Ash’s Best Team of 6 Pokémon

So Ash has been the main protagonist of the Pokémon anime for a LONG time. Personally, I feel he’s been around for TOO long, but that’s my own opinion. Nonetheless, Ash has gathered quite the assortment of Pokémon from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova. But a question that a lot of people have asked is “Which ones are his best?” Well, I don’t claim to know the answer to that. There’s just too many variables to consider, not to mention a large contingent of pissed off fans who would yell at me if I didn’t include certain old-school Pokémon of his. However, one question I have considered a lot is “If Ash were to assemble a team of six Pokémon for a full battle, which should he choose?” This I DO feel comfortable in answering, as these aren’t necessarily his strongest single battlers, but rather the ones that would have the best coverage in speed, strength, longevity, and type coverage. So here it is, my own personal opinion on Ash’s Best Team of 6 Pokémon  I’ll make my own cases for them and, as always, you’re free to make your own call on the matter at the end.

Pikachu

Yeah, this one IS kind of obvious. While Pikachu‘s overall staying power isn’t exactly the best, his ability to get in, hit hard, and get out has been a centrepiece of Ash’s battle strategy for years now. Plus, Pikachu has learned a number of tricks to make up for his shortcomings, like the mid-air spin dodge and counter-shield, as well as a number of combination and improvised attacks, like the Volt Tail and Electro Iron Tail, both moves taking his massive electrical power and using them to boost the already substantial power of his Iron Tail. His most notable accomplishments are his wins over Lt. Surge’s Raichu, Roxie’s Garbodor, Wattson’s whole team, Drake’s Dragonite, and Brendan’s Regice, and his tie against Tobias’ Latios.

Infernape

And I can already hear the fan boys weep that Infernape is on here instead of Charizard. I’m sorry, but Charizard’s x4 weakness to Rock type moves, his lack of team-work skills, and his last appearance featuring him losing to a Dusclops that frigging Bulbasaur was able to take down later makes him unreliable in a full battle. But, I suppose I should give Charizard honourable mention as one of Ash’s top Pokémon. And it’s also worth noting that in a 1-on-1 battle between Infernape and Charizard, Charizard would likely win since he’s immune to Dig, has resistance to Fire and Fighting type moves, and his Flying type moves are supper-effective on Fighting-types. I just feel that, in a 6-on-6 environment, Ash would have better choices for both Fire and Flying. As for Infernape, it’s a strong, fast, and evasive fighter that, like Pikachu, can get in and do some major damage before going down. It’s also mastered the counter-shield, and possesses a variation of Blaze unique to itself that sends its power through the roof. This used to make it unreliable as it also pushed it into a berserker-type rage, but it’s since overcome that. Its most notable accomplishments are its victories over Roark’s Onix, Fantina’s Drifblim, Candice’s Abomasnow, Volkner’s Luxray, and Paul’s Electivire.

Palpitoad
SON OF A BITCH!!!

This pick might seem odd, given my previously stated issues with Palpitoad, but I had to be fair here. Also, I will admit this was probably one of the tougher decisions, given Ash’s roster of Water-types. Now I eliminated most by their biggest flaws: Squirtle is too slow and doesn’t have much staying power, Totodile’s too much of a goof off, Corphish hasn’t evolved and thus hasn’t grown enough to make his more defensive strategy work, Buizel’s best assets are already covered in my picks thus far, and Oshawott is kind of clumsy. This left me down to two choices: Palpitoad and Kingler. What ultimately made me decide to go with Palpitoad is that he possesses something none of Ash’s other Water-types have: Immunity to electricity. Plus, he has more bulk to him than Corphish and can hit just as hard as any of the other Water-types. In addition to all of that, Palpitoad is a single evolution away from being fully evolved. If he becomes a Seismitoad, he would be one of Ash’s best, hands down. Palpitoad unfortunately doesn’t have very many notable victories as of yet, other than defeating Burgundy and Virgil in the Club Battle tournament, but he was a key player in Ash’s battles against Elesa, Roxie, and Stephan.

Sceptile

Yeah I know, Sceptile is another fully evolved Pokémon that focuses on speed and power, but I felt the need to pick a Grass type, and I ultimately found that Sceptile was the best, though I will say that all of Ash’s Grass-types are pretty awesome in their own ways. His moves are sort of straightforward and predictable, but his never-say-die attitude pushes him past such short-comings. His most notable achievements are his victories over Brawly’s Hariyama, Norman’s Slaking, Winona’s Altaria, Katie’s Walrein, Spencer’s Claydol, and possibly greatest of all, Tobias’ Darkrai.

Gliscor

Again, Ash has a lot of Flying types, all of which are fully evolved and are among his fastest and strongest Pokémon of all. The reason why I chose Gliscor, despite the fact that I try not to double up on types and I already have a Ground-type on here, PLUS Gliscor has a x4 weakness to Ice, is actually kind of simple: Most of Ash’s other Flying-types have pretty straightforward and easy to predict move-sets. The only ones that don’t are Charizard, which I already said I’m not picking, Noctowl, who admittedly is pretty awesome and can use Psychic-type attacks, and Gliscor. Ultimately, I went with Gliscor because it’s immune to electricity, has a VERY varied move-pool, and has the best physical defence of my picks thus far. It also knows how to use Giga Impact and NOT be stuck frozen for a turn by using its tail to bounce upon impact and get some distance, thus eliminating the move’s fatal flaw. Its most notable accomplishments are its victories over Byron’s Bastiodon and Paul’s Drapion, AKA Paul’s motha frakkin’ mower.

So that leaves us with one final Pokémon. Now while all of these are good options, I chose not to go with Krookodile, Donphan, or Gible because I didn’t want three Ground-types on the team. I didn’t want to double up on any other types either, so that left me with some of the more unique of Ash’s roster. Having looked over them, their abilities, move-pools, statistics, achievements, what they can do that their team-mates cannot, and then using Marriland’s Team Builder to double-check most of these facts, I’ve ultimately decided that the 6th member of the best team Ash could put together at this time is…

Snorlax

Easily the biggest, bulkiest, and admittedly slowest of Ash’s Pokémon, he’s in many ways the opposite of most of Ash’s roster. Immune to Ghost-type moves, possessing massive health, physical attack, and special defence, he can and has blocked against most opponents. He’s SO blubbery, in fact, that most attacks actually deflect right off of him. He’s mastered the art of Pokémon Sumo, and Ash has even figured out how to use his rotund body to use an impressive rolling dodge, thus potentially eliminating his biggest weakness: His lack of speed. His most notable accomplishments are winning the Sumo Conference, defeating Clair’s Kingdra, Gary’s Arcanine and Nidoqueen, Harrison’s Hypno and Steelix, and Greta’s entire Fighting-type team.

So those are my choices for Ash’s Best Team of 6 Pokémon. Leave your comments below to let me know what you would choose as a team, and I will see y’all later. Ja né!