Each Paradox Pokemon inherits one of the types of its original form which results in some having much better type combos than others. Flutter Mane, for example, retains Misdreavus’ Ghost-type while adding the fantastic Fairy type giving it only two weaknesses and a whopping three immunities. Scream Tail’s Psychic/Fairy-typing is far from bad, however, it doesn’t capitalize on its Psychic abilities enough to make it useful. Instead, keeping Jigglypuff’s Normal-typing while adding the Ghost type could have made Scream Tail much more powerful, putting it alongside the ranks of Hisuian Zoroark as one of the few mons using this incredible type combo.
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Scream Tail’s Stats and Movepool Don’t Take Advantage of Its Psychic-Type
With the combo of the Psychic and Fairy types, this Paradox Pokemon nets only two resistances—Psychic and Fighting—and one immunity—Dragon. This limited defensive match-up doesn’t take advantage of its defensive stat distribution that sees HP and Special Defense as Scream Tail’s highest stats. To make matters worse, it gains Ghost as an additional weakness when it was an immunity for Jigglypuff. A poor defensive typing combined with a defense-oriented stat distribution makes it an overall downgrade from the original Jigglypuff in terms of typing, leaving Scream Tail as the better mon solely due to its base stat total.
Scream Tail is not much better on the offensive side of things either as it wastes the potential of two powerful offensive types like Psychic and Fairy on poor attack stats. It only has 65 base Attack and Special Attack stats, meaning it’s not going to be doing particularly high damage to warrant any sort of meaningful competitive use. Scream Tail also only learns two Psychic-type attacks by level up—Rest and Psychic Fangs, only the latter of the two being of any use as it can break through Light Screen and Reflect. While it can access other Psychic-type attacks via Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s TMs, its poor offensive stats mean it is really only useful in a support role at best.
Why Scream Tail Should Have Been Another Hisuian Zoroark
Scream Tail could have been so much better defensively if it had kept Jigglypuff’s Normal-typing and added the Ghost type instead. This would have given it only one weakness—a weakness to Dark type—as well as two resistances and immunity to Normal, Fighting, and Ghost types. Since it has poor offensive stats anyway, going all-in on defense and giving it one of—if not the best—defensive type combos in the game would have given Scream Tail a much greater chance of finding some competitive use. Since it doesn’t really have any lore to explain its Psychic/Fairy-typing, it could have easily swapped types and still make sense in the Pokemon universe. Furthermore, this could have made it a counter to one of the top 5 Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet—Gholdengo.
At this point, the awesome defensive typing of Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark—introduced as regional variants in the recent Pokemon Legends: Arceus—is exclusive to them. The fact that the Normal/Ghost combo had never been used before Pokemon Legends: Arceus came as a huge surprise to fans, and since there isn’t currently a way to transfer these mons to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, giving Scream Tail the same typing would have made it unique for the time being. Unfortunately, Pokemon Scarlet players are stuck with a subpar form of Jigglypuff and only a glimpse of what it could have been.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Nintendo Switch.
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