Author note: Released for whoever wants to take a crack at it for VGC2012. Hurricane is not a legal move until C&C say it is.
Articuno
[OVERVIEW]
Pros:
-Good offensive typing
-Good overall bulk
-Acceptable support move pool
-Main STABs are 120BP and hit many common VGC Pokemon for super effective damage.
Cons:
-4x weak to Rock
-2x weak to Electric, Fire, Steel
-Extremely shallow offensive move pool
-Is outclassed by a lot of Pokemon
[SET]
name: Offensive
move 1: Blizzard / Ice Beam
move 2: Hurricane
move 3: Tailwind / Hail
move 4: Protect
item: Charti Berry / Life Orb
nature: Modest
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
-Blizzard is Articuno's main attack. STAB, hits both opposing Pokemon, ~19% chance to freeze an opposing Pokemon each use assuming both survive and Hail is not active.
-Ice Beam is an option if you aren't using Abomasnow as a teammate due to the higher accuracy, but Blizzard still has a decent chance to hit at least one opponent each usage.
-Hurricane for secondary STAB, hits Fighting types harder than Blizzard, but coverage is weaker. Bonus 30% chance to confuse if it hits.
-Tailwind is a great utility move for Articuno and teammates to outspeed faster threats.
-Hail for changing weather to a Hail Storm.
-Protect is standard in VGC, makes scouting easier and reduces damage taken.
[TEAM OPTIONS & ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
-EV spread and nature are to give Articuno as much offensive power and bulk as possible. Articuno can't outspeed anything significant with its awkward base 85 speed.
-Modest nature & 20 Speed EV outspeeds standard Dragonite and uninvested Togekiss.
-Abomasnow support is greatly appreciated for the permanent Snowstorm, boosting Blizzard accuracy to 100%. Overall Articuno is a lot more threatening with Blizzard than Ice Beam. However this makes your team extremely vulnerable to Rock and Fire attacks.
-Articuno also benefits from Drizzle Politoed; permanent rain neutralizes its weakness to Fire-type attacks and boosts Hurricane to 100% accuracy, but partnering with Politoed also doubles up on the Electric weakness.
-Charti Berry allows Articuno to survive a single Rock Slide from common users like Tyranitar and Terrakion, otherwise it is OHKO'd.
-Life Orb can be used to strengthen Articuno's attacks
-Wide Guard users can protect from common spread attacks that severely harm Articuno.
-Lightningrod partners such as Marowak or Rhyperior can draw in electric attacks.
-Flash Fire partners such as Heatran or Chandelure can switch in and take a predicted fire attack aimed at it.
[SET]
name: Dual Screen
move 1: Reflect
move 2: Light Screen
move 3: Ice Beam / Blizzard
move 4: Protect / Roost
item: Light Clay / Charti Berry
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
-Provided Nature and EV spread allows Articuno to always survive unboosted Tyranitar's Rock Slide even without a Charti Berry.
-Ice Beam / Blizzard is the main attack, taking advantage of its Ice-type STAB.
-Reflect + Light Screen for dual screens.
-Light Clay to increase duration of Reflect or Light Screen
-Protect is standard in VGC
-Roost for longevity, and reduce Electric/Rock damage, but opens you up to Fighting attacks
[TEAM OPTIONS & ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
-Abomasnow is greatly appreciated for setting up a permanent Snowstorm, however this will double up on the Fire and Rock weaknesses. Politoed also works for setting up permanent Rain to neutralize Fire-based attacks aimed at it, but doubles up the Electric weakness.
-Works with Articuno's good bulk to take hits well. Short of a super effective attack or a critical, this set is difficult to kill. Even Latios using Dragon Gem boosted Draco Meteor will fail to OHKO.
-Alternate spread of Calm Nature, 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe to turn Articuno into a special wall, but leaves you more open to Rock Slide.
-Intimidate and Fake Out support make it easier for Articuno to get screens up. Hitmontop is an ideal partner for this.
[OTHER OPTIONS]
-Articuno has few viable support moves not listed: Heal Bell, Toxic, Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Sandstorm
-Roar can stop Trick Room from setting up
-Ice Shard for priority
-Other special attacks include Signal Beam and AncientPower, also access to the physical moves Aerial Ace, Pluck, U-Turn, Air Cutter.
-Extremely risky to attempt, but a combination of Mind Reader + Sheer Cold can net OHKOs.
-HP Fire can hit Scizor and Ferrothorn (who otherwise wall Articuno), while HP Fighting will give Articuno nearly perfect offensive coverage.
-Regardless of Hidden Power, Articuno is going to have coverage problems.
-Choice Scarf is viable for the surprise, outspeeding the entire unboosted metagame minus Electrode, Accelgor, and Ninjask.
-Focus Sash to guarantee surviving at least one attack, but Sandstorm residual damage will finish Articuno off.
-Pokemon that can cover Articuno's weaknesses are excellent partners.
-Intimidate support is always useful to lessen the impact of Rock attacks.
[CHECKS AND COUNTERS]
-Articuno is easy to counter.
-Rock Slide, Discharge, Heatwave are very common spread moves that hit for Super Effective damage. Likewise Thunderbolt and Flamethrower are very common single-target attacks that harm Articuno.
-Tyranitar is it's biggest individual threat; Sand Stream versions change the weather on switch-in, and OHKO with Rock Slide + Sand damage, while Unnerve prevents Charti Berry usage outright. Terrakion also outspeeds and OHKOs with Rock Slide.
-STAB Rock Slide in particular will likely OHKO if Charti Berry isn't used, regardless of who's using it. Even with Charti Berry, Articuno is going to take heavy damage from Rock Slide.
-Other weather starters remove Hail, crippling Blizzard to 70% accuracy.
-Rotom-W, Rotom-H, Rotom-F completely wall Articuno, and all hit back hard.
-Common Steel types such as Metagross and Scizor can attack with STAB Meteor Mash or Bullet Punch, and resist Blizzard or Hurricane.
-Wide Guard will stop Blizzard cold.
[UNRELEASED]
<p>Articuno receives Snow Cloak as its unreleased ability. In VGC this would be the ability of choice, as a 20% increase in evasion in Hail will help Articuno's survivability more than Pressure.</p>
Articuno
[OVERVIEW]
Pros:
-Good offensive typing
-Good overall bulk
-Acceptable support move pool
-Main STABs are 120BP and hit many common VGC Pokemon for super effective damage.
Cons:
-4x weak to Rock
-2x weak to Electric, Fire, Steel
-Extremely shallow offensive move pool
-Is outclassed by a lot of Pokemon
[SET]
name: Offensive
move 1: Blizzard / Ice Beam
move 2: Hurricane
move 3: Tailwind / Hail
move 4: Protect
item: Charti Berry / Life Orb
nature: Modest
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
-Blizzard is Articuno's main attack. STAB, hits both opposing Pokemon, ~19% chance to freeze an opposing Pokemon each use assuming both survive and Hail is not active.
-Ice Beam is an option if you aren't using Abomasnow as a teammate due to the higher accuracy, but Blizzard still has a decent chance to hit at least one opponent each usage.
-Hurricane for secondary STAB, hits Fighting types harder than Blizzard, but coverage is weaker. Bonus 30% chance to confuse if it hits.
-Tailwind is a great utility move for Articuno and teammates to outspeed faster threats.
-Hail for changing weather to a Hail Storm.
-Protect is standard in VGC, makes scouting easier and reduces damage taken.
[TEAM OPTIONS & ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
-EV spread and nature are to give Articuno as much offensive power and bulk as possible. Articuno can't outspeed anything significant with its awkward base 85 speed.
-Modest nature & 20 Speed EV outspeeds standard Dragonite and uninvested Togekiss.
-Abomasnow support is greatly appreciated for the permanent Snowstorm, boosting Blizzard accuracy to 100%. Overall Articuno is a lot more threatening with Blizzard than Ice Beam. However this makes your team extremely vulnerable to Rock and Fire attacks.
-Articuno also benefits from Drizzle Politoed; permanent rain neutralizes its weakness to Fire-type attacks and boosts Hurricane to 100% accuracy, but partnering with Politoed also doubles up on the Electric weakness.
-Charti Berry allows Articuno to survive a single Rock Slide from common users like Tyranitar and Terrakion, otherwise it is OHKO'd.
-Life Orb can be used to strengthen Articuno's attacks
-Wide Guard users can protect from common spread attacks that severely harm Articuno.
-Lightningrod partners such as Marowak or Rhyperior can draw in electric attacks.
-Flash Fire partners such as Heatran or Chandelure can switch in and take a predicted fire attack aimed at it.
[SET]
name: Dual Screen
move 1: Reflect
move 2: Light Screen
move 3: Ice Beam / Blizzard
move 4: Protect / Roost
item: Light Clay / Charti Berry
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
-Provided Nature and EV spread allows Articuno to always survive unboosted Tyranitar's Rock Slide even without a Charti Berry.
-Ice Beam / Blizzard is the main attack, taking advantage of its Ice-type STAB.
-Reflect + Light Screen for dual screens.
-Light Clay to increase duration of Reflect or Light Screen
-Protect is standard in VGC
-Roost for longevity, and reduce Electric/Rock damage, but opens you up to Fighting attacks
[TEAM OPTIONS & ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
-Abomasnow is greatly appreciated for setting up a permanent Snowstorm, however this will double up on the Fire and Rock weaknesses. Politoed also works for setting up permanent Rain to neutralize Fire-based attacks aimed at it, but doubles up the Electric weakness.
-Works with Articuno's good bulk to take hits well. Short of a super effective attack or a critical, this set is difficult to kill. Even Latios using Dragon Gem boosted Draco Meteor will fail to OHKO.
-Alternate spread of Calm Nature, 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe to turn Articuno into a special wall, but leaves you more open to Rock Slide.
-Intimidate and Fake Out support make it easier for Articuno to get screens up. Hitmontop is an ideal partner for this.
[OTHER OPTIONS]
-Articuno has few viable support moves not listed: Heal Bell, Toxic, Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Sandstorm
-Roar can stop Trick Room from setting up
-Ice Shard for priority
-Other special attacks include Signal Beam and AncientPower, also access to the physical moves Aerial Ace, Pluck, U-Turn, Air Cutter.
-Extremely risky to attempt, but a combination of Mind Reader + Sheer Cold can net OHKOs.
-HP Fire can hit Scizor and Ferrothorn (who otherwise wall Articuno), while HP Fighting will give Articuno nearly perfect offensive coverage.
-Regardless of Hidden Power, Articuno is going to have coverage problems.
-Choice Scarf is viable for the surprise, outspeeding the entire unboosted metagame minus Electrode, Accelgor, and Ninjask.
-Focus Sash to guarantee surviving at least one attack, but Sandstorm residual damage will finish Articuno off.
-Pokemon that can cover Articuno's weaknesses are excellent partners.
-Intimidate support is always useful to lessen the impact of Rock attacks.
[CHECKS AND COUNTERS]
-Articuno is easy to counter.
-Rock Slide, Discharge, Heatwave are very common spread moves that hit for Super Effective damage. Likewise Thunderbolt and Flamethrower are very common single-target attacks that harm Articuno.
-Tyranitar is it's biggest individual threat; Sand Stream versions change the weather on switch-in, and OHKO with Rock Slide + Sand damage, while Unnerve prevents Charti Berry usage outright. Terrakion also outspeeds and OHKOs with Rock Slide.
-STAB Rock Slide in particular will likely OHKO if Charti Berry isn't used, regardless of who's using it. Even with Charti Berry, Articuno is going to take heavy damage from Rock Slide.
-Other weather starters remove Hail, crippling Blizzard to 70% accuracy.
-Rotom-W, Rotom-H, Rotom-F completely wall Articuno, and all hit back hard.
-Common Steel types such as Metagross and Scizor can attack with STAB Meteor Mash or Bullet Punch, and resist Blizzard or Hurricane.
-Wide Guard will stop Blizzard cold.
[UNRELEASED]
<p>Articuno receives Snow Cloak as its unreleased ability. In VGC this would be the ability of choice, as a 20% increase in evasion in Hail will help Articuno's survivability more than Pressure.</p>
