New Pokemon
More than any previous generation, Gamefreak loves to drop new toys out of nowhere! Charizard, Cinderace, Greninja, Hisuian Zoroark, and now two entirely new Pokemon: Walking Wake and Iron Leaves!
Of course, everyone wants to talk about the new Pokemon, but there's a problem... Gamefreak doesn't allow them to be used right away! That doesn't stop us from wanting to talk about them though...
So that's what this thread is for: speculate about the potential of Pokemon that are now allowed in Battle Stadium Singles yet! You can see the current list of banned Pokemon right here.
Also, yes since GS Cup is a thing, feel free to talk about the potential for that format too! I'm sure at least some of us have thought about how Koraidon and Miraidon will fare... I know I have!
Finally, as some of you may know, Gamefreak messed up and forgot to scrub dex entries for the DLC agan. This is not a 100% confirmed list of returning Pokemon by any means, but feel free to discuss that here too! Note that legendary Pokemon are likely not there because in Sword / Shield, most of them did NOT appear in the dex. The pastebin can be found here
Just to make things a bit easier, I complied a list of major looking returning Pokemon for the DLCs. This is just a first pass, I may have missed some! I'm also being generous here, who knows how tera and the likes will impact these mons!
Porygon2
Porygon-Z
Gliscor
Excadrill
Blaziken
Primarina
Incineroar
Skarmory
Snorlax
Ninetales
Swampert
Mamoswine
Venusaur
Smeargle
Crawdaunt
Empoleon
Conkeldurr
Whimsicott
Galvantula
Araquanid
Kommo-O
Chandelure
Porygon-Z
Gliscor
Excadrill
Blaziken
Primarina
Incineroar
Skarmory
Snorlax
Ninetales
Swampert
Mamoswine
Venusaur
Smeargle
Crawdaunt
Empoleon
Conkeldurr
Whimsicott
Galvantula
Araquanid
Kommo-O
Chandelure
To kick this thread off, here's something that's been swirling in my mind lately!
Iron Leaves @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fighting / Fire / Fairy
EVs: 100 HP / 156 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Night Slash / Tera Blast
So Iron Leaves has had a lot of "negative hype" lately, and that makes sense: this is not gen 1 anymore, Grass / Psychic is NOT a good typing! That being said... Iron Leaves is quite a bit bulkier than other Speed Booster Energy Pokemon, and unlike any of the bulky ones, it's got Swords Dance! So, I am pretty curious about the idea of Iron Leaves as a late game sweeper, though there are compromises you have to make every time. For example, Leaf Blade sadly needs SR support to 2HKO Dondozo since this isn't max Attack, and Dragonite is going to be an issue unless we use a Tera to specially mess with it. And of course, I don't see how this gets past Skeledirge. I did a calc and Psyblade in Electric Terrain with an Attack boost DOES potentially 2HKO but... that might be quite a lot of commitment to justify.
Something that is neat though: +2 Tera Fire Blast does 98% min to Defensive Gholdengo! I'm worried that this thing will always have coverage issues, but I think the bulk might make it worth a try whenever its allowed!