Is Cresselia broken in Pokemon VGC?

Cresselia is one of the best Legendary Pocket Monsters to ever be used in Pokemon VGC. While others – like Kyogre and Xerneas – boast greater power, Cresselia's main advantage is its ability to withstand damage from powerful attacks and support its team while doing so. This has led to the creature being widely used in VGC to the point of being broken.

Cresselia has won Worlds on three occasions (2010, 2012, and 2015), not to mention an uncountable number of Regionals and Nationals. Let's explore what makes it such a dominant force in the Pokemon VGC meta.

Note: This article only takes Cresselia's Doubles performances into account. Parts of it also reflect the personal opinions of the writer.

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Why is Cresselia so good in Pokemon VGC?

Cresselia in the Pokemon anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

To understand why Cresselia is broken in Pokemon VGC, we need to take a look at the four factors that determine how good a competitive Pocket Monster is (typing, ability, base stats, and movepool).

Here are Cresselia's base stats:

• HP: 120
• Attack: 70
• Defense: 110
• Special Attack: 75
• Special Defense: 120
• Speed: 85
• BST: 580

It is important to note that Cresselia was slightly nerfed in Generation IX, with its defenses losing 10 points each. For most of its existence, it had a 600 BST and 120/120/130 defenses, making up for its weakness-laden Psychic typing, especially in a Pokemon VGC meta dominated by Incineroar.

This forms the crux of the Lunar Pokemon's longevity in battle. With high natural bulk, it can shrug off most neutral attacks and can be EV-trained to absorb a few super effective ones. While its offenses are not as high as its defenses, a STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) Psychic or Psyshock does more than chip damage.

Cresselia also has one of the best supporting movepools in Pokemon VGC, which is arguably the reason behind its prolonged success. Whatever form of support your team needs, it can provide it.

Here is a list of roles that Cresselia can perform with the moves in its arsenal:

• Speed control: Thunder Wave, Icy Wind, Trick Room
• Healing itself: Moonlight, Rest, Lunar Blessing
• Healing teammates: Lunar Dance, Lunar Blessing
• Healing status: Lunar Blessing (yes, seriously)
• Preventing status: Safeguard
• Hindering opponents: Trick, Gravity, Skill Swap
• Helping allies: Helping Hand, Ally Switch, Skill Swap
• Dual screens: Reflect, Light Screen
• Setting weather: Sunny Day, Rain Dance
• Copying stats: Psych Up
• STAB offense: Psychic, Psyshock
• Offensive coverage: Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Tera Blast, Dazzling Gleam, Moonblast, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball, Grass Knot, etc.

The move that stands out the most on this list is Lunar Blessing, which can heal both Cresselia and its on-field teammate and cure them of any status affliction at the same time.

Additionally, its ability, Levitate, while pretty common, gives it a useful immunity to Ground-type moves, especially to Earthquake.

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How to use Cresselia in Pokemon VGC: Terastallization, items, and nature

Cresselia using Moonlight in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Cresselia is a good candidate for Terastallization, as the process removes its weakness-laden Psychic type. A popular Tera-choice is Fairy for defense against Dark and Dragon types. Poison is also great against Fairy types.

Mental Herb is a great item to avoid being shut down by Taunt for a single turn. Other options include Safety Goggles for protection against Amoonguss' Spore or Rocky Helmet to punish physical attackers.

Sassy (SpD+/Spe-) is the most commonly used Nature for Cresselia, especially for those using the move, Trick Room. A speed-lowering nature is ideal for the area that Trick Room creates, where slower Pokemon get to move first, allowing Cresselia to attack its opponents before they can or heal a teammate before they take damage.