[SM SPOILERS]Hardest E4 from each gen

[Ice Cream Sand Witch 1650]

A while ago I made a thread for hardest gym leader from each gen, so here's one for E4.

Mine:

Kanto: Lorelei

Johto: Karen

Hoenn: Glacia

Sinnoh: Lucian

Unova: Caitlin

Kalos: Malva. She's the only one who did any meaningful damage to me.

[Masquerain 6]

Well I presume it's all subjective based on your team and stuff but with the teams I had

Kanto: Lorelei

Johto: Will

Hoenn: Glacia/Drake

Sinnoh: always Lucian

Unova: Caitlin

Kalos: Siebold (I swear on my first playthrough that howitzer crab destroyed almost my entire team) After that, though, none of them were particularly hard

[Azeria 390]

Kanto: Lorelei. Fuck her Lapras is annoying. Also Water/Ice is amazing stab and only really resisted by Water/Ice types and since most of her team is comprised of those..... Also her Cloyster's spikes combined with Body Slam+Confuse Ray from Lapras and Hail made some parts of the fight an absolute nightmare.

Johto: Karen. Destiny Bond Gengar and the almighty Nasty Plot Houndoom. If you let that thing Set up, there goes at least half your team. It's damage output is insane and considering it probably outlevels you by quite bit.

Hoenn: Glacia. Explosion Glalie and Sheer Cold Walrein. They always catch me off guard tbh.

Sinnoh: Lucian. Both DP and Platinum Teams are threathening as all hell. His Medicham in DP has godly coverage+recovery in drain punch ON TOP of Pure Power. It's damage output is insane though the lack of psychic moves is weird. Mr Mime with screens and then the ungodly duo; Alakazam and Bronzong. Alakazam's damage output is p high and that sucker punch with Focus Blast is surprising the first time. Bronzong's ONE WEAKNESS is the least common type in all of Sinnoh. It also has Calm Mind to patch it up. It's also level 63.Goodbye World. His Plat team is kinda weaker in my honest opinion but that's mainly cuz his threathening Bronzong is wayy weaker now. Gallade makes up for it though, damn that coverage.

Unova: Marshall. More so for his weird choice of moves at times. His Conkeldurr in BW had Grass Knot. Grass Knot Conkeldurr. I learnt that the hard way with Seismitoad sadly. Also his retaliate's fucking hurt.

Kalos: Siebold. No Questions asked. His team comes equipped with near-competitive level movesets, wide level of coverage and that Clawitzer. His Gyarados is a textbook example of: Don't let it live more than a single turn or your in for a world of pain. 1 DD is all it needs to steam roll you.

[ZEL 349]

Lorelei and Glacia were the hardest for me because I tend to have way more Flying types on my team than is good for me, really.

Lucian was the only one in the Sinnoh league who actually gave me any trouble at all. I don't even remember what the hell my team was, trusty Staraptor aside, but I remember that this guy was worse for me than Cynthia could be. Suppose I really didn't have any Dark types with me.

Kalos E4 were easy, but I suppose Drasna was worst for me because my teams usually don't have anything useful against Dragon types.

Can't remember ever having had trouble with Johto or Unova. Like, at all. Can I roll the dice for these? ...Actually let me pick Koga just because being poisoned is fucking annoying.

[Ojama Yellow 759]

kanto: ice beam/tbolt against lance and you win, agatha is really weak to physical shadow ball from normal types and brunos only threat (somewhat) is machamp. ill pick lorelei for that ungodly lapras, even though venusaur can ohko it with frenzy plant.

johto: hrm. its been a while since I played a johto game but I remember will and koga being rather easy. bruno has two threats with hitmontop and machamp, and karen has that destiny bond gengar. gonna go for bruno.

hoenn: LOL. sydney is sydney. phoebes mons have great coverage considering her type, but are largely unable to do a lot of damage and things like mightyena shred her. drake is ice beamin'. gonna have to say glacia because bs.

sinnoh: oh boy, that one region where a power spike happens. aaron is still easy, lucian never gave me trouble either. berthas hippowdon is a threat due to its immense bulk and stab eq. and then theres flint with his asshole magmortar. gonna say flint.

unova: marshal hands down. except for throh, everything on marshals team has been able to scare me so far. the others are all ridiculously easy.

kalos: havent played gen VI

edit: tfw cant vote without putting something in gen VI zzzz

[RudeStyle 0]

kanto: didnt really struggle with any of the elites but Lance was mildly annoying purely because of his typing

Johto: KAREN WHY.

hoenn: Drake. I suck at covering against dragon types.

Sinnoh: actually the hardest elite 4 imo. Flints mag can burn in water.

unova: none of them were hard but marshall because CONKELLDURR.

Kalos: i wanted to vote none because they all sucked. so i just voted wikstrom

[Jericho 114]

Only one E4 has ever really given me any real trouble, and that was Agatha, back when I was stupid and didn't carry enough diversity to hit ghosts well enough.

[pyrromanis 70]

There are only 2 E4 members I always hate to face: Koga and Lucian.

Koga cause of his stupid confusion that just makes the match too long and cause you almost always have to waste a full heal.

Lucian on the other hand is just hard to face! His levels, pokemon and coverage are too good. Also fuck his Bronzong!

Kanto: Lance cause ice types are quite rare in gen 1 and I don't want to waste my ice tms so easily.

Jhoto: Koga cause fuck his Confuse Ray Crobat.

Hoenn: Glacia and her OHKO moves.

Sinoh: Lucian strongest E4 so far.

Unova: I voted for Marshal, although I didn't have any problem with any member.

Kalos: Haven't played XY so I voted blindly cause I had to vote someone

[Cepheus 7]

Kanto: Lance - The first time playing Gyrados OHKO, then came his dragons... WHY ARE THEY RESISTING EVERYTHING? WHAT ARE THOSE? I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST THEM!!!

(and seriously guys, Lorelei? - I one-shotted everything she threw at me with Thunderbolt... well except Jynx but... yeah...)

Johto: Karen - despite supossedley being specialzized on Dark Types... Vileplume and Gengar surprised me the most...

Hoenn: Drake - ugh... those dragons again... but this time I just didn't prepare for dragons... but he wasn't as bad as Gen.1 Lance back when I first fought them.

Sinnoh: Sinnoh? what the eff is a Sinnoh? - Oh, right! That Generation that was utterly boring and forgetful, except for that underground mining-thing... ... ... well... uhm... can I say Cynthia as the champ? because I have absoluteley no memory of fighting any kind of elite 4 before having struggled against her...

Unova: Marshal - wow, just F his Conkeldurr and Mienshao... I go in there expecting to sweep him with my Flying and my Psychic type (just like I swept all the other with respective typing) ... but NO! Stone Edge and U-Turn ruin everything!

Kalos: no one... I seriously OHKOed EVERY. SINGLE. POKEMON. IN. THE. KALOS. LEAGUE! (yes, even Diantha) - Kalos was so frickin easy... and the reason I OHKOed everything is, that I was like 10 levels above them... without even grinding!

The only thing I remember about them is their cool Room-Introduction, when you enter their respective rooms, and the excitement about an awesome challenging battle... and then the disappointment about the number of their usable Pokemon and their levels...

[Ice Cream Sand Witch 1650]

and then the disappointment about the number of their usable Pokemon and their levels...

about Pokemon number, Unova's also had 4 Pokemon.

[Azeria 390]

Yeah Gen 6's main difficulty problem was the EXP share making the level curve stupidly in your favor instead of being balanced. I remember it being slightly better in ORAS though that was still kinda easy.

also do i see people chatting shit bout the homeboy region sinnoh???

[ArmoredGuardian 4]

Only E4 members that gave me trouble was Bertha and Marshall. The bulk of Hippowdon and the sheer power of Marshall's Conkeldurr, Mienshao and sometimes Sawk hurt my team.

[Monochrome_Complex 116]

Kanto: Lorelei TBH. Bruno was a pushover, agatha was easy,and Lance's dragontie exploit in RBY made him a piece of cake. Lorelei's Jynx in gen 1 could one shot moltres and charizard which could leave you with a nasty surprise.Plus her team was more diverse than the other leaders.

Johto: Karen I suppose.

Hoenn: hardest E4 IMO, all of them except sidney could put up a decent fight. I voted drake but TBH I usually struggled more with Glacia and probably should've voted her. She always seems to land a sheer cold.

Sinnoh: Lucian for sure. Another somewhat challenging E4, and lucien's bronzong could take some abuse.

Unova: it's between shauntal and marshall(not sure why anyone would say grimsley as he's by far the easiest), and I'd have to go with shauntal as her pokemon can use WoW to shut down physical attackers.

Kalos: Siebold, whose gyrados can potentially sweep your entire team...which happened to me. Just shows how braindead gyra is.

[Chase 94]

Indigo Plateau Round One: Lorelei.

- Lorelei was a lot scarier in RBY than she was in FRLG. I don't remember having seen Lapras before hers, and it was difficult to take down when I was a kid and didn't know that Pokemon is a game of glorified rock paper scissors.

Indigo Plateau Round Two: Will

- another case of the slow starts and poor matchups due to being a youth during GSC. The lead-off Elite Four members were the largest hurdle. Once I was over the first trainer, I was coasting to the 'ship.

Ever Grande City: Glacia.

Ice and Psychic types at the championship level have dogged me throughout my career as a Pokemon Trainer. In Omega Ruby Glacia actually remained a pretty stiff threat due to my Fighting type also being a Grass type in Chesnaught.

LOLGen4'sgarbage (kidding, just haven't played it.)

Unova: Caitlin

Kalos: Siebold.

As much as I dislike Water pokemon, they can be extremely threatening - and Siebold was a tad competitive running a dancing Gyarados and a nearly RU-ready Clawitzer. The only thing was - he wasn't allowed to carry a full team of six.

[Swampellow 116]

Lance - Mainly him cause if you didn't have the coverage he could be a bit of a pain.

Karen - I believe people have already mentioned her mons that are a problem due to them not being dark type.

Glacia - Her mons were really just able to take hits better than any of the other E4s, so theres that.

Lucian - Lol I just put Lucian cause he was the last one on the list and ive never played Gen4.

Marshal - Goddamn he actually has proper coverage on his mons to counter psychic and flying.

Siebold - He was the only one who caught me off guard, at least the first time cause he had ~decent~ sets (DD Gyara and whatnot)

[Eagleby18 95]

So I see I'm not alone in Seibold being the only trainer in all of generation 6 to give me any trouble.

[mde2001 236]

Kanto: Lorelei, but none of them were that hard.

Johto: Will always caused me a lot of grief.

Hoenn: Glacia was a problem

Sinnoh: Aaron was a tough start

Unova: Marshall was a jerk

Kalos: Wikstrom probably had the best pokemon... but woefully underlevelled.

[Shinyrio 8]

Each time I have to deal with the Elite 4 in each game, whatever the team I'm building, there is always a member who frightened me a lot, or at least one of his or her Pokemon. For me, it qualifies as being the "hardest", or at least the most annoying, Elite 4 that I absolutely want to crush.

First Generation : Lorelei. Although she is supposed to be the weakest, her Jynx can give me trouble with the sleep and double stab combo. And I'm not talking about the Lapras, which can be a big problem with his bulk and attacks.

But nonetheless, sometimes, it's like taking a candy from a baby.

Second Generation : I could say Koga, who frightened me as a kid with his Crobat, but it's nothing compared to Karen and the mighty Houndoom! Especially in 4th gen. Bonus points for the Gengar : besides the terrible movepool, Destiny Bond is something worth to pay attention, especially in Nuzlockes.

Third Generation : Surprisingly, I would say Phoebe. Despite lacking offense Power, since i'm only relying on brute force, her ghosts' good defense and status moves are always annoying.

But only annoying. Nothing special about this Elite 4 as a whole. But it's still worth noting.

Fourth Gen : I hate Lucian! And his flipping Alakazam! One of the most powerful Psychic Pokemon, all generations taken in account. Plus a good coverage. That's always something I have to eliminate quickly.

Fifth Gen : As the first Generation where all Elites have Pokemon equally leveled (and also with good quality Pokemon), my choice is basically hard to make. I will give bonus to Marshall, for his annoying Sawk, not only a good sweeper, but also able to survive a hit. Fortunately, he will spam Full restore, leaving none for at least conkeldurr.

Sixth Gen : This one might be easy, due to the power of grinding in these games. But I think Siebold is not to be underestimated. He has better quality mons compared to the rest of the Elite 4, with good movepools and coverage.

As a subsequent note, I think most of the Elite pre 5th Gen would be more dangerous if the actual system (AKA Elite 4 on an equal standing of levels) was applied. What do you think?

[Motomiya 28]

DRAKE

MADE ME

WIPE OUT

S O

M A N Y

T I M E S

HOLY SHIT

for me it was lorelei bc she was mono water + a jynx, so i rolled thru with my fire type and got smoked

gen 2 was koga but they were all easy. tspikes + bulky weezing was hell tho

fuck drake-- BECAUSE WHEN I WAS A KID TOO, I DIDNT KNOW THERE WAS A CHAMPION OS I FINALLY BEAT HIM AND THEN GOT MY ASS BEAT BY STEVEN SO MANY TIMES

i didnt have a problem with sinnoh, so i voted for flint out of affection

idr unova really, but marshall surprised me.

i casted my vote for siebold but really... none of them i liked. siebold had the coolest room tho hands down.

[Froiky 3]

I haven't played X/Y so I'm not sure there, but Karen. Karen is annoying. Focus Blast Gengar? Almost took out my Umbreon in a Heartgold Nuzlock. I don't know how it didn't. But that trick is clever. Annoying but clever. Congratulations Karen, you b!@#$.

[IntSys 106]

Shame that Phoebe only has 6 votes so far. Her Dusclops are the absolute PP Eaters, Protect + Pressure drains your PPs rapidly, on top of the Full Restores. You may not lose to Phoebe, but her mark on your team will show as you fight the rest of the E4s and Wallace/Steven.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch 1650]

Shame that Phoebe only has 6 votes so far. Her Dusclops are the absolute PP Eaters, Protect + Pressure drains your PPs rapidly, on top of the Full Restores. You may not lose to Phoebe, but her mark on your team will show as you fight the rest of the E4s and Wallace/Steven.

She's second for me after Glacia. It took me a long time to get past her in RSE.

[doombotmecha 174]

honestly dusclops in general was kind of my archnemesis in emerald. so much status, para/confusion hax, bulky, pressure...all added up to "f you" the pokemon.

[TimTim 0]

Caitlin was a pain to face back in the day, her pokemons were all insanely bulky for a type meant to be offensive, Karen's Houndoom hitted hard with one nasty plot boost if you didn't manage to one-shot it, plus her Umbreon walled my team in my first run in HGSS.

[Taska 21]

Kanto: Lance

He didn't really have any dragon types and I had no way to prepare for him. I don't remember what my team was but I know it got blown back by Lance a lot.

Johto: Bruno

I used a lot of Normal types, so Bruno was a huge pain.

Hoenn: Drake

I didn't use any Ice or Dragon types in Emerald, so his team just walled my team super hard. I couldn't hit him for any supereffective damage so I had to heal a lot to beat him.

Sinnoh: Flint

I got destroyed by has Magmortar and Infernape. I could never OHKO the Magmortar so he would just OHKO me. That Infernape's type coverage was so good. I always got outsped by it and OHKOed

Unova: Grimsley

The Unova league wasn't that bad, but Grimsley was the hardest, but not by much. I only had Sawk for fighting types, and he's super fragile

Kalos: Siebold

The only Kalos E4 member I had any trouble with. I had more trouble with him than Diantha.