Pokemon Go February Community Day: How and who should you vote for

For the first time ever, the Pokemon that headlines a Community Day will be up to you. Niantic announced the February Community Day will be decided by a fan vote which you can participate in right now.

Update: Rhyhorn has beat Dratini, Machop and Vulpix to headline the Pokemon Go February 2020 Community Day!

How to vote

The voting itself will took place on Saturday, February 1 from 12am to 11:59pm in your local time zone. Votes weren’t be counted by a simple form but rather by how much of a particular field research task is completed.

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During this 24 hour window the following field research tasks were available:

• Vote for Machop Community Day! Catch 20 Pokemon
• Vote for Rhyhorn Community Day! Catch 20 Pokemon
• Vote for Vulpix Community Day! Catch 20 Pokemon
• Vote for Dratini Community Day! Catch 20 Pokemon

As usual, these were obtained by spinning PokeStops. The Pokemon which had the most completed tasks was considered voted for by the community.

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Which Pokemon can and should you vote for?

As the task above allude to, there were four Pokemon to choose from for the Pokemon Go February Community Day headliner. These were Machop, Rhyhorn, Vulpix and Dratini – four classic Pokemon from the Kanto region.

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Here’s a more detailed look at the options.

Machop

Even after nearly five generations of Pokemon, Machamp is still one of the better fighting-types to use in Pokemon Go. It’s also a useful tool against the Team Rocket boss, Giovanni, as a powerful fighting-type is effective against Persian and two of the three potential Pokemon he will use second.

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Its defensive stats leave a lot to be desired but when it comes to attack it shines: it’s ranked the 82nd strongest attacker in the game.

Machamp’s weaknesses are obvious – fairy, flying and psychic-types. However, its exclusive move for the February Community Day is Payback, a powerful dark-type move. This will give Machamp a chance to compete with psychic-types although while you’ll be able to inflict a lot of damage yourself, its defense stats means it may not last too long. Payback will also be a strong against ghost-types.

Rhyhorn

Rhyhorn had been rumored to feature in a Community Day through 2019 – well now’s your chance. Up until Gen 4 Rhyhorn could only evolve into Rhydon but an additional evolution, Rhyperior, was added in the Sinnoh region.

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Its a popular choice in Pokemon Go but when it comes to battling its a bit hit and miss. Grass and water-types will prove a nightmare for Rhyperior but it is doubly effective against electric and poison Pokemon. So, if you’re using the dual ground and rock-type make sure to know its strengths and weaknesses.

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Its potential exclusive move will be Rock Wrecker. Unfortunately we know little about this move other than it will be a powerful addition: “Known to be Rhyperior’s signature move, this Rock-type Charged Attack will be a powerful addition to Rhyperior’s repertoire.”

In comparison to Machamp, Rhyperior has stronger base stats. Its attack and stamina is respectively ranked 63 and 21 of the 688 species in Pokemon Go.

Vulpix

Vulpix is an interesting option to have for the February Community Day. While it’s no doubt a fan-favorite Pokemon, it only evolves once, something that previous headliners haven’t.

Its evolved form, Ninetales, isn’t very powerful, either. To put this in perspective, Ninetales’ best attribute, its defense, is on par with Rhyperior’s worst, which is also its defense.

However, Vulpix does have the advantage of two types due to its Alolan form. So, you can choose between fire-type or ice-type Vulpix. What’s more is that each type of Vulpix will get its own exclusive move.

Both will learn Weather Ball but for the Kanto variant it will be a fire-type and the Alolan, an ice-type. This move will be more useful to PvP players as opposed to PvE. Weather Ball was previously exclusive to Castform.

Dratini

The final choice is Dratini which as we all know will give the opportunity of getting a Dragonite. If Dratini were to win the vote then this would mark the first time a Pokemon has headlined a Community Day twice (withstanding the December events).

Dragonite nearly always has a dragon-type charge move but its exclusive move for the February Community Day would be Superpowerful, a strong fighting-type move. This would somewhat help two of Dragonite’s weaknesses – ice and rock-types – as they are vulnerable to fighting moves. It would still be best to avoid battling ice-types however, as they are doubly effective due to Dragonite’s dual dragon and flying-type.

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Should the voting be received positively by trainers, we could see more Community Days decided by votes in the future.