The Jungle Cup: Great League Edition starts at 1:00 PST on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. It will continue until 1:00 PST on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. You can use any Jungle Season-themed Pokémon in Pokémon GO. However, there are some limitations.
Jungle Cup Limitations 
For the Jungle Cup, Pokémon must be at or below 1,500 CP to enter. Likewise, ONLY Normal-, Grass-, Electric-, Poison-, Ground-, Flying-, Bug-, and Dark-type Pokémon are eligible.
SEE: Memories in Motion GO Battle League
META and Anti-Pokémon
The Jungle Cup Most Effective Tactic(s) Available (META) Pokémon is fairly tight and bulky. Only defensive cores will dominate the cup. You will possibly see a lot of Altaria, Cradily, Forretress, Corviknight, and a few other anti-meta Pokémon.
Furthermore, this Cup is mainly bulky and RPS (Rock-Paper-Scissors). You need a good team composition and great skill. You need to manage energy and swaps effectively.
Recommended Teams
The table below lists the recommended Pokémon you could use for each team. Please note these are in no particular order. The “1” does not mean the “best.”
| Team* | Lead | Switch/safe swap | Closer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Altaria | Forretress | Cradily |
| 2 | Araquanid | Shadow Hippowdon | Galarian Stunfisk |
| 3 | Altaria | Forretress | Corviknight |
| 4 | Dunsparce | Cradily | Steelix |
| 5 | Crustle | Dunsparce | Diggersby |
| 6 | Cradily | Corviknight | Dunsparce |
| 7 | Clodsire | Piloswine | Dunsparce |
| 8 | Araquanid | Dunsparce | Steelix |
| 9 | Piloswine | Swalot | Corviknight |
| 10 | Diggersby | Crustle | Cradily |
| 11 |
Recommended Attacks
Now that you have the teams, the following are the attacks the Pokémon should have.
| Pokémon | Fast Attack | Primary Charged Attack | Secondary Charged Attack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altaria | Dragon Breath | Sky Attack | Flamethrower |
| Forretress | Bug Bite | Sand Tomb | Rock Tomb |
| Cradily | Acid | Rock Tomb | Grass Knot |
| Araquanid | Bug Bite | Water Pulse | Bubble Beam |
| Shadow Hippowdon | Sand Attack | Weather Ball (Rock) | Scorching Sands |
| Galarian Stunfisk | Mud Shot | Rock Slide | Earthquake |
| Corviknight | Sand Attack | Air Cutter | Payback |
| Dunsparce | Rollout | Drill Run | Rock Slide |
| Steelix | Thunder Fang | Psychic Fangs | Crunch |
| Crustle | Fury Cutter | X-Scissor | Rock Wrecker |
| Diggersby | Quick Attack | Fire Punch | Scorching Sands |
| Clodsire | Poison Sting | Earthquake | Stone Edge |
| Swalot | Mud Shot | Sludge | Ice Beam |
| Piloswine | Powder Snow | Icicle Spear | Stone Edge |
Recommended PVP IVs
In addition to having the teams and attacks, you will want to use the highly ranked Pokémon for each Pokémon species. These are Pokémon with the correct PVP IVs. These are as follows
The above table lists the Rank 1 IVs for each Pokémon species. You do not need to have these to battle and win games in the Jungle Cup. You can use others with low attack IVs (e.g., 1, 2, or 3) but with high defense and HP IVs.
| Pokémon | Type | Attack IV | Defense IV | HP IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altaria | Dragon/Flying | 0 | 14 | 15 |
| Forretress | Bug/Steel | 0 | 9 | 15 |
| Cradily | Rock/Grass | 0 | 15 | 15 |
| Araquanid | Water/Bug | 0 | 10 | 15 |
| Shadow Hippowdon | Ground | 0 | 14 | 10 |
| Galarian Stunfisk | Ground/Steel | 0 | 12 | 15 |
| Corviknight | Flying/Steel | 0 | 13 | 14 |
| Dunsparce | Normal | 0 | 14 | 12 |
| Steelix | Steel/Ground | 0 | 14 | 15 |
| Crustle | Bug/Rock | 0 | 13 | 13 |
| Diggersby | Normal/Ground | 0 | 15 | 13 |
| Clodsire | Poison/Ground | 0 | 14 | 13 |
| Swalot | Poison | 0 | 14 | 14 |
| Piloswine | Ice/Ground | 0 | 15 | 10 |
In conclusion, if you have all of these, you are in a good position to win more battles. However, winning is not only dependent on having the right Pokémon and the right team of Pokémon. You also need a good strategy. You can watch YouTube videos on these to learn a few good strategies. In addition, the more you play, the better you get at understanding your win conditions and all the other technicalities of the GO Battle League.
All the best!
