Is New Cynthia the Strongest Pokemon Trainer Ever?

[@JPRPokeTrainer98]

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all my fellow Americans, but regardless of where you are I’m thankful you’re here all the same :)

[@wikiuser92]

Could you make a video or videos analyzing the Gym Leaders and/or Elite Four teams in these games?

[@wikiuser92]

@Stephvon Dames Thanks!

[@JPRPokeTrainer98]

@@wikiuser92 I will definitely look into it at some point

[@wikiuser92]

@@JPRPokeTrainer98 Thanks! That sounds awesome.

[@SpecialGradeHunter3]

These remakes are great ilca should handle all remakes

[@BadBoiFilms]

We all remember facing her for the first time, seeing spiritomb and going “WHAT IS THAT!?”

[@robertlupa8273]

A collection of 108 souls, all ready to kick your ass!

[@kenjinpiniteu]

@@robertlupa8273 We all know those 108 souls were probably the souls of the trainers she massacred previously, all amalgamating into one infernal bulky tank from hell lol

[@astranix0198]

108 souls? Is that a Water Margin reference?

[@kfpemployeeno.568]

And apparently, your Pokémons are next which also included your soul.

[@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502]

@@astranix0198 no its a reference to spiritombs pokedex entry.

[@_medusas_wrath]

Cynthias humbleness is one of her strongest character traits. I love how the introduces herself as a trainer and not the freaking champion. She really is the strongest champ- not only pokemon-wise.

[@NRF3703]

Strong in personality and kindness as well. The true hero of the Sinnoh games, in my opinion, alongside you yourself and Barry occasionally.

[@Acrum99]

Unlike a certain other champion who brags about being the champion all the time. His team isn’t even that great, it shouldn’t be a competition for Cynthia.

[@BygoneT]

I don't think that's humbleness, she always felt like she is either playing a prank on you or that she separates her roles of champion and trainer. She's not the champion unless she's in that room.

[@yorecf9641]

@@NRF3703 I wouldn’t call her a true heroine. She did sit back and let the 11 year old battle the evil team, its admins and even its leader in Platinum, after all, while not even being present at the Spear Pillar in the other games. I at least give Leon credit for telling the kids, “Listen, go enjoy your gym challenge. I’ll take care of any national or world-ending threats since I’m the most qualified to do so.”

[@NRF3703]

@@yorecf9641 Well, she was much more heroic in Platinum, that's all I'll say, lol.

[@Zactoshi]

Pianos have never sounded so terrifying.

[@zimonzieclown1633]

Hi Zac.

[@jojo-uw8tx]

They’re even more terrifying here than in botw

[@raminard77]

Oh hey

[@nehemiahandselihom6177]

Can u make a gaming Chanel

[@emperorhirohito4435]

I know like broooo nothing scares me like the piano in gen 4

[@amwolfmusic]

As a person who has played DPPt so many times and can just run through the Cynthia battle there with ease. I walked into that champion room with some kind of swagger and left on a stretcher.

[@smembino740]

I don't know... with the new game-mechanics I actually found her to be quite easy. I randomly found a Munchlax with curse in the underground and sweept her with it in every of her three battles. Even if she statused me, Snorlax just healed itself, because it didn't want to bother me. I don't know, if it felt easy because I anticipaded a hard battle and therefore was prepared too well, or if she just wasn't hard in the first place.

[@apollyon4761]

@@smembino740 thats the thing you got lucky by rng. Disregarding special luck, shes easily the hardest yet.

[@smembino740]

@@apollyon4761 Not really, she even got multiple crits on me and I missed my attacks quite alot. So even without taking RNG into consideration, I wasn't even close to losing a Pokémon to her. If she can't kill a Pokémon after three battles, even though my Team was three to six levels lower than hers, it has nothing to do with luck anymore. I even consider the rematches of the gymleaders as more of a challange.

[@apollyon4761]

@@smembino740 idk maybe snorlax specifically counters her because she has posed difficulty everywhere else. Assuming you used no items.

[@smembino740]

@@apollyon4761 It was my first walkthrough, so I was using full-restores, but Snorlax definetly is strong against her. I want to play through the game again anyways, so I'm curious how hard she will be without full-restores. :)

[@crashicle]

My friend instantly regretted saying "this remake is way easier" and just got beaten by Cynthia with only 2 of her Pokemon.

[@thorntonwager6750]

I said the same thing and it took me 3 days to beat Cynthia’s Garchomp

[@sixtysix7055]

I beated cynthia with a Torterra sweep

[@sixtysix7055]

I first of all bring out Luxray

[@sixtysix7055]

And lowered milotics special atack

[@sixtysix7055]

Then I swapped into Torterra and spamming curse and that ice bean did no damage

[@MahenS_R]

If she is this hard in this game, you best believe she will be harder in gen 5 remakes if they happen. It will make going into houses into Undella town a lot scarier.

[@robertlupa8273]

Forget Cynthia, *Ghetsis* will be a nightmare to defeat.

[@Rageouz]

@@robertlupa8273 oh god pls I still have ptsd about that Hydreigon and now it can learn flash cannon

[@yorecf9641]

@@robertlupa8273 I once had someone question why I place such a high priority on countering that thing whenever I build a BW1 team. This person has apparently never faced it.

[@astranix0198]

@@Rageouz Always did

[@the-renegade]

I don't want GEN V remakes...

[@mini8964]

Bdsp has the strangest difficulty curve ever, the entire game up to the e4 is the easiest the series has ever been, but then the e4 and cynthia have these insane competive teams. its wild

[@EdysonDufort]

Yeah going through the story was a breeze but also training underground made the grind easier, especially if you go there from Celestic town. Cynthia wiped my whole team with ease the first time and realized that I bwas under leveled even when my pokemons were in there 60s lvls. But just like the original version, the elite 4 provide easy and fast grinding for the simple cost of 10k pokedollars 😅

[@Friendly_Neigborhood_Astolfo]

You know where to get ev reducing Berries more easily?

[@Kugrox]

This isnt true at all. I ran into the 2nd gym, the one with lucario, and even using items, with pokemon all as high as im allowed to have them (all level 30's vs his level 30 lucario) he swept my entire team with drain punch 6-0. he did this to me 3 or 4 times. This is easily the most well done pokemon game i've ever played, and I played up to BW2. I've never struggled a single bit in any game. Only if i'm like 10 levels below them do I struggle (my level 38 gengar struggled against level 60 dragonite for example) considering this, I know the game, I know what im doing, and my team was diverse, and strong. But Lucario was just on another level from every other trainer i've ever faced in any other pokemon game. I had to evolve my pokemon in order to win (so I went into the grass and trained two more levels which was enough to one shot lucario after I evolved.) I then went and evolved all my trade pokemon too (steelix, alakazam). So now my team is fully evolved, in the 30-40 area, and i'm wondering what other incredible challenges will await me, because I doubt lucario will be the only one. But dont say this is the easiest game ever, its the most well done AI and design of any pokemon game.

[@williamnguyen8663]

HGSS: are we a joke to you

[@EdysonDufort]

@@Distortion_World yeah currently fighting the gym leaders for the second time. My Garchomp is at 74 now.... I'm so screwed

[@ZachaRicO]

I took on Cynthia yesterday in Brilliant Diamond, and I wound up losing. But not only is Cynthia's team plenty strong even on a first run, but she battles so intelligently that I honestly can't complain. After all the other Switch games provided challenges that were decent at best, having a truly challenging Pokemon game makes me extremely happy. Oh, and just to be clear: it's not just Cynthia who battles intelligently. Several other trainers, particularly in the late-game, also use impressive strategies. They didn't make much of a difference in difficulty, but the fact that they actually used strategy made it impressive all the same.

[@nt1388]

over lvl? FTW to 100 we go!!!

[@confusedcat-sm9cy]

cynthia was easy, I just used a swords dance and ice shard on weaver

[@jarronmangunsong8469]

Lol I also battled her recently, but I got away with the win with a lot of revives. Especially against against her last Pokémon, garchomp. I kept on switching between luxray and staraptor with their intimidate ability to lower garchomp’s attack power and prevent swords dance, finally killing it with my infernapes close combat.

[@enderdragonrebel8026]

Yeah it was nice. When I played let’s go, I beat the elite 4 with no preparation. On swsh, I just used xp candies until my drednaw outspead charizard to okho it Cynthia was actually difficult; I had to keep rebattling the elite 4 for more xp so my team was all level 65 and when I won I didn’t expect to cuz it was my last pokemon vs. garchomp but her garchomp didn’t attack me so I beat it that same turn.

[@confusedcat-sm9cy]

@@enderdragonrebel8026 Cynthia was a piss in the wind for me

[@Parleetxt]

I played shining Pearl as a nuzlocke. I’ve played a lot of nuzlockes before. But never blind on an official game. I didn’t look anything up, didn’t look at movesets or anything. Although I vaguely remembered a lot of Diamond & Pearl’s trainers & Pokemon. However I managed to technically tie against Cynthia. She swept my entire team with her milotic. Luckily I managed to get Lucario and Spiritomb out of the way. So she had 4 mons left and I only had my snorlax. Her milotic couldn’t really do much against me, so she spammed recovers and ice beams to get freezes. Thank god I had belly drum and leftovers on my snorlax. I swept the next three Pokemon away. (I wouldn’t have been able to kill lucario or spiritomb, so that was lucky). Her Garchomp was last. She pressed dragon claw and I lived with 27 hp. I used body slam and the garchomp was a One-Hit-KO. But due to Rough Skin, which I didnt know it had, my snorlax went down too. I beat all her 6 Pokemon, but still whited out. Actually, it was the best nuzlocke experience I could’ve had. Edit: thx guys

[@glitchedgirI]

That's legendary my dude.

[@lebronisbetterthanjordan9]

Dude what lmao that's insane

[@rice7179]

Not sure if that counts since you did die but the way I see it you are a legend man

[@lebronisbetterthanjordan9]

@@rice7179 He beat it, but none of his Pokemon beat it. I say he won

[@rice7179]

@@lebronisbetterthanjordan9 yea though the game technically counts it as a loss since if both pokemon die, for some reason they give the win to the npc.

[@Alvaro-qz6qk]

You forgot to mention, Cynthia can use more Full Restore than other trainers, which at this level is very relevant

[@pigfish99]

People don't realise that D/P's Cynthia was extremely brutal, simply because of how hard it was to level, but the fact that the jump of levels from the victory road to the E4 was so drastic. and Cynthia is another level jump on top of that!

[@jenniferhamels1176]

@@mathishd5558 People who played BLIND didn't expect this huge of a jump. First timers wouldn't think they would need to grind that much.

[@tribopower]

@@mathishd5558 Thing is, her Garchomp was so insane that even my overleveled team would get oneshot back then, I remember my kid ass to try and come up with strats to defeat her, because back then that Garchomp could seriously cover for everything it was insane.

[@sptflcrw8583]

@@mathishd5558 grinding is cheating, by that logic nothing in any rpg is difficult

[@mathishd5558]

@@sptflcrw8583 1. Never said grinding was cheating 2.Any RPG? Not all RPGs have grinding, most Fire Emblem are 100% linear with no opportunity to grind

[@sptflcrw8583]

@@mathishd5558 fire emblem isn’t a traditional rpg, you understand what I mean

[@egbert-_-]

This was actually one of the funnest battles in YEARS, no more sweeping in one hit or spamming attacks… it was really well done. To an extent I felt like Volkner and actually got excited for a battle after a long time!

[@ErikCPianoman]

Her team is intense if you're not over-leveled. Her Milotic is so bulky with Marvel Scale and with her spamming recover and full restores (she has at least 4 of them). One of my battles against her I struggled it to death because I literally had nothing left on my team that could take it out. Also her Garchomp out-sped and OHKO 4 of my Pokemon. Been a long time since I didn't just bulldoze over the champion/elite four in a Pokémon game (of course battle is on set and no healing items in battle).

[@jjjunior3225]

Had this exact struggle with milotic and garchomp bit my ass by one shooting palkia so I just intimidated spammed

[@alexanderalfaro3713]

My strongest Pokémon was level 70 when I faced her

[@orcinusrex]

I was 8 and 9 levels under. It was ugly. I only won on the 4th try from the power of friendship haha

[@marieeshit]

Agree. Barely made it with Perish Song lol

[@shlokgupta178]

I just researched abilities and stuff before the battle and then just used the best Pokemon to use against hers and won.

[@sunflow57]

People love her because of her personality, which is understandable. She's so sweet to everyone and it's obvious why her pokemon respect her.

[@arkekkers]

I can’t believe one of the biggest ways to make Cynthia dangerous as hell in the remakes was just to give her pokemon held items, THAT’S how you know how well balanced her team. Not to mention as well giving a lot of her pokemon set-up moves like Nasty Plot and Swords Dance (they made garchomp nastier than the original with this move).

[@tristanyokom1542]

Her rematch teams have a parflinch togekiss. Enough has been said on that topic

[@slurpee1791]

The moment her garchomp tanked a dazzling gleam from my togekiss and set up with sword dance I knew I was dead

[@sachinrao7327]

Same but stupid garchomp did it to my mamoswine 😂 that berry is so annoying

[@slurpee1791]

@@sachinrao7327 my second try I was able to keep her from setting up and my mamoswine tanked an earthquake and finished her off with ice fang after she took out my manaphy with ice beam

[@sachinrao7327]

@@slurpee1791 my Alakazam somehow tanked 3 eqs and used 3 dazzling gleams on my first try. It was kinda lucky I guess 😂

[@gabrielcarrasco8414]

Try having a Weavile with Avalanche and the berry keeps the dang thing alive.

[@mrsamuel5572]

Rip

[@lock8030]

When you made that video anout Leon being the strongest Champion I completely agreed when just comparing his team with Cynthia’s old team. However after see what ILCA did to Cynthia’s team, she is for sure the strongest champion in the games and easily has the best team. Leon’s team with the Rilaboom is still very good and well built but Cynthia having items, perfect EVs and hidden abilities really just makes her team incredible

[@raven12333]

She is literally the first champion i ever lost to in my 20 years of playing pokemon, i was stunned to say the least. Also why does everyone have Earthquake, my Empoleon was useless most of the time.

[@zekrom320]

You mean Perfect IVs?

[@yorecf9641]

@@raven12333 ^this right here is why I don’t agree with people who say that Empoleon is the best Sinnoh starter or even best Sinnoh water type. RIP RavenTheRogue’s Empoleon.

[@TheDeathmail]

It should be noted that canonically, trainers can fight differently than they do in the games... the game system limits their abilities...

[@TheDeathmail]

I dunno, the free Manaphy was able to easily beat her entire time... just 2 uses of Tail Glow.... That thing is broken if used right... like.... real broken...

[@МихаилЛотов-о8э]

I dunno, what ILCA smoked, when they made rematch team for all trainers, but they deserve the biggest compliment. Hopefully, they will have some influence in later titles.

[@Akario3]

do the gym leaders give you a rematch in the remakes?

[@DegenWeb]

@@Akario3 yes!

[@Akario3]

@@DegenWeb god damn! gamefreak outsourcing pokemon once again gives us a good game(like every time they have done so in the past)

[@congdanhtruong4645]

@@Akario3 After the elite 4 and champion, you already can rematch with all the gym leaders. Level 60-70 is already good for those rematches. Choosing the "Set Mode" in the setting menu for more fun.

[@matthewbraith0411]

@@Akario3 A good game AHAHHAHAHAHA.

[@benny6148]

Props to the creators for making the champ fight like a champ

[@W4KK1]

And to think that this battle would only be topped by an ancestor of hers.. Volo's fight was literally and without a doubt the hardest Pokemon fight I've had.. Giratina was insane!

[@sacrashin]

To be fair, as for the trainer fight itself, Cynthia is still stronger. Two of Volo's pokemon don't even have four moves, they don't hold any items and their attacks aren't as well thought out. The hisui arcanine is also way weaker than milotic. The only hard part was the rather high level (most people I know of were slightly underleveled with most of their pokemon barely reaching lvl 60) and the fact that after Volo we fight Giratina, twice. Personally, I count them as two seperate fights though, even given the fact that you have to fight Volo again if you lose to Giratina.

[@fork4207]

Cynthia is the better trainer no doubt but the fight with volo is harder considering you can’t switch out Pokémon after you knock one of his out and the fact he baiscally has 8 Pokémon two of which are giratina.

[@Nocturne50]

Like Great great grandad, like great great granddaughter, makes sense who taught her to be like this

[@brendopls]

Roserade’s Dazzling gleam actually was a huge problem when I battled her. My flying type was a Honchkrow and of course it outsped me, so I had a lot of problems taking it out

[@alezand7151]

Same my heart dropped

[@technology5979]

Oh yeah, seeing Dazzling gleam show up hurt my heart for my Honchkrow.

[@xhillednation]

I'm happy my houdoom 1 shoted cause that could've mess me up

[@atgzheng7389]

@@xhillednation Dazzling gleam is neutral damage to houndoom

[@isandrooo]

Why is your flying type a freaking honchkrow

[@rotcalex2011]

The #1 thing I was comcerned was them nerfing her, yet they made her reach her final form. Amazing how giving pokemon items makes things more intresting (reminder that in the entirety of SwSh there are 0 held items by NPCs) Lucario being Garchomps bodyguard is very fitting. He basically covers everything Garchomp cant. (Personally Lucario was toughest for me because I nothing for it...also her Spiritomb baton passed double minimize to it 😖) Gastrodon and Milotic just being monster tanks is great. Seriously, her team is damn near perfect and that makes me happy. Long live the Queen!

[@markmagician2471]

Gastrodon, Roserade, and Lucario were no problems for me it was Garchomp, Milotic,and Spiritomb

[@luisvelez1952]

All Pokémon champions should be like her

[@cameronhubbuck]

@@markmagician2471 Milotic was my issue too, I swear it has hacks to ALWAYS burn, her Scalds were always burning my Luxray :'(

[@paigeepler4191]

Final form? Certainly not! We'll see her again in Undella Town in a few years!

[@rioderique4090]

I’d say the strongest champions are Cynthia (LEVEL 88 Garchomp!) Probably Leon (Gmax Charizard) Steven (Mega Metagross)

[@brunolinares604]

Curious fact: in competitive battles, Flame Orb Milotic is not recommended since burning you for the extra def boost isn't really worth the constant damage each turn. Chip damage is important to keep track of, especially with rocks and spikes all over the place. Besides, status moves from the opponent are very prominent, so you can just switch Milotic into an incoming Will o Wisp/Scald, so it's not worth losing Leftovers over Flame Orb. ...in competitive battles, that is. For the campaign where that Milotic is staying in, it's a good idea.

[@Akario3]

plus you can no longer status it with other status, which might be super important on nuzlockes

[@glitter4686]

In gen 5 flame orb milotic is amazing. Scald Ice Beam Recover Haze

[@glitter4686]

In gen 5 flame orb milotic is amazing. Scald Ice Beam Recover Haze

[@juannaym8488]

It's actually less of a definitive opinion than you might believe 1) the damage that burn causes has been lowered in gen 7, it's genuinely low enough to not bother a milotic with recover too much 2) spikes, rocks, etc have lost a lot of popularity due to hdb, but even if your opponent sets them up, the changes to rapid spin and Milotic's great synergy with most spinners does a lot for flame orb milotic Most will stay say that flame orb milotic isn't viable, but there are legitimate arguments for it's viability

[@AlmightyKarnage]

She used like 3 Full Restores on Milotic alone, I don't think that's her biggest worry 😔

[@mojojojox5043]

I had two levels over Cynthia and planned out the best way to try to counter her and she took out half of my team, that was just the first battle. I'm genuinely scared to rematch her. She is an absolute unit.

[@archangel323118]

@@Funaf_Productions what's the point then lol you are winning based on level difference and not skill that's all

[@Alexgodofwar5662]

@@archangel323118 having more levels is skill lol

[@JanusHoW]

She's the strongest because she actually fights like a competitive trainer. She went from just the Champion to the tutorial for high-level competitive play. I think they started doing this in Gen 5. The rematch against Cheren in the post-game has him opening with a Gigalith that uses _Stealth Rock_ as its first move. With the newly-buffed (at the time) Sturdy as its ability, that means you CAN'T stop that Stealth Rock from coming in. Better bring a Rapid Spinner to get rid of them.

[@This_0ne_Person]

you could stop stealth rocks, in 1 of 2 ways. Magic bounce to deflect it, or a mold breaker mon to ignore sturdy

[@JanusHoW]

@@This_0ne_Person Yeah, but most players probably just tried to brute force their way through the game at that point, being limited to just knowing what is super-effective against what.

[@tomnorton4277]

I hope the Unova remakes reintroduce Mega Evolution. Not only would that be a treat for players who miss Mega Evolution - I've been pining for it to return for at least half a decade at this point - but it would be very fitting for N. He makes a big deal about how Pokemon and Humans should be separated even though they can't Mega Evolve without a Human. That would emphasise the holes in N's well intentioned but flawed mindset and give more nuance to an already nuanced character. If he uses Mega Zoroark in his Champion battle with you, it would be perfect because Zoroark is as close to his signature Pokemon as you can get, considering Reshiram and Zekrom depend on which game you're playing. If Unova fails, they HAVE to bring back Mega's in the Kalos remakes. I've been wanting to see Mega Rapidash for years. For some reason, even fan-made games don't use it despite the design being prominent in mythology. Just turn it into an Alicorn with flames. Slap Magic Guard onto it to block Stealth Rock and recoil damage and boom! You've turned Rapidash into a weapon!

[@terryliliana]

Multi hit moves: I'm about to end this ability's whole career.

[@lukaskback9710]

0:09 Tobias is canonically defeated by Cynthia, since he won the tournament and got to challenge the champion. Since Cynthia appears as the Champion at a later date, Tobias can’t have won.

[@devilrider39000000]

Cynthia is still the champ, but I doubt she ever battled Tobias. Dude was probably later disqualified, or loss to an elite 4 member, most likely Aaron.

[@tomnorton4277]

@@devilrider39000000 Tobias would crush Aaron without breaking a sweat. The kid's Vespiquen and Drapion were struggling against Team Rocket for crying out loud.

[@devilrider39000000]

@@tomnorton4277 oh u mean that time where Aaron's Pokemon crashed landed and had to battle without its trainer, yea that doesn't really hold up.

[@tomnorton4277]

@@devilrider39000000 Ash's Buizel won 3 battles in a row without a trainer, including one with a Pikachu who defeated a Regice with a OHKO Volt Tackle. Aaron is a joke in the anime.

[@devilrider39000000]

@@tomnorton4277 yup and pikachu beat a dragonite and lossed to a new trainer's snivy, quit while your ahead, the anime's power scaling is too inconsistent. What you're saying carries no weight.

[@jamesmendonca2900]

When I first battled Cynthia in Shining Pearl, I was the closest to winning when it came to losing. My Infernape held out with 1 HP left and she only had Garchomp left. So I finished it with Close Combat, but my pokemon died because of that rough skin ability. It ended in a draw, but to the game I still lost. Great video, by the way.

[@liammckinney5218]

i could 100% imagine this in the anime, it would be incredible

[@V.VIIIBeanman]

Same thing happened to me but it was Garchomp vs Garchomp.

[@kaofee]

Garchomp vs Garchomp for me and rough skin dropped mine too 18 hp

[@raftermanhoward1883]

@@V.VIIIBeanman I was originally planning to take out her Garchomp with my own, but that cheeky plan got derailed when he got curbstomped by Lucario.

[@PinkSneaselGirl]

Reminds me of my first Sun champion battle, except the opposite happened. Kukui actually wrecked my team way more than I expected with his Decidueye, and after spamming revives and sacking pokes, I wound up with no items and one mon against his Braviary, both of us at low health. My mon failed to kill his, but he used Brave Bird killing me and then himself. I won. And I HATED IT! I wanted to go back and have a do over, but I was playing bllind and didn't know that he wouldn't be the champion again, and I let the game save over my last save before I knew. I'm still salty to this day, and it's over a battle I WON!DX

[@UmbraStarWolf]

Having Tyranitar set up the sand against Red makes basically 3 of his pokemon relying on Blizzard useless Also Blizzard Snorlax lol Its not even close

[@JPRPokeTrainer98]

true his whole team relies on the hail far too much, to the point where removing it cripples several of his Pokemon

[@yorecf9641]

Tyranitar itself can also wreck his team with STAB and coverage moves while taking advantage of boosted special defense and infinite sand.

[@jrlaps521]

I usually used a snow cloak Mamoswine against Pikachu so it’s iron tail will for sure miss, and then bring in Ttar to get rid of that horrible hail

[@UmbraStarWolf]

@@jrlaps521 non stab earthquake on tyranitar killed the rat

[@jrlaps521]

@@UmbraStarWolf I would’ve but I used a ground type so Pikachu couldn’t use volt tackle and miss his iron tail since it’s 75 accurate plus the snow cloak boost. I needed Ttar for the rest of Red’s team

[@dchung2394]

I have never experienced such intense Pokémon battle with an Npc in other franchise. I was screaming wtf the whole fight…

[@personagrand5674]

Cynthia’s Pokemon are so fun to think around since her team feels like a machine made to max out Garchomp’s destructive power as much as possible. Spiritomb is no longer the defensive menace it used to be, but he still manages to put the pressure with… Pressure, making you waste Fairy moves on it. Roserade is one of Garchomp’s bodyguards that basically puts the hurt on the early fairy types it’s facing. Gastrodon starts slowing you down with Rock Tomb, which ensures Garchomp will be faster than it’s target if you somehow manage to get past it’s bulk. Then comes Milotic who now exists to waste as much of your time as it possibly can. It buffs itself with Marvel Scale, forcing you to use Special Attacks, just so it can happily Mirror Coat everything you throw at it while inflicting Burn and healing up. Lucario is fragile but as the last defense, he’s out for BLOOD Taking any fairy and dragon types it can down with him thanks to Flash Cannon and Dragon Pulse And as if that wasn’t enough, Garchomp the beautiful sand shark dragon she is, is now ready Swords Dance-Earthquake sweep any stragglers still hanging in there.

[@tomnorton4277]

Garchomp really should have Iron Head in the 3rd battle and Cynthia should be using Mega Lucario by that point too. I would have liked to see her use no Mega Evolution in the 1st battle, Mega Garchomp powered up by a Smooth Rock Tyranitar in the 2nd, and Mega Lucario in the final battle.

[@minmin8580]

​@@tomnorton4277LOL mega Lucario? You do realize there's no megas in this game right?

[@tomnorton4277]

@@minmin8580 I know but there should be. And Primal Regigigas should officially exist by now too.

[@Just_Shaun]

I love how they managed to make Cynthia much more versatile with her limitations. Mainly the two water types. The difficulty of Cynthia in the original imo was much more due to a huge level curve rather than incredibly AI and excellent team structure in the remakes. In the originals, I was 10-15 levels lower than her team. It was tough, but I still managed. Whereas in the remakes, my team was on level with Cynthia... I struggled equally and ended up clutching the fight.

[@J2ojuiced95]

Cynthia has always been one of the most powerful trainers across all Pokemon media, so I’m happy BDSP tried to reflect that despite the forced EXP share.

[@yorecf9641]

Props to ILCA for actually compensating for the modern features with things as simple as held items on opponents' teams unlike Game Freak.

[@tribopower]

@@yorecf9641 I am happy there was a new company picking up the game, Game Freak was being so lazy in the overall remakes I was scared for gen 4

[@yorecf9641]

@@tribopower agreed. Even if you want to make the argument that she isn’t as tough as she was in DPP, she at least didn’t drop to near-pathetic levels of weak like the trainers in ORAS.

[@lelnel6242]

@@yorecf9641 She is tougher in the remakes than in the originals. All of the E4 is way better than in the original

[@yorecf9641]

@@lelnel6242 I’m not saying that I disagree. I’m saying that other people do.

[@FeedbackRokker227FNAF5]

Great stuff as always, boss. Gotta agree with Cynthia being quite tough, but much like Red, I had a blast battling her. Also not sure if this is intentional or not but I love the "cold opens" you've been putting in some of your videos lately. Good stuff

[@calliemari]

Volo and Giratina in Legends Arceus: *I'm about to end this mans whole career.*

[@Jay-zi4mf]

I am such a huge fan of cynthia. Love her so much I even have an entire team dedicated to her. Same pokes, stats, items. I have to say, going around using her exact team makes you feel very, very powerful.

[@moved5600]

Fun fact: After encountering Heatran, her strongest Pokémon is level 88.

[@trapsarentgay4195]

Sheesh

[@crimsonelite1530]

That’s triggered by beating her twice not encountering heatran

[@enderdragonrebel8026]

That’s fun… I swear the only thing stopping myself from trying to be funny and transfer my team to swsh to use xp candies, transfer back, and see what happens is it’s a stupid idea. Also it’s unfair

[@moved5600]

@@crimsonelite1530 My friend challenged her twice and she didn't have the level 80 Garchomp until after beating Heatran.

[@segunthepikachufan1470]

USUM was probably first time they started doing the IV/EV thing in the main game that isn't locked specifically to a hard mode that you can't get very easily without Black 2

[@zdude0127]

Cynthia had max IVs in original Diamond and Pearl.

[@TechnoTrainer]

Excellent video JPR, finally someone else not afraid to admit that Red isn’t the battle it’s cranked out to be.

[@yorecf9641]

Red is difficult only because of the insane level curves in the Johto games. They even made his team roster worse in HGSS by replacing his Espeon with a Lapras, yet another Pokémon that falls prey to the near-mandatory Ampharos on almost every player’s team. I’ve beaten him in both the Gen 2 and Gen 4 games while having every team member 10-15 levels below his Kanto starters. Only issue was grinding them up to that point.

[@TechnoTrainer]

@@yorecf9641 He's not even difficult, I agree. I end up beating him mid-60's every playthrough lol

[@yorecf9641]

@@TechnoTrainer yeah, Tyranitar in particular can destroy half of his strategies in HGSS. “Oh, you have three Pokémon who are depending on this hail for Blizzard to hit? Pocket Sand!”

[@frostbite2615]

I just did my run with her, she wiped me twice. And on my third, killed everyone but clefable. 1 hp, poisoned, and the last one alive, they held on due to friendship. I nearly screamed upon beating them. My friend was warning me before I started the game, so as a precaution. I trained 4 of my 6 main pokemon to specifically kill her garchomp, all from the very beginning.

[@TheVera800]

The difference between Cynthia and Leon is certainly arguable, but here’s my take. Cynthia is certainly more experienced and has a more shocking factor. You don’t see her Pokémon until the end, unlike Leon flaunting his Charizard every 5 minutes. She also is always ready to battle, and admits she has a lot to learn. She doesn’t base her whole life around her title, still having hobbies and a passion. If you can make it past the Elite Four, she will willing throw pokéballs any time. Even in the anime. Most people also fear her. I mean she battles for honor, relying on power and strategy to win, not a regional gimmick. Leon is proud and cocky on the surface. He was always around the player with parts of his team, so you can prepare in advanced. For Leon, his title is his life, if Rose hadn’t turned himself in, Leon probably wouldn’t have opened the battle tower. In the games, other than the gym leaders, only 1 person can face Leon at the start of the (yearly?) challenge, as it’s heavily commercialized compared to any other region. If you don’t battle anyone, you can’t lose. Even in the anime, Ash had to go through a whole tourney of champions to even have a chance of battling him. I also can’t take him seriously at all. Like dude, you’re talking a whole lot of crap for someone who was taken out by a single Magicarp. You don’t get to talk.

[@Blu12929]

I don’t really see the need to put Leon down in order to praise Cynthia

[@straypaper]

They're two wholly different people. Cynthia is a researcher at heart (well, archeologist if you want to go particular) BUT as revealed by Volo in LoA, her bloodline has an insatiable curiosity, and in turn, lust for power. Furthermore, she's not much of a public figure so she has all the time in the world to explore Sinnoh, grind her Pokemon, and beat up team Galactic on her leisure. It makes sense that her team would be extremely min-maxed. Leon on the other hand, is a public figure because as you said, Pokémon is commercialised in Galar. This means that not only is he strapped for time because he needs to make public appearances, he must also be swamped with paperwork behind the scenes. Plus, as an entertainer, he is obligated to make his battle flashy, not efficient. Itales sense that he wouldn't have as thorough a coverage or strategy as Cynthia.

[@ReidnReactn]

You really meatmunching Cynthia and putting leon down

[@yorecf9641]

Iron Head on Garchomp would've also sucked due to its high speed and the move's flinch rate. That would put Togekiss users in particular at an even bigger disadvantage (Gardevoir is probably frail enough to not stand a chance either way).

[@thiagobianki1684]

68 base hp 65 def for gardevoir and 80 speed, you really needs speed control(tailwind, sticky web or a choice scarf) if you are planning to use gardevoir to counter her garchomp, and at this point, a physical wall is better.

[@yorecf9641]

@@thiagobianki1684 personal plan is Froslass and Gyarados if that fails. I'll bust out Dazzling Gleam Roserade if that fails. If she can't finish it off by that point, I was just meant to lose.

[@noname144able]

This is why I chose Clefable over Togekiss for my run. I haven't challenged her on the third rematch yet but I've been EV training my Clefable to be the most anti-Garchomp wall as much as possible, lol (That Poison Jab is gonna be an issue though)

[@minnayuan2591]

I personally think Poison Jab was given to Garchomp not only as a Fairy coverage, but also a grass coverage. If Garchomp had Iron Head, Leafeon and Tangrowth will tank Garchomp's hits ridiculously well.

[@yorecf9641]

@@minnayuan2591 Swords Dance would help with that pretty well and Iron Head flinches and STAB Dragon Claw still exist with max EV investment in attack. Plus, it’s not like Garchomp itself is frail; Tankchomp exists for a reason. Besides, I think it’s safe to say that the most commonly run grass types in Sinnoh are Torterra and Roserade who aren’t weak to poison to begin with.

[@makerviewr1cn356]

I can confirm that BDSP Cynthia is the first champion that made me grind before I can even think of making a 2nd attempt. Great job ILCA, you made a monster. Edit 1: I lost to her again. For reference my Garchomp is the lowest level mon I have at level 55, and the highest is My Infernape level 65. The rest of the team is in between those 2 levels.

[@EdysonDufort]

Getting your Garchomp ready for the league is hard because you don't get until much later in the game. Even with saving all my rare candies for him specifically.

[@heavydonkeykong5190]

I had to grind for Leon because I spent the whole game around the same level as all of my opponents, and then he ended up being a massive level jump.

[@Beamin439]

idk how you guys all have these stories. i stomped cynthia just like the rest of the game. my team was all 60-65

[@AlteredProf]

@@Beamin439 it's because of fair play. We don't use items in battle, battle style is in set mode. Basically making it hard but "fun"

[@Beamin439]

@@AlteredProf ya neither do i

[@akumayoxiruma]

I agree: Cynthia is the only trainer I lost to despite outlevelling her Garchomp by 3 levels. In my first match I already had trouble with the bulk of Spiritomb and Milotic - especially her Recover strategy. Luckily, I saved before her so I could rematch but this time I planned ahead by assigning my Pokémon specific items instead of Lucky Eggs and I taught my Roserade Dazzling Gleam. In my rematch I swept her team easily except Milotic which managed to freeze hax me so I had to use one Full Restore. Garchomp was interesting because I used my Lickilicky with Ice Beam to discover that she had a Yache Berry. So I inflicted 50% of damage and then got destroyed by Earth Quake. However, I had a Crobat which was faster so I could take Garchomp's remaining HP out with Pluck and Sharp Beak equipped. To be fair: I think Aaron and Flint had good teams (against my team at least) as well so I had a lot of fun with the Pokémon League.

[@ZachaRicO]

I've found that I have better luck rematching this Elite Four when I plan ahead. I fought Aaron a second time and tried to get an advantage with Toxic Spikes...only to discover that it's literally the WORST strategy you could use against him. It took me three tries to beat his second team, after which I decided I would just keep looking ahead to see what my next opponent was running so I would be ready in advance.

[@user-ye9bc7nw2c]

@@ZachaRicO well of course

[@jaguwa4816]

I almost lost to her too with almost being the same level as her, but that was also without planning or knowing what her pokemon were going to be. Still, it's the closest I've come to losing a battle in a main story Pokemon game

[@ShadowHunter332]

Dialga really helps. His roar of time was helpful. What really helped me defeat Cynthia is my gengar new destiny bond, which if used before you faint, it takes down the opponent pokemon as well. Amazing move.

[@ravexi6622]

I love it. They didn't make Cynthia any easier and that's just amazing

[@NockLegacy]

Garchomp with sword dance one-shot my team 3 times in a row

[@coolhwhip49]

My first match, that Garchomp swept me up without a problem. Second match I tried a new strategy that was obviously not gonna work early on and I just reset. The third and only successful attempt I decided, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” and buffed my own Garchomp into sweep mode then proceeded to one-shot her entire team. Best champ fight 10/10 can’t wait for the rematches.

[@Wofulrumble4893]

Mine was similar, waited for icebeam to run out pp then popped in torttera with curse stacking and swept garchomp and 3 others lol

[@jesterofbadpuns8717]

I actually (critize me for the ledgy) After lots of leveling, took dialga and boost its stats with the items to the max making it an unbeatable tank that even her garshomp couldn't one shot this time

[@thesmokeycloud]

Abused tail glow manaphy to the extreme, set up twice at the start of the battle then proceed to sweep her team

[@gancyr3D]

The most insane thing I've seen so far was Calliope Mori sweeping Cynthia. Calli's Garchomp was an anime MC in that fight.

[@SrMissileMonkey]

@@gancyr3D i watched that live. She was so worried (rightfully so) i hoped that she would put in her Ace Dusknoir for an Ace v Ace for story but i get why she stuck to buffing chomp like she did.

[@inexplicablepresence8274]

I hope, whenever the Unova remakes come out, they do N and Ghetsis' fights a lot of justice like they did for Cynthia here. Ghetsis' team should definitely match the terror his theme brings to the table, instead of his Hydreigon becoming an utter joke thanks to the Fairy types.

[@pkmnproductions7461]

If it becomes faithful remakes then Fairy types wont be around and if so Whimsicott is the only Native Unova mon that's part fairy.

[@TheShiningEnergy]

@@pkmnproductions7461 these were faithful remakes, and the fairy type was still around.

[@bloomallcaps]

Take frustration out and replace it with more coverage honestly

[@jaretco6423]

To be honest, I really don't want an Gen. 5 remake.

[@TheBloperM]

Flash Cannon, Hydregion will remain a terror don't worry

[@redandblue1013]

I LOVE this. So glad they recaptured this and didnt soften her. I'd always fantasised about what would happen if they made a competitively viable npc in the main story. I mean, this isnt a fully competitive team but literally the difference is basically nothing. Kinda wish there was no exp share and frienship effects, but oh well. When on my first playthrough I had to fight her solo with a lvl90 torterra. Yea I was one of those kids. Thats gotta be impossible now No doubt shes on top. For leon, well it was tough, but i had built my team v well so i didnt have to reset a bunch or anything. Cynthia is no doubt stronger. Red? Well his team isnt even a competitive team. And he leads with a pikachu :/

[@w1nther930]

Volo: Im gonna do whats called a pro gamer move

[@anothergamer112]

Red is what happens when kids try competitive for the first time Cynthia is a VGC winner flexing

[@KevinXmusic]

It's really a shame this game is held back by forced affection and EXP share. All the Gym Leaders from Gardenia on use held items on their Pokemon and have good movesets and strategies, and the AI gets better later on too for the most part. The Elite 4 is insane, somehow turning that joke Elite 4 from DP into a threat, all with very powerful strategies. I managed to slow the EXP gain by using the box a lot, and reduced Affection by spamming (and I mean SPAMMING) revival herbs on my Pokemon, and went into the Elite 4 around level 57. I got destroyed, a LOT. Aaron destroyed me, and then I went to level up, I made it through the Elite 4 but not without some trouble and actually thinking, and then I lost against Cynthia 10 TIMES before somehow getting lucky the last time and getting a second ice attack off on the Garchomp. I had an absolute blast with this, and I started the Gym Leader rematches which have also been really fun (not just steamrolling with STAB super effective moves anymore). I think ILCA's vision for the game was really good, held back by some ass backwards "faithful" standards probably forced upon them by suits and TPC. I really hope they get tasked to do future remakes and other projects because I think what they did to the boss NPCs should be the absolute standard in all Pokemon games going forward. I'm gonna try other ways to see if i can make the game more challenging on reruns. Really the main thing this game needed was an EXP share and affection toggle. EXP share sure is nice, but it would also be nice to turn it off if needed instead of boxing my Pokemon.

[@MezmerKaiser725]

I really wanted to do a hardcore nuzlocke in this game until I found out about the exp. share and affection mechanics

[@robertlupa8273]

Man, now I'm regretting not buying BDSP.

[@A_Block_of_Cheese]

@@robertlupa8273 good thing it still exists

[@enderdragonrebel8026]

The only hard elite 4 member for me was flint and his stupid drifblim spamming double team

[@justwantawholename]

@@MezmerKaiser725 it's still no cake walk. The affection mechanic does take a bit to build naturally, making it more devasting when you lose a Pokemon that you've bonded with. It can feel a bit snowball-y at times. Critical saves are a really flavorful mechanic. Forced exp share should be the way things are. Grinding isn't a skill. The real issue is that there aren't more trainers like Cynthia. Too many gym leaders have too few Pokemon. The fact that nuzlocke is such a doable challenge for pokemon games speaks to how easy the games really are. We need an actually hard Pokemon difficulty setting that asks its players more than just "did I grind enough?"

[@cephery8482]

I was determined to go no items, no overlevelling with my predecided team just based on mons i liked, and honestly it was super fun strategising. Me and a friend who likes the games but did know if he wanted to pick it up sat on showdown for a couple hours, him mimicking cynthias team and me approximating my own, figuring out the best leads and switches throughout the fight, and i had to use all my team to their fullest. Kricketune despite only getting 1 move in was easily the main reason i beat it. Managing to get speed control with sticky web was essential (even at -1 i still couldnt outspeed garchomp though), rampardos was my best way to clear out spiritomb before it started to wear down my team, having to take itself out with some massive head smash recoil to ohko it, toxicroak was able to successfully 1v1 both lucario and rosrade, and was an essential vs milotic as a toxic instead of burn combined with a curse from spiritomb managed to shut it down before all the times i simulated it just walling me forever, torterra obviously hammer gastrodon, and real dark horse dragon slayer, choice specs ice beam unaware bibarel, cynthia presuming you dont have unaware will set up swords dance to make sure it kills next turn and can round out the sweep, only on next turn it still wont kill because of unaware, giving you 2 crucial turns for specs ice beam to kill it. All pulled off with no items and even no affection trigger on set style, the team was level 63 across the board. It’s been my favourite main series fights so far, knowing one wrong move or stray crit could totally wreck my chances at winning. I really hope to see this level of challenge even more going forwards.

[@WhatIsMyPorpoise]

I'm playing BDiamond as my first Nuzlocke with a minimal wild encounters attitude, no buying items and only 1 healing item during league battles(gyms and E4), I've already been wiped by Gardenia and restarted from the beginning, but I'm getting _really_ scared about Cynthia. I have no idea how I'm going to manage to get there, let alone beat her. I'm still just on my way to Hearthome, but Cynthia is just this giant looming presence over the entire game. Maybe I'll allow grinding uniquely for the E4... It's been fun though, stakes are so high!

[@cephery8482]

@@WhatIsMyPorpoise you prob will have to grind up for e4. No real way around it, but you can prob pull it off underlevelled. There are good garchomp counters out there, like levitate bronzong and unaware bibarel although theyre note guaranteed, but what’s more relevant is you plan in advance for her, just winging it in will get you killed

[@fallonfish190]

Volo: allow me to introduce myself

[@Fieryredhair08]

Personally I am glad to see that Cynthia is still challenging. While Pokemon has never been hardcore hard, Cynthia and Red stand out to me as the old school champions. What made my experience worse with Cynthia is that I had a faulty DS and it kept freezing when Garchomps health bar was nearing zero. Idk how many times I had to redo that fight....

[@TheBlastoise313]

BDSP was awfully easy until Cynthia. The battle against her was one of the best I ever had, my Pokemons faitned for the first time against her. I had to use my items and even PP stall the Milotic.

[@kedragold]

My standoff with her was gruelling, it ended with my two pokemon which I switched to back and forth spamming revives until she ran out of PP. Beat her eventually after having to grind my team to level 60-70 for hours.

[@sachinrao7327]

The toughest about Cynthia for me was the freaking spiritomb. It just refused to faint 😂 although I got hella lucky against her garchomp cuz my last Pokemon resisted fainting twice in a row 😂

[@sachinrao7327]

@@kedragold damn did u really grind for so long ?

[@enderdragonrebel8026]

@@kedragold rip I started and finished the base game in 24 hours 4 minutes

[@enderdragonrebel8026]

Lmao I forgot about healing items… I used 0

[@Alaskanraider2734]

I like how this was uploaded a literally a minute after I beat her

[@TatsuMurasaki]

Cynthia defeated me on my first try, I was VERY pleased when she did! I beat her the second time around and it was a lot of fun! I'm really glad ILCA kept her challenge level intact, it was my make or break factor for those remakes.

[@Diego-gg1rc]

If your team is dying and you’re by the gastrodon fight, it is a perfect opportunity to heal your team, and occasionally cure your Pokémon that is out, and then you’ll prob be good to go for lunario and garchomp

[@xKarenWalkerx]

BDSP Cynthia and the rematch are peak Trainerhood. She is relentless and her Pokemon are absolutely brutal.

[@ChichiNaka]

Wish the whole game had a mode like this, its so sad how excited we are for exactly 1 trainer to have decent AI and any form of strategy after 20+ years If they just made 'slightly harder mode' enabled the same weird way they made us reset save data so kids couldnt accidentally do it, and if it just made me lose to a gym or boss fight so I had to go back out and train my team at all I'd get infinitely more playtime out of Pokemon rather than walking through a 20 hour tutorial and dropped at the 6 minutes of end game

[@whitecanary6172]

the gym leader rematches all have stacked teams and strategies like weather etc.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

they could make pokemon a lot harder by making every trainer have levels 20 levels higher than you, so even if you have level 100 pokemon they would have level 120 something not achiveable by players. similar to ultimate vault hunter mode in borderlands in op8

[@horusschnopp1882]

It may be easy for us.... but how easy is it for the 10 year olds that these games are targeting? That these main-line games are specifically made for? Don't forget that us adults are not the primary audience.

[@ChichiNaka]

@@horusschnopp1882 5 year olds were finishing final fantasys and metal gear solids and obscure JRPGs in the 90s, kids these days have 947654 Minecraft patterns memorized before they start pre-school along with the damage output of every gun of every rarity in Fortnite. I get what you're saying but I'm not asking for Super Extreme Legendary mode just, anything other than a 20-hour tutorial, 99% of people including reviewers judge the game entirely on its story mode, it would be fine for it to be at all engaging rather than just slowly walking around a zone battling things 10 levels below you

[@congdanhtruong4645]

After the elite 4 and champion, you already can rematch with all the gym leaders. Level 60-70 is already good for those rematches. Choosing the "Set Mode" in the setting menu for more fun.

[@kenjinpiniteu]

A comparison of Cynthia's Garchomp from DP and BD/SP, mined data from game (see reddit): D/P: Level 66/ Ability: Sand Veil/ Held Item: Sitrus Berry/ HP Stat: 238/ ATK stat: 176/ DEF stat: 150/ SpA Stat: 130/ SpD: 137/ Spe Stat: 174 BD/SP: Level 66/ Ability: Rough Skin/ Held Item: Yache Berry/ HP Stat: *247*/ ATK stat: *238*/ DEF stat: 150/ SpA Stat: 99/ SpD: 137/ Spe Stat: 212/ HAS SWORDS DANCE So, not only does BD/SP Garchomp have a higher HP and attack stat this time around, it's also faster at 212 Speed stat compared to D/P Garchomp, can boost its attack with Swords Dance (increases attack by 100%, not counting add-ons from perfect IVs and EVs) and possibly OHKO your team if you're on an even level or just 5 levels above it, and has a hold item that makes it able to tank an Ice-type OHKO. Comparing BD/SP Garchomp with DP Garchomp, for DP Garchomp to reach BD/SP Garchomp's stats level, *DP Garchomp would need to be Level 90* Of course, if you're fighting the E4 with a team that's 20 levels above them (Lv. 80 or so) you'll have a less of a challenge due to just having higher stats; but if you're playing SET mode like me and with an equal-level team with the E4 (Level 60 cap) and minimizing use of items (I only use the same amount of items like the enemy NPC, which is usually only 3 items max), it's an exhilarating fight! Still bitter about the forced affection. Lucian's Alakazam tried to OHKO my Empoleon three times and my penguin just kept tanking with 1 HP because it didn't want me to be sad.

[@Zeke1460]

I think it depends. Mostly I would agree and say yes, she’s the strongest ever. For the point in the game when you fight her (assuming you fought all the trainers up until her but didn’t grind wild encounters too much) she can WRECK you. Her Garchomp and Lucario will almost definitely be higher level than you and outspeed you. And Garchomp can streight up sweep you unless you have a specific plan to beat it. Red is higher level, but his pokemon have many more weaknesses. Most people (including me) beat him while severly underleveled, whereas Cynthia almost beat me even with my pokemon being almost on her level.

[@jamesdinius7769]

Absolutely. Also, one must remember that Red, as far as I am aware, has zero EVs. That means even her first match team can contest his stats, and the rematch teams mop the floor with him. That's why people can beat easily Red underleveled, even random EVs can make up a lot of the gap.

[@MatthewNeathery]

Red will always be the coolest for me. The mini series they did a while ago with Ref was so good. I wish they did a Johto series with Gold fighting Red at the end

[@joaquinletelierdominguez5280]

Ethan*

[@B-rex395]

JPR: Cynthia is the strongest pokemon trainer ever Cynthia: no, that would be my great great great great great great great great (etc.) grandfather

[@SomersetDrinker]

I'm currently battling Cynthia (with piplup + full team), just took out spiritomb while watching this video, then precedes to have a PTSD episode from my childhood. Thank you JPR 😊

[@friendlyotaku9525]

I fought her for the first time in the remakes last night and uh... WOW. I was not prepared at all, her first 5 pokemon were mostly fine but then out came her Garchomp and it essentially kept one shotting each of my Pokemon so much so that I ended up just stalling through revives and potions so it'd keep using it's powerful moves so it'd run out of as much PP as possible so it'd be possible for me to be able to actually hit it! I'm dreading what the rematches will be like...

[@the-renegade]

Use Battle Items.

[@ny_rednova]

dont let it swords dance, also if u setup and hit it with dazzling gleam. ez clap on the garchomp

[@friendlyotaku9525]

@@ny_rednova should of had some set up moves tbh. I was very unprepared.

[@GreenDinoRanger]

That's how I beat Cynthia in the original Pearl. I stalled with full revives to wait out her Lucario because it was sweeping my team.

[@shotokanrob2487]

I remember as a kid there were only two RPG final bosses that legitimately scared me, one is Ultimecia from FF8 the other is this monster. Both also have the best boss songs in their respective franchise in my opinion. BdSp Cynthia I agree was built much better overall which made the nostalgiac experience of fighting her for the first time rush back to me it was beautiful!

[@solignis5420]

7:19 as someone who used a Weavile in BDSP I can say: No its not enough to kill that thing. With that damned berry, Garchomp lived after an Ice Punch on a sliver and with range 1-hit KO'ed my Weavile. That thing even outsped me (no idea how that was even possible).

[@ColossusCockus]

I gotta be honest, I built my in game team to be as balanced as possible, but I had no fairy type (yes I know, not ideal, but I didn’t have any fairy Pokémon I wanted to use that I didn’t use before). The final member of the elite four already killed most of my team, so even after healing up, I was rather scared when I got to her, because she is even scarier. I walked into her room… and OHKO‘d her entire team with my Snorlax. One belly drum, five body slams and one giga impact later, I was declared champion. It felt ORGASMIC.

[@liamheneghan4977]

This should just be a 3 second video with the word "Yes" 😂😂

[@ReederMG]

This just shows that we need a Let's Go Johto so that we can get a buffed Red who actually holds items and has good attack and stat distribution

[@nategraham6946]

And the affection and EXP share are more critiques of the game and less about the strength that Cynthia possesses.

[@ItsYuhBoyyyy]

The game would be so much better without those mechanics

[@Darth_Insidious]

@@ItsYuhBoyyyy Or even just making the exp share togglable and locking affection bonuses behind poffins like sword and shield locks it behind camping.

[@A_Person9364]

Then along came a Volo

[@Grantypoo]

9:02 "Hyper beam is a little sus" I'm glad I'm subscribed to you

[@Latias38]

Hyper Beam on Porygon Z may be sus but keep in mind it has adaptability as its ability (50% increased power to Normal Moves in this case) so its pretty much garunteed to, at worst, go in a 1 for 1 trade. Which is exactly what Cynthia would need so her Garchomp can function as her endgame sweeper.

[@WhatIsMyPorpoise]

basically, Porygon Z's Hyper beam is basically just Explosion, but with some chance of survival.

[@sharifbrown3567]

@@WhatIsMyPorpoise Porygon Z: Target acquired, Proton Cannon!

[@Benassiesto]

Would pay double for the game if like Maylene up until Volkner had the strats nearly on par w/ her, then Volkner + E4 strats equal to BDSP Cynthia. Then make Cynthia a little harder somehow… Maybe a Double Battle? Or have like postgame rematches all be Double Battles, but especially Cynthia. Togekiss + Garchomp would be filthy.

[@TopOfAllWorlds]

Please god dont make her harder. I'm playing on hardcore nuzlocke rules and I can't beat her at all right now...

[@nishant9289]

Imagine facing that swords dance Yache Berry Garchomp against a Coil + Hypnosis Milotic with competitive as it's ability .... No more reliable intimidate spam.

[@MsLuckyLucario]

I remember my first match with Cynthia in Diamond... Back than I was extremely underleveled, but I was to stubborn to "give up" (I safed right before the battle and didn't want so lose the money and do all of this again xD)... After many resets (don't remember how much), I finally won. Brilliant Diamond: Now, knowing what I would approach, I thought about just level my team up until I go easily through the battle with her... But some part of me thought, it wouldn't be the same feeling. So my Pokémon where all around Lv 59 to 64... Problem is that I don't have any grass type Pokémon or even moves on my team xD The fight went relatively well, but most of the time I was stuck between hitting before she could heal her Pokémon and healing/reviving my own... Of course I've saved my game, just as I did the last time.. And so my heart rate increased and I felt like I traveled back in time (almost) 15 years ago... And what happened? I lost.. Made a second attempt, now knowing what Cynthia is doing at what time.. And what happened? I lost again xD But I had a plan, so I used some rare candy to get things a little more equal. Third attempt: everything worked pretty well (as I assumed and "planned"). Garchomp was about to come out, and I recalled my Empoleon (she just wasn't fast enough) and send in my last hope, the one team member that saved me more than one time: Staraptor. She got hit, but Brave Bird took a little more than half HP from Garchomp. So far, so good... But afterwards she was also down to 2/3 of her HP. I selected Brave Bird again, because there was no other option. Garchomp used Dragon claw and I knew that when Staraptor goes down I'll lose. Of course Garchomp hits first, but Staraptor survived the attack with 1 HP (thanks to affection), she used Brave Bird again, finished Garchomp and got KO by Rough Skin. But the battle was won! It was such a great feeling and experience. Cynthia will always be my favorite champion of all time. And Staraptor will always be my true champion of this game

[@rjd1922]

7:27 Iris also has items on all her Pokémon in her initial B2W2 Challenge Mode team.

[@sr.memesalot9434]

Volo be like: hold my plate.

[@HairyJuan]

The rock tomb replacement for stone edge is meant to be a speed check to stop sweepers. She tanked my grass knot and used it on my Jirachi when it was outspending everything.

[@ericgropuis]

I like the scaling in this game, honestly a lot of stuff has been pretty easy I’ve noticed until nearing the end where the level scaling is more balanced as well as more strategies like I was caught off guard by Volkner expecting it to be easy but he put in work and even knocked out my Garchomp. My friend has been struggling so hard with the Elite Four is had me excited to get to them. Leon before this was a champion I felt if he was in a different game could be one of the best champions, I did lose to him on my first go and I just think on paper his team is really balanced but with Cynthia already having a gameplan at the first encounter and not just for rematches makes her definitely the strongest trainer out there

[@karmabum21]

It took me 3 days to finally beat Cynthia and even when I did, I only had one Pokemon left. It was great! I'm really glad that she wasn't a pushover. All the league members used really good strategy and it made it so fun (and frustrating) to play.

[@karmabum21]

@Merciless Freak you have no idea. RRrrrrrrrrrr

[@Alexgodofwar5662]

She is a pushover I only use darkrai and latios the first time and I beat her 5 times and in the 5 time I only use togekiss and lucario to beat garchomp and her last was milotic and thats the only pokemon that was a problem to me

[@syanidesiree1139]

Wanna tell you my recent experience. I was pretty confident, I played Diamond and then Platinum when I was younger, so when I finally faced her in Shining Pearl, I was not expecting her to sweep my entire team... TWICE and I was so damn lucky, cuz my pokemon kept enduring hits with 1HP due to friendliness and spamming healing items. At the end, my strongest Pokemon (Saravah, my Driflim), she managed to survive the Garchomp with one dragon claw with a sword dance, (I also had my three Stockpiled), and Garchomp just missed the final blow and she took down the Garchomp. I laughed so hard that my belly hurt, I could not believe my luck. I never thought I've been feeling this good again in a Pokemon game. I am so, so happy.

[@LostBear.]

I beat her yesterday for the first time, it was my second attempt. I had to cheese it by taking out Spiritomb, Gastrodon and Bronzong with my Destiny Bond + Quick Claw Gengar. Roserade and Lucario were easy oneshots for my lv.78 Infernape, but Garchomp... it took me like 30 minutes to spam revives on my Milotic and Staraptor (with Intimidate) till he had no moves left. After a while of her healing him back up, her Garchomp struggled herself into being beaten. That was the most I struggled with NPC's in Pokemon games. GG WP

[@rainbowappleslice]

I went into the BDSP elite 4 preparing for a stupidly hard fight after hearing about her hellish fights as I never played the original, but I didn’t know that that fight was harder than the original, wow I was surprised

[@theangrywig3905]

That spot now belongs to Volo for reasons I won't spoil But I will say, he technically has 8 pokemon

[@SleepyBrady]

nah buddy Volo might have 8 but he's super easy

[@theangrywig3905]

@@SleepyBrady Yeah I beat him a while ago, my issue was just being under-leveled

[@warriorking9885]

*Volo has entered the chat *

[@daniguban359]

I had trouble with her with milotic, spirittomb and garchamp hehehe wasn't expecting that challenge

[@firefly5677]

Cynthia is not only the strongest trainer, she's also one of the best characters in all of Pokemon. She's kind, humble, and clearly loves her pokemon. Not to mention having the best character design in any pokemon game by a mile

[@rirururu4697]

Your description of how it's time for a new generation of kids to experience getting swept by Cynthia was so accurate.

[@albinocj969]

That 5th double battle rematch against Juan in Emerald is brutal. Three Pokémon with Double Team, ass loads of moves that almost guarantee confusion and One hit KO moves that feel like they have 80% accuracy is not cool. And rain dance

[@robertlupa8273]

The Emerald rematches are something else.

[@raphaelwilkes97]

Lmao it’s been so long since I played emerald but is it rematches in emerald? After you beat the Pokémon champion you beat the game (unless you catch Rayquaza if you haven’t caught it)

[@kristeenlivesay2664]

I still think that B2W2 PWT Cynthia is the scariest. Here’s a link to all the Pokémon champions teams for that part of the tournament. Take a look and tell me what you think, just remember that this is a competitive format with no healing items, full EVs, IVs, and natures, specific rules depending on the type of battle, everything is set to level 50, and last but certainly not least, in singles she ALWAYS leads with garchomp and sets up swords dance as her first move. The worst part is that it’s sash garchomp so unless you have priority or a faster Pokémon it’s impossible to stop her from landing at least one attack at +2

[@CrushedParagon]

I can tell you why her Porygon Z has hyper beam. It has adaptability which turns STAB from 1.5x to 2x damage so adaptability hyper beam is a good nuke button it wants something gone

[@zememerr2329]

To be fair, PorygonZ arguably is the best Hyper Beam user in the game. With base 130 special attack and Adaptability on it, PorygonZ essentially gets a base 300 nuke button, and that’s along with its other three moves which are also very good. You may theoretically get more mileage out of a Download one who could raise special attack instantly, but Adaptability Hyper Beam is nothing to scoff at either

[@Mosesmw]

To be honest, I found Cynthia pretty easy, but my team is well suited to counter her’s. (empoleon, luxray, honchkrow, toxicroak, rampardos and mamoswine) although I did get very lucky with affection dodges and crits, and there were a couple of times wher I felt the ai could’ve handled it slightly better to get a win. For example, I got garchomp down into red with ice fang, but she used a full restore instead of attacking. If she had attacked on that turn and healed later, she could’ve easily swept the rest of my team.

[@ManuelPersona24]

Empoleon with Ice Beam, Luxray with Thunderbold, and you are fine!

[@dragonspadeex]

The battle was over...the dust slowly settles on the battle field. Cynthia stood...defeated. She couldn't believe it...she had been played the fool. She hadnt been bested this badly since...the day she lost her champion title. Garchomp lied fainted on the ground, and the silhouette of the one who beat her stood in the shadows of the dispersing dust. Cynthia: So..the rumors are true. You truly are stronger...but...why? With your strength...your power...why do you not pursue something more?" The dust slowly settled, as a form behind the silhouette appeared...with outstretched wings...and fire bellowing in the air in triumph. Until...only he remained...garbed in a red jacket and red hat. Red: ... He turned and returned his Charizard, and walked off. He said nothing...but his silence spoke volumes. And his eyes told the whole story. What's the point in being the strongest? It's no fun. Constantly fighting...constantly defending your title. It gets...boring. He would rather fight those who genuinely proven themselves then fight the same repetitive match over and over. ...that why he left. He refused to be a final trial, a final test. A final brick wall for those to.hurl themselves at. No...instead...he would watch from the outside, watch a those got stronger threw friendship and trust. Then...when the time came...he would take them on, willing. Cynthia, with this knowledge...smiled. She had lost...yet won at the same time. She returned Garchomp and stood up. "I'll find you again. As I'm sure others will." She said, seeing the figure raising a hand in farewell. She turned and began to walk off. She had her Pokémon to heal and tend too...and some training to do.

[@usmanya5110]

And now she's Basically the new red. I think her re-rematch team is far superior than Red's team.

[@wonderfool1772]

Reds always been overrated. He gets trashed by this b#tch. He was good for his time but move on

[@usmanya5110]

@@wonderfool1772 I can agree on that. His team feels like it's more for nostalgia than a challenge. I mean the only pokemon I consider as threats are Snorlax and Venusaur.

[@raphaelwilkes97]

@@usmanya5110 lmao red mewtwo I believe was insane but he’s definitely not stronger than Cynthia

[@raphaelwilkes97]

😂 Cynthia beats Red easily

[@YubelTheLovingDefenderForever]

I kinda want to know what speed her Garchomp has during the rematches. She still outspeeds my Garchomp which already is above lv90. Though it's just a story Garchomp and nothing special it still surprised me.

[@sabretoothtiger4314]

I was on a call with my friend when he beat Cynthia, he screamed so loud, I was in a hotel, AT 9:30

[@TheAbs0luteEndCyn]

Cynthia: I’m the strongest Pokémon trainer! New Cynthia: No, i am! ???: amutors Cynthia: What was that punk?! Volo: amutors