G’day PoGO lovers! Shadow Suicune is available in 5-star shadow raids throughout May, following the release of Shadow Entei and Shadow Raikou beforehand. Both Shadow Entei and particularly Shadow Raikou are potent in the PvE side of the game, and shadow Raikou has some spice value in PvP.
Suicune was my favourite legendary dog in the Crystal / Gold msg, having the coolest design and amazing moves! With it back in town for legendary raids, let’s explore whether Shadow Suicune is worth prioritising, for PvP and PvE. You can also check out our Shadow Suicune Raid Guide for a complete counters overview!
Shadow Suicune in PvP
Suicune (Shadow)
Ultra League
Let’s start with this writers preferred form of the game, PvP. Looking first at the Ultra League where Suicune is most viable, it appears overall that the shadow form is a slight downgrade from the non-shadow. Hmm, that’s a bummer – let’s look into this a bit further.
Some initial investigation into the new wins and losses demonstrates that where the regular form of Suicune can out-tank a lot of its matchups (particularly with some Scald debuffs to assist), the shadow forms hit to its defence starts to show up in new losses across the board. The concerning part is that its losses are to both mons with average to strong bulk (such as Mandibuzz, Snorlax, Deoxys Defence and Giratina), and to some of the more attack-oriented meta (such as Shadow Swampert, Toxicroak, Annihilape and Alolan Sandslash). It seems that the extra shadow attack bonus really isn’t helping make it strong enough to justify the cost to its defence across all shielding scenarios, particularly given the new losses are predominantly to mons that are quite frequently seen in the open meta.
Now, the sims never tell the full story, and I do believe that Shadow Suicune will have a lot of viability – in particular as a safe swap. It is still very decently tanky and both its charged moves Scald and Ice Beam can hit a lot of the meta for super effective damage, meaning it is likely that it can come in and likely gain shield advantage to enable you to hopefully sweep in the back with a supporting mon.
In terms of the stats – Suicune loves to have as much bulk as possible. With the current shadow raids in town, the 6-6-6 IV floor helps quite a lot on this front, and if you’re somehow able to snag a 6-13-13 or 6-14-15, you’re looking at decent enough stat product to consider an Ultra League build.
| Shield Scenario | New Wins (as Shadow) | New Losses (as Shadow) |
| 0v0 | Cofagrigus Empoleon (shadow) Gyarados A-Nine (shadow) Pidgeot A-Slash Snorlax (shadow) Swampert Trevenant Annihilape |
Cobalion Drapion Granbull Greedent Greninja Mandibuzz Snorlax Swampert (shadow) Toxicroak Walrein Clefable G-Weezing A-Slash (shadow) Empoleon Goodra |
| 1v1 | Drapion Dubwool Gyarados A-Muk A-Slash Snorlax Sylveon Trevenant Feraligatr (shadow) |
D-Deoxys Escavalier Giratina Altered Granbull Greedent Jellicent Mandibuzz Nidoqueen Snorlax (shadow) Swampert (shadow) Toxicroak G-Weez A-Slash (shadow) Annihilape Feraligatr Empoleon |
| 2v2 | Drapion Snorlax Talonflame |
Dubwool Gyarados Pidgeot Snorlax (shadow) Walrein G-Weez A-Slash (shadow) Steelix (shadow) Empoleon (shadow) |
Master League
I haven’t seen many Suicune in the Master League, primarily because Water types tend to struggle in the Dragon dominated meta. Both forms have a poor win-loss rate in the highest CP meta, and it would take an incredibly skilled player and a carefully considered team composition to generate success with it. I won’t spend too long analysing this for you, because I don’t think it’s particularly viable, but I’ll show you the new results below and let you ponder whether it’s worth the investment for you. It is overall quite disappointing to see a Water type losing to Ground and Fire types such as Groudon and Ho-Oh… but hey, if you snag a strong IV variant then it could be a fun spice pick!
| Shield Scenario | New Wins (as Shadow) | New Losses (as Shadow) |
| 0v0 | Dragonite Giratina Altered Rayquaza Snorlax Yveltal Zygarde |
Groudon Sylveon Togekiss Haxorus Terrakion |
| 1v1 | Garchomp Rayquaza Swampert Haxorus |
Giratina Origin Groudon Landorus Melmetal Terrakion Tyranitar |
| 2v2 | Garchomp | Groudon Ho-Oh Swampert Ursaluna |
Great League
Fun fact – Suicune was once available below 1500CP as a shadow many moons ago! If you’re still holding onto one at Great League level, then there are absolutely worse ideas than bringing one to the field! However, this is definitely another instance where the non-shadow’s additional bulk proves to be vital for Suicune. Shadow Feraligatr is also now probably doing its job with slightly better efficiency, with essentially the same charged moveset but the much more aggressive Shadow Claw fast move, dealing both significantly better damage pressure and strong energy generation. Given the legendary raids don’t allow you to catch a Shadow Suicune below the 1500CP cap, I won’t dive into this too much today, but if there’s ever the opportunity to grab one of these again, it could be a fun limited meta pick for you.
Shadow Suicune in PvE
Over to PvE, and sadly, Shadow Suicune isn’t having quite the same impact as its fellow Shadow Legendary dogs, coming in at #41 overall in terms of Water-type attackers. When you’re slotting in below Shadow Lapras, a well known tank, you know you’re in trouble!
The first thing you may notice about Suicune is that it doesn’t currently have a Water type fast move in its arsenal! Right off the bat, this is holding Suicune back in terms of Water damage output in raids. Secondly, it is mostly stuck with sub-par charged moves – with the hard hitting but very slow Hydro Pump, and the faster (but only ok in PvE) Scald. However, the overall issue is less to with the moves, and more about Suicune’s stats. The below visual (which I pulled together with our website’s new DPS and TDO calculator) shows that even with the addition of some new moves like Waterfall and Surf into its arsenal, its raid score really doesn’t improve all that much. Suicune is just heavily defence-oriented in its stats and doesn’t have the same power as its legendary cousins, so even with a move tweak it isn’t addressing the underlying challenges of its relative lack of power.
Given Shadow Suicune isn’t particularly potent in the Master League either, you might consider saving the resources as there won’t really be any dual viability on offer. Instead, I would prioritise on getting a decent IV one for an Ultra League build.
I hope this quick guide has helped you prioritise your Shadow Suicune grinding, and as always, you can find me on Twitter or Instagram for more analysis.
See ya later,
JTizzle
