Pokémon Kartana

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Ash Borer

I've heard they're short of room in hell

Name: Kartana
Type: Grass/Steel
Ability: Beast Boost
Base Stats 59 / 181 / 131 / 59 / 31 / 109


Level Up Movepool

L1 - Sacred Sword
L1 - Defog
L1 - Vacuum Wave
L1 - Air Cutter
L1 - Fury Cutter
L1 - Cut
L7 - False Swipe
L13 - Razor Leaf
L19 - Synthesis
L23 - Aerial Ace
L29 - Laser Focus
L31 - Night Slash
L37 - Swords Dance
L43 - Leaf Blade
L47 - X-Scissor
L53 - Detect
L59 - Air Slash
L67 - Psycho Cut
L73 - Guillotine


TM Compatibility

TM04 - Calm Mind
TM06 - Toxic
TM10 - Hidden Power
TM17 - Protect
TM21 - Frustration
TM27 - Return
TM31 - Brick Break
TM32 - Double Team
TM40 - Aerial Ace
TM44 - Rest
TM48 - Round
TM54 - False Swipe
TM67 - Smart Strike
TM68 - Giga Impact
TM75 - Swords Dance
TM81 - X-Scissor
TM87 - Swagger
TM88 - Sleep Talk
TM90 - Substitute
TM100 - Confide


***

Kartana is a physically offensive powerhouse, like few other. 181 Attack is certainly terrifying, especially when backed up by a good speed tier, strong defensive typing and solid physical bulk. Kartana is not without flaws however, being limited to moves of modest base power betrays its excellent Attack, its typing is quite poor offensively and pretty much any special attack will OHKO it through that Deo-A like Special Defense.

***

紙の剣 - Paper Sword
Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Best Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike / Night Slash

***

Leverage Kartana's physical bulk, offensive presence and defensive typing to find turns to boost, and then sweep away; this is a fairly standard offensive sweeper. Leaf Blade is your strongest STAB move and is therefore indispensable, as is Sacred Sword's ability to break through Steel-types. The final slot is up to which Pokemon your team struggles with more. Smart Strike's ability to break through Fairy-types that resist Grass-type attacks such as Tapu Bulu, and score neutral hits on the likes of Mega Venusaur, Dragonite, Buzzwole, and a handful of other threats is also highly useful. Night Slash's primary target is Aegislash, who is anticipated to be extremely prevalent and would be a hard-stop otherwise. The choice between the two moves is a difficult one. One could always choose to run both and no Swords Dance, though you will probably be missing out on the ability to get past certain walls such as Skarmory or Gliscor without it. A Choice Scarf set's viability is worth thinking about, as Beast Boost's potential to catalyze late-game sweeps seems intriguing, though Grass is quite a bad offensive type, so the chances of this seem remote.

***

In conclusion, Kartana is a strong offensive threat that has a handful of flaws that need to be played around. Though the flaws are there, if you can play around them, a sweep is a very real possibility. Its up to the players to be creative and skilled enough to find the right ways to play around these flaws and capitalize on Kartana's ruthless offensive prowess.
 
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Duck Chris

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I've been trying this set out, works pretty nicely as a late-game cleaner.

Kartana @ Salac Berry
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Night Slash
- Substitute

Idea is standard salac, set up sub on something you can kill until you get to Salac Berry, get the kill. However with Beast Boost this thing is a perfect candidate for salac berry, as after the kill you are +1 Speed and +1 Attack. And with 181 base attack not much is tanking a hit after that.

Any better moves than these though?
 

MAMP

MAMP!
I've been playing a bunch with this guy and he's really fun. Hits stupidly hard, good speed (beating Keldeo by a point is fantastic), good set of resists and Swords Dance to take advantage of its great physical bulk. Best set is something like this:

Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Smart Strike / Night Slash / Psycho Cut / X-Scissor (haven't tested this, could be cool to hit fat grass types like tangrowth or whatever+latis)

Kartana's biggest flaws are its appaling SpDef and its limited coverage. No matter which coverage option you choose for the last slot you miss out on a sizable portion of the metagame, and it really doesn't help that many of the mons that Kartana struggles against are going to be really common in the early meta -- Aegislash, Buzzswole, etc. Kartana also has the SpDef of a wet paper bag and is OHKO'd by almost any decently powerful special attack, even if its resisted. Fun fact: Kartana takes almost as much from Keldeo's resisted Hydro Pump as it does from super effective Secret Sword:

252 SpA Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Kartana: 215-253 (83 - 97.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Keldeo Secret Sword vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kartana: 218-260 (84.1 - 100.3%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
 
LO w/1 boost: 692? damage
LO w/2 boost: 900+ damage

Thing snowballs like a motherfucker. I also run four attack (leaf/smart/sacred/night). I like Salac's concept, if this thing gets +1 you can call GG. I think a scarf set would also be a scary cleaner but this thing can take near 60% of aegi's health from LO on night slash. Very rarely will you not get the +1 when you're messing with this one.
 
This thing is insanely good. It's got flaws like pretty bad offensive typing, weak special defence and pityful movepool. But that is not enough to keep this thing out of Ubers. This thing his the highest raw attack stat in the entire game. 760 with a Adamant choice band, for comparison adamant Mega Medicham hits 656. Even if you don't have the best stabs or the strongest move that attack stat with that speed and the resistances Grass/Steel has makes this really, really difficult to prepare for. I can see this running three sets, SD, Choice band and Choice scarf. With Beast boost choice items are amazing, if it gets one attack boost under its belt... It might just be over. I'm writing this in a hurry but let me show of some calcs, assuming it's got +1 attack here already. (Yeah, they're not all completely though through, but it's just showing of some power - don't get to caught up in the details). Btw, these calcs are identical to regular SD Kartana without a boost or Life orb, so now imagine these coming from +2 Life orb Kartana. Steel Wing is equal to Smart Strike.

252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Landorus-T: 220-261 (57.5 - 68.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+1 252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 161-190 (48.2 - 56.8%) -- 41% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+1 252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 380-448 (107.9 - 127.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+1 252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Sableye: 262-309 (86.1 - 101.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

+1 252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Aegislash-Shield: 308-364 (95 - 112.3%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

+1 252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 240 HP / 244+ Def Toxapex: 228-268 (75.7 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

+1 252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Night Slash vs. 248 HP / 176+ Def Zapdos: 189-223 (49.3 - 58.2%) -- 64.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Steel Wing vs. 80 HP / 0 Def Mega Salamence: 177-208 (50.4 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+1 252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Steel Wing vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Mega Mawile: 271-321 (89.4 - 105.9%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
I could go on and on, point is this thing is extremely powerful. Life orb hits 1198 after SD. Watch out for this monster when building...
 
I have paired this monster with Mew so far - Mew SDs on the defensive lead, tanks the impending Dark type hit with its Colbur Berry, and BPs into a scarfed Kartana, who dents the team or just plain wins the game. Anything that survives dies to a scarf Xurkitree or a FS/Quiver Dance Pheromosa -whilst none of these sets are particularly viable, Kartana and Pheromosa need to go nonetheless - their offensive presence in tandem with their speed is way too much. I have been using a 4-mon team.
 
This thing is completely OP imo, i ve tried a scarf set and it is insanely good as a late game cleaner thanks to it s enormous attack and moxie-like ability.
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Night Slash
- Sacred Sword
- Return
 
Does Return have any specific targets that would make you run it over STAB Smart Strike (effective 105 BP vs 102)?
 
I run this:

Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Night Slash Psycho Cut
- Smart Strike

It's working out pretty well so far. Pretty easy to rack up Attack Boosts and clean up. I think I have Psycho Cut because I prefer it over Return. Might switch it since I've put Water Tapu in.

EDIT: Night Slash over Psycho Cut so you're not walled by Aegislash/Marowak
 
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This thing has a meager offensive movepool despite the high Atk stats because Grass/Steel has plenty resistances and has no real priority moves (Vacuum Wave is wasted here).
I can see four possible sets with this thing:
(1) LO set (even (2) a Choice Band set is possible if you try to overwhelm your checks)
(3) Choice Scarf set
(4) Defog set. This is the only support move worth of consideration. The problem is understanding if this paper-thing can beat a decent number of SRockers/Spikers.
 
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I can actually vouch for an offensive defog set being decently solid. It finds opportunities to do its job pretty easily, as its defense is really good and it has a metric fuckton of resistances. It can't even take resisted special hits, but that's why you don't bring it in on special attackers.
 
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The fact that this thing is a non-flying type (STEEL) with Defog is a niche all unto its own. Its good rain typing alongside that with its gargantuan attack means it will likely become a staple for the weather.
 
This pokemon reminds me of Durant as it has similar typing and Stats. I have found it to be pretty good but there a plenty of pokemon that can take a hit and KO back. If it has a boost though that becomes significantly more difficult. It has a Interesting move and can set up on some weak physical attackers with synthesis and swords dance but it comes with the price of coverage.
 
I personally feel that Expert Belt might ultimately be better than LO.
Despite being made of paper (literally) on the special side, it CAN survive some resisted hits with ~10-30% which ends up being moot after a couple Life Orb chips.
 
Definitely think this mon excels as an offensive defogger. Life orb is all it needs to get out of control once it gets a kill, and such a raw attack stay forces tons of switches allowing you to Defog safely (people don't want to take the risk from my experience). Seems a good partner for both Zards actually.
 
Been running a physical wall version of Kartana, works pretty good since you can't Toxic it

Kartana @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
IVs: 29 Atk
- Toxic
- Synthesis
- Swagger
- Leaf Blade

I ran the 29 Atk IVs so that I can get the beast boost on defense. I am sure there is a better set out there but this has been working for me so far. I think people should take more use of it's defensive bulk.
 
I've seen decent results using a combination of SD Kartana and BD Azumarill. The two support each other very well defensively and can also answer eachother's checks pretty well. Try out an offensive core of Kartana and Azumarill
 

PK Gaming

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Yet another Pokemon who's true colors will be revealed once Aegislash gets banned.

Night Slash is pretty much mandatory on the SD set and there should be a Defog set since it's legit. Really fond of this Pokemon.
 
Kartana @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Substitute

Sub sd pretty self explanatory.
 
Kartana is a bit Like Kyurem Black, massive attack but lack of STAB. In Kartana's case, it does get one. Though Smart Strike is not good enough. Like PK Gaming mentioned. once Aegislash and Pheromosa bites the dust. Kartana will be an effective sweeper / cleaner in OU because these two Pokemon either counter it or check it (Bar Scarf Kartana.) and everyone are using them. It will likely get suspect tested and banned soon even though Grass and Steel coverage is bad due to Beast Boost.
 
Kartana @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
IVs: 29 Atk
- Toxic
- Synthesis
- Swagger
- Leaf Blade
I fell that this set was good...in gen 6. Now, in generation 7 confusion has been nerfed because now the confusion chance occurs only 1/3 of the time and not 50% of the time anymore. This means also that Swagger is nerfed.
In that slot I think that another attack is more valuable in order to fix your coverage (only Grass coverage is pretty poor, even considering Toxic's utility).
 
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You know Aegislash can be ridiculous when it can turn the Pokemon with the highest non-Mega attack with the game, that has access to Swords Dance, enough physical bulk to take at least one neutral priority move (of which all but two are physical), and a solid Speed stat look like a non-threat.

That being said, it could be because Kartana's offensive movepool sucks.
 
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