Articuno has huge defenses and basically the strongest special attack in the game, which can severely dent practically everything. Blizzard does about 75% to Alakazam with a critical hit. It also does about 50% to Starmie with a critical hit; unfortunately, that isn't really enough to kill it on its own. Therefore, in order to get Articuno to work, you are either going to have to get rid of Starmie first or freeze it, and based on experience, freezing isn't all that bad of an option. Considering Starmie needs to use Recover pretty much every other turn, you will get a fair amount of shots in, especially since Articuno has the defenses to switch in a number of times. Chansey is another issue. Hyper Beam can help take her down, and Sky Attack OHKOs with a critical hit, though Sky Attack is not highly recommended. Lapras can be a problem, but you can take it reasonably well with just Double-Edge, since it has no form of recovery outside of Rest. However, Lapras will slow Articuno down regardless. Basically, Articuno counters a lot of difficult-to-counter standards (Exeggutor, Tauros, and Snorlax, and Rhydon and Golem if it doesn't switch into Rock Slide), but is also easily countered by other standards. Fortunately, with the right support, Articuno is a monster that will special sweep like very little else.
This set is more for Articuno to stall. Ice Beam is used mainly for freezing, while Blizzard gives Articuno that extra power. Reflect and Rest keep it alive with its high defenses in both categories. Other OptionsArticuno can make good use of Mimic as its movepool is nothing special. OpinionArticuno is actually a surprisingly awesome Pokémon, considering all it can use are Ice- and Normal-type moves. Its problem is that there just isn't much need for an Ice Pokémon in the metagame (although it's a pretty cool Exeggutor counter). CountersStarmie, Lapras, Chansey, and Cloyster can all take Ice-type attacks and do a decent amount of damage back (save Cloyster who would most likely end up exploding on it if Articuno is worn down enough). Slowbro's initial Special isn't too great, but it can use Amnesia and Rest when it needs to. If you get Articuno paralyzed or force it to Rest (assuming it has it), then a Rhydon or Golem could easily take Articuno down with a Rock Slide. |
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