From the ancient monsters of Pokémon Scarlet to the futuristic creatures of Pokémon Violet, Paradox Pokémon have offered unique twists on several returning Pokémon from previous generations. Recently, trainers unlocked the opportunity to take on the Suicune-inspired Walking Wake and the Virizion-inspired Iron Leaves for the first time.
The Pokémon Company has not confirmed when these Paradox Pokémon will become available in official Video Game Championship Doubles tournaments. Nevertheless, for players looking to practice with these powerful Pokémon now, here’s what to know about the best Nature for Iron Leaves in Pokémon Violet.
Best Nature for Iron Leaves
Iron Leaves’ worst stat is its Special Attack, meaning it should never run special moves. For this reason, the best Nature for Iron Leaves in Pokémon Violet will be one that lowers its already unimportant Special Attack. Meanwhile, the Pokémon boasts high Attack and Speed stats, both of which would be fine to emphasize.
As a result, there are two solid options for this Paradox Pokémon’s Nature: Adamant and Jolly. An Adamant Iron Leaves sacrifices Special Attack for a higher Attack stat, while a Jolly one trades in some of its Special Attack for more Speed.
When choosing between the Adamant and Jolly Natures, it’s important to consider your Iron Leaves’ moveset and its role on your team. For example, an Iron Leaves with Swords Dance is able to raise its Attack over the course of the battle, so it might prefer to start the battle with a bit more Speed by having a Jolly Nature.
On the other hand, if you give your Iron Leaves a Choice Band or Choice Scarf, it will be locked into using one move until it switches out. This means that it will be unable to make use of any status moves. As a result, a Choice-locked Iron Leaves would benefit from the extra damage output that an Adamant Nature can provide.
How to use the Grass/Psychic-type
The simplest game plan for using Iron Leaves revolves around setting up with Swords Dance. The best Nature for this Iron Leaves is Jolly. After raising its Attack, it can then do massive damage with attacks like Psyblade and Close Combat. With these two moves, Iron Leaves can hit every type in the game for neutral damage except for Psychic. Since it already resists Psychic-type moves, it can afford to run Protect as its fourth and final move.
Iron Leaves thrives in Electric Terrain since it causes Psyblade to do more damage and it activates Iron Leaves’ Ability, Protosynthesis, granting it an automatic boost to its highest stat (which should be Attack or Speed, depending on how you train your Iron Leaves). Unfortunately for Iron Leaves, there is not a good Electric Terrain setter in the current format. As a result, an Iron Leaves with Swords Dance should hold the Booster Energy, which allows its Ability to activate automatically.
You could also use an Adamant Iron Leaves that is specifically designed to counter enemy Walking Wake. This Iron Leaves should hold the Assault Vest, which raises its Special Defense while preventing it from using status moves. Since a Timid Walking Wake should outspeed Iron Leaves anyways, this Adamant Iron Leaves should invest most heavily in Attack and Special Defense.
Even in the sun, Walking Wake has a low chance of knocking out a specially bulky Iron Leaves with two Flamethrowers. Meanwhile, Iron Leaves can reliably two-hit KO Walking Wake with Solar Blade and can potentially one-hit KO it if Electric Terrain has activated its Quark Drive Ability. Alongside Psyblade and Close Combat, this Iron Leaves should also know Trailblaze, a weaker Grass-type move that raises Iron Leaves’ Speed by one stage each time it is used.
