The Brightest Shadows: The Halloween 2023 Shadow Pokemon Reviewed

I basically wrote that entire wishlist article because I wanted to talk about how cool and amazing of an addition Shadow Rampardos would be to the game, so you can imagine how excited I am that it's actually happening.

Regular Ramparados is already a star Rock type attacker, and becoming shadow is (almost) always a good thing…you can guess where this is going. The hard hitting Smack Down and efficient two bar Charge Attack Rock Slide will combine to make S-Rampardos a vicious and nimble, albeit glassy, raid option

A first step for analyzing how good a Pokemon is/will be for raids is to check how it compares against other attackers of the same type. Let’s see how Shadow Rampardos stacks up against other Rock types by looking at the top counters against a raid boss that is doubly weak to Rock, like Shadow Moltres.

First, let’s look at non-megas.

Rocks Vs. Shadow Moltres

Best in DPS by a lot and a clear cut above in the more holistic raid metric, ER. S-Ramp is just better than any available rock hurler. 

But just to drive the point home, let’s compare S-Ramp to Mega Rock types

Mega Rocks Vs. Shadow Moltres

Still out DPSes Mega Diancie and Mega TTar while barely hanging with them in terms of ER tier. And that’s MEGA FREAKING TTAR.

Shadow Rampardos is clearly an S+ tier attacker for Rock only affairs. Check. The next step is to look at how it does against competition of overlapping coverage. For example: Rock is good against Fire type bosses, but so are Ground and Water so there will be times when Shadow Rampardos has to compete against the likes of Kyogre and recently introduced Shadow Garchomp. 

Rock is super effective against Fire, Flying, Ice and Bug, so let’s look at theoretical raids bosses of each type.

Vs. Typhlosion

Vs. Tornadus - Incarnate

Vs. Regice

Vs. Pinsir

There is a lot of TOUGH competition in these overlaps. Shadow Garchomp didn’t exist when I did my original article and the shadowy shark has stolen the title of best option for Fire type raid bosses. S-Ramp stays near the top (and is the best high DPS option) against Flying types, but fades into the pack some when looking at the pure Ice and pure Bug raids. It will still have the highest DPS of the top choices, but not by enough to overcome the TDO/ER advantages of the likes of Shadow Metagross and Dragon Ascent Rayquaza. To me, this says more about the greatness of those mons than anything bad about S-Rampardos.

RAMPARDOS THE ROCKET REAVER

Fast attack damage is king when it comes to beating Rockets efficiently. You generally want to fast move down their first two Pokemon and then unleash a KOing charge move at their third. This means favoring Pokemon sporting heavy hitting fast moves like Charm and Razor Leaf over ones that use energy generation based moves like Mudshot and Lock-On. This lines up perfectly for Shadow Rampardos and its hard hitting fast move, Smack Down. 

Shadow Rampardos will be great and probably your best choice against Flying and Bug type grunts while also being a useful team member against Fire type grunts and some Leader lineups.

SHADOW RAMPARDOS CONCLUSION

Shadow Rampardos will be a fantastic pick for PvE. It will be a premium choice against Fire/Fliers like Shadow Moltres, Ice/Fliers like Articuno, and Bug/Fliers like Mega Pinsir. It will also be a top pick (and the premium glass cannon) against many other raid bosses. Ramparados was already an amazing mon for PvE and Shadow Rampardos is just an upgrade. Full send on the head smashing dino!

Let’s move on to another Pokemon that was on the wishlist in my article, Shadow Rhyperior.  Shadow Rhyperior was on my list because of its versatility and value for battlers of all experience and grind levels. You can double move and max out a Shadow Rhyperior and with FastTM usage have access to both a great Rock and Ground type attacker.

Let’s start by looking at Shadow Rhyperior compared other Rock types against a Shadow Moltres raid boss

Rocks Vs. Shadow Moltres

And then look at it against other Ground types against a Heatran raid boss.

Ground Vs. Heatran

A solid solid option that isn't impossible to find (Shadow Chomp) and doesn't require a bunch of raids to max out (Groudon).

And finish things off by looking at the results vs a mono steel raid Boss like Registeel

Vs. Registeel

As you can see, even if it's not a top top DPS raid challenge champion, Shadow Rhyperior is going to be a beast as a Rock and Ground attacker with versatility and bang-for-your-dust value that is nearly unmatched in PvE. You could build a team of double moved Shadow Rhyperior and with some FastTM usage be good to go against like one-third of the raid bosses you’ll face in the game. Tough to beat that value. A fantastic pick for less PvE centric trainers or anyone helping a more casual family member or friend figure out their raid roster.

Analysis: Ramparados VS Rhyperior

When I did my wishlist article, I wasn’t using the ER raid metric yet. Ramparados was a runaway winner using the old DPS^3*TDO metric, but as you can see Rhyperior actually surpasses the hard headed dino in ER. Does this mean that Rhyperior is actually better than Ramparados? Is the Ramp hype dead on arrival? Not so fast. 

Without getting too far into the weeds, I will say that I’ve found ER best used as a metric to split raid attackers into tiers rather than sort them individually. And when ER is close you look at things like DPS, typing and Charge Move cost (for overflow and how often you’ll faint with energy) to determine the best option. To me, Ramparados’ much higher DPS makes it the clear choice, but the fact that it's even a discussion should tell you everything you need to know about how strong Shadow Rhyperior will be.

Let’s finish the redux of my wishlist article by analyzing one of the honorable mentions becoming a reality: Shadow Gengar.

I promise that I am not just zagging for the sake of going against the grain when I say that I am not that excited about Gengar. I get it. The crazy DPS, the Shadow Claws shredding things to pieces...but fainting to a light breeze is a problem, even in a glass cannon centric PvE environment. 

Shadow Gengar is the PvE version of “they’re a 10 BUT”. In addition to the lack of bulk you have to remember that due to its Ghost/Poison dual typing, Gengar will be taking back super effective damage from the raid bosses you want to use it for A LOT of the time. It’s hard to care about how hard  S-Gengar hits a Shadow Mewtwo raid boss when it's regularly fainting to 2 or at most 3 Confusions. You’re not dodging every Confusion. That’s cope.

For me, Shadow Gengar is the rare shadow that crosses the line into TOO squishy and the numbers seem to agree. Look at it compared to other Ghost types in a regular Mewtwo raid.

Vs. Mewtwo

It’s decent (and LOOK AT THAT DPS!), but you see what I mean. That TDO being about one-third of the other top options means you’re going to be over reliant on resisting moves, perfecting dodging strategies and raids functioning properly all the time to realize those top damage output potentials. 

That being said, the DPS is real and spectacular so let’s not be all negative: Shadow Gengar will be amazing for Rocket grunts (where you can mitigate lack of bulk by manipulating the AI) and as a lead attacker for certain raids.

You will definitely want A S-Gengar, but I don’t see it disrupting the Dark/Ghost type market. I know someone will set some raid record with S-Gengar and quote me on this analysis…but I can live with that. As a matter of fact, Gengar isn’t even the most exciting Ghost debuting this month.

Which leads us to our next entry…

Admittedly, I should have had Shadow Chandelure in my wishlist article. Huge whiff. Bad job by me. Like Gengar, I had it profiled as a possibly TOO squishy Ghost in a space where you can just use things like Shadow TTar, Giratina, and Mega Gengar. But now that I look more fully into the data (and with the benefit of ER), I think Chandelure is going to be an incredibly exciting and useful Shadow.

Like Rhyperior, Chandelure has a hidden benefit of being a great option for two different roles. It will excel both as a Ghost type attacker

Ghost Vs. Mewtwo

And as a Fire attacker

Vs. Mega Aggron

You can build a Shadow candle, double move it and then at a moment’s notice (for the cost of FastTM) have a great counter for a wide variety of raid bosses

Being more Charge Attack based means that the candle won’t be the preferred Rocket beater but you will definitely want shadow Chandelure for raids.

We may just want to declare this Rocket Takeover as the Season of Squish as another Glass Cannon, Exacdrill, makes its shadow debut.

Like Shadow Gengar, I worry about the Shadow Excadrill’s lack of sustain. If you look at it against something like Hetran, you can see the great DPS but also that it has about half the TDO of other top choices.

Vs. Heatran

That being said, if you look at the results for a raid boss that Excadrill was built for like Nihilego.

Vs. Nihilego

Then you see what the mole can do when the stars align.

All in all, I think you’d be better off putting your resources towards Ground attacker picks like Shadow Rhyperior or Shadow Garchomp that aren’t as situationally dominant.

FOR THE MEMES!

I thought it would be a fun exercise (and nice treat for anyone who’s stuck it out this long) to throw as many of the new toys as possible into one raid and see how they compare. The best raid boss I could think of for this is a classic fun Yellow Egg raid boss: Alolan Marowak

Vs. Alolan Marowak

It turns out that when S-Rhyperior can go Mud Slap into Rock Wrecker (instead of Smack Down) it jumps further ahead of S-Rampardos and enters into a tier with one of the best PvE mons in the game in Dark Shadow TTar. Between that revelation and the ability of S-Rampardos and S-Chandelure to keep even with a titan like Origin Pulse Kyogre you can see the huge potential of these shadow debutantes. 

This might be the greatest lineup of rookie shadows we’ve ever had for PvE. A number of roles that lacked a true star shadow option now have one! The only thing that could possibly hold these shadows back is their rarity and availability in Rocket stops.

Now that I’ve spent a couple thousand words hyping thse mons up, lets finish with some practical advice. Which of these shadows are the most important and which should you really spend your time grinding for good IV spreads.

First and foremost you're going to want to grind for the Rock bois, Rampardos and Rhyperior.

Shadow Rampardos immediately slots in as a premium Rock for both raids and Rockets while S-Rhyperior serves as a 1B to S-Rampardos' 1A in addition to being an A tier Ground type. You could even argue that Rhyperior is more important due to the versatility and bulk it adds to your roster. Let’s just call them both tier 1 priority and get on with our event.

Next in priority tier 2 by itself I’d put Shadow Chandelure. I think it’s just the more consistent Ghost for raids and has the added value of being a A/B+ tier Fire type.

I’ll put Gengar next and by itself in priority tier 3. I like Gengar over Exca because I still think one Gengar would be really nice and important to have. Gengar will have its day in Rockets and for certain raid challenges. Shadow…Shadow Claw’s damage output is hard to match.

Last but not least, there's no reason not to go for a good Excadrill. I think it's basically a worse Rhyperior for both raids and Rocket, but I can envision some scenarios where the extra oomph will be worth the large drop in bulk.

That being said, this entire event should be a priority for both PvE and PvP centric trainers. This seems like it will be a prime event for you to go out grinding Rockets for a few hours and come home with an absolute treasure trove of useful and impactful shadows.

I can’t wait to grind this event and I can’t wait to hear from all of you about how much this event has helped your PvE roster.

I wish you all a successful Rocket Takeover and a Happy Halloween. FINGERS CROSSED FOR A SHADOW HUNDO CRANIDOS.

-Brian