Pokemon Ultra Beast of the Week: Kartana, the Drawn Sword Pokemon
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Well, it's actually quite appropriate considering this is the week where I finished the Ultra Beast plotline in my Let's Play of Pokemon Sun, which involved hunting down and tracking four of these little buggers. So yeah, it's actually a very appropriate and fortunate roll for us this time around. So let's take this moment to talk not just about Kartana, but also the other Ultra Beasts in general.
Of course, needless to say, HUGE SPOILER WARNING FOR THE PLOT OF SUN & MOON.
I mean, it's been like two months since Sun and Moon are out, but then I didn't get to play it until relatively recently, so.... yeah.
Kartana is a member of the mysterious subgroup of Pokemon termed the Ultra Beasts. As the plotline in Sun and Moon goes, it's initially ambiguous whether the Ultra Beasts are Pokemon at all, because they came from a different dimension, Ultra Space, through wormholes, and they are just so different and alien, with stats rivaling some of the strongest Pokemon around. Alola in particular has had several of these 'breaches' in the past, including one that brought upon the arrival of Solgaleo or Lunala, depending on the version you're playing, where they challenged the local Island Guardians, the Tapus, and won. In the present-day, the Aether Foundation is planning to open Ultra Wormholes as well under the guise of 'protection', but is actually created by its president, Lusamine, getting intoxicated under the effects of one of the Ultra Beasts, Nihilego.
Now the term Ultra Beasts is... a bit ambiguous. Does it refer to all the Pokemon that came from the dimension of Ultra Space? If so, then it would probably include Cosmog, Cosmoem, Lunala and Solgaleo, and most likely but not quite definitely Necrozma -- who, while not explicitly stated to come from Ultra Space, is said to have come from a similar portal in the distant past. Or is it just the seven Ultra Beasts that are part of the post-game mission, the group comprised of Nihilego, Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Celesteela, Kartana, Xurkitree and Guzzlord? These seven have more or less similar stat totals of one of the 'lesser' legendaries, have the ability Beast Boost, learn moves on levels corresponding to prime numbers, all have a base stat total of 570, all have their International Police codenames, and are all encountered similarly where they show up with jacked-up stats similar to a Totem Pokemon.
Also, Sun and Moon itself acknowledges the concept of travelling between dimensions with the reports in Professor Burnet's laboratory, in particular Palkia, Bronzong, Hoopa and Giratina. Especially Giratina. Whether these are also technically Ultra Beasts, or if Ultra Beast is just a term for Pokemon specifically arriving from Ultra Space...
Oh well, we probably could fill a whole article on just the story and speculation regarding Ultra Beasts alone, so let's get straight to the point and talk about Kartana, or as the Pokemon Interpol calls it, UB-04: Blade (or UB-04 Slash if you're playing the Japanese version). Kartana is... a pretty weird design. The Ultra Beasts generally look like alien-ized versions of natural animals (Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Nihilego, the two mascots), just look plain weird (Celesteela, Guzzlord, Necrozma)... and then there are Xurkitree and Kartana, who inexplicably look like, well, inanimate objects. Xurkitree being based on cables and plugs, while Kartana... is one of the weirdest designs ever, based on an origami paper man.
Conceptually it's actually a pretty cool idea that's definitely based on someone trying to make a concept around paper cuts and stuff. Kartana's based on an origami samurai, with its arms doubling as swords. Its 'face' is actually animated in the way that those folded paper fortune-teller things move, which adds to the whole 'paper human' thing really well. There are some nice samurai details worked into Kartana's design too, making him look not that plain. It's probably not my favourite design among the Ultra Beasts, or indeed among Pokemon based on inanimate objects... and paper dolls aren't going to be the first in the shortlist of things I would base an interdimensional travelling eldritch abomination upon... but it kinda works, I guess?
The thing that makes the Ultra Beasts so weird is how different they are. Like, Kartana isn't just based on an unconventional source material, he's also very teeny-tiny, floats around in the air... it's so tiny! It's only 0.1 kg in weight, tying with Gastly, Haunter, Flabebe and Cosmog for the award of the lightest Pokemon out there... and considering the other four are a bunch of gas and a little flower petal respectively... and also apparently Kartana can strike down a steel tower with one stroke of its blade. Not even Aegislash, who's a literal sword, can boast that. It's a very... unique Pokemon, that's for sure.
Kartana is exclusive to Pokemon Sun, where it's the UB-04 of that game. In Moon, UB-04 is Celesteela instead. Kartana is found in Route 17 or Malie Garden, and as part of the Looker/UB storyline you have to catch four of these buggers, which is annoying as all fuck. You see, the Ultra Beasts might have hilariously low catch rates with Beast Balls, but they are still legendaries, and their stats are all in the 570's. For comparison, that's only a bit less than traditional 'trio' legendaries like Articuno, Registeel, Raikou, Tornadus or Azelf. The Ultra Beasts are insanely specialized in their stats, though, with Kartana being a master of physical Attack. He has a whooping base 181 Attack, and severely sacrifices his Special Attack and Special Defense stats to get such a humongous distribution. Kartana actually beats out the titanic Mega Rayquaza, Primal Groudon and Attack form Deoxys's base attack stat by one point. Only Mega Heracross (185) and Mega Mewtwo X (190) surpass Kartana in simple physical attack stat, and if we're discounting Mega Evolutions and Primal Evolutions, Kartana is straight-up the most powerful physical attacking Pokemon.
Of course, anything that even resembles a Fire-type move, and Kartana is gone, because, well, that paper body isn't just for show. His special defenses are absolutely paper-thin, at a pathetic 31... which is less than a freaking Pidgey. Yeah, Ultra Beasts have some insane min-maxing on stats. Thankfully, its physical defense is a lot, lot better, sitting at a very respectable 131.
Kartana's typing is Grass and Steel, which is shared with Ferroseed and Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn is an extremely defensive Pokemon, though, while Kartana is straight-out offensive, so it's a very interesting comparison. We all know Grass isn't the best type in defending, thanks to the popularity of Fire and Flying, and while Steel does help alleviate some of Kartana's defensive problems, it does leave him a huge allergy to Fire... though honestly with that abysmal Special Defense stat it's not going to live a resisted Flamethrower, so 2x or 4x weakness isn't going to be that huge of a diffference.
I do like the type choice for Kartana, which is relatively easy to understand. He's made out of paper, which is a plant product, and he's also a blade, which tends to be steel.
Kartana's moveset, like Aegislash, has a lot of sword-based moves. Swords Dance is amazing for setting up his horrendously high attack, of course, but you probably don't want that since unlike Aegislash, Kartana doesn't have the bulk to survive a turn. He gets STAB moves -- Leaf Blade (of course) for Grass, but strangely no other Steel-type move than Smart Strike. Which isn't the best Steel-type move but it's at least half-decent and is physical. Other than that, Kartana also learns very useful moves in Sacred Sword, Night Slash, X-Scissor, Air Slash and Psycho Cut naturally, all of whom provide a versatile range of elemental coverage. He's got a pretty crappy TM learnset... but eh. Also interestingly he's the only Pokemon that learns Cut by level up. Yay? That's not much of an achievement, I think.
I don't think Kartana is super-good competitively. Obviously anything that comes off a base 181 Attack is going to hurt like a bitch, and it's got decent speed to accompany it... but it suffers from the same problem that other fragile speedsters do in that it's defenses work so much against it, and it'll probably just end up launching a single hit that murders something, before being taken out by the next Pokemon. The fact that unlike Aegislash, Kartana doesn't have priority moves, means that it's not guaranteed to launch an attack straight away either, so yeah, competitively you might be better off finding someone more stable, I think.
Still, I do find little Kartana to be somewhat of a cooler design and I enjoyed him a lot more than I thought I would when I first saw him among the leaked sprites for the seventh generation. In fact, I do enjoy a fair amount of the Ultra Beasts. Kartana probably ranks relatively low in the final rankings of these abominations, but I still do like him. I mean, I've got four of the dude in my PC box.
Kartana is a member of the mysterious subgroup of Pokemon termed the Ultra Beasts. As the plotline in Sun and Moon goes, it's initially ambiguous whether the Ultra Beasts are Pokemon at all, because they came from a different dimension, Ultra Space, through wormholes, and they are just so different and alien, with stats rivaling some of the strongest Pokemon around. Alola in particular has had several of these 'breaches' in the past, including one that brought upon the arrival of Solgaleo or Lunala, depending on the version you're playing, where they challenged the local Island Guardians, the Tapus, and won. In the present-day, the Aether Foundation is planning to open Ultra Wormholes as well under the guise of 'protection', but is actually created by its president, Lusamine, getting intoxicated under the effects of one of the Ultra Beasts, Nihilego.
Now the term Ultra Beasts is... a bit ambiguous. Does it refer to all the Pokemon that came from the dimension of Ultra Space? If so, then it would probably include Cosmog, Cosmoem, Lunala and Solgaleo, and most likely but not quite definitely Necrozma -- who, while not explicitly stated to come from Ultra Space, is said to have come from a similar portal in the distant past. Or is it just the seven Ultra Beasts that are part of the post-game mission, the group comprised of Nihilego, Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Celesteela, Kartana, Xurkitree and Guzzlord? These seven have more or less similar stat totals of one of the 'lesser' legendaries, have the ability Beast Boost, learn moves on levels corresponding to prime numbers, all have a base stat total of 570, all have their International Police codenames, and are all encountered similarly where they show up with jacked-up stats similar to a Totem Pokemon.
Also, Sun and Moon itself acknowledges the concept of travelling between dimensions with the reports in Professor Burnet's laboratory, in particular Palkia, Bronzong, Hoopa and Giratina. Especially Giratina. Whether these are also technically Ultra Beasts, or if Ultra Beast is just a term for Pokemon specifically arriving from Ultra Space...
Oh well, we probably could fill a whole article on just the story and speculation regarding Ultra Beasts alone, so let's get straight to the point and talk about Kartana, or as the Pokemon Interpol calls it, UB-04: Blade (or UB-04 Slash if you're playing the Japanese version). Kartana is... a pretty weird design. The Ultra Beasts generally look like alien-ized versions of natural animals (Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Nihilego, the two mascots), just look plain weird (Celesteela, Guzzlord, Necrozma)... and then there are Xurkitree and Kartana, who inexplicably look like, well, inanimate objects. Xurkitree being based on cables and plugs, while Kartana... is one of the weirdest designs ever, based on an origami paper man.
Conceptually it's actually a pretty cool idea that's definitely based on someone trying to make a concept around paper cuts and stuff. Kartana's based on an origami samurai, with its arms doubling as swords. Its 'face' is actually animated in the way that those folded paper fortune-teller things move, which adds to the whole 'paper human' thing really well. There are some nice samurai details worked into Kartana's design too, making him look not that plain. It's probably not my favourite design among the Ultra Beasts, or indeed among Pokemon based on inanimate objects... and paper dolls aren't going to be the first in the shortlist of things I would base an interdimensional travelling eldritch abomination upon... but it kinda works, I guess?
The thing that makes the Ultra Beasts so weird is how different they are. Like, Kartana isn't just based on an unconventional source material, he's also very teeny-tiny, floats around in the air... it's so tiny! It's only 0.1 kg in weight, tying with Gastly, Haunter, Flabebe and Cosmog for the award of the lightest Pokemon out there... and considering the other four are a bunch of gas and a little flower petal respectively... and also apparently Kartana can strike down a steel tower with one stroke of its blade. Not even Aegislash, who's a literal sword, can boast that. It's a very... unique Pokemon, that's for sure.
Kartana is exclusive to Pokemon Sun, where it's the UB-04 of that game. In Moon, UB-04 is Celesteela instead. Kartana is found in Route 17 or Malie Garden, and as part of the Looker/UB storyline you have to catch four of these buggers, which is annoying as all fuck. You see, the Ultra Beasts might have hilariously low catch rates with Beast Balls, but they are still legendaries, and their stats are all in the 570's. For comparison, that's only a bit less than traditional 'trio' legendaries like Articuno, Registeel, Raikou, Tornadus or Azelf. The Ultra Beasts are insanely specialized in their stats, though, with Kartana being a master of physical Attack. He has a whooping base 181 Attack, and severely sacrifices his Special Attack and Special Defense stats to get such a humongous distribution. Kartana actually beats out the titanic Mega Rayquaza, Primal Groudon and Attack form Deoxys's base attack stat by one point. Only Mega Heracross (185) and Mega Mewtwo X (190) surpass Kartana in simple physical attack stat, and if we're discounting Mega Evolutions and Primal Evolutions, Kartana is straight-up the most powerful physical attacking Pokemon.
Of course, anything that even resembles a Fire-type move, and Kartana is gone, because, well, that paper body isn't just for show. His special defenses are absolutely paper-thin, at a pathetic 31... which is less than a freaking Pidgey. Yeah, Ultra Beasts have some insane min-maxing on stats. Thankfully, its physical defense is a lot, lot better, sitting at a very respectable 131.
Kartana's typing is Grass and Steel, which is shared with Ferroseed and Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn is an extremely defensive Pokemon, though, while Kartana is straight-out offensive, so it's a very interesting comparison. We all know Grass isn't the best type in defending, thanks to the popularity of Fire and Flying, and while Steel does help alleviate some of Kartana's defensive problems, it does leave him a huge allergy to Fire... though honestly with that abysmal Special Defense stat it's not going to live a resisted Flamethrower, so 2x or 4x weakness isn't going to be that huge of a diffference.
I do like the type choice for Kartana, which is relatively easy to understand. He's made out of paper, which is a plant product, and he's also a blade, which tends to be steel.
Kartana's moveset, like Aegislash, has a lot of sword-based moves. Swords Dance is amazing for setting up his horrendously high attack, of course, but you probably don't want that since unlike Aegislash, Kartana doesn't have the bulk to survive a turn. He gets STAB moves -- Leaf Blade (of course) for Grass, but strangely no other Steel-type move than Smart Strike. Which isn't the best Steel-type move but it's at least half-decent and is physical. Other than that, Kartana also learns very useful moves in Sacred Sword, Night Slash, X-Scissor, Air Slash and Psycho Cut naturally, all of whom provide a versatile range of elemental coverage. He's got a pretty crappy TM learnset... but eh. Also interestingly he's the only Pokemon that learns Cut by level up. Yay? That's not much of an achievement, I think.
I don't think Kartana is super-good competitively. Obviously anything that comes off a base 181 Attack is going to hurt like a bitch, and it's got decent speed to accompany it... but it suffers from the same problem that other fragile speedsters do in that it's defenses work so much against it, and it'll probably just end up launching a single hit that murders something, before being taken out by the next Pokemon. The fact that unlike Aegislash, Kartana doesn't have priority moves, means that it's not guaranteed to launch an attack straight away either, so yeah, competitively you might be better off finding someone more stable, I think.
Still, I do find little Kartana to be somewhat of a cooler design and I enjoyed him a lot more than I thought I would when I first saw him among the leaked sprites for the seventh generation. In fact, I do enjoy a fair amount of the Ultra Beasts. Kartana probably ranks relatively low in the final rankings of these abominations, but I still do like him. I mean, I've got four of the dude in my PC box.
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