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Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trailer introduces Cyclizar, new battle mechanics, and more

A new trailer for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet revealed at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Pokémon World Championship shows off a brand new Pokémon, Cyclizar, as well as the new Battle Stadium and some fresh moves and mechanics.

Competitive Play Trailer | Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

The Competitive Play trailer shows off the new Dragon/Normal type Pokémon Cyclizar using a new move called Shed Tail. When used, Cyclizar will deploy a substitute onto the field that can tank some damage, then swap out for another Pokémon in the trainer’s party. It seems like a solid competitive move for players worried about taking a lot of damage when they switch a new Pokémon in. The trailer also unveiled the Terastallized forms of Breloom and Tyranitar, with the latter gaining a Tera Type of Ghost. New items revealed include the Mirror Herb, which lets a Pokémon copy their opponent’s stat increases during battle, and Loaded Dice, which increases the number of times that multi-hit moves will hit.

While only a little bit of this is seen in the trailer, the games’ website fully unveils Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s multiplayer Battle Stadium. This mode will include four main options: Casual Battles, Ranked Battles, Online Competitions, and Rental Teams. Casual Battles allow for any Pokémon to be used, but no stats are tracked. Ranked Battles do track and update your rankings into a tiered system, with Master Ball Tier being the highest. Online Competitions have two subcategories: Official Competitions and Friendly Competitions. Official Competitions have specific conditions you must follow to compete them, while Friendly Competitions let you host your own tournaments. Finally, Rental Teams lets players share and borrow opponent’s Pokémon teams in battle through shared IDs.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are scheduled to release on November 18 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

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