In the world of Pokémon, many trainers like Ash Ketchum aspire to become the Pokemon League Champion. But in order to become a champion in the video game series, trainers need to defeat not only the eight gym leaders but also the Elite Four.
The Elite Four is made up of the strongest trainers of their region, excluding the reigning champion. If a trainer feels confident enough in themselves and their Pokemon, they may challenge the Elite Four in four intense, consecutive battles.
If all of the Elite Four members are defeated, the trainer can then challenge the champion with the prestigious title on the line. That being said, the battles against the Elite Four are some of the toughest in the game. Here are the ten most powerful Elite Four members.
10 Bertha
Out of all seven generations so far, Bertha is the only ground-type specialist in the Elite Four. Though her team has a severe weakness to grass, water, and ice, she compensates for it with the high defenses of bulky Pokémon like Rhyperior and Gliscor.
In combination with the bulk of her Pokémon, her Hippowdon likes to use Yawn, which can be quite annoying when it puts your Pokémon to sleep. Once your Pokémon is asleep for a few turns, Bertha's team is free to use one of the strongest ground-type moves in the game: Earthquake.
9 Malva
Aside from being a popular news reporter and former member of the villainous Team Flare, Malva is also a strong Elite Four member. As suggested in her association with Team Flare, she specializes in fire-type Pokémon.
With an extremely powerful Chandelure launching Flamethrowers and Shadow Balls left and right, it's difficult to knock it out without losing one of your own in the process. In addition, she has a speedy Talonflame that can quickly finish off any worn-out opponents. The only thing that would make Malva's Talonflame more dangerous is if it had its signature ability, Gale Wings, which would allow it to always use its strongest flying-type move ahead of its opponent.
8 Wikstrom
Wikstrom always comes prepared for battle in his very own suit of armor. And like his armor, his team composition revolves around steel-types.
Most fitting for a knight, Wikstrom's strongest Pokemon is his Aegislash, which can take the form of both a sword and shield. Like most steel Pokémon, Aegislash starts out with very high defensive stats while in its shield form. Thanks to its unique ability, Stance Change, Aegislash turns into a sword when it's ready to fight, greatly increasing its attack stats. In this way, Wikstrom is able to play mind games with his opponent while constantly swapping between an offensive and defensive threat.
7 Phoebe
In the Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire remakes of Pokémon's third generation, Phoebe got an upgrade. Not only did her new battle room include a creepy little ghost girl who watches your every move, but also her team became a lot stronger.
Rather than having two Dusclops on her team, Phoebe instead has its stronger evolved form, Dusknoir, along with stronger ghost-types from more recent generations like Chandelure. In addition, Phoebe's biggest upgrade came from the newer Mega Evolution mechanic. With Mega Evolution, her average Sableye became a lot more troublesome with its boosted defenses.
6 Marshal
Out of all the fighting-based Elite Four members, Marshal stands out the most thanks to his hard-hitting physical attackers. On a team with such high attack stats, Marshal is able to take advantage of super offensive tactics while putting out massive damage.
This is most apparent in his Machamp and his ace, Conkeldurr. With Machamp's No Guard ability, it can always land its strongest moves, Dynamic Punch and Stone Edge, despite their otherwise poor accuracy. Conkeldurr, on the other hand, has a bit more power and bulk than Machamp and can often survive super-effective flying-type hits before one-shotting its opponent with a Stone Edge.
5 Agatha
Despite having a mostly poison-type team, Agatha is considered a ghost-type specialist. This is most likely because her strongest Pokémon are her two Gengars.
Gengar is already one of the most threatening ghost-types out there with high stats in both special attack and speed. It can often outspeed its opponent and knock it out with a powerful Shadow Ball before the opponent even has a chance to attack. Therefore, with two Gengars to battle, it's difficult to get out of there unscathed. And if Agatha had access to the Gengarite, Mega Gengar would be even more of a nightmare to face.
4 Lance
Before Lance gained the title of Pokemon Champion, he was the final Elite Four member in the first generation games. He has always, however, been a lover of dragon Pokémon.
In particular, Lance's most well-known Pokémon is his trusty partner, Dragonite. In fact, he had not one, not two, but three Dragonites on his champion team at one point. But as for his Elite Four team in Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee!, he only has one Dragonite amongst other powerful dragon-types like Alolan Exeggutor and Mega Charizard X. The only questionable Pokémon on his team is the Seadra, which is not a dragon nor a fully evolved Pokémon.
3 Caitlin
Despite her gentle and princess-like appearance, Caitlin has one of the most destructive teams in the Elite Four. Her psychic team is well-balanced between supportive, specially offensive, and physically offensive roles.
Caitlin's Musharna and Gothitelle have supportive moves like Hypnosis and Flatter to immobilize their opponent. The Musharna can then use Reflect to increase the defense stat of Caitlin's entire team for several turns. In that time, glass cannons like Alakazam and Gallade can come out to attack for maximum output. Even after the effects of Reflect run out, Caitlin still has bulkier offensive threats in Reuniclus and Metagross to finish off her opponent.
2 Grimsley
Grimsley may be a dark-type specialist, but the unique thing about his team is that each Pokémon has a different typing in addition to dark. This gives Grimsley more variety in terms of offensive and defensive options.
It is also important to note that there is no weak link on the team--every Pokémon on his team is powerful in their own right. Having a pseudo-legendary like Tyranitar is already terrifying enough, but it's also very well supported by Honchkrow whose flying typing covers the team's main fighting weakness. The rest of Grimsley's team, Bisharp, Krookodile, Houndoom, and Scrafty also hit very hard with moves from their other typings.
1 Drake
As hinted in his name, Drake is a lover of dragon-type Pokémon like his fellow Elite Four member, Lance. But unlike Lance, Drake's team is made up of some of the mightiest dragons in the Pokémon world.
Although all of his Pokémon are strong enough to be the aces of someone else's team, Drake's ace, Salamence is on a level of its own. Salamence is not only a pseudo-legendary like Tyranitar but also one of the strongest Mega Evolution out there. With a base 145 attack stat and a base stat total of 700, Mega Salamence has a higher base stat total than legendary Pokemon like Mewtwo and Rayquaza.