What are the best PvP IVs for Shadow Moltres in Pokemon GO?

Following its fellow Legendary Pokemon, Zapdos, Moltres has become the new hot topic for Pokemon GO's raiding scene. This is thanks to the monster being available in not only its shadow form but also being present in limited-time Shadow Raids. With so many players now having access to this pick, many are going to want to try using it in the game's competitive Battle League game mode.

As many experienced battlers will know, simply having a certain monster on your team does not guarantee victory. Due to the spin-off branching away from the turn-based combat fans are familiar with, even long-time metagame staples of the franchise have been made almost irrelevant. As such, you will need to know how you can best use Moltres in this new environment.

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Everything to know about Shadow Moltres in Pokemon GO PvP

Moltres as seen in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Shadow Moltres is a Fire and Flying-type Pokemon. This horrid defensive type combination is even further insulted by the shadow boost taking away a small portion of overall bulk. Moltres' biggest weakness is against Rock-type attacks, which have become fairly common in Ultra League with picks like Galarian Stunfisk, Cobalion, and Regirock.

For its stats, Shadow Moltres is an interesting case. Since Moltres was once available through Research Breakthroughs, there are certain specimens that possess different stat lines than the modern ones. Since this research Moltres could not be in its shadow variant, a different approach must be taken towards analyzing its optimal IV spread.

As Shadow Moltres stands in Pokemon GO, it is unable to be used in the Great League due to having too high of combat power when captured. Even with a flat zero in all of its IVs, it is still around 200 combat levels too high to participate here. Outside of this tier, Moltres is free to run with whatever IVs it has.

Even with the right IVs, Moltres is not a particularly great choice for any battling format in Pokemon GO. Due to its lackluster movepool, the creature gets outshined by fellow Fire and Flying-type Charizard, which is a notoriously good pick for the competitive scene. This is because of Charizard's amazing movepool with coverage in Dragon Claw, but also having devastating same-type damage in Blast Burn and Wing Attack.

Charizard is even available in its shadow variant, so Moltres also lacks the niche of being the only one with this distinction. Even with Charizard falling off in the Master League, Moltres still cannot see a glimmer of utility since Ho-oh shares its typing, comes in a shadow variant, and has much higher stats. Ho-oh also has access to some of the most powerful moves in the game, like Scared Fire ++.

Overall, Moltres is an unfortunate case in Pokemon GO, with it being translated horribly from the main series to the mobile spin-off. Even Charizard, a starter Pokemon, outclasses the Legendary Moltres in every way. If a player really wanted to use a Fire and Flying-type, but did not have access to Charizard or Ho-oh, Moltres with the right stats could be serviceable.