Competitive Pokémon History - Arceus-Steel Quiz

Answer: Twelve

None of the selection of Bug, Dark, Dragon, Flying, Ghost, Grass, Ice, Normal, Psychic, Rock or Steel itself would do appreciable damage to Arceus-Steel due to its impressive bulk and resistances to all of them. Additionally, Poison would do absolutely nothing to it, as Steel is immune to Poison. This gave Arceus-Steel plenty of leeway to switch into targets and begin to do its job.

Answer: Iron Defense

The idea was that, while Calm Mind fortified Arceus-Steel's special bulk, Iron Defense rapidly fortified it on the physical side. If the opponent lacked a hard hitting Fire, Ground or Steel type, this set could quickly get out of hand. With just a couple boosts, it could end up becoming both completely impenetrable and then offensively potent as Calm Mind increased the power of its Judgment.

Answer: No

Heatran, Kyogre, Ho-Oh and Groudon seem like they could achieve this on paper. However, if the weather was rain, which it often was due to Kyogre being a highly advisable partner for Arceus-Steel, Heatran's ability to actually threaten Arceus-Steel was incredibly limited. In the rain, Heatran cannot even 3HKO with Flamethrower, and while Fire Blast or Magma Storm scored likely 3HKOs, these moves were rare for Heatran to run in Ubers, and could be stalled out due to their low PP anyway. That, of course, doesn't even factor that Heatran would need to give Arceus a free turn in order to counter it, and a Calm Mind boost to Arceus-Steel's special defense would cause Heatran to do completely negligible damage.

Kyogre could simply be outslugged by a Calm Mind boosted Thunder, though it could counter Arceus-Steel if it did not have Thunder. Ho-Oh that has to take Stealth Rock damage on the way in also shares that designation.

Groudon was not a particularly good switch in, taking a lot of damage from Judgment and finding itself unable to break an Arceus-Steel that is able to boost with Iron Defense twice before Groudon uses Earthquake.

Nothing else came particularly close to countering Arceus-Steel.

Answer: Will-o-Wisp

Will-o-Wisp is a godsend for defensive Pokémon in general, and Arceus-Steel had the stat build to fully take advantage of this. Groudon has no trouble switching into, say, Jirachi in order to pound the daylights out of it. Most other Steel types have to run for the hills when it does come in, too. Arceus-Steel certainly can't beat the mover of continents one-on-one, but it can keep it at bay with the looming threat of neutering its offenses via Will-o-Wisp, which made Arceus-Steel much tougher for its check to switch into it.

Answer: Lack of need to run Refresh

Steel is a notoriously poor offensive typing, and Arceus-Steel's statbuild is the exact same as other Arceus formes. However, a trait only shared by Arceus-Poison amongst the pack is that Arceus-Steel is naturally immune to Toxic poison. This means it does not need to run Refresh, and can instead dedicate that moveslot to a highly appreciated coverage move to compensate for Steel's poor offensive typing.

This was huge, as its Calm Mind set would've been rather underwhelming if the only offensive move it could run was Judgment or a non-STAB attack such as Ice Beam.

Answer: Kyogre

Tyranitar could be helpful, but Arceus-Steel and T-Tar actually shared a lot of the same weaknesses, so the arrangement wasn't too useful. Groudon was an okay teammate, offering Stealth Rock and potential wall breaking support, but its Drought ability would actually amplify Arceus-Steel's weakness to Fire, which was not ideal.

Kyogre, however, was a perfect partner. Drizzle removed Arceus-Steel's Fire weakness entirely. Additionally, Kyogre could check practically every Pokémon that could check Arceus-Steel, while also being able to switch in to passive Pokémon who could setup on Arceus-Steel, such as Jirachi, Skarmory and Tentacruel. It was thus an excellent partner.

Answer: Primal Groudon

Primal Groudon now resisted Judgement was no longer weak to Ice Beam, courtesy of its new Fire typing. Because of said typing, Will-o-Wisp failed to deter it as well. Annoyingly, it could come in and instantly, permanently remove any weather effects, including beneficial rain, in favor of the searing sun that provided a larger weakness to Fire for Arceus-Steel to contend with. Arceus-Steel's utter helplessness in its presence was incredibly exploitable, hindering its viability greatly and making it harder to justify on the average team build.

Answer: Xerneas could defeat it with a coverage move

Xerneas commonly carried Focus Blast specifically for Steel types and, to a slightly lesser extent, Primal Groudon. After a Geomancy boost, Focus Blast was a guaranteed OHKO on Arceus-Steel unless it had boosted with Calm Mind once or more. Thus, other non-Fighting weak Steel types like Mega Scizor or Aegislash made for much better Xerneas checks.

Answer: It had a poor defensive presence

Arceus-Steel's offensive presence was actually quite okay. However, being weak to Marshadow, Mega Gengar and Xerneas' Focus Blast, Primal Groudon, Arceus-Ground, and too many more to individually identify meant there was always a hard hitting threat around the corner to pound Arceus-Steel into submission. Thus, it was only recommended to use offensive sets with Arceus-Steel to take advantage of its unique niches as an offensive Steel type.

Answer: Ho-Oh

Ho-Oh can take hits from Mega Lucario, Mega Scizor and Necrozma-DuskMane quite well. However, Arceus-Steel can swiftly deal with Ho-Oh with a single 4x super effective Stone Edge, something the others cannot viably achieve.