Getting Buggy With It

 

I loved the National Park from Pokémon Gold/Silver. It had a cool design, lots of little secret paths and Easter eggs to discover, and of course The Bug Catching Contest. Who could forget this event? Searching high and low for the perfect Pinsir to get the most points, finally catching it…and still losing to Pokefan William who caught a Butterfree.“Really?!? I lost to a freaking Butterfree. What the heck, game? I NEED that Sun Stone” 

 

The memories. 

 

I’m excited to relive some of those National Park memories (minus the malding) in the upcoming Bug Out Event! The Bug Out event will take place from August 10th 10 AM until August 16th 8 PM (all times local) and will feature many Bug spawn, Bug raids, and Bug challenges. And hopefully zero Bugged features. It will mark the debut of the Grubbin family, of Mega Scizor, and of shiny Venipede. 

 

In this article I (with a tag in from another friend with the Meta Analysis team) will go over the PvP things to focus on in this event. 

 

Discharge Bug Two: Electric Bug-aloo

 

Cards on the table. If not for this debutante insect, this article might not exist. There are definitely other PvP worthy mons in this event, but they’re hardly new, hardly rare, and I and other people have already written about them a number of times. 

 

So you’re thinking, if this new Pokémon line inspires an entire article it must be incredibly powerful right?…right? 

 

Grubbin’s final evolution, Vikavolt, looks so cool but faints so fast. It has about the same bulk as the famous fast fainter, Lucario. It is squishier than Galvantula and has Spark and X-Scissor instead of the Electric Spooders Volt Switch and Lunge. So it goes down faster, has a worse fast move and lacks the debuffing capability of an already existing Pokémon of the same typing. I won’t call this Pokémon DOA but it’s not looking great. The one saving grace may be its other fast move option, Bug Bite. There may be some limited metas where this hard hitting Bug Bite into Discharge combo is very strong. Overall though, I think Vikavolt won’t hit hard enough for how squishy it is. 

 

Grubbin’s middle evolution, Charjabug, will likely fare a bit better. It sports the same spammy moveset as Vikavolt, but is a lot bulkier, with a stat product about equal to Politoed’s. I think Galv is still better, but the extra bulk will probably give this lightning bug some actual play in Open Great and make it a very strong pick in limited metas. 

 

But don’t take just my word for it, let’s get some Grubbin family thoughts from another member of GOStadium Meta Team, Tangent444 (@Tangent444)



Bug Collecting

 

A lot of the other bugs in this event have been common spawns or featured in other events, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. Let’s quickly go over other spawns of PvP importance and what you want them for. 

 

Spinarak/Ariados: Ariados sees a good amount of play in limited metals like Love Cup, and isn’t completely terrible in Open Great League.

 

Venipede/Scolipede: NEW SHINY. A worse Ariados. Sees some play in limited formats so still worth a stash. 

 

Karrablast/Escavalier: Escav sees a lot of play in Ultra League formats and some play in limited Great Formats. Free to evolve if traded. 

 

Dewpider/Araquanid: Araquanid hasn’t quite made the Open Great Legaue impact that some thought it would, but it’s still a good Pokémon that answers the powerful Walrein/Trevenemt core. 

 

Joltik/Galvantula: The original electric spooder. Joltik has been in a lot of events, but if you still don’t have a good one, this is the time to fix that. 

 

Shelmet: The evolution is terrible, but Shelmet has some play in Little League formats. 

 

Wurmple/Dustox: Dustox was once a decent niche pick, but other Bugs and other Poison types have passed it by. 

 

Ledyba/Ledian: A funny XL flex, but not very good. 

 

Weedle/Beedrill: I think you usually want the Shadow Bee, but a regular Bee would Bee better than no Bee at all and has use in limited formats like Kanto Cup.  

 

Dwebble/Crustle: Crustle used to see more play in Ultra League formats, but at this point is mostly relegated to things like Halloween and Retro Cup. 

 

Skorupi/Drapion: Drapion has some play in Open Great League and is good in limited formats like Sinnoh cup. Shadow is probably preferred but the regular is fine. Skorupi has value in Little League formats as an excellent Cottonee counter. 

 

Genesect: Genesect will only be available in tier 5 raids during the event and will be the Chill Drive version this time around. Genesect is not great but Chill Drive is probably the best or among the best couple Genesect variants for Master League. Use your free passes on it and hope for the hundo. 



Conclusion and Checklist

 

Truth be told, many seasoned battlers will have prepped or built most of the Pokémon in this article and this event will be a glorified Grubbin/shiny hunt. But maybe you are a newer player. Maybe you want to upgrade a bad Bug you’re currently running. Maybe you just want to hunt and flex a shiny Escav on everyone in GBL. There’s plenty of catchup and plenty of flex potential in this event. 

 

I’ll leave you with a checklist of things you should have either built or ready to build coming out of this event. Maybe you’ll already have some or most of this done already. Awesome! But I’m betting there will be at least a couple things you’ve missed or still need a good one of. Happy hunting and let’s get our revenge on Pokedan William in the Bug Out Event:

 

Checklist

 

NEW STUFF

  • Great League Vikavolt

  • Ultra League Vikavolt 

  • Great League Charjabug

  • Little Cup Grubbin

 

Little Cup 

  • Shelmet

  • Skorupi

  • Spinarak

  • Dewpider

 

Great League

  • Ariados

  • Scolipede

  • Escavalier

  • Araquanid 

  • Galvantula 

  • Crustle

  • Drapion

 

Ultra League

  • Galvantula (Hundo)

  • Escavalier 

  • Crustle

  • Drapion