Lapras vs Articuno
If you have to choose between powering one of those two and you don’t have any competitive ice-type, which one you would choose? Arti is kind of better but high-rare candy costly, plus you can use Lapras as a bulky defender but it’s attack is kind of underwhelming
Answers
Or possibly Gardevoir, depending on moveset. A strong Gardevoir with Dazzling Gleam (And maybe a new Fairy quick move) would be absolute murder on Dragonite, Salamance, and Rayquaza.
Other than that, though, I'd power up the Lapras if you have the candy. Good to have a collection of 6 ice attackers for when ice is optimal in a raid, and it's way easier to get 1 Cloyster, 1 Jynx, 1 Lapras, 1 Articuno, etc., than to get 6 good ones of anything.
There was a time when ice type was essential, but in today's current meta, they really aren't. I have one of each powered up (the lapras from before the gym rework, and the articuno simply because it's my teams bird and I wanted to have one powered up) and they both easily knock out a dragonite. If you must power up one, I'd go lapras as it's slightly more versatile (can be placed in a gym for defending) and would cost you less rare candies (I'm assuming), but as others said probably better to just wait until gen 3.
