Disclaimer: this is not a question but rather a sharing of personal view on the game.
As the raid has come, and that summer is coming, and that they said that “this summer will be legendary”, legendary Pokémon is highly likely to join everyone’s pocket this summer. Will they shift the meta? If so, how much?
First, let’s look at all the legendaries from Gen1-2: (first stat is base ATK)
%Three Birds: Articuno(192, 2933CP), Zapdos(253, 3330CP), Moltres(251, 3272CP)
%Two Psychic Cats: Mew(210, 3083CP), Mewtwo(330, 4760CP)
%Three Dogs: Raikou(241, 3349CP), Entei(235, 3412CP), Suicune(180, 2823CP)
%Two Birds: Lugia(193, 3598CP), Ho-Oh(263, 4650CP)
%And Celebi(210, 3090CP)
1) Mewtwo and Lugia: Super Defender Boss?
By CP, Mewtwo stands out of the crowd. Its 330 highest ATK with Confusion is deadly serious. And unlike Ho-Oh, Mewtwo is single typed and has no double-weakness. Tyranitar is double-weak to Focus Blast and Gengar is weak to Confusion. This Mewtwo will be a pain for every attacker. As for attacking, Mewtwo’s best move set is Psycho Cut/Psychic. Without Futuresight, he is actually on-par with Alakazam (can you believe that) in attack power. But he is always triple the bulk to Alakazam. Therefore, without a doubt, Mewtwo will be the new best Psychic attacker and be proven useful in Raid battles.
Lugia is more or less a defending-oriented Pokémon. He has ultra-high defensive stats and Hydro Pump as the charge attack, which protects him from Tyranitar and Golem. Just like Mewtwo, he’ll a pain for every attacker. For attacking, his STAB move set is Extrasensory/Futuresight, but with an ATK of less than 200, it is underwhelming.
2) A better Jolteon: Zapdos or Raikou?
Zapdos and Raikou both have higher ATK than Jolteon and better bulk, so one of them is gonna be the new nightmare to Gyarados. Though Zapdos has slightly higher ATK, Raikou has access to Thunder Shock and Wild Charge, which yields 9% higher circle DPS compared to Charge Beam/Zap Cannon. Therefore, Raikou will be the best electric attacker.
3) A better Flareon: Moltres, Entei, or Ho-Oh?
It’s interesting that we have three fire type legendaries. Both Moltres and Entei have access to Fire Spin/Overheat, the strongest Fire Combo. Entei has lower ATK (it’s even lower than Flareon’s), but it has higher Bulk and CP. Moltres has a dual typing of flying, which is an asset when fighting Grass types but a liability when fighting Ice types. Therefore, in most cases, Moltres will be your choice, but when attacking Ice types, Entei may serve you better.
As for Ho-Oh? He does have the highest ATK and the highest CP of them three (CP only second to Mewtwo). However, his move pools suck: Extrasensory and Steel Wing for quick attacks; Brave Bird, Fire Blast and Solar Beam for charge attacks. He is no suit for fire attackers. With Brave Bird, it may compete with Dragonite with Hurricane.
4) A better Lapras: Articuno
Articuno has access to the traditional Frost Breath/Blizzard or Ice Beam, higher ATK than Lapras and solid defense. It is a combination of Lapras and Jynx in some sense. Therefore, with Articuno, Dragonite will be even easier to beat in gyms (and perhaps future Raids).
5) What about poor Suicune, Mew, and Celebi?
Unfortunately, I cannot find roles for these three. Suicune is just a worse Vaporeon. Mew and Celebi’s moves are terrible and their CP isn’t even that high anyway (lower than Blissey). However, they’ll all be very cool Pokémon for collection.
Afterwords:
I really hope that they can rework the moves of the legendaries, especially Ho-Oh’s. We don’t wanna see good stats are wasted due to bad moves.
And as always, any discussion is welcomed.
Cheers,
bioweapon
