The Beauty and the Ultra Beast (Box)

Ultra Beasts invaded the Pokemon TCG in SM4 Crimson Invasion, most notably with Buzzwole-GX. At first, we had no support for the Ultra Beast tag on the cards. Since then, we have received Beast Energy, Ultra Space, and Beast Ring which all influence the idea of a deck built around Ultra Beasts. When we received Naganadel-GX, some players were optimistic enough to pilot Beast Box decks. This archetype looked good on paper; it had Beast Ring to accelerate energy, Ultra Space to search out all of your beast pokemon, Beast Energy as an extra damage modifier, and a fair amount of strong pokemon with the Ultra Beast tag to choose from. Unfortunately, the archetype was underwhelming and fell short of being a top tier meta deck. However, we are still getting more Ultra Beasts! I have done a fair amount of testing and deck building for Beast box in World’s format (BKT-CST) and I believe that the release of Celestial Storm will make Beast Box stronger and more viable than ever due to this beautiful pair. 

Cards Explained 

3-3 Naganadel-GX

I started with 4-3 Naganadel, but the 4th Poipole wasn’t needed. I originally thought I would need it to fill the bench with Ultra Beasts, but since my Pokemon are all fairly tanky, keeping a large bench is usually not an issue. Naganadel-GX is one of your primary attackers. As long as you’re not playing against psychic attackers, you should be looking to lead off the game with a Turn 2 Beast Raid. The one retreat cost that Naganadel-GX has is actually a really undervalued part of the card. If you don’t hit a max potion, you can always just retreat to a new attacker for one energy which is likely already attached from attacking the previous turn. I haven’t Stinger GX’d at all in testing, but there have been a few times where it almost came up as a good play. I’m sure as I continue playing with the deck a Stinger GX play will pop up.

3 Stakataka-GX

This is likely in my top 3 cards from Celestial Storm. Ultra Wall reduces 10 damage done to all of your ultra beasts by your opponent’s attacks, including itself. This ability also stacks for each Stakataka you have in play. Having just one Ultra Wall ability active makes your opponent need to hit 220 to one-shot a Naganadel-GX, which is very good considering that 210 is a number that many decks either cap at or can hit consistently: Shiftry-GX’s Extrasensory hits 210 with choice band, Rayquaza-GX’s Dragon Break hits 210 with either 7 energy or 6 energy and a band, Buzzwole-GX’s Knuckle Impact hits 210 with either a Choice Band + Diancie Prism or Choice band + Strong Energy. Even if your opponent does put together enough on their board to OHKO your Naganadel-GX, it only requires 1 energy. So it is easy to set up another or use one of your other attackers after a Beast Ring. Stakataka-GX has a solid attack, Gigaton Smash which does 120 for two metal energy and colorless. It’s GX attack, Assembly-GX, is actually incredible. It does 50 damage +50 more for each prize card you have taken this game. After taking 3-4 prizes, Assembly-GX will one-shot pretty much anything.

2 Celesteela-GX

Celesteela-GX is very hard to KO being weak to Lightning (a less than popular type in the current meta), resistant to fighting, and a 200 HP Ultra Beast with additional damage buffering from Stakataka-GX’s Ultra Wall. In addition to it’s amazing defensive properties, It has really efficient attacks. Rocket Fall, for one metal and two colorless, does 30 damage +30 more for each [c] in your opponent’s active pokemon’s retreat cost. This is usually doing a fair amount of damage. I’ll just point out a few popular cards with 2 retreat cost and up: Buzzwole-GX [c,c,c], Zoroark-GX [c,c], Golisopod-GX [c,c,c], Rayquaza-GX [c,c,c], Lycanroc-GX [c,c]. Moon Press has a bulky cost of one metal energy and three colorless, and does 130 damage. It’s not the worst attack ever, but definitely not what you want to be using. It’s GX attack Blaster GX for the same cost as Moon Press, deals 180 damage and you flip your prize cards face-up. With a band or Beast Energy it does 210 which is great to get an OHKO with.

1 Dusk Mane Necrozma-G

I only included one because you don’t need it every game. It is nice to bench to threaten your opponent with a big beast ring turn, but you can’t always commit that many energy to Dusk Mane just to discard them with Meteor Tempest. If you are ever in a position where you can Beast Ring to Dusk Mane, use Sun’s Eclipse GX for an OHKO, then use Meteor Tempest the following turn, you’ve probably won the game. Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX is really good against Zoroark-GX variants because they usually won’t be able to return KO it.

1 Dusk Mane Necrozma Promo

This card is absolutely insane. Getting a turn one Dusk Shot against any deck that has GX’s on their board early gives you such an advantage. Most decks will take more than one turn to KO this card in the early game, so you can usually get two Dusk Shots off. I have considered adding in a second so I can see it more often in the early game, but you usually just need the one to set up KOs. It can also be really cheeky late game if your opponent is at one prize because Rusty Claws will hit for 200. Also worth mentioning is that it has 130 HP which Zoroark-GX variants will have a problem KO-ing. Even if they hit Kukui, your Ultra Walls will likely keep it out of one-shot range.

1 Celesteela (non-GX)

This card might become a 2nd Dusk Mane Necrozma Promo because it is very situational, and not useful whatsoever outside of its niche. Moonraker does 160 damage for 5 energy, but only costs one metal energy if the total number of prizes between you and your opponent is 6. I’d say that I get use out of this card 1 out of 4 or 5 games. I’m going to keep this card included throughout some more testing and see if its use increases, decreases, or stays the same. If there’s a Pokemon you want to add to the list, this should probably be your first cut.

1 Tapu Lele-GX

Tapu Lele-GX is a great card, but it takes up a bench spot and is not an Ultra Beast. I use Tapu Lele-GX early about 1 out of 4 games, and I built this deck with 11 draw supporters to reduce early Lele use as much as possible.

3 Max Potions

Max Potion is really good with Naganadel-GX since Naganadel is a bulky pokemon with a one energy attack. It’s also really frustrating for your opponent if you max potion a damaged Dusk Mane Necrozma Promo and make them potentially 3-shot it while you Dusk Shot setting up KO’s for later on.

This Beast Box list focuses on tanking hits while two-shotting most Pokemon early game, and getting a one-shot or two to close out the game thanks to our energy accell Beast Ring powering up big attacks like Assembly-GX and Meteor Tempest.

Matchups

Vs Buzzroc - Very Favorable

Beast Box has just about everything going its way in this matchup. Naganadel-GX hits Buzzwole-GX and Buzzwole FOL for weakness, Stakataka-GX reduces damage done to our active and benched pokemon, and Celesteela-GX is resistant to fighting. Lycanroc-GX can be an issue because of its Dangerous Rogue-GX, but after that it is doing mediocre damage with Claw Slash to our Celesteela-GX as long as we have a Stakataka-GX or two on the board as well.

Vs Zoropod - Slightly Favorable

This is a war of attrition for the most part as the majority of the game is spent trying to two-shot each other. Beast Box has more one-shot potential by far, but Zoropod’s consistency is able to keep it in the game. Zoropod is playing either Acerola or Max Potion, while we have 3 Max Potion in our deck. It’s harder for us to reliably draw into our Max Potions however, since we are relying solely on supporters for drawing cards, Mew-EX can one shot Naganadel, but it is really easy to one-shot it back.

Vs Zororoc - Slightly Unfavorable

This matchup is similar to Zoropod, except that they can OHKO with Lycanroc-GX. Aside from Dangerous Rogue-GX, their only one-shot potential is Mew-EX on Naganadel-GX. Their slight advantage can be their early aggression on Poipoles and their draw power.

Vs Rayquaza-GX 50/50

Rayquaza-GX needs to reach 220+ to KO a Naganadel-GX while you have at least one Stakataka-GX in play. Realistically, Beast Box has no one-shot potential on Rayquaza-GX until mid game with Beast Rings or late game via manual attachments. If you can tank a couple Dragon Breaks while two-shotting a Rayquaza-GX, you should be able to get into an OHKO war that you will win due to having tanky attackers. On the other hand, Rayquaza-GX can pop off early and swing 210+ for a few turns in a row and win a quick game.

These are the matchups that I have tested enough to comfortably estimate. Beast Box is a very versatile deck and please try out any Ultra Beasts not in my list that you think might work! There are a lot to choose from, but they couldn’t all make the cut into my list.