Knowing the opponent's type and then using your best Pokemon to counter your opponent is core to this game. This quickly leads to ranking the best Pokemon per type. For example, the two current raid bosses (Deoxys and Cresselia) are weak against bug, dark, and ghost type Pokemon. It makes sense to check out the top DO@20 the best bug type Pokemon, the best dark type Pokemon and the best ghost type Pokemon.
But ranking Pokemon by each type has its problems. If you have many of these top Pokemon, which do you choose? To answer this, there are many good lists for specific raid bosses, a few which are discussed in our own Cresselia raid boss counters rankings and Deoxys raid boss counters rankings.
Similar to rankings by your specific opponent, consider looking at rankings by opponent's type, and not my pokemon's type. For example, consider our list of best counters against psychic type Pokemon. 8 of top 10 are all dark and ghost types, and the first bug type is down at #11.
Lets take a closer look at bug types, which are super effective against grass, psychic and dark Pokemon. If we look at the best counters against grass Pokemon, there is only one bug type Pokemon in the top 15 which is Roserade (#6). If we look at the best counters against dark Pokemon, there are two pure bug types in the top 10, but none in the top 5. So it looks like you can build an excellent well-rounded team without ever using one bug type!
We can expand this to all types and find which pokemon are necessary to build an excellent well-rounded team. Going through each type, similar to the bug/dark/ghost links above, this is a list of the highest DO@20 Pokemon for all 18 types. We only need half, 9, of the 18 Pokemon that you would need if you got the highest DO@20 Pokemon for each type.
- Gengar
- Moltres
- Rayquaza
- Metagross
- Breloom
- Alakazam
- Groudon
- Kyogre
- Electivire
But the highest DO@20 Pokemon can be different for various opponents of the same type. Consider getting a wider variety of Pokemon to build teams with. If we look at the top 6 DO@2O Pokemon for each type we end up with 40 different Pokemon, which is much less than the 18 * 6 = 108 different pokemon we would need otherwise.
Here is a (yet another) ranking of Pokemon. This list concentrates on buildling excellent well-rounded teams that covers all Pokemon types. It shows 103 Pokemon that are the top 24 of DO@20 for all 18 Pokemon types. Each column is the count of times the Pokemon shows up in the Top list across all types. For example, Mewtwo shows 18 under the Top 24 column which means Mewtwo is in the top 24 of all 18 different types. Pokemon on the top of the list are good against many different types. But to guarantee coverage, you can collect and power up all pokemon under the Top 1 or Top 3 columns.
| Pokemon | Top 1 | Top 3 | Top 6 | Top 12 | Top 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mewtwo | 0 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 18 |
| Gengar | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 15 |
| Rayquaza | 1 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 14 |
| Moltres | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 12 |
| Metagross | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 12 |
| Breloom | 2 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 10 |
| Blaziken | 0 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 9 |
| Salamence | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 16 |
| Alakazam | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11 |
| Roserade | 0 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 9 |
| Dragonite | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 14 |
| Weavile | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8 |
| Machamp | 0 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| Groudon | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| Lucario | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 |
| Flareon | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| Kyogre | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Electivire | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Jynx | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| Rhyperior | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Tyranitar | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Charizard | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| Latios | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| Hariyama | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Gardevoir | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Porygon Z | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| Honchkrow | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Entei | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Exeggutor Normal | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Houndoom | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Heracross | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Typhlosion | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Espeon | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Exeggutor Alola | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Gyarados | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Venusaur | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Scizor | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Magmortar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Raikou | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Banette | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Cacturne | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Infernape | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Victreebel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Luxray | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Floatzel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Togekiss | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Zapdos | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Shiftry | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Ursaring | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Sceptile | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Pinsir | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Arcanine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Deoxys Normal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Golem Normal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Magneton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Omastar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Latias | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Primeape | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Golem Alola | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Rhydon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Jolteon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Manectric | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Absol | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Mismagius | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Staraptor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Hitmonlee | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Crawdaunt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Hitmonlee | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Empoleon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Raichu Alola | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Drifblim | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Scyther | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Machoke | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Lugia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Sneasel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Vileplume | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Ho Oh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Rapidash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Machoke | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Drifblim | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Vileplume | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Skuntank | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Muk Normal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Granbull | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Raichu Normal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Flygon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Swampert | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Starmie | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Blastoise | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Swellow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Vaporeon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Feraligatr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kingdra | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Fearow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muk Alola | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Carnivine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Torterra | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Electabuzz | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Camerupt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Carnivine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Swampert | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Feraligatr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Electabuzz | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Table created from Pokemon data as of November 27, 2018.