If you have yet to catch any of the best Pokémon in Sword and Shield, here are the top picks for a gimmick team to get you through the games’ battles.
Some of the battles in Sword and Shield are a tad difficult, but with this guide, you may find that beating the game isn’t as hard as you thought it was. While these aren’t the most prideful teams you can have, they are sure to get you the wins you need to get you through the game and then move you on with your post-game Pokémon adventure.
Update January 2, 2020: Additions to the best Pokémon team in Sword and Shield include the best fossil in Gen. 8, along with Toxtricity Amped Up and High key differences, and Corsola eviolite strategies.
The best gimmick, competetive Pokémon teams in ‘Sword’ and ‘Shield’
A lot of the best Pokémon in Sword and Shield rely on the gimmicks of stalling and setups. If you’re not familiar with that terminology, here’s what you need to know: stalling is exactly what it sounds like. You give your opponent a slowly burning status or other fainting condition that will earn you an easy win. Setups require you to stack your stats up high on the opponent’s first Pokémon so you can easily sweep the rest of their team.
Here are the best Pokémon in Sword and Shield that will guarantee you an easy win through all of the toughest battles in the excellent monster capturing Nintendo Switch RPG games.
Lapras
Lapras is my personal pick of Pokémon in most games because of its handy ice/water typing. While Ice-Types are notoriously weak to common Rock and Fighting-Type moves, as long as you generally know what kind of Pokémon your opponent is sending out, you shouldn’t have too much trouble spamming Brine and Ice Beam through most battles. It can take down Fire, Rock, Ground, Flying, Dragon and Grass with those two moves. If you add in a handy Thunderbolt or Steel-Type move Smart Strike into the mix, Lapras can take down Water, Fairy, and Rock-Types, giving it super effective moves against nine of the 18 types in the games.
The real beauty of Lapras is its Perish Song move. If you’re not feeling Thunderbolt, I’d suggest allowing Lapras to learn this gimmicky move, as all Pokémon that hear it will faint in three turns. Some of the AI won’t switch out on the last turn, and that includes most Gym Leaders. It’s incredibly silly that an opponent wouldn’t switch out to a healthy and fresh Pokémon as opposed to letting their tanky ‘mon die. It’s an easy win that worst-case scenario leaves your opponent with no other choice than to switch in another member, thus giving you a free turn. Just make sure to take Lapras out of the battle before it faints from the third turn of Perish Song as well!
Gyarados
With how easy grinding is in Sword and Shield, it’s a no-brainer to fish for a wild Magikarp and simply leave it in your party until it EXP Shares up to level 20, where it evolves in. At level 36, it learns the completely game-breaking move Dragon Dance, which is a stat-boosting move that ups the user’s speed and attack by one stage. A classic setup for any sweeping Pokémon, Dragon Dance is the bane of many competitive teams, meaning that the games’ AI has no clue what to do when you’re boosting up your Pokémon.
I found that Waterfall was the best move to pair with Dragon Dance, as it’s an 80 power move that both has a 1.5x STAB (same type attack bonus) multiplier for Gyarados, it can flinch, and is a physical move that will benefit from the boosted attack stat caused by Dragon Dance. I honestly thought Dragon Dance/Waterfall Gyarados was so broken that it was taking out my enjoyment of the game. I took it out of my team because it was making the game too easy. If you want one of the best Pokémon in Sword and Shield, then look no further than Gyarados.
Boldore
Boldore is one of my favorite gimmick Pokémon because of its Sturdy ability. Sturdy allows for the user to survive a move that would have ordinarily killed it at full health. With a failsafe Pokémon like Boldore on your team, I’m sure that the gears are already starting to turn in your head. There are some really cheap setups with Boldore (feel free to use its pre- or next evolutions; I just used Boldore because it was what was readily available en masse in the Wild Area) that you should fully take advantage of.
My favorite moveset for Sturdy Boldore is Stealth Rock/Protect/Bulldoze/Smack Down. I’d suggest leading any battle with Boldore so as to get out a Stealth Rock, which will take out half the health of the Champion’s Ace Pokémon Charizard (4x effective due to its Fire/Flying typing). After that, feel free to spam a Protect just to waste more of your opponent’s PP. If you instead choose to bring out your Boldore later on in the battle, have it use Bulldoze to lower your opponent’s speed (but only if it’s at full health). If you want to ground a Flying/Levitating Pokémon, use Smack Down. Stall with another Protect before you switch out. As you build your gimmick team, you might start to see the pattern here: Perish Song forces the opponent to switch out if they want to survive, and with Sleath Rock activated, all you really need to do to win is outlive your stronger opponent’s team.
Togekiss
Togekiss is one of my favorite Pokémon because of its Serene Grace ability, which increases the chances of additional effects of moves occurring. While it was known for using the flinching move Exrtrasensory, you’ll have to use Air Slash as your flinching move in this Gen, seeing as it no longer learns Extrasensory. To add insult to injury, have your Togekiss hold a King’s Rock, which gives an added chance of you flinching your opponent when they are hit by a move. I found that, over half of the time, I was flinching an opponent with Air Slash. It’s just that broken.
Togekiss is also one of the best Pokémon in Sword and Shield because it knows the move Yawn. Other than Spore, it is the only 100% accurate sleep move. It sets up nicely on a Pokémon that you want either switched out or put to sleep, as the two-turn activation starts to corner your opponent into some hard decisions. Togekiss is by far my favorite broken Pokémon on this list, and after you’ve trained up your own, you’ll see why.
Toxtricity
The difference between Toxtricity Amped Up and Low Key forms is that of his nature. While his model looks pretty different, he technically doesn’t have any stat changes in either form. However, his nature defines what he will look like. Depending on what sort of team you’re running, you may want to consider either the Amped Up form, which focuses more on the attack stat, or the Low Key form, which has a higher special attack stat. I would personally recommend the Low Key form, as his main means of attacking come from Boomburst, a 140 power 100% accuracy special move (…yeah, that’s broken).
To further add insult to injury, give Toxtricity the throat spray item, which will boost all of his sound moves by one stage. His Punk Rock ability further increases the power of his sound moves by 30% (and gives him an added resistance to sound type attacks). If you’re opting to use his Amped Up form, you can use attack based moves Thunderpunch and Poison Jab. He’s a frail glass cannon, with an emphasis on cannon. This is one of if not the best Poison-Type Pokémon (that would have been the perfect Sound-Type).
Galarian Corsola
Galarian Corsola is a very, very beefy Pokémon, and is likely one of the best stall Pokémon in Sword and Shield. Corsola’s biggest two buffs in Sword and Shield were her Type changes and her potential to evolve. Note: you should NOT evolve Corsola. If you give her an eviolite, she will be even more defensively tanky than Cursola. On top of the 50% boost on both defense and special defense stats, she loves to use the Strength Sap move. It heals her equivalent to the opponent’s attack, but at the same time, also lowers their attack stat. While Strength Sap has diminishing rewards, it will very quickly leave her opponent without a choice other than to switch out.
Corsola’s best ability is Cursed Body, which has a 30% chance of disabling a move that makes contact. Use Curse to sap opponents of 1/4 of their health per turn. Corsola should hold either a Sitrus Berry (restores 1/4 HP once HP falls below 1/2, which Curse does to Corsola), or the classic Leftovers. Will-O-Whisp is a must-have, as it not only sets up a Burn status for Hex’s double power, but also brings an opponent’s Attack stat down 50%. If you want to kill faster than Curse allows for, toss in a Night Shade or Whirlpool.
Best fossil in ‘Pokémon Sword’ and ‘Shield’
The best fossil combo in Pokémon Sword and Shield is by far Dracovish. Created by reviving the Fossilized Fish and Fossilized Drake fossils on Route 4, Dracovish is one of the most broken Pokémon in the entirety of the series’ meta. He has an 85 power Water-Type STAB move in Fishious Rend, but the brokenness of this Dragon Fish Pokémon continues even further. First off, he has mid-low speed. He needs at item to get him to hit first, seeing as Fishious Rend does 1.5x damage if it is used before the opponent. Also, his ability Strong Jaw increases the strength of all biting moves by 50 more percent.
With STAB, going before an opponent, and the Strong Jaw boost, this move does 85 power x 2.5. Add in a Rain Dance to bring that multiplier up to 3x, thus allowing it to rip (or rend) through anything in its path. The only setback is Dracovish’s middle defense and so-so special defense. If you’re able to one-hit-K.O. all of an opponent’s team with Fishious Rend spam, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. If you do have to switch him out, thankfully, other than Rain Dance, his setup is always available, without the need for any stat-boosting moves. Consider giving him a Choice Scarf to increase his speed so that his Fishious Rend will more often hit first to get that 1.5 boost. You can also opt to give Dracovish a Choice Band to up his attack even higher, which then allows for a Trick Room low speed setup.
Best Starter in ‘Pokémon Sword’ and ‘Shield’
Intelleon (which evolves from Sobble) is the best choice of Starter in Pokémon Sword and Shield, mostly because it is the fastest out of the three. Both Rillaboom and Cinderace are physical attackers. Intelleon has a special move focus that will set you up nicely for moves like Scald and Hydro Pump. Because its special attack and speed stats are relatively high, it’s a quick sweeper, but cannot take too heavy of a hit. At that, you shouldn’t have any trouble taking out any of the game’s enemy teams if you serve up the best set of STAB and coverage moves.
I’d suggest teaching Inteleon Snipe Shot if you don’t have easy access to Scald, along with Ice Beam to take out Dragon-Types. If you want to take out any Grass-Types that come your way, use either Ice Beam or Air Slash. You can give it U-turn to get Inteleon out of the battle if things get a little hairy, making this lizard a dynamic fighter that can take out nearly thing that comes its way. It would be best paired with an Electric-Type like Toxtricity to take full advantage of the U-turn switch.
Best Legendary Pokémon in ‘Pokémon Sword’ and ‘Shield’
Zacian is hands down the best Legendary in Pokémon Sword and Shield, and likely one of the best Pokémon in the titles. It is wicked fast, and is able to sweep through teams with his incredibly high attack stat. If you’re on the fence on which of the two versions to buy, I’d recommend Sword for him, unless you know someone that is willing to give you a Zacian from their Sword game. Ultimately, this makes Pokémon Sword better than Pokémon Shield. It can hold the Rusted Sword item, which changes his attack and speed stats to be even higher, along with adding a Steel Typing to his vanilla Fairy Typing. While the attack and speed boosts are nice, the weaknesses that he gains may turn you off from using him in its Crowned Sword form. At that, it looks cooler in his Crowned Sword form, and gaining Poison immunity is pretty attractive.
Whether or not you decide to use this Legendary in his regular or Crowned Sword form, it shouldn’t have much of a problem taking down anything in his path with Play Rough. If you give it the Rusty Sword held item, Iron Head move will transform into its signature move, the 100 power physical Steel-Type move Sacred Sword, which deals double damage to dynamaxed Pokémon. Close Combat and Psychic Fangs will give you better type coverage, making this heavy hitter quite the sweeper, and without the need for any setup.
Pseudo-legendary in ‘Pokémon Sword’ and ‘Shield’
Each Generation of Pokémon has a pseudo-Legendary Pokémon, with the previous ones being Dragonite, Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Goodra, and Kommo-O. While you do have pretty easy access to the overpowered Dragon-Type Haxorus in the Wild Area, if you’re looking to change things up, consider running a Dragapult on your team. As with Zacian and Inteleon, it’s a very, VERY fast Pokémon with incredible sweeping capabilities. With it boasting an incredible 142 base speed stat, you likely won’t run into another Pokémon in your story adventure that will be able to outspeed this literal nuke.
As Dragapult has two of its first evolution stored in its head, it comes equipped with the unique move Dragon Darts. This is a great move for any double battles, as it is a 50 power physical Dragon-Type move that hits both targets. If you want to add insult to injury, teach Dragapult Dragon Dance to rip through literally anything that comes your way, regardless of type matchups or move effectiveness. Phantom Force and Dragon Rush are some great STAB moves that will tear through most any typing, with Phantom Force working as a great stall move for Dynamax battles. Cut down an opponent’s attack stat with a Will-O-Whisp, or Breaking Swipe for a damaging attack-lowering STAB move. No matter which strategy you run, you’ll no doubt find that the best Pokémon in Sword and Shield may just be Dragapult.
The best competetive and gimmick Pokémon in ‘Sword’ and ‘Shield’
While this list is nowhere near comprehensive of all of the best Pokémon in Sword and Shield, these are simply my top picks that make for easy battles and quicker gameplay. What are some of your favorite gimmick Pokémon that help you get through the games’ stories? Do you have any suggestions for competitive Pokémon teams that ensure you’re the best of the best?
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