Mewtwo Trio Guide
Mewtwo makes a reappearance in Raids, this time with a potential Shiny version. The 20% HP Buff in February 2019 makes this a much harder duo than the last time Mewtwo was around in EX Raids. Legacy Gengar and Giratina-Origin at Level 40 against Focus Blast, is pretty much the only way to successfully duo Mewtwo; all other combinations of Pokemon and Raid Boss moveset come up just a little short for a duo.
The good news: if Mewtwo is such a hard duo, it is a very easy trio, as long as everyone brings half-decent counters.
Edit: Niantic has buffed Mewtwo to have "Tier 6" HP; Mewtwo Raid Bosses will have 22500 HP, as opposed to the regular 15000 HP for Tier 5 Raid Bosses. For the guide to trioing Tier 6 Mewtwo, click here.
- Confusion hits much harder than Psycho Cut, and is much harder to go against, especially if you're using Gengar.
- Flamethrower hits Bug-types and Weavile hard, and can be spammed frequently, making it one of the harder Charge Moves to go against.
- Thunderbolt has good neutral coverage and can also be spammed, making it an all-around pain to face.
- Ice Beam hits Giratina for super-effective damage; as a result, Giratina's performance suffers a little against Ice Beam.
- Psychic is boosted by STAB and hits Gengar for massive damage if not dodged; however, Dark types can leverage an Immunity-tier resistance to easily tank Psychic.
- Focus Blast hits Tyranitar and the other Dark-types hard; however, Giratina and Gengar will take pitiful damage from Focus Blast due to their Immunity to Fighting.
- Fog is practically non-existent. If you're somehow lucky enough to get Fog, the duo becomes much easier, with options like Tyranitar, Mewtwo, and Weavile becoming duo-viable.
Viable Counters
Minimum viable levels assume Best Friends, No Weather.
All calculations assume regular Tier 5 HP, and not the boosted "Tier 6" HP that Mewtwo received in 2018.
Italics indicate a Legacy move.
Ghost-types and Bug-types perform very well against Focus Blast, given their resistance to Fighting. Avoid using Dark-types if you can't dodge; if you can dodge, all the traditional Dark-type options such as Tyranitar and Weavile are perfectly viable for the trio.
Dark-types perform well against Psychic, thanks to their Immunity-tier resistance to it.
Gengar is conspicuously absent; if you want to use Gengar against Psychic, you need to be capable of dodging Charge Moves consistently. If you can do that, Gengar is trio-viable at Level 25.
Giratina's performance suffers a little against Ice Beam; the minimum level for Giratina to be able to trio against Ice Beam is 25, instead of 20. Besides Giratina, the other traditional Dark- and Ghost-types perform just fine against Ice Beam; Weavile in particular enjoys a resistance to Ice thanks to its own Ice-typing.
Thunderbolt's raw power is lower than Ice Beam's, making it less painful to tank. However, less damage taken results in less energy gained, which in this case actually makes Thunderbolt Mewtwo slightly harder to defeat than Ice Beam Mewtwo.
Flamethrower's base power is even lower than Thunderbolt's, making Flamethrower one of the least painful Mewtwo movesets to go against. Again, however, taking less damage is not always a good thing; less damage taken results in less energy gained, which results in lowered DPS and a harder time beating the 300-second timer.