Competitive Pokemon History - Articuno Quiz

Answer: Lapras

Lapras could do many of the things Articuno could, while having a bigger movepool, better defensive and offensive typing, and even easily defeating Articuno itself one-on-one due to its access to Thunderbolt and 4x resistance to Articuno's only usable offensive STAB in Ice.

However, it did not fully outclass Articuno at all. Articuno was both faster and slightly bulkier than Lapras, and it could defeat largely the same things Lapras could, while notably being far better at defeating prominent threat Exeggutor. Exeggutor could deal with Lapras, due to Grass hitting Lapras super effectively, but it had to run for the hills upon an Articuno sighting, as Articuno resisted Grass.

These advantages were enough to ensure Articuno remained competitive with Lapras.

Answer: All of these are correct

Snorlax could go one-on-one with Articuno with absurd ease, now that Blizzard was no longer a 90 accuracy move. Snorlax could also just set up on Articuno with Curse or Belly Drum, and attempt to sweep Articuno's team. As if that wasn't enough, many new introductions to standard play, such as Raikou, Blissey and Tyranitar, annihilated Articuno. With those four being extremely common presences in the meta, it was very likely that at least 1/3rd or a half of your opponent's team didn't even have to regard Articuno's presence on the battlefield, doing whatever they pleased in front of it, or just outright slaying it in the case of Raikou and Tyranitar. Finally, even if none of this was the case, Articuno just didn't really do anything valuable for a team in the tier. Its specially defensive capabilities were horribly outshone by Blissey, it wasn't too effective offensively and was outclassed by numerous Pokemon in this capacity, and it didn't really have enough good utility options to justify a spot in the tier.

The downsides don't end there, however, as Articuno didn't survive in UU for long. Its enormous base stats proved to be far too much for the tier, and it was quickly sent to UU's ban list, legal only in standard play, for which it was inferior in. Suffice to say, the second generation wasn't kind to Articuno.

Answer: Catching it in "Pokemon: XD Gale of Darkness"

The final boss of "XD Gale of Darkness" presents an opportunity to catch Articuno. If successful, upon purifying Shadow Articuno, one of the exclusive moves it unlocks is Heal Bell. This move was largely responsible for giving Articuno a niche in the tier. Though it still competed with Blissey, who also got this move, Articuno was still able to stand out due to the fact that it could deal with Celebi a lot more effectively, could take physical hits (except for Rock Slide) a little better, and could PP stall more effectively thanks to its ability, Pressure.

Answer: The inability to defeat most prominent threats in the meta

Articuno absolutely did have at least a minor niche, being arguably the best long term answer to Calm Mind Celebi and Calm Mind Blissey in the game, two things walling variants of Blissey failed to do. While it did indeed generally lose to Regice one-on-one, Regice itself was more of a niche Pokemon in the tier, so this didn't really hinder Articuno's viability too much.

Articuno could defeat just about any variant of Celebi, and could win stall wars against Blissey thanks to Pressure. However, that was about it for prominent threats it could take on. Even Salamence, a Pokemon Ice types should be able to massacre, could just OHKO Articuno with Rock Slide before getting OHKOed by Ice Beam. Metagross and Tyranitar just laughed at anything Articuno tried to do to them, easily taking any one hit and destroying it with Meteor Mash and Rock Slide, respectively. Snorlax used Thick Fat's resistance to Ice to endlessly wall Articuno, where it would win the 1v1 very easily. In general, just about any Pokemon not named Celebi or Blissey which was a common threat in the tier could handle Articuno, meaning its advantages in the tier should be best thought of as deep but not very wide, as they can easily be stopped by the vast majority of well built teams.

Answer: Stealth Rock

Sticky Web does not affect Articuno at all due to its Flying typing. Even if Articuno wasn't a Flying type, it's already naturally quite slow and doesn't invest in Speed anyway, meaning Sticky Web would already be mostly inconsequential.

Stealth Rock, on the other hand, single-handedly sent Articuno spiraling out of any sort shred of viability in standard, and even UU play, relegating it to the lowest playable tier in all of "Pokemon": NeverUsed play. Here, Articuno was at least quite fantastic due to its massive base stats, but losing half of its health upon coming into Stealth Rock was still a gargantuan drawback which should not be understated.

Answer: NeverUsed

Still the lowest competitive, official tier in all of "Pokemon", Articuno's stats were not in the right places for it to be successful in the tier. Its Special Attack stat was too low, and its Ice/Flying typing only really gave credence to an offensive role in the metagame. Its best set attempted to take it on the offensive, but its STABs were redundant in tandem and it couldn't really do anything to many prominent Steel types in the game.

The thought of Articuno in a higher tier than NU was a joke, simply put. In OverUsed, anything it could even think to try and do would've been outclassed by several different threats, or completely ineffective due to the tier's massive power level. While UU's power level was a lot less and was more forgiving, it resembled the OU from the previous generation with how many of 4th gen's OU staples fell all the way to 5th gen UU. Because of this, Articuno lacked a place at all in that metagame.

In RU, Articuno could be somewhat functional in a defensive role, but it wasn't effective against the numerous physically offensive staples of the tier, and it was extremely passive against Steel types, RU's king in Klinklang in particular, so it could only even be slightly thought of on dedicated stall teams which had the defensive backbone to make up for these shortcomings. Sadly, dedicated stall teams would find Articuno's abysmal defensive typing to be more trouble than its excellent defensive stats would be worth, and it frequently found itself left on the sidelines in this tier.

Answer: Freeze-Dry

Defog Articuno was memeworthy; clearly, a Pokemon losing half of its health to Stealth Rock should not be tasked with removing this entry hazard from the field. Given that it already had access to Heal Bell and Sheer Cold has always been banned from competitive play, Freeze-Dry was the correct answer. Freeze-Dry enabled Articuno to retain the wonderful offensive properties of Ice, with the added bonus of now hitting Water types super effectively. In RarelyUsed, Slowking and Alomomomla were incredibly prominent defensive Water types, while Seismitoad and Blastoise were important offensive Water type threats. With Freeze-Dry, Articuno could OHKO Seismitoad, 2HKO Blastoise, and heavily pressure both Slowking and Alomomola. It was unique for having the longevity to do this over the course of a long battle, as offensive Grass types could be outlasted, picked off by Slowking's Fire Blast while attempting to switch in (which Articuno easily survived despite its weakness to the move) or wouldn't be able to stop Blastoise from coming in on a teammate to Rapid Spine entry hazards away from. Articuno could punish Blastoise's Rapid Spin with a free Substitute, enabling it to start Pressure stalling while remaining an offensive threat with Freeze-Dry + Hurricane and staying healthy with Roost.

All in all, Articuno did drop another tier, but it at least gained some new tools to keep it somewhat competitive in mid-tier play. That's more than can be said about its horrendous fourth and fifth generation woes.

Answer: An entry hazard remover and cleric in one Pokemon

It was discovered that Articuno could use its massive Special Defense to come in on weak Special Attackers, or defensive entry hazard setters, and Defog the hazards away, staying healthy with Roost and using Pressure to deplete Stealth Rock PP faster than Articuno would go through Defog PP. Clearly, Articuno's 4x weakness to Stealth Rock meant a back up hazard remover should be used, or that Articuno itself should be the backup hazard remover. That said, combining Defog with Heal Bell gave Articuno tons of utility it could offer to a team, combined with its ability to threaten ubiquitous bulky Water types with a STAB super effective Freeze-Dry. Though there were plenty of countermeasures to this set, it saw enough usage to be deemed viable for the tier, the farthest strides Articuno had made since the third generation.

Answer: Introduction of the Z Crystal which made Articuno's offensive set a lot more effective

Articuno has been generally hard stopped by Steel types. However, the introduction of Z Crystals allowed Articuno to now tailor its offensive sets to be more threatening, while enabling it to threaten Steel types a bit more. Flyinium Z sets mixed with Hurricane gave Articuno one-time access to Supersonic Skystrike, which would obliterate any non-Steel types, and it would dent most Steel types enough for a followup Hidden Power Fighting to remove them from play. Bronzor and Metang were exceptions, but they were significantly worse in the overall meta than they were in the sixth generation, making them easier to deal with and less important to prepare for overall.

Answer: Its movepool lacked utility

Ice/Flying is a bonafide offensive typing. Unfortunately, Articuno's best stats are in its Defenses, and because Ice/Flying is a miserably poor defensive typing, that just doesn't work. Its speed tier of 85 isn't particularly impressive, but its quite decent for a defensive Pokemon. Again, though, this doesn't synergize with Articuno's typing, as 85 base speed is rather low for an offensive Pokemon.

This lack of synergy between typing and stats is just about solely responsible for why Articuno has dwelled within the lower competitive tiers of Pokemon for most of its existence. There are Pokemon who can overcome suboptimal typings, a degree of suboptimal stats, and even Pokemon who can overcome a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock, but having all three of those deficiencies will cancel out practically any advantages a Pokemon in standard play might have, even Articuno's magnificent utility movepool.