[OVERVIEW]
Celesteela's typing and defensive stats are both fantastic, allowing it to check a considerable portion of UU's top threats, including Salamence, Jirachi, Nihilego, and Zarude. Thanks to its decent offensive stats, powerful STAB Heavy Slam, and access to Flamethrower to smack foes like Aegislash and Zarude, Celesteela can prevent itself from being too passive. Leech Seed is also an excellent tool, sustaining Celesteela's longevity and allowing it to significantly wear down its switch-ins, such as Rotom-H and Thundurus-T, potentially forcing them out. Autotomize sets are also a strong option, tapping into Celesteela's strong special coverage and the sweeping potential Beast Boost lends it. Despite its defensive potency, however, Celesteela suffers a bit from its lack of access to reliable recovery, which can prevent it from tanking strong neutral hits as consistently as it would like to and cause it to be overreliant on Leftovers. This can allow a few common Pokemon, such as Keldeo, Mienshao, and Mamoswine, to muscle past Celesteela after relatively minimal chip damage. Celesteela also struggles to bypass popular Fire- and Electric-types such as Moltres and Rotom-W on its own, as well as various defensive picks like Tentacruel and Gastrodon; Tentacruel can utilize Liquid Ooze to take advantage of Leech Seed, while Gastrodon doesn't take meaningful damage from any of Celesteela's attacks, can restore any damage it sustains with Recover, and can threaten to chip Celesteela down with burns from Scald.
[SET]
name: Defensive
move 1: Heavy Slam
move 2: Leech Seed
move 3: Protect
move 4: Flamethrower
item: Leftovers
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Leech Seed is important to wear down common switch-ins, including Rotom-H, Rotom-W, and Thundurus-T. It also prevents Pokemon like Gyarados and Dragon Dance Salamence from reliably setting up on Celesteela, chipping them down. Protect works well alongside Leech Seed, offering Celesteela a guaranteed opportunity to restore health with both Leftovers and Leech Seed. It can also help to scout moves from Choice-locked Pokemon, like Chandelure and Primarina. Flamethrower hits Steel-types like Aegislash and Jirachi, preventing them from reliably setting up on Celesteela, while also hitting Grass-types such as Tangrowth and Zarude, which are immune to Leech Seed.
Celesteela is a solid fit on balance teams thanks to its ability to check several prominent threats, allowing offensive teammates to fall back on it upon losing momentum to foes like Salamence and Noivern. Bulky Water-types often share strong synergy with Celesteela, checking the Fire-types that power through it, while Celesteela can handle Pokemon like Zarude and Tapu Bulu in return. Seismitoad and Gastrodon check both Rotom-H and Rotom-W, two of Celesteela's more effective answers, while applying pressure to Moltres with STAB Scald. Rhyperior is another good teammate, pivoting in on Fire- and Electric-type attacks for Celesteela while appreciating its ability to switch into Grass- and Ground-type moves. Defensive Grass-types like Tangrowth and Amoonguss can also make solid teammates. Tangrowth is capable of pivoting in on several Pokemon for Celesteela, including Keldeo and Azumarill, while also utilizing Knock Off to wear down switch-ins like Moltres that can burden Celesteela. Amoonguss also checks the former two Pokemon and can match up well against Tapu Bulu. Both Pokemon can also pivot into mixed Thundurus and Krookodile, absorbing Knock Off for Celesteela throughout the match. Psychic-types like Reuniclus and Starmie are decent partners, handling Tentacruel and easing Celesteela's matchup against foes like Kommo-o and Nidoqueen.
[SET]
name: Autotomize
move 1: Autotomize
move 2: Air Slash
move 3: Fire Blast
move 4: Meteor Beam / Flash Cannon
item: Power Herb / Weakness Policy
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Modest
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Autotomize allows Celesteela to outspeed the entire unboosted metagame and more easily snowball. It can find setup opportunities against a solid amount of common Pokemon that its defensive set forces out, including Zarude, Hatterene, and Nihilego. Fire Blast provides important coverage against Steel-types like Aegislash and Jirachi. Flamethrower is an option over Fire Blast for its greater accuracy. However, Celesteela wants all the power it can get due to this set's nature as a sweeper. Meteor Beam grants Celesteela an opportunity to bypass Fire-types like Rotom-H, Moltres, and Chandelure. It also deals massive damage to foes like Rotom-W, Thundurus, and Salamence, and the Special Attack boost it supplies is often extremely useful in boosting Celesteela's sweeping capabilities. Due to taking two turns, however, it must be used with Power Herb, and Celesteela must watch out for the opponent predicting the attack and bringing in a foe that resists it due to often being restricted to a one-time use. Flash Cannon is also an option in the fourth slot, offering more overall consistency and giving Celesteela a strong secondary STAB attack that deals decent neutral damage and hits Pokemon like Hatterene and Rhyperior super effectively. It does prevent Celesteela from luring some of its checks, however. Giga Drain is an option to bypass Quagsire, Rhyperior, and Rotom-W, which can otherwise tank various hits, though it generally doesn't provide too valuable of coverage otherwise. Beast Boost lets Celesteela boost its Special Attack upon netting KOs, giving it great sweeping potential. If Meteor Beam is not being run, Celesteela has no need for Power Herb and can then run Weakness Policy. This allows it to use its solid bulk to tank super effective hits, such as Fire-type moves from Salamence or opposing Celesteela, to gain a +2 boost in power, which heavily increases its threat level. This is particularly potent when Celesteela is behind dual screens, as often the only way to break past it at that rate is with super effective moves.
This set fits on offensive builds, acting as a late-game sweeper that cleans weakened teams. Hyper offense teams do particularly well supporting Celesteela, sometimes employing dual screens setters like Grimmsnarl and Alolan Ninetales to increase its odds of reliably setting up. Entry hazards let Celesteela muscle past foes more easily, making setters like Krookodile good options for teammates. On hyper offense teams, leads like Azelf and Froslass work well for their ability to quickly set Spikes and keep up momentum with moves like Explosion and Destiny Bond, respectively. Powerful wallbreakers like Mienshao and Obstagoon make strong teammates, weakening teams for Celesteela to sweep through late-game. Depending on the coverage it opts for, Celesteela will struggle to reliably break past various Pokemon. If it isn't running Meteor Beam, checks to Fire-types are important due to most being able to tank Air Slash and revenge kill Celesteela. Keldeo can outspeed and pressure Rotom-H and Moltres, while Rhyperior can pivot in on both. Without Flash Cannon, Celesteela can't hit Rock-types like Rhyperior and Nihilego super effectively. Pokemon like Keldeo and Zygarde-10% can pressure said Rock-types, making them solid partners. Electric-type checks are important due to Celesteela's iffy matchups against most in the tier. Zarude can pivot in on Rotom-W and make decent progress with its pivoting capabilities. Seismitoad can handle Raikou, Rotom-W, and Rotom-H while tanking hits from and crippling Thundurus. Additionally, it offers utility with Stealth Rock and Knock Off. Lastly, sweepers like Thundurus-T and Azumarill often fit well with offensive Celesteela variants, helping pressure the likes of Rotom-H and Milotic.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Celesteela's physical movepool contains solid options like Earthquake and Stone Edge, which allow it to run a physically based Autotomize set, effectively luring checks like Tentacruel and Rotom-H. However, this generally isn't as effective due to Celesteela's middling immediate power and hardships breaking various Pokemon, such as Tangrowth and Intimidate Krookodile. Earthquake is an option in the fourth slot of the defensive set to still hit Steel-types super effectively while also hitting the likes of Tentacruel and Raikou hard. However, Flamethrower is usually way more valuable for its ability to pressure Zarude while still hitting Steel-types. Toxic cripples some of Celesteela's switch-ins on the defensive set, but it generally isn't as useful as its other options, and, due to foregoing Flamethrower, it notably prevents Celesteela from doing anything to Steel-types.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Fire-types**: Fire-types like Moltres, Volcanion, Rotom-H, and Chandelure can pivot in on both Heavy Slam and Flamethrower and hit Celesteela hard with super effective STAB moves. They can also blanket check Celesteela's Autotomize set if it opts for Flash Cannon, though Meteor Beam can power through them. Moltres is particularly annoying, often being able to restore any chip damage it sustains from Leech Seed with Roost.
**Electric-types**: Electric-types like Thundurus-T, Rotom-W, and Raikou can tank hits from either of Celesteela's sets and proceed to break past it with super effective STAB attacks, though they all take fair damage from Meteor Beam. Raikou can be particularly troublesome to the defensive set, whittling Celesteela's PP with Pressure and utilizing Substitute and Calm Mind to safely set up on it.
**Specially Defensive Pokemon**: Chansey doesn't take major damage from Celesteela's attacks and can whittle it down with Seismic Toss or bring in a teammate with Teleport. Gastrodon can tank hits from any set and heal off chip damage from Leech Seed with Recover, additionally utilizing Scald to potentially burn Celesteela. Tentacruel's Liquid Ooze punishes Leech Seed attempts and it doesn't take major damage from any attack Celesteela commonly runs. If it is running Haze, it can also stint the Autotomize set's progress.
**Knock Off**: Celesteela's defensive set becomes far easier to wear down if Leftovers, its most reliable means of passive recovery, has been removed. Knock Off users like Mamoswine, Krookodile, and Nihilego can wear it down immensely as it tries potentially pivoting in on them. The Autotomize set is also often reliant on whichever item it is running to pose a significant offensive threat, which can prevent Celesteela from setting up on foes like Nihilego and Tangrowth as safely as it would like to at times.
**Strong Wallbreakers**: Celesteela's lack of reliable recovery allows particularly powerful wallbreakers, including Primarina, Mamoswine, Choice Band Buzzwole, and Aegislash, to quickly overwhelm it.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Hilomilo, 313384]]
- Quality checked by: [[martha, 384270], [Twilight, 344575], [bb skarm, 235692]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Bandkrook, 301217], [deetah, 297659]]
Celesteela's typing and defensive stats are both fantastic, allowing it to check a considerable portion of UU's top threats, including Salamence, Jirachi, Nihilego, and Zarude. Thanks to its decent offensive stats, powerful STAB Heavy Slam, and access to Flamethrower to smack foes like Aegislash and Zarude, Celesteela can prevent itself from being too passive. Leech Seed is also an excellent tool, sustaining Celesteela's longevity and allowing it to significantly wear down its switch-ins, such as Rotom-H and Thundurus-T, potentially forcing them out. Autotomize sets are also a strong option, tapping into Celesteela's strong special coverage and the sweeping potential Beast Boost lends it. Despite its defensive potency, however, Celesteela suffers a bit from its lack of access to reliable recovery, which can prevent it from tanking strong neutral hits as consistently as it would like to and cause it to be overreliant on Leftovers. This can allow a few common Pokemon, such as Keldeo, Mienshao, and Mamoswine, to muscle past Celesteela after relatively minimal chip damage. Celesteela also struggles to bypass popular Fire- and Electric-types such as Moltres and Rotom-W on its own, as well as various defensive picks like Tentacruel and Gastrodon; Tentacruel can utilize Liquid Ooze to take advantage of Leech Seed, while Gastrodon doesn't take meaningful damage from any of Celesteela's attacks, can restore any damage it sustains with Recover, and can threaten to chip Celesteela down with burns from Scald.
[SET]
name: Defensive
move 1: Heavy Slam
move 2: Leech Seed
move 3: Protect
move 4: Flamethrower
item: Leftovers
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Leech Seed is important to wear down common switch-ins, including Rotom-H, Rotom-W, and Thundurus-T. It also prevents Pokemon like Gyarados and Dragon Dance Salamence from reliably setting up on Celesteela, chipping them down. Protect works well alongside Leech Seed, offering Celesteela a guaranteed opportunity to restore health with both Leftovers and Leech Seed. It can also help to scout moves from Choice-locked Pokemon, like Chandelure and Primarina. Flamethrower hits Steel-types like Aegislash and Jirachi, preventing them from reliably setting up on Celesteela, while also hitting Grass-types such as Tangrowth and Zarude, which are immune to Leech Seed.
Celesteela is a solid fit on balance teams thanks to its ability to check several prominent threats, allowing offensive teammates to fall back on it upon losing momentum to foes like Salamence and Noivern. Bulky Water-types often share strong synergy with Celesteela, checking the Fire-types that power through it, while Celesteela can handle Pokemon like Zarude and Tapu Bulu in return. Seismitoad and Gastrodon check both Rotom-H and Rotom-W, two of Celesteela's more effective answers, while applying pressure to Moltres with STAB Scald. Rhyperior is another good teammate, pivoting in on Fire- and Electric-type attacks for Celesteela while appreciating its ability to switch into Grass- and Ground-type moves. Defensive Grass-types like Tangrowth and Amoonguss can also make solid teammates. Tangrowth is capable of pivoting in on several Pokemon for Celesteela, including Keldeo and Azumarill, while also utilizing Knock Off to wear down switch-ins like Moltres that can burden Celesteela. Amoonguss also checks the former two Pokemon and can match up well against Tapu Bulu. Both Pokemon can also pivot into mixed Thundurus and Krookodile, absorbing Knock Off for Celesteela throughout the match. Psychic-types like Reuniclus and Starmie are decent partners, handling Tentacruel and easing Celesteela's matchup against foes like Kommo-o and Nidoqueen.
[SET]
name: Autotomize
move 1: Autotomize
move 2: Air Slash
move 3: Fire Blast
move 4: Meteor Beam / Flash Cannon
item: Power Herb / Weakness Policy
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Modest
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Autotomize allows Celesteela to outspeed the entire unboosted metagame and more easily snowball. It can find setup opportunities against a solid amount of common Pokemon that its defensive set forces out, including Zarude, Hatterene, and Nihilego. Fire Blast provides important coverage against Steel-types like Aegislash and Jirachi. Flamethrower is an option over Fire Blast for its greater accuracy. However, Celesteela wants all the power it can get due to this set's nature as a sweeper. Meteor Beam grants Celesteela an opportunity to bypass Fire-types like Rotom-H, Moltres, and Chandelure. It also deals massive damage to foes like Rotom-W, Thundurus, and Salamence, and the Special Attack boost it supplies is often extremely useful in boosting Celesteela's sweeping capabilities. Due to taking two turns, however, it must be used with Power Herb, and Celesteela must watch out for the opponent predicting the attack and bringing in a foe that resists it due to often being restricted to a one-time use. Flash Cannon is also an option in the fourth slot, offering more overall consistency and giving Celesteela a strong secondary STAB attack that deals decent neutral damage and hits Pokemon like Hatterene and Rhyperior super effectively. It does prevent Celesteela from luring some of its checks, however. Giga Drain is an option to bypass Quagsire, Rhyperior, and Rotom-W, which can otherwise tank various hits, though it generally doesn't provide too valuable of coverage otherwise. Beast Boost lets Celesteela boost its Special Attack upon netting KOs, giving it great sweeping potential. If Meteor Beam is not being run, Celesteela has no need for Power Herb and can then run Weakness Policy. This allows it to use its solid bulk to tank super effective hits, such as Fire-type moves from Salamence or opposing Celesteela, to gain a +2 boost in power, which heavily increases its threat level. This is particularly potent when Celesteela is behind dual screens, as often the only way to break past it at that rate is with super effective moves.
This set fits on offensive builds, acting as a late-game sweeper that cleans weakened teams. Hyper offense teams do particularly well supporting Celesteela, sometimes employing dual screens setters like Grimmsnarl and Alolan Ninetales to increase its odds of reliably setting up. Entry hazards let Celesteela muscle past foes more easily, making setters like Krookodile good options for teammates. On hyper offense teams, leads like Azelf and Froslass work well for their ability to quickly set Spikes and keep up momentum with moves like Explosion and Destiny Bond, respectively. Powerful wallbreakers like Mienshao and Obstagoon make strong teammates, weakening teams for Celesteela to sweep through late-game. Depending on the coverage it opts for, Celesteela will struggle to reliably break past various Pokemon. If it isn't running Meteor Beam, checks to Fire-types are important due to most being able to tank Air Slash and revenge kill Celesteela. Keldeo can outspeed and pressure Rotom-H and Moltres, while Rhyperior can pivot in on both. Without Flash Cannon, Celesteela can't hit Rock-types like Rhyperior and Nihilego super effectively. Pokemon like Keldeo and Zygarde-10% can pressure said Rock-types, making them solid partners. Electric-type checks are important due to Celesteela's iffy matchups against most in the tier. Zarude can pivot in on Rotom-W and make decent progress with its pivoting capabilities. Seismitoad can handle Raikou, Rotom-W, and Rotom-H while tanking hits from and crippling Thundurus. Additionally, it offers utility with Stealth Rock and Knock Off. Lastly, sweepers like Thundurus-T and Azumarill often fit well with offensive Celesteela variants, helping pressure the likes of Rotom-H and Milotic.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Celesteela's physical movepool contains solid options like Earthquake and Stone Edge, which allow it to run a physically based Autotomize set, effectively luring checks like Tentacruel and Rotom-H. However, this generally isn't as effective due to Celesteela's middling immediate power and hardships breaking various Pokemon, such as Tangrowth and Intimidate Krookodile. Earthquake is an option in the fourth slot of the defensive set to still hit Steel-types super effectively while also hitting the likes of Tentacruel and Raikou hard. However, Flamethrower is usually way more valuable for its ability to pressure Zarude while still hitting Steel-types. Toxic cripples some of Celesteela's switch-ins on the defensive set, but it generally isn't as useful as its other options, and, due to foregoing Flamethrower, it notably prevents Celesteela from doing anything to Steel-types.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Fire-types**: Fire-types like Moltres, Volcanion, Rotom-H, and Chandelure can pivot in on both Heavy Slam and Flamethrower and hit Celesteela hard with super effective STAB moves. They can also blanket check Celesteela's Autotomize set if it opts for Flash Cannon, though Meteor Beam can power through them. Moltres is particularly annoying, often being able to restore any chip damage it sustains from Leech Seed with Roost.
**Electric-types**: Electric-types like Thundurus-T, Rotom-W, and Raikou can tank hits from either of Celesteela's sets and proceed to break past it with super effective STAB attacks, though they all take fair damage from Meteor Beam. Raikou can be particularly troublesome to the defensive set, whittling Celesteela's PP with Pressure and utilizing Substitute and Calm Mind to safely set up on it.
**Specially Defensive Pokemon**: Chansey doesn't take major damage from Celesteela's attacks and can whittle it down with Seismic Toss or bring in a teammate with Teleport. Gastrodon can tank hits from any set and heal off chip damage from Leech Seed with Recover, additionally utilizing Scald to potentially burn Celesteela. Tentacruel's Liquid Ooze punishes Leech Seed attempts and it doesn't take major damage from any attack Celesteela commonly runs. If it is running Haze, it can also stint the Autotomize set's progress.
**Knock Off**: Celesteela's defensive set becomes far easier to wear down if Leftovers, its most reliable means of passive recovery, has been removed. Knock Off users like Mamoswine, Krookodile, and Nihilego can wear it down immensely as it tries potentially pivoting in on them. The Autotomize set is also often reliant on whichever item it is running to pose a significant offensive threat, which can prevent Celesteela from setting up on foes like Nihilego and Tangrowth as safely as it would like to at times.
**Strong Wallbreakers**: Celesteela's lack of reliable recovery allows particularly powerful wallbreakers, including Primarina, Mamoswine, Choice Band Buzzwole, and Aegislash, to quickly overwhelm it.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Hilomilo, 313384]]
- Quality checked by: [[martha, 384270], [Twilight, 344575], [bb skarm, 235692]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Bandkrook, 301217], [deetah, 297659]]
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