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Whereas aggressive gamers proceed to plumb Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s strategic depth and tease out its tactical wrinkles, one creature has gotten a stunning quantity of playtime during the last month: Murkrow. The unevolved flying darkish sort isn’t a heavy hitter and its stats are absolute trash, but it surely does have a novel benefit over each different Pokémon within the sport that’s despatched it straight to the top of the competitive charts.
Browse social media, hang around on the Smogon message boards, or climb the ranked ladder and also you received’t be capable of escape Murkrow. The tiny black chook first launched in Pokémon Gold and Silver is lastly again within the highlight, and former Pokémon World Champion Wolfe “WolfeyVGC” Glick defined the the explanation why in a recent TikTok:
The primary is Tailwind, a transfer the Gen 2 chook has had from the leap, however which is supremely essential within the present panorama, offering all different Pokémon on the staff bonus velocity for 4 turns. The second is Prankster, a passive capability that lets Murkow’s non-damage-dealing strikes, like Tailwind, take elevated flip precedence throughout battles, thus permitting it to strike first. In Scarlet and Violet’s Gen 9, Murkrow is the solely Pokémon who has each, guaranteeing a match-defining velocity increase on flip one.
However why Murkrow and never its advanced type of Honchkrow? Nicely, Murkrow’s advanced type loses Prankster in trade for the damage-oriented passive capability Moxie, ruining the entire technique. Plus, gamers can mitigate a few of Murkrow’s drawbacks by equipping the held merchandise Eviolite which boosts the traditional and particular protection of Pokémon who aren’t totally advanced.
“Don’t get me flawed, the mixture of Prankster is admittedly good but it surely isn’t the one motive that Murkrow is standard,” WolfeyVGC added in his latest TikTok. “Murkrow additionally will get the assault Haze which removes all stat adjustments from the battlefield. That is related as a result of some of the highly effective new Pokémon added is Dondozo who has a strategy to increase all of its stats by 2.” Haze utterly nullifies that, making Murkrow an ideal counter to Dondozo along with being a significant utility choose for reinforcing the remainder of your staff.
That’s been sufficient to make Murkrow the second most picked Pokémon in aggressive play for December, only one proportion level behind all-star crypto coin mascot Gholdengo. As WolfeyVGC wrote in a Twitter thread a couple of weeks ago, Gholdengo’s twin ghost/metal sort make it an excellent defensive choose, whereas particular capability Make it Rain does a ton of harm.
The Swords-Dance-wielding Garchomp and Bulk Up defensive tank Annihilape are additionally high contenders, as is Hydreigon who can lastly use the brand new video games’ Terastalization mechanic to mitigate its conventional 4X weak spot to Fairy-type strikes. The mushroom bug Amoonguss, in the meantime, has been tearing issues up due to Rage Powder which forces opponents to focus on it moderately than buff themselves.
