Support and Control: the Ultra Ball guide
The support and control layer of Pokémon Champions doubles: redirection (Rage Powder / Follow Me), Wide Guard, Prankster priority status, weather, Taunt, pivoting, and Perish Trap, with legal Reg M-B users and verified clips.
Last updated · evergreen, updated as the meta evolves
The Ultra Ball bot plays the fundamentals cleanly but doesn’t look ahead, so this is where control tools start to shine. Redirection, Wide Guard, priority status, weather, and Taunt let you dictate what happens on a turn rather than just react. These are the pieces that hold a game plan together.
Redirection: drag their attacks where you want
Follow Me and Rage Powder are priority moves that force the opponent’s single-target attacks onto the user. That means your win condition can set up, or your fragile attacker can fire, completely untouched, because everything gets pulled onto the redirector. The one caveat: spread moves ignore redirection, so a Heat Wave or Rock Slide still hits everyone.
Legal M-B users: Sinistcha (Rage Powder), Clefable / Maushold (Follow Me).
A-TIER REDIRECTORSinistcha
HospitalityThe premier Reg M-B redirector. Rage Powder pulls single-target attacks off your win condition, while Hospitality heals its partner on entry. Matcha Gotcha is a reliable draining STAB, and it can even carry Trick Room. A Kasib Berry (Ghost-resist) helps it survive the Shadow Balls aimed at it.
Redirection is strong but not absolute. Spread moves ignore it (Heat Wave still hits both), Stalwart / Propeller Tail attackers ignore it, and a Taunt shuts the redirector off before it can act. If you rely on Rage Powder, keep it safe from those.
Wide Guard: block a spread move for your whole side
Wide Guard is a priority move that blocks *all* spread damage aimed at your side for the turn: Heat Wave, Rock Slide, Make It Rain, Eruption, Earthquake. Against spread-heavy teams it’s a hard wall: they invest a big turn into two Pokémon and you take zero. Pair it with a partner that pressures back while the spread attacker whiffs.
Legal M-B users: Gallade, Machamp, Conkeldurr, Pelipper, Swampert.
Prankster: your status moves land first
Prankster gives +1 priority to status moves. Suddenly your Taunt, Tailwind, screens, or redirection go *before* a faster foe can act. That’s how a slow Grimmsnarl shuts off a fast opponent’s setup, or guarantees Tailwind goes up even as it’s being attacked. Two important limits in Champions: Prankster status fails against Dark-types, and it does not beat the Armor Tail / Dazzling / Queenly Majesty abilities that block priority.
Legal M-B users: Grimmsnarl, Whimsicott. (Note: Grimmsnarl does not learn Thunder Wave in Champions.)
Weather: the field-wide multiplier
A weather setter changes the whole field for five turns (or while the setter is out, for ability weather). It boosts a type, powers specific abilities, and can chip the foe. In Champions the two you’ll build around most are rain (Pelipper) and sun (Torkoal). Terrain, by contrast, is barely present: Champions has no Grassy/Psychic/Misty Surge setters, so weather is *the* field tool.
| Weather | Boosts | Powers ability | Legal setter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rain | Water ×1.5, weakens Fire | Swift Swim (2× Speed) |  Pelipper (Drizzle) |
| Sun | Fire ×1.5, weakens Water | Chlorophyll (2× Speed) |  Torkoal (Drought) |
| Sand | Rock Sp.Def ×1.5, chips non-Rock/Ground/Steel | Sand Rush (2× Speed) |  Tyranitar (Sand Stream) |
| Snow | Ice Defense ×1.5 | Slush Rush (2× Speed) |  Ninetales-Alola (Snow Warning) |
Charizard-Mega-Y brings permanent-feeling sun with Drought, powering its own Heat Wave and a fast Solar Beam (no charge in sun). Pelipper brings rain for Swift-Swim sweepers and instant-charge Electro Shot on Archaludon. Both are top-tier, so expect to face them, and pack a way to flip or ignore the weather.
Weather wars: whoever sets last, wins
When two weather teams meet, it becomes a weather war: ability weather (Drizzle, Drought, Sand Stream, Snow Warning) re-sets every time that Pokémon switches in, so the side that gets its setter onto the field *most recently* owns the field. The reads that decide it:
- Lead the weather you want up first, but keep your setter alive: if it faints, your sweepers lose their Speed and power.
- Bring a second setter so you can re-set after a KO. A rain team with only one Pelipper folds the moment it dies.
- Pivot your setter back in to overwrite their weather right before your sweep turn: timing beats raw power.
- Or ignore weather entirely: a Trick Room or Tailwind team doesn’t care whose sun is up, only who moves first.
| Weather | Ability powered | Effect | Legal M-B user |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rain | Swift Swim | Doubles Speed |  Basculegion Swampert-Mega |
| Sun | Chlorophyll | Doubles Speed |  Venusaur Leafeon |
| Sand | Sand Rush | Doubles Speed |  Excadrill Lycanroc |
| Snow | Slush Rush | Doubles Speed |  Beartic (Ninetales-Alola enables the snow) |
Status in Champions: no easy cures
Because Champions has no Covert Cloak, no Safety Goggles, and a very thin cast of Misty-Terrain-style status blockers, status conditions stick harder here than in past formats. A Will-O-Wisp on your physical attacker, a Yawn-induced sleep, or a spread Nuzzle paralysis can define a game, and you often can’t simply cure it. Plan for it: run Lum Berry on a key sweeper if you fear status, lean on special attackers (immune to burn’s downside), or pack your own status to fight fire with fire.
| You fear… | Answer | Legal M-B tool |
|---|---|---|
| Will-O-Wisp on your physical attacker | Run a special attacker, or a Lum Berry, or Fire-immune Flash Fire |  Gholdengo Arcanine-Hisui |
| Yawn / sleep on your win-con | Protect the turn Yawn would land, or switch | any Protect user |
| Spread paralysis (Nuzzle / Body Slam) | Bring Electric-immune Ground types or Prankster to move first |  Garchomp Grimmsnarl |
| Toxic / poison stall | Race it with offense; you don’t have long | fast attackers |
Screens & Aurora Veil: cut incoming damage in half
Reflect halves physical damage and Light Screen halves special damage to your side for five turns (eight with Light Clay). Aurora Veil does *both at once*, but can only be set while it’s snowing. Screens don’t win a game on their own. They buy your win condition the turns it needs to set up and take over. Grimmsnarl is the format’s screen king thanks to Prankster (see below); in snow, Froslass-Mega and Ninetales-Alola put up Aurora Veil.
| Screen | Halves | Legal setter |
|---|---|---|
| Reflect | Physical damage | Grimmsnarl Sableye Corviknight |
| Light Screen | Special damage | GrimmsnarlSableye Whimsicott |
| Aurora Veil | Both (needs snow up) |  Froslass-MegaNinetales-Alola |
Taunt: shut off support
Taunt locks a Pokémon out of every status move for a few turns: no Trick Room, no redirection, no Protect, no setup, no screens. Against a support-heavy team it neutralises their whole plan. On Prankster it goes first (see above), so you can deny a status move before it happens.
Legal M-B users: Grimmsnarl, Whimsicott (both Prankster), plus many attackers as a tech option.
Encore & Disable: lock the foe into the wrong move
Taunt shuts off *status* moves; Encore and Disable go further by locking a specific move. Encore forces the target to repeat its last move for three turns, which is devastating when it just used Protect or a setup move, because now it can’t attack while you set up or KO it. Disable blocks the target’s last move outright. On Prankster (Whimsicott), Encore lands first, so you can lock a foe *before* it acts. These are the disruption tools that turn one bad opponent choice into three wasted turns.
| Move | Effect | Legal user |
|---|---|---|
| Encore | Foe repeats its last move for 3 turns | Whimsicott (Prankster) |
| Disable | Foe can’t use its last move for 4 turns |  Gengar Dragapult |
| Taunt | Foe can’t use any status move | GrimmsnarlWhimsicott (Prankster) |
The classic Whimsicott line: the foe Protects a threatened Pokémon, so you Encore it into Protect. It now can’t attack for the next turns while your win condition sets up unopposed. Prankster makes the Encore land first, so the lock is guaranteed. (Note: Good as Gold on Gholdengo blocks Encore, so it can’t be locked this way.)
Pivoting: chip and swap in one move
U-turn, Volt Switch, Flip Turn, and Parting Shot deal damage (or a debuff) and switch you out, letting you bring a better matchup while keeping momentum, so the foe doesn’t get a free turn to reposition. Parting Shot is especially strong: it drops the target’s Attack and Sp.Atk *and* pivots, so you leave a weakened board behind. Use pivots to escape a bad matchup, to bring your Intimidate user in on a physical attacker, or to keep a Choice-locked mon flexible.
| Move | Does | Type | Legal user |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-turn | Damage + switch | Bug |  Scizor Kleavor |
| Volt Switch | Damage + switch | Electric |  Manectric |
| Flip Turn | Damage + switch | Water | Basculegion Samurott-Hisui |
| Parting Shot | −1 Atk / −1 Sp.Atk + switch | Dark |  Incineroar |
A pivot move triggers a mid-turn switch that our scripted clip harness can’t drive cleanly, so we teach it with the table above rather than a mis-recorded video. In an actual game it’s one click: attack, then choose who comes in.
Perish Trap + Protect-to-stall
Perish Song makes *every* Pokémon on the field faint in three turns. Pair it with trapping (so the foe can’t switch out to reset the count) and Protect / your own switching (so *you* survive the timer), and you simply outlast the opponent. It’s a slow, control-oriented win condition that beats bulky setup teams which can’t race a clock.
| Turn | Perish count | Your play |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Song hits; all get "Perish 3" | Trap the foe so it can’t escape the count |
| 1 | Perish 2 | Protect or switch a fresh Pokémon in (resets *your* count) |
| 2 | Perish 1 | Keep stalling: Protect / switch again |
| 3 | Perish 0 → faint | The trapped foe faints; you’ve switched out of yours |
Dictate the turn
Support and control are what let you decide what happens instead of reacting. Redirect, block, deny, and pivot until the board is on your terms. When you’re ready for the top of the ladder, the Master Ball guide covers the advanced skills: win conditions, prediction, item reads, speed tiers, and closing.