ARCEUS
SERIES
multitype arceus is an extremely underrated threat and one that absolutely necessitates more exploration in the modern sm bh metagame. up until now, it's mostly been used only as a niche wall to imposter-proof certain threats. thanks to effectively having no item or ability slot, arceus is simply unable to fit into roles such as poison heal or prankster and as such is a much harder mon to just splash on. this pokemon really is extremely cool though and i want to talk about him.
arceus operates in the same space as primal groudon, a mon that falls apart with poor positioning but can just stand in the face of things and make progress without being easy to force out.
berry refers to them as "bigs" in their post
here. compared to pdon, arc severely lacks power but somewhat makes up for it with speed, spdef, and most importantly flexibility. pdon is just one pokemon while arc can be any of 17 depending on what your team wants.
arceus has a lot of cool traits and some uncool traits as well. its great spdef, unexploitable typing, and good speed tier make it a great check to threatening special attackers like mmy, gar (neutral judgment never 2hkos after a spike), and diancie. z-moves offer a much-needed burst of power that can make arceus a bit more annoying to handle defensively. even imposter was less annoying to handle than i thought initially. that said, something weird about arceus is that
it absolutely has to make progress to be worth running. passive arc sets simply do not work, you get spiked on and lose very quickly, and defog arc is just a joke. also, ph mmx of all things can be troublesome, because neutral low kick is doing a ton and it can be hard to chip down.
setup arc can kinda work, sometimes. only on the ones with better offensive stab though, if you dont have good offensive stab you cant fit recovery which sucks
here's a rough arc form tier list (i used type items here cause theyre easier to tell apart plus i like them):
s (very solid, should def be on vr):
a (pretty cool, put in work):
b (silly sometimes, solid other times):
c (pretty silly, good in theory but not in practice):
s rank
The Room (2003) (Arceus-Fairy) @ Steelium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shore Up
- Doom Desire
- Spectral Thief / Topsy-Turvy
- Anchor Shot
ONLY GOOD STEEL IN THE METAGAME. hard counters all non setup diancies cause you switch in on anything and can just kill them. also hard counters xern apart from nuzzle or spikes on the switch. beats every triage oblivion wing user cause youre faster, you resist oblivion wing, and thundurus is too weak to kill you. doom desire is what helps this make progress, or at least limit the opponent's progress, and it's also really strong with zmove. don't use this vs mmy but it beats gar easily. i think this should be at least c on the bh vr.
a rank
Broken Man (Arceus-Electric) @ Stone Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Judgment
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
pretty neat booster. beats standard xern + pdon which is always great. destroys triage unless theyre giga drain. you also beat imposter and shed, and guys like mmx/kart just get wisped and cannot kill you. even ph normals lose 1v1 unless they get to spectral your boosts. overall there is just not that much non-passive counterplay to this pokemon so it can put opponents in a really tough spot and let you get good progress for a comparatively very low price.
Xylophone Track (Arceus-Ghost) @ Groundium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Ice Beam
- Substitute
- Pain Split
dont laugh!!! this guy is cool, he subs up and is bulky so you get to spam arrows much more than any other ground would. fat mons cant kill you cause of split and can even be at risk of ice beam freezes (esp gira). zmove is excellent here to get that extra damage in vs guys like xern. be prepped for the usual suspects (regenvest, shed, kyuw) and don't give ph users an easy time, and the game will simply give you wins. other options like waves, pblades, and judgment, likely with a completely revamped set, may be worth consideration as well.
wine & revolution (Arceus-Fairy) @ Poisonium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Sacred Fire
- Taunt
- Recover
absolutely absurd pokemon offensively. if you arent unlucky you will poison the gira, the pdon, the bro. taunt absolutely ruins passive pokemon (including ff steels/ph gira, which are pretty much the only guys who can hard counter this). imposter is getting burned. shed isnt coming in. ph normals are a pain but z gunk helps to an extent (does 50 to opposing arc). really the big issue with this set is needing another guy for gar and triage. still an incredible mon though
PINGAS (Arceus-Fairy) @ Fairium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Tail Glow
- Strength Sap
when i was building the arceus teams, i was under the impression that fairy was by far the least viable arceus. xern was just too similar to it to justify the lost ability slot. then
Chazm introduced me to this set. running fairyceus over xern here is actually really cool cause of the extra speed, getting the drop on ph normals without the need for speed boost. even though youre still slower than stuff like mmy, youre fairyceus so theyll have a really hard time actually killing you. he imposter proofed with bounce hooh.
THE SHADOW REALM (Arceus-Dark) @ Dread Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Serious Nature
- Judgment
- Rapid Spin
- Sucker Punch
- Recover
pretty cool mon. judgment means you spin on all ghosts bar regenvest gira, weird sabs, and shed. has a great matchup vs mmy (you always live 1 mg light of ruin from full) and an even better one vs gar. even if you get chipped you can sucker them for a ton. it is rather passive and easily walled by any dark resist though, so youll want a solid ph xern answer and something to prevent gear from coming in everywhere. also fun fact, some of the arc forms actually want to run neutral natures
Arceus-Dragon @ Fist Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Low Kick
- Knock Off / Spectral Thief
- Anchor Shot / Sunsteel Strike
- Shore Up
you have low kick. this beats pretty much everything except fairies, meaning it goes extremely well with the above steelceus (you can even get funny with doom desire + partner that beats fat dragons). knock is very useful for av, pads, and shed shell. defensive utility is notably less than some other arcs though, you hard lose to triage and the mewtwos can be trouble. still beats unviable mon gar though LOOOOOL
Star Monster (Arceus-Flying) @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Multitype
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swagger
- Spectral Thief
- Recover
- Low Kick
star monster. i actually think this set is better than the tg judgment one, that gets walled by everything that walls gar (plus cant run moongeist :messi:) while this is harder to consistently stop especially with swagger in the mix. even against opposing spectral users, you can take the hit cause youre arceus and just overpower them. defensive utility is solid, modest zardy only ohkos on max roll and you do extremely well vs mmx/mmy while also handling fairies just fine.
b rank
Flying Phoenix (Arceus-Flying) @ Flame Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- V-create
- Power Whip
- Ice Hammer
- Recover
think of this as a much weaker pdon with more speed and spdef. basically something you use when you dont wanna get owned by ates. you actually run flame plate with vcreate cause its super strong (zmove not dropping speed/defenses is nice, but as arc you want all the power you can get). i ran another fireceus later with magma/icebeam/rocks, but vcreate as well as 3 move coverage is miles better to ensure you dont just get stopped in your tracks. i'd say this is the worst of the 3 fairy resist arcs due to offensive and defensive inconsistency, but it's not terrible.
JELLYFISH MAN (Arceus-Fairy) @ Electrium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tail Glow
- Zap Cannon
- Blizzard
- Recover
very memey set (you can probably run thunder>zap cannon) but the mon can work. defensively youre weak to ground which is a huge pain, but you arent weak to anything else so you can just zap cannon all the fast offensive guys. triage resist is also stellar on this. youre running tailglow so naturally this mons gonna be either hyper efficient or worthless, zap cannon can help you do things even when you should be worthless though. blizzard gets the ohko on gira after rocks at +3 (you can para regenvest!!!!!). annoying to imposter proof, run shed or pdon or something
Cactus (Arceus-Fairy) @ Splash Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Tail Glow
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
waterceus runs into the same issue as fairyceus in that it has a hard time distinguishing itself from a popular mon, in this case ogre. unfortunately arc has a tough time leveraging its superior physical bulk cause taking physical hits doesnt really work when youre arceus, so instead this guy just boosts up and tries to win the game. coverage is good and steam eruption can beat shed, but you pretty much have to sack in front of +3 imposter unless you have entei (who i should use). this guy is alright if you want an ogre without recovery, maybe hes better with entei idk.
Azure (Arceus-Water) @ Draco Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Sunsteel Strike
- Swords Dance
- Roost
very cool set imo. outrage is significantly stronger than the other options available and it comes with built-in imposter punishing (they dont wanna lock themselves into it). obviously outrage has a flaw in that it gives fairy types a turn to hit you, but arceus is the mon least affected by this; stuff like ph xern moonblasts is bouncing off so unless they have pixilate theyre not doing enough. i considered a special set with core enforcer and maybe like sludge/magma/recover? but it feels too weak vs ogre and you cant afford to go min speed on arc generally. could be better than i expected though.
c rank
PERMAFROST (Arceus-Grass) @ Icicle Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Spear
- Roost
basic idea of the set is to instantly win vs stall cause you just repeatedly icicle spear the resists until they get impaled enough times and run out of recovers. unfortunately no one uses stall and it does a pretty poor job against everyone else. i made this set with ph xern in mind but you need sd + 5 spears to actually ohko him which isnt close to reliable, and obviously iceus is already at a disadvantage in terms of defensive typing, losing to some nasty mons like pdon, mmx, and steels. this is a really cool pokemon (probably around the snow warning users in terms of viability on ices) and i think this set doesnt quite do him justice. more experimentation perhaps.
team protag (Arceus-Grass) @ Meadow Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leech Seed
- Grass Knot
- Steam Eruption
- Recover
the legendary team protag. i think leech seed and knot are some of the best things grassceus has (ground resist is cool, but if you want it that badly there are other grasses like tang that can deliver on that). steam eruption cause i wanted to punish uturn. didnt work out super well, grass is just weak to a lot of things that it cant punish in return. even 3 moves arent enough, you want grass + ice + rock + fire all to accomplish the same thing as ghost + fighting or ice + ground. leechseed loses to uturn but it can do things if they arent running that. this needs recover but doesnt have space for it.
Roses (Arceus-Dark) @ Psychium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 248 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Photon Geyser
- Knock Off
- Thousand Waves
- Recover
physical photon. unfortunately the other moves don't really do anything cause youre walled by, like, yveltal. i think this is another case where the mon is more viable but the set could use some adjustment; an idea i had was taking a page out of dragonceus's book and running prismatic laser with like blue flare + thunder as coverage. this really shouldnt be hasty but he doesnt have much of a choice, arc cant run -spdef
Firefly Phenomenon (Arceus-Fire) @ Buginium Z
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Sunsteel Strike
- Megahorn
- Swords Dance
you have uturn. kind of like grassceus, but you need even more than 4 moves to cover everything. to be fair, there are some cool things about bugceus, though; it's one of the most reliable mmx counters, and it can also take on sig move man + gar. additionally, there are other bug moves like struggle bug, lunge, and first impression (dont say it anaconja) that may be worth looking into. i have yet to come up with a set that can really hold its own, though.
want teams? get the entire arceus collection here ->
https://pokepast.es/0b07fa52f09d042f
bonus fairyceus team by
Chazm:
https://pokepast.es/33fce8d89de3bbd1
shoutouts to
anaconja,
XxSevagxX,
Chazm,
Onyx Onix 7,
lph,
dimrah,
In The Hills,
a loser,
Champion Leon,
Demilogic, and
pazza (and anyone else i may have forgotten, sorry) for testing with me and helping make this post possible. i'm really happy with the activity this meta has gotten and i've had a lot of fun testing more and more new things. hopefully i'll be back next time with something new.