July 2021 seems to be heavily focused on Go Fest, but there are regular events that are missing that are a fun part of the game. This is doubled since there are Medals for some of these that cannot be brought anywhere near Platinum because of this.
Giovanni is among the missing parts of the game in the month of July. I cannot fathom why. I understand that for many that 17 days may not be enough. It is a tight squeeze, especially if a day or two are completely lost. However, 2 1/2 months between Giovanni appearances is WAY TOO LONG. I figured it out by step and 17 days is about the length of time it takes for veteran Trainers who know the Giovanni Quest to take from start to finish. This assumes two balloons a day as well. Not everyone can play two balloons a day though, so 17 days is tight. I can understand why many Trainers can’t finish that quickly. Giovanni was established as a one month questline in the beginning. This was the best as it allowed for most Trainers to obtain all of the needed Shadows without too much hoarding. This also allowed for the frustration of not finding Giovanni right away. Over the last few months, the frustration of finding Giovanni has been missing as well. The full month also allows for planning and allows Trainers the opportunity to take a bit of time away when needed. At least give us a new Quest in August.
Unless there is a surprise, there are no new Megas being introduced into the game this month. This will be the first month since Megas were introduced that there are no new megas. There are still 31 different Mega eligible Pokemon left without a mega – remember Mewtwo has an X and a Y form. This does not count Diancie which has not been introduced into Pokemon Go as of press time. Even if Niantic introduced one new Mega a month, they have enough to last into the beginning of 2024. This also excludes the two Primals – Groudon and Kyogre. These two are associated with the Megas in the main game, but are presumably not part of the Pokemon Go universe as of press time. The math isn’t there. This projection also does not contemplate that there may (should) be more Megas since all but one are currently from the first five Pokeregions. At an average of 9 megas per region, there should be about 26 new megas being introduced into the game… which buys Niantic into 2026. Add the 7 side game Pokeregions, we are easily into the 2030’s.
I also feel like Deoxys Defense as the 5* Raid Boss for July 1 (post Bidoof Day) until the 16th just does not fit. There is no new Shiny. This cannot really be used (in my mind) for anything other than a Pokedex entry. I can’t use it to defend gyms. It has low offense, so any use in Raids or other similar scenarios is very limited. It seems only useful for GBL, which I don’t do, so I don’t care. It won’t grow into a heavyweight contender, so I don’t care about it. That and the difficulty is much higher than the rest of the T5s in recent memory. Just a bad pick to me.
All this said, I just hope that Go Fest is really great. I want it to rain shinies (I got a grand total of 4 last year) and have a decent shot at multiple hundos. If nothing else, this should be worth all the negatives I have seen so far in July.
Moose's Pokemon Go Blog 