While most Pokemon fans know Ash Ketchum as the face of the anime franchise, Gary Oak is easily one of his most memorable rivals. From the start, Gary was leagues ahead of Ash by being the grandson of world-renowned Pokemon Professor, Samuel Oak. This easily gave him the upper edge, being familiar with most Pokemon, unlike Ash, who would end up being the World Champion, while Gary would pursue being a Pokemon Researcher. With this said, Gary has proven himself to be a fruitful trainer through the countless battles and the knowledge he gained from them, but today we will be looking specifically at Gary’s 10 worst Pokemon that he has caught.
Videos by ComicBook.com
While Gary has iconic members like Blastoise, Umbreon, and Electivire, he also has captures that have minimum screen time or have never been seen in combat. With over 1,025 Pokemon species in the current Scarlet and Violet Pokedex, Gary has a measly 20 unique Pokemon in his roster despite his many accomplishments, including having 10 badges for the Indigo League, 7 of which are unknown locations. According to Gary, he had captured more than 200 Pokemon from 60 different species. However, for this list, we will take a look at all of Gary’s Pokemon that have been shown on-screen throughout his 20-year-long tenure and highlight the many Pokemon that haven’t measured up to the others. We will take a look at every battle, moveset, and feats given for each capture throughout his journey from a rookie trainer to a prominent member of Project Mew.
10) Unseen Pokemon Feat. Pinsir & Alakazam
The first entry on the list are Pokemon that we know Gary captured but were not seen in combat or even in a practical use. These captures would include Gary’s Pinsir, Houndoom, Alakazam, Skarmory, and Kingdra, which were shown to us before Ash’s battle in the episode “The Ties That Bind”. Here, Ash was trying to strategize a way to beat Gary in the Johto Silver Conference by checking Gary’s page on the league website. There, the said Pokemon were listed among the more prominent team members such as Nidoqueen, Umbreon, Magmar, and Arcanine.
Despite knowing these Pokemon are in his arsenal, we know very little about them. They are merely mentioned to be owned by Gary without any feats, movesets, or known battle record. However, with this said, we know that these are powerful Pokemon, given they are in their final forms (at least for then in Magmar’s case) and were enough to help Gary get all 8 Johto badges and enter the Silver Conference.
9) Scizor
Despite ranking at #4 in our Best Pokemon owned by Gary, Scizor has a 2-1 win-to-loss ratio, which is still better than most of Gary’s Pokemon. During the Gary’s Silver Conference battle against Ash, it was able to outspeed Ash’s Snorlax, which honestly isn’t a hard feat in itself, and was able to easily take out the sleeping Pokemon. But Scizor wasn’t done just yet, going up against Ash’s Muk, which should have been a cake walk for Gary considering the type advantage. Despite some of its attacks being absorbed by the Sludge Pokemon, he still held up victorious by throwing it in the air and defeating it with a swift attack.
However, Scizor could not stand against Ash’s Powerhouse at the time, Charizard, which it obviously had the type disadvantage against. Despite trying to avoid Charizard’s flamethrower attack, it was quickly surprised and taken out, leaving Gary with just 2 Pokemon left. With that said, Scizor has more attacks than most of his other Pokemon, with Quick Attack, Metal Claw, Swift, and Steel Wing, all of which allowed for it to be a fast and speedy powerhouse. Despite this, it can’t compare to the win-to-loss ratio of Pokemon, such as Umbreon, Blastoise, and Electivire.
8) Nidoking
Nidoking hailed from Gary’s original Indigo team and was able to withstand hits from powerful opponents. Gary first used Nidoking in his gym battle against the mob boss Giovanni, where he easily took out his Golem. This in mind, taking out one of Giovanni’s Pokemon in itself is a feat of its own. However, it was easily beaten by Armored Mewtwo alongside his Arcanine. Despite being defeated, it was the first Pokemon that Gary called upon to face this unknown opponent, which alone makes it stand among the others.
However, we can’t ignore that it lost Gary the Indigo Plateau league against Melissa’s Golem in the fourth round. Since then, it has been put in retirement, without ever getting redemption. Alongside this, its moveset was less than noteworthy with a measly Tackle attack alongside Horn attack. With that said, it ranks so high up due to defeating one of Giovanni’s Pokemon alongside battling Mewtwo, despite a devastating weakness to its Psychic typing.
7) Nidoqueen
While Nidoking is an absolute unit of a Pokemon, we can’t ignore its counterpart Nidoqueen. Nidoqueen was another powerhouse for Gary’s Silver Conference team having an impressive win-to-loss ratio at 2-1. Our first appearance of Nidoqueen was when Gary used her to defeat Team Rocket by ripping their tent, sending it flying alongside a Jigglypuff. With this said it was easily able to take out both of Team Rocket’s Pokemon with ease. Even destroying Meowth’s claws with its hard, armored body. Alongside this, it was able to easily take out one of Ash’s many Tauros in the Johto Silver Conference. Despite this, it was overwhelmed by Snorlax’s Ice Punch and easily taken out.
Now, the reason why it’s lower than Scizor is due to her wins being easy wins. Team Rocket, for the most part, are easy opponents to beat as the most combat experience they have is going against Ash’s team at the time. Alongside this, the only Pokemon it’s known to take out besides Team Rocket’s was one of Ash’s many Tauros, which likely was its first ever battle after its capture. And when it went against an actual powerhouse like Snorlax, it was easily defeated. Despite this, it still has a better win-to-loss ratio than most of Gary’s Pokemon, along with an above-average moveset with Mega Punch, Strength, Rock Smash, Hyper Beam, and Double Kick.
6) Hatterene
Hatterene is one of Gary’s newest additions to his team and was used in the Project Mew quest. It’s also a powerful Pokemon able to go blow for blow with both Regidrago and Regieleki, two Legendary Pokemon. Not only that, it was able to free its trainer from an Ice trap that the other members of Project Mew set to prevent Gary and Goh from progressing forward.
Despite such feats, it was easily beat by the two legendary Pokemon, but did enough damage to the legendaries to allow Gary to capture RegiDrago. However, the most it did in this fight was block an attack from RegiDrago before being attacked by Regieleki and finished off by Regidrago. And against the other members of Project Mew, it was easily overshadowed by Gary using Blastoise against them. With that said, it’s still an incredible Pokemon with a great moveset, we just can’t place it any higher than this.
5) Magmar
Magmar, without a doubt, is still one of Gary’s stronger Pokemon with an impressive match against Ash’s Heracross in the Silver Conference. However, it has possibly one of the worst win-to-loss ratio out of Gary’s Silver Conference team, with its debut fight being a loss. With this said, it’s still a massive powerhouse for his team as it was able to engulf Ash’s Heracross in flames with a Fire Blast alongside a Flamethrower attack. However, despite this, Heracross was able to blow the flames away and get the upper hand with a Megahorn attack, knocking him out.
Like mentioned before, Magmar has one of the worst win-to-loss ratios out of Gary’s Silver Conference team despite showing impressive firepower against Heracross. It did, however, manage to get a lot of damage on Heracross, allowing Blastoise to easily one-shot the Single Horn Pokemon. Despite this, we just can’t ignore its loss in its only battle to date.
4) Golem
Golem shares the same reasoning as Magmar, but despite having the same win-to-loss ratio as Magmar, it simply didn’t have the same power as it. Golem was the final Pokemon on Gary’s Silver Conference team and had the pleasure of taking on Ash’s Charizard. Its biggest feats were stunning Charizard briefly and being too heavy for Charizard to use Seismic Toss. Despite this, it was easily taken out by Charizard’s Dragon Rage, which in itself isn’t that impressive. Charizard essentially one-shot Golem and took minimum damage from it.
Despite this, Golem did prove to be a menace at first for Ash and his Charizard, but was quickly handled. But with attacks like Magnitude and Rollout, which vary in power with each turn, it’s hard to place it above Magmar, who did an immense amount of damage to Heracross.
3) Dodrio
Dodrio is one of Gary’s original team members for Kanto, and despite only appearing in 2 episodes, not much is known about it. Its first appearance was at Professor Oak’s Laboratory, where it really didn’t do much. And from the looks of it, Gary left it in his grandfather’s there for a while since it wouldn’t appear again until Episode 15 of the Pokemon Chronicles side series, where Gary used it to prevent Butch and Cassidy from stealing an Aerodactyl.
Despite having a positive win-to-loss ratio, we just can’t rank this any higher due to its appearances and feats being extremely low. Not only that, it’s only known to have one move, Drill Peck, and doesn’t have any actual battle feats that we know of. Despite this, it has more than our last 2 picks.
2) Tyranitar
I know this is a shocking place to put a pseudo-legendary Pokemon, but Gary’s Tyranitar, while being a cool Pokemon, is still among the worst Pokemon that Gary owns. Tyranitar debuted in a Raid Battle against Articuno as part of the Project Mew expedition. However, Tyranitar was easily defeated in the raid battle against Articuno and never used any moves, despite a significant type advantage. This alone puts it below any of the other Pokemon we have seen Gary use, as it was easily taken out without even getting an attack in. Keep in mind, this is something that both Umbreon and Arcanine were able to achieve despite also being taken down by the Ice Bird.
The only saving grace for this Pokemon is its status as a pseudo-Legendary, and it’s a fan favorite. This hardly makes up for the fact that it went against a Legendary Pokemon, poised to prove its worth at a type advantage, and still lost. Despite all this, it still has more battle feats than our number one spot.
1) Krabby
Our Number 1 spot goes to Gary’s Krabby. The biggest feat this crab got was that he was bigger than Ash’s Krabby, which would go on to be a Kingler and easily overshadow it. Its first appearance was when Ash caught his own Krabby and asked if he could send it to Professor Oak as well. This Pokemon, without a doubt, defines Gary and Ash’s relationship. Gary was always trying to one-up Ash at any possible point, even in the Pokemon capturing department.
Unlike Gary, Ash was actually able to evolve his Krabby into a Kingler and have it used in a couple of battles and get some wins on its belt, which is way more than Gary’s Krabby got. Alongside this, it also has no known moves, and, as far as we know, has been in Professor Oak’s lab since its capture. It results in a pretty mundane fate for the worst Pokemon caught by such a high-profile trainer as Gary Oak.
Did you agree with this list? Tell us who you think is Gary Oak’s worst Pokemon and why in the comments below!
Most Viewed
-
image courtesy of Netflix -
Toei Animation
