Shadow Tyranitar
Attack
Defense
Stamina
Best Movesets
Analysis
Shadow Tyranitar is a return to form for the tyrant of the early-game raid scene. The Season of Hidden Gems gave it access to Brutal Swing, which catapulted its Dark attacking prowess to beyond anything the game has ever seen. In addition to being an absolutely monstrous Dark attacker, Shadow Tyranitar is an exceptional Rock attacker if it has the Community Day move Smack Down.
Players looking to make a huge impact in raid lobbies should grind for Shadow Larvitars whenever it is available. Many bosses are weak to Rock and Dark, giving Shadow Tyranitar plenty of time to shine. Not only does Shadow Tyranitar boast top tier DPS against them, it also sports respectable bulk. All in all, Shadow Tyranitar is one of the best investments a player can make.
Offense
- Bite is best paired with Brutal Swing, while Smack Down* should be paired with Stone Edge.
- Iron Tail is okay against Pokemon weak to Steel but not Rock, but its use cases are narrow.
- Crunch is okay, but definitely inferior
- Fire Blast is underwhelming in every aspect.
Defense
- Iron Tail edges out Smack Down due to not being resisted by Fighting.
- Bite barely tickles attackers and is resisted by Fighting to boot.
- Tyranitar faints quickly vs. Fighting-types and needs Crunch to threaten damage.
- Brutal Swing is okay too, but it is slower on defense.
- That said, Stone Edge has a very early damage window.
- Fire Blast is underwhelming in every aspect.
Smack Down tends to be a stronger option than Bite due to superior energy generation, which is notable due to Tyranitar's costly charge moves. However, the latter lets Tyranitar become a Ghost- and Psychic-shredding machine. Iron Tail is a poor move.
Brutal Swing costs the least energy and benefits from STAB. Crunch is slightly more expensive and is therefore the less preferable option, but it can occasionally provide Defense drops. Stone Edge is powerful and provides good coverage, but costs quite a lot of energy to use. Fire Blast demands too much energy to be consistently worthwhile.
Tyranitar’s heavily attack-weighted stat distribution does it no favors down in Great League. A double weakness to Fighting-type damage, in addition to weaknesses against common Water, Grass, and Ground-type attacks, makes it a very risky Pokemon. While it shines in certain limited metagames, its stats combined with the fact that a lot of other things can do its job don't leave it super happy. Smack Down Shadow Tyranitar in particular has a niche in the limited time Halloween Cup, combining its resistances with the metagame's general lack of Rock resists to deal heavy damage.
