Competitive Pokémon History - Arceus-Psychic Quiz

Answer: Mewtwo and Lugia

Mewtwo was a vastly superior option, wielding significantly higher Special Attack, noticeably higher Speed, and Arceus-Psychic's advantage in bulk wasn't anywhere near appreciable enough to separate itself, as Mewtwo's bulk was quite respectable. Lugia has always been an immovable Wall, and Arceus-Psychic didn't come close to challenging it in that regard during the fourth generation.

Answer: Calm Mind sweeper

With good bulk, good offenses and a great movepool, Arceus-Psychic was severely outclassed by Mewtwo, and generally outclassed by Lugia and the Lati twins as a Calm Mind sweeper, but it was otherwise usable in the role. Judgment was a powerful STAB option, and Arceus-Psychic had the options of Focus Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Beam or Shadow Ball as coverage options, which were solid enough to at least make it decent, albeit severely outclassed.

Lacking a physical STAB option, Swords Dance sets were sadly not an option. Too bad, because Arceus-Psychic would've been able to have its own, uncontested niche if they were.

Answer: Dark

All types listed can definitely give Arceus-Psychic problems, but it can work around the other three depending on its coverage move of choice. However, even with Focus Blast, Dark types have proven to be immovable. Tyranitar could tank a single Focus Blast, even one boosted by a single Calm Mind, despite its 4x weakness to the move, and then destroy Arceus-Psychic with Crunch. Darkrai was especially dangerous up until the seventh generation, able to come in and either force Arceus-Psychic out to get a free Nasty Plot turn, or put it or a teammate to sleep with Dark Void before commencing a potential Nasty Plot sweep.

They were probably the most prominent, consistent counters, but they were far from the only ones; any team looking to use Arceus-Psychic for some reason absolutely had to include a teammate or two that could adequately deal with Dark types.

Answer: New STAB option

Psyshock gave Arceus-Psychic a major upper hand in Calm Mind wars, and made matchups against stall teams a bit more bearable. Since the move strikes the target on their Defense side, Chansey and Blissey were far easier to overcome, though Lugia was still a huge problem on these builds.

Unfortunately, Mewtwo obtained a new signature move in Psystrike, that was the same thing as Psyshock only noticeably stronger. Thus, Arceus-Psychic was now even more outclassed than it was before.

Answer: Psychic

Mewtwo can obliterate Fighting and Poison types, so going this route was no good for Arceus-Psychic. Dark types were certainly insurmountable, but fellow Psychic types were not. An obscurely niche idea was to take advantage of Arceus-Psychic's good bulk and great movepool to craft a utility set that uniquely could reliably deal with Psychic types across the meta. Sadly, it fell relatively flat, as it generally failed to take down the Lati twins, consistently lost to Lugia, and was unable to account for every Mewtwo set in the game. Thus, it was a valiant effort, but the niche's actual value was low and didn't seriously move the needle on Arceus-Psychic's poor viability.

Answer: Will-o-Wisp

This was rather notable as being a nice defensive move that Lugia did not have access to. However, Mewtwo did have access to this move as the question notes. Mewtwo wasn't as bulky as Arceus-Psychic, so while the latter made for an arguably better use at this specific move, Mewtwo's overall superior qualities aside from this bite sized advantage still made it more worth using in the long haul in a supporting role. Stalltwo was a popular Mewtwo variant where Will-o-Wisp was a major contributor on the move set, so Mewtwo could utilize the move in a more viable way for sure. Arceus-Psychic's superior bulk meant it had an easier time directly switching into play and making use of it, but that was about it.

Answer: Toxic staller

It may seem like Lugia totally outclassed Arceus-Psychic at doing this. And that's because it pretty much totally did in practice. On paper, the idea was to try and exploit Arceus-Psychic's Speed investment over Lugia to outspeed more threats, giving it an easier time Toxic stalling them.

Unfortunately, Arceus-Psychic was mostly a victim of circumstance here; the only relevant Pokémon it could outspeed that Lugia could not was Mega Lucario, who was immune to Toxic anyway. Thus, it was now a pitifully bad Pokémon, seemingly cursed to spend an eternity living in something else's shadow.

Answer: Pretty much the entire Uber meta

Arceus-Psychic's offenses were really bad, so practically anything could just switch right into it and do whatever it wanted, provided it wasn't extremely weak to Toxic or Ice Beam. Even 4x weak threats like Salamence could survive a single Ice Beam, boost with Dragon Dance, and hammer Arceus-Psychic with a boosted, Aerilate attack in return. Arceus-Psychic's incredibly low list of good matchups was the nail in the coffin; it was no longer even decent as a stand-alone Pokémon anymore.

Answer: Psychic Terrain teams

Arceus-Psychic naturally makes for an excellent Deoxys-Attack check. Because Mewtwo was less likely to be seen running Shadow Ball or Taunt on a Psychic Terrain, Arceus-Psychic became a much stronger check to it in this context. Finally, the new and deadly Necrozma-DuskMane had lots of troubles facing down Arceus-Psychic, as offensive variants couldn't handle Fire Blast and were immensely crippled by Will-o-Wisp. Finally, Arceus-Psychic found a niche, as neither Lugia nor Mewtwo could effectively contest it at performing this duty.

Answer: It had huge competition for nearly any niche it could try and get

If you haven't been keeping up, Mewtwo and Lugia have combined to outclass Arceus-Psychic at almost any niche imaginable over the years. Their existence has murdered Arceus-Psychic's viability almost by itself.