Since the beginning of the Season of Mischief, Giovanni has taken a bit of a hiatus with his Team GO Rocket minions. However, he has returned for the Festival of Lights in the second part of the event called “A Looming Shadow.” Fortunately, he’s brought another legendary Shadow Pokemon that trainers can add to their collection.
How can trainers deal with Giovanni’s Pokemon?
Giovanni is guaranteed to bring two Pokemon to this battle. He will always lead Persian, and he will always have Lugia as his final Pokemon. The second Pokemon that Giovanni uses can be one of three options. His full team is as follows:
PersianKingler, Nidoking or RhyperiorLugia
Naturally, the first Pokemon trainers are going to need to look for is one that can counter Persian. Since it is a Normal-type, trainers will basically need a Fighting-type if they want to beat Persian quickly.
Several Fighting-types have gotten a reputation for having large Attack stats and reaching the top rankings for Raid counters. Machamp, Lucario and Conkeldurr are all offensive juggernauts that could annihilate Persian.
There are others too that aren’t necessarily elite Pokemon but can make quick work of Persian just the same. Toxicroak or the Tyrogue evolutions (Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan or Hitmontop) would be great counters to use here.
Since Giovanni is guaranteed to bring Lugia, that should be the next Pokemon trainers plan against. Unfortunately, Lugia’s defenses are obnoxious (310 Defense stat). It may not be enough to use a Pokemon with a positive type matchup against Lugia, and trainers are going to need a strong attacker if they want any hope of bringing it down.
This legendary Pokemon has five weaknesses: Electric, Ice, Dark, Ghost and Rock. Ice Pokemon can beat Nidoking and Electric Pokemon can beat Kingler, so those are probably going to be best to bring.
Judging by the top ranked counters for Lugia in Raid battles, it appears as though Electric-types are best at defeating it. Magnezone, Shadow Magnezone and Shadow Raikou all crack the top ten. These are probably the Pokemon trainers will want to bring against Giovanni, although they will still do fine with Electivire, Zapdos or Thunderus.
If a trainer were to use one of these strong Electric-types along with a Fighting-type, they would have covered three of the five potential Pokemon Giovanni can use. The only enemies left unchecked are Kingler and Rhyperior who, fortunately, share a weakness to Grass-type Pokemon.
Grass-types can resist Kingler’s Water moves, Rhyperior’s Ground moves, and hit both for super effective damage in return. Pokemon like Venusaur, Tangrowth, Torterra and Roserade would be great pivots to switch into if Giovanni uses Kingler or Rhyperior.
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