#39: Arceus

And here we have the first legendary Pokémon to appear in my list of favorite Pokémon: Arceus (pronounce: Ar-key-us). This Pokémon is known as 'The Original One', as it is said to have emerged from an egg in a place where there was nothing and then created Sinnoh and Ransei (the name of a region appearing in Pokémon Conquest) and possibly even the whole Pokémon universe, along with the creation trio (Palkia, Dialga and Giratina) and the lake guardians (Mesprit, Azelf and Uxie). Therefore, Arceus is thought to be one of the most long-lived Pokémon species. It has the power to recreate the creation trio as well, presumably to guard the dimensions when a trainer has caught one of them. That sounds like a stupidly powerful Pokémon indeed. But it doesn't end there. Arceus is also the only Pokémon that can become any type in the game. That is, aside from Ditto, who just transforms in the opposing Pokémon. But only by holding one of the 16 ancient plates can Arceus become another type (as you can see in the image below; click on it to enlarge it, or drag it to another tab): Meadow Plate for grass-type, Flame Plate for fire-type, Splash Plate for water-type, Sky Plate for flying-type, Insect Plate for bug-type, Toxic Plate for poison-type, Zap Plate for electric-type, Mind Plate for psychic-type, Stone Plate for rock-type, Earth Plate for ground-type, Dread Plate for dark-type, Spooky Plate for ghost-type, Iron Plate for steel-type, Fist Plate for fighting-type, Icicle Plate for ice-type and Draco Plate for dragon-type. Fairy has not been included yet, and the ???-type plate doesn't exist, because only the move Curse belonged to that type (it was changed into ghost-type in the fifth generation). The ability to change into any type possible by adding a simple plate already makes Arceus an awesome Pokémon. It is not obtainable in the games; you have to get it through a special Nintendo event. But even if you don't have Arceus, those plates aren't useless: they increase the strength of the moves of the matching type by 20% when held by your Pokémon. Not too bad!