Paradox Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are some of the strongest monsters in the current competitive meta. While often powerful in their own right, these mons make the most of their abilities when paired with the Booster Energy held item which has unique properties when held by a Paradox Pokemon. Held items can make or break a specific build for a competitive creature in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and for mons like Roaring Moon, the Booster Energy is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness.
Booster Energy is a new held item introduced in Gen 9 that activates the Protosynthesis or Quark Drive Abilities of Paradox Pokemon when consumed. This is a useful item for getting the stat boost from those Abilities without needing to rely on harsh sunlight or Electric Terrain being active to otherwise trigger those effects. However, the trade-off is that the Booster Energy takes the place of another potentially better held item like a Life Orb or Choice Scarf, making it a double-edged sword for certain mons like Paradox Salamence - Roaring Moon.
The Good: Roaring Moon can be a Powerful Flying Tera Type with Access to Acrobatics
While Roaring Moon's Dragon/Dark typing would have been a major problem for it in previous generations, the introduction of Terastallization in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet helps mons with poor defensive typing find usability within the meta. The Flying Tera type is particularly strong as it can be an effective counter to the offensive threat Ground types pose. Roaring Moon is a great candidate to take advantage of the Flying Tera type not only because it removes its bad defensive typing, but also can be combined with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Booster Energy to help synergize with a move like Acrobatics.
This move is a physical Flying-type attack that has its power doubled if the user is not holding an item. Typically, this wouldn't be a great move for competitive battles since it's imperative that competitive mons hold an item to succeed, however, the Energy Booster is perfect for this scenario since it gets used up after activation. Sending out Roaring Moon and activating its Protosynthesis Ability to boost one of its stats with its Booster Energy, then Terastallizing into a Flying Tera type who gets Pokemon's STAB damage and doubled power from Acrobatics now that its held item is gone makes this creature a terrifying physical sweeper.
The Bad: The Predictability of Booster Energy Roaring Moon Makes it Easy to Counter
Unfortunately, this setup is not without its downsides, which mostly boil down to the limited viable strategies for Roaring Moon, making it easy to predict and successfully counter. With Dragon/Dark being a poor defensive type, Terastallizing this beast is almost a necessity, and it makes the most logical sense for Roaring Moon's Tera type to be changed in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to Flying due to the pool of Flying-type moves like Acrobatics that this mon has access to. This means that bulky mons with supereffective move types like Iron Hands can take down Roaring Moon fairly easily.
The stat spread for Roaring Moon also is quite predictable since it's likely going to revolve around boosting either its Attack or Speed using Protosynthesis activated via its Booster Energy. Once again, Iron Hands can be used to tank hits from Attack-oriented Roaring Moon before dealing supereffective damage, or Iron Bundle can be used to outspeed a Roaring Moon build that revolves around Speed and similarly shut it down. Roaring Moon is still a popular mon in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet VGC Series 2 meta thanks to its offensive potential, but its predictable move and stat setup make it necessary to give it a partner like Iron Hands or Amoonguss who can make up for its deficits.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Nintendo Switch.
