Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: Larry

Scarlet and Violet are still pretty fresh in my mind, but I didn’t really run into many challenges in my journey through Paldea’s open world. So when it comes to who is the most challenging gym leader in the latest games, I mainly think back on Larry, the king of the working class, who is one of the best examples of the game’s terastalyzing mechanic. He uses a Starapator, which is a normal and flying-type Pokémon, but when he uses his tera orb, he changes it into a simple normal-type Pokémon. What makes this tricky is the only attacks that weaken a normal Pokémon are fighting moves, and because Starapator has Aerial Ace, it can deal some real damage to whatever fighting-type Pokémon you use to counter it. Your easiest course of action would be to teach a fighting move to a non-fighting Pokémon, but you could also terastalize a fighting-type Pokémon into an element that would be able to withstand Aerial Ace.

It’s not a huge challenge, but it is one of the best examples of how the terastal phenomenon can fundamentally change how you approach a Pokémon, rather than how most of the games’ gimmicks end up being a simple power boost. Larry forces your hand by using the mechanics in a competitively viable way, rather than just showing it off because it’s the Paldea region’s distinct flavor.