On Shadows and IVs
So we just had a Team Rocket Takeover event, and it was pretty damn good. It was also part of a Halloween event, but, frankly, with the new shadow Pokemon we got, it was like Christmas for anyone who is into doing raids. We got four new shadow Pokemon that are either the best or among the best when it comes to DPS.
The Pokemon we got are genuinely great. Shadow Rampardos and Shadow Gengar are the glassiest of cannons, but when they do manage to get their damage off, they absolutely destroy. Unfortunately, that might not always be possible, since they are genuinely insanely glassy. These Pokemon have hardly any health before the shadow debuff, the -20% damage makes them even worse. On the other hand, Shadow Rhyperior and Shadow Chandelure are both upgrades to already insanely strong Pokemon. I am looking forward to adding a couple to my Rhyperior and Chandelure armies.
The question is though, what shadow Pokemon do I keep? I can’t keep all of them, that would be silly. I don’t have the storage space anyway. But on the flip side, a 0 IVs shadow Pokemon is as good, if not better, than a 100% normal Pokemon. But do I really want to invest stardust and candy into a 0 IVs Pokemon? Definitely not. Okay, sure, it’s better, but I could get a better shadow Pokemon at any moment. Especially since I do a LOT of Team Rocket battles. I’ve been hit by this before, powering up a 1-star Larvitar, only to get multiple better ones in the future. Really, the most important thing is that your shadow Pokemon has 15 IVs in Attack. The other stats don’t really matter. A Shadow Gengar is going to die in 1 hit from a Mewtwo’s Confusion, no matter what its IVs are.
Generally, I’ll be honest, I just power up really, really good shadow Pokemon. Like, 96%-100% shadow Pokemon only. Any 100% shadow Pokemon I have, I power them up to level 40 if they’re good and useful Pokemon, or I’ll power them up to Great or Ultra League levels if they’re not. Although, yes, I do have a 100% Shadow Suicune, it’s not of much use and doesn’t have good moves to allow it to be useful. Instead, I powered it up to just under 1500, where I might maybe use the Suicune in Great League. On the flip side, I have a 100% Shadow Metagross and Tyranitar, the Metagross is level 40 and the Tyranitar is level 50. I don’t quite have enough XL Candy to max out the Metagross, but I’ve found I don’t use it THAT much anyway.
This was an even bigger question during the Team Rocket event, mostly because we could TM away the move Frustration, which is pretty much worthless. Now the event is over, I’ll have to wait multiple months until the next Rocket Takeover event, should I get a better shadow Pokemon. And I almost certainly will get better ones as time goes on.
Really, the best strategy is to get a few pretty good shadow Pokemon, TM them during the Rocket Takeover event, then slowly build better ones later on. But unfortunately, the Rocket Takeover event is already over, so we’ll just have to wait for the next one. The only other option is to give a shadow Pokemon a second move, but that is very costly.
Alternatively, you can just use the Pokemon you already have. Unless you are trying to solo or duo a tough boss, you don’t really need an army of shadow Pokemon.