Is Shadow Bone worth it in Pokemon GO?

Pokemon GO's Season of Alola is coming to an end. With this comes the new Alola to Alola event. This event comes with the opportunity to catch all of Alola's Guardian Deity Pokemon, a set of new Special Research tasks, a story, and most importantly, a chance to evolve a Cubone into Alolan Marowak.

As an added bonus, Cubone that evolve into Alolan Marowak during the event will be given access to the exclusive attack, Shadow Bone. However, with Alolan Marowak being in the game for a while already, many players are wondering if the grind to evolve a Cubone is worth it just for a new move.

Pokemon GO's metagame is relatively stagnant, which makes it difficult for new moves and most Pokemon to be introduced. With many Pokemon having a definitive moveset, the introduction of a new move can be fun to experiment with but may not do the job as well as the standard metagame moveset.

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Is Shadow Bone a good move for Alolan Marowak in Pokemon GO?

Alolan Marowak in the Trading Card Game (Image via The Pokemon Company)

For players inexperienced with Alolan Marowak in Pokemon GO, it is a completely different type from the standard Kantonian Marowak. Alolan Marowak does away with its old, pure Ground typing and exchanges it for a dual typing of Fire and Ghost. This is the same type combination of the ever-present Chandelure.

This leaves Alolan Marowak with a weakness to Ground, Rock, Water, Dark, and other Ghost-type attacks. However, this type combination gives Alolan Marowak way more resistances. Alolan Marowak resists Ice, Poison, Steel, Grass, Fairy, Fighting, Normal, Bug, and other Fire-type attacks.

Many players who choose to use Alolan Marowak in the game's Battle League use Shadow Ball as its charged attack. The average Alolan Marowak Enjoyer may want to try out this new attack. But is this attack truly worth finding a Cubone and evolving it?

Unfortunately, looking at Shadow Ball compared to Shadow Bone, there is nothing the new move has over the tried and true Shadow Ball. When looking at the stats for Shadow Ball compared to Shadow Bone, not only does Shadow Ball deal more damage, but it also consumes less energy than Shadow Bone.

While Shadow Bone is not the best move in Alolan Marowak's arsenal, it is the second-best. When combined with Fire Spin, a fast attack, Alolan Marowak has extensive coverage, which makes it all the better to use in the Battle League. However, Shadow Bone may be a great investment as it could get buffed later.

While it is unfortunate that this limited-time move is nothing special for Alolan Marowak, the implementation of this rare attack is interesting. The instance of evolving a Pokemon into its Alolan variant in Pokemon GO is rare and is always accompanied by a special move. This makes it highly valued by collectors.