ORAS Ubers Frozen (Arceus-Ice + Diancie Bulky Offence)

[IDW]

Introduction​

So, here in seattle where I live, we have had ABSOLUTELY NO SNOW THIS WINTER :(. For us snow is pretty uncommon anyway but a few weeks ago I got fed up and decided to pray to arceus. I opened up arceus's smogon page and noticed that there was an arceus-ice page. I had never seen arceus-ice ever since I started playing ubers in early BW so I was really interested in learning about the pokemon. I thought that Arceus might grant me my wish if I used arceus-Ice but I Couldn't find any teams using the pokemon so I decided to make a team around it. This was the result

At a Glance:

In Depth:

​

Elsa (Arceus-Ice) @ Icicle Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Judgment
- Recover
- Fire Blast

Arceus Is a really interesting pokemon. It hits extremely hard and can sweep most teams seeing as its so hard to resist. Its this crazy combination of a glass cannon and a bulky setup sweeper that makes it a really fun pokemon to use. While it dosen't sweep teams as much as its ghost, normal and ground brothers, Its also useful for dealing with a lot of pokemon that are weak to it such as mence, the latis, rayquaza and yveltal, all of which flee at the mention of the word "Judgement". The Rest of my team is pretty darn good at dealing with Kyoger and ho-Oh so I thought it would be safe to put Fire blast as my last move to hit Steel types exceptionally hard

Princesses (Diancie) @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 Spe
Bold Nature
- Protect
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Heal Bell

Diancie Was the first mon I wanted to accompany arceus because it deals with a lot of the main problems that arceus has. Magic bounce allows me to prevent rocks and spikes from going up, both of which hurt arceus. Heal bell support and its ability to Blast Ho-Oh off the face of the earth with diamond storm are other excellent qualities of diancie. One annoying thing about diancie is that rock and fairy coverage overlap a lot with ice coverage making it so that Diancie dosen't deal with many counters of Arceus-Ice other than Ho-Oh, Rock and steel types give the core a bit of trouble but Diancie does a pretty good job of dealing with the most common arceus-Ice counters. Also on a more bulky offense team, Having one of the best darkrai checks in the game is really helpful.

Han (Groudon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Stone Edge
- Roar

When I was teambuilding I almost accidentally put Arceus-Ground here and its unfortunate that you can't have both Arceus forms on the same team. What this team needed at this point was a Bulky Pokemon with a Hard-hitting Earthquake. I didn't use primal groudon because there are a lot of pokemon that I wanted to counter with this pokemon that primal groudon is weak to. These include Arceus-Normal, Arceus-Ground and Primal Groudon. Roar is also useful for dealing with mega Gengar and Arceus.

Ana (Latias) @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 212 HP / 120 SpA / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Grass Knot

Latias is here to do what she does best: Get rid of Hazards and the primals. Grass Knot is hear mainly because I wanted to have a better way of dealing with Arceus-Ground and it also hits Primal Groudon without forcing me to lower my special attack. The reason I Decided to take latias over latios Is that I wanted this team to have more of a defensive backbone. one thing Ive been considering it putting healing wish over roost on this set. I find that heal bell is usually more useful so I haven't.

Armory (Aegislash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- King's Shield
- Gyro Ball
- Toxic
- Pursuit

Aegislash is here to do one thing: Counter Xenreas. The rest of my team is DEMOLISHED by Geoxern and Aegislash is one of the best counters in the game. It also helps me deal with Water and normal arceus seeing through toxic. My fourth move is really up for grabs seeing as the team deals with Ho-Oh, Latios and Latias very well. I have Shadow sneak for priority ATM but if there is anything else you would recommend please let me know.

Darkness (Yveltal) @ Life Orb
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 132 HP / 28 Atk / 252 SpA / 96 Spe
Rash Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Oblivion Wing
- Sucker Punch
- Focus Blast

The basic goal of Yveltal is "Destroy everything that this team struggles with" Yveltal Deals with Ghost and Pyschic types like Giratina, Mewtwo and Arceus-Ghost as well as other threats to the team such as Blaziken and Dialga. It also gives the team a bit of priority in the form of Sucker punch which can be nice for finishing off xerneas.

Threatlist:​

Literaly nothing for this monster. Groudon Can Roar it out but that's about it. CM walls my entire team and refresh prevents me from putting a timer on it. I ususaly just lose whenever this thing shows up

Blaziken is without a doubt one of the biggest threats to this team. It can hit my entire team really hard and having normal sun dosen't help. In a perfect world I would use Yveltal to Wing it into oblivion but that dosen't always happen and Yveltal is frail.

Aegislash is the only way that this team deals with xerneas and that can't OHKO it without rocks. The rest of my team Can't even take a hit from Geoxern. However Aegislash can usually take care of it with ease and I usually have Yveltal with sucker punch in the back.

While Arceus-Ice is a really consistant counter for this monster, the rest of my team struggles with it. Earthquake variants in particular can defeat my only other checks to it and tear my team to pieces.

Conclusion:​

I really wanted to share this team because I have never used Arceus-Ice before and I wanted to show how interesting and fun of a pokemon it is to use. If you have any recomendations for nicknames they are also greatly apreciated. It dosen't look like there will be any snow this winter :( but I hope that arceus will answer my Games. I also hope that the real God has a good sense of humor and dosen't take this for blasphemy ;-;

Importable:

Elsa (Arceus-Ice) @ Icicle Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Judgment
- Recover
- Fire Blast

Princesses (Diancie) @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 136 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Heal Bell

Han (Groudon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Drought
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Precipice Blades
- Stone Edge
- Roar

Ana (Latias) @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 212 HP / 120 SpA / 176 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
- Grass Knot

Armory (Aegislash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- King's Shield
- Gyro Ball
- Toxic
- Pursuit

Darkness (Yveltal) @ Life Orb
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 132 HP / 28 Atk / 252 SpA / 96 Spe
Rash Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Oblivion Wing
- Sucker Punch
- Focus Blast

 

[Cynara]

Hello, Arcues-Ice is a really nice pokemon to build around, Fun to use, its a good attempt at an arceus-ice balance. Honestly Aegi + Latias + Normal Groudon is way too exploitable on this team. This team doesnt have a great matchup vs many common threats in the current ubers metagame, a trap which alot of CM arceus balance builds tend to fall into. Standard HO Beats in general look like a very poor matchup for this team to handle, as you mentioned Salamence and Xerneas really cause this team problems, along with the slightly rarer blaziken, I feel darkrai And E killer also give this team a very tough time, with not many answers to them and are very commonly found on hyper offensive builds and could pave the way for Xerneas or Mega salamence to be a win condition verus your team.

furthermore Ho-oh seems like a threat to this team, you lack any switch in to band Ho-oh with earthquake which is pretty common in the current meta, Jolly Ho-oh really causes problems for diancie as it outspeeds, Groudon is your most reliable answer with latias lacking psyshock, but it fears a burn.


I took a while testing a plethora of changes to this team, I feel a few changes to this team can be made to optimize your team and cover all the relevant threats as much as possible to get the most out of your Arceus-Ice team, Primal Groudon > Groudon, Bronzong > Aegislash, giratina-origin > latias, Thunder > Fire blast on iceceus I will justify these changes to the team below in my explainations.


Bronzong > Aegislash

I feel Bronzong really benefits the team better than aegislash as an answer to Xerneas, Bronzong generally outclasses aegislash in most situations, checks all the relevant threats aegislash checks, ground immunity which allows bronzong to freely toxic non fire move Primal groudon, can check has access to stealth rocks and skill swap to allow us to get up rocks vs M-sableye or toxic it with status, this allows us to free up the groudon set, allowing us to run paradancer groudon (explained below) which suits the team better to provide offense pressure. Aegislash really loses mometum on this team, allows opposing groudon/Salamence to come in for free and setup.

Giratina-Origin > Latias

Giratina-origin is a much more reliable defogger this team needs, isnt Shadow tag bait for mega gengar, provides nice ghost coverage and a way to phaze out physical threats such as SD arceus and mega salamence that may try to threaten a sweep, physically defensive giratina with earthquake with chosen here, shadow sneak for prioirity to deal with weakened targets, dragon tail to phaze out anything that tries to setup. Earthquake hits klefki if it decides to switch in, deals a reasonable amount to primal groudon.

Primal Groudon > Groudon

Primal groudon really helps out your team, it needs a wallbreaker along with yveltal and iceceus, Paradancer Groudon is a great wallbreaker with this team improving your matchup vs stall.Paradancer groudons role is to cripple common switch ins with, while sword dance allows us to wallbreak support arceus formes such as waterceus & dragonceus which could otherwise prove problematic for the team. An EV spread of 120 HP / 248 Atk / 64 SpD / 76 Spe is used to get as much power as possible, while surviving a +2 focus blast from xerneas and +1 Double edge from Jolly Mence, Speed creeps bulky yveltal and uninvested xerneas aswell as creeping standard double dance don.

Thunder > Fire blast Iceceus

Fire blast is no longer needed for coverage, Thunder has much more relevant targets such as waterceus, kyogre and Ho-oh who which otherwise comfortably deal with iceceus.

As for a final suggestion, its worth considering Knock off on yveltal for utility, Knocking off items on common switch ins such as klefki and xerneas as well as a way of damaging Ho-oh outside of Knock off, Focus blast doesnt have many relevant targets.

sets

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Skill Swap

Groudon @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 120 HP / 248 Atk / 64 SpD / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Swords Dance
- Precipice Blades
- Rock Slide

Giratina-Origin @ Griseous Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 Atk / 248 Def / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Defog
- Dragon Tail
- Earthquake
- Shadow Sneak

Summary

• Thunder over fire blast on iceceus
• Paradancer Primal groudon over groudon
• Giratina-origin over latias
• Brongzong over aegislash
• Consider Knock off over Focus blast on yveltal

I hope these changes help, good luck with ubers!