Shadow Lapras

Even with the Shadow Boost, Lapras has not regained the glory that it once had at the start of Pokemon Go. As both an Ice Attacker and a Water Attacker, the added cost of its investment is not worth the performance that Shadow Lapras will give back.

Best PvE Offensive Moveset

• Frost Breath and Ice Shard* are both great go-to Ice-type options for offense.

• Water Gun should be paired with Sparkling Aria, but is undesired, as Lapras’s niche is in its STAB Ice-type moves.

• Blizzard is on par with Ice Beam* on paper, but Ice Beam will pull ahead more often than not due to its higher average performance. Still, it's probably best to not drop an Elite TM on Lapras.

• Hydro Pump performs similarly to Surf, akin to the above Ice-type charge moves.

• Dragon Pulse*, Psywave, and Skull Bash are clearly the worst options due to lack of STAB and meaningful coverage.
• Surf and Hydro Pump fall behind.

Best PvE Defensive Moveset

• If you've got Elite Moves on Lapras, then go for Ice Shard* and Sparkling Aria or Dragon Pulse
• If you're not packing Elite Moves, then Frost Breath is your go-to Fast Move, while Water Gun is... okay.
• Ice Beam* seems like it should be a great choice, but pairing it with Lapras' best Fast Move options leaves it easily walled out, and Water Gun isn't great. Surf is a weaker Sparkling Aria.
• Blizzard, Hydro Pump, and Skull Bash all take too much energy to be useful, as Lapras will probably go down before using them.
• Psywave is too weak on defense to be useful.

Psywave offers the most energy generation out of Lapras's moves while outputting decent damage overall. It outclasses Ice Shard*, Water Gun, and Frost Breath by a good margin despite lacking STAB.

Sparkling Aria is Lapras's bread and butter STAB Charged Attack, dealing 5 more damage than Surf for the same energy cost. Ice Beam threatens Grass-, Dragon-, and Flying-type Pokemon and benefits from STAB. Skull Bash, on the other hand, is handy for opposing Water-type Pokemon that would otherwise resist its STAB combo; it is an expensive move, but Lapras's bulk makes it reasonably attainable. Blizzard is generally too expensive, but it does have greater DPE than Ice Beam and can surprise opponents. Hydro Pump is too expensive and isn't worth running when Sparkling Aria exists.

What about Dragon Pulse?

Dragon Pulse was made a legacy move starting February 21, 2017, and now available through Elite TMs. Demanding 60 energy to use, it's slightly slower than Ice Beam, but does offer the perk of neutral damage against opponents that would resist Water or Ice-type attacks (AKA other Water-types). It's also handy in the Lapras mirror match, and easier to get to than Skull Bash, but does not offer a DEF self-buff.