TL;DR: Should You Pull?
Power Ranking: 8/10
The Poison Zone setter that follows the philosophy of other offensive field effect setters like Lucas and Sygna Suit Erika.
- + Quick self-buffs and solid damage output with Hyper Beam.
- + Capable of summoning a Zone for a Type that needs the buff.
- - Lack of partners limits the justification of her own supportive power compared to other Zone setters.
Scoring Criteria
1 : No discernable niche, or so totally outclassed in what it does have that it could never conceivably be worth F2P gems.
2-3 : One or two applications on gimmicky, sub-optimal team comps that are nevertheless occasionally worth using due to fun factor or highly specific situations.
4-5 : Fulfills a viable niche on at least one viable team comp or role, but kept from anywhere near "must-pull" status by limited versatility or stiff competition.
6-7 : Efficient in its primary role or flexible enough to see use on variety of teams - This is where the pairs worthy of serious F2P consideration begin to appear.
8-9 : An excellent choice for a huge plethora of compositions and/or the defining force behind a dominant archetype - This unit's power and versatility make it a great pull for almost anyone.
10 : Poised to take a centralizing role in the metagame - This undisputedly Top Tier unit is the kind of game-defining force that can be seriously compared to our current absolute best Sync Pairs in its sheer dominance over whatever situation is thrown at it.
Note : The timing of the banners and the scout-method are not accounted in the scoring system but rather mentioned in the Outro to keep the SYP Score / Ranking comparison cohesive.
What Does It Do?
The most recent champion of Unova, Iris is known as "The Girl Who Knows the Hearts of Dragons", and naturally, is a Dragon-type trainer. For her previous versions, this came as challenge, as Dragon is widely considered to be among the strongest types in the entire game and came with fierce competition - luckily, we have Pokémon with two types in the main series, and with that, Iris turns things around and gets Naganadel, a Poison-type Pokémon, and going from one of the most challenging types to what’s considered to be the one with the weakest representation yet. While this may look like an easy way to the top, is that truly a purely good thing? Let’s find out!
Sadly, Iris doesn't have the best stats. While 626 HP with 202 defenses is pretty decent and 416 Speed is very good, the Special Attack is extremely lacking at 273. While this is not the end of the world as we did see low stats units before workout ok, Iris will still have to play catch-up with her moves and multipliers. Luckily for her, the move is the amazing Hyper Beam, taking away some of the weight from her shoulders. Acid, an AoE 1 gauge move is also available with a 10% chance to drop Sp. Def - stat drops are not halved by AoE, so while it still is a low chance, this will be important later. The Trainer Move is Gonna Eat You Up!, giving Iris +2 crit, +4 SpA, and +1 accuracy. This fixes Hyper Beam’s accuracy, but Iris still will be in need of someone to close out the crit and SpA. Finally, Poison Wish is the main selling point of the kit, granting her a good damage boost and also supportive capabilities.
The passives are also very simple: Poison Shift turns Hyper Beam into a Poison-type move, Virulent Toxin 3 is a small Sync multiplier for when the enemy is poisoned, and Toxic Chance 2 gives her a 30% chance of applying said status with every attack - it’s worth noting that this is normal poison however, not badly poison.
Poison Zone is an effective selling point, but this is a bit of a double-edged sword: Poison is a type that truly needed help, but this also leaves Iris with relatively weak partners to play with - this is further exacerbated by the fact that Iris would normally want Type Skills, but the best Poison DPS units don’t have Poison Sync Moves (therefore no Poison Type Skill). Overall, Iris is similar to Lucas as a unit, but on a smaller scale: they have decent gauge management, summon a zone, do decent DPS and nuke, and have a 1-turn setup, but Lucas outperforms her in most aspects, leaving her more with the type rarity niche.
How To Use It?
Sync Grid Considerations
Brainteaser and Smarty-Pants, available at ⅗, are the sources of Iris’ multipliers - combined with Sharp Entry 1, Poison Wish: BOGO 9, and Poison Wish: MP Refresh 2, it shows a unit that might want to have her third copy available, with the alternative build of Acid: On a Roll 9 also being unlocked here and guarantees the Sp. Def drop from Acid. ⅖ is a small improvement with Poisonous Acceleration 2 and Hyper Beam MGR2, but is not worth a whole candy by itself. The grid doesn’t have much at ⅕, but Iris’ base kit is good enough to be used.
Game Modes
Champion Stadium: Master Mode
Iris has a decent setup move with fine damage, so she’ll work out well here. Since her nuke is debuff based, it might be worth focusing on boosting Iris herself rather than bringing a second Poison striker to the battle so you can have enough firepower in the middle, as Hyper Beam should be enough for the sides. Acid can also be used as essentially a special version of Leer if gridded.
Legendary Arena & Gauntlet
Iris’ Virulent Toxin 3 most likely won’t see much use here as most LAs can get immunity to poison, but a decent buffing profile makes Iris a decent option - however, if Poison Zone runs out, she might prove herself as very underwhelming.
Extreme Battles
Iris can hold her weight for the Unova boosted battles, but will especially be useful off-region for Poison-weak battles - as mentioned before, most Poison-types have disappointing kits, so Iris can give them that extra power and make the clears just a lot smoother, while still keeping another utility with debuffs.
Battle Villa
You can use Iris with an Acid build for a low gauge damage booster unit, although her offensive capabilities are mostly neutralized here.
Is It Worth Pulling?
So, Iris is weird. If you are in need of Poison damage, yes, Fall Iris is extremely worth it! However, for on-type stages, most of the lacking Poison units aren’t as bad due to them having innate super effective multipliers on top of the double damage itself, like Sygna Suit Giovanni, Looker, and Plumeria. Off-type, Iris has a solid enough kit by herself, but her partners are weak enough to the point she might even want a non-Poison unit, such as Anniversary N, to be paired with her, and without that supportive quality attached, she’s just that: a good unit and nothing beyond. If you trust in DeNA, Fall Iris might improve considerably the moment we get better partners for her, justifying better her usage outside of on-type clears.
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