Pokémon Ursaluna

[memesketch]

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Base Stats: 130 HP / 140 Atk / 105 Def / 45 SpA / 80 SpD / 50 Spe
Abilities: Guts / Bulletproof / Unnerve

Notable Moves:

• Body Press
• Bulk Up
• Close Combat
• Crunch
• Double-Edge
• Drain Punch
• Earthquake
• Facade
• Fire Punch
• Gunk Shot
• Headlong Rush
• Heavy Slam
• Ice Punch
• Low Kick
• Play Rough
• Rock Slide
• Seed Bomb
• Shadow Claw
• Stone Edge
• Swords Dance
• Taunt
• Thunder Punch
• Trailblaze
• Yawn

Pros:
- Ursaluna is an unfathomably powerful wallbreaker thanks to its excellent base 140 Attack, ability in Guts, and very strong dual STAB moves in Facade and Headlong Rush, which have phenomenal coverage together. The metagame's stalwart defensive presences can scarcely handle Ursaluna – it OHKOes Toxapex, Garganacl, and Skeledirge outright; OHKOes standard Amoonguss, Hatterene, and Rotom-W after Stealth Rock; and cleanly 2HKOes Great Tusk and Dondozo – all with no setup. Additionally, the sheer power and coverage of its dual STAB moves makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for its defensive targets to play around it by Terastallizing.
- Ursaluna's movepool stretches to the stars, boasting Swords Dance to make it even more powerful and coverage to hit whatever its STAB moves cannot, most notably Fire Punch to 2HKO Corviknight and hit Air Balloon Gholdengo, OHKOing the latter after Stealth Rock.
- Guts makes it immune to pesky status from Pokemon like Amoonguss, Clodsire, and Rotom-W. It is also relatively unbothered by Knock Off from weaker users such as defensive Great Tusk after Flame Orb activates.
- Fantastic natural bulk allows Ursaluna to take a hit from powerful attackers such as Iron Valiant, Dragapult, and Choice Band Hoopa-U at full health to OHKO them in return.

Cons:
- Ursaluna has very low Speed and lacks priority of any kind, making it vulnerable to the majority of the offensive Pokemon in the metagame as well as faster defensive Pokemon such as Great Tusk and Rotom-W.
- Despite its excellent bulk, Ursaluna's defensive qualities are limited. The Flame Orb needed to activate Guts wears it down gradually, preventing it from taking repeated hits. Furthermore, its defensive typing leaves much to be desired, with common weaknesses to Water, Ice, Grass, and Fighting. These weaknesses allow offensive Pokemon such as Meowscarada, Baxcalibur, Urshifu-R, and Walking Wake to easily force it out and make it difficult for Ursaluna to switch into walls such as Slowking and Great Tusk.
- Despite the great coverage between its STAB moves, they also both have common immunities, potentially inviting in dangerous threats such as Hisuian Zoroark, Dragapult, and Tornadus-T if the opponent predicts well.

Terastal Potential:
- Tera Normal is Ursaluna's go-to option. It turns Facade into something otherworldly, 2HKOing specially defensive Garganacl, nearly OHKOing Ting-Lu, and having a chance to 2HKO Corviknight. It also removes Ursaluna's weaknesses to Grass, Water, and Ice, letting it take attacks from Pokemon such as Meowscarada, Chien-Pao, Volcanion, and Azumarill (even surviving non-Tera +6 Aqua Jet from the latter).
- Defensive Teras could be worth exploring to help Ursaluna take more hits from offensive threats. Tera Fire improves its matchup against Grass-, Fire-, Fairy-, and Steel-types such as Breloom, Volcarona, Iron Valiant, and Gholdengo while also strengthening Fire Punch. Tera Fairy lets Ursaluna take hits from Fighting-types such as Zamazenta and offensive Great Tusk. Tera Water helps it against Water- and Fire-types like Walking Wake and Cinderace; however, it can be counterintuitive if Ursaluna intends to use Garganacl as a point of entry as it raises Salt Cure's passive damage.

Potential Sets:

Wallbreaker
Ursaluna @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Facade
- Headlong Rush
- Fire Punch
- Swords Dance

Ursaluna's bread-and-butter, Guts turns it into a wallbreaker that destroys almost anything in its path and absolutely crushes stall. Fire Punch lets Ursaluna beat Corviknight without Terastallizing and hit Air Balloon Gholdengo. Swords Dance elevates Ursaluna's already insane power even further, in particular letting it OHKO defensive Great Tusk. If Swords Dance ends up being redundant on a Pokemon that is already so powerful, it may also be able to experiment with other moves in the fourth slot, such as Trailblaze to raise its Speed, Yawn to force switches, or Ice Punch to force more damage on Landorus-T and potentially OHKO Dragonite. The Speed EVs allow Ursaluna to outspeed Corviknight and Kingambits that creep Corv, while the rest is pooled into HP. It may be feasible to instead run maximum Speed with a Jolly nature to speed tie Jolly Kingambit and outspeed most defensive Great Tusk and Rotom-W, but this diminishes Ursaluna's power and bulk enough to be a subpar option.

Trick Room Sweeper
Ursaluna @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Facade
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Swords Dance

If there was ever a Pokemon to return Trick Room to prominence, it's this one. Trick Room lets Ursaluna circumvent its low Speed and become a terrifying sweeper, and it also provides Trick Room teams with a valuable Ghost immunity. Crunch is necessary to hit Tera Ghost users with Levitate such as Rotom-W, Hydreigon, and especially Cresselia on opposing Trick Room teams; Fire Punch is not needed, as Crunch retains the hit on Air Balloon Gholdengo and +2 Tera Normal Facade has a good chance to OHKO Corviknight.

Overview:
We very rarely, if ever, get the chance to experiment with wallbreakers of Ursaluna's caliber. Its unbelievable firepower combined with its bulk and coverage might end up being too much for the tier, but at the same time, its glaring weaknesses may be enough to hold it back. How do we feel about Ursaluna? Can we bare this bear? Looking forward to hear what everyone thinks!

 

[Dreadfury]

Now this is a fucking mon right here. A return to form for Guts wallbreakers, and this one has the esteemed STAB Facade alongside crazy bulk. You'd better hope and pray that whatever you throw at it will OHKO it, because Ursaluna will sure as hell OHKO you in return if it survives.

Ursaluna can realistically do a lot more than what's listed here; defensive sets with Bulletproof, AV, Belly Drum (okay this might just be a gimmick), and Choice Band all have some sort of promise, and even within the SD sets you've listed this absolute beast of a mon has infinite coverage with CC, the elemental punches, Play Rough, Heavy Slam, Seed Bomb, Gunk Shot, Drain Punch, Play Rough, the works. I don't think there's a single mon in the game that dodges the 2HKO from it as is, but I'm fairly certain Ursaluna can hit literally everything in the game super effectively across its entire movepool, though it can't do that with just four moveslots.

That said, Facade and Headlong Rush are so ludicrously powerful together that it hardly matters what else it runs so long as it's able to hit Air Balloon Ghosts. +2 Facade probably 2HKOs literally everything on its own, unless they're outright immune or a bulky 4x resist.

 

[all_right_gentlemen]

Ursaluna can realistically do a lot more than what's listed here; defensive sets with Bulletproof, AV, Belly Drum (okay this might just be a gimmick), and Choice Band all have some sort of promise [...]

Since the game's release and the mons' leaked movesets, I was thinking these two sets could have some use. Belly Drum, especially, might not be a gimmick.


Ursaluna @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 244 HP / 168 Atk / 72 SpD / 24 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Horsepower / Earthquake
- Fire Punch / Ice Punch
- Drain Punch
- Belly Drum

After a Belly Drum, the only thing that can wall this set is Dondozo. High Horsepower is this set's best option if Ursaluna is ran alongside Grassy Terrain, preventing Defense drops and circumventing EQ's power drop at the cost of slightly imperfect accuracy. However, if your can manage to run this set without Grassy Terrain, run EQ. Fire Punch hits Corv and Gholdengo, while Ice Punch hits Lando-T. Drain Punch offers some much needed longevity and is Ursa's best option against Hydreigon, who otherwise can take a Fire Punch even at +6 and set up a Sub. Normal STAB isn't needed since the purpose of this set is to clean with Belly Drum, not activating Guts with Flame Orb, though Guts is still the ability of choice to prevent Ursa from being ruined by a burn. Sitrus Berry restores Ursaluna's vitality, especially since it'll likely be taking multiple hits before it can clean up. 168 Attack EVs with an Adamant nature guarantees an OHKOs on Ting-Lu at +5 with Drain Punch, an important benchmark if affected by a Lando-T Intimidate.. 244 HP EVs give Ursaluna a number divisible by 2, letting it activate Sitrus Berry without making it vulnerable to three layers of Spikes. 24 Speed EVs outspeeds min Speed Corv and bulky SD Kingambit, forcing the latter to Sucker Punch. The rest is poured into Sp. Def. to allow Ursa to take special hits better, notably avoiding an OHKO from Tera Ice Regieleki. Tera Fairy is a great defensive typing that grants a neutrality to Regieleki's Tera Blast Ice, transforms its weakness to Fighting into a resistance to match better against Great Tusk, and can take a Sucker Punch from Kingambit in a pinch. Highly recommend pairing this set with Rillaboom's Grassy Terrain to offset Ursa's longevity problems.


Ursaluna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 28 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Double-Edge / Body Slam
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Drain Punch

This set is much weaker compared to Ursa's other sets, but it should get the job done. Double-Edge is Ursa's strongest option without resorting to Flame Orb and still hits many of the mons it can threaten for reasonable damage. Body Slam is a much weaker alternative but it doesn't compromise Ursa's longevity. EQ doesn't compromise Ursa's defenses, making it a generally better option than Headlong Rush. Fire Punch, as mentioned before, is for Corv and Air Balloon Gholdengo. Drain Punch is a main selling point of this set, offering Ursa some much needed, semi-reliable recovery; it hits Kingambit for the same amount of damage as EQ, so that's a plus. The given EV spread can tank two Hydro Pumps from defensive variants of Rotom-Wash, and in return can 2HKO specially defensive Rotom-W. An alternative spread of 112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 SpD can tank twice the rare Focus Blast from unboosted Gholdengo, though it will have more trouble when facing Kingambit. Adamant nature for maximum power, especially since this set has no boosting options at its disposal. Guts makes sure no Pokémon wants to Will-O-Wisp Ursa.

 

[Pyritie]

could you remove the text coloring from the pros/cons section? it's unreadable on the dark theme

 

[ausma]

this mon lowkey makes trick room viable by itself. i’ve been messing around with a pseudo trick room team using only ursaluna and it’s honestly all the structure needs. on dedicated trick room though kingambit is an amazing partner

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Man of all the Hisui/PLA mons Ursaluna is bar none the most compelling and seemingly setting up to be the strongest of the lot.

I think Ursaluna has all the right tools to be a powerhouse and staple of the tier, but I think it'll be manageable because it's slow and its weaknesses are quite common which will be its Achilles' Heel. It reminds me of Gen 2-7 Tyranitar in that Ursaluna as it stands it basically the perfect competitive Pokemon but held back by a flaw that serves as the Achilles' Heel that keeps it manageable in the tier.

While it's a deadly wallbreaker with Guts+Facade, it's so damn bulky and strong that it can take on a more tank-oriented role. As mentioned Bulletproof and Assault Vest are both good ways to use Ursaluna, and in fact AV+Bulletproof with Body Slam, Earthquake, Fire Punch, and any fourth move like Drain Punch or Gunk Shot can be a great offensive tank, focusing more on bulk and being an excellent check to the likes of Gholdengo, non-HJK Cinderace, Iron Moth, and whatnot using its immense bulk on both sides and amazing firepower and STAB. Ursaluna is great here because it's one of the few physical Normal-types blessed with a great usable Normal STAB in Body Slam which is not only relatively strong but has a paralysis chance, which can also give AV Ursaluna a bit of utility. Something like this, for instance:

Ursaluna @ Assault Vest
Ability: Bulletproof / Guts
Tera Type: Ground / Fairy / Flying / Water
EVs: 112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Body Slam
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Drain Punch / Play Rough

Basically this would be a more tanky Ursaluna set. I know I put Bulletproof as the primary ability but even though this isn't a Guts nuke, Guts can still be a good ability to have Ursaluna serve as a burn absorber, namely against Rotom-Wash and Skeledirge, and giving it that extra oomph of firepower to hit even harder with. Drain Punch doesn't offer that much but it can be used against Kingambit and Tera Normal Dragonite to hit them hard and give Ursaluna a bit of recovery to help its longevity as a tank.

I also think RestTalk Ursaluna could be usable as well, but that's a bit situational. Bulk Up could also be a decent prospect.

Honestly this mon just seems like it could be very flexible and yet still powerful across its many sets. I definitely feel this has potential to be a staple of OU and a powerhouse in its own right.

 

[memesketch]

could you remove the text coloring from the pros/cons section? it's unreadable on the dark theme

Gotcha, is it better now?

 

[Dialzza]

This mon's incredibly strong, but the weaknesses do feel pretty real. You chip down pretty fast from flame orb, rocky helmet, and just going slower than everything else. It is absurd in TR, but TR (especially if gearna gets banned) is a pretty fraught playstyle in the first place, ending up incredibly predictable and with very few turns to act.

Without TR, you just have to eat hit after hit after hit to use this mon, meaning unless the opponent is trying to overpredict and switch too much, you end up at a 2-for-1 at best usually. Though I've been pretty partial to a tera fighting drain punch assault vest set recently, which doesn't have the raw breaking power but helps check some of the absurd spatk mons right now (such as magearna).

Overall fun 'mon but I definitely don't think it should be quickbanned, and it should have some time in the meta after the truly nonsense pokemon are removed (zamas, gearna, etc).

 

[wkxkevin]

COCAINE BEAR. END OF STORY.

In all seriousness, I think the cocaine has worn off. Now, luna is just in a highly depressive state, as are drug users when they aren't on drugs. Whether or not luna will snap out of it and become a legit piece of the meta is the question.

Personally, I think that screens worth really well. I have been running a max speed jolly set with trailblaze. Although it's quite an L that at +1 max speed base 100 still outspeed it, behind screens, it's quite reasonable for it to get up 2 trailblazes, at which point you outspeed every pokemon other than choice scarfers and weather speed boosting pokemon.

 

[malomyotismon]

COCAINE BEAR. END OF STORY.

In all seriousness, I think the cocaine has worn off. Now, luna is just in a highly depressive state, as are drug users when they aren't on drugs. Whether or not luna will snap out of it and become a legit piece of the meta is the question.

Personally, I think that screens worth really well. I have been running a max speed jolly set with trailblaze. Although it's quite an L that at +1 max speed base 100 still outspeed it, behind screens, it's quite reasonable for it to get up 2 trailblazes, at which point you outspeed every pokemon other than choice scarfers and weather speed boosting pokemon.

It might not be a bad idea to pair cocaine bear with pawmot for the second hit after the first one oded

 

[incorolla]

How are y'all checking/countering this thing? Aside from Drifblim and Mismagius, I'm having a hard time finding a Mon that can effectively check Ursa

 

[sims796]

This thing gets Yawn? Not bad, might give that a whirl.