Is Shadow Dialga good in Pokémon GO?

The current Shadow Pokémon you can save from Team GO Rocket boss Giovanni is now Shadow Dialga. We've had a range of Shadow Pokémon avaliable from Giovanni over the years. However, some of these have been better than others. As a result, Trainers sometimes choose to save their Super Rocket Radar and not battle Giovanni until a better Shadow Pokémon is avaliable. This time, you thanks to the GO Rocket Takeover event having a separate research, Trainers can easily save their Radar if they wish.

So, is Shadow Dialga any good in Pokémon GO and should you use your Super Rocket Radar or wait?

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Overall, Shadow Dialga is a solid Pokémon to have in your Pokémon GO collection. It has a lot of use as Raid Attacker in two different categories. Then in addition to that it has some use in Master League PvP. That makes it a flexible choice, and this helps make the higher Stardust and Candy cost to power it up worthwhile.

However, we do have Origin Forme Dialga in the game and that is also a strong choice. That said, the amount we have seen both versions of Dialga in Pokémon GO over the last year or so means that Trainers are at least more likely to have the candy and candy XL they need to power up Shadow Dialga. Not having to use the super premium Rare Candy and Rare Candy XL is always a plus.

So, here is how Shadow Dialga stacks up in each category in Pokémon GO.

As a Raid ATtacker, Shadow Dialga performs really well in both the Steel and Dragon-type category. Shadow Dialga is the third best Steel-type attacker and the eighth best Dragon-type attacker in the game. This does make it better than Origin Forme Dialga and Rayquaza. As a Steel-type, it outranks Metagross, Mega Aggron and other strong Pokémon too.

Having strong Shadow Pokémon is great because they bring a lot of power without being limited. The best Pokémon in the game are mostly Mega Evolutions, but they are capped to one per team. However, we do have a lot of strong Dragon-types, including Shadow Palkia and Black and White Kyurem. This Pokémon is probably better seen as a Steel-type attacker primarily.

That said, like all Shadow Pokémon, Shadow Dialga is very expensive to power up. You need a lot more Dialga candy and Dialga candy XL in order to reach Level 50, as well as a hugely increased amount of Stardust. There are obviously lots of other good Dragon-type Pokémon that aren't shadows. So, unless you are attempting to solo Raids, a 'weaker' Dragon-type will be cheaper to power up and still be effective in Raids.

In the Master League, Dialga has always been a good option thanks to the HUGE amount of resistances that it has. It currently sits #50 in the Master League, which makes it a viable option. Rankings do change over time.

However, it does rank significantly below the standard form of Dialga and the Origin Forme too. Normal Dialga is #37 and Origin Forme Dialga ranks #17. That means that while this is a solid PvP chouce, you are actually better off using one of the other Dialga forms instead.

Shadow Dialga isn't that useful in the Great League or Ultra League.

Overall, Shadow Dialga is a decent investment in Pokémon GO especially if you have resources to share. It is a great, but expensive, option for Raids. In addition, to be honest, it is just a super cool Legendary Pokémon to have in your collection as well. Dragon-types will always be useful in Pokémon GO, with so many Legendary Raids featuring Dragon-type Pokémon. Dialga is one of the very few Pokémon with Dragon-type moves not weak to Dragon-type attacks, which makes it very useful here.

So, good luck battling Giovanni and getting a good IV Shadow Dialga in Pokémon GO! Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest esports news and more Pokémon GO guides.