0144 Articuno

The greater energy generation from Ice Shard is much more valuable than Frost Breath's edge in damage output. 

Icy Wind is basically the main reason to run Articuno, providing solid damage and an aggravating attack debuff. Ancient Power is a solid option in the Ultra League, giving you a solid hit against other Articuno or Charizard. However, ever since AP got nerfed, Hurricane has seen a rise in play, giving a strong nuke against Fighting-types, and in general a hard hit many players may not expect!

Articuno doesn't hold much prominence in the Great League. It's threatened by many types, and has issues with a number of big-name Pokemon. Its stat-distribution makes it more defensive in nature, but this is betrayed by a poor defensive typing that's easy to exploit by a huge portion of the metagame. Sadly, Articuno really doesn't have much of a claim to fame here.

Articuno is an actual threat in the Ultra League. A strong matchup against the ever-prominent Giratina is the primary reason to run it. Pair that with winning matchups against Cresselia, Togekiss, and Swampert, and you can understand why people love Articuno. While you certainly have to work to keep it away from Lapras, Machamp, and Registeel, Articuno is a Pokémon worth running.

While Articuno may at first glance seem powerful due to the prevalence of Dragons, Master League is a format largely defined by Steel-types and Kyogre. That's not great for an Ice-type like Articuno. While it could be worth bringing out in Draft, we can't recommend you use Articuno in GBL.