Look up in the sky—it’s a bird; no, it’s a dragon. Well, both of those guesses are right, since we’re talking about Flying-type Pokémon after all.
Don’t you ever want to escape your dull, mundane lives and be as free as the birds up in the sky, soaring wherever they please to their heart’s content? Flying-type Pokémon are living the life we dream of, and the best we can do is fulfill our dreams vicariously.
We can also celebrate these wonderful airborne Pokémon by talking about the 10 best new and returning Flying-type Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, based on their design, lore, and competitive viability.
The 10 best Flying-type Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
10) Squawkabilly
Squawkabilly is honestly a pretty forgettable design if it only wasn’t for the legendary pompadour that it rocks on its head that rivals the one Elvis had back in the day. It’s simply what saves this Normal/Flying dual-type.
In the Paldea region, Squawkabilly has replaced Corviknight in operating the Flying Taxi service. The Pokémon Tinkaton happens to be the mortal enemy of Corviknight and frequently try to knock them down from the sky by pelting rocks at them with their huge hammer, which is probably why Squawkabilly had to take over the Flying Taxi service in Paldea, which is honestly super funny and makes for a cool way of fleshing out the world of Paldea and Pokémon as a whole.
Squawkabilly also gets access to some amazing abilities in Intimidate, Sheer Foce, and Guts, along with neat pivoting supportive options like Parting Shot and Tailwind, but its lackluster stats and middling Speed leave a lot to desire.
9) Pelipper
While Pelipper isn’t really a universally-loved Pokémon, nor is it the strongest in battle or the most well-designed, it does do one thing really well: set up the Rain weather condition.
With Politoed not being in the game currently, Pelipper automatically becomes the premier Rain-setter if you want to go anti-meta against all the Torkoals running around and build a Rain team.
With Pelipper’s defenses and typing, you’d usually want to run a Focus Sash on it so it can at least set up a Tailwind before dying.
8) Flamigo
Probably one of the laziest designs and name choices at first glance, Flamigo literally looks like a plain Flamingo while having a name that is also far from being creative. But if you get over those aspects, you will learn that its true potential lies in battle.
Flamigo possesses its signature ability Costar, which makes it so that when it enters the field, it copies its ally’s stat changes. This ability suddenly shoots the very forgettable Flamigo into serious threat territory, letting it come onto the field after its teammate has set up a Belly Drum or a couple of Swords Dances, immediately copying their stat changes.
The most common way Flamigo has been run is with Dondozo and Tatsugiri as its partner, letting it copy Dondozo’s double omniboost and sweep the opponent’s team with its beefed-out Catfish partner.
7) Talonflame
Talonflame was a real menace back in Gen VI when it was introduced. Gale Wings—its signature ability—gave Talonflame a +1 priority on all of its Flying moves, regardless of its condition, which was pretty broken.
Now, Talonflame has had Gale Wings nerfed where its Flying moves will only have priority when it remains at full health. Along with Talonflame’s pretty mediocre stats, the ability nerf has made it so that this Fire/Flying dual-type turned out pretty balanced.
6) Corviknight
There’s not much to say about Corviknight: it’s a cool bird clad in metal that towers at a height over seven feet tall. What’s there not to like?
It has a slick and simple design that is very reminiscent of Generation I, mixing equal portions of epic and intimidating into one regional bird.
Corviknight also has great potential in the current Season one metagame of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, so make sure to keep this bird in your list of potential threats when teambuilding.
5) Gyarados
Probably one of the most awesome Flying-type Pokémon ever created, introduced back during the glory days of Pokémon Red and Blue, which has also left fans with a burning question in their minds: how is Gyarados even a Flying-type type though?
The answer lies within the origins of this Pokémon’s concept. Gyarados is based on the Chinese legend about how a carp that leaped over the Dragon Gate would turn into a dragon, and we all know dragons can fly. And look at Gyarados, its design also clearly supports the theory that it is a dragon, but then why isn’t it a Dragon type? Well, Charizard isn’t a Dragon-type Pokémon either, but it has been confirmed to be a dragon. This is Pokémon logic, after all.
Gyarados is also having a swell time in the competitive scene of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, as it is incredibly useful with its Ground immunity, its access to the ability Intimidate, and its wide supportive movepool in Taunt, Icy Wind, Thunder Wave, and so on. You can also turn on the offensive and make it into a sweeper with Dragon Dance; this Pokémon is very flexible.
4) Kilowattrel
Kilowattrel is Generation IX’s early-route regional bird, and it’s quite a satisfactory creation by Game Freak. Its dual-typing in Electric and Flying is amazing defensively, only leaving it with two weaknesses and a bunch of handy resistances.
Moreover, Kilowattrel has three amazing abilities, all of which have their use cases. Volt Absorb lets you be immune to Electric moves which also heal you; Competitive gives it a +2 boost to your Special Attack stat when any of Kilowattrel’s stats are lowered, which is amazing in VGC where Intimidate is omnipresent, and Wind Power is a new ability introduced in Gen IX that makes Kilowattrel charged when it gets hit by a wind move, or when Tailwind is active.
The charged status makes Kilowattrel’s next Electric move hit with increased damage, giving it a strong nuke after it has boosted its team’s Speeds with Tailwind.
3) Salamence
Salamence is everything you would want in a Pokémon. It’s badass, it’s strong, and it’s intimidating; no, literally, it possesses the ability Intimidate, which happens to be amazing in competitive VGC, by the way.
Intimidate lets it come onto the field and neuter physical attackers on the opponent’s side of the field, and then either set up with Dragon Dance, fire off strong Draco Meteors and other coverage moves with a Special set, or just pivot out and save itself for the next time it needs to Intimidate something on the opposing team.
Salamence with its Dragon Dance set can be especially threatening in Scarlet and Violet since with Terrastalization, the opponent will be less like to succeed in bringing out a counter and knocking your Salamence out in one shot when you can Terrastalize defensively and keep the momentum on your side.
2) Dragonite
The OG pseudo-Legendary released back in Generation I, Dragonite has seen some play historically in VGC but has fallen in usage over the years. In Scarlet and Violet, however, Dragonite seems to be making an unexpected comeback.
With great bulk, decent Speed, and an overpowering Attack stat in combination with Terrastalization, Dragonite can Terrastalize into the Normal type and fire off STAB, priority Extreme Speeds and whittle down the opponent’s side of the field in no time.
Dragonite also has the ability Inner Focus, which means it cannot be Intimidated to let it continue its reign of terror freely.
1) Charizard
We always talk about Pikachu being the face of Pokémon and the most loved ‘mon of all time, but Charizard may just give Pikachu stiff competition for that title, and you can even argue that it is, in fact, the most loved Pokémon of all time.
Let us first talk about how Charizard was the only one among the three Generation I starters to get its shiny form updated. If we’re being real, all three original starters had ugly shinies, but Game Freak only decided to update Charizard’s shiny into a super cool-looking one. We wonder why.
Then with the advent of Mega Evolution, it was no surprise that Charizard got a Mega Evolution. After all, if Blastoise and Venusaur get one, why wouldn’t Charizard, right? Except that Charizard not only got one, but two different Mega Evolutions in Mega Charizard X and Mega Charizard Y. Alright Game Freak, we get it, you and the fanbase love Charizard.
But that’s not it, Generation VIII saw Charizard get its own Gigantamax form as well, and then moving on to Gen XI with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Charizard was the second Pokémon line to get into the games through its own special Tera Raid Battle event, before its Grass and Water-type starter partners. Talk about being Pokémon’s favorite brainchild.
Charizard is also pretty strong in the competitive scene, simply due to its ability Solar Power that gives it a 50 percent Special Attack boost in harsh sunlight, making its move—especially Fire-type ones—hit like absolute nukes.
For all of these reasons, Charizard definitely takes the No. 1 spot on our list.
