Walking Wake is a paradox form of Suicune that canonically shouldn't exist given the lore surrounding the 3 legendary dogs of Johto and Ho-Oh. Essentially, Ho-Oh revived 3 dog-type Pokemon who perished in a fire into Suicune, Entei, and Raikou.
Since these Pokemon existed in a somewhat modern era and are new incarnations of whatever canine-like Pokemon passed away in the tower fire there is no way they have a pre-historic relative.
Even if they did, it wouldn't make sense that it's a lion/velociraptor hybrid. But conflicting backstories aside, Walking Wake has a very cool design, top-tier stats, and complementary ability that made me immediately drop whatever I was doing to catch it.
Walking Wake is used very differently than its modern-day counterpart in that instead of stalling or walling it exists to maul opposing Pokemon. It truly shines, pun intended, on Sun Based teams as that automatically triggers its ability Protosynthesis.
Given its massive special attack and great speed, it's only natural to run it as a speedy special attacker. But, to surprise opponents, it has the base attack power and move pool to run a physical or mixed set.
Here is a look at a physical variant of Walking Wake.
Move | Power | Type | Accuracy | Effect |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dragon Dance | - | Dragon | 100 | Boosts Attack and Speed by one stage |
Tera Blast | 80 | Fire | 100% | The type of this move changes depending on the user's Tera type. |
Liquidation | 85 | Water | 100% | |
Outrage | 120 | Dragon | 100 | After two turns, Walking Wake will become confused. |
This set is pretty simple, dragon dance and fire off your most effective moves against opposing Pokemon. Granted, this set is not nearly as consistently effective as the special attacking variant but it can definitely surprise an opposing special wall.
If you prefer to play to Walking Wake's natural strengths, the next set is for you. It's not nearly as exciting but it certainly gets the job done more often than not.
Move | Power | Type | Accuracy | Effect |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hydro Steam | 80 | Water | 100 | Boosts power by 50% in harsh sunlight |
Tera Blast | 80 | Steel | 100% | The type of this move changes depending on the user's Tera type. |
Flamethrower | 90 | Fire | 100% | |
Dragon Pulse | 85 | Dragon | 100 |
For this set I chose Dragon Pulse over Draco Meteor because although the accuracy of the latter is 90%, I land closer to 50% of these. As such, I prefer the less powerful but more accurate, Dragon Pulse.
But, if you have better luck than me, feel free to use Draco Meteor. This set uses a Steel-type terror to deal with Walking Wake's fairy type weakness. It also grants you a very nice Poison immunity but makes you vulnerable to Fire and Ground attacks.
You'll need a sun setter unless you want to sacrifice a move slot for Sunny Day, so be sure to keep your Torkoal around for a while.
Walking Wake is one of the best Pokemon from Generation 9 and is worth consideration for your team. Even if you don't run a sun team, slap a Life Orb or your choice of stat booster and prepare to sweep.
As a special treat for those who made it to this point in the article, here are the best nicknames for Walking Wake that I've been able to come up with.
Posted by: Matt Irving on 03/19/2023
More Articles...