Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon Review + New Pokemon Strategy

Hi everyone! Seth and Oliver here with a look at Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon!

Spoilers ahead
In Pokemon ultra sun and ultra moon the game is now largely focusing on Necrozma and the ultra beasts and three new ultra beasts, known by their codenames UB-Assembly, UB-Adhesive, and UB-Burst, and their real names (datamined), Stakataka (Assembly), Poipole (UB-Adhesive), and Blacephalon (UB-Burst). Poipole actually can evolve into Nagandel, the first Ultra Beast to do so.

Stakataka AKA UB-Assembly

Stakataka is a Rock/Steel type Pokemon. In one word: Defense. It has a base 210 Defense stat. However, it has a bad defensive ability in Beast Boost. Beast Boost raises your highest stat (Defense) by one stage when you knock out an opposing Pokemon. However, it’s a wall. It will stall with Toxic which doesn’t trigger this. Also, it has a 4x weakness to not one but two common physical attacking types being Fighting and Ground. Its Special Defense is a fairly good base 101, but it will take high damage from special Water attackers like Greninja (if it makes it into OU). It may be a potential lead with likely access to Stealth Rock, but it may be vulnerable to Spikes Greninja. I predict UnderUsed with a possible Borderline tier. UPDATE: This Pokemon is currently in the OU tier.

 

 

Poipole/Nagandel AKA UB-Adhesive

UB-Adhesive is a poison type with the ability beast boost like all ultra beasts and is seen in the trailers used by the enemy teams team recon and team rainbow rocket although you can get it in the game.in the trailer it is seen using Venoshock or some other poison type move. I would expect to have decent speed and high special defense or special attack as is common of most poison types. Poipole looks kind of like Marshadow in its color scheme and size. I predict that it will be a toxic Venoshock will o wisp cycler. My preferred set for Nagandel is Draco Meteor for power with a White Herb to restore SpA drop, Nasty Plot to boost, Sludge Wave for the fairies and Heat Wave for Ice types and Ferrothorn.

Here’s a Pokemon Showdown game that shows Nagandel’s strength: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-666447542

Here’s a Nagandel sweep! http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-673392089

UB-Burst AKA Blacephelon

 

Blacephelon is a fire/ghost type that looks like a clown or jester with a circular head with no eyes that he uses for attacks. His signature move, Mind Blown, is a base power 150 move (that’s the same as Hyper Beam) that, combined with his base 151 Special Attack, will 3HKO Eviolite Chansey, which is pretty ridiculously overpowered. However, it will take recoil damage from Mind Blown. A Choice Specs set is likely for this Pokemon, but it is completely walled by Tyranitar in OU unless it gets Focus Blast, which we don’t know yet. I predict OverUsed with Focus Blast and Borderline without it (because of Tyranitar).

Necrozma

Necrozma is a psychic type ultra beast that is the key enemy of the new game and somehow fuzes with solgaleo and lunala to remove all light in the world and destroy alola. Players were able to capture it in a hidden area in sun and moon and it had high special attack and high special defense. No one knew what would happen with it or wether it was just a Easter Egg.

 

 

These new ultra beasts will be difficult to capture but from the trailers you will be able to go to the ultra beasts own dimension and capture them there. There is also apparently a Necrozma town where he stole all light and has a huge beacon in the center.

MAJOR STORYLINE SPOILERS AHEAD!
The game has you fight Necrozma in his home territory ultra space wilds and major areas in ultra space feature a destroyed version of Haouli City with Guzlord eating away at a destroyed building, a forest with people who fight with Kartana but don’t use poke balls and speak random Japanese apparently, and a huge tree with Buzwole on it. I just got a copy of Ultra Moon and am on the altar of the moon with the sun flute and moon flute with a level 65 Metagross to catch Dawn wings Lunala hopefully and go through the ultra wormhole and do the mini game

Now we come to the game’s main legendaries. Necrozma has found a way to posses Solgaleo and Lunala (seems like Nintendo is jumping on the ‘possessing bodies’ theme from black and white two’s Kyurem and odyssey) to become Dusk Mane Solgaleo and Dawn Wings Lunala.
DUSK MANE SOLGALEO

From regular Solgaleo, Dusk Mane gains 20 points to his Attack, bringing it to an impressive 157. He gains some bulk also (20 points to each Defense and Special Defense). However, his Speed drops to 77 (from 97) and his HP drops 40 whole points (from 137 all the way down to 97). I don’t know that much about the Ubers metagame (I prefer lower tiers) but I’ll try.

With access to Swords Dance buffing his higher Attack than regular Solgaleo and access to Earthquake, Sunsteel Strike, and the new move Photon Geyser, Dusk Mane Solgaleo has a lot of powerful coverage options. Alternatively, take out Earthquake and put in Trick Room, and you’ve got a bulky Trick Room sweeper than can take out teams that aren’t expecting it. His typing is also good, with his Psychic type removing an easily exploitable weakness to Fighting cause by the Steel type. He can rival Arceus-Normal as a Swords Dance sweeper, but he lacks Extreme Speed. Overall I think Dusk Mane is a good Uber pokemon with powerful coverage moves and the good Attack to back them up.

DAWN WINGS LUNALA

From Lunala, Dawn Wings undergoes a similar change, shedding points of Attack and Speed it doesn’t need and gaining more bulk and Special Attack. Again, I’ll try to define this Pokémon’s role in the Ubers metagame.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t have Nasty Plot, so he’ll have to rely on Calm Mind to boost his Special Attack. However, that’s okay, as the Special Defense buff enhances his role as a bulky sweeper. I recommend Calm Mind with Moongeist Beam and Photon Geyser for STAB and Moonlight for recovery. I didn’t mention this with Solgaleo, but Prism Armor helps a LOT on Lunala due to its two 4x weaknesses that become 3x. This may help Lunala survive a x4 effective hit. I prefer Lunala over Solgaleo because it gains two immunities to good Uber attacking types (Normal and Fighting) and has more special bulk. I think Dawn Wings is a great Uber Pokemon that has potential to be one of the best.

 

If either Dusk Mane Solgaleo or Dawn Wings Lunala holds the special Z-Crystal Ultranecrozium Z, it can turn into Ultra Necrozma.

 

ULTRA NECROZMA

Ultra Necrozma is one of the best and most versatile Pokemon in the entire game. Possessing twin amazing attacking stats of 167, decent bulk with 97 HP and defenses and a good 129 Speed, you can run this thing physical, special, or both. I prefer using Solgaleo for Ultra Necrozma and running a physical set for several reasons. One, I like Lunala better. Two, if you run it specially, it still doesn’t get Nasty Plot. The Special Defense boost isn’t that important for Ultra Necrozma, because for the Uber tier it isn’t bulky. So I recommend Swords Dance with Sunsteel Strike and Photon Geyser. The last move can be Earthquake, Brick Break for coverage and screen removal, or some other physical move. Also, the Z-Crystal gives you a Z-Move, Light that Burns the Sky, which is a base 200 power move that ignores the opponent’s Ability. This OHKOs Eviolite Chansey at +2. Enough said.

 

Here’s a Pokemon Showdown game that shows how good Ultra Necrozma is: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-666440134

 

Here’s another one where it sweeps a team full of legendaries: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-669922312

Finally the best part out of the whole game. The one reason you should get it. It’s none other than…. The ultra warp ride. YAYYYY SHINYS WOOOOO LEGENDARYS ARE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!! No seriously I have filled a whole box of legendary Pokemon and another box of shinys.

Well, that’s our Ultra Sun/Moon review. We’ll have more game reviews coming in the future. It took over 50 failures to get those battles, so this took a long time to make. We hope you enjoyed it.

About the Author

Seth Casel
Seth is the author of Rage Inducing Puzzles, Hexudoku, and How To Square Anything. He currently takes math at the Upper School and, as his profile picture suggests, is very good at taking screenshots of virtual creatures. He enjoys reading, math, playing video games, playing chess, and coming up with more rage inducing puzzles!
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