As usual for the series, Pokémon Sword & Shield’s gym leaders are a varied, colorful, interesting bunch. Fans will always have their favorites, though, and the Raging Wave that is Nessa immediately proved to be super popular among players.

This stunning gym leader/model is the latest in a long line to specialize in Water-types, but how would she fare against some of her fellow gym leaders? Here are some that she could wash away in an instant, along with some others that might leave her high and dry.

10 SHE COULD DEFEAT: Allister

Now, granted, it doesn’t seem as though Nessa would have an advantage over Allister, or vice versa, typing-wise. Water and Ghost Pokémon are fairly neutral towards each other, by and large. There’s more to this match-up than meets the eye, though.

As anyone who’s ever tried to run a monotype team can attest, coverage is crucial to try and deal with your weaknesses. Surprisingly, Nessa has a lot of Dark-type moves on her team (as it develops throughout the game), with the spooky young Allister, also a fan favorite, may not be prepared for. He’d be down for the count before you could say, “wait, when the heck did her Drednaw learn Crunch?”

9 SHE WOULD LOSE TO: Milo

Now, Milo is probably the kindest, gentlest, sweetest gym leader in recent Pokémon memory. His League Cards even explain that he just can’t bring himself to go all-out on challenges (hence his gym being the first in Galar) and battles more for fun. He’s like Barney the Dinosaur in a neat hat.

However, being the Grass-type gym leader of the region, he’d prove a heck of a challenge for Nessa’s Water Pokémon. In fact, in Pokémon: Twilight Wings, we see Milo take her down in the Champion Cup after her Drednaw is defeated by Milo’s Eldegoss. Chairman Rose chastises her a little, but she continues to pursue her modeling and battling careers.

8 SHE COULD DEFEAT: Kabu

Kabu is renowned as a powerhouse throughout the Galar region. In the lore of the game, he’s the roadblock that a lot of aspiring challengers just can’t defeat, so nabbing his Fire Badge is seen as the first truly major achievement of a talented trainer. With all of this in mind, though, there’s no denying that Water-types seem specifically designed to ruin Fire-types’ entire month.

Even later in the Champion Cup, Kabu’s team has absolutely no defense against Water-types beyond his Torkoal’s Drought. The rest of his team eventually consists of a Ninetales (with Flash Fire), Salazzle, Centiscorch, and Arcanine, none of which are even neutral to Water moves. This would be a heck of a one-sided showdown after Nessa clears away her rival’s sun.

7 SHE WOULD LOSE TO: Raihan

Well, to be fair to Nessa, few gym leaders in the series would have too much of a chance against Raihan. He’s got all manner of shenanigans up his sleeve, being more of a weather strategy gym leader than anything else.

Still, his reputation states that he’s the Dragon-type gym leader, so Nessa’s Water-types (lacking in Ice coverage) will struggle even more here. Later, he boasts sun, rain, and sandstorm on different Pokémon, so Nessa’s favorable rain may not last long at all. This unpredictable foe uses an almost competitive doubles team, ensuring he’ll be a heck of a challenge.

6 SHE COULD DEFEAT: Gordie And Melony

For our next entry, we just couldn’t separate the leaders of the Circhester Gym. Whether she’s battling Pokémon Sword’s Gordie or Pokémon Shield’s Melony, Nessa seems to have a big advantage here.

For one thing, of course, Rock-types absolutely don’t appreciate taking Scalds, Hydro Pumps, and Waterfalls to the face. Only his Barbaracle is neutral to these moves, so Nessa would simply need to deal with his Tyranitar’s Sand Stream (which boosts Rock-types’ Special Defense) and it would be a wash. Meanwhile, Melony’s Pokémon aren’t weak to Nessa’s soggy onslaught, but have only coverage moves (and Freeze-Dry) to strike back with. Resistance to a primary STAB would go a long way in this match.

5 SHE WOULD LOSE TO: Ramos (Generation VI)

For the rest of this list, we’re going to take a step back from Generation VIII and see how Nessa would fare against some classic gym leaders. Ramos, of Coumarine City’s gym in Pokémon X & Y, would be a stiff challenge.

The unassuming old man might not look like a powerful opponent, but for their respective power levels and stages in their respective games, his Grass-type team of Gogoat, Jumpluff, and Weepinbell could be too much for Nessa to handle. After all, as we’ve seen in the anime, he employs the Sunny Day/Chlorophyll strategy to make his Grass-types speedier and deadlier while weakening Water-types.

4 SHE COULD DEFEAT: Flannery (Generation III)

The hot-headed Flannery is a simple battler with a simple strategy: charge in with Fire-types, set up the sun to boost that STAB, and try to burn your opponents into sad, salty, singed piles of defeated ash. It’s bold and we appreciate it, but Nessa probably wouldn’t have much of an issue here.

Flannery faces a lot of the same issues that Kabu does, in that she’s a Fire-type specialist that loves setting the sun (she also has Torkoal, though it had to set the sun manually with Sunny Day in Generation III) but can’t deal with Water-types at all outside of it. In fact, her final rematch team has no neutrality to Water and two Pokémon that are 4x weak to it (Camerupt and Magcargo). If the pair were on an even keel level-wise, a simple weather reset on Nessa’s part would leave Flannery powerless.

3 SHE WOULD LOSE TO: Lt. Surge (Generation I)

Well, it was inevitable that an Electric-type gym leader or two was going to crop up at some point. As monotype teams go, Water is one of the best, boasting only two weaknesses and dealing with one of them relatively well (they have lots of Ice coverage to somewhat handle Grass-types). Electric can still be a real nightmare, though.

When it comes to the gym leaders of Kanto, then, we’d say that the iconic Lieutenant Surge would give Nessa the biggest challenge. In Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, in particular, he wields a team that mixes speedy, frail offense and bulky powerhouses, making for a variety of Electric-types that would be tough for any Water-type user to prevail over. Nessa does eventually have an Electric immunity in Quagsire, but it can’t do all the heavy lifting alone.

2 SHE COULD DEFEAT: Clemont (Generation VI)

Yes, X & Y’s Clemont is another Electric-type gym leader, so you might think that Nessa would be at a tremendous disadvantage here too. In terms of typings alone, you’d be totally right, but Clemont has a bit of a weakness that other Electric leaders can deal with much better.

He may be a brilliant inventor, but his Pokémon strategy is incredibly limited. With only an Emolga, Magneton, and Heliolisk (usually just the latter two), he has precious little to offer beyond Electric STAB, while only Magneton offers any particular bulk on his team. That Quagsire actually could do almost all of the heavy lifting by itself in this case, or Nessa could easily overpower Clemont’s team before it got a chance to electrify her.

1 SHE WOULD LOSE TO: Misty (Generation I)

On the subject of Generation I, there’s one angle we haven’t considered yet: how would Nessa fare against one of her fellow Water-type gym leaders? Well, let’s check in with Cerulean City’s Misty and see how things go.

On reflection, we think Misty would get the best of this one. As Misty states herself, she favors a tactic similar to that of Flannery: hyper offense using her typing of choice. Over the years, she’s featured in a lot of games and has used a variety of teams, giving her a huge advantage in terms of super-effective coverage (her Lanturn in Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 has super-effective Electric STAB and Starmie often packs Thunderbolt/Thunder). By contrast, all of Nessa’s in-game teams struggle to deal with Water-types. Quite ironic.

NEXT: Pokémon: 10 Amazing Pieces Of Misty Fan Art