Few trainers love Starter Pokemon as much as Ash Ketchum, who is emblematic of every friend you had in elementary school who needed every region’s Starters on their team. He catches plenty of wild Pokemon too, but his Starters have almost always been the strongest and most iconic members of his team from his start in Kanto to his days in Alola (so far, no Starters on his team in Journeys, besides Pikachu).
Not every single Starter has been a powerhouse of his team, though, and there are a surprising number of Starters in Ash’s collection that are not huge contributors to his passion as an aspiring battler. For every powerful competitive staple Starter he adds to his team, there’s another Ash Starter that gets by on its cuteness instead.
15 Rowlet
It’s important to make clear that being the weakest of Ash’s starters isn’t a detriment to Rowlet as a character of the show. Rowlet is adorable and lovely, and even if it’s not necessarily chosen by Ash as a battle partner, it’s still a great member of his team regardless.
That said, it’s hard to justify putting Rowlet ahead of any other Pokemon in this list. It just doesn’t have the battle prowess due to its unevolved state, and lacks a wide enough variety of unique Flying-type moves that make it fairly forgettable compared to Ash’s other battle-ready starters.
14 Snivy
While it certainly has more proficiency as a battler than Rowlet, Ash’s Snivy from Unova is almost equally pathetic in its ability to fight. It mostly existed as a parallel to Ash’s rival Trip, who also started with a Snivy that would evolve to a more mighty Serperior.
This doesn’t mean Ash’s Snivy needed to evolve, but it certainly needed at least a few new moves. It only ever had four moves, three being Grass-type and one being a more variable status move of Attract, and that results in the least range of nearly any of Ash’s teammates in general.
13 Totodile
Totodile is absolutely strong and talented, being one of the first Pokemon of Ash’s to learn a Dark-type move and having a great mix of offense and defense. Unfortunately, this Pokemon often was more of a comic relief character than a battler, and with primarily Normal-type moves it really underperformed in most of its battles.
Totodile is also extremely underwhelming compared to Ash’s other Water-type Starters, having one Water-type move in the form of Water Gun that doesn’t get used in too many unusual ways. It’s miles ahead of Snivy, but quite far back compared to every other option.
12 Squirtle
It’s impossible to stress just how impressive Ash’s Squirtle is, both before and after joining the Squirtle Squad and donning some cool sunglasses. Unlike Totodile, Squirtle learns plenty of status moves and Water-type moves that result in far more range, with attacks like Bubble Beam and Rapid Spin leading to tricky maneuvers.
Thankfully, it also learns some absurdly powerful moves too, like Hydro Pump and Skull Bash. These moves are normally reserved for Blastoise, but seeing Ash’s Squirtle with enough strength to match this strength makes it an all-star Starter, and the first really great one in Ash’s collection.
11 Bulbasaur
Bulbasaur is essentially everything that Snivy could have been. It has a much wider set of moves including an impossible Dig attack, and tons of more versatile status moves like Leech Seed and Sleep Powder to give it a huge advantage in fights against stronger opponents.
Much of Bulbasaur’s power doesn’t come from the Pokemon itself, though, as Ash is an expert in finding creative ways to use each of its moves in odd combinations and style, proving just how great a trainer Ash can be with a compatible Pokemon.
10 Quilava
Cyndaquil, Quilava, and Typhlosion have always gotten very little in terms of support through both the Pokemon games and anime, rarely gaining any moves outside of Fire-type attacks and having some debatable stats. Ash’s Quilava suffers from some similar problems, but oddly enough it’s much more powerful than it is in most other contexts.
Ash gets the fullest extent of its power, acting as a fast and sneaky Fire-type instead of the monsters that fight more with their size. This, alongside some moves like Aerial Ace and Eruption, give it a unique degree of effectiveness that makes it a good middle-ground among the power level of Ash’s Starters.
9 Pignite
Despite catching some in his recent adventures with Goh in the Pokemon Journeys anime, Ash has a surprisingly low number of Fighting-type Pokemon in his collection. He certainly has a fondness for Fire-type starters in most regions, but Pignite is definitely a more powerful option thanks to this secondary typing giving it a great boost.
The one problem is that it doesn’t get much in the way of moves with this unique combination, only gaining Brick Break and otherwise sticking to Fire-type moves. It definitely stands out more than Quilava, but not by much.
8 Bayleef
Simply put, Bayleef is a Bulbasaur with slightly more bulk on it. This isn’t bad at all, as clearly Bulbasaur was able to do some impressive things, and Bayleef can do even more with powerful vines to lift it up and aid in using powerful Normal-type attacks like Headbutt and Body Slam.
It might seem more boring than Bulbasaur in most cases thanks to a low variety of status moves, but Bayleef’s raw power generally just exceeds Bulbasaur on most fronts. If it were to have evolved into Meganium, it may have gotten even more opportunities to shine way brighter.
7 Incineroar
Competitive staple and Dark-type starter Incineroar is an odd inclusion in Ash’s team, because it’s mostly a Torracat throughout most of the Sun & Moon anime. It only really evolves during Ash’s final battles of the Alola league, and while it’s fairly powerful in this state, we don’t really get to see enough of its true power.
That said, we know Incineroar’s power thanks to its presence in the games, where it’s both a powerful physical beater and an effective supporter in Double Battle formats. It’d be great to see it embrace its Dark-type traits more, but in terms of objective power it’s definitely higher up than many of Ash’s other Starters.
6 Sceptile
Sceptile isn’t going to win awards for its uniqueness. It has a similar moveset to Bayleef and that movest is limited, similar to Snivy, but somehow it’s managed to do so much more with so little, leading to an astonishing number of victories.
The greatest success is undoubtedly in Ash’s semi-final battle against Tobias’s Darkrai, where Sceptile managed to finally defeat Darkrai after two of Ash’s Pokemon before had failed. This made it the only Pokemon to defeat Darkrai in the entire Lily of the Valley Conference, proving that this might be alarmingly more powerful than Ash’s other Starters.
5 Charizard
It’s heartbreaking that Charizard came from such dark roots, disobeying Ash and becoming a total brat once evolving into Charmeleon. This led Ash to lose several battles, and he even left it with another trainer to gain some maturity and strength.
Thankfully, it gained all sorts of power after this long training regimen, returning on rare occasions to help him fight Entei in the third Pokemon movie and even defeating Gary’s Blastoise in the Silver Conference in Johto. It’s gotten incredibly stronger but has had too many failures to consider the most powerful.
4 Torterra
Torterra is one of Ash’s most difficult challenges as a trainer. As a Turtwig, this Pokemon thrived on its jumpiness and high-speed movement, but once it evolved, it had a huge difficulty using its bulk as a strength. This meant Ash needed to train it especially hard and work with an entirely new strategy, but it worked out for him surprisingly well overall.
This gave Torterra an opportunity to learn a wider set of techniques, using healing moves like Synthesis and powerful blasts like Leaf Storm to act as one of Ash’s only dedicated tanks. It lost many fights due to its large number of weaknesses, but it’s an underrated member of his teams and a great proof of Ash’s training skills.
3 Oshawott
Squirtle fans might find this disappointing, as Oshawott has always been quite unpopular to many Pokemon fans. Some dislike his design, while others find his comic qualities annoying in the anime, but it’s hard to understate how great Oshawott is as both a battler and comic relief character.
Oshawott takes all the strengths of Totodile as a character, and combines it with the creative and powerful moves of Squirtle. With others like Aqua Jet and Razor Shell, it’s clear that Oshawott has a lot of room for creative combat styles, and Ash used it perfectly throughout his Unova adventures.
2 Infernape
The two truly most powerful Pokemon in Ash’s collection of starters is undoubtedly going to start with Infernape, a Pokemon he adopted after his rival Paul abandoned it. Ash’s sympathy and support gave the young Chimchar tons of confidence, and, as it evolved and grew stronger, it quickly became one of Ash’s most powerful allies.
This is to say nothing of its power outside of the anime, as it was often considered the most powerful Pokemon in Pokemon Diamond & Pearl due to very few Fire-types existing in the game. It’s a perfect combination of Ash’s determination and in-game skills, and a spectacular silver medal teammate.
1 Greninja
Greninja is miles above nearly any other Pokemon in Ash’s collection. Much like Infernape, there’s an incredibly close and emotional bond that Ash has with this Pokemon ever since he was a Froakie, and it leads Ash to unlock Greninja’s Battle Bond form to take the colors of Ash’s outfit and boost its strength further.
This makes for a Pokemon that’s able to take on everything from Gym Leaders to Mega Evolutions, something that very few of Ash’s powerful Kalos teammates were capable of. It felt fitting given how overpowered Greninja was seen in the competitive world of Pokemon X & Y, and it’s clear Ash was a blueprint for how well Greninja could be used.
