Best and worst Pokémon for each boss fight?

[khlaylav]

There's a "Best and worst boss fights in Pokémon" already, why not get even more granular?

I'll start things off with an example from Gen 2/4: Morty.

Best in Gen 2: Girafarig

This was inspired by a recent playthrough. I thought Girafarig could sleepwalk through the fight thanks to its Psychic/Normal typing, but found it had issues against Gengar due to the Gengar having Sucker Punch. ... Not a problem before Gen 4! Plus, since Dark type moves are Special only in Gen 2, that means the pick for Gen 4 is...

Best in Gen 4: Raticate

Yes, Raticate. Thanks to its Normal typing, Morty's big bad Gengar cannot touch you as long as you stall out Sucker Punch PP. Plus, Crunch or even Bite shreds the Ghost types in Morty's gym.

Worst in Gen 4: Chikorita

Poor, poor Chikorita. Thanks to the removal of Mud-Slap from the TM list and Levitate, the Grass starter can only hit with resisted Grass moves.

What are some other best and worst Pokémon for each boss fight? Looking forward to your thoughts!

 

[Magnus0]

Noctowl is another great option against Morty because it has insomnia and confusion. This allows it to completely invalidate Gengar and the Haunter with dream eater, while chipping away at their hp with a super effective coverage move. Noctowl just cannot die because pretty much all of Morty's moves are ineffective. I think Pryce is an interesting Johto boss, because while he's not difficult to beat in general, he's very difficult to sweep. The only Pokemon that reliably sweeps him in 3 turns is Meganium, ironically. Meganium can also sweep Chuck effortlessly, giving it an unexpectedly great midgame.

A gen 5 example of an exceptional matchup is Servine against Lenora. Servine has just enough bulk to take two take downs from Herdier while also having just enough speed to outspeed both Herdier and Watchog. This means you can set up two growths before being knocked into overgrow range. With a miracle seed, a +2 overgrow boosted leaf tornado has enough power to OHKO both of Lenora's Pokemon. This is really quite impressive, because to my knowledge, Servine is the only Pokemon not named Sawk or Throh that can even attempt to sweep Lenora. She is notoriously difficult after all.

Another really cool strategy is Escavalier against any fully physical boss, like Marshall and Grimsley. Escavalier is one of the best options against these kinds of opponents because it has the combination of iron defense and shell armor, so it can stall physical threats completely reliably. It also has an amazing defensive typing and a high attack stat, so it's no sitting duck either. If you use items, this Pokemon is even more hilariously unkillable.

 

[The Mind Electric]

No elaboration necessary.

 

[bdt2002]

Example #1: spoiler alert (Legends: Arceus)

Best: Mamoswine

There's a battle against a certain someone at the very end of Pokémon Legends: Arceus that's gained a lot of traction, and for good reason. For the 2% of people who still don't know who this would be about, I've decided to keep their name out of this post. What I can't ignore, however, is how almost every single Pokémon this person use (all of them except for Spiritomb) lose to one individual species of Pokémon. The nature of the battle might make it so your Mamoswine won't get a clean sweep, per sé, but when there's this many Pokémon weak to the Ice/Ground STAB combination, it certainly makes the fight easier. Bonus points for priority Ice Shard compensating for its average Speed and working excellent alongside the adjusted battle system.

Worst: Wormadam (Plant Cloak)

Knowing how Ice/Ground is probably the best possible type combination for this battle, I got curious about what the worst was. After thinking long and hard about it... I don't know why you would do this yourself, but Bug/Grass is by far the worst combination I can think of. Made even worse by the fact that Wormadam isn't exactly a top-tier threat to anything, you lose to Arcanine, Lucario, Togekiss, Garchomp, only go even against Spiritomb, and lose to something else on top of all of that. Yikes.

Example #2: Winona (RSE)

Best: NOTHING

I'm not joking when I say this. While her other Pokémon aren't anything to write home about, her Altaria is a dumb little cheater Pokémon with quite literally no losing matchups assuming her A.I. plays properly. It's only weak to Ice, Dragon, and Rock in these games. Rock-Types lose hard to this thing's Earthquake, as do the Steel-Types that resist Altaria's other moves. The only Dragon-Type and STAB move of that type available at this point in the game is Trapinch's evolutions, who get out-damaged hard by its own Dragon Breath due to its much higher Special Defense. Neutral matchups at around Level 33 (Altaria's level) all lose to a combination of Aerial Ace, Earthquake, and the accompaniment Dragon Dance. Even statusing it doesn't work thanks to Natural Cure. To top it all off, the one Ice-Type move (not even an Ice-Type Pokémon) you have access to this point are Castform's weather shenanigans in hail. That, however, loses to Skarmory, and is also assuming that you're using a Castform for a boss fight.

Edit: To anyone saying the Ice Beam TM can be found in the Abandoned Ship before this battle, I'm pretty sure that requires Dive to get to, and if we are to assume you don't skip Winona, this isn't an option. Also, Castform can still get some Ice moves, but I wouldn't expect Powder Snow to do much...

 

[Scorpio]

Example #2: Winona (RSE)

Best: NOTHING

I'm not joking when I say this. While her other Pokémon aren't anything to write home about, her Altaria is a dumb little cheater Pokémon with quite literally no losing matchups assuming her A.I. plays properly. It's only weak to Ice, Dragon, and Rock in these games. Rock-Types lose hard to this thing's Earthquake, as do the Steel-Types that resist Altaria's other moves. The only Dragon-Type and STAB move of that type available at this point in the game is Trapinch's evolutions, who get out-damaged hard by its own Dragon Breath due to its much higher Special Defense. Neutral matchups at around Level 33 (Altaria's level) all lose to a combination of Aerial Ace, Earthquake, and the accompaniment Dragon Dance. Even statusing it doesn't work thanks to Natural Cure. To top it all off, the one Ice-Type move (not even an Ice-Type Pokémon) you have access to this point are Castform's weather shenanigans in hail. That, however, loses to Skarmory, and is also assuming that you're using a Castform for a boss fight.

Edit: To anyone saying the Ice Beam TM can be found in the Abandoned Ship before this battle, I'm pretty sure that requires Dive to get to, and if we are to assume you don't skip Winona, this isn't an option. Also, Castform can still get some Ice moves, but I wouldn't expect Powder Snow to do much...

Actually:
1) You can indeed find Ice Beam without Dive, as the TM for it is well before the Dive section - you only need the Storage Key, which is also very much accessible without Dive. Plus you could get it at the Game Corner.

2) Skarmory resists or is immune to all of Earthquake, Aerial Ace, and Dragonbreath, and its famously bonkers Defense means it’ll take a few more Dragon Dances to pose a threat. Granted, in Gen 3 it doesn’t have the most amazing offensive options, but that’s something.