Back on Pokémon Day, Walking Wake was introduced as a new Legendary Paradox Pokémon alongside Iron Leaves in Scarlet and Violet. The two new Pokémon can be obtained through the current Tera Raid event until March 12.
As with many Legendary Pokémon and Paradox Pokémon, Walking Wake looks to be pretty strong. In fact, Reddit user Moggyo has pointed out how the Suicine look-alike can be viable on two completely different weather teams—sun and rain—with a hilarious meme.
In the meme, Walking Wake claims it’s “playing both sides” to an unimpressed Torkoal, the poster child of sun teams, and Pelipper, the poster child of rain teams. Sun and rain usually counter each other, but Walking Wake is a special case.
With a moveset of Hydro Steam, Flamethrower, Hurricane, and Sunny Day, Walking Wake can have the best of both worlds, rain or shine.
If it sets up the sun with Sunny Day, both Flamethrower and Hydro Steam will get huge boosts in power. At the same time, the sun will also activate its Ability, Protosynthesis, to boost Walking Wake’s highest stat—which will most likely be its Special Attack.
Even if the sun is overtaken by rain, Walking Wake will still be in a good position. Hydro Steam still gets a boost, and Hurricane is a powerful Flying-type attack that becomes 100% accurate in the rain. Worst comes to worst, it can always remove the rain and set the sun back up with Sunny Day, but it probably won’t need to.
And while Walking Wake sounds like it could make a big impact in VGC where sun and rain teams are commonly run, it’s unclear when or if it will ever become legal in the format. Series 2 marked the introduction of all other Paradox Pokémon (excluding Legendary ones) in VGC, and they’ve been crushing the competition ever since. Currently, some of the best and most popular Paradox Pokémon in the format are Flutter Mane, Iron Bundle, Iron Hands, and Great Tusk.
Given their strong performances in tournaments and online Ranked Battles, it’s clear Paradox Pokémon have already taken over the meta, even without Walking Wake.
Series 3 has also recently been announced. The new VGC series will begin in April, allowing the four Treasures of Ruin to compete alongside or against the current Paradox Pokémon in the format. This will still unfortunately not include Walking Wake, so it might have to wait a little longer before joining any sun or rain teams in VGC.
If that time comes, Walking Wake will be a threat to watch out for.
