What Kills a Shedinja?

Shedinja is one of the strangest Pokémon around. With base stats totaling just 180 – less than Magikarp! – and a sole HP of 1, you‘d think this discarded Bug-type husk would be totally useless in battle. But its signature Wonder Guard ability makes Shedinja a deadly opponent that can sweep unprepared teams with ease. So how exactly do you take down this ghostly menace? In this guide, I‘ll cover everything you need to know about countering this crafty bug.

Shedinja‘s Bizarre Origins and Abilities

Before diving into strategies, let‘s examine what makes Shedinja tick. This ghoulish Pokemon originates from an empty discarded shell shed when Nincada evolves into Ninjask starting at level 20. Specifically, here‘s what the Pokedex says:

"Shedinja‘s hard body doesn‘t move – it doesn‘t even breathe. The shell is all that remains if the Evolution is not perfected." – Sapphire Dex Entry

So essentially, Shedinja is a lifeless hollow husk animated by supernatural forces. Spooky!

Despite being little more than a floating piece of wood, Shedinja boasts a phenomenal signature ability in Wonder Guard. This allows it to only take damage from super effective attacks. All other moves just bounce right off its stiff, lifeless body.

Let‘s take a look at Shedinja‘s base stats compared to the mighty Mewtwo:

Stat	Shedinja	Mewtwo
HP	1	106
Attack	90	110
Defense	45	90
Sp. Atk	30	154
Sp. Def	30	90
Speed	40	130
Total	180	680

As you can see, aside from its solid 90 attack, Shedinja sports paper-thin stats across the board. It‘s a sitting duck…except for Wonder Guard making it untouchable to most attacks!

Crushing Shedinja by Exploiting Weaknesses

Wonder Guard seems broken at first glance, but it does have weaknesses. Here‘s how to crack Shedinja‘s defenses:

Super Effective Attacks

Thanks to its Bug/Ghost typing, Shedinja has 5 types that deal super effective damage:

• Fire – A well-placed Flamethrower or Fire Blast will incinerate Shedinja.
• Flying – Gust, Acrobatics and other Flying moves clip this bug‘s wings.
• Ghost – Shadow Ball or Phantom Force exposes Shedinja‘s own spectral weaknesses.
• Dark – Knock Off, Crunch or Sucker Punch strikes from the shadows.
• Rock – Smack it down with Stone Edge or Power Gem.

Ideally, you want Pokemon carrying these typed attacks to eliminate Shedinja‘s Wonder Guard immunity. Here are some damage calc examples against Shedinja with and without Wonder Guard active:

Move	Pokemon	Damage (Wonder Guard)	Damage (No Wonder Guard)
Flamethrower	Charizard	120 KO	10
Shadow Ball	Gengar	80 KO	8
Acrobatics	Talonflame	118 KO	16
Knock Off	Bisharp	100 KO	12
Stone Edge	Lycanroc	136 KO	17

As you can see, super effective attacks pierce Wonder Guard and KO with ease. Resisted moves barely scratch Shedinja otherwise.

Status Effects

While impervious to damage from most attacks, Shedinja remains vulnerable to status effects like:

• Burn – Deals 6% max HP per turn – quickly fatal for Shedinja.
• Poison – 8% max HP loss per turn. Just 2 ticks brings Shedinja down.
• Toxic Poison – Growing poison damage will KO in 2 turns.
• Leech Seed – Drains 12.5% of Shedinja‘s tiny 1 HP, KOing it.

So carry Toxic, Will-o-Wisp, or Leech Seed users like Roserade to cripple Shedinja. Entry hazards like Spikes and Stealth Rock also chip away at its single HP.

Mold Breaker & Other Abilities

Abilities like Mold Breaker, Turboblaze, and Teravolt allow moves to ignore Wonder Guard completely! For example, here are some Mold Breaker Pokemon that can KO:

Pokemon	Move
Haxorus	Dragon Claw
Hawlucha	Acrobatics
Pangoro	Knock Off
Excadrill	Iron Head

A single critical hit from these attacks connects through Wonder Guard thanks to Mold Breaker. Other abilities like Infiltrator, Gulp Missile, and Scrappy can counter specific Shedinja movesets as well.

Multi-hit Moves

Certain moves that strike multiple times in one turn like Bullet Seed, Rock Blast, and Arm Thrust can wear down Shedinja as the hits stack up. For example:

• 3 Arm Thrust hits from Scrafty deals around 33% damage.
• 5 Rock Blast hits from Lycanroc deals 55%.

Sucker Punch and other priority moves stop this strategy however.

Miscellanous Tactics

Some other creative ways to defeat Shedinja include:

• Confusion damage from hitting itself
• Removing Air Balloon item to allow Ground hits
• Weather like Hail or Sandstorm
• Breaking Focus Sash with status/entry hazards

So while Wonder Guard makes Shedinja untouchable at first glance, experienced trainers have plenty of options to crush it! Now let‘s examine some of Shedinja‘s common movesets and counters.

Analyzing Shedinja Movesets & Items

Shedinja may have cripplingly low HP, but it packs a punch with its base 90 attack. Here are some movesets and items that make it dangerous:

Swords Dance Sweeper

With Swords Dance raising its attack 2 stages, Shedinja can sweep unprepared teams after a single setup:

• Swords Dance
• Shadow Claw
• X-Scissor
• Will-o-Wisp/Protect

This simple moveset turns Shedinja into a lethal physical attacker. Beware!

Special Attack Silencer

This creative moveset utilizes Heal Block to prevent recovery, and Encore to lock opponents into status moves:

• Encore
• Heal Block
• Shadow Ball
• Protect

Encore also blocks switches, allowing Shedinja to disable and whittle down threats.

Focus Sash Tank

The Focus Sash item combined with Protect lets Shedinja absorb an extra hit before going down:

• Protect
• Shadow Sneak
• X-Scissor
• Swords Dance

This allows Shedinja to potentially set up and sweep after surviving an attack.

As you can see, the right moves and items make Shedinja difficult to counter by conventional means. Now let‘s examine some Pokemon that can reliably eliminate it.

Hard Counters That Crush Shedinja

While Shedinja has many niche strategies, experienced battlers know how to smash this floating husk. Here are some foolproof counters:

Talonflame

The fiery bird Talonflame wires through Shedinja with priority Brave Bird. Its Flying STAB attack strikes the perfect balance of power and speed to annihilate Shedinja before it can do anything. Just watch out for Sucker Punch!

Mega Gengar

Mega Gengar traps Shedinja with Block/Mean Look to prevent escape, then devastates it with Shadow Ball or Sludge Bomb. Nullifying Shedinja‘s immunities with Mega Gengar‘s Shadow Tag ability makes countering it a breeze.

Azumarill

Though slow, Azumarill packs priority Aqua Jet to outspeed Shedinja. It also wields super effective Play Rough, plus learns Rock coverage in Power-Up Punch, smashing Shedinja from all angles.

Kartana

This Ultra Beast slices through Shedinja‘s meager defenses with ease thanks to a sky-high 181 attack stat. Its STAB Leaf Blade deals a crushing x4 damage, outspeeding and KO‘ing before Shedinja can react. Watch out for Sucker Punch!

So packing these checks ensures you can shoot Shedinja down before it causes trouble. With the right preparation, even Wonder Guard can‘t save it!

My Personal Experience Using Shedinja

I‘ll wrap up this guide by briefly sharing my own adventures using Shedinja. While difficult to utilize effectively, it has clutched some great wins for my teams!

Back in Pokemon Emerald, I lucked out and caught a Wonder Guard Nincada. Evolving it gave me my first Shedinja – I had no idea this Pokemon even existed! With proper team support providing Wish healing, Toxic Spikes, and Magnet Rise to grant Ground immunity, Shedinja put in work. I‘ll always remember it soloing Drake of the Elite Four by sitting untouchable behind Double Team and Toxic damage.

Years later in X/Y, I bred a Shedinja and crafted a dedicated "Baton Pass Chain" team around it. With Espeon passing Calm Mind boosts, Smeargle handling Dark types with Soak, and Dugtrio blocking Earthquake, Shedinja reliably swept late-game once the stage was set. Its Wonder Guard felt like cheating!

While difficult to use properly, Shedinja remains one of my favorite Pokemon of all time. It represents the very spirit of creativity and surprise that makes Pokemon so fun. Hopefully this guide gave you some ideas on how to master this ghostly bug – or counter it effectively when used against you! Just remember to pack those Mold Breaker Haxorus to smash through its defenses.