With the release of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, a new set of powerful Pokémon are mixing up the metagame and making competitive and casual play alike feel fresher and more exciting. It features brand-new typings as well, along with older tried and true mono typings.
While many players don’t find monotype Pokémon as exciting as a unique dual-type Pokémon, there are a few monotype Pokémon in this generation that stand out as unique even with a simple typing. The unique moves, abilities, and stats of this generation show that Pokémon games are putting a conscious effort into having no “filler entries” and that every Pokémon has something special about them.
11 Mabosstiff
Mabosstiff is the Pokémon partner of Arven in Scarlet & Violet and is a pretty decent partner for the player to pick up. It evolves from Maschiff at level 30, gaining a lot of extra bulk and Attack in the process.
Mabosstiff is an interesting choice for double battles because it’s offered two fun contrasting abilities. The first is the tried and true Intimidate, a doubles staple that lowers the attack of both opposing Pokémon. Its other ability, Guard Dog, increases its attack instead of lowering it when it would be Intimidated. Having a very common and powerful ability, as well as the counter to that ability, makes Mabosstiff a fun and difficult to predict Pokémon.
10 Klawf
The very first titan Pokémon that most players will encounter on their Scarlet & Violet journey, Klawf is a Rock-type crab who has one of the funniest designs of Scarlet & Violet. On top of referencing the “crab rave,” Klawf also comes packed with some fun abilities.
Klawf’s decent physical bulk, Regenerator hidden ability, and access to Stealth Rock may lead people to choose it as a more supportive Pokémon. However, Klawf’s signature ability Anger Shell gives it the effects of the move Shell Smash the moment it goes beneath 50% health. This allows Klaf to be a serious sweeper when paired with its 100 Attack and 75 Speed, and though it isn’t the strongest Pokémon of its generation, players that aren’t careful can easily be swept by a runaway Klawf.
9 Dudunsparce
After waiting nearly two decades for a Dunsparce evolution, many players were disappointed in the Pokémon’s evolution. The Normal-type Dudunsparce is, admittedly, Dunsparce with extra segments and a few added physical features.
Dudunsparce in gameplay is admittedly the same as it is in design. The Pokémon plays like “Dunsparce, but more” just as it feels design-wise. It still relies on Glare and Headbutt shenanigans to get around its low speed, and there isn’t much that it does other than that. However, the amount of stats it gained makes Dudunsparce surprisingly strong, even if it feels exactly like a regular Dunsparce while playing it.
8 Garganacl
The final Pokémon in the Nacli line and the result of three different salt puns in a row, Garganacl is yet another addition to the seemingly once-a-generation slow three-stage Rock-type line.
Garganacl’s signature move, Salt Cure, has an interesting secondary effect that does extra damage to Steel and Water-types. Its ability, Purifying Salt, gives it extra resistance to Ghost-type moves and makes it immune to status conditions. This means that Garganacl, along with fantastic Defense, loses many of the offensive and defensive weaknesses of the Rock typing between Salt Cure and Purifying Salt. Overall, it’s a fantastic Pokémon both offensively and defensively.
7 Orthworm
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Many players’ first encounter with Orthworm was as the Steel Titan, one of the 18 major challenges in Scarlet & Violet. Its Earth Eater ability makes it so Ground moves heal Orthwrorm rather than damaging it, a huge buff to a mono Steel Pokémon that removes a weakness.
Orthworm has great attributes other than its Ground immunity. It also has access to one of the biggest competitive changes in Scarlet & Violet: the Shed Tail move. Shed Tail is a move only learned by Cyclizar and Orthworm that allows the user to switch out into a new Pokémon, leaving a substitute behind. This incredibly powerful move helps Orthworm to be a great utility pick on any team that can potentially switch into powerful sweepers.
6 Dondozo
Defensive Pokémon are an important part of any meta game and a fantastic addition to any in-game team as well. Among the best defensive Pokémon are the aptly named “bulky waters.” Among that archetype, Dondozo is a fantastic new addition.
Aside from its gimmicky interaction with Tatsugiri in doubles, where Tatsugiri goes in Dondozo’s mouth and gives it a boost, the giant catfish is a threatening force all on its own. Dondozo has access to the Unaware ability, meaning that it is unaffected by changes to an opponent’s stats. For such a bulky Pokémon, it’s difficult for any sweeper to get by it since it ignores the effects of moves like Swords Dance and Nasty Plot
5 Maushold
Easily one of the cutest names of Scarlet & Violet, Maushold is a unique Normal-type Pokémon that evolves from the mouse couple: Tandemaus. It gets three abilities, with one being a great defensive ability in Friend Guard and one being a great offensive ability in Technician.
Maushold has a wide variety of applications, including as a support Pokémon in doubles. With Friend Guard as an ability, Maushold can protect its allies from damage and use supporting moves like Thunder Wave and Helping Hand to cause problems. In singles, it can use its signature move Population Bomb boosted by Technician, to deal up to 10 boosted hits to the opponent. With a Wide Lens, it’s almost guaranteed to hit 10 times and KO most Pokémon.
3 Cetitan
Cetoddle is one of the cutest additions to generation 9, and it can be evolved into the powerful Cetitan with the help of an Ice Stone. The powerful Cetitan has a shockingly high 170 base HP, one of the highest in the entire game.
Cetitan isn’t only a tank, however. Not only does it learn powerful stat boosting moves like Belly Drum, but a recent change to the game gave it a huge boost. With hail being changed to the new snow weather, the Ice-type Cetitan gets a boost to its defense while in snow. Along with its ability Slush Rush, Cetitan is bulky, fast, and strong all the same time in the snow, with its only real weakness being Special Defense.
2 Houndstone
The mono Ghost-type Houndstone is the evolution of Greavyard. Houndstone can only be evolved from Greavyard at night when Greavyard reaches level 30 or above. It comes with a very powerful ability in Sand Rush, which doubles its speed in the sand.
Houndstone is one of the strongest Pokémon available in the wild. It may not look like much at first glance, but Houndstone has access to maybe the best offensive move in the history of the game: Last Respects. The move, which gains 50 base power for every defeated Pokémon in the owner’s party, was so overpowered that Houndstone is already banned on the competitive single battles platform Pokémon Showdown.
1 Palafin
The adorable Finizen seemingly doesn’t change much when it turns into Palafin. To evolve Palafin into Finizen, players have to level it up to 38 or higher while playing in co-op mode. The result is one of the strongest mono Water Pokémon of all time.
Aside from Koraidon and Miraidon, the unassuming Palafin may be the single strongest Pokémon in all of Scarlet & Violet. Its ability, Zero to Hero, lets it change into its hero form for the rest of the battle after the first time it switches out. The resulting hero form has stats that even put most legendary Pokémon to shame, clobbering different trainers with its signature priority move, Jet Punch.