Arceus Stock Is Up

Hello everyone! With the World Championships just around the corner, I think we should discuss one of the most popular archetypes in the current format. Arceus VSTAR has been a metagame mainstay since its release in Brilliant Stars. Although it isn’t always at the top of the tier list, I find myself running into more Arceus decks than anything else at nearly every major event. Sometimes this is expected, and sometimes it isn’t. Before NAIC, Arceus wasn’t a high priority for most people when it came to testing and testing against. Everyone always knows Arceus exists and is decent, but sometimes it gradually fades to obscurity before coming back with a bang.

Arceus ended up placing second at NAIC in Masters, and it won the Seniors and Juniors divisions. Furthermore, Arceus had three total Top 8 spots and many other high placements in Masters. Although it didn’t quite win the tournament, I would say Arceus was the archetype that performed the best overall, especially considering its metagame share. Therefore, going into Worlds, Arceus is a strong metagame threat that everyone should be aware of. Due to Arceus’s versatility, it can be played with many different partners. For those looking to play Arceus, choosing what to pair it with can be a difficult decision.

Arceus VSTAR is almost too good a card. It can do everything. Arceus is particularly good right now because of the amount of fast pressure it applies, which is strong against the two top decks: Lost Box and Gardevoir ex. On turn two, Arceus usually takes a KO with Trinity Nova. This alone is a lot of damage and tempo, but it also powers up anything you want for free. Even if opponents can quickly respond, they still have to immediately deal with the Arceus player’s follow-up attacker. If they stumble for a turn, Arceus just gets to use Trinity Nova again, and things quickly spiral out of control from there. Of course, the completely broken Starbirth Ability ensures that Arceus can do this nearly every game. Its consistency is unparalleled.

The most popular Arceus variant, and the one that got second place at NAIC, features Duraludon VMAX and Umbreon VMAX. Duraludon is the perfect partner for Arceus for several reasons. It has a normally awkward Energy requirement, but that is no problem at all thanks to Trinity Nova. Duraludon’s HP makes it nearly impossible to KO, and even when it goes down, it gives up three Prizes, which does not hurt your Prize trade. In most games, the Arceus player forces the opponent to take seven or even eight Prizes. Once you take down the initial Arceus and a Duraludon, which already requires a substantial amount of effort, you still have to take out another Arceus or Pokemon VMAX.

Duraludon’s Skyscraper Ability perfectly covers Arceus. Skyscraper is devastating against Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX and Lugia VSTAR, which are the two decks that Arceus would otherwise have the most trouble with. The only downside you could say that Duraludon has is that its damage output is fairly limited. 220 damage is great, but you will never be able to OHKO Pokemon VSTAR or Pokemon VMAX. This is where Umbreon VMAX comes in. Umbreon is a Darkness-type Pokemon, which means that it can OHKO Gardevoir ex and Mew VMAX. These are the two main metagame threats that have too much HP for Duraludon. Furthermore, Umbreon only requires one Darkness Energy and two of any type, making it relatively noncommittal for the deck’s Energy lineup. And of course, Umbreon’s Ability is extremely powerful. For these reasons, Umbreon is the perfect partner for Arceus / Duraludon.

Another Arceus variant is the one with Flying Pikachu VMAX. Michael Catron made Top 8 at NAIC with this version, and still included Umbreon. Catron also played damage manipulation techs such as Radiant Alakazam, Hawlucha, and Medicham V. Flying Pikachu is strong against Lost Box and Chien-Pao ex. It is also quite useful against Lugia and Urshifu, though it isn’t as hard of a counter against those decks as Duraludon is. Flying Pikachu is lower-maintenance when it comes to Energy, and it also has free retreat. As you can see, Duraludon and Flying Pikachu have different strengths and weaknesses, so it’s hard to decide for sure which is best.

Arceus is often played alongside Giratina VSTAR as its own deck. This version is just as popular as the Duraludon one, so you should expect to face it every so often. This variant is the most linear and one-note of them all. It uses Trinity Nova and Lost Impact and that’s it. This is strong enough to be a major threat in the meta simply because Lost Impact one-shots almost everything in the game. This is the most powerful of the Arceus variants. Even against the very-high-HP threats, the deck plays Cleansing Gloves and Choice Belt to reach key KOs.

Finally, there is Arceus / Regidrago VSTAR. This one is my personal favorite, though I do not know for sure if it is the best. Regidrago can copy attacks from any Dragon-type Pokemon in the entire game, which gives this deck a versatile and wide-ranging arsenal. However, this deck has to do a bit of work to get the desired Dragon-types into the discard pile for Regidrago to copy from. This deck is still fairly under-the-radar, but it did win NAIC in Juniors. I think this deck is a bit underplayed in Masters for how good of a deck it is. I was surprised when I actually faced one at NAIC, and ended up tying against it with Gardevoir.

I want to discuss this deck in some more detail. Here is my current list:

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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