Pokémon Cresselia

[Dreadfury]

Type: Psychic

Base Stats: 120 HP / 70 Atk / 110 Def / 75 SpA / 120 SpD / 85 Spe

Ability: Levitate

Notable Moves:
Lunar Blessing
Lunar Dance
Calm Mind
Stored Power
Ice Beam
Psychic
Energy Ball
Shadow Ball
Power Gem
Moonblast
Moonlight
Psyshock
Grass Knot
Thunder Wave
Trick
Tera Blast

NEW MOVE:
Lunar Blessing - The user receives a blessing from the crescent moon, restoring HP and curing status conditions for itself and its ally Pokémon currently in the battle (25% heal, 8 PP).

Pros:

• Cresselia has excellent natural bulk and access to reliable recovery in the form of both Moonlight (50% recovery, affected by weather) and the new Lunar Blessing (25% heal, unaffected by weather, clears status), making it very difficult to wear down.
• Cresselia's mediocre Psychic typing is partially made up for with its massive bulk and Levitate, allowing it to naturally check the majority of Great Tusk variants just by virtue of its typing alone.
• Its low immediate power is made up for thanks to Calm Mind and STAB Stored Power, making Cresselia much less passive than one would expect.
• Cresselia also has access to some strong coverage options, and is a solid Tera abuser in theory.

Cons:

• Until it sets up a lot, Cresselia is very passive.
• Cresselia got direct nerfs in Generation 9, losing 10 points in both its Defense and Special Defense. It's still incredibly bulky, but this affects its longevity quite noticeably.
• It faces stiff competition as a Stored Power sweeper with Mew, Magearna, and Polteageist. Cresselia has to distinguish itself with its excellent bulk more than anything else.
• Kingambit and Gholdengo have a field day against it, although with Terastallization it can turn the tables on them.

Terastallization Potential:
Cresselia has quite a few options as far as Terastallization goes, surprisingly!

• Tera Poison alongside Levitate gives Cresselia a phenomenal defensive typing, weak only to the Psychic-type attacks its native typing resists.
• Tera Fighting and Tera Fire give Cresselia coverage to hit Dark-types, with Tera Fighting in particular letting it handle Kingambit's deadly Dark STAB.
• Tera Fairy offers Cresselia a solid defensive typing, and buffs its Moonblast considerably.

Potential Sets:

Stored Power
Cresselia @ Covert Cloak / Leftovers / Weakness Policy
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Poison / Fighting / Fire / Fairy
Timid Nature
- Stored Power
- Moonblast / Tera Blast / Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight / Lunar Blessing

The idea is simple: once the threats that can break past Cresselia are worn down, Cresselia can clean up lategame with its stellar bulk, reliable recovery and access to Calm Mind+Stored Power. Moonblast is best run on Tera Poison or Tera Fairy variants and is a strong and consistent move that deals with Dark-types, while Tera Blast fits nicely on Tera Fire and especially Tera Fighting variants to deal with Kingambit (Tera Fighting is probably much better overall). Shadow Ball can be used to hit Gholdengo immediately, but it can be worn down with Stored Power after many boosts. Moonlight grants more consistent recovery, and more overall recovery, but Lunar Blessing can work well against passive teams that rely on status and passive damage to wear Cresselia down. Cresselia has the very real chance of 6-0ing some teams on team preview if played well, but even if not it can be a terrifying wincon.

Choice Scarf+Lunar Dance
Cresselia @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Poison / Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Lunar Dance
- Trick
- Moonlight / Thunder Wave

This set revenge kill Grounds in a pinch, and then provides a quick Lunar Dance to give a weakened teammate a second chance to sweep. This is mostly a relic of the SS OU days, though; it might not appreciate Gholdengo existing.

Trick Room
Cresselia @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Def / 176 SpD
Tera Type: Poison / Ghost
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Trick Room
- Moonblast
- Lunar Dance
- Shadow Ball / Moonlight

Possibly a good bulky Trick Room setter. It can get a threat like Iron Hands or Ursaluna in safely to wreak havoc, but the latter really doesn't appreciate its status getting cleared. Probably just stick with the Scarf/CM sets; Trick Room tends to be a gimmick more than anything else.

Overall Impressions:

While it received direct stat nerfs that cut into its still-impressive bulk, Cresselia can still function solidly as a bulky booster in the face of many deadly threats. With Tera Poison and Levitate, it can turn Great Tusk and some variants of Iron Valiant into total setup fodder, and that STAB Stored Power can prove quite dangerous long-term, once Cresselia gets enough boosts to start sweeping. Its coverage can leave a lot to be desired sometimes, too; it wishes it could run Tera Fighting for Tera Blast, Ice Beam, Moonblast, and Shadow Ball all at once, but it really doesn't need to in the long run and just Moonblast or a Fighting-type Tera Blast can cover what Stored Power cannot handle on its own. It's got some potential!

 

[Magcargo]

Stored Power Calm Mind on this Pokemon seems like it will be nasty to deal with, especially with Tera reducing the pool of viable checks even further. Combined with the reduced Knock Off / Toxic distribution (which Tera can render ineffective) and Tera Blast Coverage to deal with potential checks like Kingambit and I think there is a legitimate case for this Pokemon to be banworthy this gen in a similar manner to Espathra.

I guess the one downside for Cress this gen is that its defenses got nerfed, and the new move it got as compensation, Lunar Blessing is unfortunately pretty mediocre. Despite being a Jungle Healing clone, its PP is only 8, which is nowhere near enough to consistently sustain Cresselia over the course of a longer match imo.

 

[thunderbug]

Stored Power Calm Mind on this Pokemon seems like it will be nasty to deal with, especially with Tera reducing the pool of viable checks even further. Combined with the reduced Knock Off / Toxic distribution (which Tera can render ineffective) and Tera Blast Coverage to deal with potential checks like Kingambit and I think there is a legitimate case for this Pokemon to be banworthy this gen in a similar manner to Espathra.

I guess the one downside for Cress this gen is that its defenses got nerfed, and the new move it got as compensation, Lunar Blessing is unfortunately pretty mediocre. Despite being a Jungle Healing clone, its PP is only 8, which is nowhere near enough to consistently sustain Cresselia over the course of a longer match imo.

Its nowhere near espathra. CM psychic/psyshock moonblast moonlight would probably be its best set, can be used to either check some major physical threats and can be super annoying for some teams to handle if its around late game to set up or you burn it early and try opening a door for someone else.

Poison makes clodsire absolute set up fodder and blocks pex from being able to do anything either (except acid spray) and fairy is just always good plus gives it stab moonblast

Do not use lunar blessing, it only heals 25% plus status which is never worth it, especially in a meta without a ton of toxic flying around (and what mons do have it really don't want to deal with you if they don't have to) and moonlight can get buffed by sun teams to make it borderline unkillable for them once it starts going. Will probably be banned from some lower tier but outside of niche builds it won't see a ton of OU play because of how little progress it makes without multiple boost (stab moonblast never ohkos chien pao which is just sad) and/or killing itself on trick room teams

 

[Wapf]

Its nowhere near espathra. CM psychic/psyshock moonblast moonlight would probably be its best set, can be used to either check some major physical threats and can be super annoying for some teams to handle if its around late game to set up or you burn it early and try opening a door for someone else.

Poison makes clodsire absolute set up fodder and blocks pex from being able to do anything either (except acid spray) and fairy is just always good plus gives it stab moonblast

Do not use lunar blessing, it only heals 25% plus status which is never worth it, especially in a meta without a ton of toxic flying around (and what mons do have it really don't want to deal with you if they don't have to) and moonlight can get buffed by sun teams to make it borderline unkillable for them once it starts going. Will probably be banned from some lower tier but outside of niche builds it won't see a ton of OU play because of how little progress it makes without multiple boost (stab moonblast never ohkos chien pao which is just sad) and/or killing itself on trick room teams

Lunar blessing could help it check sneasler running around spamming status moves though (as long as it doesn’t hit that damn sleep)