Calyrex-Shadow or Calyrex-Ice for Gen 8 Anything Goes?

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

The other answers are nice, but I wanted to add more context to them, because they’re very much incomplete.

To be honest, this depends on your team a lot. Which one is better from them is a pretty relative thing, and without your team one can give an answer as a whole only. But still, I’ll answer it with the whole metagame in mind.

Calyrex-Shadow is one of the best wallbreakers in Anything Goes, capable of mangling most common defensive Pokémon with ease thanks to its impressive firepower, highly spammable STAB move in Astral Barrage, Speed tier and great ability. With the ability to Dynamax in the equation, ShadowRex has prodigious wallbreaking potential.ShadowRex’s movepool is also pretty vast movepool, thus increasing its versatility. Choice Scarf, arguably its most common set, is one of the best revenge killers in the Anything Goes, and can deal a decent chunk of damage to almost everything which doesn’t resist its STABs. It can also outspeed virtually every boosted threat in the meta, including Geomancy Xerneas, and can easily finish of weakened threats. It can also cripple its most common check - Yveltal - with Trick + Choice Scarf, as without Heavy-Duty Boots its switchins would be heavily limited, so you can take advantage of that pretty easily late-game. Life Orb and Choice Specs are one of the strongest wallbreakers and late-game sweepers in Anything Goes. Life Orb ShadowRex gets the OHKO on maximum invest specially defensive Yveltal, which is pretty rare right now, though. Choice Specs ShadowRex is the strongest unboosted offensive Pokémon in the meta, and is capable of OHKOing fast Zacian-C after Stealth Rock damage. Again, CalySpecs can also Trick the Specs to Yveltal, limiting its switchins a lot. Also, Specs and Scarf can viably run Aromatherapy, as they’ll have ample of opportunities to use it because of the ample number of switches it forces. There’s the SubSeed set, too, which can be a bit awkward for first-time players, as it trades in the immediate power behind other offensive sets for a slower-paced wallbreaking set. Its main goal is to use the combination of Substitute + Leech Seed to force normal checks such as Yveltal to use healing moves, in which case it can either use Taunt to prevent them from recovering and continue chipping them down with Astral Barrage + Nasty Plot, or set up with Nasty Plot to aim for a sweep from behind the Substitute. This set is also one of the best stallbreakers, as it can easily break stall with SubSeed + Taunt.Teambuilding with Calyrex-Shadow isn’t very difficult, too. It can synergise easily with other wallbreakers in the tier, like Marshadow and Zacian-Crowned, both of which can take care of ShadowRex’s common checks (Yveltal, Tyranitar), and the latter in return can overpower the aforementioned Pokémons most common checks (Eternatus and Necrozma-DM respectively). It also doesn’t need much support; the Yen core (Yveltal + Eternatus + Necrozma-DM) grants it a good shield against threats like offensive Yveltal.But still, everything isn’t well with Calyrex-Shadow. Yveltal, arguably the most common Pokémon in the tier, is ShadowRex’s best check and is present on almost all balance builds. Getting past Yveltal isn’t very easy for Calyrex, as non-Life Orb sets usually don’t run Draining Kiss to Dynamax and deal some better damage. The double quadruple weakness against two common types in the meta is an issue, too. Also, it has almost zero bulk, so any super-effective or strong enough move can easily finish it if it fails to get the KO on anything. The issue of imposter-proofing is also pressing, as non-Choice sets running Draining Kiss (without an intact Sash if running one) can risk getting their Yveltal weakened, paving way fortheirShadowRex to sweep in return. Other specially bulky walls, such as Ho-oh, which can check unboosted Calyrex can eat an Astral Barrage, and cripple it with sometime like Thunder Wave.Overall, Calyrex-Shadow is undoubtedly one of the best Pokémon in the metagame. Its amazing qualities outweigh its weakness by far.

Calyrex-Shadow is very versatile. It has a lot of viable sets to choose from, and is a headache for almost every team to face. As I’ve mentioned, all of its sets have different functions and are pretty vast as a whole.Calyrex-Ice, on the other hand, has sadly only two viable sets, and a few niche ones. SubSeed is its most viable set, and Trick Room is another one which is common. Other sets, such as Choice Band and Dual Dance have few glaring weaknesses and aren’t really inclined for the Anything Goes metagame.Because IceRex is a bit limited to a few sets,Calyrex-Shadowis the clear winner here.

I’ve mentioned this point for both Pokémon before, too. SubSeed (both Pokémon) can break their checks with relative ease, and with constant offensive pressure (Life Orb and Dynamax), both of them can blast through their checks. And with the metagame shifting to faster Yveltal sets, which are bit shaky Calyrex-Shadow checks, the latter can get even more chances to setup and sweep.Overall, this is atieas both Pokémon boast the ability to wear down/ beat their own checks.

Calyrex-Ice is a support-demanding Pokémon. It requires a lot of support because of its paltry Speed and defensive typing. Checks to threats such as Marshadow, Calyrex-Ice, Zacian-C and especially bulky Dragon Dance Necrozma-DM are appreciated, and not everything can be checked in a single team, especially if it’s leaning towards offense, like a bulky offense build.Calyrex-Shadow, though, pairs well with a lot of offensive threats in the metagame, including the ones mentioned in the above paragraph, and can pose a serious threat for offensive teams and balanced teams alike. It doesn’t require a lot of defensive support as well, the Yen core is all it wants as a defensive backbone.Overall,Calyrex-Shadowis the winner here as it requires lot less support when compared to IceRex.

A bit based on the support required point, but this is different. What all do you need to take care of while teambuilding with the two Calyrex’s? As I’ve said twice before, the Yen core is all Calyrex-Shadow needs as a defensive core, and a lot of common offensive Pokémon can pair easily with it. Calyrex-Ice would put some pressure while teambuilding and playing, because of some lacking points which I have discussed above. The clear winner over here isCalyrex-Shadow, too.

The big question. As a specially offensive Ghost-type, Calyrex-Shadow has dominance. The only other viable specially offensive Ghost-type is Lunala, which can partner with ShadowRex to form an offensive core, but is outclassed overall by ShadowRex because of the latter’s better Speed and Special Attack stat, and offensively a better ability. As offensive Ghost-types, Marshadow and Calyrex-Shadow are the most viable options available, and actually you can’t compare them. They both perform different roles, and as a whole Calyrex-Shadow is just a tad bit better, because if your Yveltal goes down, you’re in a very difficult situation.Calyrex-Ice also has almost no competition because offensive Ice-types are pretty rare in the metagame. The only other one is Kyurem-White (and sporadically Kyurem-Black) which is very niche. As an offensive Psychic-type, Calyrex-Ice is the leader, but IceRex scarcely uses Psychic-types moves so it would be unfair to judge it on that criteria.In the end, both the Calyrex’s aren’t really outclassed in their own fields, so this is also atie.

Now, we know which Calyrex is better in usual circumstances.Calyrex-Shadowis the clear winner here because of loads of reasons discussed above. Because you haven’t shared your team, I can’t give a very specific answer, but I hope this suffices as I’ve discussed almost every point here. And character limit reached. Hope it helped!

Calyrex-Shadow has more speed so that makes it fast, Calyrex-Ice has more def. and sp.def. so that makes it bulky.

Calyrex-Shadow has two weakness but they are 4x weaknesses so they are absolutely painful. Calyrex-Ice has a lot more weaknesses but they all are 2x weaknesses.

You can get calyrex-shadow if you want to hit fast and strong, but if the foe doesn’t die, you can be lost. If you ask me, I choose Calyrex-Ice, because I can endure hits and then attack to them.

Source: Knowledge

Shadow rider is frail but fast, and ice rider is slow but bulky. However, ice rider needs trick room to do well, and ice isn’t a great typing for a more defensive bulky mon. Shadow rider may be frail but at least it can hit hard without going last or requiring trick room, so in general I’d say shadow rider is better overall, but if you can manage to set up trick room reliably I think ice rider is probably better

Imo Shadow Rider is better than Ice Rider because Shadow Rider is more versatile and Ice Rider needs lots of things in order to be versatile.

Here’s the Pros & Cons about Shadow Rider & Ice Rider:

Shadow Rider Cons:- Low Defense- x4 Weakness

Ice Rider Cons:- So many x2 Weakness- Low Speed

Calyrex-Shadow @ Focus SashAbility: As One (Spectrier)EVs: 252 Def / 128 SpA / 128 Spe- Nasty Plot / Calm Mind- Psychic- Astral Barrage- Pollen Puff / Draining Kiss

Nasty Plot / Calm Mind - Since Shadow Rider is good for a Special Sweeper and if your best defense is offense then use Nasty Plot. Calm Mind can be good if you want some Special Defense.Psychic - STAB.Astral Barrage - STAB & Ghost Type Coverage. It’s a powerful GhostPollen Puff / Draining Kiss - Dark Type Coverage. Pollen Puff is very good for hitting Dark-type Pokémon. Draining Kiss can heal you and can pack a punch since Fairy-type moves are pretty insane.

Calyrex-Ice @ LeftoversAbility: As One (Glastrier)EVs: 128 Atk / 128 Def / 252 Def- Trick Room- Glacial Lance- Psychic- High Horsepower

Trick Room - Since Ice Rider is slow, use Trick Room so it can allow Ice Rider to Attack first.Glacial Lance - STABPsychic - STABHigh Horsepower - Fire-, Ice-, and Rock-type Coverage.

It depends on the teammates. If you have a Trick Room setter IceRex could easily come in, setup some Sword Dances and easily sweep the opposing team but ShadowRex pairs well with believe it or not Slowbro or Slowking! The Slow’s could easily boost up and Baton Pass into ShadowRex for it to sweep but the downside is if Slowbro/king gets killed while boosting or they send out Regieleki to outspeed an KO, and for IceRex if they send in a special attacking Fire-type that live a hit from IceRex then you’re dead.