Six Pokemon have changed their final-stage typing and stats since 2022, and only one batch of them is actually a new species. Scarlet and Violet’s Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly lines finished evolving into Meowscarada, Skeledirge, and Quaquaval back in November 2022 — the last time Game Freak designed starter Pokemon from scratch. Everything since has been Mega Evolution: Pokemon Legends: Z-A revived Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile from Johto and handed their final forms Mega Stones that rewrite their types and stats entirely.
Rank all six the way the games actually score them — final base stat total (BST) and defensive typing — and the result isn’t close. A 22-year-old starter running a brand-new Mega form beats every Gen 9 original by nearly 100 stat points and cuts its type weaknesses down to two.
Two Different Kinds of "New" Starter
"New Pokemon starter" means one of two things right now, and most rankings only cover half of it. Meowscarada, Skeledirge, and Quaquaval are new species — designs that didn’t exist before Scarlet and Violet. Mega Meganium, Mega Emboar, and Mega Feraligatr are new forms of 27-year-old Pokemon, revealed for Legends: Z-A between late 2025 and early 2026, with types and stat spreads that have never existed on those species before[7][9][11].
Both count as "new" for a September 2026 ranking, and comparing them head-to-head is the actual gap in every other list — competitor articles either rank Gen 9’s trio in isolation or treat the Legends: Z-A Megas as their own separate story. None of them puts a Gen 9 starter and a Legends: Z-A Mega starter on the same table with the same two numbers.
One more thing worth flagging before the ranking: none of these six needs a trade to reach its current form. Sprigatito’s line evolves by level-up like any other starter, and the three Legends: Z-A Megas just need their Mega Stone equipped in battle. That’s not true of every strong Pokemon — plenty of the game’s best options only finish evolving through a trade, and our guide to every trade evolution workaround covers how to get around that without a second Switch.
The Two-Number Method: BST and Weakness Count
Base stat total tells you a Pokemon’s raw ceiling, but it says nothing about how hard that Pokemon is to switch into. This ranking uses BST alongside a second, harder number: the count of types that deal 2x or 4x damage on the defensive side, pulled directly from each Pokemon’s own type combination[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][9][11]. Fewer weakness-types means fewer switch-ins that punish you for free, and it’s the single stat that separates the best defensive typing among these six from the worst by a factor of three and a half.
Checked Mega Feraligatr’s weakness count twice before trusting it — two weaknesses total is unheard of for any starter final form, let alone one running a 630 BST. That combination doesn’t exist anywhere else in the starter pool, old or new.
The Type Triangle Survives, Just Barely
Every starter trio since 1996 has run the same core loop: Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire, Fire beats Grass. Secondary typing is what actually decides who wins a real matchup, and Gen 9 and Legends: Z-A took that idea in opposite directions.
Scarlet and Violet paired each starter with a type that widens its answers: Dark on the Grass-type (immune to Psychic, hits Ghost- and Psychic-types that usually wall Grass), Ghost on the Fire-type (immune to Normal and Fighting, a rare defensive profile for a Fire Pokemon), and Fighting on the Water-type (hits Steel and Rock for super-effective damage that pure Water can’t touch)[1][2][3]. The trade-off is exposure: every one of those secondary types also drags in new weaknesses, which is why the Gen 9 trio’s weakness counts run from five to seven.
Legends: Z-A went the other way. Fairy on the Grass-type creates a brutal 4x weakness to Poison but also shuts down Dragon, Fighting, and Dark entirely on defense[7][8]. Dragon on the Water-type is the extreme version of that same bet — it trades away Water’s usual Electric and Grass weaknesses for exactly two remaining answers, Dragon and Fairy, because Water and Dragon’s resistances overlap almost perfectly[11][12][14]. Fire/Fighting on the third slot barely changed at all — Mega Emboar keeps the same four weaknesses the base form already had, just with much bigger numbers behind them[9][10][13].
Every New Starter Final Form, Ranked 6 to 1
Mega Feraligatr tops this list on both numbers at once — highest BST and fewest weaknesses — which almost never happens in the same Pokemon. The table below has the full spread; the breakdown after it explains why each entry lands where it does.
| Rank | Pokemon | Type | Final BST | Weaknesses | Best for / Skip if |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mega Feraligatr | Water/Dragon | 630 | 2 (Dragon, Fairy) | Best for: switching in against almost anything. Skip if: you don’t have Legends: Z-A post-game access to the Mega Stone. |
| 2 | Mega Emboar | Fire/Fighting | 628 | 4 (Ground, Water, Flying, Psychic) | Best for: breaking through ability-reliant walls with Mold Breaker. Skip if: you’re facing a Water- or Flying-heavy team. |
| 3 | Mega Meganium | Grass/Fairy | 625 | 6, incl. 4x Poison | Best for: support/sun teams via Mega Sol. Skip if: the opponent runs any Poison-type coverage. |
| 4 | Skeledirge | Fire/Ghost | 530 | 5, immune to Normal & Fighting | Best for: Unaware wallbreaking, ignoring boosted foes. Skip if: you need raw Speed — Skeledirge’s 66 is the slowest of the six. |
| 5 | Quaquaval | Water/Fighting | 530 | 5, no immunities | Best for: Moxie snowballing after a KO. Skip if: you’re playing around Psychic- or Fairy-type answers. |
| 6 | Meowscarada | Grass/Dark | 530 | 7, incl. 4x Bug | Best for: reactive matchups via Protean. Skip if: you want a Pokemon that’s simply hard to hit — it isn’t. |
The single biggest takeaway from that table: raw stats and defensive typing don’t always agree, and Meowscarada is the clearest proof — it has the worst defensive numbers of the six but the highest competitive usage of the Gen 9 trio anyway.
Mega Feraligatr (630 BST) earns the top spot on both halves of the method. Water/Dragon is weak to only Dragon and Fairy — nothing else in the game hits it for 2x or 4x damage — because Water and Dragon’s resistance lists overlap on almost everything else[11][12][14]. Add a 160 Attack stat and the signature ability Dragonize, which converts Normal-type moves into boosted Dragon-type attacks, and it’s both the hardest of the six to switch into and one of the hardest-hitting[11][12]. For scale, that 630 BST sits close to Mega Charizard territory — see our best Charizard nature and moveset breakdown for how a similarly stat-boosted Mega plays out on offense.
Mega Emboar (628 BST) keeps the same Fire/Fighting typing and four weaknesses the base form has always had, but Mold Breaker changes what that typing means in practice — it ignores abilities like Levitate and Flash Fire that would otherwise neutralize Emboar’s Ground and Fire-type attacks[9][10]. That’s a stat-sheet-invisible advantage: two Pokemon with identical type charts can play completely differently once one of them stops caring what the other’s ability does.
Mega Meganium (625 BST) has the best offensive stat on this list — 143 Special Attack — but Fairy typing turns Poison into a 4x weakness, the single worst matchup any Pokemon on this ranking has to play around[7][8]. Mega Sol guarantees sun-boosted damage regardless of the actual weather, which makes Meganium a genuine sun-team option even without a dedicated weather setter, but that 4x Poison weakness caps how far it climbs.
Skeledirge (530 BST) is the strongest defensive pick among the Gen 9 trio. Fire/Ghost is immune to both Normal and Fighting — a defensive combination no other starter on this list has — and Unaware lets it ignore any stat boosts an opponent has already stacked, which turns it into a reliable answer to setup sweepers[2][5]. The trade-off is Speed: 66 base is the slowest final stage checked here, so Skeledirge wins by outlasting, not outpacing.
Quaquaval (530 BST) hits harder on paper — 120 Attack backed by Water/Fighting STAB covers Steel and Rock-types that plain Water can’t touch — but it’s the only Pokemon on this list with zero type immunities, and Psychic plus Fairy are both common answers in the current metagame[3][6]. Moxie turns every knockout into a bigger attack stat, which is exactly the kind of snowball that punishes teams for letting it get a single kill.
Meowscarada (530 BST) finishes last on the defensive numbers — seven weakness-types, including a 4x hole to Bug — but it’s also the most-used of the Gen 9 trio in competitive Overused play, at 2.328% usage in July 2026 versus Skeledirge’s 0.814% and Quaquaval’s 0.680%[15]. The reason is Protean: its hidden ability changes Meowscarada’s own type to match whatever move it just used, which means the seven weaknesses in the table only apply while it’s still sitting as Grass/Dark — the moment it attacks, its typing (and therefore its weaknesses) resets. A 123 Speed stat means it’s usually the one choosing when that reset happens, not the opponent.
Which One Should You Actually Use?
The right pick depends on what you’re playing, and the four player types below want genuinely different answers — not the same recommendation with different wording.
| Player type | Priority |
|---|---|
| New player | Whichever Legends: Z-A starter you picked at the start — the Mega Stones aren’t available until Mission 10, so there’s no early decision to make. In Scarlet/Violet, Quaquaval’s Water/Fighting typing is the most forgiving early matchup spread of the three. |
| Casual player | Mega Feraligatr if you own Legends: Z-A — two weaknesses means fewer fights where you have to think about a bad matchup. If you’re Scarlet/Violet-only, Skeledirge’s double immunity does the same job on a smaller scale. |
| Hardcore / competitive | Meowscarada for Smogon OU or VGC — Protean plus 123 Speed outperforms its raw type chart, and the July 2026 usage numbers back that up[15]. The Legends: Z-A Megas aren’t currently legal in mainline Smogon formats. |
| Completionist | All three Legends: Z-A Mega Stones are purchasable post-game for 100,000 Pokedollars each after the story unlocks them, so there’s no reason to skip any of the three once you’ve finished Mission 10. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which new Pokemon starter has the best stats?
Mega Feraligatr, at a 630 base stat total, edges out Mega Emboar (628) and Mega Meganium (625) for the highest raw stat ceiling of any starter final form checked here — new species or Mega form[7][9][11]. All three Legends: Z-A Megas sit roughly 95-100 points above the Gen 9 trio’s shared 530 BST, because Mega Evolution stat boosts are simply larger than a normal generational stat increase.
Do the Legends: Z-A Mega starters count as "new" Pokemon?
Their species aren’t new — Meganium, Emboar, and Feraligatr have existed since Generation 2 — but their Mega forms are: Grass/Fairy, unchanged Fire/Fighting, and Water/Dragon respectively did not exist on those Pokemon before Legends: Z-A revealed them in late 2025[7][9][11]. For a ranking about what changed most recently, a brand-new type combination and stat spread counts, even on an old species.
Why does Meowscarada rank last if it’s the most competitively used?
Because this ranking scores raw type-chart weaknesses, not how well an ability compensates for them. Meowscarada’s Grass/Dark typing genuinely is weak to seven types on paper[4] — Protean doesn’t change that chart, it lets Meowscarada swap out of it after attacking. That’s a real strength, just not one the BST-and-weakness-count method measures directly, which is exactly why the usage-stat callout sits right next to the ranking instead of silently overriding it.
Sources
- Pokemon Database. Meowscarada Pokedex: stats, moves, evolution & locations
- Pokemon Database. Skeledirge Pokedex: stats, moves, evolution & locations
- Pokemon Database. Quaquaval Pokedex: stats, moves, evolution & locations
- PokeStop.io. Meowscarada Weakness & Strengths
- PokeStop.io. Skeledirge Weakness & Strengths
- PokeStop.io. Quaquaval Weakness & Strengths
- Bulbapedia. Meganium (Pokemon) — Mega Meganium, Pokemon Legends: Z-A
- Dexerto. Mega Meganium in Pokemon Legends Z-A
- Bulbapedia. Emboar (Pokemon) — Mega Emboar, Pokemon Legends: Z-A
- Dexerto. Mega Emboar in Pokemon Legends Z-A
- Bulbapedia. Feraligatr (Pokemon) — Mega Feraligatr, Pokemon Legends: Z-A
- Dexerto. Mega Feraligatr in Pokemon Legends Z-A
- PokeStop.io. Emboar Weakness & Strengths
- PokeStop.io. Kingdra Weakness & Strengths
- Smogon Forums. Usage-Based Tier Update for July 2026
Verified against Pokemon Scarlet/Violet (post-Indigo Disk patch) and Pokemon Legends: Z-A base game data, September 2026. Mega Evolution stats and abilities may be adjusted in future patches or in a Pokemon Champions competitive ruleset — check in-game before relying on exact numbers for a live match.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.