Flamigo, the flamingos-inspired Pokémon Pokemon scarlet and Violet, has already turned a few heads. When the games first came out, flaming was criticized by fans, with some describing his look as “bland‘ and lazy because it basically looks like a real flamingo. But now players have flocked to the bird because it has shown itself to be a viable candidate for competitive Pokemon, making it a powerful mon in its own right.
Flamigo is a Flying/Fighting Pokémon introduced in scarlet and violet. It’s a flamingo whose body is shaped like a mitten, hence the typing. It doesn’t have any evolutions so it’s pretty basic overall, but fans are finding creative ways to maximize the potential of this rather boring bird.
Flamigo has a solid typing for starters. Its Flying type makes it invulnerable to ground moves, and both its Fighting and Flying types give it access to attack bonuses of the same type on powerful moves like Melee and Brave Bird. In addition, it has a unique hidden ability, Costar, that matches its ally Pokemon’s stat boosts in double battles. So if a Pokemon in battle was using Swords Dance before Flamigo was turned on, you could trade in Flamigo and it would copy the stat boosts. Additionally, it gains a solid support set of moves like Taunt and Tailwind, making it a great support Pokémon in doubles.
There’s a hilarious and very powerful strategy I’ve seen trainers use a combination of Dondozo, Tatsugiri, and Flamigo. You can watch the entire video below, but basically you use a special Tatsugiri to boost Dondozo’s stats. Once you boost Dondozo’s stats and sacrifice a Tatsugiri, you can switch in a Flamigo, which copies Dondozo’s stat boosts.
Game Freak seemed to approach this generation’s Pokémon with a certain whimsy, as many of the simplest creatures have out-of-the-box strategies or powers that make them oddly powerful. The Dolphin Pokémon Palafin gains a ridiculous stat boost when entering combat in its Hero form and has a base Attack stat of 160. mouseholdwhich is literally just a group of mice, has an attack called Population Bomb that can hit up to 10 times in a single use, with each hit having a base power of 20.
All in all, combine these absurd strategies with the new Terastal phenomenon that can allow trainers to play with Pokémon types, and it looks like we’re getting a fun and varied competitive scene scarlet and violet.
