Mythicals are defined by one mechanical trait Legendaries don't share: they cannot be caught in the wild in any main-series game. Every Mythical — from Mew to Zarude — has only ever been legitimately obtained through a time-limited distribution event, a promotional serial code, or (in a handful of modern cases) a guaranteed in-game gift tied to purchasing the newest title. That distribution model is what separates a Mythical from a Legendary like Zapdos or a Restricted Legend like Koraidon: rarity here is a business decision, not a Pokédex classification.
This ranking weighs three factors: distribution rarity and the nostalgia attached to how a player actually obtained the Pokémon, mechanical uniqueness (does the Mythical do something no other Pokémon can replicate), and competitive relevance in VGC Restricted formats or Smogon Ubers/AG, where legal. A Mythical that's mechanically inert but historically significant (Mew) ranks differently than one that's competitively dominant but arrived via a mundane Switch-bundle giveaway (Zarude).
The Full Ranking, Mew to Zarude
1. Arceus — the God Pokémon
Arceus's Multitype ability changes its type to match whichever Plate it's holding, giving it access to every type's STAB from a single 720 BST spread evenly across all six stats (120 each). No other Pokémon has ever had a mechanic that rewrites its own typing on the fly. It was Ubers/AG-legal in generations where it saw play and remains banned from standard VGC as a Mythical, but in the rare formats that allow it, a well-played Arceus set — Judgment plus Extreme Speed or Recover — is one of the most flexible win conditions ever printed.
2. Darkrai — the 2007 Toys 'R' Us icon
Darkrai's signature move Dark Void put a Pokémon to sleep with (originally) no accuracy penalty when used by Darkrai itself, versus 50% for anyone else — a distinction that made Darkrai one of the only reliable sleep-inducers in Gen 4 Ubers before the move was nerfed to 80% accuracy for everyone in Gen 7 following years of competitive complaints. Distribution-wise, the 2007 US Toys 'R' Us Darkrai (via the Member's Card unlocking Newmoon Island in Diamond/Pearl) is one of the most-remembered Mythical events for players who grew up in that era, second only to Mew's original 1999 Nintendo Power promotion.
3. Jirachi — the 2003 Wishmaker
Jirachi's original distribution — the 2003 Pokémon Colosseum bonus disc and the Wishmaker movie promotion — is one of the earliest examples of Game Freak using a Mythical as event marketing, a template every subsequent Mythical has followed. Its Doom Desire (a delayed 2-turn Steel nuke) and Calm Mind + Body Slam sets carried it to consistent OU/Uber relevance for over a decade, longer than almost any other single-generation Mythical.
4. Genesect — Techno Blast and the Drive mechanic
Genesect's signature move Techno Blast changes type depending on which Drive item it holds (Douse, Shock, Burn, Chill), giving it four different STAB coverage options off one moveslot — a design later reused for Silvally's Memory items. Its base 71/95/120/95/95/99 spread with Download (an ability that boosts Attack or Sp. Atk based on the opponent's weaker defensive stat) made it an Ubers-tier threat in Gen 5 and 6 before falling out of the meta as power crept upward.
5. Deoxys — four forms, one Pokédex entry
Deoxys is the only Mythical with four battle-viable forms accessible via held item or move (Normal, Attack, Defense, Speed), each redistributing the same 600 BST into a wildly different stat spread — Attack Forme's 180 Attack/180 Sp. Atk made it an Ubers OHKO threat, while Speed Forme's 150 Speed with access to Stealth Rock and Spikes made it a top-tier hazard-setter in formats where it was legal.
6. Magearna — the Gen 7 Ubers mainstay
Soul-Heart raises Magearna's Sp. Atk every time any Pokémon on the field faints, turning long games into snowballing sweeps. Combined with a 130 base Sp. Atk, access to Fleur Cannon (a 130 BP move that drops the user's own Sp. Atk two stages, mitigated by Assault Vest sets), and Steel/Fairy typing giving it only one weakness (Fire) and ten resistances, Magearna has held a top-10 Ubers usage slot in nearly every generation since its Gen 7 release.
7. Zeraora — Gen 7's fan-vote Mythical
Zeraora's base 143 Speed and access to Plasma Fists (which turns Normal-type moves into Electric for the turn, enabling Boomburst-style coverage) made it a viable Ubers speed-control pick, though its pure Electric typing and lack of a special attacking stat above 95 limited it to a narrower niche than Magearna or Genesect.
8. Victini — the only Fire/Psychic type in the game
Victini's V-create (a 180 BP Fire move that drops Attack, Defense and Speed one stage each) is the single highest base-power physical STAB move in a Mythical's kit, and its unique Fire/Psychic typing gives it a resistance profile no other Pokémon shares. It saw brief Ubers relevance as a Choice Band nuke before being overshadowed by bulkier Fire-types.
9. Hoopa — Unbound's stat explosion
Hoopa Confined is a middling Psychic/Ghost support Pokémon, but using Hyperspace Hole transforms it into Hoopa Unbound, adding the Dark type and pushing Attack to 160 — one of the largest form-change stat jumps of any Mythical. Unbound's Ubers presence was brief but memorable, largely as a Choice Scarf revenge-killer.
10. Marshadow — the hardest Mythical to obtain
Marshadow was distributed almost exclusively through a single QR-code Mystery Gift tied to Pokémon: I Choose You! theatrical screenings, making original copies genuinely rare among players who missed that window. Its signature move Spectral Thief steals the target's positive stat boosts before attacking, a unique anti-setup mechanic no other Pokémon has.
11. Volcanion — the last Gen 6 Mythical
Fire/Water is a typing combination that exists on no other Pokémon, giving Volcanion resistances to both of its own STAB types plus Steel and Fairy. Steam Eruption (a 110 BP Water move with a 30% burn chance) made it a workable special attacker, though its lack of Speed (70 base) kept it out of the top Ubers tier.
12. Celebi — the Gen 2 time-travel Mythical
Celebi's Psychic/Grass typing and access to Nasty Plot plus recovery via Recover made it a durable stall-breaker in mid-generation OU and Ubers formats, though its stats (100 across the board) never let it dominate a metagame outright. It remains one of the most nostalgically significant Mythicals due to its GS Ball distribution tie-in with Gen 2.
13. Meltan and Melmetal — the Let's Go/GO crossover
Meltan's distribution — exclusively through Pokémon GO via the Mystery Box item, requiring players to actually engage with the mobile game to unlock it in Let's Go, Pikachu!/Eevee! and later titles — was the first time a core-series Mythical was gated behind another platform entirely. Melmetal's Double Iron Bash (hits twice, 30% flinch chance each hit) and pure Steel typing with a 143 base Attack made it a legitimate Ubers physical wallbreaker once G-Max Melmetal entered the format.
14. Shaymin — Sky Forme's fragile speed
Shaymin's Land Forme is a slow support Pokémon, but Sky Forme (activated by Gracidea flower, then reverting on switch-out or sleep) raises Speed to 127 and turns it into a Seed Flare special attacker, though 4x Flying weakness to Ice made it fragile against common Ubers Ice-type coverage.
15. Manaphy — Heart Swap and the Phione connection
Manaphy's Tail Glow (raises Sp. Atk three stages in one turn, the strongest single-use stat boost of any move) combined with Rest for recovery made it a genuine Ubers sweeper threat in generations where sleep-clause interactions favored it. It's also the only Mythical that breeds — Phione, its non-Mythical 'child' species, was deliberately designed so Manaphy's rarity wasn't diluted by breeding chains.
16. Keldeo — the only Mythical with a Hidden Ability quirk
Keldeo's Secret Sword (a physical move that uses the target's Defense stat instead of the attacker's Attack) let a special-attack-focused Pokémon threaten physically bulky walls, and its Resolute Forme (cosmetic only, tied to knowing Secret Sword) made it briefly relevant in Gen 5 Ubers before power creep passed it by.
17. Diancie — the fourth Fairy/Rock hybrid... except there isn't one
Diancie is the only Rock/Fairy type in the game, and its Mega Evolution (Mega Diancie, Ubers-legal in Gen 6) pushed Speed to 110 and Sp. Atk to 160 with Magic Bounce, making it a genuine offensive Ubers threat for one generation before Mega Evolutions were removed from the format entirely in Gen 8.
18. Meloetta — the only Mythical that changes type via battle move
Relic Song switches Meloetta between Normal/Psychic (Aria Forme) and Fighting/Psychic (Pirouette Forme) mid-battle, changing its offensive stat split each time, but its overall stats (100 across the board in most categories) were never strong enough to carry it into consistent competitive use.
19. Phione — the only Mythical without Mythical status in-game
Phione is Pokédex-flagged as a regular Pokémon in-game despite being distribution-locked in practice (only obtainable by breeding a distributed Manaphy), a genuine classification oddity. Base 480 BST with no standout stat kept it out of every competitive tier above the very lowest.
20. Zarude — the first Mythical with a natural in-game Ability twist
Zarude's Leaf Guard prevents status conditions in sunny weather, and its Dark/Grass typing is unique in the Pokédex, but a 105/120/105/70/70/105 spread with no reliable STAB combo above 120 BP kept it a middling Ubers pick rather than a format-defining one.
21. Genesect's predecessor era — Victini/Keldeo/Meloetta as the 'Gen 5 trio'
These three shared a distribution model — sequential movie-tie-in events across 2011-2012 — that later Mythicals abandoned in favor of digital serial codes, making them a useful marker for how Mythical distribution evolved from physical event attendance toward online code redemption.
22. Mew — the original, and the least competitively relevant
Mew started it all: hidden in Red/Green's code and distributed via the February 1996 CoroCoro promotion in Japan, then the 1999 Nintendo Power US giveaway. Its base 100 stats across every category and access to every TM in the game (the only Pokémon with that trait pre-Gen 9) make it mechanically flexible but rarely dominant — Mew's significance is almost entirely historical and nostalgic rather than competitive.
Case Study: Why Dark Void Got Nerfed
Darkrai's Dark Void originally worked at Darkrai's own accuracy formula giving it an effective 100% hit rate through Compoundeyes-less sets in Gen 4-6 Ubers, while every other Pokémon that learned it (via a since-removed tutor interaction with Smeargle's Sketch) suffered the standard 50% rate. Competitive backlash centered on Smeargle using Dark Void to guarantee-sleep a Pokémon turn one — a strategy strong enough that Smogon banned Smeargle + Dark Void as a combination years before Game Freak addressed it directly. In Sun & Moon, Game Freak nerfed Dark Void to 80% accuracy across the board, closing the loophole permanently and marking one of the few times a signature move nerf was clearly a direct response to competitive-scene pressure rather than in-house balance testing.
Why Magearna and Melmetal Still Matter
Most Gen 6 and earlier Mythicals have been power-crept out of relevance as newer generations introduced higher base stats and stronger abilities. Magearna and Melmetal are exceptions because their signature mechanics — Soul-Heart's snowball scaling and Double Iron Bash's guaranteed double-hit — don't get diluted by stat inflation the way a flat damage stat would. A Soul-Heart boost is a full stat stage regardless of generation, and a 30% double-flinch chance stays exactly as disruptive in Gen 9 as it was in Gen 7, which is why both remain Restricted-format-adjacent threats in current VGC discussion despite being six-plus years old.