Toughest E4 Champion to battle?

did you struggle with any of the E4 champion battles? in your opinion, which was the toughest to beat?

Lance gave me a lot of trouble after I beat all the Gym Leaders in HGSS.

I ran a full Water-type team in my last playthrough. Even with Feraligatr, Lanturn and Gyarados on my side, his Garchomp, Salamence and Gyarados were the most bothersome to deal with because of random crits, high speed and setting up, coupled with an AI that doesn't want the opponent to hurt itself in confusion after a very strong Outrage.

Red was also very hard to deal with, since his Venusaur was almost impenetrable, even with permanent Hail in battle.

Have to go with lance, from pokemon red his dragonite was a pain in the ass, also even tho he wasn't as hard professor Kukui on ultra moon surprised me but nothing my trusted butterfree with quick claw and sleep powder couldn't handle

cynthia's garchomp gives me nightmares at the hardened age of 26

Steven is really difficult for me. Those Steel types and Cradily have honestly always been a nightmare to face against. :x Lance isn't bad if you heal up first, and Cynthia can be dealt w/if you have a Water type for Garchomp.

I think the only one I really, properly struggled with was Lance in RBY. I just had no idea that Dragon was weak to Dragon and I remember having to redo it many times, rip.

I struggled immensely with Lance in G/S/C. You try beating Lance's 3 freakin' Dragonites with a single Typhlosion as a kid. 😭

Cynthia was a pain because her Garchomp was borderline broken and at a very high level. Plus Spiritomb was a drag as well.

cynthia was probably the hardest one I could recall. my whole team was slow. only one or two was "fast" and cynthia pulled an avalanche. even my best pokemon was swept. thank you garchomp so much. and you too spiritomb for having no excuses (as of gen 4 - this is why we need a remake. so that I could have my revenge against that danged spiritomb)

running a fire-type-less team in Omega Ruby was also a pain. steven got me at every turn. needed to grind and use my last save before I beat him

The only champion that I ever recall losing to on the first try was with Steven in Alpha Sapphire, and that was mostly because I had an underleveled team of just 5 Pokemon going in. I think I actually struggled more against Cynthia my first go-around, and have always considered her the toughest Champion.

That being said, though he doesn't really count, Ghetsis completely wrecked me after the Elite Four in White. I think I had to battle him four or five times to finally win, even though I had no trouble with the rest of the Elite Four and N up to that point.

I genuinely don't think any Champion was as hard as Cynthia for me. Mostly because a lot of Champions were glorified E4-members since they still had a type specialization and it wasn't too hard to take them down since I usually had a Pokemon or two that could level their whole team. Cynthia was a whole different story though, and actually took quite a bit of effort.

It's also interesting that I've never faced Alder in BW before but I kind of wonder if he'd be a decent challenge.

Lorelei was annoying, because her Pokemon had moves which were most likely super effective against the Pokemon you were using which is super effective against hers lol....

Lorelei set the tone for me, being the 1st opponent. Things either went really bad, or really good. That Lapras confuse ray.......

Besides Cynthia, N or Ghetsis in BW were pretty hard to beat in my opinion. They're not really champions, but it's the last battle in the story regardless.

If by Champion you mean "End-Game Boss" I'd say Evice still gives me PTSD even after using the Master Ball cloning glitch. The level spike in Colosseum is pretty excessive, the Pokemon you're given likely won't be ideal for that fight and you might not even know how to grind in the game since it's so oddly set-up.

However, I'd be foolish if I didn't mention Cynthia in Diamond and Pearl for being unrelenting (could say that for most of the Elite 4 in DP actually except Bertha) .

Blue in Fire Red/Leaf Green and the Originals also has pretty high level spike which can amount in little more than lobbing your most powerful attacks and hoping for the best.

Cynthia or Blue in Gen I

Cynthia in Diamond and Pearl, Pearl was my first game (or is it platinum, i kinda forgot i get two of them at the same time i bought my DSi) and she totally wrecked me

Lance. Even if my levels are above his, I can't do this fight without an Ice type.

Cynthia seems like she has the strongest team, but somehow I managed to beat her on my first try when I played Platinum. I've only played Gen 4 once so I don't know if I could pull that off again.