[SET]
name: Physical Wall
move 1: Toxic / Thunder Wave / Shadow Ball
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Moonlight
move 4: Calm Mind
item: Black Sludge / Leftovers
ability: Levitate
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
[SET COMMENTS]
Cresselia's impressive bulk and useful ability in Levitate along with access to reliable recovery, status, and setup moves make it a defensive behemoth that is difficult to wear down and break through. Its Poison typing from Toxic pairs nicely with Levitate, making it immune to both the poison status and Ground-type attacks while leaving it with only two weaknesses. Toxic puts offensive threats like Fire / Grass Volcarona and Hydreigon on a timer to prevent them from using setup moves effectively. Moonblast is a spammable attack that grants Cresselia a Fairy typing, which gives it an immunity and stacks useful resistances with its Poison typing. Moonlight is Cresselia's reliable recovery and keeps it healthy. Calm Mind keeps Cresselia from being overly passive and allows it to set up on other passive Pokemon like Blissey and Slowbro, or boost alongside opposing Calm Mind users like Electric / Dragon Latios, wearing all the aforementioned Pokemon down with Toxic as it sets up. Thunder Wave is another option that punishes offensive threats that Toxic can't, like Poison-type Garchomp, Latias, and Naganadel. It provides a great defensive typing with only one weakness thanks to Levitate and useful resistances to Flying- and Electric-type attacks that Toxic variants take neutral damage from. Shadow Ball gives Cresselia another unique typing with multiple immunities, mainly to high-powered Normal-type attacks like Extreme Speed, Facade, and Boomburst. It also allows Cresselia to have more coverage when it sets up with Calm Mind, but it makes Cresselia vulnerable to Ghost-type STAB moves like Shadow Claw and Shadow Ball, which are commonly seen on Facade and Boomburst users like Heracross and Noivern. Black Sludge is the item of choice for Poison-type Cresselia, as it increases Cresselia's longevity and punishes Trick users, while other Cresselia sets opt for Leftovers. A Bold nature with full investment in HP and Defense allows Cresselia to take on numerous physical attackers like Landorus-T, Lycanroc-D without Iron Head, and most unboosted Extreme Speed users outside of Zygarde-10% with Thousand Arrows.
While Cresselia is bulky, it is still vulnerable to high-powered neutral attacks like Guts-boosted Facade from Heracross and Triple Axel from Choice Band Pheromosa. Each of these attacks can 2HKO Cresselia with prior damage, so it is important to pair Cresselia with teammates that can stomach these hits like defensive Water / Poison Slowbro and Normal-resistant Pokemon such as Steel-type Buzzwole. These teammates also help cover Cresselia's few remaining weaknesses to types like Poison, Psychic, or Steel, depending on Cresselia's typing. Magnezone can pair with Cresselia to trap and eliminate Steel-types like Buzzwole and Scizor. While Cresselia can use Calm Mind to combat certain opposing setup threats, others like Psychic Volcarona and Taunt Spectrier can quickly overwhelm it. Defensive Dark / Poison Pokemon such as Unaware Clefable and Toxapex make great partners for Cresselia to handle the setup threats that can break past it.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Cresselia can pass on a more useful defensive typing by running Stored Power to capitalize on Calm Mind boosts. However, this set is very slow and opens Cresselia up to crippling status moves like Toxic. Cresselia can also forego Calm Mind and use Trick instead to cripple opposing defensive Pokemon with its Black Sludge and provide counterplay to opposing Trick users. However, this is inconsistent, since many defensive threats hold Black Sludge as well, and an incorrect timing of the move could result in Cresselia holding undesirable items like a Choice Scarf. Cresselia's great bulk and access to recovery also make it a reliable Trick Room setter to support slower offensive teammates like Glastrier and Melmetal.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Mold Breaker Ground-types and Thousand Arrows**: Earthquake Haxorus and Excadrill are big threats to Cresselia, as their ability Mold Breaker allows them to hit with a super effective STAB move. Thousand Arrows from Zygarde-10% also bypasses Levitate. However, none of these threats are able to OHKO Cresselia without boosting to at least +2 Attack.
**Steel-types**: Cresselia is walled and forced out by offensive and defensive Steel-types like Mew, Hydreigon, Garchomp, and Melmetal. They are immune to Toxic, resist Cresselia's main STAB move, and can punish it with their Steel-type STAB attacks.
**Psychic-types**: Psychic-type attackers like Tapu Lele and Psychic Volcarona threaten out Cresselia's Toxic set and can hit other sets for strong neutral damage.
**Clefable**: Cresselia is forced out by all versions of Clefable. Dark / Poison Unaware Clefable ignores Calm Mind boosts and can't be poisoned, while offensive Magic Guard Clefable can set up with Calm Mind and quickly use up Cresselia's Moonlight PP.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[a loser, 410702]]
- Quality checked by: [[in the hills, 324242], [Dragonillis, 466276]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429]], [DC, 449990]]
name: Physical Wall
move 1: Toxic / Thunder Wave / Shadow Ball
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Moonlight
move 4: Calm Mind
item: Black Sludge / Leftovers
ability: Levitate
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
[SET COMMENTS]
Cresselia's impressive bulk and useful ability in Levitate along with access to reliable recovery, status, and setup moves make it a defensive behemoth that is difficult to wear down and break through. Its Poison typing from Toxic pairs nicely with Levitate, making it immune to both the poison status and Ground-type attacks while leaving it with only two weaknesses. Toxic puts offensive threats like Fire / Grass Volcarona and Hydreigon on a timer to prevent them from using setup moves effectively. Moonblast is a spammable attack that grants Cresselia a Fairy typing, which gives it an immunity and stacks useful resistances with its Poison typing. Moonlight is Cresselia's reliable recovery and keeps it healthy. Calm Mind keeps Cresselia from being overly passive and allows it to set up on other passive Pokemon like Blissey and Slowbro, or boost alongside opposing Calm Mind users like Electric / Dragon Latios, wearing all the aforementioned Pokemon down with Toxic as it sets up. Thunder Wave is another option that punishes offensive threats that Toxic can't, like Poison-type Garchomp, Latias, and Naganadel. It provides a great defensive typing with only one weakness thanks to Levitate and useful resistances to Flying- and Electric-type attacks that Toxic variants take neutral damage from. Shadow Ball gives Cresselia another unique typing with multiple immunities, mainly to high-powered Normal-type attacks like Extreme Speed, Facade, and Boomburst. It also allows Cresselia to have more coverage when it sets up with Calm Mind, but it makes Cresselia vulnerable to Ghost-type STAB moves like Shadow Claw and Shadow Ball, which are commonly seen on Facade and Boomburst users like Heracross and Noivern. Black Sludge is the item of choice for Poison-type Cresselia, as it increases Cresselia's longevity and punishes Trick users, while other Cresselia sets opt for Leftovers. A Bold nature with full investment in HP and Defense allows Cresselia to take on numerous physical attackers like Landorus-T, Lycanroc-D without Iron Head, and most unboosted Extreme Speed users outside of Zygarde-10% with Thousand Arrows.
While Cresselia is bulky, it is still vulnerable to high-powered neutral attacks like Guts-boosted Facade from Heracross and Triple Axel from Choice Band Pheromosa. Each of these attacks can 2HKO Cresselia with prior damage, so it is important to pair Cresselia with teammates that can stomach these hits like defensive Water / Poison Slowbro and Normal-resistant Pokemon such as Steel-type Buzzwole. These teammates also help cover Cresselia's few remaining weaknesses to types like Poison, Psychic, or Steel, depending on Cresselia's typing. Magnezone can pair with Cresselia to trap and eliminate Steel-types like Buzzwole and Scizor. While Cresselia can use Calm Mind to combat certain opposing setup threats, others like Psychic Volcarona and Taunt Spectrier can quickly overwhelm it. Defensive Dark / Poison Pokemon such as Unaware Clefable and Toxapex make great partners for Cresselia to handle the setup threats that can break past it.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Cresselia can pass on a more useful defensive typing by running Stored Power to capitalize on Calm Mind boosts. However, this set is very slow and opens Cresselia up to crippling status moves like Toxic. Cresselia can also forego Calm Mind and use Trick instead to cripple opposing defensive Pokemon with its Black Sludge and provide counterplay to opposing Trick users. However, this is inconsistent, since many defensive threats hold Black Sludge as well, and an incorrect timing of the move could result in Cresselia holding undesirable items like a Choice Scarf. Cresselia's great bulk and access to recovery also make it a reliable Trick Room setter to support slower offensive teammates like Glastrier and Melmetal.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Mold Breaker Ground-types and Thousand Arrows**: Earthquake Haxorus and Excadrill are big threats to Cresselia, as their ability Mold Breaker allows them to hit with a super effective STAB move. Thousand Arrows from Zygarde-10% also bypasses Levitate. However, none of these threats are able to OHKO Cresselia without boosting to at least +2 Attack.
**Steel-types**: Cresselia is walled and forced out by offensive and defensive Steel-types like Mew, Hydreigon, Garchomp, and Melmetal. They are immune to Toxic, resist Cresselia's main STAB move, and can punish it with their Steel-type STAB attacks.
**Psychic-types**: Psychic-type attackers like Tapu Lele and Psychic Volcarona threaten out Cresselia's Toxic set and can hit other sets for strong neutral damage.
**Clefable**: Cresselia is forced out by all versions of Clefable. Dark / Poison Unaware Clefable ignores Calm Mind boosts and can't be poisoned, while offensive Magic Guard Clefable can set up with Calm Mind and quickly use up Cresselia's Moonlight PP.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[a loser, 410702]]
- Quality checked by: [[in the hills, 324242], [Dragonillis, 466276]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429]], [DC, 449990]]
Last edited:
