I don't think Dawn has best pokemon team at all honestly questioning validity of this thread.
May has team of almost fully evolved pokemon, her Venusaur, Wartortle, Blaziken, Buttefly, even Glaceon all forged their experience in tough confrontations being trained frequently. Battling against in reality more challenging rivals than Dawn had accompanied with fact that May is more accustomed to raw , tough battling style regular trainers are involved into. Due to big influence Ash left on her. Yet Dawn has better team than her?
Misty on other hand has mega Gyarados with her Gyarados even in base form being incredibly powerful pokemon. Misty Politoad entered lot of battles, training during main series being one of Misty most used pokemon.
Her Staryu proved its power vs various trainers, such as defeating Marina Tentacruel with just one star attack, or taking on Molly mirage pokemon Mantine being on equal level. Despite as Brock and others mentioned Molly mirage pokemon being several times more powerful than regular pokemon,. Yet Staryu revealed incredible resistance in withstanding bubble beam and whirlpool trap turning battle in its favor.
Having high stamina and flexibility demonstrated not just in battles, but in various rescue missions too such as puling raft all by itself when original trio tried to reach North pole or when rescuing other people.
Followed by Staryu being rigorously trained with Misty using it even in most recent times. How can anyone think Misty Staryu is not strong pokemon baffles me really.
Starmie may not be seen or suggested as being among Misty top used pokemon, but Starmie has impressive versatility in number of techniques it can learn, it has great stats, its one of best pokemon to pick in competitive battling among gamers(not sure how is nowadays but in past it used to be).
Many are forgetting that Misty early left it to sisters back in Kanto with Starmie never having chance to show its full potential(heck we only saw him use two attacks not being showcased much at all), and we have no idea how often and if Misty use him now at gym. For all we know her other starfish pokemon could be powerhouse by now.
And i think Misty Corsola is unfairly underrated pokemon. It was ever since Misty caught it among her most used pokemon in late Johto. With Misty training it regularly with achievements like defeating Harrison Quilfish, Shellder, Ash Totodile and Marina Gyarados in Whirl Cup. Followed by defeating Sakura Espeon,Coastline gym leader Dorian Mantine and later Georgio Delcatty in chronicles all speaking in favor of coral pokemon.
Having great defensive and offensive abilities. However people dismiss all of that thinking Corsola is "weak". And i strongly disagree with that.
There is also Luvdisc which had no trouble defeating Butch and Cassidy Sableye and Mightiena, and while we saw it just in one episode. We cannot tell is neither weak or strong due to lack of sufficient info. But many without any evidence immediately dismissed Misty Luvdisc as joke pokemon unfairly.
And Psyduck already proved to have brutal powers being you could say Misty wild card capable of defeating just about any pokemon from other pokemon girls if conditions are fulfilled(and its psychic powers are truly impressive).
But if talking about reliable powerful pokemon, than aside from Gyarados; Staryu, Politoad and Corsola are all powerful pokemon and in my honest opinion could stand up to May pokemon tram when taking in account how much experience and skill Misty has and her pokemon from participating in lot of real pokemon battles, regular trainer ones. Let alone to Dawn pokemon team.
Or Iris who might have super powerful pokemon like Dragonite,but in general rest of her pokemon don't seem that powerful that she would dominate in 6vs 6 match vs May or Misty.
So here is what in my opinion appears to be objective list when talking about overall strength of pokemon girls full teams:
May/Misty>Dawn>Iris>Serena
Psyduck, Starmie, Staryu and Corsola barely have experience in battle compared to Dawn's Pokemon. She didn't often use them so it's pretty obvious they're not strong.
I don't agree at all. So just because we haven't see Misty battle on screen as much as Dawn did makes her pokemon automatically weaker? What kind of logic is that?
We djdn't saw Iris using Dragonite all that much as Dawn did her pokemon either due to just ,like Misty not receiving as much screen time as Dawn did. But does that mean Dragonite is weak? Far from it, because it was already superb strong as wild pokemon.
So classifying Misty pokemon as weak solely due to less focus they received on regular basis than Dawn pokemon did is very weak argument. In OS it was several times mentioned that Misty trained her pokemon of screen on regular basis and Corsola by default was already strong pokemon before Misty caught it with others warning her how she's up to strongest Corsola on island.
Likewise Corsola , Poliwhirl/Politoad and Staryu were heavily used from Misty side, and after returning back to gym she uses Corsola and Staryu as canon proved on regular basis. In chronicles it was proved that Misty very often picks Corsola when battling other challengers. And even to this day whenever she appears Staryu is still among her most used pokemon having HUGE amount of battling experience and power.
When taking in account not just Misty battling when she was main character, but at this point numerous battles she had/has as gym leader vs various challengers, or trainers outside the gym when on trip Misty pokemon team in general has far more battling experience(when talking about traditional battles)than any pokemon in Dawn team has honestly.
