Pokémon Go Love Cup best team recommendations, restrictions and 2023 dates

Our Pokémon Go Love Cup recommendations, from Charizard to Alomomola

The best thing about the 1500 CP limit is, of course, the low cost of entry in terms of Candy and Stardust. Of course, if there’s overlap between the Love Cup and your Great League team – if you run a Charizard, for example – you can get away with spending less resources to be competitive.

But, the issue here isn’t the CP limit – the question is how do you pick the best Pokémon to beat the other Pokémon, when your single selector is colour? In this case, which red and pink Pokémon will beat all of the other red and pink Pokémon?

The long and short of it is that you simply need to know which Pokémon excel in this CP bracket, and then filtering them by colour. This is no mean task, but worry not because the hard work has been done for you.

The trick is going to be picking three Pokémon that cover each other’s weaknesses. Fire-type Pokémon tend to have some amount of red in their colour palette. However, a large number of Water-type Pokémon run pink, so if you go all in on one type, you may find yourself getting washed out.

It’s also worth noting that thanks to the decreased CP limit, there are no Legendary Pokémon for you to consider at the top of the meta. Again, this helps keep the cost of entry down, making it more accessible to the wider community.

Remember, although there are specific Pokémon that dominate this meta, with the Go Battle League (and player-versus-player battles in general) you’ll be going in blind; so even if you cover yourself with a wide range of offence and defence options, no team is invincible.

Still – even with a few of the below Pokémon in your team, you should be able to fare better than if you just selected those as close to the 1500 CP cap as possible.

Our Pokémon Go Love Cup recommendations in National Pokédex order, are:

Charizard

The fan-favourite, Charizard, makes an impressive showing in Love Cup, thanks to being an excellent Pokémon, first and foremost, but also thanks to the red fiery bits on its tail. Apparently, that’s red enough to count, despite Charizard clearly being an orange Pokémon…

The issue, of course, is its weakness to Water-types. While you can expect wins against Scrafty, Medicham, Wigglytuff and Ariados, you can expect losses against Milotic, Alomomola, Seaking and even Magcargo, thanks to the Rock-type weakness. Also, beware Electrode: Charizard has the upper claw against Kantonian Electrode, but the Hisuian form will quickly beat everyone’s favourite honorary dragon.

Lickitung

Type: Normal
Perfect IVs: 8/14/15
Recommended moves: Lick (Fast), Body Slam (Community Day Charged), Power Whip (Charged)
Lickitung weaknesses: Fighting

If you’re looking for a tank, Lickitung is the way to go. It is a ridiculously bulky Pokémon that can take more than its fair share of hits — especially when you consider that you can get to Level 50 (CP 1499) and still be eligible. If you can get your Lickitung up this level, you’ll be looking at one of the best Pokémon in the meta.

As always, there are downsides to every Pokémon, and in this case it’s the low shield pressure you apply with Lickitung — Lick is frustratingly slow charging, even when you’re trying to get to something as cheap as Body Slam.

So, expect wins against Slowbro, Ariados, Alomomola, Druddigon and Electrode, but don’t be surprised when, for all that bulk, you lose to Scrafty, Medicham, Magcargo, Charizard or Seaking.

Seaking

That is an expensive Pokémon in terms of Elite TMs… Still, if you like the look of Seaking in Love Cup, it’s a very good choice, thanks to it being a flexible and dynamic Pokémon. The issue is that you can’t treat it like a Water type in terms of attacks.

Poison Jab is simply excellent. Icy Wind comes with a guaranteed attack debuff for the opponent, and Drill Run simply deals a chunk of damage. While none of this is STAB, as none of them are Water-type attacks, Seaking offers great coverage against a wide range of Pokémon.

This means wins against Milotic, Magcargo, Alomomola, Wigglytuff and Slowbro. Meanwhile, Electrode, Medicham, Crustle, Ariados and Scrafty will have you beat, watch out, the wild card doesn’t always win!

Ariados

Ariados is a fantastic pick for this cup, thanks to it being a spammy, dynamic Pokémon that really lays on the shield pressure, thanks to fast-charging Poison Sting leading to the cheap, but effective Cross Poison or Lunge.

Both give STAB, but the former has a 12.5% chance of boosting your attack by two stages, while the latter guarantees dropping the opponent’s attack by one stage. Either way, you have two good options.

In terms of match-ups, this translates to wins against Medicham, Wigglytuff, Scrafty, Alomomola and Electrode. Meanwhile, Crustle, Magcargo, Charizard, Druddigon and Lickitung will have you easily beat, so make sure you know when to switch out.

Medicham

Type: Fighting/Psychic
Perfect IVs: 5/15/15
Recommended moves: Counter (Fast), Psychic (Charged), Power-Up Punch (Charged)
Medicham weaknesses: Fairy, Flying and Ghost

Medicham once again sits at the top of the meta, thanks to its Psychic-typing, which gives it an advantage over the poison-types that have found their way into the Love Cup.

Counter is simply excellent, and Power-Up Punch allows you to gain rapid momentum as you sweep the floor with this bulky, spammy Pokémon. There are issues, of course, which come in the form of its weakness to Fairy, Flying and Ghost-type Pokémon.

This means you need to know when to bow out — Clefable, Charizard, Ariados, Wigglytuff and Slowbro will all have you beat, so avoid them if you can. You can, however, pull in some easy wins against the likes of Magcargo, Scrafty, Milotic and Electrode, with Alomomola being a close win in a fair fight.

Scrafty

Type: Dark/Fighting
Perfect IVs: 5/15/15
Recommended moves: Counter (Fast), Foul Play (Charged), Power-Up Punch (Charged)
Scrafty weaknesses: Fairy, Flying and Ghost

In many ways, Scrafty is very similar to Medicham. Both are excellent, they share two of the three recommended moves, and they’re both weak to Flying and Fairy — the difference is that Scrafty is double-weak to fairy, and trades Ghost weakness for Fighting weakness, which is more of an issue in the Love Cup.

Still, it’s a very bulky and spammy Pokémon for all the same reasons, and follows a near-identical play pattern, too.

So, again, this means you need to know when to skulk out — your wins are mostly the same as Medicham’s: Magcargo, Scrafty, Milotic and Electrode, but this time you lose to Wigglytuff, Charizard, Medicham, Ariados and Talonflame.

Alomomola

Type: Water
Perfect IVs: 0/15/11
Recommended moves: Waterfall (Fast) / Psychic (Charged), Hydro Pump (Charged)
Alomomola weaknesses: Electric/Grass

Alomomola, the decent heart-shaped Pokémon, makes an unsurprising appearance on our list of Love Cup recommendations — it’s a great choice that even looks the part.

Sadly, with great bulk comes low speed — and in this case also low shield pressure. Waterfall hits hard as a fast move, but Psychic and Hydro Pump take a little time to work up to. The fish is not as nimble as it looks, sadly.

As long as you bear this in mind, you can expect wins against the fire types, Clefable, Wigglytuff and even Milotic. Sadly, your losses will come in the form of Druddigon, Electrode, Scrafty, Ariados and Medicham.

Lurantis

Type: Grass
Perfect IVs: 0/15/15
Recommended moves: Fury Cutter (Fast) / Leaf Blade (Charged), Superpower (Charged)
Lurantis weaknesses: Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice and Poison

Lurantis is an interesting choice for the Love Cup. While it has the notable weaknesses to Fire and Flying (ouch, Charizard), and Poison — all of which are littering this meta — it has the bonus of being great against Water types. If you’re looking for a third Pokémon to round out your team, Lurantis may just be the one.

While, as a grass type, it’s not as bulky as some of the other Pokémon on this list, it does bring a lot to the table: specifically, spamminess, agility and shield pressure. Lots of shield pressure.

Fury Cutter is fast charging, which means you can get to your Leaf Blade very quickly, stripping shields away like wet paper. If you find yourself backed into a corner, you have Superpower as a Hail Mary, but know that this will drop your attack and defence by a stage each. This is excellent against the Normal types running around.

Looking to the match-ups, this means wins against Water, plus Electrode, Scrafty and even Magcargo. Losses come from Charizard (obviously), the bug types Ariados and Crustle, Medicham and Druddigon.

Love Cup restrictions in Pokémon Go explained

The Love Cup in Pokémon Go has two restrictions that you need to keep in mind while building your team.

The first is that only Pokémon with a CP level of 1,500 or lower can participate in the Love Cup.

The second, and more complicated one, is that only Pokémon coloured red or pink can take part in the Love Cup. This means that your selection of Pokémon has been severely restricted.

Below you can find the full list of Pokémon, organised in alphabetical order, eligible for the Love Cup:

Love Cup end date and time in Pokémon Go

The Weather Cup will run until Thursday, 16th February and finish at the following times:

• UK – 9pm (BST)
• Europe – 10pm (CEST)
• East Coast US – 4pm (EDT)
• West Coast US – 1pm (PDT)

Good luck in the Love Cup!