Spring is slowly approaching. For many of us in the Northern Hemisphere this marks the slow exit of a snow white Winter and the entrance of a colorful Spring. And what better way to mark and celebrate this amazing time of year than with the Festival of Colors event!

 

The Festival of Colors event will run from March 8th to March 14th and will feature an assortment of vibrant Pokémon befitting a celebration of Spring. It will also mark the introduction of two new Pokémon, Mega Medicham and the gnash teeth Pokémon, Bruxish. 

 

 

The Marvelous Mega Medi

 

Mega Medicham makes its majestic mark on the Mega landscape with its debut in this event. Topping out at 2821 CP it’s not going to be a major player in raids or Mega Master formats, but that’s no reason to skip the Meditation Pokémon. Its Psychic/Fighting typing is nice for the Mega catch bonuses it confers. Fighting is a pretty sparse Mega typing at the moment. The list goes: Lopunny, Blaziken…that’s it; that’s the list. There will be more Fighting type Megas (and some with this exact dual typing) in the future, but for now Medi provides a rare source of boosted XL for Fighting type spawns. 

 

It’s also worth mentioning that in a hypothetical world where Megas were allowed, Mega Medicham sports a +60% win rate against the Ultra Premier Meta in the 1 shield scenarios. 

 

So while it won’t be a major priority, it will be worth stocking up on some Mega Medi energy while you can. 

 

Bring on the Bruxish

 

Bruxish is a cool looking Pokémon. Bruxish fits very well with this event’s theme. Bruxish has a pretty neat movepool. This concludes the list of nice things I have to say about Bruxish.

 

Bruxish has decent moves but just doesn’t have the stats to back them up. Its stat product comes in at around the Dragonite and Alolan Raichu level. When you are THAT glassy you better a) have amazing moves b) have amazing typing or c) fill a role that no other Pokémon can. Brux fails all three of these tests. Its movepool is good and difficult to wall, but lacks real closing punch. Its typing isn’t terrible, but that combo doesn’t have any particularly amazing synergy. If you want to run a Water/Psychic you’d be better off running the new Surf Kanto Slowbro. 

 

These failings lead to predictably bad sim results. It sims pretty mediocrely against the Color Cup meta and very poorly against the Open Great meta. Confusion gives slightly better results, but I just can’t imagine this ever being your Confusion user of choice. It might have some play in a Love Cup type meta as a Slowbro partner in ABB teams. 

 

While Bruxish is not a game changer, it’s still a featured event spawn. There’s no reason to not grind out a decent one, just in case it’s a rare spawn going forward. 



Rest of the Rainbow

 

There’s some other decent stuff in this event so let’s cover it quickly

 

Wild Spawns

 

Lickitung: Before the recent ascension of the owl, Licki was one of the best picks for the Open Great League. It’s still very good, but just not positioned as well as it was before. Remains solid in Open and is insanely good in limited metas such as the recent Love Cup. 

 

Galarian Zigzagoon/Obstagoon: Nck’s mascot makes another event appearance. If you missed the Community Day, this would be a great time to find and prep an Obstagoon for Great and Ultra league. 

 

Wingull/Pelipper: Pelipper was another huge beneficiary of the Wing Attack buff, now capable of spamming out Weather Balls and Hurricanes at insane speeds. Strong in Open Great and a force to be reckoned with in Limited Metas like last season’s Weather Cup. 

 

Pink Burmy/Wormadam: A solid role player in limited metas such as the recent Love Cup. Has to be female to evolve into Wormadam!

 

Stunky/Skuntank: Skuntank is a very solid Dark/Poison type option for both the Great and Ultra leagues. This would be a good time to gather XL Candy for the Ultra League version. 

 

Wobbuffet: Though the Purified (or Shadow if you’re cool like that) hundo Wobbuffet is what you would actually want to use in battles, this is a great opportunity to grind out the hard to get XL Candy. You’ll need at least 272 XL Candy for that project so catch catch catch!

 

Paras: Paras is a base 500 dust Mon. Huge spawn for the dust poor battler. 

 

Raids 

Note: these will have raid IVs which are suboptimal for PvP. Consider flipping them with friends!

 

Mareanie/Toxapex: Coined as “Water/Poison Bastiodon”, Toxapex is an absolute bucket of bulk. It’s decent in the Open Great League and pretty good in limited metas. More importantly, it’s been a pretty rare sight outside of its debut event. 

 

Druddigon: Not an amazing PvP mon, but has its niche. It’s a Dragon with Dragon Tail and access to multiple cheap Charge Moves. This kit will give it play in some limited metas like last season’s Love Cup. 

 

Field Research Encounters:

 

Castform: Putting all the Castform together as one entry. Their usage has fallen off over time due to the Weather Ball nerf and better options entering the game. Rainy is probably the most PvP useful while Snowy is the least useful. The shinies are amazing though and probably make these tasks worth hunting. 

 

Alolan Grimer: Another neat Dark/Poison type, A-Grimer sees limited play in Open Great but finds solid footing in limited metas like Kanto Cup. Its evolved form, Alolan Muk, is a very solid choice in Ultra League formats. Worth mentioning that you can get a Grimer with optimal Great League PvP IVs via task. 

 

Conclusion 

 

Overall, I would classify this event as decent but not amazing. There’s no singular must have debutante Pokémon to be seen. That being said, this event has some solid PvP staples, a few great XL grinding opportunities, and definite PvP shiny flex potential. Raid a few Medi, grab some Bruxish, and play the rest of the event as you see fit. 

 

I hope you have a great event and I wish you the best of luck in your shiny Castform hunting.