Team GO Rocket Leader Guides
Current Rocket Leaders Lineups
Rocket Leader Tips
- The first Shadow Pokemon in a Rocket Leader's lineup is always catchable, and frequently can be shiny.
- Since the first Pokemon in a given leader's lineup is frequently easy to take down, it's often best to just take them down with Fast Moves and farm energy for the second and/or third Pokemon in their lineup.
- While not as strong as Giovanni, many of the Rocket Leaders' Shadow Pokemon hit extremely hard, meaning strong coverage moves can pose a real threat.
- When using a Charged Move or Switching, the rocket leaders will stop attacking for a moment. Abusing this time can make encounters substantially easier, and makes Pokemon with a high energy-generating Fast Move and a low energy cost Charged Move extremely valuable to taking down tough Shadow Pokemon.
Note on Example Counters: Our recommended options will primarily focus on Pokemon that have current utility in the Master League, and generally won't feature Shadow Pokemon in order to not potentially double up on the same basic species (Dragonite + Shadow Dragonite, for example), though many of the Shadow variants of the Pokemon on these lists generally perform just as well as their normal counterparts.
First Pokemon
Shadow Machop
- Fast Moves: Karate Chop, Rock Smash
- Charged Moves: Brick Break, Cross Chop, Low Sweep
Machop is an easy win, and a high-priority. Just so long as your Pokemon aren't super frail and/or weak to Fighting Type moves, then you've got this.
Example Counters
Second Pokemon
Shadow Gallade
- Fast Moves: Confusion, Low Kick, Charm, Psycho Cut
- Charged Moves: Close Combat, Psychic, Leaf Blade
Shadow Gallade is pretty frail, but its moves are potentially pretty threatening without the right counters. While Low Kick generally isn't extremely threatening, Charm and Confusion can hit really hard if not resisted. Meanwhile, Psycho Cut tickles all but the frailest of counters, but it allows Gallade to quickly drop Leaf Blade, Close Combat, or Psychic. Close Combat hits like a truck, but also leaves Gallade even frailer than normal. Leaf Blade has decent damage output despite lacking STAB, and is extremely easy to spam, even posing a bit of a threat alongside Charm or Confusion. Finally, Psychic is a bit middle of the road, but it does the job and can hurt if you're using the wrong counter.
Example Counters
Shadow Aerodactyl
- Fast Moves: Bite, Steel Wing, Rock Throw
- Charged Moves: Ancient Power, Hyper Beam, Iron Head, Rock Slide, Earth Power
Shadow Aerodactyl is a glass-cannon Pokemon, pretty easily taken down with the right counters, especially if it happens to roll poorly on its moveset. But don't be fooled; with the right moveset this thing can definitely pose a threat and hit pretty hard. Fortunately, most of its Fast Moves have below-average energy generation, so it can be pretty susceptible to the charged move/switch pause.
Example Counters
Shadow Kingdra
- Fast Moves: Waterfall, Dragon Breath
- Charged Moves: Hydro Pump, Blizzard, Outrage, Octozooka
Kingdra can be an annoying Pokemon to take on. It's got solid neutral coverage, and a lack of weaknesses beyond Dragon and Fairy, the former of which it can potentially deal a lot of damage to with Dragon Breath, Outrage, and/or Blizzard. Fairy Types generally have solid performance here, though simply farming up some energy against Machop can make a huge difference.
Example Counters
Third Pokémon
Shadow Cradily
- Fast Moves: Acid, Infestation, Bullet Seed
- Charged Moves: Stone Edge, Grass Knot, Bulldoze, Rock Slide
Cradily has some solid coverage options, but overall it's not a huge threat. It has the potential to be a bit spammy with Acid or Bullet Seed, but in general it's still not likely to pose a major threat unless it happens to have a coverage move that takes your current Pokemon by surprise.
Example Counters
Crobat
- Fast Moves: Air Slash, Bite
- Charged Moves: Shadow Ball, Air Cutter, Sludge Bomb, Poison Fang, Cross Poison
Shadow Crobat has the unfortunate disadvantage of being pretty weak against Steel Types. While Bite and Shadow Ball both pose a bit of a threat due to their strong neutral performance, the rest of its moveset is easily blocked out by a basic Steel Type. And, truth be told, even without a Steel Type on the team, it's not extremely hard to take down with a number of the Pokemon already recommended in this article.
Example Counters
Shadow Tyranitar
- Fast Moves: Bite, Iron Tail
- Fast Moves: Crunch, Stone Edge, Fire Blast, Brutal Swing
Shadow Tyranitar can definitely pose a threat. While most of its moves aren't super-threatening, the fact of the matter is that this monster is a stat-sponge, sporting big numbers that make it threatening regardless. However, it still has some strong losses to a number of big-name Master League Pokemon, so it won't be very threatening to a well prepared team.
