Pokemon GO Crown Clash Taken Over's biggest attraction is not the Pokemon you think

Pokemon GO Crown Clash Taken Over is the latest Team GO Rocket-themed event in the game. It will last from midnight local time on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, until 11:59 pm local time on Sunday, May 18, 2025. The biggest attraction of the event is the release of Shadow Dialga in Pokemon GO.

However, if you are a PvP enthusiast — the arena where Shadow Pokemon shine the brightest — Dialga is not even close to the best offering of the Crown Clash Taken Over event. It is Shadow Malamar, which evolves from Shadow Inkay, one of the four critters to debut among Team GO Rocket Grunts this time.

This article covers everything there is to know about Shadow Malamar's prowess in Pokemon GO PvP and why it outclasses Shadow Dialga as the chase-worthy element during Crown Clash Taken Over.

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Shadow Malamar is the creature you should focus on during Pokemon GO Crown Clash Taken Over

Shadow Malamar could take over the Ultra League meta

Crown Clash Taken Over will mark the debut of Shadow Malamar in Pokemon GO. The creature's base form, Shadow Inkay, will be obtainable from either Dark- or Psychic-type Grunts starting midnight local time on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

Battle simulations run on PvPoke suggest that Shadow Malamar is a reasonable sidegrade to its regular form in the Great League. It is the Ultra League where the added damage pushes Shadow Malamar into extreme success.

The most notable improvement is in the 1-1 shield scenario against the Ultra League meta, where the regular version has 19W-22L-1D. Here, the Shadow variant finishes at a whopping 27W-14L-1D. The three notable losses here are Shadow Drapion, Dusknoir, and Primape. However, the meta wins it gets are valuable enough to overlook this loss.

It maintains a 26W-15L-1D tie in the 2-2 shield situation, trading wins against Blastoise, Cobalion, Lapras, Primeape, Steelix, Talonflame, and both Zygarde movesets for losses against Ampharos, Shadow Dragonite, Shadow Feraligatr, Altered Forme Giratina, Greninja, Pangoro, and Typhlosion. The wins it gets are, in most cases, more valuable than the losses.

Shieldless play sees a slight loss for Shadow Malamar as it loses Annihilape, Shadow Drapion, Drifblim, Forretress, Skeledirge, Typhlosion, and Virizion, while gaining Gliscor, Greninja, Pangoro, Registeel, and Steelix.

Posterboy Shadow Dialga falls short — by a lot

Shadow Dialga falls short of expectations. Not because of bad simulation results, but because of how low the chances of finding one with perfect IVs are. With an IV floor of 6/6/6, you'll end up losing many matches that Dialga should ideally win.

Therefore, while theoretically, Shadow Dialga is a very powerful creature, boasting an Attack stat of over 292 when fully maxed out, chances of finding one with usable IVs will be extremely difficult.

If you are lucky enough to land the perfect-IV Shadow Dialga, spend your resources to power it up, as it will give you excellent results in the Master League — provided you can pilot it well. The presence of Origin Forme Dialga, which outclasses the regular version neutrally, also hurts Shadow Dialga's stocks.

However, if you are not fortunate enough but care about your PvP rank, spend the Crown Clash Taken Over event in Pokemon GO, grinding whichever Grunt is giving out Shadow Inkay so you can get a powerful Shadow Malamar for the Ultra League.

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