The 10 Best Dragon-Type Pokémon, According To Ranker

The recent release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus helped bring a much-needed revolution to the mainline video games, and helped bring the tally of new species to a staggering 900+. Throughout the games since their 1996 inception, Dragon-Type Pokémon species have always been seen as near-legendary — though several are officially categorized as such too.

Unsurprisingly, they’re also some of the strongest creatures to use in battle, Legendary/Mythical or not. Some of the most popular Dragons are also the colloquial “Pseudo-legendary” species of their respective regions, and the Ranker voting community included several in their top 10.

10 Reshiram

The fifth-generation Unova games are now often regarded as some of the best mainline Pokémon games, and they also had arguably one of the best-designed flagship Legendaries. The Dragon/Fire-Type Reshiram is the flagship Legendary of White and, despite dragons commonly being associated with fire, it’s one of the few Pokémon of its dual typing.

Being a Legendary creature, its power is shocking to no one, having fantastic all-around stats. In terms of design, its elegant and wispy style is reminiscent of western dragon folklore, as well as a great contrast to the dark, sleek design for Zekrom in Black.

9 Ultra Necrozma

While the generation VII games of Alola continued to show the mainline Pokémon games’ aging features — until Legends — Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon contained one of the franchise’s most engaging boss fights. Ultra Necrozma is the Dragon/Psychic-Type fusion of it, Solgaleo, and Lunala, culminating in a memorable challenge.

Its design seems to take stunning inspiration from astronomical elements like giant stars. Ultra Necrozma’s celestial appearance lends itself well to the concept, and that dual-typing combined with its Legendary status makes it a powerful presence in battle.

8 Mega Charizard X

Though it’s admittedly oversaturated in the franchise overall, Charizard is an understandable fan-favorite and one of the most recognizable Pokémon. Charizard is a good example of a simple yet effective design. Though, despite its clear dragon anatomy, the original version is a Fire/Flying Dual-Type.

Once generation six came around with the Mega Evolution mechanic, one of those stones changed it into the Fire/Dragon-Type Mega Charizard X. It’s a great, darker take on the creature design-wise with blue flames to complement the new color scheme. And, as expected, it’s an incredible Physical Attack powerhouse in battle.

7 Salamence

Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald were a big jumping-on point for many veteran Pokémon fans. They were memorable pieces of the franchise’s golden years on the Game Boy Advance, and developer Game Freak continued the Pseudo-legendary Dragon trend with Salamence. In true Pseudo-Legendary status, it’s rather difficult to find its first form — Bagon.

By Level 50, players will have a hefty Salamence with impressive stats for mixed Physical/Special attacking. But in capitalizing on its jet plane-inspired motif, it has an immense Speed stat. This fast, hard-hitting attacker is further bolstered with its Mega Evolution.

6 Dialga

Coming off the resurgence of the Diamond and Pearl remakes and the aforementioned landmark that is Legends, the Legendary Dialga is getting its time to shine again. It has a strong dual-typing in Steel/Dragon, with the former being one of the best types in the games when it comes to defense and offense.

Thanks to Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum giving the Steel typing a wider movepool, Dialga can make great use of Steel as a Special Attacker. As far as Dragons go, it’s one of the most inventive designs since it seems to take influence from sauropod dinosaurs along with its appealing diamond motif.

5 Dragonite

The “Pseudo-Legendary” trope in the mainline Pokémon games all started with the original releases. Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow hosted the franchise’s first Dragon-Type species, though, the Dratini line were the only three in Kanto. That made Dragonite the closest thing to a Legendary Pokémon without literally being one, with players having to fish in the Safari Zone for a rare chance at finding its first form.

There’s something charming about Dragonite’s design, as Ken Sugimori opted for a lovable and endearing dragon as opposed to an intimidating one. It’s part of what makes it so iconic, and it has the versatility in battle with stats and its movepool to back it all up.

4 Giratina

The Sinnoh region was also responsible for some of the most creative-looking Dragon Pokémon, especially with the flagship Legendary of Platinum. Similarly, Giratina’s dual Ghost/Dragon-Type is one of the most fun combinations in the games. Though the lore of the Pokémon world can be inconsistent, the background story for Giratina is one of the most surprisingly grim and compelling.

Given that Arceus is the Pokémon deity, Giratina looks to be a biblical allegory of the “fallen angel” to the former. Its dark design does well to complement this backstory and its typing makes it excellent for Special Attack-oriented movesets.

3 Rayquaza

Aside from the Legendary Bird Trio of Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno in the Kanto games, the Hoenn region’s Weather Trio is arguably the next most popular. The emerald-green dragon Rayquaza serves as the master of the three and is among the most iconic Pokémon in the franchise.

Looking over its design and lore, Rayquaza appears to be inspired by dragons of Chinese folklore and the Quetzalcoatl of Aztec folklore. The Dragon/Flying-type’s power, particularly in Emerald, helped present one of the best story events in terms of grand scale.

2 Garchomp

In many Pokémon fan circles, Garchomp is cited as the top Pseudo-Legendary Dragon in practically every respect. Many of these species got the designers involved to flex their artistic muscles, but this creature is one of the most outlandish in the best ways. Garchomp is a blend of a dragon and a shark, giving it an undeniable “cool” factor — along with the Dragon/Ground-Type — that makes it easy to see why it’s such a fan favorite.

Similarly, it was also part of one of the best boss fights in the Pokémon games alongside the rest of Champion Cynthia’s elite-level team. As if it wasn’t strong enough, the speedy offensive threat also received a Mega Evolution.

1 Mega Rayquaza

Rayquaza’s aforementioned prominence in the franchise went beyond its respective games, as it received a second wave of popularity thanks to its Mega Evolution. The fact that the Pokémon essentially ranked twice among Ranker’s voting community speaks volumes, and its intimidatingly exaggerated design makes it even more memorable.

Its stats in the base form were already a force to reckoned with, but Mega Rayquaza makes it almost insurmountable in battle. All of its stats get a sizeable boost and it gains the Delta Stream ability to cover its Flying-type weaknesses, becoming so strong that several competitive metas banned it outright.

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