Cresselia
[Overview]
- Cresselia has magnificent bulk, and sports defenses of 120 / 120 / 130
- Cresselia is also reasonably fast at base 85 Speed, which is very rarely seen from such a defensive Pokemon.
- Has a shallow supporting movepool that consists mainly of Thunder Wave, Toxic, Light Screen, Reflect, and Lunar Dance.
- One of the few walls available to the tier to get reliable recovery.
- Levitate makes it immune to both Spikes and Toxic Spikes, as well as any stray Ground-type attacks.
- Severely hampered by the sheer number of Dark- and Bug-types available to UU, preventing it from being relatively effective.
- Doesn't have access to Taunt, so even slower Taunt users can keep it from setting up screens or spreading status.
name: Defensive
move 1: Thunder Wave
move 2: Moonlight
move 3: Psyshock
move 4: Ice Beam
item: Leftovers
ability: Levitate
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpA
[SET COMMENTS]
- Cresselia can be considered as one of the best walls in UU due thanks to the sheer number of Fighting- and Ground-types in the tier and access to a reliable recovery move, Moonlight.
- Because of its status as a wall, Thunder Wave makes for its best support move available, supporting its teammates to the fullest by paralysing and slowing the opposition.
- Psyshock functions as Cresselia's STAB and will be predominantly hitting opposing Fighiting-type Pokemon, most of which have higher Special Defense stats than Defense. When backed by the 12 SpA investment, Kingdra's Substitutes will always be broken, preventing it from being set up on.
- Ice Beam serves as a coverage option for Cresselia, being exceptionally useful at picking off opposing Flygon and Gligar, giving team members more room to sweep unhindered.
- If your team can already handle physical attackers with ease, an alternate EV spread of 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD with a Calm nature is always worth considering, allowing Cresselia to tank nearly every special attack in the book.
- Plagued by status, making Umbreon or Togekiss an excellent partner, as Heal Bell will prevent Cresselia from prematurely kicking the bucket.
- In fact, Togekiss arguably makes for Cresselia's best partner simply because Cresselia is able to supply Thunder Wave, thus opening up a moveslot on Togekiss. This gives Togekiss the opportunity to use both Nasty Plot and Heal Bell, and begin setting up while abusing Cresselia's paralysis via Serene Grace Air Slash flinches. This effectively turns Togekiss into a death machine, outspeeding any paralysed opponent and more or less preventing them from doing anything. For optimal performance, the removal of Steel- or Rock-types, as well as the layering of a few layers of entry hazards, are both highly recommended.
- Without Hidden Power Fighting, Dark-types become a huge issue for Cresselia, making Fighting-types, such as Cobalion or Scrafty, ideal teammates for Cresselia.
- Cresselia is essentially hard-countered by Escavalier, making Fire-type teammates in Rotom-H, Darmanitan, or Arcanine greatly appreciated by Cresselia. Their Fire-type attacks are also useful for roasting Heracross, who could otherwise 2HKO with Megahorn.
name: Dual Screens
move 1: Reflect
move 2: Light Screen
move 3: Lunar Dance
move 4: Psyshock
item: Light Clay
ability: Levitate
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpA
[SET COMMENTS]
- Cresselia is a very effective user of the Dual Screens strategy thanks to its extreme bulk, decent natural Speed stat, and access to Lunar Dance.
- Reflect and Light Screen provide Cresselia's team with temporary "boosts" to their defenses, giving more frail sweepers a chance to set up and wreck the opposition.
- Lunar Dance is the selling point behind Dual Screens Cresselia, who would otherwise be outclassed by Azelf and Uxie. Lunar Dance allows Cresselia to sacrifice its own life to fully heal the next Pokemon to come in. During the later stages of a match, this recovery could make the game in that team's favor.
- Psyshock prevents Cresselia from becoming Taunt bait, while dealing solid damage to a wide range of Pokemon. Because of it targeting Defense instead of Special Defense, this means that SubCM Raikou and Pokemon that play similarly to it cannot set up on you while you set up screens.
- The given EV spread allows Cresselia to tank both physical and special hits in order to successfully set up both Reflect and Light Screen. However, modifying them in respect to your team's needs is acceptable.
- Support moves such as Thunder Wave and Toxic can make Cresselia seem like the ideal Dual Screens user, but will take away from its ability to successfully do its job, as one of its moves would have to go in order to make room for the additional move.
- Because this Cresselia isn't designed to be a wall, team support isn't entirely an issue for it. Instead, partner this Cresselia up with Pokemon that would appreciate the dual Screens support, such as Porygon-Z, Zoroark, Sharpedo, or Yanmega, as the "boost" in defences will allow them to break through the opposition.
- Pairing Cresselia with another Dual Screener, specifically Azelf, isn't something out of the ordinary either, as the lack of Leftovers means Cresselia will be worn out quickly, and Lunar Dance itself sacrifices Cresselia. The advantage to pairing it with Azelf is that it can also deploy Stealth Rock, further easing the sweeps of offensive teammates.
- Niche moves such as Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Gravity, and Trick Room are fully usable by Cresselia, and aren't usually expected, making Cresselia a boon to weather teams.
- Magic Coat is usable, and definitely has merit, but does require a lot of prediction and is very easy to play against once it's discovered.
- SubCM set isn't worth it, too hard to effectively set up, and Cresselia's coverage isn't the best either.
- Charge Beam is outclassed by the aforementioned SubCM set.
- What a terrible movepool this Pokemon has.
- Escavalier hard-counters the shit out of Cresselia.
- Dark-types, namely Krookodile, Honchkrow, and Bisharp.
- Ghost-types.
- Bug-types.
- Taunt ruins its day.
- Status, specifically Toxic.
- Snorlax and Umbreon defecate on variants that lack Toxic.
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