Pokémon Sword & Shield recently released and introduced the world to the Galar region. A place heavily inspired by the United Kingdom with new creatures that are native to this location.
Trainers often have a tough time when encountering new pokémon because the base forms are often the best designs and they don't want to evolve them, but they have to so the creatures can get stronger. Let's now look at the 10 best base forms for evolutionary lines in Pokémon Sword & Shield and rank them.
10 Cufant
Cufant happens to be a pokémon that's likely inspired by the influence Indian culture has had on England and the United Kingdom. It's an adorable little elephant that happens to be steel-typed and is as colorful as it is cute.
The reason Cufant is one of the best base forms in the Galar region is that its evolution, Copperajah, is neither intimidating or cool looking. Without Cufant being the base form this creature would likely be relegated to the forgettable section of trainer's brains.
9 Wooloo
When it was revealed that Pokémon Sword & Shield would have a region inspired by England and the United Kingdom in general people assumed that there would be at least one new sheep pokémon. Unlike Mareep from a past generation, Wooloo is a normal-type and happens to be considered the Sheep Pokémon.
It sports a bulbous round design that helps it roll down hills in a hurry. The games do a great job of making the Wooloo feel like the most natural and abundant species in the Galar region.
8 Galarian Corsola
Corsola was always a pokémon people thought was cute, but was never really used by trainers. The pink design was catchy but simply being a water and rock dual-typing wasn't enough to get people interesting in the Coral Pokémon.
In the Galar region, Corsola has a regional form that's not only all-white in design but changes to ghost-type as well. Its Galar region evolution Cursola isn't the prettiest creature but it's always great for single form pokémon to receive an evolution.
7 Sobble
Everyone loves a good sad boy when it comes to entertainment because it gives them someone to protect. The moment Sobble was revealed with his frown and all the world at large immediately fell in love.
Unfortunately, the world then became upset when they found out the final evolution for Sobble looked like a weird sketchy version of the lead character in the animated film Rango. For months people hoped the final evolution would exude the same depressed and dour attitude.
6 Galarian Meowth
Meowth has been a beloved pokémon over the years simply due to its inclusion on Team Rocket in the anime. Fans have often complained about Persian not being a cool enough evolution for such a lovable character over the years.
With the introduction of region variants, fans saw Meowth receive an Alolan form. This made the reveal of another region variant Meowth in Galarian Meowth so surprising as it was the first to get two additional forms. It also happened to get a region-specific evolution in Perrserker as well.
5 Grookey
On the surface, Grookey may sound boring as the grass-type monkey pokémon had already existed before its reveal as a starter in the Galar region, but it carves its own path. The little drummer carries a stick with it that grows and changes at it does which is pretty neat.
The starters in the Galar region all happen to have lovable base forms, hideous middle forms, and good but not great final evolutions. Do yourself a favor and put an everstone on Grookey and never look back.
4 Yamper
If you caught a Yamper and didn't name it Ein in honor of Cowboy Bebop, are you deserving of such a majestic beast? The unfortunate thing for Yamper is that it starts off as a cute little corgi with a heart on its butt and evolves into a pretty standard looking canine.
There's an argument to be made that Yamper is simply the Pikachu of this generation in which it's almost unacceptable to evolve it as it loses all of its charm once it does. The base form is the only worthwhile one in the case of Yamper.
3 Toxel
Making a reptile or dinosaur look cute seems like a tough task, but Pokémon and The Land Before Time have shown it to be quite possible. Toxel is a little poison dinosaur pokémon that is gifted to players in Pokémon Sword and it happens to evolve into a rock star of a creature that takes on a second electric dual-typing.
The great thing about Toxel is that it happens to be a grumpy baby dinosaur that happens to remain cute despite looking like it's having the worst time simply existing.
2 Scorbunny
Scorbunny isn't only the cutest base form for the 3 starters in the Galar region, but from a design perspective, it also happens to be the most English. It's a bunny that showcases the skills and talents of a professional soccer player.
For those who are old enough to remember playing Super Mario 64, there's an eery resemblance between Scorbunny and the golden rabbit Mario has to catch in the game. Rabbits and bunnies may not be new Pokémon concepts, but Scorbunny does it best.
1 Galarian Ponyta
It may just be a My Little Pony character named Ponyta, but the Galarian variant of the fire steed is such a cute and adorable design. Whoever decided to turn the flaming horse into a 6-year-old girl's dream pet was a genius.
Not only did they give it a cotton candy color scheme, but they also decided to turn Ponyta into a unicorn. When region variants were introduced in Pokémon Sun & Moon fans wondered about the possibilities and the Galar region variants help cement the existence of these new forms.