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With Malamar being a fairly new addition to Pokemon GO, many players may be unaware of the best course of action to deal with it. Being added back in September, many players find themselves coming face to face with Malamar in the Battle League, as players have had more time to use it and find a niche that it could nicely fit.
Debuting in Pokemon X and Y for the Nintendo 3DS, Malamar and its pre-evolved form, Inkay, have the unique property of being a Psychic and Dark-type Pokemon. This typing is only shared with the mythical Pokemon, Hoopa, who was introduced later in the generation.
With Malamar's newfound relevance since its debut, players will need to know the best way to deal with the threat that it can provide players in Pokemon GO's Battle League.
Malamar in Pokemon GO: From Calamity to Calamari
While the unique typing of Psychic and Dark can appear menacing at first, it is actually one of Malamar's biggest weaknesses. While both types are great defensively on their own, doubling up only weakens both of them. Psychic no longer resists Fighting, as Dark is weak to it, while Dark no longer resists Ghost, as Psychic is weak to it.
To add on to this, Ghost and Fighting are fairly common attacking types. Bug-type attacks also do major damage to Malamar as both Psychic and Dark are weak to it.
Malamar's next weakness is its stats. Malamar's stats are built as a pseudo-tank with Stamina being its highest stat and its defense being a respectable 165 in Pokemon GO.
However, Malamar lacks the typing that would make this effective, as it only resists other Psychic-type attacks, while also being weak to Fairy-type attacks. The latter is arguably the most common attacking type, depending on the tier of the Battle League it is in.
Malamar's terrible typing and weak defenses leaves it wide open to Bug-type Pokemon. Even Bug-type Pokemon that are considered weak by the community (like Beedrill or Parasect) are more than capable of taking this Pokemon on in Pokemon GO. While Pokemon like Mega Scizor or Genesect would be considered overkill, these Pokemon are undisputably some of the best Pokemon to use to counter Malamar.
In terms of things to watch out for when challenging a Malamar in Pokemon GO, there are not many. When Foul Play is the best offensive charged attack a Pokemon can use, you know you have a problem. A set that is meant to tank damage and spam Hyper Beams can be scary if the player looks away from their screen long enough for Malamar to charge one up.
To summarize, Malamar is not a scary Pokemon in Pokemon GO unless the player is caught off-guard with one. Malamar is a Pokemon much better in the main series thanks to the addition of abilities; however, without this boost in Pokemon GO, Malamar is doomed to be in the catagory of "cool design but weak in battle" along with Pokemon like Zangoose and Shedinja.
