One of the inevitable consequences of releasing new generations of mainline Pokemon games is that the meta has to be established once more from scratch based on the most recent additions and the returning critters, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are no exception. Every generation has its outliers, a set of particularly powerful Pokemon that end up dominating the competitive format and tend to perform exceptionally well throughout the base game for different reasons. For example, Gen 8 included Dragapult, which not only made for one of the strongest Pokemon in competitive battles as a whole but also was a great pick to complete the main story and DLC content as fast as possible.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet pose an interesting case because there are multiple critters with exceptional battle capabilities, such as Espathra being a mini Blaziken due to its Speed Boost Hidden Ability or Spidops being an amazing support Pokemon. Pokemon Scarlet's Roaring Moon is also another emblematic example because it has Legendary-like stats, an amazing type combination, access to fantastic moves, and more, all of which were enough to already see it banned from competitive Pokemon battles. Another outlier that is starting to get the right attention is Garganacl, a pure Rock-type Pokemon that happens to have plenty of resources to be one of the best pocket monsters in Gen 9.
Why Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Garganacl is an Amazing Tank and Attacker
Garganacl is the final evolution of Nacli, a Pokemon that players run into fairly early into Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, as it can be found just east of Mesagoza before any major boss or Gym Badge in the game. This evolution line has exclusive access to an Ability called Purifying Salt, which halves all incoming Ghost-type damage and protects the user from status conditions entirely, both of which are great tools to have.
Immunity from status conditions is incredibly valuable in Pokemon games because it means that Garganacl can't be Poisoned, Burned, Paralyzed, Frozen, or Asleep, which are all big problems both in competitive and tough endgame battles. On top of that, Garganacl taking reduced damage from Ghost-type moves also helps immensely, especially when one factors in the fact that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players can reliably find a Ghost Tera type Naclstack in the wild that also knows the move Curse. Curse can be used by an evolved Garganacl to gain an Attack and a Defense boost, both of which are stats that this Pokemon really benefits from, and it can then be used offensively if Terastallization is used, as Curse works differently on Ghost critters.
Ghost is coincidentally a great Tera type for Garganacl, considering that Rock-type Pokemon are normally weak to Fighting, which instead cannot deal damage to Ghost-types. Ghost Pokemon are normally weak to Ghost and Dark, but because Garganacl's Ability makes it get 50% damage from Ghost-type moves, this would all combine for the Minecraft-like salt Pokemon to only be weak to Dark. On top of that, Garganacl has access to Heavy Slam, which deals increasingly more damage the higher the user's Defense stat is, which this Pokemon has already plenty of naturally, and can increase further with Curse and other moves, like Iron Defense.
Lastly, Garganacl is normally weak to both Water and Steel Pokemon due to being Rock-type, but it has an answer to both in the form of its signature move, Salt Cure. Salt Cure is a 40 base power move that deals residual damage at the end of every turn, but this damage is increased dramatically against Water and Steel-types, making Garganacl an incredibly powerful offensive and defensive Pokemon. Overall, there are not many scenarios where Garganacl is anything but amazing in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and players should not sleep on it.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.