Mewtwo Counters Guide: best counters, weather, catch rate, IV chart

Best Mewtwo counters are strong Ghost and Dark type Pokemon like Origin Giratina, Gengar, Chandelure, SB Mewtwo, Hydreigon and Tyranitar. Pokemon GO Mewtwo can be encountered as a Tier 6 Raid Boss or as an EX Raid encounter. T6 version is stronger, with 66318 CP and 22500 HP, while EX Mewtwo has a boss CP of 54148, 15000 HP. Shiny Mewtwo is available from raids.

Mewtwo can be caught with the following CP values:

• 2294 – 2387 CP (no weather boost, 100% Mewtwo at Level 20)
• 2868 – 2984 CP (windy weather, 100% IV Mewtwo at Level 25)

Mewtwo is a pure Psychic type and it’s weak to Dark, Bug and Ghost type attacks. Mewtwo can be defeated with a minimum of three very lucky players with well picked counters, and gets progressively easier with the number of players.

Best Mewtwo Counters

Mewtwo is weak to Ghost, Bug and Dark moves. The table shows strongest Pokemon to use versus a Mewtwo raid boss. The table is sorted by Pokemon performance.

A deeper look at Mewtwo counters

Giratina (Origin)

Giratina (Origin forme) is the best Mewtwo counter, hands down. Giratina’s massive stamina gives it enough time to charge and use more Shadow Balls than any other Mewtwo counter. Giratina takes reduced or neutral damage from almost every charged attack Mewtwo has access to, with the exception of Ice Beam move. We tend to forget that Giratina’s second type is Dragon, which reduces damage taken from (almost) every other type. With that in mind, the only move that comes close to threatening Giratina is Ice Beam, which consists only 20% of all Mewtwo encounters.

Your Giratina should always have Shadow Claw + Shadow Ball if you’re using it for Mewtwo raids. Giratina is currently the best Ghost type available in Pokemon GO, so you better bank on that.

Chandelure

Chandelure is a beast! Like, seriously! Its DPS is higher than O-Giratina, but lower than Gengar, it dies less than a Gengar, but dies more than O-Giratina. Confused? Don’t be – it’s a perfect mix of O-Giratina and Gengar. The only problem we’re having is getting one, but if you put that aside, Chandelure is a perfect second best option for Mewtwo raids.

Gengar

Gengar is a terrific Ghost type, but he always had the same problem: it’s a squishy Pokemon with low stamina. Luckily, that doesn’t hamper its performance versus Mewtwo, where Gengar reigns supreme as the fastest Mewtwo counter. O-Giratina will always perform better on average, but Gengar is still ~10% faster. Just be sure to prepare enough Revives and Potions if you’re running a full Gengar team.

Mewtwo

Mewtwo is one of the strongest generalists in Pokemon GO and it can definitely stand strong against another Mewtwo. Mewtwo will deal more damage than a Tyranitar, but you need Shadow Ball which is now a legacy move set available only in Mewtwo EX Raids.

Hydreigon

Hydreigon is the brand new Dark type introduced in Gen V, which brings the rare Dark and Dragon dual typing. With double resistance to Psychic, and regular resistances to Electric, Fire and Ghost, Hydreigon is the improved version of Tyranitar we’ve been waiting for ages.

Tyranitar

Back in the day when Mewtwo was first released, The test Pokemon to fight Mewtwo (provided it didn’t have Focus Blast) was Tyranitar! Arr! Today, Tyranitar is still an excellent choice against Mewtwo, as it is resistant to Psychic and Fire moves, both of which are present in M2 fights. Unofortunately, if Mewtwo has Focus Blast Fighting as it’s charge move, Tyranitar is a bad option as it will be One-hit-KO-ed, or in simpler terms, it will die immediately. We recommend using any other counter in those scenarios. Tyranitar will likely be replaced by Darkrai when it becomes available.

Lower tier Mewtwo counters

• Weavile and Houndoom – very high DPS, but too squishy. Your perfect Dark glass cannons, fill your rejoin team with them.
• Absol – also deals a ton of damage, but dies a lot
• Raikou – an excellent generalist that performs well in Mewtwo fights as well. Needs to have Shadow Ball to be viable
• Mismagius – a budget version of Gengar
• Pinsir and the rest – all of these are valid options, but be aware that time to win increases significantly as you go down the list. A-Deoxys is an exception to this rule, but its stamina is so low its almost funny

Analysis of Mewtwo move sets

According to our simulator and actual player reports, Mewtwo’s most difficult moveset is Focus Blast if you’re Tyranitar heavy. Although Focus Blast doesn’t benefit from STAB, Mewtwo’s damage output is so high that it will OHKO almost every counter that’s weak to Fighting-type attacks.

Mewtwo can have the following moves as a Tier 5 raid boss:

• Psychic Psychic
• Ice Beam Ice
• Thunderbolt Electric
• Flamethrower Fire
• Focus Blast Fighting – deadly for Tyranitar!

Other move sets are forgettable, but the recent Psychic buff made it a bit more challenging than it was historically.

Legacy moveset

Mewtwo can no longer have these moves:

• Hyper Beam Normal – difficult for non-Tyranitar, challenging for Tyranitar
• Shadow Ball Ghost – two bar, high DPS, but most counters take reduced damage
• Psystrike Psychic – Mewtwo’s signature move is also its strongest charge move.

A mini guide to Mewtwo trio

• When attempting a Mewtwo trio, always use move set optimized counters
• The minimum level of your Pokemon should be level 30
• Windy weather can make things much more difficult for you
• Fog will make things much easier for you
• Focus Blast remains the most difficult move set to counter
• If you’re not afraid of rejoining, stack your front line with Shadow Claw Gengars

Mewtwo weather considerations

Helpful weather: Rainy and Fog

• Rainy => Bug counters do extra damage
• Fog => Dark counters do extra damage

Harmful weather: Cloudy, Partly Cloudy, Rainy, Sunny, Snow

• Cloudy will boost M2’s Focus Blast and none of it’s counters’ moves
• Sunny boosts Mewtwo’s Flamethrower making it quite deadly

Simulator output