[MAJOR SM SPOILERS]Hardest Champion

[TimTim 0]

Order of difficulties for me

Cynthia > Steven > Lance = Iris > Blue > Alder > Wallace > Diantha

Problem with me facing Cynthia back in the days was how diverse Cynthia's team as opposed to other champions who specialized in one type, you would have to build a team which is all rounded before you take on Cynthia, her team in BW was a nightmare for me as well (was not prepared for that Eelektross, I was dumbstruck at that moment)

[Joker 64]

Blue was the hardest for me only because I was a little one when I played RBY. Though Lance is probably a close second. Everything after him was easy to the point I could just auto pilot them with little to no trouble.

[Masquerain 6]

Uncontested first place goes to Cynthia. Her team was actually pretty solid and multitype is always harder than Monotype. I have fond memories of the challenge she posed during my numerous regular/challenge runs of D/Pt

[FairFamily 197]

cynthia>lance>steven>iris>wallace>blue>alder>diantha

cynthia's team was made to be a true champion team, lance is a hacker, steven is ... ok, iris can sweep with haxorus if you et down your guard, walace is kind of a dick, blue is fucked by type advantage, we all forget alder, diantha have a bad case of exp share

Well ,if diantha is so low because the exp share then lance and blue should even be lower because in gen 1 and 2 you could have infinite rare candies easily. Also even withoutexp share diantha is very easy.

[Tacos 205]

If we're going from hardest to easiest, for me it was.

Cynthia>Lance>Steven>Blue>Iris>Alder>Wallace>Diantha

[Timber Dragon 10]

Back in the day, I hadn't appreciated how well-balanced Cynthia's team was. All this time I thought she was only hard because I swept most of the game with nothing but an Empoleon and Staraptor, and her actually good team stonewalled me. I would like to say that this taught me a lesson in having a well-balanced full team of six, buuuut...

Funnily enough, it was her Milotic rather than her Garchomp that tended to give me the most problems (though Garchomp was no slouch either). Friggin' Aqua Ring.

[Chase 94]

I wouldn't agree with Blue being easy simply because we've seen his team multiple times before in totality.

There's also the amount of surprise factor when you realize for the first time your next-door neighbor and long-time rival is the champion. There's also your probable lack of healing items after four tough battles in succession prior to battling him.

That being said, it does help out a bit.

[DiLimiter 1]

Repeating what's already been said, Cynthia knocks it out of the park for me. Platinum is still one of my favorite Pokemon games just for her battle alone. I never really had any other champion give me as much trouble as she did. Her Garchomp could clean shop, and her Lucario was certainly a surprise. Not to mention her being over-leveled (which, in my opinion, most/all champions should be this way) which made for a difficult and fun battle overall. You could slouch your way through most of the game but once you met her it was like trying to tackle a brick wall. I miss having a tough champion like that.

[Lucky98 74]

Cynthia. I had serious trouble with her when I was playing Diamond as a kid. Recently, I even lost a Platinum Nuzlocke against her. I think part of the reason she is so difficult is because she is one of the few champions who actually uses pokemon of different types. This combined with the level jump between Sinnoh's Elite 4 members and the few areas there are to actually train before you challenge the elite 4 is what makes her battle the hardest for me.

[Jacobliterator 2]

Cynthia. Literally no competition....well....maaaaaybe Steven.

[Personthing 64]

Cynthia has the best team, so her. Shout outs to Blue though, for also being a pretty good champion.

[Alchemia Chan 0]

Cynthia hands down.~

Such diversity. Much level gap. Dat Garchomp.

One of the best grills in Pokemon.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch 1650]

Added SM's Champion.

Also, if you thought one of the trainers you can defend your title from was the hardest, feel free to mention that too.

[Jmanultrax1 38]

Cynthia~ ,Cynthia~

[Azeria 390]

Alright time to put down my opinion on here.

 

Kukui's puts up a fight. A big one. The dude is not a pushover like Diantha was, quite the opposite actually. I found him to be the hardest champion since Cynthia and it comes largely from how well built team his and his use of proper competitive tactics. 

 

He leads of with a Stealth Rock Lycanroc-Midday, one of the fastest mons in Alola. 

 

He also backs it up by having the best AI in the game, abusing full restores when necessary and making good predictions with his switches(Which he does...A LOT.) His Snorlax is a massive wall that is pretty annoying to take down as it hits hard with it's slew of STAB and coverage moves. His Magnezone has speed control in thunder wave and can bulk some special moves to counter them with mirror coat. Braviary has Tailwind and Whirlwind to abuse the rocks his Lycanroc likely set up. Aaaand then there's his ace. Y'know. The starter strong against yours? Yeah this guy took it.

 

All in all one of the hardest and most satisfying Champion Battles in the franchise. Not quite Cynthia levels(This is me being biased due to nostalgia) but damn.

[Dragon116 13]

Maybe I was undertrained, but Iris in White 2 kicked my ass. I swept everyone through the game, then I came up to her and she just steamrolled me. I was using stealth rock/shell smash Crustle, SD Excadrill, Heracross (or some fighting type), Crobat, a water type, and something else. But Iris didn't even give me a chance to set up. She just plowed me over. Cynthia was tough, but not too bad for me. Brave Bird Staraptor and Roar of Time Dialga demolished her team for me. 

[Chase 94]

1. Steven

2. Iris

3. Kukui (Who is known as a Final Boss, but is only a champion in the sense that he's completed the Island Challenge - something many trainers have done including the likes of Kahili. Remember, the player becomes the first LEAGUE champion of Alola.)

4. Blue

5. Alder

6. Lance

7. Diantha

 

DNQ - Cynthia (Have yet to experience her strength in a championship match, but based on her BW battles, she'd be up there significantly I'd imagine.)

 

With a lot of things - most of the difficulty in Pokémon came in the third generation for me. Steven Stone's Pokémon were hard to bring down defensively - and Metagross was the best of both worlds with how hard it could hit back.

 

Iris is a mono Dragon team - but if you're caught sleepwalking like I was, she will set up in your face. Kukui has great variety and I can see him giving trainers who thought Cynthia was the hardest prior a solid challenge as Azery put it. Blue was hard due to being a little urchin and not being very Pokémon Master-esque in approach. From there it was smooth sailing. 

[Personthing 64]

Kukui was pretty solid as far as champions go with solid AI and team building to boot. Thankfully he joins the likes of Cynthia, Blue, and Alder in not being easy to sweep mono/dual type champions like Steven, Lance, Wallace, and Iris.

[doombotmecha 174]

On 9/27/2016 at 10:36 AM, Timber Dragon said:

Back in the day, I hadn't appreciated how well-balanced Cynthia's team was. All this time I thought she was only hard because I swept most of the game with nothing but an Empoleon and Staraptor, and her actually good team stonewalled me. I would like to say that this taught me a lesson in having a well-balanced full team of six, buuuut...

Funnily enough, it was her Milotic rather than her Garchomp that tended to give me the most problems (though Garchomp was no slouch either). Friggin' Aqua Ring.

SAAAAAAAME. I played through with empoleon, luxray, dialga and 3 underleveled mons and that milotic just never died. I had to hand off the DS to my sister so she could keep fighting while I did evening chores. meanwhile I barely even remember her garchomp. it was just a pokemon. I wasn't big into competitive so I didn't know how broken it was.

 

EDIT: some notes on kukui:

I feel like he should be the runner-up, I mean cynthia had the might of an overlevelled garchomp, but kukui has a unique mechanic in his z-move. It allows Primarina to take out threats that would otherwise destroy it, like Magnezone. Lycanroc also marks the first instance of a champion using hazards, and his braviary makes good use of it with whirlwind. In fact, his whole team revolves around pokemon supporting each other, with safeguard from his Ninetales and Tailwind from his Braviary.

 

So, in summary, Kukui is a clever, well-balanced, and dangerous opponent. He's either 2nd to cynthia or possibly above her in difficulty. However, I may be biased, because he recently nearly kicked my ass.

[FairFamily 197]

With Kukui as a new champion, I must say he is a cut above all but cynthia. He gave me a tough time but that was only because I was unprpeapred for the battle, put my legendary in the bag box, did not use refresh, didn't use exp share completely , half my team was underleveled even by those standards, and I only used gen 7 exclusives (including alolan forms). Still he had a good team and starter advantage with Z-move is huge. On top of that I didn't notice any stupid move choices.

 

However with cynthia I didn't do those luxeries (except being prepared) and still had the toughest fight of my life but it was before I did reborn.