Competitive Pokemon History - Arceus-Ghost Quiz

Answer: Shadow Force

Shadow Force is a charge move, where Arceus disappears on the first turn before striking on the second turn. Charge moves have an overall negative history; in theory, the opponent could simply switch in a Normal type or a bulky Dark/Steel type on the turn Shadow Force would strike, and nullify the threat of the move completely. However, in practice, mitigating the terrifying nuking potential of this move is harder than that. For one, the list of viable Normal types in fourth generation Uber tier was pretty much just Arceus-Normal. While the Extremekiller was indeed a menacing threat, it would either lose in a direct confrontation or end up taking so much damage that it would be easy pickings for a teammate of Arceus-Ghost's, which would generally at least be an acceptable trade, a good relationship to have against one of the best Pokemon in the tier. Arceus-Ghost also had generally good matchups against most Steel types in the tier, as many of them would still take a lot of damage from Shadow Force, usually being put into range of a super effective Brick Break finishing them off. Skarmory was an exception, so an opponent with a healthy Skarmory could mitigate the threat in the short term at least.

Shadow Force's massive power gave Arceus-Ghost wings as a deadly sweeper overall, giving it a great standing in fourth generation Ubers.

Answer: It gave Arceus-Ghost an immunity to item removing moves

Deoxys with Choice Scarf is an irritating adversary to face for pretty much anything, as it will always outspeed its opponent and use Trick to force an unwanted Choice Scarf onto them, crippling them for the rest of the game. However, all formes of Arceus except the Normal variant are forced to carry their respective typing plates in order to actually be the particular forme of Arceus.

For example, Arceus must be given the Spooky Plate item in order to be Arceus-Ghost. Multitype synergizes with the Plate to grant Arceus the desired typing. Multitype essentially locks the Plate onto the given forme of Arceus, and it cannot be removed, destroyed or thrown away at any point in the battle.

Therefore, a Deoxys using Trick on Arceus-Ghost will be wasting a couple of turns, as Trick will do nothing and Deoxys will be forced to switch due to being locked into a useless move.

This gave Arceus-Ghost a great matchup against it, able to also hit Deoxys super effectively with Judgment and then immediately finish it off on the next turn with Extremespeed.

Answer: Instant recovery option

Access to Recover separated Arceus-Ghost from the Giratina formes and made it worth using as a support variant mainly based on spinblocking. Access to Flamethrower meant Arceus-Ghost could easily directly deal with a spinner like Forretress, while Judgment let it easily dispatch of Starmie and let it whittle away at and eventually defeat Tentacruel fairly easily. Giratina, especially Origin, could also deal with the aforementioned spinners pretty easily though, so this wasn't a unique trait. Giratina, especially Altered's, higher bulk made the latter a generally preferable pick on stall teams, but Arceus-Ghost definitely gave the Renegade Pokemon competition.

Answer: No

Arceus-Ghost had a whole motherlode of checks, but nothing that could claim to safely switch in and win. Blissey and Chansey could counter any Calm Mind variant, but would get obliterated by a Swords Dance forme. Skarmory could easily defeat a Swords Dance Arceus-Ghost, but can only check a Calm Mind variant quite unreliably, definitely unable to counter it. Ho-Oh can counter Calm Mind formes and rarely but occasionally the Swords Dance set, but stalemates with a support variant, straight up loses to the Swords Dance set if Stealth Rock is up, and enters a deadly 50/50 with the Calm Mind set under such a scenario.

There are a whole laundry list of 'maybe' counters, but nothing reliable.

Answer: Perfect two-move coverage gave it good move compression

Judgment was a perfectly reliable, strong STAB move while Focus Blast wasn't very reliable, but was strong, and hit everything that Judgment couldn't, often for super effective damage. Giratina's lack of access to Swords Dance rendered that option automatically incorrect. Thus, Arceus-Ghost had plenty of room to fit Recover while also wielding excellent power, due to its great two-move coverage.

Answer: Shadow Claw

Arceus-Ghost Swords Dance formes typically carried a moveset of Shadow Force/Brick Break/Swords Dance/Recover. If an opponent sends out a Ghost type, like their own Arceus-Ghost or a Giratina, Arceus-Ghost would be forced to use Shadow Force to hit them. On the turn Shadow Force would hit, the opponent can switch in any Normal type, even a Rattata, to harmlessly absorb the move.

They can then just switch back to their Ghost type to force Arceus-Ghost into this never-ending loop where it would be unable to do any sort of damage at all to the opponent. Shadow Claw's ability to immediately deal damage breaks this loop, but it forces Arceus-Ghost to either drop the far stronger Shadow Force, or it forces Arceus-Ghost to drop Recover and lose a lot of longevity.

The advent of more viable Normal types, such as Mega Kangaskhan, led to this set's decline in viability in the sixth generation.

Answer: Yveltal

Yveltal's neutrality to Fighting let it take Fighting type coverage reasonably well, and a Dark Pulse boosted by its Dark Aura would slaughter Arceus-Ghost quite easily. Defensive Yveltal could just take hits from Swords Dance Arceus-Ghost all day and then destroy it with a Foul Play or two, while any Yveltal variant could pick off a slightly weakened Arceus-Ghost with Sucker Punch. Yveltal being a particularly common, top five Pokemon in the metagame made this a tough assailant to be countered by.

Answer: Ghostium-Z

Arceus-Ghost cannot hold any other Z Crystal and still remain Arceus-Ghost, automatically ruling any other answer out. Never-Ending Nightmare was both quite strong and temporarily enabled Shadow Force to be a one turn move, which was quite important and heavily stimulated Arceus-Ghost's offensive presence.

Answer: Marshadow

Marshadow outsped Arceus-Ghost, could OHKO it with Spectral Thief and could steal any boosts it had accumulated, threatening a countersweep after having done so. Thus, boosting while the opponent had a Marshadow was extremely dangerous and often would result in something getting sacrificed as it switched into Spectral Thief and then had to take a second hit, assuming it even survived Spectral Thief.

Answer: Lack of good, reliable physical STAB

Shadow Force sure is strong, but its two-turn nature is a massive detriment that makes it unreliable. Shadow Claw deals immediate damage, but is pretty weak as a primary go-to option. Arceus-Ghost's ability is responsible for allowing it to actually be Arceus-Ghost, so its ability is most definitely not useless. Finally, Arceus-Ghost has been fortunate to receive a Base 120 for all of its stats, which has helped it to become an incredibly well rounded Pokemon with no stat-based deficiencies. Swords Dance sets took centerstage for Arceus-Ghost beginning in the sixth generation, and while they were powerful in theory, they were unreliable in practice.

A stronger, immediate Ghost type attack would have solved this, but Arceus-Ghost never received access to such a move.