] (Dragon Tail, Breaking Swipe, Psychic Fangs)

Jungle 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. Pangoro (Karate Chop, Close Combat, Night Slash)
2. Greninja (Water Shuriken, Hydro Cannon, Night Slash)
3. Ducklett (Wing Attack, Brave Bird, Aerial Ace)
4. Morpeko (Full Belly) (Thunder Shock, Aura Wheel, Psychic Fangs)
5. Clodsire (Poison Sting, Stone Edge, Sludge Bomb)
6. Ferroseed (Metal Claw, Iron Head, Flash Cannon)
7. Shadow Ducklett (Wing Attack, Brave Bird, Aerial Ace)
8. Bewear (Shadow Claw, Superpower, Stomp)
9. Pachirisu (Volt Switch, Thunder Punch, Thunderbolt)
10. Togedemaru (Thunder Shock, Wild Charge, Gyro Ball)

Jungle 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. Jungle Cup has a relatively high amount of Shadow forms in this category, setting it apart from other formats.

1. Cottonee (Charm, Grass Knot, Seed Bomb)
2. Togekiss (Charm, Aerial Ace, Aura Sphere)
3. Onix [S] (Rock Throw, Breaking Swipe, Stone Edge)
4. Shadow Stunky (Bite, Crunch, Sludge Bomb)
5. Wigglytuff (Charm, Swift, Icy Wind)
6. Shadow Geodude (Rock Throw, Rock Slide, Dig)
7. Shadow Pidgeot (Gust, Brave Bird, Aerial Ace)
8. Steelix [S] (Dragon Tail, Breaking Swipe, Psychic Fangs)
9. Shadow Vibrava (Dragon Breath, Scorching Sands, Bug Buzz)
10. Whimsicott (Charm, Moonblast, Seed Bomb)

Jungle Cup – Little Edition’s meta is refreshingly different from many other Little Cup spin-offs, offering a lot of variety when it comes to its top performers. We see familiar faces like Ducklett still represented, but nowhere near their once dominant position — a great development, as it allows players to still field older line-ups effectively while leaving room for innovation.

For more Pokémon Go, check out this month’s Spotlight Hours and 5-Star Raids.