These 8 Pokémon look poised to dominate Scarlet and Violet’s first Ranked Battles season

A new era of competitive Pokémon battling is upon us. Season one Ranked Battles for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has kicked off as of Dec. 2, and we know you’re just as excited as we are. New Pokémon, exciting new moves, items, and abilities to tinker with, and fresh new strategies to implement in the Double Battle format of VGC that we’ve all grown to love.

The ruleset for the format has been out for a bit and well, would you look at that: all Paradox and Legendary Pokémon have been banned. We’re sure they’ll be making their first official appearance in a future season, but looks like all that theorycrafting with past and future variants will have to be swept aside for now.

With a lot of competitive threats from previous generations returning in Gen IX, there is a unique mix of old and new Pokémon that seem to find their sweet spot to exist as prominent threats in the early metagame. We will be talking about the eight threats that you need to look out for in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Ranked Double Battles Season One.

The Pokémon selected in this list are here because of a mix of the factors below:

• Their splashability: how well they can fit onto a variety of team archetypes.
• Their supportive presence: how well they support and enable the rest of their team.
• Their offensive presence: how easily they can knock out the wide variety of Pokémon on the opposing team.

The top eight Pokémon to look out for in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Ranked Battles Season One

Torkoal

With the dawn of Paradox Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet, it was a no-brainer that any Pokémon that can set up the Sun weather condition would see incredibly high usage. Torkoal is currently the only Pokémon legal in the game that can set up harsh sunlight with its ability Drought, and even though Paradox Pokémon are not legal in Season One, Torkoal is bound to shine as it always has.

Torkoal is the only viable Eruption user in the format too, and with its ability to set up harsh sunlight, it is not only boosting the power of its own Fire-type moves but boosting its team as well, which should ideally be constructed to help Torkoal thrive. With Fire Terrastilization, Torkoal should be reaching sky-high damage output with Eruption, and under Trick Room, it can easily sweep teams since it is the slowest viable Pokémon in the format.

Arcanine

Arcanine has always been the premier Intimidate Pokémon in any competitive metagame where Incineroar does not exist. It has a solid typing in Fire, a good, well-balanced stat spread, and incredible supportive coverage.

With moves like Snarl and Will-O-Wisp, Arcanine provides amazing damage mitigation before its enemies can due to its good Speed stat. It can also opt to run an offensive set with strong options like Flare Blitz and Extreme Speed, or even one that’s Special-oriented with moves like Overheat and Heat Wave. 

Pair this with items such as Life Orb or Choice Band and your opponents will be in for a rude awakening when they find out your Arcanine is here to pick up KO’s and not spread Snarls and Will-O-Wisps.

Amoonguss

A Pokémon that needs no introduction, Amoonguss is primed to be the best support Pokémon early in the Scarlet and Violet meta due to its incredible bulk and staying power, and with Brute Bonnet not here to give it competition, it is going to easily snag a spot on most teams.

Rage Powder and Spore are two of Amoonguss’ most powerful tools, redirecting attacks towards it while it and putting its enemies out of order for up to three turns. If Amoonguss has redirected too much damage to itself, simply pivot it out and back in to have its health regenerated and let it cause more disruptive mayhem.

Amoonguss is incredibly splashable, letting it fit onto a plethora of team archetypes, where it plays as a Trick Room counter on an otherwise fast team, or a Trick Room abuser on a team that utilizes Trick Room itself.

Tyranitar

Because Torkoal is going to be dominant, it’s only natural for anti-meta Pokémon to come around—and Tyranitar is seeming like a top contender, as per usual. 

Not only does it enable another top threat in Garchomp by activating its Sand Veil through Sandstream, but it also has impressive stats all around with the ability to Dragon Dance and turn into a threatening sweeper.

Tyranitar also doesn’t care about its bad defensive typing this generation due to the presence of Terrastalization, letting it take on a useful Tera type such as Flying to eliminate its debilitating weaknesses and continue causing destruction.

Tyranitar can also opt to run more of a supportive set with moves such as Thunder Wave and Icy Wind for speed control, Snarl for cripple Special attackers, Taunt to prevent opposing ‘mons from setting up, and Helping Hand to boost its partner’s damage output.

Grimmsnarl

The bane of every Sword and Shield competitive player’s existence, Grimmsnarl makes its entry back into the games in Scarlet and Violet. And this time, it’s even more frightening than before.

The devs decided that buffing Grimmsnarl would be a good idea, adding Parting Shot into its already colorful arsenal of supportive options. Remember when your Grimmsnarl felt like a sitting duck on the field after it set up dual screens? Well now, you can pivot out your Grimmsnarl for an offensive threat while lowering your opponent Pokémon’s damage output at the same time.

But Grimmsnarl is far from being a one-trick pony. It can also provide speed control with options like Thunder Wave and Scary Face, disrupt opposing ‘mons with Fake Out, and stop opposing Pokémon from using their own status moves with Taunt, all while having +1 priority on its status moves from the Prankster ability.

Annihilape

This enraged undead monkey has quite a few tricks up its sleeves. With a gigantic HP stat and access to the move Final Gambit, there is one direction that every competitive player recognizes to take their Annihilape in: a Choice Scarfed Final Gambit set.

With enough Speed investment and a maxed-out HP stat, you should be able to outspeed every Pokémon in the metagame that isn’t a Ghost type and knock them out in a single hit with Final Gambit. The rest of your set can consist of moves like Close Combat, Phantom Force, Rage Fist, Gunk Shot, Ice Punch, U-Turn, and the like.

With Defiant as its ability, Annihilape also proves to be a solid counter to Intimidate ‘mons, making players think twice about leading with their Arcanine or Gyarados when they see an Annihilape in team preview.

Maushold

This family of mice is anything but one-dimensional. One of Maushold’s most popular sets utilizes its Technician ability with its signature move Population Bomb, most commonly paired with the item Wide Lens to ensure that Population Bomb has almost a guaranteed chance to hit all 10 times. 

If all 10 hits connect, Population Bomb is essentially a 300 base power move even before factoring in STAB and/or Terrastalization, and Maushold’s low Attack stat suddenly doesn’t even seem like a factor that holds this Pokémon back from being an offensive powerhouse. It also gets access to another signature move in Tidy Up that clears all Substitutes and hazards on the field while raising its Attack and Speed by one stage, letting it sweep with even more potency.

While this is a strong and promising set, Maushold can also be a phenomenal support ‘mon. With access to Follow me and the ability Friend Guard, it can either redirect damage to itself or stay on the field and make sure that its partner takes less damage than it normally would. Couple that with a rich supportive movepool with options such as Taunt, Thunder Wave, Encore, Fake Tears, and Charm, and you’ve got a very disruptive Pokémon with a lot of potential on your hands.

Garchomp

After a couple of generations where Garchomp was pushed away from being a staple of the metagame, Generation IX seems to be this pseudo-Legendary’s time to shine once more.

With Rillaboom being highly nerfed, and more importantly, not a part of the game yet, Garchomp does not need to worry about Grassy Terrain halving the damage of its main sweeping option in Earthquake. With the dawn of Terrastalization, Garchomp can also freely set up a Swords Dance or two and not care about getting knocked out by an Ice move or a strong Fairy move by taking on a defensive Tera type and proceed with its onslaught.

Garchomp has the stats to thrive in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Season one metagame, with enough Speed to outspeed all of the base 100 Speed Pokémon and a daunting Attack stat that can comfortably one-shot the majority of the metagame after Garchomp sets up. To prevent Garchomp from falling victim to damage mitigation techniques such as Intimidate Attack drops or getting burnt from Will-O-Wisp, you can opt to run the items Clear Amulet or Lum Berry, respectively.