Featured Pokemon: Wigglytuff

Question: without looking, does
Wigglytuff have a tail?

Greetings trainers!

Today we'll be talking about, perhaps, the most underestimated Pokemon in Pokemon GO. Wigglytuff has been called a "mini-Snorlax," and its massive HP and Fairy/Normal-typing really do make it feel a bit like facing a Snorlax. Wigglytuff's Feint Attack is comparable to Snorlax's Zen Headbutt, and far superior to Snorlax's Lick. On offence, Wigglytuff is a fantastic mon to use for gym-levelling, thanks to its extremely low CP for its relative performance. All-in-all, Wigglytuff is a great Pokemon with niche uses as both an attacker and very capable defender.

Recommended movesets

I... uh... this is terrifying

Attacking
Pound + Play Rough
Honourable mention: Pound + Hyper Beam

Wigglytuff's Pound has a great damage output with a very quick cool down. As one of the few viable Normal-type Pokemon, Wigglytuff also gets STAB on Pound, which is one of the things that elevates it above its sibling Clefable. Play Rough and Hyper Beam both have good damage-per-second (DPS), but I would prefer Play Rough for a couple reasons.

First, it has a typing you can use to take advantage of weakness, whereas Normal moves are not super-effective against anything. Second, it has a much shorter cool down, which means you can launch a Play Rough and then dodge the defending Pokemon's charge move. With Hyper Beam's 5-second cool down, and the time it takes to charge it up, you're almost certainly taking their big charge move. If you do have Hyper Beam, I'd recommend waiting for the defender to launch a charge move (DODGE!) before using Hyper Beam. Dazzling Gleam isn't all that bad, but its long cool down combined with its damage output is a bit underwhelming compared to Play Rough. Still... it charges fast!

I never knew Wigglytuff could be so
creepy. This just doesn't look right...

Defending
Feint Attack + Play Rough
Feint Attack + Dazzling Gleam

Feint Attack's base 12 damage makes it superior to Pound for defence. Play Rough remains the one of the best defending moves though, as its base 55 damage combined with its shorter cool down make it difficult to dodge and relatively strong for its energy cost. Dazzling Gleam is also commendable on defence, as while its cool down is long enough to allow for dodging, its base damage is actually equal to Play Rough! Having a smaller energy requirement, coupled with Wigglytuffs mammoth HP, Dazzling Gleam fires off constantly during battle, which is vastly superior to using two Feint Attacks in the same time interval. Play Rough also takes advantage of this, but takes a bit longer to get rolling.

Hyper Beam is incredibly powerful, but it's almost certainly going to be dodged, and it prevents Wigglytuff from using anything but Feint Attack for quite a while. Consider that its animation takes 5 seconds, while Play Rough's takes 2.9 seconds. You can launch two Play Roughs in almost the same time it takes to launch one Hyper Beam, and one of them might actually hit!

Base stats and typing

Ha! Ah... right in the childhood.

Attack: 168

Defence: 108

Stamina: 280

Wigglytuff's mammoth HP is boosted by the Gym Defender's 2x HP multiplier which gives it a stupid amount of HP. While its 108 Defence makes it more frail than Snorlax, damage also wracks up incredibly fast, and as Pokemon gain 1 energy per 2 HP lost, Wigglytuff starts using its Charge moves very early on in the battle. While not an ideal attacker, Wigglytuff's 168 Attack stat is capable, and its more-than-solid defensive capability allow it to stay in battle long enough to take down Pokemon like Dragon Breath Dragonite that are double its CP.

Steel Wing Dragonite is a  fair
bit tougher... but can be done

Popular Pokemon Wigglytuff deals with

Dragon-moves Dragonite! Fairy/Normal-typing is really only useful for hitting Dragons right now, which means Dragonite. In the future, Dark-types will be weak to Fairy, giving Wigglytuff an extra type to deal with. But something that Wigglytuff is fantastic for is gym-levelling. While Water Gun / Hydro Pump users are fantastic for their damage output and ability to dodge, Wigglytuff just gets to be better at surviving at the same CP. Unlike Water Gun / Hydro Pump, Wigglytuff is also good against Dragonite, and can be useful for anyone without a low-CP Lapras.

Checks and counters

Fairy/Normal is a great typing because almost nothing resists fairy, and little resists Feint Attack. Arcanine and Charizard will resist Wigglytuff's Fairy moves. Alternatively, Poison-moves Pokemon like Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Muk, Tentacruel, Vine Whip / Sludge Bomb Venusaur, and that Acid Victreebel that you've been holding onto for no good reason. Generally strong Pokemon like Dragonite and Snorlax actually don't work optimally, because Snorlax's Lick is resisted (though ZH is still fine), and Dragonite is weak to Fairy moves. Vaporeon is a solid Pokemon to use, but Arcanine/Charizard are similar but better for the purpose.

Final say

Fire Fang Arcanine specifically*

Probably the best thing about Wigglytuff is its relative performance for its low-CP. While this makes it seem underwhelming as a Gym defender, there's a hidden strength in having Wigglytuff sit amongst the lower-CP mons in a gym. A lot of players like to just power through the lower-rungs of a gym with Dragonite, and sneaking a Wigglytuff in-between these low-CP mons forces them to switch, taking extra damage during the switch. After they've sent out their Arcanine or whatever, Wigglytuff is still a very strong defender that will deal good damage before going down.

And as was said earlier, Wigglytuff is a great low-CP Pokemon to beat a defending Dragonite with for maximum Prestige. It's pretty rare to catch a Lapras that's just perfect for every random Dragonite you come across, and often you'll have to sacrifice Prestige earned vs. the first few Pokemon in a gym using this new gym-battle system. With Wigglytuff, you can get a good level of performance out of a low-CP Pokemon, kind of like Hypno.

Jigglypuff is even a 1km buddy, which means easy candies!

Cheers,
Let's GO!