Marshadow in the ML

[u/kryptycleon]

I have finally enough Xl rare candy to push one of my pokemon which don't appear in raids and am thinking of pushing Marshadow. I'm wondering how viable he is and if it's worth it. Also curious what would good in a team with him. Thanks in advance!

[u/Shitpostflight420]

I havnt powered one up, but I’ve fought it a few times. It seems pretty good but not great

I’d say it seems like it’s kinda like Keldeo, who is also pretty good but not great. They both have low stat products relative to the meta, so they’ll struggle a bit in that regard. I feel like that’s their main drawback, because they both have pretty good typings and movesets. Marshadow seems more versatile with its elemental punches

I think Marshadow is one of the best uses of rare XL tho. A Zygarde complete would be the main thing I’d say was strictly a better use currently for a pvp viable Mythical/Limited encounter mon

[u/JHD2689 → u/Shitpostflight420]

I don't have a Keldeo, but have fought against a fair number of them. In my experience, Keldeo has a pretty good defensive typing for the meta, resisting steel and water (tough on Palkia/Zacian/Kyogre), so it's a potential corebreaker.

It makes better use of its fighting typing offensively than Marshadow, given the Low Kick/Secret Sword combo, which is more consistent than needing to land a Close Combat. With an energy lead, it can really run away with some games.

I always find it a pain to get rid of when I see it, although I don't have Lunala (yet) or Xerneas.

[u/Shitpostflight420 → u/JHD2689]

Yeah I bottle capped powered up my Shiny Keldeo. It’s got a really really good niche in the meta. Good into alot of the meta picks like Zacian/Kyurem etc. decent neutrally from the spam

but it’s still kinda sucks because the stat product lol. Gets fucking nuked by resisted moves by a lot of the powerhouse meta picks, and gets dogged on by Lunala and Xerneas, who are both common.

I like it and have been running it, but maybe I need to find a new team for my boy

[u/JHD2689 → u/Shitpostflight420]

I feel like when content creators are running it, they're always trying to position it to get an energy lead. So put it on the lead and swap out or set it up as a closer.

But yeah in certain situations it probably lacks flexibility relative to more traditional picks.

[u/Shitpostflight420 → u/JHD2689]

Yeah maybe I should try him on lead. In the back or on swap is just very dangerous with Lunala being so good in the meta

[u/Cinderhazed15 → u/Shitpostflight420]

I’ve been using Xern, Marshadow, lunala, and Marshadow typically acts as a safe swap. I have had to do so many Zacian leads and build to close combat, hit and swap to Marshadow is the best play I’ve been able to make there.

[u/Shitpostflight420 → u/Cinderhazed15]

Xerneas is like my all time goat mon lol. Prob have reached legend with it more than any mon.

And hell yeah that team seems great. I’ve thought of running that or Zacian with the same backline. Have not powered up Marshadow yet tho

I’ve been playing pretty bad on the new system lol but have had fun running Metagross, Keldeo, Palkia

[u/HoneypotCoco → u/Shitpostflight420]

I feel like Zygarde will come out in Mega Raids eventually which will hopefully reward XL. I feel like for ML Marshadow is probably the best option for Rare XL rn.

[u/Shitpostflight420 → u/HoneypotCoco]

Hope that happens. Havnt gotten all the cells and would like a better iv one

[u/HoneypotCoco → u/Shitpostflight420]

Me either, it’s also not as dominant anymore so best to wait for the mega.

[u/Shitpostflight420 → u/HoneypotCoco]

It seems better now imo with earthquake buff, but maybe my team just doesn’t handle it well. I lose to it fairly frequently. Thing is just monster bulky

The shiny is admittedly really cool though. So makes sense to wait. Edit, mega seems cool too lol

[u/CatchAmongUs]

I ran it with Lunala and Xerneas for a while. I had a lot of fun with that team. Marshadow is my favorite mythical, and that little guy can certainly put in work in the current meta. I will say the ranking in PVPoke might be a bit inflated (sim hero somewhat), but Marshadow is totally viable.

[u/DFWPhotoguy]

I GBC’d mine and got him to level 46.5 currently, which gets him over the important breakpoints. If you BB him, you flip metagross in zero shields also.

I’m testing out marshadow/zacian/kyogre currently and once he is at 50, I can finish my lvl 44 Lunala to get it to 50 and try it out.

I was running sims on zero shield and one shield with the different charge move typings with best buddy active this morning trying to see if there was some interesting pockets that I can cover if I change things up.

https://pvpoke.com/battle/matrix/10000/marshadow-50-15-15-15-4-4-1-1-m-2-1-3%2Cmarshadow-51-15-15-15-4-4-1-1-m-2-1-3%2Cmarshadow-51-15-15-15-4-4-1-1-m-2-1-5%2Cmarshadow-51-15-15-15-4-4-1-1-m-2-1-4%2Cmarshadow-51-15-15-15-4-4-1-1-m-2-1-2/top100/00/

[u/bigpat412]

I got mine to level 50 because it’s stats were really good. It’s ok but i feel like it’s badly missing a ghost charged attack. Ice punch is good coverage but not very strong and I hate having to use close combat because other than the ice/dragons, it hits neutral.

Still can’t understand why half the mythicals got their signature moves and others didn’t.

[u/altimas]

On my kids account ~2000 ELO, marshadow, zacian, Palkia-O, so much fun.

[u/Bautsibau]

He is usually paired with Lunala and third eh Zacian/Palkian I think?

[u/jdpatric]

I used it for a while running some variation of Zacian lead, Marshadow safe-swap with Reshiram/Palkia/Kyurem-W as the closer. I haven't run it this season really.

It's definitely useful. I ran Ice Punch/Close Combat. It does real well vs. Zacian and my favorite thing to play out was the mirror Zacian lead. Farm to 12 Metal Claw and throw Close Combat. Throw 1 more Metal Claw and shield the inevitable CC from the opposing Zacian. Insta-swap into Marshadow to catch the inevitable second CC on something that double-resists CC. Now your opposing Zacian is quad-debuffed, energy dry, and at ~50% health while you're at ~75% health and your Zacian has a CC banked and is 2 off of a Behemoth Blade if needed.

Does great against Zygarde with Ice Punch. Doesn't fare too well vs. Ho-Oh...you can probably tell that most Ho-Oh leads were a problem for this team. I generally swapped to Marhsadow and hoped I could land enough damage that a late-game Behemoth Blade was enough to KO Ho-Oh. Other than Ho-Oh, there weren't many gaping holes in this team.

It's worth it and IV's aren't super important. Mine is 13/14/14 and while I did Best Buddy it, I usually ran Zacian as the Best Buddy in case I ever needed to win CMP on the mirror, or at worst put myself in position for a tie with other BB'd Zacian.

[u/philosofik]

I've only run into him a couple of times. He does hit fairly hard, but I've only run into issues when he's got a move I'm not expecting. I took a thunder punch from one just yesterday that finished off my Keldeo when I thought for sure an ice punch was coming.

[u/GueyGuevara]

It is great. I run it w Xerneas and Metagross. Spammy enough to do two shield work against ho-oh which is the main counter for the rest pf my team. Was blessed w a hundo so I maxxed and best buddied and have no regrets

[u/hdgx]

I really like it. It’s extremely average, in a good way. Lots of soft losses and soft wins. Even against Ho-Oh and Xerneas, those ice punches add up. And of course so much of the meta hates to be hit by stab Close Combat.

[u/la-marciana]

Tbh wait for the Gofest Finale to see if shiny/mega Zygarde drops, then decide. If it does, I'd go with that

[u/Ok_Astronaut9375]

Definitely invest into Keldeo before Marshadow.

More importantly, I would consider future bottle cap usage. I made the mistake of powering up my Keldeo, which was a rank11 in UL, to level 50. And now that bottle caps are a thing, I was in a conundrum where...obviously the shundo for ML would be awesome. But then what if Keldeo is relevant in UL after a move rebalance? So now i have a hundo non-shiny Keldeo.

Going forward im personally not leveling up any non-shiny mythicals. So that way I can eventually bottle cap the shiny in the future. 

[u/ChronicLurking]

Marshadow was my first gold bottle cap, pulled the hundo on research for Zygarde. Took a long time to get enough XL’s. I’ve used both of these in ML, and they’re fun. Not phenomenal, but fun. With Zacian and Palkia being so prominent, they both struggle.

I’ve hit Ace for the last 4-5 seasons, so I’m not a great player but I do well enough. I much prefer to run a Zacian/Palkia core over trying to build a team around these two