Ash's Aces

[PokeFan2005]

Hey. What aces do you think Ash has?
My typing (out of sequence):
1. Charizard.
2. Sceptile
3. Infernape
4. Snorlax
5. Greninja (Ash didn't let him go, Ash visited him, which he didn't do with other Pokémon, Greninja obeyed his orders)
6. Dragonite
7. Pikachu
8. Incineroar
9. Melmetal
10. Krookodile
11. Lycanrock
12. Talonflame?
13. Lucario

 

[ehh123]

His current ace, Lucario.

 

[Sai]

It's times like this you realize how badly handled the Johto and Unova teams were. I don't know what the writers were thinking not fully developing those teams and giving him some standout pokemon.

Blows my mind people think Ash getting all the starters is a good thing.

 

[KrspaceT]

The traditional line up is Pikachu, Charizard, Snorlax, Sceptile, Infernape, Krookodile, Greninja, Lycanroc, Dragonite, and Lucario.

 

[nickdt]

So here is the thing.

Ash usually gets multiple aces during a run. Usually 2, but Hoenn has been funny in that regard, since he got 2.

The general sense also is that the mon who has the most impact on the region (So gym battle and league wise) is considered the ace (Which is funny regarding Kalos).
Kanto
Main: Pikachu
Secondary: Charizard
Johto
Main: Pikachu
Secondary: -
Hoenn
Main: Sceptile (Or Grovyle)
Secondary: Swellow
League ace: Glalie (Outperformed the other 2 at the league).
Sinnoh
Main: Infernape
Secondary: Buizel (Had more impact than Staraptor in the long run)
Unova
Main: Krookodile
Secondary: Pignite
Kalos
Main: Talonflame (Had more overall impact on the gym and league runs, since it fought 8 gym battles, lost only in 2 without taking a mon with it, the rest it didn't go down with at least taking another mon down as well and the same goes for the league).
Secondary: Greninja (While you could argue narratively Greninja was the ace, overall it had less impact than Talonflame did).
Alola
Main: Lycanroc
Secondary: Rowlet (Narrativly, Incineroar was the secondary, but overall Rowlet was, due to having had more impact on the Island Challenge and it also performed well at the league)
Galar
Main: Dragonite (Has had more impact than the secondary)
Secondary: Lucario

I am putting in Dragonite and Lucario this way, because Dragonite has done more on-screen for Ash to advance to next classes, but considering the saga isn't over yet, this can still change.

I also don't take strenght of a Pokemon into account, since then, especially Lucario has a problem for secondary ace, since currently, Dragonite (Defeated a Mega and a Champions ace, without needing a power-up), but also Sirfetch'd (Defeated an E4 member Mega Ace without a power-up) and Dracovish (Defeated a Champion mon who could go toe-to-toe with Krookodile, without a power-up) are stronger than it.

However, if we rank aces and secondaries (And Glalie) in terms of actual raw power and strenght, the ranking probably is
1. Pikachu
2. Charizard
3. Dragonite
4. Infernape
5. Sceptile
6. Talonflame
7. Glalie
8. Krookodile
9. Greninja (Ash-Greninja form would be around top 4, behind Dragonite but before Infernape)
10. Lycanroc
11. Lucario
12. Pignite
13. Swellow
14. Buizel
15. Rowlet

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Pikachu
Charizard
Snorlax
Cyndaquil/Quilava
Bayleef
Sceptile
Infernape
Krookodile
Pignite
Greninja
Lycanroc
Incineroar
Dragonite
Lucario

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Apart from Pikachu, who is in every team and thus can be counted as a "universal ace", here's my personal thoughts:

Kanto/OI- Charizard and Snorlax
Johto- Cyndaquil/Quilava and Bayleef (Heracross had too little presence to count imo)
Hoenn- Sceptile and Swellow
Sinnoh- Infernape
Unova- Krookodile and Pignite
Kalos- Greninja
Alola- Lycanroc and Torracat/Incineroar
Journeys- Lucario and Dragonite, though Gengar might possibly count too due to the Gigantamax form

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Kanto - (Charizard)

Orange Islands - (Charizard)

Johto - (Charizard)

Hoenn - (Swellow)(Grovyle)(Glalie)

Battle Frontier - (Sceptile)(Pikachu)(Charizard)

Sinnoh - (Infernape)

Unova - (Pikachu)(Krookodile)

Kalos - (Greninja)

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Pikachu, Charizard, Sceptile, Infernape, Krookodile, Greninja, Lycanroc, Incineroar and Dragonite.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Ash's Hoenn team was very balanced,in the beginning Pikachu was Ash's #1,then eventually it went to Grovyle,once Tailow evolved into Swellow it also had a case for being #1.

But I don't think Ash truly had a real ace in Hoenn like he did in OS,DP and XY.Unless we're counting the league where Glalie was a huge factor,Grovyle,Swellow and Pikachu did good as well but they had some bad losses.

But overall his team was balanced,he managed to make it all the way to Top 8 without using his reserves and he almost beat the Hoenn League winner Tyson who also had a balanced team.

 

[Turbo]

I view Ace as the strong go to Pokémon (with the exception of his Pikachu because… Pikachu)
Ash’s Ace to me is viewed as his go to/most reliable Pokémon to use to battle against the opponents strongest (or one of their strongest Pokémon depending on how their ace is handled in major battles) on frequent occasions
as well as non major battle moments like against team Rocket when Pikachu is captured he would send Pokémon like Greninja out to battle with

So not only is it the Pokémon that usually deals with one of the stronger Pokémon
Like in 5/6v5/6 battles there’s usual tiers of strengths on the team and the Ace is almost always battling the upper tier of the opposing team
As on all opposing teams there are Pokémon that either is that teams ace or a different one cause problems for the Ash’s team and could be deemed as the stronger members
Like with Tyson his most troublesome Pokémon might of been Metagross but Meowth is viewed more as the “Ace” since it was last and his partner
And Paul with Drapion in the league battle

So in turn they’re also usually one of last Pokémon he uses (with again the exception of Pikachu) as battles tend to scale upwards as the first Pokémon isn’t as challenging or as hard as the last/usual opposing ace so Ash’s Ace is usually saved for the strongest ones for later
Ex: Ash outside of that first round battle in the Kalos League he never uses Greninja early as he is usually one of the last if not the last one he uses like with Wulfric or Sawyer

And rarely if ever do they lose early on in the battle Ex: Lycanroc against Kukui was rare and unexpected

So I would say

• Pikachu lol
• Charizard
• Sceptile
• Torterra? Early DP (Turtwig was used quite a bit and was earlier than even Pokémon like Buizel, but fell off after evolving)
• Infernape Mid to Late DP
• Krookodile Late BW
• Pignite early BW (Arguable but of the main Pokémon he used and basically always had on him Pignite was the one starter to evolve lol)
• Lycanroc
• Lucario

Journeys is still on going but I would say Lucario over Dragonite as in the main battles Dragonite has been in it closed against Korinna and opened against Iris and presumably doesn’t close or open against Raihan (before watching that battle btw) so it seems more of opener/mid type of Pokémon and isn’t used as frequently as some others like a Hawlucha or something
where Lucario has had more battles and against more opponents like Bea, Volkner, Rose, Raihan, and used more for non major battle stuff like the couple Team Rocket encounters the recent Articuno raid battle etc where Dragonite is more like his fliers

Oh I agree with the others that Hoenn and other regions admittedly like Unova were more balanced and harder to point out

But even with stuff like win rates and etc… I think it’s clear why Pokémon like Sceptile are viewed as the ace over others like Swellow as I think Swellow might have a better win rate than Sceptile but Sceptile since being a Treecko was seemingly used a lot more like more gym battles, more out of gym occurrences, etc and seemed second to only Pikachu in that regard in usage
Similar reasoning with Infernape and Krookodile as despite being later they had enough time to essentially steal the spotlight from other potential Ace’s as they were used a lot and were strong and etc…

So in short to me Ace is a mix of frequency in use, strength/battle prowess and feats
As some Pokémon have better win rates but not used nearly as much Ex: Snorlax
Others are strong and used a lot but don’t have the feats Ex: Rowlet
Some have feats but not the strength or frequency to secure their spot Ex: Gliscor

 

[Blob]

His aces in order:

Pikachu (Plot armour)
Infernape (There's no way any of Ash's other Pokémon top Infernape (excluding Pikachu). It's had the best development, won battles actually USING an ability and overall thrashed Paul's team.
Greninja (Despite the loss against Alain, it still beat Ash's Lucario and had a unique power up).
Lucario (The only ace I really don't like).
Sceptile (Only Pokémon to manage to defeat Tobias' Darkrai).
Lycanroc (I'm putting Lycanroc over Melmetal because at least Lycanroc was there from the start. It also had its own unique Z-move and it's the only one in Ash's team that does (not including the Pikachu one, that one's just a plot device)).
Dragonite (Lost what, once ever?)
Snorlax (Is able to learn more than 4 moves and is an extreme powerhouse).


I'm not including Charizard because it took forever to tame and for some reason it was the jobber against Brandon, despite being the only fully evolved Pokémon Ash used.
Also not sure about Ash's Unovan team, since it's pretty lackluster and I don't think Krookodile deserves to be included.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I'm not including Charizard because it took forever to tame and for some reason it was the jobber against Brandon

Pikachu (Plot armour)

Also not sure about Ash's Unovan team, since it's pretty lackluster and I don't think Krookodile deserves to be included.

Yeah I don't think he had an ace in Unova,Pikachu was consistently his best,Krookodile beat Iris's Dragonite but it's inflated due to it being disobedient to Iris.

Plus Pikachu was the one to defeat Trip's Serperior and came close to taking out 3 of Cameron's pokemon at the league.So it was similar to his team in Hoenn where he didn't have a clear cut ace.

Sceptile (Only Pokémon to manage to defeat Tobias' Darkrai).

He had help from Heracross and Gible who also gave Darkrai damage,it's health recovered after using Dream Eater but I don't believe it recovered ALL of it's health.

I find it hard to believe that all it took was 1 or 2 Leaf Blade attacks otherwise someone before Ash should've been defeated Darkrai.It's a shame people don't bring up it's feats Spenser,Brandon and Deoxys.

 

[Greninjaman]

It's times like this you realize how badly handled the Johto and Unova teams were. I don't know what the writers were thinking not fully developing those teams and giving him some standout pokemon.

Blows my mind people think Ash getting all the starters is a good thing.

How is it a bad thing when Ash gets all the starters?

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

How is it a bad thing when Ash gets all the starters?

By no means is Ash getting all three starters a bad thing in theory, but in practice it tends to cause a lot of issues: starters are obviously supposed to be more marketed than other Pokemon due to their status as the faces of their respective generations, however, this means that other Pokemon get overshadowed pretty heavily if they have to share a team with all three starters at once. Another problem that people tend to have with Ash getting all starters is that it makes his team too "boring", but this is obviously much more subjective.

 

[Sai]

Because it's boring. The only time it worked was the Kanto saga because it was the first series. In Johto he didn't really need all 3 starters and neither did he in Unova. It also limits what type of pokemon Ash can get because in most series he doesn't get more than 5 pokemon.

If Misty got Totodile in Johto I would not have mind, and in Unova Snivy and Cilan would have been a good fit (both are green colored with elegance), and Snivy's personality actually fit's Cilan. Not sure about Osahwott/Tepig, but remember Iris actually wanted to keep Tepig in its first episode. Would have been interesting if she got it.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Because it's boring. The only time it worked was the Kanto saga because it was the first series. In Johto he didn't really need all 3 starters and neither did he in Unova. It also limits what type of pokemon Ash can get because in most series he doesn't get more than 5 pokemon.

I don't think it even worked in Kanto. Squirtle got barely any attention or noteworthy battles prior to the Orange Islands and outside of a few episodes, Bulbasaur often felt kind of there. It had more personality than Squirtle, but that isn't say much for the early original series. Charizard got the most focus and screentime out of the three. To be fair with the Johto starters, the fact that Ash didn't catch Cyndaquil and Totodile until after Charizard and Squirtle left definitely didn't help them out in the long run.

If Misty got Totodile in Johto I would not have mind, and in Unova Snivy and Cilan would have been a good fit (both are green colored with elegance), and Snivy's personality actually fit's Cilan. Not sure about Osahwott/Tepig, but remember Iris actually wanted to keep Tepig in its first episode. Would have been interesting if she got it.

While I do think it's generally better when the writers distribute the starters among the main cast as opposed to giving them all to Ash, or Goh in Journeys' case, I really don't think that these Pokemon would have been handled better with other characters. Misty wanted Totodile, but given her screentime and how she didn't have the most memorable team to begin with, I don't think Totodile would have fared any better under her care than Ash's. It probably would have gotten the same amount of screentime, if not slightly less. Snivy and Cilan is an interesting combination, but none of his other Pokemon aside from Pansage were really memorable, so I don't think that would have been an improvement.

Iris and Tepig would have felt a bit too random with her Dragon Master goal and they already gave her one contrived capture with Emogla anyway. At least Excadrill does tie into her backstory. Not to mention I thought that Tepig was handled fine with Ash all things considered. It probably should have evolved into Emboar, if only because it would have been more believable than Bianca's Pignite evolving instead, but I thought it was handled decently compared to most of the rest of Ash's BW Pokemon. It would not be handled well under Iris' care if the rest of her Pokemon are any indication.

 

[Daren]

I don't think it even worked in Kanto. Squirtle got barely any attention or noteworthy battles prior to the Orange Islands and outside of a few episodes, Bulbasaur often felt kind of there.

To be entirely fair Kanto was much shorter than the other regions, and the comparatively much smaller focus on battles compared to later ones meant most of the cast didn't get too much battle time or really noteworthy matches. Honestly, I might argue the only really good Kanto battles are Pikachu vs Raichu and Charizard vs Magmar.

 

[Hidden Mew]

To be entirely fair Kanto was much shorter than the other regions, and the comparatively much smaller focus on battles compared to later ones meant most of the cast didn't get too much battle time or really noteworthy matches. Honestly, I might argue the only really good Kanto battles are Pikachu vs Raichu and Charizard vs Magmar.

That's certainly true and I agree that those battles are really the only good ones in the arc. Squirtle's minimal screentime just feels weird to me in retrospect, especially when it is treated more like a powerhouse after it comes back for the Johto League.

 

[Imtnt]

Were treated as real aces:
Infernape, Lucario, Pikachu, Charizard,
Sceptile,Greninja

Were treated as Powerhouse overall:
Snorlax, Incineroar, *Gengar, Lycanrock, Krookodile, Melmetal, Heracross, Krookodile, *Dragonite

Little below that, not by much: Buisel, Glalie, Goodra, Pignite, *Sirfetch'd

*Gengar might be ace if gets more and more significant role in the m8.
*Dragonite might be lower tire.
*Sirfetchd might end up more/less.
*all birds were jobbers to me..no disrispect to their level or involvment.