Changes in bold
Removals in red
Comments in bold red
[Overview]
<p>Clad in His steel armour, Arceus enters the battlefield ready to deliver His
divine Judgment on His creations. Steel Arceus
merely laughs at the horde of elemental moves which fail to pierce His impenetrable armour. Even the fangs of the mighty Dragons, whom He created to protect the world, fail to leave a scratch on Arceus's polished exterior. Although, Steel Arceus dislikes the quakes of the Earth and the raging fires, one should never overlook Him, for truly no other forme of the
Creator is as resilient as
He.</p>
[SET]
name: Calm Mind
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Recover
move 3: Judgment
move 4: Roar / Thunder / Will-O-Wisp
item: Iron Plate
nature: Timid
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>With Arceus's impressive defenses and
its wide array of resistances thanks to its
Steel typing, Steel Arceus
can pull off a Calm Mind set without breaking a sweat. Access to Recover prevents Arceus from being taken down easily and even allows it wall
some Pokemon like Scarf Palkia after a few Calm Minds. Steel has decent coverage in
Ubers, but is resisted by Ground-, Water-, and Fire-types
. (period) Roar can be used to phaze out
opposing setup sweepers such as Bulk Up Dialga before they get out of control, and can be used to rack up some passive damage with entry hazards. Thunder can be used deal with
Pokemon that resist
Steel, such as Kyogre, but it is not
recommended unless
rain support from Kyogre can be
provided. Will-O-Wisp allows Arceus to cripple physical attackers like Zekrom and works very well thanks to Arceus's excellent Speed. The combination of Calm Mind and Will-O-Wisp makes Steel Arceus very hard to kill. Thanks to Steel Arceus's Toxic immunity and access to Recover, it can function as a deadly
stallbreaker capable of defeating stalling machines like Blissey one-on-one.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>The EVs are designed to grant Arceus maximum bulk
, (comma) while
also giving it enough Speed to tie with other offensive variants of Arceus.
Speed and HP EVs can be transferred into
Special Attack if immediate firepower is
preferred over durability
; 116 EVs with a neutral nature is the absolute minimum Speed you should run with Steel Arceus, though, so it can still outspeed Garchomp. A fully defensive EV set can be run by moving the
Speed EVs into
Defense and using a Bold nature.
An EV set of 252 HP / 140 SpA / 116 Spe allows Arceus to outspeed Garchomp but still have some immediate power.</p>
<p>Kyogre makes a fantastic partner to
Steel Arceus thanks to its ability to check Groudon. The rain Kyogre brings along
wth iit also negates Steel Arceus's weakness to the Fire-type and allows it to use Thunder without any chance of a miss. Kyogre can also check most variants of Reshiram and Ho-Oh
, (comma) both of which pose a
huge threat to Steel Arceus's existence.
Steel Arceus pairs up well with almost any Dragon since it can take Ice- and Dragon-type hits for them
, while they can take Fire-, Water-, Electric-, and usually even Ground-type moves for it. Rayquaza deserves a special mention since it is immune to Earthquake and has excellent synergy with Steel Arceus on the whole.</p>
[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Iron Head
move 2: Swords Dance
move 3: Earthquake / Extremespeed
move 4: Recover
item: Iron Plate
nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>
(backspace)Although, Steel is not the best STAB type in Ubers
, with many of the common Pokemon in the tier ( Kyogre) resisting it, Steel Arceus can still be a potent user of Swords Dance. After a Swords Dance
, (comma) Arceus's Attack stat hits a magnificent 744 Attack. Iron Head provides a reliable STAB and the 30% chance of a flinch
is icing on the cake.
Earthquake has excellent neutral coverage in Ubers
in tandem with Iron Head, being resisted by
only a handful of Pokemon. ExtremeSpeed can be used over Earthquake to deal with faster sweepers like Mewtwo but is not
nearly as powerful as Earthquake. In the last slot, Recover allows Arceus to abuse its bulk to the fullest and gives it plenty of opportunities to set up.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>A more
defensive spread of 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Speed can be used
to give Arceus some staying power. Outrage can be used to destroy the plethora of Dragon-types in Ubers. However, a Steel Arceus locked into Outrage is easy to revenge kill.
Since supporting Groudon
have a field day with this set
, offensive variants of Kyogre
and Palkia are great teammates act as a good check to Groudon and it also has good synergy with Steel Arceus. Palkia can also take on Support Groudon and 2HKO it with Fire Blast, if it is sunny. Just like the previous set, most Dragons make good
teammates for Steel Arceus since
they resist most of
each other's weaknesses. However, one must be cautious about pairing up Dialga or Zekrom with Steel Arceus, since it compounds the Ground weakness.
(backspace)</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Arceus's extensive movepool allows it
to have no dearth of options. Cosmic Power can be used to boost both of Arceus's
defensive stats and works well with Steel Arceus's numerous resistances. Perish Song can be used to defeat
end-game sweepers such as Kyogre and Dark Arceus. It can also be used to create an opportunity to set up for a
teammate like Rayquaza. Earth Power can be used to put a dent in Heatran but has no real use otherwise.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Any Pokemon
that capable of dishing out powerful Fire-, Fighting-, or Ground-type attacks can be a threat to Steel Arceus. Ho-Oh, Reshiram, and Groudon
can all obliterate Steel Arceus with their STAB moves. Groudon is especially dangerous since the sunlight it brings powers up the
Fire-type moves that Steel Arceus hates. Heatran can switch on Will-O-Wisp, grab a boost and do a large chunk of damage with Flamethrower. If
the sun is up, Mewtwo can fry Steel Arceus with Fire Blast, OHKOing it easily.
Kyogre, Ground
Arceus, Fire Arceus
, (comma) and Fighting Arceus can
all engage in a Calm Mind war with Steel Arceus
and eventually win thanks to
their natural type advantage. Garchomp and Terrakion can turn Steel Arceus to scrap metal with their powerful STAB moves but they cannot
switch in.
Choice Scarf Heracross,
although rare, can outspeed Steel Arceus
when equipped with a Choice Scarf and
can even stomach an unboosted Judgment
if it needs to; in retaliation, it has no problem bringing Steel Arceus down with its STAB Close Combat.
Also, Steel Arceus will not like to taking a Close Combat from Heracross. Calm Mind variants of Kyogre can eliminate Steel Arceus with Rain boosted Water-type moves while resisting Judgement. Steel-types like Skarmory and Ferrothorn can be a nuisance to the Swords Dance set
; Skarmory, in particular, laughs at all of Steel Arceus's moves and can phaze Steel-Arceus out with Whirlwind.</p>
