This RMT is centered around the lunar pokemon, Cresselia. With 120/120/130 bulk, this MONSTER has the perfect movepool and stat distribution to be a major pain for any team to deal with.
Overall, the playstyle for this team involves making smart switches and sacrifices to ensure retaining answers to key threats while utilizing a LOT of surprise factor with the sets to ensure an advantage going into late game.
Teambuilding:
Started off with a defensive backbone of specially defensive cresselia and physical defense mandibuzz for a reliable recovery core to ensure switchins to 80%+ of threats.
Added my girl sylveon to break holes in the enemy team
With the addition of resttalk mega swampert, this team has unexpectedly high offensive presence despite its tanky build as well as solid checks to many of the tiers top threats.
I added an interesting hex flame orb trick rotom set that helps me render some pokemon ineffective to allow free switchins and in general just give my slow team a lot more momentum.
I had a glaring weakness to grass types here so I added Nasty Plot infernape to add some priority to the team as well as a powerful sweeper/wallbreaker and grass answer. Unfortunately, this left me very vulnerable to celebi, a premier threat in UU currently and I felt infernape didn't add much synergy even though it was very anti-meta and many assumed it was a SR lead which gave me momentum early and often..so I ended up with this build:
The addition of choice banded bulky luke fit the bulky offense theme of the team while retaining priority and is quite anti-meta with the surprise factor of such a powerful immediate offensive threat.
In-depth Analysis & Set Commentary:
Nasty Luke (Lucario) @ Choice Band
Ability: Justified
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Iron Tail
To kick things off is a very anti-meta threat that many teams have trouble finding a single reliable switchin to, which is just what this team needed finally. Sylveon as well as Nasty Luke help ensure that games don't devolve into straight stall wars, but with smart predictions and switches, matches can end QUICKLY with these two. Many people expect this to be either the swords dance set or nasty plot set, but are unpleasantly surprised to be hit with a MASSIVE blow. It's pretty easy to see what the counter to luke is in team preview and, with the correct coverage choice, it is quite easy to break some faces early and often with this threat. This mon also provides me with a steel type and some surprisingly decent bulk as well as enough speed to outpace adamant gyarados (a huge threat to this team), and +speed hoopa/metagross/mega swampert. Priority in extremespeed is also very valuable with the way I play this team, revolving around making smart switches and sacrifices in order to allow a threat to sweep late game.
Silly (Sylveon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Baton Pass
- Toxic
- Heal Bell
Max speed sylveon provides me with an impressive wallbreaker, team supporter, momentum grabber, and combined with luke really forces teams to think twice before spamming draco. Heal bell synergizes with rest talk m-swamp and really helps this team with its weakness to status. It's quite easy to spam hyper voice with this mon, but I find baton pass is my most clicked move. Many teams pack counters or multiple reliable checks to pixivoice so I generally only click hyper voice when I can spam it late game. Toxic isn't very used but I keep it on there to help with my stall matchup.
Roman (Rotom) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick
- Hex
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
..Huh?! Trick flame orb rotom? Your eyes do not deceive you. Surprisingly fast and powerful, this mon provides me with a great set of resistances and immunities while also grabbing A LOT of momentum for the team between volt switch and its ability to cripple physical threats. Not sure on the EV's, was thinking of going for a more bulky spread but I find that max speed is invaluable on base forme rotom. I've found this mon is very inconsistent, sometimes doing absolutely nothing in matches. It does discourage fighting/normal spam and makes conkeldurr more likely to click knockoff which is useful for m-swamp. Important to note that I hardly ever switch into rotom. I generally send it in as a lead or after a mon dies so that flame orb doesn't activate on it and I may utilize the surprise factor.
SwagKrow (Mandibuzz) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
- Foul Play
Enter the defensive trio that provides reliable switchins throughout the game to any number of threats. Mandibuzz is my primary grass switchin and defogger as well as check to an immense amount of physical threats. U-turn over knock off helps my bulky build with momentum grabbing which is invaluable. With the presence of foul play, I feel that rocky helmet isn't necessary and leftovers + roost recovery makes this mon last until it accomplishes its goal nearly every time. I wish there were room for knock off or brave bird on this set to help me with my grass matchup but U-turn is a good middle ground between the two I find. EV's to maximize bulk and allow it to do its job as effectively as possible.
Moodkipz (Swampert-Mega) @ Swampertite
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Atk / 96 Def / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
An incredibly underrated and anti-meta set, I find this mon surviving until late game more and more as the meta evolves. Once its counters are eliminated, this is an INCREDIBLY hard to deal with threat. Grass types, gyarados, salamence all hard wall this mon but it's so invaluable against many of the top tier threats that I find it is always threatening to the enemy team. It also discourages volt spam which otherwise causes all sorts of havoc for my team. Speed is to outspeed max speed neutral nature m-ampharos and conkeldurr after mega evolving. Hits 399 attack after mega which is the same as 252 jolly. Rest is dumped into HP and then defense to provide staying power combined with rest talk. This mon synergizes so well with the rest of the team, I just LOVE IT!
Luna (Cresselia) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Def / 176 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Moonlight
Rounding out the team, the star of the show is the lunar pokemon! A 100% reliable switchin to sylveon and an absolute tank, this cresselia is the reason for all the momentum grabbing with u-turn, baton pass, and volt switch that this team requires. One of the rare times I will actually run psyshock over psychic on a pokemon due to CM wars with suicune and the like. Fairy type moves are the only move I double up on(besides volt switch and t-bolt on rotom) and that's because of the coverage it provides with psychic as well as the high base power special attack boosted by calm minds. The only qualm I have with this moveset is moonlight's PP, but no mon is perfect. 176+ SpD to hit an even number that rounds up with the boosting nature. The rest is dumped into HP and defense to ensure maximum bulk. Even with the minimal physical bulk investment, Luna lives even super effective stab knock offs. (although its in your best interest to keep those leftovers as moonlight is only semi-reliable). Speaking of which, cress synergizes with m-swamp by helping my matchup vs sun (66% moonlight recovery) while m-swamp helps with my rain matchup when moonlight is less effective. Overall, Cresselia is a very underprepared for threat and can single handedly win games for me while also being consistently useful in matchups that it doesn't win by default.
Importable:
Nasty Luke (Lucario) @ Choice Band
Ability: Justified
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Iron Tail
Silly (Sylveon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Baton Pass
- Toxic
- Heal Bell
Roman (Rotom) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick
- Hex
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
Luna (Cresselia) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Def / 176 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
- Moonlight
SwagKrow (Mandibuzz) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
- Foul Play
Moodkipz (Swampert-Mega) @ Swampertite
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Atk / 96 Def / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
Closing Thoughts:
Although Alakazam is one of my favorite mons and was SO much fun to use in UU, I'm glad the voters decided on it being banned. The new meta that has been forming has resulted in a lot of very fun matches and a more diverse meta overall. Enjoy the team in all of its glory. It's great in that it's extremely adaptable, it can be played like semi-stall (without hazards) or extremely aggressive, taking advantage of the fact that many of the sets are off-meta which can result in some high octane sac-fests. Experiment with it for yourself!
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