5 Pokemon that need evolutions in Winds and Waves
Today, we’ve listed off five weak Pokemon that deserve some time in the spotlight with a new evolution. It’s possible we could see a Paldea Pokemon receive its own evolution, but for the sake of the list, we’ve kept it limited to Pokemon that have been around for more than a single generation.
Now that Pokemon Winds and Waves have been revealed, it’s time for the fun part: speculating! Pokemon Scarlet and Violet introduced a whole bunch of new evolutions for old Pokemon, so it’s safe to assume Pokemon Winds and Waves will do the same.
Carnivine
This is one of the most forgotten Sinnoh Pokemon out there, and it’s one of my personal favorites. It’s available in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as well as Pokemon Legends: Arceus, but it’s very difficult to catch in the first game because it’s exclusive to the Safari Zone – so you likely won’t add it to your team unless you know to look for it.
Carnivine is a pure Grass-type venus fly trip Pokemon with Levitate as its ability, so it’s immune to Ground-type moves. But it’s very underwhelming: it’s got a somewhat decent-ish base 100 Attack, middling defenses, and low Speed. And notably, Carnivine has skipped two main series generations in a row, being absent in Sword and Shield and Scarlet and Violet. It’s always been outclassed by other Grass-types – it usually runs Sleep Powder and physical moves like Power Whip and Knock Off, but plenty of other Grass-types do that better and have an Attack stat much higher than 100.
A Carnivine evolution could grow multiple heads, and maybe it could have a new ability that makes it immune to Bug-type moves instead of weak to them as it currently is. Many of Scarlet and Violet’s new evolutions added around 60 base stat total points, so with that in mind, here’s what we’d pick for a Carnivine evolution’s new stat spread: 94 HP, 140 Attack, 82 Defense, 90 Sp. Attack, 82 Sp. Defense, and 26 Speed. For this, we doubled down on Carnivine’s low Speed and drastically increased its Attack. This, paired with a Bug immunity (or perhaps Arena Trap if you really want to get crazy) could make Carnivine a much more viable Pokemon.
Tropius
Continuing the trend of Grass-types, we’ve got Tropius next, who is one of the saddest Pokemon to ever exist. On the surface, Tropius is a cheerful banana dinosaur Pokemon. What’s not to love? The answer: everything about it, competitively.
Its Grass/Flying typing leaves Tropius quadruple weak to Ice, and weak to Flying, Fire, Rock, and Poison-type moves. For an evolution, Tropius could become gigantic and change its type to Grass/Dragon instead. We’d bump up all its stats to 110 HP, 80 Attack, 90 Defense, 120 Sp. Attack, 100 Sp. Defense, and 30 Speed. You could even give it a signature move that attacks opponents with rotten banana mush, taking a page out of Donkey Kong Bananza. It could be a Dragon-type move that poisons the opponent as a secondary effect, or perhaps lower its Speed instead. For abilities, you could keep Harvest and Solar Power, and maybe even introduce a new ability that doubles the effectiveness of healing moves like Synthesis or Leech Seed. That one might be a little broken, but I’d personally love to see a Tropius evolution at the top instead of boring old Incineroar.
Ledian
Ledian is, without a doubt, at the top of its class in weakness. Its Bug/Flying typing makes it quadruple weak to Rock-type moves and Stealth Rock, as well as weak to Fire, Ice, Electric, and Flying-type moves. It also has some of the worst stats of any fully-evolved Pokemon in the game, with an awful base 55 HP, 35 Attack, 50 Defense, and 55 Sp. Attack. It deals no damage whatsoever despite being themed around punches, so it’s going to need an ability like Huge Power to double its attack stat.
We’re boosting its stats up to 65 HP, 55 Attack, 70 Defense, 55 Sp. Attack, 130 Sp. Defense, and 95 Speed. With Huge Power, 55 Attack isn’t bad at all – it’s actually very strong, especially with a Choice Band. You could give the evolution a superhero motif. What Ledian really needs, though, is an evolution and then a Mega Evolution of that evolution. But the ship has probably sailed there.
Swoobat
Moving on to some more unconventional picks, we’ve got Swoobat, which isn’t currently confirmed for Pokemon Winds and Waves. But it’s kind of a Unova equivalent of Zubat, which has three evolution stages. Swoobat is currently the final form, and it’s not a very good one.
First up, we’re buffing its stats to 87 HP, 57 Attack, 65 Defense, 97 Sp. Attack, 75, Sp. Defense, and 109 Speed. New Pokemon evolutions generally add fewer base stat total points than a Mega Evolution does, so we took some points in Speed to buff up its dreadful defenses (which are normally 55 each). For abilities, it’ll keep Unaware and Simple, but Klutz will be replaced with Fluffy. This Pokemon would make even better use of Calm Mind with its increased stats – you could go with Fluffy to boost its physical defense, or Simple to increase Calm Mind’s effectiveness. As it stands, though, Swoobat is extremely underwhelming, besides its 114 Speed which is good.
Wailord
Wailord has been shown for Pokemon Winds and Waves, and social media has been coming up with some great ideas for a Wailord evolution. The best one I’ve seen has been for an evolution that resembles the Wind Fish from Zelda: Link’s Awakening, which can fly through the air as though it were swimming. If this were real, it’d likely be Water/Psychic-type or Water/Fairy-type.
For our pretend stat spread, we’re keeping its HP the same at 170, and reducing its Attack to 50. We’re boosting its Defense from 45 to 80, its Sp. Attack from 90 to 110, its Sp. Defense from 45 to 80, and its Speed from 60 to 80. This kind of bulk alongside a Water/Fairy type might actually be too good, so we’re going to keep its somewhat underwhelming abilities of Water Veil, Oblivious, and Pressure.
So those are our five picks! Pokemon Scarlet and Violet introduced new evolutions for Girafarig, Bisharp, Primeape, and Dunsparce, so we’re bound to see a couple in Pokemon Winds and Waves.
Do you agree with our choices? Should we have made a more realistic prediction by including ideas for a Charizard evolution? Let us know in the comments down below.
