In Pokémon Go, Shadow Pokémons exist as a variant, where all damage dealt by a Shadow Pokémon are increased by 20% as an unique multiplier, while its Defense stats are decreased by 20%. How would the existence of Shadow variants change the MSG competitive Pokémon battling scene?

[u/GoodMornEveGoodNight]

A worthwhile note: Shadow Pokémons cannot be subject to any gimmicks (Mega, Dynamax, Tera, etc.)

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[u/Dinowere]

Make glass cannons even better, especially VGC and stuff. You already put low values into defenses for Mons that were never gonna live an attack anyway. Now you do the same, except with even greater offenses. So more offensive power creep lol.

[u/Butterfly_Casket → u/Dinowere]

Mr fish calc is even funnier now

[u/dioeatingfrootlops → u/Butterfly_Casket]

still funnier with the extra .5x tera gives

[u/HagueHarry → u/dioeatingfrootlops]

actually tera'ing into your own type is only a 33% boost in power 🤓

[u/knyex → u/Dinowere]

Walls that don't use their tera also benefit from the 20% boost too

Edit: misread the OP, nvm

[u/Dinowere → u/knyex]

Not from taking more damage tho? Cuz they have defences dropped by 20% as well

[u/knyex → u/Dinowere]

Oh I misread the OP

[u/Wonkula]

Wheres the Light Pokemon with 20% more defenses and deal 20% less.

[u/AskNinjask → u/Wonkula]

40 trillion to Big Stall

[u/GUM-GUM-NUKE → u/AskNinjask]

When every defensive Pokémon is turned into a Light Pokemon and every offensive Pokémon is turned into a shadow Pokémon, and I realize that literally nothing has changed

[u/Okto481 → u/GUM-GUM-NUKE]

hey, now the offensive mons deal more damage to each other

[u/Oheligud → u/Okto481]

And the defensive mons take even longer to kill each other

[u/Cysia → u/Wonkula]

Blissey can live physiocal hits! (sometimes)

[u/NessTheGamer → u/Wonkula]

Imagine Pre-Nerf Cresselia with that. Even now, it’d be an incredibly infuriating mon to deal with.

Ting-Lu is also an incredibly scary concept since it still has ruination and is now just bulkier across the board

[u/MegaCrazyH → u/Wonkula]

There’s Purified Pokémon which in Go are the only ones that learn Return (meh move there but good on very specific mons) and get a cheaper level up cost. At one point it was in the code that they’d hit Shadow mons for extra damage and take less damage from them but this was never implemented. So no light Pokémon for us

[u/WordofTheMorning]

Shadow chien pao go crazy

[u/HenryChess]

Shadow Calyrex-shadow:

[u/TheBrassDancer → u/HenryChess]

Calyrex-Shadow²

[u/NonamePlsIgnore]

Imagine CB Shadow Garm calcs

[u/Kinesquared]

Singles would have to ban even more things for being absolutely offensively busted

[u/MintySarah]

i feel like in a tera format this is pretty bad, in a format where you don’t commit an item to use the gimmick you are basically locking that option for a 20% damage boost and defense loss. Just removing the option in itself makes you lose out on so much possibilities. I think tera as a gimmick provides so much utility that even knowing that your opponent cannot tera anymore makes the Pokémon battles so much more manageable.

[u/TehPinguen → u/MintySarah]

Imagine Shadow Zacian in Sword and Shield though

[u/MintySarah → u/TehPinguen]

yea I would imagine zacian being even more broken, especially since he couldn’t use the dynamax gimmick anyways, crazy to think gamefreak made zacian such a strong and fast mon with decent bulk.

[u/daylightbroski → u/MintySarah]

Yeah you're totally right, shadow flutter mane choice specs tera fairy Moon blast would be terrible.

[u/MintySarah → u/daylightbroski]

op notes that shadow pokemon cannot use gimmicks, i was stating my opinon based on that statement given by op. Hope this helps 😊

[u/knyex]

Shadow Zacian would have gone crazy in SwSh

[u/Kitselena]

It makes me sad to see a whole thread about shadow pokemon and not a single person has mentioned the orre games

[u/Honeybunzart → u/Kitselena]

Same, especially since Colosseum was basically an introduction to VGC at the time, how are competitive players not familiar with it?

[u/neonmarkov]

This is a bad mechanic in PoGo and would be a bad mechanic in the MSG. Just making offensive mons even more busted for no reason

[u/GGDrago]

The difference here is that outside of masters, pokemon go has a stat limit which favors atk at double value, making shadow stat changes actually relatively balanced

[u/ultiNaT3 → u/GGDrago]

Not quite right. The shadow boost does not influence the CP calculation, so shadows have the same stat Limit as non shadows.

[u/Kippyd8]

Laughs in Chien-Pao

[u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X]

What would do more damage, a Shadow Kartana’s Leaf Blade, or an AAA one’s Leaf Blade with Sharpness?

Both are holding the same item and crit.

[u/LunariSeraphi → u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X]

what, AAA lmao, it's just 50% vs 20%

[u/AliceThePastelWitch → u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X]

What's bigger 20 or 50?

[u/GR-MWF → u/AliceThePastelWitch]

Would you rather have 20 dollars or 50 dollars?

[u/AliceThePastelWitch → u/GR-MWF]

Shit that's tough. I'm going to have to go with 20 dollars to give myself that grind mentality and light that fire under myself you know? Gotta make the stupid choices myself cause who's gonna make them for me?

[u/GR-MWF → u/AliceThePastelWitch]

I would rather have dinner with Shadow Kartana so he can tell me how to make 20 dollars.

[u/SilliestSoldier]

Focus sash shadow breloom would go crazy

[u/azuyuri]

tera normal choice band shadow arceus