Competitive Pokemon History - Arceus-Electric Trivia Game

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. At first glance, Arceus-Electric looks rather outclassed by Arceus-Dark, Ice and even Dragon as a Calm Mind sweeper in fourth generation Ubers. However, one major advantage the Electric variant had came from its excellent matchup against two Pok�mon who were otherwise very difficult for the other formes to defeat. Who were they?

Answer: Kyogre and Ho-Oh

With a natural type advantage and the ability to hit either one very hard with STAB, super effective Judgment, Arceus-Electric had good matchups against Kyogre and Ho-Oh, who had large Special Defense stats and usually kept other Arceus Calm Mind formes at bay rather easily.

2. Unfortunately, Arceus-Electric did indeed suffer from the presence of a counter in fourth generation Ubers. Which Pok�mon of the following could reliably switch into it and come out on top?

Answer: Blissey

Blissey's enormous Special Defense and Arceus-Electric's inability to find room for Refresh on its moveset meant it would never be able to break down the pink blob before eventually succumbing to Toxic damage. The ubiquitousness of Blissey meant that an allied Wobbuffett, or an ally that could lure Blissey in and defeat it, was almost mandatory. Fortunately, this was rather easy to fit onto the type of teams Arceus-Electric commonly found itself on, so there was counterplay that could be found within its team.

Garchomp may be able to outspeed and deliver a swift OHKO to Arceus-Electric with a super effective Earthquake, but if the switch gets predicted, Arceus-Electric will simply cast it aside with a 4x super effective Ice Beam. Likewise, even bulky variants of Groudon struggle mightily to switch into Ice Beam and come out on top.

3. Another endearing trait about Arceus-Electric, juxtaposed to other formes of Arceus, was its good defensive typing, leaving it weak to only one type. What type was this?

Answer: Ground

Better yet, the only relevant Ground type in Ubers that could outspeed Arceus-Electric was Garchomp. Thanks to its access to Ice Beam and good power, Arceus-Electric could also ward these Ground types away and keep them from switching into it. Combined with its access to instant healing in Recover, Arceus-Electric packed good defensive utility that was valuable to any team it was placed on, making it a good fit for just about any team archetype.

4. The excitement of Arceus-Electric's good typing was somewhat tempered in the fifth generation, when a new, overbearing Electric type was introduced that provided competition. What Electric type was this?

Answer: Zekrom

The "Pok�mon Black" cover legendary packed far more immediate power, a stronger signature move in Bolt Strike, and a useful Dragon typing that gave it even more offensive potential. Moreover, while Arceus-Electric is confined to its Zap Plate as an item, Zekrom has the option to amplify its offenses even more with a Choice Band or increase its Speed with a Choice Scarf.

It could also run a Shuca Berry to survive one of the many Earthquakes flying around the tier and generally destroy the user with a brutally strong STAB Outrage. Arceus-Electric had far better longevity and a slightly better matchup against offensive builds, so it wasn't wholly outclassed.

However, it saw much less usage due to the introduction of Zekrom.

5. Arceus-Electric wasn't by any means outclassed in the fifth generation, but using it became a little more questionable due to a competitive stipulation that prevents the trainer from using more than one Pok�mon with the same National Pokedex number. What competitive clause was this?

Answer: Species Clause

Because of this clause, a player may only run one forme of Arceus on their team. Because Zekrom was such an excellent Electric type offensive threat, it would sometimes be a better idea to just bring Zekrom onto an Ubers team and use a different forme of Arceus to accomplish something else, as to make the most efficient use of one of a team's six slotted Pok�mon.

6. Arceus-Electric's viability fell off a cliff in the sixth generation. This was almost completely because of the presence of a new, daunting threat in the Uber tier which happened to hard counter its old Calm Mind sets and generally prove immovable for any Arceus-Electric set conceivable. Which threat was this?

Answer: Primal Groudon

Primal Groudon was the absolute best Pok�mon in the tier by a considerable margin, and was often seen on just about any serious teambuild imaginable. When going through its Primal Reversion, Primal Groudon gains a new Fire typing which causes it to only take neutral damage from Arceus-Electric's Ice Beams, while still remaining immune to its Judgment. It could switch into Arceus-Electric easily and rip it in half with a super effective Precipice Blades. The introduction of Primal Groudon caused a ripple in the meta which ended up making other threats appear more often that Arceus-Electric could not handle very well. Ferrothorn and Klefki had good matchups against Arceus-Electric, as they rose to help Primal Groudon handle entry hazards and Primal Kyogre in the case of the former. Stall teams which could hold Primal Groudon's offensive sets at bay for a small while became more prevalent; these teams backed numerous easy countermeasures to Arceus-Electric, such as the aforementioned Ferrothorn, Chansey, Blissey, Mega Gengar, sometimes Dugtrio and, again, Primal Groudon.

As a result, Calm Mind variants were a mostly unviable alternative due to never being able to really get off the ground with enough boosts to sweep. Support variants of Arceus-Electric appeared, but due to its poor matchup with many big metagame threats, this too was quite underwhelming.

7. Arceus-Electric had very slim amounts of viability in the sixth generation. It was only useful on teams with critical weaknesses to two major threats, that only had room for one Pok�mon to deal with both. Which threats were these?

Answer: Primal Kyogre and Flying types in general

Arceus-Electric's natural type advantage still gave it the upper hand against Primal Kyogre, though switching into it still carried a degree of risk. On the other hand, switching into most Flying types, such as Yveltal, Mega Salamence, Rayquaza and Lugia wasn't quite as risky. Most of these Flying types had ways to hinder Arceus-Electric, but there more room to comfortably switch in on, say, Yveltal's Oblivion Wing or Lugia's Ice Beam. Teams built around Pok�mon weak to these threats could make use of Arceus-Electric.

8. Arceus-Electric's Calm Mind set saw the light of day once again the seventh generation. This was because, unlike other formes such as Dark or Rock with a Calm Mind set, it could effectively deal with what Smogon's Battle Pokedex describes as "the rising star of the Uber tier". Who was this?

Answer: Mega Lucario

Mega Lucario, able to smash Arceus-Rock and Arceus-Dark with Adaptability boosted, super effective attacks, cannot do the same to Arceus-Electric. It still hits Arceus-Electric very hard, but it fails to 2HKO it and, due to its frailty, is 2HKOed by Arceus-Electric in return.

This gave Arceus-Electric's Calm Mind set a degree of consistency in the face of this major threat, and restored it to a degree of viability.

9. Unfortunately, Arceus-Electric's Calm Mind sets were still mostly outclassed by other formes of Arceus, which all had the ability to do one thing that Arceus-Electric definitely could not. What was this?

Answer: Be able to have only one attacking move for maximum utility

Arceus-Electric's Judgments were totally walled and rendered useless against Ground types, including dangerous ones like Arceus-Ground and Primal Groudon. Thus, a coverage move to hit them was absolutely mandatory, while Arceus-Dark, Arceus-Rock and Arceus-Flying were able to run only a single attacking move, thus opening up their movesets a bit more.

10. At the end of the day, Arceus-Electric was definitely one of the less viable formes of Arceus in the seventh generation. Which of the following is one reason for why this was?

Answer: Lack of a true niche

Arceus-Electric didn't really stand out at doing anything. Its Calm Mind sets were mostly outclassed, with only incredibly minor positive traits that were usually not appreciable. Its support sets, increasingly rare in the seventh generation for a reason, were also not useful compared to generally superior Arceus formes. Lacking an Electric type physical attack to make a Swords Dance set possible, Arceus-Electric just didn't do much that the average team would find useful. Thus, it was barely even viable at all, and clearly didn't see much use in seventh generation Ubers.

Source: Author cavalier87

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Competitive Pokemon History - Arceus-Electric Quiz

It should not shock you to see that the Creator's Electric type forme gets a competitive history quiz here! See if you can weather the storm on this one from generations 4-7!

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