It’s been TWO WEEKS since my last official review article. I apologize accordingly. Let me just say that JRE has had a rough time, mostly due to my real-life tiredness (no, not me. actually write for a living!) and I had to take a break and do some things and reframe my mind. I’m still trying to get back, but hopefully this will be the first of several articles over the next week. There’s a lot on the immediate horizon!
For PvE analysis, check out our quick analysis here.
Let’s get straight! May Community Day features Bounsweet and Tsareena. How does Tsareena look in PvP with her new exclusive move? 👢 Come on start with our custom Bottom Line Ahead start….
BLUFFS
- Overall, the new move is meant to improve Tsareena’s performance in PvP. Usually.
- However, Tsareena moves away from her role as Ot and suffers some new losses in the process.
- The bottom line (of the bottom line?) is this: Tsareena still isn’t a huge PvP contender even with this move, the subplot crowd holds her back, and the more graceful and powerful Herbs already fill the role you want Tsareena to fill. comes out of this event.
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer there, but let’s see what the rest of the story says to lead me to this conclusion…
TSAREENA Stats and Movement
Memory
grass
Major League Stats
Ultra League Statistics
Master League Statistics
As a Mono-Grass, Tsareena remains vulnerable to Fire, Poison, Bug, Ice AND Flying, which is no big deal, especially since it only balances Grass, Ground, Water, and Electric.
More concerning are his stats. Compared to grass starters, only Sceptile and Meowscara have less relative mass than Tisa…even the weak Decidueye outranks it, as do Grasses that aren’t known for their mass at all, like Leafeon, Lurantis, Trevenant, and even Carnivine. So yeah…noooooot great.
Of course, really good moves can overcome poor writing and stats (just look at the other mono-Grass Lurantis I just mentioned!), maybe that will be the case here. Let’s check and see!
Quick Actions
- Magic leaf – grass type, 3.33 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CoolDown
- Razor leaf – grass type, 5.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.0 CD
- Charm – Fairy type, 5.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.5 CD
Well, that’s mostly it Magic leaf or bust. There are simply better ones Razor leaf and especially Charm options in the game anymore. A minor spoiler: the new move costs 55 energy, so it’s nothing to help the already poor performance of any of these 2.0 EPT quick moves.
Magic Leaf, on the other hand, is one of the rare PvP fast moves that deals above-average damage and generates above-average energy. Granted, being only 0.33 out of a 3.0 average is not excellentbut they are both quite comfortable to have on and work better with Tisa’s loaded moves.
It’s about…
ᴱ – Exclusive (Community Day) Move
THE CHARGE IS MOVING
- Stomp – Normal type, 55 damage, 40 energy
- Triple Axel – Ice type, 60 damage, 45 energy, Increases user’s Attack by +1 Stage
- Grass Rice – grass type, 90 damage, 50 energy
- Drainage Kiss – Fairy type, 60 damage, 55 energy
- Energy ball – grass type, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance: Reduce opponent’s Defense -1 Stage
- High jump shotá´± – Fight type, 110 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance: Lower the user’s Defense -4 Stages
So let’s not beat around the bush here…new move High jump shot Gives Tsareena the highest damage output and at the same cost Energy ball (while doing 20 more damage, at least on paper) and terrifying Drainage Kiss (employment 50 more damage). It also provides an interesting new Fighting-type coverage that’s great against Dark and Normal types and maintains the anti-Rock role you want with Grass types, but perhaps most importantly, gives you useful coverage against Steel types that resist Tsa. all from his other actions. It can also be a nasty surprise to any Ice types trying to hunt Tsareena’s Grass spell.
The obvious downside, of course, is the potential downside that comes with it. There are actions that can lower the user’s Defense by minus 2 stages (Wild Charge, Close Combat, etc.) or even minus 3 stages (most notably Brave Bird), but there is no action that can drop in the game. in any max -4 stage stat at a time… so far. Granted, it’s only a 10% chance (as coded at the time of this writing), but when it goes off… oooooof.
Of course, this turns into a simulation nightmare, because if this big debuff triggers, everything I show can change pretty wildly. That said… of course I looked at the simulations anyway. 🙃 I mean, that’s what we do here! So if you can at least take these with a grain of salt, let’s see what potential this new move has.
THE BIG LEAGUE
So, before we go all the way down the Sims rabbit hole, I have a few things to say.
First, I barely mentioned Tisa’s other charge moves other than the other 55 energy moves…you generally don’t want to run anyway. Your best options (at least up to this point) have usually been 45 energy Triple Axel (provides great coverage and also a guaranteed Attack boost) and 50 energy Grass Rice (Does the same 90 damage as a 55 energy Energy Ball).
And it appears Even in the Big League. Load. Mainly defeats obvious Grass-type targets and the classic Shadow Victreebel (thanks to Axel on the latter).
And here comes the second part I need to mention before I go any further: as of this writing, Mr. PvPoke is on a well-deserved vacation and has not been able to add High Jump Kick to the site. Thankfully, I have my own local version of PvPoke, which I was able to add High Jump Kick to, but since it’s run locally, I can’t switch to it. So we’ll have to go with some screenshots instead.
I think the easiest way to show the differences in screenshots is to use PvPoke’s “Matrix” battle, which shows multiple Pokémon (or in this case the same Pokémon with different movesets) side by side and highlights win/lose differences.
So here we go. Basically, here are the differences (positive and negative) when you swap the Magic Leaf/Triple Axel/Grass Knot with the Grass Knot for a High Hold Kick.
- 1v1 defender – Gain Bastiodon, Registeel, Lickitung, Umbreon; Azumarill loses
- 0v0 protector – Win Lickitung, Vigoroth, Galarian Stunfisk, Guzzlord; Azumarill, Annihilape, Dewgong, Pelipper, Sableye lose
- 2v2 defender – Get registeel
There is obviously a lot of good here, but also a little bad. First of all, in none of these guard scenarios does Tisa even beat two-thirds of the listed Major League metas (outperform each other). 32% win rate).
However, the high-jump kick is better than bad, with Combat coverage (and raw power) shining brightly with Registeel, Bastiodon, and Lickitung winning (as well as others like Galarian Stunfisk and Umbreon). But there are losses, especially with shields down, where the lack of a Grass load leads to the loss of Pelipper and Azumarill, as well as things like Sableye, Dewgong, and Annihilape, where the Grass Knot spell and/or cost difference.
I think it’s fair to call High Jump Kick Tsareena the overall best Major League Tsareena right now, but there are tradeoffs, and I don’t think Tisa will suddenly become a meta or even a regular fixture in Cups. A slightly more interesting choice of spices.
ULTRA LEAGUE
Still, we’ve done our best up to this point Triple Axel/Ot. (In this case, Energy Ball shows more wins than Grass Knot, but that’s just the way to win against Obstagoon. Throwing Axel, then Ot moves more double grass knot As the Sims try to do) And oh my God, that was a lot of words for a pointless encounter!) But anyway, with a winning list made up almost entirely of Water types with Ampharos, Umbreon, and Granbull as bonuses, the overall effectiveness is slightly better than Major League. Overall, it’s only 25% of the meta, so it’s slightly worse than the Big League.
But if there is good news, it is High jump shot this increases the win rate to 50%. Both 1shield and 2shield are straight upgrades, which is nice. Let’s see what these new victories are:
- 1v1 defender – Gain Registeel, Alolan Sandslash, Obstagoon, Greedent, Cobalion
- 0v0 protector – Win Obstagoon, Umbreon, Alolan Sandslash; Feraligatr, Poliwrath, Jellicent, Granbull lose
- 2v2 defender – Win Registeel, Steelix, Umbreon, as well as Cresselia (but the latter is just a straight Triple Axel)
Unlike Major League, you keep the same wins (mostly Waters) even when running without doing any Hayload moves now, except for having a handful of Waters and Granbull (thanks to the cheaper Hay Knot) running shields. With the exception of the new win that appears against Cresselia on 2shield but is actually straight up on the back of a Triple Axel, all of the new wins are over things that are specifically weak to Battle damage. But other than that, no real surprises. And you’re still losing to things like Guzzlord and (usually) Steelix that you’d beat with High Jump Kick.
SHOULD WE USE IT OR NOT?
Meh. While High Jump Kick gives Tsareena a bit more of an advantage in PvP, she still tries to get down lanes where other things are blazing…and more effectively at that.
Triple Axel is really the only thing that separates him from other Herbs with his Fighting moves. In the Ultra League, that’s what it means chessand that’s what it means in the Big League Lurant, and you’ll find that both are superior to Tsareena. The only wins for Tisa Triple Axel are things like Golisopod and Granbull in the Ultra League (where shinning allows it to excel) and Shadow Victreebel in the Major League (Vic resists all Grass and Battle damage, but is weak to Ice). Otherwise, Tsareena is just dragged along by Chesnaught, Lurantis and others.
OTHER HIGH CLIMBERS?
There are certainly other things learning a new movement. More interesting ones include:
- MEDICHAM Can gain a bit more glory again with High Jump Kick. While giving up things like Venusaur and mirror compatibility by not running Psychic (a move), High Jump Kick will get the same win over Lanturn as Dynamic Punch, potentially adding Whiscash and Skarmory, two big names in PvP. !
- while SCRAFTY Now works well with Power-Up Punch and Foul Play, as a closer, High Jump shot at worst a viable alternative to both, especially in Ultra League where HJK/Foul Play would potentially be pretty bad!
- LOPUNNY it’s still pretty fringe, but the High Jump shot will represent a better melee than the current Focus Blast or Hyper Beam.
Others like it BLAZIKEN, HITMONLY, TOWELand LUCARIO can learn it in MSG as well, but neither will be noticeably good with it, and will likely want to keep the existing moves in most cases. Then again, they certainly won’t have any mind having the option. 😉
IN SUMMARY….
It looks like another Community Day where the introduced Pokémon is better with a new move, but ultimately won’t be able to suddenly become popular. The high jump shot makes Tsareena a bit scary and can draw shields that Tisa couldn’t before, but she still needs an unusual meta to pull off and… well… with a kick even now. Grind for the good ones as always, but it’s not a very high priority in my estimation. Just have a good time because it’s a game, right?
Until next time you can always find me Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets or Patreon.
Good hunting, people! Be safe out there, have fun with the locals, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!