OU Choice Band Kartana [QC 2/2] [GP 1/1] [DONE]

zinnias

zinnias

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[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Leaf Blade
move 2: Smart Strike
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Sacred Sword
item: Choice Band
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

With Choice Band, Kartana becomes much more of an immediate threat, giving it absurd instant breaking power with its STAB Leaf Blade slicing through Water-types like Slowbro and Tapu Fini in one hit and threatening neutral targets like Landorus-T, Toxapex, and Garchomp with a 2HKO. Smart Strike mows down Fairy-types, being able to OHKO Clefable, and is a solid midground that hits all of Tornadus-T, Dragapult, and Rillaboom in the same slot, finishing off the last after minor chip damage. Knock Off smacks Aegislash and Dragapult trying to switch in, but more importantly, it removes Heavy-Duty Boots from checks like Zapdos and Buzzwole, opening them up to entry hazard damage that will give Kartana and its team an easier time breaking through them. Sacred Sword puts the hurt on the likes of Heatran, Ferrothorn, and Melmetal, 2HKOing them without any issue.

Team Options
========

Choice Band Kartana is a great pick for offense teams, using its unmatched immediate power to break holes for fast cleaners like Choice Scarf Tapu Lele, Dragapult, and Weavile to take advantage of and leveraging its solid physical bulk to take strong physical hits like Zeraora’s Close Combat and Choice Band Weavile’s Triple Axel in a pinch. Future Sight from the likes of Slowbro, Galarian Slowking, and Tapu Lele is incredibly beneficial to Kartana, blowing past Buzzwole and removing defensive counterplay from the opponent by easing prediction. The way to get the most mileage out of Kartana is by pairing it with pivots that can get it in safely against its ideal targets; offensive pivots like Dragapult, Tornadus-T, and Tapu Koko can force switches with their offensive presence to get Kartana in against easy marks like Clefable and Blissey, and slow pivots like Landorus-T and Slowbro can take a hit first before bringing in Kartana safely. Additionally, Tapu Koko can remove Flying-types like Corviknight and Tornadus-T and threaten out Buzzwole while appreciating Kartana's removal of Ground-types like Landorus-T and Gastrodon. Entry hazard setters like Landorus-T, Heatran, and Garchomp synergize well with Kartana's strong Knock Off, as it opens up switch-ins like Zapdos and Tornadus-T to Stealth Rock damage by removing their Heavy-Duty Boots. Heatran is a notable option, as it has the additional benefit of threatening Defoggers like Corviknight and Tornadus-T that can switch into Kartana, with Kartana being able to help against Defoggers like Tapu Fini and Rotom-W that can force out Heatran.

[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/zinnias.569291/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/slowpoke-fan.617219/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/tysonslayer.349443/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sunny004.197240/
 
Last edited:
Good work, tag me after implementation so I can go through it again
slowpoke.gif


add remove highlight comment
[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Leaf Blade
move 2: Smart Strike
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Sacred Sword
item: Choice Band
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

With Choice Band, Kartana becomes much more of an immediate threat, giving it absurd instant breaking power with its STAB Leaf Blade slicing through Water-types like Slowbro and Tapu Fini in one hit and threatening neutral targets like Landorus-T, Toxapex, and Garchomp with a 2HKO. Knock Off smacks Aegislash and Dragapult trying to switch in, but more importantly removes Heavy-Duty Boots from checks like Zapdos and Buzzwole, opening them up to entry hazard damage that will give Kartana and its team an easier time breaking through them. Sacred Sword puts the hurt on the likes of Heatran, Ferrothorn, and Melmetal, 2HKOing them without any issue. Smart Strike gives Kartana a way to hit Buzzwole (the calc is not what you think it is, I think you should rewrite this sentence into how it absolutely destroys Fairy-types while being a good midground into Torn/Pult/Rillaboom/etc) and Tornadus-T, being able to break through them with prior chip damage, and is a solid midground that hits incoming offensive threats like Dragapult and Tapu Koko in the same slot, 2HKOes Rillaboom, and OHKOes Clefable.

Team Options
========

Choice Band Kartana is a great pick for offense teams, leveraging its solid physical bulk and good typing to pivot into the likes of Melmetal and Ferrothorn (it's more about being able to take hits in a pinch than switching into stuff directly, also you really don't want to switch into either of those Pokemon because Melmetal can predict Kartana switching in with Superpower while Knock Off cripples this set) and using its unmatched immediate power to break holes for fast cleaners like Choice Scarf Tapu Lele, Dragapult, and Weavile to take advantage of. Future Sight from the likes of Slowbro, Galarian Slowking, and Tapu Lele is incredibly beneficial to Kartana, blowing past Buzzwole and removing defensive counterplay from the opponent by easing prediction. You can get a lot more mileage out of Kartana when pairing it with pivots that can get it in safely against its ideal targets (avoid using first or second-person nouns when writing analyses); offensive pivots like Dragapult, Tornadus-T, and Tapu Koko can force switches with their offensive presence to get Kartana in (elaborate on what they can pivot on to bring in Kartana), and defensive slow pivots like Landorus-T and Slowbro can take a hit first before pivoting bringing in Kartana safely. Entry hazard setters like Landorus-T, Heatran, and Garchomp synergize well with Kartana's strong Knock Off, as it opens up switch-ins like Zapdos and Tornadus-T to Stealth Rock damage by removing their Heavy-Duty Boots. (mention how Heatran beats the Defoggers that can chase out Kartana while Kartana threatens the Defoggers that force out Heatran)

[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/zinnias.569291/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/slowpoke-fan.617219/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/user4.103/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/user5.104/
 
Add Comments
[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Leaf Blade
move 2: Smart Strike
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Sacred Sword
item: Choice Band
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

With Choice Band, Kartana becomes much more of an immediate threat, giving it absurd instant breaking power with its STAB Leaf Blade slicing through Water-types like Slowbro and Tapu Fini in one hit and threatening neutral targets like Landorus-T, Toxapex, and Garchomp with a 2HKO. Knock Off smacks Aegislash and Dragapult trying to switch in, but more importantly removes Heavy-Duty Boots from checks like Zapdos and Buzzwole, opening them up to entry hazard damage that will give Kartana and its team an easier time breaking through them. Sacred Sword puts the hurt on the likes of Heatran, Ferrothorn, and Melmetal, 2HKOing them without any issue. Smart Strike mows down Fairy-types, being able to OHKO Clefable, and is a solid midground that hits all of Dragapult, Rillaboom, and Tornadus-T in the same slot, finishing off the last after minor chip damage. (mention Tornadus-T, tho I would move this to be mentioned after Leaf Blade to match move order.)

Team Options
========

Choice Band Kartana is a great pick for offense teams, leveraging its solid physical bulk to take strong physical hits like Zeraora’s Close Combat and Choice Band Weavile’s Triple Axel in a pinch and using its unmatched immediate power to break holes for fast cleaners like Choice Scarf Tapu Lele, Dragapult, and Weavile to take advantage of. (would reword this to talk about it breaking stuff immediately, like yeah you take hits but wouldn't want that to be the first mention.) Future Sight from the likes of Slowbro, Galarian Slowking, and Tapu Lele is incredibly beneficial to Kartana, blowing past Buzzwole and removing defensive counterplay from the opponent by easing prediction. The way to get the most mileage out of Kartana is by pairing it with pivots that can get it in safely against its ideal targets; offensive pivots like Dragapult, Tornadus-T, and Tapu Koko can force switches with their offensive presence to get Kartana in against easy marks like Clefable and Blissey, and slow pivots like Landorus-T and Slowbro can take a hit first before bringing in Kartana safely. (mention how tapu koko removes flying types and forces buzzwole out, while Kartana can remove grounds for it.) Entry hazard setters like Landorus-T, Heatran, and Garchomp synergize well with Kartana's strong Knock Off, as it opens up switch-ins like Zapdos and Tornadus-T to Stealth Rock damage by removing their Heavy-Duty Boots. Heatran is a notable option, as it has the additional benefit of threatening Defoggers like Corviknight and Tornadus-T that can switch into Kartana, with Kartana being able to help against Defoggers like Tapu Fini and Rotom-W that can force out Heatran.

[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/zinnias.569291/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/slowpoke-fan.617219/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/tysonslayer.349443/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/user5.104/

Want to skim over this real quick before stamp
 
1/1 GP Team done

I actually only have one addition here, for the Knock Off sentence in the first paragraph. Great job!
Knock Off smacks Aegislash and Dragapult trying to switch in, but more importantly, it removes Heavy-Duty Boots from checks like Zapdos and Buzzwole, opening them up to entry hazard damage that will give Kartana and its team an easier time breaking through them.
 
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