Pokemon GO Retro Cup Guide for Tales of Transformation

Pokemon GO is in its most prime state for both old and new Trainers. And with the new Tales of Transformation Season dawning upon players, it's time for new PvP events to renew the chart, with tons of rewards, and a hectic meta that will challenge even the most avid Pokemon GO Battle League players.

The Retro Cup, for example, is a beginner-friendly competition with a low entry bar. This event lets Pokemon GO players farm Stardust throughout the anniversary celebration. Discover the rules of this cup and find the top meta teams to maximize the rewards with the following guide.

What Is Retro Cup in Pokemon GO?

Retro Cup is a limited-time GO Battle League competition. It requires Trainers to avoid the three specific Pokemon types and participate with teams below a specific Combat Power (CP). The goal with Retro Cup is to go back to the franchise’s roots and appreciate original Pokemon types.

Following up a truly hardcore competitive season, the new Tales of Transformation Pokemon GO Battle League will bring lots of opportunities for players to test their best teams and earn tons of rewards. The most notorious of them is the chance to get a special costumed Pikachu (Pika Libre).

Retro Cup: Great League Edition Tales of Transformation Rules

The current edition of Pokemon GO Tales of Transformation Retro Cup Great League Edition will last from September 2, 2025, at 1 PM to September 9, 2025, at 1 PM PT.

Pokemon GO’s Retro Cup has two fundamental rules. Firstly, players must avoid Dark, Steel, and Fairy Pokemon, the types that were not present in Generation I. (This includes Dual-Type creatures with one banned Type.) Second, each Pokemon must have a CP of 1,500 or below.

Here’s a breakdown of all Retro Cup instructions:

Rule #1: Dark, Steel, and Fairy Pokemon are not allowed, including dual-types that involve any of the above.
Rule #2: No Pokemon should be stronger than 1,500 CP.
Rule #3: The Retro Cup winner earns three times the amount of Stardust.

The Best Pokemon for Retro Cup (September 2025)

PvP match data indicates that Regidrago, Giratina, and Kingdra are the most effective Pokemon in Retro Cup. These three are ideal for offensive teams with reliable counter potential against Meta picks such as Altaria, Cradily, and Oranguru. Check out the following team comps to rise quickly in Retro Cup and win tons of Battles.

Full Offensive: Kingdra, Cradily, Giratina

In this setup, Kingdra (Water/Dragon-type) is your primary spammer, since it's fast and has powerful Dragon-type moves that can become quite annoying if used in time. Cradily (Rock/Grass type) is a decent switch and offers lots of coverage (Infestation, Grass Knot, Rock Slide), and Giratina (Dragon/Ghost type) is the closer, with an overpowering attack and decent bulk. The only downside of this team is that everyone is building to counter Giratina in this Meta, os its nice to have Cradily to counter certain picks that can cause lots of hurt to Giratina, like Aurorus.

Giratina Counter: Aurorus, Galarian Corsola, Lapras

On that note, the most decent approach against a Giratina team in Retro Cup, players should pick Aurorus as their main attacker. Aurorus is a popular spammer that also has great coverage and access to charged moves like Ancient Power, Weather Ball, and Thunderbolt. Galarian Corsola is absolutely overpowered in Great League, with Astonish, Night Shade, and Power Gem. It's a nightmare for every team composition that uses Giratina, and can be a decent pick against top meta picks like Altaria and Kingdra. Finally, Lapras has received several movepool updates that grant it lots of strong options, especially against Dragon-types. Plus, it has decent attack and bulk, turning into a powerful option against many meta picks in the current season.

Balanced Team: Regidrago, Primeape, Gyarados

Because Pokemon GO Battle League is not always about spamming legendaries or top picks, this team, consisting of Regidrago as a nuker, Primeape as shield breaker, and Gyarados as bulk/switch, covers most of the needs for the Retro Cup, and can surprise more than one opponent with its versatility. Regidrago is dominating the Great League Retro Cup charts, getting tons of victories against rivals like Altaria, Oranguru, and Giratina, plus, it has access to powerful moves such as Dragon Energy and Hyper Beam, and one of the strongest Fast Attacks of the Dragon-type: Dragon Breath.

Primeape triumphs as a bona-fide Ghost-type counter, and since it has access to Rage Fist a spammable move with a guaranteed attack boost that snowballs real fast. Finally, the good old-fashioned Gyarados shows tons of potential, since it can have moves like Aqua Tail which counters most of the annoying Rock-types, Crunch, which denegates Ghost-types like Galarian Corsola, and of course, Dragon Breath as a fast move which also causes tons of damage to Dragon-types without taking STAB damage in return (unlike Regidrago).

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