https://gyazo.com/23eba9ed66578f07186689cf81e66184
For once, a suspect that I smashed through.
(...Though yes, why wasn't this the thing that was quickbanned? I guess Duggy would have caused too big of a stink with a suspect thread.)
Even though I personally didn't have terribly much trouble with Kartana, that was because hyper bulky Zygarde actually serves as a soft counter to the sets I faced.
...But I'm still voting to
ban Kartana. Outside of some Sap Sipper Pokémon, answers to Kartana are few and far, FAR, between. Giving what effectively has the highest Attack stat in the game Tinted Lens or one of two further 1.5x boosts to its STAB moves is a recipe for disaster. I've watched enough of Laxpras, jrdn, and Quantum Tesseract to know the terror of Kartana first-hand. The only reason I actually survived it was either because my opponents ended up wasting Kartana, or they did not think to weaken Zygarde beforehand... and lacked a Z-crystal, for some reason. With a Z-crystal, Sap Sipper Volcanion, of all things, is the closest thing to a counter, and it loses to +2 All-Out Pummeling (though SR might be needed). Sap Sipper Hippowdon might also do the trick.
With everything given, you either need a very bulky physical wall, or a faster special attack to remotely have a chance, and that's dumb.
To get back to Z-Crystals, here's a set ported almost verbatim from something I used from that Kanto X Alola competition that I just adore.
Battle Maiden (Primarina) (F) @ Primarium Z
Ability: Tinted Lens
EVs: 212 HP / 252 SpA / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sparkling Aria
- Moonblast
- Encore
- Perish Song/Psychic/Ice Beam/Aqua Jet
A veritable nuke of a Water-type, and Tinted Lens makes it so much more satisfying. Ferrothorn? Enjoy that nice 80% damage upon switch-in. Tapu Fini? Have fun with Oceanic Operetta bringing you as far down as it does Ferrothorn. The Z-move also bops many things in a single hit, including Metagross, Manaphy, Noivern... the list goes on.
Moonblast is secondary STAB, and also really hurts just about anything.
Encore is the move that makes Primarina really stand out. Lob this on a predicted status move, and just visualize that rage that will inevitably follow. It also ensures that overpredictions on Primarina can be punished incredibly hard.
The last slot is a bit of a filler, though Psychic and priority are the most useful moves in there.
Speed EVs are to creep Magearna and other base 65s with 0 speed.
Just be sure to watch out for Poison types, because this loses to every single one that is remotely offensive.