Pokémon: Ranking The 10 Best Gym Leaders
There’s more to Pokémon’s gym leaders than just Misty and Brock.
Gym leaders are a crucial part of the Pokémon franchise, and are often the most colourful and exciting characters in any given game. There’s never too much of a story, apart from a fairly clunky villains take over the world plot, but the gym leaders usually have a bit of a self contained story to them.
These mini stories, alongside the leader’s design, team, challenge and overall impact on a play through have all been taken into consideration here. The gym’s themselves, especially the more funky ones which enrich their regions, aid their cause too.
We already know some of the Galar gym leaders, with Nessa especially gaining popularity, but they haven’t been considered here; there’s just not enough to go off. Still, it will be interesting to see what Galar does, especially with Bea exclusive to Sword and Allister to Shield.
Let’s just get this out of the way at the start too: neither Brock nor Misty will feature here. They’re fantastic characters in the anime, but as gym leaders they’re very meh. Their teams are weak (especially for Bulbasaur trainers), their gyms are bland and their designs are plain. Pokémon has much better to offer.
10. Tate & Liza
Not a double entry here, just a double battle. Siblings Tate & Liza are the gym leader duo from Mosdeep, and represent one of the best double battles in Pokémon’s history.
Double battles are just like regular battles, except there’s four Pokémon out at once, not two. Competitive Pokémon battling can work this way, although in canon it usually features you coming up against two trainers fighting together. Gym leader Clair and Elite Four member Lance also offer you a memorable challenge with one.
Double battles force another layer of strategy; there’s more types out there, status moves are more influential, do you target one ‘mon at a time or spread your damage out... there’s a lot to consider.
Tate & Liza make those considerations much more compelling, offering a real challenge, especially to those underprepared.
They only bring two Pokémon, matching pair Solrock and Lunatone, but they know exactly how to get the best out of them. Lunatone is pure Psychic strategy, and can put you to sleep with Hypnosis while boosting its stats with Calm Mind. Solrock on the other hand has Sunny Day to boost its Solar Beam to counteract their Water weakness. A well oiled pair, these two.