Paradox Pokemon will officially be legal in Scarlet and Violet competitive play next month

You won’t get far in competitive Pokémon without taking the time to familiarize yourself with the rulesets and regulations that go along with that side of the franchise, which is why Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s next Ranked Battle series should keep players on their toes. 

As many veteran trainers predicted, Ranked Battle Series 2 for the Gen IX Pokémon games will begin on Feb. 1 and run until March 31. This should kick off Season 3 for the online battle mode and will finally allow players to use the Paradox Pokémon introduced in both Scarlet and Violet. 

The Pokémon Company initially banned the use of Paradox Pokémon, the Pokémon mostly found in the post-game for the new games that are from the past and future, in Ranked Battle Series 1. This kept players from using these powerful creatures during the first seasons of ranked online matches, likely for a number of reasons. 

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Firstly, Game Freak and TPC tend to err on the side of hiding story spoilers for at least a few months after a new Pokémon game releases. This is mostly seen in production for the Pokémon TCG, but it does occasionally see practice in the games too. 

The most likely reason for Paradox Pokémon getting snubbed from the opening ranked lineup is their near Legendary Pokémon statlines. Great Tusk, Iron Valiant, Roaring Moon, and Iron Treads all see high usage in other formats already, so once they are added to Ranked Battles officially, you can expect some wild new team compositions to flood the meta. Beware the Flutter Mane.

You still have an entire month to prep for that, as Ranked Season 2 is already underway and it still uses the Series 1 ruleset, which means Paradox Pokémon aren’t on the board just yet. And, there will still be a number of Pokémon restricted from use once the new rules go into effect on Feb. 1. Here is a full list: 

All banned Pokémon for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Ranked Battles Series 2

• Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard
• Galarian Meoth and Perrserker
• Wooper and Quagsire
• Scorbunny, Raboot, and Cinderace
• Wo-Chien
• Chien-Pao
• Ting-Lu
• Chi-Yu
• Koraidon
• Miraidon