User blog comment:Lucy Heartifilia/Battle Of The Ace's/@comment-5268982-20120712092345

I'm not so sure...Laxus is post-timeskip and Gildarts is pre-timeskip. And if we take into account that Hades said that he didn't expect someone else on Gildarts' level at the guild (meaning Laxus) then if Laxus is after the timeskip he is probably stronger than Gildarts before it.

Sooo my vote goes on Laxus!