Cresselia is a powerful contender in Great League PvP. Its high Defense and Stamina stats allow it to take significant damage. Although the minimum CP for Raid obtained Cresselia is 1555, trading can bring Cresselia‘s CP down to 1419, allowing it to just squeeze under the Great Leauge threshold.
Having only three weaknesses, there are a limited number of counters. Both Ghost and Bug deal increased damage, but take neutral damage; while Dark both deals increased damage and double resists Psychic moves. Cresselia, however, has a trick up its sleeve – Moonblast.
Moonblast is the strongest Fairy Charge Move in PvP, plus Fairy moves deal increased damage to Dark Pokémon. Therefore, the key is to use Steel or Fire Pokémon, as counters, especially if they have dark moves.
Cresselia
Psychic
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| Effective Stats at Level 20 (IV 2/15/13) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATK 152 | DEF 258 | HP 260 | |||
| Weak to | Strong against | ||||
| Ghost Dark Bug | Fighting Psychic | ||||
| Best PvP move set for Cresselia | |||||
| Psycho Cut Psychic | Futuresight Psychic | Moonblast Fairy | |||
| Super Effective versus | |||||
| Poison Fighting | Poison Fighting | Fighting Dragon Dark | |||
| Move Stats | |||||
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| Guaranteed Winners | ||
|---|---|---|
| These counters will beat Cresselia in every shield count situation. The downside is they will not do so in a timely fashion. | ||
Marowak (Alola)
|
Hex Ghost | Shadow Ball Ghost |
Steelix
|
Dragon Tail Dragon | Crunch Dark |
Bastiodon
|
Smack Down Rock | Stone Edge Rock |
| Will Win with a 1 Shield Disadvantage | ||
| These counters will beat Cresselia when your opponent has one more Shield than you do. | ||
Houndoom
|
Snarl Dark | Foul Play Dark |
Scizor
|
Fury Cutter Bug | Night Slash Dark |
Typhlosion
|
Shadow Claw Ghost | Blast Burn Fire |
Bronzong
|
Feint Attack Dark | Heavy Slam Steel |
Forretress
|
Bug Bite Bug | Heavy Slam Steel |
| Will Win with Even Shield Counts | ||
| These counters will beat Cresselia when you and your opponent have the same Shield count. A few of these matchups result in a close call in 0 v 0 Shield situations. | ||
Sneasel
|
Feint Attack Dark | Foul Play Dark |
Weavile
|
Ice Shard Ice | Foul Play Dark |
| Sneasel and Weavile perform nearly identical against Cresselia in Great League battles. Sneasel takes the advantage due to its lower resource cost. These two perform well across the board, as long as you have equal or more Shields left and aren’t totally out of shields. | ||
Sharpedo
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Bite Dark | Crunch Dark |
Tyranitar
|
Bite Dark | Crunch Dark |
Raticate (Alola)
|
Bite Dark | Crunch Dark |
| This trio of Bite/Crunch Dark Pokémon creates an interesting counter scenario. As long as you have one Shield, you will come out on top. The interesting part is they all underperform Sneasel/Weavile if Cresselia has zero Shields left, but if Cresselia has any Shields left Bite alone will dispense of Cresselia with incredible speed. | ||
Umbreon
|
Feint Attack Dark | Foul Play Dark |
Metagross
|
Bullet Punch Steel | Meteor Mash Steel |
Kricketune
|
Fury Cutter Bug | X-Scissor Bug |
Scyther
|
Fury Cutter Bug | Night Slash Dark |
Crawdaunt
|
Snarl Dark | Night Slash Dark |
| Will Win with a 1 Shield Advantage | ||
| These counters will beat Cresselia when you have one more Shield than your opponent. | ||
Sableye
|
Shadow Claw Ghost | Foul Play Dark |
Spiritomb
|
Feint Attack Dark | Shadow Ball Ghost |
| Spiritomb performs very well, if and only if, Cresselia has NO Shields left. Its TTW significantly decreases if Cresselia has even one Shield left. Spirtomb will not win in any situation where Shield count is tied. | ||