Players debate biggest gimmick in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and it all hinges on Orthworm

With so many different Pokémon, moves, and Abilities across nine generations, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet provides countless ways to build a strategy and execute it with your favorite Pokémon. Of course, certain strategies work better than others and are viable enough to be used in online Ranked Battles and at major tournaments.

However, there’s something to be gained from using a gimmicky strategy no one will expect. While the most viable strategies might be more consistent and reliable, they are also more predictable and players often come prepared with a way to counter them.

For example, if Armarouge and female Indeedee are run on the same team, an experienced player will already know the game plan is to set up Trick Room with Indeedee and spam Expanding Force with Armarouge. And if you know what to expect just by looking at a team, you have a better chance of reading their plays correctly.

Therefore, clever gimmicks are worth considering when teambuilding. The new addition of open team sheets at in-person tournaments does take away a bit of the surprise factor that gimmicks offer, but they can still catch your opponent off guard, especially in online Ranked Battles without open team sheets.

Reddit user skyp1llar asked fellow Pokémon fans what interesting gimmicks they have tried and been successful with in Scarlet and Violet—and there were a few very interesting ones.

Skyp1llar opened up the debate with a gimmick of their own: “Slow shed tail into Multiscale Dragonite next to a friend guard Maushold, the Maushold friend guards the Multiscale Dragonite behind sub and you get Multiscale boost until the substitute pops. It’s inconsistent but man is that a meaty substitute lol.”

This gimmick currently has the most upvotes and for good reason. By using Shed Tail with Orthworm or Cyclizar, Dragonite gets a substitute up for free without using any of its own health. This works perfectly with Dragonite’s Multiscale Ability which reduces the damage taken while the user is at full health.

With Maushold’s Friend Guard thrown into the mix, the ally Dragonite will be taking even less damage, and it’ll take a lot of hits to break that one substitute before chipping away at Dragonite’s actual health.

Two honorable mentions were an Eeveelution Trick Room team and a slow sun team centered around Dachsbun and Baxcalibur. The Eeveelutions work well under Trick Room because they generally don’t have great Speed stats aside from Jolteon. Meanwhile, the slow sun team takes the popular Trick Room Torkoal strategy and swaps out Eruption for Lava Plume. Lava Plume also hits ally Pokémon, which will activate Dachsbun’s Well-Baked Body or Baxcalibur’s Thermal Exchange to give them stat boosts.

As the format changes and more Pokémon are added, the meta will naturally shift and new gimmicks will emerge.

But for now, Shed Tail, Multiscale Dragonite, and Friend Guard Maushold looks pretty strong.