Trying to figure out what to bring to Pokémon Sword and Shield’s infamous new Mewtwo Max Raid? This guide should give a few pointers on what Mewtwo is capable of, and the Pokémon best suited to fighting him!

Hey hey, Trainers! Ranko here! Are you ready for a real challenge? No? Hopefully, this guide will help a bit then!

For a limited time, the legendary Pokémon Mewtwo is currently spawning in Max Raids to commemorate Pokémon Day. Although it is uncatchable, Mewtwo drops plenty of valuable items at a very high chance. These items include Bottle Caps (in which I have received multiple upon defeating Mewtwo at times), Ability Capsules, Nuggets, PP Ups, PP Maxes, and plenty of Experience Candies of all types.

However, the biggest twist for this event raid is the fact that it is legitimately quite difficult. Difficult enough that just a random assortment of level 100 Pokémon, EV trained and all, are not enough to take down the Mewtwo. In contrast to the state of current raids, you’ll most likely need to come prepared. And even if you do, there are multiple different types of Mewtwo sets that require even more specific set-ups to handle.

So, even if you’re well off on Battle Points for the expensive battle items, why not try to shoot for the glory? Trainers all around the globe are currently sharing their encounters with Mewtwo, whether it’s sharing their frustration as Mewtwo Earthquakes everyone to death or reveling in their victory over the world’s strongest Pokémon. Add your name to the winners list! Get those bragging rights!

First, let’s go over the sets Mewtwo can use, randomly generated once the raid is spawned. Notably, each Mewtwo has a set-up move designed to overwhelm you the longer the match goes on. Also, it is capable of attacking multiple times in a row, so make sure to gauge the amount of health you need in between rounds so you don’t end up losing your team the Raid. Remember that Items such as Max Potion are fair game in Max Raids, so if you’re at about 40% health and you’re not a bulky Pokémon, use them!

Max Raid Mewtwo Movesets

Physical Mewtwo (Bulk Up):

Physical Mewtwo has been seen using Fire Punch, Zen Headbutt, Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Brick Break, utilizing Bulk Up in between its multiple attacks. It uses the Max Moves for each move as well.

Quite notably, Brick Break seems intentionally added to destroy Light Screen and Reflect, which is very unfortunate if he leads off his attacks with it. That’s not to say to ignore using Reflect entirely, because in the case it doesn’t waste a turn using Brick Break, you will most likely barely endure its multiple strikes. Bulk Up not only makes it stronger, but much harder to kill on the physical side.

Special Mewtwo (Calm Mind/Nasty Plot):

Special Mewtwo has been seen using Psystrike, Blizzard, Fire Blast, Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Aura Sphere, and Focus Blast, utilizing Nasty Plot or Calm Mind in between its multiple attacks. It uses the Max Moves for each move as well.

Calm Mind is about as similar as the Bulk Up set, but the Nasty Plot variants can become issues extremely quickly for obvious reasons.

Vital Tips Before You Build

All of the Mewtwo sets are capable of using powerful spread attacks (Earthquake, Blizzard, Rock Slide) while boosting up their power. This raid is designed to wipe your squad efficiently and quickly. They’ll usually use an attack, and then use their set-up move at choice, before attacking 1-2 more times.

In addition, Mewtwo seems to have a Speed stat from 291 to 325 neutrally, but generally a Speed of about 315 is a safe number. Keep this in mind if you want to outspeed Mewtwo and cripple it with status moves such as Taunt, which will significantly increase your chances at winning.

Although the following Pokémon are not necessarily the best and only picks versus Mewtwo, they perhaps will be able to point you in the right direction. Here’s some of my picks for dealing with Mewtwo…

Pokémon to Consider:

Prankster Pokémon

There has been plenty of success with Prankster users, notably the ones with access to Light Screen and Reflect. These two Pokémon function as supports, being able to utilize moves to either cripple or weaken Mewtwo’s onslaught.

You definitely want to go as tanky as possible, ideally pumping vitamins and EVs into HP. I personally divided half into Defense and half into Special Defense afterwards so I could run my Meowstic into either Mewtwo, but this part doesn’t seem too strict. The defenses between the two Pokémon are about similar, so the only difference seems to be a few key factors. Meowstic resists Psychic and also resists Mewtwo’s Fighting-type attacks. Grimmsnarl is immune to Psychic but takes neutral damage from everything else. Grimmsnarl hits a bit harder and can use Spirit Break to lower Mewtwo’s Special Attack when the shield is down.

Use Thunder Wave turn one to slow Mewtwo down and also give your team a much better winning chance if it is unable to attack multiple times in a row. Taunt is extremely useful, as Mewtwo will waste a turn setting up in between it’s attacks, only to have the move fail. However, SOME Mewtwo are capable of equipping their Max Raid shield the very start of the raid, which makes it immune to both Thunder Wave and Taunt. Otherwise, use Reflect or Light Screen depending on the Mewtwo set.

Offensive Pokémon

Lunala and Dawn Wings Necrozma are extremely safe picks into the Special sets and relatively effective versus the Physical ones. Lunala is especially useful due to its Shadow Guard Ability, allowing it to effectively take very little damage for at least one of Mewtwo’s turns. Lunala can also learn Wide Guard, which allows it protect the team from Mewtwo’s powerful spread attacks. Coupled with their at least good defenses and typing, they can take plenty of hits while dishing out great damage. Phantom Force is also a funny way to trick the AI into wasting a turn on you. I’ve seen great results from the two utilizing Assault Vest.

Marshadow is risky, but extremely effective with its Spectral Thief, which is able to steal Mewtwo’s buffs through even the barrier! This makes Mewtwo much more reasonable to deal with. Marshadow will also deal incredible damage if it steals from the Physical set, while being extremely durable to Mewtwo’s spread attacks. The catch is that it’s weak to Psychic, thus Mewtwo will instantly obliterate Marshadow if it decides to strike it. However. the strength and utility of Marshadow is still not to be underestimated.

Pokémon Sword and Shield‘s legendary dogs are also good picks, even though this Mewtwo seems to be built to destroy them. Does that actually work in practice? Yes. However, they’re still effective. Zacian, although weak to many of Mewtwo’s attacks, is the top damage dealer with its stupidly powerful Behemoth Blade. Zamazenta is much more bulky and comes with the added +1 Defense turn one, making it effective versus the Physical set while dealing great damage with Behemoth Bash. Be careful overusing these moves, for Mewtwo’s Pressure Ability will sap the PP of these valuable moves. Use it only when the Max Raid shield is down.

How do you take out someone utilizing the world’s strongest Pokémon? Just bring your own. Although not as tanky as other legendary Pokémon, Mewtwo can deal massive damage to the other Mewtwo with its extremely high Special Attack combined with Nasty Plot. It can be a bit clunky sometimes, running a “Protect the Mewtwo” strategy, but it has worked to success.

How does Chandelure fare versus the Physical set, with Mewtwo’s Rock and Ground type coverage? Not well at all. However, it’s quite effective versus the Special set, due to being immune to Fire and Fighting. It additionally resists Mewtwo’s Blizzard, which means it only has to watch out for STAB Psychic attacks. With Chandelure’s Special Attack stat rivaling that of legendary Pokémon, it’s a pretty good offensive pick with its powerful Ghost STAB moves.

Yes. Stacking Steely Spirit Perrserker still works. However, it’s much riskier due to every Mewtwo set utilizing Fire, Fighting, or Ground-type moves. I’ve seen success with 4 heavily invested Perrserker versus the Special set as well as Perrserker being run with Zacian to faint Mewtwo as fast as possible. Perrserker might be a tad riskier versus the Physical set due to Earthquake, but abusing Max Steelspike to raise your team’s Defense and a smart usage of items may do the trick. Utilizing Taunt to stop it from using Bulk Up/Calm Mind/Nasty Plot is also extremely important. You’ll have to wait until the shield is down, however.

Malamar is useful against both variants, but particularly very useful versus the Physical set. With its Ability Contrary, Malamar can utilize Superpower to continuously raise it’s Defense and Attack stats while smacking Mewtwo’s Max Raid shield. When the shield goes down, Malamar can then strike it hard with its STAB Dark-type attacks. It’s also not weak to any of Mewtwo’s various attacks. It can also use Trick Room to have a slow team catch-up to Mewtwo if Mewtwo rolls a very high Speed stat. A lot of great assets in one.

Drapion may seem like a pleasant surprise. Drapion has decent defensive stats all-around, and a great typing as well. It’s unfortunately weak to Earthquake, but everything else can only hit it neutrally. Notably however, it’s capable of dealing great damage by abusing its Ability Sniper, which raises the power of critical hits from 100% to 225% and it’s also able to learn Taunt. With a high Speed investment, Drapion can Taunt Mewtwo and prevent it from setting up its dangerous stat boosts. Otherwise, utilize Drapion’s Night Slash and critical hit boosting items to continuously deal massive damage to Mewtwo. Critical hits will also ignore the Defense boosts of Bulk Up.

Misc. Support Pokémon

Intimidate users, such as Scrafty and Incineroar effectively start off your matches versus the Physical sets at an advantage. You can then utilize the momentum to have other Pokémon set-up their attacks on Mewtwo. They’re also relatively tanky all around and can hit Mewtwo with STAB Dark-type moves. However, they are weak to Mewtwo’s Fighting-type moves, with Incineroar being weak to both Rock Slide and Earthquake as well.

Haze users definitely get a special mention. They’ll dismantle Mewtwo’s offensive and defensive buffs through Mewtwo’s shield, as well as being relatively tanky on all defensive fronts. Cofagrigus is a bit more desirable due to being able to hit Mewtwo with Ghost STAB, while Dusclops is kind of just really tanky. Corsola gets a very special mention, for it is able to learn both Light Screen and Reflect as well as Haze, making it a great all around support Pokémon. Keep in mind, using Haze will negate Mewtwo’s lowered defenses as well when the shield falls, so be careful about using Haze carelessly!

Although trainers are allowed to use items, sometimes that can waste a turn you could be attacking with instead. Clefable is a relatively great pick versus Mewtwo, but the best Clefable are notably the ones with the Ability Unaware. Unaware ignores the offensive boosts on Mewtwo, allowing Clefable to sit relatively well in its onslaught. Although Unaware doesn’t protect your team from Mewtwo’s boosted attacks, Clefable is also capable of learning the moves Life Dew, Heal Pulse, and Follow Me to ensure its team is healthy and ready to keep dealing damage.

Steelix, or any Wide Guard user really, are effective in having Mewtwo waste turns when using spread moves. This restricts Mewtwo to only being able to use single-target attacks on your allied Pokémon, arguably becoming easier to control.

Closing

I hope this guide gave some of y’all some great ideas to tackle Mewtwo. Have you found your own special strategy for taking it out? Lemme know!

Edited by Aldo and bobandbill.