Competitive Pokemon: Buzzwole

Buzzwole (aka UB-02 Absorption) is certainly a Pokemon like no other, both in terms of design and its stat arrangement. Looking like something straight outta Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (and you would not believe how many memes have already been made comparing Buzzwole with that anime), Buzzwole seems to be what would happen should a mosquito ever suck the blood of someone packed with steroids. What's more is that they really like showing off their muscles and flexing is actually their form of communicating with one another. Nevertheless, like the mosquitoes they're based off of, Buzzwole can be extremely dangerous. Like Mosquitos, Buzzwole needs to drain fluids in order to sustain itself and it needs quite a lot of fluids (which is more often than not, the blood of living things) just to keep itself buff and sustained. In the Sun and Moon anime, a Buzzwole that was on the loose after passing through an Ultra Wormhole went and drained the fluids of a poor Snorlax. archive-media-0.nyafuu.org/vp/… O_O Now if a Buzzwole could do that to a Snorlax of all things then it's horrific to imagine what would happen if it sank its proboscis into a human! 

Now onto its battling capabilities. In terms of stats, Buzzwole, like the other ultra beasts has been subjected to such a strange stat spread in its case being incredible on the physical side of the game, both on the offensive and defensive sides of the spectrum, thanks to its stellar 107 HP in conjunction with its outstanding 137 Attack and Defense. Furthermore, it has been given a great moveset, thanks to STAB in Leech Life/Lunge/Fell Stinger, Superpower (why no close combat), amazing coverage moves in elemental punches, Earthquake and more, plus great utility moves in Taunt, Bulk Up and Roost. It is held back, however, by awful Special stats, in addition to a less than ideal Speed stat, meaning the plethora of Tapus floating around in the metagame posing a huge threat as things stand. While it is fast enough to outpace Heatran when fully invested, its Speed stat is still very underwhelming—being low enough for it to be outpaced by everything from fully invested Mamoswine upward. That being said, Buzzwole can hit hard and tank hits hard physically, so that should seriously not be overlooked. 

Here’s my Buzzwole's summary.
Nature: Jolly 
Held Item: Assault Vest 
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 SpDef / 252 Spe
-Leech Life / Lunge / Fell Stinger
-Superpower
-Ice Punch
-Earthquake

Leech Life should be Buzzwole's main STAB, its buff in power in Gen. 7 has made it a new physical Bug-type attack option (and an additional attack that gives passive recovery). Fell Stinger could be used for that extra attack boost upon KOing a foe's Pokemon, which coupled with Buzzwole's Beast Boost ability can give it an immediate +4 raise in its attack stat! Lunge is also an alternate Bug STAB option as it deals the same amount of damage as Leech Life and additionally lowers the foe's attack stat, making it ideal to use against opposing physical attackers to make them less of an offensive presence. Superpower is standard Fighting STAB and one that Buzzwole is able to spam more often than most other Pokemon thanks to Beast Boost restoring its attack stat with every KO it gets with Superpower. Its defense, unfortunately, remains lowered upon using it every time. But by the time it's lowered enough to where your opponent's Pokemon can take out Buzzwole, its pretty much already won the battle for you because of all the Pokemon it's taken out prior to being KO'd. Ice Punch is mandatory in order to break through Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Zapdos.  Lastly, Earthquake is for Heatran, Mega Charizard X, Toxapex, and Aegislash respectively.

Max EV investment in attack and speed make Buzzwole hit as hard and as fast as possible. With a Jolly Nature, Buzzwole can outspeed a couple of Pokemon that threaten it, which I don't think a lot of people realize. It doesn't mind not getting the higher attack power that an Adamant nature would grant it since it has the Ultra Beasts' signature ability: Beast Boost, to rely upon that will drastically boost Buzzwole's attack power with every KO it gets. Sure it'd be the exact same deal with an Adamant nature, but my Buzzwole set focuses more on outspeeding foes that threaten it. Assault Vest is an excellent item option for Buzzwole since it gives it a boost to its special defense (something it seriously needs).


Of course Buzzwole can run a variety of other moves. Here are some suggestions:
-Buzzwole got access to Drain Punch as a move tutor move in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. While Leech Life is still technically stronger (but only by 5 points), Drain Punch can serve as an excellent alternate STAB Fighting move to run if you don't want to run Superpower or have a passive recovery move with better coverage than Leech Life. 
-Bug Bite enables Buzzwole to remove berries from opponent's Pokemon as well as restore its own health if it turns out to be an HP restoring berry. 
-Iron Head gives Buzzwole something to cover its weakness to Fairy-types. Most Fairies are not very physically defensive so even an Iron Head will make short work of them.
-Hammer Arm allows Buzzwole to take on Skarmory solo by preventing it from stalling with Roost due to the Speed drop.
-Thunder Punch is an alternative to Poison Jab for hitting Tapu Fini and has good type coverage alongside Ice Punch; it exchanges coverage on various Fairy-types such as Clefable and Tapu Lele—as well as the OHKO on Tapu Bulu—for the ability to hit Pokemon such as Mantine, Toxapex, and Pelipper for solid damage.
-Poison Jab is a great alternative to nail Clefable, Tapus and other fairies.
-Focus Punch, coupled with Substitute, gives Buzzwole an incredibly strong STAB attack. While the Sub-Punch set is a strategy that has been around for many years, it's not as effective as it used to be since sound-based moves can bypass Substitute and hit the Pokemon directly as can Pokemon with the ability Infiltrator, thus preventing Buzzwole from carrying out Focus Punch. 
-Substitute lets Buzzwole avoid status, punishes switches, and provides Buzzwole with a safety net to use Focus Punch behind. But as previously mentioned, Pokemon using sound-based moves or ones that have the ability Infiltrator can hit Buzzwole and prevent it from carrying out using Focus Punch. So you're much better off running Substitute to help Buzzwole stave off damage and to keep it from being afflicted by status conditions for a few turns. 
-Roost is a necessity, allowing Buzzwole to have longevity throughout a match and allowing it to consistently check various dangerous Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu.
-Bulk Up on its own is an option to boost Buzzwole's Attack stat, and it can even be used alongside Fightinium Z to boost Buzzwole's Attack stat by two stages in one turn along with the Defense boost or, alternatively, to give a single-use extremely strong Fighting-type attack. This benefits from two-type coverage, but it is still vulnerable to a lot of Pokemon and simply isn't as effective as other sets.
     

Notes: 

I personally think Buzzwole is fine without a nickname. But should you decide to nickname it, here are a few suggestions:
-Mansquito, since that is what Buzzwole essentially is (came up with that one myself). 
-UB-02 Absorption, which is Buzzwole's given codename in the Sun and Moon games.  
-Pretty sure there's something from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure you could nickname Buzzwole after.  


Do you have your own Buzzwole moveset and strategy? Comment below with your moveset!