Ultra Beast Spotlight! Enter: Kartana!

[Rogue]

AYO WHAT'S POPPIN WITH IT WHATS GOOD IT'S YA BOY ROGUE THA BEATDOWN
shout outs to shofu tha beatdown, dude has a youtube channel and he's funny and talented. mature content tho.

What's good YokaiWatchForever, I'm coming at you with my favorite piece of origami I've ever made. Today I'm gonna teach you how to make an oragoomey, and how to use it to defeat your foes.

We gonna look at this gamiori, look at its stats, what kind of paper its made out of, it's ability, and how I like to use it. You know what's good. You know what I do. So let's skip this, and get down to the meaty. gritty. powerful. paper. stats.

Disclaimer: The game is still young. I dunno whats going on, there is no meta. So take my thoughts, and my sets with a grain of salt. As they may be better, or worse once the meta game finds it ground.

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-STATS-


PEEP THOSE STATS, MY GUYS
and grills, I don't discriminate.

Let's get the trash stats out of the way.
59 HP? weak.
59 Special attack? gross.
31 Special defense? DISGUSTING.

Those stats t r a s h, boy. Let's look at it's stronka wonka stats tho.

181 Attack? EXCUSE ME?
131 Defense? ARE YOU SERIOUS?
109 Speed?? Hey thats pretty good.

So in a nutshell, we have a relatively fast, strong physical attacker who can take some physical hits back at it.

Typing: Grass/Steel - I think this is an excellent typing for VGC considering steel is super effective against the various fairy types running around. While grass pairs well with Grassy Terrain.

Weaknesses: Fighting (x2) Fire (x4) - Despite being rather frail, it's still nice to only have 2 weaknesses. That being said, we'll basically never live a fire attack.

Resistances: Normal, Rock, Steel, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Dragon, and Fairy (All 1/2) - ... Thats a lot of resistances.

Immunity: Poison

Ability: Beast Boost - This Pokemon's highest stat is raised by 1 if it attacks and KO's another Pokemon.

So let's look at everything together and grab a conclusion via stats, typing, ability, ect:

Kartana is a fast, strong physical attacker who has some pretty good defense. It lacks in HP, special defense, and special attack. Which makes it hard to take special attacks in general. However we only have 2 weaknesses, and we get 9 resistances, and an immunity to a typing. We get to pair that with an excellent ability, and typing that works well offensively / pairs well with grassy terrain.

YA'LL KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS, LET ME STOP WASTING Y O U R TIME, LETS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS ON THESE B U I L D S BOYO

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-BUILDS-

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the VGC damage calculator is down. So i can't show you ACTUAL calcs, however if you want to fact check, you can feel free to use showdowns single calculator, and put in everything one by one and check it that way. Otherwise, trust my word. Will update with calcs when the VGC calculator is working again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

- Assault Vest -

Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 40 Def / 148 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Psycho Cut / Night Slash
- Sacred Sword

Okay, I know. I know. Rogue, stop putting assault vest on literally everything. BUT IT'S SURPRISINGLY GOOD LOL Peep it
(Taking the milestones section from Black117, it's a much better way to explain things that it does. Shout outs to him.)

Milestones:
- Lives max SPA life orb modest Thunderbolt (in e-terrain) from Tapu Koko.
- Lives max SPA modest Psychic (in p-terrain) from Tapu Lele (has a chance to live life orb)
- Lives max ATK adamant Superpower from Tapu Bulu
- Outspeeds all Tapu's except for Tapu Koko
- Has a way to OHKO/2HKO all tapu's depending on their defensive investment (Even more ways to do it with grassy terrain up, as it makes leaf blade stronger)
- Will easily OHKO all tapu's with a beast boost.

The HP/DEF investment is minor to help live some small things, like max attack adamant superpower from tapu bulu. Unfortunately we won't be living things like close combats from heavy hitters, but it's fine. We don't need to invest into spdef because we live what I want to; and thats basically life orb modest tbolt from tapu koko, who will outspeed us. So we get guaranteed damage. I'm not too worried about lele, as we threaten it and can OHKO it depending on it's set. Fini isn't a threat as leafblade hits very hard, and can OHKO. Especially in grassy terrain. Tapu Bulu is a little weird. Technically we can OHKO it with some rng in our favor depending on it's set. Otherwise it's a 2HKO, but we do outspeed it. That being said, grassy terrain healing, maybe a leftover/sitrus berry, horn leech recovery... it's all dependent on stuff like that. It's worth noting that while in Grassy Terrain, leaf blade is an easy OHKO on tapu koko. Which is really cool.

The 4 moves are rather standard. Double stab in leaf blade/smart strike. I really wish smart strike was stronger or had a different effect.
Sacred sword is dope and strong, and hits things like other kartana's, porygon, yadda yadda.
Psycho cut was a filler. Just wanted it for opposing fighting types, doesn't do crazy amount of damage but it works when it needs to. Leading towards night slash more and more though.

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-Swords Dance Z-Move-

Kartana @ Grassium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 148 Atk / 4 Def / 100 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Swords Dance
- Protect

Before I get down to it, this is a set I ripped entirely from DuncanKneeDeep. It's amazing, it's a ton of fun, and it works AMAZINGLY well with his team. I'll drop a link below, please watch it. The team is absolutely excellent in my opinion, and this set works super well with it.



Milestones:
-Max speed investment, outspeeding a large majority of mons.
-+2 Kartana is crazy leafblade OHKO's all the things. Especially in grassy terrain.
-Bloom Doom in grassy terrain without a single boost OHKO's like, all of the things.
-Sacred sword to help for coverage.
-Investments into some spdef helps us live small things while keeping our ridiculous offensive pressure.
-Protect is protect.

I can't stress enough about how you should watch duncans video, this set blew my mind with the amount of synergy his team had with it. Usually my first set is my favorite set, but it's hard to pick a favorite set with something as fun, and good as this.

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Otherwise, Kartana can be built totally simple like. 252/252 sets work fine for certain builds. Here are some straight forward builds, if you need them:

-Focus Sash-
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Smart Strike
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Protect

Super basic.

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-Banded-
Kartana @ Choice Band
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 164 Atk / 92 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Leaf Blade
- Night Slash

Another simple set, heavy hitting. Max speed, dont need max attack to get OHKO's on what we want. Rest in our poor spd.

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-Scarfed-
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 100 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Smart Strike
- Leaf Blade
- Night Slash
- Sacred Sword

This one is a lot of fun. Scarf with minimal speed lets us out speed max speed hasty tapu koko, aka we outspeed base 130's. Rest into attack and bulk.

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Aight, I'm done here.

Please pair Kartana with Tapu Bulu, it's super stronka wonka donka.
Or don't. Whatever.
If tapus aren't your thing, things like Pelipper, a follow me user, speed control, and oranguru instruct works really well with it, too.

Gonna go play smite now zzzz i know im late with the write up zzzz i work a lot fight me zzzzz

[Rogue]

Oh ya shoutouts to @"Elly" getting me into this thing more, i like it a lot.

tell me what ultra beast you want me to do next in the comments below frends choo choo

[w2gMk]

Nihi Lego would be nice to show next. Lego's are cool man

[Eckley]

Great write up, big katunanana! Steel is my favourite type of paper to make origami! Unfortunately, with that sickening Special Defense, it can't live a Specs Focus Blast from Aloe Conkeldurr. But then again, what can am I right, cousin? Specs is too stonka. Maybe one day I 'll be good enough to use one of these sets, but I have to clear the trial first. Wish me luck, Ravioli!

[croissant]

FINALLY I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR LIKE 4 YEARS OMG. Great write-up as always @Rogue. Do Xurkitree next, because trees, Christmas tree, yeah. Do it.

[GiMYz]

One day i lost a 2v1 situation against Sash Kartana because of a Leaf Blade crit and another +1 Leaf Blade crit the following turn.. i'm still salty.

[Rogue]

(Dec 12, 2016, 05:18 PM)GiMYz Wrote: One day i lost a 2v1 situation against Sash Kartana because of a Leaf Blade crit and another +1 Leaf Blade crit the following turn.. i'm still salty.

That sounds absolutely ridiculous and I'm sorry. I'd be tilted.

Can I get your opinion on the write up or the set? Curious what you think about it. I still hold your pasta battling skills at a very high standard.

[GiMYz]

(Dec 12, 2016, 05:20 PM)Rogue Wrote:

(Dec 12, 2016, 05:18 PM)GiMYz Wrote: One day i lost a 2v1 situation against Sash Kartana because of a Leaf Blade crit and another +1 Leaf Blade crit the following turn.. i'm still salty.

That sounds absolutely ridiculous and I'm sorry. I'd be tilted.

Can I get your opinion on the write up or the set? Curious what you think about it. I still hold your pasta battling skills at a very high standard.

My friend, you have earned one place among the Elite 10 Seats thanks to this analysis.

I'd say the Focus Sash set is great for the late game because you can get KOs on weakened opponents which gives Kartana easy Beast Boosts. I haven't seen personally any other set but the Assault Vest one is interesting.

The DC works for me tho http://jake-white.github.io/VGC-Damage-Calculator/

[Rogue]

(Dec 12, 2016, 05:53 PM)GiMYz Wrote:

(Dec 12, 2016, 05:20 PM)Rogue Wrote:

(Dec 12, 2016, 05:18 PM)GiMYz Wrote: One day i lost a 2v1 situation against Sash Kartana because of a Leaf Blade crit and another +1 Leaf Blade crit the following turn.. i'm still salty.

That sounds absolutely ridiculous and I'm sorry. I'd be tilted.

Can I get your opinion on the write up or the set? Curious what you think about it. I still hold your pasta battling skills at a very high standard.

My friend, you have earned one place among the Elite 10 Seats thanks to this analysis.

I'd say the Focus Sash set is great for the late game because you can get KOs on weakened opponents which gives Kartana easy Beast Boosts. I haven't seen personally any other set but the Assault Vest one is interesting.

The DC works for me tho http://jake-white.github.io/VGC-Damage-Calculator/

Thank you friend. and it works for me now, too! I'll update my post now (:

[Black117]

Just realized all the Ultras have their base stats in prime numbers.....

Yeah Kartana is absolutely one of the most threatening cleaners in the format with that monster attack stat that's stronger than Primal Groudon with Pseudo Moxie. Wonder what kind of damage output it can do with a +2 Bloom Doom in Grassy Terrain...though I think Specs Conk counters it.

Great Writeup as usual Mr Choo Choo.