Kartana [QC 1/2]

[OVERVIEW]

Kartana is one of the scariest physical attackers in Doubles, drawing its prowess from its monstrous base 181 Attack, ability to quickly snowball with Beast Boost, and base 109 Speed placing it above the majority of the unboosted metagame save for Dragapult and Zeraora. While already one of the best physical attackers in the metagame, Kartana also makes great use of Scope Lens and Leaf Blade, giving it a 50% chance to land a critical hit. This allows Kartana to bypass defensive counterplay such as Incineroar's Intimidate and Defense boosting Diancie; additionally, it also forces the opponent to play around the possibility of a critical hit while enabling the user to play for them if necessary. Kartana becomes scarier when paired with Rillaboom, which gives it Fake Out support as well as a Grassy Terrain boost, which allows Kartana's Leaf Blade to pick up a guaranteed OHKO on Urshifu-R and 2HKO Zygarde. However, Kartana is not without its checks: Zapdos, Amoonguss, and Incineroar all eat its Leaf Blade fairly comfortably and threaten it back with Fire-type moves or Pollen Puff. Faster Pokemon like Dragapult and Choice Scarf Genesect can also outspeed and OHKO it with ease. As such, Kartana pairs well with Zygarde, Urshifu-R, and Heatran, which can pressure its checks and enjoy Kartana's abilities to threaten Water-types and provide speed control in the form of Tailwind. Kartana also hates losing the Speed advantage, as its poor special bulk and common weaknesses to Fire and Fighting leave it vulnerable to easy KOes if it can't remove its threats first, though Fake Out support from Rillaboom, Incineroar, and Blastoise can help remedy this.

[SET]
name: Fast Attacker
move 1: Leaf Blade
move 2: Sacred Sword
move 3: Tailwind
move 4: Protect
item: Scope Lens
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 Atk / 252 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* Leaf Blade is Kartana's best attack, as it has both high base power and a high critical hit rate, while also having no drawbacks. The opponent is often forced to respect the possibility of Leaf Blade landing a critical hit, limiting the number of safe plays they can make each turn.

* Sacred Sword is a great coverage move, hitting the likes of Incineroar, Heatran, and Kyurem-B for super effective damage.

* Tailwind gives Kartana useful speed control for it and its partner, letting it outspeed the majority of even the boosted metagame. Kartana is an excellent user of Tailwind thanks to its ability to force Protects and outspeed other common Tailwind setters such as Zapdos and Mew, giving it and its ally a huge advantage thanks to dynamic Speed mechanics.

* Protect allows Kartana to keep itself safe for a turn, useful for removing an opposing threat with its ally or bringing in a partner for the following turn.

* Scope Lens gives Kartana a 50% chance to score a critical hit with Leaf Blade, as well as the occasionally useful 12.5% critical hit with Sacred Sword, allowing it to bypass Intimidate and further boost its offensive pressure.

* 252 Special Defense EVs greatly help to patch up Kartana's poor special defense, allowing it to survive hits such as Ice Beam from defensive Kyurem-B and Porygon2 and Necrozma's Psychic Terrain-boosted Expanding Force, which is much more valuable than investing Kartana's already monstrous Attack. Maximum Speed investment allows Kartana to ensure the speed tie with opposing Kartana while also being able to set up Tailwind as fast as possible.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

White Herb can be used to give Kartana a less valuable one-time check to Intimidate users that will guarantee it hits at normal power instead of having to get the critical hit roll. Focus Sash guarantees Kartana will survive a single hit and allows it to invest EVs into Attack, but investing defensively allows it to live most non-Fire attacks anyways, while receiving a larger offensive boost from Scope Lens. Substitute is an option for teams that already have Tailwind support, as it's excellent for punishing Protects and forcing the opponent to focus on it, creating room for its partner. Swords Dance can be used with redirection support to turn Kartana into an even more threatening sweeper but can be difficult to set up if it isn't supported by an ally, and Tailwind is more generally useful than both of these options anyways.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[zeefable, 501591]]
- Quality checked by: [[emma, 294304], [username2, userid2]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1]]
 
Last edited:

emma

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DPL Champion
[OVERVIEW]
  • Change "Choice Scarf Users" to something like "Speed Boosted Users" and mention Zygarde over Genesect since you still lose to Genesect (I don't think the Speed advantage changes much) but it helps a ton against Zygarde since you threaten to do 75-90% with critical hit Leaf Blade in Grassy Terrain and don't have to take Thousand Arrows damage.
  • Mention Defense boosting along with Intimidate as ways players try to (and fail) to reduce Kartana's damage output. I've seen numerous Diancie get at least one Defense boost and turn the tables on Genesect, which it just can't do against Kartana.
  • I don't know exactly how to word this, but I would like you to mention somewhere how your opponent is forced to respect the 50% critical hit every single turn. I know you already mention it, but 50% critical hit is just so insanely good and changes the dynamic of the game and I want to make sure it's emphasized. Alternative, you can mention this when you talk about Leaf Blade in the Set section if you think it fits better in there.
    • Perhaps: "What really makes Kartana so scary, though, is its ability to bypass attempts to control its damage output with Intimidate thanks to the combination of Leaf Blade's high critical hit rate and Scope Lens giving it a 50% chance to critical hit, allowing it effortlessly OHKO Urshifu-R, Tapu Fini, and Diancie and forces the opponent to respect the critical hit chance every turn."
[SET]
  • Add in how Kartana's high base Speed makes it an even better Tailwind setter due to Dynamic Speed Mechanics. We see a lot of Kartana setting a Fast Tailwind which lets Heatran or Zygarde claim kills with their powerful spread moves ASAP.
  • Remove Substitute from the EVs line since since that's been moved to OO.
[OTHER OPTIONS]
  • Put the secondary Items / Moves together respectively and mention how they're generally inferior to Scope Lens / Tailwind. This can be really quick, just something about how White Herb and Focus Sash don't provide the ridiculous 50% critical hit chance while a secondary Tailwind is still usually more useful than Substitute and Swords Dance.
  • Note how +2 Sacred Sword is a roll to OHKO Hasty Genesect. hehe
Minor changes but I never stop talking so it looks longer than it should be. Good work as per usual.


QC 1/2
 
Last edited:

Yoda2798

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Doubles Leader
[OVERVIEW]
  • This overview is quite long, I don't think it's necessary to mention Latias/Naganadel since they're niche, and you talk a lot about Tailwind. You focus on saying how Tailwind benefits Kartana, and mention that it helps teammates as an additional bonus, when it's closer to the opposite. Kartana itself also isn't taking on many of the faster Pokemon mentioned, that's what the teammates help with. I'd much rather frame it as something like "Tailwind lets Kartana confer its Speed advantage to slower teammates such as Zygarde and Urshifu-R, allowing them to immediately move sooner, and mitigating the threat of faster Pokemon to Kartana." It's also odd to me that you mention this point before talking more about its offensive power, that makes it seem like Kartana is a fast Tailwind setter which can hit hard rather than the fast attacker which can set Tailwind that it is.
  • You're placing too much emphasis on crits, Kartana's strong even if it doesn't get them, it's not reliant on critting to be a threat as you make it sound. I'd hold this point until slightly later, saying first how it outspeeds and threatens most of the metagame, with crits adding the ability to power through even more.
  • Your mention of examples is a little off, Urshifu is a roll without a crit while the other two completely require it, so calling it "effortless" when it needs a coinflip to KO super effective targets is odd, while a reader might think you mean it gets those KOs without a crit. Specifying that you crit through boosted Diancie should also get mentioned.
  • I'd change "forces the opponent to respect the critical hit chance every turn" to something like "forces the opponent to play around the possibility of a crit, while giving the user the option to play for it" to add more substance.
  • Your mention of checks should also include faster Pokemon i.e. Dragapult and (Choice Scarf) Genesect, the latter isn't mentioned at all currently despite being a great check.
[SET]
  • Set name shouldn't be "Critana", something like "Fast Attacker" would be better.
[SET COMMENTS]
  • I don't see how being good against Rillaboom and Tapu Fini is particularly relevant to being a good Tailwind setter, so would remove that.
  • For Protect, I wouldn't say that Kartana "sets up" is accurate.
  • I'd mention with the spread that due to Kartana's extreme stats, the boost to Sp Def gives a much bigger relative boost than Atk.
[OTHER OPTIONS]
  • It's more accurately a crit roll than a Scope Lens roll.
  • The items sentence runs on quite long, I'd split it up.
  • I don't get the explanation of Focus Sash, it's not really a last ditch item like say Custap Berry, it only works when Kartana is undamaged, which is often only its first turn out. I'd say something to the effect of "Focus Sash guarantees Kartana will survive a single hit and allows it to invest EVs into Attack, but investing defensively allows it to live most non-Fire attacks anyways, while receiving a larger offensive boost from Scope Lens."
  • I'd also drop the "however, both..." part since I think it's a bit redundant, you can incorporate the "less valuable" into the White Herb point.
  • I wouldn't say Substitute makes up for Kartana's bulk, and I'd mention it takes advantage of the Protects it forces.
  • Don't really understand the "losing the Speed advantage" in the last sentence, I'd rather say that Tailwind is more generally useful (than the other options), even on teams which already have it.
Tag once implemented and it's not 3am.
 

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