Prepare for December Community Day Weekend

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December is a special month when it comes to Community Day, and you need to prepare for it. Unfortunately, 2018 CD moves will not be available this year, but we have been told to look out for a 2021 event where we will be able to get them again. So we will focus on and 2019 and 2020 Community Day Pokémon.

What we want to help you with here is to prepare you and help you figure out which Pokémon you already have that are the best candidates to evolve in December. This will hopefully also help you identify Pokémon that you still need better versions of so you can get out there and prepare by catching some before the December Community Day Weekend (December 12 & 13). However, we understand there isn’t much time between now and then. We will break down all the Pokémon that have been featured in the prior Community Days (CDs) into categories based on their usage: Raid Counters, PvP, Megas, and Gymming.

First, here’s a search string for the unevolved versions of Pokémon that will be able to get their CD moves:

158,159,220,221,252,253,371,372,255,256,287,288,258,259,280,281,387,388,328,329,390,391,393,394,111,112,063,064,273,274,013,014,092,093,129,137,233,004,005,125,126

I used that search string to create a Tag called “Possible Dec.” I will now go through those Pokémon to decide which ones will definitely be evolved and give those a Tag like “Dec CD Evolve.” Of course, I have to remember to look through the new ones I catch during the weekend to see if any of those should be evolved as well.

Raid Counters (PVE)

What are you looking for in this category? You will want to prepare by having Pokémon as high level as you can get with IVs as close to perfect as you can get. If you don’t have any with truly great IVs, level is more important. If you have a choice of several at the same level and can only invest in a few, select the ones with higher attack stats. These are great candidates for Lucky Trades. You will want all of these raid counters to be at least Level 30, if not higher. Unless otherwise noted with (FM), all the CD moves are Charge Moves.

Show Raid Counters


Outrage	Synchronoise¹	Rock Wrecker

¹ The usefulness of this move is only moderate. You could get away with evolving these prior to December.

The following are technically Community Day Pokémon, but they are better as raid counters without their CD special move. If you have good options for these, evolve them at any time because there is no need to wait for December.


Ancient Power better with Ice Moves	Flamethrower better with Electric Moves

PvP

What are you looking for in this category? We aren’t going to go into a long discussion of why PvP IVs are so different, nor how level 50 is going to change those IVs for some Pokémon. Essentially, you want a Pokémon that can get to the highest level possible without going over the CP limit of the league you’re battling in. For most Pokémon, this means having a low attack stat paired with high defense and stamina stats. With only rare exceptions, the ideal PvP IVs work out to look something like 0/15/15 or 1/15/14. If you’re unsure what you need for any particular Pokémon, you can always check their rank at the GO Stadium Rank Checker.

Deciding which Pokémon are good in PvP depends on whether you play in GO Battle League (GBL) or participate in themed cups from The Silph Arena (TSA). TSA only competes in Great League (GL), while GBL competes in all 3 leagues: Great (GL), Ultra (UL), and Master (ML). The best Pokémon don’t change very often within GBL unless moves are added or changed, though we have seen GBL incorporate themed cups more frequently. TSA organizes themed cups that often end up seeing unusual Pokémon rise to the top because their typical counters are banned. So with TSA, you can almost never truly discount any Pokémon as useless.

Either way, some moves add value to a Pokémon’s utility in PvP, and some don’t. We will highlight the moves that make a Pokémon more relevant in PvP, though possibly the Pokémon overall may still not be relevant.

Show PvP


	Dragon Breath* (FM) TSA, GBL GL & UL

Hydro Cannon TSA	Frenzy Plant TSA, GBL GL & UL	Blast Burn TSA, GBL GL

Hydro Cannon TSA, GBL GL, UL & ML	Earth Power TSA, GBL GL	Hydro Cannon TSA, GBL GL, UL, & ML

Rock Wrecker GBL ML	Drill Run TSA	Shadow Punch GBL UL

Aqua Tail GBL UL & ML	Tri Attack GBL ML	Dragon Breath* (FM) TSA, GBL GL & UL

	Thunderbolt TSA

* Special note: Charmander was featured for the 2nd time in 2020. The move that will be evolvable in 2020 is Dragon Breath, not Blast Burn from 2018. Official word is that we can use an Elite TM to get the previous CD charge move on a Charizard evolved this year. There is also promise of an event coming in 2021 where the older CD special move will be available for Charizard again without an Elite TM.

Megas

The future of Megas in PvP is unclear. For the foreseeable future, they cannot be used in either TSA or GBL. Therefore, it’s probably best to concentrate on using them as raid counters.

Already Released


Dragon Breath* (FM)	Drill Run	Shadow Punch

Possible Future Releases


Frenzy Plant	Outrage	Blast Burn

Hydro Cannon	Synchronoise	Counter (FM)

	Aqua Tail

gym attackers/defenders

For this category, you’re going to want basically the same stats and levels as you’d find in the PvE category – high level and great IVs. For attackers, focus on high attack stat, for defenders, focus on high defense and stamina stats.

To be honest, there aren’t many from CD that fit in this category. In fact, the gym attackers list is basically the same as the PvE list. What you use to defend gyms is often a matter of personal preference. Many people just pick their favorite Pokémon or some shiny they want to show off. However there are some CD Pokémon that don’t have much use anywhere else except as decent gym defenders so here are those.

Body Slam
Definitely the best Gym defender that has been featured in CDs

DON'T FORGET SHADOWS

Don’t forget to prepare to evolve any shadow Pokémon that have Frustration TM’d away. Generally speaking, shadow Pokémon have better attack stats and worse defensive stats than their regular counterparts. This makes them a little “glassier” but slightly more dangerous as attackers.

Species that nest

Several of the species that have been featured during previous CDs can nest. Ask around in your community if any of the parks near you are nests of the following Pokémon. OK, so there’s a caveat on this section. It is possible that nesting species have changed recently. The research for this article was done before that change. Some of these species may no longer nest, but we don’t really have enough information to make that call yet.