PvP Tips & Tricks: Sunshine Cup 2026
So, time for an overview of the latest edition of Sunshine Cup. I started this as a full “Nifty Or Thrifty” meta/budget analysis, but then realized that most of what I really wanted to talk about was “thrifty” anyway, with one of the largest percentage of 10,000 dust second move Pokémon we’ve had in a Limited meta in a while. Seriously, if you look at the rankings, half of the Top 10 and nearly half of the Top 25 (and Top 50) are all 10k Pokémon. So while I started this with the familiar Nifty Or Thrifty structure, after I get through the 10ks you’ll see I switch to more of a newer “Tips & Tricks” type format for the rest.
So bear with me and let’s see what thrifty tips we can glean from the 2026 version of this meta. There are enough odd moveset recommendations to surprise even me, and some picks you may not have considered that are VERY potent here. And cheap! Pay close attention, and let’s go!
A quick reminder of what Sunshine Cup is (and isn’t):
- Great League, 1500 CP Limit.
- Only Grass-, Fire-, Ground-, and Normal-type Pokémon are allowed.
- Charizard is still the only ban.
Okay, enough intro. Let’s dive in!
NIFTY AND THRIFTY (10,000 Dust/25 Candy)
PIDGEOT
Wing Attackᴸ | Feather Dance & Brave Bird
It’s ranked behind no less than ten other Flyers in this meta now, but honestly? That’s because it seems to always be ranked with the wrong moves these days. It’s not Gust or the revamped Air Cutter that it wants. What makes Pidgeot special is its unique Feather Dance, and it still pairs best with Wing Attack. In that configuration, you can see how it should (in my opinion) be ranked much higher, with wins that Feather Dance can achieve versus Dunsparce, Lickilicky, Wigglytuff, Toucannon, Shadow Marowak, and Shadow Quagsire not factoring into the Gust/Air Cutter ranking. Pidgeot quietly remains FAR better than most will give it credit for. Get your OG Bird Jesus out and profit, my friends!
TOUCANNON
Peck | Drill Peck & Beak Blastᴸ
While Pidgeot remains a bastion of the old school best Flying had to offer, Toucannon is here as a shining example of all Flying types’ best in the here and now, with Peck and Drill Peck as the hottest Flying moveset in today’s meta, and exclusive Beak Blast as arguably the best overall Flying charge move in the game. Put it all together and you really do get [an inspiring performance]() that is well deserving of Toucannon’s Top 10 (AND Top 3!) ranking. “Follow your nose”, as the old commercials say… expect Toucan Sam to be everywhere this time around in Sunshine.
There’s also Toucannon’s pre-evolution TRUMBEAK with its own impressive performance, at least in Shadow form. Hardly a truly “thrifty” pick, but I feel it’s worth mentioning that if you somehow have a “hundo” (or something close to it), you can save a LOT of dust and candy in the building cost and still get nearly the same performance (dropping Shadow Talonflame and sometimes Typhlosion, but gaining Toucannon itself).
FEAROW
Peck | Drill Run & Drill Peck
Flexing that same Peck/Drill Peck moveset on a slightly bulkier frame (bulkier than Toucannon, at least!) and running it with Drill Run for intriguing coverage ends up with another high flying performance, particularly in Shadow form which tacks on additional wins like Coalossal, Blaziken, Furret, Piloswine, Quagsire, and ShadoWak.
DARTRIX
Peck | Seed Bomb & Brave Bird
Honestly, there’s little reason not to build a Dartrix since the Peck buff. It’s even pretty good in Open play, and especially in metas like Sunshine. Honestly though, other than advantages over things like Claydol thanks to its Grass typing and coverage, it’s a bit inferior to the other Flyers above in this meta. Fun, though!
VENUSAUR
Vine Whip | Sludge & Frenzy Plantᴸ
The addition of Sludge and good IVs brings in extra wins like Cradily and ShadoWak. Its Poison typing and Sludge also take out things other Grasses can struggle with like Wigglytuff, Ludicolo, and Cradily. Venusaur has a place in this meta.
CHESNAUGHT
Vine Whip | Superpower & Frenzy Plantᴸ
Pretty similar effectiveness to Venusaur, just gets there a different way with unique wins like Gliscor, Magcargo, and Drampa, the first thanks to its Fighting typing resisting Night Slash, and the latter two thanks to Superpower. (There is little reason to run Thunder Punch here, IMO.)
TORTERRA
Mud Slap | Frenzy Plantᴸ & Sand Tomb/Stone Edge
And now for something completely different among Grass starters. Mud Slap turns Torterra into a Tortterror for many Fire types (adding Magcargo, Coalossal, Typhlosion, Blaziken, and Skeledirge to the winlist), as well as overwhelming Oranguru as a nice bonus. Stone Edge is theoretically great coverage, but I think I might actually recommend Sand Tomb here instead, as it better wears down stuff like Skeledirge and Ludicolo, and especially in long, protracted, 2v2 shielding battles, leads to a bunch of wins that Stone Edge can’t match like Wigglytuff, Diggersby, Lickilicky, Qusgsire, Oranguru, and Skeledirge again. Counterintuitively, Stone Edge even shows worse with shields down, losing to Typhlosion while Sand Tomb does the job. I do NOT recommend Shadow Torterra, however, which is slightly better in 0shield but falls behind otherwise.
TALONFLAME
Peck/Incinerateᴸ | Fly & Brave Bird
While I do think it would be okay to unleash Charizard on this meta, you can kind of see why it’s banned… Dragon damage is a bit too much. So it’s not that big a shock that while traditional Incinerate Talonflame works fine, Peck Talonflame, particularly the Shadow version, is overall better in Sunshine Cup. While Incinerate can overpower things like Piloswine and Miltank, Peck has a wider breadth of unique wins like Quagsire, Dartrix, Turtonator, opposing Talonflames, and in the case of Shadow, Claydol, Cradily, and ShadoWak as well. Go against the norm and give Peck some serious consideration in this meta.
If you have one, you can even run FLETCHINDER effectively. And you can actually build a hundo and save a ton of resources and still get the same performance out of it. If you’re feeling spicy, give it a whirl!
MAGCARGO
Ember/Incinerate | Rock Tomb & Overheat
Okay, maybe old JRE is losing it. Now TWO Fire types that have Incinerate where JRE is recommending a different fast move? I’m as surprised as you are, but the numbers don’t lie: Ember simply does a bit more than Incinerate in Sunshine Cup, outracing Cradily, Shadow Blaziken, and opposing Magcargos. Other even shield scenarios are in Ember’s favor as well, with those same wins plus Gligar in 0shield, and Furret and Oranguru in 2shield. I’m not saying Ember is the new way to go in Open or elsewhere, but here? Those wins — and particularly the likelihood of running up against Magcargo on the opponent’s team — matter.
COALOSSAL
Smack Down/Fire Spin | Rock Slide & Flame Charge
Yep, there’s another Fiery Rock type in town now, and it makes a good first impression. Just ignore what I wrote about Coalossal in December and run it not with Fire Spin, but Smack Down in Sunshine Cup. I mean, that analysis was a whole year ago, after all. 
While Fire Spin does uniquely burn through things like Ludicolo and outraces Drampa and Blaziken, but Smack Down instead rolls over Oranguru, Lickilicky, Gligar, and both Magcargo and opposing Coalossals. (And for what it’s worth, it is Smack Down rather than Fire Spin that overcomes Blaziken in 0v0 and 2v2 shield matchups.)
SHADOW BLAZIKEN
Ember | Aura Sphere & Blast Burnᴸ
Yes, I do specifically recommend Shadow Blaze, as it has the power to beat things like Magcargo, Shadow Talonflame, Cradily, Lickilicky, Dunsparce, and even Swampert that non-Shadow Blaze cannot. Very frail, but hits like a truck, especially now with Aura Sphere. If its blitzkrieg style suits you, have at it!
DUBWOOL
Double Kick | Body Slam & Wild Charge/Payback
Yep, it works here, beating nearly every other Normal type with a combination of Double Kick and Body Slam, plus Wild Charge to slam the door on most Flyers and Waters. Unlike many things that have Wild Charge, Dubwool gets bonuses like Swampert, Quagsire, and Piloswine as well, which is nice!
ALOLAN RATICATE
Quick Attack | Crunch & Returnᴸ
A-Rat remains a great generalist in yet another Cup, chonking its way through a bunch of neutral matchups (and walloping the format’s Psychic types, of course). The key is to run a purified one with Return, which tacks on extra wins like Piloswine and Swampert.
DIGGERSBY
Quick Attack | Scorching Sands/Fire Punch & Returnᴸ/Hyper Beam
Yep, second Return recommendation in a row, and it works so well here that you can run it with standard bait move Fire Punch (wins like Piloswine, Dartrix, and Shadow Quagsire) or even with sometimes-closing move Scorching Sands (beats Magcargo, Coalossal, and Shadow Blaziken). Don’t have Return? You CAN run Hyper Beam instead, but it’s a bit worse overall. This is, however, the first thing on this list that really does benefit greatly from steep XL investment, as anything below Level 45 or so starts shedding important wins like Blaziken, Claydol, and Talonflame.
BIBAREL
Rollout | Surf & Returnᴸ
Return is important AGAIN, as it leads to several wins Bibarel has trouble matching with other moves like Ludicolo, Swampert, Wigglytuff, and Turtonator. This has the looks of a plus meta for Bib to strut its stuff.
WIGGLYTUFF
Charm | Swift & Icy Wind
Charm isn’t fantastic in this meta, but if you’re going to run it, Wiggly is the best choice by far. While its notable resistance to Ghost has limited use here (mostly Ludicolo’s Astonish and Lickilicky’s Shadow Ball), Wiggly’s combination of cheap and impactful charge moves carries it to wins no other Charmer can match like Diggersby, Gligar, Swampert, Turtonator, Dartrix, and the aforementioned Lickilicky, among others. Its numbers don’t dazzle, but there are certainly players who will use it to great effect on the right teams in Sunshine.
SWAMPERT
Mud Shot | Hydro Cannonᴸ & Earthquake/Sludge
I lean towards non-Shadow over Shadow, as the latter can more reliably wash away Gliscor and Gligar, but the former hangs in there long enough to instead outlast Claydol, Diggersby, Blaziken, and Lickilicky. I also think Earthquake is a slightly better fit in this meta than Sludge, as Earthquake deals well with opposing Mud Boys while Sludge has little to target down except maybe the occasional Wigglytuff or such.
WHISCASH
Water Gun/Mud Shot | Scald/Mud Bomb & Blizzard
There are several ways you can go here, all of them good. The vanilla Mud Bomb/Scald works fine, though I would be remiss to not point out that that moveset with Water Gun is a solid sidegrade in 0shield and 2shield, and strictly better in 1shield with extra wins over Swampert and Gligar (regular and Shadow), and at least a tie with Gastrodon. There’s also Blizzard that can be brought into the mix, which also can bring down Gligar and Jumpluff (as long as it doesn’t land an Energy Ball).
TIPS AT 50,000 AND UP
As I said, now we go into just some spotlight review of Pokémon with a second move cost of 50k dust or more. There are quite a few that are little changed — Clodsire, Claydol, Marowak, Dunsparce, Abomasnow, Gastrodon, Quagsire, Jumpluff, Miltank, Drampa, Oranguru, Turtonator, Flygon, Ferrothorn, and the list goes on! — but the below I felt important enough to highlight different movesets and some… well, tips and tricks!
- CRADILY is of course very highly ranked in Sunshine Cup. And while there are a couple standouts for Bullet Seed (outracing #1 ranked Gligar and Shadow Talonflame), it is Acid that takes the cake with its own standout wins that include Blaziken, Turtonator, Dartrix, and the best shot of a win in the mirror match.
- As for GLIGAR, yes, it is the non-Shadow that is ranked #1 in Sunshine, but even though the Shadow is ranked lower, I think I prefer it here based on performance. It’s not a lot better, but it is consistently a little bit better overall than non-Shadow, with more consistent wins over things like Lickilicky, Magcargo, Coalossal, Turtonator, and Ludicolo, while non-Shadow is more consistent versus Diggersby, Blaziken, and big bro Gliscor.
- And I REALLY lean towards the Shadow version of GOLURK, which is just more impressive than the non-Shadow and able to overpower stuff like Drampa, Turtonator, Cradily, Claydol, Talonflame and others. I think Golurk is ranked a little low, personally.
- LICKILICKY obviously runs on Rollout and Body Slam, but all of its closers work. I think my strongest recommendation is good old Shadow Ball, which despite being resisted by the other Normal types in the meta, overcomes things like Talonflame, Gliscor, Shadow Gligar, Claydol, and Blaziken that other closers struggle with. Hyper Beam is quite good too, winning the mirror, other Normals like Drampa, Furret, and Wigglytuff, and Swampert and Piloswine too, though it’s too slow to get Claydol and a slew of Fire types (Skeledirge, Talonflame, Turtonator, Coalossal, Blaziken). Earthquake not surprisingly does well versus Fires (minus Blaze and Talon) and bonuses like Clodsire, Magcargo, and Wigglytuff, but whiffs versus Flyers, Quagsire, and Claydol. Even Solar Beam has a special win over Gastrodon. What fits YOUR team best, dear reader?
- Probably the most surprising move recommendation in this section comes with LUDICOLO. While it has found a new lease on life with this season’s addition of Astonish, and it works out well enough in Sunshine that way, it’s actually much better in this particular meta with old-school Bubble. And it’s obvious why when you look at the extra wins that come only with Bubble: Ground types (Diggersby, Gligar), Fire types (Coalossal), and Astonish-resistant Normal types (Oranguru, Wigglytuff, Miltank, Furret). It’s even more dominant in 2v2 shielding, beating everything Astonish can plus Blaziken, Dunsparce, Shadow Gligar, Lickilicky, Miltank, Oranguru, Shadow Typhlosion, and even the mirror versus Astonish Ludi!
- If you’re all about that spice, another one to consider is SHADOW URRARING. Only the Shadow, though… non-Shadow is just not good.
- Moving into 75k Pokémon, let’s start with STEELIX. This isn’t a very good meta for Thunder Fang (though it IS worth noting it can turn the tables on Talonflame and Wigglytuff), so I recommend Dragon Tail which can add on stuff like Clodsire, Gligar, Oranguru, Furret, and of course Dragon type Drampa. But my primary recommendation is punting Crunch in favor of Earthquake. While it’s a little too slow to get Oranguru and Furret, it more than makes up for it with wins over Coalossal, Magcargo, Turtonator, Shadow Quagsire, and Swampert instead.
- I have no unusual moveset recommendation for this next one, but I do want to point out that GALARIAN STUNFISK looks like it could recapture a bit of its former PvP glory in Sunshine Cup. If you’ve been missing it, dust it off and deploy it here if you’d like!
- One more good but quite expensive Bird is RUFFLET. If you want to run it in a more “thrifty” manner, you can build up a hundo and barely miss a beat!
- And just one 100k option to highlight real quick (well, unless you wanna get spicy with new Mind Blown BLACEPHALON: I’ve always loved me some VICTINI, and with its Psychic type moves being better now, it looks interesting in Sunshine Cup.
And that’s it for now… the format has already arrived! Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter for near-daily PvP analysis nuggets, or Patreon. And please, feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I’ll try to get back to you!
Thank you for taking the time to read. I sincerely hope this helps you master the latest version of Sunshine Cup, and in the most affordable way possible. Best of luck, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!
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