The Worst Legendary Pokemon

Legendary Pokemon always have a certain air around them, sporting some of the most gregarious and out-there designs in the entire franchise. The more creative they try to be, the higher the risk of producing a dud. Well, while the ideas behind them may be interesting, some legendary Pokemon miss the mark. Here's what we think are the worst legendary Pokemon in the franchise.

Worst Legendary Pokemon - Deoxys

Deoxys is an oddball, mainly because it was an early example of a Pokemon that was specifically designed to be alien. In a weird way, you can make the argument that it is a proto-ultra beast, but its contrasting orange and cyan body, weird tentacle arms, and over-wide hips give it a goofy, overly menacing appearance. Deoxys is supposed to be based on DNA, and you can sort of see that motif, but it just comes across as the leftovers of a few Pokemon designs cobbled together into one amorphous being. 

Deoxys is one of the first Pokemon to have multiple formes to it, something that became a trademark as the years went on for the franchise. Back in Ruby and Sapphire, alternate formes were based on which version of Generation III you had; so Ruby and Sapphire had the normal Deoxys, while the Attack Forme was only available in Fire Red, for example. To say the least, to collect all of the formes, you had to purchase four different games. On top of that, only the Attack and Speed formes are worth using, making the Defense and original Deoxys harder to justify for competitive play like unrestricted VGC formats. 

Worst Legendary Pokemon - Landorus

OK, I got to admit, I think the legendary genies, or ‘Kami’ trio as they are unofficially known as, get a bad rap because many fans felt they were copied/pasted designs. To me that is the point, since they are all based on actual depictions of Kami in Japanese mythology. Tornadus and Thundurus in particular I find to be great designs, but if I did have to pick a weak link, it is Landorus, and it’s mostly due to it being the most generic of the three. What bothers me most about Landorus is its head design, the sort of odd, Princess Leia-like hairstyle mixed with its cloud moustache is just super off putting. It also doesn’t help that its orange-and-brown color scheme is kind of subpar to the green and blues seen with Tornadus and Thundurus. 

Game Freak apparently agreed with the fan reactions a bit, introducing the Therian Formes in Black 2 and White 2. Of the three, Landorus benefited from it the most, with its Therian Forme now being a quadruped carried on by its clouds to benefit it’s Ground/Flying typing. It is frankly the only version of Landorus that should be used competitively, as it has the right combination of stats, abilities, and moves to be such a massive threat; it is often one of the most competitively viable Pokemon when it’s allowed in VGC formats. This makes the original Landorus even more forgotten, which I would say is for the best. 

Worst Legendary Pokemon - Mespirit

The Lake trio, to me, is the most boring legendary trio in the franchise. Sure, the Swords of Justice are a bit awkward, the Legendary Golems are a bit niche, and everyone initially hated the Kami trio, but the Lake trio are an example of the overwhelming mediocrity of designs that comes out of Generation IV, to the point where I bet most hardcore fans can’t tell me the names of all three guardians and match them to their designs. Yes, they are color-coded and have different head and hair styles, but how many remember that Mespirit was the pink one, for example?

By the way, Mespirit is the worst of the three for two reasons; first, the head with its odd jester-like tentacles just sticks out poorly overall when compared to Azelf’s crown and Uxie’s turban-like hair. Second, Mespirit was the most difficult to catch since it was a roaming Pokemon, making it a pain to deal with in Diamond and Pearl. I get that they are all based on sprites mixed with Japanese imperial symbols, but ultimately they are just generic Psychic-types with interchangeable bodies and stats. Mespirit is the most middling of the three, and really has nothing to stand out with other than being solid in Attack and Defense that makes it hard to use at the end of the day. 

Worst Legendary Pokemon - Regigigas

The Legendary Golems are a ‘love or hate’ group of Pokemon. For me personally, I enjoy their unique designs but rarely use them. For many though, they are as generic as it gets. Gen IV introduced the most generic golem of all: the master of the golems Regigigas, a pure Normal-type that is essentially just a bigger golem with grass on its feet. I honestly don’t like its design at all, the yellow ridges segmenting its black-and-white body just look goofy to me. 

Regigigas is also the most tragic Pokemon in the franchise because of how dirty it was done by Game Freak. It sports monster stats, with base 100 or more in all of it’s stats except Special Attack. It’s 150 Attack combined with its Base-100 Speed is fantastic, but it has one crippling flaw; its ability Slow Start. Slow Start halves its attack and speed for five turns, making it a virtual paperweight despite high defenses for the battle. There are gimmicks and ways to mitigate Slow Start, but the effort is usually not worth it when you consider that Regigigas has no STAB with any of its coverage moves and can’t really do much against some opponents. It’s just a universally flawed Pokemon and arguably one of the worst legendaries in the franchise.

Worst Legendary Pokemon - Zygarde

I hate Zygarde. I hate its concept. I hate its color scheme. I hate the fact that it has three different formes, each of them complemented by a gimmick of finding cells in Pokemon Sun and Moon. I hate that it looks incomplete, like an incomprehensible blob of a Pokemon that has a vaguely snake-like body. I get what they are trying to do with Zygarde, it's a Pokemon that needs to be completed to be fully powerful. I also get that all three of the formes are based on the children of Loki in Norse mythology, Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel. But just the sheer headache of dealing with Zygarde and its formes, combined with the simply odd designs of all three formes, puts it right at the bottom of the list of Pokemon I like.

It’s not like it's even worth using in battle either. The 50% base form of Zygarde is a massive disappointment mostly due to lacking a solid movepool in X and Y. This changed a bit as the cell and core gimmicks were introduced, but its stats are balanced and a bit middling. It can certainly take a hit with its chunky base 108 HP and 121 Defense, but it pales in comparison to the box legendaries of Xerneas and Yveltal when it was introduced. Zygarde’s complete form only adds more HP to it, raising its stats to a base 216 HP with no changes to its Defense or Attack. It’s just not worth using if you ask me.