The Pokemon franchise owes a lot 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:to the starters. Aside from being key parts of the games, they've carried heavy responsibility in terms of popularity and have arguably been the most accessible ways t💛o market the franchise. That proves especially true i💙n the anime, where most of the main characters have starter Pokemon as their aces.
They vary in power, and some of them aren't even fully evolved. Rꦐegardless, some of them have not only grown to be fan favorites, but incredibly powerful in the ani𝓰me universe. Here's a look at the best.
Note: This list will not include Ash's Pikachu, as this list aims to only include Pokemon that are distinctly marketed as starters.
15 💫 ♑ May's Blaziken
While it's more specialized to perform in Contests than hold its own in regular battles, May's Blaziken is still plenty stro🅷ng.
The problem is, it spent most of its screen time as a Combusken, having only had two full on-screen battles in its fully evolved form. Still, with how prominent a coordinator May has grown into, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume Blaziken was a huge reason for that, even༺ though fans haven't seen the fully evolved version at 100% power.
14 Kiawe's Charizard ไ
Spoiler alert: t🌸his won't be💫 the last time a Charizard appears on this list. Kiawe mostly uses his Charizard as a Ride Pokemon, but when called upon to battle, it can hold its own and then some.
This showed particularly against Sophocles' Vikavolt, when it overcame the super-effective Electric-type attacks to beat it, even surviving a Z-Move in the process. Charizard is also capable of its own two Z-Moves, being those of its two types: 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sꦅupersonic Skystrike and Inferno Overdrive.
13 ౠ Lana's Primarina
Lana's Primarina is more known for its singing, which is warranted thanks to it helping calm down the Legenda▨ry Kyogre, but it's more than competent in battle as well.
It's capable of many different kinds of Water-type attacks, namely Surf, Bubble Beam, Aqua Jet, and its signature Sparkling Aria. Much like Kiawe's Charizard, it's capable of two Z-Moves: Hydro Vortex and Sparkling Aria's upgrade, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Oceanic Operetta.
12 ♐ 🐽 Gary's Blastoise
For a Pokemon that's considered to be the ace of the most popౠular rival in the anime, Blastoise hasn't been on screen much. Of course, that's because there was a lot of spectacle around revealing which starter Gary picked from the Oak Laboratory.
It appeared in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Gary's battle against Ash in the Silver Conference, where it defeated Bayleef despite the type matchup, but also lost to Charizard despite the ty✨pe matchup, which is all kinds of confusing for the purposes of this list.
11 💯 💜 Sawyer's Sceptile
Sawyer's Sceptile wasn't primed to be as strong as it is from the start, but with a Trainer as tactical as Sawyer helping it out, it managed to reach its full pot🀅ential. The Mega Evolution definitely helps✅.
What keeps it from ranking higher on this list is one glaring flaw: its track record 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:against Ash's Greninja. Sure, Ash-Greninja is really strong, but it only came to that point in two of Sawyer's battles against Ash. Regardless, Sceptile's record against Greninja is a disappointing oᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚne win to four losses despite the type advantage.
10 ♔ Paul's🐼 Torterra
Paul's first Pokemon and arguably his strongest, Torterra, has the honor of getting praise from Cynthia after a battle with her Garchomp, even though 🌞it lost brutally. It also rarely gets a sc🍒olding from Paul, which is hard considering his incredibly high standards.
That's no suꦫrprise, considering how Torterra has performed in other battles, putting its coordination and bulk to good use. It's a bit baffling, then, that Paul didn't use it in his battle against Ash in the Sinnoh League.
9 ཧ 𒆙 Ash's Incineroar
To acknowledge the elephant in the room; yes, it did manage to beat Kukui's Incineroar as a 🅠Torracat, but its power as an Incineroar is yet to be seen. Until there's more concrete proof that Ash's Incineroar is indeed stronger than Kukui's, it will have to settle for being the second strongest of its species in Alola.
Still, it currently has𝔍 the title of being the only Pokemon to beat Kukui's Incineroar, at least from what fans hav♑e seen.
8 ꧋ Kukui's Incineroar
The Incineroar owned by Professor Kukui, then recognized as the Masked Royal, had somewhat of a mythical presence to it, being the catalyst of an unprecedented Undertaker-style winning stre🐈ak of going one-on-three against three other Pokemon.
It was given more time to shine in the exhibition battle againstꦓ Ash, where it added to its resume by defeating Ash's lone Mythical Pokemon, Melmetal. It could've easily been considered the strongest Incineroar in all of🍎 Alola, if only it managed to withstand Ash's in the exhibition.
7 🥂 Ash's Infernape ܫ
Paul must have some regrets deep down that he left the Flame Pokemon go, with Ash taking it ൩for himself and promptly turning it into his ace with the right approach to training.
There were times when it was too powerful for its own gꦰood, having a hard time controlling its Blaze ability. However, it's since gotten the balance of power and restraint just right, and now rivals Charizard for Ash's best Fire-type Pokemon.
6 Fl𝓰int's Infernape
Not much was seen from Flint or his Pokemon in the anime. In fact, Infernape was the only Pokemon of his to appear, and is presumably his ace, having been with Flin♓t since he was a chꦛild and it was just a Chimchar.
Regardless, he fought in an officially recognized fight against Cynthia's Garchomp in Flint's effort to become the Sinnoh Champion. He also had a battle against Ash before that an💛d completely obliterated✨ most of his team, proving that he's in a different league.