Dartix is just plain dapper and we think we can all agree on that. Dartrix is a pokemon often overlooked with the type change of Decidueye. However, that does not mean that this pokemon is not still worth mentioning! The next in the Rowlet evolution line after Rowlet itself, Dartrix is Grass/Flying in type which is something that has been seen before with Tropius and the Hoppip line. It has the same abilities as the rest of its line. It was Overgrow as the standard ability and Long Reach as its hidden one. Being Grass/Flying means that it is weak to Fire, Poison, Flying, Rock, and 4x Weak to Ice. Well… what about his stats? Glad you asked.

Other than its speed at 52, the rest of the stats are in the 70s making this poke a good, solid mid-game pokemon. Late game would be difficult as Decidueye has more to work with, but Dartrix is not to be overlooked. It has a 78 in HP, a 75 in Attack and Defense, and a 70 in both Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense. Since it’s movepool pushes you towards physical attacks, let’s look at them. Leaf Blade is perfect for STAB while Brave Bird makes an excellent companion to it. Heal yourself up with Roost and lose that Rock weakness on that turn. Steel Wing or Shadow Claw with be another great ability to have. Unfortunately, it cannot learn anything that can help it with its nasty Ice weakness. So, beware.

Oricorio is the four-island bird Pokémon that will not only frustrate you as you track them down, but also infuriate you with their low catch rate of 45. It possesses the ability Dancer, which is triggered when anyone on the screen uses a move that ends in “Dance.” So, Quiver Dance, Swords Dance, Teeter Dance, etc. will all trigger this pokemon to do the same thing immediately after the original user uses the move. This meaning that say, if you used a Volcarona and it used Quiver Dance, so would Oricorio. As we said earlier it is on all four islands in different forms. Fire/Flying for Ula’Ula Island, Electric/Flying for Melemele Island, Psychic/Flying for Akala Island, and Ghost/Flying for Poni Island. You can also feed it the nectar from that respective island to make it change forms. The best typing is the Electric/Flying on as this comes with the least number of weaknesses. It only has to be aware of Ice and Rock Pokémon.

For its stats, it has a pretty good Sp. Attack Stat at 98 and a Speed at 93. Other than that, the rest of its stats are in the 70s. It is decent for early to mid-game, but late gym, it will find itself walled quickly. It does not learn a move at all that is tied to its non-Flying typing, but it does learn Revelation Dance at 40 which appears Normal-type but actually this move changes when it is used to the other typing of Oricorio. It also learns Roost which can be great tied with its 70 in both defenses. After that, Hurricane is good as an STAB move. The final move though is yours to choose carefully. Either some kind of Hidden Power move, Water, or Ice, and then either Baton Pass if you are planning on amassing stat boosts or U-turn which is great for getting you out when you know you are going to be walled. Early and mid-game Oricorio is great, but late-game and post-game, it will only shine in double battles where it can set up.

Toucannon is another new Pokémon that fits in with the Island theme for Pokémon this time around and clearly looks like it has walked off the box of a famous brand of children’s cereal. You can get Toucannon really early at level 28 as it is the final evolution of the Pikipek line. For once though, this is not the game’s standard Normal/Flying-type that you are forced to carry around. The choice is yours with this one. It is standardly weak to Electric, Ice, and Rock. It gets two fantastic abilities. One is Skill Link which makes all moves that hit 2-5 times always hit five times, and its Hidden Ability, Sheer Force which drops secondary effects from moves, but powers them up 33%. Let’s talk about what else is different with this bird: Stats.

Toucannon boasts an amazing 120 in Attack. This is amazing as the only other standard Flying-type Pokemon to have ever gotten this good of an attack was Staraptor in Generation IV. However, unlike Staraptor, it’s speed is abysmally slow. It only gets a 60 in speed so you have to rely on your two defenses both at 75 to make yourself bulky enough to hit hard to survive. Thankfully, you can Roost your way to staying alive, but you have to be careful. With Skill Link, Bullet Seed and Rock Blast will always hit five times which can be good since not everything resists rock. Though if you are going to do that, you need Swords Dance and at least a turn or two to make your attack astonishing while not dying. You could forego Swords Dance for Beak Blast but then for anything that resists Flying type, this move is wasted. Be careful what you wish for.

Minior is a brand new unique Pokémon that is Rock/Flying-type. This affords it some unique moves, stats, look, and setup. For starters, all Minior start out in Meteor form which allows it to have high Defenses while having lower Attacks and Speed. In this form, it looks like standard meteor. Its ability is Shields Down where when its HP drops below 50%, the brown parts break off and it exposes its core. In this core form, the Defenses and Attacks stats swap and its Speed doubles to 120. Now you have more to work with for sure. You just have to survive attacks. Also, it’s pretty cool to note that there are seven different core colors. Due to its typing, it needs to be careful around Water, Electric, Ice, Rock, and Steel. Thankfully though, you can hit hard back against most of these types.

Minior is best in Shields Down form but you do have to tread lightly. Acrobatics is the only Flying STAB move you can have it learn, so do so and make sure it’s not holding anything if you can. Stone Edge for STAB is great. You would be a fool to not to have it learn Earthquake with its 100 in Attack. U-turn is great to get out of bad situations where Water-types could check you. Either way, this quirky Pokémon is a lot a fun to play around with.

Celesteela is one of the unique Ultra Beasts and is a floating bamboo-sort of monster. It is Steel/Flying in type and it is a better Skarmory. Here is why. Being Steel-type means that it is going to wall most attacks lobbed at it. Flying-type gets rid of the Steel weakness to ground. Steel naturally has a slew of resistances and is very much a good typing when paired with Flying. It also will, since it is an Ultra Beast, end up in the OU or Uber category for battling. This is good news as it’s two weaknesses of Fire and Electric are not as common as Ghost, Water, Dragon and Fairy. It also resists Dragon and Fairy. This Pokémon also comes with Beast Boost which allows it to have its highest stat raised when it takes out another Pokémon. Good news for you, is that its highest stat naturally is its Sp. Attack at 107. The Defense is a 103 while Attack and Sp. Defense are 101. HP is really close at 97 too.

For Celesteela to succeed, you have to rely on its bulk and count on it almost always going second. For that, a healing move like Leech Seed is good and Protect can be there to allow it to heal itself up while driving your foes insane. Heavy Slam is a good idea since this metal monstrosity is merely 0.1kg away from weighing a tonne. This also makes it have an STAB move. Flying STAB is really not all that necessary as a Steel STAB will hit everything save for Electric, Fire, Steel, and Water who resist it for ½ damage. You can choose to go with another Sp. Attack based move like Flamethrower to guarantee to hit hard or you can make this stall hardcore with Toxic making your Celesteela a double drainer. You could forego Leech Seed for Giga Drain, but then you cannot guarantee healing each turn. Either way though, taking this down is going to be very difficult.