What Battle Performance Best Makes An Ash Pokémon Seem Like The Strongest Ash Pokemon Ever Seen?

[Genaller]

In a way this question is the classic “which Ash Pokémon has the best feat” though since the word “feat” has so much ambiguity in the community, I figured it’d be best to phrase the question this way. Also note how I use the word “battle” which excludes stuff like Pikachu temporarily knocking down Mother Beast Nihilego with 10MVT. My pick would be either option 8 or 9 (the first 2 sections of this thread contain my justifications for why: https://forums.serebii.net/threads/ash-greninja-battle-viability-assessment-compilation.662620/) though what I’m really curious to see is whether general opinion has changed from last year.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

In terms of base forms Charizard is #1,the others that are stronger is due to BS powerups/abilities like Z-Move and Battle Bond.

 

[mehmeh1]

In terms of base forms Charizard is #1,the others that are stronger is due to BS powerups/abilities like Z-Move and Battle Bond.

peakachu by this point is stronger tbh

 

[Genaller]

In terms of base forms Charizard is #1,the others that are stronger is due to BS powerups/abilities like Z-Move and Battle Bond.

Cool and I never restricted it to only Base forms so by picking the option you did you’re basically saying that you think this performance of Charizard’s makes him seem stronger than any of Ash’s other Pokémon with special power ups and forms included (it’s fine if you believe that but let’s be clear as to what your vote actually represents).

 

[345ash-greninja]

E4's and Champions are treated as virtually invincible gods in this anime: they has been consistently portrayed as the insurmountable wall which regular trainers can dream of getting close to surpassing, keeping Ash's prior legacy against E4 trainers in mind, where he got thoroughly stomped and fodderized by E4 members every time he fought them; especially against Flint, where Buizel and Infernape were OHKO'd like ants, and Pikachu with all its efforts and tenacity could barely still scratch Flint's Infernape. And Champions are totally on another level compared the E4 members; they are portrayed as invincible to such an extent that sometimes veteran trainers get totally brutalized by just one of his Pokemon, like Cynthia vs Paul, where her Garchomp alone was able to OHKO every one of Paul's Pokemon including his starter Torterra; sometimes even E4 members, the virtually invincibly portrayed trainers also literally sometimes get curbstomped by Champions with ease, like Cynthia's Garchomp demolishing Lucian's Bronzing, or Diantha's Mega Gardevoir demolishing Wikstrom's Mega Scizor. So it's only imaginable how much incredibly difficult a task it is to go head to head with a freaking Champion's ace, and even dominating the fight momentarily and inflicting substantial damage on a Champion's ace, and too when the Champion's ace is in its Mega Evolved form.

Ash-Greninja's fight vs Mega Gardevoir in XY&Z25 for the first time gave us belief that finally, after years and years of failing and getting curbstomped by master-level trainers E4 members, Ash finally has started to become somewhat of a match for this master-level trainers like E4's and Champions, maybe if he finally wins a League someday, he might be able to put up a fight against these master-level trainers while participating the Champions League.

Which is why this performance will forever be the GOAT performance among Ash's Pokemon in the anime (until another Pokemon of Ash faces an E4/Champion and puts up a better performance):

 

[Ash-Pikachu]

Obviously sweeping Diantha off her feet with Greninja cemented him as Ash's strongest Pokemon to date and no trainer, even Alain has ever performed such a feat in the anime.

The best Charizard has done recently is what? Defeating Dragonite who lost composure against Krookodile and lost to a fukking gym leader? Am I supposed to be impressed by that when Ash's Greninja inflicted a blow on Diantha's Gardevoir even in base form, Infernape who defeated 3 of Pauls pokemon who was a competent trainer in which could only logically be superseded by a trainer full of legendary pokemon, Sceptile who defeated Darkrai, and Pikachu who stalemated Latios who swept through Sceptile and Swallow fairly easily.

Greninja vs. Diantha is the best feat that epitomizes Ash's strength as a trainer followed by Greninja vs. Alains Charizard, and Ash vs. Tobias.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Either the Latios fight or the Alain fight. Those two fights show just how powerful the "cannon" half of the Glass Cannon that is Pikachu really is.

Latios is purposefully overpowered.

Pikachu 0 - KO'd Tyranitar, took down Metagross despite a beating that would have taken down any other Glass Cannon, and Alain immediately sent out Charizard rather than sending one of his weaker Pokémon. All of this together probably puts Pikachu on the same level as it was when it tied Latios.

None of the other fights even compare to these two. But I can't pick between them.

Side note: Infernape didn't sweep, it lost and won through the magic of plot armor.

 

[Darthlord7]

Either the Latios fight or the Alain fight. Those two fights show just how powerful the "cannon" half of the Glass Cannon that is Pikachu really is.

Latios is purposefully overpowered.

Pikachu 0 - KO'd Tyranitar, took down Metagross despite a beating that would have taken down any other Glass Cannon, and Alain immediately Mega Evolved Charizard so as to negate it's weakness to Pikachu's Electric attacks. All of this together probably puts Pikachu on the same level as it was when it tied Latios.

None of the other fights even compare to these two. But I can't pick between them.

Side note: Infernape didn't sweep, it lost and won through the magic of plot armor.

The bolded one never happened. Pikachu fainted in an Iron Tail-Dragon Claw clash against Base Charizard. Alain Mega-Evolved it afterwards against Greninja.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

The bolded one never happened. Pikachu fainted in an Iron Tail-Dragon Claw clash against Base Charizard. Alain Mega-Evolved it afterwards against Greninja.

Oh, it's been a while. I'll fix it.

 

[Genaller]

Fun side note: Alain only acknowledges Ash-Greninja as Ash’s “full power” despite seeing Pikachu’s performance in that battle first-hand which low-key confirms Mastered Ash-Greninja > Kalos League Finals Peakachu.

 

[keepitsimple]

ash has beaten legendary pokemon so many times at this point but until the diantha battle, nobody except for elites 4 had ever been able to keep up with the champion so idk why i should consider winning against a legendary to be a better feat

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Fun side note: Alain only acknowledges Ash-Greninja as Ash’s “full power” despite seeing Pikachu’s performance in that battle first-hand which low-key confirms Mastered Ash-Greninja > Kalos League Finals Peakachu.

I think Alain is just wrong there. Was he expecting Pikachu to last the entire match after taking that much damage? Greninja took far less punishment before going down.

 

[blizzardblaze]

Greninja took a lot more damage I think from Charizard than Pikachu did since Greninjas aren't well known for their defense and Mega Charizard X has some terrifying attacks that can devastate it, and add on that ability of his that augments Alain's charizard's battle style, then Greninja takes a lot more damage in a shorter period of time. But yeah, you're right about Pikachu taking more punishment.

 

[Genaller]

I think Alain is just wrong there. Was he expecting Pikachu to last the entire match after taking that much damage? Greninja took far less punishment before going down.

First off Alain’s MC-X is on a completely different lvl from his other Pokémon (and is substantially stronger than his Base Zard), so actually A-G easily took a greater quality of damage before going down. Based on what Alain had seen from A-G in the past (so bascially A-G’s battles up until vs Mega Sceptile), he considered A-G to be Ash’s “full power” that he was waiting for throughout their entire battle to witness including all the parts of the battle that Pikachu was in. This yields the conclusion that Alain considers A-G to be the superior Pokémon despite witnessing Pikachu’s outstanding performance first-hand. A good argument can also be made for how A-G’s performance against MC-X puts it over Malva’s Mega Houndoom putting A-G in the elite 4 Mega Ace spectrum which sorry but a Pokémon like Tobias’s Latios most certainly is not in.

 

[blizzardblaze]

Did you see how fast Pikachu took down Tyranitar without sustaining that much damage? It was more Metagross that tired it out with it's speed and utilizing it's electricity for an extended period of time that made it so susceptible to being taken down by Alain's ace so easily.

 

[345ash-greninja]

The fact that Pikachu was pushed that hard by Alain's Metagross made it at least Pikachu alone had no business in going toe to toe with Alain's Mega Charizard X for a long amount of time and having an elongated fight against it for 8 minutes like how Ash-Greninja did. Because Alain's Mega Charizard X was on a completely different level/astronomically stronger from Alain's Metagross, and at least this isn't debatable whatsoever no matter how you look at it. With base Charizard, Pikachu would have competed evenly though.

 

[Ash-Pikachu]

Mega-Charizard > Pikachu > Base Zard.

Pikachu managed to blitz Charizard and land two consecutive Thunderbolts before Charizard could finally gain momentum and this is explicitly because Pikachu was exhausted. They're not even, Pikachu is evidently superior. This is why Pikachu was weakened against Charizard, so that mega evolution could be reserved for the opponent Alain coveted the most, Greninja.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

1.Greninja (Battle Bond)
2.Charizard
3.Haxachu
4.Infernape (Blaze)
5.Sceptile (Overgrow)
6.Sceptile
7.Infernape
8.Pikachu
9.Snorlax
10.Greninja
11.Nerfachu

 

[Genaller]

1.Greninja (Battle Bond)
2.Charizard
3.Haxachu
4.Infernape (Blaze)
5.Sceptile (Overgrow)
6.Sceptile
7.Infernape
8.Pikachu
9.Snorlax
10.Greninja
11.Nerfachu

Out of curiousty which performance(s) of A-G’s makes you think he should be over Zard?

 

[keepitsimple]

What's Nerfachu? If that's Pikachu at the start of every gen, I don't think he belongs near the top 10