Competitive Pokemon History - Arceus-Ground Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In the fourth generation, Arceus-Ground had an interesting niche as a Ground type. In particular, Arceus-Ground was the only Ground type in the game apart from Claydol who could do one thing. What was this?

Answer: Boost its Special Attack

Out of every Ground type in the game, none of them had access to Nasty Plot or Tail Glow and only Claydol and Arceus-Ground had access to Calm Mind. While seemingly overspecific, the Ground type has historically been one of the most potent offensive typings, predominantly physically offensive, so defensive teams seeking to keep it at bay would frequently use physically defensive countermeasures. Thus, Arceus-Ground could exploit this dynamic and become an effective Calm Mind sweeper in the fourth generation era of Ubers.

2. In the fourth generation, Garchomp and Groudon generally had the market cornered for physically offensive Ground types. However, Arceus-Ground had one huge advantage over both that made it worth using in Ubers. What advantage was this?

Answer: Reliable, instant recovery

Arceus-Ground, like Garchomp and Groudon, made use of Swords Dance as a boosting move and Earthquake as the sweeping tool, and its Attack stat was much lower than either of them, not giving it any advantages in these regards. However, access to Recover was a tremendous advantage that just about offset all of its drawbacks juxtaposed to them. Being able to heal on the go meant Arceus-Ground could afford to take damage as it setup with Swords Dance. Additionally, Arceus-Ground's opportunities to boost were far more open, and it could afford to flee the field and return later if need be. With Groudon and Garchomp, their leeway was a lot less. Additionally, if either happened to reach low health and looked to be unable to finish the game with their sweep, they were pretty much going to be left for dead due to their inability to heal themselves effectively. Thus, Arceus-Ground was a lot more flexible and didn't need to be bubble wrapped for the end of the game, giving it a niche as a physically offensive Ground type sweeper.

3. Arceus-Ground's typing lent it convenient matchup utility in the fifth generation. Here, with a mild tweaking of its EVs, it could hard-counter a newcoming cover legendary threat. Who was this?

Answer: Zekrom

The Ice type Kyurems would obliterate the Ice-weak Arceus-Ground, and while Reshiram would lose in an evenly matched one-on-one conflict, its mighty Blue Flares, potentially boosted by Sun, would keep Arceus-Ground at bay and stop it from effectively switching straight into it. Meanwhile, Arceus-Ground stonewalled Zekrom's signature move in Bolt Strike, and with some HP and Defense investment, wouldn't even be deterred by a Choice Band-boosted Outrage, the strongest attack Zekrom could use against it. Under such a scenario, Outrage's damage would max out at 43%, failing to ever 2HKO even with Stealth Rock in play, while also being outsped and OHKOed by Arceus-Ground's Judgment. Thus, a team weak to Zekrom would find great value in choosing Arceus-Ground for a teamslot.

4. Ironically, the very newcomer whom Arceus-Ground sought to hard counter happened to cover Arceus-Ground in the face of its own hard-counter. Which Pokemon of the following could reliably switch into Arceus-Ground and win during the fifth generation?

Answer: Kyogre

Kyogre could switch into Arceus-Ground at least once and crash down against it with its mighty super effective Water type moves. Zekrom was therefore a helpful teammate to defend against this, able to leverage its resistance to Water to switch in on said moves, and threaten Kyogre away with an OHKO potential on its super effective Bolt Strike.

5. While gimmicky, if a teammate could equip Gravity into one of its moveslots, this would benefit Arceus-Ground greatly in the fifth generation. Why was this?

Answer: Gravity prevents anything from being immune to Ground

Grass types would still resist Ground, and Earthquake and Judgment already have perfect accuracy, rendering those two answers incorrect. Flying types and Levitate users are grounded upon the use of Gravity, rendering them vulnerable to being hit by Ground type moves. Due to the nonexistence of Bug types and general rarity of Grass types, seldom would anything be around to resist Ground type moves in Ubers.

Therefore, Arceus-Ground could run a mono-attacker set, freeing up a moveslot for something helpful, such as Substitute, Refresh or even Stealth Rock for added utility.

6. Arceus-Ground sprung to the forefront of the Uber metagame in the sixth generation as a prominent face, arguably the best forme of Arceus in the entire game. Which of the following is one reason for this?

Answer: It had great matchups against other notable threats

Being able to adequately check Primal Groudon, Yveltal, Mega Diancie, Tyranitar, Steel types and Ho-Oh, while going toe-to-toe with Xerneas and Giratina was a great thing to be able to claim. Primal Kyogre was still around to harrass Arceus-Ground, as well as Arceus-Water, Lugia and Kyurem-White. Additionally, not having particularly great offensive firepower off the bat did lessen the appeal of sweeping sets to an extent.

However, Arceus-Ground was great glue for offensive and defensive teams alike, covering up a lot of matchup-based weaknesses and offering plenty of other utility, usually setting or removing Stealth Rock from the field.

7. While Arceus-Ground's typing suggests it dominates Steel types in general, in the sixth generation, two of them rose to hard-counter it here. Which two Pokemon of the following could reliably switch into Arceus-Ground and win?

Answer: Skarmory and Bronzong

Mega Skarmory and Mega Bronzong don't exist, while Magearna hadn't been released yet. Mega Scizor's Swords Dance sets posed a problem for any Arceus-Ground lacking its own Swords Dance or Will-o-Wisp. However, Arceus-Ground packing one of these moves could dispose of Mega Scizor effectively. Skarmory and Bronzong were resilient against any damaging move Arceus-Ground could viably run, didn't terribly mind getting burned by Will-o-Wisp, were immune to Toxic, and could hit Arceus-Ground back with their own Toxics, while then proceeding to stall it straight to death. Both could also take their time to setup whatever entry hazards they came to play with quite easily. Thus, Arceus-Ground would need help from teammates to have these threats dealt with.

8. Arceus-Ground became a full-fledged utility extraordinaire in the seventh generation, able to make use of an incredibly wide variety of utility moves to help out just about any teambuild conceivable. Which of the following is an example of a utility move Arceus-Ground could effectively wield?

Answer: Stealth Rock

Lacking access to the other three moves, Arceus-Ground made for an excellent setter of Stealth Rock. With its resistance to Stealth Rock, it could also wield Defog to remove the entry hazard from its side of the field reliably. Other good options included Toxic or Will-o-Wisp to spread passive damage onto the other team, Roar to check boosted threats, Magic Coat to turn the opponent's utility options against them or even Refresh to become a status absorber for its team. Thus, Arceus-Ground was pretty much undisputably the best forme of Arceus in the seventh generation.

9. Arceus-Ground's Swords Dance sweeping sets were bolstered by the introduction of Z-Moves in the seventh generation. Which particular Z-Crystal did it make use of here?

Answer: Groundium-Z

Arceus-Ground cannot hold any other Z-Crystal and remain Arceus-Ground. If it were to be given Rockium-Z for example, it would turn into Arceus-Rock. Therefore, Groundium-Z is the only possible answer. A Tectonic Rage, potentially boosted by a Swords Dance, was devastatingly powerfu.

It was strong enough to potentially break through Pokemon Arceus-Ground would otherwise fall short of defeating, such as Zygarde-C, Giratina-A and formes of Arceus not weak to Ground. Therefore, it was worth considering on its physically offensive sweeping sets.

10. Overall, Arceus-Ground has had arguably more success across generations 4-7 than any other forme of Arceus. A lot of this stems from its excellent mono-Ground typing. It is good defensively, but it is also quite excellent offensively, with only a limited amount of resistances. How many typings in the game were capable of resisting Ground during these generations?

Answer: Three

Flying is immune to Ground, while Grass and Bug also resist it. Fortunately for Arceus-Ground, it had ample room with which to equip Stone Edge to ensure Flying types were not a problem for it. Stone Edge conveniently covered Bug too, but Bug and Grass were exceedingly rare in Ubers, meaning only Flying types truly threatened to stand in the way of Arceus-Ground.

As previously mentioned, it had the movepool to strike them down with, so they were not innately good answers to Arceus-Ground by their typing alone. With a limited field of Pokemon capable of defensively standing up to Arceus-Ground, and an even smaller amount able to adequately pressure its good defensive typing and excellent bulk, it's not hard to see why Arceus-Ground has been a genuinely amazing form of Arceus for any teambuild to utilize.

Source: Author cavalier87

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Competitive Pokemon History - Arceus-Ground Quiz

The Creator assumes the form of the very earth you walk upon, Ground! 'tis not a mere tremor that Arceus is capable of procuring in this forme. See if you can navigate your way through this competitive history quiz, generations 4-7.

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