I would say Greninja as that thing could potentially hard-carry Ash through most tournaments.. Mega Lucario definitely deserves a shout-out and there's no denying that Ash's Charizard could still hold its own between these powerhouses without even having a gimmick.
Sceptile, Lycanroc and Krookodile I rate as a notch below them..
But in my eyes, Infernape is the clear winner. No ace has been as dominant as Chimchar/Infernape after joining the squad in their original series.
- Fantina: Mismagius and Drifblim
- Byron: Bronzor and Steelix
- Candice: Snover and Abomasnow
- Volkner: Jolteon and Luxray
- Paul: Ursaring (LA) Aggron, Ninjask, Electivire (League).
As an ace, Infernape was
so ridiculously dominant that it literally left SCRAPS for the rest of the team to fight over.
After Chimchar joined the team (gymbattles/LakeAcuityBattle/League):
- Pikachu had 3: Gyarados, Electivire and Froslass
- Staraptor had 5: Machoke, Meditite, Medicham, Weavile and Roserade.
- Torterra had 1: Sneasel.
- Buizel had 5: Lucario (tie), Quagsire, Floatzel, Gengar and Gastrodon.
- Gliscor had 2: Bastiodon and Drapion.
- Gible had 2: Shuckle and Dusclops.
Infernape: 12 (took out four aces).
The SIX other members: 18 (also four aces).
Infernape claimed
40% of the wins after joining the team. No other ace has been that dominant for the majority of a series. And it literally took over Hearthome City onwards 12 wins for Infernape vs. 12 for the rest of the team.
Infernape in terms of character. Pikachu in terms of character
Wait, how does this work? Who wins on character? Pikachu or Infernape?
I voted Infernape because of all of his story but I didn't even notice Pikachu counted, he would be my vote
I really like Sceptile and Greninja too, even if the latter had to struggle TOO much to be able to show strength later. He was nearly a jobber sometimes and lost one of the most infamous matches of the anime
When was Greninja ever close to being a 'jobber'? Won in the Rock-type gym, aced in the GRASS-type gym, won in the Psychic-gym and was the ace in the Ice-type gym when the form-issue was fixed.
The proceeded to beat a Mega Sceptile (which had a 4x resist as a Grass/Dragon-type and super-effective moves). Sure, it lost to MC-X.. but it doesn't have a track-record as a jobber at all.
I wanted to say latter(aka Greninja), sorry
Technically Sceptile did lose in a very infamous match though, but it wasn't the pokelantis king one but, of course, Tobias(and won epically before)
Most aces have an embarrasing defeat:
- Charizard having no will to fight Sparky and losing to Brandon's Dusclops.
- Sceptile losing to Brandon's Regirock though it wasn't his fault. Losing to Latios wasn't a big deal after beating Darkrai.
- Infernape: Yeah, nothing aside from that Acuity Lake blow-out.
- Krookodile: Nothing I can remember..
- Greninja: Lost to MC-X (hardly embarrasing though).
- Lycanroc/Incineroar: They didn't battle too much to ever get a flop really..
- Lucario: ... yeah...