Cresselia for Ultra League
Working on getting a second move for Cresselia for the Ultra League. Before the PvP rebalance, it was a no brainer, take Psycho Cut, Future Sight, and Moonblast (because Aurora Beam blows chunks). However, now that Confusion has been buffed, we have a choice.
Confusion - 4 D/T, 3 E/T. Acts kinda (edited) like a psychic version of Dragon Breath.
Psycho Cut - 1.5 D/T, 4.5 E/T. Much lower damage, but 50% more energy generation to get off the strong charged attacks. Same stats as Mud Shot and Thunder Shock.
Anyone tried both? Comments on effectiveness, particularly given Cresselia's low Attack necessitates using the strongest possible attacks to get the overall D/T as high as possible.
Answers
Confusion v DB nit pick aside (since the dude above me already covered it), cresselia is a lot worse in ultra league than she is in great.
Sure she's bulky as has good fast moves, but her charge moves are all pretty slow to charge and are nowhere near top tier. They hit hard, but cresselia either loses to shields if you rock psycho cut, or only ever gets off 1 charge move if you rock confusion.
That said, with Psycho Cut shes a far better sweeper, while Confusion lends more to her leading a team. With slow charge moves, she does far better as a sweeper (when shields will be down) than a leader (where your only future sight will be shielded and you'll be forced to KO opponents with confusion alone).
Add to this the fact that Giratina can now functionally choose between shadow claw and dragon breath, the high number of ghost/dark type moves present in Ultra league, and the fact that there is a wider pool of counters that Cresselia can't hold a candle to (such as raikou, now that he got shadow ball, Umbreon, A Muk, and Mewtwo), and you get one very expensive duck that really isn't gonna make waves, especially as a squad leader.
Now don't get me wrong, she's GOOD in ultra league, still a pretty high tier mon, but the Giratina meta isn't going anywhere, and many of giratina's counters are good against Cresselia too, which makes her... underwhelming in my opinion. I'd personally put it below other Ultra league options such as Tina, Umbreon, Raikou, Melmetal, Steelix, and Kingdra. More importantly though, if you're determined to use her, I'd use Psycho Cut over Confusion to augment her role as a sweeper.
"but her charge moves are all pretty slow to charge and are nowhere near top tier."
Slow - agreed. They take 65 and 70 energy, respectively. Still faster than Draco Meteor, Hyper Beam, Focus Blast, Overheat, Zap Cannon, and Hydro Pump.
Nowhere near top tier? Disagree. Ranking by D/E, of all fast moves, Moonblast is 16th, and Future Sight 18th (of 133 moves). They surround Earthquake on the list. With STAB, their D/E is 2.32, and 2.31. Outside the starter CD moves, Origin Pulse, and Precipice Blades, and Doom desire, the top dogs are Avalanche, Draco Meteor, and Focus Blast at 2.50. (All these figures include STAB.) Cresselia's moves seem quite near the top of the list. Shadow Ball, Stone Edge, and Dynamic Punch are all lower in D/E than both Moonblast and Future Sight.
Now, that doesn't mean that Cresselia will be a world beater in PvP, but it has the tools to be good. In lieu of a stack of useful resistances, it has great defense, and the strong attacks help compensate for its low attack stat. And given its ponderous charged attacks, it's clearly better as a finisher than a leadoff hitter.
I'm not so worried about the Giratina matchup - no sane player is taking Shadow Sneak, and even if they do, it's still weaker than DB/DC against Cresselia. Further, Moonblast is deadly to Giratina, so the matchup is about even. The issue that worries me is that Cresselia has no answer for Metagross; Metagross resists Psychic (2x) and Fairy, and Cresselia has no resistances unless the Metagross has psychic moves (shouldn't ever happen).
Hous,
I'd rather have a weakness in the foe (+60%) than STAB (+20 or +25%, still uncertain as to the current value). Both would be even better, of course, but the psychic fairy is saddled with Dazzling Gleam (a hair better than Moonblast when STAB is added in), and Psychic, which when compared with Future Sight, takes 5 more energy for the privilege of doing 20 less power (damage). Moonblast as a counter move to fight dragons and dark pokemon is useful. That might change if/when we get a Ralts community day, but for now, Gardevoir is solid in PvE but lukewarm garbage in PvP.
'In lieu of' means instead of. Clearly, resistances to Psychic and Fighting doesn't compare with, say, Dialga's profile. It's about the defense for Cresselia, not the resistances.
You're ranking purely by DpE, which is a critical mistake for PvP move ranking, or just move ranking in general. Assuming 0 energy waste, Draco Meteor is a better PvE move than Outrage, as it has higher DpE. The issue here is that Cresselia isn't liable to get off more than 2 charge moves. In some match-ups (such as SHADOW CLAW Tina [which is better than DB thanks to SC's buff]) she may only get off 1. The lower activation energy of a lower DpE move (such as Dynamic Punch) means that the "inferior" charge move may get off more total damage thanks to its lower activation cost.
Also... that list of moves that cost more than moonblast/future sight... that's a list of unusable moves in PvP, with the singular exception of Hydro Pump seeing use on Kyogre in masters because nothing else compares to his raw bulk.
Tl;Dr: Activation cost matters in anything but the slowest of battles, and Ultra League is not ruled by bulky mons nearly to the extent that great league is. If your Cresselia faints with 50 energy in the tank... well thats about 93 damage that your moonblast DIDN'T do. Couple this with the fact that Ultra league has a wider pool of counters for cresselia to face up against, and she's definitely LESS viable in ultra than she is in great. Like I said, she's good, but she's not even close to busted.
