Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s new secret heavy hitter is Flamigo

Flamigo, the flamingo-inspired Pokémon from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, This has won many admirers. When the games first came out, Flamigo caught flack from fans as some described its look as “bland” lazy, because it basically looks like a real-life Flamingo. But now, players have come around to the bird because it distinguished itself as a viable candidate for competitive Pokémon, making it a powerful ‘mon in its own right.

Flamigo is a flying/fighting Pokémon introduced in Scarlet and Violet. It’s a flamingo whose body is shaped like a punching glove, hence the type combination. It doesn’t have any evolutions, so it’s rather plain in all, but fans are finding creative ways to max out this rather boring bird’s potential.

Flamigo is a strong type combo. Its flying type set makes it invulnerable to ground-type moves and gives it access to same-attack-type-bonuses on powerful moves like Close Combat and Brave Bird. Additionally, it gets a special ability called Costar where it will match the stat boosts of your ally Pokémon in doubles battles. So if a Pokémon that’s out used Swords Dance before Flamigo was released, you could swap in Flamigo and it would copy the stat boosts. In addition to this, it also gets a solid support set of moves like Taunt or Tail Wind making for a great support Pokémon in doubles.

There is a hilarious and very strong strategy where I’ve seen trainers using a combination of Dondozo, Tatsugiri, and Flamigo. The video is available below. You use Dondozo’s stats to the maximum extent possible by using a Tatsugiri. Once you boost Dondozo’s stats and sacrifice a Tatsugiri, you can switch in a Flamigo that will copy the stat boosts of Dondozo.

Game Freak seemed like it approached this gen’s Pokémon with a level of whimsy, because many of the plainest creatures have out-of-the-box strategies or powers that make them weirdly strong. The dolphin-Pokémon Palafin gets a ridiculous stat boost when it comes into battle as its Hero Form and sports a base Attack stat of 160. Maushold (which is actually just a bunch of mice) has an attack called Population Bomb that can strike up to ten times in a single hit. Each hit also comes with a base power 20.

All in all, combine these absurd strategies with the new Terastal Phenomenon, which can allow trainers to play with Pokémon types, it’s looking like we will get a fun and varied competitive scene for Scarlet and Violet.