Iron Leaves weaknesses and best counters in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The Pokémon Day 2023 Pokémon Presents announced a slew of new things, one announcement being the addition of two new paradox forms to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Walking Wake, a paradox form of Suicune, and Iron Leaves, a paradox Virizion, were added to Scarlet and Violet respectively as version exclusives. If you’re looking to grab one of these Pokémon for yourself, you’re probably wondering what its weaknesses and counters are. Here’s our guide on Iron Leaves’ weaknesses and best counters in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Note: For more information about the game, check out our Pokémon Scarlet and Violet guides and features hub.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet – Iron Leaves weaknesses and best counters

As mentioned, Iron Leaves is the futuristic paradox form of Virizion in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Its appearance isn’t the only thing that has changed though: its typing is different too. Its original typing was Grass/Fighting, however Iron Leaves’ typing is set as Grass/Psychic. This means it has different weaknesses too. Instead of taking 4x damage to Flying-type moves, it now only takes 2x damage from them, for example. It is, however, now 4x weak to Bug-type moves. That is its only 4x weakness however. Its other 2x weaknesses are as follows: Flying, Poison, Ghost, Fire, Ice, Dark. This means it has one extra weakness overall compared to the original Virizion.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

When it comes to Iron Leaves’ stat spread in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, it gets an additional 10 base stat total, increasing it from 580 to 590. It also has an entirely different stat pool. Instead of being a Special Defense-based Pokémon, Iron Leaves is now an incredibly good physical attacker with a whopping 130 Attack. This doesn’t mean it’s a slouch defensively either. While its Special Defense has been lowered, it’s only been reduced by 21, taking it down to a still very respectable 108. Its physical defense is also relatively good at 88, making this a hard Pokémon to find against.

Iron Leaves best counters

Despite all of its strengths defensively, you should be able to beat it if you bring the right Pokémon. The strongest counter for Iron Leaves would be a physical attacking Bug-type Pokémon. Scizor is probably your best option, with its only weakness being Fire-type moves, and it can resist Iron Leaves’ two STAB (Same-Type Attack Bonus) typings. Scizor also gains access to plenty of powerful physically offensive moves, like X-Scissor. It also has a relatively high Defense stat, sitting at 100. Using Scizor, you should be able to bring this Pokémon down without much hassle. If you’re purely hunting down the raid, this strategy still works. The only difference is now Bug-type moves will only hit for 2x damage, but if you’ve gone through the effort of levelling Scizor up, and getting EV training, this fight should still be a breeze.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are available on the Nintendo Store.