My 10 Favourite Pokémon Elite Four Members

Earlier this year, I counted down ten of my favourite Pokémon Gym Leaders.

So I thought why not follow up on that by counting down ten of my favourite Pokémon Elite Four members as well?

Much like Gym Leaders, Elite Four members are among the most iconic and memorable characters in all of Pokémon. Whether they're charismatic, quirky or just a tough boss battle to deal with, Elite Four members are as much a part of the franchise as Gym Leaders, Champions and even the Pokéball itself. The Elite Four in any generation of games serve as the final obstacle we have to get past before we can take on the Champion and claim our title. They're like Gym Leaders, only stronger and they often show us why they're the elite trainers.

So for this list, I'm counting down ten of my favourite Elite Four members. All nine generations are eligible to make the count, including any DLC as well, and all type-specialists can make the count as well. This list is in no particular order. Also, Elite Four members who have become Champions will not be included here. This is STRICTLY limited to members of Elite Four groups only, not Champions, so don't expect Lance to appear here.

Without further ado, let's get started...

1: Lacey from The Indigo Disk

If this list was in any particular order, this adorable cinnamon bun would be Number 1 without question.

Whenever I play The Indigo Disk, Lacey is always the first member of Blueberry Academy's Elite Four I'm keen to meet. I love this girl for her adorable design, her sweet personality, her quirky fascination with cute things that can sometimes stretch the definition of "cute" and I even like her "That's just NOT right!" catchphrase. Don't ask me why, I just do. XD The fact she's actually the daughter of Gym Leader Clay from the Black & White games only served to make her an even more interesting character, and the fact she's the most responsible member of the Elite Four just made her even more likeable. I do admire the sensible and reliable ones after all.

So yeah, I adore her. She's precious. But how is she as an Elite Four member? More challenging than you'd expect from someone as dainty looking as her, that's for sure. She specializes in Fairy-types, so that already makes her a challenge. Her team? Stacked. She uses Granbull, Whimsicott, Primarina, Glarian Slowbro, Alcremie and an Excadrill that Terastalizes into a Fairy-type. Each and every member of her team is cleverly utilized and makes use of their abilities. Granbull knows Intimidate so it can weaken Physical Attackers, Whimsicott as the Prankster Ability so status moves get priority and thus she can set up Light Screen or Tailwind before you can even move, Primarina knows Liquid Voice so Hyper Voice is now a Water-type move, Galarian Slowbro has the Quick Draw ability so it'll occasionally move first and Excadrill has Mold Breaker, so Pokémon that use Levitate won't be able to dodge its High Horsepower attacks. Their movesets are well set up too such as Granbull knowing Stomping Tantrum and Fire Fang to cover Poison and Steel-types, Galarian Slowbro knows Flamethrower to shoo off Steel-types and Excadrill's High Horsepower attacks can flatten Steel and Poison-types that threaten her team, even if he Terastailizes into a Fairy-type. Alcremie also knows Decorate, allowing her to play a vital support role to make her team even more menacing and she also knows Recover to stall you out. Not to mention the presence of Galarian Slowbro means setting up Toxic Spikes won't do any good as it'll just get rid of them. And then there's the held items.

Granbull holds an Expert Belt so it hits even harder than it usually does if its moves are super-effective, Whimsicott has a Focus Sash so you can't one-shot it, Primarina holds a Throat Spray so she gets a Special Attack boost after using a sound-based move, Slowbro holds a Sitrus Berry to replenish health, Alcremie holds Leftovers so can regain some health and Excadrill holds an Assault Vest to make Special Attacks less harmful. So yeah, Lacey really did her homework with this team. They have clever move sets that can cover many of their weaknesses or make use of their abilities and held items, thus meaning you really have to think carefully when battling her. The only thing I'd really change is that her Granbull would've been better off with Psychic Fangs to cover Poison types instead of Ice Punch. Aside from that, I have little to criticize about her team.

Cute as a button, a reliable student, a welcoming friend to us and a smart and skilled battler with a challenging team, Lacey is just right in my books. Clay must be very proud to have a daughter as skilled and as strong as her...

2: Drayton from The Indigo Disk

No, the entire Blueberry Elite Four isn't going to end up on the list, but I knew I couldn't only include one member. If anyone else from BB Academy deserves a spot on the list, it's this guy.

Drayton is a lazy slacker who is so behind at school that he's had to repeat a year three times at this point in the game. Yet despite that, he proves to be a pretty friendly and cool kind of guy, even if he's somewhat manipulating us into his scheme, but his scheme is for a good cause anyway as he just wants Kieran dethroned so happiness can return to BB Academy again. Also he proves that when he's motivated, he can be quite motivated, so he's not completely lazy. Heck, his Elite Four challenge is even the most involved of the bunch as he requires you to beat some of his trainers using only mons caught in the Terarium. Gotta give him props for that at least.

So how is he as a member of the Elite Four? Just like Lacey, he's challenging as well and is among the very few Elite Four characters in Pokémon I've ever lost a battle to. I still remember the first time I ever fought him, he brought me down to my last Pokémon and it was quite a close call that I won in the end! Anyway, his team consists of Dragonite, Flygon, Haxorus, Sceptile, Kingdra and Archaludon. That is one STACKED roster of Pokémon right there and the kind of team worthy of a Dragon-type specialist! All of them are heavy hitters and can dish out a lot of punishment, but wait til you hear what they can do.

His Dragonite has the Multiscale ability and carries a Yache Berry, so even an Ice-type move won't knock it out instantly, his Flygon knows Stone Edge and Fire Punch to cover Ice-types and carries a Life Orb so it hits like a tank and also knows Breaking Swipe to lower Physical Attack, his Haxorus carries a Focus Sash so it won't go down in one hit, it knows Dragon Dance so it can get an Attack and Speed boost and it also knows Iron Head to shoo off Fairy-types, Sceptile carries a Weakness Policy so it gets an attack boost if hit by a move it's weak against, it also has the Unburden ability so it gets a Speed boost when it's held item is used up and it can use Dragon Cheer to increase his team's critical hit ratio, his Kingdra has Swift Swim and can set up Rain Dance to take advantage of it (and also boost Hydro Pump and let him use a 100% accurate Hurricane) while also holding an Expert Belt so it can hit harder with super-effective moves and his Archaludon is a powerful Dragon/Steel type that knows Flash Cannon to cover Fairy-types, Snarl to weaken Special Attackers and Electro Shot, a move that increases its Special Attack and hits immediately when it's raining (thus making it a deadly combo when paired with Kingdra's Rain Dance) while also carrying an Assault Vest so Special Attacks do less damage against it. For a lazy guy, he sure as hell worked hard on constructing his team and making use of their move sets, abilities and held items! It's no wonder this guy's so tough to beat! It's easy to see how he was the school's previous Champion before Kieran took over.

Drayton maybe a slacker, but he ain't no slacker when it comes to his character and his team. He's cool, he's friendly and his team are an awesome team of Dragon (or dragon-like) Pokémon that give the player the fight of their lives. I always save this guy for last because he really does feel like he should be the final boss of the Elite Four. If he was truly motivated, I bet he could become a Champion of another region with how strong he is...

3: Lorelei from Red, Blue, Yellow and their remakes

This chick may be all about Ice-types, but as everyone can agree on, she's pretty hot. :3

Lorelei has snuck her way into many fan's hearts, mostly down to her attractive design. Seriously, somebody at Game Freak must've been VERY thirsty when they designed her. I mean you have a drop dead gorgeous looking woman with red hair, long slender legs, a tiny skirt, a large bust and a tight fitting shirt that emphasizes her body shape. It's clear she was designed from the ground up to be sexy. But she isn't all looks, oh no. Lorelei's also a very intelligent woman who is knowledgeable about Pokémon and Pokémon battles. She's particularly known for her cool, calculated and logical style of battling, and that's why she's a member of Kanto's Elite Four. She's also not one to let crimes go unanswered such as one moment in Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee! where she helps the player character out after they get surrounded by Rocket grunts. And let's not forget how she got a pretty awesome showing in the anime where she takes Ash down a peg and shows why she's Elite Four worthy. So yeah, Lorelei's pretty cool in multiple ways.

How is she as a boss fight in the games though? By Kanto standards, she's pretty tough. Like with Drayton, she's one of the only Elite Four trainers I've ever lost a battle to, and most of that was down to being under-levelled and underestimating her. Still, her team consists of Dewgong, Cloyster, Jynx, Slowbro and Lapras. Despite being an Ice-type trainer, most of her Pokémon are also Water-types, so big mistake if you think you can sweep her with Fire-types. Got an Electric-type? Don't get too cocky as even then she can still give you a challenge. Dewgong, Slowbro and Lapras are quite bulky, especially on the Special side, and thus even a Thunderbolt from a Raichu won't take them down instantly. Her Dewgong knows Hail so that gets problematic as our Pokémon take damage over time and it also knows Safeguard to stop us inflicting status conditions on her team, Slowbro knows Yawn to put our mons to sleep and Amnesia to give itself a Special Defence boost (and in the Let's Go! games, it knows Flamethrower to deal with Grass and Steel types that we might use to fight her with) and her Lapras knows Body Slam to paralyze our mons and Confuse Ray to confuse us while also carrying a Sitrus Berry to replenish health. Jynx and Cloyster are kind of the weak links in her team as neither one can take a hit (Cloyster's very weak on the Special side) but the rest of her team will wear you down a bit. Then you get her rematch team (FireRed and LeafGreen only) where her team gets improved move sets, including Psychic for Lapras to cover Fighting-types, and Slowbrow is swapped out for Piloswine.

The Let's Go! games are much easier, so Lorelei isn't as challenging in those games, but even then they still make somewhat of an effort to make her threatening. She still has her mostly bulky team that have some decent moves at their disposal, but as levelling up is so much easier this time around, it's easier to get yourself at a high enough level to really do the damage. During rematches, her team adds Alolan Sandslash, which may seem dumb since it's got a double Fire weakness, but it knows Earthquake in order to cover that weakness (which is meaningless since nine times out of ten, your Fire-types will likely be too fast for it to use Earthquake first). So yeah, if you want Lorelei at her most challenging, you might be better off using the original Red & Blue games, Yellow or FireRed & LeafGreen.

The Let's Go! games may not do Lorelei justice, but I still consider her one of my favourite Elite Four members for her attractive design, intelligence, cool appearance in the anime and how she's an example of how now we've done the Gyms, the real challenge begins with her. A very strong first impression of an Elite Four trainer in my eyes...

4: Rika from Scarlet and Violet

Why wouldn't this cool gal make the countdown? Practically EVERYBODY loves Rika. Even women want to date her, and no, I'm not joking about that. XD

It's easy to see why Rika has become so popular amongst the fandom. Not only does she have an unusually androgynous design that already makes her stand out compared to other female characters in Pokémon (and most likely has made her very appealing to the LGBTQ+ community too), but she's also got a likeable personality in where she gives off this cool, laidback air to her that makes her easy to get along with. She's like that chill guy or girl that you make friends with easily because of how cool and nice they can be, yet Rika also makes it clear that she's not someone to get on the wrong side of. She can get serious if you make her mad, especially if you break any rules, and in a Pokémon battle, she can get pretty in to it. So yeah, Rika's cool as I said and it's easy to see how she won over so many players. It also helps that she had a decent showing in Pokémon Horizons too by teaching Liko a valuable lesson in learning not to be so tense and to have fun when in battle. I just wish they didn't set Liko up to win and then didn't take it just so Rika could win...

Now how is she as an Elite Four member? Not great, but I'm not holding that against her since honestly, the whole Paldea Elite Four is really lacking in difficulty. As is, her team is somewhat competently put together. She specializes in Ground-types and her team consists of Whiscash, Camerupt, Dugtrio, Donphan and Clodsire. They're all decent mons in their own right, but with the exception of Dugtrio, they're pretty slow so Rika's unlikely to get a hit in on you before you start attacking and Whiscash and Camerupt have a double weakness (Grass for Whiscash and Water for Camerupt), so she's not exactly challenging. But again, her team does have some good points to it that might make her a threat if you're unprepared. Her Whiscash knows Blizzard to cover its Grass weakness and can throw you off if you were expecting to sweep her with a Water-type, Camerupt's a Fire-type so anyone trying to sweep her with Ice-types is out of luck, Donphan has Sturdy so it won't go down in one hit and knows Stone Edge, Iron Head and Poison Jab to cover its weakness to Ice and Grass-types respectively, Dugtrio is incredibly fast so it'll likely always move first, it can set up Sandstorm to cause damage to your team and it also knows Rock Slide to also cover Ice-types and her ace is a Clodsire with the Water Absorb ability so Water attacks don't work on it and she uses the Toxic/Protect stall strategy. She definitely has some clever strategies with this team, but her main problem is that she has no coverage for Water-types and her team is just too slow. If she had Camerupt with Solid Rock as its ability and set up Sunny Day to weaken Water-types while allowing it to use Solar Beam immediately, that would've made her more challenging.

Come the Indigo Disk, her team gets some slight changes. Whiscash knows Ice Beam instead of Blizzard, which is better as it's more accurate and it also knows Stealth Rock so it can set that up to cripple your team a bit, she sends out Dugtrio first this time so she'll be able to exploit its speed a lot earlier and she adds a Torterra (which I'm happy about as I love Torterra) to her team that can cover its crippling Ice Weakness with Body Press and Iron Head respectively, and it has its Hidden Ability Shell Armour, which prevents critical hits. That's always handy, as is the fact that Torterra gives Rika some much needed Water coverage due to being a Grass-type. As is, Torterra's also very slow so it will be unlikely to get a chance to use its Ice-type coverage and will go down as easily as the rest of her team. Giving her team Held Items when used at Blueberry Academy would've been a nice way to boost up her power.

As is, Rika may not be the most challenging Elite Four member ever, but she's still one of my favourites due to her striking design, likeable personality, great showing in Pokémon Horizons, neat selection of Ground-type Pokémon and what a cool gal she is. I'm always happy to battle her in the Scarlet and Violet games any day...

5: Karen from Gold and Silver and their remakes

Please refrain from making any "Karen" jokes. We don't approve of stupid jokes like that here on themediamanblog. Besides, Karen shouldn't be used as an insult anyway. =P

Karen is a member of Johto's Elite four in the Gold and Silver games and their remakes HeartGold and SoulSilver. Much like Lorelei, she's another character who was clearly designed to be sexy with her original design having her in just a black minidress and her redesign you see above...well, you can see for yourself. Naturally, this has won over many fans for Karen, but it's not just her beauty that makes her great. She's a member of the Elite Four, so that already tells you she's a skilled trainer. And then there's her philosophy, which unquestionably gave us one of the most famous quotes in the entire franchise:

"Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best. I like your style. You understand what's important."

I get the feeling that those VGC players who only care about getting the best stats, IVs and EVs felt the need to punch her in the face. XD Jokes aside, that speech of her's is enough for me to declare Karen as one of my favourite Elite Four members because of how much he truly gets what it means to be a Pokémon trainer and that we shouldn't see them as strong or weak. Too bad that in the games, there ARE strong and weak Pokémon so her speech falls flat on its fact, but let's not split hairs here... Point is, Karen is really likeable due to her attractive design and compassionate philosophy that shows what a kind and thoughtful person she is. You know how I love my girls nice and compassionate. ;)

As an Elite Four member, her team leaves much to be desired (which isn't her fault, Johto just isn't great at giving its characters challenging teams). Her team consists of Umbreon, Vileplume, Murkrow, Gengar and Houndoom. Vileplume's a weird choice because it's not a Dark-type, and neither is Gengar for that matter, and while Gengar, Umbreon and Houndoom are solid mons in their own right, Murkrow isn't and required the Diamond and Pearl games to make it useful by giving it an evolution in the form of Honchkrow. Her team's movepool sucks as well. Not a single one of her Pokémon can cover Dark/s weakness to Fighting-types (except Murkrow, and Murkrow is hardly a useful weapon against them), which makes no sense at all because Umbreon and Gengar can both learn Psychic, yet neither of them know that move. Even the remakes didn't fix that problem. Her team does have a lot of status moves to potentially throw you off your game though such as Umbreon with Confuse Ray and Double Team, Gengar with Destiny Bond, Vileplume with Stun Spore and Houndoom with Nasty Plot to potentially power itself up, and it also carries a Sitrus Berry for recovery. As is, it's still rather easy to beat her even in spite of those moves. If Umbreon knew Psychic to cover Fighting-types and she had a Honchkrow instead of Mukrow, she might've been a stronger opponent.

During rematches however, her team gets an upgrade. She uses Weavile, Absol, Spiritomb, Honchkrow, Houndoom and Umbreon. Weavile and Absol are heavy hitters and Spiritomb is bulky as hell, so those are nice new additions. Weavile is also very fast, so it may land a hit first and it even has Ice Shard, which always hits first. Her Absol has the Super Luck ability to increase its chances of a critical hit and it knows Psycho Cut to cover Fighting types, Spiritomb knows Pain Split, Confuse Ray and Sucker Punch, Honchkrow knows Thunder Wave to paralyze opponents and slow them down and also knows Whirlwind to switch out opponents and hopefully get a more favourable match-up and Umbreon knows Curse to lower its Speed but big up its Attack and Defence. It's still annoying that she uses an Umbreon with no Psychic to cover Fighting-types, but this team is overall still way more solid than her original team is and thanks to Murkrow being able to evovle, it can actually pull its weight for once.

Karen isn't much of a challenge, but she's still one of my favourites for her attractive design, cool selection of Dark-type Pokémon, likeable personality and a philosophy we could all do with following. As she said, it's not about strong or weak Pokémon, it's about the bonds we share with them...

6: Grimsley from Black and White and Black 2 and White 2

When it comes to the Unova Elite Four, I always found myself liking this guy. I dunno, just something about him always gave off a cool and charismatic flair that won me over.

Grimsley is the Dark-type specialist of Unova's Elite Four and he's also part of a wealthy family that fell into financial ruin, which lead to him becoming a gambling addict in order to save himself and his family. That backstory alone makes him an incredibly sympathetic character, which is probably another reason why I find myself liking him. His design with that cool hair-do and that dapper suit doesn't hurt either. He really gives off a cool and collected vibe and that's what makes him appeal to me. It's clear he's another fan-favourite too since he made another appearance in the Sun and Moon games:

He sure looks nice in that kimono, but I can't help but find myself asking a question the Tenth Doctor once asked in regards to Harriet Jones: Don't you think he looks tired? Financial stress must be getting to the poor guy.

Anyway, Grimsley isn't all cool looks and tragic backstory. No, he's an Elite Four member, and he shows us how he's earned that position too. His team consists of Scrafty, Krookodile, Liepard and Bisharp. While Liepard isn't exactly Elite Four worthy, the other three are for being heavy hitters and also having secondary typings to cover more types. Scrafty is a Dark/Fighting type and has the Moxie ability so it can get an attack boost anytime it knocks an opponent out, Krookodile is a Dark/Ground type, has the Intimidate ability to lower Physical Attacks and knows Dragon Claw in case you're using any Dragons, Liepard knows Fake Out and Attract and can use Aerial Ace to cover its Fighting and Bug weakness and Bisharp is a Dark/Steel type, has the Defiant ability so its attack will increase if you lower its stats and it too knows Aerial Ace to shoo off Fighting and Bug types. As is, Bisharp is pretty slow so it's unlikely to get the first hit in. Still, most of these mons pack quite a punch and have some useful abilities to give Grimsley an edge in battle. Come rematches, he adds Sharpedo and Drapion to his team, two more Pokémon that pack quite a punch.

Now for the Black and White sequels, this is where he really gets good. If you face him on Challenge mode, he adds an Absol to his team that has the Super Luck ability and can abuse it with Night Slash and Psycho Cut (the latter of which also covers Fighting types) and his team carry Held Items to improve their battle prowess. Liepard has a Normal Gem (supposedly so Fake Out hits harder), Scrafty has Leftovers so it can replenish health over time, Krookodile has an Expert Belt so super-effective moves hit harder, Absol's holding a Muscle Band so it's Physical moves hit even harder and Bisharp carries a Quick Claw to mitigate its terrible speed. Then when you rematch him on Challenge Mode, he replaces Liepard and Absol with Tyranitar and Houndoom and adds a Honchkrow to his team. His Honchkrow also has the Super Luck ability and carries a Scope Lens to increase critical hit chances, his Houndoom carries Wise Glasses to boost its Special Attacks and Tyranitar carries a Focus Band so it can't be knocked out in one hit. This guy knows his stuff, doesn't he? Then again, he's a Dark type specialist, they're all about dirty, underhanded tactics. Now just imagine how terrifying this guy would be in this day and age thanks to the introduction of Kingambit...

Grimsley is one cool customer with a solid team of Dark types that puts Karen to shame, some crafty tactics that can make him a challenge, a stylish look and a sympathetic backstory that has me hoping he'll be able to keep himself financially stable someday. Grimsley didn't have to make any gambles at all to earn his place on this list...

7: Wikstrom from X and Y

The Kalos Elite Four are infamous for not being challenging, especially since they don't get any stronger when you rematch them. As is, I still like a couple of them and one of them, Wikstrom, takes this spot on the list.

I absolutely love Wikstrom's design. As a Steel-type specialist, it feels so damn fitting to have him look like a knight in shining armour. I mean why not go all out with the Steel-type theming? I also enjoyed this guy's appearances in the Pokémon Journeys anime where he played a pivotal role in the development of Ash's Sirfetch'd. This guy was such a big help and thus how could I ever dislike him for that? He's truly a noble knight both on the outside and the inside.

So, how is he as a member of the Elite Four? Not that bad honestly. His team consists of Klefki, Probopass, Scizor and Aegislash. His Klefki has the Prankster ability, thus its status moves take priority and it knows Torment and Spikes in order to exploit that ability, Probopass can cover Fire-types with Earth Power and Power Gem and knows Sturdy so it won't go down in one hit, Scizor has the Technician ability and knows Bullet Punch so it'll always hit first with it (and Techncian gives it a boost) and Aegislash is a powerful Pokémon in general with its Stance Change ability, King's Shield to block attacks and it knows Sacred Sword to cover its weakness to Dark-types. Overall, pretty solid team. The problem is that he has little coverage for Fire-types outside of Probopass and Probopass itself is hardly a threat due to its double Fighting weakness and pathetic attack stats. He'd have been better off using Aggron if you ask me, at least that mon can hit hard! And the fact his team stays the same every time you battle him with no changes in levels, team members or move sets doesn't help his case at all. Why were the X and Y games so overly focused on being easy? The Battle Chateaus don't really make him any more challenging either. If I were making the X and Y games, I'd have given Wikstrom an Aggron instead of Probopass so he has a heavier hitter and for rematches, I'd give him a full team of six with Steelix and Bisharp added and he'd be able to Mega Evolve Aggron. THAT would've made him a challenge!

As is, Wikstrom's still cool enough in my eyes to make this list. With a cool knight theme, a noble personality and a decent roster of Pokémon, he's one knight I'd happily have guarding my castle any day...

8: Tie between Olivia and Acerola from Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

Why pick from one of these two when they're both awesome?

Olivia and Acerola debuted in the Sun and Moon games and are part of Alola's first ever Elite Four, which in turn makes them a big deal. And needless to say, they set up a great first impression for Alola's Elite Four. Olivia and Acerola are also Trial Captains, so we get some time to know them before we get to the endgame and face the Elite Four, and we even get a battle with Olivia. Olivia is a tough woman with a warm and friendly nature, but she gets very serious whenever she's in battle and Acerola is an adorable, friendly and peppy young girl who has a mysterious nature to her as she claims to see ghosts and claims to be of royal blood despite her clothes suggesting a poorer lifestyle. Both of them have fantastic designs with Olivia's making her look very striking and attractive while Acerola's really makes her standout as there's just no other character like her in the Pokémon franchise, Ghost-type specialist or not.

As Elite Four members, the two show why they were probably picked to be members of Alola's Elite Four. With Olivia, she specializes in Rock-types and her team consists of Relicanth, Alolan Golem, Carbink, Probopass and Midnight Form Lycanroc with a Rockium Z so she can use a Rock-type Z-Move. While not the best team ever, it's a team of Rock-types that has at least some clever thought put into the choices of Pokémon and the moves they use. Relicanth is half Water-type so it covers Ground-types, Carbink is half-Fairy type so she can cover Fighting-types, Alolan Golem is half-Electric type so Olivia has another counter for Water-types, Probopass knows Earth Power to shoo off Steel-types and her Lycanroc knows Counter to punish Physical attackers for attacking it. The only problem is with the exception of Lycanroc, every Pokémon on her team has a double weakness with two of them having a double Ground weakness while Relicanth and Carbink have a double Grass and Steel weakness respectively, thus meaning she won't pose any real challenge as she has too many big weaknesses to exploit. It also doesn't help how with the exception of Probopass and Lycanroc, her team only knows three moves (rematches fix this) Still, I give her credit for being able to cover at least a few of Rock's weaknesses with her team structure and the moves they can use. Also Golem and Probopass have Sturdy so they won't go down in one hit and Carbink has Clear Body so you can't lower its stats, which is always useful.

When it comes to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon however, her team is considerably more threatening. She uses Armaldo, Cradily, Gigalith, Probopass and Lycanroc. Armaldo is a strong Physical Attacker that hits hard and has Battle Armour to protect it from critical hits, Cradily is half Grass-type so Water-types are in trouble, it's got high defences and it can also set up Stealth Rock, Gigalith has the Sand Stream ability so it conjures up a Sandstorm once it enters the arena and gives its fellow Rock-types a boost in Special Defence and also knows Bulldoze so it can lower your Pokémon's speed. This team hasn't got as many double weaknesses to exploit with only Probopass still having one, so you won't be one-shotting her team quite as easily as you would her Sun and Moon team and during rematches, her Armaldo gets Liquidation to cover Ground-types, Cradily gets Earth Power to cover its weakness to Steel-types and Probopass gets Dazzling Gleam to cover its double Fighting weakness. So yeah, her team in the Ultra games is pretty well structured and can cover a few of their weaknesses well. If you want Olivia to be at her most challenging, face her in the Ultra games rather than the original Sun and Moon.

Acerola is a pretty decent trainer too. Her team consists of Sableye, Drifblim, Dhelmise, Froslass and Palossand with a Ghostium Z to use a Ghost-type Z-Move. Palossand and Dhelmise are bulky on the Physical side (and Palossand has an ability in where its Physical Defence increases if it's hit by a Water-type move), Sableye has only one weakness to Fairy-types and Drifblim and Froslass are solid Ghost-types in their own right. Sableye knows Fake Out and Confuse Ray, Froslass knows Confuse Ray to try and throw opponents off, Drifblim has Focus Energy and Amnesia to boost its chances of a critical hit and raise its Special Defence respectively, and also knows Baton Pass so it can pass on its boosted stats to another Pokémon to potentially make them more threatening and also has the Aftermath ability to damage you when you've landed the finishing blow, which could cause problems. Palossand also knows Giga Drain to cover its Water weakness. The biggest problem this team has is that they have no real coverage for Dark-types, which is a big problem since Ghost-types are weak against them, meaning you could sweep her easily with a Dark-type. Even in rematches, she still suffers from poor Dark-type coverage with only Sableye with Brick Break to deal with them, and Sableye doesn't even have a weakness to Dark-types! Plus her Dhelmise has the Steelworker ability, but no Steel-type moves to make use of it. I just...WHAT?! How incompetent do you have to be to make such a basic mistake like that? As is, her rematch team is much stronger with improved move sets and stronger attacks for her team, her Drifblim knows Will-O-Wisp to burn our Pokémon and her Dhelmise actually knows a Steel-type move this time so its Steelworker ability isn't useless.

In the Ultra Games, her team is the same accept for having Banette in place of Sableye. Her Banette knows Feint Attack, which never misses, and knows Infestation (giving her at least a little Dark-type coverage) to do damage over time and prevent you from switching out, and it also knows Screech to lower your defences. In rematches, it knows Sucker Punch so it can attack you if you dare to attack it and it knows Shadow Sneak, a move that always goes first, so it can do a little damage before you make a move. She still suffers from a lack of coverage against Dark-types and her Dhelmise once again doesn't know any Steel-type moves until you rematch her, so she'll be unlikely to pose a threat. At least give her a Mimikyu or something, that would make her at least somewhat challenging!

Ah well, they may not be the most challenging trainers ever, but both Olivia and Acerola do leave a memorable impression thanks to their designs, personalities and roles as two of Alola's first ever Elite Four members. The Alola League certainly began big with these two...

9: Drasna from X and Y

Unusual to have a female Dragon-type specialist, especially one as an Elite Four member.

Drasna is a true standout from the crowd as possibly the only Dragon-type Elite Four specialist to be female, and her design is especially striking. Seriously, they really went ridiculously hard on her appearance with her big flowing hair, her huge dragon fang bracelets, her dragon fang necklace and dragon tusks in her hair. Talk about wanting to stand out, am I right? I also love how she looks middle-aged and yet she's still full of life, has a cheery personality and proves that age is just a number to her for she's one tough cookie. She's part of Kalos's Elite Four for Arceus's sake, that has to mean she's tough! She also had a memorable appearance in the anime...and by memorable, I mean memorably bad as the battle she and Ash had is one of the most widely criticized battles in all of Pokémon Journeys. Too bad it had to be this way for this was Drasna's first ever appearance in the anime, and it's not remembered very fondly. At least we got to see her use a Mega Altaria, that was pretty cool.

Speaking of cool, her team is pretty neat. She uses Dragalge, Druddigon, Altaria and Noviern. All of them are tough Dragon-types, even if they're not pseudo-legendary levels, and all of them can pull their weight too. Dragalge is half-Poison type so it can cover her team's weakness to Fairy-types, her Druddigon knows Revenge to cover Ice-types and take advantage of its slow speed while also knowing Retaliate to take advantage of whenever a previous team mate faints, her Altaria knows Sing to put our Pokémon to sleep and her Noivern knows Super Fang to cut our Pokémon's HP in half and also knows Flamethrower to cover Ice-types. Her Dragalge also has the Poison Point ability to poison those that make physical contact and her Druddigon knows Rough Skin to damage those making Physical contact with her, so she has ways of punishing Physical Attackers at least. The only downside to her team is that both Altaria and Noivern have a double Ice weakness and Altaria doesn't know any Fire-type moves to cover its Fire weakness. Even if it did, Altaria's attack stats aren't exactly high so it wouldn't be doing much damage anyway. Even Noivern can struggle to KO Ice-types despite knowing Flamethrower, and I should know as whenever I've used Noivern, it often struggles to one-shot anything. At least give it and Altaria Heat Wave as that's slightly stronger than Flamethrower. Oh and maybe giving her a Pokémon that can Mega Evolve would've helped her too just like with Wikstrom. A Mega Garchomp would've especially made her menacing...

As is, Drasna's still one of my favourite Elite Four members from her amazing design, her cheery personality, cool team of Dragon-types and just the fact she uses Dragon-types in general as they tend to be my favourites. She's worthy of the Dragon-type in my eyes...

10: Hassel from Scarlet and Violet

You can never go wrong with Dragon-type specialists, eh?

Hassel is a member of Paldea's Elite Four and is also an art teacher at Naranja/Uva Academy, so this guy's already pretty multi-talented, which is always admirable. He's firm friends with Brassius, another fellow artist and trainer, and he's the kind of guy who looks stern and serious, but is also prone to tears whenever he's well and truly moved or impressed by what he's seen. No joke, it's weirdly funny whenever he does that. Even Pokémon Horizons had to include that gag in one episode he was in. XD Speaking of, he along with Rika were among the few video game characters to be done justice in Pokémon Horizons, proving to be too formidable for Roy and Brassius to defeat during the Elite Four and student battles.

So how is Hassel as a member of the Elite Four in the games? Like most Dragon-type specialists, he's pretty tough. His team consists of Noivern, Haxorus, Dragalge, Flapple and Baxcalibur. Noivern's a speedy and strong mon, Haxorus is a heavy hitter, Dragalge provides much needed Fairy-type coverage and Baxcalibur is a beast, so you know he means business with this line-up. Annoyingly, he has a Noivern with no Fire attacks to cover Ice-types and his Flapple has no answer to them either, but Haxorus at least knows Iron Head and Rock Tomb and Baxcalibur knows Brick Break, so he's not helpless against them. Like with Drasna though, he suffers a bit from having two Dragon-types with a double Ice weakness, which doesn't help his team much. During the Academy Ace Tournament, he adds a Dragonite to his team, which is excellent as Dragonite's always reliable, and it also knows Fire Punch and Stone Edge to cover Ice-types. Would've been better if his Dragonite had its Multiscale ability though. Also would've been better if his Noivern got an improved moveset and knew any Fire attacks too! When you rematch him after catching Terapagos, he finally gets rid of that useless Flapple and replaces it with Duraludon, which gives him another mon to cover Ice and Fairy-types with and it can set up Stealth Rock to damage your team. Personally, he would've been even better if he had an Archaludon instead, but as Raihan proved to us in Sword and Shield, Duraludon's strong enough by itself, so it's not like it needs to evolve to be good. As is, this is Hassel's best team in my eyes as he only has one mon with a double-Ice weakness this time and more Ice-type coverage.

Whether he's a hard-working artist or a hard-working trainer, Hassel is easily among Paldea's best trainers and worthy of his status as an Elite Four member. With his dapper dress sense, endearing quirks, cool team of Dragon-types and a noble personality, I'm always happy to battle this guy any day...

And that's it for this list. I hope you enjoyed it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Which Elite Four members are YOUR favourites? Do tell me.

Next week I'll be doing another shot-by-shot analysis as I cover Death's introduction from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. See you then media fans!

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