Pokémon: Ranking Lance’s Team

In the pantheon of great Pokémon League Champions, some names are indelible: Cynthia, Steven Stone, Blue, and, of course, Lance. The Champion of the Johto Region and a former Elite Four member of Kanto’s Indigo Plateau, Lance is a Dragon Master and one of the toughest opponents in the first two generations of Pokémon.

Lance doesn’t have the best Champion team by any means. In fact, there are several inconsistencies, like the fact he was a Dragon-type specialist at a time when the franchise only had four Dragon-types, only two of which were fully evolved. Still, Lance lives up to the hype. His fearsome creatures were quite tough to beat, and he has the privilege of having the first-ever Pseudo-Legendary on his team, making his Champio battle one for the ages.

10 Alolan Exeggutor

Part of Lance’s team in the Let’s Go rematches, Alolan Exeggutor is certainly an inspired choice for the Dragon Master. It has a varied move pool, which includes Mega Drain, Dragon Pulse, Hyper Beam, and Psychic. None of them are particularly useful to counter its many, many, many weaknesses, though.

Alolan Exeggutor has a whooping six weaknesses, including quad vulnerability to Ice. Considering moves like Ice-Beam are already very common by this generation, its inclusion in the rematch team is confusing at best.

9 Dragonair

The middle stage of the Dratini evolutionary line, Dragonair is part of Lance’s team when he serves as the leader of the Indigo Plateau’s Elite Four. He uses two of these Pokémon in the original Red & Blue games, Pokémon Yellow, and the Gen I remakes, FireRed & LeafGreen. However, they’re not part of his team in Let’s Go.

Both Dragonair have the same move pool in Red & Blue, which consists of Agility, Slam, Dragon Rage, and Hyper Beam. In Yellow, Electric, Water, and Ice moves are introduced, including Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave for one, and Ice Beam and Bubble Beam for the other. They both retain Hyper Beam, though. In the remakes, Safeguard is introduced, mainly to prevent Outrage-induced confusion.

8 Altaria

Altaria is part of Champion Lance’s rematch team in the Johto Gen IV remakes HeartGold & SoulSilver. Back then, Mega Evolutions were still years away, so this Gen III legacy was still a Dragon/Flying Pokémon and not a particularly good one.

Within this team, Altaria is mainly used for stalling. It has Double Team, which can become quite frustrating if used more than once. The most interesting thing about its move pool is the inclusion of Perish Song, a move that can be extremely powerful if used properly, making Altaria a bit more interesting than it usually is.

7 Salamence

One of Hoenn’s two Pseudo-Legendaries, Salamence is a valuable ally to have in any battle. It becomes part of Lance’s team during the HeartGold & SoulSilver rematches, where it is equipped with the very convenient Lum Berry.

Salamence runs a very wide move pool that includes Dragon Claw, Flamethrower, Rest, and, surprisingly, Shadow Claw. It doesn’t have any Flying-type moves, though, but, considering Lance already has two creatures with secondary Flying-types, he doesn’t really need the coverage.

6 Aerodactyl

One of the Pokémon that has been a consistent part of Lance’s team, Aerodactyl has accompanied the Dragon Master since his introduction in Red & Blue. A dual-type Rock/Flying mon, Aerodactyl is an interesting choice. Despite its shocking five weaknesses, it has ridiculously high speed and is a powerful Physical attacker. In other words, it hits hard and fast, making it a dangerous threat.

During its first appearances, its move pool is quite bad without a single Rock-type move on sight. Things change once Lance becomes Champion, with Aerdoactyl getting both Ancient Power and the crippling Rock Slide. HG & SS give it both Thunder Fang and the menacing Crunch. Finally, the Let’s Go games nerf it by only giving it three moves, although one of them is the insanely good Earthquake.

5 Charizard

For years, Pokémon fans complained about Charizard not being a Dragon-Type. Once Mega Evolutions arrived in Generation VI, the situation was corrected. Mega Charizard X gained the secondary Dragon-type, and fans around the world rejoiced.

Not that a lack of Dragon-type stopped Charizard from being part of Lance’s team, though. Indeed, the Kanto starter became part of Lance’s Champion Pokémon in Gold, Silver, & Crystal. It returned in HG & SS and Let’s Go, with its Mega Evolution appearing in the latter’s rematch battle. Charizard is powerful, indeed, but it is four-times weak to the extremely common Rock-type. Mega Charizard X, however, is much stronger and even loses its Fairy weakness, making it an extremely powerful ally.

4 Garchomp

Generation IV’s Pseudo-Legendary and Sinnoh’s Champion Cynthia’s secret weapon, Garchomp is one of the most powerful creatures in the franchise. A dual-type Dragon/Ground mon, it makes up for its quad Ice weakness with absurdly high stats, including Speed, HP, and Attack.

Garchomp is part of Lance’s team during the HG & SS rematches where it runs a menacing and aggressive move pool that includes Outrage and Earthquake. It also has the powerful Swords Dance to increase its already high Attack. Finally, it has the situational Roar, which forces the current foe to be switched with another random Pokémon from the enemy’s team.

3 Gyarados

One of the most ferocious and savage Pokémon in the franchise, Gyarados is an absolute menace to any opponent. Like Charizard, it looks like it should be a Dragon, which explains its presence in Lance’s team. Like Aerodactyl, Gyarados is constant in every iteration of Lance’s team.

With an ever-changing move pool, Gyarados’ role in the team is that of a raging monster. Thanks to its high Attack, Gyarados makes the most of Physical moves like Crunch, Ice Fang, and especially Iron Tail, which provides strong coverage against those annoying Fairy creatures.

2 Kingdra

One of the most underappreciated Dragon Pokémon, Kingdra’s excellent dual-type makes it an unexpected threat in battle. With only two weaknesses and incredibly balanced stat distribution, Kingdra is part of Lance’s team in the FireRed & LeafGreen rematches and in Black 2 & White 2‘s Pokémon World Tournament.

Kingdra mainly runs a Water/Ice/Dragon move pool with a shifting fourth move. In Gen III, its last attack is Hyper Beam, and, in Gen V it’s Flash Cannon, another inspired choice. It’s a shame that Kingdra already is the signature Pokémon of Claire, because it would be a great addition to Lance’s team.

1 Dragonite

Lance’s signature Pokémon is also his best and most powerful, by far. As the first-ever Pseudo-Legendary, Dragonite has incredibly balanced stats, including absurdly high attack and above-average… well, pretty much everything else. It has a quad weakness to Ice, but, back in Generation II when it served as Lance’s ace Pokémon, Ice moves weren’t as common as they are today, and Lance had not one or two, but three of these beasts.

In the current games—and thanks to its hidden ability Multiscale—Dragonite is practically impossible to OHKO. In Let’s Go, Lance’s Dragonite takes advantage of its high attack to spam its former signature move, Outrage, getting STAB damage and quickly disposing of any foe foolish enough to try to go against it.

About The Author

David Caballero
(798 Articles Published)

David is a twenty-eight-year-old Mexican writer and reader. Having studied Marketing in school, he spent three years working a nine-to-five desk job before deciding to pursue a writing career. He now works as a Senior Writer in ScreenRant and does some more freelancing job, talking about the entertainment business he so loves. Currently, he’s also writing his second novel while actively working to get his first one published.

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