Building the best all 22 lineup is a math problem before it is a football problem. Every one of the 22 slots reads its own mix of base stats, body type and typing, and the ceiling of the board is set by the pool's scarcest resource: heavy bodies that fit a line or defensive tackle job. This page shows the strongest 22-name board that can be assembled from all 1,025 draftable Pokémon, why every pick wins its job, and which replacement to take when somebody else has already drafted your starter.
The rules behind the reference board
- One Pokémon per job. Twenty-two different names. The builder will let you stack Avalugg in all six heavy slots, but a roster is 22 players, so the board plays by the draft rule.
- Take the best grade, not the biggest name. A legendary with the wrong body type loses to a common body with the right weight class every time — Melmetal stands 2.5 m and weighs 800 kg, and it grades 26 at cornerback.
- Spend the giants first. Seven jobs (LT, LG, C, RG, RT, DT1, DT2) want 120 kg or more, and only a few dozen bodies in the pool qualify. If you leave the line until last, you are filling it with 60 kg defenders.
- Never let one unit fall apart. The scoreboard averages your 11 offensive and 11 defensive grades, so a 74 next to a 40 is worth less than two 65s.
- Use typing as the tiebreaker. When two bodies grade within a point or two, the one whose types sit on the position's bonus list is the better long-term starter.
- Re-check the grade after every swap. Grades are live, so a five-second experiment beats an hour of theory.
The Ceiling 22: the strongest board in the pool
Twenty-two slots, twenty-two names, 66.4 overall. The grades below are the exact numbers the roster board shows when you drop each player into each slot.
| Position | Pick | Grade | Why it wins the job |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Deoxys Normal | 68 | Sp. attack 150 and speed 150 both sit at the stat cap, so the QB stat term hits 72; psychic is on the bonus list. Undersized at 60.8 kg, which is the only reason it is a 68 and not a 75. |
| RB | Annihilape | 66 | Speed 90 with attack 115, hp 110 and defense 80 — no wasted stats. At 1.2 m and 56 kg it sits almost exactly in the middle of the RB size band. |
| WR1 | Zeraora | 72 | 143 speed at 44.5 kg and 1.5 m is the best receiver build in the game, and electric typing adds 22 to the typing term. |
| WR2 | Kilowattrel | 67 | 125 speed without losing the weight class, and electric plus flying are both on the WR2 bonus list — the highest typing score of any receiver. |
| TE | Slaking | 65 | Attack 160 and hp 150 with 130.5 kg on a 2.0 m frame: the only body that blocks like a tackle and still holds the tight end stat term. |
| LT | Avalugg | 74 | The best pick on the board. Defense 184, 505 kg, 2.0 m — the size term lands at 95 and the stat term at 68, giving the highest grade in the pool. |
| LG | Iron Hands | 64 | Hp 154 with attack 140 and 380.7 kg. Fighting typing is on the guard bonus list, which is what separates it from the other big bodies. |
| C | Metagross | 64 | Defense 130 at 550 kg, and steel plus psychic both score on the center's bonus list. The heaviest body left after Avalugg and Iron Hands. |
| RG | Snorlax | 65 | Hp 160 and 460 kg on a 2.1 m frame. The size term lands at 78, which is why a 30-speed body still grades in the mid-60s at guard. |
| RT | Hippowdon | 64 | Defense 118 with 300 kg, and ground typing is on the right tackle bonus list. The cheapest way to keep the line from falling off a cliff. |
| K | Marshadow | 62 | 0.7 m and 22.2 kg with sp. defense 90: the size term scores 89, which is what the kicker formula rewards. No other small body gets close. |
| LE | Volcanion | 67 | Attack 110 and defense 120 at 195 kg, with fire on the edge bonus list. A true two-way end rather than a pure speed rusher. |
| DT1 | Aggron | 71 | Defense 180 at 360 kg with steel and rock typing — an 82 typing term, the highest of any down lineman. |
| DT2 | Great Tusk | 65 | Defense 131 and hp 115 at 320 kg, with ground typing on the bonus list. The second interior job needs mass, not speed. |
| RE | Crabominable | 65 | Attack 132 on a 180 kg body with fighting typing. The strongest right edge in the pool and a 1.7 m frame that fits the end band. |
| LOLB | Iron Leaves | 68 | Speed 104 and attack 130 at 125 kg: the size term lands at 94, the best of any linebacker, and it still runs well enough to cover the edge. |
| MLB | Cloyster | 70 | Defense 180 at 132.5 kg. The middle linebacker formula reads defense first at 35%, so this is the highest-graded inside linebacker on the board. |
| ROLB | Machamp | 65 | Attack 130 with fighting typing on the ROLB bonus list, on a 1.6 m, 130 kg frame that sits in the middle of the band. |
| CB1 | Ogerpon | 64 | Speed 110 with attack 120 on a 1.2 m, 39.8 kg frame. The size term lands at 82, the best fit of any fast body in the secondary. |
| CB2 | Sneasler | 63 | Speed 120 and attack 130 at 43 kg. The right corner grades poison and fighting bodies differently, and this is the best body left for the job. |
| FS | Tornadus Incarnate | 65 | Speed 111 with attack 115, and flying typing scores on the free safety bonus list. Reads the deep ball better than any pure burner. |
| SS | Genesect | 66 | Attack 120 at 82.5 kg gives the size term a 92. Strong safeties want mass in the box, and this is the heaviest elite fit available. |
How the board grades out by unit
The offense averages 66.5 and the defense 66.3, which is about as balanced as the pool allows. The offensive line is where the board separates from a normal draft: Avalugg at 74, Snorlax at 65, Iron Hands at 64, Metagross at 64 and Hippowdon at 64. Most boards lose three or four points a slot on the right side of the line because the giants run out; this one never drops below 64. The offense's weakest link is Deoxys Normal's weight — 60.8 kg against a quarterback band that peaks near 85 kg — but its twin 150s in sp. attack and speed more than cover for it.
On defense, the middle of the field is the strength. Cloyster's 180 defense at Mike grades 70, Aggron's 180 defense at the three-technique grades 71, and Iron Leaves covers the left edge at 68. The two soft spots are the corners, where the speed-heavy formula caps out in the mid-60s for every fast body in the pool, and the right outside linebacker slot, where Machamp wins at 65 on typing rather than raw numbers. If you want to understand why those jobs grade lower everywhere, the full position reference breaks down each formula weight by weight.
The board below is the same tool the rest of the site runs. Load it, search each name, and watch the scoreboard land on 66 offense and 66 defense. Then start experimenting: the fastest way to learn the grading model is to break this board one slot at a time and see how many points it costs.
The closest calls: your replacement list
In a snake draft you will not get all 22 of these names. Most jobs have a one-point fallback that costs almost nothing; a few positions have a cliff. This is the gap at each of the tight spots.
| Position | Starter | Grade | Best replacement | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Deoxys Normal | 68 | Sharpedo | 66 |
| RB | Annihilape | 66 | Infernape | 65 |
| WR2 | Kilowattrel | 67 | Keldeo Ordinary | 66 |
| TE | Slaking | 65 | Druddigon | 64 |
| K | Marshadow | 62 | Shuckle | 61 |
| LE | Volcanion | 67 | Chien-Pao | 63 |
| DT2 | Great Tusk | 65 | Glastrier | 64 |
| RE | Crabominable | 65 | Dracozolt | 64 |
| LOLB | Iron Leaves | 68 | Salamence | 63 |
| MLB | Cloyster | 70 | Druddigon | 62 |
| CB2 | Sneasler | 63 | Weavile | 62 |
| SS | Genesect | 66 | Cresselia | 64 |
Two warnings hide in that table. First, the fallbacks are not independent — Keldeo is also the third-best WR1, and Druddigon is the backup at both tight end and middle linebacker, so a run on one position can drain another. Second, the cliff is at Avalugg: no other body grades within eight points of it at left tackle, so if it is gone before your pick, the line has to be rebuilt around Aggron and Snorlax.
What the season simulation does with this board
Press simulate and the board plays a 17-game season against the site's fictional franchises. Opponent ratings are fixed — 38 in week 1 rising to 76 in week 17 — so the rating you build is edge you keep for the whole calendar. This board rates 69 overall and averages 27.3 points for and 13.4 against across 12,000 simulated seasons, finishing with about 13.2 wins and going undefeated roughly once in 130 runs. A board built from the top sixty of every list rates about 51 and averages 7.5 wins against the same schedule, which is the clearest demonstration that the ceiling board is a real upgrade rather than a cosmetic one.
That is also why 17-0 is a run rather than a guarantee: the schedule tilts upward through the season, and the last five opponents are rated above your board. Winning the first half is routine. Winning the whole thing means winning every late-week coin flip, which is why perfect boards are worth posting on the wall. If that is the goal, pair this board with the 17-0 construction guide before you start swapping names.
How to rebuild this board in five minutes
Fill the seven heavy jobs first
LT, LG, C, RG, RT, DT1 and DT2. Use Avalugg, Iron Hands, Metagross, Snorlax, Hippowdon, Aggron and Great Tusk — in that order if you can, since the 460 kg-plus bodies disappear first.
Lock the two edge jobs
Volcanion on the left and Crabominable on the right. Both read attack and speed on a 1.4-2.1 m frame, so a light, fast body is a wasted pick here.
Spend the speed on the outside
Zeraora at WR1, Kilowattrel at WR2, Ogerpon and Sneasler at the corners, Tornadus at free safety. Every one of these jobs reads speed at 35-50%.
Finish with the specialists
Marshadow at kicker, Genesect at strong safety, Iron Leaves and Cloyster and Machamp across the linebackers, Slaking at tight end, Annihilape at running back, Deoxys Normal at quarterback.
Simulate and compare
Run the season, then change one variable at a time — swap the kicker, swap the right guard — and see which swap moves the scoreboard. That is how the position weights stop being abstract.
A balanced board beats a top-heavy one because the scoreboard averages your filled slots. If you want a harder test, build this same 22 out of the original 151 with the Gen 1 format — the pool has one 460 kg body and the line collapses fast.
Load the Ceiling 22 and run the season
Search the names, fill the 22 slots, and simulate 17 games. Free, no account, no download — the whole game runs in your browser.