Since its introduction in Pokemon X & Y, the Fairy-type has been home to several of the strongest Pokemon in the series. Many classic Pokemon were given the new typing as a boost to keep them relevant, while the newest Fairy-type Pokemon have some remarkably high stats compared to most other Pokemon.

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Like most Pokemon types, however, there are many Pokemon that might not be as strong as they seem, or be deceptively powerful despite their adorable appearances. If you want to be a master of this type in Pokemon Sword & Shield’s online Battle Stadium, you should ideally stick to the very best it has to offer.

Updated January 23rd, 2022 by Quinton O'Connor: With the continued prominence of Pokemon Sword & Shield in the realm of ranked battling, we've adjusted this list to include easy-to-follow statistics tables as well as further context on a few attacks and abilities. Fairy might not be as fresh a type as it was way back in X & Y, but lapsed players looking to get back into Pokemon may still benefit from some pointers on the franchise's newest class of pocket monster.

15 Galarian Rapidash

Types: Psychic/Fairy

Abilities: Run Away, Pastel Veil, Anticipation (Hidden)

Many people were underwhelmed by Galarian Rapidash, but it may secretly be one of the best Fairy-type Pokemon in Sword & Shield. Unlike most Fairy-types, which are usually dedicated to HP, Special Defense, and Special Attack stats, Galarian Rapidash throws tradition out the window with a powerful horn that comes with a remarkable Speed and Attack stat.

This also comes with a great variety of unusual move types for most Fairy-types, including the Ground-type High Horsepower and the Bug-type Megahorn. It grants it a huge amount of range and type advantages you'd never expect from a Fairy-type, making it one of the most difficult Fairy-types for your opponents to be prepared for.

14 Ribombee

Types: Bug/Fairy

Abilities: Honey Gather, Shield Dust, Sweet Veil (Hidden)

This high-speed flower hopper is easily one of the best tricksters in all of Pokemon Sword & Shield. This Pokemon gains a relatively rare move called Switcheroo, which is a Dark-type equivalent to Trick which lets you swap items with your target.

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This lets Ribombee swap items that grant it stats at the cost of detriments you can send to your opponent, and with its high Speed stat, it'll do this at record speeds. Putting on a speed-increasing item like a Choice Scarf will restrict you to one move, but by tossing it to a slow tank that won't gain benefits from this boost, you can disable an opponent quickly before they have time to make a move.

13 Comfey

Type: Fairy

Abilities: Flower Veil, Triage, Natural Cure (Hidden)

On its own, Comfey might seem like a worthless Pokemon. Its general stats are quite low, and strategies built around healing allies can be somewhat tricky to work with. However, this is made much easier with the hidden ability Triage, which makes every healing move hit with astonishingly high priority speed.

This not only affects moves like Floral Healing to restore allies at the start of the turn but also health-draining moves like Giga Drain and Draining Kiss. This can give you all kinds of disruptive options while remaining perfectly topped up, and with great defensive walls you can easily end up with a fully invincible Comfey.

12 Alolan Ninetales

Types: Ice/Fairy

Abilities: Snow Cloak, Snow Warning (Hidden)

Even though it's normally put into groups with Ice-types, Alolan Ninetales manages to also be one of the strongest Fairy-types in Sword & Shield as well. Its main perk is being a weather starter, with a hidden ability of Snow Warning to inflict Hail on the battlefield on entry.

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This not only provides some light damage and ruins other weather plans, but also sets up the remarkably fast Alolan Ninetales to use Aurora Veil to cut all damage dealt to your team in half. This type of ability is almost exclusively found on slow Pokemon, so seeing this option have the ability to set up walls, weather, and quick damage fast puts it far above nearly any other supportive option in the game.

11 Sylveon

Type: Fairy

Abilities: Cute Charm, Pixilate (Hidden)

Every one of the Eeveelutions is a great Pokemon, but as one of the premier and most iconic Fairy-types, it's no surprise that Sylveon continues to be one of the best Fairy-types in Pokemon Sword & Shield. Its stat total is absurd compared to many other tanks, with its only real weaknesses being a disappointing Speed and abysmal Defense.

That said, this is made up for in power by granting it the Pixilate ability, which makes all Normal-type moves into boosted Fairy-type attacks. Thanks to this, moves like Hyper Voice can have an absurd power ceiling, while other moves like Baby-Doll Eyes and Calm Mind can max their defenses to last out your opponent in painfully long battles.

10 Togekiss

Types: Fairy/Flying

Abilities: Hustle, Serene Grace, Super Luck (Hidden)

Togekiss has been a staple of competitive Pokemon for a while, many thanks to its unique type combination of Fairy and Flying-type and a wonderfully balanced set of stats. It can take a great defensive role when its HP is maxed out, but also works great as an aggressive fighter with moves like Dazzling Gleam and Flamethrower.

What puts it above other Pokemon is its ability, Serene Grace, which makes all secondary effects twice as likely to occur. This particularly includes flinching, which means that the powerful move Air Slash will disable an opponent’s move half the time, so long as Togekiss strikes first.

9 Primarina

Types: Water/Fairy

Abilities: Torrent, Liquid Voice (Hidden)

Alola’s starter Pokemon featured some strange type combinations compared with other regions, but Primarina is a standout by being the first Fairy-type starter Pokemon in the series. Despite the pressure, it succeeds with flying colors.

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One of the greatest ways to use it is by equipping an Assault Vest, which prevents it from using status moves while granting additional Special Defense. This, alongside several Special Defense EVs, makes it nearly invincible against Special Attackers, meaning you can switch it into battle against Pokemon like Moltres and Inteleon with zero fear.

8 Alcremie

Type: Fairy

Abilities: Sweet Veil, Aroma Veil (Hidden)

Gym Leader Opal’s signature Pokemon, the adorable frosting pile Alcremie, is significantly stronger than it might seem by its small stature. This dessert is remarkably solid, with greatly similar stats to Primarina while using more Grass and Fire-type moves to back up its Fairy-type attacks.

Unlike Primarina, though, Alcremie has some surprising physical defense options thanks to the ability to learn Acid Armor to double its Defense stat. This, as well as being a rare pure Fairy-type, means most physical attackers won’t catch up while you drain their life through Draining Kiss and Giga Drain.

7 Galarian Weezing

Types: Poison/Fairy

Abilities: Levitate, Neutralizing Gas, Misty Surge (Hidden)

Many of the most notable Fairy-types involve classic Pokemon, with many older species receiving new typings and many Fairy-type regional variants. One of the newest of these is Galar’s version of Weezing, who becomes a Fairy and Poison-type smokestack with nearly identical stats.

It might have more weaknesses, but all three of its possible abilities make up for its defensive risks. Levitate can help it avoid treacherous moves like Earthquake, Neutralizing Gas can boost teammates like Regigigas that are weakened by their abilities, but Misty Surge’s ability to create Misty Terrain and prevent status conditions can give your team a huge perk in nearly any battle.

6 Klefki

Type: Steel/Fairy

Abilities: Prankster, Magician (Hidden)

The Fairy type is also home to some of the greatest support Pokemon, ones that disable opponents and boost your team’s stats instead of dealing damage to opponents. These types of Pokemon aren’t usually too helpful in your standard playthrough, but nearly every competitive team in single and double battles has at least one strong support member.

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The unpopular Klefki is one of the most basic examples, but incredibly effective. Thanks to its ability Prankster, it can use status moves before opponents, meaning it can set up walls like Reflect and Light Screen faster than most other foes. If you need a little offense, Klefki also gains access to Foul Play, which uses an opponent's Attack stat in its damage calculation to make up for Klefki’s poor aggression.

5 Grimmsnarl

Types: Dark/Fairy

Abilities: Prankster, Frisk, Pickpocket (Hidden)

If you want a more threatening support Pokemon, Galar has provided a brand new addition in the form of Grimmsnarl, a hulking pile of hair and evil featuring both Fairy and Dark-type traits. Much like Klefki, it has access to the Prankster ability and both defensive wall moves, and status moves like Thunder Wave to slow opponents and occasionally negate their attacks.

Grimmsnarl’s main difference from Klefki is its Attack stat, meaning it can take much more aggressive routes if you’d rather a large brawler than a support Pokemon. Elemental punches like Thunder Punch and Fire Punch provide great coverage, but using Gigantamax to make opponents drowsy and fall asleep with your signature Dark-type move G-Max Snooze is a sure way to disrupt your opponent while eliminating their health.

4 Clefairy

Type: Fairy

Abilities: Cute Charm, Magic Guard, Friend Guard (Hidden)

Clefairy is an odd choice for the metagame, but a valid one — thanks to Eviolite. This item gives all unevolved Pokemon fifty percent higher Defense and Special Defense, and a small few like Clefairy can use it to reach higher stats than their evolution.

Clefairy is an even better choice for Double Battles thanks to its Hidden Ability, Friend Guard, which decreases the amount of damage that teammates. This can make your other defensive Pokemon nearly impossible to take down without first focusing on Clefairy, giving your teammate the perfect distraction to raise their stats or target weaker foes.

3 Tapu Koko

Types: Electric/Fairy

Abilities: Electric Surge, Telepathy (Hidden)

Of all the island guardians from Alola, Tapu Koko is perhaps the greatest. Few Fairy-type Pokemon gain access to Electric-type moves, and by creating Electric Terrain on entry those moves can be some of the strongest in the game and can jump out in a flash with tricky attacks like Volt Switch.

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Tapu Koko is unfortunately held back by its movepool, though, as it fails to have a wide diversity of attacks compared to most other Fairy-types. It’s oddly better to use its Special Attack rather than its higher physical Attack stat as well, much because it doesn’t learn any strong physical Fairy-type moves like Play Rough.

2 Hatterene

Types: Psychic/Fairy

Abilities: Healer, Anticipation, Magic Bounce (Hidden)

Hatterene is not only one of the strongest Fairy-type Pokemon in the game, but it’s also one of the best Gigantamax Pokemon available. Its offensive stats are best utilized through high power Max Moves, and its signature G-Max Smite’s ability to inflict confusion on all foes can easily lead to victory if they’re unlucky enough to hurt themselves in confusion enough times.

Hatterene’s main weakness is its poor speed, but its defensive stats are generally high enough to survive at least one hit before dealing some damage itself. Alternately, its speed is low enough that using Trick Room will allow Hatterene to remain speedy throughout pretty much the entire rest of the battle if you time it right.

1 Mimikyu

Types: Ghost/Fairy

Ability: Disguise

If you're looking for the absolute best Fairy-type in Pokemon Sword and Shield, the adorable Mimikyu packs the strongest punch you could ask for. This Ghost and Fairy-type has a unique ability called Disguise that prevents it from taking damage for its first hit in battle, losing a small portion of health instead. This gives Mimikyu a turn of protection that can let it hit opponents hard with physical moves, or boost its strength immensely with Swords Dance.

A popular strategy is to use Swords Dance before getting hit, then enter Dynamax with your attack to get the best level of power you can. Unlike other defensive abilities like Sturdy, you come out of your disguise with quite a lot of health, meaning the turn you get hit won’t keep you from having obscene health when Dynamax doubles it.

Next: Pokemon: The Strongest Fairy Moves, Ranked