Although Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's official competitive season has yet to begin, many players are trying out ideas for team compositions in both single battles and double battles in the ranked ladder, even though it's currently plagued by a game-breaking accuracy glitch. This won't carry over in friendly matches or the official competitive battles, however, and it's possible that it will be fixed with the next patch. There are many teams that are currently doing well in Gen 9, and a very interesting one comes from double battles, with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players using Murkrow to easily offer incredible support value to the entire team with Tailwind, Quash, and other moves.
Double battles are rare throughout mainline Pokemon games, and the only double battle worthy of note in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is against Gym Leader Ryme, the Ghost-type trainer in Montenevera. Yet, competitive double battles are often very sought after because of the incredible strategic depth that goes into making team compositions and how combining strengths and weaknesses from various critters can be pulled off. Recently, a new strategy involving Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Flamigo surfaced online, and it uses the Gen 9 flamingo Pokemon with its Hidden Ability, Costar, to boost its stats enough to carry the whole team.
How Flamigo Becomes an OP Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet
Flamigo's looks and its name didn't make it very popular among some Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players, as the Pokemon might look a bit basic due to how similar it is to a regular flamingo, a case that the name only dropping the "n" doesn't really help. However, fans shouldn't write off Flamigo as a bad Pokemon just because of that, and the recent twists and turns of the early Gen 9 ranked season are proving just as much. While Flamigo gains access to an Ability called Scrappy that allows it to hit Ghost-types with Fighting moves, which is actually great to have, its Hidden Ability is much more powerful in the right team.
What Costar does is allow its user to copy an allied Pokemon's stat changes and make them its own, meaning that Flamigo could be used alongside another buffed Pokemon in double battles to become incredibly strong. For example, using Costar Flamigo alongside a Belly Drum user would net the flamingo Pokemon max Attack by doing nothing, which is really valuable. More than that, however, is the synergy that Costar Flamigo has with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Water-type Dondozo.
Dondozo is a rather bulky Pokemon on its own, but it is often used to great effect alongside Tatsugiri, which has a unique Ability called Commander. What this does is allow Dondozo to eat Tatsugiri when it enters the battlefield in order to get a so-called "omniboost," which means +2 stages to every stat, which is especially great for an already bulky critter that also hits hard. The downside is that Tatsugiri can't do anything while in Dondozo's mouth, and it cannot take damage. That's where this Pokemon Scarlet and Violet strategy comes into play.
A popular way to make Tatsugiri faint is by pairing it with an Explosion Drifblim and then using both Toxic Orb as a held item and Endure as a move on the sushi Pokemon in order to Poison it and take it down to 1 HP. Players then lead with Dondozo, which gets its omniboost and eats a Tatsugiri that will faint at the end of the turn via Poison, making room for Flamigo, which will then get +2 to all its stats thanks to Costar, eventually playing with two very bulky and powerful Pokemon to win the match. This strategy makes Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's double battles all the more intriguing, and it poses the question of what else players will come up with over time.
PokemonScarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.
