User blog:Fedora Lord Para 348/Mewtwo VS Shadow - Explanation Time

'''DISCLAIMER: This conclusion and the battle itself came out one day before the Death Battle came out for sponsors, and three days before the battle went public. There is a good chance that this battle and conclusion contradicts Death Battle's research. Any similarities or contradictions between Death Battle's conclusion and this blog are purely coincidental. Spoilers ahead.'''

Alright, first off, that finisher was so cool! Or at least, I think it was. Tell me what you guys thought of the battle in the comments, on the battle. Not on this blog.

Second, I've got a lot of explaining to do.

First things first. I am a firm believer in the idea that Shadow is faster than light in his base form. It is made clear many, many times that Shadow is equal to Sonic in running speed, and even though that whole Wisp feat got debunked apparently, Sonic has other speed-of-light feats throughout his media, most notably the Light Speed Dash, which generally requires rings but hey that's probably gameplay mechanics.

So right off the bat, Shadow is instantly much faster than Mewtwo. Yes, Mewtwo is in the Hypersonic to Massively Hypersonic range, but that's just not nearly enough to keep up with someone who can move at the speed of light and faster.

But, Mewtwo has a pretty big counter to speed - telekinesis. With his psychic barriers as well as his ability to move objects with his mind, it's difficult for a physical attacker like Shadow to get up close. If Shadow can outspace his telekinesis? Mewtwo has a form of precognition. Sure, Mewtwo can't exactly move at the same speed that Shadow can, but if you can anticipate your opponents' moves before they actually land them, you don't actually need to outspeed or even move at that same speed. You only need to be able to react before your opponent does, and if you can predict said opponent, you can do that.

Now, while Shadow is FTL in base via scaling to Sonic, that also means that he is City level in base, via again, scaling to Sonic. This scales to his strength, durability, attack potency, and destructive capability. How about Mewtwo? Well, Mewtwo kinda did move countless nimbus and cumulonimbus clouds all over the world, which should be around Island level. Yeah... Island > City. "But Shadow's faster!" Mewtwo has telekinesis and precognition, remember? When one good hit from Mewtwo would be enough to one-shot Shadow, speed just isn't enough to win.

So Base Mewtwo > Base Shadow. Now, the issue of Super Forms. This is where things get a bit more tricky. Now, Shadow would obviously see that he is losing - of course, he generally doesn't use his Super Form unless he's fighting an apocalyptic threat. Y'know, like the Biolizard, Dark Oak, Solaris, etc.. So before he goes Super, Shadow's first response would be to remove the Inhibitor Rings. Which would be a terrible move against Mewtwo. Not only does it not really increase Shadow's overall destructive capability to a level capable of standing up to Mewtwo, but it also drains his power super quickly. And you know what ability base Mewtwo has?

Pressure.

In the games, Pressure is an ability which drains 2 PP for each one used. Basically, it forces opponents to use up much more energy than they would normally. And against someone who is already running on their last reserves of energy... well, that's just not going to be too good, is it?

Coupled with moves like Disable to make moves like Shadow's Chaos Spear and Chaos Lance disappear from the battlefield for some time, Shadow's got much of his work cut out for him.

However, there is one big advantage Shadow has in this fight - resistance to mind hax. While Shadow is certainly not immune to mind hax - obviously he wouldn't be or else his whole "amnesia" story arc just wouldn't exist - but he could at least resist the worst of Mewtwo's mind-control abilities. It would prevent a non-lethal KO that Mewtwo could logically acquire against, say, Sonic or Knuckles.

That's not enough though. Of the two, Mewtwo is the one most likely to go into his super form first, as he is the more pragmatic of the two and as stated before, Shadow holds back on using up his full power, generally preferring to take out his opponents without powering up too much. Now, I included two Mewtwo forms in this fight - Shadow Mewtwo and Mega Mewtwo Y. Why those ones? Because Shadow Mewtwo was a core character in Pokken and is logically a transformation Mewtwo could tap into, and Mega Mewtwo Y is simply iconic to Mewtwo these days. It's basically his canon super form. Mega Mewtwo X could have been in this too, but Mewtwo generally goes Mega Y when given the chance.

Shadow Mewtwo, now. He's incredibly powerful, being able to fly all the way to space within the course of less than a second, and within the next second create a planet-busting burst of energy. That is absolutely insane. Base Shadow would not stand a chance against Shadow Mewtwo, and with the threat of a planet buster, Shadow would have no choice but to go Super.

Now this is where things get interesting.

Despite Shadow Mewtwo being faster and stronger than base Mewtwo (by quite a bit; he's Sub-Relativistic and Planet-level now), one thing is sacrificed - his durability. Obviously we don't know how much of it is lost, so we'll just say it's Small Island level. Still above City, but still. That's below Planet, which Super Shadow is. While Shadow Mewtwo could hold off Super Shadow using telekinesis and precognition, it's more likely that Super Shadow would land at least one hit - and that one hit is going to one-shot Shadow Mewtwo.

You could argue that Mewtwo could use Power Swap and Guard Swap... but here's the thing. Base Mewtwo already has more power and defense than base Shadow, so that would be really detrimental to him. Shadow Mewtwo has advantages over Base Shadow in that regard too. But Super Shadow is simply too fast and too powerful for base Mewtwo and Shadow Mewtwo, and as such would most likely one-shot both before either one got the chance.

So yes, Shadow Mewtwo beats base Shadow. However, Super Shadow beats Shadow Mewtwo.

Of course, this brings up Mewtwo's last super form - Mega Mewtwo Y.

Mega Mewtwo Y is lacking in speed feats, so I'm just going to say that he's nowhere below Hypersonic, but nowhere above Sub-Relativistic (really large speed range, I know.). But his destructive capability, attack potency, strength, and durability increase a ton - Large Planet to Dwarf Star level. Super Shadow is Planet, yes. But Small Planet. Large Planet is Super Shadow's high-end, and if we're using Shadow's high end, we might as well use Mewtwo's as well, which is Dwarf Star.

Now, you could argue that Super Shadow could take out Mega Mewtwo Y using chip damage - after all, Super Shadow is invincible, right?

...Well... there's kind of a problem with that. Super Shadow would certainly be immune to attacks like Disable and Guard Swap, so it's more likely to be akin to the move Protect, meaning that those attacks just wouldn't work. But if you argue that Protect can save you from anything, then Arceus' Judgment wouldn't work on a Pidgey that knew the move. So honestly, Mewtwo's stronger attacks would probably harm Shadow, even if he was able to soften the blow, so to say. Mewtwo could also keep Shadow at bay using telekinesis, and by wearing out Super Shadow's time limit. And by the time Super Shadow is no longer Super... well...

That's just the thing. Super Shadow is on a time limit. And while his speed eclipses Mega Mewtwo Y's by a ton, his durability and destructive capability just aren't enough. With Mewtwo's precognition, as well as his telekinesis, on top of Super Shadow's time limit, it's just not going to work. It's overkill if Mewtwo uses Psych Up. Contrary to popular belief, Psych Up doesn't increase your stats TO the same ones of your opponent. It increase the user's stats BY the same multipliers as the opponent's. Now, it's stated that Super Shadow increases Shadow's stats by 1,000 times. However, the jump from City to Planet is much, much greater than that.

To get the absolute minimum required result, the highest AP a City leveler can have without delving into Large City or Mountain would be 4.184x10^17 joules. The lowest AP a Small Planet buster can have before going into Moon would be 2.487x10^32 joules. So, how much do you have to multiply 4.184x10^17 to get 2.487x10^32? Well... how about 594,407,265,774,378.6? Assuming Mewtwo is the low-end of his calculation (Large Planet level), let's multiply that by the number we got from the Super Shadow calculation.

The low-end of Large Planet or Multi-Planet is 1.13x10^34 joules. Multiplying that by the number we got, we get... around 6.71x10^49. What level is that you ask?

...

Fucking. Solar System.

That's right, if Mega Mewtwo Y were to use Psych Up on Super Shadow and acquire the same boosts that Shadow got, he would be fucking Solar System level. Solar System level! Shadow is so screwed against that it's not even funny. His superior speed isn't saving him there what-so-fucking-ever. His attacks won't do anything, and one hit would obliterate Super Shadow. Base Shadow? Please...

In the end, Shadow's got some cool things going for him. Teleportation, spacial manipulation, Chaos powers, speed, etc. but Mewtwo has counters for just about everything. The two can both heal each other, but Mewtwo's Pressure will make sure that Shadow's Chaos reserves run dry fairly quickly. Mewtwo's telekinesis and precognition counter Shadow's speed, and his mind-hax would at least weaken Shadow. The ridiculous stat boosts from Mewtwo's Psych Up would allow him to get an upper hand fairly quickly, and with Super Shadow's time limit, he's only delaying the inevitable.

Now, one of Shadow's biggest advantages is that he's fought and won against Silver the Hedgehog, a very similar opponent to Mewtwo. But here's the thing - Silver didn't go Super, and Mewtwo will go Mega. Base Mewtwo's destructive capability and durability far outclasses base Silver's. Not to mention, Silver was so filled with rage that he wasn't thinking clearly, and paid the price as a result.

While ScrewAttack (and really any of you guys) is free to disagree with me, this is my verdict.

The winner is Mewtwo.

Mewtwo

 * +Base Mewtwo > Base Shadow in durability and destructive capability
 * +Telekinesis counters one of Shadow's biggest advantages
 * +Mind hax could seriously mess with Shadow
 * +Pressure makes Shadow's energy run out much faster
 * +Generally the smarter and more pragmatic of the two
 * +Precognition makes him hard to fool
 * ++Shadow Mewtwo and Mega Mewtwo Y stomp base Shadow to oblivion
 * +Psych Up is a force to be reckoned with against Super Shadow
 * +Bigger variety of non-offensive techniques
 * +Teleportation lets him get around his speed issues
 * +Mega Mewtwo Y is not on a time limit
 * +Understands that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are (+1,000)
 * =Both can regenerate from wounds
 * -Slower than all forms of Shadow
 * -Super Shadow > Base Mewtwo and Shadow Mewtwo
 * -Guard Swap and Power Swap aren't likely to come into play
 * -Shadow Mewtwo sacrifices durability
 * -Mind hax wouldn't be as effective against Shadow
 * -Might struggle against some of Shadow's Chaos Force powers, such as time and space manipulation
 * -Is not a master of edginess and dankness, and probably has never even listened to Linkin Park once (-1,000)

Shadow

 * +Faster than all forms of Mewtwo
 * +Wider variety of offensive techniques
 * ++Super Shadow > Base Mewtwo and Shadow Mewtwo in durability and destructive capability
 * +Resistant to Mewtwo's mind hax
 * +Has fought against Silver the Hedgehog, a very similar opponent
 * +Teleportation lets him escape from Mewtwo's telekinesis if he needs to
 * +Space and time manipulation could seriously mess with Mewtwo
 * +Is a master of edginess and dankness and has listened to Linkin Park's "Numb" about 10,000,000 times on repeat (+1,000)
 * =Both can regenerate from wounds
 * -Base Mewtwo and Shadow Mewtwo > Base Shadow
 * -Mewtwo's Pressure drains his connection to the Chaos Force
 * -Generally not as smart or pragmatic
 * -Mewtwo's telekinesis and precognition make it difficult for his speed advantage to play a huge factor
 * -Super Shadow is on a time limit
 * -Inhibitor Rings won't change a damn thing
 * -While resistant to Mewtwo's mind hax, isn't at all immune to it
 * -If Mewtwo used Psych Up on Super Shadow, then Shadow would be obliterated, no questions asked
 * -Does not understand that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; probably thinks that life has nothing to do with what you do with it (-1,000)