Hardest Competitive Pokemon History: Arceus-Dark Trivia Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Arceus-Dark was overall one of the better formes of Arceus, with a highly appreciated niche it definitely filled better than anything else in the tier for the fourth generation of Ubers play. What niche was this?

Answer: Stallbreaker

A simple moveset of Judgment/Calm Mind/Recover/Refresh was impossible to deal with defensively, and was quite pestering to take on offensively as well. Traditional Calm Mind answers like Blissey, Lugia and Tyranitar would either completely crumple to this set in the case of the former two, or in the case of the latter, would have to be running something solely intended for Arceus-Dark in order to have a chance at winning.

This set crushed defensive teams very, very hard to the point of single-handedly hindering the overall viability of stall teams as a whole. Because of this, Arceus-Dark was a fantastic overall Pok�mon in fourth generation Ubers.

2. Every forme of Arceus has access to Arceus' signature, exclusive move, Judgment. What does Judgment do?

Answer: Simply deals a ton of damage

In order to vanquish the sunlight and inflict the wrath of eternal night onto the foe, Judgment is as straightforward an option as could be for Arceus-Dark. Its excellent Base 100 Power notably lacks any sort of drawbacks, and even has perfect accuracy to boot.

It comes with a maximum of 24 PP as well, so it's usually a move that can more or less be clicked on randomly if the player has really no idea of what to do, making it easy to use.

3. Arceus-Dark ultimately seems as though it will envelop entire galaxies in unending darkness, and that all hope is lost for the opponent whenever it touches the field. However, there is but one valiant warrior in the fourth generation, capable of reliably lighting the way to an easy victory against Arceus-Dark, even if it switches straight into it. Which Pok�mon of the following could function as a counter in this way?

Answer: Arceus-Fighting

While rare, it wasn't totally unheard of to see Arceus-Dark go without Refresh, run Focus Blast instead, and annihilate Lucario and Tyranitar with it, making these two unreliable at countering it. Arceus-Bug did not resist Dark, took quite a lot of damage from Judgment, and risked being 2HKOed immediately if it did not win the speed tie, making it unreliable.

However, Arceus-Fighting resists Arceus-Dark's Judgment, has its own super effective Judgments to retaliate with, and can handle Focus Blast as well. Thus, if the opposing team has an Arceus-Fighting, it must be dealt with before Arceus-Dark attempts to sweep.

4. In the fifth generation, a new, more defensively oriented approach to Arceus-Dark was discovered. This set actually didn't run Judgment, but it almost never had to- it reached into its seemingly barren physical movepool and dug up an interesting Dark type option that could match Judgment's power. What move was this?

Answer: Payback

Payback is a Base 50 Power attack whose power is doubled if the user moves after the opponent, and is targeted by a damaging attack before using it. Thus, if those conditions are met, Payback becomes just as strong as Judgment does. While Judgment not needing any conditions to be strong may still make it seem superior, Payback is still superior for a defensively oriented Arceus-Dark set to check what the set is supposed to check.

This set is supposed to deal with opposing Psychic types such as Mewtwo and the Lati twins, Ghost types like Arceus-Ghost, the Giratina formes and the occasional Gengar. Almost all of these threats have significantly higher Special Defense than physical Defense, so Payback will hit them all far harder than Judgment will.

5. Heading into the sixth generation, Arceus-Dark once again found another highly innovative set that ran bizarre moves like Whirlpool of all things. What was the objective of this set?

Answer: Perish Song-trapping

The set seems quirky and laughable, but it actually has a lot of good, unique features that make it viable. Whirlpool forces the opposing threat to stay in for three turns, enough for Perish Song to KO them. Ghost types cannot be trapped, but they are easy prey for Arceus-Dark's super effective Judgments, making them unusable as switch-ins to this set.

While this set seems outclassed by Arceus-Dark's more traditional stallbreaker set, the advantage is that this set can more immediately and quickly deal with threats than the Calm Mind set can, making it better on faster paced teams that need to keep up momentum.

It also cannot be set up on, as Perish Song prevents an opposing sweeper from getting at all far trying to boost against Arceus-Dark. Thus, this set worked quite well on hyper offensive teams, and because it could deal with set up sweepers so effectively, it was also worth using on more defensive teams as well.

6. Unfortunately, Arceus-Dark's issues with Fairy types in their debut generation of the sixth generation gave way to another counter. Which Pok�mon of the following could reliably switch into it and win?

Answer: Tyranitar

Despite being a cover legendary and a Fairy type, Xerneas has severe difficulty switching into an Arceus-Dark that predicts the switch and uses a super effective Sludge Bomb. This "severe difficulty" turns into simply outright losing if Sludge Bomb's 30% chance to poison the target comes into play, meaning Xerneas cannot reliably pull this off.

Tyranitar had not made for a particularly reliable counter to Arceus-Dark until the sixth generation's introduction of the Fairy typing caused a flurry of changes that strengthened its status of being a counter. Arceus-Dark could no longer afford to run Focus Blast, lest it be both walled by Fairy types and rendered unable to stallbreak. Thus, the lack of being able to viably equip Focus Blast meant Tyranitar now could switch into Arceus-Dark quite easily and threaten it with an almost guaranteed 2HKO with a super effective Low Kick, factoring in sandstorm damage. Thus, Tyranitar could be wielded on a stall team to protect these teams against Arceus-Dark much more reliably.

7. Despite the introduction of the hindering Fairy type and onset of a new counter, Arceus-Dark's viability in the sixth generation ultimately experienced a net gain. One of the biggest reasons for this came indirectly, as a new partner for Arceus-Dark covered all of its weaknesses pretty flawlessly. This new partner also happened to be the best Pok�mon in sixth generation Ubers by a million miles. Who was this?

Answer: Primal Groudon

Primal Groudon's new Fire typing meant it could easily deal with any Fairy type in the game quite easily. Conveniently, Primal Groudon also easily thwarted Tyranitar and had a convenient matchup advantage against two Fighting types in Mega Lucario and Mega Blaziken that also won the one-on-one against Arceus-Dark. Being the best Pok�mon in the tier, anybody looking to build a team around Arceus-Dark would add Primal Groudon to said team without so much as a second thought. Any of Primal Groudon's standard sets would work well, so the player didn't even have to be particularly picky or specific.

8. Arceus-Dark's age-old Calm Mind set ran into problems with a seventh generation newcomer. It has always been extremely difficult to deal with Arceus-Dark's Calm Mind set defensively, but this particular threat could do so effortlessly. What threat was this?

Answer: Magearna

Magenarna was a bulky Fairy type that was immune to Sludge Bomb, meaning it could win easily even if Arceus-Dark dumped Refresh for that coverage option. However, the icing on the cake was Magearna's access to Heart Swap, which was the most dangerous part about this matchup. Magearna could steal whatever Calm Mind boosts Arceus-Dark had accrued and could potentially threaten a counter-sweep with said boosts. Primal Groudon could effortlessly deal with Magearna, so this wasn't a humungous problem, but it added a new layer to making use of Arceus-Dark's Calm Mind sets and made them so they weren't as straightforward to use anymore.

9. Like other formes of Arceus, such as the Bug variant, a support set for Arceus-Dark sprung to life in the seventh generation. While such a variant does lack particularly useful resistances, it made up for that with the niche it held over otherwise superior variants, such as the Fairy and Ground formes. What niche was this?

Answer: Immunity to trapping

Mega Gengar, Gothitelle and Wobbuffett lost to this set very badly, meaning Arceus-Dark could not be trapped, removed from play, and prevented from doing its job like other formes of Arceus could. This made it remarkably consistent and setting or removing entry hazards, giving it a great standing as a support Pok�mon.

10. Despite its unique niche, the downside to using Arceus-Dark in a support capacity was its poor matchup against the renowned "rising star of the Uber tier", which could make using it slightly undesirable. What threat was this?

Answer: Mega Lucario

While Arceus-Dark can escape trapping, Arceus-Bug can do so as well while also being able to take down Mega Lucario, resisting its vicious Fighting attacks and being able to KO it in return with Fire Blast. Arceus-Psychic is far weaker against trapping but can also boast the same.

These variants of Arceus were otherwise completely terrible in the Uber metagame, but their positive matchups against Mega Lucario and, in the case of the Bug forme, ability to resist trapping efforts did give them some usability over Arceus-Dark.

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-Dark Quiz

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