Download Printable High-Res Infographic

Interactive Mewtwo – Armored Counters Guide

Mewtwo – Armored

Waiting until the absolute last moment, Niantic has dropped this decked out form of Mewtwo into Pokemon go! Not only that, but Armored Mewtwo has arrived with entirely unanticipated alterations to it’s base stats and movepool making it in almost all ways an essentially brand new Pokemon! Looks like they weren’t content to give Mewtwo the “Pikachu with a Hat” treatment.

Armored Mewtwo is coming out as a tie in to the upcoming movie “Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution.” In it Mewtwo gets decked out in a fancy CGI mecha redesign of the original movies Armor-now with more spikes!

But there;s been a lot of hullabaloo about the new stats, so lets get into how tough a cookie this boy is, and how to take him down.

Armored Mewtwo will be available: July 10  1pm to July 31 2019 1pm.

NOTE: Base Catch Rate is 6% in Gamemaster, but may be updated to 2% server side.

---

Mewtwo – Armored in the Meta

First, lets make clear the stat changes that happen in this form:

Mewtwo (Base)	Mewtwo (Armored)
300 Attack	182 Attack
182 Defense	278 Defense
214 Stamina	214 Stamina

Of the three stats, Attack is disproportionately relevant to how good a Pokemon typically is for Raiding-and Mewtwo suffering a severe drop in that stat doesn’t bode well for it’s usefulness. This does makes sense however, as the armor was meant to dampen Mewtwo’s powers to more controllable levels.

ConfusionFuture Sight (Raids)

Armored Mewtwo has stats that (pessimistically)  more resemble Uxie (152/270/181), a Pokemon that is commonly excluded from consideration as an attacker and is outclassed by over 15 other psychic type Pokemon. More optimistically Mewtwo now has resemblance to Lugia (198/257/172), who is roughly the 7th best Psychic attacker, but has a strong niche as a tank. Particularly for being able to solo Machamp 1 v 1. This is not something Mewtwo can do, capping out around doing 1/2 of Machamp’s health before fainting in absolute best cases.

Mewtwo being strictly better than the former, and strictly worse than the latter in terms of stats leaves it somewhat underwhelming. This is not the Mewtwo you once knew, and it seems very much like the Armor it is wearing dampens it’s offensive power in exchange for better endurance to damage.

That said, it gets strictly superior forms of attacks than base Mewtwo. Future Sight is better than Psychic, and Dynamic Punch is better than Focus Blast, which does give it some position to reclaim some grace. But it performs more along the line of Pokemon like Latias and Exeggutor than base Mewtwo.

Based on Estimator Ranks @ Level 35, this is how Armored Mewtwo shapes up in Psychic-Weak raids.

NAME	Moveset	RANK	POLIWRATH	MACHAMP	GENGAR	VENUSAUR	HITMONCHAN
Mewtwo	Confusion / Psychic	100%	2.14	0.69	0.72	2.35	0.83
Azelf	Confusion/Futuresight	89%	2.28	0.77	0.97	2.64	0.87
Espeon	Confusion/Futuresight	89%	2.36	0.78	0.91	2.67	0.88
Alakazam	Confusion/Futuresight	85%	2.45	0.82	0.98	2.75	0.89
Latios	Zen Headbutt/Psychic	84%	2.62	0.84	0.89	2.72	0.99
Metagross	Zen Headbutt/Psychic	81%	2.70	0.90	0.87	2.75	1.05
Lugia	Extrasensory/Sky Attack	80%	2.68	0.86	1.12	2.73	1.06
Mesprit	Confusion/Futuresight	79%	2.69	0.87	0.93	3.00	1.06
Exeggutor	Confusion/Psychic	78%	2.73	0.92	0.96	2.93	1.11
Gallade	Confusion/Psychic	77%	2.72	0.89	0.95	3.12	1.06
Latias	Zen Headbutt/Psychic	74%	2.96	0.97	1.02	3.04	1.17
Armored Mewtwo	Confusion/Futuresight	70%	3.07	1.01	1.00	3.28	1.20
Deoxys (Normal Forme)	Zen Headbutt/Psycho Boost	70%	2.97	0.99	1.20	3.28	1.13
Gardevoir	Confusion/Dazzling Gleam	70%	2.41	0.82	1.28	4.22	0.93
Jynx	Confusion/Psyshock	69%	3.09	1.05	1.14	3.34	1.19
Deoxys (Attack Forme)	Zen Headbutt/Psycho Boost	65%	3.36	1.23	1.18	3.39	1.25
Cresselia	Confusion/Futuresight	61%	3.58	1.17	1.16	3.68	1.42
Uxie	Confusion/Futuresight	61%	3.62	1.18	1.22	3.71	1.39

Other Movesets (Raids)

If you were hoping it might have some niche with it’s other movesets, thats not the case. It performs worse as a Fighting type than Alakazan or Machoke, worse as a Rock type than Kabutops, and worse as a Ground type than Sandslash. This is partially due to not having Psycho Cut to charge up the off-type Charge move fast, but primarily is just due to stat drops. Dynamic Punch, Rock Slide and Earthquake are phenomenal moves, Mewtwo just can’t take advantage of them.

Gym Attacking

Armored Mewtwo’s best attack matchups are with Confusion Dynamic Punch, the common normal types of  Chansey and Snorlax and Blissey are weak to it. But despite it being a tremendously better move for attacking Gyms than Focus Blast, Armored Mewtwo still on average takes longer to deal with them than Focus Blast Mewtwo does. Although it might feel better to waste less energy.  You can also go with an Iron Tail Rock Slide set if you just hate Togekiss in particular.

---

Mewtwo – Armored Movesets Advice

• Earthquake actually manages to be Mewtwo’s strongest moveset since Dark and Ghost types have no double resistance to it. Also harms Gengar.
• Rock Slide Hits Bugs and Flying Types super effectively
• Dynamic Punch Hurts Dark Types, but helps Ghost, Bug and Flying types.
• Future Sight Get’s stab, but helps Dark types the most.

---

Mewtwo – Armored Weather Advice

Here is a list of Pokemon that can perform similar or better than the typical #1 option (in this case, Giratina Origin Form) with weather bonuses:

Pokemon		Weather		Fast Move		Charge Move		Estimator @ L35
	Giratina Origin Form		FOG		Shadow Claw		Shadow Ball	2.78
	(Legacy) Gengar		FOG		Lick		Shadow Ball	3.07
	Tyranitar		FOG		Bite		Crunch	3.17
	(Legacy) Mewtwo		FOG		Psycho Cut		Shadow Ball	3.19
	Honchkrow		FOG		Snarl		Dark Pulse	3.27
	Weavile		FOG		Feint Attack		Foul Play	3.32
	Banette		FOG		Shadow Claw		Shadow Ball	3.34
	Absol		FOG		Snarl		Dark Pulse	3.37
	Giratina Origin Form		NO_WEATHER		Shadow Claw		Shadow Ball	3.42
	Pinsir		RAINY		Bug Bite		X Scissor	3.43
	Mismagius		FOG		Hex		Shadow Ball	3.51

---

General Mewtwo – Armored Counters

Mewtwo – Armored takes 1.6x damage from Bug / Ghost / Dark .

Pure Bug Type resists Ground and Fighting, but is weak to Rock.

Pure Ghost Type double resists Fighting.

Pure Dark  Type double resists Psychic, but is weak to Fighting.

Mewtwo – Armored can be beaten by 3 players in optimal weather, with max friendship and perfect level 40 counters or by 6 unfriended players using level 20 counters from this guide. When caught, Mewtwo – Armored will be between 1740 and 1821 cp without a weather boost. In Windy weather, Mewtwo – Armored will be between 2175 and 2276 when caught.

⚔️Raw Damage is based on pure TTW.  🛡️Survivability/Bulk is based on # of Deaths. 📉Consistency is based off the Range of the estimator against it’s best and worst matchup. 🌐 Accessibility Rating is made based off of personal judgement calls.

Giratina – Origin

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Giratina’s Dragon duel typing doesn’t give it any perks here, but it also doesn’t harm it. It is the #1 Choice against Earthquake and Future Sight, and only falls to number #2 otherwise. It also definitely has the most Total Damage Output against Dynamic Punch movesets, and has no specific bad matchups.

Giratina was in Raids this year, but takes a lot of candy to power up.

Gengar

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Gengar’s Poison duel typing gives him an extra resistance to Fighting, but weakness to BOTH Earthquake and Future Sight. As well as making him prefer Iron Tail as a fast move. This mixed with his glass cannon status leads him to be phenomenal against Dynamic Punch and Rock Slide with a comfortable lead, but fall very low otherwise. If you dodge however, Gengar becomes strictly the best option in all situations.

This moveset is legacy however, but was released relatively recently in Gengar Day.

Tyranitar

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Tyranitar has double resistance to Psychic, but his rock duel typing gives him a weakness to Iron Tail and Earthquake, as well as DOUBLING his weakness to Dynamic Punch. This means he has a huge preference towards double Psychic Movesets.

Tyranitar can be acquired from Larvitar quests, and as a Raid Boss,

Mewtwo

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Mewtwo being a Psychic Type has perks, being resistant to both Fighting AND Psychic types, as well as no bad matchups. This lets it remain in the top 6 choices against all movesets, despite never being the #1 pick.

Shadow Ball Mewtwo was only available to people who were able to participate in Mewtwo EX Raids.

Weavile

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Weavile’s Ice typing is very unfortunate, giving it weakness to Rock Slide, Iron Tail, and doubling it’s weakness to Dynamic Punch. It’s preferred situation is against double psychic moves, but it jumps to the number #2 spot against Confusion/Earthquake.

Weavile is a Sinnoh Stone evolution of a Pokemon that Nests.

Honchkrow

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Honchkrow’s flying typing gives it double resistance to Earthquake and negates it’s Fighting weakness, but in exchange adds a weakness to Rock Slide. Honchkrow has a niche, as the #1 Total Damage Output against Confusion/Earthquake. and just loves Earthquake in general.

Honchkrow is a Sinnoh Stone evolution of a Pokemon that Nests.

---

Alternative Mewtwo – Armored Counters

Banette Vs.

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Banette’s in an interesting boat, despite lacking a weakness to Psychic or Ground, Banette somehow only comes out ahead of Gengar against Iron Tail / Future Sight and Iron Tail / Earthquake. Confusion manages to harm it more than it does Gengar! So despite what it’s typing would suggest, it actually really isn’t more consistent than Gengar.

Shuppets nest and are decently common at night.

Scizor

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Scizor’s Steel typing gives it resistance to Iron Tail and Future Sight, and negates it’s weakness to Rock Slide- but also negates Bug’s resistance to Earthquake and Dynamic Punch. This leads to cute things like Scyther actually having superior performance to it against Earthquake! As well as better overall survivability. But in all situations Scizor comes ahead of Scyther in terms of raw attack damage.

Scyther’s Nest and were featured during the Bug Out Event.

Absol

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

No surprises here, Absol does well against Psychic Moves and bad against Fighting moves. Absol is a pretty consistant Raid Boss, and occational Quest, but doesn’t spawn in the wild.

Mismagius

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Mismagius is a pure ghost like Banette, so shares it’s lack of interaction with anything but Fighting movesets. Against Dynamic Punch it jumps into the top 6 but otherwise doesn’t make much appearance.

Mismagius is a Sinnoh Stone evolution of a Pokemon that Nests.

Pinsir

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Pinsir’s pure Bug typing would seem to give it quite the edge, but in practice it is normally quite outclassed. It was featured recently in the Bug Out Event though.

Houndoom

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Houndoom’s Fire duel typing grants it resistance to Iron Tail-but gives it weakness to both Rock Slide and Earthquake. It’s odd type interactions however lead it to have pretty similar estimator performances across the board.

Raikou

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Raikou’s Electric Typing grants it resistance to Iron Tail, but a weakness to Earthquake. Was featured extremely recently in Raikou Raid day.

Yanmega

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Yanmega’s Flying duel typing grants it extra double resistance to Ground and Fighting, but creates a double weakness to Rock. Yanmega’s notably sits as the #1 Total Damage Output against Confusion/Earthquake.

Yanmega is a Sinnoh Stone evolution of a Pokemon that Nests.

Cacturne

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cacturne’s Grass Typing grants it resistance to Earthquake. Cacnea is a weather pokemon mostly only available in Sunny conditions.

Scyther

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Scyther’s Flying duel typing grants it extra double resistance to Fighting and Ground, but a double weakness Rock Slide. It actually has pretty top tier Bulk against specifically Earthquake. Scyther actually does better than Scizor in overall bulk and there’s many situation it’s preferable here. Scyther Nest and were featured in the Bug Out event.

Drifblim

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Drifblim’s Flying duel typing grants it extra resistance to Fighting and Ground, but a weakness to Rock Slide. Drifblom are very rare, mostly only showing up in Windy Weather or as a tier 1 raid boss. They were very common during the Halloween event.

Haunter Vs.

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐☆☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Haunter’s Poison duel typing gives him a extra resistance to Fighting, but weakness to BOTH Earthquake and Future Sight. As well as making him prefer Iron Tail as a fast move. Haunters movesets here are legacy, and that makes it incredibly inaccessible.

Alakazam

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Like Mewtwo, Alakazam being a Psychic Type has perks, being resistant to both Fighting AND Psychic types, as well as no bad matchups. But it’s overall frailty leads it to always be outclassed by many other Pokemon in particular matchups. Abra are a nesting Pokemon, and are significantly boosted by Windy weather.

Salamence

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Salamance’s flying duel typing grants it resistance to Earthquake and Dynamic Punch and a weakness to Rock Slide. Salamance was recently featured in a community day, making it more accessible.

Shiftry

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cacturne’s Grass Typing grants it resistance to Earthquake. Seedot are very common making Shiftry one of the most accessible pokemon if you are starting from scratch.

Crawdaunt

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Crawdaunt’s Water duel typing grants it resistance to Iron Head. Corphish nest but are decently uncommon.

Gardevoir

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Gardevoir’s Fairy duel typing grants it additional protection from Dynamic Punch, but a weakness to Iron Tail. Ralts do not nest but are decently accessible during cloudy weather.

Deoxys – Attack

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐☆☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Deoxys Attack is bizarre. Does absolutely awful against all movesets except for Earthquake-where it jumps from nowhere into the top 6. It even becomes #2 against Iron Tail/ Earthquake!

Deoxys Attack  thus far can only have been aquired from EX Raids, you can’t even trade them. While the rankings don’t take into account dodging yet, if you dodge perfectly Deoxys – Attack goes from the bottom of this list to the absolute top, second only to Gengar.

---

Closing Thoughts

Armored Mewtwo may not be superior to Mewtwo in combat, but it sure gets points for flair! Be prepared to face this beast head on!

Pokebattler Now has a Merch Store! Check it out Below:

Merch Store