Pokemon Go Mewtwo Raid Battle--or a Poor Man's Tyranitar

My kids and I got invitations to the EX raid battle against Mewtwo this Saturday. We're very excited. They both have two Tyranitars they're pumping up, the dark weapon of choice against the psychic terror. But what if you're not lucky enough to have caught one in a raid battle? My son takes his killing machine Ryan on walks around the neighborhood while I stay at home and cry. [ insert Bohemian Rhapsody line about being a poor boy from a poor family ] I just have one new Blissey and one decent Lugia who's been my goto bully for raids. The damage being dealt is so fast and furious that I'm expecting to go through three complete sets of Pokemon. Who do I use for the remaining 16 sacrificial lambs?

I've been reading the blogs, and opinions vary. Most list Gengar (known as a glass cannon) if you can keep him around long enough to fire his big attack once. Conventional wisdom also favors the popular battle monsters Blissy and Snorlax. Umbreon, Scizor, and Houndoom are mentioned grudgingly as well. I thought I would do my own math because I have a theory about using an army of disposable Murkrows and maxed-out hyperbeam Furrets with sucker-punch (dark move for double damage). To prove my theory, I made a table of everything in my pokebox. The first conclusion I drew was that no one gets out of this arena alive. It boils down to how much damage you can do and how long you last. Since bringing in a new set of pokemon can take 15 seconds, I factored this dead time in when I computed average damage per second. Your mileage may vary, but the experiment revealed a few surprise heroes.

name	type	seconds survival	damage per sec
Umbreon	dark	10	34
Gengar	ghost	7	30.5
Murkrow	dark	7	28
Tyranitar	dark	14	27
Steelix*	steel	9	27
Lugia	psychic	14	26
Wigglytuff	fairy	14	26
Granbull	faerie	7	26
Houndoom	dark	9	25
Furret	normal	7	25
Slowking	psychic	14	24
Ditto vs shadowball	normal	7	23.5
Lapras	water	7	22
Magneton	steel	7	20
Vaporeon	water	14	19
Dragonite	dragon	7	19
Snorlax	normal	14	18.5
Rhydon	ground	13	18
Girados	water	12	18
Blissy	fairy	21	17
Alakazam future sight	psychic	7	13
Chansey	fairy	21	8.5
Ursarang	normal	6	8
Pinsir	bug	5	7
Scizor	steel	7	6

* Note: Steelix is just an estimate because I've never hatched more than one Onyx. But it's one of the best defensive pokemon when you factor in steel's resistance to psychic. It can also be trained to have a dark fast attack.

Tactic 1: Disposable Rocket Launchers

The pokemon highlighted in yellow are ideal candidates for the first wave. Youfurrets "wild weasel" like the missile. Place these pokemon in with your Umbreons and Gengars in the initial charge to pump up your damage bonus and earn more capture balls.

You want to do as much damage as you can in the opening round with dark attacks. I've renamed all these first wave candidates with the number 1 at the front so I can replace all the computer-selected fodder. Murkrows might not be good for much, but the thousand-CP ones I find every day (and Furrets) can be used and then traded away WITHOUT BEING REVIVED. This also solves the cleanup problem. I'm thinking of renaming my war

Tactic 2: The Dogs of War

In D&D, we often found loopholes to the rules and exploited them mercilessly. When our characters found out that 25GP war dogs were twice as tough as we were at first level, everyone bought two. In our case, there are several pokemon (in orange) who may only last seven seconds but can dole out disproportionate damage due to immunities or special cases. 

• Granbull has a ton of hit points, coupled with a 12 point dark attack which doubles to 24 due
  
  to Mewtwo's weakness. He might not always get in his 100-point close combat move, but by then, you've done almost as much as the Tyranitar standing next to you.
• Ditto would half damage fom psychic like his opponent. He also gets the same attacks. If your Mewtwo has shadowball as its main attack, he just provided the way for you to hit him with his biggest weakness! 
• Lapras was unexpected. I mean, who expects something the size of a house landing on you. Fortunately, he is just over the hit point threshold to survive until he can use his charged attack, and as a dragon, he has some huge attacks.
• Magneton is one of the rare steel types which I believe take half damage from psychic. If your MewTwo uses focus blast, this one is your first line of defense. His electrical attacks pack a punch, and he has enough hit points to deliver one big blast.

Tactic 3: The Anchor

The final person in a relay race is more important than the first because their endurance will win or lose the race. So on the final wave when the raid boss is almost through, the computer starts picking STUPID things for you that won't last two seconds. Take five seconds or ten seconds to change a couple to some of our surprise finishers (in pink). 

• Wigglytuff might not have a big CP value, but he can have 200 hit points. Combined with his dark fast attack (feint) that does 20 every second before his opponent can react, he is a can of whoop-ass waiting to be opened. With a some creative dodging, he can take you into your final stretch when no one else has the heart.

• Slowking gets a bad rap because he acts like a drunken Homer Simpson.
  
  However, as part psychic, he only takes half damage from the devastating confusion and focus blasts. His confusion does the SAME damage as the boss, but his fire attack does MORE. MewTwo only does 60 to the bro, while he dishes out 140. Who cares if he can't find the door? We want him there for the coup de grace.

• Wobuffet is a late entry. When spinning on Victory Memorial Parkway in Minneapolis, we caught ten of them. What good are they if they don't evolve and are only 800 CP? It's psychic with almost 300 HP, which means it can last as long as Blissey or Lugia! It only does an average of 13 points a second, but that could be enough to finish the boss, 

As mentioned before, none of these theories have been tested in battle yet, but lacking a pet dinosaur, a boy has to get creative. Game on!