Competitive Pokemon History - Arceus-Dragon Quiz

Answer: In order to protect itself from faster Dragon types

With Substitute, Arceus-Dragon could deter speedier Dragon types, like Garchomp and the Lati twins, from switching into it as soon as it boosted with Calm Mind and immediately forcing it out. When behind a Substitute, Arceus-Dragon will be able to force Garchomp to switch right back out lest it pointlessly get OHKOed by Judgment.

The Lati twins can survive a single Judgment, but they will still take tons of damage in exchange for simply destroying Arceus-Dragon's Substitute, which is not a beneficial trade. Thus, Arceus-Dragon can deter the opposing trainer from getting aggressive with these Dragons with timely use of Substitute. Refresh cannot do this, making it mostly outclassed by Substitute.

Answer: Higher bulk

In terms of relevant movepool options, Arceus-Dragon and Rayquaza had mostly the same exact ones for their Swords Dance sets, so Arceus-Dragon's movepool didn't really distinguish itself here. Arceus-Dragon had far superior bulk, and instant recovery in Recover to back that up.

This helped protect Arceus-Dragon from revenge killers for the most part. The same Gengar's Icy Wind that OHKOes Rayquaza doesn't come close to 2HKOing Arceus-Dragon, for example. Arceus-Dragon can easily survive a Dragon Pulse from Giratina-Origin, while Rayquaza comes nowhere close. Higher bulk led to more opportunities for Arceus-Dragon to set up with Swords Dance, and also made it more self sufficient as well.

This clearly made Arceus-Dragon worth using in the role.

Answer: No

Like most offensive Dragon types, switching into Arceus-Dragon carries large inherent risk. However, Steel types will also fail to defensively counter it despite resisting Dragon. Arceus-Dragon can run Earthquake to ensure Heatran and Dialga cannot accomplish this feat, while Overheat will make short work of Skarmory, Scizor and Metagross. Even Lugia can be felled by a couple of boosted attacks if it takes Stealth Rock damage on the way in. Unlike with Rayquaza, Lugia cannot simply click Ice Beam and wipe Arceus-Dragon away either due to its higher bulk and only 2x weakness to the move, juxtaposed to Rayquaza's 4x weakness. Thus, more caution is needed in order to deal with Arceus-Dragon. Due to the existence of faster Dragon types, it can be checked however.

Answer: Strongest Arceus forme in the game

Draco Plate, STAB boosted Outrages were so devastatingly strong that even Steel types which resisted the move struggled to switch in effectively. No other Arceus forme boasted this raw amount of power, be it a Swords Dance or a Calm Mind forme of Arceus. Thus, Arceus-Dragon's niche in fifth generation Ubers was clear; come in, boost with Swords Dance, click Outrage and watch the opponent's team get blasted to smithereens.

It wasn't necessarily the best forme of Arceus, as it faced plenty of stiff competition for that claim, but it boasted the most raw power out of all of them, easily giving it a niche and strong overall bid for viability.

Answer: Stats

In the fourth generation, it was only legally possible to acquire Arceus at level 100. In this generation, a Pokémon cannot gain EVs if it cannot also earn experience points by winning a battle, which a level 100 Pokémon cannot do. Vitamins that bolster EVs, such as Carbos, can only be used to grant a Pokémon up to 100 EVs, rather than the maximum 252. For as strong as all Arceus formes were, their power was being hindered by this mechanic; instead of the maximum 252 Attack or Special Attack EVs, they all had to settle for a meager 100.

This was also the case for their bulk and speed. In the fifth generation, even level 100 Pokémon could now earn EVs, enabling trainers to properly specialize an Arceus forme's EVs and maximize its offenses, bulk or speed accordingly with what the trainer wanted their Arceus forme to be able to do. Thus, Arceus-Dragon's offenses and speed experienced hefty buffs.

These buffs enabled it to maximize its Speed EVs to outspeed previously faster Dragons, namely Garchomp and the Lati twins, and eliminate them with a super effective attack before they could act in kind.

This clearly was a major buff and contributed to Arceus-Dragon's rise in viability.

Answer: Introduction of the Fairy type

Fairies were immune to Dragon type moves, while also being able to hit them back super effectively with their own STAB. Brainlessly clicking Outrage thus no longer boasted the unbelievable potential to level an entire opposing team that it once did, as a timely Fairy type switch in would block this completely. Arceus-Dragon's Calm Mind sets were also now obsolete, as they were totally walled by Fairies and overrun by the best of them, namely Xerneas and Arceus' own Fairy type forme. Becoming more one dimensional severely hindered Arceus-Dragon's own viability, though if a player wanted to meticulously work on removing opposing Fairies from play, it could still function as a deadly late game cleaner.

It was no longer as fire-n-forget as it once was, however.

Answer: Movepool compression

In dedicating one lone moveslot to Judgment, Arceus-Dragon can break Ho-Oh's Substitute, threaten Primal Groudon, thwart Mega Salamence and Rayquaza in one single moveset. In order to do the same, Arceus-Water must dedicate two moveslots to its own Judgment as well as Ice Beam.

This extra moveslot gives Arceus-Dragon room to further support its team, possibly including Toxic or Will-o-Wisp to help spread status, or even possibly Tailwind to support its team. This gave it a clear niche that worked well on balanced builds, particularly those built around Hex variants of Mega Gengar that could take advantage of the status it spread around, or slow sweepers such as Calm Mind variants of Primal Kyogre or Swords Dance variants of Primal Groudon.

Answer: Spacial Rend

Spacial Rend's high critical hit rate would not only ignore Gothitelle's Confides, which progressively diminish Arceus-Dragon's ability to actually threaten it, but also cleanly 2HKO Gothitelle if the first Spacial Rend was fired off unhindered by Confide, and the second one was the one that hit critically.

As Gothitelle would take a very long time to eventually stall Arceus-Dragon out of PP, Spacial Rend's naturally high critical hit chance makes this an actual, feasible scenario. This gave Arceus-Dragon a minor, but existent and appreciable niche over other support formes of Arceus.

Answer: It was simply outclassed

The introduction of Z-Moves meant that just about every other Swords Dance forme of Arceus had nuking potential. None of them enabled dangerous Fairy types to switch in for free like Arceus-Dragon did. Attempting to have these Fairies removed before sending out Arceus-Dragon was reasonable in the sixth generation.

In the seventh however, even more deadly Fairy types were introduced to the game, and the overall value of Arceus-Dragon's strong Outrages was hindered when considering other Arceus formes can boast similar nuking power thanks to Z-Moves.

This set was ultimately wholly outclassed by Arceus-Ground and Arceus-Ghost, who had better two move coverage, could afford to run Recover to give themselves more longevity, could heavily and reliably threaten opposing Pokémon which resisted their STAB, and simply matched up better against the overall meta.

It was also heavily contested by Extreme Killer Arceus along with non-Arceus formes such as Rayquaza, to the point where it was not worth using anymore.

Answer: Yes

Arceus-Dragon was definitely at its low point here, but it was still somewhat worth using in a support capacity. Occasionally being able to escape Gothitelle while boasting effective movepool compression were nice traits for a support forme of Arceus.

However, because of the severe competition it encountered from other formes of Arceus, namely Water, Dark, Fairy, Ground amongst others, it generally was a pretty rare sight for the average Ubers team. Its talents were very specific and not always appreciable.

It was definitely viable, but the average trainer would have to be building a very specific team to want to include Arceus-Dragon onto it.