Shaymin PvE Meta Analysis

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With the release of Land-Forme Shaymin during global Pokémon GO Fest 2022 and the upcoming debut of Sky-Forme Shaymin, trainers might be wondering if this new mythical Pokémon will have some use in the current meta.

In this article, we’ll see whether or not this Pokémon is worth powering up and what moveset you should be running.

Land-Forme Shaymin

Shaymin (Land) Grass
Stats
ATK 210 DEF 210 STA 225
Best PvE Moveset
Hidden Power Grass Grass Knot Grass

Things aren’t looking too great for the white hedgehog-like Pokémon, unfortunately.

When the best fast move you can run is Hidden Power, you know that landing the right moveset will be a very difficult task. Getting the Hidden Power typing that you want is quite tricky, since whenever you catch a Pokémon, whatever Hidden Power type it’s stuck with, it’s stuck with forever. And even then, Hidden Power isn’t particularly a great fast move anyway.

Land Forme Shaymin in Pokémon GO

Even if you hit the jackpot and manage to get the right moveset, Land-Forme Shaymin is a Frenzy Plant Sceptile-Tier grass type attacker. It’s outclassed by so many other grass type attackers: Torterra, Venusaur, Celebi, Tangrowth, Roserade, Tapu Bulu, Zarude and the best grass type megas such as Mega Venusaur and the upcoming Mega Sceptile, which will redefine the grass-type attacking metagame once it’s released.

All in all, a pretty underwhelming Pokémon from a PvE perspective. And if yours doesn’t have Hidden Power grass, just forget about it.

Sky-Forme Shaymin

Shaymin (Sky) GrassFlying
Stats
ATK 261 DEF 166 STA 225
Best PvE Moveset
Hidden Power Grass Grass Knot Grass

Sky-Forme Shaymin’s stats are more attack-weighted, which is good news. And it also gains the flying typing.

Unfortunately, it’s also stuck with Hidden Power grass as its only viable fast move. Things might change in the future if it gets access to Bullet Seed, but as of now, it only has access to Hidden Power grass as a STAB fast move.

Sky Forme Shaymin in Pokémon GO

HP grass + Grass Knot Sky-Forme Shaymin is much better than its Land-Forme variant, outclassing powerful grass type attackers such as Tapu Bulu and Roserade. But it’s still worse than Zarude and Mega Venusaur (and eventually Mega Sceptile will be added to that list as well).

We could say that its place in the grass type meta would be between Tapu Bulu and Zarude, being more or less as good as shadow Venusaur, shadow Torterra and shadow Tangrowth. Whether or not you decide to power yours up once you get it is up to you. I personally would hold off unless I somehow get lucky enough to get a Hidden Power grass one or if its move change in the GAME_MASTER file.

Parting Words

And that’s it! It’s honestly such a shame that a mythical Pokémon such as Shaymin doesn’t have access to a better movepool in Pokémon GO.

Having to rely on good RNG to determine whether or not you should invest in Shaymin is not what you’d expect for this kind of Pokémon, but you know, things might change in the future if a move shakeup happens!

Seed Flare is Shaymin’s signature move in the main series games. But this time you won’t have to wait until a future event to get it. Its current stats are pretty bad, and it’s actually one of Shaymin’s worst charge moves, as it only outclasses Energy Ball. Yes, it’s worse than Solar Beam and Grass Knot, and it’s a signature move. Should you TM it away? I personally wouldn’t, for now. You never know what last-minute changes Niantic could have in mind…

Happy hunting, trainers!

Author & tags

Kratos
Kratos
Pokémon fan since 2000. Played every single game without exception. I'm an engineer, a tech lover and also a big sports fan. Science is my religion :)

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