Mythical Pokémon in the Meta-game

A comprehensive overview of Mew, Celebi, Jirachi and Deoxys in the Pokémon GO meta. In the first three generations, there are four Mythical Pokemon in Pokémon GO, although Mew is the only one that has been confirmed so far:

• Mew Psychic
• Celebi Psychic Grass
• Jirachi Psychic Steel
• Deoxys Psychic

Mythical Pokémon are not obtainable from Raid battles, but rather feature separate quest lines for each Pokeamon. Check out our Pokemon GO Mew Quest Guide: A Mythical Discovery and Pokemon GO Celebi Quest guide: how to unlock Celebi in Pokemon GO.

In this guide we will look at where these Mythical Pokémon will find their place within the meta game once they become obtainable.

Mew in the meta

Mew’s pure Psychic typing resists Fighting and Psychic type moves (0.714x damage), but takes super effective (1.4x) damage from Bug, Ghost and Dark type moves. This puts him in the same place (type-wise) as Alakazam, although fairly stronger!

Mew has the largest and most diverse movepool of any Pokémon in the game, making him also, the most versatile:

DPS wise, Mew is not great per se, but he makes for one hell of a filler in every team. Need a solid Ice type attacker? Mew. Need a weird Fire Blast Psychic type you never asked for? Mew. The keyword here is versatility. Never pass on a Mew quest, regardless of whether or not you need it.

For a more in depth analysis on Mew’s most useful movesets based on type advantage, we recommend Mew’s Most Useful Movesets (work in progress), written by TomSharpe.

While there may be better counters to them, these charge moves will make Mew a viable counter to all of the meta-relevant Pokémon, most of which are listed in the table below, dealing at least 1.4x damage in all cases – just be careful that some of them aren’t hitting back with super effective moves;

Yes, you can “counter” almost anything in the current meta if you have the proper Mew. We’d go as far as to say that any Raid Boss can be defeated by a team of properly spec’d out Mews (if it’s ever possible to get more than one…)

Celebi in the meta

Celebi’s Psychic Grass typing resists Fighting, Ground, Grass, Electric, Psychic and Water type moves (0.714x damage), but it does have a weakness to Flying, Poison, Ghost, Fire, Ice and Dark type moves (1.4x damage) as well as a double weakness to Bug type moves (1.96x damage).

Celebi’s move sets are fairly varied but the lack of a Grass charged move is disappointing:

• Confusion Psychic (Fast)
• Charge Beam Electric (Fast)
• Hyper Beam Normal (Charged, 1 bar)
• Dazzling Gleam Fairy (Charged, 2 bars)
• Psychic Psychic (Charged, 1 bar)

Celebi has the same base stats as Mew, but due to it having far less moveset options, it’s nowhere near as useful. It will deal super effective (1.4x) damage with at least one of its moves, to following meta relevant Pokémon (again, some of these can deal super effective damage back if they possess certain movesets):

Celebi vs Machamp

With Confusion Psychic as its fast move and Psychic Psychic or Dazzling Gleam Fairy as its charge move, Celebi will deal super effective (1.4x) damage with both moves.

Celebi vs Kyogre, Gyarados, Vaporeon

With Charge Beam Electric, Celebi will deal super effective (1.4x) damage to Kyogre and Vaporeon, and double super effective (1.96x) damage to Gyarados.

This could be teamed up with Psychic Psychic as, although it won’t have any type advantage, it will at least benefit from STAB.

Being part Grass type, Celebi will take reduced (0.714x) damage from any Water type moves that these three throw back.

Celebi vs Dragonite, Rayquaza, Salamence

With Dazzling Gleam Fairy Celebi will deal SE (1.4x) damage to these Dragon types.

While there are far better counters for flying dragons, if you do have to use Celebi to battle them, Dazzling gleam would be best teamed up with Confusion for two reasons;

• Confusion Psychic will benefit from STAB
• The alternative (charge beam Electric) will only deal neutral damage to these FlyingDragon types.

Celebi vs Tyranitar

With Dazzling Gleam Fairy, Celebi will deal SE (1.4x) damage to Tyranitar. Do not however, use Confusion against Tyranitar as Dark types have immunity to Psychic type moves.

As with Celebi vs. the Dragons, there are far better counters to Tyranitar than Celebi, particularly as most of Tyranitar’s moves will deal super effective (1.4x) damage to Celebi. The only Tyranitar moveset that would deal neutral damage would be Iron Tail / Stone Edge.

Jirachi in the meta

Jirachi’s dual Psychic Steel typing makes it resistant (0.714x damage) to 10 different move types; Normal, Flying, Rock, Steel, Grass, Ice, Dragon, Fairy, Psychic and Poison type moves. It does however, take super effective damage (1.4x) from Ground, Ghost, Fire and Dark type moves.

Jirachi’s Movesets:

• Confusion Psychic (Fast)
• Charge Beam Electric (Fast)
• Doom Desire Steel (Charged, 2 bar)
• Dazzling Gleam Fairy (Charged, 2 bars)
• Psychic Psychic (Charged, 1 bar)

Jirachi has the same base stats as as the other two Mythical Pokémon we’ve talked about, as well as a very similar set of moves to Celebi, except for one important difference; Hyper Beam has been swapped for Doom Desire Steel, resulting in Jirachi having a couple of extra type advantage match-ups. Jirachi also has a double resistance to Psychic type moves.

Jirachi will deal super effective (1.4x) damage with at least one of its moves, to following meta relevant Pokémon (again, some of these can deal super effective damage back if they possess certain movesets):

Jirachi vs Articuno

Charge Beam and Doom Desire will both deal super effective (1.4x) damage to Articuno.

Jirachi vs Gardevoir

Doom Desire will deal super effective (1.4x) damage to Gardevoir. Confusion or Psychic however, will be resisted (0.714x damage) by Gardevoir.

Jirachi is not an ideal counter to Gardevoir, damage-wise, but Jirachi will resist any Psychic or Fairy type moves that Gardevoir uses, meaning that you may get extra use out of Doom Desire.

Jirachi vs Machamp

With Confusion Psychic as its fast move and Psychic Psychic or Dazzling Gleam Fairy as its charge move, Jirachi will deal super effective (1.4x) damage with both moves.

Jirachi vs Kyogre, Gyarados, Vaporeon

With Charge Beam Electric, Jirachi will deal super effective (1.4x) damage to Kyogre and Vaporeon, and double super effective (1.96x) damage to Gyarados.

This could be teamed up with Psychic Psychic as, although it won’t have any type advantage, it will at least benefit from STAB.

Jirachi vs Dragonite, Rayquaza, Salamence

With Dazzling Gleam Fairy Jirachi will deal SE (1.4x) damage to these Dragon types.

While there are far better counters for flying dragons, if you do have to use Jirachi to battle them, Dazzling gleam would be best teamed up with Confusion for two reasons;

• Confusion Psychic will benefit from STAB
• The alternative (charge beam Electric) will only deal neutral damage to these FlyingDragon types.

Jirachi vs Tyranitar

With Dazzling Gleam Fairy or Doom Desire Steel, Jirachi will deal SE (1.4x) damage to Tyranitar.

Do not however, use Confusion against Tyranitar as Dark types have immunity to Psychic type moves.

As with Jirachi vs. the Dragons, there are far better counters to Tyranitar, particularly as most of Tyranitar’s moves will deal super effective (1.4x) damage to Jirachi.

Tyranitar’s Iron Tail / Stone Edge moveset would however, deal ‘not very effective’ (0.714x) damage to Jirachi.

Deoxys in the meta

Deoxys Psychic resists Fighting and Psychic type moves (0.714x damage), but takes super effective (1.4x) damage from Bug, Ghost and Dark type moves.

At the time this guide was published, Deoxys’ stats had not yet been finalised in the game code. Since it came to EX Raids however, we have now fully analysed Deoxys’ place in the meta game here.

Conclusions

For now, Mew is certainly the most useful of the Mythical Pokémon in generations 1-3. It’s vast array of move types mean it can deal super effective damage to virtually any Gym defender or Raid boss.

Jirachi comes in second place with a total of 10 top tier Pokémon that it could be useful against with the right moveset.

Celebi places third, as a moveset that includes Hyper Beam means it doesn’t have any type advantage beyond it’s fast move. Luckily Hyper Beam is one of the more powerful moves in the game, so it could possibly be used as a generalist filler in more battle match-ups than we have mentioned here.

As these are not top tier Pokémon stat-wise, their use as raid boss attackers is limited. They will most likely have more use in helping you to counter Pokémon that can be used as gym defenders.