Arceus: The Alpha Deck
There has been some talk about Arceus decks being viable for next season. Some say it will be terrible. Some say it has the potential to be a tier 1 deck(myself included). The first time I had ever seen an Arceus deck being played was at the Bentonville cities championships in 2009. His name was James Procter, and he ended up in fourth place. I had only been playing for a few short weeks, and at the time, it looked like one of the best decks I had seen. After some help from James I decided to give it a go myself, but to only epically fail at it, so I took it apart to never think about it again...Untill The HS set came out, and I realized that in that set is what will make Arceus top tier potential.
Article by: Kevin Murphy
Title: Arceus: The Alpha Deck
Date: August 14, 2010
Latest set released: HS:Undaunted
Current Format: MD-On
Now for the List:
Pokemon:
3 Arceus Lv.X
3 Colorless Arceus
2 Fighting Arceus
2 Fire Arceus
2 Dark Arceus
2 Water Arceus
1 Grass Arceus
1 Psychic Arceus
1 Lightning Arceus
1 Lucario GL
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:
1 Luxury Ball
2 Energy Exchanger
3 Pokemon Communication
4 Beggining Door
3 Professor Oaks New Theory
3 Pokemon Collector
2 Judge
1 Copycat
4 Ultimate Zone
Energy:
4 Double Colorless energy
4 Call Energy
2 Rainbow Energy
2 Fire Energy
3 Water Energy
2 Dark Energy
1 Psychic Energy
1 Fighting Energy
3 Arceus Lv.X
3 Colorless Arceus
2 Fighting Arceus
2 Fire Arceus
2 Dark Arceus
2 Water Arceus
1 Grass Arceus
1 Psychic Arceus
1 Lightning Arceus
1 Lucario GL
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:
1 Luxury Ball
2 Energy Exchanger
3 Pokemon Communication
4 Beggining Door
3 Professor Oaks New Theory
3 Pokemon Collector
2 Judge
1 Copycat
4 Ultimate Zone
Energy:
4 Double Colorless energy
4 Call Energy
2 Rainbow Energy
2 Fire Energy
3 Water Energy
2 Dark Energy
1 Psychic Energy
1 Fighting Energy
Now it's time for a card breakdown:
Arceus Lv.X is what lets you manipulate your opponents weakness so well. With its pokebody, Omniscient, you can use the attack of any Arceus that you have in play(only if you have the necessary energy attached to your active Arceus). Arceus also has another pokebody, Multitype, which copies the type of the Arceus below it. This means that you can send out the Arceus that your opponent is weak too, level it up, and use any attack of your Arceus to still hit them for weakness!
The colorless Arceus is by far the most important card in the deck. Without it, you would have no way to get out the necessary energy to keep attacking. Its first attack, Ripple Swell, lets you grab out 6 basic energy cards from your deck, but only if you have six DIFFERENT Arceus in play. Ripple Swell in combination with Ultimate Zone, makes much easier to start hitting for major damage early on. Another interesting thing about this Arceus, is that it has a second attack. Sky Spear is really what helps you out in your SP matchups. Sky Spearing Garchomp drops before they have the chance to level up can be devastating in a game. Maybe I should explain what Sky Spear does heh. For 3 colorless energy, it does 80 damage to any pokemon on your opponents side of the field, but at the cost of sending all energy attached to the lost zone. But after using Ripple Swell, you should have enough energy on the field for 2 consecutive Sky Spears.
The Dark Arceus is a great helper late game. Its attack only does an initial 20 damage for a dark and a colorless. Not good right? Well, if you have more prize cards than your opponent, it does 20 damage plus an additional 60. Now, 80 for two looks a lot better than 20 for two.
Water Arceus is your Mewtwo counter. Just get your psychic type Arceus active with an Expert belt, and you have a OHKO on a Mewtwo Lv.X
The fire Arceus is what gives the deck its ability to do big damage in combination with Lucario GL. Its attack, Bright Flame, does 80 damage for a fire and two colorless, but it has a coin flip, and if tails, you have to discard 2 energy attached to Arceus. It is also your best choice to use when up against Dialgachomp.
The Lightning Arceus isnt really used to attack much. Lightning Turn does 30 for a Lightning and a colorless, and makes you switch with one of your benched pokemon. All I generally use it for is to just get the weakness on Kingdra.
Luxray counter, plain and simple. It also allows you to hit consistent 120 dmg with a Lucario GL in play, and whatever Arceus you need active to hit for their weakness. Break Ground does 60 for a fighting and two colorless energy, but then you have to put one damage counter on each of your benched pokemon. This isn't too bad expecially if you play with this next Arceus.
The Grass Arceus really isnt used to attack very often, but when going against spread deck, it really helps out. Leaf Refresh for a Grass and a colorless energy deals 30 damage, and then removes 30 damage off of each of your pokemon.
This is another important in certain situations Arceus. When up against Mewtwo Lv.X, just send up this Arceus, send up some energy through Ultimate Zone, level it up, attach an Expert belt, and use the water type Arceus's attack.
Whats this?????? There's even more to Arceus?????
Arceus is fortunate enough to not have lost anything detrimental with the rotation because it can run off of its own engine. The cards of the Arceus engine are:
Beginning Door is really what sets Arceus apart from anything else. Yea Sp decks have SP Radar, but that requires to put another card on top of your deck. Beginning Door lets you look through your deck for any Arceus you want.
Ultimate zone is the key to a winning game. After a Ripple Swell, you can use Ultimate Zone to move any energy to your active Arceus. This lets you fuel an Arceus at any point you need to.
Something else people may question is my energy count. I feel that this is the best setup to use for your energy. To be honest, some of these cards attacks are just terrible, and the only why some of the Arceus that are in here, are in here, is for their types. With energy exchanger, I feel that 2 Rainbow is perfectly fine because it makes it much more simpler to get them out.
Now that you guys have all had the chance to read up on what goes into an Arceus deck, you may be wondering, "How exactly does it work?" Well that's all easily explained. You simply try to get your Colorless Arceus in the active spot and 5 different Arceus on your bench as fast as possible for an early Ripple Swell. After this has been accomplished you just start manipulating your opponents weakness with Lucario GL, and dropping bombs with either the Fire Arceus or the Fighting Arceus.
Now for the Matchups:
Luxchomp-50-50. Get out the Colorless Arceus, and start Sky Spearing all of their Garchomp drops. If you can keep up with that, you should be good to go. Fightning Arceus is to counter Luxray by OHKOing it. This is also where Judge can really mess with them since a late game Judge could really send them for a loop.
Sablelock-70-30 in favor of Arceus. All you really need to succeed in the Sablelock matchup is Call energy. Once you Ripple Swell one, it makes it hard for them to keep up with the damage output, and you can also use the Grass Arceus to heal off most of the damage done by Honchkrow G. Again as with the Luxchomp matchup, just try to Sky Spear all of their Garchomp drops. Another helpful thing about any type of SP matchup, is that you don't use poke powers, which Sablelock/any SP deck loves to spray.
Dialgachomp- 50-50 Some may want to say that its practically an autoloss for Arceus. I used to say that also, but with more playtesting, and talking to James about it, its really come out to be 50-50. All you need to do is snipe off their Garchomp drops, and ohko Dialga with the fire Arceus.
Spiriplume/Vileplume varients- 40-60 in favor of Spiriplume. The trainer lock really hurts, but its manageable. you need to try to Snipe out the Oddish/Gloom before they can get Vileplume out, and then it should be easier to pull off a victory, but they still have Spiritomb to lock off your trainers. If they're running Gengar, and get fully set up, you have barely any hope left, but to try to OHKO Gengar with Dark Arceus.
Machamp- I can't really give an honest matchup on this because no one in my area plays Machamp. Talking to people about it though, you would need to use the Psychic Arceus to ko their Machamps.
Mirror- 50-50 Its really a strange matchup because what you want to do with the deck is to hit for weakness every turn, and Arceus LvX doesn't have a weakness. All I can say to do is to try to snipe off their Colorless Arceus before they can snipe off yours.
Techs:
Now there isnt much you can tech into Arceus pokemon wise, except for your actual Arceus lines.
Some may want to argue about adding these two Arceus Lv.Xs, but I feel that changes the whole point of the deck. I say no to adding these guys because they are pretty bad, but its all personal preference.
Bebe's Search is another way to search out specific Arceus. I would recommend this over communication if your area is more dominated by Vilegar/Vileplume varients.
Plain and simple. Extra damage + weakness manipulation= even quicker ko. I dont really like it too much cause of the extra prize situation.
Palmer's and Flower Shop Lady are both great in the deck to get back ko'ed Arceus and energy discarded by the Fire type Arceus' attack. If you can find room in your list for one of these, definitely put it in.
Thank Yous:
James for the inspiration
The guys at Bentonville for hours of playtesting
Arceus for being beast
The readers for reading it.
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