Most Skilled Battler V2 (Excluding Any Version of Ash)

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I'm going to shake things up a bit by not including Ash Ketchum in this thread poll,if you could please give me your answers and thoughts as to who the most skilled battler is excluding Ash.

 

[RedJirachi]

I don't think we can count Tobias because we only see two of his team members. Because again, he is a walking avatar of the status quo

 

[Nafsika]

Paul! He's very stratigic and his pokemon are high trained!

 

[CMButch]

Paul. Really easy.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Sawyer or Katie. Same reasons as the most powerful thread. I'll just vote for Katie since she has my favorite one.

 

[Rajas]

Paul closely followed by Sawyer. The one big difference for me is the fact that Sawyer still struggles to adapt during the match itself. While Paul also plans strongly before it, he still has some in battle awareness to switch tactics if needed albeit he never had to much seeing as his plans worked mostly.

 

[I-am-the-peel]

In terms of skill;

Paul > Conway > Sawyer > Katie > Barry > Alain > Tobias > Tyson > Harrison > Trip


Voted for my second pick with Conway as Paul was in the lead by a lot. Paul is the best for skill, I liked Conway's strategy of using Trick Room against Ash and using his first two pokemon to figure out Ash's full team, I liked Sawyer's strategy with his Aegislash, but that was about it. Katie was a really smart trainer, rotating her pokemon repeatedly, trapping Ash's Pikachu with Dugtrio, using Destiny Bond on Glalie with Misdreavus, a lot of cunning moves to keep Ash on his toes. Barry was also a lot smarter than most people gave him credit for with using Skarmory's spikes to hurt Paul's pokemon, knowing how much he liked to switch out pokemon, and his choice of a Hitmonlee for a rock field made sense. The rest didn't show that much skill or strategic thinking in their battles, just relying on raw power.

 

[Zoruagible]

Paul's strategies would make circles around anyone on the poll. Especially as he's less of a dick now.
Gary might have a chance

 

[XY Rules]

Excluding Ash, Paul definitely no contest.

 

[ash&charizardfan]

Paul now people may overrate him strengthwise but skillwise he is great, the strategies he made like toxic spikes or using lightscreen was just great. Katie is close second, I just wished she was there in sinnoh were these field effects and pokemon's abilities were used regularly.

 

[Xenon Blue]

Conway is so underrated in terms of skill. His Pokemon are pretty weak compared to the other trainers listed here, and still manages to compete with Pokemon that are clearly stronger. He often opts to use support moves along with offensive ones, which is optimal considering you really only need 2 offensive attacks, one for close range and one for long range. Not only that, he really knows when to use what and prepares beforehand to create a good counter (Feint against Elekid, Power Trick +Withdraw and Trick Room to check Ash's aggressive style). I'm going to say Conway is the most skilled, though Paul really isn't far behind.

 

[345ash-greninja]

Have to say Paul here. Stategies and planning were the main part of his battling.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

My Final Thoughts (Most Skilled Battler V2)

Tier 1
Paul,Conway

Tier 2
Katie

Tier 3
Barry,Trip,Sawyer,Harrison,Tyson,Tobias,Alain

 

[Genaller]

My Final Thoughts (Most Skilled Battler V2)

Tier 1
Paul,Conway

Tier 2
Katie

Tier 3
Barry,Trip,Sawyer,Harrison,Tyson,Tobias,Alain

Since I gave a tiering in the other thread, I’ll do a ranking here:

0. Paul
1. Sawyer
2. Alain
3. Conway
4. Katie
5. Tyson/Virgil
6. Virgil/Tyson
7. Harrison
8. Gary
9. Tobias
10. Tierno (very underrated)

Barry isn’t that good of a trainer. Sure he may look impressive on the surface with stuff like Spikes, but if you look closely you’ll see what a moron he was being at times particularly in Electivire vs Empoleon. That fight shows blatant overestimation of his Pokémon’s relative capabilities, a lack of battle field awareness as well as in general a lack of knowing the correct approach (in nutshell Empoleon would have done much better agaisnt Electivire had Barry focused primarily on tanking and then counter attacking rather than fruitlessly wasting energy on dodge spamming when it should have been clear that Electivire far outclassed Empoleon in terms of speed). Also he had far too much of an over reliance on power at the price of net mobility ( seriously both Hyperbeam and Hydrocannon!?).

 

[Dragalge]

Since I gave a tiering in the other thread, I’ll do a ranking here:

1. Paul
2. Sawyer
3. Alain
4. Conway
5. Katie
6. Tyson/Virgil
7. Virgil/Tyson
8. Harrison
8. Gary
9. Tobias
10. Tierno (very underrated)

Barry isn’t that good of a trainer. Sure he may look impressive on the surface with stuff like Spikes, but if you look closely you’ll see what a moron he was being at times particularly in Electivire vs Empoleon. That fight shows blatant overestimation of his Pokémon’s relative capabilities, a lack of battle field awareness as well as in general a lack of knowing the correct approach (in nutshell Empoleon would have done much better agaisnt Electivire had Barry focused primarily on tanking and then counter attacking rather than fruitlessly wasting energy on dodge spamming when it should have been clear that Electivire far outclassed Empoleon in terms of speed). Also he had far too much of an over reliance on power at the price of net mobility ( seriously both Hyperbeam and Hydrocannon!?).

Imo sending out a Skarmory against a Magmortar was the worst thing he did. Using Spikes was nice but it definitely wasn’t worth getting roasted in one hit by Flamethrower lol.

 

[Genaller]

Imo sending out a Skarmory against a Magmortar was the worst thing he did. Using Spikes was nice but it definitely wasn’t worth getting roasted in one hit by Flamethrower lol.

Well yeah that too (perhaps he thought Skarmory could tank 1 hit and maybe he would’ve switched out after setting up Spikes though again this shows how he’s overestimating the capabilities of his Pokémon relative to his opponent’s).

 

[satopi]

Where the heck is Cynthia??? Why only guys (excluding Katie)? In this case, my man Alan takes the cake!

F that purple haired Pokémon abuser!!

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

F that purple haired Pokémon abuser!!

You make me wanna laugh

All about dat EV training

 

[nickdt]

Since I gave a tiering in the other thread, I’ll do a ranking here:

0. Paul
1. Sawyer
2. Alain
3. Conway
4. Katie
5. Tyson/Virgil
6. Virgil/Tyson
7. Harrison
8. Gary
9. Tobias
10. Tierno (very underrated)

Barry isn’t that good of a trainer. Sure he may look impressive on the surface with stuff like Spikes, but if you look closely you’ll see what a moron he was being at times particularly in Electivire vs Empoleon. That fight shows blatant overestimation of his Pokémon’s relative capabilities, a lack of battle field awareness as well as in general a lack of knowing the correct approach (in nutshell Empoleon would have done much better agaisnt Electivire had Barry focused primarily on tanking and then counter attacking rather than fruitlessly wasting energy on dodge spamming when it should have been clear that Electivire far outclassed Empoleon in terms of speed). Also he had far too much of an over reliance on power at the price of net mobility ( seriously both Hyperbeam and Hydrocannon!?).

To be honest, Alain is the less skilled. He only relies on Mega Charizard, while others build their team. Tierno is the most skilled after Ash and Paul, since he reached top 8 in a League that was full with Mega Users without using a Mega Pokemon himself.

 

[Genaller]

To be honest, Alain is the less skilled. He only relies on Mega Charizard, while others build their team. Tierno is the most skilled after Ash and Paul, since he reached top 8 in a League that was full with Mega Users without using a Mega Pokemon himself.

Firstly there were only 5 Mega users in the league (Alain, Remo, Astrid, Trevor, Sawyer). If there were more then they would have been shown when Malva was doing her report. Tierno certainly is skilled though he has moments of panic like when his Raichu initially got hit by attract and took a bit too long to properly respond (via switching) which is why I didn’t put him any higher. The rest of Alain’s team is pretty strong as welll (particularly Metagross and Bisharp). Let’s be real; how much do you think most trainers would seriously care about strategy when using a monster like MC-X? Tactics Alain has utilized:

- Had MC-X splash Water from the river upwards in order to block MC-Y’s fire attack
- Had MC-X aim Flamethrower at 53* North in order to score a surprise clean hit on MC-Y (noted by Clemont to be something only a trainer and Pokémon that are extremely close can do)
- Had Tyranitar smash the Stone Edge debris with its tail towards Pikachu
- Weavile’s entire battle style (being stealthy and evasive with moves like Protect and Double Team as well as having great precision when freezing Noivern’s wing tip with Ice Beam)
- Bisharp’s Thunder Wave + Guillotine combo (brilliant since in the anime speed and evasion are positively linked, hence crippling speed will result in making it easier to land a move like Guillotine which is usually inaccurate)
- Agility to raise Metagross’s speed

In addition it’s clear that Alain (at least by the KL) had a good understanding of Pokémon abilities since he didn’t bother using Thunder Wave once Rain Dance was called since he deduced that Goodra’s ability is Hydration and Ash must have called Rain Dance in order to neutralize any Paralyisis attempts. A not so skilled trainer would have foolishly called Thunder Wave which wouldn’t have affected Goodra and would have also given it an opening to attack. Also the way he directs his Pokémon in general like having Weavile aim Ice Beam at Hawlucha’s feet or having Bisharp circle around and attack Goodra’s back in order to inflict more damage (since there isn’t as much flesh on Goodra’s back as there is on the front, it’s easier for the blow to more greatly affect Goodra’s innards).