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Hardest Champion Battle?

Who do you think was the hardest Champion?

  • Blue (Gary)

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • Lance

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • Steven

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Wallace

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Cynthia

    Votes: 35 83.3%
  • Alder

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • Iris

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • Diantha

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hau

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Leon

    Votes: 1 2.4%

  • Total voters
    42

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Who do you think was the most challenging Champion to defeat? It can be either teams, how long you took to defeat them, or simply the difficulty level.

The hardest Champion for me is definitely Cynthia. She has a great diversity in her team, and that Spiritomb of hers is no easy feat, especially in the pre-Gen 6 games when there was no Fairy type as its only weakness. She's also a great challenge in Black/White and B2/W2 as well - the first time I battled her in the former, she almost single-handedly took down my entire team. I did manage to defeat her on the second try, though, and now I've started to appreciate Cynthia even more.

Here's how I'd rank the Champions by difficulty, hardest to easiest:

  1. Cynthia
  2. Blue (Gary)
  3. Steven
  4. Iris
  5. Lance
  6. Diantha
  7. Alder
Haven't played Emerald, US/UM or Sword/Shield, so I don't know what Wallace, Hau and Leon are like. I also don't count Professor Kukui as a Champion.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Cynthia mostly because her team was so varied and they all didn’t have any shared weaknesses among them all. Plus Spiritomb having no weaknesses back then and her Garchomp definitely didn’t help.

Lance in Gen II is a close second if you had no friends to help you get Kingdra which was pretty much the best way to taking him out due to all of its resistances to many of his Pokémon’s moves.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Cynthia mostly because her team was so varied and they all didn’t have any shared weaknesses among them all. Plus Spiritomb having no weaknesses back then and her Garchomp definitely didn’t help.

If we get Sinnoh remakes, do you think Cynthia will become a little easier thanks to the Fairy type now being a thing?
 

WhiteBlair

ベストチャンピオン。
If we get Sinnoh remakes, do you think Cynthia will become a little easier thanks to the Fairy type now being a thing?

There are some cases with Champions when Pokémon are concerned.

Leon was intentionally created to be a strong Champion and lived up to the hype of being the greatest. If you didn't overtrain, his levels were higher than you and his dragons knew moves such as Iron Tail to shut you down.

Cynthia is Game Freak's marketing powerhouse — they know they made a success hit with her. Even with Fairy types around, I highly anticipate she'll be over-leveled, have admirable AI and Garchomp with Poison Jab or Iron Head to eliminate the type disadvantage.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
If we get Sinnoh remakes, do you think Cynthia will become a little easier thanks to the Fairy type now being a thing?
It depends if she’s using her DP team or the Platinum one. Mainly because you could attempt to sweep Half her team using Ice moves and Pokémon but Lucario can deal massive damage and resist Ice attacks and so can Gastrodon and Milotic. Togekiss And Spiritomb would be the easiest to take out but Garchomp could be an issue since it is usually sent out near the end after your Pokémon have taken damage over the course of several turns. No matter which team GF chooses in any remakes, you cannot sweep Cynthia’s team using one Pokémon or type alone like you could with most of the other Champions barring the rival in the Kanto games and Leon.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Leon was intentionally created to be a strong Champion and lived up to the hype of being the greatest. If you didn't overtrain, his levels were higher than you and his dragons knew moves such as Iron Tail to shut you down.

I think the Champions after Gen 4 were kind of easy, Alder being the most obvious. You can literally sweep his team with Emboar or another good Fire or Flying-type. Leon seems to be making them challenging again. (That said, I can't really say much since I don't have Sw/Sh.)
 

Mr.Munchlax

Great Ball Rank Trainer
Cynthia's definitely the hardest champion, though I think Leon's the second or third hardest (the other being Lance). My team really struggled to take down several of his pokemon (Charizrard, Haxorus, & Inteleon being his three strongest) and I actually lost during my first attempt. It was still fun & exciting though, & one of the best highlights was when my Cinderace outsped his Inteleon & knocked it out with a Mega Kick.
 
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NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Cynthia's definitely the hardest champion, though I think Leon's the second or third hardest (the other being Lance). My team really struggled to take down several of his pokemon (Charizrard, Haxorus, & Inteleon being his three strongest) and I actually lost during my first attempt. It was still fun & exciting though, & one of the best highlights was when my Cinderace outsped his Inteleon & knocked it out with a Mega Kick.

Lance is sort of more like fake difficulty, because of his three underlevelled Dragonites. Though he isn't really a Champion, Ghetsis in B/W also has a similar scenario with his Hydreigon (which he somehow evolved ten levels early), and it also has a diverse move pool that can deal with almost anything you put up against it. (Surf, anyone? o_O)
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
juiccbox said:
Cynthia for sure, but lance gave me quite a hard time too. It was refreshing that Leon was slightly harder this time around, all the champions since XY have been total pushovers.

Wataru (Lance) was difficult for me to beat as well in Silver version because he had three Dragon-types while I had no actual type counter for them on my team.
 

Weavy

I come and go suddenly
Cynthia, no debating. She is the only Champion I have lost to, so she wins by default. I haven't really had that much trouble with most of the others, though some did manage to prove some challenge. Leon in particular stands out as rather odd recently, since I had a bit of trouble in one of my games, but completely swept him with one Pokemon in the other game, so he's a little hard to judge, but still nothing I'd consider too challenge.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
NovaBrunswick said:
Lance is sort of more like fake difficulty, because of his three underlevelled Dragonites. Though he isn't really a Champion, Ghetsis in B/W also has a similar scenario with his Hydreigon (which he somehow evolved ten levels early), and it also has a diverse move pool that can deal with almost anything you put up against it. (Surf, anyone? o_O)

It says a lot about the terrible leveling curve in G/S/C that Wataru's (Lance's) three Kairyu (Dragonite) are far weaker than the Kairyu that he used in R/G/B/Y.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Cynthia's way ahead of the competition by a long shot. Only one person voted for Iris though. XD

Cynthia and it's not even close. I lost against her twice when I battled her for the 1st time on my Pearl game back in 2007. :[

I actually defeated her in one try on my Platinum game back in 2015 (yes, 2015, I got into the Sinnoh games really late). It wasn't without its difficulties though, as I already mentioned her Spiritomb and it practically having no weaknesses pre-Gen 6 (unless you had a Fighting-type Pokémon who you'd kept Foresight on and used that on it). Then there's her Garchomp with Fire Blast to deal with Ice-types, and her Lucario and Milotic.
 
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Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Cynthia is the only one who’s actually a challenge. It says a lot as that’s the a big factor as to her being the most popular Champion and arguably 2nd most popular female character after the female protagonists
 
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