Best team for the Holiday Cup: Little Edition in Pokémon Go

The Holiday Cup: Little Edition is a limited-time cup that celebrates the winter holidays in the Pokémon Go Battle League. With a small selection of eligible Pokémon types and a very low CP limit to adhere to, it’s going to require some careful planning and a bit of luck to put together the best team possible.

You can compete in the Holiday Cup: Little Edition from Dec. 17 to Dec. 24, 2024. It will then return from Dec. 31, 2024, to Jan. 7, 2025. With a total of two weeks to take part, it’s worth investing some resources into creating a solid team. We’ve rounded up some of the best options below.

Like most themed cups, there are quite a few restrictions to be aware of when entering the Holiday Cup: Little Edition. Only electric, flying, grass, ice, normal, and ghost-type Pokémon are eligible, while the ‘little’ part means there’s a 500 CP limit on all Pokémon.

In terms of types, there are six to choose from, which is quite generous when compared to other limited-time cups that only allow a few types of Pokémon to enter. Remember that you can also use dual-type Pokémon, which makes the team-building process a little easier.

The 500 CP limit can be a benefit or a hindrance, depending on the state of your current Pokémon collection. Generally, having a low CP limit makes a cup more accessible, as you won’t need as many resources or high-level Pokémon to be in with a chance of winning.

On the other hand, many Pokémon are caught above the 500 CP limit, or you might have previously powered up the perfect Pokémon too high for it to compete. With these themed cups, it’s often a case of making the best of what you’ve already got in your collection.

Here’s one of the best teams you can use for the Holiday Cup: Little Edition in Pokémon Go:

Together, these three Pokémon will give you a wide range of coverage options to tackle most opponents you’ll come across — including Smeargle, which has the potential to be a massive threat in the Holiday Cup: Little Edition meta this time around.

They’re also fairly easy to obtain under 500 CP, and none of them require XL Candy to reach that limit. There are some potentially stronger Pokémon that you could use in the Holiday Cup: Little Edition, but the chances of getting them under 500 CP are very slim. We’ve decided to focus on Pokémon that are accessible while still putting in a good performance.

Beyond that, other Pokémon we can recommend are Pikachu Libre, Flying Pikachu, Joltik, Alolan Sandslash, Fletchling, and Wigglytuff. There’s also the matter of Smeargle — but there’s a good explanation as to why we haven’t included it in our best team.

A quick look at PvPoke’s rankings shows that Smeargle has the potential to be an absolute menace in the Holiday Cup: Little Edition. However, the conditions required to get this specific Smeargle build are incredibly difficult to achieve, which is why we’ve chosen not to include it in our best team recommendation.

Smeargle’s unique quirk in Pokémon Go is that its moveset is decided by the Pokémon it photobombs when taking snapshots. To get the optimal moveset for this cup — Incinerate and Flying Press — you’ll need Smeargle to photobomb a Pokémon that knows Incinerate as well as a Charged Move that Smeargle cannot learn, such as Frustration. At that point, it’s up to fate whether the random Charged Move it will learn is Flying Press.

As you can imagine, the chances of this happening — especially on a Smeargle that has good IVs — are incredibly slim. For this reason, it’s hard to predict how much of a presence Smeargle will actually have in the Holiday Cup: Little Edition. You might face Smeargle with Lock-On and Flying Press, as this has been a popular build in previous cups, but we’d imagine even that will be few and far between.

One good thing about Smeargle is that you can catch one at any time by taking snapshots of your Pokémon, although there is a limit of one encounter per day. It’s worth trying to get a Smeargle that knows the recommended moveset for this cup, but don’t get your hopes up too high. Think of it as a nice bonus rather than a must-have Pokémon.

Here are some of the top Pokémon you can use in the Holiday Cup: Little Edition as well as their best movesets and IVs:

Good luck in this year’s edition of the Holiday Cup, trainers!