Team 1: Monky HO:
https://pokepast.es/351bdf88301c4eff
Celesteela can easily come in on a +1 Keldeo here after it takes a kill and automotize. While Keldoe will do up to 70% with scald (and risk a burn), once Celesteela comes in, Air Slash will do at least 80% damage, and assuming Keldeo has taken any chip, it’s gone. After this, if Celesteela isn’t burned, the Bullet Punch will not kill (only doing a max of 25%), and Steela can pick up another kill. At this point, Celesteela wins. It’s worth noting that the opposing team also packs Celesteela, so it’s a bit of a competition to see which team gets Steela out first. However, the team I’m using has a stronger matchup thanks to thunderbolt/Meteor Beam Nihilego. Regardless, this team gets swept, although it’s not totally reliable – Keldeo needs to have been stopped from setting up beyond +1, but with an HO team this is pretty doable.
Team 2: Choice Specs Vanilluxe:
https://pokepast.es/3b643955371916c4
This team has poor counterplay into Offensive Celesteela. If Steela is able to come in on Zarude, Azelf, Excadrill or Salamence, it becomes very threatening due to the lack of counterplay. If you instantly go from one of these threats to Slowking, you lose – because Excadrill is a fantastic rocks setter for HO and HO is designed to keep pressure up and prevent removal, I will assume hazards up, although in some matchups that won’t be the case. Slowking takes 12% from hazards when coming in on the auto, then takes on average 47% from meteor beam, while dishing out 27% with scald, and giving a chance for burn. After this, air slash deals at least 41%, which is enough to kill Slowking outright. From here, Celesteela wins. It is now at +2 special attack and speed, deals 85% at least to Salamence if it comes in from here, which if it has taken any chip over the course of the match, means it’s going down and giving Steela another +1 special attack boost. Even if Mence isn’t killed in one round, flamethrower does around 50% thanks to Celesteela’s great bulk. If Slowking misses a burn, Celesteela wins the game from here. If Slowking got the burn, Steela now has 1 more turn left, from which it will kill the next mon that comes in. If not, it outspeeds and OHKOs every other mon on the team from here. So at worst, barring missing it’s very accurate moves and getting crit, Celesteela either wins the game or takes out half of the opponent’s team – this is a very worthwhile trade at worst.
If you bring slowking in on the automotize, and then pivot to Excadrill to absorb the meteor beam, the issue now is that Excadrill does nothing to Celesteela thanks to it’s great typing. Celesteela can actually set up another meteor beam and eat around 40% from Excadrill’s Iron Head. Then at this point, if slowking comes in on a boosted fire blast with rocks up, it takes 40%. Assuming it has taken no chip over the course of the match, Air Slash now has a roughly 50% chance to kill it before Slowking can deal any damage to it. If it doesn’t kill, there is still a large chance to flinch. At this point, Slowking needs a crit to stop Celesteela, and Celesteela can run away with the game from there. Celesteela has now +3 Special attack, and one-shots everything on the team.
Team 3: LO Mamo + Salazzle BO:
https://pokepast.es/dc5d43961de5a278
Here, Zarude can come in and automotize on less mons. It’s a fair bit stronger in this matchup. But if it comes in on Zarude or Cobalion, which is always possible – this team has mons like Gyarados and Necrozma which can bring out Zarude, as well as Nihilego to bring out Cobalion, a set up becomes possible, but suspect, thanks to the Mamoswine in the back. If it clicks Auto on the Zarude, the Zarude can either lariat it for around 41% or go to Slowking. If they go to Slowking, they lose for reasons mentioned previously. This team, however, now has the less common HDB over Colbur Slowking, which fares better here. Steela does 47% with mbeam, and now 2shots with Air slash. It If it gets burned from scald (around a flat 50% chance), it is weak enough to be revenge killed by Mamoswine ice shard after. However, if it misses this chance or it avoids the first burn then flinches the second turn, with around a 20% chance of happening (meaning the 50% chance is more like 44-5%, which is still quite good), Slowking loses this exchange, and Mamoswine Ice shard doing 30% max, can’t stop Celesteela, which proceeds to sweep.
Now, if Zarude lariats for 41%, switches into Celesteela on either the Air Slash or Fire blast, there are two ways this sequence goes. On the Fire Blast, it deals 45% average (57% with rocks), so Steela is now at around 50% health after leftovers. it can either flamethrower for half it’s health(note: Air slash and Fire Blast do min 70 to Zarude, but considering it’s coming in on Gyarados or Necrozma and eating a boosted ice fang or heat wave, it’s forced to switch), Celesteela now, assuming the BO Steela comes in from full and eats hazard damage, just needs an extra flinch to put it within range of a fire blast KO, and therefore, a sweep. However, that’s it’s best case scenario, and even then, assuming slowking isn’t harmed, it can come in on the predicted fire blast and either deal the necessary damage to allow Celesteela to be finished off by Mamoswine. However, Celesteela can win the game from coming in on a weakened slowking (slowking either scalds or goes immediately to BO steela on auto, which deals 50 to HO steela before dying to Mbeam -> FBlast and not doing enough to let Mamo stop it with Ice Shard), if it was used to finish off Necrozma. Or, it can weaken Slowking for a very possible Necrozma sweep, which makes it a worthwhile trade, However, this team has less options for Steela to truly sweep thanks to having Mamoswine in the back. It’s an okay matchup for that team, but Steela still has entry points to win.
Thundurus-T + Scarf Digg VoltTurn:
https://pokepast.es/7a9e9e25b4c2193a
Here, there are numerous opportunities for Steela to come in, and even better, this team doesn’t have the priority to stop it. If it comes in on Zarude, weakened slowking via Necrozma, or Digg choice-locked into EQ/Ice Punch, it can set up a sweep. The team’s immediate best switchin is slowking, which (because it’s not boots) gets 2-shot by mbeam -> Air slash from full, maybe dealing 30% with scald. If it comes in on Zarude and gets hit for 40% while autoing, and goes into slowking to absorb the mbeam, it then can KO the Slowking with Air Slash (or another meteor beam) and get to +2 (or 3 if it KOs with a second meteor beam – going into Coba to absorb it doesn’t work because Coba then dies to Air Slash, which at +2 will also do over half to Slowking). Then, it can sweep. Moltres, barring the 30% flinch which defines Air Slash, can kill it from there with flamethrower, but if it has any chip on it, say, from coming in on LO Scizor, it goes down, and so does the rest of the team. If Steela reaches +3 by this point, Moltres dies to Air Slash, and the game is lost for the sample team. Steela wins.
This team loses because it lacks reliable defensive counterplay, relying on Slowking, and lacking the proper speed-control options here to take advantage of it. It’s worth noting that right now, Scarf-Diggersby is considered by a lot of people to be the best scarf-speed control in the tier, and even it can’t revenge kill Steela. Also worth noting is that Mamoswine is less common thanks to Scizor, but I’d argue it’s still a good mon.
SD Sciz + CM Keldeo BO:
https://pokepast.es/619bddbb50aade66
This team is kind of easy for Steela to sweep, despite seemingly having the perfect combo of counterplay in Raikou and Scizor – Raikou’s tbolt does 80% minimum to Steela, and Scizor’s tbolt does 14% on average. Odds are pretty high Steela goes down reliably here. However, if Steela is able to come in on Mandibuzz or Hippo, it is able to reliably set up a sweep, as well as if it sacks a mon into Shroom spore and comes in, but this also presumes no double switch, so it’s not reliable.
Auto on switch to Raikou here, mbeam does 63% on average (if raikou is weakened from checking gyarados OR scizor, it dies here and Steela sweeps. Speed control is gone, and it’s at +2 spA and speed. If Nihi or Gyarados are able to work to take out scizor, Steela also wins). Raikou severely weakens Steela before dying to fire blast. Scizor comes in and, depending on the roll for Raikou’s tbolt (there’s a 62% chance for tbolt to do above 85%, which is what scizor needs to kill steela guaranteed) Steela kills raikou -> getting beaten by scizor priority. However, now if Mandibuzz is weakened at all from checking Steela, gyarados is more reliable, especially with Raikou gone. Even at it’s best, a clear pattern here is that Steela will take out at least 2 mons on teams, IF it doesn’t sweep, without it’s surefire checks in Rotom-W, Nihilego, and Chansey, which are on very few of these teams. As well, it can proceed to take out or weaken these checks to let another mon sweep – if Rotom-W is weakened, it’s much less reliable at checking Cloyster, for instance.
LO Starmie + Pads Scizor BO:
https://pokepast.es/81a71925ead8f8b9
This team is also susceptible. If it comes in on Hippo or Hydreigon on a draco meteor, or possibly scizor if you’re willing to suffer a knock off. As well, coming in on a post-spore shroom is possible, but considering the way HO is played, I’ll judge that as being not likely. The best option for either of these is switching into Starmie on the automotize, or knocking with Scizor and then switching out into Starmie on the Mbeam charge (if it loses it’s power herb). However, even when Starmie comes in from full, assuming rocks are up, there is a 62% chance for Starmie to die to Meteor Beam before it does anything. It’s not very reliable, but it’s worth noting that Steela is more likely than not to immediately net a +2 special attack boost. After that, Scarf hydreigon is the best counterplay. If Starmie hasn’t been chipped, and if it happens to live the Meteor Beam, thunderbolt will do around 65% and leave Celesteela open to die to Hydreigon Dark Pulse.
However, at this point, assuming full Celesteela, Hydreigon can possibly (if not chipped, which considering Necrozma is on the team may not be very likely) go for the 1 dark pulse flinch, hope for no kill on the air slash (38% chance to kill from full after rocks) and then 3hko steela. This is relatively likely – around a 32% chance of happening. However, if it doesn’t or if Steela goes for automotize on the first turn and isn’t flinched, it can potentially just win from there – there’s no more counterplay after beating the Hydreigon.
Specs Keldeo + Pivot Rotom-W Sand:
https://pokepast.es/cb7a0b5d9e51fa98
This team has Rotom-W, but it needs Sand to be up to actually stop Celesteela. Rotom-W can pain split on the Mbeam and volt switch after eating an air slash. Air slash has a 30% chance to flinch, but Steela needs to net 2 flinches to stop Rotom-W from Volting out, which isn’t very likely (only a 10% chance). Then, if Excadrill is in sand, it can come in, outspeed and finish off Steela. It’s worth noting that if Celesteela comes in on Tangrowth, it eats knock damage and therefore has a small chance of being killed by Rotom-W volt switch. However, if it comes in on Hippo after 2 turns of sand, Hippo needs to come in again before Celesteela can be stopped by Excadrill, still giving Celesteela time to throw out attacks at the team, either clicking +2 fire blast or air slash on things like Salamence and Keldeo, requiring essentially another sack or a read to get Excadrill in on Air Slash. So, here, Celesteela (at best) heavily weakens Rotom-W and gets killed by Excadrill. At worst, it takes out Excadrill on the read and wins or gets another sack and heavily weakens Rotom-W, potentially easing the sweep for Scizor, for example. Even in this bad matchup, it does a lot.
Noivern + THundurus-T Spikes BO:
https://pokepast.es/d0c79fd5b12d4878
This team gets obliterated by Celesteela. If it comes in on Skarmory, Zarude, or Hippowdon, or a weakened Slowking, it can win vs Slowking on the switch, rock resist Hippowdon can’t do anything to it so it can’t absorb a meteor beam, and after it nets a +2 boost nothing can outspeed it or live either a +2 air slash or fire blast.
Estarossa semi-stall:
https://pokepast.es/3e645bf835bdf2f0
Loses to chansey
Nihilego + Salamence Stall:
https://pokepast.es/0ea1dc87d6680fa9
Loses to Chansey and Nihilego