https://pokemongolive.com/post/giratinareturns2019
In short, we will be dealing with the Altered Form for a few days, but then the Origin Form will take over after April 2nd.
I have to say I’m surprised. I thought we’d either get Regigigas or a returning Legendary, but I didn’t think the returning one would be Giratina LOL
Wonder what the April fools joke/event this year will be. Perhaps shiny giratina
I want the altered form, so I just need to Raid first weekend.
Notice that he changes forms the day after? Maybe that’s the thing since it stops short at the fifth day instead of going for a full week.
Great. I was relieved when Giratina’s turn as raid boss ended last year. And I’m not sure the differences between Altered Forme and Origin Forme are sufficient to avoid finding it tedious before its return even starts.
I hope I can register Giratina this time. I’ve missed way too many Tier 5 Bosses.
He’s around for five weeks total, and you only need to catch one of them to register, although if you want both to show up in your Dex for casual viewing, you do need both of them.
I had expected Giratina’s return no earlier than next Halloween. They still have Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf and Regigigas as new releases… mixing in some returns of other legendaries (including some shinies maybe?), they could have easily stretched this until October, but I’m fine with it. I will definitely be trying to duo the origin form with my husband or my friend who I often raid with on lunch break (he’s Level 37 with not all ideal counters, but we successfully duoed a Rayquaza after a bit of optimizing his team)… I’ve started to enjoy this kind of challenges 
I think it would be cool if you could transform on the Fly
They might be reserving next Halloween for Darkrai. [shrug.]
Anyone wanting to try out the newer Gen 4 Pokemon out against Giratina this time around? Here are the teams I got ready (all are level 40, IVs are in H/A/D order):
Absol: 98% IV (14/15/15)
Weavile: 96% IV (13/15/15)
Mamoswine: 100% IV (15/15/15)
Palkia: 100% IV (15/15/15)
Tyranitar: 96% IV (14/14/15)
Regice: 98% IV (15/15/14)
Alolan Ninetales: 96% IV (14/15/14)
Walrein: 100% IV (15/15/15)
Salamence: 100% IV (15/15/15)
Dragonite 96% IV (15/15/13)
Granbull: 100% IV (15/15/15)
Umbreon: 96% IV (13/15/15)
I doubt I’ll need to use my second-team most of the time, but it’s mainly in the event that the first few days of Giratina don’t get a lot of interest due to it being the form many of us already have.
I might max out a lucky Dialga once it leaves, but nothing too drastic; Ill probably just smack the Dragon Claw variants with Dialga + standard anti-psychics and other variants with the dragon party
I did get a new Rayquaza in here though
So, it seems Giratina-Origin now knows the move Shadow Ball instead of Shadow Sneak. This just got a lot more interesting.
EDIT: It’s already been analyzed on Pokemon GO Hub and YIKES!!
This completely trashes my original plan for Giratina-Origin and Giratina-Altered. I was going to make Giratina-Altered a Ghost-type Tank and Giratina-Origin as a Dragon-type attacker to capitalize on the boosted Attack. Now, this completely changes things. Giratina-Altered now works better as the Dragon-type Attacker and Giratina-Origin is the new Ghost-type TDO god.
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
I will try my best to get a good Giratina since otherwise we arent getting a reliable ghost until Chandelure (not only is Gengar locked behind legacy fast moves, its also really frail and usually requires more than one to maintain proper momentum)
Even worse, Gengar is weak to Psychic, which is really what Ghost-types are for, so it’s extremely unfortunate that Gengar is so weak to what it’s great against.
I don’t have a Giratina at all. Looking forward to a crack at one.
Forgot that one as well
I do have a fantastic shiny I might max out once megas roll out, but until then, I dont think I need it
That’s why I only use 1 Gengar as lead out. It’s just too fragile to have more in your team and as a lead out it can still fire 2 or more Shadow Ball at least.
That sounds like a good Raid Battle tactic. I might give that go.
I’m considering that as well as I do have a 98% Gengar, but I haven’t had the occasion to level it up since I had stronger Dark-types to prioritize. Likely I’ll have Gengar leveled up by the time the Lake Guardians arrive.
Ideally, Giratina-Origin will be leveled up first should I get a great one. I already have a head-start on Giratina Candy thanks to the Halloween Event when Giratina was double-candy catches for a while. I’ll likely have enough to level one up very quickly by the time Giratina leaves.