Need Clarity on Shadow Ball Mewtwo
I refer to this tweet from Niantic: https://twitter.com/NianticHelp/status/1041839755930021888
"Hi Trainer, great question. These two moves will only be available to Mewtwo caught in EX Raids before September 20 at 1 p.m. PDT. ^KM"
I ran out of CTMs this morning trying to go from Psychic to Shadow Ball (ended with Hyper Beam). But my Mewtwo is from the first wave of ex-raids in Sept 2017.
Does this mean it can still learn Shadow Ball after the 20th, since it was caught before this month? Otherwise I'm somehow going to have to be able to grind CTMs during a work week...
Answers
No. The information is clear, after the 20th you won't be able to get SB or HB in any Mewtwo. Its move pool is changing and SB is gone. You better hurry up and get some CTM or make sure that any of your friends trade you a SB Mewtwo.
If you didn't finish Celebi research, there is one of the steps that gives you a CTM as reward.
Sigh. I have a friend who is offering me two SB M2's if I can't get mine to SB before the deadline. Gotta grind those T5 raids after work and pray for a bit of luck.
And yeah I exhausted that CTM from the Celebi research already :( really wishing you could buy CTMs directly rn, would fork out for a handful of those.
Had 3 CTMs on Saturday. Used one (first time) to convert C/P to C/SB on that Mewtwo (other three are all PC/SB already). Since then, I've gotten a CTM on every tier 5 raid I did, Zappy on Sat, two Articunos on Sunday, and two Moltres on Monday. Up to 7 now, and don't need them for Mewtwo. I hope your luck is as good.
"The information is clear, after the 20th you won't be able to get SB or HB in any Mewtwo. Its move pool is changing and SB is gone."
Disagree completely. Here's the exact quote from the Niantic facebook post:
"Trainers, Hyper Beam and Shadow Ball will become exclusive moves for Mewtwo caught in EX Raids!"
The post referenced above was a response by an individual at Niantic. The post I referenced was an official annoucement by Niantic as a whole. I think it's far more likely that one person made a misinterpretation of the change, as opposed to Niantic's official announcement about it being wrong (but it could be).
What this seems to imply to me is that EX raids will continue (they may continue during Mewtwo month too, that's not clear), and that only Mewtwo caught in EX raids can have HP or SB. The use of the future 'will become' implies that these two attacks should be available in the future, but only on EX raid Mewtwos, not on regular raid Mewtwos. It also implies that CTMs will no longer give HB or SB. It would be kind of lame to say that HB and SB 'will become' exclusive EX raid moves and then not have any EX raids. Far better, in that case, to say that HB and SB will no longer be available as Mewtwo moves. They didn't say that, so I think future EX raids will have HB and SB Mewtwos.
Of course, it's possible that there will be two types of Mewtwos, EX raid ones that can TM to SB or HB, and non EX raid ones that can't, but that interpretation is destroyed by the second part of the post, saying that CTMs will work until 1 PM (PST) on Thursday to get SB or HB.
My expectation is that starting Thursday, CTMs on Mewtwo will draw from a new moveset that we have yet to learn about, which will likely include Focus Blast and Psychic (but could, in a really ideal world, be Focus Blast, Future Sight, and Psystrike). However, even with that, EX raid Mewtwos can still be caught with SB or HB, but if TM'd, they will revert to the new move pool.
The benefit of this to Niantic is that they can keep doing EX raids, and the big deal for players is that getting an EX pass is the chance to get a HB or SB Mewtwo.
All that said, it's a good idea to TM to SB now, both because it won't be an option after Thursday, and because SB Mewtwo is an excellent counter to the Focus Blast Mewtwo that we'll see in raids for a month. Further, with SB removed from the move pool, SB Mewtwo is a great counter for ANY Mewtwo raid - it will be interesting to see for which movesets it edges out TTar and for which ones it doesn't. Exclusive, and has an immediate use, that's a win.
Please stop spreading confusion and misinformation.
Niantic has warned us to TM our Mewtwo before the 20th if we want SB. They confirmed once again yesterday that SB and HB will no longer be available, after people started spreading this message that there will be Mewtwo with one move pool for general raids and another for EX raids. This is false.
The message is clear: "Trainers, we are changing Mewtwo's move pool. If you like SB, you have until the 20th to TM it". Period.
Otherwise, there would be no need for a warning. The simply fact that they are letting us know in advance should be enough to understand.
They didn't say, "trainers, Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno will not learn their normal attacks during the ultra bonus event. If you want a Moltres with overheat, a Zapdos with charge beam or Articuno with Ice beam TM them before the 13th".
No one is discussing whether Mewtwo will stay or not in EX raids, btw. But if this is the case Mewtwo from future EX raids will not learn Shadow Ball. Not because I say it, because Niantic has let us know already ;)
Edit: Official Source where they confirm that no future mewtwo will learn SB:
https://twitter.com/NianticHelp/status/1041839755930021888
Yes, I read that. One person's response at Niantic. Not an official release, like the twitter release I quoted.
None of us knows what will happen. But given the wording "will become exclusive to Mewtwo caught in EX raids", as opposed to something like "will no longer be available to Mewtwo or by TM" implies that future EX raids will permit SB and HB.
Understand that Niantic is a big organization, with lots of people in it, and some of those people will misunderstand or misinterpret information and report about it. It's FAR more likely that one person answering a help request, and posting a reply that no one else at the company has approved, has made a small error, than that the general twitter announcement, undoubtedly reviewed by many people before posting, has an error.
"They didn't say, "trainers, Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno will not learn their normal attacks during the ultra bonus event. If you want a Moltres with overheat, a Zapdos with charge beam or Articuno with Ice beam TM them before the 13th"."
Of course they didn't, because that would be wrong. Have you TM'd one of the birds recently and gotten Sky Attack, Thunder Shock, or Hurricane? No, because you can't. These special moves are only available on the birds caught this week. I posit that in the future, the special moves Hyper Beam and Shadow Ball will only be available on Mewtwo caught in EX raids. I could be wrong, but it seems the most likely interpretation given the sources and announcements from Niantic.
It would be kind of a dick move to say something like "all of pokemon X caught in the future on special raids will have powerful move Y", and then never offer a special raid for pokemon X. So I strongly suspect that Niantic's official announcement didn't do that, and that the CS person at Niantic who answered the post you referenced didn't understand the exact policy. You don't like my interpretation, not my problem. I could be wrong, you could be wrong, or we both could be wrong. We'll see.
In any event, TM your Mewtwos to SB (and HB if you want it for a PokeDraft league, or something like that) before Thursday at 1 PM PST. I just have some hope that the players who don't have a Mewtwo yet (I have four, I'm not one of them) will still have a chance to get SB Mewtwo in EX raids after Mewtwo month is over. Makes sense for Niantic, from a business point of view, and will prevent a lot of bellyaching from the fan base. It's the smart play, and Niantic has been pretty good lately about making the smart plays.
People are paying too much attention to the wording. That's not the key, the key is the simple fact that Niantic warned us that these moves are going to be unobtainable.
We all know that Niantic's communication is confusing most times. IMO this time is intentional because they don't want to reveal the future of EX. They want to leave open interpretation to what the next EX boss will be. They also want to keep a little of surprise to what Mewtwo's new move will be. But the fact they felt compeled to warn us is enough evidence of what's really happening. SB and HB will no longer be obtainable. It's clear to me. As I said, if it wasn't the case the warning would be unnecessary.
Nothing is definitive, SB mewtwo might come back in the future as BS Snorlax, of course. But not for a while.
Anyway, reading about this topic is getting tiresome. We shall see very soon.
I hope you're able to roll SB before the deadline. I had a stack of ~40 CTMs and blew through over half of them outfitting most of my Mewtwo with SB.
Has there been any hint at the moves being replaced with anything better? I know people are pretty excited for Psystrike. Think he'll still get a 4th move?
