What are the best movesets and counters for Shaymin in Pokemon GO?

In celebration of Earth Day, Niantic is once again bringing Sustainability Week to Pokemon GO. The company is also giving players a free special research that offers an encounter with Shaymin, a Mythical Pokemon from the Sinnoh region, as a reward.

Shaymin was made available for the first time during the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS. An exploit allowed players to reach it without the need for the Oak's Letter event item. Trainers could legitimately find the creature starting in Pokemon Platinum when the Oak's Letter giveaway went live.

With so many players having access to Shaymin, they may want to use the creature in Pokemon GO's competitive Battle League. However, as many trainers may know, simply having a creature on one's team does not guarantee wins. They must know its strengths and weaknesses if they wish to excel.

Note: Parts of this article are subjective and solely reflect the opinions of the writer

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Everything to know about building and countering Shaymin in Pokemon GO

Shaymin as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The first thing every Pokemon GO player should know about a creature before they even consider using it in battle is its elemental typing. In the case of Shaymin, its base form, the one players will be able to encounter, is a pure Grass-type Pocket Monster. This means it is weak to Fire, Flying, Ice, Bug, and Poison-type attacks.

In the main series, Shaymin is a perfectly balanced creature stat-wise (100 in every stat). In an attempt to replicate this balance, Niantic has given the Pocket Monster a very similar stat spread in Pokemon GO. However, it has attack and defense stats of 210, as well as a stamina stat of 225.

When it comes to potential movesets, Shaymin has no Grass-type fast attacks, making it very dependent on its charged attacks in order to land effective damage. This means the best fast attack that the creature can use is Hidden Power. The move has a higher energy per second compared to Zen Headbutt, the other fast attack option.

Shaymin lacks any coverage options in regards to charged attacks. However, it has some of the best Grass-type attacks in all of Pokemon GO.

For the first charged attack, players should use Solarbeam if they do not wish to max out Shaymin for its second attack slot. For those who do, a charged attack combination of Energy Ball and Seed Flare grants debuffs, powerful damage, and a spammable shield bait option.

It should be noted that Shaymin's lack of reliable coverage in Pokemon GO leaves it open to potential switch-ins. This means players should be cautious when using Shaymin in battle as it is more of a "Hail Mary" Grass-type nuke attacker.

Overall, Shaymin is a bit of an iffy Pokemon. However, in situations where players need a Grass-type attacker, it is one of the best in the game.

However, Shaymin's damage output in any other capacity is very lackluster, leaving it open to getting walled by the Steel-type creatures of Great and Ultra League.