TL;DR: Tyranitar, Mewtwo, Gengar, Houndoom, Scizor, Pinsir, Dragonite, Alakazam, Gyarados, in this order.
Here is my personal tiered ranking of the best Mewtwo counters, including non-optimal movesets. It’s different from celandro‘s Mewtwo Raid Guide for two main reasons:
- My calculations are based on my Choose Your Attackers spreadsheet, which is a theoretical spreadsheet with advantages (less sensitivity to small parameter tweaks) and limitations (no breakpoints, less accuracy for specific levels). On the other hand, celandro‘s Mewtwo Raid Guide is based on Pokébattler simulations, which are harder to generalize but much more accurate for specific levels/IVs.
- My rankings give much more weight to DPS than to TDO/survivability, so they are more comparable to Pokébattler’s “Time to Win” rankings than to “Overall” rankings.
| Tier | Attacker | Fast move | Charge move | DPS% | TDO% (Focus Blast) | TDO% (Shadow Ball) | TDO% (Hyper Beam) | TDO% (Psychic) | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S (excellent) |  | Tyranitar | Bite | Crunch | 83 | 40 | 84 | 100 | 100 | "only" A-tier against Focus Blast |
| S (excellent) |  | Mewtwo | Psycho Cut | Shadow Ball | 84 | 73 | 39 | 61 | 61 | "only" A-tier against Shadow Ball, excellent against Focus Blast |
| A (good) |  | Gengar | any | Shadow Ball | 94 | 50 | 21 | 46 | 20 | Legacy Shadow Claw is best, but current moves are good too; extreme glass cannon => excellent against PC/FB and PC/HB, crap otherwise |
| A (good) |  | Houndoom | Snarl | Foul Play | 81 | 31 | 48 | 44 | 57 | very good against Shadow Ball and Psychic |
| A (good) | | Tyranitar | Bite | Stone Edge | 74 | 36 | 74 | 89 | 89 | B-tier against Focus Blast |
| A (good) | | Mewtwo | Confusion | Shadow Ball | 80 | 70 | 37 | 58 | 58 | "only" B-tier against Shadow Ball, S-tier against Focus Blast |
| B (decent) |  | Scizor | Fury Cutter | X-Scissor | 77 | 41 | 36 | 55 | 43 | |
| B (decent) |  | Pinsir | Bug Bite or Fury Cutter | X-Scissor | 79 | 46 | 33 | 39 | 30 | good against Focus Blast |
| B (decent) | | Tyranitar | Bite | Fire Blast | 70 | 34 | 71 | 84 | 84 | don't use against Focus Blast |
| B (decent) | | Tyranitar | Iron Tail | Crunch | 67 | 32 | 67 | 80 | 80 | don't use against Focus Blast |
| B (decent) |  | Dragonite | Dragon Tail | Outrage or Dragon Claw | 71 | 57 | 41 | 48 | 38 | |
| B (decent) | | Houndoom | Snarl | Crunch | 75 | 29 | 45 | 41 | 53 | good against Shadow Ball and Psychic |
| C (backup) | | Dragonite | Dragon Breath | Outrage | 67 | 55 | 39 | 46 | 36 | |
| C (backup) | | Dragonite | Dragon Tail | Dragon Pulse or Hurricane | 66 | 54 | 38 | 45 | 35 | |
| C (backup) |  | Alakazam | Psycho Cut | Shadow Ball | 75 | 42 | 22 | 34 | 34 | don't use against Shadow Ball |
| C (backup) |  | Gyarados | Bite | Crunch | 66 | 54 | 39 | 46 | 36 | good against Focus Blast |
Note: since I’m lazy, I have listed TDO based on an average of Psycho Cut and Confusion. In case of Psycho Cut, push Dark attackers a bit down and Gengar a bit up. In case of Confusion, push Dark attackers a bit up and remove Gengar completely.
Thanks, good analysis. One note. I think counters for MewTwo with Focus Blast and without FB should be separated. These are two different animals.
Single Focus Blast kills of Tyranitar, Scizor and many other attackers. It doesn’t kill Scyther though, which is missing in your analysis.
Unfortunately scyther is not very high dps and is worse than Tyranitar even in this case. It’s hard to compete with Tyranitar’s dark moves and high attack
I (partially) agree that Focus Blast is somewhat different. However my guides are focused on “beating the raid boss” rather than “maximizing balls and rewards despite contributing less than other players”, so DPS is still the most important issue.
According to my ranking, due to its mediocre DPS Scyther is #8 against Focus Blast after Gengar, Mewtwo, Pinsir, Tyranitar, Dragonite, Scizor and Alakazam.
By the way, although a single Focus Blast doesn’t take away 100% of Scyther’s HP, it has a high probability to kill it anyway if it has been already weakened by a few Confusions. Meanwhile its DPS has been worse than a lot of other attackers.