It’s a Little Bit Ununsual…

Here I am again, writing an article on something a little unusual. With US Nationals now over and 2 months before set rotation, maybe it’s time to have a look at some of the more unusual decks you can play with.

Arceus

This is a deck which is obviously meant to go together, but having never seen one being tried and with no major tournaments coming up why not give it a go?

Decklist:

Pokémon: 21
5 Arceus AR (Colourless)
2 Arceus AR (D)
1 Arceus AR (F)
1 Arceus AR (G)
2 Arceus AR (Lightening)
2 Arceus AR (M)
2 Arceus AR (P)
1 Arceus AR (W)
2 Arceus LV.X AR (Meteor Blast)
2 Arceus LV.X AR (Omniscient)
1 Lucario GL RR
Trainers: 24
4 Beginning Door AR
2 Energy Returner
4 Great Ball
3 Judge
4 Pokémon Collector
3 Professor Oaks New Theory
4 Ultimate Zone
Energy: 15
2 D
1 F
1 G
2 Lightening
2 M
2 P
4 Rainbow
1 W

The Strategy

This deck is about 2 things; the setup and playing to the opponents weaknesses.

The Setup

pokemon-paradijs.comArceus (Colourless):
This Arceus is the perfect fast setup card. “Ripple Swell” allows you to search your deck for 6 Basic Energy cards and attach 1 to each of your Pokémon. However, to do this you need to have 6 Arceus in play, all of different types. The other bonus of this attack is that it requires 0 energy! All you need to do is get 6 different Arceus in play, so here’s how you can do it quickly.

Pokémon Collector/Beginning Door/Great Ball
All of these cards will allow you to search for Arceus and play them onto your bench. Beginning Door and Great Ball are both Trainers, meaning you can play as many of these as you like, while Collector is a Supporter, easily allowing you to find out multiple Arceus to play onto the bench in the same turn, hopefully getting you all 6 types at once.

Professor Oaks New Theory/Judge
As there is absolutely no draw power in this deck, you need something to regenerate your hand. Both Professor Oak and Judge do this well, although with Judge you get 2 less cards to your hand, it does allow you to also disrupt your opponent.

If you have a bad starting hand and can’t fill your bench with Arceus ready for Ripple Swell, regenerating your hand is great if you can draw into the Beggining Door and Great Ball. As these are not Supporters you can carry on playing these to get out those Arceus’.

Playing to the Opponents Weakness

As there are have so many different colours in the deck, this allows you to adjust what you use to suit your opponents deck and play style.

Starting with 1-of each Arceus, you can then increase the number of them depending on what are likely to play against.

The Types of Arceus
Playing 5 Colourless Arceus just to make sure that you can get one as soon as possible as it is critical for getting your energy into play.

Where I play in England there are huge numbers of Gengar decks being played which are weak to dark, so therefore in goes 2 Dark Arceus. Also if you happen to be behind in prizes, 80 damage for DC is the most damage this deck can do for such a low cost.

Only 1 Fighting Arceus is played as no major decks are weak to Fighting apart from Tyranitar. I would exclude it altogether apart from it is the most damage you can do without levelling up while you are ahead in prizes. Hitting 60 for FCC with the drawback of doing 10 damage to all of your bench.

1 Grass Arceus is used for its powerful healing properties. For GC it attacks for a measly 30 but also removes 3 damage counters from EACH of your benched pokemon, meaning you can remove damage caused by “Break Ground” from the Fighting Arceus, from attaching Rainbow Energy, or from your opponent sniping/spreading.

2 Lightening Arceus are included to combat water decks, namely Kingdra and Blastoise/Feraligatr. It’s attack “Lightening Turn” again only hits for 30, but it also allows you to to switch it with one of your benched pokemon. Usually something with resistance to the opponents pokemon (Grass Arceus is resistant to water) or for something which you are willing to sacrifice, often Colourless Arceus. There are 5 in there so it won’t be something you’ll worry about.

2 Metal Arceus for the effect of it’s attack. Not many Pokémon are weak to Metal, however its attack “Metal Barrier” while only hitting for 40 for MCC then prevents all damage done to Metal Arceus from your opponents Pokémon LV.X. This of course will annoy any LV.X deck including Gengar, Luxray, Dialga etc.

2 Psychic Arceus to effectively take out any Uxie or Azelf the opponent puts active to stall. The attack on this Arceus also has an additional effect. For PCC “Mind Bend” Hits for 40 and also confuses the defending Pokémon. If you need to stall this can be useful to try and deter your opponent from attacking you.

1 Water Arceus is used for to get around effects on the opponents pokemon. WCC “FastWave” hits for 50, ignoring Resistance, Poké-Powers, Poké-Bodies, and any other effects on the defending pokemon. This allows you to get around Mr.Mime with his “Airy Wall” and Mewtwo LV.X’s “Psychic Barrier” and Pokémon with M Energy attached to reduce damage.

All of the Arceus LV.X have the Poké-Body “Multitype”, which makes Arceus LV.X the same type as the type of Arceus it is played onto. Allowing you keep playing to your opponents weaknesses when you level up. They also give a nice HP boost, increasing it to a healthier 120.

pokemon-paradijs.com2 of the Meteor Blast LV.X’s are included to give a for it’s attack “Meteor Blast” for GRC hits for 100, or only 50 if you flip tails on a coin. This LV.X is preferred over the “Psychic Bolt” LV.X as you do not have to discard energy with this, and although you may only hit 50 damage, and not 100, if you are playing to the opponents weakness even on a tails you will still hit for around 80.

2 of the Omniescent LV.X’s are played to allow you to play with more versatility. This LV.X allows you to use the attack of any Arceus you have in play, meaning if your opponent puts forward a LV.X or a Mr.Mime, you don’t have to switch out to use Metal Barrier or FastWave to combat your opponents new pokemon saving you energy from retreating.

Lucario GL Turning a small weak spot into a large vulnerable lump.
Lucario’s Poké-Body “Boundary Aura” makes all Pokémon’s weakness’ x2, meaning while you are playing to your opponent’s weakness your damage will be doubled, which is where the damage comes from, as no individual Arceus hits for large damage. Of course you only want to play this to the bench when you really need it though as while it is on your bench you won’t be able to use Ripple Swell to get more energy into play.

Controlling your Energy Flow

Only 15 Energy are played; you don’t need to play any more as Ripple Swell with get it into play for you. However all of Arceus’ attacks use 2 Energy and a lot of them use 3. So when an Arceus dies, that energy is lost, and there’s never enough energy to charge up all of your Arceus.

Well the solution when an Arceus dies is Energy Returner a trainer which allows you to take 4 Basic Energy from the discard pile and shuffle it back into your deck ready to draw or Ripple Swell into play.

pokemon-paradijs.comUltimate Zone
Being able to attach up to 7 Energy in 1 turn with Ripple Swell is an amazing ability, but having only 1 Energy on each Pokémon doesn’t help a lot. Well that’s where the Ultimate Zone comes into play. You will need 4 of these to keep the consistency as you will need this in play at all times.

Ultimate Zone allows you to move your Energy from your benched Pokémon to your active Arceus as often as you like. Allowing you to Ripple Swell on your first turn, and with the Ultimate Zone you can move some of that energy onto your Colourless Arceus and destroy your opponents fast setup with “Sky Spear” for CCC. A powerful attack which does 80 damage to an opponent’s Pokémon of your choice. Making it perfect for taking out those early game benched Claydols.

However it does have a major drawback. All energy attached to the Colourless Arceus are removed and put into the Lost Zone! As there are only 15 Energy in the deck you don’t want to be doing this too often, but if during the late game if you have enough energy spare it’s perfect for getting that last prize or 2 and take the win by picking off benched Claydols, Uxies, Azelfs or any other low HP Pokémon on the bench.

Other Possibilities
Fire Arceus is another good card, especially for taking out Jumpluffs. For RCC it does 80 damage (a 1 hit kill on Jumpluff due to weakness) but you must discard 2 Energy. Due to the limited Energy available this hasn’t been included in the list as running out of Energy is not the greatest thing to experience!

A good card to fit into this deck are Premier Balls to get out your Arceus’ LV.X’s consistently. However what you would remove to add it in… well that may be a little tougher to decide.

Wrapping it up

Arceus can make a fun and entertaining deck. It’s versatility keeps it competitive, being able to mix and match what Arceus you want to play to suit your metagame is a real strength.
So why not take a break from the big name competitive decks and see what you can achieve with this little cracker? I managed to beat off a CurseGar deck earlier!

Let me know what you think or if you’ve had experiences with this beastie ;D

Also, the plural for Arceus. Would that be Arceus’ or Arceii?

Reader Interactions

37 replies

  1. Dave Hueglin

    Nice article. I'd take out 2 Judge and replace them with 2 Volkner's Philosophy. I think that would give you better draw power.

  2. Toby Woolner

    I like this, although I would make one change, I would take out a Meteor Arceus for a fire type Arceus, it will give you more coverage over Leafmin decks which we know who plays that our league :P.

  3. Doing

    Warp Energy is the best, allowing you to match weakness, then move the energy to the active Arceus

  4. chrataxe

    Nice article man. Never really thought about playing Arceus much. Great analysis on the strategy and a really solid deck list. I would HIGHLY recommend (in all decks, but especially this one) 4 call energy. It is crucial that you get as many Arceus on the bench ASAP. These attacks have plenty of colorless requirements, it should fit in easily.

  5. Alex Pike

    I fear I may have under-rated the amazing uses of the Omniescent Arceus Lv.X. At first glance it's ability looks pretty dull. However when it's combined with it's ability “Multitype” it's versatility is amazing, which I don't think i explained very well.

    The best way to explain this is in examples. So here goes!

    Take for instance, your opponent has active a Mewtwo Lv.X with the Poke-Body “Psychic Barrier”, blocking all attacks from Basic Pokemon. This means that the only Pokemon you have that can attack is the Water Arceus with “FastWave” that ignores the Poke-Body.

    However, we want to be playing to Mewtwo's weakness, Psychic, and Water Arceus obviously isn't Psychic. So if we put in the Psychic Arceus to attack with “Mind Bend” nothing happens because of the Psychic Barrier.

    Omniescent Arceus Lv.X lets you get around this problem! By playing Omniescent Arceus onto your Psychic Arceus it gains the Psychic Type due to MultiType, and because of Omniescence you can use the FastWave attack from the Water Arceus to avoid Psychic Barrier for a whopping 100 damage (if Lucario GL is in play) due to the weakness!

    This is the best example i can think of, however there are many maybe not so crucial ones but ones that will give you the edge in gameplay!

  6. Alex Pike

    Now that you mention it, Warp Energy would be a great addition. With Ultimate Zone in play it makes for the perfect retreating aid.

    However adding in Warp has its problems. Being a special energy it is unsearchable. It cannot be searched for with Ripple Swell.

    Also what do you take out to add it in?

    You can't remove any basic energy as they are only the minimum amount needed to attack with each of the Arceus. You can't remove any of the Pokemon to add them as then you may not have the Arceus you need just when you need it to combat your opponents weakness.

    If you swap out any of the “Searching” cards you risk losing the consistency of getting out your 6 Arceus 1st/2nd turn to use Ripple Swell with.

    You could potentially swap out Judge/Oaks for it but then you lose some regerating power. This could be a viable option as often you don't actually need anything more from your deck.

    Otherwise your only option is to take out the Rainbow Energy which may reduce versatility but could also be worthwhile to allow easier swapping around.

    I'll try play testing with it :)

  7. Alex Pike

    I have never ran any Call Energy in any of my decks. I've never even tested it.

    My thoughts again are that energy in this deck is VERY tight. You come up with the same problem as what is outlined below. Although in this case you could remove some of the “searching” trainers to accomodate for the searching ability call energy gives.

    However once you have setup it becomes just another colourless energy. Wheres as something like Great Balls and Beginning Door still provide a use later in the game to find more Arceus out of your deck when they get knocked out.

  8. Alex Pike

    With 4 Ultimate Zone and 6 Cards which regenerate your hand I would hope that i draw into one; it's unusual that you don't get one early on.

    However if for some reason you can't get an Ultimate Zone in play a DCE would be a great addition. Although again there is the issue that the deck is very tight on space.

    The only thing i could think of removing are the Rainbow Energies although you are then losing versatility and easy energy (Rainbow Energies are great for moving around with Ultimate Zone as with 1 Rainbow Energy in play you can move 1-2 of ANY other energy onto your Arceus and it will be able to attack) whereas DCE can be less versatile although providing 2 energy at once, with Ripple Swell it shouldn't be needed.

  9. Alex Pike

    Thanks for all your positive comments.

    It's really uplifting to know that these articles I am writing are appreciated by the community; And don't worry ESP there are several Decks I am planning to write about soon. As soon as i get the motivation to spend an hour or two writing out various lists etc.

    It's interesting to read your views about things that can be added in or taken out. I am infamous for missing out staple cards or things that would greatly help! It just shows how versatile a deck can be and even within several decks based around the same Pokemon there can be some big differences in the cards people play which can totally change the style of the deck!

    It just goes to show how amazingly diverse Pokemon is and it's always good to know there's never a perfect deck. You just have to find a style which you enjoy playing!

  10. ESP

    One card to consider would be DCE. Many Arceus have attacks for CCC or RCC or MCC etc. and it could really help attachments when Ultimate Zone isn't in play. Great article, and I hope you continue writing in the future :D

  11. L M

    I know what Lucario GL is in there for, but I don't think I would put him in your list. If you start with it as your only basic your whole “Ripple Swell” strategy goes in the pooper. Especially if you go against someone that knows to play/snipe around it. I know Ultimate Zone is more important but perhaps putting in a Lake Boundary (although it will rotate) would be better since it does not take up a spot in play.

    I also don't like the lack of switch cards, but that's more of a personal preference.

  12. Alex Pike

    I too dislike the lack of switching cards. However most only have a retreat cost of 1 on most of them isn't too bad to pay. If not level them up and then there's only a retreat of 1.

    Again I too am not a fan of Lucario GL. However it was suggested to me and it just kind of fitted in, although it does get in the way. I've only ever used it once to be honest. If something is active that you can't 1hko or 2hko without a Lucario then i just tend to confuse it with Mind Bend or snipe of benched Pokemon with Sky Spear

  13. Alex Pike

    Ahh you edited your post. Lucky, I can't edit my post, for some reason if I'm logged into Disqus it disables my keyboard which is immensly fun!.

    I'm not a fan of Lake Boundary although it may be useful just to pull of that 1 kill. However you will most likely want to almost immedialtely replace it with Ultimate Zone the turn after. So personally I just wouldn't bother with it.

    I don't think I would add the Pokemon Communications either. With Poke Comms you need to put in an Arceus to retrieve another Arceus. Using Collector/Great Ball/Door you just grab some Arceus; you don't need one in your hand to start with.

  14. Joshua Pikka

    Yeah get the fire arceus on your bench, a rainbow and a DCE and then just keep hitting away for 160 damage each turn.

    But arceus is really hard to work, its just too slow.

  15. Alex Pike

    If you mean to take out stuff like jumpluffs, then turn 1 you can fill your bench with Arceus using all the various trainers and attach 6-7 energy using Ripple Swell. Turn 2 you can retreat to the fire Arceus and using Ultimate Stadium transfer the Energy to use it's attack for 1hko's. Discarding 2 energy a turn you can last 3-4 turns getting 1HKO's until you need to Ripple Swell again.
    Or alternatively when getting the Fire Arceus active you can Level Up to the Omniescent Lv.X. Then you can use the attacks of the Arceus on your bench which do not discard energy but will still 1HKO Jumpluff depending on what you use.

    With a half decent starting hand it's pretty easy to get setup by turn 3 at the absolute latest, comparable to even the fastest decks on a bad starting hand.

    The hard thing is accumulating the damage and playing to the opponents weakspots.

  16. Collan Baker

    Why no unown Q? Search-able free retreat for everything in your deck.

  17. Alex Pike

    Good point, that would be a great addition. You'd want to run at least 2.

    Told you I'm great at missing out staples!

  18. Adam Capriola

    I agree that Omniscient Arceus is pretty critical, the few Arceus decks I have played against seemed to rely on it as their main attacker.

    Lucario might not be needed if you focus on it more.

  19. Anthony Desiata

    you cant have 5 of the colourless… and this deck has been built since AR came out lol i know of two ppl in the state of AZ that have been playing it. BTW take out lucario if you start with it your screwed cuz you cant ripple.

  20. Alex Pike

    Any why can i not play 5?
    “You may play as many of this card as you like”. As far as i know it hasn't been erated
    I'm still toying the the idea of Lucario by the way.

  21. Mark McDonald

    well i play arceus and im still stingy with my list for now but lamar is exactly right……. i'll give one secret away. warp energy. (FTW)

  22. Jason Chen

    I wouldn't play 5 Colorless Arceus, 2-3 is probably good enough. You will have searching to find it if needed. Also I feel that the Meteor Blast Arceus really sucks, it pretty much only does 50 damage, or 100 if you are lucky. It's too unreliable to use as a real attacker in my opinion. The Psychic Bolt one would give a needed burst of huge damage if needed, so I run that.

    4 Rainbows may also be overkill, I would add DCEs and Warps as other people have said. I am also unsure about the use of so many Judge since you may not have Bench space to drop Uxie, it may backfire on you. Arceus is a strong deck that I like playing, I feel the setup is just too fragile but if it gets going, could be pretty strong.

  23. Slowdog

    It's a pretty cool deck. Good job man :) It is very well thought out. Don't take out lucario GL imo btw. You run like 16 basic pokemon in this deck so the chance of only starting with lucario GL.. well it's just not going to happen.

  24. Alex Pike

    Yeah i realised once he said it is an amazing addition. As Jason said about you could probably get away with removing a couple of the Colourless Arceus to add them in.

  25. Alex Pike

    You could drop the number of Colourless Arceus to put in warp energy, the number is originally so high to get it in your starting hand, it saves an energy from retreating one but warp energy fixes this problem.

    The Psychic bolt one would fit in better as while playing i suddenly realised that i play no fire energy :D and was relying on Rainbows.

    I wouldn't remove the rainbows. Often as the energy count is so low (mostly 1 of each) you will often find the one you want is prized when Rippling. Rainbow energy when combined with Ultimate Zone (have I said that the illustration of Ultimate Zone is amazing?) makes switching in different Arceus a lot easier knowing you have a Rainbow you can just throw on and can then use any attack.

    In an Arceus I wouldnt drop an Uxie or Claydol or any kind of draw power. With so many Trainers searching for Arceus I am yet to have a game where I haven't setup during T1 (T2 if I go first) even under a Spiritomb trainer lock. Unfortunately running so many cards to allow a speed setup it does mean mid game disruption and regenerating power is neglected. Judge and Prof Oak are simply in there to renew your hand. Once you have 6 Arceus and have Ripple Swelled the only other things you are looking for a level X's and possibly some Energy Retriever which is why i would like to add in Premier Balls (which aren't in there as i thought I had already put them in :D) although now I have my full list I am unsure what to take out for them.

  26. Matthew Tidman

    I actually saw someone play a build very similar to this at a battle roads I went to. The deck was a beast, though it was a little too slow to contend with SP decks.

  27. Alex Pike

    Cool.
    I think the difficult part is getting setup. But with this build it's rare you don't have a perfect setup hand.

    That does seem to be the “big thing” in this metagame. If you don't want to play an SP deck, what can you possibly use which is faster than an SP deck.

  28. Karol Nowak

    Finally, an analysis about an Arceus deck has appeared on Six Prizes. Certainly, it is a very interesting deck that's for sure.

    Overall, this appears to be a solid Arceus Deck. It looks pretty consistent to be functionable deck when it goes against other decks. The Lucario GL seems to be a nice idea, especially on how it can make OHKOs much easier using all of your Arceus cards.

    Once again, nice deck. I think this article shows that Arceus could be a good deck in competitive play if played right.

  29. chrataxe

    I'm pouring over some arceus ideas for a kid at league and I read this one again, so that is why I am kicking a dead horse and reviving this thing!

    Other than the “Lucario isn't Arceus” argument, I really don't think you NEED Lucario. Everything HGSS on is x2 weakness and most decks pre HGSS are SP, which are x2. The few that aren't either HGSS on or SP probably face the same issue you do (set up and what not) thus won't run at the speed of SP and will probably be taken down easy enough.

  30. Alex Pike

    Yeah since writing the list I've actually removed Lucario. The only thing I used it against was Gengar (+30 Darkness). And as you say, most things have x2 weakness now anyway so it just isn't worth the space.

  31. ARCEUS ARCEUS ARCEUS YAY!!!

    Toke out one great ball and one arceus colorless to add 2 power+. That extra 10 or 20(With weakness) really does help especially with surprise buttsecks Donphan-tech behind every corner. :D

  32. Lekisha Skocilich

    Cool post. I wish other folks had simple and focused posts like your own. Cheers :)

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