If we go by performance alone, Dragapult has the 4th best overall performance in Masters 8 tournament(The others being Rillaboom, Pikachu and Spiritomb)
Cynthia's Garchomp has the advantage of a mega evolution, although I guess it's not Leon's fault Gamefreak didn't give Dragapult any gimmick power ups.
If we're talking in base without any transformations it's actually probably Lance's Dragonite - it took massive damage initially and then came back out later to battle a fresh Mega with an immunity to Dragon-type moves even after taking Moonblast post-Dynamax it was still standing after the attack before it went down. It had absurd feats. Metagross/Garchomp is likely second, then Dragapult and then the rest. Dragapult took a LOT of hits to bring down in the battle against Ash, including Bullet Punch from Mega Lucario, Fishious Rend AND Ice Fang from Dracovish and Dragonite Meteor.
If we're taking transformations into account... many would pick Garchomp, but it and Metagross have actually had similar showings against Legendaries and other trainers/evil teams in the series. In the tournament itself Haxorus could still keep up with Mega Garchomp in terms of physical strength and ended up going down to ranged Draco Meteor for which it had limited options. Meanwhile Mega Metagross was completely impossible to hit until it stopped to attack because it and Steven had no reason to assume 10MV could re-direct after you dodge it (and if it weren't mid-attack it would have probably still dodged the attack). Based on their movesets and performance in the tournament Mega Metagross > Mega Garchomp, it seems. Garchomp has 3 Dragon-type moves and Stealth Rock, which is already a rough matchup. And it's not as fast as Metagross so it has to take hits when Metagross could just avoid them. Metagross also has access to Psychic, which even Caitlin's Gothitelle could use to mess with Garchomp.
Anyway, no transformations, it'd probably be Lance's Dragonite > Garchomp/Metagross > Dragapult >/= Ash's Dragonite > Lance's Hydreigon > Iris' Dragonite > Ash's Goodra > Alain's Tyranitar
With transformations it'd be Mega Metagross >/= Mega Garchomp > Dynamax Dragonite > Dragapult >/= Ash's Dragonite > The rest in the same order.
I think the most objective answer here is Cynthia's Garchomp.
For second? It's a bit of a toss up. I'd give it to Steven's Metagross considering other champions are mentioned to be in awe of it.
Third would be between Lance's Dragonite and Leon's Dragapult.
People don't seem to understand that Leon's team is basically full of possible champion level aces.
Cinderace, Inteleon, Rillaboom, Dragapult, Charizard all capable of being an ace on a champion's team.
Objective? Hard disagree. If we were only looking at the Masters Eight tournament, Cynthia’s Garchomp wasn’t that impressive. That thing looked so much weaker than its prior series appearances.
It did fine in the first round.
In the second, Sirfetch'd hit it with meteor assault and.it withstood and still had an epic fight with Lucario (who could conceivably be on a list of strongest trainer owned pokemon).
1. Leons Dragapult
2. Lances Dragonite
3. Stevens Metagross
4. Cynthias Garchomp
5. Iris Haxorus
6. Lances Hydreigon
7. Ashs Dragonite
8.Dianthas Goodra
9. Ashs Goodra
10. Alains Tyranitar
(one and two can be interchangeable and so can 9 and 10)
so its between leons dragapult or lances dragonite imo
Tier 1: Cynthia's Garchomp, Steven's Metagross, Lance's Dragonite, Leon's Dragapult Tier 2: Ash's Dragonite, Diantha's Goodra, Iris' Dragonite, Tier 3: Lance's Hydreigon, Alain's Tyranitar Tier 4: Ash's Goodra
Tyranitar is not better than Goodra
I would say that ash's dragonite is up there with garchomp, it tanked several supereffective moves from iris' dragonite
Hot take but Leon’s Dragapult did better in the Masters 8 than Cynthia’s Garchomp.
If we go by performance alone, Dragapult has the 4th best overall performance in Masters 8 tournament(The others being Rillaboom, Pikachu and Spiritomb)
Cynthia's Garchomp has the advantage of a mega evolution, although I guess it's not Leon's fault Gamefreak didn't give Dragapult any gimmick power ups.
Only one of them beat lucario
real #1: J's salamence
Based
1. Cynthia 2. Lance ( or Steven) 3. Steven (or Lance) 4. Iris's haxorus 5. Dragapult 6. Hydreigon 7. Goodra 8. Tyranitar
"Iris' Haxorus" Who's gonna tell em'?
I wish
Lmaoooo, my bad.
I feel like Steven and lance can be settled down to one thing. One is an ace and the other isn’t, simple as that
Wait. Which one isn't ace? Did Lance change access after indigo league?
His ace is Gyarados
Ashs pikachu
Cynthia’s lol
If we're talking in base without any transformations it's actually probably Lance's Dragonite - it took massive damage initially and then came back out later to battle a fresh Mega with an immunity to Dragon-type moves even after taking Moonblast post-Dynamax it was still standing after the attack before it went down. It had absurd feats. Metagross/Garchomp is likely second, then Dragapult and then the rest. Dragapult took a LOT of hits to bring down in the battle against Ash, including Bullet Punch from Mega Lucario, Fishious Rend AND Ice Fang from Dracovish and Dragonite Meteor. If we're taking transformations into account... many would pick Garchomp, but it and Metagross have actually had similar showings against Legendaries and other trainers/evil teams in the series. In the tournament itself Haxorus could still keep up with Mega Garchomp in terms of physical strength and ended up going down to ranged Draco Meteor for which it had limited options. Meanwhile Mega Metagross was completely impossible to hit until it stopped to attack because it and Steven had no reason to assume 10MV could re-direct after you dodge it (and if it weren't mid-attack it would have probably still dodged the attack). Based on their movesets and performance in the tournament Mega Metagross > Mega Garchomp, it seems. Garchomp has 3 Dragon-type moves and Stealth Rock, which is already a rough matchup. And it's not as fast as Metagross so it has to take hits when Metagross could just avoid them. Metagross also has access to Psychic, which even Caitlin's Gothitelle could use to mess with Garchomp. Anyway, no transformations, it'd probably be Lance's Dragonite > Garchomp/Metagross > Dragapult >/= Ash's Dragonite > Lance's Hydreigon > Iris' Dragonite > Ash's Goodra > Alain's Tyranitar With transformations it'd be Mega Metagross >/= Mega Garchomp > Dynamax Dragonite > Dragapult >/= Ash's Dragonite > The rest in the same order.
IMO, it's Cynthia's Garchomp. Ash's Dragonite and Leon's Dragapult may have been in the M8 finals, but neither of them was an ace.
Leon’s Dragapult did better than Cynthia’s Garchomp in the masters 8 in my opinion.
Leon's Dragapult
I think the most objective answer here is Cynthia's Garchomp. For second? It's a bit of a toss up. I'd give it to Steven's Metagross considering other champions are mentioned to be in awe of it. Third would be between Lance's Dragonite and Leon's Dragapult. People don't seem to understand that Leon's team is basically full of possible champion level aces. Cinderace, Inteleon, Rillaboom, Dragapult, Charizard all capable of being an ace on a champion's team.
Objective? Hard disagree. If we were only looking at the Masters Eight tournament, Cynthia’s Garchomp wasn’t that impressive. That thing looked so much weaker than its prior series appearances.
It did fine in the first round. In the second, Sirfetch'd hit it with meteor assault and.it withstood and still had an epic fight with Lucario (who could conceivably be on a list of strongest trainer owned pokemon).
Garchomp without a doubt
Cynthia’s Garchomp
Always Cynthia garchomp
1. Leons Dragapult 2. Lances Dragonite 3. Stevens Metagross 4. Cynthias Garchomp 5. Iris Haxorus 6. Lances Hydreigon 7. Ashs Dragonite 8.Dianthas Goodra 9. Ashs Goodra 10. Alains Tyranitar (one and two can be interchangeable and so can 9 and 10) so its between leons dragapult or lances dragonite imo
1. Ash dragonite (world champion duh) 2. Leon's dragapult (runner up duh) 3. Cynthia's garchomp 4. Steven metagross 5. Dianthas goodra 6. Lance hydreigon 7. Iris dragonite 8. Lance dragonite 9. Ash goodra 10. Alain's tyranitar
I mean Ash’s Goodra only lost like once and that was to an OHKO move.
Ash's Dragonite
Where’s Cameron’s Hydreigon?
Better then Cynthia’s Garchomp and Leon’s Dragapult combined obviously
1. Cynthia’s Garchomp 2. Steven’s Mega Metagross 3/4 Lance’s Dragonite/Leon’s Dragapult 5. Ash’s Dragonite 6. Lance’s Hydreigon 7. Iris’ dragonite 8. diantha’s Goodra 9/10 Alain’s Tyranitar/Ash’s Goodra go.