I knew the day would come.
Also, I love to prove sites wrong when they say some raid bosses are impossible as a solos (Nothing against them though). The conditions for this one were EXTREME. Only one possible counter which needed weather boost, Shadow boost and to be an XL Pokemon.
Good god. I’m guessing the Shuckle also needs to have the all-Rock set, correct? So there’s no chipping away at the Metagross with Bug weakness.
I would have thought Shadow XL Machamps could do it, but this is definitely more impressive just being one angry steely boi.
I don’t think the set mattered that much. Since Shuckle’s base attack is a whooping 17 (lol), the energy generation in this raid it’s almost non-existent. Also, super-effective moves are mandatory in order to have a chance against it.
Fighting is partly resisted by shuckle due to bug typing (shadow Machamp is not even among the top 20 due to this). And steel attacks of course lack Stab on Machamp.
Stone edge is more difficult than the other attacks, but still ok (pokebattler says 4 dead shadow metagross)
I only have three normal (lvl 40) shadow MM Metagross :(
Checking Pokebattler, Shadow XL Metagross has a time to win on snowy weather of 169.8. After that, every other counter has a TTW over 200 seconds.
How long did it take to prepare with all the XL candy? And did you get most XL candy from walking?
Months, so many months. I saved a lot of Beldums and traded them from day to day when there was a bonus which gave you a guaranteed 1 XL candy from trading (It was in January I think).
As ever I’m impressed.
That’s one I could do, though, if only it would snow in-game here.
Congratulations! who said PVE was dead?!
Next chanllenge is doing a solo metagross raid using a team of shuckles.
Are perfect or near-perfect IVs also required?
Nice! Today I tried a mock solo (shadow lv.50 Metagross with an idle Best Friend in raid) because there’s no way we get Snowy weather, and it’s been very tight (that’s what she said?)
guaranteed XL candy from trading is a seasonal bonus (December, January, February)
I’m not sure about that, but I wouldn’t spend 360 Beldum XLs on a mediocre-IV shadow Metagross. I would stop it at 40, as XLs are still premium resources. Maybe with not-so-perfect IVs you’ll miss a breakpoint though, I have no idea tbh.
(no idea why there’s this red highlighting here, sorry)
Actually I’d say Rock is the least consistent set because your Metagross takes less damage, therefore it charges its Mashes a tiny bit slower. Shuckle won’t KO your Metagross even in a 300s raid so there’s no need to resist its moves. Taking damage gives energy in PvE so in a tight fight like T3 Shuckle, it might help. Of course Shuckle has such a low Atk stat it won’t matter either way 
Not sure. At least 15 attack should be enough. Shuckle won’t kill you unless you have 0 HP/0 def and he sports struggle bug. But it must be XL and Shadow (With Snowy weather) in order to make that solo.
“guaranteed XL candy from trading is a seasonal bonus (December, January, February)” A: That one helped me with the XL candies I needed.
“Are perfect or near-perfect IVs also required?” A: 15 attack at least. The rest of the stats doesn’t matter at all.
“Actually I’d say Rock is the least consistent set because your Metagross takes less damage, therefore it charges its Mashes a tiny bit slower. Shuckle won’t KO your Metagross even in a 300s raid so there’s no need to resist its moves. Taking damage gives energy in PvE so in a tight fight like T3 Shuckle, it might help. Of course Shuckle has such a low Atk stat it won’t matter either way ” A: I thought Rampardos on Partly Cloudy weather could make it but it’s 10 or 15 seconds short despite being an XL poke. I’ve tried it with it and that’s what happened.
Famous last words
Fun fact: I played around with the DPS chart, and there are 2 more (but yet unreleased) Pokemon that can potentially do it: Primal Kyogre with Origin Pulse (50 with rain) and Ash-Greninja with Hydro Cannon (rain, can even do it at 40).
Honorable mention: Mega Diancie (50, partly cloudy) barely misses the needed DPS to pull it off.
The current stats of Origin Pulse is untrustworthy, like the old Psystrike stats before the move was really released.
But its stats are are absolutely great atm though? 
You can notice that it combines Hydro Pump’s base power and energy cost with Surf’s cooldown and damage window, very unrealistic. If Origin Pulse ends up being 1-bar, I’m sure it would have much longer cooldown, like Aeroblast. Precipice Blades being a direct copy makes the stats more impossible.
By the way, OP/PB’s current stats is equivalent to Rock Wrecker’s performance, absolutely not great.
First off, this is kinda false because Rock Wrecker is actually a very good move, 110/50 with 3.6s duration gives it a 67.22 DPSxDPE, putting it on par with Shadow Ball, and almost as good as Psystrike (70.73 DPSxDPE).
Second, current-OP/PB are incredibly strong moves. 130/100 might not look too awesome, but 1.7s duration is absurdly good. Sporting a 99.41 DPSxDPE they are, as of now, the second-best charge move of the entire game (second only to Flying Press, 110/50 with 2.3s duration = 105.22 DPSxDPE). Duration time 1.7s means it’s much less likely you’re gonna KO while performing a move, which will land most of the times. Also being 100 energy is not that much of a problem because Groudon and Kyogre are definitely chonky bois (and Groudon has awesome energy gain). current-OP Primal Kyogre would have higher DPS than Shadow Metagross, against Shuckle, in neutral weather
(Source for DPSxDPE metrics: PokeGenie, source for sims: Gamepress’ comprehensive spreadheet)
I can agree with that, it’s unlikely that they’ll stay as they are atm, but being 100 energy automatically means they won’t be game-breaking. Very strong, but not broken. I’m definitely more scared of Aura Sphere Mewtwo (90/50 with 1.8s duration = 90.00 DPSxDPE, an extremely busted move). When the time hopefully will come, I believe that will make Mewtwo the absolute best gym attacker.
(“You may say I’m a dreamer”)
As I said in another thread, the metric DPSĂ—DPE severely overestimates the performance of 1-bar moves. You can try Hydro Cannon on Primal Kyogre to see how far Origin Pulse lags behind, despite having a higher DPSĂ—DPE. In actual play, the current Origin Pulse just lies between Rock Wrecker and Shadow Ball.
About Rock Wrecker, it’s definitely a good move, but in my view not reaching the “great” threshold (DPS×DPE being 70 for multi-bar moves). The range of great move is from Psystrike to Hydro Cannon.
