Cresselia, the Lunar Pokémon. When it flies, it releases shiny particles from its veil-like wings. It is said to represent the crescent moon. Cresselia is reminiscent of the crescent moon. It leaves a brilliant line of light in its wake as it flies across the night sky. I daresay it resembles the heavenly maiden who created the Milky Way.

Overview

Cresselia graces the night sky for what is probably its most successful outing in many generations. Cresselia’s bulk has always been phenomenal, with balanced Base 120/110/120 defenses, Cresselia can take quite the beating, and with access to Moonlight and the new Lunar Blessing and near immunity to entry hazards thanks to Levitate, Cresselia is all but guaranteed to stick around for the long game, repeatedly stymying offensive assaults and chip the opposition down with its wide coverage. But what really has catapulted Cresselia to greatness is the changes to the environment around it. With the Scarlet Paradox Pokémon, Sun teams are very strong and Cresselia benefits as a result with the buff to Moonlight recovering disproportionate amounts of Cresselia’s HP. Being a Levitating Psychic type has given Cresselia another boon as one of the better Great Tusk checks in the game; able to reliably pivot in and force Great Tusk out. Even Terastalization is a great boon for Cresselia since until Great Tusk, mono-Psychic is rather lackluster defensively, so being able to pivot to several excellent typings makes Cresselia that much more bulky.

And this is all despite Cresselia’s flaws. Cresselia is extremely passive; unless it is hitting a poor Special Defense target’s weakness or after ludicrous amounts of setup, Cresselia does not hit very hard and the loss of Toxic makes it difficult for Cresselia to apply pressure. Cresselia also joins Aegislash, Zacian and Zamazenta in the ignoble club of having its stats reduced in the generational shift, its lower defenses making it harder to perform its key role in walling. Cresselia, does have its flaws and a metagame shift can bring its usefulness crashing down, but even now few Pokémon can match the pure walling power of the Lunar Guardian.
Positives
Base 120/110/120 Defenses with reliable recovery makes Cresselia amazingly hard to take down, enabling it to easily pivot and soak attacks repeatedly throughout a battle.
Levitate is another great boon for Cresselia, making it near immune to enty hazards and giving a persistent Ground Immunity, further increasing its longevity.
Wide Moveset, with plenty of coverage, boosting options, disruption and support can make Cresselia somewhat unpredictable.
Well positioned in the current metagame, having a great natural matchup against Great Tusk and working well in Sun on top of being a great abuser of Terastalization

Negatives
Aside from Great Tusk, Psychic is a rather lackluster typing, making it difficult for Cresselia to wall without Terastalizing.
Low offenses manes Cresselia Incredibly passive, which opponents can take advantage to use Cresselia as setup fodder.
Cresselia’s defenses were reduced in the generational shift, making it worse at walling.

Movesets

Calm Crescent Crusader

-Calm Mind
-Stored Power
-Moonlight
-Moonblast
Ability: Levitate
Item: Chesto Berry
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature

Calm Mind Cresselia is a wall par excellence, using its great bulk and Levitate to freely switch in on opponents like Great Tusk, Sandy Shocks, Moltres, Mixed Garchomp, Urshifu-Rapid, etc. and use its great bulk to setup. After a few Calm Minds, Cresselia is nigh impossible to break through specially and patches up its lackluster Special Attack to something threatening. Stored Power is preferred; after 2 Calm Minds it outstrips any other Psychic STAB Cresselia has access to at base 100. Moonlight is vital for this set, helping Cresselia not only perform its walling duties, but also recover any damage accrued while setting up Calm Minds. Moonblast rounds out the set, striking down the numerous Dark types that otherwise wall Stored Power.

Tera Types:
Tera Fairy is highly recommended here, giving Cresselia better match ups into Dark types like Greninja, Meowscarada, Roaring Moon and Hisuian Samurott as well as many vicious Dragon types like Baxcalibur, Dragapult, and Swords Dance variants of Garchomp all while maintaining Cresselia’s niche as a Great Tusk check/counter and boosting Moonblast to rather spammable levels. Tera Fighting is worth consideration -with Tera Blast it enables Cresselia to answer Kingambit, the other most popular Pokémon right now who usually uses Cresselia as setup fodder. Tera Poison is an excellent defensive option, only having a weakness to Psychic thanks to levitate, a wide defensive array and immunity to Poison.

EVs and Items:
Max HP and Defense are highly recommended. Cresselia’s favorite targets are largely physical attackers and Cresselia is relying on Calm Mind to bolster its Special Attack and Special Defense to compensate. Some Speed investment is worth consideration -Cresselia’s base speed isn’t horrid and some investment can mean the difference between recovering HP and being KOd or Taunted. 52 points in Speed enables Cresselia to outspeed defensive Landorus-Therian. Leftovers is highly recommended for passive recovery, reducing the number of times Cresselia needs to use Moonlight and thanks to Levitate, Cresselia doesn’t heavily rely on Heavy Duty Boots (though losing a turn of Leftovers recovery to Stealth Rock can be annoying). Covert Cloak is also worth consideration so that Cresselia isn’t ruined by Gargnacl’s Salt Cure or Sneasler’s Dire Claw.

Partners:
Torkoal is a great partner for Cresselia, fitting in naturally on the bulkier teams that Cresselia finds a home with, and readily answers threats like Kingambit, and Meowscarada that give Cresselia a lot of trouble, as well as bolster Cresselia’s Moonlight with its Drought. Torkoal in turn likes Cresselia checking the many Ground attacks that give Torkoal trouble. Heatran also fits well in this role, albeit replacing bolstering Moonlight with a better matchup against Kingambit and trapping ability with Magma Storm to reliably remove Cresselia’s checks. Toxapex and Clodsire are near vital partners for Cresselia. Cresselia continuously has problems with its passivity, so the Toxic Spikes Toxapex and Clodsire provide help Cresselia apply pressure even while walling. Cresselia in turn checks Great Tusk that can wipe away their hazards and threatens them with Ground STAB..

Other Options:
Ice Beam -Fantastic coverage on top of threatening the many Ground types Cresselia is called upon to check makes Ice Beam a tantalizing choice.
Psyshock has far more immediate power and helps answer sponges like Blissey.
Lunar Blessing has far worse healing than Moonlight, but if you are worried about stray Thunder Waves, Will-o-Wisps, and Toxics, Lunar Healing does enable Cresselia to shrug those statuses off.
Trick Room -while better in Doubles, Cresselia is great at enabling Trick Room attackers in Singles as well.
Thunder Wave -potent Speed Control and with Cresselia’s durability it can spread it very easily, but can be counterintuitive with Toxic Spikes support.
Lunar Dance -good for the late game when Cresselia’s walling targets are gone, enabling you to bring one of your sweepers back from the brink for another attempt at sweeping.

Doubles and VGC Options

Cresselia has been the premier Trick Room setter for several generations straight, and a generally great support Pokémon, albeit not for the obvious reasons. Unlike other Trick Room setters, Cresselia is rather exposed to disruption tactics. It has no innate protection against Fake Out or Taunt like Mimikyu or Slowbro. What has Cresselia stand out from the competition is sheer bulk and the inevitability that comes along with it. Navigating through a successfully setup Trick Room once is difficult but doable for many battlers. A second or even third Trick Room becomes backbreaking and Cresselia has the sheer bulk to ensure that. Cresselia’s wide movepool also shines here, allowing it to excel on a variety of teams and acting as a generally bulky pivot. Cresselia’s passivity means that it will never win games on its own, but it will help you get there.

Guiding Moonlight

-Icy Wind
-Ally Switch
-Lunar Blessing
-Protect
Ability: Levitate
Item: Rocky Helmet
Tera Type: Poison
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature

A Cresselia for faster teams, Cresselia leverages its bulk as a sturdy backbone and speed control. Icy Wind is key to this set, providing invaluable speed control and breaking Focus Sashes, enabling Cresselia’s teammates to get the jump on their opponents. Ally Switch enables Cresselia to play vicious mind games with the opponent, enabling Cresselia to eat attacks meant for Cresselia’s teammates and visa versa. Lunar Blessing still has incredibly utility, keeping Cresselia and its team healthy under repeated assaults. Protect rounds out the set giving incredibly utility, stalling out opposing Tailwind, Trick Room, weather, Screens, scout for moves, blank a Fake Out, etc.

Rocky Helmet is to punish Urshifu and other physical attackers, pairing well with Ally Switch to make mispredicting even more punishing. Tera Poison is highly recommended, having a broad defensive profile, and with Cresselia’s Levitate offering weakness only to the rare Psychic attacks, making Cresselia even more effectively bulky.

Other Options & Partners:
Trick Room -while counter intuitive, Cresselia does fit well on Tailwind/Trick Room teams with different modes to handle a wide variety of opponents.
Dragonite loves this variant of Cresselia, Ally Switch and Lunar Blessing helping keep Multiscale intact while repeated use of Icy Wind enables Dragonite to click more than just Extremespeed and reliably outspeed opponents.
Hisuian Arcanine is another good partner, enjoying the protection from Ally Switch, the speed drops from Icy Wind and Lunar Blessing recovering Flare Blitz recoil.

Lunar Winds

-Trick Room
-Helping Hand
-Lunar Blessing
-Moonblast
Ability: Levitate
Item: Safety Goggles
Tera Type: Dark
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature

Cresselia's flagship Trick Room set, relying on its massive bulk to setup Trick Room repeatedly while keeping your team healthy. Helping Hand is great on Trick Room, which is on a short timer to begin with, helping Cresselia's teammate pile on the damage while not losing turns by switching out. Lunar Blessing is amazing in general and brutal with Trick Room teams as so much more progress is undone thanks to their increased bulk. Moonblast rounds out the set, preventing Cresselia from becoming complete Taunt Bait as well as threatening many popular threats including by not limited to Chien-Pao, Urshifu, Iron Hands, and Roaring Moon.

Safety Goggles is recommended, enabling Cresselia to counter Amoongus by being immune to Spore and undoing any Spores Amoongus does land with Lunar Blessing, invaluable given Amoongus being incredibly awkward for Trick Room teams. Tera Dark is recommended for stopping Prankster Taunt users like Tornadus and Grimmsnarl from preventing Cresselia from setting up as well as giving resistance to Flutter Mane's Shadow Ball and Chien-Pao's Crunch.

Other Options & Partners:
Covert Cloak -stops Fake Out and other flinching moves from stopping Cresselia from setting up.
Mental Herb -one time stop of Taunt which can mean all the difference in getting Trick Room up or not.
Ursaluna -one of the best Trick Room abusers, Ursaluna loves Cresselia's support, and thanks to Cresselia being slower than Ursaluna in Trick Room, can reliably use Lunar Blessing without losing the Guts Boost. Iron Hands -another excellent abuser of Trick Room and can even help Cresselia setup thanks to access to Fake Out while also checking opposing Dark types.

Countering Cresselia

Cresselia’s bulk and recovery makes wearing it down directly an onerous task. Powerful wall breakers with super effective STABs like Chi-Yu, Chien-Pao, Flutter Mane, Urshifu Single, Gholdengo and Kingambit can OHKO or overwhelm Cresselia through its healing. Passive damage would normally be the answer and indeed Salt Cure can easily force Cresselia out, but Toxic has several issues. Due to Levitate, Toxic must be applied via the move, not Toxic Spikes and even then there is the possibility that Cresselia has Lunar Blessing to wipe that away. Setup sweepers tend to do well against Cresselia, taking advantage of its passivity to setup in front of it while Cresselia struggles to do damage if not carrying the appropriate coverage. Swords Dance Ursaluna does well if Cresselia is not carrying Ice Beam, while Substitute Dragon Dance Baxcalibur does well versus Cresselia lacking Moonblast and Swords Dance Sneasler and Quiver Dance Iron Moth do well if Cresselia lacks Psychic STAB, though anything not named Ursaluna dislikes Thunder Wave. Once Cresselia starts accruing Calm Minds, it can get very dangerous with Stored Power able to eat teams alive. Dondozo works well against a setup Cresselia, its sheer HP, Unaware and Cresselia’s low Base Special Attack enabling it to take attacks well. Kingambit also works well here as Cresselia needs to Terastalize to deal with it effectively. Cresselia is still prone to being worn down. Moonlight and especially Lunar Blessing’s limited PP sees to that. Apply pressure and make sure that Cresselia does not get too many turns to snowball out of control.

Anime Appearences

Cresselia has mnade a few appearances in the anime. Most notably, one was found fighting with Darkrai on several occasions # -English Episode Name- -Jp. Episode Name- Pics M11 Giratina & The Sky Warrior Giratina & The Bouquet of the Sky - Shaymin Pics 572 Sleepless in Pre-Battle Cresselia VS Darkrai! Pics 588 Not Aired Mysterious Creatures: Pokémon Pics 1163 Nightfall? Nightmares! Darkrai's Midsummer Night's Dream! Pics 1164 A Midsummer Night's Light! Cresselia's Midsummer Night's Light! Pics 1208 TBC Chloe and Eevee and the EV-io-lite! Pics