The Terror That Is Shadow Kyogre

Generally, Team Rocket bosses are pretty easy. Even with this season’s Team Rocket grunts having way more Pokemon than they used to, as long as you have Pokemon that counter their types, most Grunts are easily defeated. There’s even a new feature where the game will show you what types are super effective against whatever grunt it is you are trying to fight. Heck, for most grunts, you can just take a Pokemon with a spammy move like Lucario with Power Up Punch or Melmetal with Rock Slide and just spam charge attacks while the enemy can’t fight back.

Team Rocket Leaders aren’t that much better. I’ve been caught out by a Gallade a few times, but as long as you have charge attacks you can use, you can generally beat them even without a type advantage. The new Leader of choice is Arlo, since he has Shadow Bagon, while Cliff has been given Zubat and Sierra has Tentacool. Admittedly, a lot more Grunts have Pokemon with less weaknesses (like the fricking Dark grunt with its Dark/Poison types and you’re best using Ground to defeat them) but overall, they’re still pretty easy.

Normally, Giovanni isn’t too bad either. His Persian can be a royal pain in the ass, mostly because his Persian has Scratch, which seems to do abnormally high damage with STAB, but there are ways around it. If it has Bite, a Dark fast move, then your standard Machamp, Lucario or Terrakion with Sacred Sword will do the job no problem. A Persian with Scratch does a lot of damage, and a Ghost type is good at blocking that. I’ve used my Orokin Chonk, an Altered Form Giratina with the spammy move Dragon Claw in the past, but now we have Annihilape, a Ghost/Fighting type which is the best of both worlds.

Giovanni’s second Pokemon is also kinda tricky. Sure, Garchomp, Rhyperior and Nidoking are all weak to Ice, Rhyperior knows rock moves and Garchomp and Nidoking both hit hard. Mamoswine is okay, but the problem is, they’re not really the problem. The problem is the Shadow Kyogre that follows them.

Nothing compares to the might that is Shadow Kyogre.

To put it this way, I brought out my 3000CP Kartana against Shadow Kyogre, and it died in 4 hits. Sure, Kartana is flimsy, but it has a x4 resistance to water. Still, dead in 4 hits. Giovanni’s Kyogre hits like a truck, even if it can’t actually get Origin Pulse, Kyogre’s unique move. I’m not actually sure how many Pokemon could even survive enough shadow-boosted Waterfalls before Shadow Kyogre can get a charge attack off. Surf with STAB is a ton of damage, and Blizzard will kill off Grass types, Kyogre’s main counter, with ease. It doesn’t matter though, because even if you resist Water moves, Waterfall will hit insanely hard.

I ended up beating Giovanni on my second attempt, and I did luck out by getting Rhyperior. This meant I could use two Grass types, and I opted to use a Mega Venusaur alongside the Kartana, because you can use Megas in Team Rocket battles. I think Magnezone might have had a chance to beat Kyogre with Wild Charge, thanks to it also double-resisting Water, but that would have left me with only one Pokemon for Kyogre, and I NEEDED that second Pokemon.

Unfortunately, my Shadow Kyogre has shit stats (of course it does) but I am definitely going to power mine up anyway. Even with bad stats, it’s still the best water type in the game, beaten only by Mega Swampert and Primal Kyogre, and those two are both temporary.

That being said, if the pattern goes on as it is, next season, we’ll get Shadow Groudon, which will be even more of a menace… Can’t wait for that!