Articuno

Although Articuno may not have nearly as much influence over the metagame as its Electric-type sibling Zapdos, like many other UUBL Pokemon it still finds a small niche in OU. While it may not have the best defensive typing or movepool, Articuno still avoids taking damage from Spikes, has decent defensive stats, and is able to reliably absorb sleep from all of the metagame's sleep spreaders besides Snorlax. Articuno faces fierce competition in the form of its fellow legendary Pokemon Suicune. Suicune performs the exact same roles as Articuno while having a resistance to Fire, a neutrality to Rock, the ability to threaten back Rock-types with super effective damage, and a typing with generally superior offensive coverage, which means it can check more Pokemon than Articuno. This can make it difficult to fit Articuno on teams without introducing weaknesses to Pokemon like Charizard and Machamp. Spikes immunity does give it an edge in longer, drawn-out battles, and STAB Ice Beam makes it harder for RestTalk Zapdos to take Toxic, but most teams have a Rest Snorlax to wall Articuno anyway. While generally left out in the cold in terms of usage, the king of Seafoam Islands has just enough useful defensive traits that it retains viability in OU.