Arceus, A Viable Deck?


Pokemon CollectorArceus is probably the worst set to come out in Platinum. Why? The only two noteworthy cards are either Spiritomb or Expert Belt. All those different types of Arceus just seems like they don’t fit anywhere other then your binder. I have made many attempts to create a viable Arceus that can be competitive, but the truth is, it’s impossible. However, with the advent of HGSS, Arceus has a couple things going for them that may bring them into the list of usable decks.

1. Pokemon Collector- Lets you search out 3 basic Pokemon. THREE! Why this is important will be explained later on.

2. All HGSS Pokemon have a x2 weakness.

3. Professor Oak’s New Theory and Fisherman

Arceus AR5The main focus of an Arceus deck is to get 6 different types of Arceus out in play. This allows normal type Arceus to use it’s  “Ripple Swell” attack. This attack allows you to search 6 different types of Energy and attach them to all your Arceus. There aren’t very many energy accelerators that can even match that. However, a problem Arceus decks faced a lot is not being able to get all the Arceus out by turn 2-3. At that point, you are losing your Arceus quickly and the game is going to end quite soon. However, with Pokemon Collector, you are 1 Call Energy and 1 Pokemon Collector away from having a full bench of Arceus. Easily done in Turn 1 -2.

Next, with all the energy in play, the time to attack finally comes. First, use Ultimate Zone Stadium which allows you to ” As Often as you like, move an energy from a Benched Pokemon to an active Arceus.” You may notice that Arceus’s attacks really are NOT impressive. In fact, they are borderline terrible. However, a good Arceus deck must ALWAYS hit for weakness. +30 or x2 will skyrocket your attack power. Luckily, all Arceus Lv. X have a Poke-body called “Multitype” which lets it stay the same time as the Arceus it leveled up from. So a Dark Arceus will remain dark type.

Arceus Lv.X 94Their are 3 Arceus Lv.X in print at the moment. The one that should be used is one that has the Poke-Body “Omniscient”. This body allows you to use any attacks from any Arceus you have in play. This means maximum flexibility. The Arceus with Psychic Bolt may be considered as a tech for extra damage that Arceus needs. For LPC, this attack does 120 damage at the cost of discarding two energies. “Omniscient, can copy this as well.”

Lastly, the most fatal weakness an Arceus deck has is the lack of a good draw engine. Uxies, Claydol, etc CANNOT be played due to them taking up precious bench space an Arceus deck needs. Volkner’s Philosophy has always done an OK job, but getting them out at the right time is far too hard. With Professor Oak’s New Theory, however, a reliable draw card is here. With Fisherman out, the energy count in an Arceus deck can be dropped, allowing for other cards to speed up the deck.

Below is a deck list I’ve came up with. Extensive testing has not been done on this new list due to the fact that the cards are new, but so far they have been working quite nicely.

Pokemon: 15
1 Dark Arceus
1 Metal Arceus
2 Fire Arceus
1 Water Arceus
1 Grass Arceus
1 Psychic Arceus
1 Fighting Arceus
1 Lightning Arceus
3 Normal Arceus AR5
2 Arceus Lv. X AR 94/99
1 Arceus Lv. X AR 96/99
T/S/S: 29
4 Beginning Door
4 Pokemon Collector
1 Fisherman
1 Palmer’s Contribution
1 Luxury Ball
3 Switch
3 Ultimate Zone
1 Lake Boundary
1 Premier Ball
4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
2 Cynthia’s Feeling
4 Super Scoop Up
Energy: 16
1 Dark Energy (basic)
1 Metal Energy (basic)
1 Fire Energy
1 Fighting Energy
1 Water Energy
1 Psychic Energy
1 Electric Energy
3 Rainbow Energy
4 Call Energy
2 Double Colorless Energy
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  • pikkdogs
    Good job in not giving up on arceus. You made a good point, HGSS did give arceus a lot better chance.

    I still dont think its a great deck, but now I think it might be playable, maybe.
  • saturn
    What Arceus needs is Draw Power. And since the bench is full of Arceus, there is none to put in -Not even Uxie or Claydol or Ninetails.

    I really think someone should make a deck with lightning, one of the water, one leaf, one metal with the Psychic bolt and Omni Arceus. You attack with the lightning till you get the level X then use the other elements in the situations needed.

    It looks nice to have all of them, but I really think people are looking at it the wrong way.
  • poly550
    ^^

    This is the official ruling
  • Cless44
    Actually that's not the official ruling, it was asked about on Pokegym recently, and this is what Pokepop said: "There was a ruling issued in a FAQ for the prerelease that you had to have 4, but that was corrected before the prereleases started that if you had less than 4, you could get as many as you had."
  • saturn
    Even pokebeach has it in this ruling but it has both which is more confusing. (which is where the ruling came from). I have also heard this ruling at the pre releases I went too.

    Q: When I use the Supporter “Fisherman,” can I put less than 4 Basic Energy cards from my discard pile into my hand?
    A: No, you can’t. You must put 4 into your hand.

    Q: Can I use the Supporter “Fisherman” when I have less than 4 Basic Energy cards in my discard pile? Also, if I use it, can I put as many Basic Energy as are in my discard pile into my hand?
    A: Yes, you can. As long as you have at least 1 Basic Energy card in your discard pile, you can use the Supporter card Fisherman. If you have 3 or fewer Basic Energy cards in your discard pile, put all of them in your hand.

    But he is right, If you have less then 4 energies in the discard, you can get them with fisherman.
  • poly550
    I wouldn't use fishermen, I was at a prrelease yesterday and you HAVE to get 4 energy, no more no less it can't be played when there are 0-3 energies in your D pile

    Just a thought,
    Poly550
  • tragicmat1
    Yeah, to be honest, ^^ that is probably super correct about this deck. Consistency is just really hard to maintain. The thing with just psychic/lightning though is that I tend to start running low on energies. I could ripple swell again, but thats just meh. But that is the reason I did include 1 Psychic/lightning lvl x so that omnicient can use that attack as well.

    Omnicient just helps a lot if I don't start with a normal type arceus but I can still Omnicient Ripple Swell.
  • SMGausch
    I too tried to make this deck work, and the main issue was consistency. I found the best build used three of the psychic/lighnting level x and focused on just using the 100 damage move and discarding energy, or the 80 and lost zone with the colorless Arceus, if you could get the right type Arceus out you would exploit weakness as well. The omni Arcues Lv. X just proved worthless since all the regular attacks suck.
  • tragicmat1
    ^^ Above, It is true that 16 energies seems a lot, however, there is quite a thick t/s/s line with 29. Also, 4 of those energies are call , quite vital to the deck. With 1 Ripple Swell, 6 more of those energies are sent into play and thus thinning the deck out quite a bit.

    Copycat is a very nice card and I think furthur testing will show which card works better, Oak's New theory or CopyCat. Either way, in this deck, Hand Refresher is VITAL.

    As for speed, If I start with a call energy, I can usually Ripple Swell by T2, Maximum T3. If I don't start with one, I have to test my luck a bit and hope I at least got a Pokemon Collector, in which case would still hopefully get me a t2-4 set up. Once set up however, I normally stay set up with the abundant of energies in play. Of course, when I say t3 set up, thats quite slow incomparison to say, Dialga Lvl x. Luckily, Arceus all have a decent amount of hp and if I can hit for weakness ( I really should be) then I can catch up in prize.
    Another advantage to this deck is that I don't really have a card I rely on. (Not like losing a Claydol another Stage 2 decks).

    I personally tested Arceus decks before HGSS quite a bit, and a problem I always get into is having just 5 Arceus rather than 6. I swear, it happens 7/10 games. With Collector though, this I can get all 6 arceus out much easier.

    And to Hunter J, If I level up a Psychic type Arceus, and use Water Arceus's attack, I can OHKO Mewtwo X so thats not a problem at all.
  • SMGausch
    You can also just use the colorless "Ripple Swell" Arceus to one shot Mewtwo before it levels up.
  • kiwill
    Have you guys considered playing Arceus with 4 Ultimate Zone, Claydol, 2-2 Electivire SW (+lvx), felictiy's/volkner's (maybe even sableye) and 1 or 2 Psychic Bolt Arceus lvx?
    That and Hatter's hit and run Arceus deck seems like the only ways Arceus could be decent in my opinion...
  • HunterJ
    sounds great man!
    i love the idea however it just isnt viable!
    arcues cards require too many energy! and 4 double clourless would be better!
    none the less this is a good idea as rippleswell does get them out with energy on each however this is risky as you can only really use it once to be helpful as you cant keep just putting energy on your benched ones!
    none the less the arceus with two pokebodies does make up for the pricyness so that you only need 1 arceus and it uses all the others
    HOWEVER the reason this deck isnt viable is because arceus are just like add on cards to decks and not meant for a one based deck as they are too slow to run!
    Nonetheless the trainers you selected could make up for this but you have too many energy!
    in the long run this wouldnt be viable unless you sustained a long drawn out battle but it would fail against pokemon like Mewtwo lv.X and such!
    But i love the idea and it would be awesome if someone actually used an arceus deck in future as i think their nice pokemon, nice but not good
  • Nifty idea but Arceus cards are really hard to play, they just seem to have allot of trouble, this idea is going to help them some but i dont know if it's enough yet. Maybe the future sets will have something viable for them to become playable. Great job on the article!
  • Nave
    I'm sorry if this comment is off topic, but I was just wondering what are your opinions about the first 5th Generation Pokemon? Do you like/dislike the Pokemon? What do you think the Pokemon looks like? What type(s) are this Pokemon?

    Link to image on Pokebeach: http://pokebeach.com/
  • I have very limited testing experience with Arceus, but I know that it used to have trouble keeping energy in play, as they seemed to get discarded a lot. Fisherman should help with Energy.

    It was also kinda slow to set up. Collector should help a little with that too, but I'm still not sure how quick it will be compared to some of the other decks out at the moment.

    Someone else who has worked with Arceus more than I have will hopefully give you some more input. :)
  • Nave
    You might want to think about adding the card Copycat, which does the same thing as Professor Oak’s New Theory except you draw the amount of cards equaled to the amount of cards in your opponent's hand.
  • Nave
    Overall it seems like a really fun deck to use. But it still has a lot of flaws...
  • Azelf 911
    It sounds like a fun deck!! but i do not know how well it will work
  • poke fart
    Great idea. It will be a very fun deck.
  • paperfairy
    As much as I love Arceus, I can't see this working too hot... 16 Energy just screams dead draw to me. :(
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