My favorite Pokémon in Sword and Shield is a dirty, smelly, metal cat. What’s yours?

Don’t judge my child. My child wants to grow a beard.

I’m on the precipice of finishing the Galarian Gym Challenge in Pokémon Shield, after catching a wide array of Pokémon and scoring copious amounts of EXP Candy from Max Raid Battles I’ve grinded in the Wild Area. Even though there are plenty of older Pokémon on my team really carrying their weight like Katsu the Bewear, Bobert the Crustle, and Kevin Durant, I’ve taken a real shine to the new Galarian Pokémon.

I’m quite attached to Yukki, my Frosmoth, as some Pokémon games tend to introduce high-spec bug Pokémon. Though I will admit, I don’t love it as much as her previous form, Snom. And the first time I saw Grapploct, I knew I had to catch him but he continues to elude me thanks to his difficult catch rate. I really need to up my critical catch rate the way that guy breaks out of my pokéballs.

They’re great, but my absolute favorite new Galarian Pokémon in Sword and Shield has to be Galarian Meowth and its evolution, Perrserker, so don’t even come at me with your contentious opinions on its hair.

I knew I liked this shit eating grin for some reason pic.twitter.com/0N4Mp41Au7

— Strider (@StriderHoang) December 4, 2019

Meowth is the baseline, I have to hand it to him for existing to give rise to Galarian Meowth. Alolan Meowth proved putting a regional spin on an older Pokémon can lead to interesting results, hence turning the alley cat design into a proper and pampered rich cat. But Galarian Meowth is amazing, turning the street cat flavor to eleven until he becomes an almost feral, wild child of a feline that’s barely contained in its own fur.

Its Dex entry states Meowths in the Galar region have hung out in the rough and tumble sailor scene so much that their fur has turned to iron. The normally small silhouette of Meowth has ballooned out as it grew a huge beard. When it evolves, it becomes even more ridiculous, as its horns aren’t horns at all but merely hair that has hardened into the shape of a horned helmet. When you see Perrserker in motion, you’ll even see its cat claws merge together as they extend and transform into one, giant dagger.

Its design and lore, combined with some nice battle design, make me really love Pokémon like Meowth and Perrserker. It’s simple and straightforward in battle, as a no-frills steel monotype and abilities devoted to letting it easily hit above its weight class. All of this comes together to make Galarian Meowth and Perrserker my favorite new Pokémon to come out of Sword and Shield.

But I know plenty of people think he’s icky and gross and it’s ok to be wrong. So what is your favorite new Pokémon in Sword and Shield? Yamper? Polteageist? If Destructoid’s unofficial favorite Pokémon is Gardevoir and she can be tsundere sometimes, might I direct you towards the new yandere Pokémon, Hatterene?