Dynamax Shuckle

Look at that Defense stat. Look at it! This thing has the absolute highest defense in the game outside of Eternamax Eternatus, which is basically guaranteed to never actually exist in Pokemon Go in ANY playable manner outside of maybe an animation. This titanic Defense stat makes Shuckle a bit of a pain to raid against, as its effective bulk is a league higher than its raid tier, but then there's a bit of a problem.... Shuckle has the same HP stat as Magikarp.

Because of its abysmal HP stat, Shuckle's Dynamax performance is substantially lower than you might think. Not only does it drop Shuckle's actual bulk to "fairly average", it also makes its team healing from Max Spirit downright pathetic. Add to that the fact that its Fast Move options are both pretty slow, and Dynamax Shuckle isn't going to be topping any charts any time soon. It's an okay defender, but nothing extremely special. Additionally, Shuckle's Bug/Rock typing is rather abysmal defensively since it was so few resistances.

Due to its unmatched Defense stat, Shuckle's entire gimmick is having an unrivaled Max Guard. After a few Max phases of clicking Max Guard and absorbing heavy damage, Shuckle theoretically becomes the tankiest Pokemon in the game, surpassing even Blissey and Zamazenta. However, this isn't as awesome in practice, as Shuckle lacks a 0.5s Fast Attack to quickly charge up the Max Meter.

In order to use Shuckle well, be prepared to switch around frequently.

1) Have another Pokemon in your team charge up the Max Meter with a 0.5s Fast Attack

2) Switch to Shuckle during the Max Phase to set up Max Guard

3) Switch back to another Pokemon to charge up the Max Meter again

4) Switch back to Shuckle to absorb the boss's Attack and switch back out again. Rinse and repeat.

But how about an offensive Shuckle....? With 17 Attack, Shuckle's Max Moves may end up dealing less damage than some Fast Moves....

Best Dynamax Movesets

• Rock Throw is Shuckle's best Fast Move option, as it generates energy faster than Struggle Bug. Literally nothing else matters.
• Where is Shuckle's offensive moveset review? In the same ditch that your raid team will leave you in if you try to seriously utilize Shuckle for damage output outside of some sort of meme challenge.

In terms of PvP performance, Dynamax Pokemon are nearly identical to their non-Dynamax counterparts.