Having a hard time countering Giratina

[Greyfeld]

So, I've been thinking about this for a while, and my brain is starting to hurt from the stress, so I present the problem to you.

Here's the deal... Giratina-O is a great all-rounder pokemon, between stats, move pool, and even typing. And of course, it's gotten more popular as of late as a lead to counter TopOgre.

The most common set I see is a mixed set with Shadow Force, Shadow Sneak, Draco Meteor, and Protect. Of course, this means that the best counters are Steel-type pokemon given their resistance to both Ghost and Dragon type moves. A decent secondary choice would be a Dark-type poke, due to resistance to ghost type moves.

But of course, this is doubles, and the most common lead alongside Giratina is Infernape, who runs Close Combat the wide majority of the time, and essentially 1-shots anything that could otherwise wall Giratina, allowing it to wreak havoc with its mixed set.

The only thing I can think of is putting the damn thing to sleep, then taking out 'nape to nullify the secondary threat. But aside from that, I'm friggin stumped.

 

[Human]

You can use a pokemon that outspeeds Giratina or hope for a speed tie, an opposing Giratina can also have the advantage with smart switches and smart usage of Shadow Force.

 

[Oberon]

Counter Giratina with Giratina. Or Hitmontop with Sucker Punch (or anything with that). Because of G-O's drop in Defenses with the O forme, it will generally faint in two hits.

Another counter is Draco Meteor Palkia (or the Spacial Rend variant). Blizzard from Aboma works well too. The only thing that I can think of that really will OHKO it is a Draco Meteor or Spacial Rend from Palkia if you're worried about immediate countering.

 

[Dimsun]

Or you could burn it. For example, if you want to be creative, will-o-wisp mewtwo counters well. However, it would have to be run in the back due to fake out leads. *remembers Greysong's Heat Wave burnhax on Giratina*

 

[Human]

Yeah, but you might just be stuck failing if the RNG and the speed ties don't work well for you when you use Palkia.

 

[TTS]

Palkia is base 100, Giratina is base 90. There is no speed tie, Human.

 

[Human]

Really!? I thought it was base 100 with Palkia. I feel stupid now!

 

[mattj]

In all my testing Gira O has been nothing but dead weight. I tried it round 1 at Nats and got 4-0'd by imawario (x_x) I quickly switched out to Jolly Scarf Ho-oh and had no more problems.

Basically, he's too slow, and not really powerful enough. He ties or is beaten by most uubers, several of which can 1HKO him (both Timid Palk with SRend and Timid Dialga with DMeteor "can" 1HKO Gira O before it gets to even Shadow Force).

Also, Weavile knocks the crap out of it with Nightslash.

Basically. Anything that is faster than it (or even ties for crying out loud) should really do the trick for you.

 

[Oberon]

Really!? I thought it was base 100 with Palkia. I feel stupid now!

That's what he just said. Palkia: 100. Giratina: 90

Forgive me if I'm not reading you right

 

[Human]

Yeah, he is right, I am repeating it because I did not know that, I said that I thought both of them were Base 100 Speed. That's why I said "I feel stupid now!"

 

[Oberon]

Ah lol fair enough.

A good counter to G-O btw can also be Kanghaskan w/ Scrappy + Fake Out. It will at least buy you a turn to use SF and KO it in one shot if you are using G-O as well. Or Draco Meteor.

 

[Dimsun]

In all my testing Gira O has been nothing but dead weight. I tried it round 1 at Nats and got 4-0'd by imawario (x_x) I quickly switched out to Jolly Scarf Ho-oh and had no more problems.

Basically, he's too slow, and not really powerful enough. He ties or is beaten by most uubers, several of which can 1HKO him (both Timid Palk with SRend and Timid Dialga with DMeteor "can" 1HKO Gira O before it gets to even Shadow Force).

Also, Weavile knocks the crap out of it with Nightslash.

Basically. Anything that is faster than it (or even ties for crying out loud) should really do the trick for you.

I really don't know what your talking about. It works incredibly with the right support; a Fake Out lead and it buy it time to start the chain of Shadow Forces. Thats part of the reason why Hitmontop works so great with it; it can provide FO support, and Mach Punch can rack up some damage so shadow force can finish them next turn. It just depends on the lead how you deal with it; without an FO'er, its probably much easier to deal with.

 

[Gymdude]

I was actually having trouble with it lately too. I don't about a really solid counter, but I use Dialga @ Chople Berry/Choice Specs with max speed and it handles the problem pretty nicely.

 

[Shinryu]

Giratina at max ties within your Dialgas, Kyogres, and Groudons with speed, so it's not terribly hard to outspeed. Ghost/Dragon is a decent type, but consider:

-It's still weak to Blizzard spam, which is a prevalent strategy
-Ironically weak to both of its own types (Dragon and Ghost), and many Dragon attacks are about
-Gets hit hard by Sucker Punch
-Shadow Force can be gotten around by switching in a Normal type or something similarly resistant to it; Ghost typing itself is only SE on relatively few things
-If they're running mixed, Draco Meteor is likely weakened and thus even unlikely to OHKO your own dragons without more serious EV investments on their part

 

[Blades]

I think the best way to run giratina is not as an offensive sweeper, but rather as a an Altered form tank. Altered form can take a spec'd draco meteor from Palks so that is saying something. Also, immunity to explosion and fake out helps a lot.

 

[Human]

Altered form can not take a Spec'd Draco Meteor from Palkia unless you have a 252 HP 252 SpD spread with a +SpD nature like Careful. A regular Giratina doesn't survive a Specs Draco Meteor from Palkia even with max HP. Even a normal Giratina with a +SpD nature and a 252 HP 252 SpD nature would get not OHKO'ed by Specs Draco Meteor less than 10% of the time.