Ash's Best Non-Starter Pokémon?

[FinnishPokéFan92]

When people talk about Ash's best Pokémon, his starters are often amongst the most highly regarded ones. But if we exclude those, which of Ash's Pokémon would you count to be amongst his best ones?

 

[Daren]

Swellow.

Swellow started his career as a normal regional bird who mostly lost and seemed doomed to end up like poor Pidgeotto.
Then he evolved and became a beast. I don't think AG era post-evolution Swellow ever lost without dragging at least one opponent down with him. Even when he's tired from fighting through two Pokémon he leaves a parting gift on a Metgross, denting it so it could eventually be defeated (although Pikachu tripped at the finish line and cost them the league by losing to attacks he was strong to).

Swellow also has great teamwork, with Ash using him successfully in several major double battles because unlike insecure aces like Infernape or Charizard he's a team player willing to share the glory.

Sadly, all heroes have their flaws; in Swellow's case it was his crippling World of Warcraft addiction. It got so bad that when Ash called his reserves for the Sinnoh League Swellow missed the call and in desperation Sceptile recruited some random wild Swellow to come instead. Faillow--as he is known--could not match Swellow's power and was hastily defeated in his only battle.

Swellow hasn't been seen in years, but legend says he lays waiting beneath Mt. Moon to come back on the day his trainer needs him most.

 

[nickdt]

Talonflame.

 

[Everclear]

Snorlax I guess? He was strong and often called a powerhouse. Krookodile was strong too but something about his story arc ticked me off.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

My personal non-starter favorites are Buizel and Lycanroc. The latter especially deserves an honorable mention for being the Pokemon who finally gave Ash his first official League win.

 

[R1ke]

I'll say Krookodile for being such a badass. He had a lot of screentime even as a wild pokemon and came in clutch against Brycen, Iris and Stephan after being captured. Definitely his best Unova pokemon, who elevated an otherwise mediocre team. Honestly he felt like Ash's real starter here and I wish we got to see more of him.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

Buizel. It was a blast watching it's battle style evolve over the course of the series, with Ice-Aqua Jet, Counter Shield, and eventually Ice Punch. In my opinion, the first epic Pokemon battle (comparable to XY and later stuff) was Buizel vs Maylene's Lucario.

 

[Enzo]

Both Buizel and Hawlucha, to me, they fall into that ''awkward space'' of Ash's rooster where they both do A LOT for their teams both in and out of battle but they don't really get recognized nearly as much as they should cuz others teammates already got the spotlight.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

Krookodile

 

[RetroPokeFan]

For me Buizel, Hawlucha, Talonflame and Lycanroc.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Talonflame and Lycanroc.

Buizel and Krookodile were cool too

 

[KrspaceT]

Think I'll break it down by region because....hey why not? I'll do this by power and skill

ORIGINAL SERIES (K O J)

Snorlax. This is probably the point in the series where starter overfocus was the most problematic, but Snorlax seems to have nearly always put in a good performance when he does show up.

ADVANCED

Swellow. While I won't add in the part about a War of Warcraft addiction as I can easily see Swellow having a bad day against Tobias (and hey, AGAINST TOBIAS) I will second how BEAST Swellow ended up being once evolved. People who claim any other bird is best bird, especially Pidgeot, have explaining to do.

DIAMOND AND PEARL

This is a bit complicated because a certain monkey ended up eating up most of the badass points that the team was supposed to share between them, so I'd probably have to go with Gliscor here. I like Buizel but Buizel was one of the worst victims of the BP hogging and Gliscor got to win a gym instead of Chimchar after the problem started to get worse and pulled it clutch for the final Paul battle. Gliscor is hardly Snorlax/Swellow but no DP Pokemon whose not Infernape is....

BEST WISHES

Krookodile. I retain this mon was supposed to be captured earlier and Palpitoad was created to fill in a gap, but other than my conspiracy theory you aren't going to find a stronger mon from Unova. Leavanny I could see competing for the title if he just had a few more showings....I swear if they had the league happen after N and some more stuff instead of Declore they could probably have salvaged a lot more of the series

XY

Hawlucha. For all we can gripe about Greninja I really do think he hogged less attention than Infernape did, if just because other Pokemon were allowed to have wins and gyms without the frog. Hawlucha honestly puts in a lot of solid work and should be acknowledged as such. As a caveat I'd say Talonflame is probably a bit more consistent game to game but that is more on Hawlucha having very exploitable flaws in his techniques if anything else.

SUN AND MOON

Lycanroc. We....do we never even need to explain why Lycanroc did better than Nebby, Poipole, and Melmetal?

JOURNEYS

A bit too early to really say, but right now I'd call it a tie between Dragonite and Lucario

And for a lark we do personality!

ORGINAL SERIES

This is a rough one because, while many series have this problem the Original was probably the worst as a lot of mons hogged personality values worse than Infernape did, and the non starters were usually the worse victims of this. While I personally think Primepae is the most overrated Pokemon in the fandom I'd have to give this one to him because a lot of other mons have more one note and his, like, two episodes of use gave him a pretty good character arc. If Butterfree had more episodes beyond the first and last to flesh he'd have won it instead and I'd be happier.

ADVANCED

Corphish. There have been many attempts at comedic water-types and I'd say Corphish is probably the best of them. He's quirky while not also attempting to be cute and can pull off a lot of styles of comedy between mischevous, wicked, and silly. It's a range that is hard to replicate.

DIAMOND AND PEARL

I'd say that Gligar/Gliscor take this one, but more cleanly than before. Gible's spacey nature is a runner up but I can appreciate a Pokemon that evolves and keeps a more goofy personality while also still growing.

BEST WISHES

....Obviously not Palpitoad. Like before I'd probably set it as a contest between Krookodile and Leavanny but I'd probably give this one to Leavanny as after both evolved I'd say that Leavanny shows off a bit more of the nurturing and elegant persona more than Krookodile shows his own persona off.

XY

Hawlucha. Goodra can give him a good run for his money here, but Hawlucha shows a bit more of his dramatic and over the top performance. It helps that he has a lot more episodes than Goodra.

SUN AND MOON

....Lycanroc. Just Lycanroc.....

JOURNEYS

I'd say, again, that it is probably a bout between Dragonite and Lucario here. I'd probably get an answer based on how much Lucario shows to compete with the 'powerful but silly and sweet' Dragonite.

 

[ii kanji]

Can't believe no one's mentioned Mukubird yet.

 

[Silktree]

Dragonite is the most charming one personality-wise, and obviously carries its weight as a battler.

 

[Handy Man]

Dragonite is the most charming one personality-wise, and obviously carries its weight as a battler.

I wouldn’t say obviously, because it’s only major battle so far had it knock out two of Korrina’s Pokémon in a row, including Mega Lucario. While that is impressive, it hasn’t been used in any other battles. Goodra was impressive before the Kalos league because it was Ash’s ace in Clemont’s gym battle, also in it’s only battle as a Goodra. It then didn’t win any battles after it came back. My point is that Dragonite seems strong, but we still don’t know too much about it, and calling Dragonite one of Ash’s best after only one battle seems hasty. I hope Dragonite ends up being an ace for Ash in the future, but it’s still too early to tell how good it will actually be.

 

[Silktree]

I wouldn’t say obviously, because it’s only major battle so far had it knock out two of Korrina’s Pokémon in a row, including Mega Lucario. While that is impressive, it hasn’t been used in any other battles. Goodra was impressive before the Kalos league because it was Ash’s ace in Clemont’s gym battle, also in it’s only battle as a Goodra. It then didn’t win any battles after it came back. My point is that Dragonite seems strong, but we still don’t know too much about it, and calling Dragonite one of Ash’s best after only one battle seems hasty. I hope Dragonite ends up being an ace for Ash in the future, but it’s still too early to tell how good it will actually be.

I can't predict what Tomioka or whoever feels like doing with Dragonite, but if they give it the Goodra treatment, I'll resent OLM rather than Dragonite. A good battle record is just an extra for me.

 

[Alola]

I wouldn’t say obviously, because it’s only major battle so far had it knock out two of Korrina’s Pokémon in a row, including Mega Lucario. While that is impressive, it hasn’t been used in any other battles. Goodra was impressive before the Kalos league because it was Ash’s ace in Clemont’s gym battle, also in it’s only battle as a Goodra. It then didn’t win any battles after it came back. My point is that Dragonite seems strong, but we still don’t know too much about it, and calling Dragonite one of Ash’s best after only one battle seems hasty. I hope Dragonite ends up being an ace for Ash in the future, but it’s still too early to tell how good it will actually be.

This is how I feel about Ash's current team in general. While there are clear observations we can make or comment, I feel like it is too early to assess them in various fashions and on the same scope of Ash's other Pokémon. They've each had few key battles as well as character development, aside from Lucario...somewhat.

 

[KrspaceT]

I wouldn’t say obviously, because it’s only major battle so far had it knock out two of Korrina’s Pokémon in a row, including Mega Lucario. While that is impressive, it hasn’t been used in any other battles. Goodra was impressive before the Kalos league because it was Ash’s ace in Clemont’s gym battle, also in it’s only battle as a Goodra. It then didn’t win any battles after it came back. My point is that Dragonite seems strong, but we still don’t know too much about it, and calling Dragonite one of Ash’s best after only one battle seems hasty. I hope Dragonite ends up being an ace for Ash in the future, but it’s still too early to tell how good it will actually be.

You actually do have two other scenes for battle reference.

The first is the Golurk ruins episode, where it performed extremely well in the raid battle.

The second is the Eternatus incident...mostly in how it took a blast from Eternatus pretty solidly and without any side effects beyond a rough landing.

 

[game3524]

Snorlax.

That thing is damn tank.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

Krookodile All The Birbs Other Than Unpleasant and Pidgeot Snorlax Hawlucha and Leavanny are Gut