With each new generation, the starter Pokemon of the previous gen tend to be sidelined, and the same is true for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's new trio of starters who took center stage when the games first released. While the Galar starters, Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble, have data in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, only Scorbunny has been made available so far via a 7-Star Tera Raid Event featuring Cinderace. However, even when the other starters become available through Pokemon Home, it's unlikely their presence will make much of a difference.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet made a lot of changes to the series formula, with the most obvious being the transition to a fully-open world. However, there were also a lot a mechanical changes to Gen 9 that saw many moves cut from previous Pokemon games, as well as reworks for several different abilities. It seems as though the Gen 8 starters were caught up in these changes as they received significant nerfs to both their move pools and abilities in these latest games.
Galar's Starters Took a Hit from Gen 9's Rebalancing
Of the three Gen 8 starters, Cinderace was perhaps the most utilized in the competitive meta of the past generation. Its Hidden Ability Libero gave it solid utility, since it allowed Cinderace to change its type to that of the move it's using before it attacks, guaranteeing STAB damage regardless of the move type. However, Gen 9 changed Libero so that it only activates once per switch-in and not at all if the user has Terastallized, making it far less useful in the competitive scene than before. Given the added conditions for activating Libero, it's unlikely Cinderace will see much use in Gen 9's meta.
Pokemon Sword and Shield's Rillaboom also took quite a hit from the wave of moves cut in Gen 9, losing access to a couple key moves that made it a threat in the Gen 8 meta. While Rillaboom still has Grassy Surge as it Hidden Ability, it no longer gets Grassy Glide to act as a priority move on Grassy Terrain, one desperately needed on a rather slow monster. It also lost access to High Horsepower, which served as a great coverage move for Rillaboom in the previous generation. With its limited move pool, Rillaboom is severely outclassed by other Grass types like Gen 9's own Grass Starter, Meowscarada.
Gen 8's Water starter Inteleon never really had much of a presence in the meta for that generation, and it likely won't in Gen 9 either, given that the cuts to its move pool reduced what little utility it had. The biggest hit it took is the loss of Scald, which gave it a solid STAB move with the chance to Burn the opponent's mon. Without anything to help it stand out, Inteleon won't see any usage when Water types like Dondozo and Tatsugiri are much more viable picks in the current Gen 9 meta.
Fans of the Galar starters will likely be disappointed to see them fade into irrelevancy once they're all made available through Pokemon Home. It's unfortunate that some of the powerhouses of the previous generation's competitive meta were hit so hard by the changes made to moves and abilities in these latest games. At the same time, many older mons who haven't seen competitive usage in some time have been revitalized thanks to the changes made this generation, leaving the door open for the Gen 8 starters to possibly seen a return to their former glory in a future generation.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Nintendo Switch.
