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Interactive Latios Counters Guide

Latios

BirdPlane is back! Like his sister earlier this season, Latios will be coming back to raids for a special week! This time, it’s between April 15th- April 22nd. His sparkly green shiny form will be released as well. Luckily, Latios has a long string of weaknesses to exploit, and all of his top counters have been featured by Niantic recently! Latios may not have the best DPS or bulk, but his triple bar charge move makes him an extremely energy efficient Gym cleaner on top of comparable raid performance to the other Dragons.

Latios Movesets

• Dragon Claw- Latios’s hardest moveset! Latios’s best counters are all dragons, and their survivability starts dropping with this incredibly frequent charge attack. However, the top Dragon types we have are up to the task and retain their top spot here despite the disadvantage.
• Psychic- While Dragons don’t have much to fear here, the moveset sees Dark types rise in the rankings with their inherent double resistance. When Weavile is bulkier than Dialga, it opens up some valid arguments for shifting your team slightly.
• Solar Beam- Solar Beam is a big reason it is so hard to see non-Dragon Pokemon rise in the rankings. MANY types resist Grass including Dragon, Flying, Steel, and Poison! So unlike Ho-oh and Groudon, Solar Beam isn’t as scary on this high soarer.

General Latios Counters

Dragons, Dragons, and more Dragons are your best bet! There have been half a dozen Dragons featured recently, currently, AND very soon. For almost everyone, Dragons will be both the most consistent, and the most accessible choice in counters.

On their heel, the other types make a showing, but all have some drawbacks. The best Ghost types (that aren’t double dipping with Dragon Types) are all legacy moves. Dark Types have lower DPS and low survivability outside of facing Psychic movesets, Ice types have also been featured recently but can’t compete with the Legendary (pseudo and not) stats of the Dragons. Ice types have been featured, but don’t actually have resistance to Grass moves (or inherently, any of the movesets).

Bug has most certainly been given a boost in accessibility recently. Given we are sitting on the heels of a Bug event it’s likely you have some good options there, and if they are a good level they likely outperform the freshly caught dragons. But level differences aside, even in Rainy weather the first Bug type falls behind 5 Dragons. But there is an argument to be made that their accessibility at high levels overwhelms this.

Fairy Types aren’t so lucky, not even showing in the top 8 in cloudy weather, and none of them are particularly cheap to acquire.

Latios takes 1.6x damage from Bug / Ghost / Ice / Dragon / Dark / Fairy .

Latios can be beaten by 2 players in optimal weather

Rayquaza

•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility

Rayquaza remains on top of the DPS charts for now against every single moveset by a minor but consistent margin. Even against double dragon movesets that hit him super effectively! However, he doesn’t have the best bulk with many of Latios’ counters now having additional resistances to Dragon and Psychic movesets that can in many cases be more efficient. Both Flying and Dragon types resist Grass, which gives a further leg up against Solar Beam.

Salamence

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Accessibility

The word is out. Salamence will have Outrage for community day moving him from number 3 to number 2 against Latios. This will take his accessibility from abysmal to incredibly easy to get one (provided you are able to play this Saturday, April 13th, 2019 ). Salamence is a fantastic choice, especially with the powerful two bar attack Outrage. Even with his less strong full bar charge attack in Draco Meteor, Salamence has a very high attack stat and hits very hard. He may, however, be less consistent as his absolute performance has more luck involved with when you happen to get KO’d. But soon it will be very easy to grab the #2 best counter. Which is more than we can say for most of the Legendary Raid bosses that come.

Dialga

•⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility

Among the top counters, Dialga has the best overall bulk. Steel typing currently makes him unique as a Dragon that can take a hit from other Dragon attacks (We’ll see if Mega Alteria is any good when it’s released). If you are likely to be tackling Latios is smaller groups, he is potentially a better option than Rayquaza to minimize rejoins.

Palkia

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility

Palkia continues to trail a bit behind Dialga in DPS, but manages to function roughly equivalent to Salamence on average. But in addition to sharing Salamences unreliable full bar charge move, Palkia’s water typing makes it lose resistance to Solar Beam. So while Solar Beam boosts all the other Dragons bulkiness, it harms Palkia. The effect of this is noticeable but is minor compared to how bad it could be. Palkia remains in the top 6 choices even against Solar Beam. Its bulk just might start to resemble Gengar more than Dragonite.

Dragonite

•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Accessibility

We’ve had a LOT of Dragons getting attention recently, but Dragonite manages to cling to usefulness even now! He scales very comfortably with Salamence: trading some raw damage in exchange for some extra toughness. The biggest advantage Dragonite has (for a very small number of days) is it’s likely long term players have acquired a bunch already. He has had better days, but if you have a Dragon moveset team ready to go, you are going to be able to get through a trio.

Giratina – Origin

•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Accessibility

Giratina – Origin forme is the most recent in a chain of Dragons we’ve had released and they are ripe for the catching. As we head into Bagons and Latios, you also have him as an option. A nice trait he has is that he is pretty good with both ghost and dragon movesets. SO if TMs are something you want to conserve they are pretty helpful. The performance drop isn’t too bad if the math works out for you.

Alternative Latios Counters

Gengar

•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Accessibility

Finally not a Dragon! Sadly, to even make it this high up the list Gengar needs his Legacy Fast moves (Lick or Shadow Claw). But if you are sitting with Hex or Sucker Punch you only fall down one rank. While you can fudge the fast move some, having Shadow Ball makes a big difference in effectiveness.

Latios

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Accessibility

The main BirdPlane himself, if you rope up some he is totally able to pull off a trio. There is a particular advantage against Psychic movesets, attributed to Psychic resisting Psychic. In this situation his bulk rises close to the top, with only some Dark types and Dialga (who all shares some degree of resistance).

Mewtwo

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐☆☆☆☆ Accessibility

If you have a legacy Shadow Ball Mewtwo here is another place for you to get some use out of it. That said, Giratina-Origin form outclasses Mewtwo now in this role. Damage, Bulk, and accessibility all fall into Giratina -Origin’s favor. Mewtwo does have a handy resistance to psychic moves, but even that isn’t enough to have it climb up the rankings anymore.

Honchkrow

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility

Honchkrow is packing resistances to both Psychic and Grass movesets but gets churned up by Dragon movesets. Murcrow has had a long era of being common, so it isn’t too difficult to get some powered up Honchkrows- provided you have Sinnoh Stones.

Weavile

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Accessibility

Weavile can hit on both the Ice and Dark axis and benefits from a mixed moveset here. Weavile has a particularly high ranking performance against the Psychic moveset, because of Dark having double resistance, as well as their high DPS benefiting from being more safe than usual from one hit KOs.

Latias

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility

The other half of the Eon Duo! Sadly, it lags behind Latios in terms of Damage, and (despite having better defensive stats!) in practice falls behind in survivability as well. This all said, Latias does share a resistance to Psychic moves, so has particular tankiness against that moveset.

Mamoswine

•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility

While ice has been a dominating force against our arch-typical Dragon Rayquaza, Mamo isn’t sitting at number one this time around. He bursts into the top 6 in snow though, but be wary of his weakness to Solar Beam. Don’t worry though, more double weak Dragons are upcoming that will make sure Mamo has a long history of usefulness.

Deoxys – Attack

•⭐☆☆☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐☆☆☆☆ Accessibility

Kind of a meme choice, one of the only things Latios will reliably one 1 hit KO. It’s insane attack stat isn’t enough. Notably, iy  *rises* to Gengar tier survivability against Psychic movesets.

Scizor

•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Accessibility

Shame to find this stylish Pokemon so down the list! Scizor is arguably the best Bug-type, has been featured heavily very recently in the Bug event, and isn’t too expensive to evolve if you can get a Metal Coat. It isn’t so much that Scizor is bad, as we just have tons of phenomenal alternatives. But if you don’t mind a 5 man, high level Scizor are perfectly good.

Houndoom

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Accessibility

While Houndoom theoretically gets an advantage against Psychic and Grass movesets, Latios’ other counters get SO MUCH MORE an advantage that his best situation actually knocks him out of the ranking.,

Pinsir

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Accessibility

Scizor’s eternal rival falls behind due to not having Steel duel typing granting extra resistance to all of Latios’ movesets.

Yanmega

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility
This is not Yanmega’s time to shine, as a very expensive sub-optimal counter. Although more accessible due to the recent event-you really don’t need to use a Sinnoh stone on this right now unless you want the novelty of it.

Exeggutor – Alola

•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Accessibility
Well, not all Dragons have broken good stats! Tall Boi isn’t that powerful but being able to find one in the wild at level 35 is pretty nice.

Tyranitar

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility
While not great in all cases, it rockets up the rankings in Foggy and against Psychic movesets.

Togekiss

•⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐☆☆☆☆ Accessibility
Hidden power is a bit much to ask for, but Togekiss becomes a good counter in cloudy weather. It’s very notable for having some of the most impressive Bulk of any counter. Against Dragon movesets it starts topping the charts in bulk.

Absol

•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Accessibility
Pretty expensive to power up, and lacks both Houndooms typing and Tyranitars bulk. And falls below Weavile and Honchkrow in all situations.

Gyarados

•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Bulk
•⭐☆☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐☆☆☆☆ Accessibility
While Gyarados itself isn’t that inaccessible given enough patience, Gyarados only makes it onto this list with legacy movesets. Neutrality to Solar Beam means he’s pretty consistent too.

Jynx

•⭐☆☆☆☆ Bulk
•⭐⭐☆☆☆ Damage
•⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Accessibility
Clinging at the fraying ends of the list, Jynx’s raw DPS allows it to hold on. She’s been featured decent frequently at least in events, and can be caught in the wild at high levels with no further investment.

Closing Thoughts

Latios’ visit will complete the pair of Eon Duo’s getting their beautiful shines featured this spring, but will still take a strong team to take down. If you’re eyeing for a duo especially, you will need to pick the cream of the crop Dragons with friendship AND a weather boost. Outside those hardcore ambitions, you can take it down even with level 20 counters if you have at least 4 players and are prepared to rejoin.

Latios isn’t number one in DPS or Bulk, but its unique moveset and typing make it a Pokemon with a lot of utility. Who knows how long until Niantic brings them back, so don’t miss your chance to catch this turquoise airplane!