Competitive Pokemon History: Arceus-Flying Quiz

Answer: Stallbreaker

Arceus-Flying's Judgment had no immunities and was also narrowly resisted by relevant Pokemon, only Dialga, Tyranitar and opposing formes of Arceus which resisted Flying making the list. Thus, a mono-attacking set was viable. Alternatively, both Dialga and Tyranitar, popular candidates for the average stall team, could be smitten by Hidden Power Fighting, which also conveniently hit Blissey for super effective damage. Either way, a simple set of Judgment/Calm Mind/Recover/Refresh or HP Fighting posed a serious threat to stall teams, and gave Arceus-Flying a great niche in its debut generation.

Answer: Lack of usable physical STAB moves

Arceus-Flying's best STAB options were the incredibly underwhelming Fly and the only marginally better Aerial Ace. It would need multiple Swords Dance boosts to even think about trying to sweep. Even then, those moves would be weak enough where the generally physically bulky Uber meta could still capably take Arceus-Flying on. Thus, a Swords Dance set was best left to more capable formes of Arceus, such as Dragon, Ground, Water and, of course, the Extremekiller.

Answer: Three

Three weaknesses for a Pokemon as bulky as Arceus seems manageable, until one realizes that the weaknesses of Electric, Ice and Rock are easily exploitable by practically any well built team imaginable. In particular, a weakness to Stealth Rock was incredibly irritating. Thunder was a common move due to the ubiquitousness of Kyogre allowing it to be a fully accurate move, and that move hit Arceus-Flying incredibly hard. With all of the Dragon types roaming around, Ice Beam also became quite common, and Arceus-Flying feared this move as well. Thus, a support variant of Arceus has always been better left for the Ground, Water, Steel, Dark or even Fighting type formes.

Answer: Zekrom

Zekrom resisted Flying, could even take a super effective Earth Power if need be, and could slay the god that is Arceus with a single Bolt Strike. Zekrom was a rather common presence in the Uber tier, though it thankfully did have reliable and splashable countermeasures one could easily include on their team to enable some leeway of Arceus-Flying had a Zekrom switch into it.

Answer: Bug, Grass and Fighting

Bug types were pretty much nonexistent in Ubers, with Heracross making the occasional appearance as an anti-Darkrai pick. Even Arceus-Bug was not super common, as a fairly underwhelming choice for a team's Arceus forme most of the time. Fighting types were more common, but they tended to pack anti-Flying type coverage, usually Stone Edge, that would be difficult for Arceus-Flying to comfortably switch in against. Grass types were also rare, but those that did tend to appear in Ubers could also hit Arceus-Flying hard or harrass it in other ways. Arceus-Grass just about always carried either Ice Beam or Stone Edge, while Shaymin-S' paraflinching tactics could also trouble Arceus-Flying greatly.

As such, attempting to leverage Arceus-Flying's resistances was a generally fruitless endeavor. Being immune to Ground was neat, but again, Ground types such as Groudon or Garchomp just about always packed Stone Edge, whereas specially offensive variants of Arceus-Ground tended to have Ice Beam on hand for this scenario.

Answer: Immunity to Spikes

Being able to ignore Spikes and Toxic Spikes was entirely exclusive to Arceus-Flying, thanks to its typing. Being weak to Stealth Rock did mitigate this advantage somewhat, as Stealth Rock was a more common entry hazard. However, the tried-and-true Toxic/Spikes/Stall teams would be at a loss for how to deal with an Arceus-Flying, especially one which had Focus Blast on its moveset. Toxic would be rendered ineffective by Arceus-Flying's usage of Refresh, Spikes straight up did nothing to it, and if it had Focus Blast, the popular tandem of Tyranitar and Excadrill would have a miserable time trying to outslug it. Thus, Arceus-Flying definitely was worth a teamslot on teams weak to TSS that also needed a Calm Mind sweeper.

Answer: Mega Salamence

Mega Salamence was far stronger immediately than Arceus-Flying, had better bulk, and was a much more vicious option for a stallbreaker, one that posed more of an immediate threat and had an easier time gaining momentum against these teams. Arceus-Flying had a much better matchup against Lugia than Mega Salamence, which was admittedly pretty notable, but apart from that Mega Salamence was plainly superior at breaking down stall teams. Considering the opportunity cost that went into selecting Arceus-Flying, its usage declined steeply upon the introduction of Mega Salamence.

The introduction of Mega Salamence also forced teams to come prepared with Flying type resistances as well as offensive checks to Flying types. By proxy, this created a ripple in the meta which hindered Arceus-Flying.

Answer: Clefable

Clefable's Unaware ability allowed it to ignore any Calm Mind boosts Arceus-Flying had picked up, and its good bulk let it take what was in essence an unboosted Judgment, and boost its own stats with Calm Mind. Clefable was incredibly dangerous for Calm Mind formes of Arceus in general, and the Flying variant was no exception.

Answer: Competition for its niche

Yveltal, Mega Salamence and Ho-Oh provided major competition in the realm of being an offensive Flying type. Since a team could opt to use one, or even multiple of them and just use a different Arceus forme for better synergy, this hurt Arceus-Flying's viability in practice more than it would seem on paper.

Answer: Species Clause

Species Clause prevents the player from using two Pokemon with the same National Pokedex number on their team. Therefore, running Arceus-Flying alongside another forme of Arceus is illegal. Thus, a player must choose wisely which forme of Arceus they'd like to use on their team. With the extremely stiff competition Arceus-Flying has received over the years, it has often been a better idea to just use, say, Yveltal or Ho-Oh, and pick a different forme of Arceus that can fill a different, harder to come by niche.