Ranking the legendary birds in Pokemon

The legendary birds set the standard for legendary trios in the Pokemon franchise.

While they all have impressive stats and movepools, they perform wildly differently. They each have a different type combo, access to multiple moves, and a different stat allocation. As a result, they can be quite interesting to rank since they aren’t so similar to each other as one might think.

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Which legendary bird Pokemon is the best?

3) Articuno

While it might be one of the coolest Pokemon from Kanto, Articuno simply can’t compete with the rest of the legendary bird trio. Most of this has to do with its typing: There are a lot of issues with Ice and Flying.

First of all, Articuno takes 50% from Stealth Rocks, unless it’s holding Heavy Duty Boots. Secondly, Ice and Flying don’t really cover each other well. Steel-types can essentially sit in front of Articuno and not worry about taking damage.

To make matters worse, Articuno is the only legendary bird without a 125 Special Attack stat. Therefore, it struggles to do damage even in matchups where its moves aren’t resisted.

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2) Moltres

Moltres gets access to some unique moves like Will-o-Wisp (Image via Niantic)

Surprisingly, Moltres shares many weaknesses with Articuno. They both get obliterated by Stealth Rocks, unless they're holding Heavy Duty Boots, as well as Rock moves in general.

So why is Moltres ranked higher? Well, mostly because of its typing. The Fire-type allows it to deal with Steel-types, and not too many threats can resist both Fire and Flying. On top of that, Moltres gets access to Will-o-Wisp, which can help it endure hits better.

Perhaps the biggest advantage that Moltres has is its 125 base Special Attack. This allows the fiery bird to run offensive sets with Flamethrower, Overheat and Hurricane.

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1) Zapdos

Zapdos is Electric-type along with Flying- types (Image via The Pokemon Company)

While Moltres and Articuno are somewhat closer to each other in performance, Zapdos is far better than the both of them. This once again comes down to typing. The Electric-type allows it to resist Steel, while the Flying-type takes away Electric’s only weakness (Ground).

Zapdos’ movepool is also slightly bigger than those of the other birds. The entire legendary bird trio gets access to Hurricane, which is inaccurate out of rain, and Ancient Power, which is incredibly weak. However, Zapdos gets access to Heat Wave.

This one move allows the Pokemon to deal with Ice-types if it can move first. Heat Wave also gives Zapdos a better matchup against Steel and Grass. Considering it has the same base Special Attack as Moltres, there simply is too much going in Zapdos’ favor.

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