As any long-time Pokémon fan will tell you, the series has always pushed the whole community co-operation thing to the hilt. Ever since the days of Gen I, when we had to mess around with link cables and chunky Game Boys, we’ve known that we won’t be able to catch ‘em all by ourselves.
As such, it’s a series about tough choices. Which starter Pokémon is the best? Which version should I buy? Which fossil should I pick? Today, we’re focusing on the latter question, by tackling Gen VI’s tricky choice between the Jaw Fossil (Tyrunt) and the Sail Fossil (Amaura). Which should you pick? Let’s take a look at the case for each!
10 JAW FOSSIL: You’ll Have Pure Physical Power On Your Hands
First, we’ve got to address the huge, conspicuous, fluorescent elephant in the room: Tyrunt’s evolution line is essentially the Tyrannosaurus Pokémon we’ve been waiting for since Fossil Pokémon have existed (which they always have).
As you’d expect, then, physical power is the name of the game here. Tyrunt’s base Attack is 89, which is super solid for a critter that hasn’t evolved yet. Its default Strong Jaw Ability boosts the power of its contact moves even further. Its natural movepool leaves a little to be desired, but for play during the main story, it can certainly fend for itself until it evolves.
9 SAIL FOSSIL: It’s Super Cute
Of course, not every player is interested in only the most powerful Pokémon. Over the course of the main game, you can pretty well assemble any team you like, from monotype to simply your favorites from a given generation. Another factor, of course, is the best designed or cutest Pokémon, a contest that Amaura wins hands down.
Just look at this little thing. Look at its big, adorable eyes, tiny, stumpy legs, and teeny smile. It’s like a strange, blue, icy golden retriever, and deserves just as many tasty snacks and adoring hugs. Where Tyrunt’s design is full of harsh lines and aggression, cuteness is all Amaura, and that’s a huge deciding factor for many.
8 JAW FOSSIL: Amaura And Aurorus’ Typing Is The Worst In The Series
Well, there’s certainly an argument to be made there. When it comes to Pokémon typings, Ice is generally considered to be one of the worst to be lumbered with. It’s great offensively, but is weak to everything ever in return. The same applies to Rock. Here was Game Freak’s fantastic idea, then: an Ice/Rock Pokémon!
There’s more, though. They also made it super slow, so that its many weaknesses have all the time they need to cruise on over and tear it several new bodily orifices. Needless to say, then, it’s not an easy life, being an Aurorus.
7 SAIL FOSSIL: It Has Some Useful And Unique Abilities
So, yes. The Amaura line certainly has some terrible shortcomings. If there’s one thing we can say in favor of its typing, though, it’s that it takes being an Ice-type and absolutely commits to that. You’ve got to respect that sort of commitment.
What do we mean? Well, take a look at its Abilities. By default, it has Refrigerate, which changes all of its Normal moves into Ice-type and gives them a further boost. This lets it pull off brilliant if impractical things like Refrigerate Nature Power and even Hyper Beam. Its Hidden Ability, Snow Warning, summons automatic hail, which can be a crucial asset and is very rare.
6 JAW FOSSIL: It’s A Truly Monstrous Dragon
We’ve already mentioned that the Tyrunt line is the way to go if you’re looking for a truly menacing, powerful-looking Pokémon. What we need to emphasize now is just how formidable this creature is after evolving.
Tyrantrum is a Rock/Dragon Pokémon, a combination that is also unique to it (and isn’t great either, to be fair). This beast of a creature is 8’ 02” and weighs 595.2 lbs, which makes it both the heaviest and tallest of all non-Legendary Dragons. It’s also the heaviest Fossil Pokémon!
5 SAIL FOSSIL: It’s A Team Player
Now, granted, Aurorus has a very unfortunate slew of weaknesses (Ground, Rock, Water, Grass, Fighting and Steel, being x4 vulnerable to the latter two) that make it ill-suited to a support role or trying to stay on the field and tank hits. Surprisingly, though, it has a lot of support utility which Tyrantrum doesn’t.
The lack of Aurora Veil hurts it for certain, but with access to dual screens, Encore, Thunder Wave, Icy Wind and other tricks, Aurorus can help out the team in all sorts of ways in clutch situations. Meanwhile, Tyrantrum is just a huge, furious, one-dimensional wrecking ball to point at the opponent in hopes of crushing them into hunks of prehistoric spam.
4 JAW FOSSIL: Aurorus Has No Particular Standout Stats
When you look at Tyrantrum, you have a pretty solid idea of its general gameplan. It’s got a lot of attack with solid HP and physical defense, but is a little lacking when it comes to Speed. This is usually the case with Rock-types. What it wants to do a lot of the time is patch up its Speed and try to brute force its way to victory.
Aurorus, meanwhile, has the same base stat total of 521, but it’s distributed totally differently. With high base HP of 123, relatively high base Special Attack and Special Defense (99 and 92 respectively) and poor stats everywhere else, it’s not quite sure what it wants to do. As a result, it’s often outclassed by other Pokémon that do its potential job better.
3 SAIL FOSSIL: But It Can Do A Few Different Things
Still, that’s the thing about Pokémon. It’s all but impossible to balance a whole roster of hundreds of creatures, but this is why competitive play organises Pokémon into tiers. Most Pokémon can perform a useful role somewhere, after all.
In that sense, the Sail Fossil Pokémon is actually the most versatile of the two candidates. With its less specialized overall stats, it can support the team, try to be tanky (be careful with all those weaknesses) or even take a straight-up offensive approach. As we’ll see in the last entry, that can actually work out quite well.
2 JAW FOSSIL: Its Abilities And Movepool Just Make It Deadlier
Now, nobody’s saying that Tyrantrum is the greatest physical threat ever to hit the Pokéverse. Fossil Pokémon have never really been known to set competitive play alight (although Dracovish is currently claiming souls left and right with its Fishious Rend shenanigans), after all. Still, this thing’s very well equipped to cause some carnage.
We’ve already covered its Tough Jaw Ability and how darn useful that is, but its Hidden Ability (like Aurorus) is great too. With Rock Head, it takes no recoil damage, meaning that it can fire off furious Head Smashes with no repercussions. It can also boost up to fix its lacking Speed with Rock Polish (which Aurorus also learns) or Dragon Dance. It’s a bit one-dimensional but very effective in the right situation.
1 SAIL FOSSIL: It Has Perhaps The Best STAB Coverage In Pokémon History
Dual Ice and Rock typing really is abysmal, as we know. There’s just no getting around that. On the flip side, though, these are two of the scariest STAB types in the game. Together, they hit a huge range of Pokemon super effectively, meaning that Aurorus really does have the potential to be a powerful team member. Especially in the main game, where the player faces such a random range of Pokémon.
The issue is Aurorus’s mediocre power and speed, which it doesn’t really have the time to do anything about. Rock Polish can only go so far. Still, it might not count for much most of the time, but this is a great asset that no other Pokémon has.
NEXT: Pokémon: Every Rock-Type Gym Leader, Ranked According To Difficulty
