Corviknight isn’t only one of the best Pokemon you can get very early in Sword and Shield, it’s one of the best Pokemon in the entire game. The steel bird is blessed with three abilities that are all good. It has the same Flying/Steel type as Skarmory, strong defense stats, and good attack. It’s a bit on the slower side (67 base speed), but the combination of strong move pool, good bulk, and great typing makes it a consistently overused Pokemon in competitive play.
Being included in Scarlet and Violet means that Corviknight is immediately one of the strongest Pokemon in Generation 9. Pretty much everyone who’s played Sword and Shield competitively is going to port over their own Corviknight for Generation 9’s version of the Battle Stadium. These Corviknight typically have an Impish nature, which boosts Corviknight’s above average defense by an additional 10 percent at the cost of a Special Attack stat it will never use. This Defog role enjoys a moveset of Body Press, Defog, Roost, and either U-Turn or Brave Bird.
Body Press is great because it uses Corviknight’s much strong Defense stat for damage calculation instead of its Attack stat. U-Turn allows Corviknight to hit for a chunk of damage before switching out to either a threat or to sponge a predicted attack. Defog clears away any extra hazards and also lowers a target Pokemon’s evasion – helping moves with lower accuracy percentages connect more often. Roost is both a great way to heal HP but also removes Corviknight’s Flying type for a turn, which can actually help Corviknight defensively; when it becomes a mono-Steel type for that turn, it loses the Electric weakness and gains Ice-type and Rock-type resistances. Just be sure that your opponent doesn’t predict your Roost and hit you with a now super-effective Fighting or Ground type move!
For a held item, Corviknight will hold either a Leftovers for recovery or Rocky Helmet for chip damage against physical attackers. For those trainers who want to lean more on their Corviknight for damage, especially if their team needs some Flying-type coverage, Corviknight can drop U-Turn for Brave Bird and hit opponent’s weak points for massive damage.
As one of the best defensive pivots in modern Pokemon, Corviknight gives you a solid choice for competitive team building. Not only can it serve the pivot role, but it can even run a Bulk Up set, as Smogon University suggests, maxing out investment in HP and Special Defense with a Careful nature to boost the Special Defense even more. A moveset Brave Bird, Substitute, Bulk Up, and Roost allows Corviknight to be a solid tank.
In Generation 9, Corviknight is one of the best defensive Pokemon available in the limited Pokedex of 400 mons that launched with Scarlet and Violet. It’s running basically the same movesets that it ran in Sword and Shield, leaning moreso into the Defog role with entry hazards even more prevalent than ever thanks to Spikes being added to many Pokemon’s movesets in Generation 9. It makes a great team mate with Clodsire, often forming a one-two punch as a defensive core. While it can run a Flying Tera Type for extra damage on movesets with Brave Bird, it may be better suited to running a Steel Tera Type for added durability. Then again, you’re likely not going to Terastalize your Corviknight outside of the most desperate situation, anyway, but it’s good to keep in mind when team-building.
Of all the Pokemon that returned from Sword and Shield to Generation 9, this was clearly a good choice, giving new and returning players alike an obvious include for many battle teams. You’ll be running into plenty of them on both Pokemon Showdown and in Battle Stadium, because it’s just a very good mon.
~ Amelia Desertsong
