Aside from the Champion, the Pokemon League’s cream of the crop calls themselves the Elite Four. They’re the final obstacles in the way of the Champion of every region, and they’re shown as such with their overwhelming power…usually.

While most Elite Four members in the Pokemon games live up to their status, some of them just end up being disappointingly easy to beat as you play through the gauntlet. Whether it’s due to the Pokemon they have, the moves they use, or something else, these eight Elite Four members are the worst of the best.

Note: This list was made with these members’ canonical “default” teams in mind, not taking into account rematch teams and such (for example, Challenge Mode teams from Black 2 & White 2). As much as possible, their most recent teams will be referenced.

8 Drasna

More recently-introduced Dragon-type specialists are kind of at an inherent disadvantage. Due to the fact that the region’s Champion usually owns the region’s pseudo-Legendary, Dragon-type specialists can’t get a hold of it even if it’s a Dragon-type.

Kalos’ Drasna suffers the most from this wrinkle. With the Champion Diantha reserving the right to own a Goodra, Drasna is left with a team that’s a bit underwhelming when compared to other Dragon-type specialists. A team of Dragalge, Druddigon, Altaria, and Noivern isn’t terrible, but it shrinks in comparison to most Dragon-type Elite Four members and Champions such as Lance, Drake, and Iris, who have at least one pseudo-Legendary.

7 Glacia

Glacia suffers from a common problem that plagued most Elite Four members in earlier games: having multiple of the same Pokemon. While that doesn’t necessarily make a team bad (just look at Lance’s multiple Dragonite), it gives it less variety, and it won’t help if the Pokemon are already bad to begin with.

Part of the blame goes to the region she hails from; Hoenn isn’t really known for having strong Ice-type Pokemon. It would have been nice to have some variety; two Glalie and either two Sealeo (Gen. III) or two Froslass (Gen. VI) aren’t going to cut it. Four sub-500 base stat Pokemon alongside a lone Walrein does not a good Elite Four team make.

6 Marshal

Like the Kalos Elite Four, Unova’s suffers from only having four Pokemon each. While three out of four make up for that by having more-or-less very strong Pokemon, Marshal’s team doesn’t really do that.

While Mienshao and Conkeldurr are pretty good, the team also consists of the subpar and unnecessary Throh and Sawk. It can’t be good when a team of four has two weak links, and the two sub-500 base stat, no-evolution ripoffs of Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan exemplify that. All four of them are also pure Fighting-type, meaning none of Marshal’s Pokemon carry another type. At the very least, everyone has nice coverage moves (e.g. Sawk’s Rock Slide) to keep their weaknesses honest.

5 Koga

Canonically, it makes sense for a newly-minted Elite Four member to not be so great at first. Still, despite the earlier generations having a surplus of Poison-types, the team Koga ended up having was pretty bad. While Muk and Crobat range from decent to very good, they’re bright spots on an otherwise mediocre team.

The Forretress is an interesting touch, but it’s not a spectacular ringer by any means when looking at base stats. In fact, having the three Bug-types he has (Forretress, Venomoth, Ariados), while providing an OK check to Psychic-types, causes the average base stat total of his team to plummet. Ariados especially doesn’t help with its measly 400 base stat total (390 before Generation VII).

4 Hala

While Hala’s Poliwrath and Bewear have decent stats at 500 apiece, the rest of his team isn’t so spectacular in that department. However, that’s not even the worst part of his team.

That would be the utter lack of moves his team has. His Bewear, Poliwrath, and Crabominable only have two moves each. Two. His Hariyama might as well have two since the third move it has is the one-turn-use Fake Out. There’s no sense of strategy to how his team was built, and it’s baffling that he’s the only Elite Four member in the Sun and Moon games to get that kind of treatment, to that extent. At least when Molayne replaced him in the Ultra games, his Pokemon had full movesets.

3 Bruno

Infamous for owning two Onix as a Fighting-type specialist, Bruno has a lot going against him alongside the burden of two weak Rock/Ground-types. Aside from the 505 base stat total Machamp, Bruno doesn’t really stand a chance considering his team.

First off, there’s the Hitmons: Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, as well as Hitmontop in the Johto games. It isn’t great when middling 455 base stat total Pokemon occupy three-fifths of your team. The Onix isn’t great either; while it’s there to check Flying-types, it can very easily be wiped by a Grass- or Water-type starter. While replacing one of the Onix with a Poliwrath in the Let’s Go games is certainly nice, it barely does anything to salvage Bruno’s awful team.

2 Sidney

Hoenn’s Elite Four is kind of a forgettable one altogether, with all four of the types represented having more memorable representatives elsewhere. It doesn’t help that they’re generally pretty weak, as shown with Glacia’s appearance. The first battle in the gauntlet, Sidney, is hardly better.

He represents the Dark-type, which is unfortunate because Hoenn, again, isn’t really known for its Dark-types. In fact, none of his Pokemon surpass the 500 base stat total mark. He has two Grass/Dark-type Pokemon with a deathly allergy to Bug-types (Shiftry, Cacturne) and one of the worst fully-evolved Pokemon in general, Mightyena. That’s a lot for the OK-ish Sharpedo and Absol to carry.

1 Phoebe

Two Hoenn natives double-barrel for first and second place. Phoebe in particular is also another victim of the “Lance’s Dragonite” syndrome with doubles of Pokemon; aside from the near-deadweight Sableye she owns, she owns two Banette, and two Pokemon from the Dusknoir line.

ORAS at least had the decency to evolve one of her Dusclops into a Dusknoir. Her Generation III counterpart has it rough, being another Elite Four member with all her Pokemon below the 500 base stat total threshold. If anything, Phoebe symbolizes how shorthanded the Ghost-type was in the earlier generations of Pokemon. That’s ironic, because simply giving her a Gengar would’ve fixed all of this; she’s the only Ghost-type specialist to not have one at any point.

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