

The risk of running into super effective hits from Shadow Claw or Shadow Sneak only makes things worse for the moon duck. Moonblast hurts so bad that it will require the use of a shield to avoid a 2-hit KO, but once that’s done, the neutral damage from Dragon Breath and Dragon Claw will be enough to take care of Cresselia by itself - unless the opponent decides to waste both shields on it. In fact, you’d think that having coverage moves like Moonblast and Aurora Beam charged quickly by Psycho Cut, as well as the superior neutral TDO, would be enough to destroy it but Giratina disagrees. Cresslia's EqualĪmong the Ultra League top tier Pokemon, it’s the other biggest tank, Cresselia to give the most trouble to Giratina. Double legacy Dragonite might have the only really favorable matchup of the bunch if the opposing Giratina is running Shadow Claw instead of Dragon Breath. The ones without Dragon Claw will be outmatched in charged move speed that leaves us with Flygon and Latios, which can’t compete in tankiness. The other common Ultra League Dragons - most notably Flygon, Kingdra, Dragonite, Latios and Latias - can trade heavy hits with Giratina, but can’t outright slay it 1v1. If Giratina carries Ancient Power or Shadow Sneak, only 2 charged moves will be needed to dispatch of the big hand boy, making this matchup even more positive. They can each take 2 hits from Dragon Claw and Sky Attack respectively before fainting to the third, and since Giratina launches its charged moves considerably earlier, Lugia can hardly overcome it without wasting an extra shield. Isn't Stopped by LugiaĮven when equipped with the super effective Dragon Tail, and despite holding the 6th highest neutral TDO in the league, Lugia is handled quite easily by Giratina. None of them can reliably get a win against it even by wasting an extra shield, apart from Blastoise, the only one able to actually hold its own and cause some substantial damage back. Even those hitting Giratina super effectively - Blastoise with Bite and Ice Beam, Charizard with Dragon Claw and Typhlosion with Shadow Claw - eventually have to surrender to its sheer bulk. Starter Resistanceįor starters, its resistances to Grass, Fire and Water give it the upper hand in the matchups against the starters whose power relies a lot on their exclusive signature moves. Going against other Ultra League top threats, Giratina’s dominance is almost uncontested.

Unlocking the second charged move is a hefty investment, but those that do will enjoy useful extra coverage from Shadow Sneak or especially Ancient Power (which punishes Ice-, Bug-, Fire- and Flying-types) both only require 45 energy to activate. Shadow Claw offers wider coverage as a fast move, but Psychic- and Ghost-types aren’t really used in Ultra League, it’s not as powerful against neutral targets and loses in the mirror matchup to Dragon Breath Giratina. With the highest DPT fast move and Dragon Claw only requiring 35 energy, you can spam several in quick succession and rip through pretty much anything that doesn’t resist it - the reason why Giratina is most often seen as a lead or early game shield buster. In particular, the Dragon Breath and Dragon Claw combo is one of the deadliest in the game. While Giratina’s movepool seemed disappointing at first, as it keeps it from being a decent raid attacker like it would’ve been with Shadow Ball or Outrage, the story is very different in PvP. The most important resistances are to Grass, Fire, and Water, as some of the most frequently used types in Ultra League. In fact, the Comprehensive DPS/TDO Spreadsheet shows it boasting the second highest neutral TDO among pokemon under 2500 CP, right behind Cresselia.Īs for typing, as a Dragon/Ghost-type Pokemon, Giratina is weak to Dragon, Ice, Fairy, Ghos, and Dark, but it also resists 6 types (Grass, Fire, Water, Electric, Bug and Poison) as well as double resisting Normal and Fighting. Giratina has solid defensive stats as well as quite decent Attack. In the PvP metagame we’ll have to consider different aspects to answer this question: stats, typing, moves and coverage.
