Pokémon Go operates within the Combat Power (CP) system – a translation of their main series stats to one single number. Dragonite reaches 4287 CP at max level, Cradily comes out at 2499 CP, and Charjabug at 1919 CP. However:

The competitive format caps the allowed CP at 1500. That way, a level 14.5 Dragonite would have to take on a level 38.5 Charjabug. Yes, Pokémon Go canonically has »half-levels« and a level cap of 50 – you may double them to imagine an appropriate MSG representation.

That's only half the secret. The other half lies within the CP formula: That single number is made up of three components. A combined Attack stat, a combined Defense stat, and an HP stat. However, Attack impacts CP the most – offensive Pokémon will reach 1500 CP at a lower level.

In comparison, defensive Pokémon have an inherent advantage in Pokémon Go: They are able to fit more stat points below the 1500 CP threshold. There's a place for glass cannons – you have two protect shields per game to keep them safe – but you can't mindlessly spam offense.

If you see Pokémon Go players talk about the »high stat product« of a Pokémon, that means it's especially bulky, combining a lot of Defense and HP that fits cheaply underneath 1500 CP. If it's a »low stat product« Pokémon, that comes with with high attack, but rather meager bulk.

Now we know how stats and CP work. That gives us an idea of why Charjabug and Cradily feature on the graphic. But there's other, more pronounced low attack, high defense Pokémon, right? That's where we arrive at the importance of their move pool.

Attacks in Pokémon Go share a name, a type and sometimes a concept with their Main Series equivalents. Other than that, they function very differently – and come in two flavors: Fast and Charged. Fast Attacks have three properties: Damage, energy generation, turn length.

Turns in Pokémon Go are half-second intervals in which an action (fast attack activation, charged attack activation, swap out) can be performed. Fast attack last between 0.5 and 2.5 seconds, so one to five turns. Damage is self-explanatory, Energy powers up Charged Attacks.

Charged Attacks cost a certain amount of energy and briefly interrupt the turn-based gameplay to a) deal a chunk of damage and b) occasionally apply a secondary, stat-modifying effect. Every three months, Go PvP undergoes a rebalance, affecting Attacks in all but turn duration.

Cradily rose to prominence after receiving the strong debuffing attack Rock Tomb (only a fraction of Pokémon's MSG learnset is available in Go) alongside an improvement to the Fast Attack Acid, reaching its powerful coverage efficiently. No other Pokémon has its role compression.

Charjabug is rather defense weighted for an electric type, has access to the strong and balanced Fast Attack Volt Switch and – crucially – fights back better against its main counters than other electrics: Cradily is threatened by Bug damage, Grounds only hit it back neutrally.

If their attacks were to receive a nerf in the future, or if other Pokémon were to receive a buff that would limit the usefulness of Charjabug and Cradily, they may potentially fall out of the meta again. Their overall profile, however, lends itself to the current meta very well.

If you made it until here and aren't already part of the Go PvP Community: Thanks for your attention! If you want to learn about skill expression in Go and the many things that are going on before and during a Go battle, I will send you off with some media recommendations.

Poké Daxi, primarily a PvE player, compiled a beginner's guide two years ago – the underlying principles may still be current: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Our World Champions ItsAXN and Beelzeboy stream on Twitch (AXN also does YT): https://www.twitch.tv/itsaxn, https://www.twitch.tv/beelzebo...

Official Go caster HomeSliceHenry has an entire second channel filled to the brim with videos highlighting the intricacies of high-level tournament gameplay: @moreslicehenry5553/ class="text-blue-500 hover:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/@mores... You'll find multiple videos on the decision making of top players: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

If you're looking for an explanation of Go skill expression in writing, look no further than to the top comment underneath my EUIC Grand Finals appearance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... And lastly, SpeediestChief2 and I have a podcast dedicated to all this! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/...

@TheZzweilous @playpokemon @dracoviz @PokemonGoApp It’s hilarious how so many people who don’t play GBL still give there expert analysis on what they think, and then you have the guys who can’t make it past level 20 thinking the game is rigged against them because they don’t want to learn anything past tap the screen lmao