Ranking Ash's Pokémon from Strongest to Weakest

[mehmeh1]

Mega Sceptile wrecked a Blastoise and Raichu in the previous battle between Sawyer & Tierno without breaking a sweat, I guess that you didn't even see it...I mean it wrecked Blastoise even before it even Mega Evolved LMAO.

Overall Mega Sceptile was able to give Ash-Greninja a tougher time than Mega Abomasnow did, and that enough to suggest that it was certainly stronger that Mega Abomasnow.

And apart from that, Ash-Greninja did even overpower Kalos Champion Diantha Mega Gardevoir for a few moments and was able to make it sweat and scream it pain, especially when Champions are depicted are literally invincible in the anime: Cynthia's Garchomp destroyed Paul's starter Torterra, also Ash has been utterly demolished by Elite Four members in the past, like vs Drake, vs Flint (I mean that Flint's Infernape one-shotted Ash's Infernape like a joke). And this time he battled a freaking regional Champion like Diantha and still was able to gain the upper hand momentarily and able to do solid damage.

And in the Kalos League Finals, Ash-Greninja was able to go toe to toe with Alain's God-Tier/broken Mega Charizard X (who had a track record of defeating 10 Mega Evolved Pokemon in a row, including one belonging to Kalos E4 member Malva + sweeping through almost the entire Kalos League prior to the finals) and was able to go toe to toe for a long time before finally losing.

How Ash-Greninja fought against Diantha's Gardevoir and Alani's Mega Charizard X (which by feats was easily above E4 level) is more than enough to cement it's status Ash's strongest Pokemon till date. I personally consider it strong enough to go toe to toe E4 level ace Pokemon and possibly even beat one.

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Anyways, my tiering of all of Ash's Pokemon in terms of strength would go like:

Tier Z (highest tier)

Greninja (Ash-Greninja)

Tier S +

Pikachu (Peakachu), Charizard

Tier S -

Infernape (Blaze), Sceptile

Tier A+

Snorlax

Tier A-

Krookodile, Bulbasaur

Tier B+

Lycanroc, Heracross, Gliscor, Torkoal

Tier B-

Swellow, Hawlucha, Gible, Glalie, Squirtle, Kingler

Tier C+

Torterra, Talonflame, Pignite, Goodra, Leavanny

Tier C-

Corphish, Quilava, Bayleef, Staraptor, Noivern, Noctowl, Donphan, Torracat

Tier D+

Palpitoad, Rowlet

Tier D-

Boldore, Scraggy, Unfezant

Tier E (bottommost tier)

Oshawott, Totodile

The ones while I didn't tier due to lack of information/insufficient amount of battles they were involved in:

Pidgeot, Muk, Lapras, Poipole, Meltan

I fully agree with the AG stuff, though I'll admit I'd be kinda tempted to put torracat in the "lack of information" tier just due to his lack of non-sparring, complete, recent battles

 

[345ash-greninja]

I fully agree with the AG stuff, though I'll admit I'd be kinda tempted to put torracat in the "lack of information" tier just due to his lack of non-sparring, complete, recent battles

Actually I was going with the battle it had with Kukui's Incineroar TBH...I mean Kukui's Incineroar is damn strong and Torracat was able to do a bit of damage to it, plus it was able to fight quite well with those Pokemon of Bourgain's sidekicks who by a collective effort were able to give Incineroar some trouble...which I why I put it at C-

 

[mehmeh1]

Actually I was going with the battle it had Kukui's Incineroar TBH...I mean Kukui's Incineroar is damn strong and Torracat was able to do a bit of damage to it, plus it was able to fight quite well with those Pokemon of Bourgain's sidekicks who by a collective effort were able to give Incineroar some trouble...which I why I put it at C-

fair enough, though my issue with it is that the battle against bourgain's sidekicks was its last completed, non-sparring match as of now, and that was almost a year ago, and the only battle that comes close to that in terms of telling us anything about torracat was the one against kiawe in SM107 (which I wouldn't really call sparring, but it was still interrupted). I just hope he (and rowlet) do well in the league

 

[Kintaro]

Besides Lycanroc, Ash's SM team is officially his worst team in the history of the entire anime. I never thought we could do worse than the Unova team but here we are.

 

[Torpoleon]

Besides Lycanroc, Ash's SM team is officially his worst team in the history of the entire anime. I never thought we could do worse than the Unova team but here we are.

Especially coming off the heels of a fully evolved Kalos team (just wish he didn't release Greninja and Goodra).

 

[Kintaro]

Especially coming off the heels of a fully evolved Kalos team (just wish he didn't release Greninja and Goodra).

He didn't release either Goodra or Greninja, so I'm not sure why you would think that.

 

[Dream Lad]

Overall Mega Sceptile was able to give Ash-Greninja a tougher time than Mega Abomasnow did, and that enough to suggest that it was certainly stronger that Mega Abomasnow.

A big difference is that Sawyer prepped his entire team beforehand to counter Ash's team, plus Mega Sceptile had type-advantage versus Ash-Greninja.

And apart from that, Ash-Greninja did even overpower Kalos Champion Diantha Mega Gardevoir for a few moments and was able to make it sweat and scream it pain..especially when Champions are depicted are literally invincible in the anime

Not the first though, right, that Elite 4 or Champion Pokemon have been in pain from attacks? Happened during Pikachu vs Agatha's Gengar. Torterra vs Bertha's Hippowdon. Iris' Axew vs Cynthia's Garchomp. Paul's Torterra vs Cynthia's Garchomp. Obviously more impressive and Dragon Ball Z with Ash-Greninja of course.

I personally consider it strong enough to go toe to toe with E4 level ace Pokemon and possibly even beat one.

Definitely possible, though current Charizard and peak league-form Pikachu, especially with a Z-Move, never really had an opportunity to face such opponents (Pikachu did bring Alain's Charizard to its knees prior to the Mega Evolution but he was also tired from having battled Tyranitar and Metagross beforehand). I don't think it matters at the end of day, because it'll always come down to Ash and Pikachu. If Ash ever wins a league or defeats an Elite 4, it's going to be with Pikachu in the final battle.

 

[MockingJ]

Greninja, in its Ash-Greninja form, is definitely the strongest. I don't really think that any other Pokemon of Ash tops it when it comes to strength.

We're talking about a Pokemon that couldn't even defeat Mega Charizard. How is that thing stronger than Charizard or Sceptile, both of whom defeated Legendaries? Try again.

 

[mehmeh1]

We're talking about a Pokemon that couldn't even defeat Mega Charizard. How is that thing stronger than Charizard or Sceptile, both of whom defeated Legendaries? Try again.

That mega charizard was incredibly OP (reminder that it fought Primal Groudon and survived, even taking a precipice blades straight to the gut, and he got even stronger since then), it's no small feat to be able to even touch that monster

He didn't release either Goodra or Greninja, so I'm not sure why you would think that.

yep, he left them but still has their pokeballs, we never saw the blue light either

 

[Doppelgänger]

How is bullying two weakened Pokemon while carrying a type advantage considered a feat? That's like an adult bragging about beating up grade school children on the playground.

Do you think that is somehow more impressive than losing to a Pokemon three times with the type advantage? Because it isn't, and this is obvious, which is why I didn't bother to talk about it.

 

[Kintaro]

yep, he left them but still has their pokeballs, we never saw the blue light either

For Goodra especially, I find it baffling. Did people claim Charizard, Squirtle and Gliscor were "released" because they initially weren't at Oak's lab? Goodra was shown watching Serena's Master Class, then Ash reunited with it in that Cabrink filler before the league, then it came back to his team, then it stayed for the Flare arc, and then Ash let it rejoin its friends/family in the swamp. It's his.

For Greninja I can sort of understand for now, but given it's immense popularity and being the "Charizard" for today's kids, it's obviously going to return someday and get a Charizard-like return.

 

[FullmetalJackie]

Even though Ash still has Goodra's and Greninja's Pokeballs, I don't think that they'll ever be seen again. So for the sake of this poll, I wouldn't even count them.

 

[Kintaro]

Even though Ash still has Goodra's and Greninja's Pokeballs, I don't think that they'll ever be seen again. So for the sake of this poll, I wouldn't even count them.

We'll likely see Greninja again, but Goodra's no different then the pokes at Oak's lab we barely see anymore. Ash's Infernape hasn't been seen since 2010.

 

[Leonhart]

We're talking about a Pokemon that couldn't even defeat Mega Charizard. How is that thing stronger than Charizard or Sceptile, both of whom defeated Legendaries? Try again.

I wouldn't really count Gekkouga anyway since he's gone. If he were at Okido-hakase's lab I might consider ranking him and he'd probably be at the top of the list with Kabigon, Lizardon and the others, but since he's in another region with no way of even reaching Satoshi, I try to forget that he even exists.

 

[Kintaro]

I wouldn't really count Gekkouga anyway since he's gone. If he were at Okido-hakase's lab I might consider ranking him and he'd probably be at the top of the list with Kabigon, Lizardon and the others, but since he's in another region with no way of even reaching Satoshi, I try to forget that he even exists.

I don't see why you would forget he exists, if the writers want to bring him back, they will.

 

[345ash-greninja]

We're talking about a Pokemon that couldn't even defeat Mega Charizard. How is that thing stronger than Charizard or Sceptile, both of whom defeated Legendaries? Try again.

Are you seriously suggesting that a wild untrained Articuno is stronger than a Mega Charizard X who defeated 10 Mega Evolved Pokemon in a row, including one Mega Houndoom belonging to the Kalos E4 member Malva? Alain's Mega Charizard is easily beyond E4 level and there is no way in heck a Frontier Brain level Articuno holds even a candle to it. While defeating a Legendary Bird is still impressive from Ash's Charizard, the Legendary Birds are easily among the weakest tier of Legendaries and no way they would hold even a candle to E4/Champion level Pokemon like Malva's Mega Houndoom, Alain's Mega Charizard X or...say Kalos Champion Diantha's Mega Gardevoir. I mean that shouldn't even be an argument, a certain Zapdos was feeling significant pain from a Boomburst from Ash's freaking Noivern. I'd rather say that let alone Alain's Mega Charizard X or Ash-Greninja, even Sawyer's Mega Sceptile has a very good shot at taking down a Legendary Bird (Articuno-Moltres-Zapdos), based on how their strength have been depicted in the anime.

And while Tobias' Darkrai was really strong, an infamous League sweeper, it still definitely wasn't as strong as Alain's God-Tier Mega Charizard X. Mega Charizard X ploughed through 10 Mega Evolved Pokemon in a row, including an E4 ace Pokemon like Mega Houndoom. Darkrai might have swept almost an entire League (Alain's Mega Charizard X also did that BTW) but there's literally nothing to suggest that it can defeat an E4 ace Pokemon like Alain's Mega Charizard X did. In fact, Alain's Mega Charizard X was shown to be on a completely different level, it could one-shot freaking Mega Evolved Pokemon like Trevor Mega Charizard Y and Remo's Mega Garchomp like ants while in case of Darkrai even Heracross and Gible (who definitely aren't on the level of Mega Evolved Pokemon) were able to do notable chip damage on it.

Ash-Greninja did went toe-to-toe with a Mega Charizard X for a long amount of time, giving it a valiant fight lasting 8+ minutes before finally losing. It certainly didn't put up any less of a fight than Kalos E4 member's Mega Houndoom did vs Mega Charizard X....that does suggest that Ash-Greninja was well within E4 tier-range.

Plus, more importantly, Ash-Greninja was able to go toe to toe with Kalos Champion Diantha's Gardevoir, even in its Water-Veil form, troubled it throughout and forced Diantha to resort to Mega Evolution. Even after Diantha Mega Evolved her Gardevoir, Water-Veil Ash-Greninja was able to still keep up well-enough with it. And after Ash-Greninja reached its full form, it was able to thoroughly overwhelm and overpower Mega Gardevoir with Water Shuriken cutting through Shadow Ball like butter and sending Diantha's ace flying back screaming in pain, enough for Diantha to call out in concern for her Pokemon. Champions are depicted as literally invincible in the anime and Ash had been utterly destroyed by even E4 members, let alone Champions, in the past: like vs Hoenn Drake, vs Flint; also for Champions, Cynthia obliterating Paul, Trip hacked Serperior getting mauled like a joke by Alder's Bouffalant, the previous Kalos League Champion (or that's how it said like) Magnus's Absol getting obliterated without doing jack to Diantha's Gardevoir. And this tine Ash battled a freaking Champion and still, was able to put up more than just a good fight,l and even dominate the fight in the latter part. Does more than enough to suggest that Ash-Greninja belongs to the E4 level spectrum (otherwise no way a freaking Champion's ace would've had that much trouble).

How Ash-Greninja fought against Kalos Champion Diantha's Gardevoir and was able to even overpower it for a while and how long it was able to go toe to toe with Alain's God-Tier broken Mega Evolved Pokemon is more than enough to suggest that it clearly holds the title of Ash's strongest Pokemon as of now.

@Dream Lad I think that I've explained the Ash-Greninja vs Mega Gardevoir battle well-enough now. The clear difference between the examples of Pikachu vs Agatha's Gengar, Torterra vs Bertha's Hippowdon, Paul's Torterra vs Cynthia's Garchomp and Iris' Axew vs Cynthia's Garchomp is that Greninja was giving trouble to Gardevoir throughout after it transformed into Water-Veil Ash-Greninja, pressurizing Diantha enough to Mega Evolved her Gardevoir. Even after Gardevoir Mega Evolved, Ash-Greninja still was able to keep up well-enough with it and after reaching full form, was able to sheerly overpower Mega Gardevoir for a while (Water Shuriken cut through multi-fused Shadow Ball like butter) and was able to do significant amount of damage to it, enough for Diantha to call out Gardevoir's name in concern...it was a much different case than the examples you mentioned. A Pokemon which is not in the E4 tier range won't be able to give a freaking a regional Champion's ace Pokemon that much trouble. And yup the battle definitely was DBZ style with Ash-Greninja.

I agree that if Ash were to beat an E4 members someday, it'd most likely be with Pikachu starring, because it's his lifelong partner of course. I'd say that a hypothetical Mega Evolved Charizard of Ash or Pikachu in peak form with 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt would of course surpass Ash-Greninja in terms of strength.

 

[Dream Lad]

Are you seriously suggesting that a wild untrained Articuno is stronger than a Mega Charizard X who defeated 10 Mega Evolved Pokemon in a row, including one Mega Houndoom belonging to the Kalos E4 member Malva? Alain's Mega Charizard is easily beyond E4 level and there is no way in heck a Frontier Brain level Articuno holds even a candle to it. And while Tobias' Darkrai was really strong, an infamous League sweeper, it still definitely wasn't as strong as Alain's God-Tier Mega Charizard X. Mega Charizard X ploughed through 10 Mega Evolved Pokemon in a row, including an E4 ace Pokemon like Mega Houndoom. Darkrai might have swept almost an entire League (Alain's Mega Charizard X also did that BTW) but there's literally nothing to suggest that it can defeat an E4 ace Pokemon like Alain's Mega Charizard X did.

But on the flip side, there isn't anything not to suggest that Articuno and Darkrai wouldn't be able 'to hold a candle' against Mega Charizard X. One random Zapdos doesn't mean every Legendary Bird is that level (and that Zapdos just one took surprise attack too, not like it lost in a battle). Especially from a meta POV, there's no way any legendary in the anime is getting knocked out easily by a non-legendary.

In fact, Alain's Mega Charizard X was shown to be on a completely different level, it could one-shot freaking Mega Evolved Pokemon like Trevor Mega Charizard Y and Remo's Mega Garchomp like ants while in case Darkrai even Heracross and Gible (who definitely aren't on the level of Mega Evolved Pokemon) were able to do notable chip damage on it.

I don't think automatically being Mega Evolved makes them stronger. Trevor's and Remo's Pokemon don't strike me as being high-level Pokemon.

It certainly didn't put up any less of a fight than Kalos E4 member's Mega Houndoom did vs Mega Charizard X....that foes suggest that Ash-Greninja was well within E4 tier-range.

Was Malva even trying to win? I felt based on her reaction that she didn't even care that she lost, that she was just more interested in learning about Alain.

@Dream Lad I think that I've explained the Ash-Greninja vs Mega Gardevoir battle well-enough now. The clear difference between the examples of Pikachu vs Agatha's Gengar, Torterra vs Bertha's Hippowdon, Paul's Torterra vs Cynthia's Garchomp and Iris' Axew vs Cynthia's Garchomp is that Greninja was giving trouble to Gardevoir throughout after it transformed into Water-Veil Ash-Greninja, pressurizing Diantha enough to Mega Evolved her Gardevoir.
Even after Gardevoir Mega Evolved, Ash-Greninja still was able to keep up well-enough with it and after reaching full form, was able to sheerly overpower Mega Gardevoir for a while (Water Shuriken cut through multi-fused Shadow Ball like butter) and was able to do significant amount of damage to it, enough for Diantga to call out Gardevoir's name in concern...it was a much different case than the examples you mentioned. A Pokemon which is not in the E4 tier range won't be able to give a freaking a regional Champion's ace Pokemon that much trouble. And yup the battle definitely was DBZ style with Ash-Greninja.

It was a weird battle though, right? Diantha spends the first half of the battle trying to bait out that transformation, and then when it happens, it's not like she flips the switch and calls out Gardevoir to start spamming Moonblasts or teleporting across that big field (like Gardevoir did in that formal match against Absol). She lets Ash-Greninja do this DBZ style blitzkrieg on Gardevoir, which was so cool as hell but also left me wondering if she's even using her Gardevoir in the right away. I felt the battle more so displayed that Ash-Greninja has amazing raw power that can match any Elite 4 and Champion Pokemon, but it's still up to Ash to utilize that power in the right way to outmaneuver Elite 4s and Champions in a formal battle. I think peak league-form Pikachu and current Charizard probably have that same raw strength too, IMO.

I agree that Ash were to beat an E4 members someday, it'd most likely be with Pikachu starring, because it's his lifelong partner of course. I'd say that a hypothetical Mega Evolved Charizard of Ash or Pikachu in peak form with 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt would of course surpass Ash-Greninja in terms of strength.

We don't know what current Charizard's level is right now. If he has continued to train up and has gotten even better since BW, he's probably formidable even without a Mega Evolution form.

I would love it if in Galar, we got Ash's Charizard vs Leon's Charizard.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Seeing as Ash's Charizard is the strongest in terms of base form,you give it Bond Phenomenon it's getting the job done and doing what Greninja couldn't do,beat Alain's Charizard at the Kalos League.

 

[Dream Lad]

Besides Lycanroc, Ash's SM team is officially his worst team in the history of the entire anime. I never thought we could do worse than the Unova team but here we are.

On that same topic, what teams do certain Pokemon belong to? Does Snorlax belong to Kanto, or does he goes to Johto since that's where it had its battles. Likewise, Ash caught Phanpy in Johto, but it was in Advanced Generation that it traveled again with Ash and became Donphan.

If you include Snorlax with Johto and Donphan with Hoenn then there are six-man teams for all regions up to Alola:

Kanto: Charizard/Bulbasaur/Squirtle/Tauros/Muk/Kingler
Johto: Quilava/Bayleef/Totodile/Heracross/Noctowl/Snorlax
Hoenn: Torkoal/Sceptile/Corphish/Donphan/Swellow/Glalie
Sinnoh: Infernape/Torterra/Buizel/Gliscor/Staraptor/Gible
Unova: Pignite/Leavanny/Palpitoad/Boldore/Unfezant/Krookodile (best six; -Oshawott, Snivy, Scraggy)
Kalos: Talonflame/Goodra/Greninja/Hawlucha/Noivern/Pikachu (at his best on average here even if his peak performance was against Latios)

Alola: Torracat, Rowlet, Meltan, Lycanroc, [open slot], [open slot]

So if I took my version of Ash's rankings earlier in this thread and added up each team's points (S=1 --> D=5) and divided by #mons:

Spoiler: The List

S: Pikachu/Charizard/Greninja/Sceptile/Infernape/Snorlax

A: Krookodile/Heracross/Bulbasaur/Swellow/Gliscor/Glalie/Hawlucha/Kingler

B: Lycanroc/Squirtle/Gible/Pignite/Goodra/Torterra/Talonflame/Corphish/Quilava/Torkoal

C: Noivern/Tauros/Staraptor/Buizel/Noctowl/Leavanny/Bayleef/Donphan/Torracat/Palpitoad/Muk

D: Snivy/Unfezant/Rowlet/Boldore/Oshawott/Scraggy/Totodile/Meltan

Excluding: Butterfree, Primeape, Pidgeot, Lapras, Poipole

Kanto: 2.67
Johto: 3.17
Hoenn: 2.5
Sinnoh: 2.83
Unova: 3.83 (-Oshawott, Snivy, Scraggy)
Kalos: 2.33 (without Pikachu = 2.6)
Alola: 4.25...

Kalos >/= Hoenn >/= (Kalos without Pikachu) >/= Kanto >/= Sinnoh > Johto > > Unova > > Alola (yikes).

With Pikachu, Kalos ends up as the best regional team, which is reasonable considering Ash reached a league finals with this group. Otherwise it goes to Hoenn, which makes sense since the Hoenn team went through the hardest league format and Battle Frontier. Kanto was probably the worst team when that series ended, but they all became better. Sinnoh might have been meant to be the best or second-best, but unfortunately Torterra/Staraptor/Buizel were overshadowed at Infernape's expense. Nothing much to say about Unova. Alola is unsurprisingly last since Ash doesn't even have a full team, several NFEs, and battling wasn't the focus of this series. Essentially, Kanto/Hoenn/Sinnoh/Kalos are on par with each other, and then there's slight gap to Johto, a bigger gap to Unova, and Alola dead last.

 

[MockingJ]

Seeing as Ash's Charizard is the strongest in terms of base form,you give it Bond Phenomenon it's getting the job done and doing what Greninja couldn't do,beat Alain's Charizard at the Kalos League.

I think Ash's Charizard could win even if he just used regular Mega Evolution since Ash's Charizard had better training overall.