Ultra Beasts in Ubers

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Introduction

As commonly known, Ubers is the world where legendary and mythical monsters engage in fierce combats. Each generation made the metagame more dynamic with every new legendary Pokémon that was released. SM and USM have released a pack of extradimensional Pokémon called Ultra Beasts with peculiar appearances. Not many of them are usable in Ubers, but some of them are notable enough to see usage in the tier.

Buzzwole

Buzzwole may not seem like the most usable Pokémon in Ubers due to the prevalence of threatening special attackers like Xerneas and Yveltal, but it is capable of defensively checking multiple threatening physical attackers: Marshadow, Swords Dance Arceus-Ground, Mega Lucario, Extreme Killer Arceus, and, if carrying Ice Punch, Zygarde-C. While other Pokémon are capable checking them as well, they tend to lack resistances or enough offensive pressure to be effective checks. For example, support Arceus formes tend to get overwhelmed by the aforementioned physical attackers if they have taken some prior damage or if they were to take Z-Moves, and they are also often forced to use recovery moves after switching in. In some cases, certain physically defensive Pokémon lack the ability to break Substitutes from threats like Zygarde-C, Arceus-Ground, and Extreme Killer Arceus. Buzzwole sets itself apart from conventional physical walls with its access to STAB Hammer Arm, which allows it to offensively handle Mega Lucario and Extreme Killer Arceus and break Arceus-Ground's Substitutes. While checking these threats to balance teams is a noteworthy niche, Buzzwole still struggles to stand against majority of the tier. Flying-types like Ho-Oh and Mega Salamence aren't too bothered by Toxic, and Buzzwole has no chance to deal them without using niche coverage moves like Stone Edge and Ice Punch. The best Buzzwole can do against its offensive checks like Xerneas, Yveltal, Arceus-Fairy, and Primal Groudon is inflicting them with Toxic poison on the switch. Buzzwole also suffers from its vulnerability to Shadow Tag users. Unless it is holding Shed Shell, Buzzwole will be helpless against Mega Gengar if lacking Earthquake and Gothitelle if lacking Taunt. However, if these shortcomings are properly covered by teammates, Buzzwole can secure its place on some teams to check the aforementioned physical attackers, which are not easy to defensively handle.

Celesteela

Similarly to its role in OU, Celesteela takes advantage of its great defensive typing and solid bulk to check Ground- and Flying-types like Arceus-Ground, Mega Salamence, and Rayquaza lacking V-create. While its lack of reliable recovery, entry hazards, and phazing moves may make Celesteela seemingly a worse version of Skarmory, Celesteela can still function as a wall thanks to Leech Seed, which can make it extremely annoying to deal with when combined with Toxic. Celesteela also has excellent special bulk, and this enables it to check Deoxys-A and many support Arceus formes, which Skarmory cannot do. Players were drawn to Celesteela's defensive capabilities and employed it on some balanced teams in SM. However, Celesteela's fame as a good defensive Pokémon has been declining as the SM generation progressed. Pokémon Celesteela usually checks, such as Arceus-Ground and Extreme Killer Arceus, have adapted to its presence and started employing Substitute to block Leech Seed and Toxic. Celesteela's Heavy Slam doesn't have very high damage output in Ubers, and this makes Celesteela setup fodder for other Substitute users like Zygarde-C and Primal Kyogre as well. As Celesteela is often strapped for moveslots and struggles to justify any attacking move other than Heavy Slam, it struggles to properly check Pokémon that cannot be reliably stalled out with Toxic and Leech Seed. Various Pokémon that can take advantage of Celesteela were introduced or increased in usage as well. Ferrothorn is now more commonly seen on balanced teams, as its importance as a safe switch-in to Primal Kyogre and its access to Spikes have become more valuable, and Celesteela is virtually useless against any team with Ferrothorn unless it is carrying niche Fire-type coverage. A new titan released in USM, Necrozma-DM can also set up on Celesteela and break it with brute force, though it will sustain sizable damage in the process. The increasing usage of Gothitelle is also detrimental to Celesteela, as the foes that Celesteela still checks, such as various Arceus formes, are occasionally paired with it.

Naganadel

Once a terrifying Pokémon in OU, Naganadel has joined Ubers's domain shortly after its release due to its severely limited counterplay and switch-ins. What allowed this Poison Pin Pokémon to run rampant in OU is its dual STAB combination, high offensive stats, incredible movepool, and access to Beast Boost to almost invalidate any method of revenge killing apart from priority moves. Unfortunately, Nagandel's viability in its short-lived stint in OU does not translate to Ubers. Naganadel is capable of netting serious damage on practically any team after it successfully sets up Nasty Plot and gains Speed after KOing a foe, but its setup opportunities are limited due to its disappointing bulk by Ubers standards. Many Pokémon in Ubers are capable of OHKOing or 2HKOing Naganadel, and this means that players are already required to give a safe switch to Nagandel to reduce the chances it gets KOed while setting up or revenge killed by priority moves. Even after it has switched in safely, Nagandel continues to rely on not taking any hit to safely set up. In other words, players have to predict between an opponent attempting to prevent Nagandel from gaining a Speed boost from Beast Boost or staying in with a vulnerable foe to prevent Nagandel from becoming too threatening with Nasty Plot boosts. Nagandel's high Speed somewhat facilitates its attempts to force switches, but even after it successfully sets up Nasty Plot, very common Pokémon in the tier, such as Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, Ho-Oh, and various support Arceus formes, can take a boosted attack from Nagandel from full health. This in turn requires Nagandel to predict and KO them with a boosted Devastating Drake instead of wasting it on the wrong foe. Balanced teams often have more than one Pokémon that can take a boosted Devastating Drake and KO back, and offensive teams have priority move users like Marshadow, Yveltal, and Extreme Killer Arceus to end Nagandel's reign of terror. Despite these very demanding conditions for Nagandel to effectively wallbreak, Nagandel is very likely going to net a KO, if not more than one, if it has successfully set up and has adequate team support. Its matchup against defensive teams is especially notable thanks to its immunity to Toxic and defensive teams' general inability to outspeed it.

Pheromosa

Pheromosa is another Pokémon that dwells in Ubers after its banishment from OU. While it was very difficult to switch into in OU, Ubers has a myriad of bulky Pokémon that force Pheromosa to make flawless predictions to be effective, in addition to Pokémon like Ho-Oh and Arceus-Fairy that Pheromosa does not have a way to deal with on its own. After its introduction to Ubers, Pheromosa was often contrasted with Deoxys-A, which Pheromosa is outclassed by apart from its ability to pivot out of unfavorable matchups with U-turn. However, Deoxys-A proves to be significantly more threatening Pokémon to bulky cores than Pheromosa; to specify the difference in general damage output, Pheromosa needs Stealth Rock and Life Orb to have a shot at 2HKOing Arceus forms, while Deoxys-A can threaten to OHKO them under the same conditions. Deoxys-A also has superior offensive stats and a superior movepool to further its ability to wallbreak. Apart from failing to be a good 'glass cannon', Pheromosa fails to provide its team with any defensive utility due to its horrendous defensive typing and bulk, which makes even seemingly useful moves like Rapid Spin and Taunt hard to utilize. Various attempts to make this Pokémon usable have been made, such as an offensive check to Dark-types in Psychic Terrain teams, as a momentum generator in offensive teams to create favorable matchups, or with a Quiver Dance set in conjunction with Z-Crystal to lure a specific target, nab a KO, and continue to wallbreak. However, Pheromosa in general is a pick that comes with significant opportunity cost of teamslot regardless of its set and is therefore regarded as an unviable Pokémon in the tier.

Get Out There!

Try these Ultra Beasts in your teams! Not all of them will be impressive, but you'll definitely find the one you'll like.

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