|
-
Pressure
- Enemy attacks lose 1 extra PP. Increases wild encounter rate.
|
Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
90
|
- |
321 |
384 |
- |
| Atk |
85
|
185 |
206 |
269 |
295 |
| Def |
100
|
212 |
236 |
299 |
328 |
| SpA |
95
|
203 |
226 |
289 |
317 |
| SpD |
125
|
257 |
286 |
349 |
383 |
| Spe |
85
|
185 |
206 |
269 |
295 |
Articuno is a stall machine; with good HP and Defense, and marvelous Special Defense, it makes a premiere Sleep Talker. However, the real strategy of this set is to do as much Spikes damage as possible, so make sure you have that on your team when using Articuno.
You can come in on Celebi and Swampert, mainly. Neither can really do anything to you (except Rock Slide Swampert); they just waste their PP due to Pressure. Your opponent will probably realize this and switch out, so this is where you outpredict and use Roar. Spikes will deal damage to both the counter he is switching to, and the random Pokémon you Roared in, provided it isn't a Levitator or Flier. Because they switched to their counter, whatever comes out is not likely their best Pokémon to take on Articuno. It also really helps that Ice Beam hits nearly every Flier and many Levitators super effectively.
It gets even cooler when your Articuno is sleeping. If you use Sleep Talk and it selects Roar, and you happen to be faster than your opponent, you will Roar him away before he can do anything. Again, free Spikes damage. The rest of this set is pretty simple. Stall like a madman, come in on Waters, Blissey, or aforementioned Swampert / Celebi to get in your Rest, and make sure not to run out of Ice Beam PP (Sleep Talk helps with this).
Articuno gets Heal Bell via Pokémon XD, and can do an okay job at it if you really need it to. It's not as good as Blissey, Celebi, or Miltank because it lacks a 50% recovery move, but it lasts long nonetheless. You can go with the Sleep Talk route again, and get free Heal Bells when sleeping, solving the problem of having so few PP. Roar works of course, but not as well as in the first set. Reflect supports the team and guards you against Metagross and Rock Slide. With Toxic you can catch Tyranitar, but it does nothing to Steels or Blissey. It might slow down Snorlax or Suicune though.
This set is designed to sap as much PP as possible, but a smart opponent will just switch his way out of it. Articuno's Substitutes can survive STAB Surfs, which is very nice. The fact that Meteor Mash and Rock Slide only have 10 or 16 PP helps Articuno a lot.
Other Options
The only reason to use Haze over Roar is because you could strike before your opponent makes their move, but doing damage with Spikes is really preferable. Hidden Power Fire owns Metagross and Hidden Power Flying could do a number on Heracross.
EVs
Always max out Articuno's HP for the Leftovers recovery and great durability. Use a Calm nature, Special Defense is Articuno's greatest stat and should be boosted. 136 Special Defense EVs give you a stat of 352, which is plenty. Since Articuno ties with Suicune in Speed, you should give it somewhere between 8 and 24 EVs to make sure you can Roar Suicune out first, as this also guarantees you are faster than Jolly Marowak. If you don't have Roar, this obviously isn't as important, but beating Marowak is still useful, and you still might want to get in a Haze before getting hit by Surf. Your spare EVs can go to Special Attack or Defense, whatever you prefer.
Opinion
While Articuno has a lot of counters, it is truly underrated. It can Roar away the feared Calm Mind Celebi, laughs at most Swampert, and can easily stall out Blissey and all Waters. It does a great job at absorbing Sleep Powder and Spore, because Grassers don't like STAB Ice Beams in their faces. Don't forget you can also absorb a Milotic's Hypnosis with this. With Reflect and Haze / Roar, Articuno nullifies Snorlax. It also scares away any Salamence without Rock Slide (and keeps it from coming in regardless of the set), and it takes 3 or more non-STAB Thunderbolts to kill it. It takes some prediction to do good damage with Articuno, though.
Counters
Octillery with Rock Blast makes the best Articuno counter because it's immune to Roar and resists Ice Beam. On a more serious note: Metagross resists Ice Beam and has a STAB Meteor Mash to crush you. Tyranitar takes neutral damage from Ice Beam, but knocks out Articuno with Rock Slide. Registeel has no OHKOing threat but can wall Articuno all day, and can damage with Rock Slide or Hidden Power Steel. Regice may not be able to KO Articuno quickly with Thunderbolt, but doesn't take much damage at all from Ice Beam either. Same goes to Lanturn, Lapras, and Starmie. Snorlax takes next to nothing from Ice Beams, may Curse up and then hit you before you Roar it away, and generally hurts with STAB Normal moves. Jirachi resists Ice Beam and can Calm Mind up, to hit Articuno with super effective Fire Punch / Thunder / Thunderbolt. Raikou and Jolteon take light damage from Ice Beam, but 2HKO with Thunderbolt. Rock Slide Swampert, if you ever see it, is of course easy to bring in and will usually 2HKO Articuno. Any Fire-type with decent Special Attack puts a hurting as well. And anything that can take an Ice Beam without dying and use a Rock move, basically. Blissey can wall Articuno, but will not win a stall war one on one thanks to Pressure. As you see, all Articuno counters are susceptible to Spikes.