With a total of 103 new pocket monsters added to the franchise through Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Gen 9 players have plenty of options to choose from to form interesting teams or simply to test effective strategies for competitive battles as they wait for the official ruleset. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Garganacl is one of the best Pokemon in Gen 9 for many reasons, for example, including the fact that it has an incredibly powerful signature Ability and an exclusive move that counters Water and Steel-types, which are normally effective against Rock. Another example comes from Glimmora, which is a hybrid support and special attacker Pokemon that gains access to great defensive and offensive moves alike.
This becomes all the more efficient alongside its Toxic Debris Ability, which generates toxic spikes on the opponent's side of the field whenever Glimmora is hit by physical moves. Even though many Gen 9 Pokemon are entirely new, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Paradox Pokemon is another very interesting concept that leans on the past versus future themes of the games to create special forms for returning critters. Most Paradox Pokemon are exceptionally strong in battle, and while Pokemon Scarlet's Roaring Moon is possibly the best of the bunch, Pokemon Violet's new forms have an advantage over the other version of the game.
Why Pokemon Scarlet Has 'Worse' Paradox Pokemon Than Violet
There are currently sixteen Paradox Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, with the box Legendaries for Gen 9, Koraidon and Miraidon, being each part of their version-exclusive group. Out of the fourteen remaining Paradox Pokemon, Pokemon Scarlet includes three that have a major weakness compared to Pokemon Violet's exclusives, and that's the fact that they are not fully evolved forms of their respective evolution lines. This includes Scream Tail, Flutter Mane, and Sandy Shocks, which are respectively based on Jigglypuff, Misdreavus, and Magneton.
These are not the final stages of their respective evolution lines, with Jigglypuff normally evolving into Wigglytuff, Misdreavus evolving into Mismagius through a Dusk Stone, and Magneton evolving into Magnezone. While every Paradox Pokemon retains one of the original pocket monster's types (or the only one available if they don't have two, to being with), and while they have access to large move pools regardless, one can't help but wonder what could have changed if Pokemon Scarlet's Paradoxes were fully evolved. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Bisharp is ironically better than Kingambit due to Eviolite, meaning that evolution is not always the best-case scenario, but the question still stands.
For example, Magneton is normally a rather weak Pokemon, and Magnezone is far superior in possibly every aspect, including its move pool. As such, there's a chance that Sandy Shock's move pool would have been designed differently if it was based on Magnezone rather than Magneton, and this could have made it a more reliable Pokemon to use. It's worth noting that Flutter Mane was banned from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's competitive battles due to its imbalanced stat distribution, and while it remains a great critter, a Paradox form of Mismagius would have pleased far more fans.
This is also a weird case because Pokemon Violet, on the other hand, exclusively features Paradox Pokemon that are fully evolved or others that are based on critters that normally don't evolve. There is also another discrepancy between the two versions, as Pokemon Violet features two pseudo-Legendary Paradox Pokemon as opposed to one for Pokemon Scarlet, namely Iron Thorns and Iron Jugulis for Violet, Roaring Moon for Scarlet. Ultimately, this distribution doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, but it's hard to tell whether things would have been different with homogeneous criteria.
PokemonScarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.
